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 Library of Br. A. A. Hodge. Presefited. 
 
 sec 10,758 
 Nixon, William 
 All and in all 
 
THE RELATIONS OF CHRIST 
 
 GOD: CREATOR; AND REDEEMER. 
 
,..i? 
 
 BAIXANTYNE, HANSON AND c6. 
 EUINBURGH AND LONDON- 
 
ALL AND IN ALL. 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF CHRIST, 
 
 GOD: CREATOR; AND REDEEMER. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. WILLIAM NIXON, 
 
 Formerly at Montrose. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 JOHNSTONE, HUNTER & CO. 
 
 AND JAMES GEMMELL. 
 
 1882. 
 
 (\/s i:-<iMi<.W^^ /3^''^^^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 fpHIS volume has been prepared more immediately 
 for the purpose of placing in the hands of the 
 members of the congregation to whom the author so 
 long ministered, a summary of the great truths which 
 he endeavoured to explain, illustrate, and enforce. It 
 was always his aim to express these truths of the 
 ]-)ible as much as possible in its own language ; while, 
 as occasion occurred, using both the ideas and the 
 phraseology of others, when he found it difficult or 
 impossible otherwise to set the point under con- 
 sideration in so clear -and satisfactory a light. Of a 
 number of the discourses, each is the substance of 
 more than one as they were actually delivered ; and 
 some who heard them will probably miss much of the 
 practical and especially the extemporaneous matter that 
 constituted considerable portions of them as spoken. 
 The contents of the volume have received their pre- 
 sent shape, in order to form a sort of series, embracing 
 many particulars on which, in his earlier days, the 
 author had his difficulties, and containing such solu- 
 tions as satisfied himself; in the hope that they may 
 help a little in saving some from the popular deceits 
 that are being taught and received as the highest 
 wisdom, since the best provision against such deceits 
 is to fill the teachable with those truths that lie before 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 us in the Book which God has given as the reveLation 
 and the record of His mind and will. 
 
 The discourse, XIV., on National Duty to Christ, 
 is in substance, though in an altered form, a reprint 
 of one delivered before the General Assembly of the 
 Free Church, when retiring from the Moderatorship in 
 1869. It is inserted here because the subject deeply 
 concerns Christ's relations, will, and glory ; because 
 our church has taken herself solemnly bound to place 
 her principle in reference to it in the forefront of all 
 her contendings ; and because this principle must be 
 embodied in any legal settlement of the question that 
 is being agitated, and likely to be agitated more and 
 more, it' that settlement is to have the divine blessing 
 resting on it, and to operate for the nation's well- 
 being. 
 
 The author has only to add that the volume as a 
 whole is an earnest however imperfect effort to show, 
 that redemption in Christ through His blood, involv- 
 ing His deity and humanity, and the mysterious 
 never-ending union of the two natures in His one per- 
 son, as well as His creative preserving and governing 
 supremacy over the universe, is the one great theme 
 of all the divine revelations and records of which the 
 Bible is composed, and that this glorious gospel and 
 the Holy Scriptures, as the record of it, exhibit at 
 once a harmony and a grandeur corresponding to 
 the grace which they breathe. 
 
 Edinburgh, Btc. 1S81. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 THE UNAVOIDABLE ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION. 
 
 pace' 
 Matt. xxii. 42 : " ]V7iat think ye of Christ? " — Circumstances in which 
 the question was asked. Answers bj' : I. Word of God : II. Dif- 
 ferent classes : I. Avowed adversaries ; 2. Inconsistent professors 
 — the indifferent and earthly-minded — orthodox formalists— broad- 
 churchinen ; 3. Faithful followers of Christ . .... l-lS 
 
 II. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY, WITH ITS PRACTICAL BEARINGS 
 ON REDEMPTION BY CHRIST. 
 
 Matt, xxviii. 19 : " In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Hob/ 
 Ghost." — I. Oneness of God. II. God in three Persons — the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost— Three distinct Persons — 
 One God. III. This doctrine alone suitable to the perfection and 
 blessedness of God. IV. Eminently practical ; as revealed in re- 
 demption — and as set forth in baptism — and the apostolic blessing. 
 Conclusion 19-37 
 
 III. 
 
 DIVINITY OF CHRIST : HIS RELATIONS WITHIN THE GODHEAD. 
 
 John i. I : "In the beginning was the Word, &c.;" verse 18: " TJie 
 only-begotten Son, &c." — Matt. iii. 17 ; Col. i. 13 ; Heb. i. 3 ; Col. 
 i. 15; Phil. ii. 2. Importance of subject. Evidences of Christ's 
 divinity : ascriptions to Him of the names, perfections, works, and 
 worship of God : I. " The Word." II. " The Son of God ; " 
 " only -begotten " — "in the bosom of the Father" — "dear" and 
 "beloved." III. Terms of similar import: "brightness of the 
 Father's glory " — " express image of His person " — " image of the 
 invisible God " — " in the form of God." Practical importance of 
 subject 38-53 
 
Contents. 
 
 IV. 
 
 RELATIONS OF CHRIST TO CREATION, AS ITS MAKER AND 
 PRESERVER. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 John i. 3 : " AU things were made hy Him, &c." Colos. i. i6 : " For bi/ 
 Him were all things orated, &c." — Creation ; reasons for it. Work 
 of God ; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; especially of the Son : 
 
 1. Natural relations of Christ to the created universe : I. Maker ; 
 
 2. Preserver ; 3. Owner ; 4. Ruler ; 5. Entitled to all homage ; 
 6. The First-Born. II. Practical reflections : I. Events of Christ's 
 birth thus explained ; 2. His movements when on earth ; 3. The 
 attractiveness of creation ; 4. The hopes held out for it. En- 
 couragement to come to Christ 54^72 
 
 CHRIST IN THE LAW OF MOSES. 
 
 Luke xxiv. 44 : " AU things must be fulJUled ivhich were written in the 
 law of Moses . . . concerning me." — Preliminary truths : I. From 
 Adam to Moses ; Christ the life of the saved from the beginning. 
 II. In Moses' time ; Deliverance from Egypt ; Israel a typical 
 nxt'on ; their dedication, sins, and mercies. Transactions at Sinai ; 
 the law ; the covenant. Sacrificial blood the central reality. Ob- 
 jection ; " a religion of blood." Practical spiritual effects on Moses 
 personally ; on the generation trained by him . . , 73-110 
 
 VI. 
 
 CHRIST IN THE PROPHETS, 
 
 Luke xxiv. 44 : " AU things . . . in the prophets . . . concerning 
 me." — I. Testimony to Christ in the historical books. Promising 
 beginning of the nation in Canaan ; Declension and divine deal- 
 ings ; Gracious interpositions ; Change of government to mon- 
 archy ; Indications of a spiritual consumm.ation in Christ. II. 
 Testimony to Christ in the teachings and predictions of the pro- 
 phets : I. How called, qualified, and employed; 2. Their predic- 
 tions. Jonah, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Daniel, 
 Ezekiel, Obadiah, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi. Practical reflec- 
 tions ...... 111-136 
 
 VII. 
 
 CHRIST IN THE PSALMS. 
 
 Luke xxiv. 44 : " AU things . . . in the Psalms concerning me." — First. 
 Psalms containing more formal predictions. Second. Psalms 
 
Contents. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 quoted in New Testament as referring to Christ. Third. Psalms 
 referring to Israel's typical history. Fourth. Psalms referring to 
 ceremonial observances. Fifth. Psalms full of evangelical uses of 
 the law. Sixth. Psalms full of Christ's creative power, wisdom, 
 and goodness. Finally, Christ in the Song of Solomon . 137-149 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE WORLD LEFT TO PROVE ITS NEED OF CHRIST, 
 
 Gen. iv. 4 : " The fidness of the time." — Mankind allowed to show their 
 hopelessly self-destroyed condition : I. Course of things after the 
 fall. II. After the separation of Abraham and Israel from the 
 rest of the world. History of Gentiles and Jews as proving the 
 need of Christ : I. The Gentiles, Egypt, Tyre, Nineveh, Babylon, 
 Persia, Greece, Rome ; 2. The Jews. III. Other con.siderations that 
 indicated preparation for Christ's advent. IV. Lessons : i. God 
 will fulfil His promises ; 2. The limited results of the incarnation 
 proclaim the greatness of human depravity and of divine grace ; 3. 
 Similar lessons about to be still more solemnly and affectingly 
 taught . . . , 150-174. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE INCARNATION : ITS NATURE AND MANNER, DESIGNS 
 AND RESULTS. 
 
 Gal. iv. 4 : " Made of a woman, made under the laiv, to redeem them that 
 were undo' the law, that ive might receive the adoption of sons.'^ — 
 Needful for redemption. Set forth in Scripture : I. Nature and 
 manner of it : i. Actually our nature ; 2. Born — of Mary — with- 
 out sin — yet really of her substance ; 3. Union of Christ's divine 
 and human natures differs from (l) union of three persons in 
 the Godhead ; (2) union of man's soul and body ; (3) union by 
 mixing or converting substances ; (4) union of Christ with be- 
 lievers. 4. Communion between Christ's two natures: (l) in 
 respect of communications of the divine to the human ; (2) in 
 respect of things which, though in different ways, are common to 
 both natures. 5. Diverse and seemingly conflicting utterances in 
 Scripture occasioned and explained by this union. II. Designs 
 and results of incarnation : i. Made under the law, to obey, 
 suffer, and save from sin ; 2. to purchase and secure the adop- 
 tion of sons. III. Great message to the world. Central event of 
 history. Efforts of infidelity vain 175-197 
 
Conte7iis. 
 
 DEATH ABOLISHED AND LIFE AND IMMORTALITY BROUGHT 
 TO LIGHT BY CHRIST. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 2 Tim. i. 10 : " Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, 
 &c." — I. He hath abolished death ; in four particulars. II. Life 
 brought to light. I. Favour of God ; 2. Holiness ; 3. A life 
 differing from other kinds of life in its fountain — channel — 
 agent — means — aim — hidden nature — progressive character — 
 duration. III. Immortality brought to light. Freedom from 
 V gin — from guilt and fear — from ignorance and error — from Satan 
 
 S- from wicked men — from sufferings caused by present state of 
 
 the church — from calamities that come on the earth — no longer 
 
 r separated from Christ — have God's continual presence — life eter- 
 
 ^ nal. Practical reflections : I. Proper effect of these realities ; 2. 
 
 salvation only in Christ ; 3. to many these realities as an idle tale ; 
 
 4. time to awake ; 5. fatal to mistake the change required . 198-219 
 
 XI. 
 
 BEARINGS OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 
 
 Luke ix. 31 : "And spake of His decease which He should accomplish at 
 Jerusalem ; " I Cor. ii. 2, " For I determined not to knotv anything 
 among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucijied" Subject of con- 
 versation on the mount of transfiguration ; and of Paul's preach- 
 ing. I. Christ's death chief manifestation of God : I. Of His 
 perfections : His sovereignty— wisdom — holiness — justice— love — 
 truth— and power; 2. Of the manner of His existence as the 
 Three-One God ; 3. Of His providence toward this world. II. 
 Christ's death essential to all parts of His m.ediatorial work. III. 
 Only channel : i. Of all good to men ; first, only channel of sav- 
 ing blessings, justification — adoption— sanctification— holiness — 
 confidence in God — peace of conscience — progress — perseverance — 
 divine pity — heavenly life — heavenly hopes ; second, only channel 
 of efficiency to outward ordinances — the scriptures — prayer — 
 baptism — Lord's supper ; 2. Only channel of all power of doing 
 good — self-denial — repentance — dying to sin — living to righteous- 
 ness — living to the praise of God — confessing Christ— running 
 the Christian race — loving others— exercising Christian liberality 
 — discharging relative duties of life. IV. Influence of Christ's 
 death over heaven and hell: i. Over heaven; (i) Chief source 
 of its happiness to the redeemed ; (2) Angels powerfully affected 
 by it ; (3) Its influence throughout the blessed universe ; 2. Over 
 hell ; (l) Lost men treated as enemies of cross of Christ ; (2) His 
 terrible power over doom of fallen angels. Practical reflections : 
 (i) Practical importance of Christ's death ; (2) It decides the vir- 
 tuous or vicious character, and happy or miserable state of men, 220-245 
 
Contents. 
 
 XII. 
 
 MEDIATORIAL GLORY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Matt. xvii. 2: ^^ And was transfigured before them." — Transfigura- 
 tion symbolised the glory flowing to Christ from His death. I. 
 Its reality and certainty. II. Its divine nature. III. The con- 
 nection between His sufferings and His glory. IV. The corres- 
 pondence between His humiliation and His glory — His present 
 glory — His glory in the day of judgment — His glory throughout 
 eternity. Blessed ends served by a believing view of this glory 246-261 
 
 xiir. 
 
 Christ's kingdom on earth. 
 John xviii. 36 : "My lingdom is not of this ivorld." — False ideas of the 
 Jews. The true idea. I. Character of the King : i. Inferior to 
 earthly kings ; 2. infinitely exalted above them. II. Subjects of 
 the kingdom: l. Made by "the truth;" 2. their consequent 
 character. III. Laws of the kingdom, heavenly in their origin — 
 sanctions— end. IV. Subordinate rulers in it, spiritual men. V. 
 Its spiritual privileges and blessings : I. More outward ; 2. sav- 
 ing. VI. Extent of kingdom : i. Does not take in all within a 
 given territory ; 2. not confined to any land ; 3. power of its 
 King extends over earth and heaven. VII. Mode of its intro- 
 duction, maintenance, and advancement. VIII. Its history: I. 
 Past history, everlasting counsels and covenant ; Abel, &c., Abra- 
 ham, &c., Moses and Israel, Jesus and Apostles ; Last eighteen 
 hundred years ; 2. present position ; 3. future destiny, practical 
 lessons; (i) every man's own wellbeing ; (2) duty of every be- 
 liever ; (3) sad state of visible churches ; (4) danger of earthly 
 rulers ; (5) the one alternative ; (6) certain survival and triumph 
 of Christ's kingdom 262-289 
 
 XIV. 
 
 RKLATION OF CHRIST TO NATIONS AND THEIR RULERS. 
 
 Rev. i. 5 : " Prince of the kings of the earth ; " Ps. xxii. 23 : " Governm- 
 among the nations ; " John xviii. 36, 37 : "My kingdom is not of this 
 world . . . Every one who is of the truth hear eth my voice. '^ — Summary 
 of the subject : I. Relations which civil rulers are required by Christ 
 to occupy to His truth and kingdom ; I. Apart from duty to His 
 Church, they are bound (i) to make His Word their rule ; (2) to 
 offer homage officially to Him ; (3) to perform official religious acts 
 according to His will ; (4) as His servants, to repress immoralities 
 and crimes ; (5) to suppress open profaneness and blasphemy ; (6) 
 to secure religious instruction for the young ; (7) for soldiers and 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 sailors ; (8) for prisons, penitentiaries, and poorhouses ; (9) for the 
 poor; (10) to aid in spreading sound religious instruction among the 
 people under their control. 2. Their duty to Christ's church and 
 kingdom; (i) to recognise it; (2) to distinguish between true 
 churches and all other communities ; (3) to honour most the most 
 faithful ; (4) to fence by law their spiritual freedom ; (5) to seek 
 their aid in national religious acts ; (6) to take an active interest 
 in countenancing and upholding their religious ministrations. II. 
 False relations of church and state to be avoided: I. Popish 
 claims ; 2. False connections found in Protestant countries ; such 
 as (i) Erastian relation; (2) indiscriminate support; (3) favour- 
 itism ; (4) over-assistance. 3. Position of official neutrality; (l) 
 absolute non-legislation in favour of true religion — nine reasons 
 for this considered ; (2) special opposition to State aid in every 
 form and degree — arguments for this considered. III. Obliga- 
 tion lying on us to bear our testimony to the relation of nations 
 and their rulers to Christ, and His truth and kingdom . . 290-334 
 
 XV. 
 
 THREEFOLD WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ON THE DAT OP 
 PENTECOST. 
 
 Acts ii. I, &c. : "And lolien the day of Pentecost loas fiMy come, &c." 
 — I. The position of Christ and His apostles when this out- 
 pouring of His Spirit took place. II. The threefold manner in 
 which the Spirit came down : I. His miraculous gifts ; 2. His 
 common operations ; 3. His saving power. III. History of His 
 work: i. In patriarchal and Jewish times; (l) given from the 
 beginning ; (2) to comparatively few ; (3) in limited measure ; (4) 
 with promises of a fuller outpouring. 2. His work on day of Pen- 
 tecost and through all ages of gospel dispensation. IV. His work 
 under the present dispensation : I. Miraculous gifts have ceased ; 
 2. Still given (l) in common operations ; (2) in saving power. 3. 
 Manner of His saving work : ( i ) no new revelations, (2) acts 
 through written word ; (3) His work realised in its effects. V. 
 Practical remarks: i. The Spirit' s work enters into all christian 
 faith and duty ; 2. Ordinances vain without the Spirit ; 3. Christ 
 revealed to the soul only by the Spirit ; 4. The Spirit needed for 
 all gracious aflfections and acts ; 5. Success of Christ's work in 
 the hands of the Spirit , 335 354 
 
 XVI. 
 
 REST IN CHRIST FOR THE LABOURING AND HEAVY LADEN, 
 
 Matt. xi. 28 : " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me 
 . . . And ye shall find rest to your souls." — I. Persons addressed, 
 
Co7itents. 
 
 Labouring and heavy laden :" I. Jews (i) who were enslaved by 
 traditions of elders ; (2) who felt the law of Moses a heavy j'oke ; 
 2. Those still addressed. First, the many who seek rest in the 
 world ; Second, those burdened by a sense of sin, and fearing its 
 consequences. II. Rest promised : i. Rest from previous life-long 
 sin and misery ; 2. Rest in future while bearing Christ's yoke, and 
 learning of Him. Rest, ^;-s<, from remaining spiritual ignorance; 
 second, from remaining corruption ; third, from Satan's wiles and 
 violence ; fourth, from troubles from the wicked ; fifth, from tem- 
 poral anxieties and sufferings ; sixth, from divine chastenings ; 
 seventh, from fears and liabilities connected with death. Conclud- 
 ing remarks : I. This rest experienced from first coming to Him in 
 faith, and second while bearing His yoke and learning of Him all 
 through life ; 2. The reason why some who seem so far in earnest 
 have not yet found rest ....... 355-370 
 
 XVII. 
 
 LOVE OF THE REDEEMED TO CHRIST. 
 
 I Pet. 1. 8 : " Whom having not seen, ye love." — I. The object of this 
 love — the unseen Saviour. II. Who they are that love Him. 
 III. Nature and causes of their love : I. His benefits ; (i) His 
 words of grace ; (2) His deeds of mercy ; (3) their interest in both. 
 2. His personal character; (l) Divinity; (2) humanity; (3) 
 Union of both in Him. IV. Necessity of this love to Christ, in 
 order to — i. likeness to God and fellowship with Him ; 2. a 
 place in His family. V. Evidences and manifestations of this 
 love. VI. Practical reflections : I. love due to Him greater 
 than can be expressed or felt ; 2. Christians to mourn over their 
 coldness, and seek a fresh baptism of the Spirit ; 3. God alone 
 implants and cherishes this love ; 4. to be cultivated as the 
 greatest excellence and the nearest likeness to God . . 371-392 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 RELATION OF LORD'S SUPPER TO HIS SECOND COMING. 
 
 I Cor. xi. 26 : " As often as ye eat this bread, and drinlc this cup, ye do 
 show the Lord's death till He come." — I. The Lord's supper a 
 pledge of His coming. II. Observing it a declaration by be- 
 lievers of their desire and hope of His coming. III. A procla- 
 mation through all ages of His coming. IV. This proclamation a 
 security that there shall be a church on earth till He comes. V. 
 A proclamation of the connection between His first and His second 
 coming. VI. A proclamation of the contrast between His first 
 and second advent. VII. A proclamation of the objects and 
 designs of His second coming : I . To manifest His glory ; 2. to 
 
XIV 
 
 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 sit in judgment on mankind ; 3. to separate the redeemed from 
 others, and complete the salvation of the redeemed by (i) extin- 
 guishing sin in their whole nature ; (2) raising their bodies in 
 glory ; (3) freeing them from all the evil results of sin, from 
 guilty dread— from bodily ills— from presence of the wicked— from 
 power of Satan— from all connection with an evil world ; and by 
 completing or supplanting what is good yet imperfect in their con- 
 dition here by what is perfect ; 4. to complete the ruin of the 
 wicked as needful to the welfare of the universe . . -393-413 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED, OF ANGELS, AND OF EVERY 
 CREATURE. 
 
 Rev. V. 8-13 : "^nd wAen He had taken the hook, the four leasts and 
 four and twenty elders fell doivn before the Lamb . . and they samj 
 a new song . . And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels 
 round about the throne, saying with a loud voice . . And every 
 creature . . heard I "saying,''' &c. — Parts performed : I. By the 
 redeemed. II. By the native hosts of heaven. III. By other 
 intelligent creatures. IV. By the inanimate creation. Conclusion : 
 Duty to be now learning and practising this work of praise . 414-433 
 
 XX. 
 
 CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. 
 
 Colos. iii. 1 1 . — I. In His relations to the Father, and the Holy Spirit 
 within the Godhead. II. In His relations to the created universe. 
 III. In His special relations to the redeemed. Conclusion : The 
 condition in which all men, as sinners, are without Him ; and the 
 condition into which they are brought, when by His Spirit given 
 to them a vital union is formed between Him and them . 434-448 
 
ALL AND IN ALL. 
 
1. 
 
 THE UNAVOIDABLE ALL-IMrORTANT QUESTION. 
 
 "What think ye of Christ?'' — Matt. xxii. 42. 
 
 n^HE last week of Christ's ministry on earth was running 
 -^ out. He had thrown off all reserve, and, in the midst 
 of His enemies, was giving open testimony to His own 
 dignity and claims. On the first day of that week He made 
 His public entry into Jerusalem, and returned at night to 
 Bethany. On the second day, after blasting, by His word, 
 the fruitless fig-tree, to which He came on His way to the 
 city, He returned to the Temple, and summarily expelled 
 the traffickers who were defiling it. On the third day, 
 which was the most solemn of all the days of His public 
 teaching, amidst a variety of addresses, full both of 
 tenderness and of terror, He uttered awfully awakening 
 testimonies against the husbandmen of God's vineyard, for 
 their violence to His servants, and their approaching murder 
 of His Son^ — against the faithless builders of God's house 
 for rejecting its Chief Corner-Stone^ — and against their 
 wilful blindness to the prophetic words concerning Himself 
 as at once the Lord of David and David's son.^ He then 
 returned to Bethany; remained there all the fourth day; 
 returned on the fifth to keep the Passover, and to institute 
 the Supper ; was taken that night by His enemies ; was 
 crucified on the sixth ; lay in the grave on the seventh ; 
 and on the first day of the week rose again. 
 
 So ignorant even of their own Scriptures were these 
 proud Pharisees who had gathered around Jesus, that, when 
 
 1 Matt. xxi. 2 ]vjatt. xxi. ^ jyjatt. xxii. 
 
 A 
 
The All-Important Question. 
 
 He asked tliem how David's son could also be called by 
 David his Lord, " no man was able to answer Him a word ; 
 neither durst any man, from that day forth, ask Him any 
 more questions." Similar ignorance of Christ as set forth 
 in His Word — ignorance having its seat in darkening, 
 corrupting pride, and in other depraved passions of the 
 human heart — has been at the foundation of all the dis- 
 honouring opinions, entertained and spread by learned and 
 unlearned adversaries of the gospel, concerning His charac- 
 ter and work. Probably, too, there never was a period in 
 which deeper, more prejudiced, and more wilful ignorance 
 of Christ prevailed, than prevails at present, and that in the 
 midst of such overweening conceit of a more thorough and 
 perfect knowledge of Him. And as the prominent, and in 
 most cases self-constituted, guides and leaders of the world 
 grow still wiser in their own imaginations on this divine 
 subject, we shall be fouud drawing nearer and nearer to the 
 crisis, of which we are forewarned by Him who seeth the 
 end from the beginning, in the words, "When the Son of 
 Man Cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ? " Not the 
 less true is it, at the same time, that the judgments which 
 men form, and the dispositions which they cherish, .and 
 the words which they utter, and the conduct which they 
 pursue, with reference to the person and work of Christ, 
 His character and claims, are deciding, and shall continue to 
 decide, unalterably, their relations to God, and their final 
 destiny. Hence the unutterable importance of the ques- 
 tion to all to whom the Word of God comes, " What think 
 ye of Christ ? " 
 
 I. The answer given to this question by the Word 
 OF God. 
 
 According to the Scriptures, Christ is God equally with 
 the Father. He is the Word that was in the beginning, 
 
The All- Important Question. 
 
 that was with God, and that was God. By Him all things 
 were created that are in heaven and on earth, and by Him 
 all things consist. There is none other name given under 
 heaven among men whereby we must be saved, but the 
 name of Christ. No man hath seen God at any time ; the 
 only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He 
 hath declared Him. All the visions of Gfod from the 
 beginning are visions of His Son. All divinely appointed 
 prophets, priests, and kings were types of Christ. All 
 acceptable sacrifices from the beginning were types of His 
 sacrifice. The Spirit that was in the prophets was the 
 Spirit of Christ. The main subjects of their predictions 
 were His person and work. The temple in Jerusalem was 
 His temple. The heavenly glory above the mercy-seat was 
 His glory. The temple typified His humanity, in which the 
 fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. And the ancient 
 people whom He separated from the rest of the world, typi- 
 fied the holy nation of the saints, whom He has redeemed, 
 and is now from age to age gathering out of the world to 
 Himself. 
 
 When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His 
 Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
 that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption 
 of sons. As God manifested in the flesh, by His obedience 
 unto death, He provided for sinners of mankind complete 
 and everlasting redemption. He proved, and continues to 
 prove Himself mighty to save. Even in His state of 
 humiliation. He showed His knowledge and control of all 
 things in nature, including the hearts of men, the powers of 
 darkness, and the angels of light. In His dying agonies, 
 He shook the earth, covered the face of the heavens with 
 blackness, and forced from creation around, such acknow- 
 ledgments of His divinity, as made an onlooking lloman- 
 officer to say, " Truly this was the Son of God." 
 
The All- Important Question, 
 
 Then the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of 
 glory, having raised His Son Jesus from the dead, set Him 
 at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all 
 principality and power, and might and dominion, and every 
 name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that 
 which is to come, and hath put all things under His feet, 
 and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, 
 which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. 
 In the exercise of His Headship, He appoints all the means 
 of salvation, and gives the Holy Spirit to render them 
 effectual, and thus regenerates, calls, pardons, renders right- 
 eous, sanctifies, and brings to glory, all who are redeemed 
 from the ruined world; and He is also about to clear the 
 earth of His adversaries, and to make a blessed change on 
 the condition of mankind, by making bare His holy arm in 
 the eyes of the nations, and so causing all ends of the earth to 
 see the salvation of our God. Finally, when He has accom- 
 plished the salvation of all who have been given to Him in 
 the everlasting covenant. He will rend the heavens and come 
 down, fill the great white throne of judgment, raise the 
 dead, gather the whole human race before His tribunal, 
 separate the righteous from the wicked, welcome the right- 
 eous to the kingdom of the Father, and cause the wicked to 
 depart into everlasting fire ; and then consummate the won- 
 derful history of this world throughout the whole course of 
 time, in the unceasing homage of the redeemed and obedient 
 universe before the throne of God and of the Lamb. In 
 a word, in respect of His deity and His relations within 
 the Godhead, as the Eternal Word and Son of God, the 
 same in substance and equal in power and glory with the 
 Father and the Holy Ghost ; in respect of His being the 
 Creator and Preserver of the universe, filling it with the 
 tokens of His infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness ; 
 and in respect of His being the only Piedeenier of men, 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 saving them from all sin and misery, and raising them to 
 all holiness, and happiness, and by His redeeming work 
 exercising a supreme and blessed influence over the bound- 
 less universe for ever and ever : — in respect of these, the 
 relations and actings of Christ, He is indeed all and in all. 
 
 II. The answeks given by different classes of men 
 TO the question, " What think ye of Christ ? " 
 
 I. The answer given by open, adversaries of Christ and 
 His gospel. 
 
 This question is at present getting much of their attention. 
 Evidently they are confident in their ability, as they are 
 actively labouring, to root out from the earth the ordinary 
 faith of all true Christians in their great Saviour and Lord. 
 Although the ignorance of the Scripture testimony to Christ 
 which these adversaries display, is only equalled by their 
 enmity to Him, their ignorance and enmity are equalled by 
 the airs of knowledge and authority with which they take 
 up and dispose of this whole question. And so from seats 
 of learning, from lecture-rooms, and even from pulpits ; 
 through pamphlets and periodicals, and still more pretentious 
 volumes; through the newspaper press in every shape and 
 form ; and in a spirit and in terms of the utmost boldness, 
 self-confidence, and daring, there are being poured over this 
 and other lands, the most ill-informed, erroneous, profane, 
 and blasphemous opinions and sentiments as to the person 
 and work of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The principle underlying much of this treatment of these 
 divine truths and realities is, that nothing is to be received 
 as true, except that of which we can take knowledge by our 
 external senses, or that which our natural understandings 
 can thoroughly examine, comprehend, and approve. Self- 
 confidence, self-consciousness, and self-worship are thus 
 supplanting the homage due to the unseen and unsearcU- 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 able God, and He is still and even increasingly disowned 
 by the same pride of heart, through which, since his fall, 
 man has all along refused to know, acknowledge, and honour 
 the High and Holy One. An evil state of mind like this, 
 when patronised and made popular by votaries of mere 
 natural knowledge and human wisdom, and when permitted 
 by God in just judgment to prevail, spreads like wildfire, 
 till multitudes discard all fixed and effective belief in the 
 most important teachings of the Divine Word, in its pecu- 
 liar doctrines, in heaven and hell, in the moral and even 
 natural attributes of deity, in the reality or the perfection of 
 His moral law and government, in the difference between 
 religious truth and error, in the nature and consequences 
 of sin, in the nature, necessity, and reality of a true and 
 proper atonement for transgression, and in tlie character and 
 work of the Divine Eedeemer. And so as men do not like 
 to retain God in their knowledge, He gives them over to a 
 mind void of judgment, and sends them strong delusions, so 
 that they believe a lie. 
 
 As a matter of course, the enmity thus prevailing against 
 evangelical doctrine is specially directed against the scrip- 
 tural view of Christ's person and work, which is, in fact, the 
 source and centre of all evangelical truth. For right views 
 of His person are bound up wdth right view^s of His redeem- 
 ing work. Eight views of His redeeming work involve right 
 views of the ruined condition of men as sinners. Eight 
 views of the ruined state of man, involve right views of the 
 perfection and claims of the divine law, of which all sin is 
 the transgression. Eight views of the divine law depend 
 on right views of the perfections of God, from which His 
 law emanates. Take away the truth as to Christ's person 
 and work, and all correct views of the other truths just 
 stated, and of all kindred vital truths, will perish from the 
 minds of men. Moreover, as both the fundamental doctrine 
 
The All-Important Question. 
 
 of Christ's person and work, and the whole fabric of truth 
 that rests upon it, depend on the divine authority of the 
 Bible as a revelation from God, we have in these facts the 
 reason of the deadly efforts making to destroy man's faith 
 in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, as well as in 
 their revelation of Christ as God the Saviour. 
 
 This active enmity to Christ and His Word is bearing bitter 
 fruits. Not a few are drinking in infidel opinions. Many 
 more are encouraged and strengthened in their apathy and 
 indifference to Christ and His gospel, seek their satisfaction 
 in the gains and pleasures of earth, and live practically as 
 enemies of His cross. 
 
 Way is being made for the active progress of this prevail- 
 ing opposition to the truth, by carrying it on under insidious 
 pretensions of only teaching the truth under higher forms 
 and more advanced aspects of it. The teachings and 
 authority of the Bible are set aside, under pretence of only 
 casting aside interpretations of it that are at length found 
 to be untenable and obsolete, and of retaining or recovering, 
 and presenting for acceptance, all that is found in it in 
 accordance with purer reason and a more perfect know- 
 ledge. And so, under pretence of preserving all that is 
 entitled to belief in regard to Christ, in reality His person 
 and work are being stripped and robbed of the highest and 
 most vital of all their characteristics, and presented in 
 a light that would render Him unworthy of love or of 
 confidence. 
 
 This enmity to Christ is an old enmity, and will prove, 
 as hitherto, unavailing. In vain His adversaries say, " We 
 will not have this Man to reign over us." In vain they take 
 counsel together against Him : He shall sit as King on His 
 holy hill of Zion ; and the heathen shall be given to Him 
 for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 His possession. He will frustrate the tokens of liars, and 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 make diviners mad, turn wise men backward, and make 
 their knowledge foolish. He will dash His enemies in 
 pieces like a potter's vessel. In the face of all the hostility 
 that is being shown to the truth as it is in Jesus, its friends 
 may feel assured that, while in the wisdom of God the 
 world by wisdom knows not God, it shall still please God 
 by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 
 While the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, continues 
 to be to adversaries a stumbling-block and foolishness, it 
 shall continue to prove to believers the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God. It is a gladdening fact that the truth as 
 it is in Jesus is being taught in many lands, and is being 
 embraced by greater numbers than ever. Moreover, in con- 
 nection with the revealed purpose of God, that all nations 
 shall be brought to the feet of Jesus, to be blessed in Him 
 and to call Him blessed, that the earth may be filled with 
 His g]ory, it is sustaining to think, that the divine pro- 
 vision which the gospel contains, is so perfectly adapted to 
 meet and remove the sins and miseries and sore necessities 
 of the human spirit, that its calls and promises, and the 
 conviction of its heavenly origin, cannot be rooted out of 
 the minds and memories, the consciences and hearts, of the 
 children of men, or fail of securing more and more accept- 
 ance, the more diligently and extensively they are taught to 
 mankind. 
 
 Further still, this very enmity to Christ is itself a signal 
 testimony to the magnitude of the question of His character 
 and claims. More than that, blessed be God, as a matter 
 of fact, the vanity of aU attempts to bury the truth as it is 
 in Jesus under endless loads of misrepresentation continues 
 to prove that its opponents are unable, however determined, 
 to shake the world, or even themselves, free of it. The 
 testimony regarding Christ refuses to be buried. It refuses 
 even to take the place of obscurity or of disrepute which its 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 adversaries would assign to it. When at any time for a 
 little its enemies fancy that they have consigned it to the 
 grave of oblivion, its speedy resurrection in greater power 
 than ever, startles them, as would a spectre from the regions 
 of the dead. And neither in the counsels of apostate or 
 apostatising ecclesiastics, nor in the senates of nations, nor 
 in halls of literature, science, or philosophy, nor in the 
 meetings of free-thinking masses of men, nor anywhere else 
 on earth, as the most commanding of all inquiries, can the 
 question be avoided, or will it become possible to avoid the 
 question, "What think ye of Christ?" This is a question 
 destined to force itself more and more on the attention of 
 all men upon the face of the earth, on men in every condi- 
 tion and in every place, destined to compel an answer, and 
 destined to place and keep men for time and for eternity 
 under awful responsibility for the answer which they give. 
 For the answer to this question, that is forced from all men, 
 shall decide for good or for evil the fate of Churches, the 
 fate of nations, and the fate of every human being, as 
 indeed it shall also decide the fate of the angels of light 
 and the fate of the spirits of darkness. 
 
 Proper conduct towards adversaries. 
 
 With reference to the open adversaries of Christ and His 
 gospel who are multiplying on every hand, the following 
 things ought to be carefully kept in view, Fi7'st, The more 
 thoroughly the matter is inquired into as a ^natter of fact, 
 the more clearly will it be seen that their opposition springs 
 from the carnal mind, which is enmity against God; and that 
 in most cases it is fostered by immoral habits. They are not 
 in the condition of men to be pitied more than blamed. 
 They are not pure in their motives or disinterested or 
 candid in their judgments. Learned as well as unlearned 
 scoffers walk after their own lusts, and furnish, in their 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 vicious passions and habits, the chief causes of their infi- 
 delity. And so ordinarily the proper way of dealing with 
 them is to proclaim and exemplify the truth rather than to 
 argue it, remembering that if they are to be brought to a 
 better mind, it will not be by human reasoning the most 
 conclusive, so much as by the divine blessing on simple 
 statements of the truth, and practical exhibitions of its 
 power. Second, Even if cases occur of adversaries whose 
 opposition to the truth is seemingly owing to intellectual 
 rather than to moral causes, still insidious pride of heart, or 
 the inward bias to evil which is fostered by circumstances, 
 will be found at the bottom of their enmity ; so that what 
 adversaries in every case require, is the divine renewal of 
 their moral nature and tastes by the gospel of God's blended 
 righteousness and love, as embodied in the person and work 
 of Christ. Third, A fearful responsibility is incurred by 
 professed friends of truth who, under whatever plea, so 
 handle the authority and claims of the Divine Word as to 
 give countenance and confirmation to the scepticism which 
 rejects it altogether. Fourth, A not less solemn responsi- 
 bility is incurred by such as, while contending for the forms 
 of gospel truth, discredit their doctrinal orthodoxy by their 
 careless, sinful lives, and so put it in the power of adver- 
 saries plausibly to deny any essential superiority in a faith 
 which is thus seen in its professors to yield no better fruit 
 than its opposite. Fifth, They only are owned by the Lord 
 Jesus as faithful servants who, while contending for the 
 whole counsel of God, demonstrate the divine origin and 
 power of the gospel by the purity of their life, and can say, 
 " We speak that we do know and testify that we have 
 seen," ^ and so explain rather than argue, declare rather 
 than prove, and testify rather than debate ; and thus probe 
 the slumbering conscience, and offer peace to the troubled 
 
 ^ John iii. 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 heart, rather than attempt, by mere argument, to conquer 
 and to satisfy the proud and perverse intellect. 
 
 2. The answer given by inconsistent and unfaithful pro- 
 fessors of the gospel to the question, " What think ye of 
 Christ ? " Of these professors of the gospel there are three 
 distinct classes who respectively answer this question in a 
 characteristic manner. 
 
 (i.) There are careless professors, who, while bearing the 
 name of Christ, are earthly minded men, and live habitually 
 in a state of indifference to His whole character and claims. 
 They have never seriously and sufficiently acquainted them- 
 selves with the truth to form any definite ideas of it, and 
 are living contented with the faintest and most fleeting 
 impressions in reference to the whole subject. Any attempt 
 on their part to answer the question, " What think ye of 
 Christ ? " would only prove that they have scarcely formed 
 a single correct and definite idea as to His person and work. 
 Some things in His history indeed do probably somewhat 
 impress even them. The extraordinary events connected with 
 His birth ; the miracles which He wrought ; the piety, 
 purity, and love that breathed in His words and actions ; 
 the testimonies given from heaven to Him at His baptism ; 
 His conflict with Satan in the wilderness ; the glory in 
 which He appeared on the mount of transfiguration; the 
 darkness, and earthquakes, and other supernatural events 
 connected with His death, resurrection, and His ascension 
 into heaven ; and the outpouring of His Spirit on the day 
 of Pentecost — these and other facts of the history of Christ 
 will arrest the attention of the most careless professors of 
 the gospel on the character of Christ, and force them to feel 
 a difference between Him and others, even the best but still 
 merely human servants of God. Nevertheless, if put to it, 
 they could give but a sorry account of wherein the difference 
 lies. And even their impressions in His favour are greatly 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 counteracted by what they have heard or read of the mean- 
 ness of His human origin, and the poverty of His lot, and 
 the sufferings of His life, and the shame and agony of His 
 crucifixion. So that, on the whole, they regard the earthly 
 history of Christ without much sympathy; and so far at 
 least as they are concerned, they decidedly prefer that such 
 a life should remain peculiar to Himself. Insomuch that, 
 while desirous in their own way to share in any benefits 
 which His shame, and sufferings and death may be supposed 
 to yield, they have no desire for fellowship with Him in the 
 endurance by which these benefits were secured. On the 
 contrary, the only portion which they relish and labour for 
 daily is a portion in the present life. And in their frame 
 of mind, and so long as it continues, nothing can be further 
 from their thoughts or more alien to their feelings than to 
 glory daily in the cross of Christ, as that by which the world 
 is crucified to them and they are crucified to the world. 
 Such careless, carnally minded professors of the gospel are in 
 reality enemies of the cross of Christ, and, continuing so, their 
 end is destruction. Yet even to them, as He looks upon them, 
 turning away from Himself and seeking satisfaction to their 
 souls where they can never find it, Jesus is standing near, 
 and crying, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
 drink." ^ " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
 and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; j'^ea, buy 
 wine and milk without money and without price," &c.^ 
 
 (2.) There are unspiritual professors, who caU themselves 
 by the name of Christ, but are nothing more than ortho- 
 dox lifeless formalists. In answer to the question, " What 
 think ye of Christ ? " they can show that they have 
 learned, speculatively, a great deal more than the former 
 class about His character and work, and that their reli- 
 gious beliefs are sound and scriptural. They can speak 
 
 1 John vii, * Isa. Iv. 
 
The All-hnportaJit Question. 13 
 
 accurately of the divinity of Christ, of His incarnation, 
 of His mediatorial work, and of its benefits. Yet they 
 are not renewed and purified by their faith. The truth is 
 not light and life to them, but a dead letter. They impri- 
 son it within them in unrighteousness. Sin has still domi- 
 nion in and over them. The consequence is, that with their 
 religious views and convictions on the one hand, and their 
 still unsubdued evil inclinations on the other hand, they are 
 tossed about by contradictory influences : they believe the 
 truth and they doubt it, they hold it fast and they let it 
 go, according as their right convictions or their wrong in- 
 clinations for the time prevail. Lukewarm at best, having 
 a form of godliness yet denying its power, Christ speaks 
 to them as without His Spirit and none of His, and declares 
 Himself ready to spue them out of His mouth. As the only 
 way by which they may yet experience His love. He calls 
 on them to hear His rebukes, and submit to His chasten- 
 ings, and be zealous and repent. And to show what mar- 
 vellous love is in that call, He adds the soul-quickening 
 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 sup with him, and he with me. To him that over- 
 cometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne ; even as 
 I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on His 
 throne." ^ 
 
 (3.) A third class of professors have again risen up pro- 
 minently among us, who are known by the names of ration- 
 alists and hroacL churchmen. They affect to be men of 
 wider sympathies and of more enlarged views than even the 
 princes of orthodoxy, learning, and godliness, that have, age 
 after age, appeared in our Israel.' The men of whom we 
 speak, affect not only juster views of Christian truth, but 
 higher general enlightenment and culture. It is, no doubt, 
 
 ^ Rev. iii. 
 
14 The A II- Important Question. 
 
 often difficult to know what men of this class really believe 
 about Christ and His work. But numbers of them are great 
 in their speech about the human side of Christ's character, 
 and about the self-sacrifice which marked His life on earth, 
 and about the purpose of His mission and His gospel to 
 redeem us from our selfish, sinful life and tendencies, by call- 
 ing us to the cultivation and practice of a similarly self- 
 sacrificing spirit. And they tell us that, by meditating on 
 His virtues and imitating them, we are to catch His spirit, 
 and so rise out of our low and self- indulging disposition into 
 conformity to His mind and will, and thus become one 
 with Him in judgment, affection, and conduct, until we 
 reflect His likeness and are meet for His presence. 
 
 This is a fine-looking theory, and one very flattering to 
 human capabilities, and well fitted to captivate the hearts 
 of natural men, especially of a young and rising generation. 
 But in reality it is just the old moderatism or deism of the 
 last century showing itself again in our pulpits, and coming 
 back among us in all the more dangerous a form that it 
 wears a smiling, conceited face of affected Christian light 
 and earnestness. For it is a theory that denies by ignoring 
 the true person and work of Jesus, and those necessities of 
 men's condition that require His intervention as a Saviour. 
 It leaves out of account, and so sets aside, the doctrine of 
 man's fallen, guilty, depraved, and perishing condition — the 
 Scripture doctrine of the evil and deceit of sin — the doctrine 
 of the perfection and demands of the law and government 
 of God — the doctrine of a true and proper atonement as 
 needful to satisfy divine justice, and secure the salvation of 
 sinners in consistency with, and to the glory of the divine 
 character and law — the doctrine of the divinity of Christ as 
 that which alone gives worth and efficacy to His atonement 
 — the doctrine of the Holy Ghost as the regenerator and 
 sanctifier, the teacher, guide, and comforter of the redeemed 
 
The All-hnp07'tant Question. 15 
 
 — and the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, a faith which 
 is always followed by good works, by a holy life, in that it 
 always operates to purify the heart and to overcome the 
 world. The denial of all these grand and vital characteristic 
 doctrines of the gospel, is the logical, and, in fact, sooner or 
 later, the actual, result of the plausible but hollow and decep- 
 tive representation of the character and work of Christ, that 
 is so popular with not a few in the present day. It is 
 therefore a theory which robs the Lord Jesus Christ of 
 infinitely the greatest portion of His glory, leaving nothing 
 in Him but a human love to lean upon, and nothing in His 
 gospel but a sight of human virtue for His followers to 
 imbibe and imitate, in order to their own well-being. For 
 teachers and guides of others to set up such a Christ is to 
 deny the Christ of God, and to present to us, not a rock to 
 be our strength, but a covered pitfall to ensnare us to our 
 ruin. 
 
 Having alluded to the Bible representations, or, in other 
 words, God's thoughts of Christ — to the opposition given to 
 His character and claims by open enemies — and then to the 
 treatment that He is receiving from different classes of in- 
 consistent professors of His gospel — let us, 
 
 3. Consider the answer to the question, " What think ye 
 of Christ ? " that is given by His true and faithful followers. 
 Their reply to the question is very much an echo of God's 
 own revealed thoughts of Him. There is a blessed multitude, 
 daily increasing, who have received the truth as it is in 
 Jesus in the love of it. Ask them, " What think ye of Christ ? " 
 and their answer, their ready, full-hearted, grateful, joyous 
 answer is, " My Lord and my God ; all my salvation, and all 
 my desire; my light and life; my righteousness and strength; 
 my all in all ; my maker and my husband ; my Redeemer, 
 and the Holy One of Israel ; fairer than the sons of men, the 
 chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. He is the 
 
1 6 The A II- Important Question. 
 
 Son of the living God, by whom all things were created, and 
 are upheld ; the Euler and Lord of all. He 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, He humbled Himself, and 
 became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ; 
 wherefore God also hath . highly exalted Him, and given 
 Him a name which is above every name ; that at the name 
 of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 
 things on earth, and things under the earth ; and that every 
 tongue sliould confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
 of God the Father. His name is the only name given under 
 heaven among men whereby we must be saved. His name 
 shall endure for ever ; it shall be continued as long as the 
 sun ; and men shall be blessed in Him ; all nations shall call 
 Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only 
 doeth wondrous things ; and blessed be His glorious name for 
 ever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen 
 and amen. The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want : He 
 maketh me to lie down in green pastures : He leadeth me 
 beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul : He leadeth 
 me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, 
 though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
 I will fear no evil ; for Thou art with me ; Thy rod and 
 staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in 
 the presence of mine enemies ; Thou anointest my head 
 with oil ; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy 
 shall follow me all the days of my life ; and I shall dwell 
 in the house of the Lord for ever. Him, having not seen, 
 we love ; in Him, though now we see Him not, yet believ- 
 ing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. I 
 count all things but loss for the excellency of the know- 
 ledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. ... I count them but 
 
The All- Important Question. 17 
 
 dung that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not 
 having mine own righteousness, which is of the hiw, but 
 that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteous- 
 ness which is of God by faith ; that I may know Him, 
 and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship 
 of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, 
 if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the 
 dead. Not as though I had already attained, or were already 
 perfect : but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that 
 for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, 
 I count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing 
 I do ; forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching 
 forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the 
 mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
 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."^ 
 
 Of all these faithful followers of the Lamb on earth, the 
 daily song is, " 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, Amen." Unable, as they feel 
 themselves to be while on earth, duly to magnify the Lord 
 Jesus, they rejoice in the thought of the loftier adorations 
 and thanksgivings that are being constantly offered to Him 
 by the redeemed in heaven. " Thou art worthy, . . . for 
 Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, 
 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." 
 They rejoice in the tributes of homage and of praise 
 unceasingly rendered by the myriads of angels that stand 
 
 1 Phil. iii. 
 
The A II- Important Question. 
 
 around the throne and around the redeemed, saying, " Worthy- 
 is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
 and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and bless- 
 ing." And it is still further gladdening to believers to 
 remember and realise the fact, that every creature which is 
 in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such 
 as are in the sea, and all that are in them, are to be heard, 
 saying, " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be 
 unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, 
 for ever and ever." i 
 
 To those who know Christ as revealed in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, He is thus All in All, the alpha and omega, the 
 beginning and the ending, the first and the last of all their 
 thoughts and desires, of all their aims and actions, of all 
 their longings and labours ; of the life which they lead on 
 earth, and of the unending life which they are looking and 
 preparing for beyond the skies. 
 
 Rev. iii. 
 
II. 
 
 THE DOCTEINE OF THE TEINITY— ITS PEACTICAL 
 BEAEING ON EEDEMPTION BY CHEIST. 
 
 " In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
 IVTANKIND, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, 
 have been given over to a reprobate mind, to the 
 service of abominable idols, and the practice of vile affec- 
 tions.^ Multitudes, even with a Christian name, live in 
 unrighteousness and sin, because they have not the know- 
 ledge of God. To such, on the other hand, as have the 
 knowledge of God, grace and peace are multiplied : they are 
 called to a "life of virtue here, and to a life of everlasting 
 glory hereafter.^ But it is only when God gives any a 
 heart to know Him that they become His people and He 
 becomes their God.^ And when the earth is filled with 
 this knowledge of the Lord, it shall be full of truth and 
 righteousness, of peace and love, and of adoring praise. 
 
 The duty laid on all who are entering on the work of 
 their life on earth, is to know the God of their fathers, and 
 to serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind.* 
 The duty laid on His children and servants is to increase in 
 the knowledge of God, that they may be increasingly fruitful 
 in every good work.^ 
 
 None indeed can thoroughly find out God ; none can 
 find Him out unto perfection. Parts of His ways are made 
 known, and may be seen and apprehended as shown in His 
 
 ^ Rom. i. ^ Jer. xxiv. ^ Col. L 
 
 2 2 Pet. L * 2 Chron. x.xix. 
 
20 The Three- One God. 
 
 works of creation and providence ; but nothing beyond a 
 little portion is heard of Him. The thunder of His power 
 none can understand : nor can any understand the number 
 of His years. He doeth great things which we cannot com- 
 prehend. His greatness is unsearchable. His thoughts are 
 an unfathomable depth. His way is in the sea, and His 
 path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known. 
 
 And yet the life of our souls now, and our entrance into 
 eternal life at last, depend on our really knowing God and 
 His Son Jesus Christ. As regards all who have fellowship 
 with Him on earth, and are preparing for His presence in 
 heaven, God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness, shines in their hearts, to give them the light of 
 the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 
 I. The oneness of God is plainly revealed to us. " There 
 is none other God but one." " Hear, Israel, the Lord our 
 God is one Lord." ^ " The Lord, He is God : there is none 
 else." ^ " Besides me there is no God ; I know not any." ^ 
 He is " the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only 
 wise God." * " Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art 
 the Most High over all tlie earth." ^ There is thus only 
 one Being in the universe who is infinite, eternal, and 
 unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
 goodness, and truth. He alone has existed eternally in and 
 of Himself. There is no God before Him, with Him, or after 
 Him. There is no being to be likened to Him or compared 
 with Him. He who knoweth all things, and filleth eternity 
 and immensity with His presence, knows not any being that 
 is entitled to share with Himself the honours of divinity. 
 
 The oneness of God thus taught in Scripture, is also pro- 
 claimed in the works of creation and providence. The 
 
 ^ Deut. vi. ^ Isa. xliv. ^ Ps. Ixxxiii. 
 
 2 Deut. iv. ^ I Tim. i. 
 
The Th7'ee-07ie God. 2\ 
 
 harmony that is seen to prevail among them all, evidences 
 that they proceed from one great Creator, and are governed 
 by Him as their only supreme Euler. The unity of design 
 which they display, proves them to have been all planned 
 by the same infinite Mind, to have sprung from one universal 
 Parent, to be pervaded, preserved, and disposed of by one 
 God. And it may here be added, that so far as our reason 
 is capable of judging, and so far as it is rightly exercised on 
 this subject, its conclusion also is, that there is but one 
 only, the living and the true God. 
 
 According, then, to the declarations of Scripture, the indi- 
 cations in the universe, and the dictates of reason, there is 
 at the head of creation one infinitely perfect Being, from 
 •whom all creatures receive their existence ; on whom, as their 
 Preserver, they unceasingly depend ; to whom, as their Euler 
 and Judge, they are continually subject; by whom a divine 
 supremacy is exercised from His throne of universal dominion 
 over all His works ; between whom and the highest of His 
 creatures there is an impassable distance, and before whom 
 they continually prostrate themselves in adoration of His 
 unsearchable greatness, awful majesty, and holiness, and offer 
 up their praises for His goodness, which endureth for ever. 
 
 II. The Scriptures as plainly reveal that tin's one living 
 and true God exists in Tliree Persons, the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost. Thus — 
 
 I. The Father is God. "To us there is but one God, 
 the Father, of whom are all things." ^ " There is but one 
 God, the Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
 and in you all." ^ " Have we not all one Father ? Hath 
 not one God created us ?"^ " One is your Father, who is 
 in heaven."* He is the "holy Father,"^ "the righteous 
 
 1 Rom. ix. ^ Mai. ii. * John xvii. 
 
 2 Eph, iv. * Matt, xxiii. 
 
2 2 The Three-One God. 
 
 Father,"^ "the Father of mercies,"^ "the Father of lights 
 with whom is no variableness, neither the least shadow of 
 turning."^ 
 
 2. The Son is God. 
 
 (i.) The names of God are given to Him: " The Word 
 was God;"* "God blessed for ever;"^ " He is the true, 
 GOD,"^ "the great GOD,""^ "the mighty God,"® "the God 
 of Israel," ^ " Jehovah on His throne, high and lifted 
 np."^° 
 
 (2.) The perfections that belong to God alone are ascribed 
 to the Son. He is " the first and the last" that is, the 
 Eternal}^ " set up /ro??i everlasting"^'^ "whose goings forth 
 have been of old from everlasting!'^^ He is omnipotent: 
 " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, who 
 was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty, "^'^ "to whom all 
 power is given in heaven and on earth." ^^ He is omniscient : 
 " He searcheth the reins and the heart." ^^ He is omnipresent: 
 " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them ; " ^^ " Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even to the end of the world." ^® And He is immtit- 
 able : " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
 ever." ^^ 
 
 (3.) The works of God are all performed by the Son. 
 He is the Creator, " All things were made by Him."^*' He 
 is the Preserver, " By Him all things consist." ^^ He is the 
 Governor, " Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever;"^^ "At 
 the name of tTesus every knee shall bow, . . . and every 
 tongue . . . confess that he is Lord."^^ 
 
 1 John xvii. ' Tit. ii. ^^ j^ev. i. " Heb. xiii. 
 
 2 2 Cor. i. " Isa. ix. i* Matt, xxviii. ^" John i. 
 
 * Jas. i. ^ Comp. Exod. xxiv. lo ; Ps. Ixviii. 1 8 ; Eph. iv. 8. 
 
 * John i. ■■" Comp. Isa. vi. ; John xii. ^i Qq[^ j 
 
 5 Rom. ix. " Rev. i. is Rev. ii. '" Ps. xlv. ; Heb. i. 
 
 ^ I John V. ''- Prov. viii. '^ Matt, xviii. ^^ Phil. ii. 
 
 '^ Mic. v. 1^ Matt, xxviii. 
 
The Three-One God. 
 
 23 
 
 (4.) The worship belonging to God only, is due, and 
 given to the Son. " The Father hath committed all judg- 
 ment to the Son, that all men should honour the Son, even 
 as the Father;"^ " When God bringeth in the First-begotten 
 into the world. He saith, Let all the angels of God worship 
 Him;"^ "And every creature which is in heaven, and in 
 the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, 
 and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and 
 honour, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." ^ 
 
 3. The Holy Ghost is God. To lie to Him is to lie 
 unto God.* When the Holy Ghost spake by David,^ it was 
 God who spake by him.^ The Holy Spirit is " the Spirit 
 of holiness;"^ "the Eternal Spirit;"^ the omnipresent Spirit, 
 from whom we cannot flee ; ^ the omniscient Spirit, who 
 " searcheth all things;"^*' "the Spirit of grace ;"^^ "the 
 Comforter, the Spirit of Truth ; "^- " the Spirit of glory ; " " 
 " the good Spirit ;"^* " the Spirit of power ;"^^ the Spirit who 
 "moved on the face of the waters." ^^ He "garnished the 
 heavens;"" He "revealed the truth to holy prophets and 
 apostles ;"^^ He gave the power to work miracles ;^^ He 
 inspired the sacred writers;^*' He strives with men; He 
 testifies of Christ; He quickens the spiritually dead; He 
 guides into all truth; He helps the infirmities of true 
 suppliants ; He makes intercession within them, with groan- 
 ings that cannot be uttered ; He dwells in them as His 
 temples ; He makes them fruitful in all gracious affections 
 and habits. Such as resist and quench Him, grieve and 
 provoke Him till He ceases to strive with them. Such as 
 cherish Him are guided by Him to the land of uprightness. 
 
 ^ John V. 
 
 6 Acts iv. 
 
 " Heb. X. 
 
 i« Gen. i. 
 
 2 Heb. i. 
 
 7 Rom. i. 
 
 ^■^ John xiv. 
 
 " Job xxvi. 
 
 ^ Rev. V. 
 
 8 Heb. ix. 
 
 i» I Pet. iv. 
 
 18 Eph. iii. 
 
 4 Acts V. 
 
 ^ Ps. cxxxix. 
 
 !•» Neh. ix. 
 
 19 Rom. XV. 19. 
 
 5 Acts i. 
 
 1" I Cor. ii. 
 
 18 Rom, XV. 
 
 2» 2 Pet. i. 
 
24 The Three-One God. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, of whom all this is true, is equally with 
 the Father and the Son a divine person. 
 
 4. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct persons 
 of the Godhead. They are not one divine person under 
 different names or different manifestations ; they are distin- 
 guished from each other by their respectively personal pro- 
 perties within the Godhead. Thus it is the property of the 
 Father to beget the Son ; it is the property of the Son to be 
 begotten of the Father ; and it is the property of the Holy 
 Spirit, as the Spirit of the Son as well as of the Father, 
 eternally to proceed from both. And in relation to the 
 created universe, they are also distinguished from each 
 other by their severally appropriate and characteristic 
 actings ; for it is characteristic of the Father that He sends 
 the Son to save sinners ; it is characteristic of the Son 
 that He comes into the world, takes our nature, and works 
 out our redemption ; and it is characteristic of the Spirit 
 that, being sent by Christ, He applies redemption to the 
 soul. 
 
 5. While distinct persons, the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Spirit are one God. They are one in nature and in essence. 
 They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. 
 They are not three Gods, but the one living and true God. 
 The Father is the one God, the beginning and the end and 
 the Lord of all things ; the Son is the one God, the begin- 
 ning and the end and the Lord of all things ; and the 
 Holy Spirit is the one God, the beginning and the end and 
 the Lord of all things. To us there is but this one God, one 
 God in three persons, three persons in one God, — the 
 Triune Jehovah. 
 
 This is the God of the Bible, the God of all true Chris- 
 tians. Of this truth the following are a few of the proofs 
 and illustrations furnished by Scripture : — 
 
 In the Book of Isaiah occur the words, " Come ye near 
 
The Three-One God. 25 
 
 unto ME and hear ye this ; I have not spoken in secret from 
 the beginning ; from the time that it was, there AM I : and 
 the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me." ^ " Seek out 
 of the book of the Lord and read ; for my mouth and His 
 Spirit it hath gathered them." ^ 
 
 There is the threefold form of blessing of the ancient 
 Church: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord 
 make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
 thee ; the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon 
 thee, and give thee peace." ^ 
 
 There is the thrice-repeated ascription to God of the holi- 
 ness displayed in the work of redemption : " Holy, holy, 
 holy is the Lord of Hosts ; the whole earth is full of His 
 glory." ^ In this ascription of praise all admit that the 
 Father is addressed and adored. But so is the Son ; for 
 John in his Gospel ^ expressly says that the glory seen by 
 the prophet on this occasion was the glory of Christ, And 
 the Holy Spirit was also concerned in this adoration; for 
 in Acts xxviii. it is said of the words divinely spoken in 
 connection with the vision, " Well spake the Holy Ghost 
 by Esaias," &c. 
 
 Still more plainly do the New Testament Scriptures direct 
 our faith to the three-one God. Thus, First, there is the 
 form of Christian baptism ; " Make disciples of all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost." ^ Second, There is the record of Christ's own 
 baptism, when they saw the Spirit of God descending like 
 a dove, and lighting upon Him : " And lo ! a voice from 
 heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
 well pleased." ^ Third, There is the form of prayer used by 
 the Apostle to conclude his Epistle : " The grace of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
 
 1 Isa. xlviii. ^ Num. vi. * John xii. ^ Matt. iii. 
 
 2 Isa. xxxiv. ■* Isa. vi. ^ Matt, xxviii. 
 
26 The Three- One God. 
 
 munion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, Amen." ^ 
 Fourth, There are the words of Jesus : " The Spirit of Truth, 
 which proceedeth from the Father, He (that is, the Spirit) 
 shall testify of me."^ Fifth, There is the prayer for the 
 Thessalonians : " The Lord {i.e., the Spirit) direct our hearts 
 into the love of God {i.e., of God the Father), and into the 
 patient waiting for Christ." ^ Sixth, There are the words 
 of the Apostle to the Ephesians : " For through Him we have 
 access by one Spirit unto the Father."* Seventh^ And 
 there is the prayer of John for the Churches : " Grace be 
 unto you, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to 
 COME ; and from the seven Spirits {i.e., the Holy Spirit, in 
 the fulness of his perfections and grace), and from Jesus 
 Christ, who is the faithful witness." ^ 
 
 III. This doctrine of the Trinity being revealed in Scrip- 
 ture, human reason can discern its suitableness, or even its 
 necessity to the absolute perfection and blessedness of God. 
 For God is the source of all the excellence and all the 
 happiness of His creatures ; and His Word and our own 
 reason lead us to suppose, that whatever is good in His 
 intelligent creatures will be found to reflect a corresponding 
 infinite goodness in Himself; that the characteristics of the 
 divine nature will be reflected in those characteristics of His 
 intelligent offspring in which their virtue and happiness are 
 found. 
 
 Now the virtue and happiness of intelligent creatures 
 greatly depend on two things : first, the way in which they 
 stamp tlieir virtues on each other ; and, second, the sympathy, 
 communion, and fellowship which they have with each other 
 in the love and practice of virtue. If, being created, they 
 were isolated from and kept in ignorance of each other, and 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. xiii. * 2 Thess. iii. ^ Rev. i. 
 
 2 John XV. * Eph. ii. 
 
The Three-One God. 27 
 
 required each to live in a state of absolute solitude, the 
 greater number of their virtues would have no existence, 
 and their happiness would be utterly marred. In a condi- 
 tion of entire separation from all creatures of the same 
 nature and species, even the presence of God and the 
 fellowship of creatures of a different order would probably 
 fail, in any adequate manner, to call forth their virtues or 
 secure their happiness. It is in fellowship with others of 
 his own kind, that any intelligent creature has his piety 
 and virtue called forth, and his blessedness secured. And 
 so it commends itself to our highest reason, when revealed, 
 that the great God, who made man in His own image, instead 
 of living throughout the past eternity what would seem to 
 us the cheerless life of a solitary person, has ever existed, 
 self-exists, in a plurality of persons, who have ever enjoyed 
 inexpressibly and inconceivably perfect and blessed com- 
 munion with each other, in the absolute unity of the divine 
 nature and essence, as the three-one God. 
 
 Contemplate the Father eternally saying to the second 
 person of the Trinity, " Thou art my Son ; this day have I 
 begotten Thee." Contemplate the Son as eternally " in the 
 bosom of the Father." Contemplate the Father and the Son 
 as eternally delighting in those perfections, of which the 
 Father is the natural fountain, and the Son the uncreated 
 inheritor. Eealise in any measure this combined oneness 
 and distinctness of the Father and the Son, and a view of 
 Deity is obtained, infinitely more worthy of the all-perfect 
 and blessed God, than can be in the minds of those who 
 consider Him to be as strictly one in personality as in 
 Godhead. 
 
 But it adds to the inexpressibly blessed and glorious 
 character of the Deity, to know that, besides the co-existence 
 of the Father and the Son, there is a third person in the 
 Godhead — the Holy Ghost — who is the co-equal and co- 
 
The Three-One God. 
 
 eternal partaker of the same uncreated and infinite perfec- 
 tions. For by this fact there is secured a joint contempla- 
 tion and enjoyment of the divine perfections as exhibited by 
 each person in the Godhead to the others. In other words, 
 the Son and the Holy Spirit jointly contemplate and enjoy 
 the perfection of the Father ; the Father and the Holy Spirit 
 jointly contemplate and enjoy the perfections of the Son ; 
 and the Father and the Son jointly contemplate and enjoy 
 the perfections of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 This revelation of the relations and communion of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost within the Godhead 
 presents to us the Deity as indeed all light, and life, and 
 love, and blessedness, and glory. God is thus all " light :" 
 light which is in the Father as its source, and in the Son as 
 " the brightness of the Father's glory," and in both, perfectly 
 and infinitely co-existent. God is thus all life : life which 
 is in the Father as its fountain-head, and in the Son in 
 virtue of His eternal generation from the Father, and in the 
 Holy Spirit in virtue of His eternal procession from the 
 Father and from the Son, and in each in the same un- 
 created and everlasting fulness. God is thus all love : love 
 which finds in each of the three persons of the Godhead 
 infinite occasion for its exercise, and its satisfaction, from 
 everlasting to everlasting. God is thus all blessedness: a 
 blessedness of which the perfections of each of the persons 
 of the Godhead, and their mutual relations and fellowship 
 within the divine nature, are the ever-existing boundless 
 source. And God is thus all glory too, as the glory of the 
 Father rests on the Son, and is reflected back upon the 
 Father, while the same glory is the glory of the Holy Spirit, 
 inasmuch as He is one with the Father and with the Son in 
 the infinite perfections and everlasting counsels of the God- 
 head, and is also ever prepared to exhibit these perfections, 
 and execute these counsels in the works of the divine hand. 
 
The Three-One God. 29 
 
 and to secure from the created universe the glory due to 
 the Eternal. 
 
