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THE WORD OF LIFE. 
 
THE WORD OF LIFE 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORK OF 
 A MINISTRY 
 
 CHAELES J.^EOWN, D.D., 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 530 BROADWAY. 
 
 18 74. 
 
EDINBURGH : 
 PRINTED BY JOHN GREIG AND SON. 
 
TO 
 
 THE CONGREGATION 
 
 OF 
 
 FREE NEW NORTH CHURCH, 
 
 EDINBURGH, 
 
 TO WHOM IT HAS BEEN FOR THIRTY-SIX YEARS, AND STILL IS, 
 
 HIS PRIVILEGE TO MINISTER THE WORD OF LIFE, 
 
 THESE MEMORIAL SELECTIONS ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY THEIR FRIEND AND PASTOR, 
 
 CHAS. J. BROWN. 
 
 " I WILL ENDEAVOUR THAT YE MAY BE ABLE AFTER MY 
 DECEASE TO HAVE THESE THINGS ALWAYS IN REMEMBKANCE." 
 — 2 Petek i. 15. 
 
1 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 It has long seemed to me that the style proper to the pulpit — 
 
 aud especially for Discourses not read — differs considerably 
 
 from what has usually been thought the fittest for the press. 
 
 Certainly many sermons that were listened to with deep and 
 
 solemn interest, delivered with the freedom of manner befitting 
 
 the pulpit, may be apt to appear comparatively tame when 
 
 reproduced in the pages of a book. Great words of Scripture, 
 
 for instance, which, uttered with the warm living voice, formed 
 
 a large and important part of the preaching, may wear an aspect 
 
 not a little different when read in a printed page ; and many a 
 
 word of fervent appeal, entreaty, expostulation, thrown in 
 
 extemporaneously in the progress of a Discourse, may scarce 
 
 admit of being reproduced at all. Hence, in part, a difficulty I 
 
 have long felt in complying with the wishes of friends as to 
 
 publishing some selections from the work of a long ministry. 
 
 My mode also of studying for the pulpit, together with the state 
 
 of my manuscripts, bearing a close relation to it, has repeatedly 
 
 stopped me in the attempt to prepare a series of Discourses for 
 
 the press. Having at length, so far at least, overcome these 
 
 difficulties, I desire humbly to commit the present volume to 
 
 the gracious Lord, beseeching Him that He will vouchsafe to 
 
 use it to His own glory. 
 
 C. J. B. 
 
 Edinburgh, 2-ilh Novemher 1873. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE EXPULSION— ITS CHAEACTER AND LESSONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 So he drove out the maii."-GENESIS iii. 24, .... J 
 
 XL 
 
 THE MAN OF SORROWS BROUGHT FORTH TO THE 
 PEOPLE. 
 
 Tlien came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purjile robe. 
 
 And Pilate saith unto them. Behold the man '."—JOHN xix. 5, . . 16 
 
 IIL 
 
 INCREDULITY REBUKED. 
 
 Jesus saith unto her, Said 1 not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, 
 thou shouldest see the glorj' of God ? "—JOHN xi. 40, . . . 2G 
 
PAGE 
 
 : CONTENTS. 
 
 lY. 
 
 JEHOVAH-JIREH. 
 
 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh : as it is said 
 to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen."— GENESIS 
 xxii, 14, ......... 
 
 THE HEART OF JESUS— HIS AFFECTION FOR THE 
 LITTLE ONES. 
 
 And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them ; 
 and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus 
 saw it, he was much displeased, and said luito them. Suffer the little 
 children to come unto me, and forbid them not : for of such is the 
 kingdom .of God, Verily I say unto you. Whosoever shall not receive 
 the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And 
 he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed 
 them."— MARK x. 13-16, 
 
 VL 
 
 THE DOOM OF MEROZ. 
 
 Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Loi'd ; curse ye bitterly the inhabi- 
 tants thereof ; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the 
 help of the Lord against the mighty."— JUDGES v, 23, . 
 
 VIL 
 
 LYING ON JESUS' BREAST. 
 
 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus 
 loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask 
 who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast, 
 saith unto him. Lord, who is it?"— JOHN xiii. 23-25. Text— " Tie 
 lying on Jesus' breast," ....... 75 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 VIII. 
 
 A COMMVNIOX SABBATirS SERVICES. 
 
 1. 3Torni)i(/ Sermon : 
 
 CHEIST'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS BLOOD-SHEDDING. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ' This is my blood of the new testament [covenant], wliich is shed for many 
 for the remission of sins."— MATTHEW xxvi. 28, . 
 
 86 
 
 101 
 
 107 
 
 2. Pulpit Address before Commnniov, 
 
 3. Commiin ion Table Address, 
 
 4. Evening Sermon : 
 THE BRIDEGROOM'S CALL TO THE BRIDE. 
 
 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ; forget also 
 thine own people, and thy fathei-'s house ; so shall the King greatly 
 desire thy beauty : for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him."— PS ALM 
 xlv. 10, 11, 
 
 IX. 
 
 CHIEF END OF MAN. 
 
 ' This people have I formed for myself ; they shall shew forth my praise." 
 
 —ISAIAH xliii. 21, ^^^ 
 
 X. 
 
 JESUS ONLY. 
 ' And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, 
 and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was trans- 
 figured before them : and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment 
 was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses 
 and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, 
 Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let us make here three 
 tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While 
 he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them : and behold a 
 voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
 am well pleased ; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they 
 fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched 
 them, and said. Arise, and be not afraid. And when tiiey had lifted up 
 their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only."— MATTHEW xvii. 1-8. 
 Text— "And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save 
 Jesus only," . . • • • • • • • '-^ 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 XL 
 YOUTH KENEWED. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 " Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and all that is within me, bless his holy 
 name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits : who 
 forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who re- 
 deemeth thj* life from ^destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving- 
 kindness and tender mercies ; who satisfieth thy mouth with good 
 things ; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."— PSALM ciii. 
 1-5. Texi— "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's," . . .141 
 
 XIL 
 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 " This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteous- 
 ness."— JEREMIAH xxiii. 6, ...... 154 
 
 XIIL 
 SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 O Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thine 
 handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds."— PSALM cxvi. 16, . . 168 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE SICKNESS— THE PHYSICIAN. 
 
 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many 
 publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his dis- 
 ciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, 
 Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners ? But when Jesus 
 heard that, he said unto them. They that be whole need not a physician, 
 but they that are sick."— MATTHEW ix. 10-12. Text— " But when 
 Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a 
 physician, but they that are sick," . . . , .181 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 XV. 
 PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEA^T-Lecture. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The kinifdom of heaven is Hke unto a certain kini,', which made a niar- 
 riapfe foi* his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were 
 bidden to the wedding : and they would not come. Again, he sent 
 forth other servants, saying. Tell them which are bidden, Beliold, I have 
 prepared mj' dinner : my oxen and myfatlings are killed, and all things 
 are ready ; come unto the marriage. But thej^ made light of it, and 
 went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise : and the 
 remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew 
 them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth : and he sent 
 forth his annies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their 
 city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they 
 which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the high- 
 waj's, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those 
 servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as 
 many as they found, both bad and good : and the wedding was furnished 
 with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there 
 a man which had not on a wedding-garment : and he saith unto him. 
 Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment? 
 And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him 
 hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness ; 
 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but 
 few are chosen."— MATTHEW xxii. 2-14, . . . . .189 
 
 XVI. 
 
 CHRIST MADE A CURSE. 
 
 ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
 for us : for it is written. Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." 
 — GALATIANS iii. 13. Text—" Christ . . . made a curse for us," . 205 
 
 XVII. 
 WAITING FOR THE PROFUSE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they 
 should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the 
 Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me."— ACTS 1. 4. Text— 
 " He commanded them that they . . . should wait for the promise of 
 the Father," 219 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 A COMMUNION SABBATHS SERVICES. 
 
 1. Morning Sermon : 
 
 THE SAVIOUR— HIS ERRAND INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."-- 
 
 LUKE xix. 10, 2.33 
 
 2. Pulpit Address before Communion, . . 245 
 
 3. Communion Table Address, . . .249 
 
 4. Evening Sermon : 
 
 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 "And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father 
 Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me. Return unto thy country, and 
 to thy liindred, and I will dfeal well with thee : I am not worthy of the 
 least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed 
 unto thy servant ; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now 
 I am become two bands. Deliver me, T pray thee, from the hand of my 
 brother, from the hand of Esau : for I fear him, lest he will come and 
 smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will 
 •surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which 
 cannot be numbered for multitude."— GENESIS xxxii. 9-12. Text— 
 " I fear him . . . And thou saidst," ..... 254 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE NATURAL HEART UNVEILED IN THE GREAT 
 ACCOUNT. 
 
 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I 
 have kept laid up in a napkin : for I feared thee, because thou art an 
 austere man ; thovi takest vip that thou layedst not down, and reapest 
 that thou didst not sow."— LUKE xix. 20, 21. Text—" For I feared 
 thee, because thou art an austere man," . . , . .267 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE COVENANT— ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND HOPE. 
 
 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the 
 world began."— TITUS i. 2, . 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 XXI. 
 THE GOLDEN SAYING. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I have shewed you all thinjrs, how that so labouring ye ouji^ht to supiiort 
 the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 
 It is more blessed to give tuax to receive."— acts xx. 35, . . 293 
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 
 
 " Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore ye seek me, 
 let these go their waj' : that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake. 
 Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none."- JOHN xviii. 8, 9, , 30G 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 THE CROWNING PETITION OF THE INTERCESSORY 
 PRAYER. 
 
 " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where 
 
 I am ; that they may behold my glory."— JOHN xvii. 2-1, . . 318 
 
THE EXPULSION— ITS CHARACTER AND LESSONS. 
 
 '*So he drove out the man."— Gen. hi. 24. 
 
 A SHORT text, but a weighty one, forming a very 
 material part of a chapter replete with the most solemn, 
 awful, and yet blessed, interest to our fallen race — So 
 he drove out the man. Whether is this judgment, or is it 
 mercy ? I believe that it is both judgment and mercy, 
 and both in nearly equal degree ; although the mercy 
 will be found, indeed, wonderfully rejoicing against the 
 judgment. 
 
 I. First, it is a word this of sole^jn divine judgment. 
 *' He drove out the man." It was a divine expulsion 
 from the primeval paradise. In the previous verse this 
 liad been expressed in more general terms, " The 
 Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden." 
 Now, more specifically, He drove him out. Nor was this 
 divine expulsion one from the delights merely, the end- 
 lessly varied beauties and satisfactions, of that choicest 
 part of a world which, everywhere, God had himself pro- 
 nounced to be very good. It was this, indeed ; and in this 
 judgment of course appeared. When the man was driven 
 forth from the paradise of earth, — from all those outward, 
 material objects which had been to him the source of 
 far more than sinless enjoyment, since they had led him 
 up in adoring gratitude and admiration to the glorious 
 God — herein did the divine judgment against sin so far 
 appear ; the wrath of God was revealed from heaven 
 against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. It 
 
 A 
 
2 THE EXPULSION — ITS CHAEACTER AND LESSONS. 
 
 Tvas as if tlie Lord had said, Be astonislied, ye heavens, 
 at thij5, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith 
 the Lord ; for my creature hath committed two evils : he 
 hath forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and 
 hewed him out cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no 
 water. Know, therefore, and see that it is an evil thing 
 and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and 
 that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts — 
 So he drove out the man. 
 
 Eut there was a great deal more of judgment in the 
 expulsion than this. Principally it was judgment, in 
 that it was the final shutting out of the man, and in 
 him, as we are too well assured, of man, our whole race 
 fallen, from all possibility of life by the law,— by the 
 fi.rst covenant of the law. For God had entered into 
 covenant with man. God who, apart from some such 
 transaction, could be under no kind of obligation to his 
 own creature, had condescended to bring himself under 
 the obligation of a covenant, — of a promise, on con- 
 dition only of that obedience which is alike the duty 
 and the privilege of the creature in all possible circum- 
 stances — a promise of everlasting life and blessedness, of 
 which the tree of life in the midst of the garden was, as it 
 were, the sacramental symbol and pledge, giving to man 
 the happy assurance, as often as he ate of it, of the 
 glorious, covenanted, higher, indestructible life, which 
 was to be the fruit and reward of his loyal obedience. 
 But man transgressed the covenant,— violated the law, 
 and, instead of the promised life, incurred the terrible 
 death of that sentence, '* In the day thou eatest thereof, 
 dying thou shalt die." And now I pray you to observe 
 the bearing of the ''driving forth of the man," as it 
 comes out in the remarkable words of the twenty-second 
 verse, *'And the Lord God said. Behold, the man is 
 become as one of us" — as, at least, he hath aspired to 
 think— '* to know good and evil: and now, lest he put 
 
THE EXrULSIOX — ITS CnAKACTER AND LESSONS. 
 
 forth his haiul, and take also of the troo of life" — in whic 
 
 er 
 
 no longer he hath any part — ** and eat and live for ev 
 — as it -^-ere, and according to the original import and 
 character of that divine pledge — ''therefore the Lord 
 God sent him forth from the garden of Edon. . . . 
 So he drove out the man^ It tells of the forfeiture of 
 the whole covenanted life. He drove the man out now 
 even from the ver^^ sj'mbol of the life. It was a holy, 
 judicial expulsion from all possibility of eternal life by 
 the first covenant, by all deeds of the law, by anything 
 which man can himself do. The entire verse is in these 
 words, " So he drove out the man : and he placed at the 
 east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword 
 which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of 
 life." 
 
 II. But now, if there was judgment thus, many waj^s, 
 in the " driving out of the man," there was also glorious 
 MERCY in it — not simply notwithstanding of it, but in it — 
 mercy along with the judgment, and divinely rejoicing 
 against the judgment. To this second view of the text 
 I am anxious a little more particularly to invite your 
 attention. 
 
 And here the foundation of all lies in the promise of 
 that new covenant which already, previous to the expul- 
 sion, had been revealed to man — which covenant, made 
 properly with the eternal Son, the second Adam, the Lord 
 from heaven, from everlasting, had been made known to our 
 first parents immediately on the fall, — in an astonisliing 
 interview held by the Lord God with them, an interview 
 which, on a first view of it, might seem to have been but 
 the summoning of criminals to the bar, to receive their 
 doom. But on a closer examination it turns out that, 
 while it tvas such, indeed, in one aspect of it, in another 
 and still deeper it was glorious mercy throughout, as well 
 as judgment, — mercy strangely embedded in tlie very 
 heart of judgment, and destined, in respect of all the heirs 
 
4 THE EXPULSION — ITS CnARACTEK AND LESSONS. 
 
 of this second covenant, everlastingly to rejoice against 
 judgment. Into the details of the interview, however, I 
 do not now enter. Limiting ourselves to the text, and 
 only bearing in mind that the promise had been already 
 given, of the Seed of the woman, that should bruise the 
 head of the serpent, and so effect a glorious victory for 
 our fallen family over Satan, and sin with its whole fearful 
 effects and consequences, observe now the immense, varied 
 mercy of the '' driving out of the man." 
 
 1. For, first, what was it but the gracious shutting of him 
 out from now delusive, vain, and ruinous hopes of life hj the 
 way of the law — a thing this of the very last moment in 
 reference to any possibility of his being saved by grace. 
 "He drove out the man, and placed at the east of the 
 garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which 
 turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." In 
 one or other of two cases, it had, indeed, been no mercy to 
 shut the man out from the hope of life by the law : either 
 first, if there had still remained a possibility of life by that 
 way; or, second, if there had been no other revealed 
 method of life and salvation. In this latter case, better 
 certainly to be let dream on, and somewhat pleasantly 
 deceive and delude oneself with hope, than be awakened 
 from sleep only to exchange dreams for hopeless despair. 
 Or in the other case, — if there had been still a possibility 
 of life by the law, by man's own obedience to Grod, it had 
 been of course no mercy to shut him out from cherishing 
 the hope of it by that way. But then, so very far other- 
 wise was it, — so very far from our obedience being 
 now of the slightest avail for obtaining life, the violated 
 law, on the contrary, consigns us to the death which is 
 the wages of sin, as it is written, " The law worketh 
 wrath — By the law is the knowledge of sin — Whatsoever 
 things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the 
 law ; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world 
 become guilty before God — Cursed is every one that 
 
THE EXrULSIOX — ITS CIIARACTER AND LESSOXS. 5 
 
 contlnuetli not in all things vrliich are written in the book 
 of the law to do them — By the deeds of the law there 
 shall no flesh bo justified in his sight — I was alive with- 
 out the law once : but when tlie commandment came, sin 
 revived and I died ; and the commandment which was 
 ordained to life I found to be unto death." 
 
 Oh, so long as men cling to false and delusive hopes 
 of life by a law which in reality condemns them to eternal 
 death, — so long as they are not driven out from all such 
 hopes, — in vain sliall any method of life be pressed upon 
 them, wretched, indeed, they, and miserable, and poor, and 
 blind, and naked, but in their own eyes rich, and increased 
 with goods, and having need of nothing. See what mercy 
 was in that word, *'Lest he put forth his hand and take 
 of the tree of life, ... 50 he drove out the man." What 
 mercy in the shutting of him out now from even the symbol 
 of life in the broken covenant, since the reality of life 
 could no longer be found in connection with the symbol! 
 Now the sign should have been but a delusive phantom ; 
 and it was just as if the Lord had said, That he may be in 
 mercy shut out from all such ruinous hopes as the symbol 
 might beget, I will drive him out even from the view 
 of it—" therefore the Lord Grod sent him forth from, the 
 garden of Eden ... he drove out the man ; and he 
 placed at the east of the garden, cherubim, and a flaming 
 sword which turned every way, to keep the way of tlie 
 tree of life." 
 
 How often do we see men among us, lot me say, utter 
 strangers to Christ, still lying under the sentence of 
 death in the law, yet sitting down at communion tables, 
 only to delude themselves with the signs and symbols of 
 life, apart altogether from the truth and reality of it ! 
 Would God they were but driven out by any means into 
 despair of life by all obedience of their own ! Some 
 man, whose affairs are in a state of inextricable disorder, 
 and who must one day become bankrupt, contrives, by 
 
6 THE EXPULSION— ITS CHAEACTER AND LESSONS. 
 
 means of dislionourable concealments, to put off the evil 
 day, and go on for a season, things of course growing 
 every day worse with him. It were mercy to such a 
 man at once to plunge him so much deeper into diffi- 
 culties, that he should have no alternative but to lay 
 his ruin open, and declare himself insolvent. What 
 mercy, I repeat, to the man, was the driving of him out 
 from all hopes of life by a covenant which now could 
 avail only for his destruction I What mercy that flaming- 
 sword placed at the east of the garden, debarring his 
 entrance any more where life no more was to be found — 
 telling of wrath, indeed, but so telling graciously of it, as 
 to shut out from now vain and destructive hopes, on the 
 one hand, and shut in to the promise of the new covenant 
 of grace, upon the other ! 
 
 2. But thus I observe, secondly, that the driving out of 
 the man was rich mercy, in that it was in effect the shutting 
 of him now also in to Christ, the one name given under 
 heaven among men fallen whereby we must be saved. I 
 have observed already that, on supposition of no other 
 way of life having been revealed besides the law, it had 
 been better to be let alone, and not to be driven out before 
 the time from even delusive dreams of life. But, blessed 
 be God, as the Seed of the woman had been proclaimed 
 before this hour to our first parents, so we are now per- 
 mitted to listen to such glorious words as these : "I am 
 the resurrection and the life — I am the way, and the 
 truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but 
 by me — We have seen, and do testify, that the Father 
 sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world — I am the 
 door ; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and 
 shall go in and out, and find pasture — The life was 
 manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and 
 shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, 
 and was manifested unto us." What mercy to be now, 
 even in the most terrible ways, driven forth from lying 
 
THE EXi'ULSIOX — ITS CIIAllACTEU AND LESSONS. 7 
 
 refuges, and sliut up to sucli a Saviour, and such a Salva- 
 tion! "He drove out the man" — as if he had said to 
 him in the act, No longer thou canst find life now in 
 that first paradise ; thou mayest find it, driven from it, 
 and from all hopes of life connected with it, in Him who 
 shall bruise the head of tlie serpent, and open a new and 
 living way to a yet better tree of life in the midst of the 
 paradise of God ! 
 
 Thus is it tliat there is not even one among all the 
 darkest and most terrible things written in the Scriptures, 
 which has not an aspect of richest mercy in it, as designed 
 and fitted to drive us out of our security, our fatal slum- 
 bers, our delusive hopes, on the one hand, and to shut us 
 in, on the other, to the Lamb of God, — to Him who came 
 by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, 
 but by water and blood. Do you discern the flaming 
 sword turning every way in such words as these — "God 
 is jealous, and the Lord revengeth ; the Lord revengeth, 
 and is furious — Their worm dietli not, and their fire 
 is not quenched — Dejjart from me, ye cursed, iuto 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels — 
 Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the 
 Lord descended upon it in fire ; and the smoke tliereof 
 ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount 
 quaked greatly"? But this sword, shutting you out 
 from all hopes of life by the law, is but the shutting of you 
 up and in to the faith of Him who was made under the 
 law, made a curse, — wlio bared his bosom to tlie stroke 
 of that very sword, the surety and substitute of tlie guilty, 
 while the eternal Father said. Awake, sword, against 
 my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, 
 eaith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd — so that 
 now the voice is heard, " I am come that they might 
 have life, and that they might have it more abundantly — 
 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
 made a curse for us — God so loved the world, that he 
 
8 THE EXPULSION — ITS CHAEACTER AND LESSORS. 
 
 gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 3. But we have not yet reached by any means the full 
 mercy which was in the driving out of the man. So far 
 we have seen its gracious design and tendency, more 
 doctrinally, as it were, under the grace of the Holy Ghost 
 to shut out from delusive hopes of life, and shut in to 
 Him who is the eternal life, — the way, and the truth, and 
 the life. And this truly was of unspeakable importance. 
 How very large a portion of the Bible bears one way or 
 other towards this double design ! It might be said to be 
 the grand scope and drift of it, doctrinally, from first to 
 last. But then, the text opens up at least another class of 
 means altogether for effecting the design. For, practically, 
 what is it that to a very large extent holds us back from 
 Christ, and prevails with us to leave Him and his salva- 
 tion neglected and despised ? Is it not some dream of 
 finding a portion, a good, a happiness, in this world — in 
 the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride of 
 life — for the sake of which we are prepared to run the 
 risk of losing our never-dying souls ? But now behold the 
 still further import of the driving out of the man. See 
 how it was just a kind of summary, in effect, of that 
 whole providential discipline which the Lord is administer- 
 ing from age to age in our fallen world, in connection 
 with his Word, towards the same great end of driving us 
 out from our vain delusive hopes of life and blessedness, 
 on the one side, and shutting us in to the faith and love 
 and obedience and enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 upon the other. 
 
 For observe, first, what it was the Lord drove out the 
 -rnscn from. It was from the paradise of earth, as from a 
 scene now no longer suited to his state, — which, how- 
 ever profitable as well as pleasant before, when all earthly 
 comforts did but raise his soul in love and thankfulness 
 to God, could now have proved but a deadly snare to 
 
THE EXPULSION — ITS CnAIlAClER AND LESSORS. 
 
 him,— a sliow of heaven without the reality of it, in 
 all possible forms presenting to his now weakened and 
 broken soul the very temptations to which he had at the 
 first fallen a prey, when ** the woman saw that the tree 
 was good for food, and tliat it was pleasant to the eyes, 
 and a tree to bo desired to make one wise; ancl she took 
 of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her hus- 
 band with her, and he did eat." HencOj in rich mercy as 
 well as judgment, *' he drove out the man " — as if lie 
 should say. Outside that paradise of earth, away from its 
 delights, now unfit for thee, thou may est bo shut in to 
 desire a better country, even an heavenly. And just thus 
 it is that the Lord is driving forth his children still from 
 their Edens of earth, withering their gourds, teaching 
 them painfully that 
 
 " They build too low who build beneath the skies," — 
 in driving: them out, onlv shuttincr them in to TTim who is 
 their alone life, and in whom thc}^ are yet to reach a 
 batter Eden than the primeval one. 
 
 But what, further, did God drive out the man to ? 
 To till the ground now by the hard toil of his hands 
 and the sweat of his brow — "In the sweat of thy face 
 shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." 
 And, in addition, to endure many a hardship and pro- 
 found sorrow — "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in 
 sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life : thorns 
 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." And 
 "unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy 
 sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring 
 forth children." iVh, it is judgment, indeed, but at least 
 as much, mercy. "Driven out" thus we are to a lot of 
 toil and sorrow. I3ut it is a lot only the more in 
 keeping, because sorrowful, with our state here, as at the 
 best sorrowfully sinful — ever ready we, even after having 
 tasted that the Lord is gracious, to depart from the 
 living God, and take up our rest here, and put some 
 
10 THi: EXPULSION — ITS CIIAEACTEPt AND LESSONS. 
 
 idol in the place of God, and worship the creature 
 more than the Creator, and prefer the things which are 
 seen and temporal to the things unseen and eternal. 
 How merciful the ''driving out of the man"! How 
 wisely gracious the shutting of him up, not only more 
 doctrinally as it were, but in all possible ways also 
 practically and providentially, — not only by the Word, 
 but by the trials and changes and fast approaching 
 death of this world, to lay hold of and cling to the hope 
 set before him, — to cleave with purpose of heart to the 
 Eesurrection and the Life ! "What, in this last aspect of 
 it, was the driving out of the man but the opening of 
 that whole course of providential dealing of which we 
 read in numberless words such as these : " I will bring 
 the third part through the fire, and will reiine them as 
 silver is refined, and will try them as gohl is tried — 
 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every 
 son whom he receiveth — I will hedge up thy- way with 
 thorns, and will make a wall, that she shall not find her 
 paths — I M'ill allure her, and bring her into the wilder- 
 ness, and will sj)eak comfortably unto her — Blessed is 
 the man whom thou chastenest, Lord, and teachest 
 him out of thy law — Here we have no continuing city, 
 but we seek one to come — Eefuge failed me : I cried 
 imto thee, Lord ; I said, Thou art my refuge^ and my 
 portion in the land of the living — Although the fig-tree 
 shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the 
 labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
 meat ; the flock shall be cut ofi' from the fold, and there 
 shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the 
 Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." JSo he drove 
 out the man. 
 
 In closing, let me address a sentence or two to those 
 among us who are still under the first broken covenant of 
 the law, and thus necessarily under its curse, as Paul 
 writes, '' As many as are of the works of the law are under 
 
TUE EXPULSION ITS CIIAKACTEK AND LESSONS. 11 
 
 the curse ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that con- 
 tiuueth not in all things which are written in the book of 
 the law to do them." Oh, that covenant, that law, cannot 
 save you. On the contrary, it condemns and consigns 
 3'ou to eternal death. It is but a sinking ship you are in. 
 Fain you would abide in it because the idols and lusts you 
 love are there. But soon they and you must go together 
 to the bottom. Escape for thy life. All that a man hath 
 will he give for his life — tlds is the life of thy never- 
 dying soul. What shall it profit thee, if thou gain the 
 whole world, and lose thyself, tliy soul ? Be content to be 
 driven out to Christ, too thankful to find such a refuge 
 prepared for thee. As to trials, you must have them 
 anyhow. No longer we are in an Eden now, whether 
 with Christ or without Him. But how terrible to miss 
 both paradises ! How fearful to have been driven out 
 from the earthly one to the toils and trials of the wilder- 
 ness, and to miss the gracious design too, miss the better 
 country, miss Christ, and awake in the second death ! 
 Awake now, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 and Christ shall give thee light. Thus saith the Lord 
 God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a 
 tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation ; ho 
 that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 
 
 Believers on Christ, heirs of the covenant sealed in His 
 blood, all ye that have fled for refuge to lay hold on the liopo 
 set before j'ou, see that you live by faith, remembering 
 what is written, " If by grace, then it is no more of works, 
 otherwise grace is no more grace — Ye are become dead 
 to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married 
 to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that 
 we should bring forth fruit unto God." Come up fiom 
 the wilderness leaning on the Beloved. Expect no Eden 
 upon earth. Arise and depart, for this is not your 
 rest, it is polluted. Lay your account with trials and 
 afflictions. See judgment, sin, in them. But see also 
 
12 TKE EXrULSION — ITS CIIAEACTEE, AND LESSONS. 
 
 rich mercy. Say with. David, I will sing of mercy and 
 of judgment. It is good for me that I have been af- 
 flicted, that I might learn thy statutes. And anticipate 
 the holy, everlasting blessedness of which it is written, 
 " He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
 crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side 
 
 of the river, was there the tree of life And there 
 
 shall be no more curse : but the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve him ; 
 and they shall see his face ; and his name shall be in their 
 foreheads." 
 
n. 
 
 THE MAN OF SORROWS BROUGHT FORTH TO THE TEORLE. 
 
 *' llien came Jesus forth, wearing the crov:n of thorns, 
 and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold 
 the man.'" — John xix. 5. 
 
 It was the morning of tlie crucifixion day. The pre- 
 vious niglit had been an astonishing one truly — tlie guest- 
 chamber, the last supper, the discourses, the prayers ; 
 the garden, with its mysterious agonies ; the apprehen- 
 sion of the Saviour there; the hurrying of him bound 
 from tribunal to tribunal, — the ecclesiastical one first, 
 Annas, and Caiaphas the high priest; the sentence of 
 death pronounced in liis palace, but which the Jews had 
 not the power to execute ; and then, the judgment hall of 
 Pilate the governor. 
 
 Jesus was there, let it be observed, — in Pilate's judg- 
 ment-hall, at the opening of this chapter. The Jews 
 were not there ; for, in the twenty-eighth verse of the 
 previous chapter, we read, ''Then led they Jesus from 
 Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment : and it was early ; 
 and they themselves went not into the judgment-hall, lest 
 they should be defiled" — these holt/ men, by touching 
 a heathen floor! — "but tliat they might eat the pass- 
 over." And now, at the hour of our text, Pilate has 
 already "taken Jesus," as wo read at tlie beginning of 
 the chapter, " and scourged him ; and the soldiers have 
 platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and put 
 on him a purple robe, and said. Hail, King of the Jews ! 
 and they have smitten him with their hands." Pilate^ 
 
1 4 THE ilAN OF SOEEOWS 
 
 however, was desirous to effect his release. He knew 
 the entire charge of treason against him to be a baseless 
 one, belied by the whole tenor of his actions and life. 
 And although he had not the courage and the justice to 
 interpose his authority for his release, if the Jews should 
 persist in their demand for his crucifixion, yet he would 
 do every thing for the purpose short of that. And there 
 can be very little doubt that even the scourging, while it was 
 j)artly the usual preparatory step before the crucifying of 
 a criminal, had also in part been inflicted by Pilate in the 
 hope of appeasing the anger of the Jews, and satisfying 
 their clamours — " Pilate therefore went forth again," says 
 the Evangelist (4th ver.), '* and saith unto them, Behold, 
 I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find 
 no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the 
 
 CROWN OF THORNS, AND THE PURPLE ROBE. AnD PiLATE 
 SAITH UNTO THEM, BeHOLD THE MAN ! " But nOW let US 
 
 fix our thoughts on these deeply solemn words, in the two 
 parts, intimately connected, of which they consist. 
 
 I. And first, Jesus coming forth, wearing the crown of 
 thorns, and the 'purple role. 
 
 The crown, the purple robe. They tell so far of the 
 King. Por although it was a crown of thorns, and a 
 purple robe of mockery, and a voice of derision. Hail, King 
 of the Jews, yet the mockery was founded on the claim 
 to a Kingdom — on that claim, '' Thou sayest that I am 
 a King — My Kingdom is not of this world." And 
 besides, what had any other crown been on that blessed 
 head, — what had been any such crown, or purple robe, on 
 the Lord Jesus, as the kings of this world are accustomed 
 to wear, but a mockery, methinks, still deeper, of a King- 
 dom like His — of the majesty of the King of kings, and 
 Lord of lords ? And, above all, it is to be recollected as 
 to these strange insignia of royalty, that suffering and 
 ignominy were laj'ing the basis, were even now laying the 
 foundations, of the Kingdom of Christ, as it is written, 
 
BKorcnT Fonxn to the PEorLE. 15 
 
 " He humbled liimsolf, and becamo obedient nnto death, 
 even tlio deatli of llio cross ; ichcrcfore God also hath 
 liighly exalted hini." Ah, the crown of thorns and the 
 robe of mockeiy were the littest insig-nia, after all, and at 
 such an hour especially, of His "^ondrous dominion ! 
 
 But thus 3-0U will easily perceive that, if wo have the 
 King here, still more have we \\\q Priest, the glorious 
 High Priest of the Church. !Aranifestly the theme here 
 is mainly the sufferings of that Il'ujh Priest, now conducting 
 him on by rapid steps to his crown, — to the glory of the 
 everlasting Mediatorial kingdom. Let us, accordingly, try 
 to look at these sufferings of his for a little, as they come 
 out to view under the double aspect of pam and shame, 
 — the crown of thorns, and the j)urple robe of mockery — 
 pain, shame. 
 
 1. And first, 2^ain. Por it is a crown of thorns. They have 
 platted elaborately a crown of sharp thorns, and j^ut it on 
 his head. Of course, if their object had only been to 
 deride him, they might have accortiplished that even better, 
 by placing on his head a crown of straw. But there was 
 rage, hatred, in their breasts, as well as contempt. AVhile 
 they put the purple robe on him, and a reed, as the other 
 Evangelists tell us, in his right hand for a mock sceptre, 
 and bent the knee in derision before him, saying, Hail, 
 King of the Jews, they "smote him also with their hands;" 
 and having prepared, platted elaborately, as I said, this 
 crown of thorns, they placed it on his head, to torture 
 his body with pain as well as his soul with mockery. 
 And, what is w^ell worthy to be noted, the evangelists 
 Matthew and Mark tell us that it was on the head they 
 struck him — on the head, using for the purpose the reed 
 ■which they had first placed in his right hand, doubtless 
 with the design of forcing down the points of the thorns 
 into his temples and forehead, and so occasioning the 
 more severe pain, with effusion of blood, to the body 
 which already was bleeding from the laslies of the scourG;e. 
 
16 THE MAN OF SORROWS 
 
 But I pray you to remember that every incident in tlie 
 cross, — in the last sufferings of Emmanuel, was of special 
 Divine ordering. And so, beyond doubt, this crown of 
 thorns, of pain — all voluntary, criminal, vile, as it was on 
 the part of man — was of the special ordination of the 
 adorable God. Eor 2^ain is the principal part of the whole 
 pimishmeiit of sin, as it is written, "Depart from me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire — Their worm dieth not, and 
 their fire is not quenched — Send Lazarus, that he may dip 
 the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for I 
 am tormented in this flame." "Well, but here was the 
 great High Priest and Lamb, not wearing this crown of 
 thorns more truly than hearing our very sins, believers, at 
 that hour ; standing, not so much at the bar of Pilate, as 
 at the bar of the Divine justice; arraigned and condemned 
 there, because he had been "made sin for us," — because 
 the Lord, with his own most free consent, had "laid on 
 him the iniquity of us all." Oh, thus did it mysteriously 
 befit and behove him — I speak it with deepest reverence 
 — to wear the crown of thorns, — to give his back to the 
 smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked ofi" the 
 hair. 
 
 Only, that we are thus at once led to regard the thorns, 
 and the smiting, and the scourge, — all the pains of that 
 sacred body together, as little more than the ifidices, the 
 afi'ecting exterior symbols, of a deeper pain and anguish 
 within, even that of which we read, and never weary 
 reading, " Being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; 
 and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling 
 down to the ground — My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
 even unto death ; tarry ye here, and watch with me — 
 Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say? Pather, 
 save me from this hour : but for this cause came I unto 
 this hour." Beloved, we have not reached the meaning 
 of the crown of thorns till we have found it there, " He 
 shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : 
 
BKOUGHT rOllTK TO TUE I'EOPLE. i-7 
 
 by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many ; 
 for he shall bear their iniquities" — Jesus came forth ivear- 
 ing the crown of thorns! "On his head," John writes in 
 the Apocalypse, *'wero many crowns" — many croivns. 
 Is there among them all a crown more glorious in the eyes 
 of the whole ransomed Church, and in the eyes of the 
 Saviour himself, than this one of thorns ? Not, certainly, 
 that there is or can be any glory in such a crown consid- 
 ered in itself. But, somewhat as in music the divinest 
 harmonies are those brought out of dissonances resolved, 
 so does this crown aj)pear very glorious, lovely, when 
 resolved, so to speak, in its issues and designs, *'AVith his 
 stripes we are healed — We see Jesus, who for the suffer- 
 ing of death was made a little lower than the angels, 
 crowned with glory and honour — He redeemed us from 
 the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." All- 
 glorious is this crown in the eyes of the whole ransomed 
 Church — as witness Moses and Elias singling out the cruel 
 *' decease accomplished at Jerusalem," for their theme of 
 converse on the Mount : or witness it the central theme of 
 the hallelujahs of heaven, " AVorthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain," and of the Church's deepest communion upon 
 earth, '* Ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." And 
 as for the Saviour's own estimate of this crown, behold 
 him bringing up from the grave with him the " print 
 of the nails " uneffaced, — the uneffaced marks of the 
 same cruel death, and carrying them with him to the 
 heaven of heavens, "a Lamb, as it had been slain, in 
 the midst of the throne " ! '' Jesus came forth," says our 
 text, " came forth," most voluntarily — no kind of compul- 
 sion needed. Unashamed, yea, glorying in his sufferings 
 for our sake, ''Jesus came forth, wearing the crown of 
 thorns, and the purple robe." 
 
 2. But that is the other element in the sufferings here, 
 shame — the crown of thorns and the i)urple role of mochery. 
 The same distinction in the elements of suffering we have 
 
18 THE MAN OF SORROWS 
 
 m tlie great words, *' He endured the cross, despising tlie 
 shame" — so here, the crown of thorns, and the purple robe 
 — the shame. For, sin, my dear hearers, is a shameful thing 
 also, ignominious as well as accursed, base as well as evil 
 and bitter. It is an affront, an infamy, as well as a crime, 
 a rebellion. It casts foul indignity on the blessed God. 
 And hence an essential part of the punishment of it is disgrace^ 
 shame — ah, those are terrible words in the book of Daniel, 
 *' Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 
 awake. . . .to shame and everlasting contempt." Well, it 
 thus mysteriously befitted and behoved our Lord Jesus to 
 take the shame of our sin, as well as the pain of it, — 
 to wear the purple robe of mockery, as well as the 
 crown of thorns, — to hide not his face from shame and 
 spitting, as well as to give his back to the smiters, and his 
 cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, — to bear affront, 
 contumely, derision, as weU as pain, torture, anguish, — 
 to despise the shame as well as endure the cross. "What 
 expressions we find as to this in the Word ! Thus, 
 *' When they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the 
 face, saying. Prophesy, who is it that smote thee — Herod 
 and his men of war set him at nought — I am a worm, and 
 no man ; a reproach of men, and despised of the people : 
 all they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they shoot out the 
 lip, they shake the head." Oh, they spat on him ! 
 Mark says, ** They clothed him with purple, and platted 
 a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and 
 began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews! And 
 they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit 
 upon him, and bowing their knees, worshipped him. And 
 when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from 
 him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to 
 crucify him." Dear brethren, when the Lord Jesus en- 
 dured all these elaborated mockeries in silence, unbroken 
 and unmurmuring silence, it was indeed a transcendent 
 patience and meekness. But it was more. There was a 
 
EllOUGHT FORTK TO THE TEOrLE. 19 
 
 deeper element still in that silence. lie well knew him- 
 self standing at a bar, another bar than Pilate's, where he 
 had nothinrj to speak, — nothing to answer, save the answer 
 of his vicarious, silent, willingly endured, suffering and 
 shame — ''Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of 
 thorns, and the purple robe." 
 
 II. But now, what is this in the second part of our 
 text ? *' AxD Pilate saith uxto them, Behold the man ! " 
 Viewing this sim23ly as the voice of Pilate, and with 
 reference to his mind, his meaning and design, in the 
 uttering of it, I think there can be no doubt that, when 
 he brought Jesus forth to the multitude, and bade them 
 behold him in the crown of thorns and the pur2)le robe, 
 his object was to awaken, if possible, some relentings of 
 compassion within their breasts — as if he should say. 
 Behold the man ! you may be satisfied now ? Not that 
 in Pilate's own breast there was any feeling much worthy 
 to be called even pity for the sufferings of Jesus. Here 
 that word of the Messianic Psalm held quite good, " I 
 looked for some to take jiity, but there was none : and 
 for comforters, but I found none." Pilate's feeling was 
 rather one of haughty disdain, as if he had said, Behold 
 him low enough now surely ! A royal-like person this 
 truly, — a formidable rival to Cajsar ! See him in the crown 
 and the purple robe ! Behold the man ! Is it not enough 
 
 DOW? 
 
 But then, as I said a little ago, every incident in the 
 cross, in the last sufferings of Emmanuel, Avas of special 
 Divine ordination. We never think of confining our- 
 selves to Pilate's mind in the inscription, for example, 
 which he placed on the cross, ''Jesus of Nazareth the 
 King of the Jews." We never think of limiting ourselves 
 to the mind of the soldier who pierced his side, and 
 ** forthwith came thereout blood and water;" nor to the 
 mind of the Jews, when they crucified him between the 
 thieves, and when they proclaimed in mockery the all- 
 
20 THE MAN OF SOEROWS 
 
 precious truth, *' He saved others; himself he cannot 
 save." And so here, I cannot hesitate to regard this 
 voice, ''Behold the man ! " taken in connection with the un- 
 paralleled circumstances, Jesus coming forth wearing the 
 ^rown of thorns, and the purple robe — to regard it as an 
 invitation /ro?/^ God^ — not merely bursting irresistibly, as it 
 were, from those circumstances, but coming to us from God 
 himself — a Divine invitation to us all to behold, standing 
 at the judgment-seat of Pilate, in the crown of thorns and 
 the purple robe, the Man of whom all the prophets had 
 borne witness from the beginning ; the Man who alone of 
 all that ever trod this earth was sinless, and yet was 
 the pre-eminent sufferer on it, and at God's immediate 
 hand too ; the Man of whom we find, as we trace him back 
 over the pages of the history, that he was none other 
 than the God-man ; in a word, ^A^Man by pre-eminence, 
 the second man, the substitute man, the head of the new 
 creation, — the representative, type also, model-man, of 
 that whole creation — Behold the man ! 
 
 1. "We are invited, I say, to behold here the Man of 
 whom all the prophets had borne witness from the begin- 
 ning — the man that wrestled with Jacob at Peniel till 
 the breaking of the day ; David's man of God's right 
 hand. Son of man whom he made strong for himself; 
 Isaiah's man of sorrows — man who should be as an hiding- 
 j)lace from the wind, and covert from the tempest, and 
 shadow of a great rock in a weary land ; and Daniel's 
 Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven ; and 
 Zechariah's man whose name is the Branch ; and Micah's 
 man who shall be our peace ; the Seed of the woman, the 
 Seed of Abraham, around whom all the prophecies had 
 gathered from the commencement of them to the close — 
 Behold the man I 
 
 2. And we are invited to behold here the Man who 
 alone of all that ever trod this earth was sinless, and yet 
 pre-eminent in suffering, and at God's immediate hand 
 
BrvOUGHT FOKTn TO THE TEOrLE. 21 
 
 too. The only sinless man. Job abhors himself. Isaiah 
 cries out, I am undone. Abraham is a sinner ; Moses a 
 sinner; David is miserably sinful. Jesus saith, "The 
 prince of this world coraeth, and hath nothing in me." 
 Even the unrighteous judge is made to testify again 
 and again, *'I find no fault in him — take ye him, and 
 crucify him." Judas, who knew his most secret and 
 sacred hours and places of resort, ''I have betrayed the 
 innocent blood," said he. The eternal Father bears him 
 witness, *' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased." And yet it ^^leased that Father to bruise him, 
 and to put him to grief. Oh, I think he wore a crown 
 of thorns all his life through ! Behold, and see if there 
 be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Awake, sword, 
 against my shepherd, and against the man that is my 
 fellow, saith the Lord of hosts ; smite the shepherd — 
 Behold the man ! 
 
 3. And we are invited to behold here the Man of whom, 
 as we trace him back over the pages of the history, we 
 find that he was none other than the God-man. We turn 
 but a page back from the text, and he claims equality with 
 the Father, saying, ** If a man love me, he will keep my 
 words ; and my Father will love him, and we will come 
 unto him" (we, God and I, will come unto him ! ) ** and 
 make our abode with him." A page or two more, and 
 when Martha says of her brother, ' ' I know that ho shall 
 rise again in the resurrection at the last day," he answers, 
 ' ' I am the resurrection and the life. " Another jiage or two, 
 "I and my Father are one" — "Before Abrahamwas, I am." 
 A few pages more, and, " In the beginning was the AVord, 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . 
 And the Word was made fiesh, and dwelt among us," 
 Emmanuel, Jehovah — Behold the Man ! 
 
 4. And we are invited to behold here the Man by pre- 
 eminence, the second man, the substitute man, — the head, 
 representative, type also, model man, of the whole new 
 
22 THE MAN OF SORROWS 
 
 creation — Him of wliom it is written, '' Since by man came 
 death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead :" 
 of whom it is written, " There is one God, and one medi- 
 ator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who 
 gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time:" 
 of whom it is written, ''As by one man's disobedience 
 many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall 
 many be made righteous:" of whom it is written, "The 
 first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the 
 Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also 
 that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they 
 also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image 
 of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 
 Substitute, first, then type, image, model— Behold the 
 Man ! 
 
 But then, as it is not any and every eye that can behold 
 this glorious One, — as it is not the bodily, nor even the 
 natural mental eye that can see Him, but the inward, 
 spiritual. Spirit- opened eye alone, so neither is it any 
 and every hind of leliolding of the man to which we are 
 invited here. But it is the beholding of him with lively, 
 appropriating faith ; with profound self-abasement j with 
 admiring, adoring, obedient love. 
 
 With lively, ajppropriating faith. For when, not Pilate 
 now, but the eternal Father brings him forth to us, 
 wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, he 
 sets him forth a propitiation through faith in his blood, 
 — a hiding place, covert from the tempest, shadow of 
 a great rock in a weary land, — the Lamb of God 
 which taketh away the sin of the world. And it is 
 for each one of us to answer, J/y hiding place, Lord, 
 my propitiation. Lamb, covert, rock — I flee unto thee to 
 hide me — I am crucified with Christ — Lord, to whom 
 shall I go? I believe, Lord, help thou mine unbelief! 
 
 And we are to behold the man with 'profound self-abase- 
 ment. Indeed, when we read of Pilate's taking Jesus and 
 
BKOUGHT FOmn TO THE TEOILE. 23 
 
 scourging lilm, and tlio soldiers platting the crown of 
 thorns, and putting it on his head, and smiting him with 
 their hands, perhaps the first feeling apt to arise in our 
 breasts may be a certain indignation against the more 
 immediate authors of his sufferings. But it is necessary 
 that this be exchanged for other feelings altogether, — 
 for the self- abhorrence of those who know that their own 
 iniquities were the true scourge, and crown of thorns, 
 and robe of mocker}^, of that judgment-hall, — the self- 
 abasement of her who stood of old at his feet behind him 
 weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and 
 wiped them with the hairs of her head, — the godly sorrow 
 of the Divine promise, * ' They shall look upon me whom 
 they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him — Ye 
 shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your 
 iniquities, and for your abominations." 
 
 And he is to be beheld by us with admiring, adoring, 
 obedient love. Not with pity, not with commiseration any 
 more, " Daughters of Jerusalem," said he, " weep not for 
 me." Oh, if the indignation is to be exchanged for self- 
 abhorrence, the pity must be swallowed up in an adoration 
 like Thomas's, " My Lord and my God," — in a love 
 like hers who, having washed his feet with her tears, and 
 wiped them with the hairs of her head, kissed his feet, 
 and anointed them with the ointment, — in a holy, obedient 
 love — for we see Jesus, who for the suffering of death was 
 made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and 
 honour, that at his name every knee should bow of things 
 in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the 
 earth. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? Lord 
 Jesus, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the 
 son of thine handmaid ; thou hast loosed my bonds ! 
 
 And thus, in conclusion, I think that the child of 
 God may easily gather what kind of improvement 
 it behoves him to make of this whole subject. I 
 will now turn aside, let him say, and see this great 
 
24 THE MAN OF SORROWS 
 
 sight. Fain, Lord, would I every day, with contri- 
 tion and faith and adoring affection, see thee wear- 
 ing a crown of thorns that I might be for ever 
 blessed, arrayed in a robe of mockery that I might be 
 olad in a robe of righteousness, — in the garments of 
 salvation. Lord Jesus, I am thy sin (as Luther was 
 wont to speak), thy curse, thy death, thy wrath of God, thy 
 hell; and, contrariwise, thou art my righteousness, my 
 life, my blessing, my grace of God, and my heaven. 
 Entreat me not to leave thee. Set me as a seal upon 
 thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm. And, since thou 
 art the image and model, as well as substitute, wilt thou 
 fashion me according to thine own likeness ? Teach me 
 to co])j after the pattern of thy patience, gentleness, 
 meekness, purity, love ! Once thou didst wear a crown of 
 thorns for me. Let me set the crown of my supreme 
 affection on Thee henceforth and for ever. Worthy is 
 the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
 wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and 
 blessing ! 
 
 A closing sentence to those who are out of Christ, 
 impenitent and unbelieving. You read in the verse 
 following the text, that " when the chief priests therefore 
 and officers saw him, they cried out, saying. Crucify him, 
 crucify him." So far, it seems, from any relen tings of 
 compassion having been awakened in their breasts, the 
 very sight of the blood streaming down from that counte- 
 nance so marred more than any man, only inflamed 
 them with a deeper rage, and they cried out. Crucify 
 him. Perhaps this seems strange to you. Ah! there 
 is a stranger thing transacted, I fear, in this house 
 to-day— even the crucifying of the Son of God afresh, 
 and putting him to an open shame. As for those imme- 
 diate authors of the sufferings of Jesus, they have long 
 known whom they scorned. But now it is no more 
 Pilate who bids you behold the man. It is the eternal 
 
BROUGHT FORTH TO THE TEOrLE. 25 
 
 Father that invites you to hcliokl the God-man, the Just 
 One dying for tlio unjust, that he mig-ht bring us to God. 
 How can you escape, neglecting so groat salvation ? If 
 these things were done in a green tree, what shall be 
 done in the dry ? If the Son of God must wear a crown 
 of thorns, and a robe of mockery and shame, for other 
 men's sins imputed to him, what pain and shame must 
 be the portion of tliose that shall die under the weight of 
 a whole lifetime of sins, their own, unrepented of and 
 unpardoned, aggravated by the rejection of the onl}' 
 Saviour ? Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man coming in 
 the clouds of heaven. Behold he cometli with clouds, and 
 every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him ; 
 and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. 
 Behold, behold the man ! Hasten into this hiding-place, 
 this covert from the tempest. Behold the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sin of the world. Kiss the Son, 
 lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his 
 wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that 
 put their trust in him. 
 
ni. 
 
 INCPvEDULITY KEBUKED. 
 
 ^' Jesus salth unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if 
 thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory oj 
 G^ocZ.?"— JoHNxi. 40. 
 
 The Lord Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the 
 dead. He had arrived at his burying place, and had 
 desired the bystanders to take away the stone from the 
 mouth of it — for " it was a cave, and a stone lay on it" 
 — when an obstacle was interposed from a quarter whence 
 it was very little to have been looked for. "Martha," 
 we read in the middle of the thirty-ninth verse, ''the sister 
 of him that was dead, saith unto him. Lord, by this time 
 he stinketh : for he hath been dead" (or rather, in the 
 grave) "four days." It was in answer to this that our 
 Lord addressed Martha in the words of the text, "Jesus 
 saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest 
 believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" 
 
 You observe, however, that our Lord points in the text 
 to what he had before said to Martha. But when we go 
 back to his interview with her, recorded in the previous 
 part of the chapter, we do not find at least these express 
 words, " If thou ivouldest believe (Jesus saith unto her, 
 Said I not unto thee, that), if thou wouldest believe, thou 
 shouldest see the glory of God ?" It is just possible that 
 he might have addressed other words to Martha besides 
 those which John has related. I do not think it neces- 
 sary, however, to have recourse to this supposition. I 
 
INCREDULITY REBUKEl^. 27 
 
 appreliend tliat our Lord's words in the text are just 
 the brief gathering up of the sum,— of the spirit and 
 soul, of all his previous words to Martha — that is to say, 
 first, his reply to the message of the two sisters, in tlio 
 fourth verse of the chapter, *' When Jesus heard that, he 
 said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of 
 God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby :" and 
 second, his words to Martha in the twenty-third verse, 
 ''Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again:" and 
 finally, his glorious words to her in the twenty-fifth and 
 twenty-sixth verses, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resur- 
 rection and the life : he that believeth in me, though he 
 were dead yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and 
 believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" — 
 Said I not loito thcc, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou 
 skouldest see the glory of God? I think that our Jjord 
 there gathers up briefly the sum, the soul and spirit, of 
 all these previous words ; and it will perhaps come out 
 further, as we advance, with what wisdom and grace he 
 gathers it up in this particular form, " Said I not imto 
 thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the 
 glory of God?" 
 
 But now let us look a little more narrowly at the 
 words in the matter of them, — in the leading particulars 
 of which they consist. 
 
 I. And first, they tell of a grand evil among us, the 
 source of other and endless evils, together with the appro- 
 priate remedy for it — the evil, namely, of losing sight 
 of the words of Christ, and following, in place of them, 
 our own fancies, and vain and incredulous conjectures, 
 and reasonings, and speculations, *' Said I not unto thee .^" 
 In that short word, Jesus indicates at once the evil, and 
 the remedy. 
 
 (1.) The evil. For whence Martha's difficulty about 
 removing the stone from her brother's grave ? She had 
 lost sight of the words of her Lord, and had fixed her eye 
 
28 INCREDULITY REBUKED. 
 
 down, witlidrawn from them, upon tlie darkness and 
 corruption of the tomb. Hence mournful unbelief; and 
 hence, along with it, the strange and unnatural interpos- 
 ing of an obstacle in the way even of a brother's resurrec- 
 tion, " Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith 
 unto him. " See how John emphatically marks the 
 relationship, as if he should say, Strange! "Martha, 
 the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, 
 by this time he stinketh ; for he hath been in the grave 
 four days." Why, it seemed as if the very fountains 
 of natural affection had been for the time closed up. 
 Whence ? I ask again. Martha had lost sight of the 
 words of her Lord, and was running adrift among her 
 own groundless fancies and reasonings. A grand evil 
 this among us indeed ; nor were it easy to tell either the 
 wide sphere of the operation of it, or the mischiefs which 
 arise out of it. 
 
 There, for example, is a desponding, fearful one, who 
 will have it that there is no hope and no help for him 
 even in God, — will have it that he has sinned too long 
 and too grievously against him — too long rejected his 
 offered mercy, — will have it that his day of grace is in 
 fact passed. See how thou art preferring thine own 
 fears, fancies, opinions, before the words of Christ. 
 Thou sayest. There is no help for me in Grod. God 
 says, " Thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is 
 thine help." Thou sayest, I have too long rejected 
 his offered mercy. Christ says, " Him that cometh to me 
 I will in no wise cast out." Thou sayest. My day of 
 grace is past. Where do you find that in Scripture ? It 
 is but an opinion at the best. Meanwhile Jesus cries, 
 * ' If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink — 
 This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom 
 he hath sent — Condemned because he hath not believed 
 in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Oh, take 
 care lest Satan, still persuading thee to prefer thine own 
 
INCREDULITY REBUKED. 29 
 
 fears and fancies beforo Christ's words, dasli tlico tlius 
 against tlio rock of a wild and reckless despair. 
 
 Or, another man deems it all but vain and hopeless to 
 go down to some poor, neglected district of a great city, 
 or to arise to new efforts for the evangelizing of India, 
 China, Africa— as if ho should say, ** By this time it 
 stinketh," — the case is desperate and gone. Still the 
 words of Christ are lost sight of, and exchanged for 
 vain fancies and opinions: "All power is given unto 
 me in heaven and in earth — Who art thou, great 
 mountain ? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain 
 — Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world — I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in 
 the midst of the valleys : and I will plant in the wilderness 
 the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil 
 tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and 
 the box tree together ; that they may see, and know, and 
 consider, and understand together, that the hand of the 
 Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath 
 created it." 
 
 Or — a more fearful case than either — a third man is busy 
 reasoning, conjecturing, and finally dogmatically deter- 
 mining, what the truths of this blessed volume should le, 
 in place of finding, in the plain words of Christ, what they 
 are. A rapidly downward career this, if unchecked ! 
 Christ has said, "I and my Father are one." Christ 
 has said, **My blood shed for remission of the sins of 
 many." He has said, " This is the Father's will, which 
 hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should 
 lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." 
 But there are difficulties about the purposes of God ; 
 difficulties about the atonement; difficulties about the 
 Deity of Christ ! Behold the man fast loosening from all 
 the moorings of a settled faith, and about to drift away, 
 if grace prevent not, into a universal doubt and scepticism ! 
 Said I not unto tliee'^ 
 
so ITTCREDIILITY EEBUKED. 
 
 (2.) But if we liave the evil there, we have, in the same 
 short word, the remedy also, *' Said I not unto thee ? " 
 What is it but to come back again to the simple words 
 of the Lord, and, in place of leaving him to address us, 
 Said I not unto thee ? rather to address him, Lord, 
 Saidst thou not unto me ? — as Moses, for example, when 
 he prayed, '* See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this 
 people : and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt 
 send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, 
 and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now there- 
 fore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew 
 me now thy way." Or, as Jacob, when he said, " God 
 of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the 
 Lord which saidst unto me, Eeturn unto thy country, and 
 to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee : I am not 
 worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, 
 which thou hast shewed unto thy servant. . . Deliver me, 
 I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand 
 of Esau : for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, and 
 the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will 
 surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the 
 sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." Or, as 
 David, when he said, "Eemember the word unto thy 
 servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope " — 
 ''God hath spoken in his holiness, I will rejoice." Or, 
 as the persecuted disciples at Jerusalem, when they 
 lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, 
 "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and 
 earth, and the sea, and all that in them is ; who by the 
 mouth of thy servant David hast said. Why did the heathen 
 rage, and the people imagine vain things. . . . And now, 
 Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy 
 servants," &c. yes, beloved brethren, let the word of 
 Chirst dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Blessed it is to 
 hear that voice, *' Said I not unto thee ?" It is our very 
 pole star, Said I not unto thee ? It is the highest reason to 
 
INCREDULITY REBUKED. 31 
 
 believe him who is the Truth itself. Breathe after that 
 spirit, ** Thy word have I hid in my heart tliat I might not 
 sin against thee — By the word of thy lips I have kept me 
 from the path of the destroyer — If ye abide in me, and my 
 words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall 
 be done unto you — Said I not unto thee, that, if thou 
 wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God ?" 
 
 II. But hitherto in the text I have looked simply at 
 the general principle of the expostulation, '* Said I not 
 unto thee?" without reference to the particular words to 
 Martha which the Lord recalls to her remembrance, '*//' 
 thou wouldest helieve^ tJiou slwuJdest see the glory of God^ Be 
 it now remarked, secondly, what prominence the Lord 
 gives in these words to the Divine glory, — how he declares 
 it in them to be the grand object He himself has in view, 
 and which is to be ever aimed at by us, in connection 
 alike with his words and with his works, that we may 
 discover and behold in them the glory of God. For, 
 observe carefully his manner of speaking. " Said I not 
 unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest 
 see" — what? not the resurrection of thy brother, — not 
 any mere work of stupendous but passing wonder, — but 
 " the glorj^ of God." Of course, it is the resurrection of 
 Lazarus to which he points ; but he prefers saying, " the 
 glory of God," which, in fact, was everything in the Gje of 
 our blessed Lord. Oh ! as to the resurrection of Lazarus, 
 Christ could look with but little complacency on the mere 
 bringing of the good man back for a few j'ears to a 
 world of so much unbelief, and suffering, and sin. And, 
 as for passing wonders, Jesus had never made much of 
 them — " Master, see what manner of stones and what 
 buildings are these !" ''Verily I say unto 3'ou, there sliall 
 not be left one stone upon another, tliat shall not be 
 thrown down." But here was a wonder destined to last to 
 all eternity — "The glory of the Lord shall endure for 
 ever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works." The glory of 
 
32 INCiiEDULITY REBUKED. 
 
 God 171 the resurrection of Lazarus — tliis was that on 
 which Christ would fix Martha's mind and ours. Here 
 was an object for which it was worthy of the only begotten 
 of the Father to have come from heaven into our world 
 — **Ihave glorified thee on the earth," he said, telling 
 the errand on which he came, "I have finished the work 
 which thou gavest me to do." Here was the object and 
 end of all Christ's miracles together. For, " this begin- 
 ning of miracles," it is written, " did Jesus in Cana of 
 Galilee, and manifested forth his glory :" and, " this 
 sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that 
 the Son of God might be glorified thereby." This was 
 that object in the view of which our blessed Lord could 
 break forth in a kind of rapture when Judas went out at 
 midnight to betray him, " Now," said he, '' is the Son of 
 man glorified, and God is glorified in him." This was 
 that object which Jesus could set over against all his 
 deepest agonies and sorrows — " Now is my soul troubled," 
 he said, ' ' and what shall I say ? Father, save me from 
 this hour: but for this cause came I into this hour. 
 Father, glorify thy name." And oh! if this was the 
 grand object which Christ had in his eye, so is it to be the 
 grand object also in ours — Martha, said I not unto thee, 
 that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory 
 of God — not see the resurrection of thy beloved brother so 
 much (that will soon be at an end, considered simply 
 in itself), but see that which has all good and desirable 
 things together wrapt up and enfolded in it, the glory of 
 God? Be assured, brethren, that what was God's chief 
 and highest end in all his works and ways, is that with 
 which our blessedness also must be inseparably bound 
 up. And I will venture to affirm this, that if only the 
 manifestation of the Divine glory stood out more promi- 
 nently in our eye, we should rise superior to many a 
 difficulty that now perplexes and stumbles us; and we 
 should find far less difficulty than we do in believing, with 
 
rN-CKEDULITY REBUKED. 33 
 
 reference to ourselves, to our beloved children, to tlie world 
 around us, that an Almighty God, for his own glory ^ Loth 
 could and would " quicken the dead, and call the things 
 which be not as though they were." Take Martha again 
 for an instant. IIow would a glimpse of this object, 
 the glory of God, have solved all the mysteries of her 
 brother's case ! It would have explained his sickness ; 
 explained the repeated delays ; explained his death ; and 
 carried his resurrection too in its large and ample embrace. 
 Oh that those desponding ones of Avhom I spoke a little 
 ago did but realize this, the glory of God, as His highest 
 end in saving the chief of sinners How should they 
 come to understand the meaning of pleadings like these, 
 "For thy name's sake, Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for 
 it is great." "Help us, God of our salvation, for the 
 glory of thy name ; and deliver us, and purge away our 
 sins, for thy name's sake." *'Not unto us, Lord, not 
 unto us, but to thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for 
 thy truth's sake ! " And how should we take courage in 
 reference to the most arduous duties and enterprises to 
 wliich the Lord in his providence might call us, learning 
 to plead with him, ''Father, glorify thy name — Thine 
 is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." 
 Saidst thou not unto us, that, if we would believe, we 
 should see the glory of God ? 
 
 III. But this brings me to notice yet another leading 
 particular in these words of Jesus. He intimates in them, 
 thirdly, how vitally important a place faith occupies in 
 connection with this end and object of beholding the 
 glory of God. " Said I not unto thee, that, if thou tvoiddest 
 believe, thou shouldost sea the glory of God." If thou 
 wouldest helieve. Observe a moment there what the faith is 
 of which Christ speaks. Not so much, I think, a crediting 
 of the mere fact that Lazarus should be raised, as a holy 
 reliance on the power and grace and faithfulness of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, — a faith just the reverse of the whole 
 
 c 
 
34 rN-CREDULITY REBUKED. 
 
 spirit of Martha's incredulous despondency, — a faith, 
 answering to those previous glorious words of Jesus, "I 
 am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live," — a faith such as 
 Martha herself, strange to say, had but a little before ex- 
 pressed, ** Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of God, which should come into the world," — a faith 
 in character like Abraham's, though, of course, the measure 
 and degree of it may vary exceedingly, *' He staggered 
 not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong 
 in faith, giving glory to God ; and being fully persuaded 
 that what he had promised, he was able also to perform." 
 Then, as to the vital connection between this faith and 
 the beholding of the divine glory — "If thou wouldest 
 believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God" — observe that 
 unbelief, on the one hand, hinders the beholding of that 
 glory in two different ways. For, first, it intercepts, to a 
 fearful extent, those divine works in which it might be 
 seen, — intercepts and cuts off the communications of the 
 divine grace and j)Ower — as you remember it is written, 
 *' He did not many mighty works there, because of their 
 unbelief;" and again, "He could there do no mighty 
 work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, 
 and healed them. And he marvelled because of their 
 unbelief." And second, even when such divine works 
 are performed, unbelief closes the eye against the glory of 
 God visible in them. Unbelief can see the miracles, but 
 cannot see the glory of God even in the highest miracles. 
 The Jews beheld all the mighty works of Christ, and did 
 but murmur and cavil, " Is not this the carpenter's son ? 
 Whence hath this man these mighty works ? And they 
 were offended at him." Even this stupendous work of 
 the resurrection of Lazarus they saw, and we find with 
 what effect at the forty-sixth verse of this chapter, "But 
 some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told 
 them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the 
 
INCREDULITY REBUKED. 35 
 
 cliief priests and Pliariseos a council, and said, What do 
 ■we ? for this man doofli many miracles. If wo let him 
 thus alone, all men will believe on him." But faith, on 
 the other hand, in place of intercepting, takes hold on 
 the divine strength, — in place of cutting off, welcomes and 
 brings down communications of divine power and grace. 
 And, faith has an eye for the glory of God — or rather, is 
 itself the very eye wherewith the believer ''with open 
 face beholds, as in a glass, the glory of God " — as it is 
 written of the first discijiles, " 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." Mere miracles, without this, avail nothing — 
 " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
 they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." 
 And without miracles this is enough — ^^ If thou wouldest 
 believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God." It is to my 
 mind very clear that these words to Martha are not the 
 gathering up only of Christ's previous words to her, but the 
 gathering up of a large part of all his teaching together, — 
 of all such words as these, ** According to your faith be it 
 unto you — Believe ye that I am able to do this? — If 
 thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that 
 believeth." ''If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see 
 the glory of God." Christ intimates there, in effect, that 
 faith is the door of entrance, as it were, into the whole 
 grace and glory of the divine promises, which God to a 
 large extent throws out blant, to be filled up by faith. 
 Thus, " A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit 
 wiU I put within you ; and I will take away the stony 
 heart out of your flesh, and I will give j^ou a heart of 
 flesh." No name there but sinner. Faith fills the name 
 up. Faith enters into the promises. Faith "obtains the 
 promises." Faith beholds the divine glory in the promises 
 — "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, 
 thou shouldest see the glory of God ?" 
 
36 rN-CREDTHLITY REBUKED. 
 
 ly. But now finally, look at these words as the lan- 
 guage of rebuke ; as the language of encouragement ; 
 and as the language of direction. 
 
 (1.) As the language of rebuke. ''Said I not unto 
 thee ? " Ah, Martha, hast thou so soon forgotten my words 
 —forgotten thine own, '' Yea, Lord: I believe that thou 
 art the Christ, the Son of God, that should come into the 
 world"? And, is this thy kindness to thy brother, "By 
 this time he stinketh"? Oh what cause has the Lord 
 thus also to rebuke us! How soon and miserably do 
 we forget his words ! And when he bids us remove " the 
 stone," as it were, from our brother's grave, — take mea- 
 sures towards the conversion of the dead in trespasses and 
 sins, is not this too much our spirit — It is of no use, 
 — it is a hopeless task ? Have we not been almost at that 
 question of the first murderer, "Am I my brother's 
 keeper?" "Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith 
 unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath 
 been in the grave four days." 
 
 (2.) But this is the language also of encouragement — 
 if of rebuke, yet assuredly of very gracious rebuke, and 
 encouragement. See how lovingly the Lord brings back 
 his words to Martha's remembrance, "Said I not unto 
 thee ?" And see how he so puts them — the glory of God 
 — as to assist the weakness of her faith; for " the glory of 
 God," as we saw, explained all the difficulties together — 
 the sickness, the delays, the death, the resurrection — all. 
 And even so does the Lord encourage us also, with refer- 
 ence to our own souls, and our children's, and the world 
 around us — encourage us to plead with him, Lord, 
 what wilt thou not do unto thy great name ? Not unto 
 us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for 
 thy truth's sake ! Saidst thou not unto us that, if we 
 would believe, we should see the glory of God ? 
 