 If any object to this doctrine of the existence of God in 
 three persons, that it is incomprehensible, they may on the 
 same ground object to belief in an uncreated, an eternal, 
 and a self-existing Being altogether. For certainly there is 
 nothing in the fact and manner of existence of a three-one 
 God, that is more incomprehensible, than in the fact of the 
 divine existence at all. If we take in the doctrine of the 
 existence of a self-existing, infinitely perfect, everlasting, 
 personal God — and only the fool (who is all the greater a 
 fool if a philosophical one) denies this — instead of its beino- 
 more difficult to realise such a Being as existing in three 
 persons, than as existing in one person only, the very nature 
 which God has imparted to us as rational and moral creatures, 
 made in His own image, leads us to the conclusion that the 
 fellowship of created intelligences, which is so essential to 
 their nature, their constitution, their well-being, has its in- 
 finitely perfect ideal in the existence and fellowship of 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as the one living and true 
 God. 
 
 IV. The doctrine of the three-one God, Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost, is an eminently practical doctrine. 
 
 I. This is proved by the fact that it is revealed to us 
 only in connection with, and as essential to, the plan of 
 redemption set forth in the gospel. It is not for us to 
 decide to what extent this doctrine might or might not 
 have been made known, apart from the scheme of salvation. 
 Enough for us to know that it is in and by means of that 
 scheme of grace that the subsistence of God in three 
 persons comes to light, comes clearly out to view, and that 
 this doctrine of the Trinity enters into the heart and sub- 
 stance of the provision made for the redemption of sinners 
 
30 The Three- One God. 
 
 by Jesus Christ. For God the Father is revealed as having 
 possessed Christ, under the name of Wisdom, in the beginning 
 of His way, before His works of old ; as having set Him 
 up from everlasting in order to the redemption of sinners ; 
 as having chosen them in Him before the foundation of the 
 world ; as having eternally had it as the good pleasure of 
 His will that in due time Christ should make His soul an 
 offering for sin, and thus see a seed — see of the travail of 
 His soul and be satisfied, and accomplish the Fathers 
 pleasure in the actual salvation of those for whom he died ; 
 and on these accounts delighting in Him for ever and 
 ever, and so loving Him as to have given all things into 
 His hands. God the Son is revealed as one brought up 
 with the Father, as in constant counsel and communion with 
 Him anent the purposes and plans of divine sovereignty, 
 wisdom, righteousness, and grace ; especially anent the plan 
 of redeeming love ; as thus rejoicing in the habitable parts 
 of the earth, and having His delights with the sons of men ; 
 as (when other sacrifices for sin were unavailing) causing 
 His voice to be heard, saying, " Lo, I come ; in the volume 
 of the book it is written of me ; I delight to do Thy will, 
 my God : yea, the law is within my heart." And not less 
 distinctly does God the Holy Ghost stand forth to view, 
 as fitting the human nature of Christ, when taken into union 
 with His divine, for the work to be finished by Him, and as 
 now carrying out this finished work to all its blessed results, 
 in its application to the souls of men, for their actual and 
 eternal salvation. The whole character and efficacy of the 
 plan and work of redemption are thus bound up with the 
 doctrine of the three-one God, and with the parts which are 
 severally performed by the distinct persons of the Godhead, 
 in the determining, arranging, and actual accomplishment 
 of that work; the Father planning it, the Son executing 
 it ; and the Holy Spirit carrying it into effect in the souls 
 
The Three-One God. 31 
 
 of men. These considerations show that there is no doctrine 
 of greater practical importance in the whole Word of God. 
 For with such a provision, and with such pledges on the 
 part of the Triune Jehovah to secure from first to last the 
 salvation of men, there cannot possibly be a failure at any 
 point, in the history of the accomplishment of this work, 
 even until the copestone of the whole building is brought 
 forth with shoutings of Grace ! grace ! unto it. On the other 
 hand, if God were such a Being as Deists and Unitarians 
 represent Him, a scheme of redemption such as the gospel 
 reveals were impossible. The claims of divine justice and 
 the commandments of a perfect law could not be recon- 
 ciled with the salvation of sinners. And either evil 
 must be permitted to dwell with God, or those who com- 
 mit it must be consigned to hopeless misery or to absolute 
 annihilation. 
 
 2. The practical importance of this doctrine is seen in 
 the fact that the first public profession of Christianity, which 
 separates a man from the world and introduces him into 
 the Church of Christ, is a profession of faith in the three- 
 one God, or the God of salvation. The beginning, the first 
 act of a public profession of Christianity, is receiving the 
 initiatory rite of baptism. By the reception of that rite, 
 all to whom it is warrantably administered, are formally 
 separated from the world, and recognised as members of the 
 Church of Christ. They stand forth as sinners saved in 
 Christ — saved from the devil, the world, and the flesh — and 
 dedicating their present and their whole future being to the 
 service of God. The water in baptism symbolises the sin- 
 cleansing virtue of Jesus's blood, the heart-purifying power 
 of the Holy Spirit. And the reception of the ordinance in- 
 volves a solemn engagement to glorify God with soul, body, 
 and spirit, wdiich are His. This solemnly significant and 
 eventful act is performed in the name of the Father, the 
 
32 The TJwee-One God. 
 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and that fact is full of meaning 
 and of instruction of the most practical nature and of the 
 highest importance. For it implies that baptism is ad- 
 ministered under such conditions as the following : — First, 
 As an ordinance appointed by the three- one God, to represent 
 participation of the redemption of the gospel. Second, As an 
 ordinance in observing which the blessing of the three-one 
 God is supplicated and expected on those who receive it. 
 Third, As an ordinance in which the participators avow their 
 faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as the one 
 living and true God. Fourth, As an ordinance in which the 
 participators renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, 
 and yield themselves up, soul, body, and spirit, to God, as 
 thus revealed and believed in, to do His will, and to seek 
 their happiness in His favour. Fifth, As an ordinance in 
 which we dedicate ourselves to the three-one God ; to GoD 
 THE Father, the Father of the Eternal Sou, the Father of 
 all creatures, whom He made and keeps in being ; the recon- 
 ciled and gracious Father of all who are in Christ by faith ; 
 to God the Son, the Eternal Son, the Son of God incarnate, 
 who in our nature lived and died on earth, and now pleads 
 and reigns in heaven, for the salvation of all given to Him 
 in covenant by the Father ; and to God the Holy Ghost, 
 as entering, inhabiting, and working in all the saved, apply- 
 ing redemption to their souls, enlightening, purifying, and 
 gladdening them, and so preparing them for, and leading 
 them to, the land of uprightness. 
 
 3. The practical nature and importance of the doctrine 
 of the Trinity is seen in the blessing prayed for by the 
 Apostle to the Churches; prayed for, ever since, by all 
 Christian assemblies for eighteen hundred years, and which 
 every rightly exercised Christian feels that he needs to be 
 continually supplicating at the throne of grace, and always 
 realising, as the very life and well-being of his soul : " The 
 
The Three- One God. 33 
 
 grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and 
 the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all, 
 Amen."^ 
 
 " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ " includes all that 
 He can become to His people, and do for them, as their 
 Eedeemer. It includes His infinite fulness as He who 
 fiUeth all in all. When He manifests Himself exalted a Prince 
 and a Saviour to give to His people repentance and forgive- 
 ness of sins; when He scatters their darkness and makes 
 them to walk in the light ; when He becomes to them the 
 foundation on which they are enabled to build their hopes; 
 when they live by Christ living in them ; when they find 
 Him delivering them out of the hand of all their enemies, 
 and making them more than conquerors, His grace is with 
 them ; " it is made sufficient for them, and His strength is 
 made perfect in their weakness." Now this fellowship with 
 Christ, this communication of all the power and all the help 
 which His followers, in all ages, and in all parts of the earth, 
 require at His hands, would be simply impossible — it would 
 even be idolatry and blasphemy to expect it from Christ — if 
 He were not a divine person, God the Son, and so the all- 
 sufficient Saviour. And all this is included in the prayer 
 which Christians of all generations, in all parts of the earth, 
 are, in all conditions and at all times, to offer, " The grace of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ be with you." 
 
 The next part of this prayer is, " The love of God be with 
 you." This love of God is the love in the exercise of which 
 the Father eternally chose sinners to salvation. In the 
 exercise of this love He laid help for sinners on His own 
 Son, as one mighty to save. In the fulness of time He sent 
 Him into the world, made of a woman, made under the law, 
 to redeem them that were under the law, that we might 
 
 ^ 2 Cor, xiii. 
 
3 + 
 
 The Three- One God. 
 
 receive the adoption of sons. In the exercise of this love 
 He spared not even His own Son, but gave Him up to die 
 for our offences, and then raised Him for our justification. 
 In and by tlie living and reigning Eedeemer, the love of the 
 Father to believers secures their pardon, acceptance, and 
 holiness, and grants to them a place in His own family, and 
 animates them with the spirit of adoption, and invests them 
 with all the privileges, dignities, and blessedness of the 
 children of God for ever. And the love that does all this 
 for all believers, is supplicated in the prayer, " The love of 
 God be with you." 
 
 Then the prayer is added, " The communion of the Holy 
 Ghost be with you." The Lord Jesus, having finished on 
 earth the work given to Him by His Father to accomplish, 
 and having left the world and ascended to His Father, the 
 Holy Spirit being sent down according to His promise, came 
 to be, as He now is, in all the redeemed, their sanctifier 
 and comforter, in all ages, till the Lord returns to judgment. 
 And now all the gifts and graces of true believers are be- 
 stowed by Him. He teaches them all things, and brings all 
 things to their remembrance. He glorifies Christ by taking 
 the things that are His, and showing them to such as be- 
 lieve. He sheds abroad the love of God in their hearts. 
 He prompts all their holy desires and heavenly longings. 
 He fills them with peace and joy in believing, and makes 
 them, by the working of His power within them, to abound 
 in hope. They are warned not to resist, grieve, and quench 
 Him, but rather to cherish His presence and motions, to 
 preserve their very bodies as His temples, to live and walk 
 in Him, and to bear His fruits, love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temper- 
 ance. If it is the duty of believers to receive such com- 
 munications of the Spirit, and, in their character and history, 
 to exemplify the enlightening, purifying, and gladdening 
 
The Three- One God, 35 
 
 effects of His inworking power, all this proves that they 
 are habitually to realise the divine personality of the Holy 
 Ghost, and the divine nature of His gracious dealings with 
 their souls, in the habitual utterance of the prayer, " The 
 communion of the Holy Ghost be with you." 
 
 Conclusion. 
 First, These considerations show that a true understand- 
 ing, a believing reception, a cherished remembrance, a prayer- 
 ful improvement, and a happy experience of the respective 
 parts performed in our salvation by the three persons in the 
 Godhead, are essential, all-important requisites of all true 
 godliness and of all christian virtue. Without dwelling on 
 other evidences that might be adduced to the same purpose, 
 we shall only add, that so far as concerns the establishment 
 of the kingdom of Christ on this earth, when at length 
 Christ possesses the glory and dominion ascribed and prayed 
 for to Him, as the result and reward of His having loved 
 His people, and washed them from their sins in His blood, 
 and made them kings and priests unto God and His Father, 
 this kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost shall owe its consummation to the bestowment 
 of the blessings supplicated from the three- one God — to 
 " grace and peace from Him which is, and which was, and 
 which is to come ; and from the seven Spirits which are 
 before His throne ; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faith- 
 ful Witness, and the first-begotten of the dead, and the 
 Prince of the kings of the earth." ^ And indisputably the 
 same Triune Jehovah shall be adored in the ascriptions 
 for ever made by the redeemed in heaven of " salvation 
 to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb." ^ 
 
 1 Rev. i. - Rev. vii. 
 
36 The Three- One God. 
 
 Second, Do not fancy you can safely shelter yourselves 
 from your duty to the three- one God by the mystery of His 
 being. Mystery ! What is not full of mystery ? The 
 bread you eat is full of mysteries ; yet you eat and live by 
 it. The water you drink is full of mysteries ; yet you refresh 
 and purify your frames by it. The air you breathe is full 
 of mysteries ; but you do not the less use it as a means of 
 life. The shining light is full of mysteries ; but you do not 
 on that account refuse its guiding and enlivening beams. 
 The heavens over your heads are full of mysteries ; but you 
 do not therefore the less ascertain, as far as possible, the 
 laws that govern them, for your own instruction and guid- 
 ance. The earth on which you tread is full of mysteries ; 
 but you do not therefore the less pry into its ascertainable 
 secrets, because there may be myriads that are impenetrable. 
 The future is for you, and for all, full of mystery ; but are you 
 on that account to shut eternity, heaven, and hell from your 
 thoughts ? Your present life is full of mystery ; but are 
 you therefore daily to spend it in utter forgetfulness of the 
 warning that it will profit a man nothing if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his soul ? All things are full of mys- 
 tery ; but they are also more or less filled with revealed 
 facts and realities ; and it were madness not to make use of 
 these facts and realities because of so much in all things 
 that is beyond your ken. So, as regards the mysteries of 
 the divine nature and workings, enough is revealed to 
 awe, instruct, enlighten, renew, control, and bless for ever, 
 the simplest souls that are willing to receive the truth. If 
 you are to live before Him, and to live for ever with Him, 
 you must now know Him as He is revealed and related to 
 all who believe in and experience the redemption of the 
 gospel. In that case, God the Father is your reconciled 
 and gracious God and Father in Christ Jesus ; God the 
 Son, as incarnate, is your God and Eedeemer ; and God 
 
The Three- One God. 37 
 
 the Holy Ghost is your indwelling Sanctifier. " Know thou 
 then the God of thy fathers, and serve Him with a perfect 
 heart and with a willing mind ; for the Lord searcheth all 
 hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the 
 thoughts. If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee ; but 
 if thou forsake Him, he will cast thee off for ever." ^ 
 
 ^ I Chron. xxviii. 
 
III. 
 
 THE KELATIONS OF CHRIST WITHIN THE 
 GODHEAD. 
 
 " 111 the beginning was THE WORD, and the Word was ivith God, and 
 THE Word ivas God. The same was in the beginning with God." — 
 John i. i. "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 
 Father.'" — John i. i8. "My beloved Son." — Matt. iii. 17. "His 
 dear Son."— Col. i. 13. " The brightness of hls glory and the 
 
 EXPRESS image OF HIS PERSON." — HEB. i. 3. "The IMAGE OF THE 
 
 INVISIBLE God."— Col, i. 15. " In the form of God." — Phil. ii. 6. 
 
 THE revelations in Holy Scripture concerning the divinity 
 of Christ, and concerning His relations to the Eather 
 and the Holy Ghost within the Godhead, are of the deepest 
 importance ; for with His personal character and position, 
 as the second person of the Triune Jehovah, are bound up 
 God's perfection and blessedness ; the execution of the 
 divine purposes is committed to the Son; the works of 
 creation and providence are His works ; and the whole 
 scheme of redemption is given into His hands. From the 
 beginning of time the government of the world and of the 
 Church was carried on by Him for four thousand years, to 
 prepare for His advent. By His incarnation in the fulness 
 of time, by His personal ministry on earth, and His obedience 
 unto death, by His rising again, and His exaltation to the 
 right hand of the Father, He has secured the present and 
 eternal salvation of all the redeemed. As Head of the 
 Church, and Head over all things for the Church's sake, He 
 has, and wields, all power in heaven and on earth. Every 
 blessing, as such, comes through the channel of His blood. 
 The proper motive to every duty, and the power to perform 
 it, are found in His grace. Every saint is in His keeping ; 
 every sinner is under His absolute control. The fate of 
 
Christ within the Godhead. 
 
 39 
 
 nations hangs on His breath. The Churches that are faith- 
 less perish in His anger. His true kingdom shall advance 
 until it fills the earth. The great day shall find Him on 
 the judgment- seat, with the whole human race on eitlier 
 side of Him, receiving their sentence of welcome or of woe. 
 Angels adore Him as the determiner of their destiny, and 
 devils feel His resistless power, and are finally shut up by 
 Him in darkness and fire. And the absolute eternity that 
 follows all His previous dispensations shall be filled with 
 the services and songs of the unfallen and the ransomed 
 myriads that worship at His feet. If such are the relations 
 of Christ to the created universe, as the Maker of all things 
 and the Eedeemer of ransomed men, in order to see aright 
 the foundation of all these relationships, it is to the last degree 
 important to ascertain, understand, and hold fast the doctrine 
 of Scripture concerning His divine nature and His place 
 within the Godhead. 
 
 As regards the divinity of Christ, the Scriptures bear 
 testimony to two things : first, they furnish clear and con- 
 clusive evidence that He is a divine person ; and, second, 
 they indicate by the titles and terms applied to Him the 
 relations in which He eternally is to the other persons of 
 the Godhead, the Father and the Holy Spirit. 
 
 As to the first of these topics, the Scripture evidence 
 that He is a divine person, the direct proofs are such as 
 these: — The Names of God ake given to Him. He is 
 called " God ; " " God blessed for ever ; " the true God ; the 
 great God ; " the mighty God ;" " Jehovah on His throne high 
 and lifted up." ^ The perfections of God are ascribed to 
 Him. He is " the first and the last ; ^ Almighty ; ^ Omni- 
 scient ; * Omnipresent ; ^ immutable.^ The WORKS OF God are 
 
 1 Rom. ix, ; l John v. ; Tit. ii. ; Isa. ix. ; Isa. vi. Comp. John xii. 
 
 2 Rev. i. ■* Rev. ii. ' Matt, xviii. ^ Heb. xiii. 
 
 3 Rev. i. 
 
40 CJij'ist zvithin the Godhead. 
 
 PERFOKMED BY HiM. He is the Creator, the Preserver, and 
 the Governor of the universe} And the worship belonging 
 TO God only belongs to Christ, and is given to Him : 
 " All men should honour the Son, even as the Father;" ^ "Let 
 all the angels of God worship Him ; " ^ " Blessing, and honour, 
 and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." * 
 
 At present, let us confine our attention to the other topic 
 I have mentioned as set forth in Scripture, viz., the 
 eternal relations of Christ within the divine nature — His 
 relations to the Father and the Holy Ghost. There are 
 various titles and terms applied to Christ in the Bible, which, 
 while implying His divinity, describe so far His relations 
 to the Father and the Holy Spirit within the Godhead. 
 
 I. He is " the Word." 
 
 I. The meaning of this statement. The words of men 
 are the expressions of their thoughts, and Christ, as the 
 Word, is the expression of the entire nature of God. And 
 so, as the Word, He is eternal and self-existing : " In the 
 beginning was the Word." ^ When creation began, He 
 already was ; He was not created ; He was in the be- 
 ginning, and therefore had no beginning ; He existed 
 eternally. He is the self-existing One. The Word and 
 God co-exist : " The Word was tuith God." They exist 
 together ; the Word eternally shared with God the divine 
 nature. The Word is essentially and personally divine : 
 " He was God." He is the same in substance with the 
 Father, and equal in power and glory. The Word is 
 eternally distinct from God ; that is, from God the Father, 
 as well as from God the Holy Spirit : " The same was in the 
 beginning with God," He has a personal subsistence in the 
 
 1 John i. ; Col. i. ; Heb. i. » Heb. L * John i. 
 
 - John V. ■* Rev. v. 
 
Christ within the Godhead. 41 
 
 Godhead, distinct from the personal subsistence of the other 
 persons in it : He and the Father and the Holy Ghost are 
 three distinct persons in the one God. 
 
 2. The 'practical importance of the statement. . The Bible 
 sets forth this view of Christ as full of instruotidn, warn- 
 ing, and encouragement. 
 
 As " the Word of God," Christ reveals the invisible Deity 
 in the works of creation : " All things were made by Him " 
 (that is, by Christ as the Word), " and without Him was not 
 anything made that was made." ^ 
 
 In the same character of the Word, Christ, as the Ee- 
 deemer, is the life and light of men. To be the Redeemer, 
 "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we 
 beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the 
 Father, full of grace and truth." ^ The inspired writings 
 are His luritten word, which, as accompanied by His own 
 divine presence and power, Christ, as the personal Word, 
 renders profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and in- 
 struction in righteousness. That written word is thus made 
 by Him quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged 
 sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and 
 spirit, and proving a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
 of the heart ; until, under its power, under His power, put 
 forth in it and by it, the spiritually dead are quickened 
 and made alive, the proud are humbled, the hardest hearts 
 are softened, the most self-deceived have their own character 
 and condition revealed before their eyes, and fall down be- 
 fore Him and acknowledge that as the personal Word He is 
 in His written word, of a truth. 
 
 Not only in the salvation of those who thus receive Him, 
 but in the overthrow of all who reject Him, Christ acts as 
 the resistless Word. John saw Him in vision, on a white 
 
 1 John i. - John i. 
 
42 Christ within the Godhead. 
 
 horse, as the faithful and true, judging and making war in 
 righteousness, with eyes as a flame of fire, and many crowns 
 upon His head, and a vesture dipped in blood, followed by 
 the armies of heaven, and with the sharp two-edged sword 
 of His written revelations going out of His mouth, that 
 with it He may smite the nations, and rule them with a 
 rod of iron, and tread them in the wine-press of the fierce- 
 ness and wrath of Almighty God. And in this still pending 
 conflict, in which the enemies of His kingdom shall look so 
 formidable because of their numbers, rank, resources, and 
 power, and because of the earthly wisdom, the superstition, 
 the spiritual delusions, the craft and the malignity, that are 
 combined against Him, the name by which He is called 
 and known in the army of the faithful who follow Him is 
 that of " THE Word of God." In that name He shall by 
 His crushing victories justify the additional name that is 
 seen written on His vesture and thigh, " King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords." ^ 
 
 II. The divinity of Christ and His relations within the 
 Godhead are set forth in His title of the Son of God, and 
 in the characteristics of His Sonship as the only-legotte.n Son; 
 the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father ; 
 His " beloved Son ; " and His " dear Son." 
 
 I. He is "the Son of God," and the most impressive 
 manifestations and evidences of His divine perfections and 
 glory are associated with His name as the Son of God. 
 ( I .) John wrote His Gospel " that ye might believe that 
 Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have 
 life through His name."^ (2.) The Jews declared, and Jesus 
 never denied, that in calling God His Father He made 
 Himself equal with God.^ (3.) As the Son, He is one in 
 
 1 Rev. xix. 2 John XX. * John v. 
 
Christ within the Godhead. 45 
 
 nature and in jiintnal in-leing with the Father : " The Father 
 is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, and they are 
 onc."^ (4.) Being the Son, Christ is " the true God and 
 eternal life." ^ (5.) As the Son, He is unsearchable: "No 
 man knoweth who the Son is but the Father."' (6.) As the 
 Son, He has perfect knowledge of the Father : " As the Father 
 knoweth me, even so know I the Father."^ (7.) The Father 
 and the Son are one in worlcing : " My Father worketh 
 hitherto, and I work ; what things soever the Father doefh, 
 these also doeth the Son likewise."^ (8.) The Father lovcth 
 the Son with an altogether peculiar love, with a love with 
 which His love to His creatures cannot be compared : " Thou 
 lovedst me hefore the foundation of the world ; "^ He is " in 
 the bosom of the Father ; "^ " The Father showeth Him all 
 things that He Himself doeth ;"^ " The Father loveth the 
 Son, and hath given all things into His hands."® (9.) The 
 gift which God has made of His Son infinitely exceeds all 
 other possible gifts ; and no other love, even in God, is to 
 be compared with that which this gift displays : " God so 
 loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," &c.;^" 
 " He that spared not His own Son, ... how shall He not 
 with Him also freely give us all things ?"^^ (10.) The 
 divine glory was manifested in special connection with the 
 Sonship when His glory was beheld as the glory of the 
 only-begotten of the Father,^^ and when " from the excellent 
 glory on the mount " of transfiguration the Father's voice 
 was heard saying, "This is my beloved Son."^^ (11.) To 
 Christ as the Son of God belongs life-giving power : "As the 
 Father quickeneth the dead, even so the Son quickeneth 
 whom He will."^"^ (12.) To Him, as the Son of God, belongs 
 
 1 John X. 
 
 * John X. 
 
 8 John xvii. 
 
 12 John i. 
 
 2 I John V. 
 
 6 John V. 
 
 * John iii. 
 
 13 2 Pet. i. 
 
 3 Luke X. 
 
 * John xvii. 
 
 I* John iii. 
 
 w John V. 
 
 
 7 John i. 
 
 ^' Rom. viii. 
 
 
44 Chidst within the Godhead. 
 
 the knoivledge of things that are seen hy no mortal eye : " When 
 thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. . . . Thou art 
 the Son of God.""^ (i3-) ^s the Son of God, He sends the 
 Spirit : " He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost ... is 
 the Sou of God."^ (14.) By Christ, as the Son of God, 
 alone are men made to know the Father : " No man hath 
 seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, who is in 
 the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him ; "^ " He 
 that hath seen me hath seen the Father."^ In short, (15.) 
 to confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the sum of 
 all duty and the source of all blessedness : " This is His 
 commandment " (as if there were no other, or rather because 
 it includes all others), " This is His commandment, that ye 
 believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ ; "^ " Whoso- 
 ever believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth 
 in him, and he in God;"^ "He that believeth that Jesus 
 is the Son of God overcometh the world;"' "This is the 
 record that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is 
 in His Son ; " " He that hath the Son hath life ; "^ " He 
 that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."^ 
 
 Thus every divine prerogative and work of the Eedeemer 
 are so bound up with His Sonship as to show that it had a 
 far higher origin than His incarnation ; that He was the 
 Son of God lefore the world was made, or time began, or 
 any creature existed ; that His Sonship belongs to Him 
 eternally, to His nature and subsistence as the second per- 
 son in the Godhead, as the uncreated God ; that, in short, 
 it is a divine, eternal Sonship. 
 
 2. This view of Christ's Sonship is confirmed by the 
 terms employed in Scripture to characterise Him as the Son 
 of God. For— 
 
 * John i. * John xiv. ^ i John iv. ^ I John v. 
 
 - John i. * I John iii. ^ i John v. ^ John viii. 
 
 3 John i. 
 
Christ within the Godhead. 45 
 
 First, He is " the onhj-hegotten " Son of God/ Not 
 because God's immediate jpower formed His human body in 
 His virgin mother, for similar acts of power formed Adam's 
 body from the dust of the earth, and Eve's out of a rib 
 taken from Adam's side, and have indeed called all crea- 
 tures into being; and, besides, in reference to the body 
 which Christ thus received. He is called " the Son of man," 
 from which fact the proper inference is that it is rather 
 with reference to the fact and the manner of the divine 
 nature eternally flowing to Him from the Father, and within 
 the Godhead, that He is termed " the o^LY-hegotten " Son of 
 God. The angel, indeed, said to Mary, " The power of the 
 Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy 
 thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of 
 God ;"^ but that does not mean that the whole Sonship of 
 Christ originated in or commenced with His incarnation; 
 on the contrary, as the overshadowing refers to the cloud of 
 glory in which the Divine Eedeemer so long dwelt above 
 the mercy-seat, and as He is elsewhere called " the Power 
 of God," and may here be called " the Power of the Highest," 
 so the promise in these words may be taken to mean that 
 when the Holy Spirit prepared in Mary a body for the 
 Divine Eedeemer, He would take it into union with His 
 divine person, and so her offspring would, in respect of His 
 divinity, be called the Son of God. The title " only-legotten " 
 may thus be considered as applying, not to His human 
 nature, but to His divine ; and as applying to His divine 
 nature because of His eternal generation from the Father, 
 a generation which is peculiar to Himself, and in virtue of 
 which He is of the Father, fovm the Father, with the Father, 
 This view of the title is strengthened by the fact that it is 
 in connection, not with ordinary matters, but only with 
 
 ^ John i. 3 ; I John iv. ^ Luke i. 
 
46 Christ within the Godhead. 
 
 great realities that the title is used. Thus, to express God's 
 unsearchableness, the intimacy of the Father and the Son, the 
 perfect manifestation of the Deity in Christ, and the majesty 
 of gospel truth, it is said, " No man hath seen God at any- 
 time ; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 
 Father, He hath declared Him." -^ To exalt the glory of " the 
 WoKD made flesh," it is styled " the glory as of the only- 
 begotten of the Father."^ To give the highest possible view 
 of the love of God, it is said, " In this was manifested the 
 love of God toward us, because that God sent His only- 
 begotten Son, that we might live through Him ; "^ and to 
 proclaim His divine existence before He appeared in our 
 nature on earth, to set forth His human nature as but 
 the earthly tabernacle of His divine majesty, and to describe 
 such displays as He made of His sovereign power and mercy, 
 in saying to the stormy sea, " Peace, be still ; " to the diseased 
 leper, " I will, be thou clean ; " to the trustful paralytic, 
 " Thy sins be forgiven thee," it is said, " The Woed was 
 made flesh, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the 
 only-begotten of the Father;" that is, we beheld in Him 
 such glory as became Him who eternally dwelt in the un- 
 created light as one with the Father, as His co-equal and 
 co-eternal Son. 
 
 Second, As the only-begotten Son He " is in the hosom of 
 the Father." These words express the most intimate rela- 
 tion and the tenderest affection between the Father and 
 the Son. They express the Son's perfect oneness with the 
 Father, His consequent direct, full, and everlasting insight 
 into the divine nature, and a corresponding love to the 
 Father, which is as infinite as are the perfections which 
 occasion this love. 
 
 Third, He is " God's dear Son,"* and " the Father's 
 
 1 John i. " John i. ^ I John iv. ^ Col. i. 
 
Christ witlmi the Godhead. 47 
 
 heloved Son."^ The only proper interpretation of these 
 phrases is, that being God's co-equal, co-eternal Son, He is 
 the infinite object of the Father's infinite love. The whole 
 love of God, His boundless love, finds in His Son a bound- 
 less object, and so a capacity to contain and to comprehend 
 it all, as well as an object worthy of it all. And so it seems 
 to be eminently on account of the Father's love to the Son 
 that it is said of the Deity in His own Word, " God is 
 Love." 
 
 3. We cannot overrate the practical importance to our- 
 selves of knowing and believing in Jesus Christ as thus 
 " the Son of God," the owlj -leg otten, the " dear " and " he- 
 loved" Son of God, who is in the losom of the Father. ( i) As 
 such. He it is that reveals God to us; for as no man knoweth 
 the Son but the Father, so " no man knoweth who the Father 
 is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him."" 
 " No man hath seen God at any time ; the ouly-begotten 
 Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared 
 Him." ' Hence His words, " 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 this is life eternal, that they 
 might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
 thou hast sent," &c.* (2) The Son of God is the only way for 
 us to the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of God. Says He, " I 
 am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the 
 Father but by me ; " ^ " Whosoever denieth the Son, the 
 same hath not the Father." ^ To know the Son of God and 
 to believe in Him brings us into a gracious relationship to 
 the Father : " If ye had known me, ye should have known 
 my Father also. ... He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father also." ^ (3) The Sonship of Christ is a ground of perfect 
 
 ^ Matt. iii. * John i. ^ John ii. 
 
 - Luke X. ■* John xvii. '' John xiv. 
 
 ^ John xiv. 
 
48 Christ within the Godhead. 
 
 confidence in the all-sufficiency of His redeeming work : " As 
 the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father ; and I 
 lay down my life for the sheep ; . . . therefore doth my 
 Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may 
 take it again. No man taketh it from me ; I have power to 
 lay it down, and I have power to take it again : this com- 
 mandment have I received of my Father." ^ (4) His Sonshi}) 
 sustains the faith of believers : " We know that the Son of 
 God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we 
 may know Him that is true ; and we are in Him that is 
 true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ ; this is the true God, 
 and eternal Life." ^ Hence (5 ) the certain salvation of all who 
 believe in Christ as the Son of God and the Eedeemer ; for 
 " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life."^ And hence (6) the importance, the pre- 
 ciousness of the Bible as the written Word of God to tts ; for 
 " these things are written that ye may believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might 
 have life through His name." * 
 
 It is well remarked by Treffrey, to whom we are indebted 
 for a number of our present observations, that these two 
 titles of Christ, " the Word of God " and " the Son of God," 
 combine to give a more complete view than either of them, 
 separately, would have afforded of His relations within the 
 Godhead. They alike suggest, indeed, the idea of relations 
 within the Godhead, and the further idea of a production 
 flowing from a producer within it. But while the idea of 
 distinct personal subsistence in the Deity is not suggested 
 by the title " tlie Word of God," this idea is involved in the 
 title the Son of God. Again, while the absolute oneness of 
 the Deity is but obscurely conveyed by the title " the Son 
 
 1 John X. - I John v. ^ jo^n iii. 
 
 * John XX. 
 
Christ withiji the Godhead. 
 
 49 
 
 of God," that oneness is more clearly set forth in the title, 
 ' the Word of God.' Further, while the title, ' the WoiiD 
 of God,' sets forth a relation within the Godhead of an intd- 
 lectual character, the title ' the Son of God ' sets forth the 
 active love, and the occasions for its exercise, eternally exist- 
 ing in the essence of the Deity. And still further, as 
 regards the fact, that the different persons in the Godhead 
 are the same in substance, and equal in power and glory, 
 while that fact is not so manifestly exhibited in the title 
 of Christ as the Son of God, it is clearly suggested by His 
 title of " the Word of God." 
 
 III. Other terms, akin to those already dwelt upon, are 
 employed in Scripture, to set forth the relation of Christ, 
 as a divine person, to the other persons in the Godhead. 
 Thus— 
 
 First, He is called " the brightness of God's glory." " God 
 is light," and Christ is that light shining out. The glory 
 which is the source and centre, and the brightness flowing 
 from it, eternally exist together. The sun in the heavens 
 and its radiating beams are the same light ; and the Father 
 and the Son are the same in substance. Eternally begotten 
 of the Father, the Son is of the same essence with the 
 Father, as the light of the sun is of the same essence with 
 the sun itself. Yet the rays are distinct from the sun ; and 
 Christ, as the Son of God, is distinct from God the Father. 
 But as the natural sun cannot exist without the brightness 
 that flows from it, and the brightness cannot exist without 
 the fountain from which it flows, so the flrst person in the 
 Godhead, the Father, cannot exist without the Second, the 
 Son; or the second, the Son, without the Father, the first. 
 Thus the Father and the Son are alike everlasting. They 
 are alike uncreated and eternal. 
 
 Second, Christ is called " the express image of God's per- 
 
 D 
 
50 Ch7'ist within the Godhead. 
 
 son," ^ and " the hnagt of the invisible God. " ^ The coin 
 takes the likeness of the die ; the wax the likeness of the 
 seal ; and in either case the correspondence is exact in 
 respect of the whole likeness, and of each of its parts : and 
 so there is a perfect likeness between the Son of God, as 
 the image of the Father, and the Father's person or substance. 
 The Son answers to the Father, as the form in the wax 
 to the seal ; He is the perfect image of the Father ; in respect 
 of power, wisdom, and goodness, and other perfections. He is 
 one with the Father ; in other words, He is of the same 
 nature ; He is the exact resemblance of the Father's sub- 
 stance, of His eternal, infinite, ineffable essence : " the image 
 of the invisible God ; " a likeness in which He existed before 
 anything was created, and when God alone existed as Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
 Third, and finally, He is set forth in Philip, ii. as " in 
 the form of God." Although the word translated "form " 
 properly denotes the shape or outline of an object, and not 
 directly its substance or nature ; yet it presupposes the 
 nature of which the form is the manifestation, just as the 
 figure or shadow of any object implies a body or substance 
 which determines the figure or outline. To say then that 
 Christ had the form of God, is to say that He had the 
 nature of God ; just as to say, as it is immediately after- 
 wards said by the Apostle, that " He took the form of a 
 servant" is to say that He took the nature as well as the 
 place of a servant. Hence the force of the whole sentence, 
 Being in the form of God, He counted it not robbery to he 
 equal with God. That is, as the clause may be translated, 
 He did not deem His equality with God a thing to grasp 
 at ; He did not refuse to part with the outward manifesta- 
 tion of His Godhead ; He willingly veiled it under a human 
 
 1 Heb. i. 2 Col. i. 
 
Christ within the Godhead. 51 
 
 form, by taking our nature and appearing as " the Son of 
 Man" upon the earth. 
 
 We have already noticed the practical importance of a 
 due knowledge and remembrance of Christ as the eternal 
 Word and Son of God. Not less manifest is the practical 
 value of a spiritual sight and apprehension of Him as " the 
 brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of 
 His person," and as " in the form of God." As sinners we 
 are lost and need salvation. Christ is revealed as our 
 Redeemer. But we may be ready to say, What is there in 
 His lowly condition, and suffering life, and final crucifixion, 
 to bring us to Him for the salvation that we need ? The 
 answer is, that because of what He did and endured in our 
 nature, in connection with what was veiled behind and under 
 His humanity, there is everything in Christ to fix and rivet 
 our attention, to draw out our desires and longings toward 
 Him, to awaken and sustain our confidence in His grace and 
 power, and to render Him the supreme object of our reve- 
 rence and love, our gratitude and joy. For in this wearer 
 of the form of a servant we behold Him who was in the 
 form of God. In this man of sorrows we see the brightness 
 of the uncreated glory. In this servant of the Father, 
 whose visage was so marred more than any man, and His 
 form more than the sons of men, we behold the express 
 image of the Father's person. His actual power to save us, 
 as a Eedeemer, therefore, is equal to His apparent weakness. 
 His glory in saving us is equal to the shame which He 
 suffered in our behalf. His blood, which He poured out as a 
 sacrifice, is precious and powerful enough to cleanse us from 
 all sia The obedience which He rendered for us, furnishes 
 to us a resistless title to all the blessings of the divine 
 favour and of eternal life. His intercession within the vail 
 saves to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. His 
 throne in the heavens makes all things work together for 
 
5 2 Christ witJiin the Godhead. 
 
 good to His redeemed, and secures to them the fittest place 
 in all the universe for their perpetually showing forth the 
 praises of God. The light of the knowledge of the divine 
 glory shining into them from the face of Christ, prepares 
 them for the greatest possible nearness for ever to the God 
 of glory. And Christ's fulness of grace and truth as the 
 only begotten of the Father, out of which they are filled, at 
 length prepares them for finding their own fulness of joy in 
 God's immediate presence, and pleasures at his right hand 
 for evermore. 
 
 The titles and terms applied to Christ in Scripture, which 
 we have in this discourse endeavoured to explain, not only 
 combine to furnish conclusive evidence of His supreme 
 divinity, and an impressive view of His personal relation 
 to the Father and to the Holy Spirit within the Godhead ; 
 they do more : they cast a flood of light on the work of 
 Christ as the Eedeemer, and on our solemn and affecting and 
 eventful relations to that work. They show the force of the 
 words, " This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the 
 only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent ; " 
 " He that hath the Son, hath life ; he that hath not the 
 Son, hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him ; " 
 " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eter- 
 nal life, and they are they which testify of me." " The tes- 
 timony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy : " " Whosoever 
 denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father ; " " Whoso- 
 ever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth 
 in him, and he in God." 
 
 Considering who Christ is, the declaration is seen to be a 
 just and necessary one, " No man can say that Jesus is Lord 
 but by the Holy Ghost." When any man, with a spiritiial 
 discernment and love of the truth which he expresses, can 
 say, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," to 
 that man Christ is saying, " Blessed art thou, for flesh and 
 
Christ witJiin the Godhead. 
 
 blood liath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which 
 is in heaven." 
 
 Here, too, comes into view the preciousness of Christ's 
 word. " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send 
 unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which 
 proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me. . . . 
 He will guide you into all truth. . . . He shall glorify me; 
 for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 
 
 Finally, if after all that is thus revealed concerning Christ, 
 He continues to be regarded by any to whom these words 
 have come, " as a root out of a dry ground," and as " with- 
 out form or comeliness," and they still " see no beauty in 
 Him why they should desire Him," such fatal blindness and 
 insensibility ought to alarm them, and rouse them up to cry 
 mightily to Him for His Spirit, to come, and, through the 
 Word, reveal to them the things that concern His person 
 and His work, until with their whole mind and heart they 
 cling to Him, and rest upon Him, in faith and love, in 
 gratitude and gladness. 
 
 And the life-long business of all whose eyes are divinely 
 opened on His greatness, and whose hearts are tilled with 
 experience of His redeeming love, is to grow in grace and in 
 the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and 
 to be daily preparing to dwell and to serve for ever in the 
 presence of His glory. 
 
IV. 
 
 RELATION OF CHRIST TO CREATION, AS ITS 
 MAKER AND PRESERVER. 
 
 "All things were made by Him ; and without Him Avas not any thing 
 made that was made." — John i. 3. 
 
 T>Y whom is it here said that all things were made ? By 
 -^ " the Word," who " was in the beginning," who " was 
 with God," who " was God," and who " was in the beginning 
 with God." He Himself is before all things, that is, before 
 all created things ; the uncreated, everlasting, self-existing 
 One, as are the Father and the Holy Ghost ; the second person 
 of the Triune Jehovah ; the eternal Word of God ; the only 
 begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. " All 
 things were made by Him ; and without Him was not any 
 thing made that was made." 
 
 Creation springs from what may be called the blessed 
 necessity on the divine nature to communicate itself. " God 
 is Light ; " and it is of the nature of light to diffuse its 
 brightness. " God is Love ; " and love does not coop itself 
 up, but flows forth by a necessity of its nature. This in- 
 clination in the divine nature to communicate itself operates 
 everlastingly, in the generation of the eternal Son from the 
 eternal Father, and in the procession of the eternal Spirit 
 from the Father and the Son. These three divine persons, 
 who are the one living and true God, have from all eternity 
 a mutual fellowship of light and love ; of which, all the 
 communion which created spirits can have with God, or 
 with each other, is but a faint and shadowy resemblance. 
 
 The glory of God, as thus infinitely perfect and infinitely 
 
Christ the Creator. 5 5 
 
 blessed, required the making of creatures in His own image, 
 to contemplate, reflect, and enjoy His glory. " Thou art 
 worthy, Lord ! to receive glory, and honour, and power ; 
 for Thou hast created all things ; and for Thy pleasure they 
 are and were created." In this work of creation, no doubt, 
 each person of the Godhead performed His part. The 
 Father did so, for " have we not all one Father ? Hath 
 not one God created us?"^ So did the Holy Spirit; for 
 " The Spirit of God hath made me." ^ " Thou sendest 
 forth Thy Spirit, they are created ; and Thou renewest the 
 face of the earth." ^ But it specially devolved on the eternal 
 " Word," and " Son of God," to carry forth the divine per- 
 fections from within the divine nature, and to stamp them, 
 so far as that was possible, on the works that were created 
 and made. " For by Him were created all things that are 
 in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, 
 whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
 powers ; all things were created by Him, and for Him ; and 
 He is before all things ; and by Him all things consist."* 
 
 Let us consider shortly the natural relations of Christ to 
 the created universe, and then some of the more important 
 practical reflections which they suggest. 
 
 L The Natural Relations of Christ to the created 
 Universe. 
 
 I. Christ is the maker of all things. " For by Him were 
 all things created that are in heaven and in earth." ^ 
 All things, literally all things great and small, all things 
 that are found in existence, all derived their being from 
 Christ. The meanest insect, and the mightiest of the 
 heavenly host, equally owe to Christ, receive from Him, 
 the existence which they have. The relation which all 
 
 1 Malachi ii. ^ Ps. civ. s Qq\ i 
 
 2 Job xxxiii. ■• Col. i. i6, 17, 18. 
 
56 Christ the Creator. 
 
 things have to their Creator is a relation which they have 
 to God alone. Tor in the beginning God created the 
 heavens and the earth.^ He is " the great God that formed 
 all things." ^ " Thou, even Thou, art Jehovah alone ; Thou 
 hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host ; 
 the earth and all things that are therein ; the sea and all 
 that is therein ; and Thou preservest them all, and the host 
 of heaven worshippeth Thee." ^ Yet Christ is He " by whom 
 and for whom all things were created." He, therefore, is 
 the God of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, to whom 
 all creatures owe their being, and to whom they are bound 
 to dedicate all that they are and have. 
 
 2. Christ is the preservek of all things. " By Him all 
 things consist ; " * " upholding all things by the Word of 
 His power." ^ In order to His acting as the preserver of all 
 things, Christ must be omniscient. He must know all 
 things in order that He may be continually and thoroughly 
 acquainted with all His creatures and all their circumstances, 
 and thus provide for their wants, and preserve them in their 
 appointed lots, and in their acting out their appointed 
 destiny. He requires also to be possessed of omnipotence ; 
 possessed of a power that pervades and upholds all the 
 works of His creative hand, and regulates and controls all 
 their movements, and retains them in entire and perpetual 
 subjection to His will. And He needs not less to be all- 
 ivise, in order to assign to them their endlessly varied posi- 
 tions, and the endlessly varied capacities by which they are 
 fitted to fill their positions, and to serve the ends of their 
 creation. 
 
 3. Christ is the OWNER of all things. Creation belongs 
 to its Maker. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
 thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein; for He 
 
 1 Gen. i. » Neh. ix. » Heb. i. 
 
 * Prov. xxvi. 10. * Col. i. 
 
CJu'ist the Creator. 5 7 
 
 hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the 
 floods.-^ But " all things were made by the Word," by the 
 Word that was " made flesh and dwelt among us," that is, 
 by Christ. " All things were made by Him, and without 
 Him was not anything made that was made." And so, on 
 that as well as on other accounts, He says, " All things 
 which the Father hath are mine ; " ^ and again He says to 
 the Father, " All mine are Thine, and Thine are mine." ^ 
 
 4. Christ is the divine kuler of the universe. " He has 
 all power in heaven and on earth ; " * He is " Governor 
 among the nations." ^ " King of kings and Lord of lords." ® 
 " God over all blessed for ever." ^ " The head of all prin- 
 cipality and power." ^ He hath " a name that is above 
 every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should 
 bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
 under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that 
 Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." ^ " It 
 is the goodness of Christ that prompts, and His justice that 
 directs, and His knowledge that discerns, and His power 
 that executes, whatever is right, wise, and good, and prevents 
 whatever is not." ""^ It was Christ who, as the Supreme 
 Euler, gave the law from Sinai.^^ It is His Spirit who 
 hath inspired the Scriptures as the word, according to 
 which men shall be justified or condemned. It was Christ 
 that Isaiah saw as Jehovah on the Throne high and lifted 
 up.^^ It is Christ who is about to judge the world in right- 
 eousness.^^ Angels and principalities and powers are made 
 subject to Him.^^ Every creature which is in heaven and 
 on earth is to ascribe to Him blessing, and honour, and 
 glory, and power.^^ 
 
 1 Ps. xxiv. 5 pg_ xxii. 9 Phil. ii. ^^ Acts xvii. 
 
 2 John xvi. 8 Rev. xix. ^" Dwight. " i Peter iii. 
 2 John xvii. '' Rom. ix. " Ps. Ixviii. ; Eph. iv. ^^ Rev. v. 
 
 ^ Matt, xxviii. * Col. ii. 1=* Isa. vi. ; John xii. 
 
58 Christ the Creator. 
 
 5. To Christ as Creator, Preserver, Owner, and Euler of 
 all things, as well as to Christ as Eedeemer, all homage from 
 all creatures is due. 
 
 The universe is made, upheld, and governed for the glory 
 of Christ. All things were " created for Him," as well as 
 " by Him."^ He is " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and 
 the ending, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the 
 Almighty."^ But it is "Jehovah" who "has made all 
 things for Himself" ^ And as all things are made by 
 Christ, and for Himself, He is and must be Jehovah, to 
 whom all glory from the universe is due. 
 
 And the glory due to Christ is rendered willingly by the 
 good, unwillingly by the evil. " All men are required to 
 honour Him as they honour the Father." ^ All the angels 
 of God are required to worship Him.* " Every knee shall 
 bow to Him, and every tongue shall confess Him Lord." ^ 
 Abraham worshipped Christ under the tree at Mamre.^ 
 Manoah and his wife worshipped Him.^ David worshipped 
 Him.^ The seraphim worship Him.^" Stephen, when being 
 martyred, worshipped Him.^^ Paul worshipped Him.^^ John 
 worshipped Him.-'^ All Christians worship Him in bap- 
 tism.^* All Christians worship Him in the prayer that con- 
 cludes their public assemblies.^* All Christians are known 
 by their calling on His name.^^ The whole Church is 
 commended to own Him as her Lord, and to worship Him." 
 And " every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
 and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
 are in them " are to be heard saying, " Blessing, and honour, 
 and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." ^^ 
 
 1 Col. i. 
 
 « Phil. ii. 
 
 " Acts vii. 
 
 IS 2 Cor. 13. 
 
 2 Rev. i. 
 
 ^ Gen. xviii. 
 
 i« I Thes. iii. 11, 
 
 12 ; 2 Cor. xii. 8. 
 
 3 Prov. xvi. 4. 
 
 ® Judg. xii. 
 
 ^3 2 John iii. 
 
 16 Acts ix. 14. 
 
 * John V. 
 
 » Ps. xlv., Ixxii., 
 
 , cii. 
 
 17 Ps. xlv. 
 
 s Heb. i. 6. 
 
 " Isa. vi. 
 
 " Matt, xxviii. 
 
 18 Rev. 5. 
 
Christ the Creator. 59 
 
 Title, of First-Born. 
 
 6. There is a title given to Christ in Scripture which, 
 while it implies His divinity and His place within the God- 
 head, more properly describes His place as first the Head of 
 all creation, and next the Head of the redeemed. The title 
 is that of " the first-begotten," or " the first-born of every 
 creature," and " the first-born from the dead." 
 
 This title of " first-born," " first-born of every creature," 
 does not directly set forth His eternal generation as the 
 Son of God, for in that generation no one else has any part. 
 In respect of it He is not " the _^rsi{-begotten," but " the only- 
 begotten of the Father." Neither does the title apply to 
 His taking His human nature of the Virgin Mary, for 
 though " her first-born," that would not have made Him 
 " the first-born," " the first-born of every creature." So that 
 the title of " first-born " is not applied to Christ in virtue 
 of the origin of either His divine or His human generation. 
 
 The meaning of the title in question seems to be this. 
 The first-born of a family was looked to as the head of the 
 family, and the heir of all the inheritance, and in that way 
 had a pre-eminence over all the other members of the 
 family, and so the pre-eminence of Christ over all things 
 is indicated by his title of " the first-born." This, accord- 
 ingly, is the view given of Him in the passages in which 
 the title occurs. Thus, in Heb. i. 6, it is said, " When He 
 bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith. And 
 let all the angels of God worship Him." That is, let their 
 attitude and homage be such as become His universal supre- 
 macy. Again, it is said, in Col. i. 18," He is the first-born 
 of every creature, for by Him were all things created that 
 are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
 they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, 
 all things were created by Him, and for Him ; and He is 
 
6o Christ the Creator. 
 
 before all things, and by Him all things consist." The 
 meaning of these words is, that He is at the head of the 
 universe, being its Maker and Preserver. 
 
 Further, in Col. i. 1 8, it is said that He is " the first-born 
 from the dead," or from among the dead, " that in all things 
 He might have the pre-eminence." The words cannot mean 
 that He was the first in point of time to rise from the dead. 
 For He was not so. But they mean that by rising, through 
 His own power, from the grave. He secures the resurrection 
 to eternal life of all who are in Him by faith. As the Liv- 
 ing One, who was dead, and is alive again for evermore, 
 and hath the keys of hell and death. He hath supreme power 
 over the unseen regions ; and He will raise up all His ran- 
 somed to live together with Him. In other words. He is 
 at the head of all whom He makes to partake of His resur- 
 rection. In this way the three variations of the title given 
 to Him, as "the first-born," " the first-born of every creature," 
 and " the first-born from the dead," represent respectively 
 His general supremacy, His supremacy over creation, and 
 His supremacy over the redeemed. 
 
 His headship over creation, as set forth in the title, " the 
 first-born," and " the first-born of every creature," is what 
 we have more directly to do with at present. That head- 
 ship is founded in, and flows from, two great facts : First, 
 that He is the actual maker, preserver, owner, and ruler of 
 the wide universe, and of everything which it contains ; and 
 second, that He is, equally with the Father and the Holy 
 Spirit, possessed of all divine perfections, and so fitted to 
 take and keep the place which He holds as head of all the 
 works of God, as well head of the redeemed. 
 
 II. Let us now notice some of the important practical 
 
 REFLECTIONS that are suggested by the truth now before us. 
 
 I. A variety of events connected with the birth of Christ 
 
Christ the Creator. 6 1 
 
 indicated that the Creator had become a creature. The fact 
 that it was the Maker of the universe who, in the fuhiess of 
 time, appeared on earth as a child born, and a Son given to us, 
 was evidenced by the command of God when He thus "brought 
 His first begotten into the world," that " all the angels of 
 God should worship Him." This event, accordingly, received 
 its appropriate acknowledgment from both angels and men. 
 An angel from heaven came to Zacharias to announce the 
 birth of a Son to him as the forerunner of the Messiah. 
 Then an angel came to Mary to announce the divine con- 
 ception of Jesus Himself. Afterwards an angel came from 
 heaven to announce to the shepherds of Bethlehem His 
 actual birth. At the same time " there appeared in the 
 heavens a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and 
 saying, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good- 
 will to men." Then, too, devout believers at Jerusalem 
 were filled with the Holy Ghost, to enable them, in the 
 highest and holiest strains, to welcome and proclaim His 
 advent ; and wise men from the east were brought by a 
 guiding star to present their costly offerings and their 
 adoring homage at His feet ; and hell itself was moved to 
 its depths, with the aid of the most powerful of wicked 
 men upon the earth, to attempt to rid the world of its 
 Creator, Preserver, Euler, and Judge, as well as Eedeemer, 
 in the person of the child Jesus. 
 
 2. "While He was in His humble human form on the 
 earth, the relation of Christ to this world, and to all worlds 
 as their Maker and Governor, explains much that He did, 
 and much that occurred to Him, which otherwise would 
 have been unintelligible. Even in the days of His humilia- 
 tion. He moved about with mingled majesty and ease, among 
 the works of creation, making them all obedient to His 
 word. The very nature of the creatures, as the creatures 
 of His hands, was changed by the silent workings of His 
 
62 Christ the Creator. 
 
 power ; as when He changed the water into wine. Acts of 
 creative might were performed by Him, acts that were as 
 truly divine as was the calling of the universe out of nothing 
 into being, when again, and again. He multiplied a handful 
 of loaves and fishes into food for thousands. All manner 
 of sickness and of disease, and such as it would have baffled 
 all human skill to cure ; blindness, deafness, want of speech, 
 deadly fevers, loathsome leprosies, and other maladies were 
 healed, not by a power superior to His own, but by His own 
 power, by an act of His own sovereign will ; and that some- 
 times when the sufferers were before Him, to receive a word 
 from His mouth or the touch of His hand ; and at other times, 
 when the sufferers were absent, and only their friends pleaded 
 with Him for His interposition, and then returned to find 
 that, according to His word, the deliverance pleaded for had 
 been bestowed. Death itself at His bidding, again and 
 again, yielded up its prey. As He who hath His way in 
 the sea, and His path in the great waters. He walked on the 
 bosom of the deep as on the firm earth ; and when it was 
 tempest-tossed, the billows, at the hearing of His voice, 
 ceased their raging, and the storm was changed into a calm. 
 When He came to the fig-tree covered with leaves, but 
 destitute of fruit, and pronounced upon it His blighting 
 sentence, it instantly withered away. Unclean spirits, de- 
 mons of darkness, legions of devils, trembled at His presence, 
 left their victims at His bidding, and even begged for pity 
 at His hands. The enemies that came to seize Him in the 
 garden recoiled from His look, went backwards from before 
 Him, and fell prostrate and powerless at His feet, to show 
 with what infinite ease He could have rid Himself of them 
 for ever. When He yielded Himself to death as the atoning 
 substitute of sinners ; amidst the sufferings of His human 
 nature, soul, body, and spirit, by which He satisfied divine 
 justice for their offences ; the heavens grew black and clothed 
 
Christ the Creator. 
 
 themselves with sackcloth, in the presence of His crucified 
 humanity ; the earth was rent with earthquakes ; and many- 
 graves of departed saints were opened, and sent forth their 
 dead. When He rose again from the grave, angels waited 
 at His empty tomb to proclaim His resurrection. And 
 when, in the presence of His disciples, He went up from 
 the mount of Olives, myriads of angels received Him with 
 their praises as He ascended to His glory. Thus, all through 
 the history, even of His humiliation, from its commence- 
 ment to its conclusion, His glory was ever and anon breaking 
 through the lowly form that veiled it, revealing the pre- 
 sence of the Creator, Controller, and Disposer of all things. 
 
 3. The universe ought to appear to believers in a very 
 attractive light, when looked upon as having come from 
 under the creative hand of Christ, as dependent on His 
 supporting power, and as provided for out of His inexhaust- 
 ible goodness. To realise " the Word of God," " God's 
 only begotten Son, the brightness of His glory, and the 
 EXPRESS IMAGE OF His PERSON," coming forth from His posi- 
 tion within the Godhead, to call into being the universe 
 of creatures, and to stamp on them the traces of His own 
 divine perfection. His wisdom, power, and goodness, is to 
 invest them in our eyes with an exceeding yet softened 
 brightness, with an unspeakable beauty, which they would 
 not otherwise possess. At the same time it seems greatly 
 to enhance His work of redemption, to look to Him as 
 accomplishing it, on so many of His creatures who had 
 ruined themselves, and in the midst of all the other works 
 that first came frome His creative hand. 
 
 Many Christians fail to realise aright creation as the work 
 of Christ. They too generally separate in their minds the 
 work of creation from that of redemption, as if His work of 
 creation were as nothing to them, and His work of redemp- 
 tion were that alone with which to engage their minds. But 
 
64 Christ the Creator. 
 
 they engage their minds with the work of redemption to 
 much less purpose, so long as they set the works of creation 
 and redemption in an attitude of opposition to, or of aliena- 
 tion from each other, or if they but leave creation out of 
 view, and occupy themselves only with redemption. 
 
 This too common practice of Christians renders inappli- 
 cable and strange to their minds the very psalms which God 
 Himself has provided for them to sing through all ages, as 
 His redeemed. Take as a specimen the 95th Psalm: "0 
 come, let us sing unto the Lord ; let us make a joyful noise 
 to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His pre- 
 sence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Hnn 
 with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great 
 King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of 
 the earth ; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is 
 His, and He made it ; and His hands formed the dry land. 
 come, let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel before 
 the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the 
 people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." A simi- 
 lar though fuller song of praise to God for the display which 
 He gives of His power and wisdom and goodness, in the 
 works of creation and providence, is furnished in the 104th 
 Psalm. In that song, provided for the redeemed to sing to 
 the Lord their God, they bless Him as very great — as 
 clothed with honour and majesty — as making the clouds 
 His chariots, and walking on the wings of the wind — as 
 making His angels ministers, laying the foundations of the 
 earth, and setting bounds to the waters of the ocean — as 
 providing the mountain springs and streams and rivers, to 
 give drink to the beasts of the field and of the sandy deserts, 
 and to feed and cover with foliage the trees in which the 
 birds have their habitation, and sing among the branches — 
 as watering the earth, and making it fruitful of food for 
 cattle, of bread for man, of wine to gladden his heart, and 
 
Christ the Creator. 65 
 
 of oil to make his face to shine — as sending the darkness, 
 in which the beasts of the forest go forth to seek their meat 
 from God, and then the light in which man goes forth to 
 his labour till the evening — as forming the great and wide 
 sea, bearing on its bosom the ships which unite the ends of 
 the earth, and containing the myriads of creatures that live 
 within its waters — and as causing these endless races of 
 animated beings, in air, and earth, and ocean, to wait on 
 Himself for their necessary food from His opened hand, and 
 to die when He takes away their breath, No wonder if, in 
 meditation of these works of God their Saviour, His redeemed 
 are called on to adore Him, saying, " Lord, how manifold 
 are Thy works ; in wisdom Thou hast made them all ; the 
 earth is full of Thy riches. . . . The glory of the Lord shall 
 endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in all His works. 
 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth : He toucheth the 
 hills, and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long 
 as I live ; I will sing praise to my God while I have my 
 being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet : I will be 
 glad in the Lord, Let the sinners be consumed out of the 
 earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, 
 my soul ; praise ye the Lord." 
 
 If any followers of the Lamb regard as uncongenial the 
 worship of the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the uni- 
 verse, they cannot be connecting Christ with His own works, 
 and must be fancying that, by keeping out of view His pre- 
 sence and agency in creation, they all the more honour Him 
 in His work of redemption. How much this imagination 
 contradicts His word, must appear from the psalms to which 
 we have just referred. But the New Testament writings 
 give no more countenance than the Old to such conduct. 
 The great Epistle to the Hebrews begins with saying of 
 Christ that He " made the worlds," that He " is upholding 
 all things by the word of His power," and that He is the 
 
 E 
 
66 • Christ the Creator. 
 
 appointed " heir of all things." In the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians, it is said of Christ, " For by Him were all things 
 created that are in heaven and in earth, . . . and He is 
 before all things, and by Him all things consist." And John, 
 in the commencement of His gospel, says of Christ as " the 
 Word," " all things were made by Him, and without Him was 
 not any thing made that was made." 
 
 The friends of Christ ought thus to find continual matter 
 for praise to Him, in His works of creation and providence. 
 For how safe may they thus see themselves in His keeping. 
 How certainly He will make all things to work together for 
 their good. With what ease He restrains and will over- 
 whelm all His and their enemies. With what unerring 
 certainty and resistless force He will maintain and advance 
 His kingdom of peace, until He fill the earth with His 
 glory. How surely and safely, in His own time and way, 
 He will bring each of His redeemed safe through the troubles 
 and dangers of time, to the place prepared for them in His 
 eternal kingdom. How swiftly He will at length cast out of 
 His kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, 
 burn up the earth with all its works, introduce the new 
 heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, send 
 all His enemies into the regions of sin and woe, and gather 
 to Himself the myriads of the redeemed and the holy, to 
 dwell for ever before the throne of God and of the Lamb. 
 Considerations like these, that concern alike the honour of 
 Christ and their own and others' salvation in and through 
 Him, ought to make His presence in all His works, a con- 
 tinued occasion for praising Him with higher intelligence, 
 and with loftier feelings of trust and love, of gratitude and 
 
 joy. 
 
 ]\Ioreover, the deeply-felt inadequacy of all their praises 
 to set forth His glory aright, ought to make them eager and 
 slad to call for the aid of all His creatures and His works 
 
Christ the Creator. 67 
 
 to join with them in giving to Him the glory due. An 
 instinctive feeling of that kind in the heart of a devout 
 husband, in the midst of a deep religious awakening in the 
 west of Scotland, above forty years ago, broke forth in the 
 following manner : The good man had been much troubled 
 by the apparent indifference of his wife to the work of God 
 going on around her. Perhaps she had not been quite so 
 callous as her outward appearance seemed to indicate. At 
 any rate, one day the husband was visited by a minister, 
 when his wife was in a neighbouring house, and he went to 
 bring her home. Being asked by her why he was so 
 pressing for her immediate return, with a heart full of 
 divine realities, and of concern for her interest in them, his 
 reply was, " Come away, for the Master calleth for thee." 
 These words, when uttered, went at once with divine power to 
 her heart, broke down her spirit, and laid her at the feet of 
 Jesus, not only a stricken penitent, but a believer and glad 
 confessor ; and with faith, and love, and gratitude, and joy- 
 fulness, she proclaimed her acceptance of Christ, and her 
 unreserved surrender of herself to His service. On witness- 
 ing the sudden blessed change, as he stood over her, the 
 soul of her partner in life was filled with feelings, which 
 instinctively found vent in the commencing words of the 
 148th Psalm, " Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord 
 from the heavens ; praise Him in the heights. Praise ye 
 Him all His angels ; praise ye Him all His hosts. Praise 
 ye Him, sun and moon ; praise Him all ye stars of light." 
 Yes, and if we experience and realise aright the riches of 
 the Eedeemer's grace in our own and others' salvation, in 
 our conscious inability to praise Him adequately, we too 
 will call on all His creatures and works around, to help, by 
 joining with us, in His praise. Taking up the psalm, whose 
 commencing words we have just quoted, with a full heart 
 
68 Christ the Creator. 
 
 we will say, " Praise Him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye 
 waters that be above the heavens. , . . Praise the Lord 
 from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps ; fire and hail ; 
 snow and vapour ; stormy wind fulfilling His word ; moun- 
 tains and all hills ; fruitful trees and all cedars ; beasts and 
 all cattle ; creeping things and flying fowls ; kings of the 
 earth, and all people ; princes and all judges of the earth ; 
 both young men and maidens ; old men and children ; let 
 them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is 
 excellent, His glory is above the earth and heaven. He 
 also exalteth the horn of His people ; the praise of all His 
 saints, even of the children of Israel ; a people near unto 
 Him. Praise ye the Lord." 
 
 4. There is another great consideration which renders 
 this relation of Christ to creation as its Maker and Preserver, 
 deeply interesting to all believers, and, not only to them, but 
 to other intelligent creatures, the consideration, viz., that in 
 carrying out to its completion His redeeming work. He will 
 repair the evils, which the sin of man has wrought upon the 
 works of God around us, and bring them into a higher, 
 holier, and happier harmony, than even that which the 
 entrance of sin into this world destroyed. 
 
 Writing in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Eomans, of the deliverance of believers in Christ from sin 
 and ruin, of their restoration to spiritual and eternal life, 
 and of their final entrance into glory, and of the participa- 
 tion of the creation around, first in the ruin and then in the 
 redemption of man, the Apostle says, " Por the earnest 
 expectation of the creature" (the creation) "waiteth for the 
 manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature " (the 
 creation) " was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but 
 by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope; 
 because the creation itself shall be delivered from the 
 
Christ the Creator. 69 
 
 bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the chil- , 
 dren of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain together until now." 
 
 The creation, of which this shaded picture is here pre- 
 sented to us, when it came first from under the forming 
 hand of its Maker, was a scene of unmingied light and life, 
 and order and beauty, a fitting habitation for him, who was 
 made in the image of God, and invested with deputed lord- 
 ship over it. But when sin entered, the awful sentence 
 came forth, " 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." Yet the proper 
 end of the works of God is to proclaim His perfections and 
 glory ; and they are diverted from that end by the wicked- 
 ness of men, for so the creature was made subject to vanity. 
 It is, however, thus made subject, " not willingly." And 
 it groans and travails in pain by being thus prostituted to 
 purposes so different from the end of its existence, and so 
 dishonouring to its Maker and Preserver. 
 
 But Christ came to redeem not only the sinners that are 
 saved, but the creation which they have filled with defile- 
 ment and disorder. Therefore, while on the one hand He 
 turns a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of 
 them that dwell therein, on the other hand, when He has a 
 people to provide for, He turneth the wilderness into stand- 
 ing water, and the dry ground into water springs.^ When 
 His way is known on the earth, and His saving health 
 among all nations, then shall the earth yield her increase.^ 
 When all ends of the earth have experienced His salvation, 
 the sea shall roar and the fulness thereof, the floods shall 
 clap their hands, and the hills shall be joyful together ; the 
 
 Ps. cvii. " Ps. Ixvii. 
 
Christ the Creator, 
 
 fields shall be joyful and all that is therein ; and all the trees 
 of the wood shall rejoice before the Lord; for He cometh, 
 He cometh to judge the earth : He shall judge the world 
 with righteousness, and the people with His truth.^ 
 
 Successive changes happily wrouglit by Christ on the 
 very visible creation around, in harmony with the successive 
 stages of advancement reached by His reign of grace in and 
 over His redeemed, shall, however, be but earnests of the 
 srand final consummation. For when His ransomed and 
 risen myriads are being all gathered around Him, the 
 heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and pass away 
 with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat ; and the earth also, and the works that are therein, 
 shall be burned up. And when even the visible creation, 
 which sin has defiled, is thus overtaken by the last conflagra- 
 tion, out of its ashes there shall stand forth to view a re- 
 deemed and holy creation, even the new heavens and the 
 new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.^ 
 
 This renewal of the visible creation in a more glorious 
 form than that which has been marred by sin, and a form 
 which He will never again permit moral evil to pollute and 
 derange, shall put the copestone on the works of Christ's 
 creative hand, and give peculiar force and sweetness to the 
 chorus of the universe, when every creature which is in 
 heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as 
 are in the sea, and all that are in them, shall be heard say- 
 ing, " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto 
 Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for 
 ever and ever." ^ 
 
 5. And finally, much may be gathered from these rela- 
 tions of Christ to creation, as its Maker, Governor, and 
 
 1 Ps. xcviii., xcvi. ^ 2 Pet. ^ Rev. v. 
 
Christ the Creator. 
 
 Eedeemer, to encourage earnest inquirers in coming to Him 
 for salvation. 
 
 Christ is their Creator, from whom they have departed ; 
 but instead of treating them as marred vessels to be cast 
 away, or dashed in pieces, He is at hand in the character of 
 the Eedeemer, to re-create, to renew them, in His own image, 
 and so to turn them into vessels of mercy filled with the 
 treasures of His grace. Christ is their Preserver, in enmity 
 to whom they have spent the life preserved by His ceaseless 
 care ; yet He is at hand in readiness to quicken them to a 
 new life hidden with Himself in God for ever. Christ is 
 their Lawgiver and Judge, whose laws they have daily 
 broken, and whose condemnation they have incurred ; but 
 He has in their nature Himself fulfilled that very law for 
 such as they are, and endured and exhausted its curse ; and, 
 on the footing of this His finished work. He offers a full and 
 free forgiveness, and all the blessings of spiritual and eternal 
 life. Christ is their Owner; and they are His rightful 
 property, and His alone ; and although they have renounced 
 His service, and sold themselves to the service of sin and 
 Satan, He has purchased redemption for them with the 
 price of His own precious blood, and He invites their return 
 to His service, to their duty and their happiness, that He 
 may replace them for ever amid His renovated works. Can 
 any considerations be imagined, that are more fitted to touch 
 the hearts of burdened and anxious seekers after safety and 
 rest, to touch their hearts with a sense of their misery away 
 from Christ, and to animate them with the strongest desires 
 of embracing, and being embraced by Him ? If Christ, their 
 maker, preserver, lawgiver, judge, owner, and redeemer, is 
 searching for them as the woman searched for her lost piece 
 of silver, and ready to rejoice when He has found them ; if 
 He has come after them into the wilderness of sin and 
 
72 Christ the Creator. 
 
 misery, like the shepherd after his lost sheep, and will rejoice 
 to bear them back to His fold ; if He is sure to see them, 
 when they have but turned their faces toward Him, at how- 
 ever great a distance, and to meet them with a forgiving 
 and rejoicing welcome to their home, as the father did his 
 prodigal son : ah ! surely, nothing should keep them from 
 being found believing, and so accepted, penitents at Jesus' 
 feet. 
 
V. 
 
 CHEIST " IN THE LAW OF MOSES." 
 
 " All things must be fulfilled which were written IN THE LAW OF 
 Moses . . . concerning me." — LUKE xxiv. 44. 
 
 Preliminary truths to he kept in view. 
 TN finding out what is " written in the law of Moses, and 
 -*- in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning " Christ, 
 we are to be guided by the light which is cast on these 
 writings by the revelations contained in the New Testament 
 records ; and, accordingly, such truths as the following are 
 to be kept in view : — First, Christ, as the Word, was in the 
 beginning with God, and was God ; the only-begotten of the 
 Father, the brightness of His glory, and the express image 
 of His person ; ^ the Father's co-equal, co-eternal Son.^ 
 Second, By Christ " were all things created that are in heaven 
 and on earth ; and by Him all things consist." ^ Third, 
 Adam, as our common father and representative, being 
 created in the image of God, was placed under the divine 
 law, requiring perfect obedience as the condition of life, and 
 having death attached to it as the penalty of transgression.^ 
 Fourth, Adam broke the law, and brought his posterity with 
 himself into a state of sin and ruin ; so that now all are 
 by nature children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins.^ 
 Fifth, As is the relation of Adam to all mankind as fallen, 
 so is the relation of Christ to all the saved. " The first 
 Adam was made a living soul ; " partaker of a life which he 
 
 1 John i. ; Heb. i. ^ Col. i. ^ Ephes. ii. 
 
 2 John i. * Bom. v. 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses." 
 
 forfeited for himself and his race : " the second Adam, the 
 Lord from heaven, is a quickening Spirit ;" the giver of a life 
 to all the redeemed that cannot be lost, except His ability 
 to preserve it fails.^ Sixth, " Without the shedding of blood 
 there is no remission : " ^ divine justice requires the sacrifice 
 of life for sin ; therefore Christ appeared to put away sin 
 by the sacrifice of Himself; and the final everlasting song 
 of all the saved shall be, " Thou hast redeemed us to God 
 by Thy blood, from every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation." ^ Seventh, The eternal life to which, from the 
 beginning, ransomed sinners have been brought, was pro- 
 mised to Christ, as their Surety, before the world began.* 
 In respect of the efficacy of His death, He was " a Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world." ^ He was the light 
 and life of the redeemed from the beginning of time. All 
 through this world's history the Father judgeth no man, but 
 has committed all judgment to the Son.^ " No man hath 
 seen God at any time," since time began ; " the only- 
 begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath 
 declared Him." ^ All gracious manifestations of God have 
 ever been made by His Son alone ; and " no man knoweth 
 who the Father is save the Son, and he to whom the Son 
 will reveal Him." ^ Eighth, The second person in the God- 
 head having eternally undertaken the work of Eedeemer, 
 and having actually carried it on from the moment of the 
 Fall, is revealed in Scripture as, in anticipation of His 
 incarnation, assuming, time after time, a visible and even a 
 human form, in His gracious dealings with men. Of this 
 fact abundant proof will be given in this discourse, when 
 we come to speak of His appearance to Abraham,® to Jacob,*** 
 to Moses,^^ and to other servants of God. In these passages 
 
 1 1 Cor. XV. ■» 2 Tim. i. ^ John i. ^"^ Gen. xxxii. 
 
 2 Heb. ix. 5 jiev_ xiii. » Matt. xi. ^^ Exod. iii. 23. 
 
 3 Rev. V. 6 John v. ^ Gen. xvii. 
 
Christ " ill the Law of Moses." 75 
 
 also, and in others, He is set before us as Jehovah God, the 
 Angel of Jehovah, the Angel of God, the Angel in whom 
 the name of God is,^ the Angel of Jehovah's presence,^ the 
 Angel of the Covenant,^ the Angel that redeems from all 
 evil.* We ought to have these truths in our view when 
 endeavouring to ascertain the testimony given to Christ as 
 Eedeemer in the writings of the Old Testament. At present 
 we confine our attention to the witness borne to Christ in the 
 law of Moses. This witness divides itself into two parts. 
 
 T. Things written in the law of Moses concerning 
 Christ from Adam to Moses. 
 
 When our first parents fell, they heard " the voice of the 
 Lord God walking in the trees of the garden." "Tlie voice, 
 of the Lord " may be rendered " the Word of the Lord," and 
 so viewed as referring to Christ as " the Word " who " was 
 in the beginning with God, and was God," " by whom all 
 things were made." ^ But apart from that rendering, and 
 on the grounds already stated of Christ's relation to the 
 redeemed, as fixed in the everlasting covenant, and as ope- 
 rative from the moment of the Fall, we are warranted to 
 conclude that it was in the person of the Son, as Mediator, 
 that the Lord God appeared to our fallen parents, and at 
 once revealed the redeeming mercy prepared for them and 
 for their race. " The Lord God said unto the serpent . . . 
 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 words foretold that " the Son 
 of God " taking our nature into union with His divine, and 
 becoming " the son of man," would, in due time, be " mani- 
 fested to destroy the works of the devil," ^ by " suffering, the 
 
 1 Exod. xxiii. ' Mai. i. ^ John i. ^ I John iii. 
 
 ^ Isa. Ixiii. ^ Gen. xlviii. ® Gen. iii. 
 
76 Christ " in the Law of Moses." 
 
 just for the unjust," and by putting forth His mighty power, 
 to save them from sin and death, and to raise them to 
 spiritual and eternal life. The bruising of the heel of the 
 woman's seed, that is, the suffering which Christ would 
 endure from Satan, in delivering sinners from his power, 
 and the deliverance thus accomplished, became, from that 
 moment, the great object of desire and hope, and the lead- 
 ing subject, in all God's revelations in type and prophecy, 
 of His saving grace ; just as, since the crucifixion, Christ 
 and Him crucified has been the great theme of the gospel, 
 and will be for ever the song of the redeemed. 
 
 A suffering and a conquering Saviour was thus held forth 
 to sinful men as their hope, from the beginning. But it 
 never could have occurred to themselves, to seek in the 
 meantime to propitiate God by the blood of animals, as it 
 would have been, and must have been seen to be, only an 
 offence to the Most High, to offer such blood as in itself, a 
 price for their redemption. Therefore, the offering of such 
 animal sacrifices at the first must have been by divine 
 appointment ; and so they derived all their value from 
 being, and from being treated as, divinely authorised types 
 and shadows of the one great sacrifice that was at length 
 offered on the cross. This view of the divine origin and 
 atoning nature of animal sacrifices, is set forth, more or less 
 plainly, in all parts of Scripture, and, with special fulness, in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. Accordingly, it is probable 
 that the coats of skin in which the holy and merciful One 
 clothed our fallen and stricken parents, were taken from the 
 animals whose blood had been shed as a typical atone- 
 ment ; and that the Lord's clothing of them was designed 
 to show His gracious nearness, to clothe them with the 
 righteousness and salvation which these sacrifices shadowed 
 forth. 
 
 When Abel offered the firstlings of his flock, and Cain 
 
Christ ''in the Law of Moses T jy 
 
 the mere fruits of the ground, the reasonable view of the 
 different results is, that the acceptance and the rejection 
 which their offerings respectively met with from God, was 
 owing to the acknowledgment by Abel, and the denial by 
 Cain, of the need of a sacrifice for sin, and of an atoning 
 Saviour ; ^ the presence and active working in Abel of true 
 faith in, and love to, the holy yet gracious God to whom he 
 approached, and with whom he was brought into conscious 
 fellowship ; ^ and the presence and working in Cain of that 
 pride, on account of which God rejected his offering, and 
 frowned upon himself. Further, as "two cannot walk 
 together except they be agreed ; " and as reconciliation and 
 fellowship with God are the experience only of such as 
 "make a covenant with Him by sacrifice;"^ the fact that 
 " Enoch walked with God " when mankind generally were 
 departing from Him ; the fact that he foretold " the coming 
 of the Lord " (that is of Christ) " to judge the ungodly ; " * 
 and the fact of His bodily translation to heaven, combine to 
 exhibit him as a memorable trophy of Christ's redeeming 
 grace and power. Further still, as regards Noah, he was a 
 just man, and perfect in his generation, and also walked 
 with God, and being warned of God of things not seen as 
 yet, believed them, and, moved with fear, prepared an ark 
 to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the 
 world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by 
 faith. And as he was " a preacher of righteousness," both 
 by his personal conduct and by his words of warning ; so 
 we are expressly told in Scripture that it was " Christ who, 
 by His Spirit" in Noah, employed him in warning that 
 generation of coming wrath, and also employed the ark as a 
 type of Himself, for the salvation of Noah and his family. 
 Moreover, no one who knows the Scriptures, can reasonably 
 
 1 Gen. iv. 2 Heb. xi. 3 p^. j^ 4 j^jg^ 
 
78 Christ "in the Law of Moses" 
 
 doubt the typical significance of those propitiatory, thanks- 
 giving, and self-consecrating sacrifices, which Noah offered 
 subsequently, when God established His covenant of grace 
 with him and with his seed after him.-^ 
 
 After the flood, Noah's posterity so rapidly fell away from 
 the worship of God that, but for His extraordinary dealings 
 with Abraham and his descendants, idol-worship would 
 liave quickly become universal among mankind. There were, 
 indeed, for generations, instances to be found of true faith 
 and piety. There was such a case as that of Job. In one 
 of these early ages, and, so far as appears, in a region dis- 
 tinct from that in which Abraham and his believing offspring 
 were found, lived that patriarch, who, by the habitual 
 offering of sacrifice, kept up his gracious relation to the 
 Most High;^ and was sustained in his sore affliction by the 
 truth embodied in His words, " I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth,"^ &c. Not less noticeably, in the time of Abraham, 
 there lived near to him, in the heart of Canaan, Melchizedek, 
 whose name meant " King of Righteo^isness" and who was 
 " King of Salem" which means " King of Peace ; " while he 
 was at the same time " F7-iest of the Most High God : " and 
 of this greatest of all the types of Christ, as the Church's 
 Priest and King, it is said that his greatness consisted in 
 being " made like to the Son of God," and " abiding a priest 
 continually."^ Instances like these, however, belonging to 
 different lands and ages, were but a few lingering lights, 
 provided by God to shine in the midst of general and 
 growing darkness; and that darkness would speedily have 
 become entire and final, but for the provision divinely made 
 through Abraham, and through the favoured family and 
 nation descending from him, to preserve the knowledge, fear, 
 and worship of God in the world, until the Messiah came. 
 
 1 Gen. ix. ; i Pet. iii. ^ Job i. 
 
 2 Job xix. * Gen. xiv. ; Heb. vii. 
 
Ch^'ist ''in the Law of Moses" 79 
 
 The call of Abraham commenced a great era in the 
 history of redemption. He, and after him Isaac, the son 
 specially promised to him and long waited for, and then 
 the family of Jacob, one of the two sons of Isaac, and at 
 length the nation into which the family of Jacob grew, were, 
 by the divinely appointed rite of circumcision, separated 
 and set apart from all other individuals, families, and 
 nations, and successively dealt with in a very marvellous 
 and memorable manner, with a view to direct their faith to 
 the promised Deliverer, to preserve the knowledge and fear, 
 the worship and service of the true God upon the earth, and 
 to prepare for the sending forth of His Son in the fulness of 
 time; as well as to form the line of descent, in which He 
 would take the nature of man, when He became God mani- 
 fested in the flesh. " The gospel was preached to Abraham," 
 when he received the promise, " in thee shall all nations be 
 blessed." The blessing which comes on the Gentiles through 
 Jesus Christ, is the blessing promised in the covenant which 
 God made and repeatedly renewed with that patriarch.^ 
 Salvation in Christ was the blessing thus given to him and 
 his seed, and through that channel to all nations. And the 
 blood of sacrifice that sealed God's covenant of blessing 
 \vith Abraham, typified " the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant," which makes sure its promises to all that 
 believe.^ 
 
 Now there is abundant evidence that it was Christ, who, 
 as Jehovah-God, appeared to Abraham, time after time, 
 renewing, once and again, the covenant of blessing, of which 
 the rite of circumcision was appointed to form the seal. 
 This Jehovah, Son of God, Eedeemer of the world, was " The 
 Lord " who, as one of " three men " apparently, came to 
 Abraham on the plains of Mamre.^ On that occasion two 
 
 ^ Gal, iii. ; Gen. xv., xviii., xix., xxii. ^ Qai_ jj; . jj^b xiii. 
 
 3 Gen. xviii. 
 
8o Christ " hi the Laiv of Moses T 
 
 of these visitors, who proved to be created angels, soon went 
 on their way to Sodom : while the third, who remained to 
 speak with Abraham, proved to be Jehovah, the Almighty 
 and Faithful Promiser, and the sovereign righteous Euler 
 and Disposer, who, long after, in the days of His flesh, said 
 to the Jews, " before Abraham was, I am." ^ Abraham's 
 faith in this divine Eedeemer was counted for righteousness ; 
 and his faith was so counted, as making the patriarch one 
 with Him, in whom all that believe are made the righteous- 
 ness of God." ^ 
 
 As Jacob, when fleeing from Esau, lay out all night at 
 Bethel, he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with 
 angels descending and ascending on it, and Jehovah his 
 Eedeemer at the top ; who, as his and his father's God, 
 promised then and there, to protect and bless him in his 
 exile, and to bring him home, at length, in safety : ^ and, 
 alluding to that vision, Jesus said to Nathaniel, " Hereafter 
 ye shall see the angels of God ascending and descending on 
 the Son of Man ; " ■* and so declared Himself to be, with the 
 ministry of angelic and other agencies, the Preserver, under 
 whose care Jacob was secure. Again, on his return, being 
 alarmed at the approach of Esau, and having retired to a 
 solitary place for prayer, he soon found " a man wrestling 
 with him," in whom he speedily recognised his almighty 
 Protector and Guide ; to whom therefore he clung until he 
 obtained His blessing, and with a lightened grateful heart 
 could say, "I have seen GOD face to face, and am preserved."^ 
 Hence the words in Hosea (chap, xii.), " Yea he {i.e. Jacob) 
 had power over the Angel and prevailed : he wept and 
 made supplication to Him: he found him in Bethel, and 
 there he spake with us, even the Lokd of hosts, the Lord 
 is his Memorial." In reference to these events in his life, 
 
 1 John viii. ^ j^om. iv. ; 2 Cor. v. ; Gal. iii. ^ Gen. xxviii. 
 
 ^ John i. * Gen. xxxii. 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses' 
 
 toward tlie end of it, Jacob praying for the sons of Joseph 
 said, " God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did 
 walk, the God who fed me all my life long unto this day, 
 the Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." ^ 
 " Jehovah," " God," " the Angel," " the Eedeemer," who ap- 
 peared to him in the form of " a man," and was " the God 
 of his fathers," was the Son of God who became man, that 
 He might be Christ Jesus, Saviour, and Lord. 
 
 The same Eedeemer who had dealt so graciously with 
 Jacob, was looked to, and lived upon by Joseph, as his guide 
 and strength, all through his eventful history. By faith in 
 this Divine Eedeemer as the God of his fathers, and the 
 fear of God that filled him, and the blessing of God that 
 rested on him, he proved ^ a truthful and obedient son, a 
 faithful and trusted bond-servant in the house of Potiphar,^ 
 a successful manager of all the concerns committed to him 
 in the prison to which he was unjustly consigned,* and the 
 ablest and wisest administrator possible of the interests of a 
 great kingdom, when given into his hands.^ He showed the 
 power of his faith, and the piety, rectitude, and benevolence 
 of his character, by refusing to sin, when strongly tempted in 
 the house of Potiphar, by giving glory to the true God, when 
 he first stood before Pharaoh, by his forgiving and loving 
 treatment of his brethren when they were wholly in liis power, 
 by realising and acting out his mission as the divinely-pro- 
 vided preserver of his father's house, by giving names to 
 his sons, which proclaimed his gratitude to the God of his 
 fathers as the Author of his mercies, and the God of his 
 confidence and hopes, and by placing his brethren under 
 the most solemn obligation, when he was dying, to look for- 
 ward to their redemption from all the troubles that were 
 coming on them in Egypt, and to carry out of it his bones 
 
 ^ Gen. xlviii. ' Gen. xxxix. * Gen. xli. 
 
 2 Gen. xxxvii. * Gen. xxxix. 
 
Christ ''in the Laiv of Moses' 
 
 and bury them beside those of his fathers, when their re- 
 demption was accomplished. 
 
 Christ the life of the saved, from the first. 
 The redeeming power of the truth in and over believers to 
 whom, in those early ages, it was by the Spirit made effectual 
 for their salvation, is evidenced practically by what is recorded 
 of their personal character and actual history, in contrast 
 with the unbelieving and earthly character and history of 
 the larger portions of the successive generations to which they 
 respectively belonged. Judging of the truth revealed to the 
 generations of men before the flood, and for some centuries 
 after it, by the short histories which we have of distinguished 
 servants of God in these successive ages, as well as by the 
 references to others belonging to these ages who lived to 
 themselves, and for earth and time, the one great lesson 
 taught is, that while in Adam all died, only in Christ were 
 any made alive. Abel's faith in the typified sacrifice, 
 wrought by love, purified his heart, and overcame the world ; 
 secured for him the tokens of the divine favour ; and made 
 his death precious in the sight of the Lord, and, to himself, 
 gain unspeakable. The Spirit of Christ, in the believing 
 men of the days of Enos, turned them into public asso- 
 ciated worshippers of Jehovah, on whom rested His grace, 
 and mercy, and peace. Enoch's divinely-countenanced walk 
 with God on earth, and blessed translation to heaven, fur- 
 nishes through all time, the most powerfully- constraining 
 guidance and strength to all, to whom to live is Christ, and 
 to die is gain. The absence of this faith and holy life, and 
 the worldly enterprise and prosperity and indulgences which 
 Cain and his race .preferred, as they rapidly multiplied in 
 the world, strikingly manifest the contrast, which has ever 
 since been manifested, between those who are saved by 
 grace, and those who live and die without it. The unholy 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses." 83 
 
 marriages which the jirofessed servants of God at length 
 made with the fair but graceless daughters of ungodly 
 men, rapidly led to universal corruption. And when Noah, 
 through the Spirit of Christ in him, practised openly tlie 
 righteousness of faith, and by word and deed proclaimed to 
 the wicked generation around him their sin and doom, in 
 their combined pride and blindness of heart, they laughed him 
 and his warnings to scorn, iintil the day that he entered 
 into the ark, and the flood came and swept them all away. 
 
 The descendants of Noah, by whom the earth was again 
 rapidly peopled, speedily became as prosperous and ungodly 
 as those that lived before the flood. Not liking to retain 
 the knowledge and to keep up the worship of God, they 
 speedily changed His truth into a lie, and worshipped the 
 creature more than the Creator, until, from paying divine 
 homage to the heavenly bodies, they came to worship the 
 idols which their own hands had made ; and only here and 
 there a remaining witness like Melchizedek, the most 
 memorable type of Christ, and Job, who knew Christ as his 
 Eedeemer, and kept up intercourse with God by sacrifice, 
 were found to uphold a testimony for God, amidst the 
 ignorance and error, the image worship and the immoralities 
 that prevailed among the populations of the earth. 
 
 In this state of things, Abraham was raised up, that in 
 and through him the work of redemption might take a fresh 
 start on a new path of progress, and that the Church might 
 assume a new, advanced, and influential form and position 
 on the earth. Under the call of God, made effectual by 
 His grace, Abraham forsook country, kindred, and home, 
 and " went out, not knowing whither he went," relying on 
 God to bring him to a place which he should afterwards 
 receive for an inheritance. Brought into the land which 
 God promised, and failed not, in His own time, to give to the 
 posterity of Abraham, the patriarch himself and his sons 
 
84 Christ " in the Law of Moses." 
 
 Isaac and Jacob sojourned in it, as strangers would in a 
 strange country, having no ground in it but what was needed 
 for their grave. But he and they lived in it, not doubting 
 that it would one day be the earthly portion of their race ; 
 and as regarded their own personal and intervening trials, 
 they lived looking in faith to God for deliverance out of 
 them all. The promises of spiritual and eternal blessings 
 to him, however, were Abraham's chief treasure and support. 
 The promise was made to him of Christ as his seed, and of 
 a blessing from that seed to all the nations of the earth. 
 Thus was the gospel preached to Abraham. Embracing 
 the promises of this gospel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 others who were heirs together with them of the promises, 
 confessed themselves pilgrims and strangers on the earth, 
 and declared plainly that they desired and were seeking 
 another and a better country, even the heavenly city, and 
 the rest that remaineth there for the people of God. As 
 the result of these wonderful visions of Christ, which we 
 have noticed, as vouchsafed to these patriarchs — of their faith 
 in the promises made to them, and which are all yea and 
 amen in Him — and of the hopes of eternal life to which they 
 were begotten, Abraham lived a life of self-sacrifice ; and 
 Isaac lived a life of quiet devout meditativeness ; and Jacob 
 lived a life of prayerful struggles with the outward trials 
 of his life, and the inward corruptions of his nature ; 
 acknowledging at the last, that he owed all past blessings, 
 and looked for all good in the future, to the Angel that 
 redeemed him from all evil. And as Joseph was at length 
 left with the whole care of his father's numerous family, 
 and that family was about to grow into a nation in Egypt, 
 and also destined at once to deteriorate in their spirit and 
 manners, and to suffer crushing trials, in the land of their 
 sojourn; a signal mercy was bestowed upon them, in the godly 
 as well as otherwise elevated character which Joseph dis- 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses T 85 
 
 played, as also in the wise, loving, effective provision which, 
 so far as his great power extended, he made for them. The 
 sufferings which he endured from friends and foes, and the 
 virtues which were displayed and cherished in the midst of 
 them, and the way which opened up through his very 
 sufferings to his exaltation to authority and power in Egypt, 
 and the use which he made of his position for the benefit 
 of those from whom he suffered, render him, and will to 
 the world's end render him, a striking type of Christ, in 
 His humiliation and His exaltation, and a model of piety and 
 virtue to all who are the subjects of His saving grace. 
 
 II. Things written in the la.w of Moses, concerning 
 Christ, in connection with, and relative to, the dispen- 
 sation UNDER which THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE PLACED 
 IN THE TIME OF MoSES, AND THROUGH HIS INSTRUMENTALITY. 
 
 When the time was at hand, for the deliverance of Israel 
 from the intolerable bondage to which they had been reduced 
 in Egypt, " the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, at 
 Horeb, in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And 
 God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, 
 I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God 
 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And the Lord said, I have 
 
 seen the affliction of my people I will send thee 
 
 unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people. . . . 
 I AM that I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of 
 Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. The Lord God of your 
 fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
 of Jacob hath sent me unto you : this is my name and 
 this is my memorial for ever, unto all generations. " ^ This 
 Jehovah, Angel, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, tliis I 
 AM that I AM, i.e., the ever-living unchangeable One, we have 
 
 ^ Exod. iii. 
 
80 Christ " in the Law of Moses." 
 
 already seen to be the eternal Son of God, who at length 
 and in due time, came into the world, in our nature, as the 
 only Eedeemer of God's elect, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Deliverance from Egijpt. 
 When, as the result of the terrible judgments sent on 
 Pharaoh and his people, the hour of Israel's deliverance 
 approached, by divine command, on the tenth day of Nisan, 
 which was afterwards the day of Christ's public entry into 
 Jerusalem, they selected every family a lamb ; and on the 
 fourteenth day, between the ninth and eleventh hour, which 
 were the day and hour of Jesus' death, they slew the latnb 
 and sprinkled its blood on the lintels and posts of their 
 doors; that the destroying angel might pass their dwellings, 
 when he entered every house of the Egyptians, and slew the 
 first-born of man and beast in all the land ; and then with 
 their loins girded, with their shoes on their feet, and with 
 staff in hand, as ready to depart, they feasted, each family 
 on the body of the victim, roasted in the fire and eaten 
 with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and at once went 
 forth, a ransomed nation, free to serve their God and Saviour:^ 
 thus typifying " Christ our passover, sacrificed for us ; and 
 our feasting on Him, not with the leaven of malice and 
 wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and 
 truth." ^ The Egyptians having followed them, and hemmed 
 them in, between the horses and chariots of Pharaoh be- 
 hind, and the Eed Sea before them, tlie people became at 
 once terrified and rebellious ; when their divine deliverer, as 
 " THE Lord," and " the angel of God," went in the pillar of 
 cloud and fire between them and their enemies ; and Moses 
 having, with his rod in hand, by divine direction, stretched 
 out his hand over the sea, the waters parted, the children 
 
 ^ Exod. xii. 2 I Cor. v. 
 
Christ ** in the Law of Moses." %'j 
 
 of Israel crossed in safety, and their pursuers attempting to 
 follow them, were overwhelmed in the returning waters : 
 leaving Moses to take up, and put into Israel's mouth, the 
 song : " The Lord is my strength and song, and He is be- 
 come my salvation : He is my God, and I will prepare Him 
 an habitation ; my fathers' God, and I will exalt Him." ^ 
 
 Israel a typical nation. 
 These words of Moses are quoted by Isaiah, to commence 
 the song of praise, with which he follows a wonderful pro- 
 phetic description of the blessed reign of Christ at length 
 upon the earth.^ This leads us here to notice summarily 
 what, in the following observations, will come out in detail, 
 viz., that as redemption of sinful men by Christ, was the 
 great end of God's providential government of this world 
 from the beginning, so, in particular, to the nation of Israel, 
 now formally commencing its national existence, the events 
 that happened to it, the institutions, ordinances, and laws 
 given to it, and the whole of the divine dealings with it, 
 had for their main object, to set forth in type, and symbol, 
 and prophecy, the person and redeeming work of God's in- 
 carnate Son, as well as the actual presence of Christ with 
 the nation, as the God of Israel, all through their eventful 
 history. Circumcision, practised by divine command from 
 the time of Abraham, signified "the circumcision of the 
 heart " of those " who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." ^ The 
 passover, as we have already seen, typified the safety to be 
 found by sinners only under the blood of Christ." ^ And 
 as Christ was "Jehovah," "the angel of God," who, in the 
 pillar of cloud and fire, preserved and conclusively delivered 
 the children of Israel when pursued by the Egyptians, and 
 
 ^ Exod. xiv. 15. - Isa. xii. ' Rom. ii. ; Phil. iii. '' I Cor. v. 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses T 
 
 proved the destruction of their ioes ; so this important event 
 in Israel's history, was a type or symbol of the redemption 
 which He would at length work out as God incarnate.^ 
 Nothing is more plainly set forth in Scripture than the 
 designed connection, as well as difference, between the state 
 of Israel under the law, and of believers under the gospel. 
 " The law was Israel's schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, 
 in whom we become sons of God." ^ As " children under 
 tutors and governors," they were kept " in bondage " under 
 " the elements of the world," under the rudimentary educa- 
 tion to which they were confined ; being placed amidst 
 rites and ceremonies that only faintly figured forth the truth 
 and grace at length revealed in Christ.^ Their observing of 
 meats and drinks and sacred seasons formed only " a shadow 
 of good things to come ; but the body is of Christ."* " Tlie 
 gifts " which their " priests offered according to the law," 
 merely " served as an example and shadow of heavenly 
 things.^ " Their ordinances of divine service, and a worldly 
 sanctuary, were but figures for the time being of the blood 
 of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself 
 without spot to God," and whose blood " purges our con- 
 science from dead works, to serve the living God."^ The 
 purifying with blood of almost all things under the law, as 
 patterns of heavenly things, signified the purifying of these 
 things themselves with better sacrifices.^ The law, there- 
 fore, had but a shadow, an imperfect shadow of good things 
 to come ; but by one offering Christ hath for ever perfected 
 them that are sanctified ; and now we have boldness to 
 enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.^ Thus, in 
 separating the children of Israel, and in preserving them 
 separate from all other nations, the divine purpose was to 
 
 1 Luke i. 68. 
 
 2 Gal. iii. 
 
 3 Gal. iv. 
 
 ^ Col. iv. 
 * Heb. viii. 
 « Heb. ix. 
 
 7 Heb. ix. 
 
 8 Heb. x.j 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses" 89 
 
 make the dispensation under which they were placed, an 
 impressive and an enduring representation of the great 
 realities of the Gospel. In their persons, institutions, and 
 laws, and in their whole circumstances and history, they 
 became, like a vast picture-gallery, filled with types of 
 Christ as the Redeemer, and of the redemption to be found 
 in Him, for all kindreds, and nations, and peoples, and 
 tongues. But that purpose could be served, only by uphold- 
 ing and magnifying the holiness of God's nature and govern- 
 ment, in the very provision made by His mercy for the 
 salvation of sinful men, and by making that provision of 
 mercy the means of sanctifying all who experienced it, and 
 so turning and elevating them into spiritual worshippers, 
 faithful servants, and rejoicing children of God. And, as 
 will appear more clearly as we proceed, this was the char- 
 acter and this was the tendency of the Mosaic dispensation. 
 
 Their dedication, sins, and mercies. 
 In passing through the sea, the children of Israel " were 
 all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ;^ they 
 received him, and yielded themselves up to him as their 
 divinely-appointed deliverer and leader, and as mediator 
 between God and them, who would communicate to them 
 what they were to believe, and the duty required at their 
 hands ; and so in that condition they typified all who are 
 " baptized into Christ," and " saved, not by works of right- 
 eousness which they have done, but according to God's 
 mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost, shed on them abundantly through Jesus 
 Christ,"^ and so yield themselves unto God to walk in new- 
 ness of life. And their subsequent history is a history of 
 miseries, and murmurings, and mercies, which represent the 
 
 ^ I Cor. X, 2 Tit. iii. 
 
90 Christ ''■in the Law of Moses." 
 
 sins and miseries of even the professed members of the 
 Church of Christ, and the salvation which is experienced 
 by such of them as have faith in a once crucified but now- 
 exalted Eedeemer. Thus they come to Mara, and finding 
 the waters too bitter to drink, they murmur against Moses ;^ 
 and God provides a tree, which being thrown into the waters 
 sweetens them : so signifying that many of God's appoint- 
 ments prove insupportably bitter, till the bitterness is taken 
 from them, and they are sweetened to believers, by the 
 virtue of His sufferings, " who bare our sins in His own 
 body on the tree." ^ Again they break out into murnmrings 
 against Moses and Aaron for want of food : and manna is 
 henceforth daily rained upon them from heaven ;^ to typify 
 Christ as the true bread which cometh down from heaven, 
 and givetli life to the world,"* and who has been from the 
 beginning the spiritual meat of all believing souls.^ Soon 
 thereafter they are again murmuring, and almost ready to 
 stone Moses for want of water, when, by divine command, 
 he with his rod smote the rock in Horeb and water came 
 out of it that the people might drink ;^ and to show what 
 infinite realities were involved in these outward things, we 
 are told expressly of the " fathers " of those days, that they 
 did " all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of the 
 spiritual Eock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."^ 
 
 Transactions at Sinai, the Law, the National Covenant. 
 In the third month after their departure from Egypt, they 
 came into the wilderness of Sinai, and camped before the 
 mount, from which, amidst such awful tokens of divine 
 majesty, the law was about to be delivered. And the first 
 thing to be noticed here is that the Lord their God, who 
 thus gave the law, was no other than the Son of God. This 
 
 1 Exod. XV. » Exod. xvi. ^ j q^j. x. 7 i Cor. x. 
 
 2 I Pet. ii. * John vi. " Exod. xvii. 
 
Christ " m the Law of Aloses" g i 
 
 is proved by the fact that the Lawgiver was the same Divine 
 Person whom we have already seen to have revealed Himself 
 to, and communed with, Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and 
 Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses. This truth is 
 further proved by comparing what is said in the 68th Psalm, 
 with the use made of its words in the 4th chapter of 
 Ephesians. In that psalm occur the words, " The chariots 
 of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels ; the 
 Lord is among them in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast 
 ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive ; Thou 
 hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that 
 the Lord God might dwell among them." Now in the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians (iv. 8, &c.) these words are quoted 
 and applied to Christ, as exalted to give all grace to 
 believers, " Wherefore He saith, when He ascended on high 
 He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." And 
 the transactions at Sinai, with all that followed, were suit- 
 able to and worthy of Him who was " set up from ever- 
 lasting," and eternally " rejoiced in the habitable parts of 
 the earth, and had His delight with the sons of men." ^ 
 From the summit of Sinai, the Lord, with His own voice, 
 published the law of the ten commandments ; the law which 
 is summed up in two, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and 
 thy neighbour as thyself ; " that law which is the transcript 
 of His own perfections ; which is and must be the unchange- 
 able rule of His moral government; and which requires 
 perfect obedience from His creatures as the condition of His 
 favour ; the law which, early in His public ministry, Jesus 
 opened up in His Sermon on the Mount, in all its spiritu- 
 ality and extent, and to which, on behalf of all His re- 
 deemed. He rendered the perfect obedience, by which all 
 who believe in Him, are made for ever righteous in the sight 
 
 ^ Prov. viii. 
 
92 Christ " in the Law of Moses" 
 
 of God.^ The thunderings, and the lightnings, and the 
 noise of the trumpet, and the smoking of the mountain, 
 amidst which God spake His law to the people, reminded 
 them in an awful manner of the wrath overhanging them 
 as transgressors, and made them so afraid that they entreated 
 and obtained the mediation of Moses between them and 
 God, to typify their access to God as gracious, through the 
 blood of the one Mediator. Then they received at once, 
 through the mediation of Moses, direction as to the altar 
 they would make, on which to present their burnt offerings 
 and peace offerings \^ and, in this fact, we have the beginning 
 of that Levitical system soon after set up in the midst of 
 them ; to typify " the Son of God sent forth, made of a 
 woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under 
 the law, that we might receive' the adoption of sons,"^ 
 Further, " the judgments " that Moses next communicated 
 to them,^ were the first portion of the judicial or civil laws, 
 given to regulate their conduct as citizens, the tendency of 
 which was, to separate them from the society and ways of 
 the heathen, and to bind them together as a well-ordered, 
 j)rosperous, and happy community, typical of the state of 
 all the redeemed of the earth under the Gospel, of whom 
 Jesus said, " They are not of the world, even as I am not of 
 the world." ^ 
 
 Here has to be noticed the covenant into which, through 
 Moses, the people were brought with God, on the footing 
 of the law just given, and afterwards given more fully. 
 Before publishing His law, the Lord, by Moses, said to 
 the people, " Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, 
 and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto 
 myself Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, 
 and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure 
 
 1 Exod. XX. ; Matt. v. ^ Gal. iv. « John xvii. 
 
 2 Exod. XX. * Exod. xxi.-xxiii. 
 
Christ '^171 the Law of Moses" 93 
 
 unto me, above all people. . . . And ye shall be unto me a 
 kingdom of priests, an holy nation."^ Accordingly, after the 
 law was given from Sinai, " Moses wrote all the words of 
 the Lord, and builded an altar, and offered burnt-offerings 
 and peace-offerings, and sprinkled half of the blood on the 
 altar, and read the book of the covenant to the people, and 
 received their promise of obedience, and sprinkled the blood 
 on the people, as the blood of the covenant which the Lord 
 had made with them ; " ^ words, these, which lead us to see 
 in them a representation of all whom Christ loves and 
 washes from their sins in His own blood, and makes kings 
 and priests unto God and His Father, makes a chosen gene- 
 ration, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar (a pur- 
 chased) people." ^ The covenant thus entered into between 
 God and Israel was a national covenant, one which in 
 respect of its distinctive character, and peculiar provisions, 
 was of a temporary nature, and confined in its operations to 
 the land of Canaan, and the children of Israel dwelling there. 
 No doubt, it contained the great moral law of God, which, 
 as broken by our first parents and all mankind, declares and 
 leaves all under condemnation. It also, in its provisions, 
 shadowed forth the salvation found only in Christ by faith, 
 the salvation revealed in the announcement to our fallen 
 parents, of the seed of the woman that should bruise the 
 serpent's head, and again so impressively made known to 
 Abraham, in the covenant of promise made with him, and 
 sealed to him, when he received the good news of a seed of 
 blessing for all nations from his loins. At the same time, 
 it differed in its distinctive character from the broken law, 
 or covenant of works, which speaks only of condemnation 
 and the curse to all who continue, and are left, personally, to 
 face its demands ; and it differed from the everlasting cove- 
 
 ^ Exod. xix. ' Exod. xxiv. * Rev. i. ; i Pet. ii. 
 
94 Christ ''in the Law of Moses" 
 
 iifint of grace, in which alone all the saved, from the begin- 
 ning to the end of time, find pardon and peace with God 
 and restoration to that purity of heart and life that fits 
 them for His service and presence. The peculiarity of the 
 national covenant, made by God with Israel at the foot of 
 Sinai, was its constituting the title by which they were to 
 receive the land of Canaan as their inheritance, and remain 
 in it in peace and prosperity. They were put in possession 
 of it by God, and promised by Him to be kept in possession 
 of it, not for their own earthly ends, but as a national church, 
 a nation of worshippers of the living and true God. By His 
 appointment, they had a tabernacle and then a temple as 
 His habitation in the midst of them. They had one of the 
 twelve tribes set apart wholly to the work of ministers of 
 religion. They had to offer continually a vast number of 
 animal sacrifices. They were placed under a great variety 
 of laws, in reference to the outward legal uncleanness which 
 they were ever ready to contract, and the outward ceremo- 
 nial purifications from it, which they had to observe. And 
 they were hedged in, by no end of ordinances and laws, that 
 barred their intercourse with other nations, and required 
 them to dwell alone. 
 
 Now, while they outwardly upheld these outward insti- 
 tutions and obeyed these outward laws, their outward safety 
 and wellbeing in the land were preserved and continued by 
 God, and wonders of power and mercy were wrought in their 
 behalf. On the other hand, when, through earthliness and 
 depravity, they neglected these ordinances, or even fell away, 
 as they were constantly inclined to fall away, to the idola- 
 tries and abominations of the heathen around, and so 
 incurred the forfeiture of the land,^ that forfeiture was sus- 
 pended or only partially put in force, in view of the Messiah's 
 
 ^ Mai. iv. 6. 
 
Christ " in the Law of Moses." 95 
 
 coming, and until at length He came. At the same time, 
 it is carefully to be noticed and remembered, that this 
 national covenant made at Sinai, being, so far as its peculiar 
 provisions were concerned, a merely outward and temporary 
 covenant, the mere observance of its provisions alone, never 
 secured the eternal salvation of any of the people, neither 
 did their neglect of its provisions alone, cause their eternal 
 condemnation. All who perished finally under it, perished 
 as transgressors of the great moral law, which was and 
 remains in force against all mankind in their natural state ; 
 and all who were saved under it, were saved by the same 
 promised grace in Christ, which has saved and will continue 
 to save all true believers, from the moment of the fall, till 
 the end of time. 
 
 At the same time, the law given to Israel as the law of 
 this their national covenant, was designed, and did not fail, 
 to operate in subserviency to the covenant of grace in the 
 case of all of the nation of Israel that were made, by grace, 
 the true spiritual Israel of God. In their case, the outward 
 institutions and ordinances under which they were placed 
 served firs,t to fill them with a sense of their sinfulness, and 
 then to lead them to the experience of the great salvation 
 that is in Christ. That implies that these ceremonies were 
 figurative representations of His person and redeeming work. 
 And so we find the matter plainly set forth in Scripture. 
 The, tabernacle, and then the temple, the dwelling-place of 
 God in the midst of Israel,^ typified " the "Word made flesh, 
 and dwelling among us," ^ " the fulness of the Godhead 
 dwelling bodily in Christ Jesus." ^ The brazen altar typified 
 Christ, of whom it is said " we have an altar." * The golden 
 altar typified Christ, by the merits of whose intercession the 
 prayers and praises of believers are presented with accept- 
 
 ^ Exod. XX. ; 1 Kings viii. ^ Col. ii. ; Heb. ix. 
 
 * John i. * Heb. xiii. lo. 
 
g6 Christ " in the Law of Moses" 
 
 ance before the throne.^ The laver with water, at the door 
 of the sanctuary, in which the priests habitually purified 
 themselves for ministration at the altar,^ typified the cleans- 
 ing blood and purifying grace of Christ, by which alone 
 believers are fitted for the service of God.^ The golden 
 candlestick * typified Christ as the Light of the world.^ The 
 tables of shew-bread ® typified His fulness, out of which 
 believers receive grace for grace/ The entering of the high 
 priest once a year into the holiest court of the tabernacle 
 and temple with atoning blood,^ typified Christ, entering 
 with His own blood into the holy place on high where God 
 dwells, and where Christ now appears in the presence of 
 God for us.^ And the ark of the covenant, containing the 
 tables of the law or testimony, with the mercy-seat upon it, 
 and the cherubim on the ends of the mercy-seat, stretching 
 over it their wings, and the visible cloud of the glorious 
 presence of God hovering above the mercy-seat,^° typified 
 Christ, with the law of God in His heart, having in behalf 
 of His redeemed, perfectly fulfilled all its requirements, set 
 forth by God to be a propitiation through faith in His blood ; 
 in whom God is reconciling the world to Himself; so that 
 having Him as the great High Priest over the house of God, 
 we can come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may 
 obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need/^ 
 
 Sacrificial blood the central reality of the law of Moses. 
 The access of the chosen people to God, as sin-forgiving 
 and gracious, while holy and just, depended on their con- 
 stant resort to the shedding of sacrificial blood, and on its 
 application to His worshippers, and to the very vessels, and 
 
 1 Rev. viii. 3 ; 
 
 4 Exod. XXV. 
 
 * Lev. xvi. 
 
 " Rom. iii. ; 
 
 Heb. xiiL 15. 
 
 ^ John viii. 
 
 9 Heb. ix. 
 
 2 Cor. v.; 
 
 2 Exod. XXX. 
 
 « Exod. XXV. 
 
 10 Exod. XXV. 
 
 Heb. iv. 
 
 3 Tit. iii. ; Eph. v. 
 
 ^ John i. 
 
 
 
Christ " ill the Law of Moses T 97 
 
 the whole of the things used iu His service ; all this typi- 
 fying the necessity and efficacy of the blood of Christ, as 
 constantly applied by the Holy Spirit to believers, to cleanse 
 them from sin, and so preserve them in communion with 
 God, and in fitness for His service. The constant shedding 
 of this blood was the heart and centre of the religion of the 
 Jews. Their priests were consecrated by blood ;^ and then 
 continually employed in offering sacrifice for their own sins 
 and the sins of the people.^ The altar, reared by divine 
 command,* was set apart by atoning blood. On this altar, 
 the sacrifices brought by the people, were offered by the 
 priests continually.^ The people, by laying their hands 
 on the heads of the sacrifices, transferred to them their own 
 sins.^ The blood was sprinkled on the book of the law, to 
 show that only through a constantly operative atonement, 
 could the people, consistently with divine law, be kept in 
 covenant with God. To make this truth more manifest, the 
 blood was sprinkled on the people.* For the same reason, 
 it was sprinkled both on the tabernacle and on all the ves- 
 sels of the ministry ; ^ since in this way only could the 
 sanctuary and the vessels of it, be purged from the defile- 
 ments which they suffered from the sinning worshippers, 
 and so sanctified still for the service of the Holy One. For 
 the same reason, in fact, almost all things under the law 
 were purged by blood, and " without the shedding of blood 
 there was no remission."^ As regarded the burnt-offerings, 
 the sin-offerings, the trespass-offerings, and the peace-offer- 
 ings,^ which were being continually brought to the altar; 
 and also as regarded the laying of the hands of the 
 offerers on the heads of the sacrifices, and the sprinkling of 
 their blood round about the altar, and otherw^ise, as directed ; 
 
 ^ Exod. xxix. ; Lev. viii. ^ Heb. x. "^ Heb. ix. 
 
 2 Heb. V. * Lev. i., iii., iv., xvi. ^ Heb. ix. 
 
 3 Exod. xxix.; Deut. xxvii. ^ Heb. ix. ^ Lev. i.-vi. 
 
 G 
 
98 Christ " m the Law of Moses!' 
 
 the one great lesson thus inculcated was, that the High and 
 Holy One never could be approached by His people, being 
 sinful creatures, except through the medium of atoning 
 blood. Hence the daily morning and evening sacrifice,^ the 
 sacrifices for each weekly Sabbath, for the new moons, for 
 Pentecost, for the feast of trumpets, and for the great yearly 
 atonement;" and, in addition to^ all the stated sacrifices, the 
 still greater number of sacrificial victims that were brought 
 by individual worshipped as voluntary offerings. 
 
 To spiritually-minded and intelligent Israelites, however, 
 it must have appeared that the mere blood of bulls and 
 goats could not take away their sin;^ and that the sacrifices 
 of the law were but a shadow of good things to come,^ the 
 shadows of a higher sacrifice, in which- they would at length 
 disappear. So said Christ Himself prophetically, " Sacrifice 
 and offering thou didst not desire, . . . burnt-offering and 
 sin-offering hast thou not required, . . . lo, I come : in the 
 volume of the book it is written^ of me." ^ The virtue^ of 
 these sacrifices wholly lay in their reference to Him who, in 
 the end of the world, put away sin by the sacrifice of Him- 
 self.^ And the permission to the High Priest alone, ever to 
 enter the holiest court of the- temple, and to him, to enter 
 it only once in the year, viz., on- the great day of atonement, 
 and then to enter it, only by carrying the blood of the 
 typical atonement, and sprinkling' it seven times before the 
 mercy seat,^ impressively taught that the way into the 
 presence of God was not yet made manifest ; ^ and pointed 
 to the new and living way of access, to be in due time 
 opened up to God by the blood of Jesus Himself.^ 
 
 The work of Christ as a priest, offering Himself a sacri- 
 fice, to satisfy divine justice, and to reconcile us to God, was 
 
 1 Exod. xxviii. ■* Heb. x. ^ Heb. ix. 
 
 " Exod. XXX. ^ Ps. xl. ^ Heb. ix. 
 
 . 3 Heb. X. « Heb. ix. ^ Heb. x. 
 
Christ " 171 the Law of Moses" 99 
 
 thus set forth from the beginning, and especially " in the 
 law of Moses," in all the typical sacrifices by which alone 
 God could be approached. Their language was, " Behold 
 the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
 world," " If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of 
 an heifer sprinkling the unclean,, sanctifieth to the purifying 
 of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, 
 through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to 
 God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the 
 living God ?" " Christ, by His own blood, entered in once into 
 the holy place,, having obtained eternal redemption for us."^ 
 And so, when God entered into covenant with the nation 
 of Israel at Sinai, He required burnt- offerings to be offered, 
 and peace-offerings to be sacrificed, and tlueir blood, as "the 
 blood of the covenant," to be sprinkled on the people, as 
 well as on the altar, and on the book of the covenant.'^ 
 They were thus taught that their, life,. forfeited by sin, could 
 be regained only by laying their sin on the victims that 
 bled and died in their stead, while at the same time re- 
 minded that the blood of these victims, having no virtue in 
 itself to take away sin, could avail for their forgiveness and 
 redemption, only as typical of " the blood of Jesus Christ," 
 the Son of God, " which cleanseth from all sin." ^ 
 
 According to the view which we have given of the Mosaic 
 institutions, they are, in reality, Christianity itself in symbol, 
 type, and figure. The Jewish and Christian dispensations 
 are essentially one. And the central truth of each is the 
 redemption of men by a sufficient vicarious atonement. 
 
 The objection that our religion is a relu/wn of blood. 
 
 Such as stand for this gospel of atonement, as the gospel 
 „of the Old Testament and of the New, are being tauntingly 
 
 ^ Heb. ix. ^ Exod. xxiv. ' i John i. 
 
ICO Christ ^' in the Law of Moses y 
 
 told that their religion is " a religion of blood." This 
 reproach, rightly understood, is the glory of the gospel, as 
 heaven's proclamation of peace on earth, from the fall of 
 man, onward to the end of the world. This gospel of atone- 
 ment was realised in the case of Abel, when he found the 
 divine favour resting on him for the bloody sacrifice of the 
 firstlings of his flock; just as the bloodless, and therefore 
 worthless, religion of unitarians, deists, and " broad church- 
 men," has its proper type in the offering of Cain, who, as if 
 he had no sin to confess and to be atoned for, presented to 
 God, and was frowned upon for presenting merely the first 
 fruits of the ground. Thus, ever since, as by the disobedience 
 of their common head, all mankind were made sinners, and 
 as salvation was to be found only in a promised Redeemer, 
 true religion ever has been, and must continue to be, a 
 religion of blood. That fact, rightly viewed, is its vital 
 characteristic, its glory, its attractiveness, its majesty, its 
 purity, its loveliness, its blessedness. Intelligent offerers 
 from the beginning, in pouring out the life-blood of their 
 sacrifices, acknowledged their own life forfeited by sin, 
 and to be regained only by the sufferings of a substitute, 
 by such sufferings as would satisfy offended justice, vindicate 
 infinite holiness, fill them with the peace of forgiveness, free 
 them from the pollution of sin, and fit them for the fellow- 
 ship of God. True religion, as from the beginning a religion 
 of blood, is the most effectual, the only effectual destroyer 
 of moral evil, and the only efficient source of moral ex- 
 cellence in sinful men ; inasmuch as, in its light, sin is seen 
 in its sinfulness and shunned, and love to God and goodness 
 is awakened and advanced in the hearts and lives of those 
 who were strangers to all that is spiritually good before, 
 until they attain a fitness as real, as their right in Christ is 
 irrefragable, to take their place for ever before the throne 
 of God and of the Lamb. 
 
Christ '^ in the Laiv of Moses." 
 
 lO] 
 
 Yes, it is a religion of Llood. And as snch it reveals the 
 love of God the Father as it is nowhere else revealed. It 
 reveals the love of God, as having so loved the world as to 
 send into it His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. It reveals 
 the love of God the Son, in taking our nature, and in offering 
 His entire life on earth, in obedience and suffering, for our 
 redemption ; in rising from the grave ; in ascending to 
 heaven ; in reigning over heaven, earth, and hell ; and in 
 pleading, as our advocate, with the Father ; so as to gather 
 to Himself, and to bring into His presence, all the ransomed 
 from the earth. And it reveals the Holy Ghost as, in His 
 equally infinite love, making known this salvation in every- 
 thing said of it, in the word which He inspired ; as coming 
 on Christ without measure, to fit Him for His work, and to 
 carry Him through it ; and as ever moving up and down in 
 the world, revealing the things of Christ to the minds of men, 
 applying redemption to their souls, turning them into His 
 eternal temples, and filling them with the fulness of God. 
 Yes, it is a religion of blood. And being such, sinners 
 who are made to understand it, and know themselves, take 
 refuge under this blood, and are forgiven and cleansed from 
 all their sins. By the obedience unto death rendered for 
 them, they are made righteous, and find acceptance and 
 favour with God. Under the power of the Spirit for which 
 the shedding of that blood makes way, they die to sin and 
 live to righteousness. Eedeemed from the curse of the law 
 by Him who, in the shedding of His blood, was made a 
 curse for them, they receive the adoption of sons. They 
 joy in God through Jesus Christ, by whom they have 
 received the reconciliation which His blood effects. By the 
 cross of Christ the ^vorld is crucified to them, and they are 
 crucified to the world. They are made willing to suffer 
 with Christ on earth, that they may reign with Him in 
 
I02 Christ " in the Law of Moses!' 
 
 heaven. They overcome all their enemies by the blood of 
 the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony. And under 
 the shelter of the blood, by which Christ Himself entered 
 into the holy place, they enter after Him. Yes, it is a 
 religion of blood, and woe shall betide all who live and die 
 away from the shelter which that blood affords. For to all 
 sucli there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain 
 fearful looking for of judgment, and of fiery indignation 
 which shall devour the adversaries. 
 
 Spiritual effects of the truths as revealed to Moses. 
 
 A proof and an illustration of how the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, and the power of His grace wrought in and through 
 the Mosaic, dispensation, are furnished in the iJcrsmial charac- 
 ter of Moses 'himself, and of the generation trained hij him in 
 the ivilderness. 
 
 First, The jjcrsonal character of Moses evidences the nature 
 and power of the truth revealed to him. Moses, whose 
 appearance .from his birth seems to have made .the impres- 
 sion of a high destiny being before him, having been provi- 
 dentially adopted by Pharaoh's daughter as her son, was 
 trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, as well as in all the 
 refinement of its court,: while he was by his parents not 
 less carefully filkd with the higher knowledge and more 
 ennobling spirit of the revelations made to his forefathers. 
 When, at the age of forty years, he had to choose between 
 the earthly grandeur .within his reach, and the lot of his 
 countrymen, at the time reduced to cruel bondage, " he 
 refused " longer " to be calledithe son of Pharaoh's daughter, 
 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, 
 than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: esteem- 
 ing the reproach of Christ greater riches than the trea- 
 sures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense 
 
Christ ^' in the Laiv of Moses." 103 
 
 of the reward." ^ Having had to flee from Egypt into 
 Midian, he lived there, as a shepherd, for other forty years, 
 as a stranger in a strange land, looking to God as his help, 
 and undergoing the humbling, purifying, elevating discipline 
 which prepared him for what followed. He then found him- 
 self at length in the presence of Christ, the Jehovah- Angel, 
 speaking to him from the midst of th-e burning bush in Horeb, 
 and received the .commission which, with a strong feeling of 
 his own insufficiency, but with a lively trust in divine 
 strength, he went to Egypt, and executed. By faith he not 
 only forsook Egypt, but put himself at the head of his 
 nation, and led them out of it, " not fearing the wrath of the 
 king ; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible ; " 
 " through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of 
 blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch 
 them." And then, having "by faith passed through the 
 Eed Sea, as by dry land," the people received from him a 
 song, in which to celebrate the praises of God their Saviour. 
 At the Mount of Sinai, and in the midst of awful manifesta- 
 tions of divine glory, he was brought into such close and 
 long-continued communion with God, as implied, on the 
 part of Moses, extraordinary depth of spiritual life, and 
 strength and clearness of spiritual vision : and again, as he 
 stood in the cleft of the rock, he had such a sight of the 
 glory of Jehovah, while it passed by, and so heard His voice 
 proclaiming Himself the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, as to be filled with a faith which wrought by love, 
 purified his heart, and overcame the trials that beset him 
 throughout all his life. The prayerful calmness and ease 
 with which he crushed the enemies of Israel in the wilder- 
 ness ; the patience with which he bore his people's pro- 
 vocations ; the zeal for the Lord's honour with which he 
 
 1 Heb. xi. 
 
104 Christ " in the Law of Moses" 
 
 repressed and punished their rebellions ; the disinterested 
 entreaties which he poured out for their forgiveness and for 
 the Lord's continued favour to them ; the pity and tender 
 care which he had for their wants and weaknesses ; and 
 the persevering faithfulness with which he trained them to 
 fear and serve the Lord, both such of them as had to die in 
 the desert, and those who were to enter the land of Canaan 
 — these and svich like characteristics of Moses, evidence 
 him to have been eminently one of those of whom it is 
 written, " they drank of that spiritual Eock that followed 
 them, and that Eock was Chri-st." ^ He was indeed taught 
 emphatically that only by grace he could stand ; for the 
 murmurers for water having tempted him to speak unad- 
 visedly with his lips, he was himself shut out of Canaan. 
 But not the less truly was grace made sufficient for him, 
 and divine strength made perfect in his weakness. 
 
 At length, at the termination of their wanderings and of 
 his own life, in the midst of the nation assembled on the 
 plains of Moab, within sight of Canaan, and with only the 
 Jordan between it and them, and with his own eye turn- 
 ing to the heavenly Canaan to which he was so near, 
 his remaining intercourse was a fitting conclusion of his 
 ministry, and a fitting introduction to their future. In the 
 final services which he then rendered, his character shines 
 out like the sun that having from its morning dawn, and in 
 its pathway through the heavens, broken out in its brightness, 
 through the clouds that sought to conceal its brilliance, at 
 evening sets in unmingied and surpassing glory. As we learn 
 from Deuteronomy, he rehearsed their past history — repeated, 
 in some instances in more or less altered forms, suited to 
 their then position, the laws already given to them — and 
 proclaimed their obligations, and the eventualities for good 
 
 1 I Cor. X. 
 
Christ " in the Lazv of Moses" 105 
 
 or evil before them, the blessings or curses that would rest 
 on their obedience or disobedience — and then instructed 
 them to engrave on stones, for a lasting testimony, these 
 blessings and curses, and also to pronounce them aloud, in the 
 ears of all ; the blessings on Mount Gerizim, and the curses 
 on Mount Ebal. In the course of the utterances that flowed 
 from his lips, his soul was wrought up into passionate ear- 
 nestness, till he was all on fire, with love to God and to His 
 law, and with the deepest affection and pity for His people, 
 as he foresaw how they would forget the good and incur the 
 evil set before them. As the most effectual way of giving 
 vent to his feelings, and of perpetuating the impression which 
 he longed to make, he embodied them in a song, replete 
 with instruction, admonition, and encouragement, to be sun"- 
 by the nation, and so to keep in their remembrance the 
 blessing and cursing, the life and death, which he had set 
 before them, when they should see his face and hear his 
 voice no more. One thing more, and his work was done. 
 With the prophetic eye of a dying seer, he proclaimed the 
 future of the nation, tribe by tribe ; , and in figurative lan- 
 guage, foretold as the happiness of the upright, that they 
 would have " the eternal God " as " their refuge," and 
 " underneath " them " the everlasting arms." And then, while 
 yet " his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated," 
 ascending Mount Nebo, and from the top of the crag 
 Pisgah glancing back on the people and the land behind 
 him, while the body which he dropped was laid by the 
 Lord in a grave known only to Himself, his spirit with 
 piercing gaze and soaring flight passed into the midst of the 
 heavenly glory. 
 
 " The jrroiphet like unto Moses.'" 
 In regard to the character of Moses, enough has been said 
 to show that its source was the presence of the Divine 
 
io6 Christ ^'zn the Law of Moses." 
 
 Eedeemer accompanying him, and the Spirit of Christ working 
 in and with him. Evidence has already been given of that 
 truth. But there is one fact in the history of Moses specially 
 bearing on this matter, to which we may allude. He received 
 a revelation of " a prophet like unto himself," to be " raised 
 up " by " the Lord his God " in the appointed time, to whom 
 the people were to be required, under very solemn liabilities, 
 to hearken.^ That prophet was Christ Himself.^ The revela- 
 tion of the coming prophet had been made to him at Sinai, 
 nearly forty years before he mentioned the fact. It was 
 made to him when, at the people's request and by divine 
 appointment, Moses was made a mediator between Jehovah 
 and the people, who were afraid of His glory, and of direct 
 communication with Him. Though Moses had kept this 
 revelation to himself for nearly forty years, no one can 
 reasonably doubt that it bulked largely in his mind's eye 
 all through that period, and had a great influence over his 
 life. For, according to the pre-intimation received by him, 
 while THE prophet promised would be like to himself, that is, 
 would be in intimate fellowship with God, face to face with 
 Him — would be a performer of mighty signs and wonders 
 — would see into and foretell the future — would be the 
 great Teacher and Light of the world — would be the pro- 
 mulgator of new and all-authoritative laws — would act as a 
 priest — and would be a great King — would be, in these 
 respects, like unto Moses; it was plainly declared further 
 that he would be One greater than himself. It was declared 
 that having the words of the Lord put into His mouth, He 
 would speak all the Lord commanded Him, that is, have 
 further and higher revelations to make than even those by 
 Moses — that He would also speak with more authority ; 
 this being implied in the threatening against all who would 
 
 1 Deut. xviii. ' Acts iii., vii. 
 
Christ " ill the Law of Moses'' 107 
 
 not hearken to His words — that He would be the revealer 
 of God to men, the Mediator between God and ns — and 
 that His coining would be the signal for the greatest of His 
 forerunners to decrease, that He might increase. The words, 
 in short, pointed to the truth so emphatically taught in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, that while no mere human prophet 
 equal to Moses ever arose in Israel,^ Moses himself was after 
 all but a servant in the house, while the promised prophet 
 had proved to be the Son of God over it, and He to whom 
 indeed the house belonged. To what extent Moses realised 
 what was implied in his words we cannot determine ; for we 
 know that the prophets, having, under the Spirit, given forth 
 their predictive testimony to Christ, had to search diligently 
 into the signification of their own utterances. But this the 
 whole history of Moses makes plain, even that he was filled 
 with grace out of the fulness of Christ, and, in a higher 
 degree than most men, reflected His image. 
 
 Second. A word as to the effect produced, spiritually and 
 practically, on the children of Israel, by the dispensation 
 under which they were thus placed. Did they to any 
 extent, in any measure, confirm, by their life, the doctrine 
 that this dispensation rightly improved was to form them to 
 a character, identical with that to which believers are now 
 formed by the truth and grace of Christ ? The answer is, 
 that what the dispensation introduced by Moses accom- 
 plished eminently in his own case, it accomplished, though of 
 course in a less degree, in a greater or smaller number of the 
 people. This is the conclusion to be drawn from what we read 
 of the spirit and conduct of the second generation, the genera- 
 tion that grew up in the wilderness, and survived their abode 
 in it, and entered Canaan, and took possession of it under 
 Joshua. No doubt they were not perfect. That was mani- 
 
 ^ Deut. xxxiv. 
 
io8 Christ " in the Law of Moses'' 
 
 fest from the manner in wbicli many of them were tempted 
 by the Moabites and Midianites to impurity and idol- wor- 
 ship. But the readiness with which, at the divine call, a 
 body of armed men, formed of contingents from all the 
 tribes, went and avenged on the Midianites the insulted 
 honour of Jehovah, showed how comparatively sound at 
 heart the nation had for the time become. On their return, 
 too, they at once submitted to have themselves, and the 
 numerous spoils of their conquest, purified according to law, 
 and to have the spoil distributed with a due proportion for 
 the priests and Levites, and for the service of the Lord at 
 the tabernacle.'' Then the two tribes of Gad and Eeuben, 
 and the half tribe of Manasseh, having secured the land of 
 Gilead and the neighbouring region for their inheritance, 
 instead of trying to remain there, and leave to the other tribes 
 to cross the Jordan, and fight their own way to their respec- 
 tive allotments, arranged for leaving their families with 
 their cattle behind them, that they might, according to their 
 promise, accompany their brethren, and fight side by side 
 with them, until they had conquered and taken possession 
 of their appointed inheritance. So that when Joshua, after 
 Moses' death, reminded these two and a half tribes of their 
 promise and their duty, their instant answer was, " All that 
 thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou 
 sfendest us we will go. According as we hearkened unto 
 Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee ; only 
 the Lord thy God be with thee as He was with Moses. 
 Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, 
 and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou com- 
 mandest him, he shall be put to death ; only be strong, and 
 of a good courage." " Further, the twelve tribes having 
 deliberately crossed the Jordan, instead of at once rushing 
 
 ^ Num. xxxi, ' Josh, i. 
 