 (3.) But further still, this is the language, as of rebuke, 
 and of encouragement, so also of manifold precious 
 
INCREDULITY REBUKED. 37 
 
 direction. Direction, for example, first, to treasure up in 
 our memories and hearts tliG words of Clirist — "Said 1 
 not unto thee?" — words like these, "Come unto me, all 
 ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest;" or these, "Suffer the little children to come unto 
 me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven;" or these, "Go yo into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel unto every creature;" or these, "I 
 am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in me shall never die" — Said I not 
 unto thee ? And, secondly, direction to look more to the 
 manifestation of the divine glory than to this or that 
 particular issue or benefit, as the object of supreme desire. 
 "If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of 
 GodP And, thirdly, direction to use all divinely appointed 
 means, "Jesus said. Take ye away the stone." Ah! we 
 cannot give life to the dead, but we can remove the stone. 
 "We cannot give life to the dead— that is the prerogative 
 of Him who is "the resurrection and the life" — but we can 
 bring this precious gospel and all the means of grace 
 within reach of the dead in trespasses and sins : " Son of 
 man prophecy upon these bones, and say unto them, Oye 
 dry bones, hear the word of the Lord " — " Go, and speak 
 in the temple to the people all the words of this life." 
 But, fourthly, direction to use the means in faith, — faith of 
 Christ's life-giving power and grace ; for he does not say, 
 If thou wouldst remove the stone simply, but if thou 
 wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God. And 
 finally, direction — remembering how Chi'ist is the author 
 and finisher, as well as object of faith — to cry, Lord 
 increase our faith — I believe. Lord, help thou mine 
 unbelief. Jesus saitti unto her. Said I not unto thee, 
 
 THAT, IF TIIOU WOULDEST BELIEVE, TIIOU SHOULDEST SEE 
 THE GLORY OF GoD ? 
 
JEHOVAH-JIREH. 
 
 And Abraham called the name of that place 
 Jehovah'jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount 
 of the Lord it shall be seen.^' — Gen. xxii. 14. 
 
 It will be necessary to our getting at tlie meaning, and 
 into tlie spirit, of these words, that we glance at one or two 
 particulars in the previous touching narrative to which 
 they belong. "Take now thy son," God said to Abraham, 
 "thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee 
 into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a 
 burnt- offering upon one of the mountains which I will 
 tell thee of." It was a great deal more this than a trial 
 to nature, — to all the deepest and strongest feelings of 
 nature. We must be ready to part with these for the 
 sake of Christ. But it seemed as if Abraham were bidden 
 part in this instance with Christ himself. For you will 
 recollect that, long before this time, God had expressly 
 limited the promise of Messiah to the line of Isaac — take 
 him now, and offer him for a burnt- offering. Not to speak 
 of the strange aspect of a human sacrifice — I had almost 
 said the heathenish aspect of a human burnt-offering 
 (for it belonged to the burnt-offering, that the victim, 
 besides being slain, should be cut in j)ieces, and reduced 
 to ashes in the fire) — God had expressly bound up the 
 salvation of the world with the life and with the line of 
 Isaac. And thus, I repeat, it seemed as if Abraham were 
 called to part with salvation, — witli Christ himself. And 
 
jEiiOYAn-JiREir. 39 
 
 yet one can see how some rays of light might break forth to 
 the eye of faith out of the very darkness of the command. 
 Thus, the expressness of the limitation to Isaac, — the 
 closing thereby of every other door of hope, — when taken 
 along with the equal expressness of the command to sacrifice 
 him, might well suggest to faith that surely the Almighty 
 God must have some way, best known to himself, of 
 bringing the promise and the command into harmony 
 with each other. And as to the human sacrifice, let it 
 be remembered that all the sacrifices from the begin- 
 ning had borne reference to that word, The Seed of the 
 icoman shall bruise the head of the serpent. Is it improbable 
 that Abraham, in the very darkness of the command to 
 take Isaac, and ofi'er him for a burnt- offering, might get 
 some glimpse of a sacrifice yet to come, more illustrious 
 far than that of any animal victim — even the Son of a far 
 other Father ? 
 
 At all events, we find him proceeding onwards in the 
 solemn silent acquiescence of faith, till the trying ques- 
 tion was put to him by Isaac, *' Behold the fire and the 
 wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" 
 Then Abraham, in his reply, does not so much evade the 
 question, as meet it by falling back on the great, immutable 
 principles of faith, " And Abraham said. My son, God will 
 provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering" — as if he 
 had said. My son Isaac (at this time perhaps about 
 twenty years of age), God, whose own institution the 
 sacrifice of burnt-offering is, will not fail to find materials, 
 somewhere, for the observance of it at his own command. 
 And then, when his heart was like to burst at the thoujrht 
 of that somewhere, this further idea rises in the words — 
 and least of all, my son, will he miss the grand final 
 scope and end of all sacrifices, which it hath pleased 
 him to associate with ihce, saying, " In Isaac shall thy 
 seed be called" — "my covenant will I establish with 
 Isaac." Let us go forward : fear not; God will provide 
 
40 JEHOVAH-JIREII. 
 
 himself a lamb for a burnt-ofiFering. " So they went both 
 of them together," the narrative continues; "and tliey 
 came to the place which God had told him of." No 
 relief of any kind yet appeared. ''And Abraham built 
 an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound 
 Isaac his son" — doubtless with his own full, awful, 
 consent— ''and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 
 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the 
 knife" — still striving to hope against hope, accounting 
 that God was able to raise him uj), if necessary, even 
 from the ashes — from whence also he did receive him in 
 a figure, — a kind of similitude of a resurrection, " And 
 the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and 
 said, Abraham, Abraham : and he said, Here am I. 
 And he said. Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do 
 thou any thing unto him ; for now I know that thou 
 fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine 
 only son from me." Then one can conceive — or rather 
 can scarce conceive — with what adoring gratitude, relief, 
 holy wonder, Abraham, receiving back his son from the 
 dead, would behold the ram of which we next read, caught 
 in a thicket by his horns, and would immediately proceed 
 to "offer him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his 
 son." But now I pray you to observe the words of the 
 text, *'And Abraham called the name of that place 
 Jehovah-jireh," that is to say. The Lord will provide. 
 In the margin it is, "will see, or provide." The word 
 signifies to see ; then, to see to, or provide. Undoubtedly 
 the latter is the meaning here, for the expression is tlie 
 very same which Abraham had used in addressing Isaac, 
 "God will provide a lamb " — "Abraham called the name 
 of that place. The Lord will provide." We might have 
 thought it would have been, hath provided. But no ; for 
 aU Abraham's hopes were bound up — very dear as Isaac 
 was to him — with an event yet wrapt up in the distant 
 future. It is still a word of anticipation, The Lord 
 
TEIIOVAn-JIKElT. 41 
 
 will provide. Ho just reiterates what he had said to 
 Isaac, God will provide himself a lamb. True, he has 
 got the ram. Still better, he has got back his son. But 
 however thankful for both, chiefly he regards both as but 
 blessed pledges, infallible securities and earnests, of 
 better things yet to come. Nor have I any doubt that of 
 all the occasions in Abraham's life, this hour was the one 
 ^o which the words of our Lord Jesus had principal 
 reference, ** Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my da}^; 
 and he saw it, and was glad" — "Abraham called the name 
 of that i:)lace, Jehovah will provide ; as it is said to this 
 day," adds Moses, '* In the mount of the Lord it shall be 
 seen," or provided. 
 
 What I further purpose is to look at the words with jou 
 for a little, first, in their bearing on that grand central 
 event in the world's history to which they had a prospec- 
 tive reference, and in which they were destined to find 
 their full accomplishment; and then in their bearing 
 on a great general principle of faith contained in them, 
 intimately and inseparably connected with that event. 
 
 I. And first, we look at the words as they bear on 
 that grand central event in the world's history to which 
 they had a prospective reference, and in which they 
 wei-e destined to find their full accomplishment. For, 
 in this same place, nearly two thousand years after, — on, 
 or near, the spot to which Abraham gave the name of 
 '* Jehovah will provide" — Jehovah did jjrovide a Lamb for 
 a b unit-offer in (/y whose death wiU be the theme of all 
 heaven throughout eternity ! But we must look at this a 
 little more particularly. 
 
 You have noticed the words, *' Get thee into tlie land of 
 3foriah; and ofier him theie for a burnt-ofibring upon 
 one of the mountains which I wiU tell thee of." Now 
 let us turn for a moment to second Chronicles, third 
 chapter, at the beginning. *' Then Solomon began to 
 build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in nionnt Jloriali, 
 
42 JEHOVAH- JIREH. 
 
 where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the 
 place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor 
 of Oman the Jebusite." Two things are mentioned here 
 respecting Moriah, the place where Abraham oflered, 
 and to which he gave the name, Jehovah will provide. 
 First, that it was the place where the Lord appeared 
 to David in the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, 
 and where David prepared for the after rearing of the 
 temple ; and second, that it was the place where the temple 
 was accordingly built by Solomon. It was the place 
 where the Lord appeared to David in the threshing- 
 floor of Oman the Jebusite. Going back to first Chronicles, 
 twenty-first chapter, we have the account there of David's 
 sin — it was Israel's sin also in efi'ect — in numbering the 
 people, and of the Lord's ofi'ering to him the terrible 
 choice of three years' famine, or three months before the 
 sword of the enemy, or three days' pestilence, — the sword 
 of the Lord. " And David said unto Gad, I am in a 
 great strait : let me fall now into the hand of the Lord ; 
 for very great are his mercies : but let me not fall into 
 the hand of man. So the Lord sent pestilence upon 
 Israel : and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 
 .... And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing- 
 floor of Oman the Jebusite. And David lifted up his 
 eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the 
 earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand 
 stretched out over Jerusalem : and David and the elders 
 of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their 
 faces. . . . Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad 
 to say to David, that David should go up and set up 
 an altar unto the Lord in the threshing-floor of Oman 
 the Jebusite. And David went up at the saying of Gad, 
 which he spake in the name of the Lord." Then follows 
 the transaction of the solemn purchase of the ground. 
 "And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and 
 ofi'ered burnt-offerings and peace-ofi'erings, and called 
 
jEnovAn-JiREn. 43 
 
 upon the Lord; and he answered him from heaven by 
 lire upon the altar of burnt-offering. And the Lord 
 commanded the angel, and he put up his sword again 
 into the sheath thereof. At that time, when David saw 
 that the Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor of 
 Oman the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. . . . Then 
 David said" — beyond all doubt by Divine inspiration — 
 " This is the house of the Lord God'^ — the site of the after 
 temple — " and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for 
 Israel." Accordingly, there follow David's large prepara- 
 tions for the after rearing of the temple. 
 
 And now return we for an instant to the passage in 
 second Chronicles, *' Then Solomon began to build the 
 house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where 
 the Lord appeared unto David." On Jloriah — in the place 
 where Abraham offered, and to which he gave the name, 
 Jehovah will provide — did Solomon build that temple which 
 was so eminent a type of Messiah. There, during the 
 ten hundred years that followed, were offered all those 
 unnumbered sacrifices of which the temple with its altars 
 was the scene. And at length, at the end of those years, 
 — still in the same place — on one of the hills at least of 
 the same range of Moriah (for this sacrifice behoved to be 
 without the city as an accursed thing), there was bound to 
 the altar a Lamb — but how shall I speak of this Lamb ? 
 
 God never knew another from the beginning. I doubt 
 not that Isaac was a divinely ordained type of Him. 
 Was Isaac the child of the promise ? The true child of 
 the promise was Christ. Was Isaac long promised, and 
 long waited for, before his birth ? Four thousand years 
 elapsed, of promise and longing expectation, ere Simeon 
 took up the child Jesus in his arms, saying, " Mine eyes 
 have seen thy salvation." Was Isaac's birth supernatural? 
 "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of 
 the Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore also that 
 holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
 
44 JEHOVAH-JIREH. 
 
 Son of God." Did Isaac meekly snbmit to be bound to 
 the altar on the wood? "He is led as a lamb to the 
 slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so 
 he openeth not his mouth." But here the resemblances 
 seem to stop. Or, if there be anything, as I doubt not 
 there is much, in the semblance of Isaac's death and 
 resurrection, yet assuredly it is here hut a shadow. For 
 no sinner might ever die to expiate sin ; and our God 
 never would have a human sacrifice even to prefigure the 
 true. But now behold, at last, " the Man that is God's 
 fellow !" Behold Him, laid on the altar upon the wood, 
 who, when they said to him, " Thou art not yet fifty years 
 old, and hast thou seen Abraham ? " answered, *' Before 
 Abraham was, I am!" Behold the Lamb for a hurnt- 
 cffering — yes, consumed by the fire of that Divine 
 holiness and justice of which the fire of all the burnt-ofier- 
 ings was but the shadow, — " My heart," said he, "is like 
 wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels — My soul is 
 exceeding sorrowful, even unto death — My God, my God, 
 why hast thou forsaken me ? " Behold the Lamb of God, 
 — the fulfilment at length of Abraham's word, Jehovah 
 will pro vide — provided of God, approved, accepted of God! 
 Ah, when I find myself standing arraigned and trembling 
 at the bar of the Divine justice, how sweet to hear that voice, 
 Godi's Lamb, — fore-ordained by Him before the founda- 
 tion of the world, — presented by Him at the altar, — of 
 whom He said, "Awake, sword, against my shepherd, 
 and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord 
 of hosts : smite the shepherd ! " llie Lamb. God never 
 knew another. This was Abel's lamb of the firstlings of 
 the flock. This was Abraham's ram. This was the 
 substance of all the numberless victims of the ancient 
 economy. Why were there so many then ? Because they 
 were but shadows, "In those sacrifices there was a remem- 
 brance again made of sins every year ; for it was not 
 possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take 
 
jEiiOYAn-JinEn. 45 
 
 away sins." Why is there but one now ? Because it is 
 encnij^-h, — "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin 
 of the world": — 
 
 Kot all the blood of beasts, 
 
 On Jewish altars slain, 
 Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
 
 Or wash away the stain. 
 
 But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, 
 
 Takes all our guilt away ; 
 A sacrifice of nobler name, 
 
 And richer blood than they. 
 
 ** By one offering he hath, perfected for ever them that 
 are sanctified" — " Now once in the end of the world hath 
 he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
 
 II. '' Hath appeared." Abraham used the future tense, 
 will provide. We are privileged to use the past, "hath, 
 appeared." And yet there is ample room, in another 
 aspect of the matter, for the future tense with us also — 
 which leads into our second head, namely, the bearing of 
 the text on a great general principle of faith contained in 
 it, intimately and inseparably connected with the sacrifice 
 of Christ — "Abraham called the name of that place 
 Jehovah -jireh. The Lord will provide." 
 
 Here let one or two things be rapidly observed as to 
 Abraham. He knew, by express divine communications 
 made to him, that he must die long before the appear- 
 ing of the promised Seed. He also knew, by experi- 
 ence of the past, that there awaited him manifold trials 
 and conflicts in the remainder of his pilgrimage. AVell ; 
 if, looking through the vista of ages, he could write 
 Jehovah-jireh in reference to the after appearing of Mes- 
 siah, much more, I suppose, would he be able, in con- 
 nection with it, to write the same word in reference to 
 whatsoever perplexities, cares, conflicts, might be yet in 
 store for him. Nor will you fail to notice that, as he 
 had suffered manifold trials before this time, and been 
 
46 JEHOYAH-JIREH. 
 
 brouglit out of them all, and now had been exposed to a 
 more terrible one than all the rest, and been brought 
 through it also, his faith and allegiance sustained in it 
 throughout, so it is easy to see how his faith, now taking 
 a kind of joyful bound, would write Jehovah-jireh, as if he 
 should say, ** Thou, Lord, who hast shewn me great and 
 sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and bring me up 
 again from the depths of the earth — Thou shalt guide me 
 with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory — The 
 Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want " — Jehovah-jireh. 
 
 And this, accordingly, is the principle — even God's 
 faithful, all-providing mercy, grace, on the one hand, — 
 and faith's counterpart confidence, unreserved and unsus- 
 pecting reliance on that grace, upon the other. How 
 inseparably connected this principle is with the sacrifice of 
 Christ, need I say? For that sacrifice is the sole foun- 
 dation of it. Take Christ's sacrifice away, and you cut 
 down the whole ladder of communication between heaven 
 and earth, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no 
 man cometh unto the Father " — neither cometh the Father 
 unto any man — "but by me." And the indispensable 
 foundation becomes also, in its turn, the infallible pledge 
 and security. For, *' He that spared not his own Son, 
 how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?" 
 Here may we apply the words of the Lord to Abraham, 
 *'Now I know that thou fearest God," — that thou wilt 
 not withhold anything I require of thee — "seeing thou 
 hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." 
 Even so may the believer say. Now, Lord, I know 
 that thou wilt not withhold from me anything that is 
 truly good, seeing thou hast not withheld from me thy 
 Son, thine only Son. Only, I pray you to see how all 
 turns thus on your having Christ. Eun not away with 
 mere groundless fancies of grace. If you want Christ, you 
 want the foundation of all, and the pledge of all. Buf if 
 you have Christ, then write, when and where you will, 
 
JEnovAii-JiiiEii. 47 
 
 Jehovah -jireli. No longer it is mount Moriah. Every- 
 where, — in the house and by the way, — at homo, abroad, 
 — in Britain, China, India, — in health, in sickness, — 
 living, dying, — write this ^vord. 
 
 Are you in deep perplexity as to your path, and fearful 
 of taking a false step ? AVrite Jehovah-jireh, the Lord 
 will provide counsel. The name of this Lamb is Won- 
 derful, Counsellor — '*I will instruct thee, and teach thee 
 in the way in which thou shalt go ; I will guide thee with 
 mine eye." Are you called to some arduous duty? Write 
 Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide strength — *' My 
 strength is made perfect in weakness." Are you straitened 
 as to temporal provision ? Write still this word, Jehovali- 
 jireh, for ''your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
 need of these things." Do you anticipate painfully the 
 conflict with the last enemy ? Write Jehovah-jireh — *' 
 death, I will be thy plagues ; grave, I will be thy destruc- 
 tion." And as for the eternity beyond, still write Jehovah- 
 jireh, for "the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, 
 shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of 
 waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
 
 Beloved hearers, are you Christ's? Have you beheld 
 this Lamb ? Is His blood upon you ? Have you ever, in 
 the concern of an awakened soul, exclaimed, as it were, 
 ** Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb 
 for a burnt-offering?" Have you been convinced that 
 you verily deserve to be consumed by the fire of the 
 Divine justice for ever? Have you heard with wonder 
 that God will accept a substitute-Lamb, and hath himself 
 provided Him? Have you laid your hand on the head of 
 that Lamb, and, confessing your sin over Him, cried, God 
 be merciful to me a sinner— 
 
 My faith would lay her hand 
 
 On that clear head of thine, 
 While as a penitent I stand, 
 
 And there confess my sin ? 
 
48 JEHOVAH-JIREH. 
 
 If not, at least remember that all expiation for sin centres 
 in this Lamb. God never knew, and never will know, any 
 other. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. How 
 cmi you escape, if you neglect so great salvation ? 
 
 But, on the other hand, are you Christ's ? Then " you 
 are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." 
 You are Abraham's seed, and so may look for trials, — else 
 you shall be very unlike Abraham. And, as those trials 
 are among the heaviest of all which seem to cast a shade 
 over the Divine faithfulness, so it is a mighty thing to 
 fall back in the midst of them on great and immutable 
 principles, as did Abraham in his reply, *'My son, God 
 will provide himself a lamb for a burnt- offering," or as 
 Peter, in that reply of his, " Lord, to whom shall we go? 
 thou hast the words of eternal life ; and we believe and are 
 sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." 
 But you are heirs also according to the promise, — heirs of 
 Abraham's God, whose name is Jehovah-jireh, and of 
 whom his people have so often found that their extremity 
 is his chosen opportunity. Abraham had stretched forth 
 his hand, and taken the knife, when the angel of the Lord 
 called unto him out of heaven. Lay not thine hand upon the 
 lad ! It was in the fourth watch of the night that Jesus 
 went unto the disciples walking on the sea. "It is not 
 meet," said Jesus to the woman of Canaan, '* to take the 
 children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, 
 Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall 
 from their master's table. Jesus saith unto her, woman, 
 great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." 
 Abraham called the name of that place — the place where 
 he had to bind Isaac, and lay him on the altar upon the 
 wood — Jeho vah-j ireli. 
 
 But yet again, and in a closing sentence, one might see 
 here the reciprocal and inseparable connection there is 
 between /a/^A and oledicnce. Abraham's obedience sprung, 
 in the first instance, out of his faith, as Paul writes, "By 
 
jEnoTAn-JiREn. 49 
 
 faltli Abraliam, wlicn he was tried, offered up Isaac." But 
 now tlio faith, in" its turn, receives a mighty impulse from 
 the obedience — Abraham called the name of that place 
 Jeliovah-jireh, The Lord will provide. Very remarkable 
 in this view are the words that follow the text, and with the 
 reading of which I conclude, *' And the angel of the Lord 
 called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and 
 said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord ; for because 
 thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, 
 thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in mul- 
 tiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven. 
 .... And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth 
 be blessed ; because thou hast obej^ed my voice." Abea- 
 
 nA3I CALLED THE XAME OF THAT PLACE JEnOVAn-JIREU, AS 
 IT IS SAID TO THIS DAY, In THE MOTJXT OF THE LoED IT 
 SHALL BE SEEN. 
 
THE HEART OF JESUS-HIS AFFECTION FOR THE 
 LITTLE ONES. 
 
 *' And they brought young children to him, that he 
 should touch them;* and his disciples rebuhed those that 
 brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much dis- 
 pleased, and said unto them. Suffer the little children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not : for of such is the 
 kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you. Whosoever 
 shall not receive the "kingdom of God as a little child, he 
 shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his 
 arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.'^ — 
 Mark x. 13-16. 
 
 I HAVE not read these very precious verses for the 
 purpose of exposition, but that I may invite your thoughts 
 for a little to two distinct bearings of them — first, their 
 bearing on the character of Jesus, — his mind and heart, 
 — his ineffable tenderness, grace, love, considered more 
 in general ; and second, and more specifically, the bearing 
 of them on his affection for the little ones, with the sources 
 and springs of it. Oh for His own blessed presence with 
 us while we meditate together on these things ! 
 
 I. And first, the verses vitally bear on the character 
 
 * Luke has it infants, using a word whicli always means a babe, 
 — an infant. Mark's word here, and which Matthew also employs, 
 points to children very young, indeed, but rather further advanced 
 than infancy. I think the inference is, that the children brought 
 to Jesus were of both periods — partly infants at the breast, and 
 partly little children able to walk, — of perhaps two or three years. 
 
THE HEART OF JESUS. 51 
 
 of Jesus, — on his mind and heart, — his unspeakable ten- 
 derness, grace, love, considered more in general. For, 
 have you not noticed how harsh and unkind natures never 
 draw to little children, — how sehisli, proud, austere, un- 
 loving souls have no sj^mpathy with little children, and 
 seem incapable of feeling interest in them. Of course I 
 do not mean to say that even a selfish and proud man 
 may not feel interested in his own children. But little 
 children in general he cares not for. They are beyond 
 the range of any sympathies of his. His thoughts are too 
 much centred in himself to go out to them. They can do 
 nothing for Am, and he cannot be troubled with them,— 
 takes no interest in them. True, he was a child once 
 himself ; but he cares not to think of that. 
 
 And, in truth, the repulsion is thoroughly mutual. 
 Little children somehow shrink as by an instinct from 
 selfish, high-minded men. I believe, brethren, that even 
 regenerated souls, which were specially characterized 
 by a j)roud selfishness before conversion, seldom come, 
 even after it, to feel quite at home with little children. 
 There is a certain strangeness and stiffness that may still 
 be observed in their intercourse with them. And even 
 their kindnesses to them are rather duties they now will- 
 ingly discharge, than delights which they spontaneously 
 desire. But behold, I pray you, the heart of our Lord 
 Jesus, as it comes out here gloriously the reverse of all 
 that is harsh, selfish, proud, unloving. " He took up the 
 little children in his arms " — ah, no austerity in that heart 
 — *'he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon 
 them, and blessed them." Behold the Saviour's bowels of 
 mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, gentle- 
 ness, love. Metliinks I can trust my soul, even in hours 
 of deepest darkness and despondency, in the hands of 
 Him who bade the little children welcome when the dis- 
 ciples would have put them away, — took them up in his 
 arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. 
 
52 THE HEART OF JESUS — 
 
 But this feature in the character of Jesus is not to be 
 seen in anything like the full excellency of it without 
 connecting it with another, very unlike it, and which at 
 first might even seem scarcely compatible with it — I mean 
 the majesty, glory, greatness, of his character. Now I do 
 not require, for illustration here, to go further back than 
 the immediately previous verses. There we find our Lord 
 giving forth laws respecting the marriage relation, which 
 were destined soon to alter the face of the nations, — which 
 in fact are moulding, stamping their character on, the whole 
 civilised world at this hour. ' ' The Pharisees came to him, ' ' 
 we read at the second verse, "and asked him. Is it lawful 
 for a man to put away his wife ? tempting him. And he 
 answered and said unto them, What did Moses command 
 you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of 
 divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered 
 and said unto them, Eor the hardness of your heart he 
 wrote you this precept : but from the beginning of the 
 creation God made them male and female. For this cause 
 shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his 
 wife ; and they twain shall be one flesh : so then they are 
 no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath 
 joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the 
 house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. 
 And he saith imto them, Whosoever shall put away his 
 wife, and marry another, commiteth adultery against her. 
 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be 
 married to another, she committeth adultery. And they 
 brought young childre7i to him^ that he should touch them ; 
 and his disciples rehuhed those that hroxight them.^"* It 
 seems to me that the disciples awed, overawed, by the 
 glory of their Master, and incapable for the time of 
 realizing in union with it a tenderness and gentleness 
 quite as great, ventured to thinhfor him, that it was enough 
 he should have given laws for all families and parents, 
 without being asked to concern himself with the little 
 
HIS AFFECTION FOR THE LITTLE ONES. 53 
 
 cliildren, incapable of profiting: ^7 liis instructions. But 
 see liow the Master passes without an effort from the 
 majesty of the lawgiver to the tenderness of a very 
 nursing mother, ** Suffer the little children to come 
 imto md, and forbid them not — He took them up in 
 his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." 
 Oh, this is He who not long before had arisen in that 
 vessel, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea. Peace, 
 be still, and the wind ceased, and there was a great 
 calm — He took up the little cliildren in his arms, put 
 his hands upon them, and blessed them! This is He 
 who, on the mount, was transfigured before the three 
 disciples, and his face did shine as the sun, and his 
 raiment was white as the light; and there came a voice to him 
 from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom 
 I am well pleased. JVow he takes up little children in his 
 arms, puts his hands upon them, and blesses them ! This 
 is He who soon will bring Lazarus out of his very grave. 
 Yea, "the hour cometh," he said, *' in which all that are in 
 the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth " — He 
 took up the little children in his arms, put his hands upon 
 them, and blessed them ! I do not stay to remark — or 
 to do more, at least, than simply remark, without enlarge- 
 ment on it — that a character like this, uniting in it such 
 divine majesty with such unspeakable human sympathy 
 and tenderness, must be tnie, is self-demonstrative, — that 
 no impostor could possibly have lived it, or attempted to 
 live it, without discovering the artifice at every step, while 
 no false historian could have conceived it, to write, to fabri- 
 cate, it. But let me rather observe, that this evidently is 
 none other than He of whom it was written of old, " Say 
 unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God: He shall feed 
 his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with 
 his arm, and carry them in his bosom." He took up the 
 little children in his arms : He said to the sea. Peace, bo 
 still ! This is none other than He of whom we sang a little 
 
54 THE HEART OP JESUS — 
 
 ago, ** He telletL. the number of the stars, he calleth them 
 all by their names : He healeth the broken in heart, and 
 bindeth up their wounds." Lazarus, said he, come forth 
 — He took up the little children in his arms, put his hands 
 upon them, and blessed them ! yes, let my soul be in 
 the hands of this mighty and merciful, — glorious, gracious 
 One. Indeed, his tenderness alone, without his majesty, 
 could never meet the case of a soul lost as mine is. And 
 his majesty alone, without his tenderness, would soon have 
 given such a soul over to its deserved doom. But what a 
 Saviour, — what a Physician, Friend, is this, who cast out 
 the devils with a word ; who raised the dead ; who came 
 to the disciples in the fourth watch of the night walking 
 on the sea ; who took up the little children in his arms, put 
 his hands upon them, and blessed them ! He will not break 
 the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Heal me, 
 Lord, and I shall be healed ; save me, and I shall be 
 saved — Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me — 
 My Lord and my God I — So much, briefly, for the bearing 
 of these verses on the character of Jesus, — the light which 
 ihej cast on his mind and heart, — his unspeakable tender- 
 ness, grace, love, considered more in general. 
 
 II. Now I touch on the other and more specific bearing 
 of them, on his deep afi'ection for the little ones, with the 
 springs and sources of it. As to the fact of the deep afi'ec- 
 tion, I suppose I do not require to dwell much longer in 
 illustration of it. It shines on the face of this whole narra- 
 tive. Whatever may have been the precise motive of the 
 disciples in rebuking the parents who brought their chil- 
 dren to Jesus, it is out of the question to suppose that they 
 were characterized by any positive or peculiar indifi'erence 
 to the little children. No ; but Jesus was characterized by 
 a very peculiar, gloriously afi'ectionate, concern for them 
 and their welfare. You are to mark the deep contrast 
 here between the Master and even his truest disciples. 
 See his positive displeasure, pain of soul (the original 
 
niS AFFECTION FOR THE LITTLE ONES. 55 
 
 \rorcl is a very strong one), at their unkind rebuke. See 
 how he hastens to assure the parents that his followers 
 had miserably misread, misinterpreted, the mind of their 
 Master. See his emphatic and impassioned welcome to 
 the children in the injunction ho lays on tho disciples, 
 '' Suffer them to come unto me, and forbid them not." 
 See how he takes them up in his arms, frowns on the 
 disciples, smiles on the children, places his hands gently 
 and lovingly upon them, and blesses them. I will only 
 add as to the fact, that this is not the only place where 
 we find Jesus taking up little children in his arms. In the 
 previous chapter we read, '' He took a child and set him 
 in the midst of them ; and when he had taken him in his 
 arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of 
 such children in my name, receiveth me." Again and 
 again we find him speaking of the little ones — *' It is not 
 the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these 
 little ones should perish." And you may just recall to mind 
 the following words near the close of the gospel history, 
 "^\Tien the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful 
 things that he did, and the children crying in the temple 
 and saying, Hosannah to the son of David, they were sore 
 displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these 
 say ? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea, have ye never read ' ' 
 — behold how he welcomes the children's songs — *' Out of 
 the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected 
 praise." But what I chiefly wish here, assuming the fact 
 of the Saviour's tender affection for the little ones, is to 
 try and trace it up with you to its sources and springs. 
 
 1. And shall I not mention, first among them, his 
 eternal Divinity? Shall we not trace up Christ's deep 
 affection for the little ones, most radically and fundamen- 
 tally, to his eternal Godhead? You remember those 
 words of Jehovah to an impatient prophet of old, *' Should 
 not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more 
 than six score thousand persons that cannot discern be- 
 
56 THE HEART OF JESUS — 
 
 tween their right hand and their left hand?" Oh, this 
 is that God — He took up the little children in his arms* 
 put his hands upon them, and blessed them. It is the God 
 that created the little ones — shall He be indifferent to 
 them ? It is the God of whom it is -written in the book 
 of Job, "God is mighty, and despiseth not any," — de- 
 spiseth not any, just because he is so great above all. It 
 is the God who feeds the young ravens when they cry. 
 It is the God who clothes the lilies of the field with 
 their surpassing beauty, — who bestows as much care 
 on the tiniest blade or leaflet as on the planet that 
 rolls through space ; the God who declared his profound 
 interest in Nineveh's sixty thousand little ones that knew 
 not their right hand from their left. God is love— Jesus 
 is God — He took up the little children in his arms, put 
 his hands upon them, and blessed them. 
 
 2. But more immediately and specifically, Christ's ten- 
 der affection for the little ones is to be traced up to the 
 perfection of his Humanity, — has its spring and source, 
 secondly, in the stainless purity and perfection of the 
 human nature which, for our salvation, he took into 
 union with the Divine. I was speaking at the outset of 
 harshness, austerity, selfishness, pride, unlovingness. 
 Of course these all belong to our nature as it is fallen 
 and lost, and so could have no place in the heart of the 
 man Christ Jesus, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
 from sinners," — of whom the angel said to Mary, "The 
 Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
 Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy 
 thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
 Son of God." The selfish proud soul, I said, never 
 draws to little children. But for the same reason, con- 
 versely, Jesus, the meek, lowly, loving One, cannot but 
 draw to them. I reasoned before from the incident up 
 to the character. Now I reason down from the character 
 to the incident, — to explain the incident, — to give us the 
 
HIS AFFECnOX FOR THE LITTLE ONES. 57 
 
 ppring and source of Christ's tender affection for the little 
 ones — ho was perfect man, as well as true and very God. 
 
 3. Then, in intimate connection with this, have we not 
 a third source and spring of it, in the mysterious fact of 
 his own infancy and childhood,— that he was an infant 
 once himself at Bethlehem, a little child at Nazareth ? He 
 came not into the world, as the first Adam was brought 
 into it, in the prime and vigour of manhood, but in 
 the helplessness of a very babe, as it is written, '* She 
 brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in 
 swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger." Ah, the 
 proud man was once an infant; but he does not care to 
 think of it. How would Jesus, on the contrary, love to fall 
 back oftentimes on that first period of his humiliation ! 
 JFe think seldom of it, and perhaps not altogether un- 
 wisely, since so little has been revealed of it to us. But I 
 think it must often have been a subject of cherished 
 thought with the Saviour himself. And when he saw these 
 parents bringing their little children to him, and the 
 disciples discouraging the approach, methiuks those 
 words of the twenty-second Psalm might flash across his 
 mind, "Thou art he that took me" — 7ne also — "out of 
 the womb ; thou didst make me hope when I was upon 
 my mother's breasts" — I also was an infant. Come, 
 come away — Suffer the little children to come unto me. 
 He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, 
 and blessed them ! 
 
 And there was one circumstance in the infancy of 
 Jesus which I think would not fail to lend an element of 
 more intense tenderness to all his thoughts about his 
 infancy, and to his affection for the little ones in con 
 nection with it. I mean the massacre, — Herod's massacre 
 of the infants at Bethlehem, to accomplish, if possible, 
 the death of the infant Messiah. **When tliey were 
 departed," it is written, "behold, the angel of the Lord 
 appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take 
 
58 THE HEAET OF JESUS — 
 
 the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and 
 be thou there until I bring thee word : for Herod will 
 seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, 
 he took the young child and his mother by night, and 
 departed into Egypt. Then Herod, when he saw that he 
 was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and 
 sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Beth- 
 lehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old 
 and under, according to the time which he had diligently 
 enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which 
 was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying. In Eama 
 was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and 
 great mourning, Eachel weeping for her children, and 
 would not be comforted, because they are not." Many 
 years ago I came on the following touchingly beauti- 
 ful paragraph, in a paper by the late J. D. Burns of 
 Hampstead, on the Massacre and the Sojourn in Egypt : 
 — " So these young lives were yielded up for Christ; 
 martyrs, in a sense, we may call them, in act though 
 not in will, taken thus early from an evil world to the 
 life immortal, in which they always behold the face 
 of their Father, wearing there for ever the white vest- 
 ment of an unsullied purity, washed in the blood of 
 Him for whom their own was spilt like water on 
 the ground. Is it extravagant to suppose that to the 
 unfolding mind of Jesus, — to that human heart which 
 was so finely strung, so delicately sensitive in all its 
 natural affections, the thought of childhood was in- 
 vested, on this account, with a purer and tenderer 
 grace; — that when he took, on a later day, the little 
 children of the hamlets in his arms, and blessed them, 
 laying his hand for all time on the innocent golden head, 
 there mingled with the action a remembrance of the fact, 
 that the lives of little children were the first that had 
 been sacrificed for his own ?" 
 
 4. But fourthly I mark, among the springs and sources 
 
niS AFFECTION FOR THE LITTLE ONES. 59 
 
 of Christ's deep afTection for tlio little ones, tlio place 
 they had ever held iu the Divine covenant of grace, 
 and were still to hold in it under the new and better 
 dispensation of the gospel. Well did Jesus know 
 those words to Abraham, '' I will be a God to thee, and 
 to thy seed after thee :" and those words, " I will cir- 
 cumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love 
 the Lord thy God:" and those, "I will pour my Spirit 
 upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." 
 And this place, which the children had ever held in the 
 covenant was not to cease with the old testament, — to 
 cease under the pre-eminently gracious dispensation of the 
 new. Jesus intimates the contrary in the words before 
 us, ' * Of such — suffer the little children to come unto 
 me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 God." Soon he was to commission his apostles to renew 
 the intimation in many a form, such as, " The promise is 
 to you and to your children" — ''Believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" — 
 " The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and 
 the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were 
 your children unclean; but now are they holy." Well; 
 Jesus beholds the little ones with a deeper affection and 
 interest, because of the special place they had ever held, 
 and were still to hold, in the covenant made in the 
 Divine counsels of peace before the world began. 
 
 5. Which runs into a fifth source and spring of 
 Christ's tender affection for the little ones, namely, the 
 myriads of them in glory, — the myriads of the redeemed 
 in heaven who entered it in the period of helpless 
 infancy. No doubt this thought also is in the pregnant 
 words, "Of such is the kingdom of God," — in glory 
 above, as well as grace below. Only remember, I be- 
 seech you, how large a proportion of our whole race die 
 in infancy. Then, if you but suppose the children of 
 believers, dying in infancy, to be universally saved — very 
 
60 THE HEART OF JESUS 
 
 mucli more, of course, if you suppose the salvation of 
 all infants, dying in infancy, without exception — what 
 an innumerable multitude are clothed thus with white 
 robes, and palms in their hands ! How large a propor- 
 tion of the jewels of the Eedeemer's crown are in every 
 age gathered from the ranks of little children ! How 
 dear must they thus be in the eyes of Jesus ! 
 
 6. But I mention yet another source and spring of 
 Christ's deep affection for the little ones. He found the 
 chosen type of his disciple in the little child, — found the 
 most perfect picture and pattern of the subject of his 
 spiritual kingdom, in the child's simplicity, guilelessness, 
 trustfulness, humility, unquestioning obedience. Was the 
 question moved among the disciples. Who is greatest 
 in the kingdom of heaven? "Jesus called a little child 
 unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said. 
 Verily I say unto you. Except ye be converted, and 
 become as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble 
 himself, as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven." To the same purpose are the 
 solemn and searching words of the 15th verse here, 
 ** Yerily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the 
 kingdom of Grod as a little child, he shall not enter 
 therein." My hearers, are you bearing this in mind? 
 Are you bearing in mind that, except you receive the 
 kingdom of heaven in somewhat of the simplicity, trust- 
 fulness, sincerity, lowliness, unquestioning submission, of 
 a little child, you shall not enter therein ? Lord, wilt 
 thou teach me the spirit of David's psalm, "Lord, my 
 heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty : neither do I 
 exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for 
 me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child 
 that is weaned of his mother : my soul is even as a weaned 
 child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and 
 for ever" ! 
 
niS AFFECTION FOR THE LITTLE ONES. 61 
 
 I might liavo mentioned other sources — such as our 
 Lord's knowing ttcII how much should in every ago depend 
 on the childhood for the character of the manhood, — how 
 the germs and seeds of the great future are then for tho 
 most part sown. ]\[any a wise and godly mother remembers 
 this, — tells of it in her tears and prayers, and travailing 
 as in birth till Christ be formed in tho heart of her child. 
 Jesus knew it well, and knew also that, with some great 
 exceptions, like Saul of Tarsus, those of his servants should 
 serve him best in his kingdom who should be brought to 
 him, united to him, in very early years. Suffice it, how- 
 ever, to have noted those several springs and sources of 
 Christ's deep affection for the little ones — his Godhead ; 
 the perfection of his Manhood ; his infancy and child- 
 hood ; the place of little children ever in the covenant ; the 
 myriads of them in heaven ; and that he found the chosen 
 type of his disciple in the little child. 
 
 Let me for an instant revert, in closing, to the bearing 
 of the passage on the character and heart of Jesus, — 
 his ineffable tenderness, grace, love, considered more in 
 general. Are there sorrowing ones here, — anxious, 
 sin-burdened souls, ready to sink into despondency? 
 I would affectionately commend to you Him who took 
 up the little children in his arms, put his hands 
 upon them, and blessed them. Oh be encoui-aged to 
 put your case into his hands, — to trust, to leave, it with 
 him. Here is a Physician, of skill and power enough to heal 
 your deepest wounds, but not less gentle also, and lowly, 
 and tender, in dealing with them. Listen to his own words, 
 ** Come unto me, all yo that labour and are heavy laden, 
 and I wiU give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
 learn of me; iov I am meeh and lowly in heart; and ye 
 shall find rest unto 3'our souls." Believers in Jesus, what 
 a Saviour is this you have found — or rather who has found 
 5'ou! I think, when they ask, *'AVhat is thy beloved 
 more than another beloved?" you may well answer, 
 
62 THE HEART OF JESUS. 
 
 " My beloved is wMte and ruddy, the chiefest among ten 
 thousand. His head is as the most fine gold ; his locks are 
 bushy, and black as a raven. . . . His countenance is as 
 Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." Oh, he will raise the 
 universal dead — He took up the little children in his arms 
 — I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
 he is able to keep that which I have committed to him 
 against that day. 
 
 How does the whole subject abound with materials 
 of encouragement to Christian parents, to pray for their 
 little children, to present them to the Lord in baptism, 
 to plead with God unceasingly for them, and to plead 
 with them, in due time, unceasingly for God! And 
 how does the subject abound with encouragement to 
 you also, dear children, to come to Jesus now, saying, 
 satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice 
 and be glad all our days! Would that we ministers, 
 pastors, drank deeper into the spirit of Him who yearned 
 over the little ones with an affection so tender, and would 
 not ascend up into glory till first he had charged Peter, in 
 name of the universal Ministry, *' Simon, son of Jonas, 
 lovest thou me?" — then ''Feed my sheep, feed my 
 lambs." 
 
VI. 
 
 THE DOOM OF MEROZ.* 
 
 *' Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord ; curse 
 ye bitterly the inhahitants thereof ; because they came 
 not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty" — Judges v. 23. 
 
 In these deeply solemn words two things claim our 
 attention — the sin of the inhabitants of Meroz, and the 
 judgment of the Lord against them because of it. Let 
 me rapidly touch on the sin ; on the judgment ; with one 
 or two practical lessons arising out of both. 
 
 I. The sin of the men of Meroz is described in very 
 remarkable terms, although we have grown so famihar 
 with them as scarce perhaps to notice their strange 
 character. It is said that ** they came not to the help of 
 the Lord." Came not to the help of the Lord? Every- 
 where we read of the Lord's coming to the help of man ; 
 but man coming to the help of the Lord, seems strange. 
 Constantly we find such prayers as *' Help us, Lord our 
 God, for we rest on thee " — '' Give us help from trouble, 
 for vain is the help of man " — '' Help us, God of our 
 salvation, for the glory of thy name." But helpless man 
 coming to the help of the Lord ! Is He in straits, then ? 
 "Can a man be profitable unto his Maker?" Is he in 
 difficulties, that he should require the aid of his own 
 
 * Preached at the opening of the Free Church General Assembly, 
 22d Miy 1873. 
 
64 THE DOOM OF MEEOZ. 
 
 creature ? So it would seem, in some sense or otlier. And 
 happily, although, we have not elsewhere the exact expres- 
 sion in the text, we have kindred ones which let us at once 
 into its weighty import, as for example, '' I was an 
 hungered, and ye gave me no meat " — '' He that toucheth 
 you, toucheth the apple of his eye " — " Saul, Saul, why 
 persecutest thou me ? " — Inasmuch as ye did it not unto 
 one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me." 
 '' They came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of 
 the Lord against the mighty." 
 
 The particular case here was this. Israel, for their 
 idolatries, — their ''choosing of new gods," as it is ex- 
 pressed in a previous verse, had been sold by the Lord 
 into the hand of the Canaanites. For years they had 
 held them down beneath a crushing oppression. At 
 length the Lord raised up a deliverer for them in the 
 person of Deborah, in conjunction with Barak, the son of 
 Abinoam. Of Deborah it is written at the sixth verse of 
 the previous chapter, that " she sent and called Barak 
 the son of Abinoam out of Ivedesh-Naphtali, and said 
 unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, 
 saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with 
 thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and 
 of the children of Zebulun ? And I will draw unto thee, 
 to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, 
 with his chariots, and his multitude ; and I will deliver 
 him into thine hand." I will deliver him. But the 
 Lord employs instruments for the executing of his pur- 
 poses, though he needs them not. The tribes of Israel 
 were summoned to this war : and the inhabitants of 
 Meroz declined the summons. Well; but God had entered 
 into marriage covenant with Israel. The kingdom of 
 Israel was His kingdom. The interests of Israel were His 
 interests ; and he had bound up with them the glory of 
 his own name. Accordingly, it is not now said of the 
 men of Meroz that they came not to Deborah's help, nor 
 
THE DOOM OF MEROZ. G5 
 
 to Barak's help, nor even to the holii of Israel ; but that 
 *' they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of 
 the Lord against the mighty." True, they were deeply 
 guilty in refusing to come to the help of Israel. It was 
 the very spirit of the fu'st murderer, ''Am I my brother's 
 keeper?" Na}', they were guilty in refusing pusillani- 
 mously to come, if I might so speak, to their own help. 
 For they were a part of Israel ; their own interests were in- 
 volved in the struggle ; and men are not entitled to fling 
 their own liberties and welfare away. But pre-eminently 
 their sin lay in this — ^just where the condemnation of the 
 final judgment will lie, '* Ye did it not to me " — " They 
 came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty." 
 
 (1.) A little more specifically, the sin of the men of 
 Meroz had in it unbelief, — criminal distrust of the word 
 and promise and power of the living God. No doubt it 
 was largely cowardice that led them to refuse their aid. 
 But whence the cowardice ? They did not believe that the 
 Canaanites could be subdued. They would keep on good 
 terms with the oppressors to save their own heads. They 
 "believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation." 
 Either they did not believe that the Lord was in covenant 
 with Israel, or, which came to much the same, they 
 limited the Holy One of Israel, like their fathers, — they 
 deemed his strength unequal to cope with the princes of 
 Canaan. Their spirit was that of the spies of old, '' The 
 people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are 
 walled and very great." It was the dark reverse of theirs 
 who answered them, ** They are bread for us; their 
 defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us ; 
 fear them not." 
 
 (2.) Butbesides criminal unbelief — that root and strength 
 of all other iniquities — the sin of the men of Meroz had in 
 it a vile preference of their own ease, and fancied present 
 interest, before the authority, and honoui*, and interest, of 
 
 £ 
 
66 THE DOOM OF MEROZ. 
 
 the God of Israel. DeLorab. had said, '^ Hatli not tlie Lord 
 God of Israel commanded, saying. Go, and draw toward 
 mount Tabor?" And tlie command had doubtless been 
 made known to the men of Meroz. But they preferred 
 their own selfish quiet before the authority of Jehovah — 
 treason that, of course, against the King of kings. They 
 preferred their own ease before His honour, which was 
 now at stake, since he had said, " I will deliver Sisera, 
 the captain of Jabin, into thine hand." No thanks to the 
 men of Meroz if the promise did not fail, — if the glory of 
 the God of Israel became not the mockery of the heathen. 
 They preferred their own ease before God's interest — for 
 he had condescended to make Israel's interest his own. 
 And it was just as if the adorable God had been in distress, 
 but they cared not for it ; as if he had been an hungered, 
 but they gave him no meat ; as if he had been crushed 
 beneath the rod of the oppressor, but they refused to lift 
 a hand for his deliverance — '* They came not to the help 
 of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
 (3.) And thuis, further, their sin was nothing less than 
 enmity, war, against the living God. Doubtless they 
 would be fain to say, AYhat have we done so much against 
 him ? we have but sat still in our quiet homes. Ay, and 
 therein fought against Him. Oh, there is no possible 
 medium between the love of the adorable God, and the 
 hatred of him, — between willing, active service rendered 
 to God, and hostility, war, against him—'* He that is not 
 with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with 
 me scattereth abroad." He who prefers his own ease 
 before the honour, authority, interest, of God, fights to 
 tho utmost of his power against his Being and Life. 
 Nor will the condemnation of the judgment-day turn on 
 aught else than just such a negative iniquity, *' They 
 came not to the help of the Lord" — ''Ye did it not to 
 me" — "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let 
 him be Anathema Maranatha." 
 
THE DOOil OF MEROZ. 67 
 
 (4.) I only add on tlie sin, that it is marked as a special 
 aggravation of it that it was to *' the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty^^ they refused to come — against the 
 mighty. Had the enemy, that is to say, been a feeble, 
 contemptible one in numbers and strength, they might 
 have had some plausible pretext for leaving the struggle 
 to others. But all was in reality at stake. The existence 
 of Israel hung in the balance. The enemy was in the 
 last degree formidable. All available help was required. 
 Yet, in this crisis of their country's, and of the Church's, 
 history, the inhabitants of Meroz *'came not to the help 
 of the Lord, to the heli") of the Lord against the mighty." 
 
 II. Lut now we look, secondly, and more briefly, at the 
 julgment, — the judgment of the Lord against the men of 
 Meroz for this sin : '' Curse jq Meroz, said the angel of 
 the Lord ; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because 
 they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the 
 Lord against the mighty." There can be very little doubt, 
 from the prominence given to Meroz here, that, in the days 
 of Deborah, it must have been a place, a town, of very 
 considerable size and importance. Yet we find no mention 
 anywhere made of it after this time. And it is every way 
 probable that soon after this period, in God's righteous 
 judgment, and in execution of this very curse, it had 
 become the subject of some desolating infliction, that had 
 blotted the name and remembrance of it out from under 
 heaven, "Curse ye Meroz" — and yet "there is none 
 good but One, that is God "— " curse ye Meroz, said the 
 angel of the Lord; cuj'se ye bitterly the inhabitants 
 thereof ; because they came not to the help of the Lord, 
 to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance, however, that other and 
 very considerable sections of the Israelites seem to have 
 been involved in the same sin, more or less, with the men 
 of Meroz ; yet we do not find the same curse denounced 
 
68 THE DOOM OF MEEOZ. 
 
 against tliem. Thus, in the fifteenth, verse, after a com- 
 mendation of the tribe of Issachar, " The princes of 
 Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also 
 Barak : he was sent on foot into the valley," it is added, 
 " Por the divisions of Eeuben there were great thoughts 
 of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheep-folds, to 
 hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of 
 Keuben, there were great searchings of heart. Gilead 
 abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? 
 Asher continued on the sea-shore, and abode in his 
 breaches." A fine contrast follows in the eighteenth 
 verse, ' ' Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded 
 their lives unto the death in the high places of the field." 
 I think there can be very little doubt that there must 
 have been some special aggravation in the case of Meroz 
 which has not been placed on record — perhaps its having 
 been in the immediate neighbourhood of the field of 
 action, together with some more express and emphatic 
 treachery of dealing in its refusal of aid. At the same 
 time I am well satisfied that the Holy Ghost does not 
 record the case of Meroz here as some rarely exceptional 
 one, but rather singles it out in order to place in bolder 
 relief, by one striking example, the whole class of cases 
 — alas ! too, too numerous — to which it belongs. This 
 much is certain, that the curse of Meroz was but the 
 harbinger, a kind of anticipative specimen, of that wide- 
 spreading doom, — in which the Lord grant that none of 
 us may share ! — " Then shall the King say to them on 
 his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
 fire, prepared for the devil and his angels : for I was an 
 hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and 
 ye gave no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me not 
 in : naked, and ye clothed me not : sick and in ]3i'ison, 
 and ye visited me not." '' If any man love not the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha " — accursed 
 at the coming of the Lord. " Curse ye Meroz, said the 
 
THE DOOM OF MEROZ. 69 
 
 angel of the Lord; ciirso ye bitterly the inhabitants 
 thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, 
 to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
 
 III. But I am thus led, finally, to touch on one or two 
 practical lessons arising out of the whole. There are, in- 
 deed, doctrinal lessons which might have been mentioned, 
 such as the marvellous oneness between the Lord and his 
 people, and his rich condescension and grace, seen in the 
 very using of words like *' coming to the help of the Lord." 
 But I limit myself to three immediately practical lessons. 
 
 1 . And fii'st, a lesson of duty — very urgent duty. It will 
 help to bring both the duty and the urgency of it better 
 out, if it is borne in mind that, from the fall of our 
 race downwards, — from the hour of the first sin, and of 
 the first covenant promise, *' I will put enmity between 
 thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; 
 it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," 
 the Lord has had a controversy, so to speak, — a quarrel 
 in this fallen world, — a war with mighty adversaries, 
 Satan, sin, the world that lieth in the wicked one — his 
 gracious purpose having all along been in that war to 
 call a people out of the world for the glory of liis own 
 name, — an innumerable multitude of all kindreds, and 
 peoples, and tongues, to be " washed, and sanctified, and 
 justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit 
 of our God." Just glance at those words of Deborah, 
 describing the deep desolation of Israel, in the sixth 
 and seventh verses, "In the days of Sliamgar, the 
 son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were 
 unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. 
 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased 
 in Israel, until" and so on. Some faint, very faint, 
 shadow this, of the spiritual profound desolation of this 
 world lying in wickedness, dead in trespasses and sins 
 — the two hundred millions, for example, of India's 
 
70 THE DOOM OF MEEOZ. 
 
 lieatlien ; or China, witli lier four hundred millions ; or 
 our own great cities, London, Glasgow, &c., with their 
 multitudes estranged from all the decencies even, and 
 outward observances, of religion. Well; and God 
 uses instruments for the saving of the lost everywhere, 
 " Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost." And although all cannot go in person to fight 
 this battle of the Lord, all can do very much, by prayers, 
 by pecuniary gifts, and in other ways, for the fulfilling of 
 the commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to eyerj creature." But, alas! how often are 
 men, of whom from their profession other things might 
 be expected, found coolly saying, That is not our work — 
 complacently within their hearts saying, We injure no 
 one, — we lead a quiet and harmless life. Well; there 
 are different views of what injury, harm, is. God has 
 his view of this, and men have theirs. But be it so. 
 Yet, if the blessed God has condescended to make the 
 reclaiming of those multitudes at home, and millions 
 upon millions abroad, his peculiar battle, and you refuse 
 to bear your share in it; if he has condescended to 
 espouse this as his own quarrel and cause, and, using 
 instrumentality, has sent forth commands which have 
 reached to you, lajdng you and your means and prayers 
 and services all under tribute, then is your duty just as 
 plain as was that of the inhabitants of Meroz. Then 
 must you needs share in their guilt and in their doom, 
 refusing to give ^-ourselves to the discharge of it. Then 
 the same criminal distrust of God, the same vile prefer- 
 ence of your own ease to his honour, authority, interest ; 
 the same enmity to Him, the same aggravated refusal to 
 come to his help against the mighty, and the same curse, 
 or a bitterer one, must rest on your heads as rested on 
 theirs. Oh, how vain and hollow all the pleas which 
 men are fain to set up for themselves in this matter ! At 
 
THE DOOM OF MEROZ. 71 
 
 best tliey run up into tlio first murderer's question. But, 
 supposing it conceded that you are not your brother's 
 keeper, at least you are the subjects and servants of tlio 
 living God ; and the fearful charge he brings here 
 against those I now address is this, that ** they have not 
 come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty." It Tvas to small purpose that the 
 unprofitable servant said, **Iwas afraid, and went and 
 hid thy talent in the earth ; lo, there thou hast that is 
 thine " — I have harmed no one — God had no need of 
 m}" poor services. "Thou wicked and slothful servant, 
 thou knewest " — didst thou? — ''that I reap where I 
 have not sown, and gather where I have not strawed. 
 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the 
 exchangers, and then at my coming I should have 
 received mine own with usury. Cast ye the unprofitable 
 servant" — not the profligate, the thief, the drunkard, 
 but the unprofitable servant — " into outer darkness.'* 
 How replete with duty, in short, — urgent paramount 
 dut}", are these words, " Curse ye Meroz, said the angel 
 of the Lord ; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; 
 because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the 
 help of the Lord against the mighty " ! 
 
 2. But observe a second lesson of a different character, 
 one of precious and varied encouragement, to all such as 
 are disposed, humbly, yet resolutely and prayerfully, to 
 offer themselves to the help of the Lord against the might3\ 
 See, for example, how he will condescend to receive and 
 welcome your aid. Road the ninth verse of this song of 
 Deborah, "My heart" — ah, what was the heart of De- 
 borah but a shadow of the heart of God? — " My heart 
 is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves 
 willingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord " : and the 
 second verse, " Praise ye tlie Lord for the avenging of 
 Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves." And 
 see the grateful mention, if I might so sj)eak with reverence, 
 
72 THE DOOM OF MEROZ. 
 
 which. God makes of particular services. Yer. 14. *' Out 
 of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek ; 
 after thee, Benjamin, among thy people : out of Machir 
 (Manasseh) came down governors, and out of Zebulun 
 they that handle the pen of the writer." It seems that, 
 besides the services which were common to all, each 
 could offer something special to himself — "out of Zebulun 
 they that handle the pen of the writer. And the princes 
 of Issachar were with Deborah. . . . Zebulun and 
 Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the 
 death in the high places of the field." But the grand en- 
 couragement here lies in this same expression, "the help 
 of the Lord," — "coming to the help of the Lord, "which tells 
 of the guilt and doom of those who refuse to come to it 
 Oh, is it to the help of the Almighty God you seek to come, 
 dear brethren? Then you may well, I think, thank God, 
 and take courage. Then, be not afraid nor dismayed by 
 reason of this great multitude ; for the battle is not yours, 
 but God's — there be more with you than with them. 
 Then may you pray, and give, and labour, in the happy 
 confiding spirit of those words, " God hath spoken in his 
 holiness, I will rejoice," — " Arise, God, plead thine 
 own cause," — " Lord it is nothing with thee to help, 
 whether with many or with them that have no power ; 
 help us Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy 
 name we go against this multitude. Lord, thou art 
 our God ; let not man prevail against Thee." Is it to the 
 help of the Lord you seek to come ? Then are you per- 
 mitted even to anticipate a glorious reward of services, 
 which might well, indeed, be their own sufficient reward. 
 But the Lord, in his matchless grace, is pleased to crown 
 them with an everlasting blessedness and glory, " Then 
 shall the King say imto them on his right hand. Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 you from the foundation of the world : for I was an 
 hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye 
 
THE DOOM OF MEROZ, 7,3 
 
 gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; 
 naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick and ye visited me ; 
 I was in prison, and ye came unto me . . . inasmuch as ye 
 did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did 
 it unto me." 
 
 3. But once more wo have a lesson here of solemn 
 warning — duty, encouragement, tvarning. I expressed 
 the persuasion a little ago, that the Spirit of God does 
 not set down the case of Meroz here as some rarely excep- 
 tional one, but rather singles it forth to place in bolder 
 relief, by an example, the whole class of cases to 
 which it belongs — a class so fearfully numerous that 
 wo have cause indeed to say, each one of us, Lord, 
 is it mine? cause to tremble lest we should bo found 
 under the guilt and doom of Meroz, — found in that vast 
 company to whom, on his left hand, the King will say, 
 "Ye did it not to me." For, brethren, you will not 
 fail to observe that it is by no means any and every 
 kind of help and service that will suffice to separate 
 us from the class, and save us from the curse, of the in- 
 habitants of Meroz. A man may come, for example, witli 
 a help so stinted and grudging as to make it quite mani- 
 fest that it is but the covering up of a desire to be let 
 alone altogether. Or he may come with a help not so 
 stinted in the simple amount of it, yet not offered to the 
 Lord himself, which is the hinge, you will carefully' observe, 
 of this whole matter, *'tlicy came not to the Iic-lp of the 
 Lord"— "Ye did it," or, "ye did it not, to me:' How 
 deeply solemn the thought that, if there is the richest 
 condescension in such a mode of speech as "coming to 
 the help of the Lord," it is a condescension which has, 
 however, its two entirely different and opposite aspects, 
 according as it is felt, appreciated, embraced, on the one 
 hand, or despised and rejected, on the otlior! Assurcclh', 
 by how much the Lord has revealed his condescension 
 and grace, in making offer to us of so marvellous a one- 
 
7i THE DOOM OF MEROZ. 
 
 ness of cause and interest and blessedness witli Himself, 
 by so much, tlie more aggravated a judgment and doom 
 must the contempt and rejection of that grace bring with 
 it. ** Curse ye Meroz " — fearful words, beloved, but very 
 gracious ones also, considered as set down for no other 
 end than to shut us the more up to Him who redeemeth 
 his people from the curse of the law, having been made a 
 curse for them, — who is made of God to as many as put 
 their trust in him, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
 tification, and redemption — the very same Angel of the 
 covenant, I doubt not, who is the speaker in the text, 
 and will one day sit on the judgment-throne — Curse ye 
 Meroz, said the angel op tue Lord ; curse ye bitterly 
 
 THE inhabitants THEREOF; BECAUSE THEY CAME NOT TO THE 
 HELP OF THE LORD, TO THE HELP OF THE LoilD AGAINST 
 THE MIGHIY. 
 
 I 
 
VII. 
 
 LYING ON JESUS* BREAST. 
 
 *'-A"o?t7 there icas leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his 
 disciples, lohom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore 
 beckoned to him, that he should ash who it shoidd be of 
 whom he spake. lie tJien lying on Jesus' breast, saith 
 unto him, Lord, who is it?" — John xiii. 23-25. Text 
 — "He lying on Jesus' breast.'^ 
 
 You observe that this circumstance respecting the be- 
 loved disciple is twice noted in these verses — "there 
 was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples;" "he 
 lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him:" and yet again 
 towards the close of this Grospel we read, " Peter, turning 
 about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following ; 
 which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said. Lord, 
 which is he that betrayeth thee?" 
 
 If we bring up before our minds that last supper, and 
 the company which sat at that table, I think we might 
 conceive somehow thus of the circumstance in the text. 
 The Lord, loving John above all the others, might 
 naturally wish him to be seated near, next, to him in that 
 hour of sorrow and tender affection. Then John, drawn 
 by his love to Jesus, on the one hand, and the Master's 
 ineffable benignity of mien and discourse upon the other, 
 might venture, all but unconsciously at first, to lay his 
 head somewhat on the bosom of that Master; and, partly, 
 lie might condescend at such a time to place his arm 
 more or less about the neck of the disciple seated by him 
 
76 
 
 LYIN-G ON JESUS' BEEAST. 
 
 — thus in effect inviting and drawing tlie reclining on his 
 breast. 
 
 I. But now, may we not be able without much difficulty 
 to get at the state of mind and heart, on either side, of 
 which this attitude was the expression, and out of which 
 it came ? 
 
 1. On the side of the disciple, first, surely it told of a 
 holy, unsuspecting, childlike trust, reliance on the Lord 
 Jesus — " he lying on Jesus' breast." John leans his head, 
 in this night of deep anxiety and sorrow, on the bosom of 
 Christ. "Was it not the very embodying of that word, 
 ''Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, 
 believe also in me ?" — he lying on Jesus' breast. Doubt- 
 less John was tried, like the others that night, with 
 many a difficulty, — many a painful foreboding for the 
 future. Had any one officiously then addressed him, 
 " Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy Master 
 from thy head?" methinks he had been ready to answer 
 with one of old, " Yea, I know it ; hold thou thy peace." 
 Too well he knows it. But just the more he will lean his 
 head to-night, if permitted, on that Master's bosom. He 
 will cast his care, as he best may, on this mighty, gracious 
 One. "There was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his 
 disciples, whom Jesus loved." 
 
 Ay, and who loved Jesus. For, assuredly, if there was 
 faith, — unsuspecting confidence, trust, in the attitude, yet 
 more j)lainly there was love, intense affection in it — he 
 lying on Jesus' breast. Oh, it is heart drawing to heart 
 in the hour of deep grief! John ventures to lay his 
 head on the breast of the Lord; it is the expression, 
 manifestly, of ardent love — springing from it, telling of it. 
 In fact the two feelings, the reliance and the love, the 
 trust and the afi'ection, were intimately and inseparably 
 connected together. It was a loving reliance ; and it was 
 a confiding afi'ection. The " faith wrought by love ; " and 
 
77 
 
 tlio loYO, ''casting out fear," cmLoldcncd tlio faith. All 
 the blessed safety which the faith, in the face of a dark 
 unknown future, apprehended and realized from the arm 
 and from the heart of Jesus, drew forth a deeper lovo 
 toward him ; while the lovo would not suffer any ques- 
 tioning of the trustworthiness of its Object, and so upheld, 
 in its turn, and strengthened the faith. 
 
 2. "Well, but if the lying on Jesus' breast told thus of 
 certain great feelings on the side of the disciple, it no less 
 told of corresponding ones on the side of the glorious 
 Master who permitted, and in effect invited, it. Did it not 
 tell, I venture to ask, even of a certain counterpart con- 
 fidence, trust, reposed by Christ in the disciple? Jesus 
 suffers him to lean his head upon his bosom. Ah ! this 
 is not to be the traitor — treason never shall find an 
 entrance within this man's soul. No doubt it is written 
 elsewhere, ''behold, he putteth no trust in his saints;" 
 and, certainly, apart from his own grace upholding them, 
 that must ever hold good of them all. But we find such 
 other words in Scripture as these, "Shall I hide from 
 Abraham that thing which I do ? for I know him" — 
 " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and 
 he will show them his covenant " — " If there be a j^i'ophet 
 among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in 
 a vision. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in 
 all mine house ; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, 
 even apparently, and not in dark speeches " — " God spake 
 to Moses as a man speaketh unto his friend." There was, 
 I say, a certain confidence in John, implied in the Lord's 
 permitting him to lean his head upon his bosom. 
 
 But still more obviously the i)ermission told of Clu-ist's 
 affection, intense affection, for John. yes, if the leaning 
 bespoke John's affection for Jesus, at least as much it be- 
 spoke the affection of Jesus for John. You recollect that 
 word in Nathan's touching parable. " The poor man had 
 nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which ho had bought 
 
78 LYING ON JESUS BREAST. 
 
 and nourislied up ; and it grew up together witli him, and 
 with his children ; it did eat of his own meat, and drank 
 of his own cup, and lay in his bosom." Manifestly John's 
 being permitted to lean on the bosom of Jesus told that he 
 was eminently *' the disciple whom he loved." Not that 
 the Lord loved John with any higher love of henevolence 
 than he did the other disciples. If we look to the love 
 spoken in all such expressions as, "Christ loved the 
 Church, and gave himself for it" — "To him that loved 
 us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood " 
 — " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
 lay down his life for his friends" — we can scarce con- 
 ceive this love of compassion, pity, benevolence, being 
 other than equally great towards all the members of the 
 ransomed Church, of every country and age. Plainly it 
 is satisfaction, — it is delight, complacency, in John that is 
 spoken of in the expression " the disci2')le whom Jesus 
 loved," and which came out divinely in the permission to 
 lean his head upon his bosom. 
 
 Now I do not enter here into the inquiry what the 
 grounds and sources were of this special complacency in 
 John. If this belonged to my j)urpose, it might be shewn 
 very easily how far, very far, it was from having any 
 faultlessness of his character for its source. We find 
 'the Evangelists recording instances of marked imper- 
 fection in this disciple, — instances, I may in passing 
 say, peculiarly unlike that mere natural gentleness of 
 temper which has come somehow — but it seems to me on 
 most inadequate grounds — to be associated with John, and 
 with the Lord's special affection for him. Without 
 questioning at all that he was distinguished, and above 
 all the others, for love, I am persuaded that the Lord's 
 peculiar affection for him must have had reference to 
 that love, however, not as connected with any mere 
 natural gentleness of spirit, but as the result of the 
 deeper working in his heart of those gracious, super- 
 
LYING ON JESUS' BREAST. 79 
 
 natural principles wliicli ever drew our Lord's love and 
 admiration, — as wlion, for instance, lie said of Mary of 
 Bethany, ''Why trouble ye the woman? She hath 
 wrought a good work on mo. Wheresoever this gospel 
 shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also 
 this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of 
 her;" or when, marvelling at the Gentile centurion, he 
 said of him, *'I have not found so great faith, no, not in 
 Israel." Without, however, enlarging on the grounds of 
 the peculiar affection for John, suffice it to note the fact 
 that his leaning on Christ's bosom — as it told of the dis- 
 ciple's unsuspecting reliance on the Lord, and deep love 
 to him, on tlie^one side — assuredly told, on the other, of 
 Christ's confidence, in a sort, and peculiar complacency, 
 in the disciple. 
 
 II. But now, brethren, I am greatly mistaken if our 
 text does not admit of being turned to extensive use, far 
 beyond the case of the disciple immediately referred to in 
 it. For, is there no such thing as leaning on the bosom 
 of Christ still ? I trust indeed there is ; ay, and if not in 
 precisely the same manner as at the last supper of old, yet 
 not only as truly, but after a manner still more blessed and 
 glorious. This is certain at least, that one disciple only 
 could lean as did John on the outward bosom of the Lord. 
 But we may now find that tliis is a privilege, a happi- 
 ness, accessible at this hour, in the essence and soul 
 of it, even to as many as shall truly aspire after it. 
 
 Generally here you might turn for a moment with me 
 to a passage in the twentieth of this Gospel, at the 15th 
 verse: — ''Jesus saith unto her. Woman, why weepest 
 thou? whom seokest thou? She, supposing him to be 
 the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him 
 hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take 
 him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned 
 herself, and saith unto him, Eabboni; which is to say, 
 
80 LYING ON JESUS' BEEAST. 
 
 Master." Tlien observe what follows : — '' Jesus saith. unto 
 hev, Touch, me not; for I am not yet ascended to my 
 Father : but go to my brethren, and say unto them, 1 
 ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my 
 God, and your God." Touch me not; for I am not yet 
 ascended to my Father. I apprehend that the meaning 
 of this is not, Touch me not, — stay not at present with 
 me, for there will be time enough before I ascend to my 
 Father. But rather, on the contrar}^, the thought is, 
 that while Mary, in the ardour of her affection, was 
 "holding the Lord by the feet," as another Evangelist 
 tells us, he gently discourages it, intimating that there 
 will be ample time and ample room after his ascension, 
 for all possible intimacj^, and familiarity of holy spiritual 
 converse, with him — and that, too, for all genuine dis- 
 ciples together. " Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for 
 I am not yet ascended to my Father " — there will be freer 
 scope then for even leaning the weary head on my breast 
 for ever — " touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to 
 my Father : but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I 
 ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my 
 God, and your God." 
 
 1 . A little more particularly, however, and again look- 
 ing, for a moment or two, at the expression, "belying 
 on Jesus' breast," have we found that the soul of this 
 attitude, as on the disciple's side, first of all, lay partly 
 in a holy, imsuspecting, child-like trust, reliance on the 
 Lord Jesus ? Then have we the attitude still, — in every 
 age, — in the spirit of all such words as these, " I will go 
 in the strength of the Lord God ; I will make mention of 
 thy righteousness, even of thine only" — He lying on 
 Jesus' breast. " My soul followeth hard after thee ; thy 
 right hand upholdeth me : " " Eefuge failed me ; I cried 
 unto thee, Lord ; I said. Thou art my refuge, and my 
 portion in the land of the living " — He lying on Jesus' 
 breast. * ' I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I 
 
LYING ON JESUS BREAST. 81 
 
 live : 5^et not I, but Christ livetli in me : and tlie life 
 M'liicli I now live in the llesli I live by the faitli of the 
 ISon of God, wlio loved me, and gave himself for me." 
 "Lord, my heart is not hauglity, nor mine eyes lofty: 
 neither do I exercise mj-self in great matters, or in things 
 too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted 
 myself, as a child that is Aveaned of his mother : my soul 
 is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord 
 from henceforth and for ever." — He lying on Jesus' 
 breast. 
 
 But sometimes, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, 
 more literally, the Lord is pleased to perfect his own praise, 
 that he may still the enemy and the avenger. Many 
 years ago I was visiting a sick dying boy of the con- 
 gregation. He lay weary on his pillow, near his end. I 
 scarce hoped to make him understand me — he was not six 
 years of age. But thinking I might make an attempt, after 
 short pra^'er, I said to him, "Charlie, you are resting 
 your head on the pillow ; try and rest on Jesus, as 3'ou 
 are resting on the pillow." I came awaj^ with little hope 
 that he had even understood me. Next day his father 
 told me that, on going up to the little crib several hours 
 after my visit, and without making any reference to it, he 
 said to him, "Ai'O you resting on Jesus, dear?" He 
 immediately answered, *'Soft pillow." It was his only 
 rej)ly, ** soft pillow ! " Ah, that is it from the lips of tlio 
 dying boy — unsuspecting reliance, ''soft pillow" — He 
 lying on Jesus' breast ! 
 
 But then, besides the reliance, we found the soul of this 
 attitude in the other element of love also, going along with 
 the reliance, springing out of it, yet strengthening it in 
 turn — each ministering to the other, — the faith the parent 
 of the love, and the love nourishing in turn the parent, 
 the faith, that begets it. Leaning on the breast assuredly 
 tells of love, — leaning on the heart, as it were, the ever- 
 lasting affection, of Jesus. And thus have we not the 
 
82 LYING ON JESUS' BREAST. 
 
 love also, still, — in every age, — and in blessed harmony 
 with the words to Mary, ''Touch me not, for I am not yet 
 ascended to my Father, but go to my bretiiren, and say 
 unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; 
 and to my God and your God "? yes, here it is — '* Let 
 him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." *'My beloved 
 is mine, and I am his " — faith and love hand in hand, — 
 loving faith, confiding love. *' I will seek Him whom my 
 soul loveth." "Who is this that cometh up from the 
 wilderness, leaning on her beloved?" 
 
 2. But remember what we found as to John's leaning 
 on the breast of Jesus, — how it told not only of his feel- 
 ings towards the Lord, but of the Lord's also towards 
 him. And, in like manner, is the leaning of disciples 
 still, only in part by their faith in the Lord, and their love 
 to him. It is by his welcoming also, just as of old, — 
 permitting, reciprocating, their feelings towards him, in a 
 blessed corresponding confidence, as it were, and com- 
 placency, in them. Let it not seem that here at least, — 
 as respects Christ's sjoecial confidence and complacency, 
 all must have been peculiar to John. No doubt Christ 
 could offer his outward breast at the supper to only one 
 head; and further true, that, of the eleven disciples, John 
 was the best beloved. But may there not have been, 
 since that time, disciples equally beloved even with John 
 — possibly some very much unknown ones, — devoted, 
 burning, ''doing what they could" for Christ and his 
 cause ? But what chiefly has to be fixed in our minds 
 here, is Christ's gracious special confidence and compla- 
 cency in all such as, by the Holy Ghost, " following him 
 fully," have for their spirit the psalmist's "Whom have 
 I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that 
 I desire beside thee." That he still continues to place in 
 all such a wondrous confidence, so to speak, and to 
 cherish towards them a peculiar complacency, he declares 
 expressly in the following words, "He that hath my com- 
 
83 
 
 manclmonts, and kcopcth thorn, ho it is that lovcth mo ; 
 and ho that lovcth mo shall be lovod of my Father, and I 
 will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas 
 saith unto him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that thou 
 wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? 
 Jesus answered and said unto him. If a man love me, ho 
 Mill keep my words : and my Father will love him, and 
 wo will come unto him, and make our abode with him." 
 " How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse ! how much 
 better is thy love than wine ! and the smell of thine oint- 
 ments tlian all spices ! " '' Thou hast ravished my heart, 
 my sister, my sj^ouse ; thou hast ravished my heart with 
 one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." *' Thou 
 art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." 
 
 I said that the ** leaning " might be now not only as 
 real as at the last supper of old, but in a manner still 
 more blessed and glorious. For it is not simply that one 
 only could lean there and thus ; but, in intimate connec- 
 tion with the spirit of the words to Mary, *' touch me 
 not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father," remember 
 those words to Thomas, ** Because thou hast seen me, 
 thou hast believed; blessed are they" — blessed in still 
 higher degree — '' who have not seen, and jet have be- 
 lieved ; " or Peter's words, "Whom having not seen ye 
 love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet be- 
 lieving, ye rejoice with joy imspeakable and full of 
 glory." 
 
 Altogether, would you see the lying on Jesus' breast, 
 in the very soul of it, and on both the sides together ? 
 There it is, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the 
 valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among 
 the daughters. As the apple-treo among tho trees of tho 
 wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down 
 under his shadow with great delight," and his fruit was 
 sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting- 
 house, and his banner over me was love. His left hand 
 
84 LYING ON- JESUS BUEAST. 
 
 is under my head, and Lis right hand doth embrace me. 
 I charge you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, 
 and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor 
 awake my love, till he please." Perhaps, in a more 
 special manner at the Lord's Supper, still, may the lying 
 on the breast be known and realized. Would that at the 
 table of communion next Sabbath, it might be known in 
 some good measure among ourselves I Yet this is not a 
 privilege confined to any one ordinance or season. How 
 much cause have we to mourn that it is so imperfectly en- 
 joyed by us from day to day ! Assuredly the bosom, the 
 heart, of Jesus is large enough to receive every weary head 
 that is but truly ofl'ered to lean on it. We are not 
 straitened in Him. Oh that, for a recompense of the past, 
 we might now at length be enlarged ! "I am the Lord ihj 
 God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt ; open 
 thy mouth wide and I will fill it." "Ask, and ye shall 
 receive, that your joy may be full," — Ho lying on Jesus' 
 breast. 
 
 A closing word especially to the young. Eemember 
 the dying boy I spoke of, — what I said to him, *'you 
 are resting your head on the pillow ; try and rest 
 on Jesus, as you are resting on the pillow," and his 
 answer, when his father afterwards asked him, " Are 
 you resting on Jesua?" *^Soft pillow" — leaning on 
 Jesus, loving Jesus. You recollect those beautiful words, 
 " He shall feed his fiock like a shepherd, he shall gather 
 the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom." 
 Carry them in his bosom ? Then Jesus lets you lean on 
 his bosom ; and yow may have the very privilege and 
 happiness of John, the beloved disciple— He lying on 
 Jesus' breast! 
 
 " I heard the voice of Jesus say, — 
 * Come unto me and rest ; 
 Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
 Thy head upon my breast. ' 
 
LYING OX JESUS' BREAST. 85 
 
 I came to Jesus as I was, 
 
 \\'^eary, and -worn, and sad : 
 I found in him a resting-place, 
 
 And lie has made me i'lad," 
 
 IIe lying on Jesus' breast. 
 
YIII. 
 
 A COMMUNION SABBATH'S SERVICES. 
 
 1. Morning Sermon. 
 
 cnnis'i's OWN account of his blood-shedding. 
 
 " This Is my blood of the new testament [covenant], 
 which is shed for many for the remission of sins,^^ — 
 Matt. xxvi. 28. 
 
 A VERY different account of that blood-shedding was to 
 be given some twelve or fourteen hours later, when, after 
 the apprehension in the garden, and the hurried mock 
 trials of the early morning before Caiaphas and Pontius 
 Pilate, that blood was to be shed by deadliest enemies, 
 to make an end, if j)ossible, of Jesus, and his claims 
 and kingdom, for ever. How marvellous that this 
 night in the guest chamber — although those things had 
 yet to intervene, — the apprehension, the trials, the 
 sentence, the crucifixion, — Jesus, in calm majestj^ 
 speaks of his blood as if already it were being 
 shed, and shed by some party or parties wholly 
 distinct from his murderers, and for ends unutter- 
 ably remote from all their thoughts and designs, 
 "This is my blood of the new covenant," says he, 
 "which is shed for many for the remission of sins!" 
 The paschal supper had just been concluded. Por the 
 last time — legitimately at least — the lamb of the pass- 
 over had been slain, its blood shed, its flesh partaken 
 of. Another Lamb is now taking the place of that 
 
CKRISt's OVfN ACCOUNT OF HIS BLOOD-SnEDDIKG. 87 
 
 and all tho other victims of tlio law, for ever. It is this 
 Lamb himself whose voice we hear uttering the words of 
 the text, and inviting us — shall I not say ? — to meditate 
 for a little on them, before wo shall hear them again as from 
 his own lips at his table, '' This is my blood of the new 
 covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." 
 I mean to take the words, very simply, in three ques- 
 tions — first, AVliose was this blood ? second. By whom was 
 it shed? and, third, To what end and issue? "Gird tliy 
 sword upon thy thigh, most Mighty, with thy glory and 
 th}^ majesty; and in thy majesty ride prosperously for 
 truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right 
 hand shall teach thee terrible things ! " 
 
 I. First, "WTiose blood was this ? Or, in other words, 
 Who is it that speaks, saying, '^ Mi/ blood, shed for many 
 for the remission of sins" ? Well ; so far all is clear and 
 simple. It is a man, of course, who sits at that table 
 with the others. John leans on his human breast. Peter, 
 and Thomas, and Philip, and Jude, ask questions of him, 
 and are answered with human lips. He speaks of his 
 blood, *' My hloody This is no angel, at least, — no 
 ** ministering spirit sent forth to minister for the heirs of 
 salvation," — but very man — bone of our bone, and flesh 
 of our flesh. Sliortly before he had said, " The Son of man 
 came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to 
 give his life a ransom for man3\" 
 
 But how ? " liis life a ransom for many " ? Had it not 
 been written in the Psalms, **None of them can by any 
 means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for 
 him" ? Granted that this man, unlike all other men, was 
 entirely sinless. But to be sinless is no more than each 
 and every man's duty for himself. How shall the life of 
 a sinless man become ever a ransom-price for even one 
 sinful brother — not to speak of a world ? Oh, but turn 
 back with me for a moment to the opening chapter of 
 
88 Christ's own account of nis blood -shedding. 
 
 this Gospel, and read of the birth of this Man thus, 
 at the twenty-first verse, **She shall bring forth a son, 
 and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save 
 his people from their sins. Now all this was done, 
 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the 
 Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be 
 with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall 
 call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is, 
 God with tjs." They are Isaiah's words, a chapter or 
 two before those other words, "Unto us a child is born, 
 unto us a son is given; and the government shall be 
 upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, The mighty God." Behold the answer to our 
 question. Whose blood was this ? The blood of the 
 God-man, "Emmanuel," "The second man, the Lord 
 from heaven," " God manifest in the flesh," "God over 
 all, blessed for ever " ! 
 
 Beloved, it has long been to my mind a deep joy 
 to find the Divinity of the Man whose death we are 
 to celebrate to day, not written more expressly in such 
 words as we have read froDi the first chaj)ter of this 
 Gospel, than taken palpably for granted in all the after 
 ones — aSirmed in some respects more strongly by being 
 assumed and presupposed, everywhere — as, for instance, 
 when John the Baptist in an early chapter says of him, 
 "He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose 
 shoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloose; he shall baptize 
 you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire : whose fan is in 
 his hand," — the Judge of the world — "and he will 
 thoroughly purge his floor," — his floor, — the whole visible 
 Church, it seems, is his property — "and he will gather 
 the wheat into his garner," — heaven also is his, — his 
 garner — "but he will burn up the chaff with unquench- 
 able fire," — and hell also is his, — his breath it is that 
 shall kindle it — the living God ! 
 
 It were endless, however, to pursue this inviting field 
 
Christ's own account of nrs blood-shedding. 89 
 
 — to notice how, in one chapter, Jesus claims for himself 
 that supreme love of our hearts which is due to God alone, 
 saying, *' He that loveth father or mother more than Me, 
 is not wortliy of me ; " how, in the chapter following, 
 he invites a whole world to come to him for what the 
 Almighty God alone can give to a single soul, saying, 
 *' Come imto me, all yo that labour and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest;" how (to take but another 
 instance), in the chapter before that in which the text 
 lies, he in effect proclaims himself at once God and man, 
 saying, *'"Wlien the Son of man shall come in his glory, 
 and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 
 the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered 
 all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, 
 as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; and he 
 shall set the sheep on his right hand, but tho goats on 
 the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right 
 hand. Come " — you know the rest. He, the Judge of 
 quick and dead, aj)points, administers, the everlasting 
 destinies of the righteous and the wicked, respectively. 
 "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, 
 Depart from me," from ate, "ye cursed, into everlasting 
 tire ; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat." 
 Oh, our eternity not only is in his hands, but turns, it 
 seems, for weal or for woe, on our regard or our disregard 
 for Hnr— " ye did it," or " ye did it not, to :me." This is 
 He who in the guest chamber says, " This is my blood 
 of the new covenant, which is shed for many for tho 
 remission of sins." And observe the "my," "wy blood" 
 —one only person, — not a God and a man, but the two 
 iuiinitely diverse natures inseparably united in one Christ, 
 — one person, "I," "My" — so that tho things which 
 were done and suffered b}^ him in the human nature wero 
 verily done and suffered by tlie adorable One, — the God-man 
 — as it is elsewhere written, " God purchased the Church 
 with his own blood." "Ye killed the Prince of life." "I 
 
90 chuist's own account of his blood-shedding. 
 
 am the first and the last, and the living One ; and I was 
 dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore! " Eest assured, 
 beloved, that a sight of the Person of the Saviour to day, 
 shall transform all our thoughts of his Death, — shall throw 
 an unutterable glory over the entire grace and saving 
 virtue of the blood- shedding itself, which is now more 
 immediately to engage our attention. 
 
 II. Our second question is, By whom was this blood 
 shed ? Now*, there was one party that had a large and 
 dreadful share in the shedding of it, of whom Jesus makes 
 no mention here. He passes by Caiaphas and Pilate, — 
 the chief priests and Pharisees, — the Jewish people, and 
 the Gentile governor and soldiers. And with reference 
 to them, I will but ask you to note in passing this eternal 
 wonder, that the same " crucifying of the Lord of glory," 
 which, on man's part, was the crowning act of human 
 wickedness, was, on the j)Civt of God, mysteriously, and 
 from everlasting had been predestined to be, the purchase 
 of man's redemption, and the crowning exercise and mani- 
 festation of the Divine love, and aU other perfections— "0 
 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge 
 of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
 ways past finding out ! " " The stone which the builders 
 refused is become the headstone of the corner. This 
 is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes!" 
 Leaving, however, the Jews, and the other more immediate 
 authors of this blood-shedding, I mark three distinct 
 parties, who, doubtless, were all in the eye of our Lord 
 when he said, " This is my blood of the new covenant, 
 which is shed for many for the remission of sins." 
 
 1. And first. Himself — to speak with deepest reverence. 
 Jesus shed his own blood, — was the Ofi'erer, as well as the 
 sacrifice, the offering, — most freely and voluntarily laid 
 down his life, even as we found him a little ago say- 
 ing, *' The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but 
 
Christ's owx account of his blood-shedding. 91 
 
 to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." 
 The disciples were his guests at this supper ; and I sup- 
 pose he had poured out the wine into the cup for their 
 use. When he now says, ** This is my blood shed" 
 for you, it is as if he had said — the blood which I no less 
 freely and voluntarily pour forth for remission of your sins. 
 Tlie Father, five hundred years before, had said of him, 
 "I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall 
 divide the spoil with the strong, because ho hath poured 
 out his soul unto death." At length his voice was heard 
 on the earth, saying, *'I am the good shepherd; the 
 good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep ... No 
 man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. 
 I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
 again." Thus it was that, until ''his hour was come" 
 (as the Scripture expression so often is), all the malice 
 and schemes of his enemies were in vain to accomplish his 
 death. But when this his last passover was drawing near, 
 you recollect how he said to the disciples, when in a place 
 of comparative retirement, "Let us go into Judea again." 
 And when they ventured to remonstrate with him, saying, 
 *' Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee ; and goest 
 thou thither again?" he refused to be dissuaded. And 
 then, more immediately, after the agony in the garden, 
 you remember how John tells us that, when the band of 
 men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, under 
 the leading of the traitor, ''came thither with lanterns and 
 torches and weapons," as in search of some reluctant 
 criminal, Jesus, * ' knowing all things that should come 
 upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek 
 ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saitli 
 unto them, I am he ! " — 
 
 ** The Saviour, what a noble llame 
 Was kindled in his breast, 
 When, hasting to Jerusalem, 
 He iiiarchei before the rest ! 
 
92 cheist's own account of his blood -shedding. 
 
 Goodwill to men, and zeal for God, 
 
 His every thought engross ; 
 He longs to be baptized with blood, 
 
 He pants to reach the cross." 
 
 First, I say, Jesus shied liis own blood, — was tlie High 
 priest, as well as tlie victim, the lamb, the sacrifice, — freely 
 and voluntarily laid down his life for his sheep. 
 
 2. Then observe a second, and in some respects the 
 principal, party in this mysterious blood-shedding — even 
 the Father, — the holy, righteous, loving, Father, — as it is 
 written, ' ' Grod spared not his own Son, but delivered him 
 up for us all." You remember that, after those words, 
 " No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of 
 myself ; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to 
 take it again," Jesus added, *' This commandment have I 
 received of my Father." For, although he was one with the 
 Father essentially and eternally, — true and very God, — yet, 
 in the whole work of our redemption, the Father sustained 
 the place, the rights, the majesty, of the Godhead; while 
 the Son condescended to be the servant of the Father, 
 as it is written in the great words, *' Who, being in the 
 form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; 
 but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the 
 form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; 
 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
 self, and became obedient unto death, even the death of 
 the cross." Hence those words we sang at the opening of 
 our service, ''My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and 
 my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast Irought me 
 into the dust of death." "About the ninth hour Jesus 
 cried with a loud voice, saying, My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me ? " "It pleased the Lord to bruise him ; 
 he hath put him to grief." " It became him, for whom 
 are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing 
 many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their 
 salvation perfect through sufferings." yes, brethren, if 
 
93 
 
 Jesus was ever to Lear for us the penalty, the curse, of tlio 
 Diviiio law, it behoved tlie supremo Lawgiver and Judge 
 himself, as such, to inllict it, — to give commission to the 
 sword to awake and descend on this all-unlikely One — 
 "The cup," said lie, "which my EatJier hath given me, shall 
 I not drink it?" "Awake, sword, against my Shep- 
 herd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord 
 of hosts; smite the Shepherd." How solemn, and yet how 
 blessed, to behold the Father and the Son, — God and his 
 Christ, — together acting in a perfect harmony of love, about 
 that blood-shedding which we are to celebrate to day ! 
 
 3. Ay, wc^ believers in Jesus. For now there meets us 
 a third, and in some respects the chief, joarty in the 
 shedding of this blood — I mean ourselves, — all the sinners 
 who shall be saved by this death to the end, as it is 
 written, "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, 
 and they shall mourn for him." Lamb of God, which 
 takest away the sin of the world, / shed thy blood, — I 
 pierced thee, — nailed thee to the accursed tree ! Caiaphas 
 and Pilate, — the chief priests, the soldiers, — were but the 
 voluntary instruments. My sins were the guilty, pro- 
 curing, cause, but for which, never could they have 
 imbrued their hands in thy blood, nor hadst thou ever 
 had to say, "I lay down my life for my sheej) ; " nor the 
 righteous, loving, Father to commission the sword to 
 awake against thee. My ungodliness, imrighteousness, 
 pride, covetousness, licentiousness — iniquities numberless 
 as the sand by the seashore — shed thy most precious 
 blood! Well, well, may I " mourn for thee" — and j'et 
 rejoice also, exult, amid the sorrow. For now — 
 
 III. Thirdl}', our last (question comes into view, To 
 what end and issue was this blood-shedding? We have 
 seen whose blood it was, and by whom shed. Now, 
 thirdly, to what end and issue? "This is my blood of 
 the new covenant," says Jesus, "which is shed for man}' 
 
94 cheist's own account of his blood-shedding. 
 
 for the remission of sins." For the remission of sins ? 
 Then let the believer in Jesus break forth at once, "Bless 
 the Lord, my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy 
 name. Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his 
 benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth 
 all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruc- 
 tion; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender 
 mercies ; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things ; thy 
 youth is renewed like the eagle's." But we must look 
 at this, of course, a little more particularly — "My blood of 
 the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remis- 
 sion of sins." Let me mention here a circumstance in the 
 last days of the distinguished Lord Chancellor Lynd- 
 hurst,^'* who, at an extreme age, but in full possession 
 of all his rare mental powers, was brought to the know- 
 ledge of the Saviour. He said, " I never used to be 
 able to understand what these good people meant 
 when they spoke so much of the Mood, the hlood. But 
 I understand it now ; it's just Substitution ! " Ay, 
 that is it, in one word. Substitution — "my blood shed 
 for many for the remission of sins," — Christ's blood 
 instead of ours, — Christ's death for our eternal death, 
 — Christ "made a curse, that we might be redeemed 
 from the curse of the law." Once in conversation, my 
 beloved friend Dr Duncan expressed it thus in his terse 
 way, " A religion of blood is God's appointed religion for 
 a sinner, for the wages of sin is death." 
 
 The Unitarians tell us — and it were easy to shew how 
 the various Broad Church theories run up into the very 
 same — that the meaning of our text simply is, that Jesus 
 designed, by the example, — by the happy moral influence, 
 — of his martyr-death, his blood, to make us better i^eoiDle, 
 purifying us from our sinfulw^s. What ! example, 
 — happy moral influence, — the meaning of these words, 
 
 * I had it from the late excellent Earl of Roden, who knew inti- 
 mately the Chancellor and his family. 
 
cnmsT's OWN accouxt of nis blood-siieddixo. 05 
 
 ''My hlood shod for many for the remission of sins^^ ? 
 words recalling' at onco the great words in Tvliicli Paul 
 writes the motto of all the sacrificial victims of the law, 
 " AVithout the shedding of blood is no remission." Was 
 that happy moral influence, example ? Nay, nay ; but, as 
 the law said, '* It is the blood which maketh atonement 
 for the soul." Example, moral influence ? Why, then 
 all the good and holy men whose lives have come 
 down to us are our Saviours by their example, as well as 
 Jesus. Then, too, assuredly it ought to have been the 
 example of his life, rather than, specifically and em- 
 phatically, his deathj his hlood — and much the more, 
 inasmuch as the example of this death becomes one of 
 very questionable character indeed, so soon as you have 
 removed the element of substitution — of Christ's bear- 
 ing our curse, and so, under the liidings of his Father's 
 countenance, enduring a ''travail of soul," — an inward 
 sorrow, — altogether unique and unparalleled. For now 
 the question at once arises — whence all the shrinking from 
 the death? Was it so very terrible a thing to endure 
 crucifixion for the truth ? Whence that recoil, "Now 
 is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, 
 save me from this hour?" Whence the prayer in the 
 garden, thrice repeated, "If it be joossible, let this cup 
 pass from me"? Whence that cry of weakness on the 
 cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
 — with reference to a death very much loss dread- 
 ful than thousands of martyrs have endured even with 
 joy and triumph? But enough. The text speaks with 
 a quite unmistakable voice — as do many other sucli 
 words of Scripture as these : — " Christ was once ofl"ered 
 to boar the sins of many." "Who his ownself bear our 
 sins in his own body on the tree." " He hath made 
 him who knew no sin to be sin for us." "Christ hatli 
 redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a 
 curse for us." "To him that loved us, and washed us 
 
96 cnmsT's ow^r account of his blood-sheddixg. 
 
 from our sins in his own blood." — "This is my blood of 
 the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission 
 of sins." 
 
 Let it be observed that our Lord singles out, from all the 
 benefits of his redemption, the remission of sins, not only 
 because it is that which stands most immediately related 
 to his blood-shedding — the penalty of the law borne by 
 the Surety, and thus removed from the sinner — but 
 because it is the fundamental benefit of all, carrying the 
 others along with it by necessarj^ consequence, as you may 
 see in that great summary of the promises of the covenant 
 (Jer. xxxi. 33-34), "I will put my law in their inward 
 parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, 
 and they shall be my people ; and they shall all know me 
 from the least to the greatest, saith the Lord ; for— /or — 
 I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their 
 sin no more." most blessed remission of sins! The 
 men of this world conceive of nothing in the least 
 resembling it. What they dream of — alas! it is but a 
 dream — is simply God's not dealing very strictly with them 
 about their sins, — j)^ss^^& them, without much difficult}', 
 b}' — or, in plainer language, winking, conniving, at 
 them. But this is the Judge of all the earth saying from 
 his throne, ''Deliver from going down to the pit; I have 
 found a ransom ^ — " Son, daughter, thy sins are forgiven 
 thee ! " This is a forgiveness as righteous as it is absolutely 
 gracious — full also, irrevocable, eternal, as it is written, 
 '' As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he re- 
 moved our transgressions from us." *' Thou wilt cast all 
 their sins into the depths of the sea." '' I will be merciful 
 to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities 
 will I remember no more." — "This is my blood of the new 
 covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." 
 You will recollect that our third question was, to what 
 QTidiand issue was this blood-shedding, — to what effect and 
 result, as well as end and design? For both are in the 
 
I 
 
 97 
 
 words of Jesus, ''Tliis is my blood of tlio now covenant, 
 which is shed for many for," or unto, ''the remission of 
 sins." In other words, this is no precarious, contingent, 
 forgiveness, but one infallibl}^, sooner or later, made 
 good. And to tliis belong the two other expressions — 
 into which, however, I do not enter — "my blood of the 
 new covenant,'''' '' which is shed for mamj.''^ Doubtless the 
 reference is to the "many," — the countless seed, — that 
 were given to Christ in the everlasting covenant, as it is 
 written, ''When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 
 he shall see his seed." *' By the knowledge of him shall 
 my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their 
 iniquities." True — and how unspeakably precious a truth ! 
 — the pardon is freely offered to all without exception. 
 But it becomes, in due time, the actual possession of each 
 soul of the " many " — as will gloriously appear in the day 
 of that word of the Apocalypse, " I beheld, and, lo, a great 
 multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and 
 kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, 
 and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms 
 in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salva- 
 tion to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
 the Lamb. . . . These are they which came out of great 
 tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are 
 they before the throne of God, and serve him day and 
 night in his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne 
 shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, 
 neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on 
 them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the 
 midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them 
 unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away 
 all tears from their eyes." 
 
 A closing word to those still out of Christ among us, 
 — who still prefer the world and their sins to his holy 
 salvation. Be assured, dear hearers, that had there been 
 
98 Christ's own account of his blood-shedding. 
 
 any possible way of saving the lost, other than this blood, 
 it had never been shed. And be further assured, that the 
 shedding of it can avail you nothing, unless it be accepted 
 by you, — believed in by you, — sprinkled on your individual 
 souls by a true and living faith. Without that, better for 
 you it had never been shed, or you had never been born. 
 Oh, this blood must either be your salvation, or your 
 unspeakably aggravated ruin. Deceive not yourselves with 
 imagining that you can simply stand aloof from it, — avoid 
 all dealing with it. It lies in your path. It meets you to 
 day, and must be dealt with by you somehow. To neglect 
 it, is to reject it ; to prefer anything in the world before it, 
 is to trample it under foot, and crucify the Son of God 
 afresh. * ' He that desj^ised Moses' law died without mercy 
 under two or three witnesses : of how much sorer punish- 
 ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath 
 trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
 blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an 
 unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Sj^irit of 
 grace?" " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great 
 salvation ? " But, blessed be God, if the living faith of this 
 blood alone can save you, there is nothing except the 
 
 REFUSAL OF IT BY UNBELIEF THAT CAN HINDER YOUR BEING 
 
 SAVED. " Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that 
 through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of 
 sins ; and by him, all that believe are justified from all 
 things, from which ye could not be justified by the law 
 of Moses." *' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
 shalt be saved." '' Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and 
 ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a 
 little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him !" 
 
 2. Pulpit Address before Communion. 
 
 We have been hearing the Saviour's own account of 
 his blood-shedding. Dear brethren, what is the account 
 
PULPIT ADDRESS BEFOUE COMMTJKION. £9 
 
 yo^i have to give of it — I do not mean in 'words, or in your 
 creed, but practically, and in your inmost soid? Jesus 
 has been saying to us, ''This is my blood of the new 
 covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of 
 sins." Oh, aro you ready to respond, with the whole 
 ransomed Church, ** He was wounded for our trans- 
 gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities?" Alas! 
 "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief: and we hid" — ive also once — 
 ''hid as it were our faces from him : he was despised, and 
 we esteemed him not." But we have changed our minds 
 for ever! "Ho was wounded for our transgressions, he 
 was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed." 
 I pray you to observe that that account of the Saviour's 
 blood-shedding, in the fifty-third of Isaiah, is no state- 
 ment of doctrine simply. It is a life, — it is an inward 
 experience, — it is the contrite, believing, utterance of 
 renewed hearts. It is like that word elsewhere, " I have 
 surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself;" and that 
 other word, " The publican, standing afar off, would not 
 lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his 
 breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." In like 
 manner exclaims the ransomed Church here — is her expe- 
 rience yours, beloved? " All we, like sheep, have gone 
 astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and 
 the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 
 
 You recollect how Paul writes to the Hebrew Christians, 
 " Ye are come unto mount Zion ; and unto the city of the 
 living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ; and to an innumer- 
 able company of angels; to the general assembly and 
 church of the first-born, which are written in heaven ; and 
 to God the Judge of all; and to the spirits of just men 
 made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new 
 covenant ; and to the hlood of sprinkling^ that speaketh better 
 things than that of Abel." "The blood of sprinkling" — 
 
100 PULPIT ADDRESS BEFORE COMMUNION. 
 
 put last, you observe, not because least, but because lying 
 at the foundation of all the other benefits together. 
 "Ye are come," wrote the apostle to those Christians, 
 ** to the blood of sprinkling." Are ye come to it, my dear 
 hearers? It has come many a time to you in the offers 
 of the Gospel; have you come to it by the living accept- 
 ance of them ? — come to '' the blood of sprinUing " ? Is 
 it verily sprinkled upon your souls by a living faith? 
 Eemember how Grod said by Moses in Egypt, "Ye shall 
 take a bunch of hyssoj), and dip it in the blood that is in 
 the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts 
 with the blood that is in the bason ; for the Lord will 
 pass through to smite the Egyptians ; and luhen he seeth 
 the Hood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the 
 Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the 
 destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." 
 Know you, in very deed, what that means ? Is the 
 blood of God's Lamb upon your soul ? Does God " see " 
 it there? If so, then be assured that Jesus lovingly 
 bids you welcome to celebrate his wondrous blood-shed- 
 ding at his table to day. But if otherwise, and you 
 shall nevertheless take your place there, I fear it must be 
 with you as the Lord spake in his parable of old, '* When 
 the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man 
 which had not on a wedding garment ; and he saith unto 
 him, Eriend, how camest thou in hither, not having a 
 wedding garment? and he was speechless." On the other 
 hand, however, **We have not an high priest which 
 cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." 
 " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
 them that fear him ; for he knoweth our frame, he 
 remembereth that we are dust." **Who is among you 
 that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his ser- 
 vant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? let 
 him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his 
 God." '' my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in 
 
COMMUXIOX TAULE ADDRESS. 101 
 
 the secret places of the stairs, let me see tliy countenance ; 
 let me hear thy voice ; for sweet is thy voice, and thy 
 countenance is comely ! " Amen. 
 
 3. Communion Table Address. 
 
 BEFORE THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS. 
 
 It is the Saviour's voice, communicants, as truly to clay, 
 — at this table, — as ever it was at the first communion 
 table that night in the upper chamber at Jerusalem — 
 *' This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for 
 many for the remission of sins." Shall we not respond 
 to the voice in contrition, h\ faith, in love ? 
 
 In contrition shall we not respond to it, " looking 
 upon him whom we pierced, and mourning for him?" 
 Lord Jesus, but for my terrible sins, thine enemies had 
 never crucified thee between the thieves. Never, but for my 
 sins, hadst thou had to "pour out thy soul unto death ; " 
 nor thy Father to say, ** Awake, sword, against my 
 Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow ; smite 
 the Shepherd." How does thy death tell of my desert of 
 everlasting death! How does thy blood shed for remission 
 of sins tell that I was ready to go down to the pit, when 
 thou saidst, " Deliver ; for I have found a ransom ! " Oh 
 for a broken spirit to day, — the spirit of her who of 
 old stood at thy feet behind thee wGci^ing, and washed 
 thy feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of 
 lier head ! 
 
 But again I hear thy voice, *' This is my blood of the 
 new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of 
 sins." Shall I not respond to it in faith, — lively, appro- 
 priating, faith, — exclaiming with the ransomed Church, 
 ' ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
 for oui' iniquities " ? — 
 
102 COMMUNION TABLE ADDRESS. 
 
 I lay my sins on Jesus, 
 
 The spotless Lamb of God ; 
 He bears them all, and frees us 
 
 From th' accursed load. 
 
 I bring my guilt to Jesus, 
 
 To wash my crimson stains 
 White in his blood most precious, 
 
 Till not a spot remains. 
 
 True, thy death, tells of my desert of everlasting death. 
 But, yet more expressly, it tells of my death swallowed up 
 in thine, — of my curse endured and exhausted in thine. 
 True, there is nothing but thy blood between me, at 
 this hour, and hell. But is it not enough? Jesus, I 
 take Tliee this day, at the Father's hand, instead of hell, 
 — Christ free, instead of hell deserved. I will say with 
 Luther, ''Lord Jesus, I am thy sin, thy curse, thy death, 
 thy wrath of God, thy hell ; and contrariwise, Thou art 
 my righteousness, my life, my blessing, my grace of God, 
 and my heaven." I believe, Lord, help thou mine unbe- 
 lief ! I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet 
 not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now 
 live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
 who loved me, and gave himself for me. 
 
 But yet again I hear thy voice, * * This is my blood of 
 the new covenant, which is shed for many for the re- 
 mission of sins." Shall I not respond to it in love, in 
 ardent affection, exclaiming, "It is the voice of my 
 beloved" — echoing that word of an early martyr, *'My 
 love was crucified?" Oh, didst thou so love me while 
 I was at enmity with thee, — so love me as to die that 
 death for me, when I was all unlovely — foolish, dis- 
 obedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, 
 living in malice and envy, hateful and hating? Then, 
 Lord, ' ' Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal 
 upon thine arm ; for love is strong as death, jealousy 
 is cruel as the grave ; many waters cannot q^uench love, 
 
COMMUNIOX TABLE ADDRESS. 1 ')3 
 
 neither can the floods drown it." ** Tell me, tliou 
 whom my soul lovctli, where thou feedest, where thou 
 makest thy flock to rest at noon." ** My beloved is 
 white and rudd}^, the chiefest among ten thousand." 
 " Behold, a woman in the city, wdiich was a sinner, 
 when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Phari- 
 see's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and 
 stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash 
 his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs 
 of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with 
 the ointment." Contrition, faith, love — the very soul of 
 our communion this day ! 
 
 One other word, before putting the elements into j'our 
 hands. " My blood of the new covenant," says Jesus — of 
 the new covenant. It is well worthy to be noticed that 
 this exjDression is found nowhere in the Old Testament, 
 save in those great words of Jeremiah, ''Behold, the days 
 come, saith the Lord, that I will make a neio covenant 
 with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 
 .... This shall be the covenant that I will make with 
 the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; 
 I will put my law in their inward parts, and write 
 it in their hearts ; and wiU be their God, and they shall 
 be my people ; and they shall all know me, from the least 
 to the greatest ; for I will forgive their iniquity, and wiU 
 remember their sin no more." Thus it has long seemed 
 to me that our Lord very probably had this passage in his 
 eye, — this most precious summary of the promises of the 
 covenant, — when, taking the cup into his hands, he gave 
 it to the disciples, saying, " This is my blood of the new 
 covenant" — "This is the new covenant in my blood," — the 
 seal and pledge of it, that is to say, with all its exceeding 
 great and precious promises. What an encouragement to 
 us, when Jesus shall put the cup into our hands, believers, 
 uttering the same words, to plead those promises, — to 
 mingle prayers and supplications with our thanksgivings 
 
104 COMMUNION TABLE ADDRESS. 
 
 and praises, — to beseecli him that he will make good to us, 
 according to onr various circumstances and necessities, the 
 promises of the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things 
 and sure! " The Lord Jesus, the same night in which he 
 was betrayed took bread ; and when he had given thanks, 
 he brake it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, Take, 
 eat ; this is my body which is broken for you : this do in 
 remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he took 
 the cup when he had supped, sajdng, This is "my blood of 
 the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remis- 
 sion of sins. Drink ye all of it." 
 
 AETER THE PARTAKING OF THE ELEMENTS. 
 
 Two words of Scripture let me leave with you before 
 you rise from the table. The first is that one, " Know 
 ye what I have done unto you ? Ye call me Master and 
 Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am. If I then, your 
 Lord and Master, have washed your feet ; ye also ought 
 to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an 
 example, that ye should do as I have done to you." Ilime 
 given you an example. yes, do not suppose that I intended 
 to depreciate the example of our Lord Jesus, when 
 I said in the Discourse that it breaks utterly down if 
 the foundation be once taken from beneath it, of the 
 atonement, the substitution. Of that, indeed, I entertain 
 no doubt whatever. But, on the other hand, let the 
 exa.mple rise from this grand foundation, and then, 
 what an example, and how precious and blessed, is it ! 
 ''Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
 Jesus." *' He that saith he abideth in him, ought him- 
 self also to walk even as he walked." *' Christ suffered 
 for us, leaving tis an example, that ye should follow his 
 steps ; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his 
 mouth ; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; 
 
COMMUNION TABLE ADDKESS. 105 
 
 M-hcn he siifTcrcd, ho threatened not, but committed 
 liimself to him that judgoth ri^i'hteouslj." ** If I have 
 washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anotlier's 
 feet ; for I have given you an exami>le, that ye should 
 do as I have done to you." 
 
 I long to be like Jesus, 
 
 Meek, loving, lowly, mild ; 
 I long to be like Jesns, 
 
 The Father's holy child ! 
 
 The other word of Scripture I leave with you is that 
 one in the Psalms, '' The Lord taketh pleasure in them 
 that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy;" or, 
 as we have it in another psalm, " Behold, the eye of the 
 Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in 
 liis mercy." Two grand features of character, observe, — 
 "fearing the Lord," ''hoping in his mercy " — standing 
 related to each other as a sort of counterparts, and thus 
 invested with the higher both strength and beauty — much 
 as it is with the two sides of an arch, by mutual antagonist 
 pressure — godly fear, aiid lively hope, — reverential awe, 
 and childlike " looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ unto eternal life." 
 
 And see how each feature stands related, very intimately, 
 to the blood shed for remission of sins. The godly fear — 
 ** Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear ; foras- 
 much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with 
 corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the pre- 
 cious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and 
 without spot." " There is forgiveness with thee, that 
 thou mayest be feared." ''Turn away mine eyes from 
 beholding vanity, and quicken me in thy way!" And 
 still more manifestly, if possible, does the lively hope of 
 mercy stand intimately related to the blood whence alone 
 flow all our hopes, rising to an exultant joy, as it is 
 written, "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by whom we have now received the atonement." " Being 
 
106 COMMUNION TABLE ADDRESS. ' 
 
 justified by faith, we have peace with God through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom we have access by faith into 
 this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the 
 glory of God " — "The Lord taketh pleasure in. them that 
 fear him, in those that hope in his mercy." Now the God 
 of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord 
 Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in 
 every good work to do his will, working in you that whicli 
 is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to 
 whom be glory for ever and ever! Let us, after the 
 example of the Lord and his first disciples, close our 
 communion service by singing praise (Ps. ciii. 1—4) : — 
 
 tliou my soul, bless God the Lord j 
 
 And all that in me is 
 Be stirred up his holy name 
 
 To magnify and bless. ] 
 Bless, my soul, the Lord thy God, 
 
 And not forgetful be 
 Of all his gracious benefits 
 
 He hath bestow'd on thee. 
 
 All thine iniquities who doth 
 
 Most graciously forgive s 
 -Who thy diseases all and pains 
 
 Doth heal, and thee relieve. 
 Who doth redeem thy life, that thou 
 
 To death may'st not go down ; 
 Who thee with loving-kindness doth 
 
 And tender mercies crown. 
 
107 
 
 4. Evening Sermon. 
 
 THE BRIDEGEOOM's CALL TO THE BRIDE. 
 
 ^* Hearl-en, davgJiter, and consider, and incline 
 thine ear ; forget also tldne own people, and thy 
 father's house; so shall the King greatly desire thy 
 beauty : for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him.'''' — 
 Ps. xlv. 10, 11. 
 
 It is certain tliat Christ and his Church are the 
 subject of this noble psalm. Long it has seemed to 
 me beyond doubt that this is the only subject of it — 
 that here, as in the Song of Solomon, we have not 
 an example of what are called double senses, — a type 
 and an antitype, — Solomon and Christ, — an earthly 
 marriage and an heavenly one — but Christ and his 
 Bride alone, set forth only with allusion, more or 
 less, in the language to Solomon and a marriage of 
 earth. That this is Christ exclusively is manifest, for 
 example, from the great words of the sixth verse, which 
 are thus cited by the apostle to the Hebrews, ** Unto 
 the Son he saitli. Thy throne, God, is for ever and 
 ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the scej^tre of thy 
 kingdom." And thus it is not difficult to see who the 
 parties are in the tenth and eleventh verses, " Hearken, 
 daughter," — the ransomed Church of God — " and 
 incline thine ear ; forget also thine own people, and 
 thy father's house ; so shall the King " — Messiah, 
 King of Zion, King of kings, and Lord of lords 
 — *' greatly desire thy beauty : for ho is thy Lord, 
 and worship thou him." First, I will touch on the 
 
108 CALL TO THE BRIDE. 
 
 exhortation of the tenth verse, ''Hearken, daughter^ 
 and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine 
 own people, and thy father's house." Then I will notice 
 the enforcement of it by the wondrous promise of the 
 eleventh verse, '' so " — complying with that exhorta- 
 tion — ** shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." And, 
 finally, I will glance at the further exhortation, with the 
 enforcement of it, " for he is thy Lord, and worship thou 
 him." The Lord vouchsafe his own presence with us 
 while we meditate together on these things ! 
 
 I. And, first, notice the exhortation of the tenth verse, 
 " Hearken, daughter, and consider, and incline thine 
 ear ; forget also thine own people, and thy father's 
 house." It is the ransomed Church, as I have said, that 
 is addressed here. And so it were perhaps not strictly 
 accurate if I should refer, for a parallel, to that call 
 addressed to sinners lost, — dead in trespasses and sins, 
 — " Incline your ear, and come imto me; hear, and your 
 soul shall live " — although, indeed, I should not thus go 
 far aside from sound exposition, inasmuch as the Church 
 was once the world, — once dead in sins, — once " foolish, 
 disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, 
 living in malice and envy, hateful and hating." And 
 this is certain, blessed be God, that tonight the Lord is 
 saying to every Christless one in this assembly — Oh that 
 they would but listen to the voice ! — '' Ho, every one that 
 thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Wherefore do ye spend 
 money for that which is not bread ? and your labour for 
 that which satisfieth not ? Hearken diligently unto me, 
 and eat ye that which is good. Incline your ear, and come 
 unto me ; hear, and your soul shall live : and I will make 
 an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies 
 of David." Still, as I have said, it is the ransomed, 
 regenerated Church, — gathered out of the world, that is 
 addressed in the exhortation, "Forget thine own people, 
 
CALL TO THE BRIDE. 109 
 
 and tliy father's house." And thus is it rather a call to a 
 higher holiness, — to higher attainments in faith, and love, 
 and humility, and self- consecration, — having its parallel 
 in such words as, *' Come out from among them — what 
 fellowship hath righteousness witli unrighteousness ? and 
 what communion hath light with darkness? and what 
 agreement hath the temjile of God with idols ? For ye 
 are the temple of the living God ; as God hath said, I will 
 dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their 
 God, and they shall be my peoi)le : wherefore come out 
 from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, 
 and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you, 
 and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons 
 and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." '' Hearken, 
 daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget 
 also thine own people, and thy father's house." It is 
 deeply interesting here to mark the figure, — the similitude, 
 "thine own people — forget thine own people, and thy 
 father's house." It is a figure ; and the substantial idea 
 is just the world, and the renunciation of the world, which 
 lieth in the wicked one. But it is well worth while to 
 mark the figure, which, I have no doubt, is that of earthly 
 marriage, and with specific allusion to that primeval 
 word, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and 
 mother, and cleave unto his wife ; and they twain shall be 
 one fiesh." The figure is the interesting thought or fact, 
 that in marriage, either spouse, for the higher love of the 
 other, is weU content to leave father, mother, brothers, 
 sisters — all the intimacies and endearments of a former 
 home. And thus, observe, there is a point at which the 
 figure and the thing figured by it, — the earthly marriage 
 and the heavenly one, meet and coincide. See it there — 
 in God's call to the father of the faithful, " The Lord said 
 unto Abram, Get thee out of th}^ country, and from thy 
 kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I 
 will shew thee." Or see it in that word which Moses 
 
110 CALL TO THE BKIDE. 
 
 wrote of Levi, — the tribe of Levi, "Who said unto his 
 father and to his mother, I have not seen him ; neither 
 did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own 
 children ; for they have observed thy word, and kept 
 thy covenant." Or see it in the solemn words of the 
 glorious Husband himself, "He that loveth father or 
 mother more than me, is not worthy of me : " "If any 
 man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and 
 wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his 
 own life also, he cannot be my disciple." "Hearken, 
 daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget 
 also thine own people, and thy father's house." Still, as 
 I said, the substance here, — the great general idea, is 
 the renunciation of the world, — its spirit and habits and 
 maxims and ways — " forget thine own people, and thy 
 father's house." It is as if the Lord should say, "No 
 man having put his hand to the plough, and looking 
 back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Or, more sweetly, 
 " Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away " — away 
 to a higher and nobler life — " for, lo ! the winter is past, 
 the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear on the 
 earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come ; and the 
 voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig-tree 
 putteth forth her green figs ; and the vines with the 
 tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair 
 one, and come away." It is as if he should say, " I 
 beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which 
 is your reasonable service ; and be not conformed to this 
 world" — "forget thine own people and thy father's 
 house." See the exhortation exemplified divinely in 
 Paul's words, "What things were gain to me, those I 
 counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all 
 things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ Jesus my Lord. Forgetting those things which 
 are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
 
CALL TO THE BRIDE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 are before, I press tovrard the mark for the prize of tlio 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus." *' Hearken, 
 daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ; forget 
 also thine own people, and thy father's house." 
 
 Beloved brethren, endless are the arguments by which 
 I might this night j^i'oss the exhortation upon you. As, 
 for example, when you took that bread and that cup into 
 3'our hands to day, and partook of them, what was their 
 language to you but ''forget thine own people, and thy 
 father's house?" What else was it you engaged your- 
 selves to this day, before God, and angels, and men ? 
 Or, what but treachery, — unfaithfulness to the glorious 
 Husband, were anything else? for, "for this cause shall 
 a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave 
 unto his wife, and thej two shall be one flesh" — "he 
 that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Or, for what 
 else but this was it that Jesus did not shrink from the 
 accursed death joii were celebrating to-day — what but 
 that we who now live by that death " should not hence- 
 forth live unto ourselves, but unto him which died for us, 
 and rose again?" 
 
 II, Suffice it, however, to press the exhortation by t];e 
 one enforcement of it which forms our second head, even 
 the wondrous promise of the eleventh verse, "so shall 
 the king — Hearken, daughter, and consider, and 
 incline thine ear ; forget also tliine own people, and tliy 
 father's house ; so," complying with that exhortation, 
 "shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." Amazing 
 words 1 Thy beauty. Of course the beauty spoken of is 
 a purely spiritual one, — the beauty of holiness. "With 
 only some distant allusion to outward beauty, fairness, 
 beauty of person, the reference is to the spiritual loveli- 
 ness of a soul on which the king has begun to stamp the 
 impress of his own beauty, even as the "desire" of the 
 king towards it — " so shall the king greatly desire thy 
 
112 CALL TO THE BRIDE. 
 
 beauty " — is expressed in one word,— a verb importing 
 the ardency of a passion; but the idea is just Christ's 
 holy delight, complacency, in his people's advancing 
 "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance " — "so shall the king 
 greatly desire thy beauty." 
 
 Ah! but I think I hear some poor believer saying 
 here. Then, I fear this is not I, or such as I. Alas, my 
 beauty ? My leanness, my leanness ! I can understand, 
 indeed, that other word, " the King in his beauty ; " and 
 that one, " How great is his goodness, and how great is 
 his beauty ! " And I hope I know somewhat of David's 
 " One thiug have I desired of the Lord, that I may behold 
 the beauty of the Lord." But, my beauty! Look not 
 upon me, for I am black. At the best of me, the good 
 that I would I do not; and the evil that I would not 
 that I do. wretched that I am ! who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death ? Well, well, but do you not 
 perceive that your very lamentation is in the language 
 in which Paul the apostle describes himself? Do you 
 remember that word of the Lord in one of the prophets, 
 "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus " 
 — and it is sweetest music in mine ears — "I have 
 surely heard " — literally, hearing I have heard, — com- 
 placency, delight ? Can you not conceive how a beauty 
 all imperfect as yet, but which Christ gave his life to 
 obtain, may appear in his eye as if already in all the 
 perfection it is destined surely to reach — much as some 
 skilful painter can, in the first rough dashes of his brush, 
 or touches of his pencil, see the finished picture — as it 
 already, in fact, is painted on the table of his soul, his 
 fancy ? And do you forget how the Lord Jesus casts the 
 mantle of his own perfect righteousness over the imperfect 
 beauty of his people, so that of that bride who had just 
 said (as yon are saying), "Look not upon me, for I am 
 black," he soon after says, " Behold, thou art fair 
 
CALL TO THE BRIDE. 113 
 
 my love; beliold thou art fair;" yea, **TIiou art all 
 fair, my love; there is no spot in thee?" — very much, I 
 have long thought, as in the wondrous intercessory prayer 
 in the seventeenth of John, not a word is heard of the 
 things he liad so often rebuked in the disciples — their 
 little faith, their hardness of heart, their folly — but it is 
 as if they were faultless, **I have manifested thy name 
 unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world : 
 thine they were, and thou gavest them me ; and they 
 have kept thy word. Now they have known that all 
 things, whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee : for 
 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest mo ; 
 and they have received them, and have known surely that 
 I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou 
 didst send me. ... righteous Father, the world hath 
 not known thee : but I have known thee, and these have 
 known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared 
 unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love 
 wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in 
 them." " So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." 
 
 But perhaps an example or two may cast the most 
 satisfying light over this promise, — over both the beauty 
 — what it is, in at least some of its leading lines, and the 
 desire of the King towards it, — his delight in it — what that 
 is. Thus, you remember that word, ** I am not sent but 
 unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she 
 and worshij^ped him, saying, Lord help me ! " All, that is 
 beauty in the eyes of the Lord Jesus— ''then came she 
 and worshipped him, saying, Lord help me! But ho 
 answered and said, It is not meet to take children's 
 bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord : 
 yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their 
 masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, 
 woman, great is thy faith : be it unto thee even as thou 
 wilt." *'So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty" 
 — faith, hard in hand with deep humility and self- 
 
 H 
 
114 CALL TO THE EEIDE. 
 
 abasement. Or, recall that word, ** A certain centurion's 
 servant, wlio was dear nnto him, was sick, and ready to 
 die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the 
 elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come 
 and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they 
 besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for 
 whom he should do this : for he loveth our nation, and he 
 hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. 
 And when he was now not far from the house, the cen- 
 turion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble 
 not thyself ; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter 
 under my roof : wherefore neither thought I myself worthy 
 to come unto thee : but say in a word, and my servant 
 shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, 
 having under me soldiers, and I saj^ unto one. Go, and he 
 goeth ; and to another. Come, and he cometh ; and to my 
 servant. Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these 
 things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and 
 said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I 
 have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." " So 
 shall the King greatly desire thy beauty" — faith, still 
 hand in hand with deep humility, and working by love to 
 God and to men. Or, remember that word, ''Behold, a 
 woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew 
 that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an 
 alabaster-box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind 
 him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and 
 did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his 
 feet, and anointed them with the ointment. . . . Seest 
 thou this woman ? I entered into thine house, thou gavest 
 me no water for my feet : but she hath washed my feet 
 with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 
 Thou gavest me no kiss : but this woman, since the time I 
 came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with 
 oil thou didst not anoint : but this woman hath anointed 
 my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, 
 
CALL TO THE BRIDE. 115 
 
 Her sins, which, are many, are forgiven. . . . Woman, 
 thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace." ** So shall the 
 King greatly desire thy beauty." One other example. 
 '* Being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as 
 he sat at meat, there came a woman," (we know it was 
 Mary of Bethanj-, the sister of Martha) "having an ala- 
 baster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious ; and 
 she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there 
 were some that had indignation within themselves, and 
 said, Wliy was this waste of the ointment made ? For it 
 miglit have been sold for more than three hundred pence, 
 and have been given to the poor. And they murmured 
 against her. And Jesus said. Let her alone ; why trouble 
 ye her ? she hatli wrought a good work on me. . . . Yerily 
 I say unto you. Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached 
 throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done 
 shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." " So shall the 
 King greatly desire thy beauty." " Thou hast ravished 
 my heart, my sister, my spouse ; thou hast ravished 
 my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy 
 neck." ''How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! 
 How much better is thy love than wine, and the smell of 
 thine ointments than all spices ! " "0 my dove, that art 
 in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, 
 let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice ; for 
 sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." "As 
 the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God 
 rejoice over thee." "The Lord thy God in the midst of 
 thee is mighty ; he will save ; he will rejoice over thee 
 with joy ; he will rest in his love ; he will joy over thee 
 with singing." " Hearken, daughter, and consider, and 
 incline thine ear ; forgot also thine own people, and tliy 
 father's house : so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." 
 
 III. And now, fmally, we have tlie further exhortation 
 here, with the enforcement of it, " for he is tliy Lord, and 
 
116 CALL TO THE BRLDE. 
 
 worship thou him." He is thy Lord. May it not be 
 that partly this comes in here as a kind of counterpoise, 
 balance, over against the deep condescension of the 
 previous words, "so shall the King greatly desire thy 
 beauty." He is thy Lord. For there is a certain parity 
 begotten of marriage — "they shall be one flesh;" "he 
 that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Hence the 
 amazing words in the Song, "He brought me to the 
 banqueting house, and his banner over me was love — His 
 left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth 
 embrace me." But then, never for a moment to be for- 
 gotten is the unutterable disparity of rank between the 
 parties in this marriage. He is thy Lord — not only 
 as he is thy Husband, to whom thus thou owest loyal 
 obedience, even as Sarah is said to have obeyed Abraham, 
 calling him Lord, — but such a Husband as is thy very 
 Maker — " thy Maker is thine Husband ; the Lord of hosts 
 is his name " — such a Husband as had before been 
 addressed in the psalm, " Thy throne, God, is for ever 
 and ever" — such a Husband as is not only thy Lord, but 
 "Lord of all," — "Lord both of the dead and living," — 
 whose voice is heard from his throne of glory, saying, " I 
 am the first and the last, and the living One ; and I was 
 dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the 
 keys of hell and of death." " He is thy Lord, and ivorshqy 
 thou him.^^ yes, let your love be, indeed, nothing less 
 than deepest personal attachment, expressing itself thus, 
 " Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth " — " Him 
 whom my soul loveth." But let the attachment be worship 
 also, adoration. Let it be the attachment of Thomas's, 
 "Mj^Lord and my God." Let it be the attachment of 
 the song of heaven, "To him that loved us, and washed 
 us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and dominion 
 for ever and ever." Let it be the attachment of the song 
 of the ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
 thousands, of holy angels, who sing, "Worthy is the 
 
CALL TO THE BRIDE. 117 
 
 Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
 wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and 
 blessing." *' He is th}' Lord ; and worship thou him." 
 
 Only remember what I say, let tlio attachment bo wor- 
 sliip, — not only let tlie attachment bo tvorshi'j?, but let the 
 attachment be itself worship. For if it be true, — if the 
 love be indeed supreme, then it is worship already. Oh, 
 ye who are attached to the world, and supremely love it, 
 that is your object of worship, — that is your god — no 
 matter though you never bend the knee before it, if you 
 give your heart to it. Oh, I think that is worship, " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, 
 and mind, and strength." And that is worship which 
 Christ claims for himself, "He that loveth father or 
 mother more than me, is not worthy of me." And so 
 observe how this second exhortation runs back, in fact, 
 into the previous one, " Forget thine own people, and 
 thy father's house." ''"Worship him," is the filling of 
 that up, as it were. That is the negative. This is the 
 positive. That is the leaving, in the marriage, of father 
 and mother. This is the cleaving to the glorious Maker- 
 husband in a supreme affection. " He is thy Lord ; and 
 worship thou Him," giving thy heart to him — thy trust, con- 
 fidence, love, adoration, — thyself, thy all, saying, "Entreat 
 me not to leave thee, nor to return from following after 
 thee." "My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right 
 liand upholdeth me." "Tell me, thou wliom my soul 
 loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock 
 to rest at noon ; for why should I be as one that turneth 
 aside by the flocks of thy companions?" " Set me as a 
 seal upon tliy heart, as a seal upon thine arm : for love is 
 strong as death : jealousy is cruel as the grave : many 
 waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown 
 it : if a man would give all the substance of his house 
 for love, it woukl utterly be contemned." "Hearken, 
 daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also 
 
118 CALL TO THE BRIDE. 
 
 thine own peojple, and thy father's house; so shall the 
 King greatly desire thy beauty ; for he is thy Lord, and 
 worship thou him." 
 
 A closing word about heaven. In reading the promise, 
 **so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty," one is 
 reminded of another promise, ** Thine eyes shall see the 
 King in his beauty ; they shall behold the land that is 
 very far off." Now there is one thing, or rather there 
 are two things, in which earth and heaven agree, — the 
 spiritual marriage here and there. Here as well as 
 there, there is a beauty about the Church, the believer, 
 which the King, at least, can behold. And, much more 
 easily than the believer can see any beauty about him- 
 self, he can, even here, see the beauty of the King, — see 
 the King in his beauty, by faith at least. But then, here 
 the one beauty is imperfect, and the other beauty is 
 veiled. Here the beauty of the believer is aU imperfect ; 
 and the beauty of the King is at best seen through a 
 glass darkl}', — seen through many a cloud. But there the 
 one beauty shall be perfect, and the other shall be 
 unveiled. The beauty of the believer shall be that of the 
 ''glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
 such thing, but holy and without blemish." And there, 
 face to face "thine eyes shaU see the King in his beauty." 
 "His servants shall serve him; and they shall see his 
 face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And 
 there shall be no night there : and they need no candle, 
 neither light of the sun ; for the Lord Grod giveth them 
 light; and they shall reign for ever and ever." Both 
 beauties — the believer's perfected and the King's seen 
 face to face — meet in that blessed word, " we shall be like 
 him ; for we shall see him as he is." I have done. ye 
 that are yet of the world, — that have your portion only in 
 this life, "we are journeying to the place of which the Lord 
 said, I will give it jou : come with us, and we will do you 
 good ; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." 
 
IX. 
 
 CHIEF EXD OF MAN. 
 
 " This people have I formed for myself ; they shall 
 shew forth my praise. ^^ — Isaiah xliii, 21.* 
 
 I HAVE not read tliese words so raueli for a text, in the 
 usual sense of tliat word, as because they sound the key- 
 note of the subject on which I am to speak to you, namely, 
 the Chief End of Man, — that is to say, the purpose, 
 design, use, of his existence — your existence and mine — 
 in the world. 
 
 And, first, let me first say a word or two, more in 
 general, respecting the ends, designs, uses of things. 
 If you look to the lower creatures, for example, you find 
 that each of them has some special use, — some mani- 
 fest special design or end of its existence — as the bee 
 to make its wondrous cell, and fill it with honey; the 
 horse to carry its rider ; the sheep to furnish materials of 
 clothing from its fleece, and so on. And these creatures 
 all do the things which they wore made for, tliough 
 without knowing anything of designs or uses. Tliey all 
 answer, fulfil, the several ends of their being. But they 
 Icnow notliing, and are incapable of knowing any- 
 thing, of uses or ends. It is peculiar to man, — it forms 
 our high and solemn prerogative, as distinguished from 
 all the lower creatures, to be able to understand about 
 
 * This Discourse was addressed to Young Men. 
 
120 CHIEF END OE MAN. 
 
 the ends, the uses, of things. Hence it is I am speaking 
 to you to-night. And it is very noticeable, accordingly, 
 that one of the earliest subjects of interest and inquiry 
 with our youngest children is the use of this thing, and 
 the design of that other. But there is one thing, strange 
 to say, and it too the thing we have necessarily most 
 of all to do with, about the use of which it is the rarest 
 thing in the world for either young or old to make 
 any serious inquiry — and that is ourselves, — what is the 
 use of ourselves, — what the special distinctive design 
 or end of our existence in the world. Assuredly God, 
 who made all the lower creatures for some manifest 
 special use, did not make man, and endue him with these 
 wondrous powers of reason, and will, and conscience, and 
 fancy, and memory, and intelligent speech, without 
 some grand distinctive design or end, worthy of Him- 
 self and of them. And yet it is certain, and surely 
 very strange, that men everywhere can live, and do live 
 on, their twenty, thirty, forty, seventy years, without once 
 asking seriously after the end of their being, — what it is 
 they are in this world chiefly /or. 
 
 Possibly you are ready to say, that I may have sug- 
 gested the solution of the mystery, when saying that 
 the inferior creatures, without asking or knowing any- 
 thing of uses or ends, yet do the things they were seve- 
 rally made for. May it not be so with us also ? May it 
 not be that men sufhciently do what they we'^e made for 
 without any anxious inquiry about it ? I might answer, 
 that this is at least very improbable, — in the last degree 
 imlikely. Because the lower creatures all act in this 
 matter by the power of resistless instincts ; whereas we 
 are as far inferior to them in instinct as we are superior 
 to them in intellect. And it is surely a most unlikely 
 thing that, by the power of our far inferior instincts, 
 and failing to use that intellect which God has given us, 
 we should stumble, as by a mere happy accident, on the 
 
CIIIKF EXD OF MAX. 121 
 
 true end of our being. But it is neodloss reasoning on the 
 matter. You have only to ask what the thing is for 
 which men everywhere, — for which we all, — do natu- 
 rally, actually, chiefly, live, to see that it neither is nor 
 can be the end for which the all-wise God designed 
 us. What is it ? Why, putting it broadly and gene- 
 rally, it is just that we may get somewhat pleasantly and 
 comfortably through the world, — enjoy as much as may 
 be the various things of this present fleeting life. AVell, 
 there is one supposition, but only one, on which this 
 miffht be the thinf? we were made for. I mean the 
 supposition that death is to be the end of us, — that, 
 like the brutes, we are to be annihilated when we die, 
 and there is to be no more of us. In this case, probably 
 enough the highest end of our being might be to enjoy 
 as much as possible the things of this world. And all that 
 one could say is, that it were a very wretched design and 
 end of faculties so noble ; and that, destined to perish like 
 the brutes, they were to be exceedingly envied by us, since 
 they know nothing beforehand of their approaching death; 
 but we, knowing well its sure and near approach, behoved 
 to be more and more like him of old who was set down 
 to his feast with a drawn sword suspended over his head 
 by a single hair. But perhaps I ought to apologize for 
 even putting the case for a moment, that we aie to be 
 annihilated at death. You know that we are to survive 
 death, — to live after it as long as God lives, — to live 
 a whole eternity. And thus it cannot possibly be that 
 the all-wise God should have made us to exist for 
 the things of this first short stage of our being, 
 leaving the after eternity, improvided for, to take its 
 chance. 
 
 Does any one feel disposed still to say, that, when I 
 state the thing men everywhere live for as being to 
 enjoy as much as possible the things of this present 
 life, I state it too Ej)icureanhj^ and forget that there 
 
122 CHIEF END OF MAK". 
 
 is the higher and better end, of the cultivating of our 
 mental powers by the pursuits of literature and science ? 
 Nay, I do not forget this. I simply include it among 
 the things of this present world ; because it is not pre- 
 tended that literature and science, as such, have to do 
 with aught beyond this present life — although, as to 
 the high cultivating of the mental powers, I might 
 have added that it cannot possibly be the chief end of 
 man, inasmuch as a handful onl}^ of men can pursue it ; 
 and further, that it is but a miserable result, as to any real 
 satisfaction of soul, that comes of it even to that handful. 
 Witness the illustrious Goethe, that German of Germans 
 as to genius, highly cultivated intellect, — accomplish- 
 ment of every kind. Writing in his seventy-fifth year, 
 he says in one of his letters: — "I have often been 
 praised as an especial favourite of fortune ; and I will 
 not myself complain. But at the bottom there has been 
 nothing but trouble and labour ; and I can well say, 
 that in my whole five-and-seventy years I have not had 
 four weeks of real pleasure. It was the eternal rolling of 
 a stone, that had always to be lifted up again for a new 
 etart." Appalling utterance! And this is the world at 
 the very best of it, — the world, with the genius, literature, 
 friends, fame, fortune — without God ! 
 