Christ " in the Lazv of Moses!' 109 
 
 to battle and to victory, submitted to be consecrated to God 
 by undergoing the rite of circumcision, and remaining in 
 their tents till they were whole. They next observed with 
 calmness and solemnity the feast of the passover. Even 
 after this, instead of then demanding to be led at once against 
 the enemy, they were required to take the first and strongly- 
 walled town of Jericho, to which they were nigh, by a pro- 
 cedure, which made nothing of their prowess, and everything 
 of their faith in God. They were required to wear their 
 arms unused, and to walk in quietness round that city daily, 
 following the priests as they blew their rams' horns, and to 
 make this procession once daily for seven days, and on the 
 seventh to repeat this idle-looking march seven times. And 
 they did so, and did it undoubtedly with the expectation of 
 what followed : for when, by divine command, they finished 
 this whole proceeding with a tremendous shout, the walls of 
 Jericho fell fiat before them, and all that it contained became 
 at once an easy prey. If the sin of Achan, in coveting and 
 secreting for himself an attractive portion of the spoil, which 
 God had commanded to be wholly destroyed, as an act of 
 homage to Himself, if that sin arrested all further success, 
 and at once subjected them to nothing but reverses, till it 
 was detected and punished, there was one consolation con- 
 nected with it ; it brought out the fact that his sin was the 
 only sin of the kind committed, amidst the spoils that had 
 fallen into their hands, and thus proved the single-eyed 
 uprightness that, for the time being, so generally animated 
 the tribes. 
 
 The same spirit they seem to have carried with them in 
 the successive conquests by which they possessed themselves 
 of so large a portion of the land. And when at length the 
 Eeubenites, being honourably dismissed to their homes on 
 the other side of Jordan, had reached the point of crossing, 
 and erected on its banks an altar of witness, to testify that 
 
I lo Christ " ill the Law of Moses." 
 
 they remained an integral part of the chosen nation, though 
 in their separated homes ; the conduct of the other tribes on 
 hearing of this act, in rising up against them as if they 
 meant, in opposition to the law of Jehovah, to have an altar 
 of sacrifice of their own ; and then the conduct of the 
 accused, in carefully and earnestly freeing themselves from 
 all suspicion ; and the further conduct again of the other 
 tribes in at once carefully and joyfully accepting the explana- 
 tion ; all combine, with the other facts we have mentioned, 
 to prove the faith and faithfulness of that generation, and 
 to show that there are good grounds for the affirmation, that 
 on the whole it was probably the best, morally and spiritu- 
 ally, of all the generations of Israel. And this is just what 
 the Lord Himself said of it long afterwards, by the prophet 
 Jeremiah, " I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the 
 love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the 
 wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness 
 unto the Lord, and the first fruits of His increase."^ 
 
 Jer. ii. 
 
VI. 
 
 CHEIST "IN THE PEOPHETS." 
 
 "All things must be fulfilled which were written in . . . the 
 Prophets . . . concerning me." — LUKE xxiv. 44. 
 
 nno raise sinful men into a redeemed, regenerated, sancti- 
 fied condition, is, so far as they are concerned, neces- 
 sarily the great design of any revelation which God makes 
 of Himself. 
 
 This, therefore, was the purpose of God in the dispen- 
 sation which Moses was employed to establish among 
 the children of Israel.-^ The moral law showed to them 
 their transgressions. The ceremonial law of animal sacri- 
 fices and outward cleansings, continually set forth, in type 
 and figure, the atonement for their sins, and the divine 
 purification that their hearts and lives required. The constant 
 calls to them on this ground, and in this manner, to come to 
 God, and to devote themselves to His service, implied that 
 in the exercise of faith in God, as thus approached with 
 acceptance, and in the exercise of love to Him for His love 
 to them as thus become their God and Eedeemer, they were 
 to live before Him in holy and new obedience. 
 
 At the same time the figurative rites of the Mosaic 
 economy being preparatory to the clear and final dispensa- 
 tion of grace to be established by the personal ministry of 
 the Son of God incarnate, all spiritually-minded believing 
 Israelites found the virtue of their existing outward privi- 
 leges to flow from looking forward in faith to the coming 
 
 ^ Isa. V. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets' 
 
 Messiah, and the coming redemption. In the exercise of 
 this faith, they found peace with God, and obtained from 
 Him grace and strength to serve Him. 
 
 But a holy life like this was not natural to the children of 
 Israel, any more than it has ever been to any other of the 
 sons of men. They had in them the carnal mind which is 
 enmity against God, and is not subject to His law, neither, 
 indeed, can be. And they showed this continually, and often, 
 indeed, in the saddest possible excesses, throughout their 
 whole history ; in all manner of ungodliness, unrighteous- 
 ness, and profligacy. They trampled under foot the com- 
 mandments of the moral law. They withheld the appointed 
 sacrifices and offerings, or they offered the lame and blind of 
 their flocks. Often when they did bring any of the gifts 
 commanded, they made a virtue of their scanty and heartless 
 services, looking to nothing beyond them, and making tlum a 
 substitute for judgment, mercy, and faith. More frequently 
 they forsook the worship of God altogether, and took up 
 with the superstitious and abominable ways of their heathen 
 neighbours, and became mad upon their idols, finding, in such 
 practices, what was as suited to their depraved tastes and 
 habits, as the service of the Holy One was contrary. 
 
 The work of the prophets was therefore divinely directed 
 to meet the ways of the nation, the ways of all classes, of 
 rulers and ruled, of high and low, of priests and people ; 
 while their work was also 'regulated by the divine purpose 
 to bring the Mosaic economy to an end, in the establishment 
 of that to which it was ever meant to be subservient, viz., 
 the dispensation of the gospel of Christ, These observations 
 may prepare us for understanding what is included in the 
 testimony to Christ contained in the insj^ired books here 
 denominated " the prophets." 
 
 The title of " the prophets," as used by our Lord in the 
 words before us, includes such historical books as Joshua, 
 
C J wist " in the Prophets'^ 1 13 
 
 Judges, Kings, and Chronicles ; as well as the books of 
 moral and spiritual instruction, and of predictive utterances, 
 that in our English Bibles begin with Isaiah and end with 
 Malachi. Consider — 
 
 I. The testimony to Christ in the historical books, in the 
 history which they contain of the nation of Israel. 
 
 The generation that under Joshua took possession of 
 Canaan was, as already stated, probably the best of all the 
 generations of Israel. They commenced their existence in 
 the land by observing circumcision as the seal of their cove- 
 nant to be the Lord's, and next by observing the passover 
 as the seal of His promise to protect and strengthen them 
 for His service ; these ordinances prefiguring the state of those 
 who are circumcised in their hearts by the Spirit of Christ, 
 and who live on His sacrifice as the source of their peace, 
 and the nourishment of their spiritual life. More noticeably 
 still, when Joshua was about to begin the work before him, 
 he had a vision that impressively told him in whom his and 
 his people's help would be found. When near Jericho, there 
 appeared to him " a man with a drawn sword," who, in 
 answer to Joshua's inquiries, told him that he had " come 
 as captain of the host of the Lord," and required him to 
 loose his shoes from off his feet, because in virtue of His 
 presence, who was now speaking to him, " the place whereon 
 he stood was holy ground." Then as Jehovah, He said He 
 had "given into Joshua's hand, Jericho, and the king thereof, 
 and the mighty men of valour." ^ The Jehovah, Captain of 
 the host of Jehovah, of whom Joshua had this vision, is He 
 whom Isaiah foretells as " the Leader and Commander of the 
 people," ^ and whom the apostle describes as " the Captain of 
 our salvation," ^ that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. As his name, 
 which means Saviour, indicated, Joshua was a type of Jesus, 
 
 ^ Josh, v., vi. ^ Isa. Iv. ^ Heb. ii. 
 
114 Christ ''in the Prophets." 
 
 the Saviour of the world. He liad in liim the Spirit, that 
 is, the Spirit of Christ ; ^ and the book that bears his name, 
 abundantly proves that, in the conquest of the land, he acted 
 throughout in the spirit of prayerful dependence on the 
 Lord, while it is equally evident that the people, under the 
 divine hand upon tliem, had been wonderfully respectful to 
 his authority, and obedient to his will.^ Moreover, while 
 the tabernacle in which the Lokd specially dwelt had been 
 set up in Shiloh, the jealousy of the tribes, their outbursting 
 zeal for the altar of the Lord before His tabernacle, and the 
 corresponding earnestness of the two tribes and a half in 
 freeing themselves of all suspicion of any thought of dis- 
 honouring the altar or the Lord, by the mere memorial altar, 
 or altar of witness, which they erected at the border of 
 Jordan, when about to cross it on their homeward way, 
 indicate that the law of Moses was in effective operation, 
 and receiving the homage of the people.^ And the readiness 
 and even apparently tender feelings with which they entered 
 into the covenant made with them by Joshua, when old and 
 soon to die, manifest that it was then their purpose and 
 resolution to serve the Lord.* 
 
 Declensions and divine dealings. 
 Beginning their national existence in the land so promis- 
 ingly, the children of Israel continued to run well for a time, 
 although, alas ! only for a short time. " Israel served the 
 Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders 
 that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works 
 of the Lord that He had done for Israel ; " ^ but the book 
 of Judges which contains a summary history of them for 
 about three hundred years, sadly proves how soon they 
 deteriorated, and how they continued to backslide. When 
 they had conquered enough of Canaan to supply their wants, 
 
 1 Num. xxvii. ^ Josh. xxii. * Josh. xxiv. 
 
 - Josh, xxii.j xxiv, '' Josh. xxiv. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets!' 1 1 5 
 
 instead of clearing the country of its doomed inhabitants 
 according to the divine command, they began to slacken in 
 their appointed work, and to prefer their ease and self-in- 
 dulgence to continued exertion and conquest. They allowed 
 the surviving portion of the Canaauites to remain, while 
 making them tributary. As might have been expected and 
 was indeed foretold, they soon formed alliances with them, 
 and soon learned to serve their idol-gods, and to practise 
 their wicked ways. They thus provoked the Lord, genera- 
 tion after generation, and, as they were forewarned. He gave 
 them into their enemies' hands often for lengthened periods ; 
 and when they were reduced ta the utmost misery, and 
 groaned under it, and again cried to the Lord, He pitied 
 their wretchedness time after time,, and raised up judges one 
 after another at successive periods, by whose agency they 
 were rescued again and again, and restored to a measure of 
 their former privileges, but only to backslide and be punished 
 anew, and then to be sooner or later delivered again. 
 
 Gracioivs intei'positions,. 
 In the course of these dark ages of Israel's history, God 
 did not leave Himself without witnesses ta His power and 
 grace, as is evidenced, for instance, in the cases of Naomi, 
 and Ruth, and Boaz; and while the divine presence of the 
 LOED was made known, again aaid again, to the faith, if not 
 to the vision, of His servants whom He raised up in succes- 
 sion to save the commonwealth of Israel from utter wreck, 
 at times He made His presence most impressively and 
 mercifully manifest. Thus at the time v/hen Israel had 
 been for years utterly impoverished by the Midianites, 
 Gideon was raised up to work for them, by his faith, a sig- 
 nal deliverance, and the commission for that end which he 
 received, was from the same divine Eedeemer whom we 
 have so often met with in the past history of His dealings, 
 
1 16 Christ " in the Prophets" 
 
 and who, in the account of his converse with Gideon, is 
 spoken of in such a manner, that the Angel of the Lord 
 speaking to Gideon, and the LoED Himself speaking to him, 
 are, in the narrative, identified, and the several utterances are 
 found to be those 0/ the same divine person.-^ At a future 
 period of these dark ages, when the Israelites had so multi- 
 plied their offences, and hardened themselves in depravity, 
 that the Lord left them in the hands of the Philistines for 
 forty years; a mighty deliverer was to. be raised up in 
 the person of Samson, who seems, in his own person, to have 
 embodied both the corruption of the period^ and the grace 
 that alone could save from it ; and the announcement 
 of his birth was made to his parents in the following 
 manner, A person visits them who is called in the inspired 
 record, " the angel of the Lord," " a man of God " with " a 
 countenance like the countenance of an angel of God, very 
 terrible." On Manoah asking hi-s name, the reply was, 
 " Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret ? " 
 the word translated " secret " being the same word that in 
 Isaiah ix. is rendered " Wonderful,'" where it is applied 
 among other divine names to Christ as God incarnate. 
 Accordingly when Manoah laid a sacrifice before Him, He 
 kindled the fire which consumed it, and ascended in the 
 midst of the flame to heaven. "And Manoah said. We shall 
 surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto 
 him. If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, He would not have 
 received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands," "^ 
 &c. From the tyranny of the Philistines, who in his day 
 were the chief oppressors of liiS' country, Samson was the 
 main instrumjcnt of its deliverance, both while he lived and 
 in his death. But the country had become full of anarchy 
 and wickedness ; and though Samuel, the last and best of 
 
 ^ Judges vi. - Judges xiii. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets." 1 1 7 
 
 the judges, was at that period raised up, by a long life of 
 wise, energetic, and upright administration of the nation's 
 interests, to arrest temporarily the workings of the deep- 
 seated wide-spread corruption thq^t prevailed, too evidently 
 centuries of disobedience to the divine will and of conse- 
 quent miseries, had abundantly proved that the people had 
 not, and would not seek after, such a feeling of Jehovah's 
 presence as ilidr Idng and ruler, as well as their God, and 
 would not cultivate such intelligent and holy self-denial and 
 self-control, as their republican form of government specially 
 required, to render it a successful one, and as might have 
 made them, under God, a thoroughly well-ordered and happy 
 commonwealth. 
 
 Change of government to a monarchy. 
 The turning of the nation into a kingdom governed by an 
 earthly king, like other nations, had become their demand ; 
 and it was divinely granted, in the first place, to punish 
 them for the ungodly spirit in which they made the demand, 
 by placing over them an unhappy monarch in the person of 
 Saul. But this change in the form of their government was 
 arranged for far higher, infinitely higher ends, by God, even that 
 in addition to all the other prefigurations which the Mosaic 
 law and institutions presented of Christ and His church, the 
 kingship and kingdom established in Israel might furnish 
 new and impressive foreshadowings of the coming Messiah 
 and of His spiritual reign. That Samuel's long and faithful 
 ministry was to lead to this glorious consummation, was pre- 
 dicted in the inspired song of his mother, when devoting 
 him to the service of God in the temple ; " The Loed shall 
 judge the ends of the earth ; and He shall give strength 
 unto His king, and exalt tlie horn of His anointed." ^ So 
 
 ^ I Sam. ii. 
 
1 18 Christ " in the Prophets" 
 
 far as the outward typical consummation here predicted was 
 concerned, it was attained conspicuously in the monarchy, 
 first of David, and then of Solomon, and after that, in the 
 perpetuated exercise or right of sovereignty in the house of 
 David, till Messiah came. But the antitypical consumma- 
 tion was realised only in Christ and His kingdom. The 
 prophet foretells, accordingly, a child born and a Son given, 
 
 whose "name is the Mighty God the Prince of 
 
 Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there 
 shall be no end, "sitting upon the throne of David, and 
 upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it, with 
 judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even for 
 ever."-^ Manifestly, with reference to that finally per- 
 fected spiritual state .of things on earth under Christ, and 
 to the Messiah being, as to His human nature, of the 
 seed of David, did Nathan bring this message from the 
 Lord to David, after he had brought up the ark with 
 rejoicing to its place in Zion, " Thine house and thy 
 kingdom shall be established for ever before thee : thy 
 throne shall be established for ever." ^ And so evidently 
 did David realise his subjugation of all his enemies, and all 
 the internal order and prosperity of his kingdom, to be sub- 
 servient to these infinitely higher interests, that, keeping 
 these interests in view, he wished to build a proper temple 
 for the worship of Jehovah; and, when prevented, he collected 
 materials exceeding great and precious for its erection by 
 Solomon ; he also penned psalms that will continue to be the 
 vehicle of the highest and holiest praises heard in the 
 Church on earth, even until the kingdom of grace has passed 
 into the kingdom of glory ; and, besides giving directions, as 
 well as providing materials, for the building of an house for 
 God to dwell in, and framing regulations for the work of the 
 
 ^ Isa. i.v. - 2 Sam. vii. 
 
Christ " m the Prophets" 119 
 
 Levites and priests, he introduced for the first time an elabo- 
 rate service of song, and set apart a body of Levites for its 
 maintenance, so as to secure the constant upholding of a 
 complete and impressive system of ordinances of worship in 
 the temple on Zion.^ The last days of David were suitably 
 spent in this blessed work — in magnifying the Lord, for the 
 ability and willingness to contribute to it which he found 
 in himself, and which was manifested by all classes of his 
 people — in solemnly committing the whole work into the 
 hands of Solomon, with earnest prayers in his behalf — and 
 in then offering thousands of sacrifices, with drink-offerings. 
 And the whole was crowned by all the congregation blessing 
 the Lord God of their fathers, bownng down their heads in 
 the worship of Jehovah, and in ^offering obeisance to their 
 aged king, and then eating and drinking on that day with 
 great gladness.^ And the actual accomplishment of this 
 work was the crowning honour put upon Solomon, when he 
 " sat on the throne of the Lord as king, instead of David his 
 father," and " the Lord magnified him exceedingly in the 
 sight of all Israel, and bestow^ed upon him such royal majesty 
 as had not been on any king before him in Israel." ^ All 
 the glory that accrued to him from the greatness of his wis- 
 dom, and the temporal prosperity of his kingdom, was eclipsed 
 by the honour put upon Solomon when he was divinely 
 employed to build so magnificent a temple for Jehovah — 
 when, the ark being placed in it, the Lord immediately 
 filled it with His glory — when, with prayers and supplica- 
 tions and thanksgivings, so full of the Spirit of God, he 
 dedicated it, in the midst of the tens of thousands of sacri- 
 fices with which king and people consecrated themselves 
 along -with the temple, to the Lord God of Israel^ — and 
 when Jehovah appeared to him that night, and employed 
 
 ^ I Chron. xxi.-xxvi. ^ I Chron. xxix. 
 
 ^ 2 Chron. xxviii., xxix. ■* i Kings viii. ; 2 Chron. v., vi. 
 
I 20 Christ " in the P^^ophets." 
 
 such great and precious promises to secure steadfastness in 
 His service, as well as such solemn threatenings to deter 
 both king and people from apostasy.^ 
 
 Thus, in connection with the occupancy of the throne, 
 first by David and then by Solomon after him, a more 
 definite revelation than ever was given respecting the pro- 
 mised Messiah. To our first parents the promise was given 
 of Christ as the seed of the woman that would bruise the 
 serpent's head. That promise was carried forward to its 
 fulfilment in the line of Seth the son of Adam, and Enoch, 
 and Noah, and then in the line of Shem the son of Noah, 
 to Abraham, and then in the line of Isaac and Jacob and of 
 Judah. And at kngth it is revealed to David that, in the 
 line of the sovereign descent from him, the Messiah would 
 take his human (nature, and so be the son of David while 
 at the same time his Lord.^ The very land in which the 
 house of David reigned was Immanuel's land ; ^ that is, be- 
 longed to Christ as Immanuel, God with us.* The temple, 
 with the divine glory visible abiding in it, was the type of 
 His body,^ in which " the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth 
 bodily." ** The nation from the outset was " a kingdom of 
 priests;" that is, of sacred persons, or of people separated 
 from all other nations, and outwardly consecrated to God, as 
 typical of all the redeemed of Christ, who, however scattered 
 among other people, are a holy nation of " kings and priests 
 to God." ^ And now at length the children of Israel are 
 formed into a kingdom, under a race of kings, all of them 
 necessarily in direct lineal descent from David, with the 
 express announcement that this form of their government 
 and constitution as a nation would not be changed, would 
 continue as the only divine arrangement for them, until it 
 terminated in Messiah's coming, and kingdom, and reign. 
 
 1 2 Chron. vii. * Matt. i. « Col. ii. 
 
 - Ps. cxxxii., ex.; Matt. xxii. ^ John ii. " Rev. i.; i Pet. ii. 
 
 ^ Isa. vii. and viii. 
 
Chris i " in the Prophets.'' 121 
 
 " 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 on 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 our Eighteousxess.^ 
 
 Indications of a spiritual consummation in Christ. 
 Many things in the history of the children of Israel, 
 plainly indicated that their whole national constitution and 
 the workings of it, were but introductory to another and 
 higher state of things, under the promised and coming 
 Messiah. The promise to Abraham that in his seed all 
 nations should be blessed, pointed to higher and more 
 extended privileges than those that were assigned to Israel 
 apart from all the nations of the world and that were in 
 fact confined to the land of Canaan. The very nature of 
 their religious rites, as outward mateiial observances, could 
 give no peace to the conscience, or moral purity to the 
 heart, except by leading the worshippers in faith to look 
 beyond them to the divine redemption and grace which 
 they shadowed forth; and that fact, in connection with 
 the constantly remembered and renewed predictions of the 
 Messiah and His salvation, compelled them, if they had any 
 spiritual discernment at all, to see that their religious system 
 was changeable and in time would wax old and vanish 
 away. And when at length they were formed into a king- 
 dom under David and Solomon, glorious as that kingdom 
 became, under these, its two first divinely chosen monarchs, 
 the history of it soon furnished additional proof that it was 
 but a new form of their typical char.acter as a nation, 
 destined to figure forth, and then disappear in, the coming 
 Messiah's reign. For after quickly rising to such a state 
 
 ^ Jer. xxiii. 
 
122 Christ " in the Prophets^ 
 
 of glory in tlie reigns of David and Solomon, it broke into 
 two halves in the reign of Solomon's son, two tribes re- 
 maining with him, and the other tribes setting up as an 
 independent kingdom ; a kingdom the inhabitants of which, 
 after describing an unhappy history under wicked monarchs, 
 were swept into captivity, and disappeared and were lost 
 among the nations of heathenism. The two tribes of Judah 
 and Benjamin, from the period of the separation of the 
 other tribes, constituted henceforth the kingdom that con- 
 tained the privileges and promises of the then kingdom of 
 God. But even its history was a history of evils that fore- 
 told its decay and dissolution ; while God's dealings with it 
 in His providence, and by His prophets, afforded continually 
 increasing evidence that it was preserved from dissolution, 
 age after age, only because the Saviour of the world was to 
 be born as one of its royal house and lineage, and because 
 its ordinances, amidst all the corruptions beneath which 
 they were buried, were still the divinely-appointed means 
 of raising up and perpetuating in the land a remnant 
 according to the election of grace, a remnant of " Israelites 
 indeed," like Elizabeth, and Zecharias, and ]\Iary, and Simeon, 
 and Anna, to welcome the ]\Iessiah when He came. 
 
 And this view of the state of things will prepare us for 
 noticing the call of the prophets to their work, the way in 
 which they performed it, and the direct, formal testimony 
 which they gave to Christ. Consider — 
 
 II. The testimony to Christ in the books of moral and 
 spiritual instruction, and of predictive utterances that are 
 more commonly spoken of as the books of the prophets. 
 
 I . The call of the propliets to their more special work as 
 inspired teachers. 
 
 It was from the Lord as dwelling in His temple on Zion, 
 and as from His temple putting forth His power over His 
 
Christ " in the Prophetsy 1 23 
 
 people and over all nations, that all mercy and all judgment 
 proceeded. " Thou that dwellest between the cherubim 
 shine forth, stir up Thy strength and come and save us." ^ 
 The judgment of God on His and His people's enemies, was 
 " the vengeance of His temple." ^ The Lord reigneth ; let 
 the people tremble : He sitteth between the cherubim ; let 
 the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion, and He is 
 high above all the people.^ From the midst of the glory in 
 which He dwelt and reigned in His sanctuary, He called 
 Samuel to his work as a prophet.* All the prophets were 
 similarly commissioned.^ But that Christ is the Lokd who 
 thus dwelt between the cherubim, and reigned over Israel 
 and over the nations, is evident from these facts among 
 others, viz., that the " glory of the Lord sitting on His 
 throne in the temple, high and lifted up," as seen by Isaiah,^ 
 was, according to the express declaration of John, the glory 
 of Christ ; ^ and that the prediction by Malachi, of a 
 messenger sent to prepare the way before tlie Lord, and of 
 THE Lord suddenly coming to His temple, even the mes- 
 senger (angel) of the covenant,^ is expressly declared by 
 Mark ^ to have been fulfilled in the work of John the Bap- 
 tist, and the coming of Jesus Christ to claim the temple as 
 His own. From Him, therefore, the prophets received their 
 commission. Hence the following facts in connection with 
 their becoming qualified to execute their commission. 
 
 First, They had discoveries of the glory of Christ, to 
 humble them under a sense of their unworthiness, to show 
 them and lead them to seek the spiritual cleansing that 
 alone could fit them for His service, and to render them 
 at once humble, trustful, and firm in performing their duties. 
 Jeremiah, though sanctified from the womb, was so oppressed 
 
 ^ Ps. Ixxx. •• I Sam. iii. '' John xii. 
 
 2 Jer. 1., li. ^ Jer. vii. 25. * Mai. iii. 
 
 ' Ps. xcix. ^ Isa. vi. * Mark i. 
 
124 Christ " in the Prophets." 
 
 witli a sense of his unfitness for his work, that the Lord put 
 forth His hand and touched his mouth, and filled it with 
 words, and made him strong with His felt presence."^ 
 Ezekiel had a vision of a firmament of glory, above which 
 was the likeness of a throne, and on the throne was one 
 with " the appearance of a man" and before this glory, he 
 fell upon his face, and was then set upon his feet, by the 
 Spirit entering into him, and strengthening him to receive, 
 and go and deliver the divine messages to the rebellious 
 Jews.^ At the side of the river Hiddekel, Daniel had a 
 vision of " a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were 
 girded with fine gold of Uphaz. His body also was like 
 the beryl. His face as the appearance of lightning, and His 
 eyes as lamps of fire, and His arms and feet like in colour 
 to polished brass, and the words of His voice like the voice 
 of a multitude." When seeing the vision, Daniel quaked 
 greatly, felt his strength gone, and his comeliness turned into 
 corruption, and lay unconscious on the ground, till a hand 
 was laid on him and raised him up, and touched his lips, 
 and opened his mouth, and gave him strength.^ Isaiah's 
 vision of the Lord,* which John declares ^ was a vision of 
 the glory of Christ, filled the prophet with an overwhelm- 
 ing sense of his uncleanness ; which was taken away by a 
 seraphim taking a live coal from off the altar, instinct with 
 the atoning blood of sacrifice, and applying it to the pro- 
 phet's lips, and so taking away his iniquity, and purging his 
 sin, as to render him fit and ready to go and deliver with 
 firmness the Lord's messages of judgment to His rebellious 
 countrymen. Such modes of preparing the prophets for 
 their work, represented figuratively the cleansing blood and 
 sanctifying grace of Christ, by which alone sinful men have 
 ever been prepared for the service of God. The men who 
 
 1 Jer. i. ^ Dan. x. ^ John xii. 
 
 2 Ezek. i. 4 Isa. vi. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets!' 125 
 
 were employed in this prophetic work were thus prepared 
 by being made, in their personal character, " holy men of 
 God." ^ 
 
 Second, Thus prepared, they " spake not by the will of 
 man," not as out of their own mind merely, nor as directed 
 by, or in order to please, high or low, rulers or ruled around 
 them, but only " as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." " 
 
 Third, The Holy Ghost, by whom they were moved, is 
 declared to be " the Spirit of Christ which was in them."^ 
 
 Fourth, And the chief theme of their utterances was the 
 redemption we have in Christ through His blood. " Of which 
 salvation the prophets inquired and searched diligently, 
 searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 
 which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand 
 the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."'* 
 
 2. With this as the main end in view, so far as the 
 divine purpose was concerned, the ministry of the prophets 
 naturally and necessarily fell into two parts. 
 
 (i.) In dealing with all classes, they were led, with great 
 force and faithfulness, to vindicate the everlasting principles 
 and interests of truth and righteousness. They exposed and 
 denounced the ungodliness and impiety, the idolatries, the 
 fraud and falsehood, the injustice and oppression, and the 
 endless moral impurities and excesses that prevailed ; they 
 proclaimed the wrath of God against all this wickedness ; they 
 declared all the miseries of the nation to have flowed from 
 their transgressions and sins; they called the nation to 
 repentance, to confession, to humiliation, to a thorough 
 reformation of their hearts and lives ; they held forth mercy 
 only to such as forsook their wicked ways and unrighteous 
 thoughts ; they rebuked both the neglect of outward ordin- 
 ances as of no avail, and the dependence placed on them as 
 
 ^ 2 Pet. i. 2 2 Pet. i. 3 I Pet. i. 4 , pg^. i. 
 
126 Christ " in the Prophets" 
 
 if they were everything, as if the mere outward observance 
 of them would suffice as a substitute for faith in the spiritual 
 realities which they shadowed forth, and for the spiritual 
 life which, by the blessing of the Spirit of God on the 
 proper use of them, they were meant and did not fail to 
 beget and nourish. Only in connection with the triumph 
 of such high spiritual truths could deliverance be found by 
 the nation from its degradation and miseries. Only in their 
 triumph would the enemies of Israel be swept from around 
 them, and overtaken by the destruction for which they had 
 prepared themselves. 
 
 (2.) While on these grounds immediate reformation was 
 called for and corresponding blessedness was promised, the 
 triumph, the thorough triumph of these principles was to 
 be expected only when the Messiah appeared, for then a 
 King would indeed reign in righteousness, and princes would 
 rule in judgment, and the Spirit would be poured out from on 
 high, and the work of righteousness would be peace, and the 
 effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.-^ 
 To that coming of the Messiah, therefore, the prophets had 
 their own eyes turned by the Spirit of Christ in them, and 
 sought to turn the eyes of the people. And this prospect 
 was thus held forth, not to make them forget immediate 
 duties in vague and uninfiuential and distracting anticipa- 
 tions, but rather from the very nature of the predicted 
 results of the Messiah's appearing, to make the prospect 
 react with enlightening, spiritualising, sanctifying, and com- 
 forting power on their whole character and conduct from 
 day to day. This influence from what is expected, is a kind 
 of influence which is still as operative and as important as 
 ever, and will indeed continue so till time is swallowed up 
 in eternity. The prospect of what is before them is still 
 
 ^ Isa. xxxii. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets." 127 
 
 the life of believers for the present. Christians live upon 
 the future. They are " saved by hope." So was it, in 
 some respects still more was it so, with the prophets, and 
 all of their own time who believed and profited by their 
 teaching. The brightness that slione upon them from the 
 future furnished the light in which they sought to walk, 
 and walking in which they found both an outward blessing 
 from the Lord and inward peace. Yea, it was the presence 
 of Christ that they had with them in the visible cloud in 
 which Jehovah dwelt, it was His Spirit that was in them, 
 and by whom their minds were divinely directed to the 
 coming deliverer ; and so no end of particulars is found in 
 their utterances with reference to His power and work. 
 Let us glance at some of them. 
 
 Predictions of the Prophets with reference to Christ. 
 
 Jonah's consignment to, and deliverance from, the fisli's 
 belly, foreshadowed Christ's lying in the grave, and His 
 rising again. 
 
 Joel foretold the outpouring of the Spirit by Christ, the judg- 
 ments that He will inflict on His enemies, and the peaceful 
 prosperous state to which He will at length raise His church. 
 
 Amos, after depicting the ruin about to overtake the 
 kingdoms both of Israel and Judah, as well as the nations 
 around, predicted the blessings to be bestowed on Jew and 
 Gentile under the Messiah's reign. 
 
 Hosea proclaimed for many years in Israel, God's con- 
 troversy with the ten tribes for their idolatrous forsaking of 
 Him, and their abounding iniquities and crimes, and the 
 destruction which they were bringing on their own heads, 
 and also the wrath coming on the princes and people of 
 Judah for their impiety and unrighteousness ; but he also 
 took refuge and sought comfort in the future when the 
 people would seek the Lord their God, and David {i.e., 
 
128 Christ " in the Prophets" 
 
 Christ) their king ^ — when He would call His Son out of 
 Egypt," and redeem His people from the grave, and swallow 
 up death in victory.^ 
 
 The book of Isaiah contains reiterated exposures of the 
 hypocrisy and manifold transgressions and iniquities of his 
 own people, of threatenings of the divine judgments which 
 they were bringing on themselves, — ^and of calls to forsake 
 their wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts, and to return 
 to the Lord for mercy and abundant pardon, — and also of 
 predictions of the overthrow in the Lord's own time of all 
 the hostile nations of the Gentiles. But intermingled with 
 all these utterances, there are, throughout the book, such 
 clear and impressive representations of the character, offices, 
 and work of Messiah, as render this book more like a history 
 of Christ after He had come, than a series of prophecies 
 concerning Him, uttered between seven and eight hundred 
 years before His advent. The following, among others, are 
 parts of Isaiah's visions and utterances. All nations flowing 
 to the house of the Lord to be taught His ways and to walk 
 in His paths * — the Branch of the Lord, beautiful and glo- 
 rious ; the filth of the daughters of Zion washed away ; all 
 that remain in Zion and Jerusalem livmg and holy ; a cloud 
 of smoke by day and of fire by night on every dwelling and 
 solemn assembly ; ^ — Jehovah on his temple throne in His 
 revealed glory (which John declares was the glory of 
 Christ ^) ; purifying the uncleanness of the prophet by a live 
 coal from the altar, the emblem of the blood of sprinkling 
 applied by the Holy Spirit ; "^ — a virgin bearing a Sou whose 
 name is Emmanuel, God with us ; ® — a child born and a Son 
 given whose name is the mighty God, and of the increase 
 of whose government there shall be no end;^ — a rod out of 
 
 1 Hos. iii. 
 
 2 Hos. xi.; Matt. ii. 
 
 3 Hos. xiii. ; i Cor. xv. 
 
 4 Isa. ii. 
 
 5 Isa. iv. 
 
 « John xii. 
 
 7 Isa. vi. 
 
 8 Isa. vii. 
 
 9 Isa. ix. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets" r 29 
 
 the stem of Jesse, and a Branch out of his roots ; full of the 
 Spirit of the Lord ; reigning in righteousness ; slaying the 
 wicked ; restoring Israel ; and gathering to Him the Gen- 
 tiles ^ — while causing nation after nation of the Gentiles to 
 perish,^ making a feast of fat things for His people, removing 
 from them the covering of condemnation, and the vail of 
 ignorance, and swallowing up death in victory ^ — sweeping 
 away refuges of lies, and laying in Zion for a sure founda- 
 tion a tried stone, a precious corner-stone* — a King reigns 
 in righteousness, judging rebellious Jews and hostile heathen, 
 casting out all the impenitently vile, pouring out His Spirit 
 on His people, and filling them with righteousness and 
 peace, with quietness and assurance for ever^^ — the voice 
 of him that crieth. Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; His 
 glory revealed ; coming with a strong hand ; and feeding 
 His flock like a shepherd ® — rivers opened in high places, 
 and fountains in the midst of the valleys '^ — a bruised reed 
 He shall not break ; the smoking flax He shall not quench ^ 
 — a light to lighten the Gentiles ; My salvation to the ends 
 of the earth ^ — My servant more marred than any man, and 
 His form more than the sons of men ^^ — He hath no form 
 nor comeliness ; when we shall see Him, there is no beauty 
 that we should desire Him ; despised and rejected of men, 
 a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ; wounded for 
 our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities — all we like 
 sheep had gone astray ; and the Lord laid on Him the ini- 
 quity of us all ; brought as a lamb to the slaughter ; and 
 as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not 
 His mouth ; it pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; when Thou 
 shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His 
 seed ; see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied ^^ — arise, 
 
 ^ Isa. xi. ■* Isa. xxviii. ^ Isa. xli. ^^ Isa. Hi. 
 
 - Isa. xili.-xxiv. ^ Isa. xxix.-xxxiii. ** Isa. xlii. " Isa. liii. 
 
 3 I,sa. XXV. ® Isa. xl. ^ Isa xlix. 
 
 I 
 
130 Christ ''in the Prophets." 
 
 shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord 
 is risen upon thee ; the Gentiles shall come to thy light, 
 and kings to the brightness of thy rising ^ — the Spirit of 
 the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me to 
 preach good tidings unto the meek ^ — the righteousness of 
 Zion and Jerusalem shall go forth as brightness ; and the 
 salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.^ 
 
 Micah repeating the woes threatened to all classes, as 
 workers of iniquity, calls and encourages them to repent 
 and turn to God, and to take refuge in His mercy, by 
 describing the happy state of the teachable and upright 
 under the coming " Euler in Israel," who, in respect of His 
 human nature, would be born in " Bethlehem," while in 
 respect of His divine nature, " His goings forth have been 
 of old from everlasting."* 
 
 Jeremiah, though naturally retiring, under the call and by 
 the grace of God, stands forth with uncompromising fidelity 
 and firmness in the midst of the deadly outrages which he 
 suffered, to proclaim the wickedness of all ranks, while 
 pathetically deploring the miseries of his country. And as 
 the chief stay which he leaned upon, and presented to others 
 to lean upon, he declared that when the ark of the covenant 
 ceased to be looked to or spoken of as the pledge of the 
 divine presence, returning penitents would find salvation in 
 the Lord their God ^ — that in those days the Lord would 
 make a new covenant with them, neither to depart from 
 .them, nor to allow them to depart from Him ® — that He 
 would Himself become Jehovah their righteousness "^ — that 
 He would cleanse them from all their iniquity, while 
 pardoning it all, and fill the hearts and places which sin had 
 made desolate with tokens of His goodness, and with the 
 voice of joy and gladness.^ 
 
 ^ Isa. Ix. ' Isa. Ixii. ^ Jer. iii. ^ Jer. xxiii. 
 
 " Isa. Ixi. * Micah iv., v. ^ Jer. xxxi. * Jer. xxxiii. 
 
Christ ^'in the Prophets." 131 
 
 Daniel foretells that the stone cut out of the mountain 
 without hands shall break in pieces, and annihilate all the 
 great kingdoms of the earth, and become itself a great 
 kingdom, to stand for ever 1 — that the Son of Man having 
 received from the Ancient of Days an universal and ever- 
 lasting kingdom, shall fill it with the saints of the Most 
 High^ — that, as informed by the angel Gabriel, within so 
 many weeks, prophetic weeks, weeks of years, Messiah the 
 Prince would come and be cut off, not for Himself, but to 
 finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, and to make 
 reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting right- 
 eousness ' — and that at the appointed time many of them 
 that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
 everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt.* 
 
 Amidst the experiences of sin, and the rejjroofs and 
 warnings which Ezchiel uttered, no more impressive state- 
 ments are found in Scripture than those which he made 
 of the blessings of the salvation that is in Christ ° — of the 
 life-giving power of His Spirit^ — and of the great living 
 temple for God upon the earth that shall be at length 
 formed of the redeemed followers of the Lamb7 
 
 Obadiah, in the short record of his prophecies, connects the 
 providential extinction of the Edomites and the restoration 
 of the children of Israel with the times of the gospel, when 
 " the kingdom shall be the Lord's." 
 
 Zechariah, w^ho was contemporary with Haggai, and who 
 also returned witli the captives from Babylon, in order to 
 encourage the Jews to rebuild the temple, was inspired to 
 repeat visions and prophecies one after another that, figura- 
 tively, yet impressively, set forth Christ coming as our Kin<T 
 and High Priest, to establish His kingdom, build His spiritual 
 
 ^ Dan. ii. ^ Dan. ix. ^ Ezek. xxxvi. ' Ezek. xl., &c. 
 
 2 Dan. vii. * Dan. xii. ^ Ezek. xxxvii. 
 
132 Christ " in the Prophets y 
 
 temple, to be in it a priest upon His throne, to convert the Gen- 
 tiles, and to enlarge and prosper His Church^ — amidst re- 
 proofs of hypocrisy, and warnings against rebellion, he fore- 
 tells prosperity to Jerusalem, and the conversion of all nations^ 
 — predictions of ruin to the nations around, and of mercy 
 to remnants of them, are followed by prophecies of Christ's 
 entering Jerusalem on an ass's colt; of the benefits of His 
 kingdom, and the blood of His covenant ; of the victories, 
 privileges, and joy of His Church.^ In the midst of pro- 
 mises and threatenings since fulfilled, or still fulfilling, or 
 destined at a future day to be fulfilled, we have set before us 
 the care of the Grood Shepherd for His flock, and the betrayal 
 of Christ for thirty pieces of silver'* — the wonderful deliver- 
 ance to come one day to the Jews, when, the Spirit being 
 poured out upon them, they shall look on Christ whom they 
 pierced, and mourn, and see in His hands the wounds that 
 were made in the house of His friends, and the sword of 
 Jehovah's justice smiting the Good Shepherd, the man that 
 was Jehovah's fellow, as He gave His life for the sheep ; 
 when, seeing before their eyes the opened fountain filled 
 with His blood, they shall wash in it and be clean ; and 
 when, further, in His character of God their Saviour, He 
 shall be as plainly revealed to them as if His feet stood 
 visibly before them on the Mount of Olives ; and when, in 
 their unreserved surrender of themselves to His cause, they 
 shall emphatically become holiness unto the Lord.^ 
 
 To stimulate Zerubbabel the Governor, and Joshua the 
 High Priest, and, through them, the returned Jews, to go on 
 with their rebuilding of the second temple, the prophet Hag- 
 gai is divinely inspired to inform them that "the desire of 
 all nations," who could be no other tlian Christ, would come 
 
 1 Zech. i., iv., vi. ^ Zech. ix. * Zech. xii., xiii., xiv. 
 
 " Zech. vii., viii. •* Zech. xi. 
 
Christ " in the Prophets" 1 33 
 
 to that temple and fill it with His glory, and so make the 
 glory of it to be greater than that even of Solomon's temple, 
 by reason of the divine, all-comprehensive, eternal peace, of 
 which the proclamation would be made within its courts, 
 and thence carried over all the earth, and down through all 
 generations. 
 
 And while Haggai urged the rebuilding of the temple by 
 such considerations, Malachi, the last of the prophets, em- 
 ployed the same prospects to give point to his rebukes 
 of the people's sin in neglecting or corrupting the ordi- 
 nances of the temple, and force to his calls to them to 
 present the sacrifices and offerings, and to practise the 
 righteousness, which the Lord required at their hands; say- 
 ing, " Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall pre- 
 pare the way before me ; and the Lord whom ye seek shall 
 suddenly come to His temple." " But who may abide the 
 day of His coming ? and who shall stand when He ap- 
 peareth ? " The day that cometh shall burn up all the 
 proud, and all that do wickedly, root and branch. " But 
 unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness 
 arise with healing in His wings." 
 
 Such are at once the manifoldness, the oneness, and the 
 clearness of the predictive utterances concerning Christ, con- 
 tained in the prophets. 
 
 Practical reflections. 
 In surveying the history of the children of Israel given 
 in the books styled "the prophets," the truths and precepts 
 which they taught, and the predictions which they uttered, 
 and in looking at these subjects, in connection with what is 
 predictive in the Lokd's dealings with His servants in ante- 
 diluvian and patriarchal times, and in the dispensation 
 which He gave to the children of Israel by the hand of 
 Moses, the practical reflections that are suggested may be 
 
1 34 Christ " in the Prophet s'' 
 
 thus summarily stated. First, The promise given to our 
 first parents after the fall, that promise of promises, con- 
 taining within it all other promises, refers to Christ, and to 
 the redemption from sin to be found in Him alone. There- 
 fore, all grace given to sinful men from the beginning, all 
 the blessings of salvation, pardon, renewal, sanctification, 
 and so forth, flowed to them out of that promise, that is, 
 out of Him in whom all the promises are yea and amen. 
 And all the personal piety, purity, and virtue in the redeemed 
 from the beginning, flowed out of that promise, and from the 
 grace conveyed by it. Second, All the divinely appointed 
 sacrifices, purifications, and ceremonial observances of what- 
 ever sort, had no meaning, and no power to benefit, except 
 as types of Christ's redeeming work, types that led up to 
 Him, and formed channels through which, from Him, the 
 blessing came. Third, The publication and enforcement 
 of the great moral law had two objects in view, which 
 in reality combined in one happy result, in the case of all 
 whom the enforcement of it properly affected and influenced. 
 For, first, one object of its enforcement was to convince 
 men of their sinfulness, and so lead them to Christ as the 
 end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth: 
 and further, having served this purpose, another object was, 
 that such as were thus led to Christ might receive the law 
 anew from Him as their Kedeemer, not now for the impos- 
 sible end of being obeyed in order to their salvation, but that, 
 being saved, they might be guided by His law in living to 
 Him who had saved them by His grace. Fourth, The 
 nation of Israel throughout its history was blessed with 
 outward safety and prosperity, or visited with disasters and 
 desolation, according to the measure of its public fidelity 
 or faithfulness in its treatment of the divine laws and 
 ordinances ; while the number of the truly saved in each 
 successive generation, consisted of those who, through these 
 
Christ ''in the Prophets." 135 
 
 laws and ordinances, were led to embrace and live upon the 
 promise of spiritual redemption, and who received from Him 
 to whom the promise referred, the grace that saved them. 
 Fifth, The work of the prophets consisted, first of all, of 
 zealous endeavours, in the midst of whatever risks and 
 sufferings, to proclaim and enforce the spiritual character 
 and ends of these divine laws and ordinances, to set forth 
 the guilt and danger of all classes, from the highest to the 
 humblest, in so fearfully transgressing them and trampling 
 them under foot, and to bring them to repentance and 
 reformation, as the only way of escaping the miseries that 
 had come or were coming on them. And, next, as the fittest 
 of all considerations for awakening them to spiritual realities, 
 and quickening them to spiritual life, and so furnishing 
 them with blessed foretastes and earnests of the spiritual 
 redemption to be brought to His people by their promised 
 Messiah when He came, the prophets were inspired by the 
 Spirit of Christ which was in them, to foretell, in a most 
 impressive manner. His union of the divine and human 
 natures in His person ; His infinite majesty and unspeak- 
 able lowliness ; His unsearchable greatness, and the un- 
 searchable riches of His grace ; His manifold works of 
 power and mercy; His unparalleled sufferings and equally 
 unparalleled glory ; the extent and perpetuity of His reign of 
 righteousness and peace ; and the immeasurable blessings of 
 His boundless and everlasting kingdom. Sixth, The dealings 
 of the LoKD with His chosen people, and their destiny, and, 
 not less. His dealings with the other nations of the earth, 
 and their destiny, were arranged and determined chiefly in 
 respect of their several relations to the promised Messiah, 
 and to the work which, when He came. He would com- 
 mence, and which, ever after. He would continue to per- 
 form on the earth, even until all the redeemed from among 
 men are gathered into His kingdom, and until He turns 
 
6 Christ " in the Prophet si 
 
 the impenitently wicked into hell, with all the nations that 
 forget God. These are at least some of the leading facts 
 that are set forth in the writings of the prophets, or the 
 reflections suggested by them, and that combine to show 
 how truly "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro- 
 phecy," how Old Testament history, institutions, laws, ordi- 
 nances, and prophecies run up to and centre in Christ, as 
 He who " filleth all in all." 
 
VII. 
 
 CHKIST "IN THE PSALMS." 
 
 " All things must be fulfilled which were written in the . . . PSALMS 
 . . . concerning me." — Luke xxiv. 44. 
 
 A SUMMAEY view of the way in which the psalms 
 '^ testify of Christ may be given in the following 
 manner. Some of them are more expressly Messianic. In 
 others, their reference to Christ is declared in the New 
 Testament. In others the allusions to ancient Israel are 
 figurative representations of Christ and His Church under 
 the gospel. In others, still, the spiritual meaning of the 
 references to the Mosaic ritual is declared in the psalms 
 themselves. In those psalms which express the delight of 
 believers in the holy law of God, there is implied with 
 regard to those who experienced that delight, the presence 
 in them of that spiritual life and liberty which are found 
 in Christ alone. Further still, the psalms which are formed 
 of such lofty adorations of the divine perfections as displayed 
 in the works of creation and providence, are adorations of 
 Christ, by whom God made the world, who upholdeth all 
 things by the word of His power, and who is redeeming 
 creation from the ruins of the fall. 
 
 First. There are psalms in which the things stated, 
 while, in the first instance, suggested by, and having 
 reference to, and in some degree verified in, the actual 
 history and experience of David, or Solomon, or Moses, 
 or any one else connected with the composition of them, 
 cannot be viewed as having been fuUy realised in any mere 
 human creature, but plainly apply ultimately, and in more 
 or fewer particulars exclusively, as they are for the most 
 
Christ " in the Psalms': 
 
 part in the New Testament thus applied expressly, to the 
 Messiah. The psalms in question are prophetic representa- 
 tions of Christ and His redeeming work, and the experiences 
 which His people have of His grace. Thus, 
 
 According to Psalm ii., as quoted in Acts iv., while the 
 powers of earth combine against the Lord Jesus Christ, He 
 pours His mockery on their helpless rage, sits as King in 
 Zion, dashes to pieces all His enemies, and makes His 
 blessing to rest on all who submit to Him, and love and 
 serve Him. 
 
 In Psalm viii,, as quoted in Heb. ii., Christ, as the second 
 Adam, the Lord from heaven, regains the dominion on earth 
 which the first Adam forfeited by disobedience. 
 
 Psalms xxii., Ixix., xvi., and others, as quoted or referred to 
 in Matt, xxvii., Kom. xi., Acts i., ii., prophetically represent 
 Christ as suffering every kind of bodily and mental distress 
 from human enmity, and, at length, for a season, forsaken 
 even by God ; and yet, though, under these endurances, He 
 died and was buried. His body did not return to corruption: 
 on the contrary. He rose in triumph from the grave, and by 
 the path of life ascended to fulness of joy in His Father's 
 presence. 
 
 The words of Psalm xl., " Sacrifice and offering," &c., 
 "Lo, I come," &c., are declared in Heb. x. to be the words 
 of Christ as to His coming to terminate animal sacrifice 
 and to take away sin by offering Himself. 
 
 In Psalm xlv., as quoted in Heb. i., Christ stands 
 forth to view, fairer than the children of men; clothed with 
 glory, and girded with power; to conquer enemies into willing 
 submission; to bind them to His throne and service; to unite 
 them to Himself in closest bonds of reverence and love ; 
 to sanctify them into His likeness; and, finally, to bring 
 them, with infinite gladness, to dwell in His immediate 
 presence for ever. 
 
Christ " in the Psalms." 139 
 
 In Psalm Ixviii., as quoted in Eph. iv., we have 
 Him who came down as the Lawgiver in such majesty 
 on Sinai, set before us as in His character of God the 
 Saviour, ascending gloriously on high, leading captivity 
 captive, and receiving gifts for men, yea for the rebellious 
 also, that the Lord God may dwell among them, and 
 thus, as the living, life-giving Head of the Church, filling 
 all its true members with His presence, grace, and Holy 
 Spirit, 
 
 In Psalm Ixxii., Christ is presented before us as pos- 
 sessed of a universal dominion, which He exercises for the 
 salvation of the poor and needy, and so as to multiply His 
 willing and devoted subjects and servants, until all nations 
 are blessed in Him and call Him blessed, and the earth is 
 filled with His glory. 
 
 In Psalm ex., quoted in Mark xii., Acts ii., Heb. 
 i., vii., it is said that Christ is made a priest for ever after 
 the order of Melchizedec, and that His seat is at Jehovah's 
 right hand, from whence He sends forth His power to render 
 His people willing to serve Him in the beauty of holiness, 
 and to make His enemies His footstool. 
 
 In Psalm cxviii., quoted in Matt, xxi!, Acts iv., Eph, 
 ii., it is declared that Christ is the Stone which the builders, 
 the rulers of the people, and the elders of Israel refused, 
 and yet which is become the headstone of the corner, that 
 He whom they rejected and crucified God hath raised up, 
 and that in Him and in Him alone there is salvation. 
 
 And in Psalm cxxxii., we have the promise of the 
 fruit of David's body being placed on his throne, which 
 is declared in Acts ii, to have been fulfilled in Christ ; 
 and in that psalm we see Christ taking up His rest in 
 the Church ; blessing her provision, and satisfying her 
 poor with bread ; clothing her priests with salvation, 
 and causing her saints to shout aloud for joy ; and ruling 
 
140 Christ " in the Psalms" 
 
 with such light and strength, that His enemies are clothed 
 with shame, while He is encompassed and crowned with 
 ever-increasing glory. 
 
 Second. There are other psalms in which, from a first 
 or superficial reading of them, nothing would be apt to 
 appear as referring to Christ, but in which passages are 
 found that in the New Testament are declared to have this 
 reference as their chief meaning. Thus, passages in Psalms 
 xviii., Ixvii., cxvii., are quoted in Eomans xv., to prove that 
 the Gentiles would joyfully give all praise and glory to 
 God, for His mercy in Jesus Christ. The passage in Psalm 
 xli. 9, is declared in John xiii. 18, to have been fulfilled in 
 the betrayal of Christ. The words of Psalm xliv. 22 are 
 said in Eomans viii. 36 to have been fulfilled in the suf- 
 ferings which the followers of Christ endured for His sake. 
 It is said in Matthew xiii. that Jesus spake in parables, to 
 fulfil that which is recorded in Psalm Ixxviii. as spoken by 
 " the prophet." In what is said in Psalm xcv. of the rest 
 in Canaan, of which, through unbelief, the first generation 
 of Israel fell short, we are told in Hebrews iv. that the 
 higher and principal meaning is the danger of those who 
 are under the gospel, falling short, through unbelief, of the 
 rest found in Christ on earth, and at length in heaven. 
 The words of Psalm xcvii., "Worship Him, all ye gods," 
 are declared in Hebrews i. 6 to be a command to all the 
 angels of God to worship Christ. 
 
 Third. The nation of Israel, as we have already seen, 
 being, throughout its history, a figurative representation of 
 the spiritual condition of such of that nation as were 
 spiritually minded, and also of all the redeemed in Christ 
 under the gospel, every allusion in the psalms to their 
 national character, privileges, and blessings, as well as to 
 their sins and miseries, is fitted and intended to convey a 
 great spiritual truth, or a great spiritual lesson, to the Church 
 
Christ " in the Psalms" 141 
 
 of Christ as such, and to its families and members severally. 
 We have already seen that their observing of meats and 
 drinks, and sacred seasons, formed only a shadow of good 
 things to come, a shadow of which the body or substance 
 was to be found only in Christ, and His grace and salvation^ 
 — that the gifts which the priests offered according to the 
 law, served merely as an example and shadow of heavenly 
 things ^ — that their ordinances of divine service and a 
 worldly sanctuary were but figures, for the time-being, of 
 the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered 
 Himself without spot to God ^ — and that the events of 
 their history, from Abraham to Moses, from their redemp- 
 tion from Egypt till the end of their wilderness journey, 
 and throughout the ages of their occupancy of Canaan, were 
 divinely designed to typify the great spiritual realities of the 
 redemption of the gospel.'* 
 
 Now, many of the psalms are full of allusions to events 
 in the history of the patriarchs, to the redemption from 
 Egypt, to the deliverance of the Eed Sea, to the scene at 
 Sinai, to the occurrences that took place in the course of 
 the forty years' abode in the desert, to the entrance into 
 Canaan, and to the manifold subjects of deepest interest 
 furnished by the history of the children of Israel in Canaan. 
 There are, throughout the psalms, references to promises 
 and covenants, to mercies and judgments, to sins and suffer- 
 ings, and penitence and prayers, and pardon and deliverance, 
 and the overthrow of enemies, to triumphs and joys, to 
 sacrifices and purifications, to manna from heaven aixl water 
 from the rock, to the tabernacle and temple, to the sanc- 
 tuary and the courts of our God, to Judah and Salem, to 
 Zion and Jerusalem, to the mountains round about Jerusa- 
 lem, to the glorious things that are spoken of the city of 
 
 ^ Col. iv. 3 Heb. ix. 
 
 2 Heb. viii. * Rom. iv. ; i Cor. x. ; Gal. iv. ; Heb. passim. 
 
142 Christ " in the Psalms'' 
 
 God, and to the Shepherd of Israel, who dwelleth between 
 the cherubim. And since the Christian Church is ex- 
 pressly declared in the New Testament to be, under the 
 gospel, the Zion of God,^ and the Jerusalem which is above, 
 and is the mother of all believers,^ there is not one of these 
 manifold references to ancient Israel in the psalms, but 
 applies, and is designed for application, to the redeemed 
 through all ages. Yea, every such allusion is fraught to 
 the Christian with more light than it afforded to the Jew ; 
 for the Jew, having the truth only in figure, could but 
 dimly perceive it through such a medium ; but the Chris- 
 tian, having the reality which the figure was intended to 
 convey, sees all the more clearly the force of the form in 
 the substance which he grasps, and so can use the form all 
 the more effectually as a means of impressing on his mind 
 the truth itself. 
 
 FouETH. There are psalms in which the writer shows 
 that, while he had regard to the ceremonial sacrifices and 
 purifications which the law required, he had an overpowering 
 sight and feeling of the paramount necessity and importance 
 of experiencing the cleansing virtue of a true atonement, 
 and of saving grace. In the 5 1 st Psalm, for instance, 
 David sets forth the original and inherited depravity of 
 his nature and his actual transgressions, in as impressive 
 a representation of the malignity of sin as is to be found in 
 Scripture. He then pleads to be purged with hyssop that 
 he may be clean, that is, that the ashes prepared and kept 
 ready for use, which consisted of the remains of the slain 
 and consumed heifer, and of the pure running water with 
 which it was mingled, might be applied to him to take his 
 sin away. Yet manifestly he was not looking to that 
 ceremonial cleansing as sufficient, but through it looking 
 
 1 Heb. xiii. ^ Gal. i. 
 
Christ " ill the Psabns'' 
 
 wholly to the far higher sacrifice for sin, and suppli- 
 cating the Holy Spirit's application of it to his guilty 
 conscience and sinful heart and life. For he pleaded that 
 God would deliver him from blood- guiltiness, would create 
 a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him, would not 
 cast him from His presence, nor take His Holy Spirit from 
 him, but visit him with the joy of His salvation, and uphold 
 him with His free Spirit. And in the after part of the 
 psalm, he still further shows, that while he realised the 
 obligation of offering the typical sacrifices according to the 
 law, he realised their utter unfitness in themselves, and in 
 the mere presentation of them, to secure divine forgiveness 
 and favour, or to be a sufficient acknowledgment of the 
 salvation prayed for ; and he inculcated a faith in the Lord, 
 and a gratitude for redemption, which completely identified 
 the experience of the Psalmist with that of all believers, who 
 are all brought into a state of forgiveness, and acceptance, 
 and peace, and fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. 
 Such psalms as the xxxii., Ixvi., cxxx., &c., are psalms of a 
 similar character ; and no language could be fitter than that 
 which they contain to express the experience of all who 
 are " washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." ^ 
 
 Fifth. There are again such psalms as the xix. and 
 cxix., full of expressions of delight in the law of God, such 
 as equal or exceed the highest and richest and most blissful 
 experiences of the divine life, and the most notable exer- 
 cises of the gracious affections, to be found among the holiest 
 and happiest children of God. It is an absolute impossi- 
 bility, in the nature of things, that such experience could 
 have been attained by any Old Testament believers, except 
 through the same work of the Spirit of Christ in them. For 
 
 ^ I Cor. vi. 
 
144 Christ ''in the Psalms''' 
 
 God's holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are unchangeable. 
 The law which issued ^rom these perfections and is stamped 
 with them is unchangeable. The malignity of sin is un- 
 changeable : and the fact that every man is utterly depraved 
 by it is unchangeable. The necessity of the endurance of the 
 curse denounced against transgressors, or the impossibility of 
 any transgressor being pardoned unless the curse due to his 
 sin is first endured, is unchangeable. The obligation to fulfil 
 the law by a perfect obedience, ere a title is established to 
 divine favour and eternal life, is unchangeable. The fact of 
 the utter helplessness and hopelessness of man's fallen and 
 ruined state, so far as any personal efforts on his own part 
 to save himself are concerned, is unchangeable. And not 
 less unchangeable is the necessity of the satisfaction to law 
 and justice for sin, which the sufferings and death of the 
 Divine Eedeemer rendered — of the fulfilment of the law's 
 demands, which it received from Him in His perfect obedi- 
 ence to it — and of the enlightening, quickening, sanctifying 
 work of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ in the souls 
 of men, in applying the redemption thus provided in Christ, 
 and in bringing them under the covert of His blood, and the 
 merits of His obedience, and the saving power of the truth as 
 it is in Him, in order to their pardon, and acceptance, and 
 renewal to holiness, and admission into the family of God ; 
 their possession of its privileges, and attainment of His like- 
 ness; and their final entrance into His presence, and kingdom, 
 and glory. 
 
 Now there never was a sinner on earth who was or 
 could be brought to love the holy God, and His holy 
 law, and to take delight in Him and it, without first 
 receiving pardon of all his sins through the one atone- 
 ment provided, and acceptance for his person in the right- 
 eousness provided, and deliverance from the dominion of sin 
 by the grace bestowed. For only in his felt freedom from 
 
Chris I in the ''Psalms!' 145 
 
 the condemnation which he deserved, in his felt deliverance 
 from the bondage of the lusts v^^hicli he has been made to hate, 
 in his sight of the divine holiness, justice, and truth, law 
 and government vindicated, upheld, and honoured ; in the 
 way by which the divine mercy thus reaches, embraces, and 
 saves him ; only thus is he constrained to yield himself up 
 in love and gratitude to God, as alive from the dead, to 
 serve Him with gladness, and to walk before Him in new- 
 ness of life. Only as thus redeemed from evil, and restored 
 to favour and fellowship with God, and confiding in the 
 grace of which they had become partakers, to preserve their 
 souls in life, and guide them in the way of peace, only thus 
 were true believers servants and children of God led and 
 enabled to love the law of the Lord, and to make it their 
 meditation all the day. And so deep and rich were their 
 experiences of what the grace of God had done, and was 
 doing for them, and so great and joyful their hope of 
 what it would yet accomplish, that the psalms in which 
 these experiences and hopes are recorded, are still found and 
 will to the end of time be found, the fittest means of giving 
 utterance and fresh strength to the highest, and holiest, and 
 most joyfal experiences of those, in whom grace is reigning 
 through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. 
 
 Sixth. There are Psalms which celebrate the power, 
 wisdom, and goodness of God in the works of creation and 
 providence. If some are ready to ask, what special relation 
 has Christ to these works, and to the psalms which celebrate 
 their author ? our answer is, Fird, " By Him all things 
 were created that are in heaven and on earth . . . and by 
 Him all things consist;"^ "all things were made by Him, 
 and without Him was not anything made that was made.""'' 
 It is "by His Son" that "God made the worlds;" and it is the 
 
 1 Col. i. • 2 John i. 
 
146 Christ in the '' Psalms r 
 
 Son of God who is " upholding all things by the word of His 
 power."^ If so, the heavens declare the glory of the Son of God, 
 and the firmament showeth His handiwork/ and He equally 
 with the Father and the Spirit, is magnified in the psalms of 
 praise for the works of creation and providence. Second, in 
 consequence of the entrance of sin among the works of God, 
 through the fall of angels and of man, a general disturbance 
 and disorder, and great desolations have ensued : the whole 
 creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain till now. 
 But Christ is about to deliver creation from the bondage 
 of corruption " into the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God." ^ By Christ, the Father is reconciling all things 
 unto Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things 
 in heaven.* The Son of Man shall gather out of His 
 kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity. 
 The purification of creation shall be accomplished when the 
 heavens being on fire are dissolved, and the elements melt 
 with fervent heat, and the earth and its works are burned 
 up ; and then shall at once rise to view the new heavens 
 and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness'.^ Now 
 there are psalms full of the loftiest adorations of Jehovah, 
 as displaying His natural and moral perfections in these 
 works of His hands, and in the manner in which He is 
 preserving, governing, and disposing of them, and combining 
 them all in showing forth His praises. But, as we have 
 seen, it is the hand of Christ by which they are created, 
 formed, upheld, and guided to their destiny; and in con- 
 nection and harmony with this fact, may be mentioned the 
 way in which the words of Psalm cii. 25 are applied in 
 Hebrews i. The suppliant who utters the words of the 
 psalm, amidst his overwhelming afflictions, takes refuge in the 
 Lord his God Who dwelleth in Zion, and Who will build it 
 
 ^ Heb. i. - Ps. viii. ^ j^om. viii. ^ Col. i. ^2 Pet. iii. 
 
Christ in the " Song- of Songs" 147 
 
 up and appear in His glory. He thus takes refuge in Him 
 because of His unchangeableness in tlie midst of His chang- 
 ing creatures, saying, "Behold Thou hast laid the founda- 
 tions of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy 
 hands ; they shall perish but Thou shalt endure," &c. But 
 the apostle quotes the words as spoken by God the Father 
 to the Son, by whom he had already said the world was 
 made and upheld. If then Christians fail to realise the 
 presence and glory of Christ in all the psalms, that are full 
 of the divine workings in creation and Providence, and of 
 the glory yet to accrue to God from all His works, it is not 
 because Christ is not in all these works from the beginning, 
 .but because their still ignorant and erring minds and hearts 
 fail to recognise Him ; for assuredly, in reference to them as 
 to all things else in the universe, Christ is all in all. 
 