 Thus, then, we have found, I think, these three things 
 — first, that God, who made all the lower creatures for 
 some special use, assuredly did not make man, and endue 
 him with those noble powers, without a grand distinctive 
 design or end worthy of Himself and them ; second, tbat 
 this end cannot possibly be anything bounded by this 
 transitory life ; and thus, third, that the end for which 
 chiefly we were made must needs be that which the Scrip- 
 tures tell of in all such words as I read with you at the 
 outset, '' This people have I formed for mj^self; they shall 
 shew forth my praise," — even to know the ever blessed 
 God : to serve God ; to honour, love God ; to enjoy God ; 
 
CiriEr END OF MAX. 1 23 
 
 and to be everlastingly liapj^}- and blessed iu the know- 
 ledge, service, love, and enjoyment of Ilim. 
 
 Manj^ things I might say to you about this end. As, 
 for example, that it is a very high and noble one, — that, 
 as it is considered a high honour by our chief nobility 
 to serve about the j^erson of the Queen, unspeakably more 
 honourable and noble it must needs be to serve the blessed 
 and only Potentate, the King of kings. And I might say 
 that it is a most reasonable and righteous end, — altogether 
 righteous and reasonable that, since God made us, sus- 
 tains us, *' gives us life and breath and all things," we 
 should serve and honour liim. But I will content myself 
 with saying only this, that it is a necessary and indis- 
 pensable end, — that, as it is the end which God actually 
 made us for, it is altogether indispensable that we follow 
 and fulfil it, unless we are to live in a terrible conflict, war, 
 with our Maker, and so inevitably perish. For, if God 
 made us to serve and honour him, and we do it not. 
 then, to put it at the very lowest, we are useless and 
 unprofitable on God's earth ; and j^ou know that we are 
 accustomed to cast away from us things useless for the 
 thing they were designed for. But then, most things of 
 this world which are useless do not on that account require 
 to be positively hurtful, — might be useless without being 
 mischievous. But it is otherwise with us. If God mado 
 us to serve and honour him, and we pay no regard to 
 tliis end, then, necessarily, we dishonour God, despise 
 God, treat Him with high indignity and contempt. If 
 we do not the thing we were made for, we must do the 
 opposite of it. If we serve not God, we must serve 
 the devil. If we serve not the true God, we must 
 serve false gods, — creatures of all kinds, to which we 
 give the regard, affection, trust, that are due to God, 
 and so unavoidably fall, ten thousand times, under the 
 sentence of the law of His moral government, * ' The 
 soul that sinneth, it shall die" — " Tliose mine enemies, 
 
124 CHIEP EKD OF MAX. 
 
 who would not that I should reign over them, bring 
 hither, and slay them before me" — "Cursed is every 
 one that continueth not in all things which are written in 
 the book of the law to do them." 
 
 But, blessed be God, this volume has not come to us 
 only to tell the end or use we were made for, but to 
 tell also how we may fulfil it — ay we, — how we now, after 
 having failed to live for the end, — after twenty years, it 
 may be, of a wasted, vile, God-dishonouring life, — how 
 we, guilty and accursed, may yet know, and serve, and 
 love, and everlastingly enjoy, God. Let me say earnestly 
 to you here, that the whole Bible may, as to this vital 
 matter, be summed up in one grand word — Christ, 
 Christ. For, if we get Christ, we get three things — 
 his Blood, his Spirit, his Love. We get his atoning 
 Blood. Till then, we cannot serve God, and for this 
 reason among others, that, until then, our case is 
 like that of some criminal in prison under sentence 
 of death, who might dream while asleep of serving his 
 sovereign and his country, but, alas ! can only now serve 
 them — unless^ at least, the sentence can be in some way 
 cancelled — by his execution according to the country's law. 
 But so soon as we get Christ and his blood, our sentence 
 of death falls off from us. Christ's blood has gone for 
 ours, — his death for ours. We are '' redeemed from the 
 curse of the law" by Christ "made a curse for us." 
 And further, when we get Christ, we get his Spirit, his 
 renewing Sj^irit, turning the whole course and current of 
 our affections and desires from sin to God, from earth to 
 heaven. And further still (and here I would affectionately 
 crave your close attention), when we get Christ we get 
 his Love, his wondrous constraining love — constraining, I 
 mean, not as by some painful necessity imposed from with- 
 out, but by a blessed and loved constraint acknowledged 
 willingly from within — constraining us to live to God, — to 
 live to Him who redeemed us to God with his blood. Let 
 
CniEF END OF MAN. 1 25 
 
 me illustrate this by an incident. A gentleman was 
 l^assing- through a city of the Southern States of America 
 in the old days of slavery, and went to see its slave- 
 market. He was attracted by one of a grouji put up for 
 sale. The rest looked unconcerned, and careless of their 
 fate : but a young woman, of sweet and modest apj)ear- 
 ance, trembled from head to foot, and wept. Asking the 
 reason of the great difference, he was told that the others 
 had come from ordinary masters, and were not afraid of 
 getting worse; but this girl had been carefully reared, 
 and was afraid by whom she might be bought. The 
 gentleman asked hor price; he hesitated at the sum, 
 but paid it down. AVhen he told her that she was free, 
 she did not cease to weep. She had always been a 
 slave, and did not know what the word meant. She 
 looked at her purchaser with fear, and wept over the 
 paper of sale which he gave her to make it plain. It was 
 only when she saw him prepare to leave the place, and 
 bid her farewell, that she comprehended it. Clinging to 
 him, she said, "I will follow him, I will serve him all 
 my days;" and to ever}^ objection, she only said, He 
 redeemed me; he redeemed me; he redeemed me. She 
 was taken home; and when, through long years of de- 
 voted service, strangers coming to her master's dwelling 
 would remark her willingness, and anticipation of every 
 wish, and, saying that they had never seen a servant so 
 eager and untiring in her labour, would ask her why? 
 she had but one reply to give as at the first — He redeemed 
 me ; he redeemed me ; he redeemed me ! 
 
 Or take another illustration, from ancient story. Dur- 
 ing the wars of Cyrus of Persia, he took captive Tigranes, 
 son of the King of Armenia, with his wife. Tigranes 
 offered to purchase his wife's freedom with his life. 
 Cyrus, struck with the generosity of the offer, set them 
 both at liberty. Upon which the courtiers began to praise 
 the clemency and magnanimity of the conqueror. One 
 
126 CHIEF END OF MAN. 
 
 praised this quality of Cyi^us, and anotlier that. The wife 
 of Tigranes having been asked what she most admired in 
 him, replied, *'I was not thinking of him." ''Of whom, 
 then?" they asked. "Of him," she answered, "who 
 said that he would purchase my liberty with the price 
 of his life," Ah yes — He redeemed me; he redeemed 
 me; he redeemed me ! " The love of Christ constraineth 
 us," Paul says, " because we thus judge, that if one died 
 for all, then all died" — died in him, that is to say, — 
 endured the law's penalty in his death — "and that he 
 died for all, that they who live should not henceforth 
 live unto themselves, but imto him who died for them, 
 and rose again." 
 
 Yery dear friends, I am now, of course, very far from 
 being a young man ; and it may be allowed me to say a 
 word to the young men whom I address, respecting myself. 
 When I was a young man, and, as it happened, a student 
 for the bar in Edinburgh, I was given up wholly to the 
 world. I had no thought or desire be3'ond it, and would 
 have reckoned life worth little indeed without theatres, and 
 such like amusements. When it pleased God to open my 
 eyes, at the age of twenty, to behold Christ crucified, and 
 to see my whole previous ungodly life nailed, as it were, 
 to his cross, and made an end of there, I never once 
 dreamed more of such satisfactions and enjoyments. I 
 had found angels' food, and could part easily with ashes, 
 — had found unsearchable riches, and no more cared 
 for dust. It cost no sacrifice to part with such things. 
 They were not given up as by any violent efibrt, but simply 
 " dropped off," to use the words of a modern writer, " as 
 the dead leaves fall off from the tree, when propelled by 
 the new blossoms and buds that are forcing their way 
 through from behind, or as some one gathering poor 
 pebbles on the sea-shore would let them unconsciously 
 drop, if one were offering him jewels and precious stones 
 in their stead." I have long admired a few words of old 
 
CHIEF END OF MAX. j 27 
 
 Augustine, who, writing fourteen hundred years ago of 
 his conversion, and referring to certain pleasures he had 
 long indulged, and felt it impossible for him to abandon, 
 says, '*IIow sweet did it at once become to mo to want 
 the sweetnesses of those toys ! and what I feared to bo 
 parted from was now a joy to part ivlth. For Thou 
 didst cast them forth from me, thou true and highest sweet- 
 ness. Thou castedst them forth, and, for them, enteredst 
 in thyself, sweeter than all pleasure." It is as our Lord 
 Jesus says, **Tho kingdom of heaven is like unto trea- 
 sure hid in a field ; the which when a man hath found, 
 he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that 
 he hath, and buyeth that field." 
 
 My theme, then, has been the Chief End of man. Noblo 
 theme indeed, — grand question of questionSj what we are 
 in this world chiefly for. Hence does it form the open- 
 ing question of our country's Catechism. And I may 
 be allowed, before closing, to indicate the mighty prac- 
 tical bearing of that question by two incidents, belong- 
 ing respectively to the opposite extremes of social life. 
 The one refers to a lady of rank who lived about a 
 century ago, and whose name is still known in this city 
 from one of its churches which bears her title, "Lady 
 Glenorchy's Church." Her husband was the only son, 
 and of course heir (but died in early life), of the -Earl of 
 Breadalbane. Lady Glenorchy, up to the age of twenty, 
 was a gay and thoughtless creature — of high accom- 
 plishment, but entirely devoted to the world, — its follies, 
 amusements, ways. When staying at Taymoutli Castle 
 in the summer of 1765 (as she tells us in a Diary 
 she afterwards kept), she was seized with a fever thai 
 threatened to end her life. In the course of it, she 
 tells us, the first question of the Shorter Catechism 
 was brought to her remembrance, as if some one had 
 asked it, " What is the chief end of man ? " AVhen she 
 thought of the answer, <'To glorify God, and to enjoy 
 
128 CHIEF END OP MAN. 
 
 him for ever," alie was at once overwhelmed with, confu- 
 sion and dismay. She felt that she had never sought to 
 glorify God in all her life ; and she had no idea of what 
 was even meant by enjoying him for ever. It issued in 
 her finding the adorable Saviour, and in her entire con- 
 secration to God. She closes the entry in her Diary with 
 the following words : — **I now beseech thee, Lord, to 
 accept of my soul, body, reputation, property, influence, 
 — everything that is called mine, and to do with them 
 whatever seemeth good in thy sight. I desire neither 
 ease, health, nor prosperity, any further than may be 
 useful to promote thy glory. Let thy blessed will be 
 done in me, and by me, from this day forth. Let thy 
 grace be sufficient for me, and enable me to overcome the 
 world. And to thee be ascribed the honour and glory 
 now and for evermore. Amen." Soon after, Lady Glen- 
 orchy built the church in Edinburgh for the preaching 
 of the glorious gospel, which bears her name. 
 
 The other incident is from the very opposite extreme of 
 social life, relating to a man of the savage tribe of the 
 Bechuanas in Africa. I had it from the distinguished 
 African missionary, Dr Moffat, father-in-law of Living- 
 stone, the traveller. Moffat had almost made a language 
 for this savage tribe, and had translated the Shorter 
 Catechism into it. He told me that one of the most 
 intelligent and consistent of all the converts of his mis- 
 sion had become a changed man by means of the same 
 first question of the Catechism, and precisely as in the 
 case of Lady Glenorchy. One day, when thinking of the 
 question, ''What is the chief end of man?" and of the 
 answer, " To glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever," he 
 felt that if this was indeed what he was made for, then 
 he was a lost man — his whole life had been a crime, — one 
 continued course of sin. He found no rest till he found 
 it in the blood of Christ the Saviour. 
 
 And now I have done. It is for you all a choice be- 
 
 J 
 
CniEF EXD OF MAN. 129 
 
 tween two things. Ono is, the very beasts rising in 
 judgment against you — tlio beasts, that know nothing 
 of the uses of tilings, and yet do the things for which 
 God made tliem,— against j'ou who are able to under- 
 stand what God made you for, but refuse to do it. One 
 is, your going through the world without knowing for 
 what — reeling to and fro, and staggering as a drunken 
 man — or like some ship on the ocean without rudder or 
 compass. Ono is your living for the first brief stage 
 of your being, and leaving the long eternity to take its 
 chance. The other is, your coming to the Lord Jesus ; 
 getting his Blood, his Spirit, his Love ; and thus learning 
 to live for that noble, righteous, indispensable, end for 
 which you were made — even to glorify God, and to enjoy 
 him for ever, — enjoy him, in some good measure even here 
 below (and in him, and with him, none the less, but very 
 much the more, the literature, science, recreations, — all 
 the lawful things of this life), and more fully enjoy him 
 in the mansions of the Father's house above. Look on 
 that picture, and on this. On that picture. Says the same 
 Goethe, "Alas! that there is never herej'^ And look on 
 this picture. The German Christian Professor Tholuck, 
 with reference to that utterance of Goethe, exclaims, *'Tn 
 Christ there will be here.^^ Look on that picture. **The 
 ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully : 
 and he thought within himself, saying. What shall I do, 
 because I have no room where to bestow my fruits ? And 
 he said, This will I do : I will pull down my barns, and 
 build greater ; and there will I bestow all my fruits and 
 my goods. And I will say to my soul. Soul, thou hast 
 much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, cat, 
 drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, 
 this night thy soul shall be required of thee : then whoso 
 shall those things be which thou hast provided?" And 
 look on this picture. " Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I 
 am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid ; thou hast 
 
130 CHIEF END OF MAX. 
 
 loosed my bonds." " Godliness is profitable unto all 
 things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of 
 that which is to come." " Martha, Martha, thou art 
 careful and troubled about many things ; but one thing is 
 needful ; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall 
 not be taken away from her." " What are these which 
 are arrayed in white robes ? and whence came they ? And 
 I said unto him, Sir, thou hnowest. And he said to me, 
 These are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
 have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, 
 and serve him day and night in his temple : and he that 
 Bitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They 
 Bhall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither 
 shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, 
 which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and 
 shall lead them unto living fountains of waters ; and God 
 shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
 
X 
 
 JESUS ONLY. 
 
 "And after six days Jesus taheth Peter, Jatreii, and 
 John his brother, and hringeth them up into an high 
 monntain apart, and was transfgured before them : and 
 his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment ivas white 
 as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them 
 Moses and EUas talking with him. Then answered 
 Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us 
 to be here: if thou wilt, let us maJce here three taber- 
 nacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for 
 KUas. While he yet spalce, behold, a bright cloud over- 
 shadowed them : and behold a voice out of the cloud, 
 xohich said. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
 well 2>leased ; hear ye him. And when the disciples 
 heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. 
 And Jesus came and touched them, and said. Arise, 
 and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their 
 eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." — Mattuew 
 xviL 1-8. 
 
 Text — "And ivhen they had lifted up their eyes, they 
 saw no man, save Jesus only." 
 
 If I am not greatly mistaken, ^e have much more here 
 tlian a simple fact or incident. We have a fact, embodying 
 also a principle, — a fact suggesting, and which I cannot 
 doubt was designed by the Holy Ghost to suggest and to 
 embody, a principle of wide and vital application. Let 
 mo invite your attention, shortly, first to the fact, 
 " When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, 
 save Jesus only;" then to the principle, which may be 
 
132 JESUS OXIiY. 
 
 indicated perhaps by reading the last two words by them- 
 selves, "Jesus only." 
 
 I. The fact belongs, as you perceive, to that great and 
 central event in the Saviour's life, his Transfiguration, 
 when, for a very brief space — not probably for above an 
 hour at the utmost — "his visage so marred more than any 
 man, and his form more than the sons of men," became 
 strangely altered, — when the body of his humiliation 
 underwent, for a little space, a change of a very peculiar 
 character, and things were seen and heard by those dis- 
 ciples which they were charged to tell, and did tell, to no 
 man till the Lord was risen from the dead. Jesus, taking 
 with him Peter and James and John, went up into a high 
 mountain — "to pray," as Luke tells us; "and as he 
 prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and 
 his raiment was white and glistening." Matthew says 
 here, "He was transfigured before them; and his face 
 did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the 
 light" — "became shining," are the words of Mark, 
 "exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can 
 white them." Let me just say as to this, that, however 
 wonderful it is apt to seem to us, and in many respects 
 of course was, yet the greatest wonder lay in a quite 
 different direction, — was not so much that that face did, 
 for a very little while, " shine as the sun," but rather 
 that it ever was otherwise with Him who was the very 
 " Sun of Eighteousness," — " the brightness of the Father's 
 glory, and the express image of his person," — from ever- 
 lasting the fellow and equal of the Lord of hosts ! What, 
 after all, was the transfiguration, but the withdrawing, for 
 a brief hour, of the veil which, in the Incarnation — that 
 true wonder of wonders — had fallen down over the glory 
 of the only begotten of the Father? Much less wonderful, 
 surely, the withdrawing of the veil for a moment, than 
 that it should ever have existed ; or that, alter its 
 
 I 
 
JESUS OXLY. 133 
 
 momGntary M'ithdra'wal, it should again have fallen down 
 in a deeper darkness than ever, — the darkness of the cross 
 and of the grave ! 
 
 Doubtless it was in the view of that approaching deeper 
 darkness, that the whole event of the transfiguration took 
 place. For the more immediate connection of it was this. 
 At the twenty-first verse of the previous chapter wo read, 
 ** From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his 
 disciples " — to tell them in express and unmistakable 
 language — "how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and 
 sufier many things of the elders and chief priests and 
 scribes, and be killed, and bo raised again the third day." 
 Killed ? So unprepared were the disciples for this, that 
 we actually read in the next verse, *'Then Peter took 
 him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from 
 thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee.'' Well; Jesus 
 was not content with meeting the presumption of his 
 apostle, as it required to be met, very sharply and 
 decidedly, **turnnig and saying to him," as it follows, 
 "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto 
 me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but 
 those that be of men." It pleased him graciously, and it 
 pleased the Father, that about a week after, there should 
 be granted to the three disciples such a discovery of the 
 unutterable glory of Christ, lying hid beneath the veil of 
 the flesh with its sufferings, as might well prepare and 
 fortify them against whatever shock the approaching 
 events might give to their faith. To the same end it 
 evidently was, that, simultaneously with the change on 
 the Saviour's body and on his raiment, "behold," as we 
 read in the tliird verse, "there appeared unto them 
 Moses and Elias talking with him" — "who appeared in 
 glorj"," Luke says, "and spake of his decease which he 
 should accompli.sh at Jerusalem." Moses and Ellas, the 
 representatives of the Church of the old testament, and, 
 respectively, the representatives of the law and of the 
 
134 JESUS ONLY. 
 
 propliets, appeared with Jesus, to bear witness before 
 these disciples, and through them ultimately to the 
 Church in every age, that this was He of whom Moses 
 in the law and the prophets did write, — the Messiah 
 promised to the fathers ; to bear witness to the perfect, 
 glorious harmony of the old testament and the new, 
 together the one covenant of Jehovah's grace; and, more 
 specifically, as to that death which at the first was to 
 seem so dreadful to these disciples, to bear witness to it 
 as in fact the grand event of the universe ; the theme of 
 heaven's highest praises; and the centre of the whole 
 harmony of the old covenant and the new, in which the 
 righteousness of the one, and the grace and peace of the 
 other, were for ever to meet and embrace each other. 
 
 But it was to come out at once, what a contrast there 
 was as yet between the two glorified men, — *'just men 
 made perfect," — and the three poor disciples still in the 
 flesh, now oppressed with fatigue, heavy with sleep, 
 filled also with alarm, mingling with admiration of the 
 glorious things passing before their eyes. It was under 
 the influence of these mingled feelings that Peter ad- 
 dressed to Jesus the strange words we read in the fourth 
 verse, " Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, 
 it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let us make here 
 three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and 
 one for Elias." Strange words indeed! "Well might 
 one evangelist add, *' not knowing what he said," and 
 another, "for he wist not what to say ;■ for they were 
 sore afraid." " Three tabernacles ; one for thee, and 
 one for Moses, and one for Elias " ! How does Peter 
 lose sight, for the moment, of the deep line of separation 
 between the Master and the servants, the Saviour and 
 the saved, — between the two stars, and the glorious 
 Sun beside them, whence they derived all their lustre ! 
 No doubt he puts Jesus first, ** one for thee, and one 
 for Moses, and one for Elias." But it is very much 
 
JESUS OXLY. 135 
 
 as we say, primus inter pares, — first among equals, — in 
 place of standing- quite alone among ever so many, in 
 unapproaclied grace and glory. 
 
 But the dream is quickly broken up. *' AVliile he yet 
 spake," the evangelist continues, '* heboid, a bright cloud 
 overshadowed them : and behold a voice out of the cloud, 
 which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased; hear ye him." Hear him, — not Moses, nor Elias, 
 but Ilira hy whom they spake, of whom they spake. 
 ''And when the disciples heai-d it" (Cth verse), "they 
 fell on their face, and were sore afraid." Ah, even had 
 Moses and Elias remained on the mountain, they could 
 have done nothing for them in this their deep weakness 
 and fear. It was now with them very much as with one of 
 their own number at an after period in Patmos — " When 
 I saw him," said John, "I fell at his feet as dead." Well 
 it was for them that the same Saviour who then laid his 
 right hand on John, saying to him, " Fear not; I am the 
 first and the last, and the living One ; and I was dead ; 
 and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the key;- 
 of hell and of death," was with them now, by a word 
 to reassure, and by a touch to restore, them. ** And 
 Jesus came" (7th verse), " and touched them, and said. 
 Arise, and be not afraid." marvellous words ! Jesus, 
 nowise elated by the splendours of that scene — calm and 
 tranquil in the midst of them, as if nothing extraordinary 
 had happened, — as one to whom splendour was nowise 
 strange, — was in fact his native element — Jesus, with an 
 unutterable majesty and tenderness united, " came and 
 touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid." The 
 evangelist adds, "And when they had lifted up their 
 eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." As I said, 
 even had Moses and Elias been still present, they could 
 have done nothing for them. But they were gone. The 
 dream was broken uj) not only by " the voice from the 
 excellent glory," but by the de^^arturo of the heavenly 
 
136 JESUS ONLY. 
 
 visitants — "When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw 
 no man, save Jesus only." 
 
 II. And thus are we brought to the principle, — from 
 the fact to the principle which it embodies, and which 
 might be expressed thus — that, however high a subordi- 
 nate place may be occupied by holy men, whether on 
 earth or in heaven, Jesus is to be seen ever, standing 
 quite alone among them — the one Prophet, Teacher, 
 Priest, King, Lord, Husband, Hope, Joy, very Heaven, 
 of his Church ; and that the clearer the eye of faith, the 
 more shall he be thus seen alone, even as it is in the 
 darkness of the night, or the dim twilight, that the stars 
 are visible, but when the sun arises they disappear, 
 " When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, 
 save Jesus only." Let me try to illustrate the principle 
 rapidly, in its application to these particulars — Jesus 
 only in the saving of our souls ; Jesus only in all the 
 Scriptures; Jesus only in the ministry and preaching 
 of the word ; Jesus only in our heart's trust, affection, 
 worship ; Jesus only in the valley of the shadow of 
 death ; Jesus only in the everlasting blessedness and 
 glory of heaven. 
 
 1. First, I have said, Jesus only in the saving of our souls. 
 Ah ! Moses and Elias were now in glory for the sake of 
 " Jesus only." Yea, they were out of liell, only for the 
 sake of that ** decease" of Jesus of which they spake, — 
 which he was about to " accomx^lish at Jerusalem," when 
 he should tread the wine-press alone, and of the people 
 none should be with him — alone in the salvation of our 
 souls ! Why is it that the Church of the great apostasy 
 is so anxious to make out — of course, it is but a dream — 
 that Mar}^ the motiier of Jesus, was sinless, — immaculate 
 even in the womb of her own motlier, — but because they 
 will have her a co-Saviour with JesuR ; and she could not 
 well save others, having any sin of her own ? But, as the 
 
JESUS OXLY. 1C7 
 
 Immaculato Conception is a dream, so the co-Saviour- 
 sliip is a blaspliomy, abhorred by none more tlian by 
 Mary herself, who also is out of liell, only for the sake of 
 Jesus, and his blood — "Neither" (as Peter spake at an 
 after period) " is there salvation in any other ; for there 
 is none other name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby we must be saved." 
 
 2. Secondly, I said, Jesus onhj in all the Scriptures — the 
 only author of them, the only subject, theme, of them. 
 The onl}^ author of the Scriptures, Jesus. ''Hear Am," 
 was the voice from the eternal Father, — not Moses, nor 
 Eh'as, — not Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel. For, "the pro- 
 phets," as Peter afterwards wrote, " inquired and searched 
 diligently, searching what, or wliat manner of time, tlio 
 Spirit of Chrkt which was in them did signify." And 
 as for the New Testament, it is not — according to the 
 favourite Socinian manner of citing it — Paul, James, Jesus, 
 John. no. " I Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ." "Ye 
 have not so learned Christ ; if so be that ye have heard 
 him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in 
 Jesus." Yes, "learned Christ,'^ — "the truth as it is in 
 Jesus." For He is the only subject, theme, as well as 
 author, of the Scriptures. All their lines meet in this 
 centre. " They arc they," said he, "which testify of me." 
 "Beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded 
 unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
 Himself." 
 
 3. Thirdly, I said, Jesus onh/ in the ministry and preach- 
 ing of the Word. Take two preachers. Paul — "I 
 determined," he sa3'S, "not to know anything among 
 you save Jesus Christ." "I am jealous over you with 
 godly jealousy; fori have espoused you to one Jiusband, 
 that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 
 And John the Ijaptist. You recollect his memorablo 
 reply to some of his disciples, who came to him, saying, 
 " Eabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom 
 
138 JESUS ONLY-. 
 
 thou Learest witness, beliolcl, the same baptizeth, and all 
 men come to him." " Ye yourselves," said he, "bear 
 me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am 
 sent before him. lie that hath the bride is tlie hridegroom^^ 
 — as if he had said, who but the bridegroom should have 
 the heart of the bride? — "but the friend of the bride- 
 groom " — that is my place — " which standeth and heareth 
 him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice : 
 this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but 
 I must decrease . . . He that believeth on the Son hath 
 everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son shall 
 not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 
 4. And thus, fourthly, I said, Jesus only in our hearfs 
 trust, affection, tvorshij). Trust. It is the necessary 
 counterpart of Jesus only in the saving of our souls. 
 If he is alone in our salvation, he must needs be alone in 
 our trust for it. I well know, indeed, that this were but 
 palpable blasphemy, if the Socinians were right, that 
 Jesus is a mere creature, for, "cursed is the man that 
 trusteth in man, and maketli flesh his arm, and whose 
 heart cleparteth from the Lord." But among the endless 
 proofs that Jesus is the living God-man, this is one, 
 that we are everywhere bidden commit this blasphemy, 
 if blasphemy it were — in the Old Testament, "Kiss 
 the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, 
 when his wrath is kindled but a little: blessed are all 
 they that put their trust in him." And in the New, 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved" — "I know whom I have believed, and am 
 persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have 
 committed unto him against that day." And in our 
 heart's affection, — Jesus only in our affection, love. For 
 it is husband and wife. No room for a divided affection 
 here. " He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom." 
 " He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not 
 worthy of me." And in our heart's worshi]3 — Jesus only, 
 
JESUS ONLY. 1 09 
 
 as in our trust and our afTcction, so also in our heart's 
 worship. Indeed, the same apostate Churcli that makes 
 Mary a co-Saviour with Jesus, makes lier also, and un- 
 avoidably, a joint object of worsliip with him. But it 
 is just another blaspllom3^ It is Antichrist. This is 
 Christianity, *'Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings 
 and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and 
 dominion for ever and ever ! " 
 
 5. Fifthl}^ I said, Jesus only in the valley of the shadow of 
 death. Methinks it is peculiarly affecting here. For, very 
 much as Moses and Elias were no more with the discij^les 
 in the hour of their deepest weakness and fear, so in this 
 valley none can be with us — no Moses nor Elias, — no 
 minister, — no friend, relative, however dear. It must 
 be a frightful solitude here without Jesus only. Happy, 
 thrice liappy, if here it shall be with us as Mark speaks, 
 in his parallel words to the text, "Suddenly, when they 
 had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save 
 Jesus only with themselves." 
 
 6. Once more I said, Jesus only in the everlasting llesscd- 
 ness and glory of heaven. yes, Jesus only our way 
 to heaven — but our heaven also itself, — the heaven of 
 our heaven! "To depart, and be Avith Christ," writes 
 Paul — " Absent from the body, present with the Lord." 
 " Father, I will that they also whom thou liast given mo 
 be with mo where I am ; that tliey may behold my glory." 
 They often ask, anxiously, shall we know our friends in 
 heaven? I have no doubt that we shall. Moses and Elias 
 had not lost their individuality, it seems, in glory. But 
 I suspect that in the anxiety with whicli the question is 
 often asked, there is too much of Peter's " Tlireo taber- 
 nacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for 
 Elias." Oh, it will not then be — one for thee, and one 
 for wife, and one for daughter, but, " Whom liave I in 
 heaven but Tlcee 5"" Then the text will have found a new 
 
140 JESUS ONLY. 
 
 and very glorious meaning and application, ** When they 
 had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus 
 only." 
 
 Three words, and I have done. 
 
 (1.) First, see why it is that so very much is made 
 in Scripture of believing, — of faith. It is not for any 
 peculiar excellence in faith, as it is our act. But 
 faith is the counterpart of ** Jesus only." Faith, in its 
 distinctive nature, answers to "Jesus only," — is the 
 empty hand wherewith we receive, the eye with which 
 we behold, *' Jesus only." 
 
 2. And thus, second, see what an emphasis the whole 
 subject gives to those words of Scripture, *'Shut up unto 
 the faith " — " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great 
 salvation ? " For there are not two Saviours. How 
 shall we, can we, escape, if we miss *' Jesus only" — 
 who also is alone just because he is so glorious, all-suffi- 
 cient ? *' How shall we escape, if we neglect so great 
 salvation ? " '' Shut up unto the faith " ! 
 
 3. Finally, believers in Jesus, seek to have this word 
 graven on your inmost hearts, "Jesus only " — only in the 
 saving of our souls ; only in all the Scriptures ; only in 
 the ministry and preaching of the word ; only in our 
 heart's trust, affection, worship ; only in the valley of the 
 shadow of death ; only in the everlasting blessedness and 
 glory of heaven I 
 
 *' Lord, I believe thou hast prepared 
 (Unworthy though I be), 
 For me a blood-bought free reward, 
 A golden harp for me ! 
 
 'Tis strung, and tuned for endless years, 
 
 And form'd by power divine. 
 To sound in God the Father's ears 
 
 No other name but Thine." 
 
 Jesus only ! Jesus only ! 
 
XI. 
 
 YOUTH RENEWED. 
 
 " Bless the Lord, my soul; and all that is within 
 me, bless his hohj vamc. BUss the Lord, my soul, 
 and forget not all his benefits : who forgiveth all thine 
 iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth 
 thy life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with 
 loving-kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy 
 mouth with good things ; so that thy youth is reneioed 
 like the eagle' s."— Vs. ciii. 1-5. Text—" Thy youth is 
 renewed like the eagle' s.^'* 
 
 Is David singing there of a renovation, in his later 
 years, of his youthful bodily health and vigour, — of a 
 renewing of his youth physically in his older age? I am 
 thoroughly persuaded that he is not ; but that he sings of 
 something altogether different, and unspeakably more 
 excellent. For, in the first place, there really is no such 
 thing as a man's renewing his youth physically in his later 
 years. No doubt we sometimes, in a kind of courteous 
 pleasantry, say to one advanced in life whom we perceive 
 to be looking unusually fresh and well, You are quite 
 renewing your youth. But the kind pleasantry is very 
 
 •There is nothing in the Hebrew for the previous "so that." 
 It is simply, "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy 
 diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from destruction ; who crowneth 
 thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies ; who satisfieth thy 
 mouth with good things " — then the text, which I regard as the 
 culminating, crowning, summing up, of all the previous benefits 
 together — " thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." 
 
142 YOUTH RENEWED. 
 
 well Tinderstood on both sides. No sane person in ad- 
 vanced 3^ears would dream of writing gravely of himself, 
 however hale and fresh, My youth is renewed like the 
 eagle's ! Ah, these white hairs are never to grow black 
 again. Yery surely — unless, indeed, death come in earlier 
 to stay the advance — infancy passes into childhood, child- 
 hood into youth, youth into manhood, manhood into age, 
 and age, as to the body at least, into the grave — **The 
 dsLYS of our years are threescore years and ten ; and if by 
 reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their 
 strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and 
 we fly away." 
 
 But further, the supposition of any reference here to 
 the renewing of youth physically in later years, is nega- 
 tived emphatically by David's own history. When he 
 was passing out of youth into early manhood, we find him 
 described as ''ruddy, and withal of a beautiful counte- 
 nance, and goodly to louk to." But in his later years, it 
 appears from many of his psalms that the Lord had been 
 pleased to visit him with manifold bodily infirmities. 
 After his mournful, mournful, sin in the matter of Uriah 
 the Hittite, about twenty years before his death, we find 
 him writing many such words as these — ''My loins are 
 filled with a loathsome disease ; and there is no soundness 
 in my flesh." "When thou with rebukes dost correct 
 man for iniquit}^ thou makest his beauty to consume 
 away like a moth." " Eemove thy stroke away from me ; 
 I am consumed by the blow of thine hand." Nor does he 
 appear to have ever recovered from the efi'ects of these 
 maladies ; so that he became, in fact, a man prematurely 
 old. One reading the history of his last days, might 
 fancy him to have been a man of at least eighty. In 
 reality, he died but two or three years older than I 
 now am, — died at the age of seventy — far from having 
 renewed his youth phj^sically in his later years. 
 
 But perhaps the most decisive evidence of all as to the 
 
YOUTH REXEWED. \1'6 
 
 moaning of the text is its own language, ''Tliy youth" 
 — -whose youth? David is speaking to his soul — "thy 
 youth," my soul, **is renewed like the eagle's." No 
 doubt, tho ** soul" is frequently used in Hebrew for the 
 animal life, as in that expression, "Thou hast brought 
 up my soul from the grave." But assuredly it is not so 
 used here. Observe the opening words of the psalm, 
 "Bless the Lord, my soul" — certainly that is not tho 
 animal life, but the soul, as we usually speak — " and all 
 that is within me," — every mental power and faculty, — 
 understanding, will, memory, heart, affections, — "bless 
 his holy name. Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not 
 all his benefits : who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who 
 healeth all thy diseases" — thy profound corruptions, my 
 soul; "who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who 
 crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies ; 
 who satisfieth thy mouth with good things ; ilif/ youth is 
 renewed like the eagWs.^^ Therefore the question arises. 
 What, more specifically, is that renewing of his soul's 
 youth of which David speaks, and of which the Holy 
 Ghost by his pen speaks to us, in these remarkable words, 
 " Thy 3'outh is renewed like the eagle's " ? — as to which 
 last figure, "like the eagles," it may suflice to say that 
 the allusion is plainly enough to the known longevity, and 
 amazing strength, of this noble bird, which, besides the 
 power common to it with other birds of renewing its 
 whole plumage periodically, is known to live on some- 
 times for a century, retaining the while, I presume, 
 that might of wing, and wonderful clearness and keenness 
 of vision, of which God himself says in the book of Job, 
 "Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make 
 her nest on high ? She dwelloth and abideth on the rock, 
 upon tho crag of the rock, and the strong jdace. From 
 thence she sceketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off." 
 
 I. Well; I answer to our question that, first, and most 
 
144 YOUTH KENE WED . 
 
 fundamentally, the youtli of the soul of God's child 
 M^as renewed gloriously, and he entered on a new 
 and imperishable life, in his new birth, — in the hour of 
 that entire change of state and of character, of which 
 Jesus said to Nicodemus, '* Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." Does not David 
 point to this grand radical change in the three first of 
 tlie benefitT for which here he summons his soul to giv^e 
 earnest thanks to the Lord, saying, "Who forgiveth all 
 thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who re- 
 deemeth thy life from destruction" ? I will return to 
 that presently. But let me first remind you how Nico- 
 demus answered our Lord, "How can a man be born 
 when he is old ? can he enter the second time into his 
 mother's womb and be born ? " committing a mistake 
 not unlike that which you should make in supposing 
 David to speak here of the renewing of his 3^outh 
 physically. Jesus sets him right, saying, " Yerily, verily, 
 I say unto thee, except a man bo born of water and of 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God " 
 — as if he had said, It is of the second birth of the soul 
 I speak to thee, even as God long ago spake by the 
 prophets, saying, " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, 
 and ye shall be clean ; from all j^our filthiness, and from 
 all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will 
 I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I 
 will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
 will give 3^ou an heart of flesh. And I will put my 
 Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, 
 and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." Brethren, 
 would you see what that renewed youth is of which the text 
 speaks ? Behold it there, " If any man be in Christ, he is 
 a new creature : old things are passed aw^ay ; behold all 
 things are become new." Or, see it there, " Lie not one 
 to another, seeing that ye have put ofl" the old man with 
 his deeds ; and have put on the new man, "which, is 
 
YOUTH TvENEWED. 145 
 
 renewed in knowledge after tlio image of liiui that created 
 him." Ah, that is youth renewed ! Or, see it there, 
 ''As newborn babes — laying aside all malice, and all 
 guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 
 as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, 
 that ye may grow thereby " — Eenewcd youth ! 
 
 I said that David points to this fundamental change, 
 in the first three of the benefits here, ''Who forgiveth 
 all thine iniquities j who healeth all thy diseases" — 
 them all, my soul — not only thy manifold guilt by the 
 medicine of the blood, but thy terrible corruptions also, by 
 the clean water of the Spirit's grace, — "the washing of 
 regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Then 
 he combines both benefits in one, when he adds, " who 
 redeemeth thy life from destruction." yes, the new 
 life is life out of death more ways than one, — not only 
 out of destruction, ruin, but out of the death of Jesus, the 
 Substitute, and by union to Him and to it — as Paul 
 speaks, "Our old man is crucified with him;" "buried 
 with him into death ; that like as Christ was raised up 
 from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we 
 also should walk in newness of life." Beloved, he who 
 has been thus forgiven and regenerated, — "washed, and 
 sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and by the Spirit of our God," — is like Namaan, the 
 Syrian leper, of whom it is written that, after he had 
 been persuaded to wash seven times in the Jordan at 
 God's command, "his flesh came again as the flesh of a 
 little child, and he was clean;" or like that penitent in 
 the book of Job, of whom, when God had said of him, 
 "Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found 
 a ransom," it is added, " his flesh shall be fresher than 
 a child's ; he shall return to the days of his youth." 
 most blessed renewing of youth this, without which, what 
 were any mere renewing of youth physically, even were 
 it a thing possible ? — as one sings. 
 
146 TOTJTn RENEWED. 
 
 " Would you be young again ? so would not I." 
 Blessed renewing of youth, this, of which our Lord speaks 
 to us as often as he finds the type of his disciple in the 
 little child ! Most blessed renewing this of youth, wherein 
 a sinner, throwing off at once the whole load of the '* dead 
 works " and iniquities of a lifetime, returns back to some- 
 what of the very gladness, and innocence, and guilelessness, 
 of childhood ! And that is the meaning of the exhortation, 
 " Lie not one to another, seeing ye* have put off the old 
 man with his deeds, and have put on the new man : " and 
 again, *' Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and 
 hypocrisies" — ah, children ^^wwo^ be hypocrites ! — "and 
 envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire 
 the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." 
 Let me only add here, that God gave a certain remark- 
 able type of all this in the history of his ancient people. 
 YoY you recollect that, when he was about to "bear 
 them as on eagles wings" — so he speaks — forth from the 
 captivity of Egypt, where they had grown as it were 
 old, and worn, and wasted, with the rigours of their in- 
 tolerable bondage, he spake to Moses and Aaron, saying, 
 " This month shall be unto you the beginning of months ; 
 it shall be the first month of the year to you." Yes, the 
 sprinkling of the blood of the lamb on their houses that 
 night, and the bringing of them forth with mighty hand 
 out of Egypt, was the beginning of their whole life as a 
 people. And so afterwards we find such expressions as 
 that, " I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the 
 love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in 
 the wilderness : " and again, " She shall sing there as in 
 the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came 
 up out of the land of Egypt." 
 
 11. But, secondly, there is oftentimes a further, most 
 blessed renewing of the soul's youth of God's child — 
 some call it a second conversion, though the expression 
 
YOUTH KENEWED. IH 
 
 requires to be used cautiously — when, after a period of 
 darkness, and distance, and spiritual decay, with, it may 
 be, the commission of positive sin, God revisits his child 
 with his pardoning and sanctifying mercy, brings him to 
 deep repentance, and restores to him the purity and the 
 joy of his salvation. Thus was it eminently in the case of 
 David, when, after that mournful sin to which I have had 
 occasion to allude, he was fii-st of all brought to cry out 
 of the depths, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall bo 
 clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
 Make me to hear joy and gladness ; that the bones which 
 thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my 
 sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me 
 a clean heart, God ; and renew a right spirit within 
 me. Eestore unto me the joy of thy salvation " — and by 
 and by was brought to sing in the language of another 
 psalm, " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, 
 whose sin is covered. . . . When I kept silence, my bones 
 waxed old, through my roaring all the day long : for day 
 and night thy hand was heavy upon me ; my moisture was 
 turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my 
 sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, 
 I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and thou 
 forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Thou art my hiding- 
 place ; thou shalt preserve me from trouble ; thou shalt 
 compass me about with songs of deliverance " — Thy youth, 
 my soul, is renewed lil-e the eaglets. Thus it was with the 
 godly Asaph, when, after his period of long, and deep, 
 and dark, temptation, he was made to sing, "So foolish 
 was I, and ignorant ; I was as a beast before thee. Never- 
 theless I am continually with thee; thou hast holden 
 me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy 
 counsel, and afterward receive me to glory" — Thy youth 
 is renewed like the eagle's. Thus was it with Peter, after 
 his fearful, and to all human appearance fatal, denial of 
 the Master with oaths in the high priest's palace, when 
 
148 YOUTH EENLWED. 
 
 Jesus made good to him tlie gracious words, ''I have 
 prayed for thee that thy faith fail not ; and when thou art 
 converted " (restored), " strengthen thy brethren." *' The 
 Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter re- 
 membered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto 
 him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 
 And he went out and wept bitterly." How does Peter 
 come forth by and by, with his youth renewed like the 
 eagle's, when at Pentecost he says before the assembled 
 multitude, " Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, 
 that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have 
 crucified, both Lord and Christ ! " And soon after we 
 read, *' When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, 
 and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant 
 men, they marvelled ; and they took knowledge of 
 them, that they had been with Jesus." Ah, are there 
 none in this assembly who know by painful, and yet 
 blessed, experience what that means, *' Behold, I will 
 hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she 
 shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her 
 lovers, but she shall not overtake them ; and she shall 
 seek them, but shall not find them : then shall she say, I 
 will go and return to my first husband ; for then was it 
 better with me than now. . . . Behold, I will allure 
 her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak 
 comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards 
 from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope : 
 and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and 
 as in the day when she came up out of the land of 
 Egypt?" 
 
 III. But, thirdly, there is what I might call a more 
 normal and progressive rejuvenescence, — renewal of the 
 soul's youth of the child of God, — whichlamsatisfiedDavid 
 has in his eye here, and which Paul divinely exemplifies 
 for us in his precious words, "For which cause we faint 
 
YOrTII RENEWED. HO 
 
 not ; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward 
 man is renewed day by day " — see how far the renewal 
 is from depending on mere bodily vigour, ** though our 
 outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day 
 by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment, 
 worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory; while we look " — ah, the eagle's piercing gaze, — 
 how she cleaves the very sky, and looks on the blazing sun ! 
 — " while we look not at the things which are seen, but at 
 the things which are not seen : for the things which are 
 seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are 
 eternal." Or, see this normal and progressive renewal of 
 the soul's youth in Isaiah's sublime words, ''Even the 
 youtlis shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
 utterly fall : but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew 
 their strength " — see there why I have called the renewal 
 normal, or according to a fixed blessed rule, "they that 
 wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they 
 shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, 
 and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." 
 The rather I have called it normal and progressive, be- 
 cause it is held forth in Scripture, not as privilege only, 
 but as commanded duty also, thus, "Be not conformed to 
 this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
 mind:" and again, "That ye put off, concerning the 
 former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt accord- 
 ing to the deceitful lusts ; and be renewed in the spirit of 
 your mind ; and that ye put on the new man, which after 
 God is created in righteousness and true holiness." 
 
 I said that David points to the grand radical change of 
 state and of character in the three first of his benefits, "Who 
 forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases; 
 who redeemeth thy life from destruction." But now 
 observe the two that follow, ** Who crowneth thee with 
 loving-kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy 
 mouth with good things." " Crowneth thee " — a remark- 
 
150 YOUTH RENEWED. 
 
 able word in the original, signifying to surround on 
 every side as with a crown — " who crowneth thee 
 with loving-kindness and tender mercies." Oh, this 
 is God's filling his child with all peace and joy in 
 believing, that he may abound in hope through the 
 power of the Holy Ghost. It is the Sun of righteous- 
 ness so arisen on his soul with healing in his wings, as to 
 illumine his whole path, and turn even common mercies 
 into so many tokens of covenant love. It is that voice 
 in the Song, " He brought me to the banqueting house, 
 and his banner over me was love. I sat down under 
 his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet 
 to my taste" — "Who crowneth thee with loving-kind- 
 ness and tender mercies ; who satisjieth thy mouth with 
 good things P Of course the figure there is a rich and 
 sumptuous feast of earth. But the reference is to a 
 feast unspeakably different — even that one, ''Behold, God 
 is my salvation, I will trust, and not be afraid ; for the 
 Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song ; he also is 
 become my salvation." " Open thy mouth wide, and I 
 will fiU it." "Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall 
 give thee the desires of thine heart." "Whatsoever ye 
 shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may 
 be glorified in the Son. If j^e shall ask anything in my 
 name, I will do it" — "Who satisfieth thy mouth with 
 good things ; thy youth is renewed lil;e the eagle' s?'' I 
 am the more persuaded that David has this progressive 
 renewal of youth in his eye, because the verb he uses here, 
 " renewed," is in a kind of future tense, having the force 
 of a continued present — or rather, past, present, and future, 
 all in one — as if it were said. Thy youth, my soul, has 
 been, is being, and yet more and more shall be, renewed 
 like the eagle's ! But that runs into one other great 
 particular. 
 
 lY. I observe, once more, that the youth of the soul of 
 
YOUTH llENEWED. lol 
 
 God's cliild comes to be renewed, strange to sa}' ! in the 
 highest of all ways, in his death, — in that which, to the 
 eye of sense, might seem to be the end and wreck of 
 all. Oftentimes there are marvellous foretastes and anti- 
 cipations of this in the closing hours. Thus, of David it is 
 written, "These be the last words of David. David the 
 son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on 
 high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet 
 psalmist of Israel, said. The Spirit of the Lord spake by 
 me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel 
 said, the Hock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over 
 men," — or rather, for it is manifestly a prediction of 
 Messiah, " The Euler over men is a righteous one, ruling 
 in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the 
 morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without 
 clouds ; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by 
 clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so 
 with God ; yet he hath made with me an everlasting 
 covenant, ordered in all things and sure." One very 
 near and dear to myself, who was taken home in early life, 
 when told that her disease was fatal, said to her mother 
 — "But I am only beginning to live! " A few months 
 ago I received a letter from a lady in London, a sister of 
 the late distinguished and excellent Sir Donald M'Leod, 
 whose body, as you will recollect, in the act of hastily 
 entering a carriage of the Metropolitan Railway, became 
 instantaneously a wreck and ruin. She says, "His song of 
 praise began on this side of the river. His last words were, 
 * Praised be thy holy name for ever and ever ! '" Oh, if such 
 the anticipation, what the realisation — " absent from the 
 body, present with the Lord : " " Father, I will that they 
 also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am • 
 that they may behold my glory! " — truly, j-outh renewed 
 like the eagle's. Mothinks it is the fabled phoenix be- 
 come a grand reality — the bird of which they dreamed 
 that, after having been consumed in a funeral pile of its 
 
152 YOUTH RENEWED. 
 
 own kindling, it revived out of its ashes in tlie fresliness 
 of immortal youth. "To day," said Jesus to the thief 
 on the cross, ''shalt thou be with me in paradise." Oh, 
 not only is not the new life destroj^ed in death ; then for 
 the first time it reaches its highest fulness. Nay, not 
 quite its highest. For the youth of God's child shall be 
 finally and fully renewed only in the morning of the 
 resurrection, when "this corruptible shall put on incor- 
 ruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality." And 
 still is it life out of death — as Paul speaks, "it is sown — 
 that which thou so west is not quickened except it die " — 
 " it is sown in corruption ; it is raised in incorruption : it is 
 sown in dishonour ; it is raised in glory : it is sown in 
 weakness; it is raised in power." " Our conversation is 
 in heaven ; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ : who shall change our vile body, that 
 it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according 
 to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all 
 things unto himself." 
 
 Dear child of God, your best things are all before you. 
 Por you can say, " As for me, I will behold thy face in 
 righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy 
 likeness." Only remember well the normal, progressive, 
 rejuvenescence, and the rule of it, " They that wait upon 
 the Lord shall renew their strength." Keep near, I beseech 
 you, to the Lord in prayer, with thanksgiving. Let your 
 spirit be, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return 
 from following after thee." " My soul followeth hard after 
 thee ; thy right hand upholdeth me." " Set me as a seal 
 upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm : for love is 
 strong as death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave." "I will 
 not let thee go, except thou bless me." "Wait on the 
 Lord ; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine 
 heart : wait, I say, on the Lord." 
 
 But alas for the mournful contrast of the men of this 
 world, who have their portion in this life, and all whose 
 
YOUTH KEN E WED. 1<j3 
 
 best tilings are past ! How peculiarly mournful is old 
 age out of Christ, and without the hope of any renewing 
 of youth for ever ! And yet, it need not be so even in old 
 age. I have before told you of the late eminent Lord 
 Chancellor Lj-ndliurst, who, at the age of ninety, was 
 brought to the knowledge of the Saviour, and, among 
 otlier things, said, " I used never to be able to understand 
 what these good people meant, when they talked so much 
 of the Mood, the hlood. But I understand it now — it's 
 just Substitution ! " When asked by Lady Lj^ndhurst 
 very near his end, "Are you happy?" he answered, 
 " Supremely " — ah, j-outli renewed at ninety, — renewed 
 like the eagle's ! 
 
 Dear children before me, would you be alwaj's young ? 
 Give your heart to -Jesus to make it new, and moie 
 and more new. Let j'our praj-er be, " satisfy us 
 early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad 
 all our days." So shall you know what that beautiful 
 word means, " Even the youths shall faint and be wearv, 
 and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait 
 upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall 
 mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not 
 be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." 
 
XII. 
 
 THE LOED OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 " This is Jiis name ivherehy he shall be called, The 
 Lord our EiCxHteousness."— Jer. xxiii. 6. 
 
 In the opening verses of the chapter Grod had pro- 
 nounced a woe on nnfaithful pastors — referring probably 
 to rulers both civil and ecclesiastical — who had destroyed 
 and scattered the sheep of his pasture. He had promised 
 to gather his flock in due time together, and set up faith- 
 ful shepherds over them. Then he passes, at the fifth 
 verse, by a natui-al and beautiful transition, to that 
 prediction of Messiah, the great Shepherd of the sheep, — 
 King and Priest of his Church both, — of which the text 
 forms a part, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 
 that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a 
 King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment 
 and justice in the earth. In his days Judali shall be 
 saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his 
 name whereby he shall be called, the Lord (Jehovah) our 
 Righteousness." 
 
 You will easily perceive that, in this great title of 
 Messiah, there is a party introduced as if speaking, 
 and giving it to him, '' our," — '' The Lord our Eighteous- 
 ness." Beyond doubt, this party is the ransomed 
 Church of God, — the true Israel and Judah, — the 
 body of Christ, consisting of believers of aU countries 
 and ages of the world. Of the members of this body 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSXES?. 155 
 
 it is in effect declared that they shall 1)0 found address- 
 ing Christ — humbly, believingly, jo^^full}^ — by the name, 
 *' The Lord our Righteousness." And what I purpose, 
 accordingly, is to inquire a little into the leading thoughts 
 and feelings which the title, as thus given to Christ by his 
 Church, implies and expresses. 
 
 I. And, fn-st, I remark that, wlien the people of 
 Christ address him by this name, ''The Lord our Eight- 
 eousness," it implies a contrite acknowledgment that 
 they have no righteousness of their own, — that they 
 are destitute of all personal righteousness in which to 
 appear before a holy God. "The Lord our Eigliteous- 
 ness," they say, confessing in the very utterance that 
 '* all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags," — that they 
 have none in which they can for a moment venture 
 to appear before the Holy One of Israel. The more 
 narrowly they search the inspired Word, and view their 
 own characters in the light of it, the more is this hum- 
 bling conviction borne home on them. They find the Lord 
 prescribing to man at the first a perfect rule of righteous- 
 ness. They find him pronouncing his curse on every 
 one who continueth not in all things which it requires. 
 They find him declaring that, in this fallen world, " there 
 is none righteous, no, not one;" that ''the carnal mind 
 is enmity against God;" that "as many as are of the 
 works of the law are under the curse;" that "by the 
 deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his 
 sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Once, 
 indeed, the people of Christ did not, any more tlian 
 the world around them, obtain the knowledge of sin by 
 the law. " Tliey were alive," as Paul writes of his 
 former self, "without the law once." VAmd to the ex- 
 tent and purity and spirituality of the law, they fancied 
 themselves in their own righteousness sufficiently good 
 and secure. But "when the commandment camo " at 
 
156 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 length to them by the Holy Ghost, " sin revived, and they 
 died ; and the commandment which was ordained to life, 
 they found to be unto death." They found that, while a 
 single sin was sufficient to bring the curse, their entire 
 lives had been one continued course of sin, — of rebellion. 
 They saw ihat, even since the time of their conversion 
 to God — with some goodness, the fruit of his Spirit, 
 there had mingled imperfections and defilements innu- 
 merable. And still, as they continue to search their 
 own hearts, — rise in their thoughts of the breadth and 
 purity of the law, and see its requirements reaching to 
 the most secret motives and principles of action, — they 
 find that their very best deeds have not only nothing 
 in them meriting heaven, but much, very much, deserving 
 wrath. Every way the conviction is borne home on 
 them, that they are without a righteousness of their own 
 in which to stand before God ; and they give expression 
 to this in effect when they call Christ by the name, *' The 
 Lord our Righteousness." 
 
 II. But, secondly, I observe that, when the people of 
 Christ give this name to him, they declare their solemn 
 persuasion that they require a righteousness, though they 
 liave none of their own, in which to appear before the Holy 
 One of Israel ; they not only confess their entire destitu- 
 tion, but acknowledge their indispensable need, of a true 
 and j)erfect righteousness, *' This is his name whereby he 
 shall be called. The Lord our Righteousness." yes, they 
 do not profess to regard as superfluous what they have 
 found to be wanting. They do not so renounce the hope 
 of life by the law as to despise and trample on the law. 
 They believe it to be none the less "holy, and just, and 
 good," that they have fallen beneath its curse. While 
 they own themselves to have broken and dishonoured 
 it, they acknowledge that kept it must be, "magnified 
 and made honourable," or they must perish. The same 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 157 
 
 Spirit of grace that lias ''convinced them of sin," " con- 
 vinces them of righteousness," — teaches them to know 
 that their standing in need of forgiveness does not lay 
 God under any obligation to bestow it ; to know that 
 mercy can never require anything at his hand which 
 justice forbids ; to know that justice does forbid par- 
 don without satisfaction, — favour without righteousness ; 
 to know that even mercy itself, considered in relation to 
 the whole scheme of things, requires that the threatenings 
 of truth be executed, and the rights and claims of justice 
 respected and maintained; to know that all the Divine 
 perfections conspire in forbidding that that law which 
 required a perfect righteousness of unfallen man, shall 
 be lowered and set aside, to admit of the sinner's 
 acceptance without righteousness ; to know, in a word, 
 that, if they are to be saved, it can only be in some way 
 (if such can by possibility be found) of reconciling and 
 harmonizing the desires of mercy with the demands of 
 justice, the integrity of the law with the blessedness 
 of its transgressor, his utter destitution of righteous- 
 ness with his acceptance before God as righteous, and 
 capable of being restored holily to the favour, and fel- 
 lowship, and image, and everlasting enjoyment of God. 
 
 III. And thus, thirdly, I observe that, when the peoj)le 
 of Christ address him by this name, " The Lord our 
 Eighteousness," they express and profess their faith, that 
 Messiah, being in one person God and man, has brought 
 in a righteousness in their behalf, which is by God 
 accepted for them, and imputed unto them, for their justi- 
 fication — "This is his name whereby he shall be called, 
 Jehovah our Eighteousness." They profess their faith, 
 that Messiah is in one person God and man. As for 
 his humanity, it is implied in the very idea of his be- 
 coming the righteousness of his people, since a creature 
 alone is capable of fulfilling the righteousness of the law. 
 
158 THE LORD OUE IIIGIITEOTJSNESS. 
 
 But the same blessed triiih. they find expressly in every 
 prophetic announcement of Christ, from the first promise 
 of the Seed of the woman that should bruise the head of 
 the serpent, down to the prediction which introduces the 
 text, "I will raise unto David a righteous Branch," — 
 a son — even as Isaiah had written, '* There shall come 
 forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall 
 grow out of his roots." Well ; but of what avail could be 
 the righteousness of a man, however sinless, for the salva- 
 tion of his fellow men ? To yield such a righteousness had 
 been but his duty for himself — more than which he could 
 not yield, nor less, without falling beneath the curse. 
 Accordingly, see how the title which God puts here into the 
 mouth of the ransomed Church, proclaims Christ God as 
 well as man, ''This is his name whereby he shall be 
 called, Jehovah our Eighteousness." From the begin- 
 ning the Church knew sufficiently this mystery, as 
 witness the words of Jacob on liis dying bed, " God, 
 before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, 
 the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 
 the Angel" — manifestly the same God — ''which re- 
 deemed me from all evil, bless the lads." But as the 
 stream of prophecy widened, advanced, and fell at 
 length into the tide of the gos2)el revelation, the Church 
 grew more and more familiar with such titles as " Em- 
 manuel," "The mighty God," "The fellow of the Lord 
 of hosts," "The first and the last and the living One," 
 "God manifest in the flesh," "God over all blessed 
 for ever." Nor has she ever for a moment regarded 
 this as some theological dogma or speculation, but 
 has gloried in it ever as a truth wherewith her dearest 
 hopes and interests are inseparably bound up, "Jehovah 
 our Eighteousness." As man, she beholds him able 
 to suffer ; as God, able to save : in his humanity, ful- 
 filling all righteousness ; by his Divinity rendering that 
 righteousness available for the lost : as man, made under 
 
THE LOUD OUn lUGKTEOUSXESS. loO 
 
 tliG law, obeying its precept, enduring its curse ; as God, 
 imparting to tlie obedience and sacrifice a value, merit, 
 sufficiency, strictly infinite. 
 
 In the counsels of eternity, — in the everlasting cove- 
 nant, — she beholds Jehovah constituting our Lord Jesus 
 the Head, Eeprescntativo, Surety, of his j^coplc — as it is 
 written, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one." 
 "I have laid help on one that is mighty." "By the 
 knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify 
 many; for he shall bear their iniquities." She sees the 
 Son, in the fulness of time, coming into our world; taking 
 our nature up into his Divine Person ; and discharging 
 in it the entire debt of obedience and suffering due by his 
 people — "finishing transgression, making an end of sins, 
 bringing in everlasting righteousness." She sees the 
 Father "well pleased for his righteousness' sake;" raising 
 him from the dead, in testimony of the acceptance of his 
 sacrifice ; acquitting and glorifying the Surety, and in 
 him the people whom he represented, when their debt 
 was paid. In a word, she beholds the Father, on his inter- 
 cession within the veil, sending the Holy Spirit into their 
 hearts, uniting them to Christ by living faith, imputing 
 his righteousness to them, setting them for ever free 
 from the curse, accepting them in the Beloved ^ making 
 them heirs of everlasting salvation — as it is written, 
 " lie hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for up, 
 that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 
 "David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom 
 God imputeth righteousness without works." " By the 
 obedience of one shall many be made righteous." '' Of 
 him are je in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto 
 us righteousness.'* " Christ is the end of the law for 
 righteousness to every one that believeth." "This is 
 his name whereby ho shall be called, The Lord our 
 Kighteousness." 
 
160 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 IV. But, once more, I observe that, wlien tlio people of 
 Christ call him by the name, " The Lord our Eighteous- 
 ness," they are seen in the act of embracing, appropriating, 
 and rejoicing in him, as the Lord their righteousness. 
 "Our" — a word of possession, — of appropriation, "The 
 Lord our Righteousness." Do you ask what the ground is 
 on which this all-important embracing, appropriating, pro- 
 ceeds? I answer, that assuredly it is not any kind of price 
 paid by the sinner, — any kind of equivalent sought or given, 
 for a possession which in fact is beyond all price, even as 
 the Church has no price to pay, being in herself "wretched, 
 and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." And 
 what is the ground, therefore, save the free and unrestricted 
 offer of Christ and his glorious fulness, in the gospel, to 
 sinners of mankind, — to sinners simply as such, — to them 
 all without exce]3tion or distinction ? Thus, " My Father 
 giveth you the true bread from heaven." "If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." " Hearken unto 
 me| ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness : I 
 bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, 
 and my salvation shall not tarry." " Now the righteous- 
 ness of God without the law is manifested, being wit- 
 nessed by the law and th e prophets ; even the righteous- 
 ness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, 
 and upon all them that believe." "Ho, everyone that 
 thirsteth, come ye to the waters." " Whosoever will, let 
 him take the water of life freely." Listening to such 
 blessed offers, — taught by the Holy Ghost effectually 
 to listen to them, — the Church flees for refuge to lay 
 hold oil the hope set before her; no longer "going 
 about to establish her own righteousness, submits herself 
 to the righteousness of God ; " embraces, closes with, 
 Messiah as the Lord her righteousness — like some drown- 
 ing man laying hold of the plank that can alone sustain 
 and save him, exclaims, "This is his name whereby he 
 shall be called, The Lord our Eighteousness." Nor is this 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGnTEOTJSNESS. 161 
 
 lier exercise once only, or a second time, but constantly 
 — even as often as she discovers new defilements deserving 
 ■wrath, new sins needing forgiveness, new glories of 
 jnirity and spirituality in the law making manifest her 
 own vileness. Entering daily into the spirit of the title, 
 "The Lord our Eighteousness," she lives by the faith of 
 the Son of God ; comes up from the wilderness leaning 
 on her Beloved ; runs the race set before her, looking 
 unto Jesus — "This is his name whereby he shall be 
 called. The Lord our Eighteousness." 
 
 But there is a further ground on which the " our" of 
 the text, — this word of j^roperty and rightful possession, 
 proceeds. I refer to scriptural evidence of being already 
 in Christ, — evidence of having already embraced the 
 Saviour, — evidence, in the fruits of faith, of the existence 
 and reality of faith, — evidence of union to Christ in com- 
 munion with him, and some measure of conformity and 
 obedience to him. More and more thus ascertaining that 
 Christ is hers in possession, the Church comes to mingle, 
 you will observe, a new element of thought and feehng 
 with the our^ " The Lord our Eighteousness." It. is 
 the language of joy and triumph, as well as of reliance 
 and faith. It is not the spirit only of the drowning 
 man laying hold of the plank, but of the safe and happy, 
 rich and joyful man, realizing his safety, and rejoicing 
 in his treasures, " My Beloved is mine and I am his." 
 " Surely shall one say. In the Lord have I righteous- 
 ness and strength." "In the Lord shall all the seed ol 
 Israel be justified and shall gloi-y." " I will greatly re- 
 joice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for 
 he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he 
 hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bride- 
 groom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride 
 adorneth herself with her jewels" — "This is his name 
 whereby he shall be called. The Lord our Eighteousness." 
 
 Let me add an inference or two before I close. 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 THE LORD OTJR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 1. First, see here how wondrous a provision the gospel 
 has made for at once humbling the sinner and exalting 
 him, — laying him low in his own eyes, and yet gloriously 
 ennobling him. Utter destitution of righteousness, 
 possession of an everlasting righteousness, — we have 
 found both elements together in the title, '' The Lord our 
 Righteousness." And you will carefully observe that 
 not only is the believer both humbled and exalted ; but — ■ 
 such is the admirable contrivance of Divine wisdom — it is 
 the very same blessedness that elevates which also lays him 
 low. The dignity of having Jehovah for his righteousness, 
 whereby he is raised above angels, does, in the very act 
 of his claiming and rejoicing in it, proclaim him "a child 
 of wrath" by nature, — " dead in trespasses and sins," — 
 *' wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
 naked." Ah, the men of this world are proud of unreal, 
 imaginary dignities. The Christian learns to be lowly 
 amid royal, celestial honours. This is what the apostle 
 James means in his remai-kable words, *' Let the brother 
 of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted ; but the rich, 
 in that he is made low." Think not, brethren, that when 
 God so much insists on laying the creature low, it is that he 
 may debase and degrade him. no, no. He desires only to 
 abase the pride which is his real degradation, — to lower him 
 in his own eyes, that he may elevate him in reality, — to strip 
 him of a glory that is visionary, that he may invest him with 
 a crown of glory that fadeth not away. He desires only 
 to change the object and ground of his glorying, — trans- 
 ferring it from himself to God, from earth to heaven, from 
 vanity to wisdom, from the ** filthy rags" of his own 
 righteousness to the robe of a righteousness divine and 
 everlasting. ''Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man 
 glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in 
 his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but 
 let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth 
 and knoweth me, that I am the Lord." "In God we 
 
THE LORD OTJR RIGTITEOUSNESS. 1G3 
 
 boast all the day long, and praise tliy name for ever." 
 '' Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto 
 us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 redemption ; that, according as it is written, He that 
 glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 
 
 2. Again, see what a ground of security, of peace, and of 
 everlasting blessedness, the believer in Christ enjoys. As 
 to his security, he is clotlied from head to foot with the 
 "righteousness of God." Unlike to Adam at his creation, 
 who was sinless, indeed, but mutable, and liable to fall, 
 the believer stands, not in his own righteousness, but 
 in that of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, — 
 '' Jehovah our Eighteousness." " This is the heritage of 
 the servants of the Lord ; and their righteousness is of 
 Me, saith the Lord." Then, as to his peace, well surely 
 may that be as a river, — a peace which passeth all under- 
 standing, — when, in the view of death and judgment and 
 eternity, he can meet every challenge of conscience and 
 the law, by pleading the obedience unto death of the 
 God-man, exclaiming, *' This is his name whereby he 
 shall be called. The Lord our Eighteousness." ''Peace 
 I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." "The 
 work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect 
 of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever." 
 "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." " death, where is thy sting V 
 grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin ; 
 and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to 
 God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." As to the believer's eternal blessedness, behold 
 it the fruit, and crown, and reward, not of any merits 
 of his, but of the rigliteousnoss of God's own Son. 
 And thus think it not incredible, but rather natural, cer- 
 tain, necessary, that it should be all that the Scriptures 
 describe it, — a blessedness not exaggerated when set forth 
 as an *' inheriting of all things," "inheriting of God," 
 
164 THE LORD OUR RIGnTEOUSNESS, 
 
 <* sitting down with Christ in his throne," an ''exceed- 
 ing and eternal weight of glory." What purity, glory, 
 happiness, shall be deemed too great to reward Messiah's 
 obedience unto death, — to be the fruit of the travail of 
 his soul, — to express the Father's boundless, eternal com- 
 placency in it. **He that spared not his own Son, how 
 shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? " 
 
 3. Finally, let me beseech you to use the subject in 
 the way of self-inquiry, and of direction, according to 
 the result of it. Dear hearers, have you ever truly seen 
 yourselves destitute of righteousness? Have you seen 
 that you need a righteousness, though you have none 
 of your own, in which to stand before God ? Have you 
 beheld the Lord Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, — the 
 surety of the lost, — made under the law, obeying its 
 precept, enduring its curse, — ''made of God," to all who 
 put their trust in him, " righteousness " ? Have you fled 
 for refuge to lay hold on this ofi'ered Saviour ? Have you 
 laid the weight of your whole eternity on him as the Lord 
 your righteousness ? If so, then blessed are ye. Then is 
 he your righteousness in actual possession, as well as in the 
 offers of the gospel ? " As ye have received Christ Jesus the 
 Lord, so walk ye in him." And, not content with confiding 
 in him, rejoice and glory in him, exclaiming, "This is 
 his name whereby he shall be called. The Lord our 
 Kighteousness." But if you have never built on this 
 foundation laid in Zion, — if either you are quite con- 
 scious that you have not, or the absence of the fruits of 
 righteousness prove that you have not, then, I beseech 
 and implore you, trifle no more with the concerns of 
 eternity. Ponder well the relations you stand in to 
 God, his justice, his law. Think what that load of un- 
 forgiven guilt is, which even now presses on you, and 
 presses all the more fatally that you do not feel it. 
 Behold the sword of Divine justice ready at any moment 
 to descend on you! But I beseech you to behold the 
 
TnE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1G5 
 
 same sword, as it entered the bowels of Emmanuel, 
 the Substitute of llie guilty, — ''Awake? sword against 
 my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, 
 saith the Lord of hosts; smite the Shepherd." "Believe 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
 " We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
 beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be 
 ye reconciled to God; for he hath made him who knew 
 no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in him. ' ' ' ' This is his name whereby 
 he shall be called, The Lord our Eighteousness." 
 
 In place of my usual closing word to the young, I 
 cannot resist reading a sentence or two from Bunyan's 
 "Pilgrim," — from the deepty in*ecious dialogue held 
 between Christian and Hopeful, lest they should go to 
 sleep on tbe Enchanted Ground : — 
 
 " Chr. And what did you do then? 
 
 Hope. Do ! I could not tell what to do, until I brake 
 my mind to Faithful, for he and I were well acquainted. 
 And he told me, that unless I could obtain the righteous- 
 ness of a man that never had sinned, neither mine own, 
 nor all the righteousness of the world could save me. 
 
 Chr. And did you think he spake true ? 
 
 Hope. Had he told me so when I was pleased and 
 satisfied with mine own amendments, I had called him 
 fool for his pains ; but now, since 1 see mine own infir- 
 mity, and the sin that cleaves to my best performances, I 
 have been forced to be of his opinion. 
 
 Chr. But did you think, when at first he suggested it 
 to you, that there was such a man to be found, of whom 
 it might justly be said, that he never committed sin ? 
 
 Hope. I must confess the words at first sounded 
 strangely, but after a little more talk and company with 
 him, 1 had full conviction about it. 
 
 Chr. And did you ask liim what man this was, and 
 how you must be justified by him ? 
 
166" THE LOED OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 Hope. Yes, and lie told me it was the Lord Jesus, that 
 dwelleth on the right hand of the Most High. And thus, 
 said he, you must be justified by him, even by trusting to 
 what he hath done by himself, in the days of his flesh, 
 and suffered when he did hang on the tree. I asked him 
 further, how that man's righteousness could be of that 
 efiicacy to justify another before God? And he told me 
 he was the mighty God, and did what he did, and died 
 the death also, not for himself, but for me ; to whom his 
 doings, and the worthiness of them, should be imputed, if 
 I believed on Him. 
 
 Chr. And what did you do then ? 
 
 Hope. I made my objections against my believing, for 
 that I thought he was not willing to save me. 
 
 Chr. And what said Faithful to you then ? 
 
 Hope. He bid me go to Him and see. Then I said it 
 was presumption ; but he said. No, for I was invited to 
 come. Then he gave me a book of Jesus' inditing, to 
 encourage me the more freely to come ; and he said, con- 
 cerning that book, that every jot and tittle thereof stood 
 firmer than heaven and earth. Then I asked him, What 
 I must do when I came ; and he told me, I must entreat 
 upon my knees, with all my heart and soul, the Father to 
 reveal him to me. Then I asked him further, how 1 must 
 make my supplication to Him? And he said. Go, and 
 thou shalt find Him upon a mercy- seat, where he sits all 
 the year long, to give pardon and forgiveness to them 
 that come. I told him that I knew not what to say when 
 I came. And he bid me say to this effect : ' God be 
 merciful to me a sinner, and make me to know and 
 believe in Jesus Christ ; for I see, that if his righteousness 
 had not been, or I have not faith in that righteousness, I 
 am utterly cast away. Lord, I have lieard that thou art 
 a merciful God, and hast ordained that thy Son Jesus 
 Christ should be the Saviour of the world ; and moreover, 
 that thou art willing to bestow him upon such a poor 
 
THE LOKD OUR EIGTITEOUSXESS. 107 
 
 sinner as I am (and I am a sinner indeed) ; Lord, take 
 therefore this oi^portunity, and magnify tliy grace in the 
 salvation of my soul, through thy Son Jesus Christ. 
 Amen.'" 
 
XIII. 
 
 SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 ** Lord, truly 1 am thy servant; I am thy servant 
 and the son of thine handmaid : thou has loosed my 
 bonds.'" — Ps. cxvi. 16. 
 
 *' Loosed my bonds." Whatever reference tlie psalmist 
 may have in this expression to deliverance from the 
 grave, — from impending bodily death, I think we gather 
 sufficiently from the whole strain and spirit of the psalm, 
 that he points in it, over and above, to the anguish of an 
 inward, soul-bondage — the fruit of departure from the liv- 
 ing God. Out of the depths of this anguish he had called 
 on the name of the Lord, as he speaks at the third verse, 
 "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of 
 hell gat hold upon me ; I found trouble and sorrow. 
 Then caUed I upon the name of the Lord ; Lord, I be- 
 seech thee, deliver my soul." In answer to his cry, the 
 Lord had not only preserved his temporal life, but loosed 
 his spirit from its bonds, — restored to him the joy of his 
 salvation, — brought him back again into the liberty 
 of His children. And so, just as had thus opened the 
 psalm, *'I love the Loed, because he hath heard my voice 
 and my supplications ; because he hath inclined his ear 
 unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as 
 I live : " and as, at the seventh verse, he breaks forth, 
 ''Eeturn unto thy rest, my soul; for the Lord hath dealt 
 bountifully with thee; for thou hast delivered my soul from 
 death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling ; I 
 
SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 109 
 
 will walk before the Lord in the land of the living," — so 
 now, in our text, does he renew his everlasting self- 
 dedication to God, saying, ** Lord truly I am thy 
 servant; I am thy servant, and the sop of thine handmaid: 
 thou hast loosed my bonds." 
 
 The particular occasion of the psalm is uncertain. If 
 David was the penman of it, as I think very probable, 
 would not the occasion of the rebellion of his son 
 Absalom — that fruit of his fearful sin in the matter of 
 Uriah — with his restoration at length to Jerusalem and to 
 his kingdom, fulfil the whole conditions of it ? But, how- 
 ever this ma}^ be, I mean to take the words more in general 
 — even as the Holy Ghost evidently designed them to em- 
 body the feelings and exercise of God's children in every 
 age, when, remembering and realizing their redemption 
 from the bonds of sin, and death, and the curse, thejy 
 again and again, thankfully consecrate themselves to the 
 God of their salvation, saying, '' Lord, truly I am thy 
 servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid : 
 thou hast loosed my bonds." 
 
 Two things invite our thoughts here — the old bonds, and 
 the new, — the old bonds loosed ; and the new and blessed 
 bonds that have come in place of them for ever, ** 
 Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the 
 son of thine handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds." 
 
 I. First, the old bonds loosed — the old bonds. This 
 psalm is but one of many places of Scripture, whore a deep 
 resemblance, or analogy, is traced between the bondage of 
 the soul, and the death of the body, — between the condi- 
 tion of a sin-bound, sin-imprisoned soul, and the strong 
 dark bondage of the grave. For, first, the bondage, in 
 both cases alike, is desperate as to all human power of 
 loosing from it. And second, it is, in both cases, unknown 
 and unfelt by those that are held most thoroughly bound 
 in it. And this because, thirdly, it is death — death in 
 
170 SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 both, cases, soul and body alike. I can conceive some one 
 saying here within himself, So you tell us ; but I am not 
 able to understand it well. It is easy to see what the 
 strong dark bondage of the grave is — not so easy to under- 
 stand what that death, that death-bondage, of souls is of 
 which you speak. Dear hearer, may not this just be what 
 I have said, that, in both cases alike, the bondage is 
 unknown and unfelt by those who are held most 
 thoroughly bound in it ? However, there is at least this 
 important difference between the two cases, that we cannot 
 even speak to a body dead and buried in the grave. But 
 we can speak to a sin-bound, death-bound, soul. And fain 
 would I speak a little to yox(. who are thus silently speak- 
 ing to me. 
 
 Suppose a man to have committed a capital crime ; 
 to have been convicted on the fullest evidence ; and 
 sentenced to die in a fortnight. You can understand 
 how that man is dead already in the eye of the law, — 
 already as good as dead, because held in the bonds of a 
 sentence of death. Ah ! it is your case — it is you I am 
 speaking of. For every sin, in the government of the 
 adorable God, is capital — "the wages of sin is death,'* 
 — the punishment annexed to it is death. You have 
 sinned. The sentence has already gone forth, '' The soul 
 that sinneth, it shall die." At this hour you are held in 
 the bonds of a sentence of eternal death, " Cursed is 
 every one that continueth not in all things which are 
 written in the book of the law to do them." 
 
 And this is not all. Not only are you held in the bonds 
 of a sentence of death — you are already dead in sin. So 
 the Holy Ghost declares, when, speaking of some who 
 had been for ever loosed from their bonds. He says, " You 
 hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." 
 Oh, we have grown so familiar with these words that 
 we fail to realize the import of them. "Dead in sins" 
 — not only chargeable with ten thousand thousand iniqui- 
 
SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 171 
 
 ties, but dead in tliom, — as tliorouglily estranged from, and 
 incapable of, all rig'litoousness, as a body which is dead 
 and lying in the grave is incapable of all activity. Do not 
 misunderstand me. It is not that we are incapable of 
 activity, — intense activity in sin. "Dead in trespasses 
 and sins," are the words, " wherein in time past ye 
 icalked.^^ Alas ! we are dead only to God, — alive too 
 fully to sin — ''dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in 
 time past ye walked according to the course of this 
 world, according to the prince of the power of the air." 
 And thus are you in the bonds also of Satan, and of this 
 present world. Suffice it, however, to sa}^ more generally 
 — the bondage of a manifold, terrible death. I said 
 that the bondage in both cases, body and soul alike, is 
 desperate as to all human power of loosing from it. 
 But in the case of the soul, the bondage is much the more 
 dreadful for this reason, to which I crave your earnest 
 attention, that at least the power of God, though not the 
 power of man, can loose from the other bondage, — that 
 of the grave. It needed but the simple word and will 
 of the Lord Jesus to bring Lazarus from his tomb. But 
 the power even of omnipotence (to speak with reverence) 
 cannot loose from the bondage of a dead soul, consisting, 
 as it partly does, in that Divine sentence of death of 
 which I spoke just now. For to such a sentence mere 
 power can have no possible application. God no more 
 can loose from the sentence of his law by any mere act of 
 will or power, than he can deny Himself, — falsify his 
 entire character and perfections. 
 
 But, strange to say, it is at this very point, where the 
 soul's bondage is at its strongest and deadliest — for, 
 ''the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. xv. 56) — 
 that we begin to hear of the loosing of all the bonds to- 
 gether, — to hear of the old bonds loosed. For that sen- 
 tence of the law which the power of God could not 
 loose, the blood of the Lamb could. " God sent forth his 
 
172 SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
 them that were under the law." The everlasting Son of the 
 Father took our nature upon him ; and, with it, and in it, 
 took our very bonds, our sentence of death, — girt himself 
 round with it, — bore it, — exhausted it. And now, no 
 sooner is a man united to the Crucified One by living 
 faith, than the sentence, borne by the Surety, falls 
 from off him (as it is written, '* Christ hath redeemed 
 us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for 
 us") and, with that sentence, all the other bonds together 
 — sin, Satan, the world. None of them can survive the 
 sentence of death. For, "the strength of sin is the law:" 
 and " sin," writes the apostle, ''shall not have dominion 
 over you, for ye are not under the law, but under 
 grace." 
 
 II. But thus you will perceive that we are already in 
 the midst of our second head — the new bonds which have 
 come in place of the old for ever. For, ''sin shall not 
 have dominion over you." But then, to be free from the 
 dominion of sin is but another word for the service of God, 
 in which the new bonds consist — as Paul again and again 
 speaks of "being made free from 'sin, and becoming 
 the servants of righteousness," — " being made free from 
 sin, and becoming servants of God." "0 Lord," says 
 David, " truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and 
 the son of thine handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds." 
 Thus, secondly, I speak to you of the new bonds of the 
 service of God which have come in place of the old for 
 ever. And first here let me offer a general remark. It 
 is an alternative for us all, — a choice for us of bonds — 
 the old bonds, or the new. For, from bonds of every 
 kind we cannot possibly be free. As creatures, we must 
 be under some master — God or Satan. It is, I repeat, 
 a choice for us between the old bonds of sin, Satan, the 
 world, hell ; and the new and blessed bonds of the service 
 of the adorable God — of which now I desire to speak a 
 
SELF-DEDICATIOK- TO GOD. 1 73 
 
 little to 3'ou. Two remarks, opened out some-wliat, may 
 suffice on the new bonds of the service of God, as they are 
 presented in the text — the one having respect to the nature 
 of them, the other to the spring and source of them. 
 
 1. First, as to tlie nature of the new bonds, we are 
 taught in tlie Psalmist's words that, as they consist in the 
 service of God, so that service is, as to the character of it, 
 first, true; second, entire; and third, hearty and free. 
 
 (1.) It is true — '' Lord, truly I am thy servant." It 
 is no hollow, simulated, false-hearted service, such as 
 men too often vow at communion tables, leaving them 
 to serve their own lusts, the world, the devil. 8ee how 
 David is dealing here with God, the Searcher of hearts — 
 *' Lord," says he, " truly I am thy servant." Just as 
 at the ninth verse he had said, ''I will walk before the 
 Lord," — under the eye, and in the immediate presence, 
 of the Lord, — " in the land of the living," so here says he, 
 "0 Lord, truly I am thy servant," The truth is, that 
 those self- deceivers at communion tables do not speak to 
 God at all. If they would but carefully observe their own 
 thoughts, they would find that either they speak to no 
 one, or, at the best, to the people of the outer Avorld, but 
 do not speak to God at all. "0 Jehovah," says David, 
 *' truly I am thy servant." 
 
 (2.) And, as the service is true, so it is entire, — not a 
 half, divided service, shared deliberately between God and 
 mammon, sin and righteousness, Christ and Belial. By a 
 remarkable figure the psalmist tells here the entireness of 
 his service, "0 Lord," he says, ** truly I am thy servant, 
 and the so7i of thine handmaid.^^ For, as a slave born in the 
 house, — born of a bondmaid in the family, — was esteemed 
 more thoroughly and unquestionably a slave than one re- 
 duced to servitude for the first time, so sa3's David, " I am 
 thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid'''' — although I 
 do not see why he may not, over and above, include the 
 idea of a godly mother (since the two thoughts are in 
 
174 SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 fullest harmony), *' I am thy servant, and the son of thine 
 handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds. 
 
 (3.) And, as the service is true and entire, so also it is 
 hearty and free. See how the spontaneousness of it comes 
 out in every word, "0 Lord, truly I am thy servant; 
 I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid : thou 
 hast loosed my bonds." David, in fact, does not call it 
 bonds at all. "Thou hast loosed my bonds," he says. And 
 yet it is bonds, though strange ones — bonds of blessed 
 liberty, — the very defence and safeguard of liberty, — yea, 
 liberty itself, as he elsewhere speaks, " I will walk at 
 liberty, for I seek thy precepts." yes, the service 
 of God is the creature's freedom and happiness — ** Man's 
 chief end," and also highest good, *'is to glorify God, 
 and to enjoy him for ever." Thus much, shortly, of the 
 new bonds in the nature of them. 
 
 2. My second remark has respect to the spring and 
 source of the new bonds. It is taught here as to this, 
 that it is the loosing of the old bonds which is the source 
 and spring of the new, *' Lord, truly I am thy servant ; 
 and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my 
 bonds." It is so in different ways. 
 
 (1.) First, the loosing of the old bonds is the source and 
 spring of the new, in that it is indispensable to the whole 
 formation of them. So long as the old are not loosed, the 
 new cannot exist. If, as I said, we cannot be free from 
 both old and new, no more can we be under both at the 
 same time. A man who is under sentence of death cannot 
 serve his country. The country can take no service at his 
 hands. And the sinner under the sentence of death in the 
 divine law cannot serve God. God can accept no service 
 from him. And, besides, he is serving sin, the devil, the 
 world, and cannot serve both masters, God and sin, together. 
 First, I say, the loosing of the old bonds is the indispensable 
 condition of the whole existence of the new. 
 
 (2.) Second, the loosing of the old bonds is the source 
 
SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. ]75 
 
 and spring of the new, inasmuch as it fixes the new, many 
 ways, sweetly and strongiy on the soul, — enhances many 
 ways the obligation of God's service on the soul. True, 
 the believer is said to be ** delivered from the law." But 
 this, of course, only in the curse and penalty of it, — from 
 the law as a covenant of works, — as the condition of 
 eternal life and death. Considered as the rule of service, 
 not only does the law abide unchanged — its obligation is 
 many ways strengthened. For now it is not the will of 
 a Master only, a Lawgiver, a Sovereign, but of a Father 
 also, a Husband, a covenant- God — " Loud, truly I am 
 thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thine hand- 
 maid : thou hast loosed my bonds." 
 
 (3.) Third, the loosing of the old bonds is the source 
 and spring of the new, in that God's express purpose and 
 design, in the loosing of the old, was to fix the new for 
 ever upon the soul, — to set the soul free in order to its 
 serving and glorifying Him for ever — as it is written, 
 *' Now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that" 
 (margin) *' wherein we were held, that we snould serve 
 in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter;" 
 and again, "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, and for sin, condemned sin in the 
 flesh ; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
 in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 The very purpose of God, I say, in the loosing of the old 
 bonds was to fix the new upon the soul for ever — 
 ** Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited 
 and redeemed his people . . . that we, being delivered 
 out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without 
 fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the 
 days of our life." 
 
 (4.) Fourth, the loosing of the old bonds is the source 
 and spring of the new, in that it brings into the soul a 
 Divine power and strength, — the power of the Holy Ghost, 
 
176 SELF-DEDICATION" TO GOD. 
 
 effectually to persuade, enable, constrain, the soul to the 
 service of God. yes, in the very same hour in which 
 the curse falls from off a soul, the Holy Ghost enters it, as 
 it is written, '^ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
 of the law, being made a curse for us, that the blessing 
 of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus 
 Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit 
 through faith." '' Sin shall not have dominion over you : 
 for ye are not under the law, but under grace," — even the 
 grace of that Spirit of holiness of whom it is promised 
 in the new covenant, *'I will put my Spirit within you, 
 and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep 
 my judgments, and do them." 
 
 (5.) But yet again, the loosing of the old bonds is the 
 source and spring of the new, in that, besides the power, 
 it brings into the soul all manner of inducements, per- 
 suasives, motives, to the service of God ; and specially 
 among these, the motive of an overpowering gratitude 
 and love, under whose blessed influence it comes to pass 
 that, whereas we could not serve God before, now we 
 cannot but serve him, as David sings in this psalm, *' What 
 shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards 
 me?" *'Ileturn unto thy rest, my soul; for the Lord 
 hath dealt bountifully with thee; for thou hast delivered 
 my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet 
 from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of 
 the living." " A certain creditor," said Jesus, " had two 
 debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other 
 fifty : and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly for- 
 gave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will 
 love him most ? Simon answered, I suppose that he to 
 whom he forgave most. And Jesus said unto him. Thou 
 hast rightly judged." '* The love of Christ constraineth 
 us." " We love him, because he first loved us." " Unto 
 him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
 own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
 
SELF-DEDICATION TO GOD. 177 
 
 and liis- Father ; to liiiu Lo glory and dominion for ever 
 and ever !" 
 
 Thus have I spukcn a little of the old bonds loosed; and 
 of the new which have come in the place of them. A 
 closing word, first, to those who are strangers altogether 
 to the new bonds ; and then to those that have exchanged 
 for tliom the old for ever. 
 
 Fain I would allectionately speak a word to you who 
 are altogether strangers to the new bonds. You are not 
 strangers to bonds. You are in the old bonds — " Know 
 ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, 
 his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto 
 death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" And Paul 
 goes on to appeal to those who had been loosed from their 
 bonds, ' ' What fruit had ye then in those things whereof 
 ye are now ashamed?" It is quite possible, dear hearers, 
 that you feel no particular shame. But will you try to 
 read the text thus — " Satan, world, self, sin, truly I am 
 your servant!" You shrink from this. But remember 
 that you can only be loosed from the old bonds by exchang- 
 ing them for the new. And the Lord Jesus is welcoming 
 you at this hour to make that exchange, saying, " Come 
 unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give 3'ou rest. Take my yoke upon you " — as if he 
 should say, Come unto me, and I will give you rest 
 from your own yoke, — from the old bonds; then *'take 
 my yoke upon you," — the new bonds, "and learn of 
 me, for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find 
 rest unto your souls ; for my yoke is easy, and my burden 
 is light." Ah ! I can thus speak to you, indeed. But God 
 can speak after another manner — " AVhen I passed by 
 thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said 
 unto thee when thou wast in thy blood. Live ; yea, I said 
 unto thee, when tliou wast in thy })lood, Live" — " Come 
 unto me. all ye tliat labour and are heavy laden, and I will 
 ^ive vou re^-t." 
 
178 self-dedicatio:n' to god. 
 
 And now to those who are not strangers to the new 
 bonds, but have exchanged for them the old for ever, I 
 will but say, Happy, thrice happy, servants of the Lord ! 
 When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, witnessed the 
 grandeur of his court, and heard his wisdom, she broke 
 forth, "Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, 
 which stand continually before thee." Ah, poor Solomon! 
 Thrice happy servants, I repeat, of our Solomon — King of 
 kings, blessed and only Potentate ! AVhat a service ! 
 "What a Master ! What a reward — "Come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world!" "There shall be no more 
 curse ; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in 
 it : and his servants shall serve him ; and they shall see 
 his face ; and his name shall be in their foreheads." 
 What remains but that, remembering well, and oftentimes 
 meditating on, the old bonds, with the wondrous loosing 
 of them, you again and again thankfidly renew your 
 self-dedication to the Lord, saying, " Lord, truly I 
 am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thine 
 handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds"? I persuade 
 myself that you will find not a little helpful for this end 
 the following beautiful Leaflet, from the pen of the saintly 
 John Milne, of Perth, which I have long esteemed very 
 precious : — 
 
 A HELP TO SELF-DEDICATIOX.* 
 
 •' I, the Lord, will make an everlasting covenant with you."— ISA. Iv. . 
 "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall subscribe wilh his hand 
 unto the Lord."— Isa. xliv. 5. 
 
 Lord God of hosts, thou didst enter into covenant with 
 Abraham, as he waited beside the sacrifices which he had pre- 
 pared (Gen. XV. 18), and thou art now graciously waiting beside 
 Jesus, the sacrifice which Thou hast prepared, iu order that 
 sinners may come and enter into covenant with thee (2 Cor. v. 
 
 * There may be those who may wish to possess this Leaflet in a 
 shape admitting of more easy private use. Ft is to be had from tie 
 Efiligious Tract Society, Paternoster Row, London. 
 
SELF-DEDICATIOX TO GOD. 179 
 
 (0). Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, 
 and I am no more worthy to be called thy child ; but thou, in thy 
 rich mercy, art willing to receive me ; and I, through thy grace, 
 am willing to be thine. I lay all my sin (Lsa. liii. G), the sin of 
 my nature (Ps. li. 5), the sin of my heart (Jer. xvii. 9), the sin 
 of my life (Job xxxiii. 27), the sin of my lips (lsa. vi. 5), my 
 secret sins (Ps. cxxxix. 3), — I lay all my sins, and iniquities, 
 and unrighteousnesses, and transgressions, upon Jesus the Lamb 
 of God ; and, cleansed by his blood, and made acceptable in his 
 righteousness (Eph. i. 6, 7), I desire now to give myself to thee 
 (2 Cor. viii. 5) in an everlasting covenant, never to be broken 
 (Jer. xxxii. 40). 
 
 I am not my own, I am thine (1 Cor. vi. 19). My heart is 
 not my own, it is thine ; I will endeavour to keep it for thee, 
 and to make it Bethel, a temple for the Holy Ghost (2 Cor. vi. 
 16). My thoughts are not my own, they are thine ; I will cul- 
 tivate godly and heavenly meditations (Ps. i. 2, and Ixiii. 6). 
 My words are not my own, they are thine ; I will avoid all idle, 
 unprofitable, vain-glorious, flattering, uncharitable discourse 
 (Eph. iv. 29 ; Col. iii. 8, 9) ; and I will seek to have my conver- 
 sation always savouring of Christ and heaven (Deut. vi. 7 ; 
 Matt. xii. 34-37 ; Col. iii. 16). My eyes are not my own, they 
 are thine ; I will withhold them from looking upon sin and 
 vanity (Hab. i. 13). My wealth is not my own, it is thine ; I 
 am only thy steward ; I will therefore lay it out prudently and 
 faithfully for thee, avoiding all unnecessary expense upon 
 myself (Deut. xxiv. 19-21 ; Job xxix. 12, 13 ; Prov. iii. 9, 10 ; 
 !Matt. XXV. 35, 36 ; Luke xxi. 2-4). My time is not my own, 
 it is thine ; I will employ it for thee, doing all I do as unto the 
 Lord, striving every day to grow in grace and in knowledge, 
 and to make myself useful to my fellow-men ; I will redeem my 
 time from too long or needless visits, idle imaginations, fruitless 
 discourse, unnecessary sleep, and more than needful care about 
 my worldly afi'airs (Eph. v. 16 ; Col. iv. 5). I desire to commit 
 all my affairs to thee ; my friends, my family, my health, my 
 business, my esteem in the world. I am willing to receive 
 what thou givest, to want what thou withholdest, to relinquish 
 what thou takest, to suffer what thou inflictest, to be what thou 
 requirest, and to do what thou commandest. 
 
180 SELr-DEDICATION TO GOD. 
 
 Lord God of hosts, I desire deliberately, cheerfully, and with 
 full purpose of heart, thus to surrender myself wholly and for 
 ever to thee ; I feel that this is my duty, my interest, my 
 privilege, my glory ; — I believe that thou wilt receive what I 
 thus give (2 Cor. vi. 17) ; I believe that thou wilt keep what I 
 have thus committed to thee (2 Tim. i. 12) ; I will trust in thee 
 for temporal provision (Ps. xxiii. 1) ; I will trust in thee for 
 support under daily cares and labours (Isa. xxvi. 3); I will 
 trust in thee for pardon of daily sins (Ezek. xxxvi. 25) ; I 
 will trust in thee for growth and fruitfulness (Hos. xiv. 5) ; 
 I will trust in thee for strength in the hour of death (Isa. xliii. 
 2). If I sin, may I grieve without despair ; if I walk uprightly, 
 may I rejoice without pride. 
 
 Lord Jesus, I take thee for my Prophet, my Priest, my King, 
 my Life, my Light, my Eest, my Joy, my Glory, my All in All. 
 
 Spirit of Adoption, that proceedest from the Father and the 
 Son, I desire to receive thee into my soul, that thou mayest 
 abide with me. Convince me of sin, convince me of judgment, 
 guide me into all truth, take of the things of Christ and show 
 them unto me; be as the dew and rain of heaven to my soul, 
 causing the word of life to take root, and grow, and bear the 
 fruits of peace, joy, love, gentleness ; enable me to mortify the 
 flesh with its affections and lusts, — when the enemy comes in 
 like a flood, do thou lift up a standard against him ; be in me 
 as a well of living water, — be in me as the earnest of the inherit- 
 ance, as the first fruits of heaven, — sealing me unto the day of 
 redemption. Holy and Blessed Spirit, help me to distinguish 
 between thy voice and the voice of the evil one, — between thy 
 suggestions and the impulses of the flesh, — between thy leadings 
 and the frowardness of my own heart. I will labour not to 
 resist, nor grieve, nor dishonour, nor quench thee ; but with a 
 humble, broken, mortified, self-denying spirit, will endeavour 
 to fall in with thee in all things, and to think, and sj^eak, and 
 act in thee. 
 
 Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant, 
 
 AND the son of THINE HANDMAID : THOU HAST LOOSED MY 
 BONDS. 
 
xiy. 
 
 THE SICKNESS-THE PHYSICIAN.* 
 
 ^^ And it came to j'xisa, as Jesus sat at meat in the 
 house, behold, many 2JitbUcans and sinners came and 
 sat down tvith him and his disciples. And when the 
 Pharisees saio it, they said unto his disciples, ^ Why 
 eateth your Master toith publicans and sinners? Bui 
 when Jesus heard that, he said unto them. They that be 
 whole need not a physician, but they thai are slck.^^ — 
 Matt. ix. 10-12. 
 
 Text — "But lohen Jesus heard thai, he said unto 
 them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they 
 that are sick." 
 
 It was as if he had said, I eat with siimers for the same 
 reason that physicians walk in hospitals, — are found in 
 sick rooms, and at sick and dying beds. I am a physician; 
 sinners are the sick ones, sin the terrible sickness, I 
 am come into the world to cure and heal ! You ask, why 
 eat I with sinners? Because I am the Saviour of sinners. 
 If there be any who are not sinners, they do not need me, 
 and I have no errand to them. You ask why I eat with 
 sinners. It is the very reason of my eating with them, 
 that they are sinners — for, "they that are whole need 
 not a physician, but the}' that are sick." Thus, I think, 
 there are two things which invite our thoughts here — 
 
 * This short sermon was originally aihlrcsscd to the young. 
 With a few slight changes, it was preached afterwards to more 
 than one congregation at large. Its "plainness of speech" needs 
 no a})ology. There is but one gospel for old and young. 
 
182 THE SICKNESS THE PHYSICIAN-. 
 
 the sickness, and the physician, — these sick ones Tvho 
 need the physician, and the glorious physician for their 
 need. 
 
 I. First, I touch on the sickness spoken of, — these 
 sick ones who need the physician, — "they that are 
 sick." Of course you understand, then, that it is not of 
 any kind of bodily sickness our Lord is speaking, but of 
 sin, likened by him to sickness, — of sin, the worst of all 
 sickness, disease — ^' they that are sick.*' True, indeed, 
 Jesus healed the sick in body when he was on the earth ; 
 he healed fevers, palsies, leprosies — " all manner of 
 sickness and disease among the people." But that was 
 not what he came into the world for. When he healed 
 the body, it was for the soul chiefly, — to get the better at 
 the heart, the soul. AVhen he healed the body, it was 
 that men might see how he was just as able, by a word, a 
 touch, to heal the precious soul. It was that they might 
 see sm in all the different diseases which he healed, — 
 see in them a kind of likeness of that more fearful sickness 
 of sin which had brought him into the world. Accord- 
 ingly, observe for a moment with me the likeness — ay, and 
 the terrible difference too. The likeness. As sickness is 
 a disordered body, so is sin a precious soul all in disorder. 
 Sickness of body, not healed, will kill the body. Sin, not 
 healed, — not pardoned, repented of, — will kill the never- 
 dying soul. Or, take any of the particular diseases whicli 
 Christ healed on the earth, and see the likeness in them. 
 He healed madness. Sin is madness, flying in the face 
 of God, — fighting against God, and the sinner's own 
 happiness. He healed fevers. Sin is a fever, consuming, 
 burning, the soul. He healed palsies. Sin is a palsy, 
 laying the soul prostrate. He healed leprosy. Sin is a 
 leprosy, very foul and loathsome, and spreading its vile- 
 ness to all around. He healed deafness, blindness. The 
 sinner is deaf, blind,— deaf to the voice of God and of his 
 
THE SICKNESS — THE PHYSICIAN. 183 
 
 cwii conscienco— blind to all it most coucorns him to see, 
 — to himself, to God, to Clirist, to heaven, to hull ! 
 
 Well, sin is like sickness ; but see the difference, 
 — the great and terrible difference, too. Sickness is 
 usually one disease. Sin is all diseases in one — tlie mad- 
 ness, the fever, the palsy, the leprosy, the deafness, the 
 blindness, all in one ! Men wish to be free of sickness 
 of body. Alas ! they do not wish to be free of sin, the 
 disease of the soul. The worse sickness of body is, the 
 more earnest men are to be free of it. The worse sin is, 
 tiie more men wish to keep it. Men run to physicians 
 of the body, — will travel far to find them, — give large 
 sums to get tlieir advice and aid. But when a glorious 
 Physician offers himself for their souls, '' without money 
 and without price," they *' hide as it were their faces from 
 him," — they say in heart, " Depart from us, for we desire 
 not the knowledge of thy ways." And see yet another 
 mournful difference. Sickness is disease ; sin is crime, — 
 siu. There is, speaking generally, no blame in sickness 
 of bod}^ — it is misfortune, not fault. But sin is just fault 
 — "sin is the transgression of the law " — " the wa^es of 
 sin is death," — death of soul and body both. *' The 
 soul tliat sinneth," saith God, "it shall die." "Cursed 
 is every one that continueth not in all things which are 
 written in the book of the law to do them." So much 
 tlien, briefly, for the sickness of which our Lord speaks, — 
 tliese sick ones who need the physician. 
 
 II. Let me now touch, a little more fully, on tlie 
 glorious Physician for their need. 
 
 1. And lirst, let me say of him — there is no other ^ — 
 there is but this one physician for sin, — for the precious 
 soul. If you are sick in body, you may have a choice 
 among physicians. But for the more terrible sickness of 
 sin, none but Christ ! none but Christ ! Oh, if you miss 
 Ilim, you must remain under your disease for ever — "I, 
 
184 THE SICKNESS THE PHYSICIA^^. 
 
 even I, am Jehovah, and beside me there is no Saviour" 
 — "Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is 
 none other name under heaven given among men whereby 
 we must be saved." I say there is but this one physician 
 for sin, — for the precious soul. But, happily, there needs 
 no other. For see what kind of a physician this is. 
 
 2. Secondly, I observe respecting him, that he hioivs 
 our whole case, our whole disease, and so is able to deal with 
 it. Other physicians have to work often in the dark. 
 They are uncertain what the disease is. Even if they 
 know it, indeed, they may be quite unable to heal it. 
 But they cannot heal, if they do not know, it. This 
 physician never works in the dark. He is an omniscient 
 j^hysician — "He needeth not that any should testify of 
 man, for he knows what is in man." Oh, he knows the 
 worst of me ! Indeed, we might fear that one so holy, 
 k'nowing all our vileness, would flee from us, or else come 
 near only to destroy us. That was Peter's fear, when 
 he fell down once at Jesus's knees, saj'ing, "De^^art from 
 me, for I am a sinful man, Lord." But what was the 
 answer of Jesus to him ? " Fear not, Simon, from hence- 
 forth thou shalt catch men." For — 
 
 3. Thirdly, I observe about this physician, that he is 
 unspeakably tender also — an omniscient, but an unspeak- 
 ably kind, tender, loving, physician. AVhat else but 
 kindness, love, could have brought him ever down into 
 this dark, leprous, dying, world of ours ? Ah ! other 
 physicians may grow rich by their healing. Jesus be- 
 came poor, poor, by his — "Though he was rich, yet for 
 our sakes he became j)Oor." Jesus came in among the 
 leprous ones, that he might be able to heal them. Yea, 
 " Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" — 
 took, in a mysterious manner, our very leprosy, — was 
 "made sin," "made a curse," that we might be healed 
 and saved ! Oh, there was never a physician like this ! 
 His chief medicine is his own blood — " by his stripes we 
 
THE SICKNESS THE niYSICIAN. 185 
 
 are liealed " ! There would be something awful about an 
 omniscient physician, knowing our whole vileness, if lie 
 were not very tender, kind, loving. But this is Tie 
 who "took up the little children in his arms, put liis 
 hands upon them, and blessed them." This is lie who, 
 from the cross, commended his mother to the care of the 
 beloved disciple. This is lie of whom we were singing a 
 little ago, "• lie healeth the broken in heart, and bindelh 
 up their wounds. He teileth the number of the stars ; he 
 calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and 
 of great power ; his understanding is infinite." And that 
 is the next thing I observe about this physician — 
 
 4. Fourthly, he is a mightijy all-shilful, physician, — 
 alJe to cure and heal to tlie uttermost. Other physicians 
 may know the disease, and be altogether unable to 
 heal it. There never was a case put into Christ's 
 hand, of which he said, I am not equal to that case. 
 Other physicians have their hopes and fears ; and they 
 will do their best. Not so this physician. *' AVilt thou 
 be made whole?" he said to the man who had lain 
 thirty and eight years entirely helpless. " I will come 
 and heal him," said he of the centurion's dying servant — 
 as old Matthew Henry has it, " Not, I will come and 
 prescribe for him, or, I will come and i)ray for him ; but. 
 I will come and heal him." ^' I will, be thou clean," he 
 said to the man full of leprosy, and ''immediately liis 
 leprosy departed from him." As I said, he healed those 
 diseases of the body, that men might see how he was just 
 as able, by a word, by a touch, to heal the precious soul. 
 What souls has he not healed ! He healed "Manasseh. 
 lie healed the thief on the cross. He healed Saul of 
 Tarsus, "before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and 
 injurious." And I think some poor believer here is ready 
 to say, You need not go so far away ; he can heal any 
 soul, for I trust he has healed mine. 
 
 5. But, fifthly, I must observe that this is a faithful 
 
186 THE SICKNESS THE PHYSICIAN. 
 
 physician. What I mean is, — he will not flatter and 
 deceive you. He will not shin over your wound, and say 
 that it is healed. He will not do as the men we read 
 of in Jeremiah, ''They have healed the hurt of the 
 daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, 
 when there is no peace." He is too kind and loving for 
 that. If you Avant that, you must go elsewhere than to 
 Christ. This physician will probe your wound to the 
 bottom, that he may heal it indeed. "That limb must 
 come off," he may very possibly say. Behold what his 
 cure is — are you willing to have it? "I will sprinkle 
 clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all 
 your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 
 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I 
 put within you ; and I will take away the stony heart out 
 of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And 
 I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in 
 my statutes, and 3'e shall keep my judgments, and do 
 them." Behold this physician, and, his cure, " Him 
 hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give 
 repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins " — repent- 
 ance and forgiveness, both. " Zaccheus," said he, "make 
 haste, and come down ; for to day I must abide at thy 
 house. And he made haste, and came down, and received 
 him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, 
 saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is 
 a sinner. And Zaccheus stood, and said unto the Lord, 
 Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; 
 and if I have taken anything from any man by false 
 accusation, I restore him four-fold." Behold the cure of 
 this physician, "Thou wilt subdue our iniquities; and 
 thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea " ! 
 Jesus, I say, is a faithful physician. 
 
 6. But once more I observe, that he is a physician very 
 near at hand — so near, that if you are but ready even 
 now, to give your soul to him to be healed, he is with 
 
THE SICKNESS THE PnYSICIAX. 187 
 
 you wlicre 3-011 now sit, to take it of you. All, wo go in 
 search of other x">^iy^'^icians. This pliysician comes in 
 search of us, as he said, " The Sou of man is come to seek 
 and to save that wliich was lost." "We knock at the door 
 of other physicians ; and sometimes, when they are most 
 needed, they are not to be found. This physician knocks 
 at our door — "a ver}' present help in trouble" — "Behold," 
 saj's he, "I stand at the door and knock; if any mau 
 liear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to 
 him, and will sup with him, and he with me." — Thus 
 I have said about this physician — There is no other. 
 He knows our whole case. He is unspeakably tender, 
 kind, loving. He is mighty, all-skilful, — able to heal to 
 tlie uttermost. He is a faithful physician. He is a 
 pln'sician very near at hand. 
 
 Beloved hearers, do you know him ? Have 3'ou given 
 your souls, — truly given them, — into his hand, to be healed 
 by him ? If you have, then let me say that 3'ou are healed; 
 and 3'et 3-ou are not healed. You are healed — if you have 
 truly given your souls into Christ's hand, he has healed 
 you in this way, that your sins are forgiven, and you are 
 born again. And yet you are not healed, in this other 
 way, that you have still many wounds, — much of the sore 
 sickness, — remaining about you. And you must come 
 to the physician afresh every day, saying, "Heal me, 
 Lord, and I shall be healed "— "^ 
 
 " Eock of Ages, cleft for me, 
 Let me hide myself in thee ! 
 Let the water and the blood, 
 From thy riven side which Ho wed, 
 Be of sin the double cure, — 
 Cleanse me from its guilt and power." 
 
 But if you have never come to this physician, — never 
 given your souls truly into his hand, — then 3'ou are carry- 
 ing about the whole terrible sickness with 3'ou, ready to 
 
188 THE SICKXESS — THE PHYSICIAN. 
 
 end in the second, eternal, death. You are carrying 
 with you all the sins you ever committed since you 
 had a being — unpardoned, unrepented of, unremoved, 
 unhealed ! Sure I am, it is not because there is not a 
 physician • among us, able and willing to heal you. 
 "Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there ? 
 Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people 
 recovered?" Listen to Christ's own answer to the question, 
 "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." In 
 my text he bids you welcome to him just as you are. He 
 makes your very wounds your welcome, — your simjDle 
 need of him your sufficient welcome to him. AVhen they 
 asked why he ate with sinners — it is the very reason, he 
 answered, of my eating with them that they are sinners — 
 for "they that are whole need not a physician, but they 
 that are sick." Oh that you w^ere persuaded to say to 
 him in the words of Cowper's precious hymn — 
 
 Heal us, Immanuel ; here we are, 
 
 Waiting to feel thy touch : 
 Deep-wounded souls to thee repair ; 
 
 And, Saviour, we are such. 
 
 Eemember him who once applied, 
 
 With trembling, for relief : 
 •'Lord, I believe," with tears he cried ; 
 
 "help my unbelief " ! 
 
 She, too, who touched thee in the press. 
 
 And healing virtue stole. 
 Was answered, " Daughter, go in peace ; 
 
 Thy faith hath made thee Avliole." 
 
 Oh that you were addressing him in the language of 
 the prophet Jeremiah, " Heal me, Lord, and I shall be 
 healed ; save me, and I shall be saved : for thou art my 
 
 praise" ! 
 
XV. 
 
 PARABLE OF THE IMARRIAGE FPL\ST. 
 
 ** The kingdom of heaven is liJce unto a certain Idnrj^ 
 which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his 
 seri'ants to call them that were hidden to the iveddinj : 
 and they ivoidd not come. Again, he sent forth otlur 
 servants, saying. Tell them which are hidden, Behold, I 
 have 2^repared my dinner: my oxen and my failings are 
 killed, and all things are ready ; come unto the marriage. 
 But thfij made light of it, and went their ways, one to 
 his farm, another to his merchandise : and the remnant 
 took his servants, and entr-eated them spitefully, and 
 s'ew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was 
 wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those 
 murderers, and hurned up their city. Then saith he to 
 his servants. The v)edding is ready, but they which loere 
 hidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the high- 
 ways, and as many as ye shall find, hid to the marriage. 
 So those servants icent out into the highivays, and ga- 
 thered together all, as many as they found, both had 
 and good : and the wedding was furnished with guests. 
 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw 
 there a man which had not on a wedding-garment : and 
 he saith unto him. Friend, how earnest thou in hither^ 
 not having a xcedding -garment ? And he v^as speech- 
 less. Then said the king to the servants. Bind him Itand 
 and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer 
 darkness; there shall he weeping and gnashing of teeth. 
 For many are called, hut few are chosen.'^ — Matt. 
 xxii. 2-14. 
 
 A FEW opening words on the structure of this parable 
 will, I think, simplify materially the exposition of it. Any 
 
190 PAEABLE OF THE MABEIAGE FEAST. 
 
 one wno examines with care the parables of Christ, as 
 regards their structure, will find that they divide them- 
 selves into at least two great kinds or classes. In the 
 first, which is the most numerous, there is a sort of story 
 of common life, — a narrative of certain things of possi- 
 ble, if not actual, occurrence in ordinary life, — represent- 
 ing and embodying great corresponding things in the 
 spiritual world. Such is the parable of the Sower ; of 
 the Tares in the Field ; and many others. In the other 
 kind of parables — of which the Pharisee and the Publi- 
 can may be taken as an example — there is no story of 
 common life at all. It is the spiritual world alone, — 
 simply a class of characters in it (or more than one class, 
 as the case may be), represented by a specimen, or 
 instance. Well ; to which of these two kinds of parables 
 does this one of the Marriage Feast, or Mar^age of the 
 King's Son, belong ? I answer, to neither of them, 
 according to my judgment. No doubt, at first view it 
 might seem plainly enough to belong to the class where 
 there is a narrative of things in ordinary life ; and so it 
 has been viewed accordingly by expositors. But I am 
 persuaded that it ought to be placed, along with certain 
 others, in a third or intermediate class, where there is no 
 narrative properly of things in ordinary life, embodying 
 other corresponding things in the spiritual world, but 
 where it is substantially the spiritual world alone, merely 
 presented in the graphic form of a narrative, and with 
 allusion, more or less, to certain things of ordinary life. 
 Certainly, if there is a story of common life here, it is a 
 very extraordinary, not to say extravagant, one — as will 
 soon appear. And in this case our Lord is at least 
 continually breaking through the shell of the narrative, 
 and introducing circumstances so entirely peculiar to the 
 spiritual world, that they never could, without a great 
 deal of forcing, be imagined to have occurred in the 
 ordinary affairs of men. And thus does it seem to my 
 
TARABLE OF THE MAKUIAGE I'EAST. 101 
 
 mind far hotter and safer to avoid all sncli forein^^ 
 with all appearance of extravagance in the story, by 
 laying it down at once, that there is no narrative here 
 of common life; bnt that, just as in the Song of Solomon, 
 f(^r example, or in the Forty-fifth Psalm, where (as 
 has always seemed clear to my mind at least), it is not 
 Solomon and Christ, — Solomon hrst, and then Christ, 
 but Christ alone, with simple allusion, more or less, 
 to Solomon, so here it is the higher spiritual marriage, 
 and marriage feast, exclusively — onty presented in tlie 
 arresting ^orm of a story, and with more or less allusion 
 (slight allusion, as we shall find) to a marriage, and a 
 marriage feast, of earth. But all this, as well as the 
 importance of it, will come oiit as we proceed w^ith the 
 exposition. 
 
 " The kingdom of heaven." Our time will not admit 
 of entering into this great expression,, found in so 
 many of the parables of Jesus. -^ '' The kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a mariage 
 for his son." Now certainly we might so far seem to 
 have here just the usual opening of an allegoric narrative 
 of ordinary life. AYe shall very soon see. But niean- 
 Avhile, and in either view, the king evidently represents the 
 adorable God, the Father, who, in his matchless conde- 
 scension and love to tlie children of men, from everlasting- 
 purposed to make a marriage for his Son, — a wondrous 
 marriage union for his Son Jesus Christ, with a count- 
 less multitude of our fallen i-ace. A. marriage, observe, 
 for his Son. The Old Testament Scriptures were full of 
 a marriage relationship between the Church and Jehovah. 
 Thus, among numberless examples, " Thy Maker is 
 tliine husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name." "I 
 will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, I will betroth 
 thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in 
 
 * Tt had been taken up in a previous leeturc— cne of a series on 
 the Parabk'S. 
 
192 PARABLE OF THE MARIIIAGE FEAST. 
 
 lovlng-liinclness, and in mercies ; I will even betrotli tliee 
 unto me in faithfulness." A marriage relationship, I 
 have said, between the Church and Jehovah. For, so 
 exclusively was it with Him, that whensoever the Church 
 gave her affections and homage to any other, it was in the 
 prophets branded as spiritual adultery, and the sum of all 
 wickedness and sin. At once it follows that, when we 
 come down to the New Testament, and find the marriage 
 now to be with the So7i of the King, — when we find 
 the Church to be the bride, the wife, of the Lamh^ — find 
 Jesus to be the bridegroom, the husband — it follows that 
 Jesus is Jehovah, else the Old and New Testaments are 
 two contrary religions. It follows at once that, when 
 the King makes this marriage for his Son, he does 
 not make it for any created being, — any other being 
 than Himself, — but that this King and his Son are 
 in essence one — distinct in certain grand respects, indeed, 
 yet one essentially, — one in the everlasting unity of the 
 Godhead. 
 
 But now will you notice that the word rendered a mar- 
 riage here, signifies also a marriage feast, and is indifi'er- 
 ently used, according as the connection may indicate the 
 sense to be, either for the espousals, or for the feast at 
 which they are celebrated. And, accordingly, in this 
 parable the radical idea of the marriage passes into, and 
 is merged in, the kindred one of the marriage feast — 
 even as the bride no otherwise appears here than as the 
 guests at the feast, who are the same Church which is 
 the bride, under a difi'erent aspect of it. 
 
 Yer. 3. ''And sent forth his servants — A certain 
 king made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his 
 servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding : 
 and they would not come." It is the first stage, this, 
 of a great and solemn history. The reference is to a 
 great historical fact— now long ago past, indeed, but of 
 which the principles abide unchanged at this hour. The 
 
PAYABLE OF THE MAKPIAGE FEAST. 193 
 
 reference is to the Jewish people of our Lord's day ; to tlio 
 iuvitatiou given them to come to Jesus, — to come to the 
 marriage, to tlio feast ; and tlioir refusal to comply with 
 it. They are called tlm hidden — " them that were bidden " 
 — inasmuch as long before, in the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures, they had been invited to Christ. They had 
 been invited to him there as to the glorious Husband, 
 in such words as those we sang and read a little ago, 
 ' ' Hearken, daughter, and consider, and incline thine 
 ear ; forget also thine own people, and thy father's 
 house ; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty ; for he 
 is thy Lord, and worship thou him." They had there been 
 invited to him as to a glorious feast of all spiritual bless- 
 ings, in many such words as those, '' In this mountain 
 shall the Lord of hosts make unto all jieople a feast of fat 
 things — Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters — Wisdom hath builded her house ; she hath 
 hewn out her seven pillars ; she hath killed her beasts ; 
 she hath mingled her wine ; she hath also furnished her 
 table." Throughout all the Scriptures they had been 
 called to believe on Messiah, and charged to hold them- 
 selves in readiness to bid him welcome w^hen he should 
 appear on the earth. And now that he had appeared, 
 the King "sent forth his servants" to summon them 
 afresh, — to call them more immediately to the feast. For 
 this purpose he sent forth John the Baptist. He sent the 
 glorious Bridegroom himself, who condescended to be- 
 come the servant of the Father for this end, and delivered 
 to them many a blessed message of invitation. He sent the ' 
 twelve for the same purpose, and man}^ others. But, "they 
 would not come." A mere handful, "born, not of blood, 
 nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God," welcomed the invitation. But the mournful general 
 rule was, " He came unto his own, and his own received 
 him not — He was in tlie world, and the world was made 
 by him, and the world knew him not — Ye will not come 
 
194 PARABLE OF THE MAEEIAGE FEAST. 
 
 to me that ye might have life — Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
 I would have gathered you; and ye would not." 
 
 Now let me ask you at this place to notice that, sup- 
 posing a story here of things of ordinary life, embodying 
 other corresponding things in the spiritual world, already 
 it begins to seem a somewhat improbable one. A king 
 makes a marriage feast for his son, and invites to it a 
 large number of his subjects. It does not seem very likely 
 that they should in a body decline the invitation. But 
 the improbable will presently, as I humbly think, become 
 the incongruous, yea, extravagant, when we shall find 
 that, on the invitation being sent forth a second time, 
 and by the hand of other servants, not only is it made 
 light of, but the servants are actually taken, mocked, spite- 
 fully entreated, and murdered, I find, accordingly, that 
 Strauss, the German sceptic, makes a handle of this 
 incongruity, to discredit the authenticity and genuineness 
 of the whole passage, on the ground that the story in a 
 parable behoves to have at least probability or verisimili- 
 tude about it. And no doubt it does, when there ^s a 
 story of ordinary life. But supposing the case to be as I 
 have put it, and entertain no doubt whatever that it 
 is, that there is no story of ordinary life here at all, — that 
 it is the spiritual world alone, only presented in the 
 graphic form of a narrative, and with allusion, more or 
 less, to ordinary things — then, what a terrible grandeur 
 is thrown around the whole passage by that very 
 absence of verisimilitude of which Strauss complains ! 
 yes, beloved brethren, here is a folly, a wickedness, 
 having no parallel, — nothing at all resembling it 
 in the ordinary affairs of men. Be astonished, ye 
 heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid ; be ye very de- 
 solate, saith the Lord. The King of kings makes a 
 marriage for his Son, and invites us to be, not guests only 
 at it, but the very bride of that Son, and we trample 
 the invitation beneath our feet ! I say W6', we^ because, 
 
PARABLE OF THE MAHRIAGE FEAST. 1 95 
 
 altlioiig'li it is in this verse a fact of liistory, the 
 principles, as I said, abide unchanged at this hour. 
 AVe, all of us by nature, are they of whom that word is 
 spoken, *' Ye will not come to me, that ye might have 
 life" — "I would have gathered you as a hen gathereth 
 her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." 
 
 But now have we a second stage of the solemn history 
 in ver. 4: ''Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, 
 Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my 
 dinner : my oxen and my fallings are killed, and all 
 things are ready; come to the marriage." It is here 
 the day of Pentecost anticipated. It is a sublime antici- 
 pation by our Lord of all the great and solemn things 
 which were to be transacted betwixt this time and that 
 day — his crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, and 
 the sending down of the Holy Ghost. The Father yearns, 
 in the bowels of a divine compassion, over his lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel. He will send the invitation 
 again to them, under wonderfully changed circumstances. 
 "He sent forth other servants." Partly, indeed, they 
 were the same apostles. But, not to S2)eak of those other 
 men who were sent besides — such as Stephen, Philip the 
 Evangelist, and many others — even the apostles might 
 well be called " other servants," as now baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost, and in respect to the new form of the 
 message they were sent to bear. For here it is, " Tell 
 them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my 
 dinner." Formerly it was but in course of preparation ; 
 now it is prepared — '* I have prepared my dinner." Ah, 
 touching words from the lips of the Lord Jesus, when you 
 think what that dinner consisted of, — when you recall 
 words like those, " The bread that I will give is my flesh, 
 which I wiU give for the life of the world — My flesh is 
 meat indeed, and ray blood is drink indeed — .Whoso eateth 
 my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life — Christ 
 our passover is sacrificed for us ; therefore, let us keep 
 
196 PARABLE OF THE MAEEIAGE FEAST. 
 
 the feast." But it is tlie Father who speaks here, '' I have 
 prepared my dinner;" and thus you might recall those 
 other words, '^ God spared not his own Son — It pleased 
 the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief — 
 Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the 
 man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts ; smite the 
 shepherd." "Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my 
 oxen and my fatlings are killed." Ah ! Mi/ oxen and my 
 fallings — for all the slain fatlings of the ancient economy, 
 so far as G-od ever knew them as His, were in that one 
 Lamb slain ! " And all things are ready." After the costly 
 pre]3arations of four thousand years, all things now are 
 ready — forgiveness is ready ; the Holy Ghost ready; eter- 
 nal life is ready — '' Come to the marriage." As I live, saith 
 the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. 
 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how sliall I deliver 
 thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how 
 shall I set thee as Zeboim ? My heart is turned within 
 me, my repentings are kindled together — Come, come to 
 the marriage I 
 
 Ay, all things are ready, except one, alas ! — the fallen 
 heart, — the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and 
 is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 
 *' But they made light of it," (verses 5 and 6), " and went 
 their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise : 
 and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them 
 spitefully, and slew them." In these two verses it is the 
 rejection, over again, of the invitation by the Jews — 
 one rejection, at bottom, in both verses, but under two 
 forms in them respectively — indifference, hostility, — in- 
 difference, contemptuous disregard ; and deep, murder- 
 ous hostility. Contem^Dtuous disregard, *' They made 
 light of it, and went their waj'S, one to his farm, and 
 another to his merhcandise," — one to the property which 
 he had, and another to the acquiring of a little more. 
 unheard of folly, madness! So taken up with a farm, and 
 
PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 1 97 
 
 a shop of mercliaiidiso, that no time is found for heaven 
 and hell, — for a lost or won eternity ! A farm and mer- 
 chandise straightway to be left behind for ever, preferred 
 before a kingdom, a marriage with the King of kings, 
 a crown, an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away ! They made light of it. Unparal- 
 leled this even in hell ; for the devils at least believe and 
 tremble. But unheard of guilt also, — criminality ! God's 
 highest grace and highest authority are alike trampled 
 under foot. God has bound up with the salvation which 
 is in Christ Jesus the glory of all his perfections — his 
 Wisdom, Truth, Eighteousness, Grace; and the sinner 
 treads them all beneath his feet for liis gains and dust ! 
 
 Well; the contemptuous disregard is, as I have said, 
 one and the same rejection, at bottom, with the murderous 
 hostility. For in such a case indifference is hostility. There 
 is no possible medium. ' ' He that is not with me is against 
 me ; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." 
 But it is of high importance, practically, that we distinguish 
 the two, as they are distinguished here. Because we now 
 are placed in circumstances where there is really no room 
 for the murderous violence. And thus might we suppose 
 ourselves not to be in the passage at all. But we are at 
 least in this fifth verse, ''They made light of it, and 
 went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchan- 
 dise." yes, we, beloved, for all manner of wretched 
 things in this world, do refuse Christ, and make light of 
 the offers of his salvation ! And now I will only further, 
 on the other verse — "The remnant took his servants 
 and entreated them spitefully, and slew them" — ask you 
 to observe how it was very soon accomplished literally, 
 when, for example, " they stoned Stephen, calling upon 
 God, and saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ; and 
 he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, 
 lay not this sin to tlieir charge": and wlien, a little 
 Avliile after, " Herod the king stretched forth his hands 
 
198 PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 
 
 to vex certain of the Cliurcli, and killed James, the 
 brother of John, with the sword, and, because he saw 
 it pleased the Jews, proceeded further to take Peter 
 also " — and so forth. 
 
 But now this second stage of the history reaches its con- 
 summation. Yer. 7. " But when the king heard thereof, he 
 was wroth : and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those 
 murderers, and burned up their city." He was wroth — 
 because they robbed him of the glory of shewing mercy, — 
 of bestowing on them everlasting life. Gracious wrath ! 
 and yet not the less wrath on that account, but rather, 
 methinks, the more. Long had the patience of God 
 waited for them. All day long he had stretched fortii 
 his hands to them. But they misunderstood it. He kept 
 silence ; and they thought that he was altogether such an 
 one as themselves. Nay, he had not kept silence. In 
 accents of .unutterable tenderness he had spoken to them. 
 But " they despised the riches of his goodness, and forbear- 
 ance and long-suffering, and treasured uj) unto themselves 
 wrath against the day of wrath." And now that day was 
 come. The old awful word was fulfilled, "I will meet 
 them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and there 
 will I devour them like a lion" — "The king sent forth 
 his armies, and destroj^ed those murderers, and burned 
 up their city." Historically, this is the Eoman armies 
 under Titus, with the siege, destruction, burning, of Jeru- 
 salem. *' His armies." The Koman armies were His 
 armies, — the rod of his anger, — the staff in his hand. 
 Indeed, he had foretold of them fourteen centuries before, 
 saying, " The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from 
 far, as swift as the eagle flieth ; and he shall besiege thee 
 in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come 
 down, wherein thou trustedst." " He sent forth his 
 armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up 
 their city." Once it was Jerusalem **the city of the 
 great King." But He had forsaken it, and now it was 
 
r.VKABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 199 
 
 their cit}'. One is rciiiiudod of those words to Moses, after 
 tlio siu of tlie golden calf, " Go, get thee down; for thy 
 people, -which tliou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, 
 have corrupted themselves." 
 
 l)Ut now, in the 8th and 9th versos, have we a third 
 and last stage in the great history, reaching down 
 even to our own day. " Then saith he to his servants. The 
 wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not 
 worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways" (or great out- 
 lets and thoroughfares, whether in town or country), ** and 
 as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." Briefly, 
 this is the calling of tlia Gentiles into the Church and 
 Kingdom of God, the Jews having been cast out of it. 
 It is that word, *' Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature; " or that word, " That re- 
 pentance and remission of sins should be preached in his 
 name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ; " or 
 that one, " The kingdom of God shall be taken from 3'ou, 
 and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof;" 
 or, most of all perhaps to the purpose, those words, 
 " Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said. It was 
 necessary that the word of God should first have been 
 spoken to you : but seeing ye put it from you, and judge 
 3'ourselves unworthy of everlasting life" (compare the 
 words before us, "They which were bidden were not 
 worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as 
 many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage"), " lo, we 
 turn to the Gentiles; for so hath the Lord commanded 
 us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, 
 that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the 
 earth." 
 
 Then, in the 10th verse, we have the fulfilment of this 
 great commission, with the result — "So those servants 
 went out into the highways, and gathered together all, 
 as many as they found, both bad and good : and the 
 wedding was furnished with guests." Plainly this is the 
 
200 
 
 PAEABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 
 
 visible Cliurcli of the Gentiles. But the question occurs, 
 Where are here those of the Gentiles corresponding to the 
 Jews who openly and avowedly refused the invitation ? I 
 answer, that they are not here at all ; and for this reason, 
 that it was the design of our Lord, in this latter part of the 
 parable, to present his kingdom under one particular 
 phase or aspect of it — even as, in its outward or visible 
 character, it is composed both of those who are its true 
 subjects and those who are its subjects only in appear- 
 ance and profession, — composed of such as are both in 
 and of it, and of such as are in, but not of it, and must 
 soon be cast forth from it for ever. Only observe, 
 that the "bad and good," in this verse, are evidently 
 not these two classes. The expression does not refer 
 to the false and true subjects of the kingdom, but to the 
 varied condition of the guests when the invitation 
 reached them. God, in other words, would have the 
 invitation to be addressed to all without exception, — 
 to the openly wicked, as well as the outwardly decent and 
 moral. In this respect there was to be "no difference" — 
 even as "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
 God," and can be "justified" only "by his grace, through 
 the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 
 
 It is, however, in the next verse, the 11th, that this 
 distinctive feature of the latter part of the j^arable 
 comes most expressly out : " And when the king came in 
 to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not 
 on a wedding- garment." But the question immediately 
 suggests itself. What was there to be wondered at in this, 
 or what in it to be blamed ? Had not the King commanded 
 the servants to go out into the highways, and bid as many 
 as they should find to the marriage ? yes. But it is mani- 
 festly taken for granted that, though the invitation was to 
 be given to all, it was far indeed from being the design of 
 the King that the marriage of his Son should be degraded 
 by the presence of persons in "filthy ragsj" and so, 
 
TAllABLE OF THE MAURIAGE FEAST. 201 
 
 that tlio invitation carried in its bosom tlio provi- 
 sion of a garment in wliicli all invited ones might 
 fitly and -worthily take their place. And here again 
 comes ont the importance of settling that there is no 
 narrative of ordinary life hero. I find the commentators, 
 indeed, labouring to make out that in the Eastern feasts 
 it was the practice to provide the guests with festival 
 garments. The evidence, however, seems to me but 
 scantj'. All I find about the customs has simply brought 
 me to this, that there was enough to make it not un- 
 intelligible to the hearers of our Lord, how, in this 
 altogether peculiar marriage feast of Avhich he is discours- 
 ing, the invitation should carry with it such a gracious 
 provision and offer. And so, accordingly, the fact is, 
 blessed for ever be God ! You remember that great 
 word, for example, *'Bythe deeds of the law shall no 
 flesh be justified in his sight. But now the righteousness 
 of God without the lav\^ is manifested, being witnessed 
 by the law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of 
 God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and 
 upon all thorn that believe ; for there is no difference." 
 Yes, beloved, God is inviting every one of us to this won- 
 drous marriage. But he will have us come to it, only, 
 " putting on" in the very act "the Lord Jesus Christ," — 
 putting on that peerless robe He has wrought out for us 
 in his obedience unto death, — the robe of which the 
 Church sings, " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my 
 soul shall be J03^ful in my God ; for he hath clothed me 
 with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me 
 T\ith the robe of righteousness" — that glorious right- 
 eousness which is in Christ, " The Loud our Higiiteous 
 XESS," and which becomes ours in two distinct ways — 
 first, in that it is imputed to us by faith alone; and, second, 
 in that, by what one has well called the appropriative and 
 assimilative power of faith, it carries with it also a per- 
 sonal and implanted righteousness and holiness, so that, in 
 
202 
 
 PAllABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 
 
 one and the same hour, we are "washed, and sanctified, 
 and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
 Spirit of our Grod." 
 
 But, '' a man" — what is this ? " saw there a man." Are 
 there, then, but a few such — one here, and one there ? 
 no, no. But the solemn thought is, that, among all 
 the multitudes, God deals as individually with each as 
 if there were but one ; and, further, that tliough there 
 were but one in a whole assembly, God's eye would in- 
 stantly find him out — "AVhen the king came in to see 
 the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a 
 wedding- garment : and" (ver. 12) *'he saith unto him, 
 Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding- 
 garment?" An opportunity is afi'orded to him of vindicat- 
 ing himself, if he can, — of affirming, if he dare, that he 
 had done all in his power, — come as he was invited, and. 
 had no means of finding a wedding-garment. But, it is 
 added, *' he was speechless." terrible word ! What 
 a contrast to Ezekiel's, " That thou mayest remember, and 
 be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more be- 
 cause of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for 
 all that thou hast done" ! Here it is that solemn word in 
 Samuel, "He will keep the feet of his saints, and the 
 wicked shall be silent in darkness." " Then said the king 
 to the servants" (ver. 13), " Bind him hand and foot, and 
 take him away, and cast him into outer darkness ; there 
 shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." " The king said 
 to the servants" — the angels, as we know — "Bind him 
 hand and foot." In an instant those hands which might 
 have resisted, and those feet which might have attempted 
 to escape, are powerless. It is a fearful thing to fall 
 into the hands of the living God. Can thine heart 
 endure, or thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall 
 deal with thee ? The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fear- 
 fulness hath surprised the hyjDOcrites ! " Bind him hand 
 and foot, and take him away." It is the final separation 
 
TAIIABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 203 
 
 from tlie Cliiireli, — expulsion from tlio Idiigclom, of tlioso 
 who were in, but never of, it. Compare those words 
 of another parabk^, '* So sliall it bo at the end of the 
 worhl : the angels sliall come forth, and sever the wicked 
 from among the just; and shall cast them into the furnace 
 of fire." Here it is, *' Cast him into outer darkness," — 
 the darkness outside the kingdom of light, — that terrible 
 darkness, '' God sjtared not the angels that sinned, but 
 cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of 
 darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." " Cast him 
 into outer darkness ; there shall be wet^ping and gnashing 
 of teeth." '' Weeping," sorrow; '' gnashing of teeth," 
 despair — speechless, helpless, hopeless ! *' For" (ver. 14) 
 "many are called, but few are chosen." Not "few," 
 of course, absolutely. no ; but few in respect to the 
 many called. And it is to be further observed, that the 
 " few" are placed here in contrast, not simply to the class 
 of professors within the kingdom with but a "name 
 that they live," but to all in the parable, besides, who had 
 never even seemed to enter the kingdom. 
 
 Beloved hearers, unspeakably momentous are the bear- 
 ings of the whole upon the character of God, and the cha- 
 racter also of fallen man. On God's transcendent Mercy 
 — this marriage, this feast, with the imivcrsal invitation 
 to it ; but Mercy, hand in hand with omniscient, burning 
 Holiness, " How earnest thou in hither, not having a 
 weddin g- garment ? " and the destruction, — the "outer 
 darkness," the "weeping and gnashing of teeth!" On 
 the character also of fallen man — his exceeding folly 
 and wickedness, having no parallel in the things of 
 ordinary life, — not admitting of being set forth in any 
 idlegoric narrative taken from them ! 
 
 One word only more. The attendants, it seems, incurred 
 no blame for the presence of the man who had not on the 
 wedding-garment — as they must necessarily have done had 
 that garment been anything outward or visible, — had 
 
204 PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 
 
 there, in otlier words, been any narrative here of things 
 in common life. The wedding-garment here is exclusively 
 spiritual, unseen — and man looketh on the outward 
 appearance. And so is it that, in the analagous feast of 
 the Supper (soon to be again celebrated among us), we 
 who are the Lord's servants will not be blamed for receiv- 
 ing you to it on the footing of your credible outward 
 profession. Whether you have, or have not, on the 
 wedding-garment — who are we that we should sit in judg- 
 ment, and determine ? But God looketh on the heart. 
 All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him 
 with whom we have to do. " When the king came in to 
 S3e the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a 
 wedding-garment." Lord, is it I ? Let a man examine 
 himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of 
 that cup. Search me, God, and know my heart ; try 
 me, and know my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked 
 way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting ! 
 
XYI. 
 
 CHRIST »rADE A CURSE. 
 