 Finally, as regards " the Song of Solomon," which is one 
 of the books named " the Psalms," Christ's presence with 
 His redeemed, and their communion with Him are set forth 
 in such terms as the following in that Song of songs. 
 Prayers for the tokens of His love, and for the joy awakened 
 hy the mry mention of His name : " Let Him kiss me 
 with the kisses of His mouth, for Thy love is better than 
 wine; because of the savour of Thy good ointment. Thy 
 name is as ointment poured forth." — Longings for the 
 Shepherd and Bishop of souls : " Tell me, Thou whom 
 my soul loveth where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy 
 flock to rest at noon : " and the gracious answer, " If thou 
 know not, thou fairest among women, go thy way forth 
 by the footsteps of the flock." — The blessedness found in 
 Christ : " I sat down under His shadow with great delight, 
 and His fruit was sweet to my taste ; He brought me into 
 His banqueting-house, and His banner over me was love." — 
 The miseries of spiritual desertion, and the Joy of a recovered 
 sight and sense of divine favour : " 1 sought Him whom my 
 
148 Christ in the " Song of Songs." 
 
 soul loveth ; I sought Him, but I found Him not. . . . Saw 
 ye Him whom my soul loveth ? . . . I found Him. ... I 
 held Him, and would not let Him go." — Tlie attractiveness 
 of the Church when washed in His blood, and clothed with 
 His righteousness : " Thou art all fair, my love, there is no 
 spot in Thee." — Prayer to the Spirit to come oxidi fit them 
 for the presence of Christ, and the pleasure which He takes in 
 answering such prayers : " 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." " I am come into my garden, my 
 sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my 
 spice ; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey ; I 
 have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink ; 
 yea, drink abundantly, beloved." — The high esteem for Christ 
 when His presence is realised : " My beloved is the chiefest 
 among ten thousand." — The brightness and p)Oiver of the 
 Church when His glory rests upon her : " She looketh forth 
 as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and 
 terrible as an army with banners." The swift and lofty 
 movements, the God-ward, heavenward movement of the 
 soul when breathed upon by the Spirit of Christ : " Or ever 
 I was aware, my soul made me as the chariots of Amina- 
 dab." — The habitually heavenward course which believers 
 take, and keep, through the world, in felt and cherished 
 dependence on the almighty unchanging love of Christ : 
 " Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning 
 upon her beloved ? . . . Set me as a seal upon Thine heart, 
 as a seal upon Thine arm; for Thy love is strong as death." 
 To all who have even but a slight acquaintance with the 
 revelations of Christ in the Old Testament as Jehovah, the 
 co-equal, co-eternal Son of God the Father, the Maker and 
 Governor of the universe, and as Eedeemer of men, the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, to all such it will 
 
Christ ill the " Song of Songs!' 149 
 
 appear but the appropriate consummation of all other 
 manifestations of Himself to the ancient Church, to find 
 that in the Song of Songs He and His redeemed were even 
 then, through His gracious visitations, found in near, loving, 
 blessed communion, and that the very mists then hanging 
 over His person as God incarnate, only served to absorb their 
 souls the more entirely with the glimpses given to them of 
 His grace and glory as their all in all. 
 
VIII. 
 
 MANKIND PEOVING THEIE NEED OF CHEIST. 
 
 " The fulness of the time." — Gal. iv. 4. 
 
 ^PHE time here spoken of as " the fulness of the time " 
 -*- was that which was not only the time divinely deter- 
 mined on, but proved conclusively by all the circumstances 
 of the case, to be the most befitting time for the coming 
 of Christ, for the incarnation of the Son of God. His 
 coming earlier would have been too soon ; His coming later 
 would have been too late. The world absolutely required 
 it when it took place. Had it been longer delayed, the 
 world would have utterly perished in its corruption. 
 
 The "good will to men" displayed in the incarnation, 
 contemplated and secured two ends, viz., "glory to God," 
 and " peace on earth." But to make sufiiciently manifest 
 the malignity of sin, and the righteousness of the divine 
 anger against it, and also to show the love of God in send- 
 ing His Son into the world to save sinners, it was needful 
 to leave mankind to themselves, to their own wisdom and 
 strength, until they demonstrated that, to whatever natural 
 knowledge, or temporal prosperity, or greatness, they could 
 and did by their own efforts attain, they were unable to 
 recover either the lost image or forfeited favour of God ; 
 that by their own wisdom they could not attain to the 
 knowledge of God, or even retain that knowledge when they 
 received it from above ; that they were inclined, and sure, 
 only to depart further and further from Him. So that the 
 only arrest put on these fatal tendencies was by a succession 
 of supernatural interpositions of the divine hand — inter- 
 
Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 1 5 1 
 
 positions which were all connected with, and derived their 
 virtue from, the redemption to be wrought out by the Son of 
 God when sent forth in " the fulness of the time." The first 
 four thousand years of the history of man were appointed 
 and employed by God to make this demonstration complete. 
 
 I. The course of things after the fall. 
 
 Immediately after the fall, proof began and continued to 
 be given of the natural course of men, in the pride, ungodli- 
 ness, ambition, and sensuality of Cain and of his descendants 
 — forms of evil that swelled and grew with their invention 
 of useful arts, and their rapid advancement in worldly wealth. 
 And instead of that depravity being repressed by the piety 
 and virtue that were divinely created and kept alive in the 
 hearts and lives of godly men like Abel, and Seth, and Enos, 
 and Enoch, and by the long- continued and impressive warn- 
 ings of Noah, human wickedness and violence only rose to 
 a greater height, until God's long-suffering was exhausted, 
 and all but Noah and his family were swept from the earth 
 by the deluge. 
 
 After the flood a similar course of things was repeated. 
 Noah's posterity for the most part quickly fell away to all 
 evil. They rose indeed to temporal riches, power, and great- 
 ness. But pride and ambition and sensuality led them away 
 from the service of the true God to that of idols. And 
 though scattered lights continued to shine here and there 
 amidst the growing darkness, but for a special interposition 
 of God, the knowledge of Him would have speedily died 
 out among the sons of men. The interposition was of this 
 nature. 
 
 II. Separation of Alraham and of Israel from the rest of 
 
 the loorld. 
 Abraham and his family and their descendants, and the 
 
1 5 2 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 nation into which they grew, were separated from all the 
 other nations of the earth, were walled in from the rest 
 of mankind, and preserved, to a greater or less extent, in 
 the knowledge, worship, and service of Jehovah, while all 
 the other nations of the earth were left, for ahove fifteen 
 hundred years, to walk in their own ways. And this divine 
 arrangement continued in operation, though sadly misim- 
 proved by the chosen people, until at length the Messiah 
 came, the Messiah first promised to our fallen parents in para- 
 dise, as the seed of the woman, afterwards promised as the seed 
 of Abraham, and promised at a still future time as the Son 
 of David ; until He came, and finished the work of redemp- 
 tion, so long and so endlessly prefigured and predicted, and 
 set up that everlasting kingdom, into which He is gathering 
 all the ransomed, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 people, and nation. 
 
 The separation of Abraham and of his posterity from the 
 rest of the world, as the chosen depositories of the know- 
 ledge, ordinances, worship, and law of God, assumed its fixed 
 and permanent form in the deliverance of the Hebrews from 
 Egypt, and their settlement and continuance for ages in the 
 land of Canaan. Then the other nations of mankind were 
 left to show that, amidst all their intellectual achievements, 
 and all the prosperity, and resources, greatness, and power 
 to which they attained, they utterly failed to acquire, or 
 even to retain, the knowledge, love, and service of God, and 
 uniformly sunk into idolatry and its attendant abominations, 
 and plunged deeper and deeper into false religion or atheism, 
 until they perished in their own corruption. Then, too, 
 even the favoured peculiar people, the Jews, not less plainly 
 proved that the impressive but still only preparatory ordi- 
 nances under which they were placed, did not suffice to 
 render and keep them right in heart with God, and steadfast 
 in His covenant. So that from the time of the settl-ement 
 
mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 153 
 
 of the children of Israel in Canaan, the facts of the respec- 
 tive histories of the Gentile nations on the one hand, and of 
 the Jews npon the other, at length culminated in an abso- 
 lute demonstration that if the salvation of the world was to 
 be secured, it could only be by the incarnation of God's 
 eternal Son. Let us mention a few facts that prove and 
 illustrate this statement. 
 
 III. The history of the Gentile and of the Jewish nations 
 respectively, as proving the necessity of the Redeemers 
 coming, and -preparing for it. 
 I. As to the Gentile nations, their history was allowed 
 to run on, until, in every conceivable way, they showed the 
 hopelessness of their moral and spiritual condition without 
 Christ, and the necessity of His coming. In proving and 
 illustrating this great truth, we shall, as much as possible, 
 confine our attention to facts with which earnest and intel- 
 ligent readers of the Bible are familiar. 
 
 One after another, the nations forsook even such know- 
 ledge as they, in their earlier history, possessed of God, and 
 became so base in their idolatries and their morals, as to 
 prove that, in their systems of religion and morality, there 
 remained no power to stop the progress of their corruption, 
 and to avert their decay and ruin. This lesson of their 
 history was rendered all the more striking by the fact, that 
 all the mere natural and secular elements of human great- 
 ness entered largely into their institutions, their achieve- 
 ments, and their character, and yet proved of no avail for 
 their highest, permanent wellbeing, in the absence of that 
 knowledge and love of God, which flow from the revelation 
 of Christ's person and work, and His inward work in man 
 by the power of His Holy Spirit. The following instances 
 will show the truth of this affirmation. 
 
 Egypt was early noted for the produce of its fruitful soil, 
 
154 Mankind Provm^ their Need of Christ. 
 
 the cattle of its rich pastures, and its teeming waters ^ — for 
 its war-chariots and horsemen — for its pyramids and other 
 magnificent structures — for its holy temples and palaces — 
 and for its attainments in science and the arts of life. Its 
 early reputation for wisdom is evident from the statement, 
 that " Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp- 
 tians," ^ and that " Solomon excelled all the wisdom of 
 Egypt." ^ Now as regards their religion ; they were not, 
 especially in the earlier times of their history, without some 
 knowledge of a supreme Being, of the immortality of the 
 soul, and even of the resurrection of the body, and of a 
 future state of retribution. But they seem from an early 
 period to have multiplied their deities, till not only such 
 heavenly bodies as the sun and moon, but also animals, 
 trees, and rocks, and still meaner things, became to them 
 objects of worship. Their morality corresponded. Their 
 laws and government, wdiile good in some respects, were in 
 other respects fundamentally vicious. Great indecencies and 
 impurities attached to their nationally-established religion. 
 Its sacred shield was thrown over their practice of falsehood 
 and fraud. These and other vices in their institutions and 
 laws, and in the character of the people, which there was 
 nothing to remedy, gradually wrought out their ruin. And 
 from being distinguished among ancient peoples, Egypt at 
 length sank into the condition, in which it has so long con- 
 tinued, of the basest of kingdoms. 
 
 The city of Tyee rose to a state of exceeding prosperity, 
 and possessed power and greatness, which made it famous 
 among ancient kingdoms, and able to resist, again and again, 
 the efforts of mighty conquerors to take' it, and to possess 
 themselves of its wealth. It was crowded with merchants 
 — enriched by exporting corn from Egypt to all countries 
 
 1 Isa. xix. 2 Acts vii. ^ I Kings iv. 
 
Mankind Proving their Need of Chi'ist. 1 5 5 
 
 — the great emporium of the commerce of the world — a 
 city of great antiquity — a city of unexampled resources, 
 wealth, power, dignity, and splendour — and a joyous city. 
 But its pride and profaneness, its enmity to Jehovah, and its 
 cruelty to His people, provoked Him at last to let loose on 
 it powerful and ambitious kings and conquerors. And it 
 went down, like all communities of men that remain with- 
 out, or that abandon, the knowledge and fear of the true God. 
 Its shipping was annihilated, its dwellings and streets, and 
 walls of defence and harbours, were all laid desolate, till the 
 nations around that witnessed its greatness, and now its 
 overthrow, were filled with amazement, and grief, and horror 
 at its doom. Its surviving population were swept into 
 captivity, or fled to other lands to pine away in their mise- 
 ries, until they perished out of sight, and out of mind. And 
 the site of the great city became a naked rock, on which a 
 few fishermen spread their nets to dry. 
 
 Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, was an 
 exceeding great city — twenty miles in length — twelve in 
 breadth — sixty in compass — requiring three days to walk 
 round its magnificent walls. The inhabitants became 
 wealthy, luxurious, and corrupt, and were threatened by 
 Jonah with a speedy destruction, which was averted for 
 the time by their repentance. The Assyrians, whose capital 
 it became, were proud, ambitious, tyrannical, and cruel to 
 their neighbours. They were specially formidable enemies 
 to Israel and Judah. They despoiled Israel, and carried the 
 ten tribes into a captivity from which they never returned. 
 And they were on the eve of overthrowing Jerusalem, when, 
 in one night, the breath of divine anger passed over their camp, 
 and turned into corpses 1 8 5,000 armed men. And as neither 
 their temporary repentance under Jonah's preaching, nor the 
 voice of such a judgment as that just mentioned, resulted in 
 any thorough reformation ; as no moral influences operated 
 
1 5 6 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 among them to produce any thorough change of their character, 
 they continued and increased in their wickedness, till over- 
 taken by the judgments foretold by Nahum and Zephaniah ; 
 when the Medes took their city, and so utterly destroyed it, 
 that the very site on which it stood became for ages unknown. 
 After the destruction of Nineveh, Bablyon became queen 
 of the East — famed for its beauty, strength, and grandeur — 
 for its walls, temples, and hanging gardens — for the banks 
 of the river that flowed through it — and for the artificial 
 canals and lakes, made for the draining of the river in the 
 season of its overflowing. It is called in Scripture, "great 
 Babylon " — " the glory of kingdoms " — " the beauty of the 
 Chaldees' excellency " — " the golden city " — " the lady of 
 kingdoms " — " abundant in treasures " — " the praise of the 
 •whole earth." But all this greatness was founded in the 
 bloody conquests, the endless slaughter, and the utter en- 
 slavement of the tribes and nations which the Babylonian 
 conquerors made their prey. Amidst all this splendour, 
 the land was " the land of graven images." The people in 
 city and country were addicted to every vice. They were 
 as lewd and debauched as they were superstitious. In par- 
 ticular, like the Ninevites, they blasphemed the true God, 
 and were bitter enemies of His people ; for, as the Ninevites 
 had swept into a final captivity the ten tribes, so the 
 Babylonians threw down the temple, the walls, and the 
 houses of Jerusalem, and carried off the people of Judah 
 and Jerusalem into a sore and wasting exile, and impiously 
 triumphed in their success, as if by the power of their false 
 gods they had overcome the power of Jehovah Himself. 
 "Therefore," said the Lord, "I will punish the king of 
 Babylon, as I have punished the king of Assyria." ^ And 
 so it happened. First, Nebuchadnezzar, in the midst of his 
 
 ^ Jerem. 1. 
 
Maitkmd Proving their Need of Clwist. 1 5 7 
 
 proud and wicked boasting, was smitten with seven years' 
 madness and degradation, and then, in a humbled frame, re- 
 stored to his throne. And at length, when judgment mingled 
 with mercy failed to turn rulers and people from their 
 wickedness, they suddenly perished in the midst of their 
 abominable and impious carousals. For when the monarch 
 and his ten thousand lords and his wives and concubines 
 were feasting, and when, in mockery of Jehovah, the golden 
 vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem were brought 
 forth at the king's command, and they were all quaffing 
 their wine from the sacred vessels, and praising their gods 
 of gold and silver, of brass and iron, of wood and stone, they 
 were suddenly appalled by the sight of a hand upon the 
 wall, tracing, in letters of fire, their wickedness, and their 
 doom. And that very night, the besieging enemy found 
 entrance into what was deemed their impregnable city ; 
 slew king and lords, and multitudes more, and overwhelmed 
 with sudden, final destruction, the powerful, haughty, idola- 
 trous, God-defying kingdom of Babylon. 
 
 Peksia rose on the ruins of Babylon, and, in connection 
 with God's determination to employ it in setting free His 
 people from their captivity there, Cyrus, and others who 
 led its forces, and ruled its affairs, were made to kuow to 
 some extent the true God, and to perform His will, as is 
 evident from statements in the books of Esther, Ezra, 
 Nehemiah, and Isaiah. Still, the Persians did not retain 
 such knowledge of God as had been imparted to them ; and 
 their religion, while not so grossly idolatrous as that of 
 other nations, was, as a system, as much opposed to the 
 truth ; for it was chiefly a belief in the reign of two sovereign 
 principles or powers, of mutually opposing and destructive 
 characters, called good and evil, light and darkness ; to 
 which were to be traced respectively all the good and all 
 the evil on the earth. They also supposed various objects 
 
158 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 to be possessed of claims to a divine homage. And their 
 sacrifices were offered to fire and other elements in nature, 
 as well as to the sun and moon, and other heavenly bodies. 
 Their religion, therefore, seemed neither to regenerate nor 
 to restrain them : and, in point of fact, they were charac- 
 terised alike by fierceness in war, followed by great cruelty 
 to the conquered, and by unrestrained licentiousness of 
 manners. The resources obtained from the spoils of war, 
 and extorted from subject tribes and nations, were spent in 
 luxurious and sensual indulgences, indulgences raised to the 
 highest pitch, and carried to the utmost excess. A great- 
 ness thus reared and sustained could not last. And so, after 
 the kingdom of Persia had endured for about two hundred 
 years, it was crushed by the resistless arm of Alexander the 
 Great, and thus made way for the Macedonian Empire. 
 
 The land of Greece then became the seat of that power, 
 which, for a time, formally ruled the world. The chief 
 power of Greece however lay not in the physical force by 
 which the Macedonian conqueror brought and kept under 
 subjection the nations ; for that force, after the premature 
 death of Alexander, quickly broke into separate fragments 
 that played but a secondary and short-lived part, in ruling 
 the world's destinies. The chief power of Greece was the 
 commanding intellect of her sons, the finer natural minds 
 and bodies with which they were gifted, and which rendered 
 Greece the home of science, art, and literature. Their beau- 
 tiful land itself, while requiring careful cultivation, received 
 it from the inhabitants, and yielded abundant harvests to 
 reward their indilistry. So that, as has been well remarked, 
 " in that land, man reached the highest state of physical and 
 mental perfection, of which, by his own exertions, he is 
 capable, and produced works in every department of 
 human skill or genius, which remain, and will, perhaps, for 
 ever remain unmatched." What was the result, so far as 
 
Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 159 
 
 concerns man's highest relationships and interests ? This 
 was the result. " The music, painting, and sculpture of 
 Greece tamed the fiercest, and refined the grossest passions 
 of human nature, till they became objects of worship. Her 
 intellect changed wisdom into sophistry, and boasted that 
 it could argue on both sides of any question — that it could 
 defend any cause, however bad — that it could turn right 
 into wrong, and wrong into right, and make the worse 
 appear the better reason." Worse still, it could throw the 
 drapery of graceful concealment over the foulest and most 
 loathsome corruptions, while that corruption was in full 
 and fatal operation. 
 
 The perverse reasonings and moral pollutions, which the 
 Greeks veiled with such inimitable skill, were protected and 
 fostered rather than cured by their religious doctrines and 
 observances. As we are reminded by Paul's address to 
 them on Mars Hill, and learn from other sources, the only 
 true object of worship was to them the unknown God. 
 Such diverse and even conflicting opinions as the following 
 prevailed among them, viz., that the world was eternal — 
 that it was itself God — that it was made by chance — that 
 it was ruled by lesser deities, with local and limited spheres 
 of power, inhabiting particular temples in which only their 
 help was found — that the gods fed on the fumes of animal 
 sacrifices — that they were gratified by the splendid vest- 
 ments of the priests — that they were pleased by the indul- 
 gence of the grossest passions in their honour — that 
 different classes and races of men had a different origin — 
 that the gods of higher order were too high to have inter- 
 course with men — and that only by visible images of the 
 Deity could he be approached — that there were many 
 intercessors to come between them and the Supreme 
 Being — that it was the highest virtue to follow nature and 
 necessity — that there was no ground for believing in such 
 
1 60 Manki7id Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 a future state of rewards and punishments as the Holy 
 Scriptures reveal — and that the idea of a resurrection of 
 the dead, was worthy only of ridicule. And so, the utmost 
 civilisation to which they attained, left them still destitute 
 of all knowledge, love, and enjoyment of the living and true 
 God — left them unredeemed from their inherent moral depra- 
 vity — led them to content themselves with the worship of 
 numerous deities, as foul and malicious, as cunning and 
 accustomed to deceit and lying, as they were themselves — 
 and veiled and sanctioned their indulgence in all the lusts 
 and passions of our corrupt nature. Two services, indeed, 
 they did render to mankind ; first, their intelligence being 
 brought to bear on the ignorant and barbarous nations, 
 helped to quicken their minds, and raise them out of their 
 low and stagnant condition, and so render them more capable 
 of listening to the Gospel when preached to them: and, 
 second, their beautiful language, being spread and used in 
 almost every land, furnished a precious vehicle for com- 
 municating the Gospel to the greater portion of the then 
 known world. But all their unrivalled achievements in 
 art, and science, and literature, in philosophy and religion, 
 only served to prove that by no wisdom to which man is 
 capable of attaining by his own efforts, can he find his way 
 back to God, regain his lost image of his Maker, or become 
 meet for His holy fellowship, and service, and presence. 
 Conclusively to test and settle this question of man's moral 
 impotency, one further experiment had to be made on a 
 great scale by Eome, 
 
 In the divine providence, Eome was next permitted to 
 do her best for the interests of mankind. And with ex- 
 ceeding practical sagacity and power she performed her 
 part on this world's arena. The difficulties and dangers 
 which beset her at the outset of her history trained her 
 to resolute endurance. The lessons to be learned by a 
 
ManJdnd Proving their Need of Christ. 1 6 1 
 
 strong native judgment, from her own liistory, and from 
 the history of other' nations, were studied by her, and 
 turned to account. Beginning with the conquest and 
 absorption of her immediate neighbours, she extended her 
 aggressions to distant lands. Nation after nation went 
 down before her invincible legions, till she grasped and 
 held with firm hand the reins of universal sovereignty. 
 At the same time, throughout the course of her developing 
 history, she mingled religious rites and sanctions with all 
 her achievements, and cultivated and displayed many stern 
 natural virtues, and embodied in her constitution and govern- 
 ment many admirable laws. She also adopted and cherished 
 much learning and civilisation derived from Greece. The 
 Eoman people thus reared an empire which they proudly 
 meant and hoped to be perpetual, with Eome, its capital, 
 as the eternal city. 
 
 This great empire was the last of the four specially 
 great kingdoms that God permitted to rise successively, 
 and to possess, in turn, the chief parts of the earth, in 
 order to demonstrate how much, or rather how little, men 
 can do for their own, and for one another's true wellbeing. 
 These four kingdoms had been symbolised by the great 
 image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision; of which 
 Babylon formed the head of gold ; Persia, the breast and 
 arms of silver; Greece, the belly and thighs of brass; and 
 Eome, the legs of iron, and the feet, partly of iron and 
 partly of clay : while the gospel of Christ, accompanied 
 by His Spirit, was symbolised by the little stone which 
 was seen cut out without hands, and which smote the feet 
 of the great image, and broke them in pieces, and made 
 them as chaff which the wind carried away, till no place 
 was found for them. And that little stone was about to 
 commence its growth, a growth that would continue till it 
 became a great mountain that filled the earth. 
 
 L 
 
1 6 2 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 Rome was thus serving to complete the demonstration 
 that the divine ruler among the nations had been giving, 
 of the vanity of all man's own possible efforts to redeem 
 himself from his evil state. Dominion had been given to 
 Babylon, and she perished in her pride. Dominion had 
 been given to Persia, and she perished in her luxury. 
 Dominion had been given to Greece, and all the achieve- 
 ments of her wisdom, power, and genius, became the monu- 
 ments of her vanity. And now to the pride of Babylon, 
 the luxury of Persia, and the civilisation of Greece, Rome 
 added the sagacity with which she planned her career, and 
 the resoluteness with which she carried it out, until she 
 became mistress of the world. And what, alas ! did she 
 tlien teach the world by her success ? Even that might 
 is right — that the love of dominion is above all law — that, 
 had her power become permanent, beneath the iron-handed 
 oppression with which she ruled the world, the bulk of 
 its inhabitants would have become and continued helpless 
 crouching slaves — and that mankind at large would have 
 been paralysed, and sunk into a state of hopeless imbecility 
 and decay. But happily, for humanity, there is and there 
 can be no permanence in a power of that character. Sepa- 
 rating men and keeping them separated from the Holy 
 God, the morals of any such sovereignty have no basis 
 in truth; but are determined by selfish interests and cor- 
 rupt passions. Temporal ambition governs its movements. 
 Prosperity brings in luxury. Luxury swells the tide of 
 immorality. Under whatever outward splendours, vices 
 pervade the nation, till it becomes rotten to the core, and 
 perislies in its own corruption. And such was the rise, 
 decline, and fall of the Roman empire. At the coming 
 of Christ, it had not only reached its utmost greatness, 
 but become thoroughly corrupt. Its state is accurately 
 described in that terrible picture of the moral depravity 
 
ManJdnd Proving their Need of Christ. 1 6 3 
 
 of the world, given by inspiration in the beginning of 
 the Epistle to the Romans. And the unutterable vile- 
 ness to which, according to that description of their moral 
 condition, mankind, with all their power, resources, and 
 wisdom, had brought themselves, and out of which they 
 had no power of self-recovery, rendered it imperatively 
 needful, if redemption was to be experienced on earth, 
 that it should come from heaven, and come speedily, 
 
 2. While the Gentile nations were demonstrating the 
 utter inability of human nature to deliver itself from its 
 sinfulness and misery, and the necessity of the interposition 
 of a divine Eedeemer, how did the history of the Jewish 
 nation bear on this question ? 
 
 Had the Jews received a system of religion sufficient to 
 keep them near to God, and to bring the other nations of 
 the world back to Him ? Was their system of religion 
 given to them by God as a complete and final system ? Or 
 was it a temporary, imperfect, and preparatory dispensation, 
 designed to show the need of, and make way for, a better ? 
 The slightest glance at the history of the nation and land 
 of the Jews, shows that God's great purpose in it was to 
 bring about the Messiah's advent, and so establish a dis- 
 pensation of grace for the world at large, and for all time. 
 When ignorance of God, irreligion, idolatry, and moral cor- 
 ruption, had acquired the dominion, which they continued 
 for generations to exercise over the other nations of the 
 earth, in accordance with His promises to Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, Jehovah at length delivered their descendants, 
 the Jews, as His chosen people, from Egypt, covenanted 
 with them at Sinai, settled them in Canaan, separated them 
 and kept them separate from the rest of the world, and 
 through means of the ordinances given to them to observe, 
 made them already partakers of the great redemption, as 
 they looked forward in faith to its being actually wrought 
 
1 64 Mankind Proving theii^ Need of Christ. 
 
 out by the Messiah when He came. The dispensation of 
 prophecies, types, and figures, under which they were placed, 
 was, in its nature, temporary, a shadow of good things to 
 come, the substance being to be found only in the salvation 
 accomplished by the incarnation, the ministry on earth, the 
 obedience unto death, and the consequent resurrection and 
 exaltation to His glory, of the Son of God. 
 
 Important purposes were served by this typical and 
 temporary dispensation of grace to the Jews. It served 
 to preserve the knowledge of God on the earth, during the 
 time that the world at large was left to itself to demon- 
 strate its total want of any self-redeeming power. Further, 
 the evil of sin was impressively forced home on the con- 
 sciences and hearts of the Jews, by the thousand ways in 
 which, according to their law, they became defiled, and by 
 the continual sacrifices and washings required for their 
 cleansing. The evil of sin was still more impressively set 
 forth by the total inefficacy of all their sacrifices and wash- 
 ings to take away their guilt and pollution as transgressors 
 of God's holy and eternal law. They were thus affectingly 
 taught to be ever looking beyond their typical sacrifices 
 and purifications, and looking forward to the one great 
 sacrifice, by which the Messiah, when He came, would 
 make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in an everlasting 
 righteousness. They were thus also made to long for the 
 Messiah's coming, while reverencing the sovereignty of God 
 in determining the time and manner of the promised dis- 
 pensation of His redeeming love. 
 
 While these and other wise, holy, and gracious purposes 
 were at length served by the Jewish economy, and needed 
 not its further continuance, there were other causes at work 
 to bring it to an end. The Jews had, through all ages, 
 shown themselves generally inclined, and at length they 
 came, almost universally, to overlook and disown the 
 
Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 1 65 
 
 spiritual realities shadowed forth by the typical ordi- 
 nances of the law of Moses. They had become, as a 
 nation, accustomed to handle these ordinances with as 
 much grossness as the heathen did their pagan rites. 
 The faith of the Jews, instead of rising to spiritual and 
 eternal things, had ceased to rise higher than the things 
 which they could see and touch. They were at lengtli 
 hopelessly enveloped in utter spiritual darkness, and hope- 
 lessly dead in trespasses and sins. As regarded spiritual 
 things, there had, in fact, come to be little or no difference 
 between them and the other nations of the world. The 
 apostle, in his Epistle to the Eomans, accordingly declared 
 and proved both Jews and Gentiles to be alike under sin, 
 that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world be 
 guilty before God. 
 
 Even the saving power which, in the experience of the 
 remnant of believing Israelites, attended their appointed 
 typical ordinances, did not prevent them from praying and 
 longing, yea it made them all the more earnest, to have 
 their own economy brought to an end. For, even to them, 
 it was a burdensome yoke of ceremonies from which they 
 were longing to be free, by entering into the light and 
 liberty promised under the Messiah's reign. And these 
 longings became more and more earnest as the day of the 
 manifestation of God in the flesh drew near. And when 
 He did become God manifest in the flesh, however sadly 
 true it was that the world in which He was knew Him not, 
 and His own to whom He came received Him not, there 
 were, nevertheless, a few saintly souls waiting in the holy 
 city and in the temple, to rejoice in His appearing, and in 
 the redemption which He brought. 
 
 3. While, for the reason stated, the appearance of Christ 
 on earth at an earlier period would have been premature, 
 
1 66 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 there are other considerations which indicate that things were 
 now, what they had never been till now, in a state of prepara- 
 tion for His coming. Thus, the productions of the intellect 
 and imagination of Greece, though they utterly failed to re- 
 generate the moral nature of man, had exercised and were 
 exercising a marked power in quickening the minds of 
 men in various countries to higher natural thoughts and 
 feelings than before ; and in that respect rendered it more 
 possible to reason with them about divine realities, than if 
 they had continued in their formerly stagnant, sunken, 
 sensual state. The language of Greece, too, had become 
 iamiliar to men in many lands, and by its fulness and 
 precision, its force and clearness, formed the best vehicle 
 for spreading the knowledge of the divine revelations and 
 inspired writings over the earth. Then the very roads 
 formed by the Eoman government in all the regions, east 
 and west, north and south, over which its imperial power 
 extended, facilitated the journeyings of the messengers of 
 Christ in their endeavours to preach the Gospel to every 
 creature. The scattered condition of the Jews, likewise, 
 secured, in almost every quarter of the Gentile world, the 
 presence of those to whom, as knowing something of their 
 own sacred writings, the preachers of the gospel could first 
 appeal respecting the testimony to the Messiah that filled 
 their prophetic books. Further, the resistless sway of Eome, 
 and the reign of law and order, which, with stern, military 
 discipline, it established and maintained over all its pro- 
 vinces, secured for a time a freedom of action to the preachers 
 of the gospel and the missionaries of the cross wherever 
 they went ; a freedom of action indeed which otherwise 
 they would have found greatly curtailed, or altogether 
 denied to them. And, still further, at the time of Christ's 
 birth, and for a period thereafter, the whole world was free. 
 
Mankind Proving their Need of CJirist. 167 
 
 strangely free, from the wars and rumours of wars that from 
 age to age continually filled it, and tliat, if then prevalent, 
 would have served too easily and effectually to distract the 
 attention of mankind, and to paralyse the efforts of the 
 teachers of the truth as it is in Jesus. It is a remarkable 
 historical fact that the gates of the temple of Janus, which 
 always stood open in time of war, and which had been 
 closed only twice in the course of the previous seven 
 hundred years, were for the third time shut when Christ 
 was born ; a fact which indicated such a season of unwonted 
 universal quietness, as the proper season for ushering into 
 the world the Prince of Peace. 
 
 All things, therefore, in the history and condition of 
 mankind, had at length converged to one point, a state of 
 preparation for the advent of the Son of God. And tlien 
 it was announced by messengers from heaven, and welcomed 
 by those who were waiting for it on earth. 
 
 Suitable attestations of the advent. 
 
 When this event took place, all over the earth, the winds 
 of human passion, and of startling judgments, were bound for 
 a season. N"o wars or convulsions were desolating the world. 
 But still this quietness was but a troubled calm. Prom the 
 moral and physical, the public and private, the social and 
 personal evils that were felt by mankind to be pressing on 
 them, they were sighing for deliverance, even as if they 
 somehow were being crushed with the conviction that their 
 condition would speedily become desperate, unless deliver- 
 ance came to them, they knew not whence or how. Yet 
 even with, it is said, a presentiment of something about to 
 happen, to meet the state of emergency in which all things 
 were, both Jews and Gentiles understood not their own real 
 condition, and the Deliverer whom they really required. 
 And so "He was in the world, and the world was made 
 
1 68 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 by Him, and the world knew Him not : He came unto 
 His own, and His own received Him not," 
 
 At the same time all heaven had become earnestly and 
 actively engaged in connection with the Eedeemer's advent ; 
 and saintly men and women on earth were made ready to 
 witness and to welcome it. Gabriel, the mighty angel, who 
 stands in the presence of God, and who, centuries before, 
 had come to Daniel with messages from heaven on this 
 very subject, appeared to Zecharias, the aged priest, as he 
 ministered in the temple, and predicted to him the birth 
 of a son by his aged wife Elizabeth, as the forerunner 
 of the Son of God incarnate, to prepare His way. The 
 same great angel came to Mary, and in reference to the 
 human nature about to be assumed by the Son of God, 
 when manifested in the flesh, told her that she should 
 be His virgin mother. 
 
 Then too, in order that earthly witnesses might not be 
 awanting to welcome the event, the Holy Ghost took pos- 
 session of Mary, and enabled her, with unquestioning meek- 
 ness and faith, to receive, and in due time report, the won- 
 derful intelligence, that, by the immediate power of God 
 put forth upon and within her, she would be the mother 
 of her Lord. Afterwards, at a visit to her cousin Elizabeth, 
 the latter, filled with the Holy Ghost, proclaimed her own 
 condition as the destined mother of the Lord's forerunner, 
 and addressed Mary as the destined mother of the Lord 
 Himself; and Mary also, full of the Holy Ghost, broke 
 forth into the loftiest adorations and praises of God her 
 Saviour, for His mercy and faithfulness, in the fulfilment 
 of His promises to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. 
 Further, when the birth of the forerunner took place, his 
 father, Zecharias, being freed from the temporary dumbness 
 inflicted on him for his unbelief, in a song of praise, worthy 
 of its object, and worthy of the divine inspirations which 
 
Alankind Proving their Need of Christ. 1 69 
 
 prompted it, proclaimed the performance of the mercy pro- 
 mised to the fathers, and the immediate appearing of the 
 Light of the world. 
 
 Thereafter, when He who is " the mighty God," became 
 the " child born, and the Son given," to shepherds on the 
 plains of Bethlehem, watching over their flocks by night, 
 an angel suddenly came from heaven with the glad news 
 of the Saviour's birth ; and at once there was with the 
 angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and 
 saying, " Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good- 
 will to men." And their praises were taken up, and echoed 
 by saints on earth, when Jesus was brought to Jerusalem, 
 and presented in the temple : for, at that moment, Simeon, a 
 just and devout man, with the Holy Ghost upon him, came 
 by the Spirit into the temple ; and, finding the child Jesus, 
 took Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, " Lord, 
 now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace ; for mine eyes 
 have seen Thy salvation : " and then Anna, a prophetess, 
 an aged widow, who departed not from the temple, but 
 served God with fasting and prayers, night and day, coming 
 in at that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and 
 spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in 
 Jerusalem, This last expression, " all them," »fec., proves 
 that there were others in the sacred city expecting and 
 prepared to welcome the new-born Eedeemer. Others still 
 at a distance were being prepared to welcome Him ; for 
 wise men from the East, guided by a star, came from a 
 distant region, and sought out the infant Saviour, till they 
 found Him ; and though they found Him with His mother 
 in the lowliest condition, they fell down in His presence, 
 and worshipped Him ; and, opening their treasures, they 
 presented to him their gifts, gold, frankincense, and mynh. 
 
 Even the enmity of Satan, and of his most powerful 
 agents, was made to yield its testimony to the grandeur of 
 
I 70 Mankind Proving theii' Need of Christ. 
 
 this event. For Herod the king, hearing the report of One 
 born in Bethlehem, to be King of the Jews, in his malignant 
 jealousy and fear of him as a possible rival for his throne, 
 sent to Bethlehem and slew all the male children, from two 
 years old and under, to make sure of the destruction of his 
 intended victim. In this way, heaven, earth, and hell attested 
 the greatness of the providence that had brought the Son of 
 God into the world. 
 
 IV, &ome of the lessons of instruction connected with " God's 
 seriding of His Son in the fulness of the time." 
 
 1. One great lesson to be learned from the sending of 
 His Son " in the fulness of the time," is the certainty with 
 which God will accomplish His purposes of everlasting love 
 in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. The bulk of 
 men, as we have seen, had been left to walk for four 
 thousand years in their own ways, following their own 
 counsels, fulfilling the desires of their own hearts. During 
 that long period, at the same time, God preserved in a 
 remnant the knowledge and fear of Himself, made them 
 witnesses for His name, and so kept it from being forgotten 
 by the sons of men. And these dispensations, partly of 
 judgment, and partly of mercy, prepared the way for the 
 coming of Him who alone is the salvation of the world. 
 And the lesson thus taught is that the same faithful 
 God will keep His covenant and mercy with them that 
 love Him and that keep His commandments, to a thousand 
 generations.^ 
 
 2. The coming of Christ has been followed by eighteen 
 hundred years' accumulation of still more overwhelming 
 evidence of human depravity, and of the sovereignty and 
 riches of redeeming grace. 
 
 ^ Deut. vii. 
 
JMankind Proving their Need of Christ. i 7 i 
 
 The limited progress of the Gospel for eighteen hundred 
 years, may not appear to human eyes a fitting result of the 
 coming of Christ into the world. But all the while, it may 
 be such a progress as will ultimately contribute most to the 
 manifestation of the glory of God, and the furtherance of 
 the highest good of the whole universe of created beings. 
 God has a double end in view, in the work of redemption ; 
 to make manifest and memorable for ever, to all His intelli- 
 gent creatures, the malignant nature and evil desert of sin, 
 and by redeeming from it a multitude that no man can 
 number, to secure the highest glory to His love, and to all 
 His other perfections combined with His love, throughout 
 eternal ages. In order to this, sin in men and devils is 
 still allowed to work its ravages, and that in the very 
 presence and by the abuse of all the mercy which the 
 incarnation of the Son of God and the cross of Christ dis- 
 play ; while, at the same time, redeeming grace continues to 
 perpetuate and multiply its triumphs. In this double process, 
 which proceeds apace upon the earth, multitudes alas ! 
 prove determined and are allowed to rush upon destruction, 
 while increasing numbers are being gathered to Christ. 
 But while the desolation and ruin wrought by sin may for 
 a little longer be continued, and may even become more 
 terrible, we know that the Sun of righteousness is about to 
 rise on the world's darkness and scatter it, and to fill the 
 earth with His glory. And when at length the work of 
 redemption is completed, the darkness and wailings of the 
 offenders and workers of iniquity, who have been cast out 
 of the kingdom, shall be lost in the light and gladness of 
 the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. 
 
 3. The filling of the earth with the glory of Christ as 
 the incarnate God and Saviour, is, it would seem, to be even 
 yet, and now indeed more grievously than ever, preceded by 
 
I ']2 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 such self-destroying courses on the part of mankind, as will 
 make history to repeat itself in a more impressive manner 
 than ever, as regards both the workings and evidence of 
 human depravity, and the interpositions and triumphs of 
 redeeming love. Not only are the millions on millions in 
 heathendom, destined, so far as they are left to themselves, 
 to abide in their degraded and wretched state, and to demon- 
 strate the falsehood and folly of the doctrine of natural 
 development, as applied to account for and explain the 
 progress of true religion in this world — not only are the 
 followers of the false prophet so enveloped in the smoke 
 of the Mahometan imposture, as to be for ever unable, by 
 any effort of their own, to look out, and to look up for the 
 Sun of righteousness to rise upon them with healing in His 
 beams — not only are the Jews in every land so self- 
 blinded in mind, and so self-hardened in heart, as to be, 
 so far as mere human persuasion is concerned, invincible 
 enemies of the true God, and of His Son Jesus Christ, and 
 friends and promoters of the deadliest errors and habits 
 that can prey on themselves and on human society — not 
 only are the myriad victims of the papacy given over to 
 strong delusions to believe a lie, and held fast as willing 
 slaves of a priesthood, who are, in every land, banded 
 conspirators against the truth and honour of God, and 
 against all true freedom, purity, and happiness : but even 
 in lands where the Bible is freely circulated, and the 
 gospel of Christ is made known, and its ordinances are 
 extensively set up and maintained, great and growing 
 numbers of all classes, from the highest to the humblest, 
 are embracing, avowing, and inculcating the grossest and 
 most debasing forms of infidelity and of atheism, God and 
 Christ, the word and statutes of God, and the claims of 
 the sabbath, and all divine and eternal verities, are being 
 shut out from the councils of nations, and from the laws of 
 
Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. i ']'^ 
 
 civil society, and from teacliing hours iu the whole of the 
 public schools throughout the land for the training of the 
 young, from spheres of business and haunts of pleasure, and 
 from every department of social life. Yea, and the very 
 churches, to which Christ has committed the keeping of 
 His testimony, are proving false to their trust, admitting 
 doctrines and practices to have free course among them, 
 which provoke the withdrawment of His presence and bless- 
 ing, and which are fraught with spiritual decay and death. 
 If nations and churches and families in a land are to reap 
 as they sow, what shall the end of such things be in Chris- 
 tendom ? Will it be matter for surprise if the end be a 
 breaking-up of churches and earthly kingdoms, that shall 
 exceed in its woes the dissolution of ancient empires, and 
 of the nation of Israel itself, alike as a church and as a 
 commonwealth ? 
 
 Nor let professing christians overlook their individual 
 relationships and responsibilities. The apathy of the many 
 will not arrest, but only hasten, the terrible results with 
 which that apathy is to be followed. The self -righteousness 
 and outward forms in which not a few are seeking safety, 
 shall be swept from around them in the day of trial as 
 refuges of lies. And none shall escape but those who 
 are brought to Christ, and abide in Him as the ark of 
 salvation. 
 
 Do not suppose, however, that Christ is losing His hold 
 of the world, though the multitudes high and low who fill 
 it have never known Him, or, having known Him, or known 
 about Him, are letting go their hold of Him, and drifting 
 on a shoreless sea of evils, without chart or compass or 
 polar star. For while, with almighty ease controlling and 
 disposing of all His enemies, however multitudinous or 
 powerful. He has, in these and in many other lands, His 
 faithful followers, to whom His presence is life and strength, 
 
1 74 Mankind Proving their Need of Christ. 
 
 His word and example are law, the maintenance and exten- 
 sion of His kingdom are the main work of their days upon 
 the earth, and the assured approaching triumphs of His 
 cross are the object of their inspiring hopes, and the daily 
 burden of their songs of praise. The number of these 
 faithful witnesses is being increased, and they will be 
 found, by His Spirit given to them, united to Christ and to 
 each other in His service, and standing firmly on His side, 
 and for His truth and cause, when the powers and agencies 
 of earth have combined and are engaged in their final 
 conflict with Christ, " These shall make war with the 
 Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for He is Lord 
 of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are with Him 
 are called, and chosen, and faithful."^ And when His 
 enemies perish, and His kingdom and glory fill the earth. 
 His faithful servants shall take their place among the great 
 multitude, whose voice, like that of great waters and mighty 
 thunderings, shall be heard, saying, " Alleluia ! for the Lord 
 God omnipotent reigneth." 
 
 To every soul of man this is infinitely the most pressing 
 of all questions. Are you in Christ, and on His side ? 
 Blessed are you if ye know whom you have believed, and 
 are persuaded that He will keep that which you have com- 
 mitted to Him against that day. Woe is unto you, if left 
 to yourself to live on, without Christ, without God, and 
 without hope. 
 
 ^ Rev. xvii. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE mCAENATION" : ITS DESIGNS AND EESULTS. 
 
 " When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made 
 of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under 
 the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." — Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 
 The doctrine in the words of Scripture and in a himian formula. 
 
 " TOEHOLD a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and 
 call His name Emmanuel;"^ BmrnoMuel meaning 
 God with us. " Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is 
 given ; . . . and His name shall be called . . . the mighty 
 God."^ The angel Gabriel came to Mary, and said, "Fear 
 not . . . behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and 
 bring forth a Son, and call His name Jesus. . . . The Holy 
 Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
 shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing 
 (progeny) which shall be born of thee, shall be called the 
 Son of God."' " The Word which was in the beginning, 
 which was with God, and was God;" the Word "by whom 
 all things were made ; " " 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." ^ 
 " Being in the form of God . . . He took upon Him the 
 form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."^ 
 The doctrine taught in these and similar passages, and in 
 our text, is well expressed in the Shorter Catechism : " The 
 only Eedeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 ^ Isa. vii, 3 Luke i. * Phil. ii. 
 
 2 Isa. ix. ■* John i. 
 
1 76 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so 
 was, and continueth to be, God and man, in two distinct 
 natures and one person, for ever." " Christ, the Son of God, 
 became man, by taking to Himself a true body, and a 
 reasonable soul : being conceived by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, 
 yet without sin." 
 
 I. The natuee and manner of the incarnation; and 
 the explanation which it affords of many diverse, and 
 some seemingly conflicting things in the history of 
 Christ. 
 
 1. It was achmlly our nature that He took. He took a 
 true body and a reasonable soul. The body which He took 
 was not, as some false teachers in other days affirmed, a 
 mere appearance and pretence of a body : it was as true 
 a human body as that of any other man ; being " flesh 
 and blood," " the seed of Abraham," " made of a woman." 
 Not less truly did He take a reasonable human soul ; though 
 other early teachers of error held that He had no human 
 soul, but only a human body, united to His deity. He had 
 a human soul like ours, a soul that became exceeding sor- 
 rowful even unto death. 
 
 2, His body was formed out of the substance of the 
 Viro^in Mary ; nevertheless, although she was a fallen, sin- 
 ful child of Adam, as are all the children of men. He was 
 born of her, yet without sin. (i.) The Popish Church has, 
 indeed, decreed it to be a truth necessary to be believed, in 
 order to salvation, that Mary was herself born without sin, 
 and was ever after free from it. This decree was passed to 
 furnish ground for the divine power which they claim ft)r 
 her. They have thus in reality destroyed the foundation 
 of our hope as sinners. For if she had no sin, she is not 
 one of Adam's posterity, who have all sinned and died in 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 1 7 7 
 
 him ; ^ and in that case, taking His human nature from her 
 would not have allied Him with us at all, so as to enable 
 Him, or place Him in circumstances, to take our guilt, and to 
 redeem us from our lost condition. But Mary, like all other 
 mere human creatures, was a partaker of both original and 
 actual sin, needed the same redemption as any other sinner 
 needs, in order to being made a child of God, and offered 
 the same praises for her redemption as others do, saying, 
 " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath 
 rejoiced in God my Saviour." (2.) Christ Himself, how- 
 ever, though born of a sinful woman, was born of her 
 without sin. If sin had been in Him, He could not have 
 been an atoning surety, substitute, and sacrifice, for us. 
 But He was preserved from all sin by the Holy Spirit's 
 immediate operation in forming His body in the virgin. 
 (3.) At the same time, sinless and holy as His humanity 
 was, it was really formed of the substance of Mary. She 
 was not, as some false teachers, of high spiritual pretensions, 
 are declaring, the mere channel, through which, what they 
 call a heavenly humanity, was born into the world. This 
 doctrine is as fatal to His capability of becoming an atone- 
 ment for sin, as is the Popish doctrine of Mary's immacu- 
 lateness. In respect of His human nature, Christ was as 
 truly the Son of Mary, as any man is the son of the mother 
 that bore him. " As the children are partakers of flesh and 
 blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." 
 
 3. The assumption of our nature into union with His 
 divine person, by Christ, has created a union between His 
 divine nature and His human nature, of an altogether 
 peculiar kind and character, differing from all other unions. 
 There is nothing like it, and probably there never will be 
 anything like it, in the universe. Having taken a true 
 
 ^ Rom. V. ; I Cor. xv. 
 
1 78 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 body and a reasonable soul, He was, and continues to be, 
 God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person, for 
 ever. Let us notice the difference between this and all 
 other unions that can be mentioned in connection with it. 
 
 (i.) It differs from the union of the three persons in the 
 Godhead. That is a necessary, essential, eternal, uncreated, 
 self-existing union of three divine persons in the one divine 
 nature : the Father being in the Son, and the Son in the 
 Father ; the Father and the Son being in the Holy Spirit, 
 and the Holy Spirit being in the Father and the Son. But 
 this union of divinity and humanity in Christ is a created 
 union, the effect of the operation of divine wisdom and 
 power. The union of Father, Son, and Spirit, in one God 
 is that of three persons in one essence : the union of 
 divinity and humanity in Christ is that of two natures 
 in one person. The one is an essential union of three 
 distinct persons in one nature : the other a union in the 
 same person, of diverse natures, the divine and human ; 
 of natures that, while personally united, remain essentially 
 and substantially distinct, and therefore it is peculiarly a 
 personal union. 
 
 (2.) The union of Christ's two natures in His one person 
 differs from the union of soul and body in man. When the 
 soul and body of a man are united, the union makes a new 
 person ; but when Christ united His human to His divine 
 nature. He did not become a new person ; He remained the 
 same divine person as before, and only took human nature 
 into personal subsistence with Himself Neither the soul 
 nor the body of man has any personal subsistence before 
 their union. But the eternal personality of Christ is the 
 foundation of the union of His human with His divine 
 nature, in His one person. 
 
 (3.) This union of Christ's divine and human natures in 
 His one person differs from all those unions or transfor- 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 1 79 
 
 mations which are formed by mixing things that naturally 
 differ into one composition, as when a draught is made up 
 by mixing different substances together ; or by converting 
 one substance into another, as when Aaron's rod was turned 
 into a serpent, or when the water was turned into wine at 
 the marriage in Cana of Galilee, No such mixture, and no 
 such conversion of substances, divine or human, took place, 
 to constitute the union of Christ's divine and human natures 
 in His one person. His two natures were not mixed to 
 form a new nature distinct from both. Neither was either 
 nature converted into the other, so that His divine nature 
 became His human, or His human nature became His 
 divine. His divine and human natures, while eternally 
 united, remain eternally distinct in His one person. 
 
 (4.) This union of Christ's divine and human natures 
 differs from the spiritual union between Christ and believers. 
 Close as the union of Christ and believers is, and more and 
 more intimate as it is destined to become, it is still, and 
 ever must remain, a union of persons distinct from each 
 other, of persons having each an individual, and distinctly 
 personal subsistence of his own. But the union in virtue 
 of which Christ became God-man, is not a union of two 
 persons ; for He never existed as a human person at all, 
 inasmuch as when He took our nature. He took it into 
 personal subsistence with His divine nature. This union, 
 therefore, entirely differs from His union with believers. 
 And the difference can be seen in various ways. Thus, 
 though Christ by His Spirit dwells in a measurable degree 
 in believers, in Himself, as God-man, the immeasurable 
 fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. That is. His 
 entire divine nature is in His humanity ; but that can be 
 only by His human nature being taken into union with His 
 divine, by His appropriating, as a divine person. His human 
 nature as His own ; by His taking His human nature into 
 
1 80 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 indissoluble personal union with Himself. Again, so em- 
 phatically does the Bible represent Christ as a divine person 
 with two natures, that what was done by Him in virtue of 
 His humanity, and by means of it, is said to have been done 
 by Himself as a divine person, " The Word was made 
 FLESH." "God purchased the Church with His own blood." 
 "He laid down His life for us." In short, when "the Word 
 was made flesh," He did not cease to be God, by becoming 
 man. Neither did He, by becoming man, become two dis- 
 tinct persons. He remained one person still, and took His 
 human nature into indissoluble union with Himself, in His 
 one person, as God's eternal Son. 
 
 We have seen that it was actually our nature that the 
 Son of God assumed — that it was taken from one of our 
 fallen race, and yet was so formed in her by the power of 
 God that it was in Him without sin — and that the union 
 formed between His divine and human natures in His one 
 person differs entirely from all other unions with which it 
 can be compared. But now, 
 
 4. Towards understanding the nature and manner of the 
 incarnation, it is important to consider and keep in mind, 
 what the nature of the case implies, and the Scriptures 
 indicate, regarding the kind of communion that takes place 
 between the two natures of Christ, as united in His one 
 person. And 
 
 (i.) There are communications of the divine nature to 
 the human in Christ. First. His human nature has such 
 an interest in His divine, that it subsists in His divine person 
 as its own. Second. His human nature is filled by the 
 Spirit which is given to Him without measure : and it is 
 not for us to measure the consequent extent of His know- 
 ledge and understanding, and the consequent force and far- 
 reaching power of His affections as a man. Third. All His 
 mediatorial actings, performed by His human nature, had a 
 
The Incarnatio7t : Its Designs and Results. 1 8 1 
 
 divine worth and dignity attached to them by the divine 
 nature which belongs to Him. 
 
 (2.) There are things common, or belonging equally, though 
 in different ways, to both His divine and His human nature. 
 Thus, First. Each nature in Christ preserves its own charac- 
 teristics without imparting them to the other nature. His 
 divine nature does not impart its perfections to His human 
 nature ; and His human nature does not impart its pro- 
 perties to His divine nature. Second. Each of the distinct 
 natures in Christ operates according to its own essential 
 properties. His divine nature knows, upholds, and rules all 
 creatures and all their movements, acting by its presence 
 always and everywhere throughout the universe. His 
 human nature is born, grows, obeys, suffers, dies, and rises 
 again. But all the while it is the same Christ, the same 
 divine person, that acts all these parts ; the one nature 
 being no less His than the other. Wherefore, Third. All 
 His actings as Mediator, prophet, priest, and king, by which- 
 ever of His natures performed, are to be viewed as the 
 actings of His whole person, or, as God-man, in two distinct 
 natures, and one person, for ever. 
 
 5. Another fact in reference to the incarnation to be 
 remembered is, that the union of Christ's two natures in 
 His one person occasions many diverse, and even some seem- 
 ingly conflicting yet really consistent utterances in Scripture 
 respecting Him. Thus — 
 
 (i.) Things are spoken of His person that properly 
 belong to one of His natures only ; as when, with reference 
 to His divine nature, it is said, " The "Word was with God, 
 and was God ;" " Before Abraham was, I am ; " or as when, 
 with reference to His human nature, it is said, " Unto us a 
 child is born, unto us a son is given;" "A man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief." 
 
 (2.) Things are spoken of Him that do not belong to' 
 
1 8 2 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 either His divine or His human nature exclusively, but that 
 belong to Him as uniting both of these natures in His one 
 person; as, for instance, when He is spoken of as Head of 
 the Church, its Prophet, Priest, and King. 
 
 (3.) While His person is at times called by a name 
 derived from one of His natures, to that nature are ascribed 
 properties and acts belonging to His other nature ; as in 
 the following instances, " crucified the Lord of glory ; " God 
 purchased the Church with His blood ; " the Son of Man 
 which is in heaven." 
 
 (4.) Sometimes again, when His person is denominated 
 from one, of His natures, to Him is ascribed at the same 
 time that which is common to both. Thus, " As concerning 
 the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." 
 Here, while called " God over all," because of His divine 
 nature, both His divine and human nature are engaged in 
 His entering as Christ on His incarnate state. 
 
 (5.) Yet again, there are cases in which He takes His 
 name from both His natures, while that which is said of 
 Him properly belongs only to one of them. As in the words, 
 " What think ye of Christ ? Whose son is He ? They say 
 unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How 
 then doth David in spirit call Him Lord ? saying, The Lord 
 said unto my Lord, sit Thou at my right hand, until I make 
 Thine enemies Thy footstool. If David then call Him Lord, 
 how is He his Son ? " The designation which He takes to 
 Himself of " Christ," and that which David gives Him, " My 
 Lord," refer to His two natures, the divine and human, in 
 His one person, as the God-man, the Kedeemer. But the 
 relation ascribed to Him of " Son of David," belongs only to 
 His human nature, derived from David, " of whom, as con- 
 cerning the flesh, Christ came." And so, 
 
 (6.) Statements in Scripture respecting Christ, that are 
 not only diverse but apparently conflicting, are thus seen to 
 
The Incarnation: Its Designs and Restiits. 183 
 
 be perfectly consistent. Thus, He disclaimed the knowledge 
 of the day of His second coming, and of final redemption,^ 
 and yet in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge.^ It is said, " He was crucified through weak- 
 ness,"^ and yet He Himself declares, " I lay down My life, 
 that I may take it again. No man taketh it from Me ; but 
 I lay it down of Myself, I have p»ower to lay it down ; 
 and I have power to take it again." ^ All apparent contra- 
 dictions, in short, in His character and history, are solved by 
 His incarnation. For, in virtue of it. He is placed before 
 us in one or other of three distinct aspects in Scripture, viz., 
 first, as " God over all ; " or, second, as a man, in everything 
 except our sinfulness ; or, tliird, as God-man, mediator be- 
 tween God and men, taking our sin — suffering for it — 
 magnifying and making honourable the law by His obedience, 
 and so furnishing a righteousness that makes the sinner just 
 — and, as Head of the Church, and over all things to the 
 Church, giving to it all ordinances — and putting His Spirit 
 into all its true members — ruling over heaven, earth, and 
 hell for His people's sake — and guiding, governing, and pre- 
 serving them, till He gathers them in safety into His pre- 
 sence for ever. Not to speak of what we find in proof of 
 this in other parts of the Holy Scriptures, the four Gospels 
 are records filled with facts that prove and illustrate the 
 statements just made. Take a few specimens. In one dis- 
 course, Jesus speaks of Himself as God ; " Before Abraham 
 was, I AM." He speaks of Himself as Man ; " When the 
 Son of Man is lifted up," that is, on the cross. And He 
 speaks of Himself as the God-man- redeemer ; " I am the 
 Light of the world." ^ In another discourse He declares 
 Himself divine ; " One with the Father : " human ; " giving 
 
 1 Mark xiii. ' 2 Cor. xiii. ^ John viii. 
 
 - Col. i. ■* John X. 
 
1 84 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 His life for the sheep : " and divine-human ; " giving them 
 eternal life." ^ At the grave of Lazarus, He " wept," as the 
 Man of sorrows — as Eedeemer, He avowed Himself " the 
 resurrection and the life " — and He accepted Martha's con- 
 fession of Him as the eternal " Son of God." ^ At the last 
 passover, He feasted as a man with His disciples — He spoke 
 to them as God, in having chosen them to salvation — and 
 as Mediator, He appointed to them a kingdom.^ In His 
 consolatory discourse to, and His prayer for, His disciples. 
 He speaks of His human nature going from earth to heaven 
 — of His divine nature in the glory which He had with the 
 Father before the world was — and of the two natures united 
 in His person and work as Eedeemer, in His promises to 
 intercede for His people with the Father, to send down 
 the Spirit, and to bless them on earth with His own con- 
 tinued presence and fellowship.^ Finally, His agony and 
 death proclaim His manhood — the glory to Himself and His 
 people that followed, proclaims the divine dignity of the 
 sufferer, as uniting the divine with the human nature in His 
 one person — and His assumption and exercise of all power 
 in heaven and on earth until He comes again as Judge of 
 all, imply and prove His coequality and coeternity with the 
 Father. 
 
 If any one of these aspects of Christ's character is denied 
 or ignored, the gospel history of Him cannot be understood 
 or even received as true in all its parts. Hence the dread- 
 ful havoc that rationalists and freethinkers are making of 
 the gospel history of the character and work of Jesus, and 
 of the hopes of men. If sinful men are to be brought into 
 saving acquaintance with the Christ of the gospels, they 
 must be taught to reverence Him as God, as well as to 
 have sympathy with His character and actings as a man ; 
 
 ^ John X. - Luke xi. ^ Luke xxii. ; John xiii. * John xiv.-xvii. 
 
The Incarnatio7i : Its Designs and Results . 185 
 
 and to live by faith in His cleansing blood, and justifying 
 righteousness, and sanctifying grace, as their Redeemer and 
 Lord. They must learn to know, believe, realise, and live 
 upon, the truths embodied in such scriptures as these. " In 
 the beginning was the Word, 'and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." 
 " By Him all things consist." " And 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." " When the fulness of time was come, God sent 
 forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to 
 redeem them that were under the law, that we might 
 receive the adoption of sons." 
 
 II. The design and results of the incarnation. 
 " Made under the law, to redeem them that were under 
 the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." 
 
 Modern pretenders to thought, enlightenment, and culture, 
 are telling us, some of them from the pulpit, that Christ's 
 great mission on earth was to set an example of human 
 goodness ; and that the way of our redemption from evil, and 
 attainment to all good, lies in our imitation of His virtues. 
 They thus reduce the work of Christ on earth to furnishing 
 the moral pattern which His life presents. So far as God 
 is concerned, they thus deny that the claims of His in- 
 flexible justice, law, and government, had anything to do 
 with Christ's mission. They reduce it to a mere testimony 
 on His part of God's fatherly love, in which all men are 
 alike and equally embraced. This is the modern gospel, 
 which, in proportion as it is entertained, will quickly 
 operate to the destruction of every essential peculiarity 
 of the Gospel of Christ. According to this modern gospel, 
 there was no need for the incarnation — there is no need of 
 an infinite atonement for sin — there is no such curse of the 
 
1 86 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 law, no such wrath in God against transgression, no such 
 evil in sin, as is affirmed. The attainment of self-redemp- 
 tion is within the reach of every one's own efforts. The 
 proper divinity of Christ, as one of three persons in the 
 Godhead, and the divinity and personality of the Spirit 
 as another, turn into fancies, in the eyes of such advanced 
 thinkers. And all the peculiarities of the gospel, so ear- 
 nestly preached, and so gladly embraced for ages, vanish 
 like a dream. Yet as the Apostle exclaimed, when he heard 
 of the Galatians being perverted from the truth by false 
 teachers that had got in among them, so would we repeat 
 his exclamation, "Though we or an angel from heaven 
 preach any other gospel unto you ... let him be accursed." 
 For what is the gospel ? Even that in the fulness of the 
 time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman ; made 
 under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, 
 that we might receive the adoption of sons. That very 
 Son acted under the previous dispensations of divine grace, 
 not only as Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
 God of Israel, but as the angel of God, the Jehovah angel, 
 the angel and messenger of the covenant. Angel means 
 one sent. And we find Him repeatedly spoken of in the 
 Old Testament writings as Jehovah sent by Jehovah. His 
 being sent, therefore, did not mean that He was inferior in 
 His nature to Him that sent Him : it only meant that in 
 the covenant of redemption, what the Father laid upon 
 Him to do and suffer, in our nature, for our salvation. He 
 voluntarily undertook. But, having undertaken this work, 
 He necessarily assumed the position of a servant in per- 
 forming it. And so He was sent into the world at last, 
 and sent "made of a woman"; while He not less truly 
 came of His own free and sovereign will, and freely under- 
 took, out of love to the sinners given into His hands, by 
 His own obedience unto death for them, to work out and 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 1 8 7 
 
 purchase their present and everlasting redemption. Having 
 thus appeared in our nature, let us see what followed to 
 Him. 
 
 I . He was " made under the law to redeem them that 
 were under the law," and so discharged all their obligations 
 to it as to secure for His people, in time and in eternity, 
 higher blessings than would have been theirs had they 
 remained unfallen, and personally honoured and satisfied all 
 the law's demands. Eor, First, In behalf of His redeemed, 
 being " made under the law," He rendered in our nature 
 an absolutely perfect obedience to the whole law of God. As 
 creatures of God, and subjects of His law and government, 
 our obligation was to " continue in all things written in the 
 book of the law to do them ; " and the condition of His 
 favour was " the man that doeth them shall live in them." 
 That obligation all have violated; that condition of divine 
 favour all have broken ; and all the world has become 
 guilty before God. Yet if this perfect obedience to His 
 law is not forthcoming, there can be no favour shown by 
 God ; for His character, perfections, law, and government 
 are all unchangeable, and render it impossible for intelli- 
 gent and accountable creatures to live in His presence 
 except on the footing of a perfect fulfilment of all His 
 commandments. But being " made under the law," Christ 
 " fulfilled all righteousness," all the law's righteous de- 
 mands, for them that believe. And so " by His obedi- 
 ence they are made righteous ; " and " receiving thus the 
 gift of righteousness, they reign in life by Jesus Christ."^ 
 Second, He was made under the law to redeem them from 
 the curse of the law, by being made a curse for them. He 
 drew upon Himself the wrath due to His people, and was 
 wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their 
 
 ^ Rom. V. 
 
1 88 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 iniquities. So that now in Him they have redemption 
 through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the 
 riches of His grace. And they say, " Lord, I v^ill praise 
 thee : though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is 
 turned away, and Thou comfortedst me. Behold . . Jehovah 
 is my strength and song ; He also is become my salvation." 
 And Third, Not only has Christ, being made under the 
 law, rendered to it a perfect obedience for His people, and 
 so furnished an everlasting ground of their acceptance with 
 God — not only has He at the same time endured and 
 exhausted for them the wrath and curse due to them as 
 transgressors — but He has made way for their deliverance, 
 their redemption from that dominion and reign of sin in 
 and over them, which is part of the curse of the law lying 
 on sinners. As the precious blood with which He has 
 bought them, entitles them to deliverance from their natural 
 bondage to sin and Satan and the world, so, having purchased 
 them with His blood. He puts forth His mighty power and 
 actually accomplishes their deliverance. He gives to every 
 one of them grace, according to the measure of His gift. 
 Having ascended on high leading captivity captive, He has 
 received gifts for men, which He bestows even on the 
 rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell among theni.^ He 
 saves to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him, 
 seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.^ In 
 the exercise of "all power given to Him in heaven and in 
 earth," He gives to His redeemed the word and its ordi- 
 nances, and regulates for their welfare all His providential 
 dealings, and sends into them His Spirit, and so begins and 
 carries on to completion within them His work of grace. 
 The results are an entire change in their moral and spiritual 
 nature, character, condition, and destiny. They see and feel 
 
 ^ Ps. Ixviii. ; Eph. iv. ^ Heb. vii. 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 189 
 
 their sin and misery. They see Jesus. They look to Him 
 and rest on Him for their salvation. They receive the offers 
 and tokens of pardoning mercy. They are renewed in the 
 spirit of their minds, and created anew in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works. The reigning power of sin in and over them is 
 destroyed. Satan is cast out of them. They are delivered 
 from this present evil world. They are crucified with Christ ; 
 nevertheless they live ; yet not they, but Christ liveth in 
 them ; and the life which they live in the flesh is by the 
 faith of the Son of God who loved them, and gave Himself 
 for them. They are quickened together with Christ, and 
 sit with Him in heavenly places, even while they are still 
 on earth.^ Eisen with Him, they seek the things which 
 are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 
 They set their affections on things above, not on things on 
 the •earth; for they are dead (that is, dead to earthly things 
 as their portion), and their life is hid with Christ in God. 
 And when Christ who is their life shall appear, they also 
 shall appear with Him in glory.^ 
 
 2. The signally gracious ultimate design of Christ in 
 being made of a woman, made under the law, and in re- 
 deeming them that were under the law, is " that they might 
 receive the adoption of sons." As regards the position of the 
 redeemed in Christ, it is not anything like the whole truth 
 to say that, in virtue of His incarnation, followed by His 
 obedience unto death, they, being in Him by faith, are for- 
 given all their sins through His blood, and accepted as 
 righteous in His righteousness, and find Him the Life of 
 their souls. The redeemed, it is conceivable, might experi- 
 ence that change of their relationship to God, and of their 
 condition before Him, and yet be lifted up into no 
 higher a state than that of creatures saved from the ruins 
 
 1 Eph. ii. 2 Col. iii. 
 
1 90 The hicarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 of tlie fall, restored to the service of God, and, as servants, 
 yielding to Him the subjection which His law rec[uires from 
 all the works of His creative and sustaining hand. But a 
 higher place, rank, and destiny are secured by the Incarnate 
 Redeemer for His redeemed. They are made by Him not 
 servants merely, but sons of God. The Son of God became 
 one with them in taking their nature, and then in taking on 
 Him all their obligations and liabilities, all their sins and 
 miseries. He thus became one with them that He might 
 not only redeem them from all evil, and secure to them all 
 the good promised at first to their obedience, but bring them 
 into such a perpetual oneness with Himself, that all that 
 belongs to Him as the Son of God, so far as it is communi- 
 cable, may be theirs as joint sons of God with Christ Him- 
 self. They are thus made heirs of God Himself through 
 Christ, "All things are theirs, for they are Christ's, and 
 Christ is God's." Taken out of the world and adopted in 
 Christ into the family of God, they are led by His Spirit ; 
 they have access to His person; their petitions are answered; 
 provision is made for their wants ; they are protected from 
 evil ; they are taught of God ; they are sanctified by the 
 truth ; they are graciously corrected for their faults ; they 
 are comforted in their sorrows ; they are raised above the 
 power and fear of death ; they depart to be with Christ ; 
 they are destined to a holy and happy resurrection ; they 
 shall have for their inheritance the new heavens and the 
 new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; and they shall 
 have fulness of joy in the presence of God, and pleasures at 
 His right hand for evermore. 
 
 III. In what is here said of the incarnation, of its 
 nature, manner, designs, and results, we have the great 
 message of God, His one alternative of weal or of woe to 
 men through all ages, to the end of time. The testimony 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 1 9 1 
 
 to be borne on earth to the incarnation and redeeming work 
 of the Son of God, is the om great message from heaven to 
 our sinful race. The message was first spoken by the Lord 
 Himself in the announcement of the seed of the woman 
 that would bruise the head of the serpent. It was repeated 
 in terms more or less specific to patriarchs and prophets. 
 It was kept before all generations of the Jewish Church, in 
 the manifold types and prophecies which symbolised or 
 foretold the actual appearance and work of the Messiah on 
 earth, when the time fixed for His appearance should arrive. 
 And when "in the fulness of the time God sent forth His 
 Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
 that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption 
 of sons," the testimony to the world henceforth became a 
 testimony for the great redemption, as at length actually 
 accomplished, a testimony to all nations, in which all mankind 
 have the most overwhelming interest, through all genera- 
 tions, to the end of time. Insomuch, that to every man 
 this Gospel must prove either a savour of life unto life, or 
 of death unto death. 
 
 The incarnation, with what we thus see to be included 
 in it, is, in fact, the great central event in the world's history. 
 To it all previous events converged. From it all subsequent 
 events have taken, and will continue to take, their shape 
 and character. The incarnation determined the history 
 of the world for four thousand years before it took 
 place. It is now determining all the events of the world's 
 history, onward to the day of final judgment. It is " the 
 Gospel of the kingdom," a kingdom consisting of all the 
 redeemed followers of Christ on earth : and while all other 
 and earthly kingdoms rise and fall around it, it shall abide, 
 and advance, and prosper more and more till the end of 
 time. More than that, the fate of all earthly kingdoms 
 themselves, as well as of their inhabitants individually, is 
 
192 TJie Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 determined by tlieir relation to Christ, and to the interests 
 of His Gospel and His Church, 
 
 It is impossible to overrate the manifold emphatic way 
 in which the well-being of our race is bound up with the 
 good news of the divine incarnate Eedeemer. This gospel 
 alone operates to make men truly virtuous ; for to regenerate 
 human nature is neither the result nor the object of any 
 other system of religion, or of morals, or of politics, known 
 on earth ; while this is the one great design of Christianity, 
 and its actual effect in all who truly receive it; and Christian 
 teachers have no divine warrant to act as such, except they 
 are themselves divinely renewed ; while the teachers of any 
 other system are not required to experience, any more than 
 to enforce, such a renewal. Further, great truths concern- 
 ing the character and providence of God, the immortal 
 nature and destiny of man, and the realities of the unseen 
 and eternal worlds, truths, which apart from the gospel, the 
 wisest of this world's children are unable to comprehend or 
 embrace, are yet by the gospel made so plain and familiar 
 as to be received in faith and love by the young and the 
 simple. Further still, apart from the gospel there are no 
 effectual motives to the cultivation and practice of virtue, 
 inasmuch as any idea that may enter the minds of men 
 from any other source, is far too dim and indefinite to restrain 
 from evil; while, on the other hand, there is arresting and 
 controlling power in the direct and awful warning of the 
 gospel to every individual sinner, " the soul that sinneth it 
 shall die ; " " except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 
 Still further, apart from the gospel, smners have no proper 
 inducements, or helps, to lead or to enable them truly to 
 grieve over their sin, and hate it, and turn from it, living 
 and dying; whereas in the Gospel of Christ, the most 
 powerful and touching considerations are presented, to 
 soften and subdue the hardened while they are in health. 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 1 9 
 
 and even when they have reached the last moments of 
 ebbing life. And yet again, the teachings and works of 
 Christ recorded in the gospel narratives, have exerted a 
 marvellous, a divine power, in the moral and spiritual 
 renewal of multitudes, and in placing under salutary 
 restraints multitudes more ; while all other systems of 
 belief and of morals, and all other teachings and examples of 
 men apart from the gospel, have never had any power to 
 repair or withstand the ravages of sin throughout the earth. 
 The more we meditate upon the nature and results of 
 the truths and lessons inculcated by the Great Teacher, 
 and contrast with them the maxims and customs of all 
 nations that have not had, or that have refused the gospel, 
 the more impressive becomes the redeeming work of the 
 incarnate Son. Apart from the gospel, as dimly revealed to 
 patriarchs and prophets, and clearly and fully taught by 
 Christ Himself and by His apostles, the true character of 
 God and of His government has ever been, and is un- 
 known. Apart from the gospel, the true nature, proper 
 ends, and inestimable value of the three great divine in- 
 stitutions for the good of this world, viz., the family, civil 
 society, and the Church, are unknown. Apart from the 
 gospel, the true value of human life, of the life of infants, of 
 the life of all, yea even of our own life, is unknown. Apart 
 from the gospel, the proper enlightenment, elevation, and 
 freedom of the masses are unknown. Apart from the gospel, 
 the hideousness of war, and the hatred and the avoidance 
 of it that are incumbent, are unknown. Apart from the 
 gospel, the practice of truth and holy love, and the creation 
 and maintenance of the charitable and beneficent institu- 
 tions that cover even a half-christianised land like this, 
 are unknown. Apart from the gospel, the preservation of 
 the proper purity of the relationship in which the sexes 
 stand to each other, is unknown. Truly is it said of the 
 
 N 
 
194 T^^i^ Incarnation: Its Designs and Results. 
 
 godliness which the gospel alone is the means of infusing 
 into men, that it is profitable unto all things, having the 
 promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to 
 come. 
 
 When speaking thus of the gospel, let us repeat again, 
 and let it be remembered, that we mean the grand old 
 gospel, with its full embodiment of the perfections of the 
 Deity, the utter sinfulness and misery of mankind, the 
 person, the atoning work, and the meritorious obedience 
 of the divine Surety and Saviour, the regenerating and 
 sanctifying grace of the eternal Spirit, the blessings of re- 
 demption, deliverance from the present and future misery 
 of the impenitent, and the gift of eternal life in Christ. 
 And we do not mean by the gospel, that very modern 
 compound of affected culture and pretentious rationalism, 
 which, under the character of the modern gospel, is de- 
 ceiving the conceited and shallow wits of the present day, 
 with what is really nothing better than baptized heathenism. 
 The true gospel is that revealed love of God in Christ, which 
 at once gives glory to God, and secures peace to men. The 
 incarnation of the Son of God was the signal that He had 
 at length come to accomplish both of these ends, and for 
 that purpose, to purchase with a great price His mediatorial 
 sovereignty over the earth, and take possession of it, and to 
 govern it by His promised presence and resistless power, 
 until He has gathered out of all generations, the myriads 
 of His ransomed, and taken them to His presence above, 
 and allowed all others to ripen themselves for their impend- 
 ing doom. 
 
 Infidelity, under a variety of imposing names and forms, 
 such as scientific investigation, higher criticism, free-thought, 
 greater culture, has taken the place of old paganism, in its 
 enmity to this the only true gospel of Christ. And it is 
 busily employing its varied knowledge, and opportunities, 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 195 
 
 the arts of life, the various sciences, so far as they can 
 be plausibly perverted to its service, its printing presses, 
 and all other instrumentalities on which it can lay a sacri- 
 legious hand, to discredit the gospel of Christ. But Chris- 
 tians do not really need to give way to fear. For infidelity 
 cannot succeed in its designs, beyond the limited and tem- 
 porary success, which, in just judgment, G-od permits to it. 
 It cannot succeed further than that, so long as there is a 
 God in heaven to set bounds to it, so long as Christ has all 
 power in heaven and in earth. To all the ragings of in- 
 fidelity, as to the ragings of the sea, the Lord says, "Thus 
 far shalt thou come, and no farther ; and here shall thy 
 proud waves be stayed." Infidelity cannot succeed, so long 
 as there remains in men a natural conscience to reprove 
 their sin, to warn them of their danger, and to set before 
 them their need of an atonement for their manifold trans- 
 gressions and iniquities. 
 
 It will baffle all the management and power of the infidel 
 host, so much as to blot out the time of the incarnation as 
 the great central era of the world. As regards the historic 
 dates of all that happened on the earth before the coming 
 of Christ, and of all that has happened since, and is to 
 happen to the world's end. The Year of the Birth of Jesus 
 Christ shall be the one note of all the ages. Moreover, 
 it will baffle infidelity to blot out of the records of earth, 
 or out of men's convictions, the fact that the gospel, of 
 which the incarnation forms the centre, is the infinitely 
 greatest blessing vouchsafed to mankind — that, if permitted 
 to operate, it would do away with idolatry, and profaneness, 
 and unnatural and abominable lusts, with hideous lewdness, 
 with bloody cruelty, with all forms of injustice, with end- 
 less falsehood and fraud, and would spread over the earth 
 piety and purity, and righteousness, and truth and kindness, 
 and all the blessings that follow in their train. 
 
1 96 The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 
 
 Wicked and misguided men, indeed, may be allowed to 
 do much against the gospel. In spite of all its calls, they 
 may corrupt, ruin, and destroy themselves, when the Gospel 
 would save them. They may destroy the sabbath, and 
 cause the sound of the gospel to be scarcely heard in a 
 land. They may put an end, in a great measure, to any 
 effectual religious education of the young. They may 
 destroy the influence of Christianity over human laws, and 
 turn civil government into a government of unmingled 
 secularity, and of practical atheism. They may destroy the 
 very foundations on which alone the good order of civil 
 society, the self-denial of its members, their mutual sacri- 
 fices for the common welfare, and continued social peace, 
 can rest. And they may end in blotting out their country 
 from the map of christian nations, and next from the map 
 of nations altogether. But one thing they cannot do. They 
 cannot prevent Christianity, when driven out of one land, 
 and forsaking it, from rising in another. 
 
 Nay, even in a favoured land like this, people may get 
 weary of the gospel, as the Galatians did, and begin to 
 accept of substitutes that are more pleasing to their sensual 
 nature and their pride of heart, while they take from 
 the Redeemer's personal glory, or take away the true 
 nature of His atonement and righteousness, or set aside 
 the power of His grace, or deny the integrity and authority 
 of His word, or supplant His ordinances by their own flesh- 
 pleasing inventions. It may be that a young and rising 
 generation, instead of being taught, and knowing, and loving 
 the gospel, and rising up to prove its faithful witnesses 
 and confessors, shall lay themselves open to the new and 
 strange doctrines that are everywhere filling the air, and so 
 rise up into a generation of free-thinkers and sabbath- 
 breakers, and loose and careless, or free-and-easy livers. 
 And as a just judgment from God, they may be left to run 
 
The Incarnation : Its Designs and Results. 197 
 
 their evil course, and to go to their evil doom. And then, in 
 mercy to a land, so married as this land is to God by the 
 piety and sufferings of the past, another generation may be 
 reclaimed to Christ, and made to catch up the old story of 
 the gospel, which is also always new ; and to feel its trans- 
 forming power, and bring forth its fruits, and so find the 
 prayer answered, " Eeturn, Lord, how long ? And let it 
 repent Thee, concerning Thy servants. satisfy us early 
 with Thy mercy ; that we may rejoice and be glad all our 
 days. Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou 
 hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. 
 Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory 
 unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord 
 our God be upon us ; and establish Thou the work of 
 our hands upon us ; yea, the work of our hands, establish 
 Thou it." 
 
 But be the efforts of the enemies of the gospel, and the 
 results of their efforts what they may ; and come what may 
 of this or that nation, or of all nations, in reference to the 
 gospel ; one thing is certain : when the Son of God was 
 made of a woman. He came from heaven to earth to redeem 
 all who had been given to Him in the everlasting covenant; 
 and having purchased them at a great price, He assumed, 
 and now wields, a sovereignty over the earth, which He is 
 never to resign, or for a moment to relax, until He has 
 prepared all His chosen to be gathered up into His presence, 
 and cast out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them 
 that do iniquity. 
 
X. 
 
 DEATH ABOLISHED, AND LIFE AND IMMOR- 
 TALITY BROUGHT TO LIGHT. 
 
 ** Our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath 
 brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." — 
 2 Tim. i. lo. 
 
 T)ALTL, now a prisoner at Rome for the gospel, writes to 
 his dearly beloved son Timothy, urging him to stead- 
 fastness in the service of Christ, amidst whatever trials or 
 sufferings might come upon him on its account. He urges 
 this by reminding him of the grace already bestowed upon 
 them, and by tlie prospects of glory that were full in their 
 view. Their holy and blessed calling of God to this state, 
 and to these prospects, had its origin in that sovereign pur- 
 pose of grace in behalf of the redeemed, which He had made 
 over to them in Christ Jesus before the world began. That 
 grace, after being for ages revealed with comparative dim- 
 ness through the medium of promises and prophecies, of 
 types and figures, was now made manifest, made to shine 
 out plainly to the eyes of faith, and in the happy experience 
 of regenerated souls, by the actual incarnation of the Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, as God manifested in the flesh, and in the sal- 
 vation and eternal life which He had purchased and wrought 
 out, proclaimed and made secure, by His personal ministry 
 on the earth. His obedience unto death, His resurrection 
 from the grave, and His ascension to the right hand of 
 power. This redemption from sin and death, this restora- 
 tion to a divine life on earth, and this final and speedy 
 entrance into eternal life on high, formed the burden of 
 that gospel, which Paul and Timothy, and all like-miuded, 
 
Death Abolished. 199 
 
 had embraced and were preaching, as God's message of 
 mercy to this world of sinners. Any kind of labours, 
 suffering, or death might well be welcomed by those who 
 lived and died preaching the good news that our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and brought life and 
 immortality to light through the Gospel. 
 
 The two statements which we would now consider are 
 that Christ has abolished death, and that He has brought 
 life and immortality to light by the Gospel. 
 
 I. He hath abolished death. 
 
 I . What is the death which He has abolished ? What- 
 ever enters into the state and prospects of men as sinners 
 is included in this death, (i.) They are dead to all true 
 happiness. They are without God in the world.^ They 
 live under that wrath of God which is revealed from 
 heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.^ 
 This displeasure of God poisons and embitters all their 
 temporal mercies. Cursed are they in the city and in 
 the field. Cursed is their basket and their store. Cursed 
 is the fruit of their body, and the fruit of their land.^ 
 (2.) They are dead to the love and service of God ; dead 
 in trespasses and sins.* (3.) Their bodies die and return 
 to corruption. (4.) They are liable to eternal death. At 
 the voice of Christ, their bodies shall come forth at last to 
 the resurrection of condemnation.^ And their final portion 
 shall be the blackness of darkness,® and the everlasting fire.^ 
 
 All mankind are naturally in this state of death. What- 
 soever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under 
 the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the 
 world may become guilty before God.^ Death passed upon 
 all men, for that all have sinned.^ 
 
 1 Eph. ii. 
 
 2 Rom. i. 
 
 3 Deut. xxviii. 
 
 4 Eph. ii. 
 ' John V. 
 6 Jude. 
 
 "^ Matt. XXV. 
 
 8 Rom. iii. 
 
 9 Rom. v. 
 
200 Death Abolished, 
 
 Men, as sinners, are in tins state of death by their own 
 voluntary self-consignment to it. They choose death rather 
 than life. Their carnal mind is enmity against God, and 
 is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be.'' They 
 despise His excellence and majesty. They disregard His 
 eye. They question His wisdom. They set at nought His 
 power. They dispute His justice. They trifle with His 
 mercy. They disbelieve His truth. They depart from their 
 Maker, live in enmity to their Preserver, abuse the gifts of 
 their unwearied Benefactor, assail the sovereignty and rights 
 of their Lawgiver and Judge, and lightly esteem the Eock 
 of their salvation. 
 
 In this state of spiritual death men naturally live through- 
 out their entire earthly existence. Shapen in iniquity and 
 conceived in sin, it pervades their whole nature and history. 
 It breaks out at all stages of life. It actuates them in every 
 situation. It defiles every place where they are found. It 
 wastes their seasons for getting good. It makes them to 
 live without God. It wastes their time. It is leading 
 them toward ruin. It can hurry them into any evil. It 
 keeps them persisting in its indulgence alike against the 
 terrors and the tender mercies of God, against their own 
 convictions and professions. It holds them back from 
 union with God's holy and happy family, and leagues 
 them with His enemies. It destroys their influence for 
 good, and renders them not only faithless but injurious 
 to all about them. And it keeps them in bondage as its 
 servants, until they find what a fearful thing it is to fall 
 into the hands of the living God. 
 
 All who live out their earthly existence, and leave the 
 world in this state of death, are shut out of the gracious 
 presence of God, and of the Lamb, and of the society and 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 
 
Death Abolished. 201 
 
 services of His holy and happy family, and are consigned 
 to the final impenitence and woe of an ever-living death. 
 
 2. How has Christ abolished this death to all His ran- 
 somed ? 
 
 (i.) The wrath and curse of God due to them for sin, is 
 taken away by Christ. He hath redeemed them from the 
 curse of the law, having been made a curse for them.'^ By 
 what He suffered in their stead, the penalty due to their 
 sin is borne, and exhausted ; the justice of God, which tlieir 
 offences provoked, is satisfied ; the holiness of God, which 
 their sin so dishonoured, is gloriously displayed ; the moral 
 government of God, against which their sin is rebellion, is 
 vindicated and upheld ; and so, to them, being in Christ by 
 faith, there is no condemnation ; and they say, " Lord, I 
 will praise Thee ; though Thou wast angry with me. Thine 
 anger is turned away." ^ 
 
 (2.) Christ has delivered His people from the power of 
 spiritual death. Like other men, believers, as sinners, had 
 in them the carnal mind which is enmity against God. 
 They were dead in trespasses and sins. But having, by 
 His own obedience unto death, purchased from divine law 
 and justice their right of deliverance from that state. He 
 effects it by His own Spirit put within them, as well as 
 by all the manifestations of divine grace and truth placed 
 before them. They thus awake from the fatal sleep of 
 nature — are roused out of their spiritual torpor — are 
 quickened from spiritual death : and they find their spiritual 
 darkness scattered — their lusts mortified — the dominion of 
 sin within them overthrown — and the power of the great 
 adversary in and over them taken away. And it is im- 
 possible that they can again fall under the power of 
 spiritual death as before ; for the faithfulness of God is 
 pledged, and the virtue of the Redeemer's death is operat- 
 
 ^ Galat. iii. - Isa. xii. 
 
202 Death Abolished. 
 
 ing, and the power of the Spirit is put forth, to keep them 
 from again falling under the reigning power of sin, yea, to 
 increase their freedom from its presence and control, until 
 they are received into that world which sin can never enter, 
 because there death is swallowed up of life. 
 
 (3.) The death of their bodies is abolished to believers 
 by Christ. 
 
 Not that they escape from dissolution. It is appointed 
 unto all men once to die. Still to the redeemed, death is 
 abolished, so far as it is an enemy, the king of terrors, the 
 executioner of avenging justice, the forerunner of eternal 
 woe. To the redeemed, death is turned into a messenger 
 of peace, who comes to conduct their souls into the blessed 
 presence of God; and to conduct their bodies to the tem- 
 porary resting-place, from which they shall soon rise in holy 
 fitness for reunion with their souls, and for the services and 
 joys and honours of the everlasting kingdom. Our conver- 
 sation is in Heaven ; from whence also we look for the 
 Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile 
 body, and fashion it like to His own glorious body, 
 according to the working whereby He is able to subdue 
 all things unto Himself.^ 
 
 (4.) Christ hath abolished the power of eternal death over 
 His redeemed. 
 
 So far as their souls are concerned, when the hour of 
 their departure comes, they wash their robes, and make 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are like 
 precious metal, purged from all accompanying dross. There 
 is nothing left in their nature on which hell and destruction 
 can seize. They can have no part in that world, in which sin 
 shall prevail and rage for ever. They have their sure and 
 kindred abode in those regions where sin cannot enter ; 
 where purity reigns and triumphs through eternal ages. 
 
 1 Phil. iii. 
 
Life broright to Light. 203 
 
 The corruption seated in their bodies is also rooted out, 
 the dishonour that rested on their bodies is taken away. 
 The weakness that enfeebled their bodies departs. From 
 the vileness that polluted their bodies, they are perfectly 
 purified. The tendency of their bodies to dissolution is 
 gone. They are no longer capable of weariness or decay. 
 The Lord has come and changed their vile body, and 
 fashioned it like to His glorious body. 
 
 Thus their whole nature is absolutely and for ever freed 
 from the dominion and effects, from the presence and being 
 of sin and death. Death in every form, temporal, spiritual, 
 and eternal, is swallowed up in victory. They are filled 
 with and surrounded by the glory of Christ. And they 
 dwell in the light of an everlasting day. 
 
 II. Consider " the life and immortality " which our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ has brought to light through the 
 Gospel. 
 
 I. The life which Christ has brought to light. 
 
 The life here spoken of is the life that has begun to 
 animate those who awake from sleep, rise from the dead, 
 and come to Christ for light — who incline their ear and 
 come to Him, hear, obey His call, and yield themselves 
 unto God as alive from the dead — who are become dead, 
 indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord — and of whom it can now be said, because He 
 lives, they shall live also. The following things may be 
 noted concerning this life. 
 
 (i.) The partakers of this life have been taught to seek 
 and find it in the favour of God. Before experiencing it, 
 they were, like others, cast out of His sight. But He has 
 revealed Himself to them, as in Christ reconciling them to 
 Hmiself, not imputing to them their trespasses. They have 
 thus experienced acceptance in the beloved. And this 
 
2 04 Life brought to Light. 
 
 acceptance brings them into contact with all holy and 
 blessed objects and realities — admitting them to actual 
 fellowship with God — placing them among His children — 
 encompassing them with all holy and heavenly privileges 
 and blessings — filling them with peace and joy in believing 
 — and causing them to abound in hope by the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. This acceptance of them by God, as righteous 
 in His sight, through the righteousness of Christ put upon 
 them, is an important part of the life which Christ has 
 brought to light through His Gospel. 
 
 (2.) More particularly, this life of the redeemed is a life 
 of personal holiness. It is the life of God in their souls — 
 heaven begun within them — the seed of eternal life planted 
 and taking root and springing up in their spiritual nature 
 — the state of grace, of which the end is everlasting glory. 
 This life is implanted in regeneration — begins to work in 
 conversion to God — is developed in the sanctification of 
 believers, in their growth in grace — and is perfected in their 
 being glorified in soul, body, and spirit with Christ in 
 heaven. 
 
 (3.) This life differs from all other kinds of life among 
 men. It differs from their mere physical or animal life, 
 which they have in common with the inferior creation. It 
 differs from mere intellectual life, or the exercise of men's 
 natural understandings only. It differs from mere natural 
 domestic life, or the material existence and conduct of fami- 
 lies. It differs from purely political and social life, or men's 
 opinions, sentiments, and conduct, as secular members of 
 civil society. No doubt a life of personal holiness, in the 
 case of all who lead it, will blend itself with all these other 
 kinds of life, and sanctify them all. But still all these 
 other kinds of life may be exhibited in vigour, while spiri- 
 tual life is unfelt. A man may be strong in mind as well 
 as in body, and may make great attainments in human 
 
Life brought to Light. 205 
 
 learning ; and he may abound in outward domestic com- 
 forts ; and he may also exert a large amount of power over 
 mankind ; and all the while he may live and die spiritually 
 dead to God and to eternity. The life brought to light by 
 Christ through the gospel, is a higher and holier and infi- 
 nitely more blessed life than any of these other kinds of 
 life. This is seen by considering the following character- 
 istics of it. 
 
 First. The fountain of this life is the distinguishing love 
 of God to its subjects. They are " chosen by God in 
 Christ from the foundation of the world, that they should 
 be holy and without blame before Him in love." ^ Second. 
 The channel of this life is the infinite merits of Christ. He 
 is their life. They are quickened together with Him. Only 
 on union to Him do they experience this life. He is the 
 vine ; they are the branches. They live by Christ living in 
 them. Their life is hid with Christ in God. Third. The 
 agent of this life in believers is the Holy Ghost putting forth 
 His power in their souls. No man can quicken himself to 
 this spiritual life, or by his own unaided efforts retain it if 
 once possessed. It is in every case produced by the power 
 of God upon the soul. Paul may plant, and Apollos water, 
 but God only giveth the increase. " It is the Spirit that 
 quickeneth." " If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in 
 the Spirit." Fourth. This life can be fostered only by a 
 proper use of the means of grace. Believers meet for wor- 
 ship and instruction ; and Christ is among them, revealing 
 Himself to their minds in another manner than He doth 
 unto the world. They read His "Word ; and His Spirit 
 causes the entrance of it to give light and li^e to their minds. 
 They sit under a preached Gospel ; and it is made to them 
 the savour of life unto life. They pour out their desires to 
 
 Ephe 
 
2o6 Life brought to Light. 
 
 the Lord in prayer; and He does in tliem, and for them, 
 exceeding abundantly above what they can ask or think. In 
 their believing use of the sacraments, they partake of Christ 
 Himself, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. 
 Fifth. This life is a God-ward life. Derived from the 
 Father's love, through the mediation of the Son, and by the 
 inworking of the Spirit, they who have it spend its energies 
 in doing the will of God, in promoting His glory, and in 
 seeking their happiness in His presence. They live godly 
 in the world. Their life is the life of God.^ Sixth. This 
 life is a life greatly hidden in its nature. In respect of its 
 seat and substance it is invisible, and cannot be discerned 
 by the merely natural eye. Its open manifestations, so far 
 as they are seen in high moral results, may impress the men 
 of the world. But they cannot discern the true reality and 
 beauty of its secret, or even of its open workings, or the 
 presence of the Spirit as its source. This life of believers 
 is a life hid with Christ in God. Seventh. This life is a 
 progressive life. It continues to advance in believers. Their 
 path is like the shining light that shineth more and ' more 
 unto the perfect day. Their love abounds more and more 
 in knowledge and in all judgment. They approve things 
 that are excellent. They are sincere and without offence. 
 They are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are 
 by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Eighth. 
 This life is unfailing : it certainly continues in all who par- 
 take of it. It is uniformly persevered in, till perfected in 
 heaven. The life of believers is indestructible. Because 
 Christ lives, they being one with Him shall live also. They 
 never perish. None can pluck them out of His hand. He 
 keeps them from falling, till they are presented faultless 
 before the presence of His glory. 
 
 ^ Ephes. iv. 
 
Imrnortality brought to Light. 207 
 
 2. The immortality which our Saviour Jesus Christ has 
 brought to light through the Gospel. 
 
 It is here spoken of as a state of incorruption, or that 
 which is beyond the reach of decay. The spiritual life of 
 the redeemed, begun and carried on within them on earth, 
 is perfected in heaven. Their souls are at death made 
 perfect in holiness, and immediately pass into glory ; absent 
 from the body, they are present with the Lord ; they be- 
 come at once the spirits of the just made perfect. They 
 depart to be with Christ. And the life which thus becomes 
 perfect in their souls at death, takes possession of their 
 bodies at the resurrection ; for Christ then raises them 
 changed and fashioned like to His own glorious body, and 
 so fitted for the service of God for ever. This is the hope 
 laid up for them in heaven, the better substance, the inheri- 
 tance reserved for them there. The immortal life of the 
 redeemed in heaven shall thus be in reality the consumma- 
 tion of the state to which they are raised by grace on earth. 
 Their present state of grace is glory begun. Their eternal 
 state in heaven is the perfection of their present spiritual 
 life, of their present personal holiness. The righteousness 
 to which they are here renewed, is first rendered unmingled 
 and complete, and then stamped with immortality. And 
 the objects which for ever surround them, the employ- 
 ments in which they are engaged, the divine influences by 
 which they are filled and guided, and the heavenly spirit 
 which they unceasingly cherish, all combine to keep them 
 through eternity, not only removed to an unapproachable 
 distance from the power of all temptation, but advancing 
 onward and upward in the path of glory, honour, and 
 immortality. 
 
 It may serve to show in some faint measure what is 
 included in the immortal life which is the portion of the 
 redeemed in eternity, if we look at their freedom in heaven 
 
Immortality brought to Light. 
 
 from all the imperfections that adhere to their highest 
 spiritual life on earth. 
 
 First. In heaven, they are finally freed from all indwell- 
 ing sin, Nothing defiled enters there. Purged from all 
 impurity by Jesus' blood and grace, they are without spot, 
 or wrinkle, or any such thing. No corruption, no enmity 
 to God, no alienation from Him, no evil disposition toward 
 each other, no ungovernable desire of self-indulgence, no 
 blamable want of love to God, no sinful deficiency of any 
 kind, can be detected in them even by the all-seeing eye 
 of the Holy One. They abide His awful gaze, and rejoice 
 in His presence. 
 
 Second. In heaven, the redeemed are freed from all sense 
 of guilt, and from all fear of wrath. All their former sins 
 are taken away; and no new sin troubles their conscience. 
 They look to Jesus, not with crushing grief, as having 
 pierced Him, but with joyful gratitude for having washed 
 them from their sins in His blood, and made them kings 
 and priests unto God and His "Father. No object meets 
 their eye, to remind them painfully of their unworthiness, 
 or to betoken remaining displeasure in Jehovah. His beauty 
 is upon them. His glory overspreads them. They walk 
 with Him in white. The eternal God is their refuge and 
 dwelling-place, and exceeding great and eternal reward, 
 and they live in the felt embrace of the everlasting arms. 
 
 Third. In heaven the redeemed are free from their 
 present perplexing and misleading ignorance and errors. 
 They no longer see through a glass darkly, but face to face ; 
 and they know, even as they are known. In the light of 
 the Lord, they for ever see light clearly. As regards the 
 character of the Most High, and His relations to the universe, 
 they see Him as He is. 
 
 Fourth. In heaven the redeemed are finally freed from 
 the power and presence of Satan. He is never permitted to 
 
Immoi'tality brought to Light. 209 
 
 appear again among the sons of God. He is shut up and 
 confined within the regions of woe ; and the redeemed on 
 high are safe from all further approaches on his part, and 
 in that, as in other ways, enjoy the glorious liberty of the 
 sons of God. 
 
 Fifth. In heaven the redeemed are equally freed from the 
 presence of wicked men. No idolater, no unbeliever, no world- 
 ling, no profligate, no tyrant, tempter, or liar, can enter 
 heaven. God has gathered out of His kingdom all things 
 that offend, and them that do iniquity. The language of 
 impiety, or of pride, or of wrath, or of impurity, is never 
 heard there. There, all are righteous ; all are holy ; all are 
 united in love to God, and to one another. In heaven, truth 
 alone is honoured ; love alone is felt ; righteousness alone is 
 practised. None are met with there but faithful servants 
 of the Lord. Nothing is witnessed but the holy and happy 
 fellowship of saints ; and nothing is heard but the melody 
 of joy and praise. 
 
 Sixth. In heaven the redeemed are freed from all the 
 suffering caused to them by the state of the Church on earth. 
 The Church above is without spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing ; it is holy and without blemish ; a glorious Church, 
 adorned as a bride for her husband. The vineyard there is 
 kept, and watered every moment, by the Lord Himself. The 
 city of God contains not a single unregenerate sinner, but 
 only such as have done on earth the commandments of God; 
 and the nations of the saved walk in the light and glory with 
 which it is filled by the presence of God and of the Lamb 
 When they meet on the Mount Zion above, as a multitude 
 whom no man can number, redeemed unto God by Jesus' 
 blood and by the Spirit's power, and join the innumerable 
 company of angels, who since they were created have dwelt 
 in the presence of God, and ministered before His throne, 
 there shall be nothing to mar their comfort, but everything 
 
 
 
2IO Immortality brought to Light. 
 
 to complete their joy. As worshippers, all are spiritual, 
 holy, earnest, and devout. No irreverence and no unbelief 
 mingle with their services to pollute them. No enemies of 
 God are there among His servants and children. There are 
 no sinners and no hypocrites in that Zion, to be detected 
 and visited with terror. That house of God is composed of 
 gold, and silver, and precious stones, rests on the living 
 foundation, and is the dwelling of the great King, in which 
 His glory is seen unveiled, adoring homage is offered to 
 His majesty, and His lovingkindness is acknowledged with 
 unceasing praise. 
 
 Seventh. The redeemed in heaven are freed from all the 
 calamities which they witness or share in while on earth. 
 Instead of inhabiting a world cursed by its Maker, they are 
 in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. Instead of cottages of clay, they inhabit the 
 house of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
 Instead of present nakedness, they are clothed in robes of white. 
 Instead of present weakness, they are made pillars in the 
 temple of God. Instead of scanty fare or pinching poverty, 
 the Lamb feeds them and leads them to living fountains of 
 waters ; and they hunger no more, neither thirst any more. 
 Instead of being marred and wasted by trouble, they know 
 notliing of disease and pain, and enjoy immortal youth and 
 health. Instead of being crushed by grief, sorrow and sigh- 
 ing have fled for ever, so that they forget their misery on 
 earth, or remember it only as waters that have passed away. 
 Instead of longer sowing in tears, they now for ever reap in 
 joy. None of their present troubles follow them to that 
 blessed world. In those tranquil regions there is nothing 
 but sweet continued peace. In that healthful country, none 
 are sick. In that favoured land, all are kings. In that 
 holy temple, all are priests. In that state of glorious free- 
 dom, none are servants save to the great Lord of all. In 
 
l77imortality bi'Oiight to Light. 21 1 
 
 that abode of love, all are friends of God, and have constant 
 access to the King of kings, No sight of misery is ever 
 witnessed, no sound of woe is ever heard, throughout that 
 happy world. The eye rests only on scenes of well-doing 
 and well-being. The ear is ever filled with sounds of 
 triumphant joy. 
 
 Eighth. In heaven the redeemed are freed from all the 
 miseries of Christ's absence. — They get nearer even to His 
 bodily presence. Where He is, there they are also. They 
 are in that land of uprightness where they see the King in 
 His beauty ; where they see Him in His glorified humanity, 
 in the midst of the innumerable multitude of His redeemed, 
 and of myriads of angels. — They get clearer spiritual visions 
 of Christ. They see Him no longer through a glass darkly, 
 but face to face. Instead of occasional glimpses of His 
 glory, they continually behold its brightness. — In heaven 
 the redeemed become perfectly like to Christ. They are filled 
 out of His fulness with light and life, full of Christ, made to 
 bear and to reflect His perfect image. — In heaven, they are 
 brought into the closest perpetual intercourse with Christ. 
 The remaining sinfulness which mars it now is done away. 
 His glory does not keep them at a distance, or afraid in His 
 presence. They are full of love and of confidence toward 
 Him. They look to Him as their gracious Eedeemer, their 
 Almighty Friend, their elder Brother, their loving Husband, 
 their benignant Parent. As the Lamb in the midst of the 
 throne. He leads them to living fountains of water. They 
 see Him full of love to them. They are full of love to Him. 
 He unbosoms Himself to them. They unbosom themselves 
 to Him. And so an intercourse begins, the intimacy of 
 which nothing can ever occur to interrupt. — In heaven, the 
 redeemed are freed from all their present sadnesses and sor- 
 rows, and filled with Christ's own joy. They enter into it 
 and have it fulfilled in themselves ; so that they have fulness 
 
212 Immortality brought to Light. 
 
 of joy in His presence, and pleasures at His right hand for 
 evermore. — In heaven, the humiliation and sufferings which 
 they endured on earth, in the service of Christ, are done 
 away, and they sit with Him on His throne, and share His 
 glory, as He puts down all His enemies, and constrains the 
 universe to worship at His feet. They ever live in the pre- 
 sence of the glory and honour to which He is exalted in the 
 kingdom of the Father ; and they unite with the heavenly 
 host in ascribing salvation to Him that sitteth on the throne, 
 and to the Lamb. 
 
 Ninth. In heaven the redeemed are freed from all further 
 hidings of God's face, from all further blindness and per- 
 plexity as to His ways. Their life is found in His con- 
 tinually manifested presence. God dwells in light that is 
 inaccessible, and full of glory ; a glory to which no man 
 can approach and live ; and the seraphim veil their faces 
 and their feet in the presence of that glory. Yet He causes 
 the redeemed to stand before His throne, and graciously 
 converses with them. The display of His compassion puts 
 to flight their apprehensions. The revelations of His will 
 make them to delight in doing it. The tokens of His favour 
 fill them with gladness in His presence. They can now 
 look on God. They behold His face in righteousness, and 
 are satisfied with His likeness. They talk with Him face 
 to face, as a man talketh with His friend. The scales have 
 fallen from their eyes. The veil which concealed the God- 
 head from their view is drawn aside ; and they have clear 
 and near visions of God. They now see the wisdom, 
 righteousness, and grace, of His everlasting purposes — of 
 the whole course of His providence in time — of His deal- 
 ings with themselves individually — and of the glorious 
 issues of His purposes and providences in eternity. All 
 the darkness and perplexity that beset them on the earth, 
 in attempting to trace His works and ways, disappear in the 
 
Immortality brought to Light. 213 
 
 light of heaven ; and they are filled with ravishing views 
 of His all-glorious nature and perfections. The everlasting 
 counsels of the Godhead — their execution in the course of 
 time — all the way by which they themselves have been led 
 out of a state of nature, a state of sin and misery, througli 
 a state of grace, into a state of glory — the perfection of the 
 world in which they are at length placed and fixed — the 
 forms of loveliness and grandeur that present themselves 
 everywhere around them — the splendour of their lofty 
 abode — the beauty that adorns, and the life that animates 
 every object — the absence from that better world of all 
 evil — the presence in it of all good — the attractive appear- 
 ance of the myriads of angels and of redeemed men with 
 which it is filled — the glorious visions of Him that sitteth 
 on the throne, and of the Lamb in the midst of it, are all 
 objects of unceasing contemplation to the redeemed on high. 
 And all things are so full of God, so full of His presence, 
 wisdom, power, purity, and goodness, as to ravish them with 
 transporting thoughts and visions of His nature, to draw out 
 their whole soul in grateful and adoring love to Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost, and to attract them nearer and nearer for 
 evermore to the source and centre of all light, and love, and 
 glory. 
 
 Tenth, and lastly. In heaven, the life thus imparted, 
 nourished, perfected, and spent, is freed from all further 
 liability to failure or injury, and shall never have an end. 
 It is immortal life ; life that contains within itself no prin- 
 ciple of decay, no seeds of dissolution ; life that is equally 
 beyond all possible injury from outward causes ; life, in 
 fact, that is still hid with Christ in God ; and, therefore, 
 life which shall endure as eternity itself. Were it other- 
 wise ; were the redeemed to know, or to expect, that after 
 the lapse of any number and length of ages, they were to 
 be annihilated, or liable again to fall into sin and misery, 
 
2 14 Immortality brought to Light. 
 
 the prospect of annihilation or the fear of falling, would 
 serve to blast all their joys, to poison all the sources of their 
 blessedness, to cover heaven itself with sackcloth, and to 
 fill it with a melancholy gloom. But the life of the re- 
 deemed in heaven is immortal ; life that is incorruptible ; 
 life that never ends in death ; life that can never be fallen 
 from, or taken away. This is a view of their life in the 
 world to come, which we cannot grasp. For who can ex- 
 press or conceive the nature of eternity ? Who can com- 
 prehend or measure its duration ? Only the high and holy 
 One by whom it is inhabited. Incomprehensible, however, 
 as eternity is, we ought to think of it, until we impressively 
 feel how little we know of it. And remembering that its 
 interminable ages are the duration of the blessedness of the 
 righteous, and of the misery of the wicked, we ought to feel 
 a power attracting us to God, and hohness, and heaven, 
 far greater than the power of all created objects and earthly 
 enjoyments to keep us riveted to earthliness and sin. 
 
 The duration of everything in this world, and of the earth 
 itself, is a moment compared with eternity. You may call 
 the present life of a believer but the first budding of a 
 character that is to develop into unfading beauty and 
 perpetual fruitfulness. Or you may call it the dimmest 
 and earliest dawning of an unmingled everlasting day. Or 
 you may call it the narrow entrance into that universe, in 
 which he shall range for ever, without being able to measure 
 its dimensions, or to comprehend the amazing works and 
 wonders with wliich the Divine hand has stored it. Or you 
 may try to apprehend what it is to live for ever, by saying, 
 with a certain writer, "We shall live as many years as there 
 are blossoms in the spring, and after that as many as there 
 are leaves in the autumn, and after that as many as there 
 are drops of water in the ocean, and next as many as the 
 atoms that compose the world, and after that as many as 
 
hnmortality brought to LioJit. 2 1 5 
 
 the atoms that compose unnumbered worlds." But after 
 you have, with the help of figures and numbers like these, 
 looked through the thousands and millions of years that are 
 coming, and can imagine them already come, and rolled 
 behind you into the past, you have still before you what 
 has been termed " a vast, boundless, amazing eternity, which 
 can be represented by no similitude, and imagined by no 
 conception." Millions of years that come and pass away, 
 are absolutely nothing to the eternity still before us. Our 
 thoughts are overwhelmed and lost, alike in the immensity 
 of the universe, and in the eternity of its duration. Yet 
 the life of the redeemed is to fdl this eternity. They are 
 to live and act, to think and feel, to love and rejoice for 
 ever. Having entered into the New Jerusalem, they go no 
 more out. 
 
 Practical reflections. 
 
 I. Were we duly alive to these realities, all the time 
 that we could save from necessary temporal occupations, 
 would be spent in preparing for eternity. Our companions 
 would be those whose conversation and example served to 
 impress us with its solemn magnitude. How eagerly would 
 we listen to the voice of God addressing us in His Word 
 and providence ! How earnestly would we engage in the 
 service of the sanctuary ! How accustomed to regard it as 
 indeed the house of God, and the gate of heaven ! How 
 fervently would we pray for the light of God's reconciled 
 countenance to shine upon our souls ! How keenly would 
 we seek with the eye of faith to pierce the mysteries of the 
 grave ! How eagerly would we strive to penetrate the veil 
 that conceals from us the unseen world, and to wander in 
 thought through the regions of glory, or through the place 
 of despair ! How would we listen in imagination to the 
 songs of the heavenly hosts, and the wailings of the lost, 
 
2i6 Immortality brought to Light. 
 
 and hasten our escape from the ways of death, and quicken 
 our steps in the way of life ! How would we cease from 
 regarding the shadows of this present life, and be absorbed 
 by the realities of the life to come ! In this state of mind, 
 earthly joys would seem a deception, wealth a trifle, honour 
 a breath of air, and the present life itself a vapour that 
 appeareth for a little and then vanisheth away. We would 
 regard the earth itself as hastening to dissolution. We would 
 look on all, even the mightiest works of earth, as mere briars 
 and thorns prepared for the fires of the last day. We would 
 look at the very firmament above our heads, as waxing old 
 like a garment, as about to be changed like a worn-out 
 vesture, and as destined, under the melting heat of the 
 final fires, to be shrivelled up like a paper scroll. We would 
 reckon nothing real, substantial, or enduring, except the ful- 
 ness of joy in the presence of God, and the pleasures at His 
 right hand for evermore, the riches of the heavenly paradise, 
 the honours of the eternal kingdom, the unfading inheritance 
 in the land of uprightness, the uncreated and eternal glory 
 of the heaven of heavens. 
 
 2. Such as live to secure this life and immortality, seek 
 their salvation in Christ as the one thing needful. They 
 daily look to Him to deliver them from death, to be Him- 
 self the life of their souls, and to bring them to His glory. 
 They redeem each passing day as their accepted time and 
 day of salvation. They walk in the narrow way that alone 
 leadeth unto life. They live habitually as on the verge of 
 eternity. They set their affections on things above; fight 
 the good fight of faith ; and bear their afflictions as light 
 and momentary, because working out for them a far more 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 
 
 3. Too many men who hear the gospel, and profess to 
 believe it, are daily living as if these revelations of the 
 future were an idle tale. Their forethought spends itself 
 
Immortality brought to Light. 217 
 
 on their present life, not on the endless state beyond. 
 Instead of their thoughts and longings going out con- 
 tinually to life and immortality, their souls cleave to the 
 dust, to earth, and time. They seek their home in this 
 wilderness of time, and turn their backs on the better, the 
 heavenly country. They grasp the shadows of earth, and 
 let go the vast realities of heaven. They persist in dream- 
 ing of happiness here, where all things' are deceitful, un- 
 satisfying, and short-lived, and shut out from their minds 
 those scenes of perfect and endless blessedness, which so 
 invitingly stretch out before them in the realms of light. 
 The glories of that world of life and immortality do not 
 • affect them. They are so blind, so destitute of spiritual 
 vision, and so grope in darkness at noonday, that the word 
 of God, with all its revelations, is to them a sealed book ; 
 they are cut off from all communion with the spiritual 
 world ; the light of the Sun of righteousness shines around 
 them, without their drinking in His beams ; and only God 
 can unseal their spiritual vision, make the scales to fall 
 from their mental eyes, and impart to them the faculty 
 of spiritual sight, so as to bring them under the power 
 of the great objects of faith. Further, they are so fast 
 ASLEEP, so unconscious of the spiritual realities about to 
 burst upon them, that, if forced into their thoughts at all, 
 they pass through their minds and pass away from them, 
 like the confused and forgotten dreams of the night. They 
 are so dead, so dead to God, and to heavenly and eternal 
 things, that to preach to them of these realities is as useless 
 as it would be to speak of worldly things to the tenants of 
 the grave. Go to the tombs, and cry to those who are lying 
 in them, and offer them the wealth, the pleasures, the honours 
 for which they lived on earth. Would the offer make their 
 eyes to glisten, or excite their worldly lusts, or fire their 
 mouldering bones ? No ; they are now insensible to what 
 
2i8 Immoi'tality brought to Light. 
 
 absorbed them while they lived on earth, to what 
 the busy mortals left behind them for a little. But these 
 busy mortals are just as insensible with reference to spiritual 
 realities, as these mouldering dead are to the things of time. 
 Multitudes of those who are going about above the surface 
 of the earth, in all the activity of natural life, are no better 
 than walking corpses as regards the spiritual and eternal 
 world. The realities of eternity have no hold of them. Its 
 terrors do not disturb them. Its glories do not attract 
 them. Under all that is proclaimed to them, from the 
 word of God, respecting heaven and hell, they continue 
 motionless and dead. Some even have got the length of 
 scorning the whole scripture testimony on this subject as 
 if it were a fable. But this apathy or enmity will not stay 
 the unceasing and resistless course of things toward its 
 speedy termination in the perfected immortal life of the 
 redeemed, as well as in the final ruin of all who despise 
 or neglect the great salvation. 
 
 4. Such as have been hitherto indifferent or hostile to 
 these teachings of Christ, ought now to awake from their 
 sleep, to rise from the dead, and to come to Him for light. 
 Worldly riches quickly take to them wings, and fly away. 
 The pleasures of sin are but for a season, and leave the 
 soul polluted and perishing in its own corruption. And a 
 name upon the earth is a name written in the sand. For 
 such fleeting shadows, let them not still forfeit the better, 
 the enduring substance. They must choose between this 
 world and the next. They cannot serve God and mammon. 
 The best can be made of both worlds only by subordinating 
 the interests of time to those of eternity. 
 
 5. Nor is it otherwise than a fatal thing, to mistake the 
 change required to fit us for immortal life. So to receive 
 Christ and to rest upon Him for salvation, as to have His 
 Spirit, and to live by Christ living in us, is indispensable. 
 
Immortality brought to Light. 219 
 
 Such as realise in their own experience death abolished, and 
 life and immortality brought to light by Christ, are delivered 
 from the wrath to come, have forgiveness of all their sins, 
 are reconciled to God, stand accepted in His presence, find 
 the life of their souls in His favour, are in Christ by faith, 
 live in His Spirit and walk in His Spirit, and bring forth 
 the fruits of His Spirit, have in them the mind of Christ, 
 are conformed to His image and example, and walk in His 
 steps. Thus only do they become meet for His immediate 
 presence, for the sight of His glory, for the enjoyment of 
 His fellowship, for entering into His joy. Thus only can 
 any be attracted to heaven, and be able on good grounds to 
 say, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Such as 
 have not undergone this change, have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, and are none of His. 
 
XL 
 
 BEAEINGS OF CHEIST'S DEATH. 
 
 "And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses 
 and Elias ; who appeared in glory, and spake of the decease which He 
 should accomplish at Jerusalem." — LUKE ix. 30, 31. 
 
 "For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ 
 and Him crucified." — i COR. ii. 2. 
 
 TTTHEN Jesus took with Him His three disciples, Peter, 
 ' James, and John, to the mount of transfiguration, to 
 meet and converse with Moses and Elias from heaven, the 
 glory in which He revealed Himself, and His approaching 
 death as the subject on which they talked with Him, are the 
 two great things in that memorable passage of His history. 
 
 On that occasion Moses and Elias came from heaven as 
 representing the redeemed in glory, who had formed the 
 church on earth from the beginning of the world, to the 
 close of the dispensation that was then coming to an end. 
 Peter, James, and John were there as the representative 
 apostles of the gospel dispensation that was now being intro- 
 duced on earth, and that would embrace all coming genera- 
 tions of believers till the end of time. 
 
 On that occasion Christ was there as the Head of the 
 Patriarchal and Jewish church, who had filled it with its 
 predictive and figurative testimonies concerning Himself, 
 and had now actually come to fulfil, or make way for the 
 fulfilment of these testimonies. He was there, therefore, as 
 the Head of all the redeemed then in heaven, who one and 
 all owed their salvation to the atoning efficacy of His blood, 
 as the Laoib virtually slain from the foundation of the 
 world. He was there as the Head of all that were yet to 
 
Bearings of Christ' s Death. 221 
 
 be redeemed by His blood out of every kindred and tongue 
 and people and nation, onward to the end of the world. He 
 was there as the Head of all principality and power, and 
 might and dommion, throughout the universe. He was there 
 as the Creator and Governor of the universe, in the midst of 
 which He was raising up a church of sinners purchased by 
 His blood, and turned into saints and servants and sons of 
 God by His grace, to be for ever His special glory in the 
 eyes of all created intelligences, and in the midst of all His 
 other works ; and as capable of bearing all these relations, 
 and performing all these works. He was there as the Son 
 of God, the brightness of His glory and the express image 
 of His person, as the coequal, coeternal Son of God. 
 
 Such a meeting as Jesus then held with these represen- 
 tatives of the church in heaven and the church on earth, 
 had in view no mere earthly or temporal object. It was 
 not held to discuss such subjects as the laws of nature, or 
 the facts of science, or the policy of worldly kingdoms, or 
 any of the merely outward and temporal interests of man- 
 kind. The subject of this extraordinary conference, we may 
 feel assured, was what far more deeply concerned the per- 
 fections and government of the Most High — the person and 
 work of Jesus Himself — the results of His earthly ministry 
 to mankind — and its ultimate effects on the condition of 
 the universe at large. Yet the subject on which Moses and 
 Elias came to hold communication with Him is expressly 
 declared to have been His approaching death. They " spake" 
 with Him " of the decease which He should accomplish at 
 Jerusalem." His decease as God incarnate therefore must 
 be viewed as the great central vital event in the evolutions 
 of the divine purposes and providence, the event which was 
 eternally designed, and is fitted, and is actually operating, 
 beyond all the other works of God, to manifest His glory 
 throughout the universe. 
 
Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 The same thing is indicated by the language of Paul to 
 the Corinthians, " I determined not to know anything among 
 you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
 
 If the Apostle preached only this doctrine, and made it 
 the main subject of his daily and hourly thoughts and con- 
 versation, and the great ruling power that governed his con- 
 duct, it was not because he was ignorant of other things, or 
 incapable of realising their worth and importance. For he 
 was a man of great intellectual powers, of extensive learn- 
 ing, of broad and deep sympathies. Few in any age have 
 been fitter to excel in the highest pursuits that call forth 
 the ambition and energies of the sons of men. It was there- 
 fore on the highest grounds both of reason and of faith, that 
 he determined, in his relations to those to whom he minis- 
 tered in the Gospel, to know nothing save Jesus Christ and 
 Him crucified. 
 
 The Apostle, however, in making this assertion, does not 
 mean that he made this doctrine the only subject of his 
 meditations and his ministry, apart from its origin in the 
 divine character and government, and its results in the 
 character and destiny of the redeemed, and of the universe 
 at large, and in the glory which thus accrues to the Eternal. 
 He does not mean to say that he separated the subject of 
 the cross of Christ from all other subjects connected with it, 
 and dwelt on it as a man might try to play on one only of 
 many strings of a musical instrument. It is manifest from 
 the Apostle's writings that he discoursed habitually on all 
 the great doctrines that concern the character and perfec- 
 tions, the law and government of God, the original and pre- 
 sent condition of mankind, the gospel way of redemption 
 from sin and misery, the manifold inexpressible blessings 
 that flow from faith in Christ, the duties incumbent on men 
 in their various relations and conditions, and the ordinances 
 and laws of God given to be observed as means of grace and 
 
Bearings of CJu'isfs Death. 223 
 
 as rules of holy living. These subjects were set forth by 
 Paul with great clearness, fulness, and power. If then 
 it was at the same time true, as it undoubtedly was, that 
 still in his meditations, conversation, teachings, and writ- 
 ings, he knew nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 
 this doctrine, in its proper nature and bearings, must be 
 bound up with all these others ; to deal properly with it, 
 is necessarily to deal with them ; and to deal properly with 
 them, is to be continually dealing with it. On the doc- 
 trine of Christ and Him crucified all other truths are 
 in fact built up. By it as the keystone all the other parts 
 of the arch of knowledge are united, and made and kept 
 inviolably secure. This doctrine is the life-blood that flows 
 through the whole system of scripture truths and scripture 
 duties. And it was because the Apostle looked at and pre- 
 sented all truth and duty through the medium of the cross, 
 or in inseparable connection with it, that he could truly 
 say, " I determined not to know anything among you save 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
 
 In making this doctrine the grand central subject of all 
 His teaching, Paul was not singular among the inspired 
 prophets and apostles. Nor was this view of all truth and 
 duty, as bound up in, and flowing from, the cross of Christ, 
 confined to any age, or foreign to any age, of the church of 
 God. Prom the fall of our first parents onward through all 
 time, the eyes of sinful men have been directed, in one way 
 or another, to Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as the source 
 of all their light and life, their strength and hope, their 
 present and eternal well-being. Scarcely had our first 
 parents found themselves, through their disobedience, be- 
 come guilty, depraved, and miserable, when Christ was set 
 before them as the seed of the woman, who, by His suffer- 
 ing, represented as the bruising of His heel by the serpent, 
 would bruise the serpent's head, or, in other words, would, 
 
2 24 Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 as the Son of God, be manifested to destroy the works of 
 the devil. From that moment, the prospect of the sacrifice 
 for sin, of the death to be undergone by the divine Surety, 
 was held forth in every possible way before the minds of 
 men, as the great source of life and peace to their souls, the 
 means of their reconciliation to God, their fellowship with 
 Him, their transformation into His likeness, and their final 
 meetness for His presence. Eighteous Abel offers a bloody 
 sacrifice, and is accepted. Unbelieving Cain contents him- 
 self with offering the first-fruits of the earth, and is rejected. 
 Noah steps forth on the recovered earth, and consecrates 
 himself and family to God by offering burnt- offerings of 
 every clean beast and fowl. In every place of his sojourn- 
 ing Abraham rears an altar, and offers sacrifice, and enters 
 into covenant, and keeps up his fellowship with God. After 
 the feasting of his sons and daughters, and as indeed his 
 continual practice. Job rises early in the morning, and 
 offers burnt-offerings according to the number of them all. 
 By the blood of the paschal lamb sprinkled on their door- 
 posts, the Hebrews are delivered from their bondage, and 
 rise into a nation of freemen consecrated to the service of 
 Jehovah. Under the law given to the Jewish church, all 
 things and persons connected with the service of God were 
 purged with the sacrificial blood sprinkled on them."^ The 
 Spirit that was in the prophets was the Spirit of Christ, and 
 the subject with which He filled their minds was the suffer- 
 ings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.^ Of these 
 sufferings of Christ, the sacrifices of the law of Moses were 
 but types and shadows.^ And so when Jesus came into the 
 world, He came by the will of God, that He might offer 
 Himself as the one sacrifice for sins for ever.* In accord- 
 ance with this, as the great design and end of His coming, 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 22. 2 I Pet. i. 3 Heb. x. * Ps. xl. ; Heb. x. 
 
Bearings of Christ's Death. 225 
 
 when Moses and Elias came from heaven to talk with Him, 
 they spake of the decease which He should accomplish at 
 Jerusalem. Accordingly, so soon as His disciples were at 
 all able to apprehend the truth, from that time forth He 
 began to show to them that He must go to Jerusalem, and 
 suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, 
 and be killed, and be raised again the third day.^ When the 
 consummation of His sufferings took place in His death upon 
 the cross, all nature was made to declare the solemnity of 
 the event ; for the heavens were covered with blackness, 
 and the rocks were rent, and the earth was shaken with 
 earthquakes. The formal character of God's dealings with 
 the church was altered ; for the entire system of Jewish 
 ordinances was at once abolished, and a new dispensation 
 was substituted of greater light and higher privileges for 
 all nations alike. And henceforth the great central sun 
 of the moral firmament was the once crucified, but now 
 risen, glorified, and reigning Saviour, in and through whom 
 God reveals His mingled majesty, holiness, and grace — 
 brings sinners of mankind near to Him for present peace 
 and holiness, and for eternal life — is filling heaven with 
 ransomed myriads — and is binding angels in firmer, loftier, 
 more adoring, and more joyful homage to His everlasting 
 throne. 
 
 To affirm, in the face of these facts concerning the death 
 of Christ, that it was a mere, though magnanimous, example 
 of self-sacrifice, having for its main end to exercise a moral 
 influence on men, in leading them to deny themselves, and 
 to live lives of love for the good of others, is to empty the 
 death of Christ of its meaning, its chief value, and its power. 
 As transgressors of the divine law, and therefore condemned 
 by it, we cannot know God so as to be drawn to Him, and 
 
 ^ Matt. xii. 
 
2 26 Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 to live before Him, except as we know Him in Christ as 
 our Eedeemer. We cannot know Christ as our Eedeemer, 
 except we look to Him, receive Him, and rest and live 
 upon Him for ovir salvation, as having died for our offences, 
 and risen for our justification. Our very faith in His 
 divinity becomes fatally affected, when we view Him as 
 having come into the world for any lower purpose than 
 that of truly redeeming us by His precious blood. Our 
 faith in the divine wisdom, righteousness, and love is fatally 
 affected, if we regard Christ as having lived and died on 
 earth for any purpose inferior to that of making a true and 
 proper atonement for our offences to the justice, law, and 
 government of God. 
 
 The whole work of Christ, however, becomes consistent, 
 intelligible, and glorious, in its designs and effects, when 
 viewed in the light of a true and proper work of redemp- 
 tion, wrought out for otherwise lost and perishing sinners. 
 In Christ crucified as our atoning surety and substitute, we 
 see the most diverse, majestic, awful, gracious, and lovely 
 attributes of God harmonising in our salvation. Take in 
 their natural meaning the declarations, " He was wounded 
 for our transgressions ; He was bruised for our iniquities ; 
 the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; and with 
 His stripes we are healed. . . The Lord hath laid on 
 Him the iniquity of us all. . . For the transgression of 
 my people was He stricken, . . It pleased the Lord to 
 bruise Him. . . Thou shalt make His soul an offering for 
 sin. . . He shall bear their iniquities. . . He bare the sin 
 of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." ^ 
 Take these declarations in their natural meaning, as decla- 
 rations that He bore the wrath of God due to His people 
 for their sins, paid their debts, made satisfaction for their 
 
 ^ Isa. liii. 
 
Bearings of Christ's Death. 227 
 
 offences to divine justice, and a sufficient reason is given, 
 as thus only can a sufficient reason be found, for the 
 humiliation and consequent exaltation of the Son of God 
 in our nature. For, taking this view of the death of Christ, 
 we see a work of redemption accomplished, which forms a 
 broad, immovable foundation on which every sinner can 
 safely rest for salvation, and which shall issue in the 
 recovery to God and the eternal salvation of a multitude 
 that no man can number, out of every kindred, and tongue, 
 and people, and nation ; and which is destined to influence 
 and mould, with incalculable power, the whole moral history 
 of Jehovah's boundless and eternal kingdom. 
 
 The only other preliminary remark to be made is that the 
 death of Christ and the cross of Christ are terms which 
 comprehend not merely the concluding scene of His earthly 
 ministry: they are to be viewed as embracing all the 
 endurances of His history as a man of sorrows, all that He 
 suffered in making Himself of no reputation, and in taking 
 on Him the form of a servant, and being made in the like- 
 ness of man, and thus humbling Himself, and becoming 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That 
 marvellous humiliation of the Son of God in our nature, 
 that life of suffering, and that death of unexampled shame 
 and inexpressible agonies, viewed as the one offering of Him- 
 self, by which He has for ever perfected them that are 
 sanctified, has a significance, and is destined to wield a power 
 in the universe, infinitely beyond any and all other events 
 that occur among the works of God. 
 
 To show this, let us shortly consider the important 
 bearings of the death of Christ, or the connection which 
 it has with all the great realities and interests of the 
 universe. 
 
 I. The chief display which God is giving of His 
 
2 28 Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 character and government is through the death of 
 Christ. 
 
 I. It is in connection ivith the j^^cin of redemption, of 
 which the death of Christ is the great central fact, that the 
 perfections of God are more gloriously displayed than in all 
 His other works. Thus, His sovereignty is seen in passing 
 by the angels that kept not their first estate, in providing 
 no sacrifice for their sin ; and again, in passing by so many 
 of the wise, and mighty, and noble of this world, and such 
 multitudes of meaner men, leaving all such without an 
 interest in Jesus' death ; and in rendering that death the 
 means of salvation to a limited number of higher rank, and 
 to a larger number of the foolish, and the feeble, and the 
 base, on whom He has eternally fixed as the objects of His 
 redeeming love.^ His wisdom is seen in the effectual 
 manner in which, through the death of Christ, He so 
 punishes the sins of His people, and so pardons and saves 
 themselves, as to render their salvation the means of glori- 
 fying all the perfections of His nature, and of upholding 
 the efficacy of His moral government throughout the uni- 
 verse." His holiness is seen in the wrath that burned so hot 
 against the Son of His love, when he stood before Him as 
 made sin for us though He knew no sin, and in the refusal 
 of all access for us sinners into His holy presence, except 
 as we approach to Him under the Eedeemer's justifying 
 merits and the sanctifying power of His blood. The justice 
 of God is seen in the awful execution upon Christ as the 
 substitute of sinners of that vengeance which would other- 
 wise have overtaken the redeemed for ever.^ His love is 
 most wonderfully seen in sparing not His own Son, but 
 giving Him up to the death for us all. His truth is seen 
 in fulfilling His threatenings against sin upon the Eedeemer, 
 
 1 Eph. i. II ; 2 Tim. i. 9. ^ Eph, i. 8, iii. 10 ; Col. ii. 3. 
 
 2 Zech. xiii. 7. 
 
Bearings of CJwisfs Death. 229 
 
 and His promises of salvation to the redeemed.^ And 
 finally, His power is seen, first, in controlling the whole 
 movements of the material creation, and of the inliabitants 
 of heaven, earth, and hell, so as, after four thousand years 
 of preparation for it, to bring about the offering of the great 
 sacrifice upon the cross ; and then, in turning that event 
 into the simple yet mighty instrument by which He re- 
 plenishes the universe with ransomed and regenerated men, 
 confirms the elect angels in their steadfastness, renders the 
 ruin of lost men and fallen angels conspicuously just, wise, 
 and necessary, and fills His boundless and eternal kingdom 
 with alleluias which otherwise would never have been offered 
 to His name.^ 
 
 2,. It is in connection with the death of Jesus that the 
 existence of God in three persons is most clearly revealed to us 
 ifi Scripture. 
 
 The Father is revealed as fixing His distinguishing and 
 everlasting love on guilty men ; as devising the wonderful 
 plan of mercy by which they are saved ; as entering into a 
 covenant with His own Son to purchase them by His blood 
 and redeem them by His power ; as preparing all things on 
 earth for the sacrifice which Jesus at length offered of Him- 
 self to satisfy the divine justice ; and then as declaring, the 
 acceptance of His sacrifice by raising Hun from the dead, 
 and by committing all judgment into His hands. 
 
 The Son then places Himself before us as accepting 
 the office assigned to Him ; as coming into the world with 
 delight to execute it ; as loving the Church and giving 
 Himself for it; as taking our nature in the form of a 
 servant, and becoming obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross ; and as now, in consequence, reigning over 
 heaven, earth, and hell, that He may redeem His people 
 and put His enemies under His feet. 
 
 ^ Ps. Ixxxv. 10. - Isa. xlix. 26; Matt, xxviii. 19; Eph. i. 19. 
 