 '* Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the laio, 
 being made a curse for us : for it is ivritten, Cursed is 
 every one that hangeth on a tree^ Text — " Christ 
 . . . made a curse for us.'" — Gal. iii. 13. 
 
 I AM desirous to examine with some care along with 
 you these great, awful, blessed, words of the Holy Ghost. 
 May the Lord vouchsafe His own presence with us while 
 we reverently together turn our thoughts to them ! 
 
 I. "Christ made a curse." First of all, I lay down 
 this position as certain (however unlikely it might have 
 seemed to us beforehand), that the curse which the 
 apostle speaks of is the curse of God, — that it is God's 
 curse which Paul says Christ was made, and God himself 
 who made him that curse. It is the curse of God which 
 the apostle says Christ was made. True, there was no lack 
 of the cursing of this blessed One, in a secondary sense of 
 the word, from other quarters, — no lack of the cursing of 
 liim by men and devils, in the sense of maligning, blas- 
 pheming, — wishing, calling him accursed. But Paul 
 assuredly does not speak of anything of that kind. 
 Besides that he says made, — not called, or wished, but 
 (yi'.o/Mivog) " made a curse," — see how certain it is from the 
 entire context that it is the curse of God which he speaks 
 of, and which he says Christ was made. He had begun 
 to speak of this curse at the tenth verse, saying, ** As many 
 as are of the works of the law are under the curse : for it 
 
206 ' CHRIST MADE A CUESE. 
 
 is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
 things which are written in the book of the law to do 
 them." Then in the thirteenth verse, where the text lies, 
 "Christ," says he, "hath redeemed iis from the curse of 
 the law, being made a curse for us." It is out of the 
 question to imagine the sense of the term to be entirely 
 changed in this second clause. It is out of the ques- 
 tion to suppose the meaning now to be, Christ hath 
 redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been 
 reviled, called accursed, by evil men. Truly a feeble 
 curse it had been that could have been so removed! 
 Beyond all doubt the meaning is, Christ hath redeemed 
 us from the curse of the law, having borne that curse, — 
 been made the curse of the law for us. If anything 
 further were wanting to fix this down as the meaning, 
 it were found in the last clause of the verse, where the 
 apostle, citing in confirmation and illustration a passage 
 from the Pentateuch, adds, " for it is written. Cursed is 
 every one that hangeth on a tree." We shall look at this 
 passage a little more narrowly by and by. Meanwhile 
 it is sufficient to say that the exact words in Deuteronomy 
 are, " He that is hanged is accursed of God" — so that it is 
 just as if Paul had said, Christ hath redeemed us from the 
 cui'se of the law, having been made the curse of it for us ; 
 for it is written, he that is hanged is accursed of God. 
 
 And then, as it is God's curse which the apostle says 
 Christ was made, so was it God himself who made him 
 that curse. "Who else by any possibility could ? Wicked 
 men may call or may wish their fellow-men accursed, and 
 the priests of an apostate Church may profess to make 
 them so. But it is a dream. God alone can bring his 
 cuise on any man. And you may only further notice as 
 to this, that the word "made" here is the same the 
 apostle uses in the fourth verse of the next chapter, 
 " When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth 
 his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" — made 
 
CHRIST MADE A CUKSE. 
 
 207 
 
 by God, of course. Our lirst position then is, tliat it is 
 tlie curse of God which the apostle says Christ was made, 
 and God himself who made him that curse. 
 
 II. But, secondly, at once the question arises, How 
 could such a thing ever be ? For the righteous God will 
 bring his curse on no guiltless one. It may be questioned 
 whether lie will ever bring suffering of any kind on 
 one absolutely guiltless. But it is certain he will not 
 bring his curse on the guiltless. Wicked men may curse 
 them, — may wisli, or call them, accursed. But, as their 
 ''curse causeless shall not come," so the only possible 
 cause of the curse of God is ill-desert — even as we have 
 already found it written, ** Cursed is every one that con- 
 tinueth not in all things which are written in the book of 
 the law to do them." But then, Christ was " holy, harm- 
 less, undefiled, separate from sinners." In his Divine 
 nature «he was the Holy, holy, holy One of Israel. And 
 in the humanity which he assumed he " did no sin," 
 "knew no sin." Yet does Paul say that he was made a 
 curse, — the curse of God, and by God himseK made that 
 curse. 
 
 III. But now, thirdly, there was a mysterious manner, 
 yet most real and true, in which Christ was not guiltless, 
 — yea, in which he who alone in all the world was with- 
 out sin was, to speak with deepest reverence, of all guilty 
 ones in the world the guiltiest. I might remind you of 
 those words of the ransomed Church in Isaiah, "All wo like 
 sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his 
 own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
 us all." But let us fix our attention a little more closely 
 on those words of 2 Cor. v. 21, " God made him to be sin 
 for us, that we miglitbe made the righteousness of God in 
 him." Made him to he sin — the entire expression is, " made 
 him who knew no sin to be sin for us." !So much is certain, 
 therefore, negatively, that the apostle's meaning is not, 
 and cannot be, that he was made our sin in the pollution, 
 
208 CHRIST MADE A CURSE. 
 
 or stain, or turpitude of it, either in nature or in life. 
 For, besides tlie friglitfulness of sucli a thing to be even 
 imagined, it were in contradiction to the express words, 
 "He hath made him who hiew no sin to be sin for us." 
 Even as regards the frame and constitution of the humanity 
 which the Son of God assumed, 3'ou recollect how the 
 angel said to Mary, " The Holy Grhost shall come upon 
 thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; 
 therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee 
 shall be called the Son of Grod." But then, on the other 
 hand, the apostle expressly says, "He made him to he 
 sin^ And neither can the meaning of this be, made 
 liim to be a sufferer. There are, indeed, evangelical 
 expositors who understand the word as meaning a sin 
 offering. They think it is so used with reference to the 
 language of the Old Testament, where the term for " sin 
 offering" is simply sin — as in all those directions of 
 the law, "he shall lay his hand on the head of the 
 sin offering," — literally, of the sin. AVell, I cannot 
 agree with this opinion, because it breaks the antithesis 
 the apostle plainly designed to mark between sin and 
 righteousness, saying, " He hath made him to be sin for 
 us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
 him." Still I do not greatly object to this view of 
 the expression; and it will come to much the same 
 result, provided it be distinctly borne in mind, that the 
 word " sin offering" in the Old Testament is just " sin;" 
 and that the reason doubtless lies in the mysterious 
 manner in which the victim became an offering for the 
 sin — even that it had first become the sin, as it were, — the 
 sinner's guilt having been transferred, typically, to the 
 sacrifice — of which transference the laying of the hand 
 on the head of the victim was the medium and the 
 symbol. Thus, "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon 
 the head of the goat, and confess over him all the iniqui- 
 ties of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions 
 
CIiniST MADE A cunsE. 209 
 
 ill all their &;iiis, puttiii<^- tlioin upon the head of tho goat." 
 So that the question remains just as before, ^vhat that sin 
 was which was transferred (now no longer typically, but 
 truly) to the glorious Victim, — the "sin" which the 
 apostle says Christ ''was made." It could not be the 
 pollution, tho tui-pitiido, on the one hand ; it was not the 
 suffering simply, on the other. But there was a great 
 intermediate element between the turpitude and the suffer- 
 ing; and this it was that Christ was made in the whole 
 fearful reality of it — even the guilt (the reatiis, as the Latins 
 spoke), — the just liability in law, and in the eye of the 
 lawgiver, to endure the suffering, the punishment, the 
 curse. For Christ, by an altogether peculiar Divine con- 
 stitution — of infinite grace alike on the Father's part and 
 on his own— had become the Head of his body the Church, 
 — taken their place in law, — become one with them in 
 law for ever. Eead again, for instance, that fourth 
 verse of the following chapter, " When the fulness of the 
 time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
 made under the law " — under the law ? But what could 
 the Son, the very Lawgiver, have to do with subjection 
 to the law ? Nothing, assuredly, for himself, — nothing 
 save as a public Person, Surety, Itcpresentative. But 
 having, in the act of taking our nature, taken this charac- 
 ter also, he did thus become truly and justly chargeable 
 before the Divine tribunal with the whole iniquities of his 
 people. Thus did he, to speak with profoundest reverence, 
 deserve and behove to endure the Divine curse — due 
 to the blasphemies and persecutions of Saul ; to the 
 aggravated denials of Peter ; to the crimes of the thief 
 who hung on the cross beside him — to the unnumbered 
 iniquities of all who shall be saved by him to the end of 
 the world. *' God made him to be sin," and so made, and 
 could not but make him, to be " a curse for us," that we 
 might be redeemed from the curse of the law. 
 
 And now turn we for a moment to the passage cited by 
 
 o 
 
210 CHRIST MADE A CUllSE. 
 
 tlie apostle from the Pentateucli. Let no one be startled 
 in the reading of it. Let ns rest well assured that Paul 
 cites no Scripture inaccurately, and thus be well assured 
 that, when God inspired Moses to write the words, he had 
 his beloved Son in his eye ; and that what might at first 
 view seem to be the degradation of Christ, will in 
 the end be found to be equally to his glory and our salva- 
 tion. It is the twenty-first of Deuteronomy, the twenty- 
 second and twentj^- third verses — "If a man have com- 
 mitted a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to 
 death, and thou hang him on a tree ; his body shall not 
 remain all night iipon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise 
 bury him that day, (for he that is hanged is accursed of 
 Grod;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy 
 Grod giveth thee for an inheritance." Too many exposi- 
 tors, Protestant as well as Pomanist, have tortured the 
 apostle's words in our text, to evade the plain sense of 
 the statement, " Christ was made a curse for us ;" and as 
 for the citation from Deuteronomy, they in effect venture 
 simply to deny the applicability of it to Christ, entering 
 into formal proof (of what surely is too evident to 
 require any), that Moses is speaking of thieves and other 
 notorious criminals; hence concluding that the passage 
 can have no possible application to Him who was holy, 
 harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Ah ! they are 
 blind to what is the very soul and glory of the gospel, 
 that Christ, in a mysterious sense, yet most real, ivas 
 the guiltiest of all, — that the Lord did verily lay on 
 him the unnumbered iniquities of his people — not their 
 punishment only, but their iniquities first, and then their 
 punishment, their curse. As Luther speaks, "We must 
 as well wrap Christ, and know him to be wrapped, in our 
 sins, in our malediction, in our death, and in all our evils, 
 as he is wrapped in our flesh and blood." " God sent him 
 into the world, saying to him. Be thou Peter, that denier ; 
 be thou Paul, that persecutor, blasphemer, cruel oppressor; 
 
CniUST MADE A cunsE. 211 
 
 be thou David, that adulterer ; bo tliou that sinner who ate 
 the apple in paradise ; be thou that thief that hung on the 
 cros?." ** If thou wilt deny him to be a sinner and accursed, 
 deny also that ho was crucified and dead. For it is no less 
 absurd to say, that the Son of God (as our faith confesseth 
 and believeth) was crucified and suffered the pains of sin 
 and of death, than to say that he is a sinner and accursed. 
 But if it be not absurd to confess and believe that Christ 
 was crucified between two thieves, then it is not absurd to 
 say also that he is accursed, and of all sinners the greatest. 
 These words of Paul are not spoken in vain, * Christ was 
 made a curse for us.' * God made Christ who knew no 
 sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteous- 
 ness of God in him.' " 
 
 TV. Fourthly, thus have we the wondrous explanation 
 of the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ, which otherwise 
 were an inexplicable enigma. For, when we look at the 
 Saviour's life on earth, we are at once struck with this 
 amazing fact, that there was but one man who ever 
 trode that earth, and never defiled it l^y sin, — one only 
 who '' always did the things which pleased the Father ; " 
 and 3'et that that Father, " the righteous Lord who loveth 
 righteousness," was so far from exempting him from 
 those sufferings which are the fruit of sin, that from his 
 birth onwards to his death on the accursed tree, "it 
 pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to jiut him to grief." 
 Even had his sufferings i)roceeded simply from the hands 
 of men and devils, the mystery would not have been 
 removed, since neither devils nor men could be more 
 than instruments — voluntary and guilty, j'ct only instru- 
 ments — in the hand of Jehovah for the executing of his 
 designs. But the fact unfjuestionably was, that the prin- 
 cipal sufferings of this Just One came from the immediate 
 hand of the Father himself. It is impossible to read the 
 gospel histories without perceiving, that by far his deepest 
 afjTonies were those which he endured when there was no 
 
212 en HI ST MADE A CURSE. 
 
 hand of man upon him at all, or when, at least, he himself 
 traces the suffering to another hand altogether — saying, for 
 example, " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I sa}-? 
 Father, save me from this hour ; but for this cause came 
 I unto this hour" — "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
 even unto death ; tarry ye here and watch with me " — 
 "0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 me " — " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
 Ah! behold the explanation of all, — of the, travail of 
 Messiah's soul, — of an agony that wrung the blood 
 from every pore of his sacred , body,' — of what he himself 
 declared to be his own Father's desertion of him — see, 
 not the source of it only, but the soul also of its deepest 
 bitterness and anguish, in these words, 7nade sin, vtade 
 a curse, — not accursed simply, but— as if all the curses 
 due to a world's sin had been made to meet in his per- 
 son — " made a curse,^^ that we might be redeemed from 
 the curse of the law ! 
 
 y. Fifthly, there are certain great central things 
 among the types of the Old Testament, which cast much 
 light over the mysterious fact in our text, and, in their turn, 
 receive important light from it. Let me select three — the 
 brazen serpent, the burnt offering, and the sin offering. 
 
 The brazen serpent. At first view it seems very 
 strange, that the chosen t^^pe of the blessed Eedeemer 
 should have been the likeness of a serpent, — that, when 
 the Israelites were dying of the bite of serpents, the 
 medium of their cure should have been the likeness of 
 one, "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; 
 and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, 
 when he looketh upon it, shall live." But the wonder 
 ceases, or rather is turned into another wonder of holy 
 admiration, when we find that the only possible way of 
 our deliverance from sin, was the Redeemer's taking it, 
 in its whole guilt and curse, into his own person, — being 
 made sin and a curse for us. What glorious light is 
 
CHRIST MADE A CUUSE. 213 
 
 thus cast on tlio words of Jesus, "As Moses lifted up Iho 
 serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
 lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should not 
 perish, but have eternal life ! " 
 
 Then the burnt-offering. There is no doubt that the fire 
 of all the burnt-offerings of the law, whether it came down 
 immediately from heaven to consume the victim, as on 
 various memorable occasions, or was kindled naturally, 
 was the emblem of the Divine holiness and justice, con- 
 suming the substitute lamb on which the sin had been laid, 
 — tlie sacrifice in place of the sinner. What a picture of 
 Christ made a curse, enduring the fire of "the wrath of 
 God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and un- 
 rigliteousness of men ! " What a picture of the prophet's 
 " Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the 
 man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts ; smite the 
 shepherd!" What a picture of Him who cried, "My 
 lieart is like wax ; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 
 My strength is dried up like a potsherd ; and my tongue 
 cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the 
 dust of doatiri " 
 
 And lastly the sin-offering. Let these words, for 
 example, be carefully observed (Lev. xvi. 27, 28), "The 
 bullock for the sin-offering, and the goat for tlie sin- 
 offering, whose blood was brought in to make atone- 
 ment in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the 
 camp ; and they shall burn in the fire their skin, and 
 their flesh, and their dung. And he that burnetii them 
 shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and 
 afterward he shall come into the camp." That is to sa}^ 
 the victim, as having had the whole iniquities transferred 
 to it by the laying of the hand upon its head, had become 
 an unclean and accursed thing, and so behoved to be 
 carried away out of God's siglit witliout the camp, and 
 consumed in the fire. This is what our apostle refers 
 to in those words in Hebrews, " The bodies of those 
 
214 CUEIST MADE A CUESE. 
 
 beasts, whose blood for sin is brought into tlie sanctuary 
 by the high, priest, are burned without the camp. Where- 
 fore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his 
 own blood, suffered without the gate." As if to say that 
 when God appointed the sin-offerings of the law to be 
 carried forth outside the camp as unclean and accursed, 
 and to be burned in the fire, it was but a figure of our 
 Lord Jesus, laden with our accursed inic[uities, made sin 
 and a curse, numbered with the transgressors, dealt with 
 as the vilest of all — not by man so much as by God, the 
 Holy One of Israel — because the Lord had, with his own 
 most free consent, made to meet on him the iniquities of 
 us all. When Jesus was led forth out of Jerusalem, and 
 there crucified between the thieves, it was as if all the 
 innumerable multitudes of sinners whom he represented 
 had been in that hour carried out, and had there endured, 
 in their own persons, the curse of the Divine law due to 
 their whole ungodliness, unrighteousness, pride, false- 
 hood, vanity, uncleanness, rebellion, and I know not 
 what other crimes and sins. Writes Dr Owen in his 
 treatise on the Divine Justice, *' Unless God, the judge 
 and ruler of all, after having thoroughly examined the 
 nature, hearts, breasts, ways, and lives of us all, had 
 thence collected whatever was contrary to his law, im- 
 proper, unjust, and impure, — whatever displeased the 
 eyes of his purity, provoked his justice, roused his anger 
 and severit}^, — and laid it all on the shoulders of our Ee- 
 deemer, and condemned it in his flesh, it had been better 
 for us, rather than to be left eternally entangled in the 
 snares of death and of the curse, never to have enjoyed 
 this common air, but to have been annihilated as soon as 
 born. Wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us 
 from this most miserable state by nature ? * Thanks be 
 to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 YI. But thus I observe, once more, that we do not get 
 
CHRIST MADE A CURSE. 2 1 o 
 
 at the full explanation of tlio mysterious fact in onr text, 
 till we have taken into view the wondrous design and issue 
 of all, as set forth in the passage thus — " Christ hath 
 redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a 
 curse for us, that the blessing of Abraham might come on 
 the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ; that Ave might receive 
 the promise of the Spirit through faith." It is a very 
 serious mistake, too frequently committed, to suppose that 
 the chief diiliculty that lay in the way of our salvation was 
 the desperate corruption, ungodliness, of these hearts of 
 ours. God forbid I should underrate this difficulty. It 
 was one which nothing short of omnipotence could over- 
 come. But omnipotence could overcome it. Viewing 
 the inward princijile of our corruption by itself, the 
 Almighty God could have made an end of it by his Jiat. 
 But there was another difficulty which not even omni- 
 l^otonce could overcome, because mere power could have 
 no application to it. I mean the sentence, the curse, 
 of the divine law, which had gone forth against us. As 
 Paul speaks elsewhere, *' The sting of death is sin, and the 
 strength of sin is the law." There lay, as it were, over the 
 mouth of the grave of our corruption a stone, which even 
 the Divine power could not remove, so as to reach down 
 to the corruption to make an end of it. But that stone, 
 immoveable as to all mere power, melted like wax before 
 the fire of the expiatory sacrifice of Emmanuel — " Christ 
 hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made 
 a curse for us." And now, not only are we thus 
 delivered from the law's terrible sentence, but — the stone 
 which lay over the grave of our corruption once removed 
 — the way is open for the Holy Ghost's descending into it 
 to make an end of our corruption too, — yea, open for the 
 whole blessing of the Abrahamic covenant, *' I wiU be a 
 God to thee," coming on believers everywhere, of the 
 Gentiles and of the Jews alike — from which blessing the 
 apostle singles out the promise of the Iloly Ghost, as 
 
216 CHRIST MADE A CURSE. 
 
 being the centre and sum of it all, saying, ''Christ hath 
 redeemed us from the curse of the law, &c., that the 
 blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through 
 Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the 
 Si^irit through faith." Ah! they speak of difficulties at- 
 tending the literal sense of the apostle's statement, 
 " Christ made a curse." But it is the solution, — the 
 only and all-glorious solution, of difficulties unutterably 
 greater — even the entire difficulties of our lost condition, 
 as, at one and the same time, estranged and alienated 
 from God, and subject to the sentence of his immutable 
 law, " the soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
 
 Three words in conclusicn. 
 
 1. The apostle, in the opening chapter of this epistle, 
 speahs of " another gospel, which is not another." Very 
 rife in our day is another gospel, which truly is not 
 another gospel. Substantially it is this, that God never has 
 had a quarrel with man, but only man a quarrel with 
 God. — that God never has been angry with men, but 
 men only jealous of Him; and that the whole design of 
 Christ's coming into the world, and of his suffering unto 
 death, was to convince men of this — who, as soon as they 
 are persuaded to believe it, — to believe that God loves 
 them, and has loved them always, are saved. Another 
 gospel truly — which in fact turns the whole mission and 
 work of our Lord Jesus Christ into an unreality ! But 
 see the apostle's gospel in verses 10, 13, 14 of this chap- 
 ter. Yer. 10, God's quarrel with guilty men — "As many 
 as are of the works of the law are under the curse ; for it 
 is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
 things which are written in the book of the law to do 
 them." Then, the wondrous settlement of that quarrel, 
 ver. 13, *' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the 
 law, being made a curse for us." And hence the settlement 
 of our vile quarrel also with God, ver. 14, " that the bless- 
 ing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus 
 
CHRIST MADE A CURSE. 
 
 21 
 
 Clirist; tliat uo mig-lit receive tlio promise of tlio Spirit 
 through faitli." Now at length a conscience purged, and 
 righteously purged, from dead works, to serve the living 
 God ! Now all possible motives, of love, and fear, and 
 gratitude, and hope, and joy, unto a new and cliikl-like 
 obedience ! "0 Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy 
 servant, and the son of thine handmaid : thou hast loosed 
 my bonds." 
 
 2. Behold here tlie very soul of the Lord's Supper,^* 
 which niiglit liave for its motto, " Christ hatli jcdc'cnied us 
 from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" — 
 " This is my body broken for you : this cup is my blood 
 of the new covenant, shed for remission of tlie sins of 
 many." Oh for a profound self-abasement, and fervent 
 love, and lively faith, in the observing of it ! A profound 
 abasement for sins which could be removed from us only 
 by Christ's joining them to himself, and becoming a curse 
 for us. And fervent love to Him mIio, at sucli a cost, and 
 on such conditions, submitted to become our Eedeemer. 
 And lively, appropriating faith — as Lutlier was wont to 
 speak, " Lord Jesus, I am thy sin, thy curse, tliy death, 
 thy wrath of God, thy hell ; and contrariwise, thou art my 
 ligliteousness, my blessing, my life, my grace of God, and 
 my heaven ! " 
 
 3. Be it well known to all, that we become partakers 
 of this whole redemption by faith alone without the deeds 
 of the law. If we are not believers, then we arc 
 strangers to it — for, " as many as are of the works of the 
 law are under the curse." But simply by faitli do wo 
 become partakers of it. Purchased at the cost of the 
 ►Saviour's blood, it is offered to us without a price. " It 
 is of faith, that it miglit be by grace." God will have 
 us to be debtors eternally to his absolute mercy. If wo 
 will not consent to this, then must we be monuments 
 
 * The Discourse was preached in immediate prospect of tliis 
 ordinance. 
 
2 1 8 CHRIST MADE A CURSE. 
 
 of Ms justice tliroiigli eternal ages ; and those solemn 
 words of Jesus come into view, " If tliey do these things 
 in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? " If the 
 everlasting Son of the Father was made a curse, and it 
 pleased the Lord to bruise Him and to put Him to 
 grief, when bearing the sins of others, what shall 
 become of the sinner who shall have to bear his own ? 
 — " what shall the end be of them that obey not the 
 gospel of God ? " '' How shall we escape if we neglect so 
 great salvation?" 
 
 Meanwhile, it is among us as when the Israelites were 
 on every side dying in the wilderness, and God said unto 
 Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : 
 and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, 
 when he looketh upon it, shall live. Even so hath the 
 Son of man been lifted up, that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have eternal life. *'Be it 
 known unto you, men and brethren, that through this 
 man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and 
 by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from 
 which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." 
 
XYII. 
 
 WAITING FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 ** And, heinrj assembled together with them, com- 
 manded them that they should not depart from Jeru- 
 salem, but tea it /or the promise of the Father, which, 
 saith he, ye have heard of ??ie." — Acts i. 4. Text — 
 ^^ He commanded them that tliey .... should ivait 
 for the promise of the Father. ^^ 
 
 A YEP.Y cloep interest attaclios to tliis commandment, 
 from whatever point of view it is regarded. It was 
 given by the Lord in one of his last interviews with the 
 Apostles, just before he was taken up, and the cloud re- 
 ceived him out of their sight. About the same time 
 he commanded them to "go and teacli all nations," — 
 to "go into all the world and preacli the gospel to every 
 creature." But the commandment of the text was to take 
 the precedence of all else ; for they were not to depart 
 from Jerusalem until they had *' waited " there " for 
 the promise of the Father." Their compliance with 
 this command was to be the inaugurating of a new era 
 in the history of tlie Church of God, whicli sliould cast 
 the glory of all previous epoelis into the shade. With 
 their fulfilling of tlio command to "wait for tlio promise 
 of tlie Fatlier," tlie whole conversion of the world was to 
 be bound up. And further still, although the command- 
 ment belonged, in some minor aspects of it, to those first 
 disciples alone, yet, in the soul and substance of it, 
 
220 -WAITING FOP. THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 it is the comnion precious inheritance of the Chnrch 
 in every age — as will come out more fully while we look 
 at the following particulars : — first, that for which the 
 disciples were commanded to wait ; second, the import of 
 their waiting for it; and, third, the commandment to wait 
 — "he commanded them that they should wait for the 
 promise of the Father." Oh that that adorable Spirit of 
 whom we shall have occasion to speak throughout, may 
 vouchsafe to direct and bless us ! 
 
 I. And first, notice what the disciples were commanded 
 to wait for — " the promise of the Father," that is to say, 
 of course, the fulfilment of the promise, — not the ]Dromise 
 of the thing, but the thing itself promised. And what 
 was that? and why is it called emphatically, ^Hhe promise 
 of the Father?" You knovf what it was, — that it was 
 the efi'usion of the Holy Ghost, as it follows here expressly, 
 "the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have 
 lieard of mo ; for John truly baptized with water ; but 
 ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days 
 hence." 
 
 Not that the Spirit of God had been absent at any 
 time from the Church. There could be no Church, worthy 
 of the name, without the Holy Ghost. "We find David 
 again and again praying, " take not thy Holy Spirit 
 from me" — "uphold me with thy free Spirit" — "thy 
 Spirit is good ; lead me into the land of uprightness." 
 But then, besides that the Spirit's presence with the 
 Church had from the beginning only been in virtue of 
 Christ's prospective obedience unto death — now that he 
 had died, finishing the work of redemption, the Holy Ghost 
 was to be given on a scale so new, — given so much more 
 copiously and extensively, that we find those remarkable 
 words in one of the Gospels, "this spake he of the Spirit 
 which they that believe on him should receive ; for the 
 Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was 
 not yet glorified." " He commanded them that they 
 
"^'AITIXG FOR THE TIIOMISS OF TIIC FATHER. 221 
 
 slioultl wait for the promise of the ratlicr, which, miln 
 he, ye have heard of w^-." Tims wo arc sent back, if we 
 will learn more siiecilically wliat tlio tiling to be waited 
 for was, to the great words of Jesus before his death, 
 '•The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
 Father will send in my name, lie shall teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
 soever I have said unto you" — "When the Comforter is 
 come, whom I will send unto you from the Fatlier, even 
 the xSpirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he 
 shall testify of me ; and ye also shall bear witness " — 
 " It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not 
 away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I 
 depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, 
 he will reprove [convince] the world of sin, and of 
 righteousness, and of judgment " — "He shall glorify me" 
 — "He will guide you into all truth" — "He shall re- 
 ceive of mine and show it unto you." " He commanded 
 them that they should wait for the promise of the Father." 
 They were to wait for the Holy Ghost with reference to 
 all those blessed ends and offices, — to wait for him, not 
 only to advance mightily the whole work of grace within 
 their own souls, but to prepare and furnish them every 
 ^vay for the discharge of their great commission to the 
 "world lying in the wicked one," and to render the 
 discharge of it effectual for the turning of men every- 
 where from darkness to light, and from the power of 
 Satan unto God. 
 
 But the further question arises, why Christ calls this 
 emphatically, " the promise of the Father," as if he had 
 never given another promise beside — and so in Luke, 
 "behold, I send the promise of my Father ujion you." 
 Undoubtedly the expression points, in general, to the 
 large and central place which the promise of the Holy 
 Ghost had occupied iu the scriptures of the Old Testa- 
 ment, the Father's word. It was the promise of the 
 
222 WAITIK-G FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 Father in a very eminent manner in those Scriptures, 
 wherever treating of the times of Christ and of the 
 gospel. Thus, to give an instance or two: "It shall 
 come to pass in the last days that I will pour out of my 
 Spirit upon all flesh" — " Uj^on the land of my people 
 shall come up thorns and briers . . . until the Spirit be 
 poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a 
 fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest " 
 — "I will pour water ujDon him that is thirsty, and floods 
 upon the dry ground ; I will pour my Spirit upon thy 
 seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they 
 shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the 
 water-courses" — "I will pour upon the house of David, 
 and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace 
 and of supplications ; and they shall look upon me whom 
 they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him " — 
 " Son of man, can these bones live ? . . . Thus saith the 
 Lord God, Come from the four winds, breath, and 
 breathe upon these slain that they may live. ... I will 
 put my Spirit within you, and you shall live" — " As for 
 me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord ; my 
 Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put 
 in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out 
 of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy 
 seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever." 
 '' The promise of the Father." Jesus, delighting ever to 
 regard the Scriptures as his Father's word, has in his eye 
 the central place which the promise of the Holy Grhost 
 had occupied in them — " behold, I send the promise of 
 my Father upon you." 
 
 But the expression doubtless tells, in close connection 
 with this, of the peculiar preciousness, and all-compre- 
 hensive character, of the promise of the Holy Ghost — as 
 inclusive in fact, of all the Father's j^romises and gifts 
 together, flowing in the channel of the Mediator's death. 
 It was the promise of the Father, as if he had never given 
 
'\7AITIX0 FOR THE TEOMISE OF THE FATHER. 22-'"! 
 
 aiiolLer beside, because it carried every other alonp^ witli 
 it. It was just as in those Avords in Gahatians, "Christ 
 liatli redeemed us from tlio curse of the law, being made 
 a curse for us, that the blessing of Abraham might come 
 on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might 
 receive the promise of the Spirit" — co-extensive, therefore, 
 with the whole blessing to Abraham — ''tlirough faith." 
 Or as in those words of Jesus, *'If ye then, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 Spirit," comprehensive of all good gifts together, " to 
 them that ask him." yes, let the Church, let but the 
 individual soul, receive the Holy Ghost, "the promise of 
 the Father," and they have all things therein. All that 
 the Church needs, — for example, for tlie work of the 
 ministry, ordinarj^and extraordinary, — is embraced in the 
 promise of the Holy Ghost. And all things needed by an 
 individual soul are in the same promise. Life from the 
 dead is in it ; union to Christ by faith is in it ; hence, in 
 effect, forgiveness, justification, is in it ; repentance is in 
 it ; holiness, joi^ayer, grace, glory — " the promise of the 
 Father/ '^all-precious, all-comprehensive. And does not 
 the expression thus tell also of the Father's peculiar 
 delight in this promise, and in the fulfilling of it, now 
 that the barriers of unexpiated guilt have been taken out 
 of the way, by the death of the Lamb ? The Father's 
 promise ! Does it not tell of this as a promise specially 
 dear to the Father's heart, and so lend a new emj^hasis of 
 encouragement to the words of Jesus, "If ye, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts imto your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 Spirit," his own pre-eminent promise, " to them that ask 
 him." 
 
 II. Eut thus wc are led to tlie second thing in the text, 
 namely, tlie waiting, — the import of tlie waiting for the 
 promise— "he commanded them that they should tcait for 
 
224 WAITIXG FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 the promise of the Father." I think that the waiting 
 imported three things — first, looking for it under a pro- 
 found conviction of its absolute necessity, and its full 
 sufficiency ; second, pleading for it with the Lord in 
 prayer; and this the prayer, third, of intense longing 
 desire, and patient believing expectation. First, looking 
 for it under a profound conviction of its absolute necessity, 
 and its full sufficiency. Those disciples had witnessed a 
 solemn proof of the absolute necessity of the Holy Ghost, 
 in the comparative barrenness, the inefficacy for saving 
 purposes, of the ministry even of their Master himself, 
 while the Holy Ghost was not yet given. What a com- 
 ment was this on the words, "upon the land of my people 
 shall come up briers and thorns" — under all possible 
 advantages — "until the Spirit be poured upon us from on 
 high!" But the Lord had taught them no less to rest 
 assured of the full and glorious sufficiency of the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost. Once and again he had taught this 
 to them by symbol, when, after they had toiled all night 
 in their occupation of fishermen, and taken nothing, 
 immediately on the putting forth of his resistless power, 
 they enclosed a great multitude of fishes. And in express 
 terms he had taught it when he said to them, "verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the 
 works that I do shall he do also; and greater works 
 than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father" — 
 "If I depart, I will send the Holy Ghost unto you; and 
 when he is come, he will rej^rove [convince,] tlie ivorld of 
 sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." "Well; they 
 were to wait at Jerusalem under a profound conviction 
 of these truths, — settling it deep in their minds, that 
 without the promise of the Father they must labour all in 
 vain ; but that with it, even under their humbler instru- 
 mentality, "the wilderness and the solitary place should 
 be glad for them, and the desert should rejoice, and blossom 
 as the rose." They were to wait at Jerusalem somewhat in 
 
WAITiXG FOR THE TIIOMISE OF THE FATHER. 225 
 
 tlie spirit of God's propliet, -ulicn tlio Lord set liim down 
 in the midst of the vaUey which was full of bones, and 
 caused him to pass by them round about; and, behold, 
 they were very many in the open valley, and very dry. 
 And he said unto him, Son of man, can these bones live ? 
 And he answered, Lord God, thou knowest — not by 
 any human power at least. '*And he said unto me, 
 prophesy upon these bones, and sa}^ unto them, ye dry 
 bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saitli the Lord 
 God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter 
 into you, and ye shall live ; and I will lay sinews upon 
 you, and will bring up flesh itpon you, and cover you with 
 skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye 
 shall know that I am the Lord." The first element in 
 the waiting for the promise, was a profound conviction 
 of its absolute necessity, on the one hand, and of its full 
 and glorious sufficiency, on the other. 
 
 But this ran necessarily into prayer. They were to 
 wait for the promise by pleading for it with the Lord in 
 prayer. By far the best comment here on the import 
 of the commanded waiting, is the actual waiting of 
 the disciples in compliance with the command — which 
 we have in the 12th, 13th, and 14tli verses, ''Then 
 returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called 
 Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's joui'ney. 
 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper 
 room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, 
 and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and 
 Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, 
 and Judas the brother of James. These all continued 
 with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the 
 women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his 
 brethren." And in the same attitude we find them, — 
 in the same exercise of ceaseless prayer, at the opening of 
 the second chapter, " And when the day of Pentecost was 
 fully come, they were all with one accord in one place : 
 
 p 
 
226 WAITING FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 • 
 
 and suddenly," &c. "He commanded tliem tliat tliey 
 should wait for the promise of the Father," It evidently 
 never entered the minds of these disciples, that, having 
 their Master's express promise of the Holy Ghost, they 
 might sit down with folded hands, and abide its ful- 
 filment in listless indolence. They had drunk into the 
 spirit of those words, ''Thus saith the Lord God, I 
 will 3^et for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, 
 to do it for them." They had drunk into the spirit of 
 David, of whom we read that, when God gave him 
 an equally express and absolute promise respecting his 
 kingdom, or rather the kingdom of Messiah to spring 
 from his loins, he went in, and sat before the Lord, and 
 said, Thou, Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed 
 to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house ; there- 
 fore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this 
 prayer imto thee. . . . And now, Lord God, thou 
 art that God, and thy words be true ; and thou hast 
 promised this goodness xinto thy servant : therefore now 
 let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it 
 may continue for ever before thee ; for thou, Lord God, 
 hast spoken it ; and with thy blessing let the house of 
 thy servant be blessed for ever. '' When they were come 
 in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both 
 Peter, and James, and John, &c. These all continued 
 with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the 
 women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his 
 brethren." Ah, what meetings for prayer were these — 
 of which we are reaping the blessed fruits at this 
 hour! Methinks none of those disciples said, "Oh, 
 it's only a prayer meeting!" Assuredly, if there were 
 addresses of any kind at these meetings, yet the busi- 
 ness, the work of them, was prayer. I doubt not that 
 the drift of any exhortations at them would sim^oly 
 be, to call up another and another example of "the 
 XDromise of the Father," and to impress the more deeply 
 
■SVAITIXG roil THE rUOMISE OF THE FATHER. 227 
 
 on every heart its glorious certaiuty — its urgent necessity 
 — its all-compreliensivo preciousness and sufficiency. The 
 scope of thoin all would bo — ** ask of the Lord rain in the 
 time of the latter rain" — **ye that are the Lord's remem- 
 brancers, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he 
 establisli, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the 
 earth." What defmiteness, solemn definiteness of aim, 
 would characterise these meetings, these prayers ! How 
 woidd they exemplify the words of Jesus, *' If two of you 
 shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall 
 ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in 
 heaven." ''He commanded them that they should wait 
 for the promise of the Father" — "they continued with 
 one accord in prayer and supplication." 
 
 And thus I said tliat, further still, the waiting for the 
 promise imported the praj-er of intense longing desire, 
 and patient believing expectation. I am the rather led to 
 notice this, because the term rendered "wait" in the text 
 is a remarkable one, of somewhat rare occurrence, signi- 
 fying literally to ivait round about a thing, as in anxious 
 expectation. And nobody can doubt that this was the very 
 character of the waiting of these disciples, as expressed 
 in the words "they continued" — stedfastly persisted is the 
 idea — "with one accord in prayer and supplication." It 
 was the prayer of intense desire. Agreed together as 
 touching that which they should ask, how would they 
 "fill their mouths with arguments," drawn from their 
 own utter insufficiency, from the world's ungodliness and 
 misery, from Jehovah's power, and grace, and faithful- 
 ness to his own pre-eminent promise in Christ! "Oh 
 that thou wouldst rend the heavens," would be their 
 spirit, if not their language, "that thou wouldst come 
 down, that the mountains might flow down at thy pre- 
 sence!" "We have no might. Lord, against this great 
 company that cometh against us ; neither know we what 
 to do: but our eyes are upon thee." "0 Lord, though 
 
228 WAITING FOE THE PEOMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 our iniquities testify against us, do tliou for thy name's 
 sake." "Are there any among the vanities of the Gen- 
 tiles that can cause rain ? or can the heavens give 
 showers? Art not thou He, O Lord our God? therefore 
 we will wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these 
 things." And it was the prayer of expectation, patient 
 believing expectation, as well as longing desire. They 
 came together day after day, and beheld no outward 
 manifestation of any kind. But they "continued with 
 one accord in prayer and supplication." They had only 
 the naked promise ; but it was enough. If, in respect of 
 longing desire, they were as when Elijah, in the famine 
 in Israel, went up to the top of Carmel, and cast himself 
 down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, 
 and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea 
 — in respect of patient believing expectation, they were as 
 when the servant went up and looked, and said, "there is 
 nothing," and Elijah said, "go again seven times." God 
 hath spoken in his holiness : we will rejoice. Didst not 
 thou say. Lord Jesus, if I depart, I will send him unto 
 you, and when he is come, he will do this, and this, and 
 this? Be it unto us as thou hast said. It is nothing with 
 thee to help, whether with many or with them that 
 have no power. We will not let thee go except thou 
 bless us. Remember the word unto thy servants, upon 
 which thou hast caused us to hope. " He commanded 
 them that in spirit they should wait for the promise of the 
 Eather," under a profound conviction of its absolute 
 necessity, and its full sufficienc}^ — pleading for it with 
 the Lord in prayer — and this the prayer of intense longing 
 desire, and patient believing expectation. 
 
 III. I will limit myself to a briefer notice of the third 
 and last thing, namely, the commandment to wait — "he 
 commanded them that they should wait for the promise 
 of the Eather." I will not dwell on the important fact, 
 that, while the promise of the Holy Ghost was express, 
 
\\'A1TIXG FOR THE rROMISE OF THE FATHER. 220 
 
 the disciples were commanded to wait for it in impor- 
 tunate praj'er, — that the commandment was quite as 
 express as the promise — the moans no less necessary, and 
 no less fore-ai-)pointed and ordained, than the end. Suffice 
 it to touch on the commandment in but one point of view, 
 that of the parties receiving it. To whom was this command- 
 ment given ? Now it is very clear, so far, that the apostles 
 did not regard it as belonging exclusively to them. We have 
 found, at least, associated witli them in the fulfilling of it, 
 the private members of the Church of that day — ** these all 
 continued with one accord in pra3'er and supplication, witli 
 the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his 
 brethren." Ko sooner, evidently, had the apostles re- 
 turned to Jerusalem, than they had hastened to make 
 their friends there acquainted with the commandment, — 
 liastened to make them sharers in the privilege and in the 
 obligation of it — to charge it home on their hearts as be- 
 longing no less to them than to themselves. But perhaps 
 the commandment at least belonged exclusively to the 
 disci]Dles of that age ? Well, this question turns on a 
 very simple issue. If the transactions of the Pentecostal 
 period exhausted tlie riches of " the promise of the 
 Father;" or if the Church and the World now no longer 
 stand in need of these riches, then, doubtless, the com- 
 mandment to wait for it must have fallen and ceased. 
 But if, as is surelj' very palpable, only the fii'st-fruits of 
 the promise, the first precious sheaves of the harvest, were 
 reaped in the apostolic age, — if, in the mysterious provi- 
 dence of the Lord, a blight began soon to come over the 
 Church, and the spirit of anti-Christ to take the place of 
 the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, — if those great 
 promises of the Spirit to which I referred under the fii'st 
 head remain still to be accompli slied in their fulness, — if 
 darkness yet to a mournfid extent covers the earth, and 
 gross darkness the peoj^le, — if the dispensation of the 
 covenant of grace under which we live is termed expressly 
 
230 WAITING FOR TnE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 in Scripture ''the ministration of the Sjpirit," — if the 
 whole predicted glory of the latter day is inseparable from 
 the effusion of the Holy Ghost — if that word abides the 
 inheritance of the Church, " I will pour out of my Spirit 
 upon all flesh," with numberless words like these, " the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge and glory of the 
 Lord, as the waters cover the sea" — then it can admit of 
 no doubt at all that the commandment of the text belongs 
 to us at this hour. Then we, no less than the apostles, are 
 not warranted only, but commanded, " to wait for the pro- 
 mise of the Eather." Then it is ours to meditate on all that 
 that expression implies — the large, central place of the pro- 
 mise in the scriptures ; the all-precious, all- comprehensive, 
 character of it ; the Father's delight in it, and in the ful- 
 filment of it. Then it is ours to fix deep in our minds also 
 its absolute necessity, and its full sufficiency. Ours it is 
 to plead for it with the Lord in prayer — prayer of intense 
 longing desire, and patient believing expectation. Ours 
 it is, ministers and people alike — in secret, when we 
 have entered into our closet, and shut our door — in the 
 family — in the social meeting — in the public assembly — 
 to "stir up ourselves to take hold of God" in this 
 behalf. If the preaching of the word belongs to those 
 who are in the ministry, assuredly the duty and the 
 blessedness of prayer for the Holy Ghost to render the 
 word efficacious, belongs to all disciples of the Lord alike. 
 What a momentous function ! What untold results may 
 hang upon the prayers of but one retired unknown 
 disciple, listening to the call, ^^jq that are the Lord's 
 remembrancers, keep not silence, and give him no rest, 
 till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in 
 the earth"! 
 
 The time would fail us to enter into manifold special 
 circumstances in this our own day, fitted to constrain and 
 animate, to stimulate and encourage, us to wait for the 
 promise of the ]Father, — for the effusion of the Holy 
 
-RAITING FOR THE TROMISE OF THE FATHER. 231 
 
 Gliost. *'WIio arc these that," even now in a great 
 empire, ** fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows ? "•^' 
 Is not the Lord's voice from that land to us, *' I am the 
 Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for 
 me? " *' Call unto mo, and I will answer thee, and show 
 thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." 
 "Ask of me things to come, concerning my sons; and 
 concerning the work of my hands command ye me." 
 " Prove me now herewith, saith the Ijord of hosts, if I 
 will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you 
 out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
 receive it?" 
 
 Dear hearers, have you yet received the Holy Ghost 
 yourselves? Do you yet know Avhat prayer really is? 
 Did Jesus ever say of you, as he did of Saul of Tarsus, 
 "behold, he prayeth? " If not, I can but affectionately 
 remind you that charity eminently here begins at home, 
 — begins with the inquiry, " what must I do to be saved? " 
 I can but remind you of the words of Jesus, * ' ye will not 
 come to me, that ye might have life" — "If ye, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 Spirit to them that ask him?" — "If thou knewest the 
 gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to 
 drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would 
 have given thee living water" — "If any man thirst, let 
 him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, 
 as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
 of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they 
 that believe on him should receive." But ye all who 
 know anything of prayer — I charge home on you, for your 
 
 * The Sermon was i^reached in the year 1 858, after tlie tidings 
 had arrived from the United States, of the wide-spread awakening 
 of souls that had taken place in that country, in manifest answer to 
 prayer ; and which was followed, first, by the great revival in the 
 ZS'orth of Ireland in 1859, and next hy the no less remarkable 
 spiritual movement in Scotland, in 1SG0-C1-C2. 
 
232 WAITIXG FOP. THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
 own sakes, for your families, for tlie Church, for the 
 World, the commandment of the text. And I commend 
 earnestly to you, in connection with it, that first fulfilment 
 of it, left on record for the instruction and imitation of the 
 Church in every age, " These all continued with one 
 accord in prayer and supj^lication, with the women, and 
 Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren." He 
 
 COMMANDED THEM THAT THEY SHOULD WAIT FOR THE 
 PROMISE OF THE FATHER. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 A COMMUNION SABBATH'S SERVICES. 
 1. Morning Sermon, 
 
 THE SAYIOUll — niS EUKAND IXTO THE ^'OELD. 
 
 '^ Tlie Son of man is comx to seek and to save that 
 ichich ivas lost.'' — Luke xix. 10. 
 
 I. The Son of man. Have you happened to observe, in 
 your reading of the Gospels, that there is no name which 
 our blessed Lord takes there so constantly to himself as 
 this one, ''the Son of man '^? He evidently preferred to 
 take it above every other. About fifty difi'erent times 
 does he call himself " the Son of man." It is very notice- 
 able, indeed, that his disciples never venture to address 
 him by this lowly name — as God, for example, was wont 
 to address the prophet Ezekiel, " Son of man," to remind 
 him, and keep him in remembrance, that, amid all the 
 revelations made to him in connection with the perverse 
 people to whom he was sent, he was himself but a worm 
 of the dust, and compassed about with human infirmities, 
 even as they. Never do the disciples so address their 
 Master and Lord. But the name, as I have said, is con- 
 tinually on his own lips — ''when ye have lifted up the 
 Son of man" ; "the Son of man must be delivered into 
 the hands of sinful men " ; " the Son of man is Lord of 
 the Sabbath"; "the Son of man hath not where to lay 
 his head"; "when the Son of man shall come in his 
 glory"' — and so on, endlessly. 
 
231 ' THE SAYIOUH HIS EREAND INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 Of course the name told, with, deepest emphasis, that 
 he was very man, " Son of man," — no high angehc spirit, 
 in the appearance of a man — as the Arians dream and 
 teach, thinking thus to explain the greatest things spoken 
 of him, and spoken and done by him, without confessing 
 him to be the living God — but very man of very man, 
 "Son of man," bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. 
 But let me venture to ask, whether the very fact of our 
 Lord's constantly taking this name, " Son of man," did 
 not itself tell, by implication, of the infinitely higher 
 nature, from the glory of which he had descended to take 
 our humanity. Why else have everywhere proclaimed 
 himself, what all behoved to know him to be, seeing it in 
 his human countenance, and hearing it in his human 
 voice ? ^' Assuredly, at all events, he did descend even 
 from the majesty of eternal Godhead — not ceasing, of 
 course, to be God — to become bone of our bone, and 
 flesh of our flesh. Ill would it become us, surely, to 
 
 * I am aware of au ansAver that may suggest itself to this 
 question. It may be asked wlietlier our Lord did not design, in 
 using the name, "the Son of man," to announce himself as, pre- 
 eminentl}'- and officially, "^7ie Son of man," — the second Adam, — 
 the Christ. And I do not doubt that in his own mind there was 
 more or less reference, in his use of it, to the one or two places of 
 the Old Testament (for they are not more), where this title is given 
 to Messiah. But I cannot believe that he intended thus to 
 announce everywhere his official character, his Messiahship ; or 
 that anything of that kind will explain his constant use of the 
 title. He must have known the indefiniteness of the ideas it would 
 suggest to his hearers, and even to his disciples, since, at Csesarea 
 Philippi, he asked them, "Whom do men say tliat I, the Son of 
 man, am ? " Had he been constantly announcing himself in the name, 
 as the C/«v'5)','what would have been the meaning of that question ? I 
 cannot avoid thinking that, in taking it to himself some fifty different 
 times, he employed language which was fitted to suggest to his 
 hearers the idea of the higher nature from whose glory he had 
 descended to become man. However, the reader will see that I 
 have not dogmatized as to this, nor laid any doctrinal stress on it. 
 
THE SAVIOUn — Ills EllRAXD INTO THE WORLD. 235 
 
 let Lis gracious preference for the name of the lower 
 nature, hide from our view the higher — obscure for 
 a moment in our eye the glory of the God-man, — 
 Emmanuel, God with us, — not more truly Son of man, 
 very man of ver}' man, than Son of God, very God of very 
 God, — and who, when standing at length upon our earth, 
 said to Xicodemus, '' No man hath ascended up to heaven, 
 but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man 
 which is in heaven " — is in it at this hour, wliile speaking 
 to thee with human voice, the Son of man, upon the 
 earth ! 
 
 But I am ver}'' desirous here, — when I remind j'ou of 
 our Lord's having so constantly taken this name to him- 
 self, "the Son of man," — to arrest your thoughts on his 
 wondrous grace and love, as they appear in the fact, that 
 having come into our world to save the chief of sinners, 
 by assuming their nature, and bearing in it their sin and 
 their curse, it was to him a very refreshment and joy, to 
 think and speak everywhere of the lowly nature which he 
 had taken. He delights to take the name, " Son of 
 man," not only notwithstanding all the ignominy and 
 suffering which the taking of our nature entailed, but 
 because it was most dear to him as the nature in which 
 he could, and in which he would, become " obedient unto 
 death, even the death of the cross," and so "bring the 
 many sons unto glory," — that "great multitude which no 
 man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, 
 and tongues." " The Son of man," said he over and 
 over again ; and here, when telling the blessed errand 
 on which he came into the world, " The Son of man," 
 he says, "is come to seek and to save that which was 
 lost." 
 
 II. But thus I am brought to touch, a little more 
 fully, on the errand itself, — the Saviour's errand into the 
 world, as we have it here from his own lips, — " come," 
 
2oG THE SAVIOUR niS ERRAND INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 he says, ''the Son of man is come to seek and to save 
 that which was lost." 
 
 1. I think that the last, solemn, word, '' lost," summons 
 our thoughts first, as at once declaring the oljects of the 
 errand, — who, and who alone, they were whom it con- 
 templated, — whom the Son of man came to seek and to 
 save,' — says he himself, the "lost," and none else but, 
 the lost. Oh, are there any in this house who are unwil- 
 ling to take their place in that humbling word, ''lost," — • 
 who are ready enough, it may be, to confess that they are 
 not what they ought to be, but are not ready to acknow- 
 ledge that they either are, or ever were, ruined, dead, 
 lost, — who are disposed, in their secret hearts at least, 
 to take their ground with him ^v\\o thanked God that 
 he was "no extortioner, unjust, adulterer"? Dear 
 liearers, if you tliink that you can do without Jesus 
 Christ, — if you think tliat you can sufficiently dispose 
 of your sins without this Saviour, — by all means hold 
 by the judgment you have formed of yourselves. But 
 know ^\(A\. that so long as you hold by that judg- 
 ment, you renoimce and cut yourselves oft Itoui tliis 
 blessed One, who declares expressly here that the objects 
 of his whole errand into tlie world, — they whom, and 
 whom alone, he came to seek and to save, — were the 
 "lost" Lord, let my lot be with him who, "stand- 
 ing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto 
 heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be 
 merciful to me a sinner" : 
 
 And are there others here who also are dis]3osed to say 
 with the Pharisee, " I am not as other men are," but on 
 precisely the opposite ground to his — meaning that they 
 are so much worse (as they think) than other men, that 
 they cannot easily believe in the possibility of mercy 
 reaching them? Know ye well, that, as ye cannot be 
 worse than lost, so your being lost, so far from shutting 
 you out from this Saviour, forms a kind of strange door 
 
THE SAVIOUR HIS KURAXD IXTO THE WOliLD. 237 
 
 of entranco into the whole riches of his salvation, — a kind 
 of strange qualification for our Lord Jesus, who declares 
 here that they whom he came into the world to seek and 
 to save, were only the *'lost." As my old friend, Dr 
 Duncan, nsed to speak, "For myself, I cannot always 
 come to Christ direct, but I can always come by sin. Sin 
 is the handle by which I get to Christ. I take a verse iu 
 which God has put Christ and sin together. I cannot 
 always put my linger upon Christ, and say, ' Christ 
 belongs to me.' But I can put my finger upon sin, 
 and say, 'Sin belongs to me.' I take that word, for 
 instance, *The Son of man is come to save that which is 
 lost.' Yes, lost — I'm lost. I put my finger upon that 
 word, and say, * I'm the lost one : I'm lost ; ' and I cry 
 out, 'What God hath joined together, let not man put 
 asunder.'" It is mentioned in the memoirs of the late 
 admirable, and much honoured, home missionary, Duncan 
 Matheson, that when an awakened sinner once cried out, 
 in a kind of despair, "I am lost, I am lost," he replied, 
 " I am glad you think that, for Christ came to save the 
 lost ! " 
 
 But I must saj' yet another word on this account which 
 our blessed Lord gives of tiie objects of his errand into 
 the world, — those whom alone he came to seek and to 
 save, — the lost. We are accustomed to apply the word 
 rather to the finally lost; and so we speak, and quite 
 properly, of '* the state of the lost." Our Lord applies it 
 here, as you see, to all unpardoned, unregenerated ones, — 
 all that are yet in their sins, and strangers to his great 
 salvation. But, I pray you, do not think that there is 
 any such great difference as might at first appear between 
 the two significations, — between the lost^/^6T^, and the lost 
 here. True, there is tiiis difi'erence, that there the ruin is 
 fearfully developed and revealed, "The rich man died, 
 and was bui-ied ; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being 
 in torments, and secth Abraliam afar off, and Lazarus in 
 
238 THE SAYIOUE HIS ERE AND INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 his bosom." And tliere is this further difference, that 
 God has exjoressly said, that from the ruin there he 
 will not deliver any more, " Between us and you there 
 is a great gulf fixed : so that they which would pass 
 from hence to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us 
 that would come from thence."'' Blessed be Grod, He can, 
 and may, deliver from the ruin here, as the text bears 
 most precious witness. But otherwise the ruin is one and 
 the same there, and here. Yea, it is equally final here, as 
 far as concerns any power of the sinner to deliver himself 
 out of it. You remember that question which is asked 
 respecting a sinner saved by grace, '' Is not this a brand 
 plucked out of the fire ? " Plucked out of it, — he 
 was already in it, when God plucked him out — in the fire 
 of the curse, as it is written, ''as many as are of the 
 works of the law are under the curse ; " and in the fire 
 of the unsubdued dominion of ungodliness and sin, 
 "dead in trespasses and sins," — lost! "We ourselves 
 also," writes Paul to Titus, "were once foolish, disobe- 
 dient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living 
 in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another " — 
 in the fire, lost ! " You hath he quickened, who were 
 dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye 
 walked according to the course of this world, according 
 to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now 
 worketh in the children of disobedience : among whom 
 9-1 so we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of 
 our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the 
 mind ; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as 
 others "—in the fire, lost ! Oh for some heart- afi'ecting 
 apprehensions of this solemn word, — this account which 
 our Lord gives of the objects of his errand into the world, 
 — of those whom, and whom alone, he came to seek and 
 to save, — the lost ! 
 
 2. But now I touch on the errand, in the nature of it, as 
 regards those its objects, the lost, — even " to seek and to 
 
THE SAVIOUR — niS ERllAND I^'TO THE VOKLD. 239 
 
 pave" them. The Son of man, Jesus says, is come, first 
 to seel-, and then to nave, that which was lost. 
 
 (1.) First, He is come to seek the lost, — to seek those who 
 were not. seeking Him ! the grace of this Saviour, come 
 in search of tliose who souglit only to escape away from 
 Him ! It had been great grace, indeed, to have saved men 
 crying for mercj' ; and, sooner or later, all tliat are saved 
 do cry for it — but not until Christ has first sought them^ 
 not seeking him, as it is written (Isaiah Ixv. 1), "I am 
 sought of them that asked not for me ; I am found of them 
 that sought me not." I have said that they only sought 
 to escape away fi'om him. Our first parents were flee- 
 ing from the presence of the Lord God, w^hen God called 
 to Adam, and said unto him, "AVhere art thou?" When 
 the Son of God came into the w^orld, it is written, "The 
 light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended 
 it not." '' He was in the world, and the world was made 
 by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto 
 his own, and his own received him not." ''All witli 
 one consent began to make excuse" — '' they would not 
 come " ! Once, when a crowd of Jews seemed in search 
 of the Saviour, hastening across the sea of Galilee to find 
 him, his first word to them was, ''Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you. Ye seek me, because ye did eat of tlie loaves, 
 and were filled " — ye seek not me, but only the outward 
 tilings ye hope to get by me. There is reason to fear that 
 even Zaccheiis here '' climbed up into the sycamore tree " 
 very much out of curiosity, '' to see Jesus, for he was to 
 pass that way.'' 
 
 But let me take one unmistakable instance, as a speci- 
 men of all. You remember those words, *' He left Judea, 
 and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs 
 go through Samaria" — must needs, that is to say, take an 
 unusual route for Galilee, because in search of a sinful 
 one in Samaria, who knew nothing of him, — thought of 
 nothing less than of him ! So, having set out on his 
 
240 THE SAVIOUR — HIS ERE AND INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 fatiguing wa^^, and arrived in Samaria, in Sjcliar, at tlie 
 well of Jacob, "being wearied with liis journey, be sat 
 thus on the well — it was about the sixth hour " — waiting 
 for the object of his search. At length, the woman 
 came to the well to draw water. Of course she addressed 
 no words to him. But he, in search of her, was content 
 to be j)ainfully misunderstood, addressing the request 
 to her, " Give me to drink." She saith unto him, "How 
 is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which 
 am a woman of Samaria ? " Then, you know how she 
 failed, and failed, to apprehend the meaning of his most 
 blessed words, and how, when those words came closer to 
 her ungodly life, she avoided and evaded them, until at 
 length she did begin to seek him, saying, "I know that 
 Messias cometh ; when he is come, he will tell us all 
 things," and soon after hastening to the city, and saying 
 to tlie men, " Come, see a man which told me all things 
 that ever I did ; is not this the Christ ? " 
 
 Ay, it was a somewhat long and fatiguing journey that, 
 for our Lord afoot, from Judea to the well of Jacob. But 
 he had taken a far longer and more fatiguing journey, 
 not then completed, in search of that woman, and of us 
 — " Being in the form of God, and thinking it not robbery 
 to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, 
 and took upon him the form of a servant, and 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." But that cross was "saving," 
 as well as " seeking " ! 
 
 (2.) Second, the Son of man is come to save, — '• come 
 to seek and to save that which was lost." Could such 
 seeking, in fact, fail of finding, — fail of its design, — its 
 aim? Impossible. "What man of you," said Jesus, 
 ** having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth 
 not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go 
 after that which is lost, until he find it? And when 
 
THE SAVIOUR HIS ERRAND INTO THE WORLD. 241 
 
 he liatli found it. lio layotli it on liis slioulders, rejoicing. 
 And when he conieth home, he calleth together his friends 
 and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me ; for 
 I have found my sheej) which was lost." In a very im- 
 portant sense, let it be observed, Jesus saved them all in 
 that cross, — souglit and saved the whole elect Church 
 — the whole innumerable multitude given to him by 
 the Father in the everlasting covenant, — in the hour 
 of that word, *' It is finished ; and he bowed his head, 
 and gave up the ghost." There and then did he " redeem 
 them," as to the costly purchase of their redemption, "from 
 the curse of the law, being made a curse for them." They 
 continued, however, still actually and individually lost, 
 — unforgiven, unregenerated, under the curse, dead in 
 trespasses and sins. But in due time does he save each 
 soul of the unnumbered multitude to the uttermost, — 
 as thoroughly as if they were but one. To each and all 
 of them does he make good that word, ' ' The dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall 
 live " : and that word, " I am the resurrection and the 
 life ; he that belie veth in me, though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live " : and that word, " AVhen I passed by thee, 
 and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee 
 when thou wast in thy blood. Live ; yea, I said unto thee, 
 when thou wast in thy blood. Live." He " saves them 
 by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost." He is made to each and all of them, '* wisdom, 
 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" — 
 wisdom, opening their blind eyes ; righteousness, clothing 
 them with the white raiment of his perfect obedience unto 
 death, that the shame of their nakedness may not appear ; 
 eanctihcation, transforming them into the image of God; 
 redemption, now in the actuality of it, and at length, in 
 the full and final completeness of it, even '* the adoption, 
 to wit, the redemption of the body." 
 
 But how, brethren, shall I speak of what is in this 
 
 Q 
 
242 THE SAYIOUR — HIS EREAND INTO THE WOULD. 
 
 word "save," — "tlie Son of man is come to seek and to 
 save that wliicli was lost " ? My dear friend, Dr Candlisli, 
 a day or two before his departure from us all, said to his 
 medical man, "Do you think it will be long? " adding, 
 "I am not impatient; I wait for thy salvation, God" 
 — and then he broke forth, " Salvation ! what a word I " 
 yes, beloved, it is one thing to think and speak of 
 salvation when the flush of health is on a man's cheek. 
 Salvation will seem quite another thing, to saints and 
 sinners both, when stretched on a dying bed, and when 
 friends around are waiting for the last breath — "salva- 
 tion ! what a word ! " Let me only say, and in very few 
 words, tliat tliis saving of the lost by Christ is might}^ 
 holy, glorious, everlasting. 
 
 It is mighty, — almighty. Not that Clirist does violence 
 in it to the human will, but only makes it "willing 
 in the day of his power." "Zaccheus," said he, "make 
 haste, and come down ; for to day I must abide at 
 thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and 
 received him joyfully." The will is not forced in con- 
 version ; it is but sweetly, though mightily, swayed, 
 moved, Godward, Christward — as Jesus said, " Other 
 sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them also I 
 must bring; and they shall hear my voice." "Behold, 
 thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not; and 
 nations that knew not thee shall run unto tliee." It 
 is mighty saving, this of the lost by Christ — " Saul, yet 
 breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the 
 disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and 
 desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, 
 that if he found any of this way, whether they were men 
 or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 
 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus; and 
 suddenly there shined round about him a light from 
 heaven : and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice 
 saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 
 
THE SAVIOUII HIS EUllAXD INTO THE "WORLD. 2 13 
 
 Ami lio 8ai(l, AVlio art thou, Lord? And tlio Lord said, 
 I am Jesus, wliom thou porsccutest. It is hard for thee 
 to kick ag-ainst the pricks. And he, trembling and 
 astonislied, said, Lord, -what wilt thou have me to do?" 
 
 And it is Jiohj saving of the lost, this by Christ. Think 
 of that Saul, afterwards called Paul — ''None of these 
 things move me," he said afterwards, "neither count I 
 my life dear unto myself, so tliat I might finish my course 
 with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the 
 Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God " — 
 " To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." " We our- 
 selves also," wrote he to Titus, " ivere once foolish, 
 disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures." 
 " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in 
 the beauties of holiness." " Such were some of you : but 
 ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified 
 in tlie name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
 God." AVhen Zaccheus received Christ into his house, 
 we are told that " they all murmured, saying, that he was 
 gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And 
 Zaccheus stood, and said unto the Lord" — I suppose, 
 with no reference to their murmurings — "Behold, Lord, 
 the half of my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have 
 taken anything from any man by false accusation, I 
 restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This 
 day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also 
 is a son of Abraham," — a son of Abraham now indeed, — 
 a son of his faith and his fidelity, both ! 
 
 And it is glorious saving of the lost, this by Christ, — 
 saving of them from wrath to sonship and glory ! Indeed, 
 it had been glorious, if it had been nothing more than 
 deliverance from so great a ruin. But it is salvation to 
 " a kingdom ; " "a crown ; " "a city that hath founda- 
 tions, whose builder and maker is God; " " an inheritance 
 incorruptible, and undetiled, and that fadeth not away ; " 
 " an exceeding and eternal weight of glory " ! 
 
244 THE SAVIOUE HIS ERRAND INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 And thus, once more, I said that it is an everlasting 
 salvation — as Jesus spake, " Whoso eateth my flesh, and 
 drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise 
 him up at the last day." "At thy right hand there are 
 pleasures for evermore." "There shall be no night 
 there ; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun ; 
 for the Lord God giveth them light ; and they shall reign 
 for ever and ever." 
 
 I am happy that I shall have an opportunity of saying 
 a few further words to the children of God, at an after 
 part of this day's service. For the present I close with 
 a single brief remark. While Jesus tells here of our 
 ruin, it is only in the act of publishing deliverance out 
 of it. Here, and in other places, where he has occasion 
 to make discovery of our undone condition, he does it not 
 directly, — as of set purpose, — as if anywise courting the 
 mournful theme, but only in the act of proclaiming the 
 glad tidings of salvation — thus, " God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth in him should not jDerish " — it comes indirectly out 
 that they were perishing — " but have everlasting life." 
 It is much as in the Old Testament, where we hear of the 
 heart of sto7ie, only in the blessed promise, " I will take 
 away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you 
 a heart of flesh." So in the text, "The Son of man is 
 come to seek and to save that which was lost." Oh to be 
 " able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, 
 and length, and depth, and height ; and to know the love 
 of Christ, which passeth knowledge " ! And "unto Him 
 that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we 
 ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
 unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout 
 all ages, world without end. Amen." 
 
PULPIT ADDRESS BEFORE COMMUNION. 245 
 
 2. Pulpit Address before Communion. 
 
 Will you turn Avitli mo, for a very little, to tlie eleventh 
 chapter of 1st Corinthians, and read at the twenty- third 
 verse? — ** For I have received of the Lord that which 
 also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus, the same 
 nig-lit in which he was betra3'ed, took bread ; and, when ho 
 had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take eat ; this is 
 my bod}-, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance 
 of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, 
 when he had supped, saying. This cup is the new testa- 
 ment in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in 
 remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, 
 and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he 
 come. AVherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and 
 drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of 
 the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine 
 himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of 
 that cup." 
 
 Is this supper of the Lord, brethren, an ordinance 
 of thanlcsgiviiig, — of all thanks and praise to God for 
 tlie redemption that is by the blood of the Lamb ? Then 
 those, and only those, can be fit and welcome guests 
 at it, who are capable of giving thanks for that redemp- 
 tion, by not being altogether strangers to it, but par- 
 takers of it in very deed. Fain would I indicate very 
 simply, shortly, and with all tender fidelity, as the Lord 
 may enable me, who they are that are strangers to 
 the great redemption, — that are not verily partakers of 
 it. Dear hearers, we have all heard of it from our 
 earliest years, and may long have known everything 
 about it intellectually. But we are strangers to the 
 redemption that is by the blood of the Lamb, if 
 we have never seen and felt our absolute need of 
 it; if no heart-affecting, soul-mastering, discoveries of 
 
246 PULPIT ADDRESS BEFORE COMMUNIOX. 
 
 it have been ever made to us, and by us, as Grod's 
 blessed provision for our need ; if we have never, for 
 ourselves, fled for refuge to lay hold on it ; if we are not 
 habitually falling in with the holy ends and designs of it 
 in our lives. 
 
 We are strangers, I say, to the redemption that is 
 by the blood of the Lamb, if we have never seen and 
 felt our absolute need of it. How is it with us as to 
 this? Have we ever taken our place, deliberately, in 
 that humbling word of my text, *'lost," — in that descrip- 
 tion of the objects of the Saviour's errand into the world, 
 "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which 
 was lost^' ? Have we been verily convinced of our 
 undone condition, as breakers of the divine law ? Were 
 we ever arraigned, as it were, in heart and conscience, 
 before the divine bar, and made there to say. Guilty, 
 Lord, guilty — Unclean, unclean — "Against thee, thee 
 onty, have I sinned ; that thou mightest be justified 
 when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest" — 
 "Woe is me, for I am undone; for mine eyes have seen 
 the King, the Lord of hosts " ? Have we ever known 
 what that meaneth, " The wages of sin is death " ? Have 
 we ever responded, from our inmost souls, to the voice, 
 "Without the shedding of blood is no remission" — 
 "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink 
 his blood, ye have no life in you" ? " Search me, God, 
 and know my heart " ! 
 