230 BeaiHiigs of CJnHsVs Death. 
 
 Last of all, the Holy Spirit comes into view, as inspiring 
 prophets to predict the Messiah's suffering and death ; as 
 creating and animating various types and symbols of Christ 
 as the destined Sacrifice; as leading ancient believers to 
 look and long for His coming, and for the redemption 
 which He would accomplish ; as preparing for Him the 
 human body and reasonable soul which He assumed ; as 
 anointing Him for His work and strengthening Him to 
 finish it ; as coming down in His miraculous gifts and 
 saving influences on the primitive Church ; as apj^lying 
 redemption in successive ages to the souls of men; and 
 as still to be poured out in larger measures than ever on 
 coming generations, to convert the world to Christ, and to 
 turn its great moral wildernesses into one vast and fruitful 
 garden of the Lord. 
 
 3. The death of Christ is the only event that forms a kcjj 
 to open up the providence of God tovjards this ivorld. 
 
 The dealings of God with this world are an inexplicable 
 mystery to all who do not look at them through the medium 
 of Christ's death ; while that death, rightly viewed, casts a 
 flood of light on the whole providence of God. 
 
 The Fall itself was permitted with a view to the atoning 
 work of Jesus. The first promise to our fallen parents, 
 conveyed in the sentence pronounced upon the serpent, 
 " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
 between thy seed and her seed ; it shalt bruise thy head, 
 and thou shalt bruise his heel," was a promise that by His 
 death Christ would abolish death and destroy him that had 
 the power of death, that is, the devil. All after intima- 
 tions and promises of mercy had reference to that shedding 
 of blood, without which there is no remission ; so that, in 
 respect of the virtue of His death, Christ was a Lamb slain 
 from the foundation of the world. The whole system of 
 animal sacrifices, the blood of which continued to flow for 
 
Bearings of Christ's Death. 231 
 
 four thousand years, shadowed forth, by divine appoint- 
 ment, the death of Jesus. The nation of Israel -was called 
 into existence, and preserved through its eventful history, 
 and all the other kingdoms of the world were disposed of, 
 to prepare for the incarnation and obedience unto death of 
 the Son of God. During His personal abode on earth, the 
 heavenly host had it for their chief employment to minister 
 to the Man of sorrows, till He finished His work of suffer- 
 ing. His death was the great event that defeated the 
 designs of the powers of darkness. It changed the whole 
 face of things on earth. As the inevitable result of it, the 
 economy of Moses, with its outward rites, its bodily wash- 
 ings, its blood of bulls and goats, its typical priesthood, its 
 earthly temple, its exclusive and limited privileges, and its 
 whole array of temporary and local types and figures, passed 
 away. The Gentiles, hitherto shut out, in a great measure, 
 from the Church of God, were now admitted to it on equal 
 terms with the Jews. The Holy Spirit everywhere accom- 
 panied with His saving power the preaching of the cross. 
 Congregations, consisting of such as had been brought to 
 peace with God, and to purity of heart and life, through 
 faith in a crucified Eedeemer, were speedily found in almost 
 all quarters of the habitable world. Ever since, the cross 
 of Christ has been exercising a humanising influence over 
 all the nations that even in name have acknowledged its 
 sway. The transforming power and blissful workings of 
 the cross of Christ shall yet fill the earth. And when 
 all the destined triumphs of the death of Jesus on the 
 earth are won, the designs of the divine providence towards 
 the world shall be accomplished, the earth and its works 
 shall be burned up, and time itself shall be swallowed up 
 in eternity. 
 
 Thus, as regards the perfections of God, His sovereignty, 
 wisdom, holiness, justice, love, truth, and power ; as regards 
 
232 Bearings of ChrisVs Death. 
 
 His existence in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost ; and as regards His providential dealings with this 
 world throughout the whole course of time; it is in the 
 death of Christ, and the redemption with which that death 
 is fraught, that we have the chief display of the character 
 and government of the Most High. 
 
 II. The death of Christ is the most fundamental 
 
 AND ESSENTIAL OF ALL THE PARTS OF HiS MEDIATORIAL 
 WORK. 
 
 His whole work as Mediator between God and man 
 centres in His death ; in the sacrifice which He offered 
 of Himself for sin. For — 
 
 1. He could have had no right, as He could not possibly 
 have had any desire, to interpose on behalf of self-destroyed, 
 sin-ruined men ; and God could not have constituted and 
 accepted Him as the daysman between Himself and them, 
 except on the ground of His satisfying divine justice for 
 their sins, and rendering on their behalf to the law of God, 
 under which they were, that perfect obedience which is laid 
 down, in the law itself, as the one express and unalterable 
 ground on which they can experience and enjoy His favour. 
 
 2. He could have no saving light to communicate to 
 their sin-darkened minds regarding the perfection, will, and 
 providential government of God, except the light which 
 issues from the cross. From that source flows, as we have 
 seen, all the needed soul-satisfying, soul-refreshing know- 
 ledge that we can receive respecting the character of Him 
 with whom we have to do, respecting the relations in which 
 He stands to us, as the Father who gave up His Son to die 
 for us — as the Son who gave up Himself — and as the Holy 
 Spirit who, having sustained our Substitute and Surety in 
 working out our redemption, now has it as His proper work 
 to apply that redemption to our souls. It is only in and 
 
Bearmgs of Christ's Death. 
 
 through His sacrifice and death that God, while remaining 
 yea while manifesting Himself more and more impressively 
 to be holy, just, and true, also and at the same time reveals 
 Himself as merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, trans- 
 gression, and sin, and imparting all the blessings of grace 
 and glory to all who draw nigh to Him by the new and 
 living way. It was as the destined sacrifice that, from the 
 fall of man, through the medium of the types that shadowed 
 forth that sacrifice, Christ brought the penitent and believ- 
 ing of all these ages into a state of reconciliation and of 
 fellowship with God. In the fulfilment of His personal 
 ministry on earth, the whole of His words and actions 
 tended to reveal the divine character, as alike righteous and 
 merciful ; to display the perfect purity which the divine law 
 requires ; to make known the need of forgiveness and of 
 spiritual cleansing on the part of all who would know, love, 
 and serve God now, and be fit for His presence in heaven ; 
 and to prepare the minds of His disciples for His atoning 
 death, and consequent resurrection and ascension to the 
 right hand of power, by which He has abolished death and 
 brought life and immortality to light. And still, as ever. 
 His work as Mediator is carried on upon the footing of His 
 having, as God the Saviour, purchased the Church of God 
 with His own blood.^ His presence in heaven as the Lamb 
 that was slain is a continual intercession there, by which 
 He proves able to save to the uttermost all that come unto 
 God by Him. The almighty power given to Him to wield 
 in heaven and on earth is put into His hands as the Lamb 
 that was slain, now the Lamb in the midst of the throne. 
 And in that character, even in the character of a priest ujjon 
 His throne. He is employing the daily operations of His 
 providence, and the revelations of His true and faithful 
 
2 34 Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 word, and the ordinances of His grace, and the influences 
 of His Spirit, to enlighten the spiritually darkened minds 
 of sinful men ; to quicken their spiritually dead hearts ; to 
 subdue their pride and lust ; to sanctify their thoughts, and 
 affections, and habits ; and to carry forward this work of 
 transformation, until they are perfectly changed into His 
 own likeness, and taken to live and serve for ever in His 
 immediate presence. The whole of this work of Christ as 
 Mediator has its source and centre in His atoning sacrifice. 
 And so all through their history on earth, the burden of all 
 the habitual praises of the redeemed is, " Unto Him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood, and 
 hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, 
 to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."^ 
 And not less truly the burden of the songs of the redeemed 
 in heaven will eternally be, " Thou art worthy, . . , for 
 Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy 
 blood." ' 
 
 III, The death of Christ is the only channel of 
 
 TRUE BLESSEDNESS TO SINFUL MEN, AND THE GREAT PREVAIL- 
 ING MOTIVE BY WHICH THEY ARE TURNED AND HELD TO 
 THEIR DUTY. 
 
 I. It is the only channel of true hlesscdness to sinful men. 
 
 (i.) From the death of Jesus flow all those blessings that 
 are spiritual and saving in their nature. 
 
 Are such as truly believe in Christ pardoned and accepted 
 by God ? They are " justified by the blood of Christ." ^ 
 Are they taken into the family of God ? They are so only 
 because He sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made 
 under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, 
 that they might receive the adoption of sons.* Are they 
 
 1 Eev. i. * Rev. v. 3 Rom. v. < Gal. iv. 
 
Bearings of Chris f s Death. 
 
 sanctified ? They are so only because Christ died to redeem 
 them from iniquity, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar 
 people, zealous of good works.^ Are they made fruitful 
 in holiness ? They are so because they are crucified with 
 Christ, and live by Christ living in them.^ Have they con- 
 fidence in the love of God ? They have it because He spared 
 not His own Son, but gave Him up to the death for us all, 
 and therefore will now, with Him, freely give us all things.^ 
 Have they true peace of conscience ? They have this peace 
 wath God through the blood of the cross.^ Are they advanc- 
 ing in the divine life ? It is because the God of peace, who 
 brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant, is making 
 them perfect in everything to do His will, working in them 
 that which is well-pleasing in His sight.^ Are they made 
 to persevere unto the end ? It is because by one offering 
 Christ hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified,^ and 
 because nothing now can separate them from His love/ 
 Do they experience the divine pity ? It is because they 
 have an High Priest who is touched with a feeling of their 
 infirmities, having been in all points tempted like as they 
 are, yet without sin,^ and thus hath learned obedience by 
 the things which He Himself suffered.^ Are they strength- 
 ened to live a heavenly life ? It is by bearing about in 
 their body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life also 
 of Jesus is manifest in their body/** Are they animated 
 with heavenly hope ? It is because they are made par- 
 takers of Christ's suiferings, and so are supported by the 
 expectation that when His glory is revealed they shall be 
 glad with exceeding joy/^ 
 
 (2.) While every spiritual and saving blessing of which 
 
 1 Tit. ii. * Col. i. 7 Rom. viii. i" 2 Cor. iv. 
 
 2 Gal. ii. 5 Heb xiii. » Heb. iv.j " i Pet. iv. 
 ' Rom. viii. ^ Heb. x. ' Heb. v. 
 
236 Bemnngs of Christ'' s Death. 
 
 believers partake on earth flows from the death of Christ 
 alone, the very outward ordinances of grace on which they 
 wait, and in which they take such pleasure, derive all their 
 efficacy and value from being the means by which believers 
 are brought into contact with the blood of Christ. 
 
 Thus the Scriptures make them wise unto salvation only 
 as they overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the 
 word of His testimony.^ Prayer is efficacious only as they 
 enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus.^ Baptism is 
 an effectual means of salvation only to such as, being bap- 
 tized, are buried with Christ into His death, so that as He 
 was raised up by the glory of the Father, they also walk in 
 newness of life.^ And the Lord's Supper is a means of 
 saving good to such as partake of it only in so far as the 
 bread which they eat leads them to the communion of the 
 body of Christ, and the cup which they drink leads them to 
 the communion of the blood of Christ.* 
 
 2. As all true good bestowed upon men in this world 
 thus flows from the death of Christ, so not less truly all 
 poioer of doing good springs from the same source. 
 
 The death of Christ operates as the great instrumental 
 cause of believers returning to their duty. It is the only 
 source of true virtue on earth. The death of Christ furnishes 
 the only effectual motives to every duty, and secures the 
 strength required for its performance. 
 
 Thus they learn to deny themselves, by taking up their 
 cross and following Christ.^ They renounce the world when 
 they can say, God forbid that I sliould glory save in the 
 cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is cruci- 
 fied to me, and I am crucified to the world.^ They are 
 brought to repent when they look on Him whom they 
 have pierced and mourn.^ They die to sin and live to 
 
 ^ Rev. xii. ^ Rom. vi. * Matt. xvi. '^ Zech. xii. 
 
 2 Heb. X. * I Cor. x. « Gal, vi. 
 
Bearings of Christ' s Death. 237 
 
 righteousness 1 when the love of Christ constraineth them, 
 because they thus judge, that if one died for all, then all 
 were dead, and that He died for all, that they who live 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him 
 who died for them, and rose again.^ Their old man is 
 crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be de- 
 stroyed, that henceforth they should not serve sin.^ Dead 
 with Christ, they also live with Him. They live to the 
 praise and honour of God, because they are bought with a 
 j)rice, even that of Christ's precious blood, and therefore 
 glorify God with their soul, body, and spirit, which are 
 His.* They confess Christ before men, as remembering 
 . how, in order " that He might sanctify the people with His 
 own blood," Jesus suffered without the gate, and so feeling 
 constrained to " go forth unto Him without the camp, bear- 
 ing His reproach." ^ They run with patience the race set 
 before them by looking to Jesus, who, for the joy set before 
 Him, endured the cross, despising the shame.^ They learn 
 to love each other by walking in love, as Christ also loved 
 them, and gave Himself for them, an offering and a sacri- 
 fice to God.^ They become tender-hearted and forgiving, 
 as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven them.^ They 
 become humble by having " the mind in them that 
 was in Christ . . who . , humbled Himself and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." ^ They 
 learn to be liberal by knowing the grace of the Lord Jesus, 
 that though He was rich, for their sakes He became poor, 
 that they, through His poverty, might be rich,-'*' They 
 learn to make sacrifices for each other's good when they 
 perceive the love of God in laying down His life for 
 them.^^ In the different relations of life they learn their 
 
 1 I Pet. 
 
 ii. 
 
 4 I Cor 
 
 . vi. 
 
 7 
 
 Eph. 
 
 V. 
 
 10 
 
 2 Cor. ■ 
 
 viii. 
 
 ' 2 Cor. 
 
 V. 
 
 5 Heb. 
 
 Xlll. 
 
 8 
 
 p:ph. 
 
 iv. 
 
 11 
 
 I John 
 
 iii. 
 
 3 Rom. 
 
 vi. 
 
 ^ Heb. 
 
 xii. 
 
 9 
 
 Phil. 
 
 ii. 
 
 
 
 
238 Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 duties at the cross of Christ. Husbands love their wives, 
 as Christ loved the Church. Wives become subject to their 
 husbands, as the Church is to Christ.^ Servants are to be 
 subject to their masters, even to the froward, because 
 Christ also suffered for them, leaving them an example 
 that they should follow His steps.^ In short. Chris- 
 tians are to live a joyous, thankful, holy life, under the 
 constraining and animating power of Christ's death. They 
 are to joy in God through their Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
 they have received the reconciliation.^ They are to be 
 ever praising Christ, as having loved them and washed 
 them from their sins in His blood.* They are to be 
 walking in the light,^ as those that are cleansed by the 
 blood of Christ from all their siu.^ And they are to be 
 showing His death till He come.^ 
 
 IV. The death of Christ exercises the most decisive 
 
 INFLUENCE OVER THE EVERLASTING CONDITION OF THE RE- 
 DEEMED, AND OF THE ANGELIC HOSTS OF HEAVEN, AND EVEN 
 OF THE LOST INHABITANTS OF HELL. 
 
 I . As to the inhabitants of heaven. 
 
 (i.) To the redeemed there, the death of Christ is for 
 ever the chief source of their happiness, and the chief 
 theme of their praises. 
 
 There they for ever behold Christ in the midst of the 
 throne as a Lamb that has been slain. There they " fall 
 down before the Lamb," and "sing a new song, saying, Thou 
 art worthy, ... for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us 
 to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings 
 and priests." ^ There they are seen as those who have come 
 out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
 
 1 Eph. V. ' Rom. V. * i John i. ^ i Cor. xi. 
 
 '^ I Pet. ii. ■* Rev. i. ^ i John i. ^ Rev. v. 
 
Bearuigs of Christ's Death. . 239 
 
 made tliem 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 upon the throne dwelleth 
 among them. And they hunger no more, neither thirst any 
 more ; neither does the sun light on them, nor any heat. 
 For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne feedeth 
 them, and leadeth them to living fountains of waters ; and 
 God wipes all tears from their eyes.^ The Lord Jesus is 
 thus present with His people for ever as He that bought 
 them with His blood, and they dwell in His presence for 
 ever as the ransomed of the Lord. 
 
 (2.) The angels themselves are for ever deeply interested 
 in, and powerfully affected by, the death of Jesus. 
 
 As was intimated by the position of the cherubim in the 
 temple, gazing downward on the mercy-seat, and as inti- 
 mated also by the language of Peter, " which things the 
 angels desire to look into," ^ these heavenly intelligences 
 have ever been labouring more and more to penetrate the 
 mysteries of the Saviour's death. 
 
 They were actively employed in connection with the in- 
 carnation of the Son of God and with His personal ministry 
 on earth. They announced with gladness His birth when 
 He became God manifested in the flesh. They adored His 
 Godhead even while it was veiled under the form of weak 
 and suffering humanity. They waited on the footsteps of 
 the Man of sorrows along the path of humiliation which 
 He trod. They ministered to His human nature when 
 sinking amid His agonies, and they surrounded Him with 
 their hosannahs when He ascended to His glory. 
 
 Further still, they derive tlieir chief motives for loving 
 and serving God from the death of Jesus. God's manifold 
 wisdom is made known to them chiefly by what they see of 
 
 1 Eev. vii. 2 i Pet_ i_ 
 
240 Bearings of Christ's Death. 
 
 it in the redemption of the Church by the blood of Jesus.^ 
 They stand before the throne adoring the thrice-holy One for 
 thus filling the earth with His glory. They have gladly taken 
 their place under Christ as forming with the redeemed that 
 one family of which He is the Head. They find their know- 
 ledge of God and their steadfastness in His love and service, 
 to be greatly owing to what they have seen of God in the 
 cross of Christ. They are thus as greatly indebted for 
 their happiness to His death as those who have been re- 
 deemed by His blood. Nor is there ever to come a period 
 in the history of these glorious beings, when they shall be 
 able to say that they have penetrated and exhausted the 
 wonders of redeeming love, or become weary of meditating 
 on the death of Jesus. On the contrary, because of the 
 benefit which they have derived, and continue to derive, 
 from that marvellous event, they shall be heard eternally, 
 in countless numbers, round about the throne, saying with 
 a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
 ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honour, and glory, and blessing." 
 
 (3.) Nay, the death of Christ is to be followed by still 
 more extensively blissful results throughout the universe. 
 For the whole of the happy creation is to have its destiny 
 moulded and determined by this event. This fact is plainly 
 to be gathered from the employment in which John tells 
 us that, ii> vision, he saw it engaged. For every creature 
 which is in heaven, and on the earth, and in the sea, and 
 all that are in them, were heard by him saying, " Blessing, 
 and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 
 
 2. Even the, lost inhabitants of hell find the death of Christ 
 exercising a decisive influence over their sad destiny. 
 
 1 Eph. iii. 
 
Bearings of CJij'isVs Death. 241 
 
 (i.) The finally wicked from the earth are dealt with as 
 enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. 
 The sorest punishment that comes on them is that which 
 they endure as having trodden under foot the Son of God, 
 and counted His blood a common thing. For having wil- 
 fully rejected the crucified Kedeemer, there remaineth no 
 more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of 
 judgment and of fiery indignation which shall devour them 
 as adversaries of God. The most crushing kind of vengeance 
 that comes on lost men is the wrath of the Lamb, 
 
 (2.) And on the fate of devils nothing operates with such 
 terrible power as their relation to the death of Christ. It 
 brings out their malice ; for they are making it their great 
 object to counteract the holy and blessed design of Christ's 
 death, and to prevent that redemption of men which it 
 secures. It serves to manifest their folly ; for the very 
 death which, in their blind and self-destroying rage, they 
 helped to effect, and which they have ever since striven to 
 dishonour, has baffled their designs, spoiled them of their 
 dominion, and made them to fall like lightning from heaven. 
 And the death of Christ completes their toretcliedness ; for 
 they remember how, even when He appeared and dwelt 
 on earth in the weakness of our nature. He afforded no 
 vulnerable point for their attack. They see how, in virtue 
 of the very death which they so eagerly assisted in com- 
 passing, the Lord Jesus now delivers from their power every 
 one of those whom He purchased with His blood. And 
 they find that it is the hand of the crucified One which 
 is to inflict on them the punishment of their crimes, and 
 to prove their everlasting torment. 
 
 And thus over that dark and dreadful region which finally 
 receives wicked men and fallen spirits, the death of Christ 
 exercises a terrible power, deepening its gloom, kindling its 
 fires, piercing its inhabitants with peculiar agonies, and in 
 
 Q 
 
242 Bea rings of Ch rist 's Death. 
 
 tills manner aggravating the horrors of hell as empliatically 
 as it heightens the happiness of heaven. 
 
 Practical Reflections. 
 
 I. It is impossible to overrate the importance of a true 
 and growing knowledge, a constant remembrance, and a due 
 improvement of the death of Christ. 
 
 We have no true and saving knowledge of God, till we 
 know Him as revealed in the cross of Christ. 
 
 We have no right to a single blessing, except as the fruit 
 of His death. Our very life is forfeited by sin ; and if spared, 
 we are so for the sake of Christ's death, to give us time to 
 repent, or to leave us without excuse. 
 
 Nothing in the long run is a privilege which the death of 
 Christ has not purchased, and refuses to convey. That death 
 has not purchased a liberty to sin, a right to indulge the 
 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. 
 And, therefore, to indulge in the pleasures of sin is not to 
 use a privilege. It is to embrace the curse, and to pluck 
 destruction down on our own heads. 
 
 Anything that is truly good for us, can reach us only as 
 the fruit of Christ's death, through the channel of His blood. 
 Not only spiritual blessings, but even temporal mercies, can 
 come to us as such, only through this channel. 
 
 Sacrificial blood was connected with every blessing to the 
 ancient people. Sprinkled on their door-posts, it saved 
 them from the sword of the destroying angel. Sprinkled 
 on the priests, it consecrated them to their sacred office. 
 Sprinkled before the veil, it showed that by the blood of 
 the true sacrifice the way would at length be opened up 
 into the holiest of all. Sprinkled on the mercy-seat, it 
 secured the divine favour to Israel. Sprinkled on the leper, 
 it cleansed him from his pollutions. Sprinkled on the book 
 of the law, it taught that the blood of the great atonement 
 
Beai'ings of Christ's Death. 243 
 
 alone could remove the wrath due for our transgressions, 
 and render the law a law of love to the redeemed. Sprinkled 
 on the people, it intimated that they could be treated as the 
 flock of God the Saviour only as purchased by His blood. 
 Sprinkled on the sanctuary and its furniture, it showed that 
 the persons and services of saints are acceptable to God only 
 when sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. 
 
 Not less truly is the blood of Jesus Christ intimately and 
 indissolubly bound up with everything that is precious to 
 us under the Gospel dispensation. The shedding of His 
 blood on this guilty earth has hitherto saved it from destruc- 
 tion, and secures to its sinful inhabitants opportunities and 
 offers of salvation. With His blood Christ has entered 
 heaven, and sprinkled its holy and everlasting mansions. 
 In virtue of the shedding of His blood, Christ now appears 
 in the presence of His Tather, making continual intercession 
 for His people. Yea, He is now to be seen for ever in the 
 midst of the throne as a Lamb that had been slain. 
 
 With regard to ourselves individually, we cannot receive 
 a single blessing, or perform acceptably a single duty, except 
 in connection with the death of Jesus. We therefore ought 
 to " determine to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and Him 
 crucified ; " to glory in nothing but the cross of Christ, by 
 which the world is crucified to us, and we are crucified to 
 the world ; and, as those that are redeemed with the precious 
 blood of Christ, to glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, 
 which are God's. 
 
 2. The virtuous or vicious character of all professors of 
 the Gospel, and their happy or miserable state and prospects, 
 are to be determined by the place which the death of Christ 
 holds in their sentiments and practice. 
 
 (i.) Some, many, see nothing valuable in the death of 
 Christ. It therefore exerts no influence over their life. 
 Their daily vie\vs and feelings are much the same as they 
 
244 Bearings of Chi-isVs Death. 
 
 would have been, had they never heard at all of the death 
 of Jesus. 
 
 The belief of His death, indeed, has a place among the 
 articles of their creed, and the outward commemoration of 
 it has a place in the catalogue of their observances. But 
 it has less influence in moulding their character, and in 
 governing their life, than the paltriest interests of earth and 
 time. 
 
 The Saviour is in their eyes as a root out of a dry ground. 
 They see no beauty in Him why they should desire Him. 
 They see no glory in His cross. They neither experience, 
 nor desire, nor look for any benefit from it. 
 
 In this state they live and die without an interest in the 
 benefits which the death of Christ has purchased. They 
 therefore perish under the guilt of that sin from which the 
 blood of Christ has not cleansed them, under the dominion 
 of that depravity which the cross of Christ has not served 
 to subdue, and to destroy in their heart and life. 
 
 (2.) On the other hand, some, not a few, are made alive 
 to the virtue of the Eedeemer's death. They have peace 
 with God, and are reconciled to Him by the death of His 
 Son. Jesus has ransomed them from the pit of destruction, 
 and has also redeemed them from all iniquity. His death 
 is the source of their life. His weakness is the source of 
 their strength. His sorrows are the source of their joys. 
 Their privileges and honours flow from His agonies. They 
 cleave to Him, magnify and love Him, as having washed 
 them from their sins in His blood, and made them kings 
 and priests unto God and His Father. They triumph by 
 what seemed His overthrow. They overcome their enemies 
 by His blood. 
 
 With that blood sprinkled on their persons and services 
 by faith, their safety and happiness are secured. Tiiat 
 blood beneath which they abide for shelter, has for them 
 
Beari7ios of Chrisfs Death. 245 
 
 satisfied the justice of God, quenched the fires of hell, 
 obtained for them the right of deliverance from all their 
 enemies, procured for them every spiritual blessing in time, 
 and purchased for them the everlasting inheritance of 
 heaven. And what the blood of the Lamb has purchased 
 for them. His power will impart. From the midst of the 
 throne He is putting forth His Almighty power to save all 
 for whom He gave Himself a ransom. 
 
 The death which secures their safety and happiness for 
 time, is the source of their blessedness for eternity. As 
 they leave the world, they wash their robes and make them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb, and so are fitted to stand 
 •before the throne. His death has purchased the white robes 
 that clothe them on high, and the palms of victory which 
 there 'they hold in their hands. In His character of the 
 Lamb of God, they follow Christ whithersoever He goeth. 
 In the same character He leads them to living fountains of 
 water. The waters that refresh and gladden them flow out 
 from the throne of God and the Lamb. They are happy on 
 high as the Lamb's wife. They feast at the marriage supper 
 of the Lamb. The Lamb is the light of that temple, in 
 which they eternally worship. The song which they sing 
 for ever is the song of the Lamb. Their unceasing adora- 
 tions are offered to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to 
 the Lamb. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE TEANSFIGURATION" ; A GLIMPSE OF THE 
 GLORY FLOWING TO CHRIST FROM HIS DEATH. 
 
 " And was " (i.e., Jesus was) " transfigured before 
 them."— Matthew xvii. 2. 
 
 rPHE transfiguration represented the glory which would 
 -*- follow to Christ from His humiliation and obedience 
 unto death. The Jewish scriptures foretold that glory. 
 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.^ The 
 Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I 
 make thine enemies thy footstool.^ Blessed be His glorious 
 name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with His 
 glory .^ The Jews, therefore, were expecting the Messiah 
 to come in majesty and power. But alas ! for themselves, 
 it was in the character of an earthly potentate that they 
 expected Him. And so when He came, they were utterly 
 disappointed by His actual appearance, and with His 
 avowed object and designs, and refused to acknowledge 
 and submit to Him. They saw no beauty in Him why 
 they should desire Him. They despised and rejected Him. 
 They said we will not have this man to reign over us. 
 Even the disciples of Jesus were for a time haunted by 
 similar expectations, and could not conceal them. A few 
 days before the transfiguration, He had begun to speak to 
 them more plainly than before of His coming sufferings and 
 death, upon which Peter found fault with Him for utter- 
 ing or even entertaining such a prospect. Jesus therefore, 
 
 1 Ps. ii. - Ps. ex. 2 Ps. Ixxii. 
 
Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 247 
 
 after turning on Peter with a holy severity, as savouring 
 not the things that be of God, but those that be of men, 
 clearly warned, and strongly impressed upon the disciples, 
 that they must get quit of all the worldly ambition that 
 filled them, and be ready themselves to encounter suffering 
 and death in His service as the only way to the blessedness 
 and honour awaiting His followers. And then to show that 
 the results would be infinitely worthy of all the sacrifices 
 required to reach them. He gave on the mount of trans- 
 figuration a display of the glory to which He and they were 
 to hasten through the sufferings that intervened. It was a 
 most instructive circumstance that when Moses and Elias 
 appeared from heaven and talked with Jesus on the mount, 
 the subject of their conversation was just that very subject 
 of which the disciples could not bear to hear a word, the 
 subject of His approaching sufferings, " They spake of 
 His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem ; " 
 and so proved it to be the most necessary and important 
 event that could happen in the whole course of time, or 
 be recorded in the annals of earth, and the only way of 
 entrance for Himself and His people into the glory that 
 should follow. 
 
 Our present subject is the glory which was to accrue to 
 Jesus from the humiliation, suffering, and death, to which 
 He yielded Himself in order to reach that glory. The 
 transfiguration reminds us of the following things concern- 
 ing His glory: its reality — its heavenly, its divine nature — 
 the connection between His previous sufferings and the glory 
 that followed — and the correspondence between them and it. 
 
 I. The transfiguration sets forth the reality and certainty 
 of the Eedeemer's glory. 
 
 Notwithstanding the divine wisdom and power displayed 
 by Him in His teachings and works, and the direct testi- 
 
248 Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 mony borne by the Father to His dignity and mission, it is 
 evident that His humble birth and circumstances and com- 
 panionships, His want of worldly ambition, and His uniform 
 opposition to it in those about Him, greatly tried the confid- 
 ence and hope of His disciples in Him. And considering 
 the far heavier trials that were before them in respect of 
 their Master's sufferings and their own, the importance of 
 the sight of His glory afforded on the mount of transfigura- 
 tion cannot be overrated. The remembrance of it was 
 fitted to keep alive or to rekindle in their minds, even in 
 the darkest hour of their distress, the hope that His and 
 their sufferings would still be followed by glory to Himself 
 and to them. In like manner, to believers in every age, 
 the transfiguration is a pledge that as truly as He then 
 assumed a form of such surpassing brightness, so really and 
 certainly is He now in possession of the glory that was then 
 and in that manner symbolised. 
 
 II. The transfiguration exhibits not only the reality and 
 certainty, but the heavenly, the divine nature of the Ee- 
 deemer's glory. 
 
 The disciples as well as the Jews expected the Messiah 
 to appear clothed with temporal power. Hence the desire 
 and effort of those who, seeing the miraculous power put 
 forth by Jesus, sought, for their own ends, to make Him a 
 king. Hence the ambition of Zebedee's wife to get a 
 promise from Jesus of a place for her two sons on His right 
 hand and left, in His kingdom. Hence the anger at these 
 two felt by the other disciples, because they were being 
 thus forestalled. This perversion of the meaning of the 
 prophecies respecting the Messiah's kingdom was met and 
 refuted by the display which Christ's transfiguration gave 
 not of an earthly, but of a heavenly glory. For He then 
 presented no characteristics of earthly greatness. No armies 
 
CJu'isfs Mediatorial Gloiy. 249 
 
 followed Him, No multitudes offered outward homage. 
 No earthly throne was occupied by Him. No earthly palace 
 received Him as its owner. He stood forth on the mount 
 of transfiguration as isolated even then from all mere 
 worldly pomp and power as He was in the season of His 
 deepest humiliation. The glory in which He then appeared 
 was altogether of an unearthly character. The splendour 
 investing Him was no earthly magnificence, but a heavenly 
 radiance that became Him as the brightness of the Father's 
 glory. And the lustre of His countenance betokened that 
 it was not the visage of mere earthly majesty, but the face 
 of God. While the Father's voice declaring, " This is my 
 beloved Son : hear Him," proclaimed Him no mere human 
 teacher, deliverer, or earthly ruler, but a Teacher, Saviour, 
 and Euler who is divine, whose truth, and grace, and law 
 are entitled to the trustful, loving homage of all mankind. 
 
 III. The transfiguration served to show the connection 
 between the sufferings of Christ and His glory. 
 
 The disciples as well as the Jews were expecting glory to 
 Jesus and to themselves without suffering. They supposed 
 that suffering was inconsistent with glory, instead of being 
 the only way to it. They seemed to be expecting that in 
 an earthly sense He would, as the Most Mighty, gird His 
 sword on His thigh and ride prosperously, and make His 
 arrows sharp in the hearts of His enemies, and cause the 
 people to fall under Him.^ The shame and suffering and 
 death awaiting Him first, and themselves afterwards, were 
 utterly foreign to their anticipations. And so His trans- 
 figuration took place, in connection with His conversation 
 with Moses and Elias from heaven with reference to the 
 decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The 
 
 1 Ps. x\y. 
 
250 Chris fs Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 circumstances of that event thus connected His sufferings 
 with His subsequent glory. He had set this connection 
 before them in words. He had warned them of His coming 
 sufferings and of their own. He had exhorted them to pre- 
 pare for both. He had impressed upon them that His suf- 
 ferings must precede His glory. He had at the same time 
 assured them that His glory would certainly follow and flow 
 from His sufferings. He had also assured them that as they 
 could have no glory except He purchased it by His suffer- 
 ings, and they prepared for it by their own ; so, if He died 
 for them, and they bore their cross after Him, their exalta- 
 tion along with Him in His approaching kingdom would 
 certainly and speedily take place. And having already im- 
 pressed these things on them by words. He deepened the 
 impression by action, inasmuch as He was heard speaking 
 with the visitants from heaven about nothing but His death, 
 in the very midst of the glory in which He revealed Him- 
 self. Moses and Elias expressed no surprise at His ap- 
 proaching death. They rather spoke of it as an event well 
 understood and firmly expected in heaven, and destined to 
 lead to the most glorious results. And so all that the dis- 
 ciples saw and heard on the mount of transfiguration clearly 
 and impressively testified that the death of Jesus was in- 
 dispensable to His exaltation — that His glory would flow 
 from redeeming His people from sin and Satan, and death 
 and hell, and from restoring them to the favour, image, service, 
 and presence of God — that He could accomplish this work 
 of the redemption of His people only by dying in their 
 stead — that He could redeem them from the curse of the 
 law only by bearing it — that He could satisfy divine jus- 
 tice only by becoming its victim — that by being made sin 
 for them they would be made the righteousness of God in 
 Him — that through His suffering they would go free — that 
 through His death they would live for ever — that having 
 
Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 251 
 
 shed His blood, He would go with it into the holiest of all 
 on high, and be their all-prevailing Advocate and Inter- 
 cessor with the Father, and take possession of heaven in 
 their behalf, and prepare it for them and them for it, and 
 bring them in due time into the possession of it by His 
 almighty power. These and similar lessons being taught 
 by the events of the transfiguration, it served to expose the 
 delusion that His glory would be that of an earthly monarch 
 rising to the possession of an earthly kingdom, and to pro- 
 claim that His glory would follow and flow from His suffer- 
 ings ; that He would purge our sins and then sit down at 
 the right hand of God ; that He would humble Himself and 
 become obedient unto death, and would therefore be highly 
 exalted by God, and receive a name which is above every 
 name. 
 
 IV. The transfiguration showed the correspondence be- 
 tween the sufferings of Christ and the glory that followed. 
 
 There is a suitableness in the glory of Christ to the igno- 
 miny and the endurance by which it was won. The features 
 of His exaltation answer to the features of His previous 
 humiliation. The shame of the abasement to which He 
 yielded Himself, is compensated by the appropriateness of 
 the honours to which He is in consequence raised. 
 
 That this suitableness would be found was indicated in 
 the fact that it was the same humanity which Jesus took 
 and wore, in all its meanness, pain, and sorrow, that was so 
 suddenly and marvellously transformed. In order to His 
 becoming so glorious. He did not require to take to Him a 
 new body, one distinct from that in which He had lived and 
 suffered on the earth, and was about to agonise and die. 
 It was that very body which He had taken of the Virgin 
 Mary, and which has been and continued to be subject to 
 all sorts of suffering until it was broken on the cross, it was 
 
252 Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 that same suffering body that quickly assumed so glorious 
 an appearance. And this fact intimated that the character 
 of His humiliation would have its counterpart and corre- 
 sponding reward in the character of His consequent exal- 
 tation. 
 
 What was thus intimated by the transfiguration has 
 accordingly happened. The glory of Jesus in its various 
 aspects, and in the successive developments of it, reminds 
 us of the particulars of His debasement, and so forms its 
 appropriate reward. We may see this by glancing at the 
 glory which He now possesses — at the glory in which He 
 shall be revealed at the last day — and at the glory in which 
 He is to be revealed throughout eternity. 
 
 I. Look at the present glory of Christ. From the mo- 
 ment when He cried out on the cross, " it is finished," and 
 bowed His head, and gave up the ghost, His wonderful 
 triumphs over all His enemies, and His own exaltation to 
 His present glory commenced. By His death He baffled 
 the designs of His own and His people's enemies, and made 
 way for the deliverance of His people out of their hands. 
 By rising again, He proved and proclaimed that He had 
 secured not only His, but all His people's victory over 
 death and the grave. And so ascending gloriously on high, 
 He entered into the enjoyment of a reward that was in all 
 respects suited to the humiliation and suffering by which it 
 had been won. 
 
 He appeared on earth as a child born and as a son 
 given to us; as born in a stable and laid in a manger; 
 and therefore he now appears in our nature as the Mighty 
 God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, of whose 
 government and peace there shall be no end. He was 
 looked upon as a root out of the dry ground ; and there- 
 fore He is now looked to and adored as the parent and 
 producer of all excellence and blessedness throughout the 
 
Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 253 
 
 universe. He subjected Himself on earth to hunger and 
 thirst : and therefore the eyes of all things wait on Him as 
 the Giver of all good ; and He feeds them with food con- 
 venient for them. He submitted on earth to weariness 
 and pain : and therefore He now appears as the Creator of 
 the ends of the earth, who fainteth not, neither is weary, 
 sustaining all creatures, healing all diseases, redeeming the 
 lives of the perishing sons of men from death. He allowed 
 His visage to be more marred than any man, and His form 
 more than the sons of men ; and therefore His person now 
 beams with overpowering and eternal splendours. He had 
 not where to lay His head ; and therefore He is now mani- 
 fested, worshipped, and served, as God over all, blessed for 
 ever. His eyes were as a fountain of tears flowing con- 
 tinually because of the sins and wretchedness of men ; and 
 therefore they are now become as flames of fire striking 
 terror and despair into all His irreclaimable enemies, and 
 kindling and keeping alive love to Himself in His people's 
 hearts. He lived on earth as a man of sorrows, familiar 
 with grief; and therefore the universe now finds in His 
 presence fulness of joy. While on earth, He was tempted 
 and harassed by the powers of darkness ; and therefore He 
 now bruises them under His own and His people's feet. 
 He hid not His face from shame and spitting ; and there- 
 fore His countenance is now like the sun when shining in 
 its strength. He was despised and rejected of men ; and 
 therefore He is now followed and served by the hosts of 
 heaven. They smote Him on the head, after they had 
 placed on it in ridicule a crown of thorns ; and therefore 
 He now wears many golden crowns. They put on Him 
 mock robes of royalty, in scorn of His kingly claims ; and 
 therefore He is now upon the throne of the universe, 
 arrayed in raiment white as snow, clothed with light as with 
 a garment, wearing a vesture which though dipped in blood, 
 
2 54 Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 has this inscription written on it, " King of kings, and Lord 
 of lords," They thrust into His hands contemptuously the 
 form of a sceptre ; and therefore He now really wields the 
 sceptre of unlimited dominion, and rules the nations with 
 a rod of iron. They insultingly bowed the knee before 
 Him, and hailed Him as their would-be King ; and there- 
 fore it is decreed, that either wittingly or by compulsion, 
 every creature shall offer profound and eternal homage to His 
 name. They laughed Him to scorn ; and therefore He now 
 laughs at the calamities of His inveterate foes, and mocks 
 when their fear cometh. He was brought as a lamb to the 
 slaughter; and therefore He is now the Lamb in the midst 
 of the throne, engaging all eyes, and receiving the worship 
 of adoring hosts. 
 
 2. Look again at the glory in which the Lord Jesus 
 shall be revealed, when He cometh at the day of judgment. 
 Did He appear on earth in great outward meanness ? He 
 shall be seen coming at last in the clouds of heaven, with 
 power and great glory. Was this earth unmoved by His 
 presence when He dwelt upon it ? At His second coming 
 if shall shake to its foundations. Even at the time when 
 Jesus was among men, bringing life and immortality to 
 light, did they continue to eat and drink, to buy and sell, 
 to . plant and build, to marry and give in marriage, and to 
 banish all concern about unseen and eternal things as be- 
 fore ? His second coming shall fatally surprise them, 
 effectually rouse them from their insensibility, and leave 
 them without a refuge. Did He not strive, nor cry, nor 
 cause His voice to be heard in the streets ? He shall come 
 with the great sound of a trumpet that shall raise the 
 dead. Were His attendants here a few humble illiterate 
 followers ? His retinue then shall be the countless hosts 
 of heaven. Do His enemies stoutly resist His calls, fiercely 
 oppose His cause, and greatly harass His people ? Their 
 
Christ's mediatorial Glory. 255 
 
 opposition shall be utterly quelled, when He is revealed 
 from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them 
 that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of His 
 Son. Did He stand as a criminal at the bar of human 
 judgment, forsaken and even disowned by His very friends, 
 and laden with reproaches and insults by His powerful and 
 cruel foes ? He shall fill the great white throne of judg- 
 ment ; and, with the aid of His angels. He shall gather all 
 nations before Him, and make them to stand at His tri- 
 bunal ; and He shall then separate them one from another, 
 as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Was 
 He condemned by wicked men ? As the Judge of all. He 
 shall then pass an irrevocable sentence on all mankind. 
 Did He submit to die ? He shall then have in His hands 
 the keys of hell and death, and award eternal death to all 
 His enemies, and everlasting life to all His friends and 
 followers. Did He die in the face of creation ? Creation 
 shall die before His face, when He comes again ; from 
 before His face the heavens and the earth shall fly away. 
 Do the great and powerful, as well as the mass of meaner 
 men, still set themselves against the Lord ? In that day 
 every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him, 
 and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. 
 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the 
 rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, as 
 well as every bondman and every freeman, shall in vain 
 hide themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the moun- 
 tains, and say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and 
 hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, 
 and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day of His 
 wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ? When He 
 was on earth, His hearers were offended at Him as an 
 instructor, and refused the lessons of His wisdom because 
 they thought of Him as the carpenter's son : but when He 
 
256 Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 comes again, they shall be compelled to acknowledge Him 
 as the searcher of their hearts ; they shall tremble at His 
 presence, as they find Him bringing every work into judg- 
 ment with every secret thing ; and even the most plausible 
 dissemblers shall be exposed and confounded by Him, and 
 driven from His presence as workers of iniquity. When 
 formerly here, the character and circumstances of the few 
 followers who adhered to Him added to His humiliation in 
 the eyes of the world ; but when He comes again, He shall 
 be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that 
 believe : He will raise their bodies from the dead fashioned 
 like to His own glorious body : He will acquit them from 
 all the charges that are brought against them by their 
 enemies, and acknowledge them as His redeemed and faith- 
 ful servants and children, and make them to stand at His 
 own right hand, clothed in His righteousness, and full of 
 His Spirit, like the queen in gold of Ophir : and after He 
 has pronounced their welcome to His kingdom, and em- 
 ployed them as His assessors in sentencing His and their 
 enemies to everlasting exclusion from His presence, He 
 shall place upon their heads their promised crowns of glory, 
 and conduct them to their exalted and happy ahode in His 
 Father's house, and make them to shine forth as the sun in 
 the kingdom of the Father. 
 
 3. Look now at the glory which Christ is to have 
 throughout eternity, of which His transfiguration furnished 
 a glimpse, and see its appropriateness to His obedience 
 unto death as the Ptcdeemer. 
 
 At the day of judgment, His redeeming work is, in an 
 important sense, completed. His mediatorial kingdom in 
 its present form then comes ' to an end. All the sinners 
 given to Him in the Father's everlasting covenant with 
 Him are at length redeemed from all evil, and pre- 
 sented faultless before the presence of His glory. There 
 
Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 257 
 
 are no more darkened souls to be enlightened by Him ; 
 no more guilty consciences to be sprinkled by His peace- 
 speaking and cleansing blood ; no more trembling peni- 
 tents to be interceded for in the presence of the Father ; 
 no more rebellious sinners to be subdued by His kingly 
 power. All belonging to Him as the Kedeemer are at 
 length delivered from all sin and misery, and presented to 
 Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any 
 such thing. And, as in these respects His mediatorial work 
 is then accomplished, so we are told that " then cometh the 
 end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
 even the Father, &c." ^ 
 
 "We are not, however, to imagine that even then Christ, 
 as God-man, God the Eedeemer, shall disappear from the 
 eyes of the universe. We are not to suppose that He shall 
 henceforth cease to be honoured with the homage and the 
 adorations at present rendered to His name. On the con- 
 trary, the splendour in which He shined forth on the 
 mount of transfiguration is a token and a foretaste of the 
 glory which shall surround Him as the incarnate God for 
 ever. He still, and throughout eternity, continues to be God 
 manifested in our nature. The displays of His divine ex- 
 cellence and glory, given in and by means of His humanity, 
 shall never be withdrawn from the view of admiring intel- 
 ligences. The virtues that adorn His character shall shine 
 forth before the eyes of all created and virtuous intelli- 
 gences with a perpetual lustre. The praises of the re- 
 deemed and holy universe shall for ever be offered to the 
 Lamb. The fruits of His death shall be extolled through 
 ages that never end. In the eternity that is to come 
 the Father shall have the same delight in the Son as in the 
 eternity that is past. The Lord Jesus shall exist and be 
 adored for ever as the image of the invisible God. As the 
 
 ^ I Cor. XV. 
 
258 Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 redeeming heir of all things, He shall continue to enjoy the 
 fruits of His purchase. As the Lamb that was slain and 
 redeemed His people with His blood, He shall for ever be 
 seen in the midst of the throne, feeding them and leading 
 them to those living fountains of water that spring from 
 the eternal throne itself, and flow through the city to make 
 it glad. Of that heavenly and enduring city, the Lord 
 God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. The glory 
 of God lightens the cit}^, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 
 As the redeemed shall form for ever the spiritual house 
 from which spiritual sacrifices are unceasingly offered up to 
 God, so Christ shall be for ever the foundation on which it 
 is resting, and the corner stone by which it is knit to- 
 gether. It will, in fact, be found through ceaseless ages 
 that the eternal life which is given by God to the redeemed 
 is still in His Son. Their future blessedness shall consist 
 mainly in their being ever with the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 So that their life shall still be hid with Christ in God. 
 After this world is destroyed, and the whole system of 
 things connected with it has passed away and been suc- 
 ceeded by the new heavens and the new earth wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness, amidst the glories of the new crea- 
 tion Jesus shall continue for ever the great object of attrac- 
 tion to angels and redeemed men. All eyes shall be turned 
 to Him and fixed on Him as the great Eevealer of the 
 uncreated One, and all tongues shall proclaim His glory. 
 Amidst all the changes that happen in the universe. His 
 glory and dominion shall be alike unchangeable and ever- 
 lasting ; and every creature in the universe shall be heard 
 unceasingly saying, " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and 
 power be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb, for ever and ever." The stars themselves shall fall 
 from their courses, and be blotted out from creation ; but 
 Jesus shall shine for ever as the bright Morning Star of the 
 
Christ's Mediatorial Glory, 259 
 
 moral firmament. The sun itself may grow dim with age, 
 exhaust its resources of light and heat, and cease to be felt 
 amidst the works of God ; but Jesus, the Sun of righteous- 
 ness, shall continue the ever-flowing yet infinite fountain 
 of light and life to all the family of God. He shall have 
 risen on the wide universe to set no more. He shall shed 
 over creation the light of an everlasting day. And because 
 of the manifestations of His glorious presence, and its en- 
 joyment by the happy inhabitants, there shall through 
 eternity be no night there. 
 
 Blessed ends served hy a sight of this glory. 
 A believing view of the glory of Christ, and of the in- 
 terest which His faithful followers have in it, is needful to 
 secure for them the self-denying holy life and services 
 which are inseparably connected with the actual enjoy- 
 ment of the blessings of the gospel. Men naturally seek 
 their happiness in the things around them. They look 
 only at things seen and temporal; they seek their portion 
 in the present life. And they receive not the things of the 
 Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to them ; neither can 
 they know them, for they are spiritually discerned. And 
 so if called, as the gospel calls them, to give up their 
 naturally supreme and exclusive desires after these things, 
 while yet they have no true apprehension of any higher good, 
 they treat the call as intolerable, irrational, absurd. So 
 long as they look on the service of Christ chiefly in the 
 light of its being adherence to One who, when on earth, 
 avoided its riches, pleasures, and honours, and requires 
 His followers to sit loose to them also, they cannot be 
 persuaded to fling the world from them because as yet 
 they see nothing better within their reach to take its place. 
 While they see no beauty in Christ, they cling to objects 
 with mere outward and fading charms. While they have 
 
26o Christ's Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 no knowledge or desire of fellowship with heaven, they 
 seek their satisfaction in the fellowships of earth. While 
 they stand unmoved in the unrealised presence of God the 
 Saviour, they bow themselves down to the dust in the pre- 
 sence of mere earthly greatness. Lavishing honours on 
 deeds of mere human ambition, they treat as trifles the 
 wonders of redeeming love. Addicted to the vanities and 
 pleasures of the world, they have no taste for the ways of 
 the spiritual life, and for the joys of the great salvation. 
 Their Christianity is a name or a form that is thrown over, 
 but cannot conceal, their utter earthliuess. • They love the 
 darkness rather than the light, their deeds being evil, and 
 so continue shutting out the light with which the Sun of 
 righteousness is ready to shine into their souls. 
 
 While in such a state, the call to follow Christ is loathed 
 as if it were a call to turn their backs on all that is attrac- 
 tive and full of promise, on all that would cheer, elevate, 
 and satisfy them, and to give themselves up to what is 
 gloomy and repulsive, dispiriting and degrading. To re- 
 volutionise their thoughts, and desires, and course of life, 
 they require a sight of the glory that flowed to Christ Him- 
 self from His sufferings, and of the corresponding glory that 
 He is about to bestow on all who deny themselves, take up 
 their cross, and follow Him. When He begins to reveal 
 Himself in them as now for the suffering of death crowned 
 with glory and honour, they are so far made to realise their 
 past sinfulness and vanity, they are washed in His blood and 
 sanctified by His Spirit, and seek to be made strong in His 
 grace, and strive to yield themselves to His service, to do His 
 will, and maintain His honour, and to wait for His coming and 
 kingdom. Henceforth they desire to adore His greatness, and 
 to magnify His grace ; to w^orship Him as the King of glory, 
 and rejoice in Him as the Prince of peace. They are ready 
 to tremble at His awful voice, and yet gladly listen to His 
 
Clu'isCs Mediatorial Glory. 261 
 
 words of love. While He sees them endeavouring so to 
 behold His glory, as to be filled with a holy fear of Him, 
 He takes pleasure in their persons and services — as the Sun 
 of righteousness. He rises on them with healing in His 
 wings, and they go forth and grow up as calves of the stall, 
 and as willows by the water-brooks — He purges them from 
 their felt impurities, employs them in His service, and 
 enables them in some degree to behold and admire His 
 majesty, and to be glad in His gracious presence — and after 
 giving them in this world such glimpses of His dignity and 
 loveliness as to enable them to see Him through a glass 
 darkly, He takes them to His immediate presence, to see 
 Him as the King in His beauty. Animated with this hope, 
 His faithful followers willingly share in His humiliation 
 now, that they may share in His glory hereafter. They 
 willingly share, if need be, in His temporal straits, that they 
 may be rich in faith and heirs of His kingdom. They 
 learn to suffer with Him on earth, that they may reign with 
 Him in heaven. They endure temptation now, that they 
 may receive at length the crown of life. They labour to 
 crucify their flesh with its affections and lusts, that they 
 may become meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 They are willing to bear the cross here, that they may win 
 the crown hereafter. They somewhat realise their obliga- 
 tion daily to die to the pleasures of time, that they may be- 
 come qualified for the joys of eternity ; to die daily to sense 
 and sin, and to have their life hid with Christ in God, so 
 that when He who is their life shall appear, they may 
 appear with Him in glory. 
 
XIII. 
 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST ON EARTH. 
 
 " My kingdom is not of this world." — John xviii. 36. 
 
 THE great design of God in reference to mankind is to 
 redeem from sin and ruin, and to restore to His 
 favour a multitude whom no man can number, and to 
 form them into a society distinct from all other communi- 
 ties on earth, and so prepare them for, and take them to, 
 His immediate presence, to serve Him for ever in heaven. 
 In reference to that multitude, Jesus says, " My kingdom is 
 not of this world." The Jews were fretting under the Roman 
 yoke, and panting for the Deliverer to come who would 
 enable them to throw it off. When Messiah appeared, not 
 in outward glory but in great outward meanness, and set 
 Himself to establish an empire, not of temporal might and 
 majesty, but of truth and love and purity, in their carnal- 
 mindedness they were enraged against Him to the last 
 degree, and accused Him before the Roman governor of that 
 very crime of treason to the ruling power which they 
 wished Him to commit, but in which He refused to parti- 
 cipate. When questioned on this point by Pilate, while He 
 admitted that He was a King and had a kingdom, both 
 His kingship and His kingdom. He declared, were based 
 upon, and bounded by, the heavenly truth which He taught 
 and His followers received. " My kingdom is not of this 
 world." " I am a King." " I came into the world to bear 
 witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth 
 heareth my voice." Such considerations as the following 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Ea7'th. 26 
 
 show that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, but a 
 heavenly kingdom. 
 
 I. Christ as a King is not of this world. 
 
 1. He was greatly inferior to worldly rulers in out- 
 ward condition. " He made Himself of no reputation, and 
 took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men." They are born in palaces and nursed on 
 couches of splendour ; He was born in a stable and laid in 
 a manger. They are trained amidst all outward advantages ; 
 He lived at Nazareth in subjection to labouring parents, and 
 grew up as the carpenter's son. They grasp at temporal 
 dominion ; He refused it when put within His reach and 
 pressed on His acceptance. They have around them the 
 rich, the mighty, and the noble ; around Him were harmless 
 women and simj)le fishermen. They rise to their sovereignty 
 by the force of temporal power; He rose to His sovereignty by 
 the force of truth. They display themselves in all outward 
 magnificence ; His highest public display took place when, 
 amidst the acclamations of the multitude. He entered Jeru- 
 salem on an ass's colt. Their authority is upheld too often 
 by the sacrifice and sufferings of others ; He secured His au- 
 thority by His own sacrifice and sufferings. They triumph over 
 their enemies by destroying them ; He triumphed over His 
 by being taken by their wicked hands and crucified and slain. 
 
 2. While thus inferior to earthly kings in outward 
 condition. He was, and is, infinitely superior to them in 
 respect of true greatness and glory. They spring from 
 earth ; He came from His everlasting place in the bosom of 
 the Father. They are mere human creatures like other men ; 
 He is the uncreated One. They are of yesterday ; He is the 
 Eternal. They are most mutable ; He is the same, yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever. Their judgment is often at fault ; His 
 wisdom is unerring. Their power is very limited ; He is 
 
264 The Kingdom 0/ Christ on Earth. 
 
 Almighty. Their virtue is at best imperfect ; He is unspotted 
 in holiness. Their sense of justice is most defective ; He is 
 perfect in righteousness. Their benevolence is easily ex- 
 hausted ; He is immeasurable in goodness. Little reliance 
 can be placed on them ; He is unfailing in faithfulness. 
 They cannot make one hair of their heads white or black ; 
 all things were made by Him. They cannot keep themselves 
 alive for a moment ; by Him all things consist. Their 
 dominion is limited and fleeting; all things are under His 
 absolute and everlasting control. 
 
 No doubt He is man as well as God. But even as man, 
 a greatness and glory belong to Him that raise Him far 
 above all earthly kings. They are shapen in iniquity and 
 conceived in sin ; His body was formed in His virgin 
 mother by the immediate power of God, and He was born, 
 as He continued to be, without sin — holy, harmless, unde- 
 filed, and separate from sinners. The birth of earthly princes 
 may be announced by royal heralds to earthly courts, and 
 hailed by the manifestations of a nation's gladness ; but the 
 birth of Jesus was announced and celebrated by angels from 
 heaven, while, under the guidance of a star, wise men came 
 from the East and offered divine homage at the feet of the 
 infant son of Mary. In becoming God manifested in the 
 llesh, and in fulfilling His ministry on earth, the way was 
 opened up for His formal assumption of a government 
 resting on grounds alike varied and strong; for while earthly 
 monarchs generally claim to rule by peculiarly sacred rights, 
 Jesus reigns on such manifold, divine, and peculiar grounds 
 as these: — He reigns as God — He reigns by everlasting 
 covenant with the Father — He reigns by the authority which 
 the Father hath formally given to Him — He reigns as having 
 been actually set up by the Father as King upon His holy 
 hill of Ziou — He reigns over His people because He has 
 bought them with His precious blood — He reigns over them 
 
The Kijigdoin of Christ on Earth. 265 
 
 because He has conquered their hearts by His almighty grace 
 — He reigns over them with all the authority, power, and 
 fulness belonging to Him as the first-born of every creature, 
 and the first-begotten from the dead, from whom the very 
 existence of the redeemed as new creatures is derived, and of 
 whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named — and 
 He reigns by their own choice of Him as their only Lord, 
 
 All the emblems and accompaniments of His royalty as 
 God-Man, Mediatorial King, proclaim its infinite greatness. 
 Earthly kings occupy thrones of visible splendour ; but Jesus 
 fills the throne of the universe. Their brows are decked 
 each with a royal diadem ; but to set forth His sovereignty 
 over all nations and other worlds, it is said that He has on 
 His head many crowns. The sound of their reputation may 
 for a time fill great regions of the earth ; but He has a name 
 which is above every name that is named, not only in this 
 world, but also in that which is to come. They dwell in 
 literal palaces; but He has a palace in every heart that loves 
 Him : He also inhabits eternity ; and in the heaven of 
 heavens, as His special residence, He dwells in the midst of 
 a glory to which no man can approach and live. They are 
 surrounded by officers and servants of all ranks and sta- 
 tions ; but He is surrounded by myriads of glorious creatures 
 that minister before His throne. They have legions of sol- 
 diers whom they send forth to maintain their dominion and 
 their honour ; but He is followed and served by the hosts of 
 heaven, who go everywhere to execute His purposes, whether 
 of judgment or of mercy. They may boast of their do- 
 minions ; but He is head over all things. They may at 
 times feel as if nothing could withstand them ; but He is the 
 only resistless ruler of the universe ; heaven, earth, and hell 
 are subject to His wilL 
 
 But what does this character of the King prove with 
 reference to the kingdom ? It proves everything. It 
 
266 The Ki7igdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 proves that so far as His kingdom can be stamped by Him 
 with His own likeness, it will not be a kingdom of this 
 world. And He does stamp it with His own character, He 
 forms it after His own image. He calls it into existence, 
 and so gives to it what character He pleases. He is the 
 Creator, Eedeemer, and Sanctifier of His kingdom, as well 
 as its King. He makes and fashions it according to His 
 own will. He is not like earthly kings who cannot change 
 the nature of the materials that make up their kingdoms. 
 He exerts Almighty power over the materials of which 
 His kingdom is composed. Its character, therefore, corres- 
 ponds to His own ; and as He is not of this world, so neither 
 is His kingdom. 
 
 II. The subjects of Christ's kingdom are not of this 
 world. That is to say, the means by which He turns them 
 into subjects of His kingdom, and the character to which 
 He forms them, are spiritual, heavenly, and divine. 
 
 I. He turns sinful men into subjects of His kingdom 
 by bearing witness unto the truth, that is, by the truth to 
 which He bore witness, and by inclining their hearts to His 
 testimony. Mankind have been and are ruined by false- 
 hood, by false views of themselves and of God, of their 
 present condition and their future prospects, by false views 
 of good and evil, by false views of their various relations 
 and responsibilities. The devil's lie in paradise, believed 
 by our first parents, ruined them and tlieir posterity, by 
 fatally separating them from God. From the moment 
 when that lie was trusted and the declaration of the divine 
 will was disbelieved, onward to the present hour, the human 
 race has been held fast in bondage and darkness by the 
 father of lies. So soon as men are born, they naturally go 
 astray speaking lies. They walk in a vain, an empty, a 
 deceitful show. Their life is made up of delusive and 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 267 
 
 disappointing imaginations, not of satisfying realities. 
 " Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high 
 degree are a lie ; to be laid in the balance, they are 
 altogether lighter than vanity." The opinions that prevail 
 among and govern them are false and pernicious opinions. 
 They do not like to retain God in their knowledge ; they 
 misconceive and misrepresent His character and will, and 
 their own relations, condition, and prospects. Their deities 
 are false gods, vain idols, the work of their own hands. 
 The powers which, as they suppose, govern the world, are 
 invested with a trifling, foolish, or malignant character. 
 The very revelations which the true God has given of Him- 
 self, are denied or corrupted by the bulk of those to whom 
 they are given. The redemption provided is set aside in 
 favour of their own refuges of lies. The wise, holy, loving- 
 counsels of His word are supplanted by the deceitful, en- 
 snaring, and depraving maxims, customs, and examples that 
 abound in the world on every side. So that, as regards the 
 sentiments of men respecting their relations to God and one 
 another, there is no truth in them, " they delight in lies." 
 The darkness of ignorance, falsehood, and cherished de- 
 lusions covers the earth, gross darkness the people. And 
 men love the darkness rather than the light, their deeds 
 being evil. 
 
 Into a world of fallen creatures filled with and cherishing 
 this fatal, self-chosen mass of falsehood with reference to 
 God and themselves, to time and to eternity, the Son of 
 God came in their nature; and He came, as the "Way" by 
 whom sinners return to God, as Himself " the Truth and 
 the Life." He came to redeem those given to Him out of 
 the world by His Father, by proving to them " the Light of 
 the world," by scattering their darkness, by bringing them 
 into the light, by causing them to love and walk in it, by 
 causin" them to feel the resistless force of His mudance as 
 
268 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 " the Faithful and True Witness " who " came to bear 
 Witness unto the truth." The scriptures are the word of 
 Christ that, " dwelling in them richly," fills them with " all 
 wisdom and understanding." ^ They are the word of 
 God, quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, 
 piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and 
 proving the discerner of the thoughts and intents of their 
 hearts.^ They are the word of truth, with which they 
 are begotten of His own will by the Father of lights,^ 
 and by which they are sanctified.^ The Spirit of Christ 
 takes of the things of Christ and shows them to their minds. 
 They thus receive the truth in the love of it, and are saved. 
 They are reconciled to God by the manifestations which 
 they have of Him in Christ, and find life eternal in knowing 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Hence, in 
 answer to Pilate's question, " Art Thou a King, then ? " 
 Jesus replied that He would establish His kingdom by 
 " bearing witness unto the truth " — that the subjects of 
 His kingdom would be such as are " of the truth " — and 
 that their obedience would be rendered by hearing His 
 voice. Hence, according to Scripture, He is the Truth 
 and the true God ; ^ and so, in that, as in other 
 respects, the fulness of the Godhead ; and gathers His 
 people out of the world to Himself, by effectually bearing 
 witness within them to the light and life-giving power 
 of the truth. 
 
 2. As the means by which He thus turns sinful men 
 into the subjects of His kingdom are spiritual and divine, 
 so is the character to which He forms them. The character 
 here given of them is, that they are " of the truth " and 
 hear His voice. They hear His voice in the Scriptures, 
 
 ^ Col. iii. ^ James i. ^ I John v. 
 
 2 Heb. iv. •* John xvii. 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 269 
 
 which throughout testify of Him. They hear His voice in 
 the events of His providence, proclaiming how greatly He 
 is to be feared and how precious is His grace. They hear 
 His voice in their awakened consciousness of their own true 
 condition. And they are made effectually to hear His 
 voice speaking to them in these various ways, by the saving- 
 power put forth by His Spirit in their hearts. In this varied 
 and effectual manner Christ speaks to them of their sin and 
 misery — their original entire corruption — their actual mani- 
 fold transgressions — their liability to perish under the divine 
 displeasure — their inability to help themselves or to find 
 help anywhere in the created universe — His suitableness 
 and sufficiency as a Saviour — the fact of His being con- 
 stantly nigh to them, bringing salvation and pressing it on 
 their acceptance — and the folly of their blindness to His 
 revealed glory and graciousness, and of their indifference to 
 His loving calls. The truth thus declared to them is 
 rendered effectual through demonstration of the Spirit and 
 power from on high. The result is that, thus wrought 
 upon, they renounce the lies in which they lived, and in 
 which the world continues lost ; the truth as it is in Jesus 
 takes saving hold of them, and they take saving hold of it ; 
 the word is no longer to them like seed dropped on the 
 wayside, or like water spilt upon the ground ; it is no 
 longer heard by them as at best temporarily interested 
 hearers, who never become the actual doers of it ; in His 
 word of truth they now hear Christ speaking to them in 
 their inmost soul ; they awake from their fatal sleej) of sin ; 
 they rise out of their state of spiritual death ; they see 
 themselves lost away from Christ, saved only in Him ; they 
 renounce their own wisdom as folly, their own righteous- 
 ness as filthy rags, their own strength as weakness, and all 
 other personal grounds of dependence as refuges of lies ; 
 and they cling to Him as the alone Eock of salvation. 
 
2 70 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 receive Him and rest upon Him, and live by Christ living 
 in them. They seek to have everything taken out of the 
 way that would hinder His exercise of His supremacy over 
 them, and their willing, holy subjection to Him. They lay 
 apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and 
 receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to 
 save their souls. They lay aside all malice, and guile, and 
 hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings ; and, as new- 
 born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that they 
 may grow thereby. And they plead with Christ, and look 
 to Him to assert His sole right in and over them, to deliver 
 them out of the hands of all their enemies, and to enable 
 them all the days of their life, in holiness and righteousness, 
 to serve Him as the King of glory and the Prince of peace. 
 All of whom these things are essentially true, are born 
 again and become new creatures. Their thoughts, affec- 
 tions, conversation, labours, joys and sorrows, which were 
 all earthly once, are all heavenly now. The Spirit of 
 Christ in them is giving to them the same mind that was 
 in Himself, and assimilating them to His own likeness. 
 They are thus not of the world, even as He was not of the 
 world ; and so the kingdom of which they are the subjects 
 is a kingdom not of this world. 
 