 Again, I said that we are strangers to the redemption 
 that is by the blood of the Lamb, if no heart-afi'ecting, 
 soul-mastering, discoveries of it have been ever made 
 to us, and by us, as God's blessed provision for our need. 
 I say lieart-offecting^ soul-mastering, because we have all 
 known the form of the doctrine, so to speak. But the 
 hinge of salvation lies here much more in the doctrine 
 having mastered us, than in our having mastered the doc- 
 trine. Oh, was it ever as music to our ears to listen to that 
 
rULriT ADDRESS BEFORE COMMUXIOX. 217 
 
 voice, '* Tlie LaiuT) of God, whicli takclli away tlu; sin of 
 the world " — "A just God and a ^^aviour " — " Glory to 
 God in the liig;liest, and on earth pca(3e, goodwill toward 
 men" — " Tlie Son of man is come to seek and to save 
 tliat which was lost " ? 
 
 Further I said, that wo are strangers to the redemption 
 that is by the blood of the Lamb, if we have never, for 
 ourselves, fled for refuge to lay hold on it. AVere we 
 ever " shut up unto the faith" ? ever made to say, Avith 
 one of old, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the 
 words of eternal life ; and we believe and are sure that 
 thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God " — 
 " Lord, save me, I perish" — " My trust is intlice ; let me 
 never be confounded" — " I believe, Lord, help thou my 
 unbelief"? 
 
 Once more I said, that we are strangers to the redemp- 
 tion that is by the blood of the Lamb, if M^e are not 
 habitually falling in with the holy ends and designs of it 
 in our lives. AVliat these designs are, Scripture tells 
 with no uncertain sound — " AVho gave himself for our 
 sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil M^orld, 
 according to the will of God and our Father." " Created 
 in Christ Jesus unto good works." " Theie is forgiveness 
 with thee, that thou mayest be feared." "That we, being 
 delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him 
 without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, 
 all the days of our life." Are we falling in with these 
 designs? are we following them out, prosecuting them ? 
 Or is it with us, after all, but as Judas's " Hail, Master ; 
 and he kissed him " ? Is inward corruption our burden ? 
 Is holiness in heart and life our very aim ? Are we " exer- 
 cising ourselves herein," with however imperfect success, 
 *' to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, 
 and toward men"? Of course, if we are living in any 
 way of known iniquity —as intemperance, or licentiousness, 
 or fraudulent dealing, or nudice and hatred — there needs 
 
248 PULPIT ADDRESS BEFORE COM:srU]S"IOX. 
 
 be no further questiouing as to our condition. But apart 
 from all such palpable iniquities, is Christian sanctiiication 
 our pursuit? Is the apostle's cry ours, "Who shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death?" and David's, 
 " Oh that my Avays were directed to keep thy statutes ! " 
 ' ' Teach me to do thy will ; for thou art my God : thy 
 Spirit is good ; lead me into the land of righteousness " ? 
 And yet, dear brethren, I doubt not that there may 
 be those among us, who are not able easily to persuade 
 themselves that they can give an affirmative answer to 
 these questions, — not able easily to persuade themselves 
 that they are partakers of the great redemption, and 
 so capable of giving thanks for it to day at Christ's 
 table, — to whom nevertheless He would say, "0 my 
 dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret 
 places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let 
 me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy coun- 
 tenance is comely." More than once I have reminded 
 you of the answer given in our Larger Catechism to 
 the Cjuestion, "May one who doubteth of his being in 
 Christ, or of his due preparation, come to the Lord's 
 Supper?" The answer is, "One who doubteth of his 
 being in Christ, or of his due preparation to the sacra- 
 ment of the Supper, may have true interest in Christ, 
 though he be not yet assured thereof; and in God's 
 account hath it, if he be duly affected with the apprelien- 
 sion of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be found 
 in Christ, and to depart from iniquity : in which case 
 ( because promises are made, and this Sacrament is 
 appointed, for the relief even of weak and doubting 
 Christians) he is to bewail his unbelief, and labour to 
 have his doubts resolved, and, so doing, he may and 
 ought to come to the Lord's Supper, that he may be 
 further strengthened." Eemember well your undoubted 
 warrant to come to the Saviour himself, just as you are ; 
 and, coming to him, your warrant to come also to his 
 
COMMUNION TABLE ADDllESS. 2 19 
 
 table. '* lie g-ivotli power to [lie fiiiiit; and to tlioin that 
 have no miylit, ho increasoth streiig'tli." "A bruiscMl 
 reed shall ho not break, and smokinf^ Ihax shall ho not 
 quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." There^ 
 I am quite sure, is a wortliy communicant, " The publican, 
 standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes 
 unto lieaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be 
 merciful to me a sinner." May the Lord bless his "word ! 
 Amen. 
 
 3. Communion Table Address. 
 
 BEFOnE THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS. 
 
 Already, Communicants, I trust we have seen somewhat 
 of the grace and love of our Lord Jesus, as they come out 
 in the remarkable fact, of his taking to himself so 
 constantl}', in preference to every other name, that of 
 'Uhe Son of man," — the fact, that having come into our 
 world to save the chief of sinners, b}'' assuming our nature, 
 and bearing in it our sin and our curse, he was so far 
 from being "ashamed to call us brethren," that he 
 delighted, above every other title, to take the name of 
 our lowly nature, just as the nature in which he could 
 and would suffer, and agonize, and die, "the Just for the 
 unjust, that he might bring us to God" ! 
 
 Behold a like manifestation of the Saviour's grace and 
 love, in that all-precious psalm of liis sutferings, opening, 
 " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " where 
 he thus prays, " Deliver my soul from the sword, nnj darling 
 from the power of the dog." Oh, he calls tliat human 
 soul ^^llicll he took up into his Lerson, his "darling" — 
 dear, only, joined, one, as tlie word means — most dear 
 to him because capable of all the agony, desertion, tempta- 
 tion, exceeding sorrow unto death, of which the psalm 
 
250 COMMUXIOX TABLE ADDRESS. 
 
 So, again, Iiow touching is the evangelist John's account 
 of the vi'aj in which Judas came to know the place where 
 lie should find the Saviour to betray him, '' Judas," says 
 he, "wliicli betrayed him, knew the place; for Jesus 
 ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples"! It seems 
 that, far from having avoided that garden, where, at 
 length, "his sweat was to be as great drops of blood, 
 falling down to the ground," he had been wont to refresh 
 his sph-it by " resorting to it ofttimes with his disciples," 
 — retreating from the turmoil, from the tumult and wicked- 
 ness, of Jerusalem, to the very scene of his after agony 
 and betraj^al into the hands of sinful men ! 
 
 But perhaps most remarkable of all to the same purpose 
 (although we liave grown so familiar with the words as 
 probably to fail of apprehending their wondrous character), 
 it is written that, when our Lord instituted that feast of 
 love which we are to celebrate to day, *'he took bread, 
 and ffaue thanks, saying, This is my body broken for you," 
 and again, "when he had taken the cup, gave thanlcs, 
 sa}'ing, This cup is my blood of the new covenant, shed 
 for the remission of the sins of many." Oh, well might 
 ive be expected to give thanks for that body broken, 
 and blood slied, for our sins. But Jesus, whose body 
 and blood they were, gave thanks for them, — gave 
 thanks that ever he had a body to break, and blood 
 to pour forth, for remission of our sins ! Who shall tell 
 what that human soul, and human body, had already 
 cost him, those three and thirty years long? Now, he is 
 looking immediately forward to the soul agonized, sore 
 amazed, exceeding sorrowful even unto death ; and to the 
 body scourged, spit upon, cro^'ned with thorns, crucified 
 with thieves. Yet he gives thanks, saying. This is my 
 body broken for you ; this is my blood shed for you, for 
 the remission of sins ! 
 
 Much as, in the book of Proverbs, he had spoken, 
 "I was set up from eyerlasting, from the beginning, or 
 
COMMUNION TABLE ADDRESS. 251 
 
 ever tlio oartli Ava"^. . . . Then Avas I Ly lilm, as oik? 
 broug'lit up witli him, and I was daily his deliglit, rejoicing 
 always heforo him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his 
 eartli; iuid wy delights were with the sons ofmen^^'' so, it seems 
 that in liis whole wondrous life on earth, his "deliglits" 
 were still with tlie sons of men. Full fifty different times, 
 as I said, did he choose to call liimself by the name, '' the 
 Son of man " ! And shall not our " deliglits " be now, and 
 for ever, with this blessed One ? Shall lie not be our 
 joy, our love, our theme, our rapturous praise, for ever? 
 Shall we not give tlianks to day for his body broken, 
 and blood shed, for our sins '? True, indeed, our thanks- 
 givings, at the best of them, are poor and feeble. But 
 we Avill place them in the hand, and in the fellowship, 
 of Ilis, and they shall rise perfumed and accepted before 
 the throne. And we will mingle with them prayers and 
 supplications, hearing liis voice, AYhat is thy petition? 
 and what is thy request? golden moments now before 
 us at this table ! Precious beyond all price, for prayer, 
 our interval now of unbroken silence ! Gcdden silence 
 for prayer, — prayer for ourselves, — our souls, our work, 
 duties, perplexities, trials ; prayer for our beloved fami- 
 lies, each member of them by name ; prayer for the whole 
 family of God ; prayer for the Eedeemer's kingdom and 
 cause and glory in the world! "I am come into my 
 garden, my sister, my spouse : I have gathered my myrrh 
 with my spice ; I have eaten my honej'comb with my 
 honey ; I have drunk my wine with my milk : eat, 
 friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved." 
 
 AFTER THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS. 
 
 And now. Communicants, would tliat our Avholo lif(i 
 were a prolonged Eucharist, — a continued thanksgiving 
 service ! Oh lor more, mucli more, thanksgiving in our 
 
252 COIJMUNION TABLE ADDRESS. 
 
 lives ! How wanting are we in this heavenliest of 
 exercises, whereof so much is made in Scripture, and in 
 which God takes so much delight! '' AVhoso offeretli 
 praise glorifieth me" — "Giving thanks always, for all 
 things, to God, even the Father " — '' Thou art holy, thou 
 that inhahitest the praises of Israel." Would that our 
 thanksgivings and praises might so "wait for God in 
 Sion," that he should vouchsafe, as it were to come down, 
 and dwell in them ! 
 
 But, in another great sense, is our whole life to be 
 a thanksgiving service, — a service, animated, prompted, 
 pervaded, by holy thankfulness, — a life of grateful, 
 devoted service, in the spirit of the words, "The love 
 of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that 
 if one died for all, then all died; and that he died for 
 all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto 
 themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose 
 again." "0 Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy 
 servant, and the son of thine handmaid : thou hast loosed 
 my bonds." 
 
 Two features of this life-service have suggested them- 
 selves to me from our meditations of to day. The one 
 of them is, Watchfulness. For I took occasion, in illus- 
 trating that last, solemn, word of my text, " lost," to 
 refer to the question which is asked respecting a sinner 
 saved by grace, " Is not this a brand plucked out of the 
 fire?" But remember how easily some brand snatched 
 from a burning would catch the fire again, if brought 
 heedlessly within its reach. "Be not conformed to this 
 world " — " Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go 
 not in the Avay of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, 
 turn from it, and pass away " — " Keep thy heart with all 
 diligence" — "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
 temptation." And the other feature is, Winning words 
 for Christ to those around us. Oh, have we known, by 
 blessed experience of it, that " the Son of man is come to 
 
COMMUNION TABLE ADDllESS. 25;3 
 
 Beck and to save that wliidi was lost " ? And sliall our 
 lips be sealed about tluit Saviour, — his blessed errand, 
 — his great salvation ? *' One of the two wliicli heard 
 John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's 
 brother. lie first fmdelh his own brother Simon, and 
 saith unto him, AVe have found the Messias." " riiilij) 
 lindeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found 
 liim of wliom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did 
 write." Beloved, this belongs not to ministers alone. 
 Tliat saved Samaritan woman said to the men of her 
 town, " Come, see a man, which told me all things that 
 ever I did: is not this the Christ?" "The Spirit and 
 ilie bride say, Come. And let Jim that heareth say. 
 Come. And let him that is athirst come : and whoso- 
 ever will, let him take the water of life freely." *' Now 
 unto Him that is able to ]<eep 3'ou from falling, and to 
 present you faultless before the presence of his glory 
 with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, 
 be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now 
 and ever. Amen." 
 
254 
 
 4. Evening Sermon. 
 
 FEAK AXD FAITH. 
 
 " xind Jacob said, God of my fatlicr Abraham, and 
 God of my father Isaac, the Lord ivhich saidst unto me, 
 Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will 
 deal well with thee: T am not loortliy of the least of all 
 the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed 
 unto thy servant ; for ivith my staff I j^assed over this 
 Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, 
 I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the 
 hand of Esau : for I fear him, lest he will come and 
 smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou 
 saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as 
 the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for 
 ?;m?^i^w(Ze."— Genesis xxxii. 9-12. 
 
 Text — " I fear him. . . . And thou saidst.'" 
 
 Jacob's fear, and Jacob's faitli — '' I fear liim : and thou 
 saidst." Whether is that a contrast, or a connection, or 
 both ? I believe that it is both. And I have linked the 
 two together as the text, because they will be found to 
 stand thus related by the double tie of contrast and con- 
 nection, — deep, painful contrast, and yet strangely close 
 kindredness also and connection — the fear with the faith 
 — "I fear him : and thou saidst." 
 
 I. First, look for a little with me at iJie fear, — Jacob's 
 fear at this time — "I fear him," said he. 
 
 1. My first remark respecting the fear is, that there was 
 a great deal of unworthy unbelief in it. I would not, indeed, 
 be misunderstood in this. It is not that fear is by any 
 
TEA It AND FAITir. 2b <) 
 
 moans necossaril}', — always, — the offspring and tlio sign 
 of unbelief. It may, on the contraiy, be the offspring and 
 the sign of faith. Everything depends as to this on the 
 kind of fear, — the grounds and the circumstances of it. 
 Thus, it is written that "by faith Noah, being warned of 
 God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared 
 an ark to the saving of liis house." That fear 2vas faitli, 
 in fact. It was more than the fruit of faith, — it w'as 
 faith itself. So often as a danger is real and imminent, 
 fear is, at the least, wise and prudent ; and if tlic 
 danger be one which God has revealed to us in his 
 word, fear is an essential element in faith. But see the 
 fear of Jacob, at this time. What did he fear ? and 
 how? "The messengers returned to him" — we read at 
 verse sixth — '* saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and 
 also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with 
 him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed" 
 — " I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the 
 mother with the children." Ah, smite that mother, and 
 those children, and destroy the everlasting covenant ! 
 destroy both the Church of God, and all the hopes of the 
 world ! Impossible, Jacob. At Bethel, twenty years 
 before, had not the Lord said to the patriarch, " Behold, 
 I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places Mhither 
 thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land ; for 
 I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have 
 spoken to thee of"? Neither had he set out on this 
 journey back to Canaan, until the Lord had said expressly 
 to him — as he pleads, indeed, at the opening of this very 
 prayer — "Return unto thy countr}', and to thy kindred, 
 and I will deal well with thee." And then, had not the 
 Lord vouchsafed to him, as he journeyed, that vision of 
 angels, protecting angels, of which Jacob said (second 
 verse), "This is God's host," calling the name of the 
 place "Mahanaim" — two hosts, or camps? No doubt 
 there was ample room, without any unbelief, for prayer 
 
256 TEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 in reference to Esau, and for the use also of all suitable 
 and prudent means. But this was panic, — nothing less 
 than panic, — " He cometh to meet thee, and four hundred 
 men with him : then Jacob was greatly afraid and dis- 
 tressed." One can scarce help suspecting that the old 
 sins had flashed across the memory and conscience of the 
 patriarch, — that he had been made at this hour to ''pos- 
 sess the iniquities of his youth" (as Job speaks), — that 
 in his alarm there was not a little remorseful remembrance 
 of the old subtlety, and the old falsehood — "I fear him, 
 lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the 
 children." Assuredly, there was in the fear a great deal 
 i)f unworthy unbelief. 
 
 2. And yet, secondly, thf-re teas not icaniing in it an 
 element^ hind red at least to faith. "I fear him," said 
 he, "lest he will come and smite me, and the mother 
 with the children." He is alarmed for the whole seed 
 and family of the Divine promise — "lest he will come 
 and smite me, and the mother with the children. And 
 thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy 
 seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered 
 for multitude." True, he might have left the Divine 
 promise, — ought to have left it tranquilly, — in the 
 keeping of the Divine power and faithfulness. Still, 
 this is no mere craven dread of his personal safety, nor 
 of that even of his beloved family, simply as such, but for 
 that family as in relation to the Divine covenant, with 
 which his own hopes for eternity, and the welfare of 
 all the families of the earth, were bound up. There 
 was an element in his fear, I say, kindred at least 
 to faith. And is it not somewhat thus, brethren, that 
 even in the unbelieving fears of God's children in every 
 age, there are to be traced elements, ofttimes, more 
 or less allied to faith, — separating them, by a wide 
 distance, from the fears of hypocrites and ungodly men, 
 — of those " fearful and unbelieving " of whom the Holy 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 25 i 
 
 Ghost spoalvs in tlio Apocalypse ? Do you remember, for 
 example, John liunyan's "Fearing" — that deeply touch- 
 ing character in the second part of the Pilgrim ? Great- 
 heart says of liim, *' Why, he was always afraid that he 
 should come short of whither he had a desire to go. . . . 
 WJien we were come to the place where the three fellows 
 were hanged, he said that he doubted that would be his 
 end also. Only he seemed glad when he saw the Cross 
 and the Sepulchre. There, I confess, he desired to stay a 
 little to look ; and he seemed for a Avliile after to be a 
 little cheery. When he came at the hill Difficulty, he 
 made no stick at that ; nor did he much fear the lions : 
 for you must know that his trouble was not about such 
 things as these ; his fear was about his acceptance at last. 
 . . . AVhen he was come to Yanity-Fair, I thought he 
 would have fought with all the men in the fair. Upon 
 the enchanted ground he also was very wakeful. But, 
 when he came at the river where there was no bridge, 
 there again he was in a heavy case. Now, now, he said, 
 he should be drowned for ever, and so never see that face 
 with comfort that ho had come so many miles to behold." 
 yes, I think that in the fears of the desponding child 
 of God, it is not so much the mere dread of wrath and 
 hell, considered in general, as it is the dread of coming 
 short of the holiness in heart and in life, which he has 
 longed and prayed and striven after, — of never seeing in 
 peace the face of Him who, amid all his fears, is in his 
 eye, "the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether 
 lovely." "I fear him," said Jacob, "lest he will come 
 and smite me, and the mother with the children." There 
 was an element in the fear kindred, at least, to faith. 
 
 3. And, thirdly, I observe on Jacob's fear, that, amid 
 all its unworthincss, it ivas a fear told freely out to God^ — 
 laid hare before the omniscient One — " I fear him," says 
 he, speaking to Jehovah. yes, "Jacob was greatly 
 afraid and distressed" — that is one thing. But this is 
 
 11 
 
258 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 quite another — Jacob's antioipating-, as it were, that after- 
 invitation of Scripture, " Pour ye out your heart before 
 him," — '* God of my father Abraham, and God of my 
 father Isaac, I fear him." Do not misunderstand it, 
 brethren. It is not that Jacob was unconscious of any- 
 thing- to be ashamed of in his fears, and so told them 
 out to the Lord. I doubt not that he was conscious of 
 much mournful unbelief in them. But then, he could 
 only make things worse by going away from God with 
 his alarms, and cherishing them sullenly at a distance 
 from him. He must bring them to God, must unbosom 
 himself of them to Ilim, must have no secrets, no con- 
 cealments, with Him — " Lord,^^ says he, " I fear him." 
 A great lesson this, beloved, for us in reference to our 
 difficulties, temptations, fears — that we bring them all to 
 the Lord, — tell them freely out to Him. It may be 
 that our fears are weak and foolish, — such as others 
 might only smile at. Or it may be that they are deeply 
 unworth}^, and such as we should be ashamed to tell 
 to others. But they shall be much more than safe 
 with God. Let us tell them to Him, hearing the 
 voice, "Bring them hither to me." Said Jesus to the 
 two sorrowing ones on the way to Emmaus, "What 
 things?"— 
 
 '' A strangei' join'cl them, courteous as a frieud, 
 And ask'd them, with a kind engaging air, 
 What their affliction was, and begg'd a share," 
 
 " my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the 
 secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let 
 me hear thy voice." The men of this world have their 
 fears; but tliey have them away from God, and are 
 driven by them yet further and further away from him — 
 "Felix trembled, and answered. Go thy way for this 
 time ; when I have a convenient season I will call for 
 thee." The child of God brings his fears to the Lord, 
 
FEAll AND FAITH. 259 
 
 and is thus driven at least, if not sweetly drawn, by tlieni 
 nearer to Ilini. 
 
 4. And this is my foiivth and last remark on Jacob's 
 fear. As it was a fear told freely out to the Lord, so H 
 shut up Jacob the more to the Lordj and to his word of 
 promise. *' I fear him, lest he will come and smite mo, 
 and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I 
 will surely do thee good." See how he breaks and 
 bursts through the very heart of his fear into the presence 
 and promise of the Lord, ^^ and thou saidst^^^ — as if he 
 had said. Lord, "I fear him;" but, "to whom shall I 
 go ? thou hast the words of eternal life " — *' I fear liim ; 
 and thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make 
 thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be num- 
 bered for multitude." As I observed at the outset, it is 
 both a contrast and a connection, — a deep, painful con- 
 trast, but a strangely close kindredness also and connec- 
 tion — ** I fear him : and thou saidst." 
 
 II. And thus are we brought to the second thing which 
 here invites our thoughts, JacoWs faith, " Thou saidst" — 
 — "I fear him : and thou saidst.'^ 
 
 1. AVell; the things that have been already said have 
 prepared us for my first remark on the faith, which is, 
 that it is faith in conflict, — faith in a straggle tvith unlelief 
 and fear — "I fear him, lest he will come and smite mo, 
 and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will 
 surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of 
 the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." In- 
 deed, one reading the last verse alone, might suppose 
 there was no room left for unbelief, — for fear. And so 
 mere theorists, and perfectionists, will have it to bo, 
 ever, with the Christian's faith. But the fact is tlio 
 reverse — ** Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed " — 
 * ' I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the 
 mother with the children." It reminds one of David in 
 
260 FEAR AND FAIT 11. 
 
 the forty-second psalm, "Why art thou cast down, my 
 soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?" But in the 
 very next verse, " my God," says he, ''my soul is cast 
 down within me." So here, behold the spectacle of 
 unbelief and faith at work side by side — not only in the 
 same man, — in the same breast, — but in the same prayer, 
 — the same devotional exercise, "I fear him: and thou 
 saidst." Strange spectacle ! And yet not strange, as if 
 it were at all infrequent. Is it not just thus with God's 
 children in every age ? " What will ye see in the 
 Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies" 
 — "the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit 
 against the flesh," — unbelief, faith — despondency, hope — 
 terror, trust — struggling together, like Jacob and Esau 
 in the womb of their mother, when Eebecca said, " If it 
 be so, why am I thus?" At one time faith seems 
 to have trampled unbelief finally under its feet. But 
 anon unbelief rises from the ground in giant strength, 
 and seems to threaten the very existence and life of faith. 
 Ah ! when the memory of those old sins comes darkly 
 across the spirit, how is the believer tried sometimes, 
 " pressed out of measure, above strength," ready even to 
 " despair of life " ! I have spoken of unbelief and faith 
 at work side by side, not only in the same breast, but in 
 the same devotional exercise. How often do we find it 
 thus in the Psalms ! In one part of a psalm, deepest 
 despondency ; straightway faith emerging, reviving, con- 
 quering. As, for example, " AVill the Lord cast off for 
 ever ? and will he be favourable no more ? Is his mercy 
 clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for ever- 
 more ? — And I said, This is my infirmity ; but I will 
 remember the years of the right hand of the Most High." 
 Or, again, " Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper 
 in the world ; they increase in riches. Yerily, I have 
 cleaned my heart in vain, and washed my hands in inno- 
 cency." Nay, nay, not "verily" — falsely, as thou shalt 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 20 1 
 
 thyself acknowledge — '* So foolisli was I, and ignorant; 
 I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am con- 
 tinually with thee ; thou hast holden me by my right 
 hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and after- 
 ward receive me to glory." One other example — " IIow 
 long wilt tliou forget mo, Lord ? for ever V how long 
 wilt thou hide thy face from me ? How long sliall I take 
 counsel in ni}' soul, having sorrow in my lieart daily ? 
 ]iow long shall mine enemy be exalted over me ? " But 
 the short jisalm (thirteenth) thus ends, *' I have trusted 
 in thy mercy ; my heart shall rejoice in tliy salvation. I 
 will sing unto the Lord, because ho liath dealt bountifully 
 with me." 
 
 2. And so, secondly, I observe, on Jacob's faith here, 
 that, if it is faith in conflict, — in a struggle with un- 
 belief, — it is faith prevailing, victorious, in tlie conflict, " I 
 fear liim : and thou saidst^ I pray you to note that 
 that is Jacob's closing word — he ends here. He plants 
 ]iis foot on this rock of the promise, and here will abide, 
 "Thou saidst." Thus does he prevail at once over an 
 oppressive sense of guilt, unworthiness, within, and an 
 overwhelming fear, at least, of danger from without. 
 He thus prevails over a crushing sense of unworthiness 
 within. lie can, indeed, make no answer at all to God 
 for those old sins. But he will lie down as it were 
 upon his face, and make confession of them before 
 him, saying, "I am not worthy of the least of all the 
 mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed 
 unto thy servant:" but " thou saidst ^ And thus also 
 does he prevail against the overwhelming dread of danger 
 from without, •' Tliou saidst," Lord, who liast the lieart 
 of Esati in thy liand, and canst turn it whithersoever 
 thou wilt, — thou wlio art faitliful to tliy promise, and loilt 
 turn it! I have said the overichchning fear, because Jacob 
 is not yet raised wlioUy above his fear of Esau — " I fear 
 him," says he. But he lias cast anchor, at least, within 
 
262 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 the veil, " Thou saidst," and will '* wait for the Lord 
 more than they that watch for the morning." 
 
 3. But, thirdly, I observe in Jacob's faith, that it is 
 faith in the midst of difficulties tahing simple hold of God in 
 his xoord of promise. *'I fear him, lest he will come and 
 smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou 
 saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as 
 the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for 
 multitude." " lliou saidst J^ 1 suppose that nothing was 
 further from Jacob's thoughts at this time than writing 
 lessons for posterity. And yet was he, all unknown to 
 himself, in fact preparing lessons, at this hour, quite 
 invaluable for the Church in every age. Long I have 
 regarded this word of his, " Thou saidst," as a gem of 
 the Old Testament. Ah ! what difficulties might not be 
 removed out of the way of the tried and tempted believer 
 by the simple utterance of this word before the Lord in 
 time of need, *'Thou saidst"? Lord, thy providence 
 seems to frown, and all is dark around me. But thou 
 saidst, " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 
 of whom I am chief." My heart is very hard. But tho^i 
 saidst, "I will take away the stony heart, and give you an 
 heart of flesh." Iniquities prevail. But thou saidst, ^^ To 
 Him give all the prophets witness, that through his name 
 whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of 
 sins." I cannot solve this difficulty and that. But thou 
 saidst— thus and thus. Yea, thou seemest to saj, '' Trouble 
 me not; the door is now shut" — "Let me go." Nay, 
 Lord, I cannot — thou saidst — "I will not let thee go 
 except thou bless me." 
 
 yes, this closing word of the prayer, " Thou saidst," 
 was the secret and the soul, I have no doubt, of the 
 whole after triumph at Peniel. '^ Zet me go,'' said the 
 Lord. Of course it was not that a Avorm could detain him, 
 but that he was held by his own promise, of which the 
 " worm Jacob " refused to let go his hold — " Thou saidst." 
 
FEAR AND FAITn. 263 
 
 Ah, this Tvas tliat which was wanting with INFartha whon 
 she said, "Lord, by this time he stinketh ; for lie hath 
 been in the grave four days — Jesus saith unto lior, Said I 
 not unto thee, that, if thou wouhlst believe, thou shouldst 
 see the glor}' of God?" This was the ground which 
 David took, when addressing himself to an arduous 
 enterprise, ''God hath spoken in his holiness; I will 
 rejoice : I will divide Shechem, and mete out the \alley 
 of Succoth." "Thou saidst, I M'ill surely do thee good, 
 and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot 
 be numbered for multitude." It was the old Bethel 
 promise of twenty j^ears before. But how new and fresh 
 it was to Jacob that day! How entirely new did fresh 
 need, and jirofound sense of need, make it ! 
 
 Only, I think I hear some desponding believer say, 
 Happy Jacob, who had the promise addressed to himself 
 by name, " I will surel}'- do thee good " ! But is tJii/ name 
 not as good as written there, "Come unto me, all ye 
 that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest " ? Is it not written there, " AVhosoever will, let him 
 take the water of life freel}'"? Na}^, canst even thou 
 deny, sorrowing one, that in another manner, even by 
 the Holy Ghost bearing witness by and with the word 
 in thy heart, the Lord hath said, "I will surely do 
 thee good — I will never leave thee nor forsake thee — 
 The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; 
 but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither 
 shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the 
 Lord, that hath mercy on thee"? Do not wait, I pray 
 you, till difhculties are all out of the way. You may 
 wait thus too long, too long! Tiecollect the men that 
 imcovered the roof of old, and let down the sick of 
 the palsy in his couch before Jesus. In the midst of 
 difficulties, believe, trust, saying, "Lord, how are they 
 increased that trouble me ! many are they that rise up 
 against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There 
 
264 FEAR AND PAIIH. 
 
 is no help for him in God. But thou, Lord, art a shield 
 for me ; my glory, and the lifter up of my head " — " lliou 
 saidsty 
 
 4. Once more, I observe that this is faith exercised in im- 
 mediate converse and fellowship with God in prayer. Brethren, 
 prayer and faith are entirely distinct ; 3'et they are most 
 intimately connected together. For, as there is no true 
 prayer without some measure of faith, so faith is never 
 better exercised than in prayer. It is a poor sign of 
 faith, if it Trill not bear to be confronted with God, — 
 brought face to face with Him, — exercised in immediate 
 converse with Him. At your leisure take any of the more 
 notable recorded examples of faith. Is it Jehoshaphat ? 
 Hear him speaking to God, *' our God, wilt thou not 
 judge them? for we have no might against this great 
 company that cometh against us ; neitlier know we 
 what to do : but our eyes are upon thee." Is it Asa ? 
 "Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is 
 nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with 
 them that have no power : help us Lord our God ; for 
 AVe rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this 
 multitude. Lord thou art our God ; let not man 
 prevail against Thee." Is it the dying penitent thief? 
 "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy king- 
 dom." Is it David? "If thou. Lord, shouldest mark 
 iniquities, Lord, who shall stand ? But there is for- 
 giveness with tliee, that thou mayest be feared." Jacob 
 takes hold of the promise in immediate converse witli 
 God, " God of my father Abraham, and God of my 
 father Isaac . . . thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, 
 and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot 
 be numbered for multitude." 
 
 Let me affectionately ask, in conclusion, if you have 
 known aught of this conflict between faith and fear, 
 — anything of carrying your fears and difiiculties to the 
 Lord, and being shut up by them to Him ? For if you 
 
FEAR AND !• AITH. 265 
 
 are strangers to everything of tliis kind, I tliink you must 
 be strangers to God's salvation, and dead in trespasses 
 and sins. Possibly 3'ou congratulate yourselves on having 
 no conflicts — struggles. But your peace, be assured, is 
 the peace of death and the grave. Oh flee, flee, from 
 the wratli to come ! I am very sure the Lord bids you 
 heartily welcome, at this hour, to " flee for refuge to lay 
 hold on the hope set before j'ou," saying, "Take witli 
 you words, and turn to the Lord : say unto him, Take 
 away all iniquity, and receive us graciously" — " Create in 
 me a clean heart, God ; and renew a right spirit Avithin 
 me." " The Spirit and the bride say. Come. And let 
 him that heareth say. Come. And let liim tliat is athirst 
 come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely." 
 
 How interesting, let me just add, to tliink of Jacob as 
 the chosen typo of the ransomed Church, — the type of the 
 *' Israel of God" ! I doubt not that he was chosen to be 
 such partly in resjiect of the very imperfections of his 
 character. For, the Church below is not that " glorious," 
 sinless. Church, written of in the fifth of Ephesians, but 
 the Church of the seventh of Homans, " The good that I 
 Avould, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I 
 do. 1 find a law, that, when I would do good, evil is 
 present with me." Only remember how Jacob, amid his 
 imperfections, conflicts and struggles with them, clings 
 to the Lord, lives by faith, comes up from the wilderness 
 leaning on the Beloved. **Thou saidst," is his very life 
 — "My soul followotli hard after thee ; thy right hand 
 upholdeth me." I think that the two words on which 
 we have meditated miglit be written as the motto of 
 vast numbers, at least, of the children of God, " I fear 
 him ; and, thou saidst." Strive, I beseech 3'ou, against 
 unbelieving fears — long and pray to be delivered from 
 them. But when they still (iling to yoii, and oppress 
 you, tell them freely out to the Lord. And be driven 
 
266 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 at least, if not sweetly drawn, by tliem to Him, saying, 
 " Thou saidst'''' — " Hem ember the word unto thy servant, 
 upon which thou hast caused me to hope" — "I will 
 not let thee go except thou bless me " — " Out of the 
 depths have I cried unto thee, Lord. Lord, hear my 
 voice ; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my sup- 
 plications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, 
 Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, 
 that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, mj soul 
 doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for 
 the Lord more than they that watch for the morning ; I 
 say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let 
 Israel hope in the Lord : for with the Lord there is 
 mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he 
 shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE NATURAL HEAllT UNVEILED IN TPIE GKEAT 
 ACCOUNT. 
 
 "And another came, saying. Lord, behold, here in 
 thy pound, which I hai'e kept laid up in a napkin: for 
 I feared thee, because thou art an austere man ; thou 
 takcst uj) that thou layedst not doivn, and reapest that 
 thou didst not soio." — Luke xix. 20-21. 
 
 Text — "For I fvared thee, because thou art an 
 austere man.'''' * 
 
 I iiAYE many a time tlioiiglit of 2^i'en,cliiiig a sermon — 
 taking for the text of it some such words as we sang just 
 now from the hundred and thirty-ninth psalm, " Thou 
 understandest my thought afar off" — having for its 
 object to bring out this principle, or general fact, of 
 the Scriptures, that God is accustomed in tliom to put 
 words into the lips of men, which they would never 
 dream of speaking out, but which lie knows to be, and 
 because he knows them to be, tlie true index of their 
 character, and the expression of their inmost thoughts 
 and feelings, if only they ventured to tell them to them- 
 selves and others. So it is, beyond doubt, with these 
 words, wliich our blessed Lord puts into tlie lii)S of tliis 
 man of liis parable, who has come, as it were last of all, 
 to give in his account in the judgment of the great day, 
 
 * The veil of the allegory in this parable is so thin and slight, 
 that I have ventured, in this discourse, to draw it very much 
 aside, and to present the solemn spiritual realities all hut nakedly 
 and alone. 
 
1:68 THE NATUKAL HEART UNVEILED 
 
 '* Thou art an austere man — I feared thee, because thou 
 art an austere man." Of course it is not that such words 
 will be spoken by any man at the judgment seat. Nor 
 yet is it, that even in the present world any man ven- 
 tures, in so many words, to speak thus to God. But it 
 is, that myriads upon myriads of men, — even all the multi- 
 tudes whom our Lord represents in the person of this man, 
 — on supposition of their being made to disclose, in the 
 judgment, their most secret thoughts, with the motives 
 that all along actuated their life in this world, would 
 give expression to them in some such appalling words as 
 these — Lord, I knew thee to be a hard master, whom it 
 was very difhcult to please ; and so, dreading thee, I 
 thought it best and safest to keep as much as possible 
 out of thy way, and avoid simply, as I hope I have 
 avoided, giving thee any serious ground of offence with 
 me, "Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have 
 kept laid up in a napkin : for I feared thee, because thou 
 art an austere man ; thou takest up that thou layedst not 
 down, and reapest that thou didst not sow " ! "I feared 
 thee, bacause thou art an austere man." 
 
 I am the more anxious to look at these words somewhat 
 carefully witli you, because they may be found to have a 
 great deal more to do with not a few of us — and we with 
 them — than might at first view seem probable. Certain it 
 is that our Lord does not describe here any rare, abnormal, 
 exceptional, case. I have spoken of myriads upon myriads 
 of men. For, observe that in the two servants who 
 liad before given in their account, — given it in with 
 humble joy, — he had represented all the righteous — all 
 God's forgiven and regenerated "children by faith in 
 Christ Jesus." Now, in this last servant — alas ! servant 
 without service— he represents all besides. And if you 
 ask how this can be, while the language is so peculiar, I 
 answer that the very peculiarity of it was doubtless 
 intended to make the description, as by a kind of d, fortiori 
 
IN THE GREAT ACCOUNT. 209 
 
 argument, tlio more -widely compreliensivo, — intended to 
 prevent any man's making his escape from tlio searching 
 application of it, by saying, AVeil, I am at least no 
 profligate, no thief, drunkard, adulterer, murderer ! For, 
 neither -was this man any such sinner — " Lord, behold, 
 liere is thy pound." If this man had done no good, 
 neither had he done any flagrant harm. " Behold, here 
 is thy pound, -which I hnvo kept " — he had not squandered 
 it; ho had not "wasted his substance with riotous living," 
 — " Here is thy pound, Avhich I have kept laid up in a 
 napkin." Nay, he was not without a kind of religion of 
 his own — " Ifearcdtliee,^^ says he. In short, it is here just 
 as in that profoundly solemn account of the judgment in 
 the twenty-fifth of Matthew, where our Lord, of evident 
 purpose, does not expressly deal with the case of licentious, 
 profligate men, but 'pronounces the doom of the ever- 
 lasting death on the simple want, or absence, of all loving, 
 active, service rendered to Him, saying, " Tor I was an 
 liungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and 
 yo gave me no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me 
 not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, 
 and ye visited mo not." So here does he include, by only 
 stronger reason, the licentious and the profligate, while 
 he describes the man on whom he is about to pronounce 
 the like doom, thus, "Another came, saying. Lord, behold, 
 here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin : 
 for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man ; thou 
 takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that 
 thou didst not sow." " For Z feared thee, because tliou art 
 an austere many I have singled out these central words, 
 because they will be found to contain, in brief, the entire 
 inward character of the natural man, — the whole character 
 of the ungodly, natural heart — out of which unavoidably 
 comes the ungodly life, though in endlessly difi'eront shapes 
 and forms. Three distinct features will bo found to make 
 it up — distinct, yet inseparably connected together. 
 
270 THE NATURAL HEART UNVEILED 
 
 I. First, lying at tlie bottom of all here, in the char- 
 acter of the natural mind, there comes out " the evil 
 heart of unbelief," — a fatal misjudgment of the adorable 
 God, — an entire heart-ignorance of God, estrangement 
 from God, believing of the devil's lie concerning God, 
 in place of God's blessed revelation concerning Him- 
 self — " Thou art an austere man," a hard master, very 
 difficult to please, ' ' taking up that thou layedst not 
 down, and reaping tha,t thou didst not sow," demand- 
 ing — if, indeed, thou dost seriously demand anything of 
 us — demanding things impossible for us frail creatures ! 
 You observe, and you may j)Ossibly wonder, that I have 
 thrown in those parenthetical words, "if, indeed, thou 
 dost seriously demand anything of us." But the truth is, 
 that these extremes strangely and fearfully meet in the 
 natural heart — the extreme of a secret sceptical contempt 
 of God, with the extreme of a dark, servile dread of God, 
 — that word, '' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such 
 an one as thyself," with this one, "I feared thee, because 
 thou art an austere man," a hard master ! Still, still, 
 the natural conscience will bear stern witness to the reality 
 of a divine judgment and law. And so, as often as the 
 fallen heart is forced into near contact with God, this is 
 its language— scarce uttered consciously even to itself, 
 and much less uttered audibly to others — " Thou art an 
 austere man," a hard master, demanding things unreason- 
 able, impossible for us weak creatures ! 
 
 Need I say that it is a lie of the devil, a foul calumny 
 on the blessed God? A hard master? Oh, "God is 
 love." " There is none good but one, that is God." 
 A hard master ? " Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him ; for he knoweth 
 our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." A hard 
 master? " As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure 
 in the death of the wicked." " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
 thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are 
 
IX THE GREAT ACCOUNT. 271 
 
 sent unto tlicc, how oi'teii \voiikl I liavo gathered thy 
 children togetlier, even as a lien gathereth her cliiekeus 
 under her wings, and yo would not" ! A hard master? 
 *' My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made 
 perfect in weakness." " If there be first a willing mind, it 
 is accepted according to that a man hath, and not accord- 
 ing to that he hath not." A hard master? "God so 
 loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, tliat 
 whosoever belioveth in him should not pe^-ish, but have 
 everlasting life." lUit, " if our gospel be hid," as Paul 
 writes, "it is hid to them that are lost ; in whom the god of 
 this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe 
 not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is 
 the image of God, should shine unto them." " The 
 natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
 God; for they are foolishness unto him." "An austere 
 man," — a hard master ! 
 
 It is solemnly interesting to note, that this was the 
 very lie with which Satan wrecked the fortunes of our 
 race in paradise, saying to the woman, " A"ea, hath God 
 said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" 
 — an extraordinary restriction ! — very capricious, arbi- 
 trary ! Was it so in truth? "The Lord God com- 
 manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou 
 mayest freely eat" — literally, "eating thou shalt eat," 
 shalt, mayest, freely and abundantly eat" — "but of the 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat 
 of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
 surely die." Assuredly it was nothing strange that the 
 glorious God, in the act of giving to our first parents more 
 than leave to expatiate, and regale themselves, over the 
 whole extent of that garden, should, without giving his 
 reasons to them, restrict their liberty in a single instance, 
 — and all the less strange, that in the midst of tlie garden 
 he had planted another tree, " the tree of life," in whose 
 fruit, as often as they partook of it, he gave to them a kind 
 
272 THE XATUUAL HEART UNVEILED 
 
 of sacramental pledge tliat tliey should be raised, by and 
 by, with their posterity, to a higher, immutable, ever- 
 lasting life, on condition of their loyal obedience to 
 his commandment. But, that "liar and murderer from 
 the beginning," said unto the woman, "Yea, hath God 
 said. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? And 
 the woman said unto the serpent" — the lie, alas! having 
 already found lodgment in her heart, since she not only 
 recoiled not from the tempter, entering into communica- 
 tion with him, but ventured to change the terms of both 
 the liberty and the restriction — " AVe may eat of the fruit 
 of the trees of the garden : but of the fruit of the tree 
 which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said. Ye 
 shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest jg die " — 
 possibly we may not ! "And the serpent said unto the 
 woman," following up his advantage at once, " Ye shall 
 not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye 
 eat thereof, then your ej^es shall be opened ; and ye shall 
 be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the 
 woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it 
 was pleasant to the ej^es, and a tree to be desired to make 
 one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and 
 gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat" ! 
 AVell, I have said that, lying at the bottom of all here, 
 in the character of the natural mind, unveiled in the 
 day of final account, there comes out the "evil heart of 
 unbelief," a fatal misjudgment of the adorable God, an 
 entire heart-ignorance of God, estrangement from God, 
 believing of the devil's lie concerning God, in place 
 of God's blessed revelation concerning Himself — " Thou 
 art an austere man," a hard master ! 
 
 II. Second, and inseparably connected with this first 
 feature in the character, see a second, — a dark, jealous 
 dread of such a God, prompting the wish to be away from 
 him — " I feared thee, because thou art an austere man," a 
 
IN THE GItEAT ACCOUNT. 273 
 
 liard master ! Tlio fear is oLviously that of dark distrust, 
 jealousy, suspicion. It is the opposite of confidence, 
 aliectiou, love. How, in fact, can such a God bo loved ? 
 Ask the Israelites if they love tlio tyrant tliat demands 
 the tale of bricks of them, without giving- them the straw 
 wherewith to furnish it — " I feared thee, because thou 
 art an austere man ; thou takest up that thou laycdst not 
 down, and reapest tliat thou didst not sow." It is the 
 fear that "hath torment." There is a fear of holy 
 reverence, begotten of faith, — springing out of profound 
 regard for the blessed God, and, in turn, deepening the 
 regard from which it springs. But this is the fear of 
 a slave beneath the master's lash, prompting, as I have 
 said, the desire to be away from him. 
 
 Behold the earliest manifestation of it in our first 
 parents, immediately on their committing the fatal sin. 
 It is written, *' And the eyes of them both were opened, 
 and they knew that they were naked . . . And Adam 
 and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the 
 Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the 
 Lord God called imto Adam, and said unto him, AVhere 
 art thou ? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, 
 and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid 
 myself." Ah, it was well for them that God had come 
 after them, calling to Adam, " Where art thou ? " 
 There is reason to think that both soon exchanged 
 the fear of dark and jealous dread for a far different 
 kind of fear, — exchanged the faith of the devil's lie con- 
 cerning God, for the faith of his blessed revelation 
 concerning Ilimself, in the promise of the covenant, that 
 the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the 
 serpent ! But behold the natural heart in every age, 
 left to its own workings — "I hid myself"! Oh, listen 
 to its unuttered language, ''Depart from us, for we 
 desire not the knowledge of thy ways" — God, if we 
 can get but thy benefits, let us have as little to do with 
 
274 THE Jv^ATUEAL HEART UNVEILED 
 
 thyself as possible— the ''evil heart of unbelief, in de- 
 parting from the living God " ! "I feared thee, because 
 thou art an austere man." It is the fear of those words 
 towards the close of the Apocalj^pse, " But the fearful, and 
 unhelieving, and abominable," — the fear that springs of 
 unbelief — of dark, jealous distrust of God—" I feared 
 thee, because thou art an austere man " ! 
 
 III. And now, connected inseparably with these two 
 features of character, even as the second with the first, 
 see the third feature in the character — completing it — 
 even an utter indisposition for all cheerful, active service 
 of God, ^^ For I feared thee — Lord, behold, here is thy 
 pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin; for I 
 feared .thee, because thou art an austere man." Impos- 
 sible to serve such a God — impossible, first, to love 
 him ; and next impossible to serve a God unloved. Oh, 
 love is the spring of service ; distrust, jealousy, suspicion, 
 are the death of it — "Lord, behold, here is thy pound, 
 which I have kept laid up in a napkin; for I feared 
 thee, because thou art an austere man." 
 
 But this man thinks he has served God tolerably well, 
 "Lord, behold, here is thy pound"! In the exceed- 
 ing deceitfulness of the natural heart, does he contrive 
 to persuade himself that he has given God no serious 
 cause of ofi'ence with him, "Behold, here is thy pound, 
 which I have kept laid up in a napkin." It is the more 
 strange he should be able so to persuade himself, inas- 
 much as in his own word, " thy pound," he confesses 
 that it was the property of another, — of a Master who 
 had lent it to him for a purpose, which, assui-edly, was 
 not that of keeping it laid uselessly up. Would you 
 see, brethren, what the purpose was ? You have it in the 
 thirteenth verse, "And he called his ten servants, and 
 delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, " Occupy 
 till I come " — " occupy," that is, trafiic diligently, trade, 
 
IN THE GllEAT ACCOUNT. 275 
 
 " till I come." Oh, what is thus tlio whole Chri.stiim lifo 
 but a busy commerce, — a trading for God, for the good of 
 all around us, for eternity ? To this end has the Master 
 lent us our time, mental powers, reputation, influence, 
 property, with all spiritual privileges, saying, " Occupy till 
 I come." But this man— along with all the myriads whom 
 he represents! — has contrived to forget all that, and to 
 persuade himself that God has forgotten it, too, '' Lord," 
 says he, '' behold, here is thy pound " ! What is it but 
 that insolent conteaipt of God of which I spoke near the 
 outset, as meeting in the natural lieart with the dark, 
 jealous dread of him, '' TJnj i^ound "— " lo, there thou 
 hast tliat is thine /" In reality, the man's whole life had 
 been a continued disobedience to the Master, rebellion 
 against the Sovereign, robbery of the great Owner and 
 Proprietor. Yet says he, "Lord, behold, here is thy 
 pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin"! The 
 last word is worthy to be noted. It means literally a 
 sweat cloth — such wherewith some earnest labourer might 
 wipe the sweat from his brow. But this man, having no 
 occasion for any such cloth in toiling for this Master at 
 least, has taken it to wrap the Master's pound in ! Oh, 
 beloved, in the day when God " will bring to light the 
 hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the 
 counsels of the hearts," how will it come terribly out 
 that to have done no good in this world, was to have 
 done frightful evil; that to have been useless, was to 
 have been mischievous ; that not to have served God, was 
 to have served the devil ; that not to have " gathered with 
 Christ " in his kingdom, was to have *' scattered abroad " ; 
 that not to have been the loyal, loving servant of Christ, 
 was to have been his enemy, and at war with him ! 
 
 And, accordingly, glance a moment at the solemn 
 rejDly of the King — "And he saith unto him, Out of tliine 
 own mouth will I judge tliee, thou wicked servant." 
 Ah, the disguise is removed — "Thou wichd servant" — 
 
276 THE Ts'ATUEAL HEART XJX VEILED 
 
 "the fearful, and unbelieving-, and ahominahle/^^ And 
 then, the King will not descend to dispute his character 
 with the man — "Out of thine own mouth will I judge 
 thee. Thou hnewest " — didst thou? — "that I was an 
 austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping 
 that I did not sow : wherefore then gavest not thou my 
 money into the bank" — at tiie very least and lowest — 
 "that at my coming, I might have required mine own 
 with usury ?•'' And he said unto them that stood by, 
 Take from him the pound." terrible word — all the 
 things now taken away, out of which might have come 
 the hope of recovery ! But that is not all. Yer. 27, 
 "Those mine enemies which would not that I should 
 reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." 
 Compare the corresponding words in the parable of the 
 Talents, " Cast ye the wiprofdalU servant into outer dark- 
 ness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth " — 
 "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
 pared for the devil and his angels : for I was an hungered, 
 and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
 no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; 
 naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and 
 ye visited me not" — " These shall go away into everlasting 
 punishment"! 
 
 Fain I would have you to note — although it belongs less 
 to my main theme — that, if jou take the three features 
 of character which we have seen in the text, and simply 
 reverse them one by one, j^ou shall have the ^rtdiole 
 character of God's regenerated child, — of the renewed 
 heart, — that heart of which it is written, "A new heart 
 will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; 
 and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, 
 and I will give you a heart of flesh." Thus, 
 
 1. Pirst, substitute for that word of the apostle, "The 
 god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which 
 
 * The word would noio have been better translated interest. 
 
IX THE GREAT ACCOUNT. 277 
 
 believe not, lest tlie lii;lit of the <;-Iorious gospel of Christ, 
 who is the image of God, sliould sliiiie into them," llio 
 one wliiek follows it, "God, who commanded the light 
 to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to 
 give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 
 in the face of Jesus Christ." For the mournful entire 
 heart-ignorance of God, substitute the blessed promise 
 fulfilled, "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am 
 the Lord." For the " evil heart of unbelief," crediting 
 the devil's lie concerning God, substitute that heaven- 
 born faith, "We believe and are sure tliat thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God" — "AVe have known 
 and believed the love tliat God hath unto us." And you 
 have the foundation of the whole character of the new 
 creature in Christ Jesus. 
 
 2. Secondly, for that fear of dark and jealous dread 
 which springs of unbelief, substitute the love that springs 
 of faith, "AVe love him, because he first loved us " — " My 
 beloved is mine, and I am liis " — and you have the new 
 heart in its very soid. No doubt, there remains a great 
 deal about God, his character and ways, which the believer 
 is unable to understand and explain. But he is content 
 to be unable, saying, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, 
 nor mine eyes lofty ; neither do I exercise myself in great 
 matters, or in things too high for me." The old fear has 
 given place to a new fear, the close companion of love, 
 "AVho sliall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy name ?" 
 "It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do ? deeper 
 than hell ; what canst thou know ? The measure thereof 
 is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." 
 
 3. And thus, thirdly, for the utter indisposition to God's 
 cheerful service, substitute that heart for all service, 
 "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" "The love 
 of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that 
 if one died for all, then all died ; and that he died 
 for all, that they which live should not henceforth live 
 
278 THE NATURAL HEART UNVEILED 
 
 unto themselves, but unto liim which died for them, and 
 rose again." True, the Christian's service, at the best, 
 is full of imperfection, not only meriting no reward, 
 but needing forgiveness every day and hour. But here 
 is a Master, maligned by the devil as ''austere" and 
 " hard," who delighteth to crown the poor services 
 of his people with mansions, cities, kingdoms! "Then 
 came the first, sajdng, Lord, thy pound hath gained 
 ten pounds. And he said unto him, AVell, thou good 
 servant : because thou hast been faithful in a very little, 
 have thou autliority over ten cities. And the second 
 came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 
 And he said likewise to him. Be thou also over five cities." 
 Can it be doubted that, had the third servant come, 
 saying. Lord, thy pound hath gained two pounds, he had 
 been met with the like glad welcome, and with the gracious 
 reward, "Be thou also over two cities "? — "Then shall 
 the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
 from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, 
 and ye gave me meat ; I was thirst}^, and ye gave me 
 drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and 
 ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited me ; I was in 
 prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous 
 answer him, saying. Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, 
 and fed thee ? or thirst}^, and gave thee drink ? When 
 saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and 
 clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 
 came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and sa}^ 
 unto them, Yerily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me " — " The righteous into life eternal " ! 
 
 A practical inference or two before I close. 
 (1.) First, there is to he a judgment day, brethren. Do 
 you believe it ? Sure I am of this, that if there were 
 
IX THE GREAT ACCOUNT. 279 
 
 none, this whole world Mere but a horrihlo enigma, — a 
 world in which any vile and reckless criminal should but 
 have, after his crimes, to make away with himself by 
 one of those easy deaths Avhich modern science tells us 
 of, and it should be as well with him as with him who 
 had diligently " served his own generation by the will of 
 God, and fiiUen asleep." But, " we must all appear before 
 the judgment seat of Christ ; that every one may receive 
 tlie things done in his body, according to that he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad." " He hath appointed 
 a day, in the which he will judge the world in rigliteous- 
 ness by that man wliom he hath ordained ; whereof he 
 hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised 
 liim from the dead." *' I saw a great white throne, and 
 liim that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
 heaven fled away ; and there was found no place for 
 them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
 God : and the books were opened ; and another book was 
 opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were 
 judged out of those things which were written in the 
 books, according to their works." Oh, I am reminded of 
 old Herbert's solemn lines : — 
 
 " Almighty Judge ! how shall poor mortals brook 
 Thy dreadful look, 
 Able a heart of iron to appal, 
 
 When thou shalt call 
 For every man's peculiar book ? 
 
 What others mean to do, I know not well ; 
 
 Yet I hear tell, 
 That some will turn thee to some leaves therein 
 
 So void of sin, 
 That they in merit shall excel. 
 
 But I resolve, when thou shalt call for mine, 
 
 Tliat to decline ; 
 And thrust a testament into thy hand. 
 
 Let that be scann'd ; 
 There thou shalt find my faults are thine." 
 
280 THE NATURAL HEART UNVEILED 
 
 (2.) Second, liow worthless, in that clay, will be all 
 merely negative religion — '* Lord, behold, here is thy 
 pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin" ! And as 
 for all attempts to occupy neutral ground in the kingdom 
 of Christ, what dreams they are ! The man who seeks for 
 neutral groimd here, has already taken his side with the 
 devil against Christ, '' I know thy works, that thou are 
 neither cold nor hot : I would thou wert cold or hot. So 
 then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor 
 hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." " He that is not 
 with me, is against me ; and he that gathereth not with 
 me scattereth abroad." 
 
 (3.) But, thirdly, be it carefully noted that this, pro- 
 perly speaking, is not yet the Judge, but the Prophet, 
 telling beforehand of the Judge, and of the judgment to 
 come. Thus is there richest mercy even in the most 
 terrible things we have heard from his bps — as one has 
 said, 
 
 *•' God's loudest tlirentenings speak of love and tender care, 
 For who that wished the blow to light would say, Beware ?" 
 
 Oh, are there those before me whom the god of this world 
 still blinds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ 
 should shine unto them ? I bring you good tidings this day 
 from the mouth of Jesu?, " I counsel thee to buy of me" — 
 elsewhere he says, " without mone^^, and without price" — 
 " gold tried in the j&re, that thou mayest be rich ; and white 
 raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame 
 of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes 
 with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Oh that you 
 were made to cry with Bartimeus, " Jesus, thou Son of 
 David, have mercy upon me"! — "Lord, that I might 
 receive my sight" ! Soon should your eyes also be opened ; 
 and, "knowing God's name," ye should " put your trust 
 in him;" and trusting, love him; and loving, serve 
 him ; and serving him, hear at length the blessed voice, 
 
i:S THE G15EAT ACCOUNT. 281 
 
 " Well (lone, good and I'liillil'til servant ; thou hast boon 
 faithful over a few thing-s, 1 will make thee ruler over 
 many things : enter thou into th(3 joy of thy Lord !" 
 
 (4.) Finally, I remind the children of God of their 
 life-work, " Occupy till I come." The whole spiritual 
 life, as I said, Avhat is it but a busy commerce, — trading 
 for God, and for the highest welfare of ourselves and 
 others? 8ee how the man of business attends to his 
 secular calling, — how his thoughts run ever on it ; how 
 he makes other things bend to it and its interests ; how 
 lie economizes and arranges his time with a view to it ; 
 how he lies on the watch for ways of advancing it ; how 
 he insists on having definite security about all its affairs. 
 Thus do you "occupy," trade, in the grand spiritual 
 business. And, remembering that the spring of all 
 Christian service is faith and love, long and strive after 
 advance in both. "Abide in Christ, that when he shall 
 appear, we mixy have confidence, and not be ashamed 
 before him at his coming." " Be stedfast, nnmoveable, 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as 
 ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 
 
XX. 
 
 THE COVENANT— ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND HOPE. 
 
 "/w hope of eternal life, loluch God, that cannot lie, 
 promised before the world ber/an.'" — Titus i. 2. 
 
 Waiving all i^reface, I mean to take these blessed words 
 in two ways — objectively, as they say, and subjectively, 
 — more doctrinally, and more practically, — first, in the 
 more general doctrine which they bring to view, " Eternal 
 life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world 
 began;" and, second, in the use which the apostle makes 
 of the doctrine, even to build on it a hojje unspeakably 
 glorious and stable in its character, '^ In hope," says he, 
 " of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised 
 before the world began." 
 
 I. First, look with me at the more general doctrine 
 whicli the words bring to view, "Eternal life which God, 
 that cannot lie, promised before the world began." The 
 apostle makes here a twofold statement. He says that 
 God, who cannot lie, made a certain promise before the 
 world began; and he says, that it was "eternal life," 
 which, before the world began, God made promise of. 
 
 1. God, he tells us, who cannot lie, made a certain 
 promise before the world began. Not, observe, formed 
 a ])urpose merely. We know well, indeed, from many a 
 scripture, that he formed a purpose. But the apostle says 
 that he did more, — that he made a iwomue — and to this 
 
THE COTENANT — ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND IIOrE. 2 8 .'J 
 
 belongs tlio special eliaraeter under whicli lie presents 
 the adorable God here, " God that cannot /?>." Tlius tlio 
 question at once arises, To Tvhom T(vas the promise made ? 
 For, altlunigh a purpose does not necessarily require u 
 second party, a promise does. Where there is a promiser, 
 and a promise, there must of course be some one to receive 
 it. But, a promise ** before the world began," — while as 
 yet there was no creature in existence — to wliom could 
 such a promise be made, save to the Eternal Son of the 
 Father,' — Him of whom it is written, "In tlie beginning 
 was the "Word, and the AVord was with God, and the 
 AVord was God; the same was in the beginning with 
 God," — Ilim whom we find saying of himself in the 
 Proverbs, " I was set \\j) from everlasting, from the 
 beginning, or ever the earth was ; while as yet he had 
 not made the eartli, nor the fields, nor tlie highest part 
 of the dust of the world. . . . Then I was by liim, as one 
 brought up with him ; and I was daily his delight, 
 rejoicing always before him ; rejoicing in the habitable 
 part of his earth" — his future earth — " and my delights 
 were with the sons of men." " Eternal life, which God, 
 that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Be- 
 yond all doubt, the promise was made to the Son of God, 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. But we have a further statement here. It was 
 "eternal life," the apostle says, of which God, before the 
 world began, made promise. Eternal life ? But the Son 
 of God could not possibly receive such a promise for 
 Himself. As none but He could then receive a promise 
 at all, so it was not possible He should receive a promise 
 of eternal life in his own behalf — himself " the first and 
 the last, and the living One." He could receive it only 
 in a representative character, — for those " sons of men " 
 of whom we just now found him speaking in the Book of 
 Proverbs. He could receive it only as the predestined 
 Mediator, — the Head and Surety of a people " given to 
 
284 THE COVEXA]S-T ITS DEATHLESS LIFE A^^D HOPE. 
 
 him by the Father," to be in time redeemed by him, and 
 eternally saved. 
 
 3. And thns does there at once arise a third momentous 
 truth, namely, that this promise could be made to Christ 
 only on a certain condition, — only on supposition, and in 
 respect, of his whole future obedience unto death in 
 behalf of his people. Brethren, God, who cannot lie, 
 could no more promise eternal life to Christ for guilty 
 men, apart from such a condition, than he can break the 
 promise now, after the condition has been fulfilled to the 
 uttermost. The promise of which Paul speaks so briefly 
 here, — speaks only in passing, and as taking- it for granted, 
 — is the same, in substance, of which it had been written 
 in the prophets, "When thou shalt make his soul an 
 offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong 
 his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in 
 his hand." "By his knowledge shall my righteous 
 servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." 
 "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it 
 in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall bo 
 my people : and they shall all know me, from the least of 
 them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I 
 will forgive their iniquit}', and I will remember their sin 
 no more." "Eternal life which God, that cannot lie, 
 promised before the world began." 
 
 There are those, in the main sound enough in the faith, 
 who are sensitively jealous of such language as the 
 following — I repeat a question of oar Larger Catechism, 
 with the answer to it — " AVitli whom was the covenant 
 of grace made ? The covenant of grace was made with 
 Christ as the Second Adam, and in him with all the elect 
 as his seed." They are jealous of this as savouring, they 
 think, less of Scripture, than of the systems and theologies 
 of men. Indeed? Then let the words of the text be 
 read again, "Eternal life which God, that cannot lie, 
 promised before the world began." To whom could the 
 
THE COYEXANT — ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND lIorE. 285 
 
 promise be miicle, wliile yet there was no creature in 
 existence, save to Clirist? And for whom? Assuredly not 
 to Christ for liimself, but for his i^eople, his seed. Thus 
 liave we, in ahnost as many words, tlie answer of tlie 
 AVestminster Divines, that "tlie covenant of grace was 
 made with Christ as the Second Adam, and in him with 
 all the elect as his seed." 
 
 In truth, however, this great doctrine, in place of being 
 confined to a single place of Scripture, runs through the 
 Scriptures of the New and Old Testaments alike. Thus 
 — to take onl}^ the New — turn for a moment with me to 
 first Corinthians, fifteenth chapter. At the forty-fifth 
 verse we read, *' The first man Adam was made a living 
 soul ; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. . . . 
 The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the 
 Lord from heaven." Here have we plainly the doctrine of 
 two public Heads or Sureties of mankind, — the first man, 
 and the second man, — two Eepresentatives, the one, of all 
 his natural posterity, the other, of all his spiritual seed. 
 But this necessarily involves the idea of a Divine cove- 
 nant with these public persons respectively. They could 
 occui^y the place of public heads or representatives, only 
 in virtue of a Divine compact entered into with them 
 respectively, — in virtue of promises given to them in 
 behalf of their respective seeds. 
 
 Or turn, for an instant, to the Apocalypse, the third 
 chapter, and read the twelfth verse, " Him that over- 
 coineth will I make a pillar in the temple of my God ; 
 and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon hiiu 
 the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, 
 which is New Jerusalem, which comcth down out of 
 heaven from my God." Here, four times over, does 
 Christ use the expression, "My God." But it is well 
 known that when, in Scripture language, Jehovah is 
 called the God of any one, it signifies his being in covenant 
 with him,— engaged by promise to be his portion and 
 
286 THE COVEXANT ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND HOPE. 
 
 heritage. Tims, "I am the Grocl of Abraham, and the 
 God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" and again, "I 
 will establish my covenant with thee, to be a God to thee, 
 and to thy seed after thee." But Jehovah is here spoken 
 of, again and again, as the God of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Indeed, no title of God is more common in the New 
 Testament than this. It is thus declared, in effect, that 
 Jehovah is in covenant with Messiah. But in what 
 character? Certainly not for himself, but as the Head 
 and Surety of his people. To Christ, in this character, 
 does Jehovah make himself over to be his God, and to all 
 the members of his body, in him, and through him — '* Go 
 to my brethren, said he, and say unto them, I ascend 
 unto my Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and 
 your God." "Behold, I, and the children whom God 
 hath given me." " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual 
 blessings in heavenly places in Christ." "Heirs of God, 
 joint heirs with Christ" — "Eternal life which God, 
 that cannot lie, promised before the world began." 
 
 11. But now, in place of going into the evidence of the 
 Old Testament to the same effect, — of the prophets and 
 the psalms, — (though it is quite as abundant and clear as 
 that of the New), I pass from the more general doctrine 
 of the text, to the use which the apostle makes of it even 
 to build on it, as I said, a hope unspeakably glorious and 
 stable in its character, "In hope," says he, "of eternal 
 life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world 
 began." 
 
 Generally let me say here, that it is to my mind pro- 
 foundly interesting, to find that Paul, — that the great 
 apostle of the Gentiles, — was able to endure his trials, and 
 discharge his duties, — able to bear up amid the endless 
 work and warfare of his ministrj^and apostleship, only by the 
 power of the same faith and hope which is yours, believers, 
 
THE COYEXAXT ITS DEATKLESS LIFE AND HOrE. 28/ 
 
 at this hour, " Taul, a servant of God, and an apostle of 
 Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the 
 acknowledging- of the truth which is after godliness ; in 
 hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised 
 before the world began." And so, in the immediately 
 previous epistle, — in the first chapter of Second Timothy, 
 we find him saying, ''AVhereunto I am appointed a 
 preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 
 For the which cause I also suffer these things : neverthe- 
 less I am not ashamed ; for I know whom I have believed, 
 and am persuaded that he is able to keep tliat which I 
 have committed to him against that day." But now look a 
 little more closely with me at the "hope" the apostle speaks 
 of, in the glory of it, and in the immoveable stahility of it. 
 1. First, in its glory. It is the hope of '' eternal life." 
 Brethren, so familiar have we grown with this word in 
 the Scriptures, that we fail to realise the wonderfulness 
 of it — eternal life ! Ah, in this world of ceaseless change, 
 decay, corruption, death, graves everywhere, " eternal 
 life," — life defying death, surviving death, which death 
 cannot kill, nor the grave swallow up, — life which, when 
 myriads of ages have passed, shall only have begun, and 
 when myriads more have passed, shall be no nearer an 
 end! And it is "eternal life" — not existence merely — 
 life eternal, in blessedness and joy, as it is written, " In 
 thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand are 
 pleasures for evermore:" life eternal, in dignity and 
 glory, as it is written, " To him that overcometh will I 
 grant to sit with me in my throne ;" "a crown of glory 
 that fadeth not away:" life eternal, in boundless riches, 
 l^ossessions, as it is written, " Heirs of God" — " Come, 
 ye blessed, inherit the kingdom" — "An inheritance 
 incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 
 But I cannot tell what eternal life is. " It doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be : but wo know tliat, when he 
 shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him 
 
288 THE COVEXAIS-T — ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AXD HOPE. 
 
 as he is." This, at least, we know, that the ''eternal 
 life" shall have in it the expansion to the full of all the 
 faculties and affections of the renewed nature ; the perfect 
 harmony of those faculties and affections, both among 
 themselves and with the will of the adorable God ; the 
 end of the last remnants of sin ; all tears for ever dried 
 up ; body and soul reunited in a holy, deathless, com- 
 panionship, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying 
 of God to all eternity ! ' ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
 things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 
 " Eternal life" — the glory of the hope. 
 
 2. Then see the immoveable s^«rJ///^'y of it. For, 
 (1.) First, the apostle says that it is built on the 
 "promise of God who cannot lie." Ah, if that is not 
 security enough, then farewell, at least, to all possible 
 security in the universe ! When Scripture, over and over, 
 says that " God cannot lie," it is as if to say that he must 
 cease to he, — cease to be God, — ere he can deny himself, 
 — forswear himself, — falsify his word, his promise, since 
 truth is his ver^^ nature, "Wherein God, willing more 
 abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the im- 
 mutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath ; that 
 by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for 
 God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have 
 fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." 
 
 (2.) Nor, second, is this a promise of God merely, — 
 one among many ; it is, in a sort, the promise, the pro- 
 mise pre-eminently, of Jehovah, as the words intimate, 
 " eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before 
 the world began " So, in the first ej^istle of John, we 
 read, "This is the j)i'Oinise that he hath promised us, 
 even eternal life." And again and again we read of 
 " eternal life," as of the grand central blessing — " I give 
 unto my sheep eternal life." "Thou hast given him 
 power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as 
 
THE COYEXAXT ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AXD IIOrE. 2B9 
 
 many as llioii hast i^ivcn lilm." *' Wlioso eatotli my flosli, 
 and drinkotk my l)lood, liatli eternal life." I say the 
 liope is built on a promise, on ilie promise, of " God who 
 cannot lie." 
 
 (3.) Again, tlie promise wliich this hope is built on 
 was made by God *' before the world began." See, I i)ray 
 you, tlie immoveable stability whicli lies here. Eor this 
 world is one of ceaseless fluctuations, vicissitudes. Had 
 the promise arisen amidst the changes and emergencies 
 of time, then, one of them having begotten it, another 
 might peradventure liave made a final end of it. But it 
 was anterior to them all, — made in full foresight of them 
 all, — made an eternity before them all. And thus none 
 of them can in any wise affect its stability. There was 
 but one tiling that could have seemed likely to affect it, 
 namely sin. But sin was the very occasion of the promise. 
 The Avhole covenant of grace arose by reason of sin. 
 And tliat runs into yet another ground of stability here. 
 
 (4.) Fourth, the promise this hope is built on is, as' 
 we have seen, the promise of a covenant^ — a j)romise made 
 only on express and determinate conditions. And own 
 that these have been to the uttermost fulfilled, it has 
 become matter of justice no less than truth, — of rectitude, 
 as well as faithfulness, '' My righteous servant shall 
 justify rnanj^ for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore 
 will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall 
 divide the spoil with the strong ; because he hath poured 
 out his soul unto death ; and he was numbered with the 
 transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made 
 intercession for the transgressors." 
 
 Other grounds of stability, pointed to more indirectly 
 in the text, might have been mentioned, such as this, that 
 the promise the hope is built on, is already enjoyed by the 
 believer in the earnests and foretastes of it, " He that 
 believcth on me halli everlasting life." *' Who hatli 
 saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according 
 
 T 
 
290 THE COVENANT ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND HOPE. 
 
 to our works, but according to his own purpose and 
 grace, wliich was given us in Christ Jesus before the 
 world began." ''We that are in this tabernacle do 
 groan, being burdened: not for that we would be un- 
 clothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be 
 swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for 
 the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us 
 the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always 
 confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the 
 body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by 
 faith, not by sight :) we are confident, I say, and willing 
 rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with 
 the Lord." " In hope of eternal life, which God, that 
 cannot lie, promised before the world began." 
 
 Three words of inference, before I close. 
 
 First, see the absolute security of the ransomed Church 
 of God, and each living member of it. For, if the cove- 
 nant had been made only with the believer himself, then 
 might his faith and holiness have given way, and his soul 
 been eternally lost. But he is only by faith instated in a 
 covenant, which was made with the Son of God in his 
 behalf before the foundation of the world, — a covenant, 
 all whose conditions were fulfilled in the work of the 
 Mediator, — and whose promises run in terms like these, 
 " I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not 
 depart from me." " I will put my Spirit within you, and 
 will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep 
 my judgments, and do them." Taking hold of this 
 covenant, we embrace and enter into a life that cannot 
 die, — the life of Christ himself, in fact. Our security is 
 bound up with the life of the Head and Surety of the 
 covenant. " Because I live," said he, " ye shall live 
 also." "My Father, and your Father; my God, and 
 your God." " If his children forsake my law, and walk 
 not in my judgments, I will visit their transgression with 
 the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my 
 
THE COYEXANT — ITS DEATHLESS LIEE AND IIOrE. 291 
 
 lovingkindncss Tvill I not utterly take from liim, nor 
 suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not 
 break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 
 Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie 
 unto David. Ilis seed shall endure for ever, and his 
 throne as the sun before me." " The mountains shall 
 depart, and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall 
 not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my 
 peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on 
 thee." 
 
 Second, you remember those words in Bomans, ''There- 
 fore it is of faith, that it might be by grace ; to the end 
 the promise might be sure to all the seed." It is of faith, 
 that it might he lij grace. That is to say, there is an 
 open entrance for all of us, sinners, into the whole 
 inviolable security of this covenant of promise, by faith 
 alone, without the deeds of the law — " it is of faith, 
 that it might be by grace." It had been but mocking 
 us to tell of some richly stored and furnished edifice, 
 without a door of entrance. But behold at once the 
 edifice, and the door into it. The edifice, *' This is the 
 Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he 
 hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it 
 up again at the last day." And the open door, ''And 
 this is the will of him that sent me, that every one 
 which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have 
 everlasting life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." 
 The edifice, "An everlasting covenant, ordered in all 
 things, and sure." The entrance into it, " Ilim that 
 cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." "Come unto 
 me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." "The Spirit and the bride say. Come. 
 And let him that heareth say. Come. And let him that is 
 athirst come : and whosoever will, let him take the water 
 of life freely." 
 
 But, thirdly and finally, I end with the "hope" 
 
292 THE COVENANT ITS DEATHLESS LIFE AND HOPE. 
 
 (daughter of the faith), — the undying hope, — the " hope 
 of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised 
 before the world began." What a hope this for storms 
 and tempests — " anchor of the soul" indeed, " sure and 
 stedfast " ! What a hope for afflictions, to sustain 
 under them, — for duties, to carry through them, — for 
 death and the grave, to give the victory over them ! 
 " Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; 
 my flesh also shall rest in hope." " death, where is 
 thy sting? grave, where is thy victory?" Many a 
 falsehood, beloved, has been written in the epitaphs of 
 the dead. Here is an epitaph which might be as truly 
 as sublimely written on the tombs of all who sleep in 
 Jesus, " In hope of eternal life, which God, that 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE GOLDEN SAYING. 
 
 '* / have shexced you all th'uKjs, how that so labouring 
 ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the 
 words of the Lord Jesus, hoio he said, It is more 
 
 BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE." — ActS XX. 35, 
 
 It is a golden saying truly, this of our Lord's, snatched 
 for us from oblivion (for it is not found anywhere in the 
 Gospels) by the inspired apostle, and handed down by him 
 for the use of the Church in every age, " It is more blessed 
 to give than to receive." Yery honestly, I think, and with 
 unabashed countenance, Paul could press it on the regard 
 of the Ephesian elders ; for his own life, — whole apostolic 
 life, — had been an exemplification of it. And it was 
 well that so it was, for the sake of their accepting it at 
 his hands. For, so contrary is the sa^'ing to the practice 
 at least, — the whole spirit and practical judgments, — of 
 mankind, that when a public teacher declares it to be 
 more happy and blessed to give than to receive, the 
 question is apt enough to arise in the minds of his hearers, 
 Does he really believe it ? But this man had left no possible 
 room for such a question arising with reference to him. 
 Second in this respect only to his glorious Master, his 
 Avhole life, as I have said, had been an exemplification of 
 the saying, '' It is more blessed to give than to receive " — 
 not much, certainly, in respect to the giving of property, 
 of which he had but little to give. But while his very 
 poverty was only a nobler exemplification of the saying — 
 
294 THE GOLDEN SAYING. 
 
 as to all other kinds of giving, behold his whole apostolic 
 life in the spirit of those words, for example, " I will not 
 be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours, but you ; for 
 the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the 
 parents for the children " — " So, being affectionately desir- 
 ous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, 
 not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because 
 ye were dear unto us." " Therefore watch." says he at the 
 thirty-first verse here, '' and remember, that by the space 
 of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and 
 day with tears" — ah, that was giving! ''And now, 
 brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of 
 his grace, which is able to build you u^d, and to give you 
 an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. I have 
 coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel" — no very 
 good coat, methinks, he must have had, who could protest 
 that he had coveted no man's apparel — "Yea, ye your- 
 selves know, that these hands have ministered unto my 
 necessities, and to them that were with me. I have 
 shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to 
 support the weak, and to remember the words of the 
 Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than 
 to receive." 
 
 But why speak I of PauVs exemplifying this saying ? 
 If you would see it exemplified in its perfection, jou 
 must go to his Master, — to the utterer of the saying. 
 yes, second only to Him in this Paul might be ; 
 but second, assuredly, — following at an immeasurable 
 distance behind, — even Paul was — behind Him who "was 
 rich, and for our sakes became poor, that we through 
 his poverty might be rich"! — behind Him who "was 
 in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be 
 equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and 
 took on him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, 
 humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even 
 
THE GOLDEN SAYIXG. 20-3 
 
 tlio death of the cross ! " — behind Him who, in uttering 
 the saying' without reference to himself, might yet have 
 written in it the motto of his life, from Bethlehem to 
 Calvary and the grave — "It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive " ! 
 
 I would fain unfold a little, — confirm, explain, illus- 
 trate, — the saying, if I can. Let me, however, firs\ 
 guard myself and you against a mistake, or rather vice, 
 to which assuredly it lends no countenance. I mean 
 the pride of such as decline to be receivers at the 
 hands of others, lest they should be brought under 
 obligations to them. A vice this is in the dealings of 
 men with men, but a sin eminently heinous and deadly 
 in the dealings of men with God. It is a vice in the 
 dealings of men with men. For God has so ordered 
 our relationships one to another, as that we shall be 
 as it were interdependent, and, by a certain mutual 
 indebtedness, knit together in the ties of a closer affec- 
 tion. 1 have spoken of Paul. Certainly he did decline, 
 on grounds of high Christian expediency, to receive 
 anything at the hands of the Corinthian church. But 
 see how he si^eaks to another of the churches, '* I 
 rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your 
 care of me hath flourished again ; wherein ye were also 
 careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak 
 in respect of want," &c. "Notwithstanding ye have 
 well done that ye did communicate with my affliction." 
 Yea, the Lord Jesus himself did not decline to be u 
 receiver, — did not disdain to ask drink of the woman 
 of Samaria ; to be indebted to Martha and her sister 
 lor a home at Bethany ; to be indebted for the means of 
 his earthly support, partly to " certain women who 
 ministered to him of their substance." 
 
 But if tlie pride of declining to receive is a vice in the 
 dealings of men with men, it is, as I have said, a sin 
 eminently heinous and deadly in the dealings of men 
 
296 THE GOLDEIS- SAYJITG. 
 
 with Grod. For tlie state of tlie case is this. We are 
 before God "wretclied, and miserable, and poor, and 
 blind, and naked." He, in the exceeding riches of his 
 grace, comes offering to us, in Jesus Christ, gold tried in 
 the fire to enrich us, and white raiment to cover us, and 
 eyesalve to anoint our eyes that we may see — offering 
 us water of life, and bread of life, — all things belong- 
 ing to an everlasting salvation. If we will not be content 
 to take all at his hands, and be eternal debtors to his 
 mere mercy, then must we make up our minds to be 
 receivers at length in a far different way, — to receive the 
 wages of our sin in an " everlasting destruction from the 
 presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ! " 
 yes, it is the very soul and glory of the gospel, that God 
 comes to us in it, not to get anything from us, but to give 
 everything to us. And that faith which is its counterpart, 
 — the faith which answers to it, and saves the soul, — is 
 our, not giving, but taking, — not giving aught to God, but 
 receiving all most freely at his hand. At the root of what- 
 soever giving on our part He will acknowledge, lies neces- 
 sarily that receiving. But then, so soon as we have found our 
 place among the blessed ones of whom it is written, "As 
 many as received him, to them gave he power to become 
 the sons of God," there meets us that word, "Freely ye 
 have received, freely give;" and we hear this saying of 
 the Lord Jesus, never to be enough pondered by us, 
 "It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 
 Attempting, then, to confirm, explain, illustrate, the 
 saying a little, I observe that — 
 
 1 . First, it is more blessed to give than to receive, be- 
 cause it is more like God, — more noble, excellent, God- 
 like. For the glorious God is ever giving. Behold him 
 opening his hand, and satisfying the desire of every- 
 thing that lives ; giving to the beast his food, and to the 
 young ravens which cry ; giving to all life, and breath, 
 
THE GOLDEN SAYIXG. 297 
 
 and all tilings; giving lis riclily all things to enjoy — 
 tlie giver of every good and porfoct gift! But pre- 
 eminent among his endless gifts, behold Ilim, whon we 
 were ready to drop into hell, opening no longer his hand 
 merely, bnt his bosom, his heart, and giving forth from it 
 his only begotten Son, — not sparing that Son, — and now, 
 with him, freely giving us all things ! Hear Him saying, 
 " I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light 
 of the Gentiles" — *'A new heart will I give you" — "I 
 will give you an heart of flesh" — "I will give them one 
 heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the 
 good of them, and of their children after them." Yea, 
 behold him giving Himself to us in an everlasting cove- 
 nant ordered in all things and sure, saying, "I will be to 
 you a God, and ye shall be to me a people "■ — " I will be a 
 Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." 
 Thus, evidently, it is more Godlike to give than to receive. 
 And hence those great words, " I say unto you. Love your 
 enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
 hate you, and pray for them which despitefidly use 3'ou, 
 and persecute you, that ye may he the childreyi " — by your 
 likeness to him manifested to be the children — " of your 
 Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise 
 on the evil and on the good, and seudoth rain on the just 
 and on the unjust." " Be ye followers (imitators) of God," 
 writes Paul, "as dear children, and walk in love" — 
 " kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one 
 another" — ah, an illustrious form of giving, /yrgiving ! 
 — "even as God for Christ's sake luith forgiven you." 
 It is more blessed to give tlian to receive, I say lirst, 
 because it is more Godlike. 
 
 2. But second, and more sjiecifically, because it is more 
 Christlike. Already this has been glanced at ; but it must 
 be touched on a little further. True, as was said, Christ 
 did not decline, — did not disdain, — to be a receiver. 
 But it is very remarkable how his receiving ran ever 
 
298 THE GOLDEISr SAYIXG. 
 
 into a mucli more abundant giving. Did he ask drink 
 of the woman of Samaria ? It was to make way for 
 that word, " If thou knewest the gift of God, and wlio 
 it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou 
 wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given 
 thee living water." Did he accept a home of the 
 sisters of Bethany? How profoundly they felt that, in 
 accepting it, he was rather giving to them an ever- 
 lasting home ! Did he permit those women to minister 
 to him of their substance? But he had first bestowed 
 on them the everlasting riches ; for the words are, 
 "There were with him certain women, which had been 
 healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magda- 
 lene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife 
 of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, 
 which ministered unto him of their substance." 
 
 But where should one begin, or where end, if one 
 would speak of the givings of Jesus Christ, and His 
 accounting it more blessed to give than to receive ? For 
 his entire life resembled, as to this, the sun in the 
 heavens, scattering benefits in his whole course from 
 his rising to his fall. Behold how he " went about 
 doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with 
 the devil," — how he " went about all the cities and 
 villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the 
 gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and 
 every disease among the people." On his way to work one 
 work of beneficence, see how he performs another — how, 
 on his way to the house of Jairus, for example, he heals 
 the woman that had the issue of blood twelve years, and 
 then passes on to raise the young daughter of Jairus from 
 the dead. " Whithersoever he entered, into villages, or 
 cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and 
 besought him that they might touch if it were but the 
 border of his garment; and as many as touched him 
 were made whole." And yet were these cures little more 
 
THE GOLDEX SAYING. 299 
 
 tlian synil)ols of his liig-lior and more peculiar benefits. 
 " Give, give," was ever his hmguage — but truly after a 
 new fashion. There it is, " The bread that I will 
 give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the 
 world" — '' Tlie meat whicli cndureth unto everlasting- 
 life, which the Son of man shall give unto you" — " Come 
 unto me, and I will give you rest" — "My peace I give 
 unto you " — " I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they 
 shall never perish." And still, from the throne, — from 
 the heaven of heavens, — his voice is heard, " I will 
 give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of 
 life freely" — "I will give you a crown of life " — *' To him 
 that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life ; " 
 *' give to eat of the hidden manna ; " " give to sit with me 
 in my throne ! " Oh, I would have you to be in love with 
 giving. It is more blessed to give than to receive, because, 
 lirst, it is more Godlike ; and second, specifically, more 
 Christlike. 
 
 3. But, thirdly, it is more blessed to give than to re- 
 ceive, because it is at once the sign and the source of a 
 higher and purer happiness. It is the si(/)i of a higher 
 happiness, — tells of a higher blessedness already enjoyed 
 b}' the giving one. The truth is that Christian giving of all 
 kinds — property, sympathy, counsel, prayer — flows out 
 of a certain afiluence of peace and happiness, as we read 
 of the Macedonian Christians, for instance, that the 
 "abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty, abounded 
 unto the riches of their liberality." And, on the other 
 liand, what call we the mere receiver, the covetous, tho 
 hoarder, but miser — wretched one ? But he who givetli 
 eliristiauly is already ha^ipy and blessed, as it is written 
 of the people of Israel, that they *' rejoiced for that they 
 ofl*ered willingly, because w^ith perfect heart they off'ered 
 willingly vmto the Lord ; and David the king also rejoiced 
 with great joy." And, as giving is the sign, so also is it 
 the source, of a higher and purer happiness. 0, is there 
 
300 THE GOLDEN SAYING. 
 
 one among us wlio lias known auglit of what Job said 
 of himself, *' The blessing of him that was ready to perish 
 came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for 
 joy " ? I am sure that his own heart was made to sing 
 with a joy yet deeper than hers. Or, let any Sab- 
 bath-school teacher, who, week after week, has gathered 
 the destitute children from the streets and lanes hard 
 by, and taught them of the love of Christ, and the 
 pearl of great price, and the new heart, and the ever- 
 lasting joy and rest for the weary, say if it is not more 
 blessed to give than to receive. Our blessed Lord did 
 ask drink of the woman of Samaria ; and I am not quite 
 certain that he obtained it. But I am sure of this, 
 that soon his thirst was forgotten in the divine satisfac- 
 tion of finding another lost sheep, and laying it on his 
 shoulders, rejoicing — so that when the disciples came 
 from the city, and said to him, Master, eat, he said, I 
 have meat to eat that ye know not of. And they said. 
 Hath any man brought him ought to eat ? Jesus saith 
 unto them. My meat is to do the Avill of him that sent me, 
 and to finish his work — for " it is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." 
 
 4. But again, fourthly, it is more blessed to give than 
 to receive, because it will soon be crowned with the re- 
 ward of an unutterable and everlasting happiness. Suffi- 
 cient reward, indeed, were the present happiness of which 
 it is both the sign and the source. But we hear our 
 Lord Jesus saying, * ' Whosoever shall give to drink unto 
 one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in 
 the name of a, disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in 
 no wise lose his reward." And we hear him saying, 
 " When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not 
 thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither th}^ kinsmen, nor 
 thy rich neighbours ; lest they also bid thee again, and a 
 recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a 
 feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 
 
THE GOLDEX SAYING. 301 
 
 And tliou slialt bo LIosschI ; for they cannot recompense 
 thee : for thou shalt bo recompensed at the resurrection of 
 the just." And what a rccomponso ! *' IIo that hath pity 
 upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and tliat which lie 
 hatli given will ho pay liini again." But what a repay- 
 ment, overpaj-nient, of bliss! " Then shall tho Xing say 
 unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and yo 
 gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I 
 was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed 
 me ; I was sick, and ye visited me ; I was in prison, and 
 ye came unto me. . . . Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
 one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
 imto me." Ah, a kingdom for a little broad, or a cup of 
 cold water ! Truly — " ^My thoughts are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your Avays my ways ; for as the heavens are 
 higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your 
 ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." And yet, 
 as an old writer has said, "The less thou lookest on it, 
 the surer thou shalt find it — if labouring with thyself to 
 serve God for Himself, in respect of whom even heaven 
 itself is but a sinister end." 
 
 5. But once more, and in a sentence, it is more blessed 
 to give than to receive, because it is likor heaven — liker, 
 I mean, to the peculiar and characteristic, highest, happi- 
 ness of heaven — where no more shall it bo prayer, telling 
 of want, — of asking, receiving, — but praise, which is a 
 giving to God himself — to speak with reverence — as he 
 condescends to speak, "Whoso ofFereth praise glorifieth 
 me" — " Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, 
 give unto the Lord glory and strenglli ; give unto tho 
 Lord tho glory due unto his name." — Well ; I have said 
 that it is more blessed to give than to receive, because it 
 is more Godlike; because it is more Christliko; because it 
 is at once the sign and the source of a higher and purer 
 
302 THE GOLDEN SATING. 
 
 happiness; because it will soon be crowned with the 
 gracious reward of an unutterable and everlasting blessed- 
 ness ; and because it is more like heaven, — the peculiar and 
 characteristic, highest, happiness of heaven. 
 
 But I may not omit to touch, before closing, on the giving 
 itself, which is so blessed. It is, I think, threefold — the 
 giving of our means ; the giving of our sympathy, help, 
 counsel ; and the giving of our prayers. 
 
 1. First, the giving of our means, either for relief of 
 temporal distress, or for the advancement of the cause 
 and kingdom of the Lord Jesus in the world. With 
 reference to such giving, I must content myself with a 
 brief corollary, or inference, from what has been said. It 
 is, that when many claims are made on our means (as at 
 such a time as this), we ought to bid them all heartily 
 welcome. Not, of course, that we ought to give to all ; 
 we may be quite unable to do that. But, first, we 
 ought to regret only our inability, and not the claims, 
 which are but so many channels of happiness to us, 
 and of good to others : and, second, if we do only 
 regret our inability, and are in love with giving, we shall 
 find that we can give to many more objects than other- 
 wise would have seemed possible : and, third, we can 
 commend to God in prayer those objects to which we 
 cannot give of our means : and, fourth, as to those to 
 which we do contribute, we shall do it with hearty 
 good will, — in the spirit of those Macedonian Christians, 
 who, "to their power, yea, and beyond their power, were 
 willing of themselves, praying Paul with much entreaty 
 that he would receive the gift, and take upon him the 
 fellowship of the ministering to the saints." We shall 
 " give a portion to seven, and also to eight," — for it is 
 more blessed to give of our substance than to receive. 
 
 2. Then, second, there is the giving of our sympathy, 
 help, counsel, — sympathy in distress, help in weakness, 
 
THE GOLDEN SAYIXG. 303 
 
 counsel in perplexity. Paul's giving must have been voiy 
 largely of this kind. How often must ho have had to 
 say, as Peter had said before him, "Silver and gold liavo 
 I none, but sucli as I have give I thee " ! Of course, if a 
 brother or sister bo naked, and destitute of daily food, 
 and we give not the things that are needful to the body 
 — having them to give — offered sympathy and counsel 
 were but a mockery of the distress. But liow precious is 
 genuine sympathy, for example, either in addition to pecu- 
 niar}*- aid, or without it, when it is either not needed, or 
 not in our power to render 1 Take one instance — 
 " David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life : and 
 David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood. And 
 Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the 
 wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said 
 unto him. Fear not : for the hand of Saul my father shall 
 not find thee ; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I 
 shall be next imto thee ; and that also Saul m}^ fatlier 
 knoweth. And they two made a covenant before the 
 Lord." But that was help and counsel, as well as 
 sympathy. thrice happy, if with Job we can say, 
 " I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the 
 lame " — eyes, counsel, to the blind in perplexity, — feet, 
 help, to the lame in weakness ! One sort of counsel we 
 might give far oftener than we do. I mean the counsel 
 spoken of in those words, " The Spirit and the bride say, 
 Come; and let him that heareth say. Come" — "Come, 
 see a man which told me all things that ever I did : is not 
 this the Christ? " — "AVe are journeying to the phico of 
 wliich the Lord said, I will give it you : come witli us, 
 and we will do thee good ; for the Lord hath spoken good 
 concemiuo; Israel." 
 
 3. Ai:d, last of all, there is the giving of our prayers — 
 a kind of giving the more precious for two reasons 
 — first, tliat we might all give thus; and second, that 
 we might give thus to all. All might give thus. 
 
304 THE GOLDEX SAYIXG. 
 
 Those who have no pecuniary means, or who may think 
 that they have no sympathy, or counsel, or help, worth the 
 giving, might commend the distressed in prayer to Him 
 who is a very present help in trouble. And we might 
 thus give to all — not to that very limited circle only which 
 we can reach with our means or our coimsel. In prayer 
 we can reach those removed from us — by rank and station, 
 for instance — as far as the Queen of these realms ; or b}^ 
 distance removed as far from us as the people in China 
 or Australia. 
 
 I close with one word as to the way in which the 
 saying of the text has come down to us. Doubtless it 
 belongs to those things of which John says in the closing 
 words of his Gospel, "There are also many other things 
 which Jesus did" — and words also, of course, which he 
 spoke — "the which, if they should be written every one, 
 I suppose that even the world itself could not contain tlie 
 books which should be written." Are we apt to regret that 
 so many precious things of the Lord Jesus should have 
 been lost to the Church ? Well ; he best knew what and 
 how much to give to the Church. But what I desire 
 to notice is this, that of all those other words of Jesus, 
 unrecorded in the Gospels, onty one has been preserved 
 for us by the Holy Ghost — even the saying of our text, 
 "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Surel}^ 
 it is well fitted to enhance the value of it in our eyes, 
 that in this respect it stands quite alone. I have 
 already noticed its Christhkeness, — how it might have 
 been written as the motto of our Lord's entire life. 
 What a confirmation and illustration of this, that of all 
 those other words of Jesus, it alone has been rescued for 
 us from oblivion ! The high value which Paul set on it 
 strikingly appears in his closing his memorable address 
 to the Ephesian elders with it. Bidding them fare- 
 well, to see their face no more, he thus takes his leave 
 of them, " I have shewed you all things, how that so 
 
THE GOLDEN SAYIXO. 305 
 
 labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to rcmonil)er 
 tlie words of the Lord Jesus, how lio said. It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive." Ma}^ the Lord write the 
 saying in our hearts ; make it very dear to us ; and grant 
 tliat, exemplifying it in our lives, we may thus make it 
 manifest that, in our speculative and practical judgments 
 alike, we do indeed account it more blessed to give tdan 
 TO receive ! 
 
XXIL 
 
 THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 
 
 ^^ Jesus answered have told you that I am he. If 
 therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: that the 
 saying might hefidfilled which he spake, Of them which 
 thou gavest me have I lost none.^^ — John xviii. 8, 9.* 
 
 There is a more limited and more obvious sense of 
 these words; and there is a larger and somewhat less 
 obvious sense of them, to which principally it is that I 
 mean to turn your thoughts. 
 
 I. Eirst, shortly observe the more limited and more 
 obvious sense of the words. "Jesus answered, I have 
 told you that I am he." Our blessed Lord delivers him- 
 self up into the hands of his enemies, to be bound and led 
 away to death. But, in the act of doing so, he makes pro- 
 vision for the safety and liberty of the disciples who were 
 standing by, " If therefore," adds he, "ye seek me, let 
 these go their way." He snakes provision, I have said, for 
 their liberty and safety. For, assuredly, there was a great 
 deal more in the words than a simple request, although 
 
 * It is well worthy of notice, in connection with this citation 
 from the Intercessory Prayer of the seventeenth chapter, that 
 the Evangelist quotes the words of our Lord thus simply and 
 absolutely, "Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none." 
 On a first view of them, as they lie in that chapter, it might 
 seem as if they were less absolute, — as if there had been at 
 
THE DYING SUBSTmrTE AXT) KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 307 
 
 they take that quiet form, " lot these go their way." The 
 officers who had come to apprehend the Master, would 
 doubtless havo proceeded to apprehend the servants 
 along with him. And any mere request to the contrary 
 could but have served to defeat its own end. I have no 
 doubt that, under the quiet form of the words, **let these 
 go their way," there went forth a silent, resistless energy, 
 — an exercise of the same glorious power which had just 
 before made the captors recoil, and fall to the ground, on 
 the simple utterance of that word, "I am he." Jesus, I 
 
 least one exception to the safe keeping of those given to Christ by 
 the Father — "Those," he says, "that thou gavest me I have 
 kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; that the 
 scripture might be fulfilled." It is deeply interesting and import- 
 ant to iind, however, that this strange, painful, and surely very 
 improbable, idea, has no ground in the words of the blessed Inter- 
 cessor, when more closely looked at, — that the seeming exception 
 is not one in reality, but simply a deep contrast, as if it had been 
 said, ' Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is 
 lost. But the son of perdition, who seemed to be of them, is lost, 
 that the scripture might be fulfilled.' Repeatedly the il f^h {" none 
 of them is lost, but the son of perdition ") is used by our Lord in this 
 purely adversative sense. Thus, in the fourth of Luke, verses 25- 
 L'7, he says, "I tell you of a truth, many w idows were in Israel in 
 the days of Elias. . . . But unto none of them was Elias sent, save 
 (si f^n) unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a 
 widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliscus the 
 prophet ; and none of them was cleansed, saving {u /u.^) Naaman the 
 Syrian." Of course this is not an exception, but a simple contrast, 
 as if it had been said, ' None of the lepers in Israel were cleansed; but 
 Xaaman the Syrian was cleansed. ' So here, ' Those that thou gavest 
 me I have kept, and none of them is lost ; but the son of perdition 
 is lost.' I only add, that this interpretation of the words — shewn 
 thus to be thoroughly admissible — is proved to be the right one 
 by John's inspired citation of them thus in my text, "Jesus 
 answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore ye seek 
 me, let these go their way : that the saying might be fulfilled 
 which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost i207ie." 
 The reader will please now to turn back to the opening of the 
 discourse in the previous page. 
 
308 THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 
 
 say, delivers Limself up, freely and voluntarily, into tlie 
 hands of his enemies, but makes provision, in doing so, 
 for the safety and liberty of his disciples. 
 
 Only, does it not seem strange that in the ninth verse, 
 the Evangelist should trace up this act of our Lord, 
 however disinterested and kind on his part, to his great 
 saying in the seventeenth chapter, as furnishing the ex- 
 planation of it, "Of them which thou gavest me have I 
 lost none — let these go their way ; that the saying might 
 be fulfilled which he spake. Of them which thou gavest me 
 have I lost none " ? For, that saying of the Intercessory 
 Prayer, beyond all doubt, refers to no mere preservation 
 of believers from outward trials, such as loss of personal 
 liberty, but to their secure preservation in faith and holi- 
 ness to the end ; and this last preservation, so far from 
 being connected inseparably with immunity from temporal 
 afhictions, is ofttimes more effectually secured by means 
 of them — even as we know that these disciples, not very 
 long after this time, " rejoiced to be counted worthy to 
 suffer shame for Christ's name," and were led away, 
 some to prison, and others to death, for his sake. True. 
 But you recollect those words, *' God is faithful, who will 
 not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." 
 Jesus knew that although these disciples should by and 
 by be quite able and ready to meet every danger, and to 
 suffer death itself, for his name, their faith was not equal 
 to this now. And therefore does he consult for their ever- 
 lasting welfare, — consult, with equal wisdom and loving- 
 kindness, not for their temporal ease, but for their everlast- 
 ing salvation, when in delivering up himself, he makes 
 provision for their liberty and safety, saying, " I have told 
 you that I am he ; if therefore ye seek me, let these go 
 their way: that the saying might be fulfilled which he 
 spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none." 
 So much for the more limited and more obvious sense of 
 these words. 
 
THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 309 
 
 II. But, wliilo we so far account tlius for tlio Evan- 
 gelist's citation in the ninth verse, — so far account for 
 his tracing up the words of Jesus in the eighth verse, to 
 his blessed words of intercession recalled to view in the 
 ninth, I am persuaded tliat the citation points to a larger 
 and wider view of our wliole text, which alone fully and 
 sufFiciently explains the inspired reference to the words 
 of the seventeenth chapter. I believe that, when Jesus 
 delivers himself up into the hands of his enemies, but 
 makes provision, in the act of doing so, for the safety and 
 liberty of his disciples, he designed that his Church in every 
 age should see there, as in a glass, his most freely delivering 
 himself up into the hands of his Father's justice, as the 
 Saviour, Substitute, Surety, of his people, — delivering 
 himself up voluntarily into the hands of the Divine 
 justice, and so to the hatred and murderous rage of his 
 enemies on earth ; but only on condition, as it were, and 
 in order to the securing, of the everlasting release and 
 salvation of all who were given to him by the Father in 
 the eternal covenant of grace, '* Jesus answered, I have 
 told 3'ou that I am he. If therefore je seek me, let tliese 
 go their way ; that the saj^ing might be fulfilled which he 
 spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none." 
 Thus I think that the last sufferings and death of our 
 Lord Jesus,* are presented to us here under three dis- 
 tinct aspects or characters of them — first, as they were 
 entirely Voluntary ; second, as they were Vicarious, 
 or Substitutionary ; and third, amid all their seeming 
 weakness, as they were Royal, Kingly. 
 
 1. First, behold the gloriously voluntary character of 
 the Saviour's death. In giving out the text, I read with 
 you the opening verses of the chapter ; and I am anxious 
 at this place to arrest your attention on them for a 
 moment — first recalling, however, such words of previous 
 chapters as those, " He would not walk in Jewi-y, because 
 * The discourse was preached ou a Conuuumon Sabbath. 
 
310 THE DYING SUBSTITUTE A^D KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 
 
 the Jews sought to kill him" — '' He escaped out of their 
 hands, and went away again beyond Jordan " — compared 
 with such other words as, " They sought to take him ; 
 but no man laid hands on him, because Ms hour was not 
 yet come.^^ But now at length it had come, as he spake 
 at the opening of that wondrous prayer, ''Father, the 
 hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may 
 glorify thee." And now, accordingly, see what an entire 
 change meets us at the beginning of this eighteenth 
 chapter, "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went 
 forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where 
 was a garden, into which he entered, and his disciples. 
 And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place ; for 
 Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples." I stay 
 not to dwell on the touching simplicity with which John 
 conveys to every reader here the baseness of the traitor, 
 "Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place; for 
 Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples," But 
 see how our blessed Lord, instead of shunning that place of 
 his frequent resort — so well known to Judas — deliberately 
 enters the garden where he knew the traitor would reckon 
 on finding him. " Judas then, having received a band 
 of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, 
 Cometh thither with lanterns, and torches, and weapons." 
 Ah, very superfluous "lanterns and torches," to search 
 the recesses of Gethsemanel Let the first Adam hide 
 himself, if he will, among the trees of the garden. The 
 second knows no fears ; and now that his hour is come, 
 is holily seeking his enemies, quite as much as they are 
 unholily in search of Him, "Jesus therefore, knowing all 
 things that should come upon him, went forth, and said 
 unto them. Whom seek ye?" Truly a new kind of 
 criminal this, who accosts the officers in pursuit of him, 
 "Whom seek ye ? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. 
 Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which 
 betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he 
 
THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 311 
 
 liad said unto them, I am ho, thoy went backward, 
 and fell to the ground." DouLtless, one leading design 
 of the putting forth thus of his resistless power, was 
 to make the entirely volimtanj character of his death the 
 more apparent. How impotent, but for his good pleasure 
 to die, had been all their rage against him, " As soon 
 as he had said imto them, I am he, they went backward, 
 and fell to the ground" ! 
 
 Of course, however, the Lord had no intention at all 
 to turn back the course which events had now at length 
 taken — ^'Tlien asked he them again, Whom seek ye? 
 And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, 
 I have told you that I am he. If therefore ye seek 
 me, let these go their way," — *' If ye seek me," here 
 I am ; only " let these go their way." "What a com- 
 ment the entire scene on those previous words of Jesus, 
 "No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down 
 of myself:" and on those words, "The prince of this 
 world Cometh, and hath notliing in me. But that tlie 
 world may know that I love the Eatlier; and as tlie 
 Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let 
 us go hence :" and on the words we sang a little ago, 
 " Lo, I come ; in the volume of the book it is written of 
 me, I delight to do thy will, my God :" and on those 
 words, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and 
 how am I straitened till it be accomplished"! True, 
 Jesus had a little before fallen on his face, and three 
 times prayed, " my Father, if it be possible, let 
 this cup pass from me " ! But that tells only the 
 unutterableness of his soul-sorrows. It touches not the 
 perfect voluntariness of tliem. You remember how, 
 when Peter said once to liim, "Be that far from thee, 
 Lord" — to die a malefactur's accursed deatli — he an- 
 swered him, "Get thee behind me, k^atan ; thou art an 
 oflence unto me; for thou savourest not the things 
 that be of God, but those that be of men." " The cup," 
 
312 THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OE ISEAEL. 
 
 said he to the same Peter afterwards, " which my Father 
 hath given me, shall I not drink it?" "He took the 
 cup, and gave tJiajihs, saying. This cup is my blood of the 
 new covenant, shed for the remission of the sins of many." 
 Even so now, does he go forth to meet his enemies, 
 delivering himself freely up into their hands, '' Jesus 
 answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore 
 ye seek me, let these go their way." 
 
 2. But this runs into the second great aspect here of 
 our Lord's sufferings and death, the Vicarious, or Suhstitu- 
 tionary, character of them, "Jesus answered, I have told 
 you that I am he. If therefore ye seek me, let these go 
 their way : that the saying might be fulfilled which he 
 spake. Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none " 
 — One for all, — one in the room of many, — "if ye seek 
 me, let these go their way." Not, certainly, that I 
 should think of proving the substitution of Christ' against 
 an opponent, from this passage. I should not expect any 
 one to see the doctrine here, who had not before found 
 it in many a plainer statement of it in Scripture. In 
 reasoning with a Socinian, for example, it were necessary 
 to point to sftch words as the following — " He hath 
 made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that 
 we might be made the righteousness of God in him" 
 — " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the 
 law, being made a curse for us" — " The Lord hath 
 laid on him the iniquity of us all " — " Christ was once 
 offered to bear the sins of many" — "His ownself bare 
 our sins in his body on the tree" — "The Son of man 
 is come to give his life a ransom for many" — "This 
 is my blood of the new covenant, shed for the remis- 
 sion of the sins of many " — and so on. In the text, 
 we have no more than a precious illustrative light 
 thrown back, as it were in passing, — reflected, as from 
 a kind of mirror, — on this grand central truth. As I 
 said a little ago, when Jesus delivers himself up to his 
 
THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 1 3 
 
 enemies, but, in the act of doing so, makes provision 
 for the safety of his disciples, — when he saj's, "If ye 
 seek me, let these go their way," — I believe that ho 
 intended his Church in every age to see there, as in a 
 glass, nothing less than his delivering up of himself most 
 freely into the hands of his Father's justice, and so to the 
 rago and injustice of men ; but only on condition, and in 
 order to tlio securing, of the everlasting release and salva- 
 tion of all his covenant people, " If ye seek me, let these 
 go their way : that the saying might be fulfdled which 
 he spake, Of them wliich thou gavest me have I lost 
 none." Oh, it is as if, when he said to tlie officers, '* if ye 
 seek me, let these go their way," he had said to his Father 
 at tlie same moment — all unheard by this dead world — 
 Here am I, my Father ! Let me be bound ; but let that 
 innumerable multitude be loosed, — freed from the bonds 
 of death and of the curse for ever ! Let all shame bo 
 cast on me, that none of them may *' rise to shame and 
 everlasting contempt " ! Let me be spit upon, mocked, 
 crowned with thorns, that they may be for ever glorified ! 
 Let tliy sword awake against the Shepherd, and let thy 
 hand be " turned " in love *' upon the little ones " ! Let 
 me be condemned before the tribunal of Pilate, that they 
 may not be condemned at thy tribunal eternally ! Let 
 me die, that they may live, and '' drink of the river of 
 thy pleasures," for evermore ! Take me, Father, and 
 " let these go their way " ! 
 
 3. But now I pass to tlie third aspect of the suf- 
 ferings and death of Jesus — what I called the Roijalj 
 Kiufjly, cliaracter of them. I mean, that they were not 
 tlio sufferings and death of a Substitute only. High 
 Priest, Lamb, but of a glorious King also, having 
 authority and power to save his people to the uttermost 
 This also you will find in tlie text, if you recall that 
 first and more limited view of the words, which has 
 respect to our Lord's providing for the safety of the 
 
314 THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 
 
 disciples, in tlie act of delivering himself up into 
 the hands of his enemies. For, when he said, *'Let 
 these go their way," not preferring a simple request, 
 but, as I said, under the quiet form of one, putting 
 forth a silent, resistless energy to render it effectual, 
 what did he but exercise a glorious Providence, securing 
 a temporal benefit for these men, in order to their 
 certain everlasting welfare and salvation, *' Let these 
 go their way ; that the saying might be fulfilled which 
 he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost 
 none " ? They were not equal at this time, as he 
 knew, to bear the trial of imj)risonment, and possible 
 death, for his name. He would not " suffer them to 
 be tempted above that they were able." And therefore, 
 secretly, yet effectually, did he so sway the minds of those 
 enemies, and order the matter of the liberty of his friends, 
 as to exemplify and fulfil, the Evangelist tells us, that great 
 word, " Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none." 
 
 Have we not here, as in one specimen, a glimpse 
 of that whole Mediatorial, Kingly government of the 
 world with which our Lord Jesus is invested by the 
 Father, to the end of securing the holy, eternal blessed- 
 ness and glory of the whole ransomed Church — as he 
 spake at the opening of the Intercessory Prayer, "Thou 
 hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give 
 eternal life to as many as thou hast given him " ? In a 
 specimen, we have it, I have said ; ay, and not only 
 the general fact of the government, but the glorious 
 character of it also. Por, be it observed that this act of 
 our Lord's providence, — this silent exercise of his Kingly 
 authority, "Let these go their way," — was characterized 
 at once by an inefi'able tenderness, and a consummate 
 wisdom, and a resistless majesty. 
 
 (1.) It was characterized by an inefi'able tenderness. At 
 the very moment when, about to be seized by his enemies, 
 he might have seemed likely to think of himself, and to 
 
THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEETEIl OF ISRAEL. 315 
 
 forget liis disciples, he forgets himself, and thinks only 
 of them. Behold, believers, ^vhat a heart of matchless 
 tenderness it is that is set over the world and its allairs 
 for your safety, — for the everlasting welfare and salvation 
 of the whole ransomed Church ! 
 
 (2.) But the act was characterized as much by con- 
 summate wisdom, as by ineffable tenderness — " Lut those 
 go their way." Jesus unerringly judged what the 
 faith of his disciples, at this particular time, was able to 
 bear. He would not " break the bruised reed, nor quench 
 the smoking llax." He would not suffer the Adversary to 
 expose those men to a trial to which their knowledge and 
 faith were as 3-et unequal, whom afterwards he left to bo 
 dragged before kings and rulers, and led away, many 
 of them, to bloody deaths, for his sake, ''Let these go 
 their way." 
 
 (3.) And yet again, the Kingly government of Christ 
 is seen, in this example of it, characterized by a resistless 
 majesty f equal to its wisdom and tenderness, "Let these 
 go their way." It was the form of a request ; it was 
 the reality of a command. It was, as I said, the same 
 resistless energy which had made the officers recoil and 
 fall to the ground, on the utterance of that word, " I am 
 he " ! Dear brethren, if such the majesty of Christ's 
 government in that hour of his deepest seeming weak- 
 ness, how tranquilly may we not trust ourselves in his 
 hands, now that "he hath ascended on high, leading 
 captivity captive," — now that his voice is heard from the 
 throne, as he lays his right hand on the trembling dis- 
 ciple, saying, *' Fear not ; I am the first and the last, 
 and the living One ; and I was dead ; and, behold, I 
 am alive for evermore. Amen ; and have the keys of hell 
 and of death?" 
 
 Three words of application, suggested by the three, 
 aspects or characters of Christ's suflerings and death — 
 the Voluntary, the Vicarious, the Kingly. 
 
3 1 6 THE DYIXG SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 
 
 First, were they gloriously Voluntary sufferings ? And 
 shall we not exclaim, " The love of Christ constraineth 
 us," — constraineth us to a most free and unreserved 
 surrender of ourselves to Him ? — 
 
 ** Lord, we return tliee what we can ! 
 Our hearts shall sound abroad, 
 Salvation to the dying man, 
 And to the rising God ! 
 
 And while thy bleeding glories here 
 
 Engage our wondering eyes, 
 We leai'n our lighter cross to bear, 
 
 And hasten to the skies. " 
 
 Again, were they Vicarious sufferings? How deeply 
 humbling, yet confirming also and strengthening ! Deeply 
 humbling. When you behold the Surety seized, and led 
 away to death, what was it but that you, believers, were 
 ready to be seized, and dragged to judgment, to hell, 
 when Jesus interposed himself, and said, Take Me, and 
 " let these go their way " ! But how confirming also and 
 strengthening ! What a rock beneath your feet is that, 
 " Take Me, Father, and let these go their way" — one 
 in the room of all — " there is no condemnation to them 
 which are in Christ Jesus " — " who shall lay anything 
 to the charge of God's elect ? It is Christ that died " ! 
 
 Finally, as to the Kingly character, — that most ten- 
 der and wise and mighty government which is on the 
 shoulder of Christ, — let me mention a word which an 
 experienced Cliristian lady once addressed to a much 
 tried friend, "Things" she said, "will never be right 
 with you, till you have learned to crown Christ king 
 of Providence, as well as king of Grrace." King of Provi- 
 dence, ruling bonds, liberty, sickness, health, casualties, 
 death — "If ye seek me, let these go their way." King 
 of Grace, "that the saying might be fulfilled which he 
 
THE DYING SUBSTITUTE AND KEEPER OF ISRAEL. 3 1 7 
 
 ppako, Of them \\]iie'h thou p;avcst mo, liavo I lost nono." 
 AVliat an anchor in storms and tempests, "Thou liast given 
 him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to 
 as many as thou hast given him " — *' It is Christ that died, 
 yea, rather, tliat is risen again, who is even at the right 
 hand of God" — "Angels and authorities, and powers 
 being made subject unto him " ! 
 
 ye that are out of Christ this day, wh}^ wh}-, are ye 
 out of him ? No doubt there is an " election of grace," as 
 the text intimates. But no believer ever entered into 
 Christ by the door of his election, but all by that door 
 only wliich is equally open to you — the unlimited offers 
 of the gospel, as Jesus spake, " All that the Fatlier giveth 
 me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in 
 no wise cast out." But if you shall still " neglect so 
 great salvation," how can you escape ? Why, the very 
 substitution of Christ tells, in some respects above all 
 things else, that you cannot. His words, " my Father, 
 if this cup may not pass away from me, except I 
 drink it, thy will be done," must seal your ruin. " It is 
 a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 
 " Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt 
 dash them in i)ieces like a potter's vessel." But mean- 
 while, " The Spirit and the bride sa}'-. Come. And lot 
 him tliat heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
 come : and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely." 
 
XXIII. 
 
 THE CROWNING PETITION OF THE INTERCESSORY 
 PRAYER. 
 
 " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given 
 me he with me where I am ; that they may behold my 
 glory. " — John xvii. 24. 
 
 It is the last, and the crowning, petition of aU. If you 
 were to compare this wondrous chapter of intercession to 
 some majestic edifice, temple, the text would form the 
 top-stone of it. The entire series of intercessions — each of 
 them more precious, unspeakably, than thousands of gold 
 and silver — reaches its climax in this one, of pre-eminent 
 grace and grandeur, "Father, I will that they also whom 
 thou hast given me be with me where I am ; that they may 
 behold my glory." Let us fix our thoughts for a little on 
 these things in it: — first, the parties for whom the petition 
 is offered ; second, the very peculiar style and manner of 
 it ; third, the prayer itself in the matter of it. And may 
 the glorious Intercessor himself, our *' Advocate with 
 the rather," now within the veil, vouchsafe his own 
 presence with us in our meditations ! 
 
 I. First, observe the parties in whose behalf the prayer 
 of the text is offered. Says Jesus, '' I wdll that they also 
 whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." 
 They wJwm tJiou hast given me — truly a vast, innumerable, 
 company that, beloved ! If you look at this great 
 chapter with a little care, you will find that this expres- 
 
THE CKOWNIXG PETITION . 319 
 
 sion, **tlioy whom thou liast g^iven mo," occurs in sub- 
 stance eight (lilibront times in the course of it ; and 
 you Avill further find that it is used by our Lord partly 
 in a larger, and partly in a narrower and more specific, 
 manner. For the most part his reference in it — more 
 immediately at least — is to the eleven disciples who were 
 with him in the guest-chamber after Judas had gone out. 
 In two leading instances, however, he uses it very much 
 more largely — first, at the opening of the whole interces- 
 sion, in the second verse of the chapter, " As thou hast 
 given him power over all flesh, that he should give 
 eternal life to as many as thou hast given him," where 
 the manifest reference is to the entire elect Church, — 
 the whole innumerable multitude who were given to 
 Christ by the Father, in the everlasting covenant, before 
 the world was,* '' Father," says he, " the hour is come; 
 glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee : 
 as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he 
 should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given 
 him: " and now, again, at the close of the intercession, 
 in the prayer of our text, ''Father, I will that they 
 also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am ; 
 that they may behold my glory." Let it be noted that, 
 at verse sixth, Jesus had begun to narrow, as it were, 
 the range, the sweep of the expression, saying, '' I have 
 manifested thy name imto the men which thou gavest 
 me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest 
 them me ; and they have kept thy word." Then, after 
 continuing the more specific use and reference down, to 
 the nineteenth verse, inclusive, he returns to where he 
 began, again enlarging the circle, the range, saying in 
 tlie all-precious words of the twentieth verse, " Neither 
 
 * The reader will find the doctrine of this covenant examined 
 with some care in the discourse (p. 282) on Titus i. 2, "In hope of 
 eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world 
 Letran." 
 
320 THE CROWNING PETITION 
 
 pray I for these alone, but for tliem also whicli shall 
 believe on me through their word ; that they all may be 
 one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they 
 also may be one in us." Thus I think it is very apparent 
 that, as the whole of the petitions were, really and in 
 effect, for all believers, — not for the eleven only, but for 
 believers everywhere and in every age, — so now, in this 
 last petition of all, the parties are the entire unnumbered 
 multitude of the elect, believing, children of God, ' 'Father, 
 I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me 
 where I am ; that they may behold my glory." 
 
 I have said the elect , helieving^ children of God. For 
 these two descriptions — elect, or given to Christ by the 
 Father, and, they who believe on Jesus — meet in a great 
 centre, — are, in fact, one and the same as to extent and 
 comprehension. That is to say, none do truly believe on 
 Christ who were not given to him from everlasting by the 
 Father; and, conversely, all who were so given to him 
 do, sooner or later, believe on his name. He uses both 
 descriptions, as you perceive, in this blessed chaj)ter — the 
 one over and over again, "those whom thou hast given 
 me;" the other in that twentieth verse, "them who 
 shall believe on me through their word." The one, 
 beloved, belongs to a secret purpose of the Divine mind, 
 which we can by no means penetrate directly, to ascertain 
 our interest in it, — whether our names were from ever- 
 lasting " written in the Lamb's book of life." The other 
 belongs to a visible effect arising out of the purpose in 
 time, which we may know, and by the knowledge of 
 which we may also know our interest in the eternal pur- 
 pose of grace. yes, would you find if you are among 
 the parties in the prayer of our text, — among those given 
 to. Christ by the Father before the world was ? You 
 cannot possibly discover it by any scrutinizing of that 
 description of them taken by itself. But you may know 
 it from the other description, of the twentieth verse, "I 
 
OF THE INTERCESSORY TEAYER. 321 
 
 pray for them wlio sliall boliovo on mo llirougli their 
 word." Ilavo you, in very deed, believed on the Son of 
 God? Have you, by tlio Holy Ghost, come to Jesus? 
 Ilavo you g-iven your souls into his hand for ever, to bo 
 " washed, and sanctified, and justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" ? And are 
 you giving evidence of it, more or less, in a holy, humble, 
 heavenly life ? Then are you among the parties in the 
 prayer of the text — and, indeed, in all the intercessions 
 of the chapter together — ''Father, I will that they also 
 whom thou hast given me be with me where I am ; that 
 tliey may behold ni}^ glory." 
 
 One other remark only on the parties, *' they whom 
 thou hast given me." Our Lord passes here, as you 
 see, by a single stop or bound, from the eternal pur- 
 pose to the final glory, saying, ''I will tliat they whom 
 thou hast given me be with me where I am." Assuredly, 
 however, he assumes and presupposes all the great inter- 
 mediate steps, — the purchase with his blood, the calling 
 effectually, the ''manifesting of the Father's name," 
 the " keeping," the " sanctifj'ing." But he prefers 
 to connect the glory at once with the everlasting purpose, 
 — the giving to him by the Father, — because it lay 
 at the root of all, secured all, formed tlie fundamental 
 ground of the final heavenly glory — as he probably 
 intended to intimate in the closing words of the verse 
 (though I do not enter into these), " For thou lovedst me 
 — I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with 
 me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which 
 thou hast given me ; for thou lovedst me," and them in 
 me, as if he had said, and for my sake, " before the 
 foundation of the world." So much, then, for the parties 
 in whose behalf the prayer of the text is offered — *' They 
 whom thou hast given me." 
 
 II. Secondly, observe the very peculiar style and manner 
 
 X 
 
322 THE CKOWNIKG PETITIOI^ 
 
 of the prayer, " Father, I will that they also whom thou 
 hast given me be with me where I am." '•'• I wiW'' ! 
 Strange, very unwonted, manner of prayer that, *'l 
 will " ! -'' Do you remember those words of our Lord in 
 the fourteenth chapter, " If a man love me, he will keep 
 my words ; and my Father will love him, and we will 
 come unto him, and make our abode with him"? — ^^ we,^ 
 — God and I ! What mere creature could, without 
 blasphemy, approach such a manner of language, '' we 
 Avill come unto him, and make our abode with him"? 
 And so, in the text, I think that we have a style of 
 language which only He could use, who, indeed, was the 
 servant of the Father for our salvation, — our " Advocate 
 with the Father," — but essentially and eternally was the 
 Father's equal, — the "fellow of the Lord of hosts," — 
 " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given 
 me be with me where I am ; that they may behold my 
 glory." At the same time, I doubt not that the more 
 immediate ground on which this unwonted ''I will" 
 proceeds, is that of the everlasting covenant, with its 
 conditions all fulfilled by the Mediator. The Lord Jesus, 
 in other words, laj's claim in this wondrous chapter 
 — reverentially, indeed, for it belongs to the Advocate 
 to ashj — to sue out at the hand of the Judge, — even the 
 things to which he has an unquestioned right in law — 
 lays claim, at the hand of the Father, to that only 
 which He had covenanted expressly to him on deter- 
 minate conditions, as it is written, "When thou shalt 
 make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed 
 — He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall 
 be satisfied — By his knowledge shall my righteous ser- 
 vant justify many ; for he shall bear their iniquities." 
 
 * Attempts have been made to give a feebler sense to the verb. 
 But it is clear that the " i'lXu,^'' either, on the one hand, must signify 
 bare willingness or tcish (which is out of the question here), or, on 
 the other hand, must bear the sense of the emphatic, " I will." 
 
OF THE INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 323 
 
 "Father, I will," says lio, "that they also wliom thou 
 hast given me be \Yith me where I am." True, the 
 conditions of the covenant liad not yet, — on this night, 
 — been in their whole extent actually fulfilled. There 
 even remained the weightiest of them all — Gethsemane 
 remained ; and the accursed death of the next day 
 remained. But then, just as in the fourth verse of the 
 chapter, Jesus, in a triumpliant assui-ance of faith, had 
 spoken as if all were already accomplished to the full, 
 saying, "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have 
 finished the work which thou gavest me to do," and as 
 the whole subsequent intercession and advocacy together 
 proceeds on that assumption, so is it in the prayer of 
 our text, " Father, I will that they also -syhom thou 
 hast given me be with me where I am." 
 
 Well; but may we not venture to ask a further ques- 
 tion, Why this unwonted "I will," — this language of 
 claim, — for the first time now in the closing petition, 
 "that they be with me where I am"? If I am not 
 greatly mistaken, there is to be seen here a very pecu- 
 liar tenderness, and grace, and faithfulness, of our Lord 
 Jesus, " Father. I will that they also whom thou hast 
 given me he with me where I am.^^ Is it not the loving 
 and faithful Saviour, claiming at length his affianced 
 Bride, — claiming his dearly "purchased possession," his 
 redeemed body, his loved and ransomed ones, out of 
 this world of sufieiing and sin, to be immediately with 
 liimself for ever? No doubt he has already prayed, 
 " Holy Father, keep through thine own name those 
 whom thou hast given me" — "Sanctify them through 
 thy truth; thy word is truth." But, in the midst of 
 that keeping and sanctifying, ho sees them still in the 
 country of an enemy, — in the world, though no more of 
 it. He sees them in conflict still with many an adver- 
 sary. He "sees them toiling in rowing" — tossed on 
 tempestuous seas — ' ' afflicted, tossed with tempest, and 
 
324 THE CEOWNIXG PETITION 
 
 not comforted." He will not have tliem thus always. 
 They are a part of Himself, — the ''members of his 
 body, of his flesh, and of his bones." They belong to 
 heaven already upon earth. And so, while Christian 
 friends, it may be, would hold them back, — fain detain 
 them here, does he lovingly claim them to be with 
 Himself — so claim them in the hearing, as it were (see 
 ver. 13), of those mourning friends, that he may the 
 more prevail on them to part ungrudgingly with them for 
 his sake, and for their higher, highest, blessedness, saying, 
 " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me 
 be with me where I am ; that they may behold my 
 glory." 
 
 III. But thus are we brought to the third and last par- 
 ticular which invites our thoughts here, even the prayer 
 itself in the matter of it — "That they be with me — I will 
 that they also whom thou hast given me be with me 
 where I am; that they may behold my glory." Truly 
 it is the top-stone, as I said. It is the crown set on 
 the entire series of intercessions. Very precious, indeed, 
 each of them. Yery precious that one, " Keep them 
 through thine own name;" and that, "I pray not 
 that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
 that thou shouldest keep them from the evil ; " and 
 that one, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word 
 is truth." But all had been incomplete and abortive 
 without the prayer of the text. Grace must have its 
 consummation in glory. The bud must ripen into the 
 flower, — the seed become the predestined glorious har- 
 vest, " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast 
 given me be with me where I am ; that they may behold 
 my glory." 
 
 1. " With me — that they he ivith mc^ But are they not 
 " with him" already in this world ? In a very important 
 sense they are already with him ; and He is with them. 
 
OF THE INTERCESSORY T HAYEK. 325 
 
 They are witli Ilim by faitli, and holy love, and fellow- 
 ship-). And IIo is Mith them by his Spirit, — his uphold- 
 ing, sanctifying, comforting grace. Vou remember his 
 words, ''Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if 
 any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
 come in to him, and will sup with liim, and ho with 
 me " — I with him, and he with me, from the first hour 
 of his welcoming me truly into his heart! And you 
 remember his words, **He that eatetli my flesh, and 
 drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." *' I 
 sat down under his sliadow," the ransomed Church 
 exclaims — ** His left hand is under my head, and his right 
 hand doth embrace me " — "Truly our fellowship is with 
 the Fatlier, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Dear hearers, 
 know we anything of what it is to be with Christ thus 
 by faith, and loving fellowship, here ? For, assuredly, if 
 we are altogether strangers to it, and shall remain so 
 until we die, never, never, shall we know what it is to 
 be with Christ in the unspeakably higher and nobler 
 manner of which the prayer of the text speaks, *'I will 
 that they le with me where I am.''^ And what is that — 
 that higher, nobler, manner of being with Christ? Ah, 
 who shall tell what it is ? It is unspeakable indeed. Eye 
 hath not seen it ; ear hath not heard it. But generally 
 at least, it is to be with Christ no more by faith in the 
 testimony of the word, but personally and immediately 
 with him — "with him ichere he is,^^ — before the throne 
 with him, — with him in the immediate presence of his 
 Father and our Father, his God and our God, — with him 
 after tliat manner, "I belield, and lo, a great multitude, 
 Avhich no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, 
 and people, and tongues, stood before the tlirono, and 
 before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in 
 their hands." So very, very, far higher is this manner of 
 being with Christ, that Scripture elsewhere speaks as if 
 in this world believers were not with Christ at all, — were 
 
326 THE CROWNING PETITION 
 
 absent from him altogether — " Knowing," writes Paul, 
 " that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent 
 from the Lord ; we are confident, I say, and willing rather 
 to be absent from the body, and to be present" — for the 
 first time present — "with the Lord." 
 
 And thus let me observe that, while the prayer of the 
 text is to have its highest fulfilment only at the second 
 coming of Jesus, and the resurrection of the body in 
 glory, it has its blessed answer, — its fulfilment in a very 
 glorious manner, — at and in the death of the believer, his 
 departure out of this world. Happily this is placed 
 beyond all question by the words of the text, taken in 
 connection with the apostle's words just alluded to, " Ab- 
 sent from the body, present" — at once present — "with the 
 Lord." yes — in the touching words of our Catechism — 
 " the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in 
 holiness, and do immediately pass into glory." " Having 
 a desire," Paul writes, *' to depart, and to be with Christ " 
 — "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me 
 be with me where I am." As I have said, we cannot tell 
 what that is in the details of it. But thus much is certain, 
 that to be " with Christ where he is," is perfected holiness, 
 and perfected happiness, both. It is perfected holiness, 
 likeness to Jesus. For "there shall in no wise enter" into 
 that immediate presence "anything that defileth." And 
 it is perfected happiness. No possible tears of sorrow 
 in the presence of this blessed One — " In thy presence is 
 fulness of joy." Beloved, at the best of that fellowshij^ 
 with Christ which is in this world by faith, it is but a 
 kind of distant nearness, so to speak — as if one gazed on 
 the picture of some loved friend, or read a much prized 
 letter from his hand. And even that distant nearness 
 — how liable is it to be interrupted, painfully broken, 
 so that the believer is fain to cry from time to time, 
 "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" "If ye 
 find my beloved, teU him that I am sick of love." But 
 
OF THE INTERCESSORY rRAYER. 327 
 
 wliat a cliano^o now, "Father, I will tliat they also wlioiii 
 thou liast given mo bo with mh wiikue I 7».m " ! 
 
 2. " Tliat tliey may behold," continues the Lord, " tlmt 
 they may he/told my yloryy And here again, be it observed 
 that, as the believer is, in an important sense, "with 
 Christ" in this world, so in this world, in a very important 
 sense, does lie " behold Christ's glory." yes, the old 
 words still hold good, " The "Word was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us ; and wo beheld his glory, the glory 
 as of the onl}^ begotten of the Father." ** Yet a little 
 while," said Jesus, " and the world seetli me no more ; 
 hut ye see meS' "Wo all," says Paul, "with opon face 
 beholding as in a glass the glory of tlie Lord, are changed 
 into the same image from glory to glory, even as by 
 the Spirit of the Lord." But tlien, listen to the same 
 apostle, "AYhen I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
 understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I 
 became a man, I put away childish things. For now we 
 see through a glass darkly ; but then face to face : now 
 I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I 
 am known." ^'■Through a glass — now we see through a 
 glass," — that is to say, behold Christ's glory by faith only 
 in the reports of the word concerning him — " through a 
 glass f7fl';7i7y," — dimly, imperfectly, more or less erroneously, 
 with deep shadows liable ever to come across our vision — 
 shadows of bodily infirmity; shadows of unbelief and sin; 
 shadows of corruption, desertion, temptation. "But then 
 face to face y What a word! "Thou canst not see my 
 face, " the Lord said to Moses at Horeb. He had prayed, ' ' I 
 beseech thee, shew me thy glory." And the Lord had 
 answered him, " I will make all my goodness pass before 
 thee." But he added, "Thou canst not see my face; for 
 there shall no man see me, and live." As if he should say 
 — but when thou dost die, Moses, thou canst, and shalt, 
 see me face to face ! " Father, I will that they also whom 
 thou hast given me be with me where I am ; that they 
 
328 THE CROWNING PETITION 
 
 may behold my glory." Oh, if the believer, seeing Jesus 
 only as he "shews himself through the lattice" of the 
 word and ordinances, — seeing him but through a glass 
 darkly, — is made to break forth from time to time, *' His 
 liead is as the most fine gold ; his locks are bushy, and 
 black as a raven " — *' His countenance is as Lebanon, 
 excellent as the cedars" — "His mouth is most sweet; 
 yea, he is altogether lovely," what will it be to " see him 
 as he is," — to see him face to face, — to see him without 
 clouds, without shadows, without sin, any more, — to see 
 that God-man, — that crucified One, whose " visage was 
 so marred more than any man, and his form more than 
 the sons of men," — that "Lamb, as it had been slain, in 
 the midst of the throne," — that "white and ruddy, and 
 chiefest among ten thousand " ? " He shewed me a pure 
 river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of 
 the throne of Grod and of the Lamb. . . . And there shall 
 be no more curse : but the throne of God and of the Lamb 
 shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve him : and they 
 shall see his face ; and his name shall be in their fore- 
 heads. And there shall be no night there ; and they need 
 no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God 
 giveth them light : and they shall reign for ever and 
 ever." "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast 
 given me be with me where I am ; that they may behold 
 my glory." 
 
 Three words of inference before I close. 
 
 (1.) First, what blessed light is cast here over the 
 glory of the Saviour's Person, — his essential and eternal 
 Divinity ! For the psalmist, by the Holy Ghost, speaks 
 to Jehovah thus, " Whom have I in heaven but Thee " — 
 Thee, Jehovah ? But the Lord Jesus in the text makes 
 heaven absolutely to lie in being with Himself, to behold 
 his glory ! How abhorrent, if he were but a creature, — 
 if he were not Jehovah, the "fellow of the Lord of 
 hosts!" How revolting, apart from such words as, "I 
 
OF THE INTERCESSORY rilAYER. 829 
 
 and my Fatlior aro ono " — "IIo tliat lialh Pcon mo hath 
 seen the Father'' — "Thomas said nntu liim, My Lord 
 and my God" ! 
 
 (2.) Ag^ain, ^vliat light is cast in the text over the death 
 of them that die in the Lord ! It is not death, in fact — 
 it is hut the answering of this prayer, "Father, I will 
 that they also whom thou liast given mo be with me where 
 I am ; that they may behold my glory." Jesus died ; be- 
 lievers sleep. " Absent from the body, present with the 
 Lord." "If a man keep my saying, ho shall never see 
 death.' Amid all that is terrible oftentimes in the 
 outward aspects of their dying, they 3'et die not of the 
 covenant of works, but of the everlasting covenant of 
 grace — as in answer to Christ's prayer, so in fultilment 
 of his promise, " If I go and prepare a place for you, 
 I will come again and receive you unto myself; that 
 •where I am, there ye may be also." 
 
 (3.) But lastly, what solemn light is cast hero over the 
 death of ungodly, Christless, men — "men of the world, 
 who have their portion in this life"! Christless men! 
 But Christ is heaven, brethren ; heaven, in the ver}' soul 
 of it, is to be with Christ. Thus heaven could be no 
 heaven to them, if they were there. But alas ! not only 
 is it thus impossible they should be in heaven — con- 
 tinuing as they are, they must die under the curse, — the 
 unremoved sentence of the law ; and this must .be their 
 dying, in the words of our Lord Jesus, " The rich man 
 died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, 
 being in torments" — " Between us and you there is a 
 great gulf fixed : so that they which would pass from hence 
 to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us, that would 
 come from thence." But that gulf, blessed be God, is not 
 yet fixed. Although it exists already in this world between 
 the wicked, and God with his ransomed family, there is 
 a pathicay as yet across it — " I am the way," said Jesus, 
 "and the truth, and the life; no man comcth unto the 
 
330 THE CROWNING PETITION. 
 
 Father, but by me." "I pray not for these alone, but 
 for them also who shall helieve on me through their word." 
 Oh, will you not be persuaded to give your hand to this 
 blessed One, that he may lead you safe across the gulf, 
 once and for ever ? " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and 
 3^e perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a 
 little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." 
 
 "Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe 
 upon these slain, that they may live " ! 
 
 ''Awake, north wind ; and come thou south; blow 
 upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. 
 Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant 
 fruits"! 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 PRINTED BY JOHN GREIG AND SON.