 III. The spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom is proved 
 by the laws that rule in it. 
 
 I. They are heavenly in their origin. The laws of 
 earthly kingdoms, framed by earthly rulers, partake of the 
 mingled wisdom and folly, reasonableness and passion, 
 caution and caprice of the human heart, and of the pride 
 and selfishness and cruelty inherent in our fallen nature. 
 The laws of Christ's kingdom issuing from the eternal 
 throne, embody the mind of the all-perfect, glorious God, 
 are a transcript of His infinite perfections, the offspring of 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 271 
 
 His combined holiness, justice, goodness, and truth : so that 
 the law of Christ's kingdom is holy, and the commandment 
 holy, just, and good. The Word of God is the statute- 
 book of Christ's kingdom ; and the authority of that Word, 
 and of Him from whom it comes, is the only authority that 
 can, without sin, without, in fact, a blasphemous assumption 
 of the divine prerogative, be pleaded for the enforcement of 
 any laws whatever, within the church or kingdom of Christ. 
 Even good laws, that is, laws good in themselves, derived 
 from any other source, such as civil government, have on 
 that ground no more rightful force within Christ's kingdom 
 or church, than the laws of France, however good, have 
 within the kingdom of Britain. The laws put in operation 
 within the church, must be not only good, but derived from 
 the divine word, the only fountain-head of all law for the 
 kingdom of Christ on earth, and enforced on the authority 
 of that word alone. 
 
 2. The laws of Christ's kingdom are heavenly in their 
 sanctions. The laws of earthly kingdoms are enforced by 
 the temporal rewards that accrue to the loyal, and by the 
 temporal punishments that overtake the disobedient and 
 rebellious. But the laws of Christ's kingdom are enforced 
 by admission to spiritual privileges or exclusion from them, 
 and by the prospect of the future and everlasting rewards 
 and punishments that will be bestowed on saints and in- 
 flicted on sinners respectively. 
 
 3. The laws of Christ's kingdom are heavenly in their end. 
 The end of human laws in civil society, is to keep in out- 
 ward order the inhabitants of a land. For that purpose, the 
 authority and dominion of earthly rulers extend only to the 
 outward persons and temporal property, the bodies and sub- 
 stance of those who are subject to their power. When 
 they come to the boundary line, separating the region of 
 conscience from the region of the bodies and substance of 
 
272 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 the people, the dominion of earthly rulers ceases. Human 
 laws and lawgivers cannot justly, or without enormous 
 wrong, extend their authority and power so as to attempt 
 coercively to control the consciences and hearts of men. 
 But the inward spiritual nature of man is just the region 
 where the laws of Christ's kingdom chiefly take effect. 
 Their great design is to enlighten His people's understand- 
 ings, to subdue their wills, to regulate their consciences, to 
 govern their hearts, to control their affections and desires. 
 Christ's empire is an empire of truth and love. He sheds 
 abroad in their hearts that love which is the fulfilling of 
 the law. They thus delight in His law after the inward 
 man. They love it, and make it their meditation all the 
 day. And thus by the Spirit it is so written in their hearts, 
 and so embodied in their lives, that they are turned into 
 living epistles of Christ, to be known and read of all 
 men. 
 
 IV. The only rulers which Christ has appointed under 
 Himself and over His people, to carry out the laws of His 
 house, are quite distinct from earthly rulers, and of such 
 a spiritual character officially, as well as personally, as to 
 prove that His kingdom is not of this world. They are 
 over them in the Lord, and watch for their souls, as 
 they that must give an account. The persons charged by 
 Christ with this work were, at first, apostles and prophets, 
 whose offices have ceased ; and pastors and teachers, or 
 overseers and elders, wliose offices still exist, and whose 
 duties still need to be performed. No others have any 
 power from Christ within His kingdom. Civil rulers have 
 no standing in it. He is indeed " Prince of the kings of 
 the earth," ^ as well " King in Zion." And they are to 
 " bring their glory and honour into the church." ^ But 
 
 1 Rev. i. '^ Rev. xxi. 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 273 
 
 while they only offer the homage due to Him, where they 
 fence its safety and freedom with their statutes, and so far 
 as occasion permits and requires, assist it with their gifts,^ 
 they have no more right to enter within its precincts, and 
 to make and execute laws concerning the spiritual duties 
 of its ministers or members, or in the administration of any 
 of its spiritual affairs, than king Uzziah had to attempt by 
 force to enter the temple, and perform tbe priestly work of 
 offering incense there. "The Lord Jesus, as King and 
 Head of the church, hath therein appointed a government 
 in the hands of church-officers, distinct from the civil 
 magistrate." They are the pastors and teachers, the over- 
 seers and elders of the flock of God, which He has purchased 
 with His blood. They alone are commissioned to teach 
 whatsoever things the Lord has commanded. To them 
 alone, under Christ, obedience and submission are due. The 
 kingdom in which such spiritual rulers alone are to be 
 found, is a kingdom not of this world. 
 
 V. The primleges and Uessings which Christ has purchased 
 for, and bestows upon His kingdom, prove its spiritual and 
 heavenly nature. The kingdoms of tliis world, in propor- 
 tion to their prosperity, are filled with outward temporal 
 peace and plenty, with earthly riches and sensible enjoy- 
 ments. But although within the church of Christ temporal 
 blessings may be found to any extent, they are but subor- 
 dinate and subservient, arid not even needful to the enjoy- 
 ment of its highest and most characteristic mercies. Indeed, 
 often when most depressed in its temporal condition, it is 
 visited and filled with higher than ordinary degrees of 
 spiritual prosperity. And its chief and most peculiar 
 privileges and blessings are such as show it to be a kingdom 
 not of this world. 
 
 Psah 
 
2 74 l^h^ Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 1 . There are the more outward spiritual privileges of the 
 subjects of the kingdom. Thus they have the word read 
 by, and preached to them, that its entrance may give light 
 and life to their souls. They have the holy sabbath so 
 constantly returning, with its blessed memories, and its 
 exercises of worship and instruction, that, being specially in 
 the Spirit on the Lord's day, they may be fitted for the 
 mercies, the duties, and the trials of the other six days of 
 the week, and prepare for the eternal sabbath, the rest that 
 remaineth for the people of God. They have the house of 
 prayer, and the promise of Christ's presence in it, to render 
 it to them the house of God and the gate of heaven. They 
 liave the ordinance of baptism, to signify and seal the 
 cleansing virtue of Jesus' blood, and the regenerating power 
 of His Spirit. They have the table of the Lord, at which 
 to partake by faith of His own body and blood, to their 
 spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. And they have 
 the fellowship of saints, in and through which to be brought 
 into fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 2. There are the inward, saving blessings enjoyed by all 
 who are brought into the kingdom. They are pardoned 
 rebels ; and that blessing of divine forgiveness is one of 
 which the world has no experience or conception. — The 
 light of God's reconciled countenance is lifted on them ; 
 and that is a blessing never soug^it or found by those who 
 continue saying, " Oh, who will show us any good ? " — 
 They are washed from their sins in the blood of Christ; 
 and that is a cleansing unknown to the guilty consciences 
 and unpurified hearts of other men. — They are clothed in 
 the robe of their King's own righteousness ; and that 
 raiment is altogether distinct from the purple and fine 
 linen in which others have it as their ambition to be 
 arrayed. — By a gracious adoption of their persons, and 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 275 
 
 a divine renewal of their nature, they have their j)lace 
 given and preserved to them as sons and daughters in the 
 family of the King; a blessedness of which there is not 
 even the shadow to be found among any others, even the 
 most favoured of the children of men. — They serve Him 
 in the beauty of holiness ; while the world goes on in its 
 sinfulness until it perishes in its corruption. — They have a 
 peace which passeth understanding ; while others are like 
 the troubled sea that cannot rest. — They advance in their 
 onward, upward path of light till it ends in the brightness 
 of eternal day, where they see the King in His beauty, and 
 dwell in the land that is afar off; while others live on, and 
 die in darkness. 
 
 A kingdom full of such privileges and blessings to its 
 subjects even on earth, and to be perfected and filled with 
 glory for ever and ever, cannot be a kingdom of this world. 
 
 VI. The extent assigned by Christ to His kingdom 
 shows it to be not of this world. 
 
 1. It does not take in all who dwell in any given 
 part of the earth. Worldly kingdoms do so. They em- 
 brace as subjects all within a given territory. But the 
 kingdom of Christ is more limited in any land. It em- 
 braces only the divinely regenerated portion of the people. 
 
 2. On the other hand, it is not confined like earthly 
 kingdoms to fixed portions of the earth. Christ chooses 
 His subjects from among, and has them in the midst of 
 all kindreds and nations, peoples and tongues. And by 
 His command, while obeying their earthly rulers in all 
 temporal things, in all things spiritual they yield obe- 
 dience only to Him ; thus " rendering to Csesar the things 
 that are Csesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 
 
 3. The power of Christ as King within this kingdom is 
 for its sake extended over all lands on earth, and even 
 
276 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 over other worlds. He has " all power in heaven and on 
 earth." " All things " are " put under His feet." He is 
 "head over all things to the church." Angels are em- 
 ployed by Him to minister to His redeemed. His and 
 their enemies, earthly and infernal, are restrained and con- 
 quered. And He is preparing a place for all His ran- 
 somed in the many mansions of His Father's house, even a 
 kingdom that cannot be moved. A kingdom embracing 
 only a portion of the inhabitants of any given earthly 
 kingdom, embracing at the same time inhabitants of all 
 earthly kingdoms, and ruled in as divine a way by a King 
 who rules all nations and all worlds for its sake, is a king- 
 dom not of this world. 
 
 VII. The heavenly character of Christ's kingdom is seen 
 in the manner and means of its introduction, maintenance, 
 and advancement. " If," says Jesus, " my kingdom were 
 of this world, then would my servants fight " for it ; " but 
 now is my kingdom not from hence. . . . For this cause 
 came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the 
 truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 Consider — 
 
 1 . The way of its introduction. Earthly kingdoms rise 
 to their place in the world by displays of temporal power 
 and splendour. But Christ's kingdom cometh not with 
 observation : it commences in the soul. The truth as it 
 is in Jesus, accompanied by His Spirit, exerts a resistless 
 though unseen power in transforming the hearts of men ; 
 and so this kingdom is set up within, as a kingdom not of 
 meat and drink, but of righteousness and peace, and joy in 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. The way of its maintenance. "Worldly kingdoms 
 maintain themselves, as they rise, chiefly by temporal 
 power : insomuch . that, if the rulers of a country show 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 277 
 
 the want of such power, that country soon falls before the 
 power of internal strifes, or of foreign foes. Christ's king- 
 dom is maintained by spiritual means, by the influence of 
 His word, and of His cross, and by the power of His 
 almighty grace. His people are .iept in subjection to Him, 
 by His truth faithfully yet lovingly administered, and by 
 His Spirit graciously bestowed. His and their enemies are 
 resisted and overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by 
 the word of His testimony, 
 
 3. The way of its advancement. The kingdoms of the 
 world advance in it by force of arms, or by other demon- 
 strations and exercises of physical force. But the kingdom 
 of Christ refuses the authoritative and compulsory aid of 
 carnal weapons. It is not by human might or power that 
 His kingdom comes. It is not the wise, mighty, and noble 
 of the world that are chiefly employed by Christ to help ou 
 His cause, but the foolish, the weak, and the despised. It 
 is not by arts of human policy, but by the preaching of 
 the word, that Christ promotes His reign. He subdues His 
 enemies, and adds them to His kingdom, not by outwitting 
 them, or by crushing them, but by enlightening, persuading, 
 and converting them. The word is the sword of the Spirit 
 which He girds upon His thigh, when He goes forth to 
 advance the cause of truth, and meekness, and righteous- 
 ness, upon the earth. It would seem, indeed, that the final 
 triumphs of His kingdom on the earth shall be introduced 
 by His visible providential judgments, that His right hand 
 shall do terrible things in putting down His enemies, and 
 that He shall thus show on His vesture and on His thigh, 
 the name written, "King of kings and Lord of lords." 
 But even then His word shall be the main quiver from 
 which he takes the arrows that He renders strong in the 
 hearts of His enemies, so that they fall under Him. By 
 the divine power which He gives to the truth in their con- 
 
278 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 sciences and hearts, and by the wonderful work of grace 
 that He thns performs in and upon them, He will show 
 more and more impressively that the weapons of His king- 
 dom are not earthly but heavenly weapons, and that His 
 pre-eminently glorious name is " the Word of God." 
 
 VIII. The past history, present position, and future 
 destiny of this kingdom prove that it is not of this world. 
 
 I. Its past history. Fixed in the everlasting covenant 
 of grace between the Father and the Son, the moment that 
 the promise to bruise the serpent's head began to take effect, 
 this kingdom commenced its existence. Abel had scarcely 
 been brought into it as the kingdom of grace when, under 
 the murderous hand of Cain, he passed into it as the king- 
 dom of glory. Seth, Enoch, and Noah also, and other 
 graciously righteous men, belonged to it. So did Melchi- 
 sedek and Job. Abraham and his numerous household, 
 whom he trained to walk in the way of the Lord, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and their families, who, like 
 themselves, were children of the promise, as given in cove- 
 nant to Abraham, were subjects of this kingdom in the visible 
 form which, in his and their days, the kingdom received and 
 retained. Under the dispensation of Moses, the children of 
 Israel, as distinct from all other nations, were made and pre- 
 served, in outward and visible form, a kingdom of worship- 
 pers of Jehovah. At the same time, the kingdom of Christ 
 continued, through all these antediluvian, patriarchal, and 
 Jewish ages, in a comparatively incipient, elementary, im- 
 perfect condition. The great spiritual realities of Christ's 
 person and work continued to be shrouded in types and 
 figures and prophecies, the full meaning and force of which 
 were not realised. Bright and honoured subjects of His 
 kingdom indeed, not a few patriarchs and prophets and kings 
 and righteous men became. Still they lived amidst the 
 
The Kingdom of C/in'sl on Emih. 279 
 
 mists and shadows that huug over the glowing visions which 
 they had of the Messiah's approaching reign. "When Jesus 
 began His ministry, His announcement was, " the kingdom 
 of heaven is at hand ; " and He sent forth His apostles to 
 make the same announcement. He taught the nature of 
 His kingdom, the regeneration, repentance, humility, and 
 self-denial required in its subjects. The gospel which He 
 preached was the gospel of the kingdom. To expose the 
 vanity of all mere formalism, He said to His hearers, " the 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation," " the kingdom 
 of God is within you." He soon made it manifest that His 
 kingdom had for its foundation His death and resurrection 
 and ascension to the right hand of power, and that it would 
 be advanced on earth by the Holy Spirit being sent by Him, 
 and coming in power, to make the ordinances and laws that 
 He commanded His servants to keep and obey, effectual to 
 the salvation of men. Accordingly, after He rose from the 
 grave, and before He ascended to heaven. He spoke to His 
 disciples of " the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." 
 And when immediately after He took His place on the media- 
 torial throne, by the remarkable outpouring of His Spirit ©n 
 the day of Pentecost, He gave a great impulse to the pro- 
 gress of His kingdom, and an indication of the effectual 
 manner in which He would advance and establish it upon 
 the earth. Following up His instructions, and under His 
 guidance, the apostles were found preaching the things 
 concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus 
 Christ.^ And all the converts from heathenism are sum- 
 marily described as delivered by God the Father from the 
 power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of His 
 dear Son.^ 
 
 Thus constituted and established on the earth by the 
 
 1 Acts viii. 28. - Col. i. 
 
28o The Kingdom of Christ on Eai'th. 
 
 personal ministry of Christ, and by the labours of His 
 apostles after Him, and under the promise of His presence 
 with it always to the end, and of the indwelling and in- 
 working of His Spirit in all His people, His kingdom was 
 empowered to maintain and spr; id His glory as its King, 
 and at the same time to secure its own well-being by doing 
 whatsoever He has commanded. So situated, this kingdom 
 has for eighteen hundred years described a chequered his- 
 tory. His called, chosen, and faithful people have, too 
 generally, been but the smaller number among the multi- 
 tudes of mere professors of Christianity, who have filled the 
 visible nominal kingdom of Christ. Still He has had through 
 all generations such a people, a people who have found sal- 
 vation in Him as at once the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and 
 the Lamb that was slain, and now the Lamb in the midst of 
 the throne. His faithful followers, indeed, have been con- 
 stantly forced into deadly conflicts with His and their secret 
 and open foes, but with the eyes of faith they have seen 
 Him at their head as their crowned and Almighty King, 
 with His sword girded on His thigh, and bow in hand, riding 
 forth, conquering and to conquer, in the cause of meekness 
 and truth and righteousness. And while time after time His 
 witnesses have had to suffer much, and even to seal their 
 testimony with their blood, and to triumph only by dying, 
 and then appear in His more immediate presence in their 
 white robes of holiness and joy, fresh witnesses have been 
 raised up by Him still to bear aloft the banner of their 
 King, until ever and anon He has risen up to judgment, and 
 for the time struck with terror their and His adversaries, 
 great and small, and made them fain to cry to the mountains 
 and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of 
 the Lamb. 
 
 The eighteen centuries that have passed since the Lord 
 Jesus took His place on the mediatorial throne have thus 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 281 
 
 been centuries of conflict and of affliction for His faithful 
 servants. In the course of these centuries, indeed, hright 
 seasons of spiritual revival of light and gladness have inter- 
 mingled with the long-continued darkness, and suffering, 
 and sorrow that have so filled His kingdom. Nevertheless, 
 all through these ages, open adversaries have raged against 
 it, and myriad traitors have taken and kept possession of it 
 and laid it desolate. Yet the kingdom survives. Other 
 kingdoms have one after another perished from around it. 
 Others still are preparing themselves for a similar end. 
 But the kingdom lives and has a footing, a hidden life and 
 power, in the midst of them, that all the powers and 
 agencies of earth and hell are unable to touch. Even when 
 Christ has permitted His servants to be reduced to the 
 smallest number, and crushed to the lowest depths of weak- 
 ness, and helplessness, and sorrow, the Spirit of life from 
 God, as the Spirit of Christ, has never failed to enter into 
 them again, and, from such depths, to raise them to heights 
 of resistless power, while suddenly striking their proudest 
 adversaries with terror, and overwhelming in ruin all who 
 refused to give glory to God. 
 
 2. As to the present position of Christ's kingdom on the 
 earth, while there is much in it that is fitted to excite both 
 apprehension and hope, there is also enough to prove that 
 it is not a kingdom of this world. There is much in the 
 condition of the kingdom and of the world around it to fill 
 its friends with apprehension. The gospel of the kingdom 
 is not the gospel, or among the numerous gospels which it 
 has become fashionable to inculcate and accept. From such 
 fashionable gospels God's holiness, justice, and truth are 
 eliminated, and little is left but a lauded so-called father- 
 hood in God, that is not expected to deal strictly with 
 sinners. Sin is pronounced to be not so malignant and 
 destructive as it has been long called. The morally-ruined 
 
282 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 condition of mankind is denied. The redemption-work of 
 Christ is reduced to a human example of self-sacrifice. His 
 proper divinity is left in doubt or set aside. The divine 
 personality and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit 
 are given up. The retributions of eternity are treated as 
 a fable. The grounds of acceptance with God and the 
 scriptural qualifications for heaven are superseded by 
 grounds and qualifications that every man is naturally able 
 to provide for himself. The divine inspiration and infallible 
 truth of the scriptures are disbelieved. The obligations of 
 the fourth commandment, or law of the sabbath, are dis- 
 owned. Secular education is taking the place of the former 
 christian education of the young. Family worship is ceas- 
 ing to be observed in a large proportion of the families of 
 the, as yet, church-going. The amount of attendance on the 
 services of the sanctuary is manifestly diminishing, especi- 
 ally among the young. The sacred bonds that united 
 parents and children, and masters and servants, are being 
 greatly loosened. The marriage bond itself is beginning to 
 lose the sacredness with which it was universally regarded 
 in times gone past. The prosperity and wealth and endless 
 privileges that of late years have been vouchsafed to this 
 and other lands, instead of leading the recipients to God, 
 have generated and fostered luxury and self-indulgence, 
 love of pleasure, dislike of moral restraints, and immeasur- 
 able self-confidence ; and have tempted, and are more and 
 more tempting, many in all classes, from the highest to the 
 humblest, to excesses in sin, at the reports of which the 
 sober-minded stand aghast, and say, " What shall the end 
 of these things be ? " Profaneness and immorality, often 
 veiled, often with unblushing openness, are in active opera- 
 tion everywhere. Business transactions are extensively 
 debased by falsehood and dishonesty, till mutual trust is 
 dying out to a great extent between man and man. Science 
 
The Kingdom of C J wist on Eai'th. 283 
 
 is laboming to separate God from His works, and to shut 
 Him out as a mere spectre from the minds of men. Nations 
 are eliminating, or preparing to eliminate from their legisla- 
 tion and government, all acknowledgment of the presiding 
 Deity, and of their dependence on Him ; and are acting 
 as if their destinies were absolutely in their own hands. 
 Various of the most effective restraints that were wont to 
 be laid on human depravity are being removed, and a few 
 steps further in the direction of self-disposal and self-asser- 
 tion may open the floodgates of human passion, and spread 
 its desolations far and wide. Christ's own visible king- 
 dom is so commingled with the world that, as His kingdom, 
 it is scarcely discernible in large regions of Christendom 
 amidst the ignorant, erring, free-thinking, false-hearted, 
 false-speaking pretenders to Christianity that have overrun 
 and taken possession of its sphere ; while, as to the world 
 at large, darkness still covers the earth, gross darkness the 
 people. 
 
 Even amidst this widespread moral and spiritual desola- 
 tion, however, the kingdom of Christ is still to be found. 
 It is maintained by Him in the persons of the thousands of 
 willing subjects, and servants, and followers, in whom He 
 reigns by His grace, to whom His kingdom has come, not in 
 word but in power, who personally and experimentally 
 know it as a kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy 
 in the Holy Ghost. Most of them may be hidden ones, 
 hidden from the eyes of men who know not them as they 
 knew not Himself while on earth, and as they know Him 
 not even now, though He is Lord of all. But though 
 living in the midst of multitudes that do not believe in 
 Him, Christ has in many lands a people that are His king- 
 dom notwithstanding, His kingdom on the earth ; and He 
 is adding habitually to their numbers by gathering sinners 
 out of the world and bringing them into His church from 
 
284 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 all kindreds, and nations, and peoples, and tongues. And 
 to know them who are Christ's, and who form His present 
 kingdom on the earth, is to know enough to prove that it 
 is a kingdom not of this world. 
 
 3. The future blissful destiny of Christ's kingdom even 
 on earth is as certain as the divine faithfulness and power 
 can make it — and still more impressively proves that it is 
 indeed not a worldly but a spiritual and heavenly kingdom. 
 
 No doubt there goes on for the present a double process 
 as regards this kingdom. Multitudes in what are called 
 christian lands, and themselves in great numbers still bear- 
 ing the christian name, are waxing worse and worse in 
 respect of their latitudinarianism in sentiment and their 
 laxness of manners ; while such as have received grace to 
 believe in and love the truth are being kept alive in Christ, 
 and to their broken, scattered, and feeble, yet not hopeless, 
 ranks, some are being gathered in from every land and added 
 to the numbers of the saved. During the progress of this 
 double process, the friends of gospel truth are often very 
 weary, while carnal wisdom and temporal power, and out- 
 ward prosperity and riches, and all the arts of life, cast 
 their boasted but delusive splendours over the earth, and 
 tempt mankind to feel and speak and act, as if they were 
 the absolute lords of creation, without any superior to cross 
 or to control them. But even in the midst of this wide- 
 spread and yet increasing materialism, and of the sadness 
 and fear with which believing men regard it, the kingdom 
 of Christ exists with a living, divine energy in it, which all 
 the powers of earth and hell cannot reach, cannot even 
 realise. And though this energy remains for the time a 
 comparatively latent, slumbering energy, it is not dead. 
 Christ, who wields it, is not dead. He is the living One, 
 and as the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, He is 
 about to awake, to rise up, and make His presence to be 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 285 
 
 felt, in ways of judgment that will overwhelm His enemies 
 and sweep them away, and leave them only in broken and 
 scattered fragments, to hide themselves in holes and corners, 
 while His saints enter into the dominion of the earth. 
 Then woe to all the kingdoms and nations that have refused 
 subjection to the King of Zion. His kingdom shall break 
 in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and shall itself 
 stand for ever. The kingdoms of the earth that remain, 
 shall then become His kingdom, and He shall reign for ever 
 and ever. And before Him that sitteth on the throne, and 
 before the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne, alleluias 
 shall ascend from all the hills and plains of earth, because 
 the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. 
 
 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto 
 the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
 before Him, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the 
 Governor among the nations. The Lord shall be King over 
 all the earth in that day; there shall be one Lord, and His 
 name One.^ In the light with which His presence fills His 
 kingdom all nations of the saved shall walk, and kings and 
 nations shall bring their glory and honour into it.^ Everything 
 that offends, and all that do iniquity, shall be cast out of His 
 kingdom then, and on every person and thing that remain 
 in it, shall be inscribed, " Holiness unto the Lord." ^ And 
 throughout the ages of truth and peace, of holiness and love, 
 of freedom from enemies, and of favour with God and man, 
 and of all outward and inward prosperity, that pass over the 
 kingdom of Christ, the successive generations that are born 
 in it and born again into it, may become vast enough to ex- 
 ceed even the nations of the wicked in ages past that have 
 been turned into hell, and so to form at last a multitude 
 alike marvellous for their countless numbers and their ex- 
 
 ^ Zech. xiv. ^ j^gy. xxi. ^ Zech. xiv. 
 
286 The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory. Christ's kingdom, thus 
 made up of all that from the entrance of sin onwards have 
 shared in His redeeming grace, shall then be ready to be 
 presented by Him to His Father, and to form, as it would 
 seem, the most prominent part of that absolute, boundless, 
 and everlasting kingdom, in which God the Father, Sou, and 
 Holy Ghost shall be all in all. 
 
 Practical lessons. 
 
 1. Every one to whom the word of this salvation comes 
 ought, as the most indispensable of all things to his own 
 well-being, to seek first the kingdom of God and the 
 righteousness thereof, remembering that He never can find 
 this kingdom so long as he rests contented with a place in 
 the visible church — that the kingdom is within — and that 
 it is only by being born of the Spirit that any can enter 
 into it, or see it, and have it set up in them, as a kingdom 
 of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. Every one who, by the regenerating grace of the Spirit 
 of Christ, is born into this kingdom ought to live suitably 
 to his heavenly citizenship. Thus only can he feel at home 
 among the children of Zion, who are joyful in their King, 
 show forth the honour of the Lamb in the midst of the 
 throne, and induce others to repent of their opposition to 
 Him, and to come and offer their homage at His feet. 
 
 3. A large proportion of the visible churches of Christ 
 are unworthy to bear His name, and have reason to look for 
 the fearful and fatal judgments, by which He will make way 
 for raising up His kingdom to its promised and approaching 
 state of light and purity, of prevalence and power. The 
 visible church is like the seed sown, of which a fourth part 
 only yielded proper fruit ; or like the field on which tares, 
 extensively sown by an enemy, grew up and intermingled 
 with the wheat ; or like the net in which bad fishes were 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 287 
 
 . caught and mixed up in large numbers with the good ; or 
 like the virgins that went forth to meet the bridegroom, of 
 whom, while a portion were wise, the others were foolish ; 
 or like the mixture in the same flock of goats with the sheep. 
 To cleanse His kingdom from the impurities and wickedness 
 by which it is defiled, Christ is about to purge it even by 
 fiery judgments, and to fill it with " living " saints ; and 
 then He will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount 
 Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day 
 and the shining of a flaming fire by night, and upon all the 
 glory shall be a defence.^ 
 
 4. In the view of Jesus' words to the Eoman governor 
 about His kingdom, and of its destined and approaching 
 supremacy on earth, the ruling powers had better have a 
 care of how they deal with this kingdom of Christ, or any 
 of its sections within their territory. It does not exist for 
 them ; but they exist for it. The whole world is in the 
 hands of Christ, as the platform on which He is gathering 
 into His kingdom all of mankind given to Him as their 
 Eedeemer by the Father. The rulers of the earth would 
 therefore need to weigh well their relations and actings to 
 the word, and the church, of Christ. If they cast off His 
 bands, He will dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 
 If they say to the church, Bow down that we may go over 
 thee ; or if they tempt her by bribes, or compel her by 
 power to lay herself down as the dust, or as the street, that 
 they may go over her, God will put into their hands and 
 make them to drink the cup of trembling, even the cup of 
 His fury.^ If, on the other hand, they stand aloof from 
 the church, and refuse all favour to her and her mission, 
 more than to her and her King's enemies, they will have 
 to face and feel the power of His threatening, the nation 
 
 ^ Isa. iv. 2 Isa. li. 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish ; yea, 
 those nations shall be utterly wasted.^ 
 
 5. To every professing church, to every nation, and to 
 every human being, to which or to whom the word of 
 Christ is brought. He presents but one alternative ; and 
 that is, either to be in willing subjection to Him and serve 
 Him, and to employ their time, their thoughts, their 
 energies, their substance, and their prayers, in advancing 
 the honour of His name and the interests of His kingdom 
 all around them and throughout the world, or to be dealt 
 with, and disposed of, by Him, as among His adversaries, 
 
 6. Whatever afflictions still betide Christ's kingdom on 
 the earth, this kingdom and all belonging to it shall survive 
 and be for ever glorified; while all that is without it is 
 overtaken by decay and death and final ruin. The powers 
 of earth may still corrupt and enslave, or discountenance 
 and depress it. Other evil agencies may labour to dis- 
 figure its character, to create and foster confusions and 
 conflicts within it, or even to undermine and destroy the 
 very foundations on which it rests. Worse still, multi- 
 tudes who professedly belong to the kingdom may assail 
 and strive to set aside the very truths on which it lives, 
 and which it is upheld to spread over the earth. Its ene- 
 mies are indeed numerous and powerful, while its friends 
 seem few and feeble. But Christ is on their side and at 
 their head, and from before Him all their and His enemies 
 shall be scattered ; and their triumph, which is the triumph 
 of His kingdom, is secure. For whatever belongs to the 
 world shall decay and perish. All flesh is grass, and all 
 the glory of man as the flower of the field. The world 
 passeth away, and the lust thereof. The greatest king- 
 doms of the past are gone. Existing kingdoms shall also 
 
 1 Isa. Ix. 
 
The Kingdom of Christ on Earth. 
 
 perish, one after another. Even this famous kingdom of 
 ours, with its unparalleled extent of possessions and re- 
 sources, is all too probably destined at length to manifest 
 inherent and fatal seeds of decay. If the secularism that 
 now prevails supplant the light of the gospel among us, 
 the sun of Britain's greatness shall ere long set to rise 
 no more. Even the boasted achievements of philosophy, 
 science, and art shall by and by disappear in the light of 
 the higher, deeper, more comprehensive and brighter forms 
 of wisdom that fill the earth. But in the midst and by 
 means of the increase of all true knowledge, the kingdom 
 of Christ, His kingdom of truth and love, shall become 
 more extensive and luminous, till the earth is filled with 
 His glory. It shall break in pieces and consume all the 
 powers and agencies opposed to it, and shall itself stand 
 for ever. It shall even survive the final burning up of 
 the visible creation, and be throughout eternity the most 
 glorious part of the boundless and everlasting kingdom 
 of God. 
 
XIV. 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF CHRIST TO NATIONS AND 
 THEIR RULERS, AND THEIR DUTY TO HIS 
 TRUTH AND KINGDOM. 
 
 "Jesus Christ . . . the Prince of the kings of the earth." — Rev. i 5. 
 " He is the Governor among the nations." — Ps. xxii. 23. " My king- 
 dom is not of this world. . . . Art Thou a king then? ... To 
 tliis end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
 should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth 
 heareth my voice." — John xviii. 36, 37. 
 
 A FORMER discourse was given to the consideration of 
 -^ the more immediate and tlie principal subject of 
 Jesus' words to Pilate, viz.. His character as a king; His 
 kingdom ; and the truth by which He creates and rules it ; 
 its subjects, laws, under rulers, privileges, and saving bless- 
 ings ; its extent and duration ; and the way and manner of 
 its introduction, maintenance, and advancement on the 
 earth. This is an elevating subject for continual meditation 
 and discourse. " They shall speak of the glory of Thy 
 kingdom, and talk of Thy power ; to make known to the 
 sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of 
 His kingdom." 
 
 Let us at present consider the relations of Christ to 
 nations and their rulers, and their duty to His truth and 
 kingdom. 
 
 The conduct of Pilate and of Herod to Christ, and of the 
 rulers of Jerusalem to the Apostles, is expressly declared in 
 Acts iv. to be prophetically condemned in the second 
 Psalm. In that Psalm, the most awakening views are 
 presented of the sins and dangers of civil rulers, and their 
 
National Duty to CJirist, 291 
 
 obligations and only path of safety, in reference to Christ, 
 and to His people and His cause : " Why do the heathen 
 rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ? The kings of 
 the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel to- 
 gether, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, 
 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords 
 from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the 
 Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak 
 unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore dis- 
 pleasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of 
 Zion. I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto 
 me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask 
 of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for thine inherit- 
 ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
 sion. Tliou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; Thou 
 shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wnse 
 now, therefore, ye kings ; be instructed, ye judges of the 
 earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trem- 
 bling. 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 tlieir trust in Him." So also in other 
 passages of the Old Testament : " He is the Governor 
 among the nations." ^ " By Him kings reign and princes 
 decree justice."^ ''He staudeth in the congregation of the 
 mighty, He judgeth among the gods." ^ He shall "strike 
 through kings in the day of His wrath." * " The nation 
 and kingdom that will not serve thee " {i.e., the church) 
 " shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." ^ 
 The " kingdom shall break in pieces and consume all these 
 kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." ^ 
 
 Not less plainly does Clirist in the New Testament 
 
 Ps. xxii. 3 Ps. Ixxxii. ■' Isa. Ix. 
 
 Prov, viii. •* Ps. ex. *^ Dan. ii. 
 
292 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 scriptures reveal the relation and responsibilities of civil 
 rulers to Himself and His church. "All power is given 
 unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them, &c. ; " or, as the Apostle, 
 in writing to the Ephesians, says, " The God of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Father of glory "... hath " set Him at 
 His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all 
 principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and 
 every name that is named, not only in this world, but also 
 in that which is to come ; and hath put all things under 
 His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to 
 the Church." ^ 
 
 In these passages the spread of the gospel throughout 
 the world, and the maintenance and advancement of all the 
 interests of His church on earth, are placed by Christ Him- 
 self under the shield of that power and authority which He 
 continually exercises over nations and their rulers, as well 
 as over the hierarchies of heaven. And His power and 
 authority over the rulers and nations of the world, involve 
 not only His ability to compel their subserviency to the 
 advancement of His truth and kingdom, but also their 
 obligation to become the willing instruments in His hands 
 for this great end. 
 
 A striking confirmation is given, in the Eevelation to 
 John, of this view of the fact and the design of the power 
 and authority which Christ exercises as King of nations 
 and King of kings, and the duty which kings and nations 
 therefore owe to Him and His truth and kingdom. That 
 book, in giving a prophetic symbolic history of the progress 
 of the church from the ascension of her Head to the end 
 of time, sets forth His providential government of both the 
 church and the world. In doing so, the book gives great 
 
 Epb. 
 
National Duty to Christ, 293 
 
 prominence to the sovereignty of Christ over the nations as 
 displayed in His destroying all of them who refuse to sub- 
 mit to it, and to advance the interests and to form part of 
 His kingdom. In fact, the book commences with what has 
 been well called the keynote to all that follows — viz., a 
 representation of Christ as " the faithful and true witness, 
 the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of the kings of the 
 earth." ^ 
 
 In the character thus assigned to Christ, He is now 
 jealously watching the conduct of all nations and of their 
 rulers to His gospel and His church. When these are 
 treated by them with indifference, neglect, contempt, and 
 opposition, His displeasure is awakened, and manifested in 
 His dealings with them one after another. Further, as 
 judgments, left to their own influence alone, serve only to 
 harden those on whom they come, so, under those which, as 
 foretold, at length overtake mankind, the nations and their 
 rulers repent not to give God the glory. Accordingly un- 
 clean spirits go forth and take possession of kings and 
 people, and gather them together to the battle of the great 
 day of God Almighty. And they make war with the Lamb, 
 and the Lamb overcomes them, for He is Lord of lords and 
 King of kings. And so the issue is, that having ruled in 
 the midst of His enemies, till such as would not yield to 
 Him and obey Him are put under His feet, all that survive 
 surrender themselves to Christ as His willing subjects and 
 servants, and the kingdoms of this world become the king- 
 doms of our Lord and of His Christ, 
 
 Christ has actually governed this world, and His redeemed 
 people in it, from the beginning. But it was after He 
 became God manifested in the flesh, and finished the work 
 given to Him to do, and at His ascension to the right hand of 
 
 1 Rev. i. 
 
294 National Dtdy to Christ. 
 
 power, that, in His character of God-man Eedeemer, He 
 formally began His mediatorial reign as Prince of the kings 
 of the earth. His servants are now prophesying before 
 many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings.^ The 
 heathen persecutors, whom Satan in the first ages of the 
 church's era stirred up against those who had the testimony 
 of Jesus Christ, at length fell and perished under the wrath 
 of the Lamb,^ The antichristian powers that then arose 
 in Europe combined with the popish church against the 
 gospel, and enabled that mother of harlots to make herself 
 drunk, for ages and ages, with the blood of the saints and 
 of the martyrs of Jesus. And again at length Christ comes 
 forth as King of kings and Lord of lords, and smites these 
 guilty nations with a rod of iron, and clears away all 
 hindrances to the establishment of His kingdom on the 
 earth. 
 
 The prosperity or ruin of nations is thus bound up with 
 their acknowledgment or denial of the gospel of Christ, 
 with their favour for, or their enmity to. His church. The 
 conviction of this took the deepest hold of all ranks of 
 men, when the blessed Eeformation broke forth in Europe. 
 Eulers and people then felt and acted on their relations 
 and responsibilities to Christ, and to His truth and kingdom. 
 They combined to spread His word, to multiply the teachers 
 of it, and to fortify the church within their own and other 
 lands. True indeed, alas ! as human nature corrupts all 
 truth and purity by coming in contact with them, in this 
 case, the rulers of the nations, when acting for the spread 
 of true religion, did not confine themselves as jealously as 
 they ought to have done, to their own province in reference 
 to sacred things. Instead of acting only about them and 
 for them, they interfered too generally in them, and so 
 
 ^ Rev. X. * Rev. vi. 12. 
 
National Duty to Christ. 295 
 
 crossed the church's divine and exclusive right, under Christ, 
 of managing these things according to His word. 
 
 Now, however, many men are running into the opposite 
 extreme, and in their determination to remove all traces 
 of civil authority from within the church, they are bent on 
 sweeping away all tokens of national countenance and aid 
 from around her. And so it becomes of special importance 
 to iind and lay open, if possible, the path of duty to the 
 truth and kingdom of Christ, which lies between these two 
 extremes, and to secure the honour that is due to the Lord 
 Jesus, as King of kings, and Governor among the nations, as 
 well as King of saints. 
 
 I. The relation which civil rulers, to whom the divine 
 word has come, are required by Christ to occupy to His 
 truth and kingdom. 
 
 I leave out of view at present, or rather I take for 
 granted, the personal obligation lying on them, as on all 
 men, to embrace the Saviour for their own individual salva- 
 tion, and to serve Him on the earth ; and I desire attention 
 to their official duty as rulers, to religion and the church. 
 This duty is owing partly to the truth, viewed in itself, 
 and partly to the church, as the pillar and ground of the 
 truth, 
 
 I , Their duty to Christ and His truth, viewed apart from 
 their duty to His church, 
 
 (i.) Civil rulers are bound to acknowledge the word of 
 Christ as a divine rule to them. " earth, earth, earth, 
 hear the word of the Lord," ^ " Be w^se now, ye kings ; 
 be instructed, ye judges of the earth." "" " Every one that is 
 of the truth heareth my voice." 
 
 (2.) As all civil government, while it flowed from Christ 
 
 ^ Jer. xxii. * Ps. ii. 
 
296 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 as Creator, is placed in subjection to Him as mediatorial 
 King, civil rulers in administering it are bound officially, 
 in their laws and administration, to offer homage to Christ, 
 as Prince of the kings of the earth and King in Zion. 
 
 (3.) As civil rulers are manifestly required, in adminis- 
 tering civil government, officially to perform certain acts of 
 a strictly religious nature, they ought to perform these acts 
 in avowed accordance with the will of Christ, and with an 
 avowed regard to His glory. First, civil rulers have to open 
 their courts with prayer for wisdom and truth, righteousness 
 and mercy, to guide their judgments. But such prayer, in 
 order to its being heard, must be offered not to the imagi- 
 nary god of Deists, or of Unitarians, or to the virgin Mary, 
 or through her intercession, any more than to the god of 
 Mohammedans or Mormons, or the gods of Paganism, but to 
 the Triune God, through the one Mediator. And in spite of 
 men's lancies, a national creed becomes indispensable, if 
 such prayers are to be true worship, and not a mockery. 
 Second, civil rulers require to keep up the administration of 
 oaths over the whole kingdom. But oaths are one of the 
 most solemn exercises of religion, the most solemn acts of 
 worship, the most solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts 
 and the Judge of all, that can be engaged in on this side of 
 the final judgment-seat. And unless it is held that rulers 
 and the nation are entitled to make a form and a mockery 
 of this whole solemnity, and to offer such continual affronts 
 to the Majesty of heaven as will bring down upon the land 
 His displeasure, they are bound to further among the people, 
 the knowledge and fear of the Most High, whose name they 
 so often officially require the people to take into their lips. 
 Third, civil rulers are bound to call for national acts of 
 humiliation before God in times of danger, and for national 
 acts of thanksgiving to God in times of deliverance. But 
 their duty is not performed in such cases, by merely invit- 
 
National Duty to Christ. 297 
 
 ing the people to engage in such acts of worship, without 
 showing the least care as to what God, true or false, the 
 people supplicate or magnify ; without giving the least indi- 
 cation of the character of the Being with whom the nation 
 has to do ; without making the slightest allusion to the 
 sentiments that become the people in approaching unto 
 Him. In short, if warranted officially to invite their 
 people to seek unto God in such seasons, they are bound to 
 endeavour to indicate how they are to seek and find Him. 
 
 (4.) Such social immoralities and crimes as polygamy, 
 adultery, and incest, intemperance and violence, robbery 
 and fraud, perjury and slander, civil rulers are bound to 
 prevent and punish. They are bound to do this in their 
 character of " ministers of God " to the people for their 
 " good ; " in other words, as servants of God, required in 
 this manner to avert His auger from the land, and to secure 
 His favour to it, by repressing such outward wickedness, 
 and by securing the practice of outward purity, sobriety, 
 honesty, and truth. 
 
 (5.) Profane swearing, open blasphemy, and gross out- 
 rages on the sanctity of the sabbath, are impieties which, 
 if unchecked, are sure utterly to demoralise society, and to 
 bring down destroying judgments on the land in which they 
 are allowed to prevail. It therefore becomes civil rulers to 
 repress such wickedness with a firm hand. 
 
 (6.) As the youth of a land are destined to be a blessing 
 or a bane to it, according as they are, or are not, trained 
 religiously and morally, as well as secularly, and as the 
 daily school is the place for the whole of this training, if it 
 is to be thoroughly and effectively given, so as to secure the 
 proper results, civil rulers are bound to aim at, or to aid 
 in securing, a system of education for the young, which 
 shall combine sound moral and religious with secular 
 instruction. 
 
298 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 (7.) Tens of thousands of our countrymen are engaged 
 in the naval and military services, and are, therefore, so 
 situated that they cannot have, as at home, free access to 
 divine ordinances of worship and instruction, or any access 
 at all except as these ordinances are provided for them by 
 civil rulers, at the national expense. It therefore is the 
 duty of the civil government to provide for soldiers and 
 sailors, at the public expense, the means of religious in- 
 struction and worship, according to the word of Christ. 
 
 (8.) The inmates of jails and penitentiaries and poor- 
 houses being similarly situated, in reference to their highest 
 interests, civil rulers ought to make a similar provision for 
 them. 
 
 (9.) In like manner, wherever there are found outcast 
 and neglected poor in a land, with none to care for them, 
 civil rulers are bound to exercise over them a parental care. 
 And that implies their obligation to provide food for their 
 souls as well as food for their bodies. And the Lord will 
 not hold rulers or their nation guiltless where this duty is 
 neglected. 
 
 (10.) Finally, under this head, as the ascendancy of a 
 professedly christian government in heathen lands can be 
 rightfully retained and made a blessing, or retained at all, 
 only by spreading in them the christian faith, it behoves 
 such a government to assist in diffusing divine truth through 
 such benighted regions, and in bringing them out of dark- 
 ness into marvellous light. 
 
 Thus, apart from the formal relation of civil rulers to 
 the church of Christ, and although there were no church 
 in the land, were that a conceivable thing, here is a large 
 and varied field of christian work, which civil rulers must 
 occupy, if they are of the truth and hear the voice of 
 Christ, and do their duty to Him as Governor among the 
 nations, Prince of the kinos of the earth. 
 
Natlo7ial Ditty to Christ. 299 
 
 2. The duty of civil rulers to the church or kingdom of 
 Christ. 
 
 (i.) They are bound to recognise that kingdom, not as it 
 is to be found merely in one or two sections of it, but as it 
 is found in all the sections of it which the land contains. 
 That is the way in which, according to His word, Christ 
 Himself owns His church. And, therefore, that is the way 
 in which rulers who would obey His word must own it. 
 
 (2.) In order to their thus recognising the kingdom of 
 Christ in the land, they must be able to distinguish, and 
 must officially distinguish accordingly, those communities 
 that are churches of Christ, and those communities which, 
 whatever they call themselves, are not true churches of 
 •Christ. Societies which are characterised by principles 
 and practices that are essentially opposed to the word of 
 Christ are not to be confounded, even by civil rulers in 
 their legislation, with those whose leading principles are in 
 accordance with that word. 
 
 (3.) Civil rulers are bound, not only to recognise the 
 kingdom of Christ in all true sections of it, but to regard 
 them and deal with them in proportion to their faithfulness 
 to Christ, as, in respect even of the temporal interests of 
 the population, the greatest benefactors to the land whom 
 it contains. Civil rulers are to remember that godliness is 
 profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life 
 that now is, as well as of that which is to come, and that 
 to any people who can be made to seek first the kingdom 
 of God, and the righteousness thereof, the promise is that 
 all things shall be added. And for the sake of the tem- 
 poral good to society, which is the end of their government, 
 they are bound to foster that kingdom, which is thus the 
 mainstay of their government, and the main security for the 
 well-being of the land which they govern. 
 
 Christianity reaches where civil law cannot enter. It 
 
300 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 reaches and enlightens the conscience, and so makes it an 
 effective rule of action to men. It reaches and purifies 
 the heart, till in all their relations men act from the 
 highest and holiest motives. It thus exercises an all- 
 controlling power, in ten thousand circumstances and 
 actions, in which the mere human law of civil government 
 utterly fails to exert any power whatever. 
 
 Even where mere human law can reach, and ought to 
 put forth its authority and power, the execution of it is 
 rendered unspeakably less needful, and therefore proportion- 
 ately milder, by the presence and pervading power of Chris- 
 tianity, than if the latter were absent or unfelt. Moreover, 
 there are endless crimes which arise among corrupt men, 
 and operate to destroy their social state. There are the 
 idleness, intemperance, prostitution, and commercial frauds, 
 the violence to persons and property, the oppressive laws, 
 and the desolating wars that spring from human selfish- 
 ness, pride, and ambition, and the poverty, disease, and 
 endless miseries, and all the crushing burdens with 
 which such vices and crimes load a country in its efibrts 
 to meet and to restrain them. All these disorders and 
 woes are lessened, in proportion as Christianity prevails, 
 and purifies its subjects in every class and station. And 
 they would be done away if Christianity were but univer- 
 sally to prevail. These considerations show that Christi- 
 anity is the chief defence of nations, the great source of 
 men's temporal and social well-being, as well as of their 
 spiritual and eternal well-being. And it is difficult and 
 scarcely right to have patience with any man or any set of 
 men, of ordinary intelligence and powers of observation, 
 who, in the face of facts like these, persistently deny that 
 it is part of the official duty of civil rulers to foster the 
 truth and kingdom of Christ within the land, with assi- 
 duous care. 
 
National Duty to Christ. 301 
 
 (4.) In order that the church may fulfil the work 
 assigned to her by Christ, and so scatter blessings in her 
 path, over the land in which she thus labours among all 
 classes, civil rulers are bound in duty to Christ to own, by 
 legal enactment, the entire and exclusive power which He 
 has given to her, to regulate her own spiritual affairs. 
 Civil rulers are bound thus to throw up a wall of defence 
 around the church's jurisdiction, and so prevent themselves 
 or their courts from being tempted to interfere with it. This 
 is needful to her safe and prosperous action within her own 
 spiritual sphere, so that she may do the will of her Head, 
 and bring down His blessing. 
 
 (5.) In whatever religious work civil rulers have to 
 engage (and we have already shown how many acts of a 
 religious nature they are inevitably required to perform), 
 they are bound to have that work done with the help of 
 the churches of Christ. That is to say, in the offering of 
 prayer in their courts — in keeping up among their people 
 that reverence for oaths which will make them a safeguard 
 of justice, not a mere covert of wickedness, a snare and a 
 curse — in providing for acts of national humiliation and 
 thanksgiving — in facilitating the religious as well as securing 
 the secular education of the young — in favouring the intro- 
 duction of Christianity into heathen countries under their 
 sway — in providing means of religious instruction and wor- 
 ship for soldiers and sailors, for criminals and paupers — and, 
 in short, in all those departments of religious works with 
 •which civil government is unavoidably connected, it is 
 the duty of civil rulers to perform their duty, as much 
 as may be, through the instrumentality of the churches of 
 Christ, or of those who fill the office of the ministry in 
 them. 
 
 (6.) Still further as regards the ministrations of religion 
 in all the congregations of all the true churches of Christ 
 
302 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 in a land, civil rulers are bound to take an active interest 
 in countenancing and upholding their ministrations. 
 
 The grounds of this statement are that these ministra- 
 tions, more than anything else, affect the honour and 
 involve the blessing of our great Sovereign, Christ, who 
 rules the nations as their Governor, while He rules the 
 churches as King in Zion, Nor is there any difficulty in 
 pointing out the ways in which, practically, civil rulers may 
 countenance and uphold the ministrations of religion, in all 
 true churches in the land. 
 
 First, As opportunity occurs, they may as national rulers 
 give their presence in the meetings of faithful churches for 
 worship or for government, and signify their estimate of the 
 value of the christian services thus rendered. 
 
 Second, By counselling the churches to do their duty to 
 Christ, to His truth, and to His kingdom, civil rulers may 
 both stimulate and encourage the members of churches to 
 contribute their time, their energies, and their means, to 
 provide for upholding and extending the ministrations of 
 true religion at home and abroad.^ 
 
 Third, In token of their sympathy with the work that 
 is being done by the churches of Christ, and also of the 
 homage wdiich is due from them as civil rulers, to Him who 
 is Head over all things to the church, they may contribute 
 material aid, in such directions, in such degrees, at such 
 times, and in such ways, as shall be a supply where necessity 
 requires it, and stimulate instead of superseding, the zeal 
 and liberality of the churches in the discharge of their duty.^ 
 
 Whatever an irreverent flippancy, or the straits or pre- 
 judices of party may say, inculcations of this duty of civil 
 rulers stare upon us from the pages of the word of Christ. 
 " The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall Ining pre- 
 
 1 Ezra i. i, &c. ^ Ezra i. i, &c. ; vi. I, &c. 
 
National DiUy to Christ. 303 
 
 sents : the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." ^ 
 " Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurs- 
 ing mothers." ^ " The sons of strangers shall build up thy 
 walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee . . , thy 
 gates shall not be shut day nor night ; that men may bring 
 unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings 
 may be brought . . . thou shalt suck the breast of kings." ^ 
 " The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour 
 into it. . . . And they shall bring the glory and honour of 
 the nations into it." ^ 
 
 As all the followers of Christ are plainly required by His 
 word to contribute according to their ability for the ad- 
 vancement of His truth and kingdom in the world, not less 
 plainly does the word of Christ require of civil rulers, in 
 their place and measure, to afford material aid to the same 
 great objects. Even though the liberality of the members 
 of the church is the great means by which the church is to 
 accomplish her work on earth, and though the aid of rulers 
 is to be very much exceptional, occasional, subsidiary, and 
 supplemental, still both are required by the word of Christ, 
 and when rightly arranged, are beautifully fitted to work in 
 unison for the realisation of that blessed era, when great 
 voices shall be heard in heaven, saying, " The kingdoms of 
 this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His 
 Christ, and He shall reign upon the earth." 
 
 II. The false relations which national rulers are to avoid. 
 
 I. Conspicuous among these are the three false relations 
 which popery insists on establishing between earthly rulers 
 and what it dares blasphemously to call the truth and king- 
 dom of Christ. 
 
 (i.) The popish church demands of rulers that they own 
 
 ^ Ps. Ixxii. 2 Isa xlix. ^ Isa. Ix. ■* Rev. xxi. 
 
304 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 her as the only church of Christ, and that they own the 
 pope as the vicar of Christ, and as the head of His church 
 on earth. By Christ's word to rulers, they are bound to 
 reject that claim with abhorrence. They are bound to treat 
 the head of the Eomish system as the man of sin, the son 
 of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all 
 that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he as God 
 sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is 
 God; whom, therefore, the Lord shall consume with the 
 Spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His 
 coming.^ 
 
 (2.) The claim of the head of the popish church to be 
 as such a temporal sovereign of an earthly kingdom, in the 
 midst of other temporal kings and kingdoms, is another of 
 those false claims which the word of Christ binds rulers 
 utterly to reject, as at once, in direct opposition to the 
 word of Christ to them, that His kingdom is not of this 
 world, and as at the same time a claim which is alike 
 offensive and threatening to the kingdoms of earth, con- 
 sidering the power, both temporal and spiritual, which the 
 Eomish church asserts, as of divine right, in and over all 
 nations. 
 
 (3.) The same antichristian church also claims a temporal 
 jurisdiction over all earthly kingdoms, which civil rulers 
 are not less bound to resist to the uttermost. Through 
 many ages, alas ! the nations of Europe submitted to this 
 claim, and gave their strength and power to the beast." 
 They committed fornication with this mother of harlots, by 
 denying Christ's truth and kingdom, and by seeking her 
 fellowship and serving her ends. They have therefore been 
 left to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, 
 the wrath due to her and them for their unfaithfulness to 
 
 ^ 2 Thess. ii. ^ Rev. xvii. 
 
National DiUy to Christ. 305 
 
 Christ, until they have staggered, or are still staggering, to 
 their final fall and utter ruin. The only nations which have 
 prospered are those which have rejected these and other im- 
 pious claims of popery. And the voice of Christ, in His 
 word and in His providence, is loudly proclaiming to rulers 
 that all the interests of society demand the speedy and 
 utter annihilation of all these impious claims. 
 
 In fact, with the word of Christ to guide them, civil 
 rulers are bound to deal with the Eomish church, as the 
 greatest enemy on earth of all the interests which it is their 
 duty to protect, foster, and advance, as the enemy of Christ, 
 the enemy of His truth, the enemy of His sabbath, the 
 ■enemy of man's salvation, the enemy of the rights and 
 liberties of all christian churches, the enemy of the sound 
 education of the young, the enemy of conscience, the enemy 
 of human freedom, the enemy of all human progress, the 
 greatest enemy of all worldly states and kingdoms, as well 
 as of that kingdom which is not of this world. If civil 
 rulers require to give this system standing-room within the 
 land, they cannot be of the truth and hear the voice of 
 Christ, without at the same time perceiving and remember- 
 ing that they are tolerating the presence of an enemy that 
 will try, in return for the shelter received, to crush the very 
 national liberty of which it is permitted to take advantage. 
 To attempt bribing into quietness and loyalty such a system, 
 is as wicked, and will be found as foolish, as it would be to 
 attempt bribing the wicked one himself to let truth prevail 
 and virtue flourish. And the rulers are neither wisely 
 patriotic nor faithful christian rulers who fail to watch this 
 system with a jealous eye, and resolutely to keep it in check, 
 until the truth, the grace, and the power of Christ accom- 
 plish its destruction, and the churches and nations are at 
 length enabled to breathe freely by being delivered from its 
 presence. 
 
 y 
 
3o6 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 2. Various false relations of church and state in Pro- 
 testant countries. 
 
 (i.) The Erastian relation which places the church of 
 Christ in her spiritual actings under civil control, is one 
 of these false relations which rulers are bound by Christ's 
 word to avoid. 
 
 They are forbidden to rule His kingdom, and to control 
 it within its own spiritual province by their laws and power. 
 He has appointed within it a government, in the hands of 
 church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate. When 
 civil rulers interfere with that government they set at 
 nought His will and honour, take away the rights and 
 liberties of the office-bearers and members of His church, 
 destroy the integrity of His kingdom, and deal with it as 
 with a conquered and subject kingdom of this world. 
 
 No aid nationally given to the church will for a moment 
 justify the assertion and exercise of such a civil supremacy 
 in and over her. The only proper and an abundant return 
 for any such aid, is the church's unfettered performance of 
 christian service. 
 
 All questions of christian truth and discipline within the 
 church can be lawfully dealt with and determined, only by 
 those church officers distinct from the civil magistrate, in 
 whose hands alone Christ has placed the government of His 
 church. 
 
 It is more than time that the rulers of this land were 
 awaking to the evil nature and disastrous results of that 
 state-supremacy over the church of Christ which they have 
 so long claimed and wielded. It is high time that they were 
 learning to regard the kingdom of Christ in all its sections, 
 as by His will, the freest of all kingdoms on this earth. It 
 is more than time that they were allowing it to assert, 
 maintain, and improve its free action and heavenly charac- 
 ter, as the only condition on which it can honour Him, and 
 
National Dtity to Christ. 307 
 
 be used by Him to dispense unspeakable and endless bless- 
 ings to the nations of the world. 
 
 (2.) Closely connected with, and indeed naturally result- 
 ing from, the Erastian connection just mentioned, is another 
 false relation of civil rulers to religion and the church, 
 viz., that of indiscriminate support of all religious systems, 
 true and false, that prevail and have decided power in the 
 land. 
 
 According to the fundamental principle of that relation, 
 civil rulers have no call or comjDetency to distinguish be- 
 tween truth and error ; little or no distinction is to be made 
 between one religious system and another; it is not, indeed, 
 .so much as a system of religion at all, but rather as a poli- 
 tical power in the country, that each is to be subsidised by 
 the State. 
 
 But this is just to have the devil's lie placed on the same 
 level with the truth as it is in Jesus, and to have the syna- 
 gogue of Satan placed side by side with the church of the 
 living God. It is an attempt to bring righteousness into 
 fellowship with unrighteousness, light into communion with 
 darkness, Christ into concord with Belial, the temple of God 
 into agreement with idols. 
 
 This is a popular policy with too many statesmen at pre- 
 sent, if they only knew how to carry it out. But as the 
 penalty due to it for the dishonour which it offers to the 
 Lord Jesus, to His truth and kingdom, overwhelming judg- 
 ments are evidently about to be sent by Christ on all insti- 
 tutions, civil and ecclesiastical, that are based and are trying 
 to build themselves up on such a foundation. 
 
 Parties who widely differ as to the right relation of rulers 
 to religion and the church will unite, though from different 
 motives, designs, and hopes, in hurling such a system of 
 things into destruction, or in permitting it, unhelped, to be 
 overtaken by its deserved doom. 
 
3o8 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 And all Christ's true servants are solemnly called to pre- 
 pare for terminating tlieir connection with such a system, 
 by forming or filling up more faithful sections of the king- 
 dom of Christ on earth, 
 
 (3.) There is a false relation of favouritism which civil 
 rulers are bound to avoid. It is not their duty to select 
 one or two of the churches of Christ in a land, and to favour 
 them at the expense of others. By a reprehensible and 
 ruinous policy, rulers may slide into this position. But it 
 is an improper one, out of which the sooner they get, the 
 better both for religion and the land. 
 
 The churches of Christ ought to be treated by the state 
 with even-handed justice, and to experience alike, so far as 
 they will allow themselves to experience, the effects of 
 state-homage to the truth, as forming together the kingdom 
 of Christ in the land. For it is the truth which the nation 
 is to further wherever it is found. It is the voice of 
 Christ which the nation is to hear and to reverence, through 
 whatever section of the church His voice is speaking. It 
 is the kingdom of Christ which the nation is to uphold and 
 advance, in whatever sections of it that kingdom is pre- 
 sented before their eyes. And the truth, the voice, and the 
 kingdom of Christ, are to be recognised by the nation and 
 its rulers, in connection with all the branches of the church 
 in which He reveals His truth, utters His voice, and ex- 
 hibits His kingdom. 
 
 (4.) There is a relation of over-assistance to the church 
 which the rulers of a land are required, by the voice of 
 Christ in His word, to avoid. It is not the duty of civil 
 rulers to provide to such an extent the means required for 
 the maintenance and extension of the church of Christ, 
 as to supersede the private and personal givings of the 
 members. 
 
 That arrangement, when it exists, sets aside a law of 
 
National Duty to Christ, 309 
 
 Christ which requires these givings ; and it stifles the spirit 
 from which they should flow. 
 
 Moreover, in stifling that spirit, tlie general tone of 
 religion and morality becomes correspondingly depressed. 
 
 Other mischiefs follow when tliis overdone state patron- 
 age is bestowed on particular sections of the church. The 
 stipendiaries so over-fed, assume airs of haughtiness in the 
 presence of brethren who are often more worthy of honour. 
 The leaven of worldliness eats the life out of such stipen- 
 diaries. Many of the people, too, become attached to the 
 ministry of such stipendiaries, however unfaithful, just 
 because it does not directly cost them anything, while they 
 are far too callous to care about where that ministry is 
 leading them. And thus the highest interests are sacrificed 
 by such overdone state patronage. 
 
 The word of Christ affords no warrant for such state 
 provision for the christian ministry as would supersede the 
 free-will offerings of the people ; and that word affords just 
 as little warrant for such a provision in favour of certain 
 sections of the ministry, in contradistinction from and at 
 the expense of other sections, not less, probably more faith- 
 ful. And the sooner such disorders give way to those 
 arrangements which are in better accordance with Scripture, 
 reason, justice, and common sense, the better will it be for 
 the truth and the kingdom of Christ, as well as for the 
 kingdoms of this world which are concerned. 
 
 3. There is a relation of official neutrality on the part of 
 civil rulers to the truth and kingdom of Christ for which 
 many in the present day contend, but which is, we believe, 
 as truly contrary to the word of Christ as are the other 
 false relations which we have mentioned. 
 
 (i.) They are against all legislation in favour of true 
 religion as well as of that which is false. The advocates of 
 this neutrality may indeed hold that civil rulers ought to 
 
310 N alio 71 al Duty to Christ. 
 
 be personally christian, ought to go to their official work 
 as rulers in a christian spirit. At the same time, they not 
 less strenuously insist that legislation ought to make or 
 recognise no distinction between truth and error in religion. 
 They insist that the laws which civil rulers make and 
 administer, ought to have no more religion in them than is 
 found in the hats, and shoes, and hosiery, and other pro- 
 ducts of ordinary tradesmen. But, — 
 
 First. It is an untenable foundation on which to erect 
 that theory to tell us that the only end, immediate or ulti- 
 mate, of the magistrate's office is the temporal welfare of 
 society. For, first, it is an unfounded assumption to say of 
 any human agency whatever, that absolutely the only end 
 which it is intended and ought to be employed to serve is 
 one of a merely temporal and perishable nature. Whatever 
 immediate formal end certain kinds of human agency may 
 be appointed to serve, there is not one of them that has not 
 for its ultimate and higher end, results that reach, and 
 ought to be realised as reaching, through eternity. Second, 
 Even while the civil magistrate is to contemplate, as the 
 immediate formal end of his government, the temporal 
 welfare of society, he is bound as a reasonable, and still 
 more as a christian man, to take the best, the cheapest, 
 the easiest, and the surest way of accomplishing that end. 
 And as godliness has the promise of the life which now is, 
 as well as of that which is to come, the civil magistrate, as 
 having charge of the life that now is, is officially bound 
 actively to foster that godliness by which, more than by 
 all other means within his reach, this, the immediate formal 
 end of his office, may be attained. Third, As we have 
 already said, while the temporal well-being of society is the 
 immediate formal end of the magistrate's office, it is not the 
 actual ultimate principal end of his office, or of any office 
 
National DtUy to Christ. 31 1 
 
 in this world. lu all departments of human agency, men 
 are bound to have regard to the glory of God, and their 
 own and each other's future and eternal destiny. And 
 therefore, both with a view to the immediate formal end of 
 his government, which is the public good, and with a view 
 also to the ultimate, and infinitely the most important, 
 results of all human agency, the civil magistrate is bound 
 to recognise, and to act under the acknowledgment of, the 
 relation in which he and his government, and those that 
 are under it, occupy to God and His word, to Christ and 
 His truth and kingdom. 
 
 Second, We are told, indeed, by advocates of this neu- 
 trality on the part of the civil magistrate, that he is no- 
 where represented in Scripture as armed with the sword of 
 office for the advancement of godliness ; and painful pic- 
 tures are drawn of the violence to conscience and to truth 
 that result from drawing his sword in such a cause. But 
 they do violence to truth who thus speak. For they speak 
 of the civil magistrate as if his whole work consisted in 
 brandishing his sword in the face of his subjects. There 
 are, we think, sounder, more rational, more scriptural views 
 of the magistrate's office. The Bible says, " He that ruleth 
 over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he 
 shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, 
 even as a morning without clouds, as the tender grass 
 springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." 
 That description does not tally with the doctrine that he 
 can officially do nothing but brandish his sword of office, 
 and resort to compulsion, or to physical force. The civil 
 magistrate is also described as " the minister of God " to 
 His people " for good ; " and that description implies that 
 the more he uses all possible moral influence, and the less 
 he resorts to coercive power, the more effectually will he 
 accomplish the work and ends of his office, and prove a 
 
3 1 2 National Dtdy to Christ. 
 
 l)lessing to those over whom he is placed. Moreover, while 
 " a terror to evil-doers," and armed for that purpose with 
 the sword, he is also to be " a praise to them that do well ; " 
 and that language, too, looks like an intimation that he is 
 to do more than merely protect true christians and true 
 churches ; that he is, in fact, to treat them with special 
 favour as the very salt of society. 
 
 Third. It is said that such distinction officially made by 
 the civil magistrate in favour of true christians and true 
 churches, and in favour of the truth, is civil injustice to 
 those who hold by what is reckoned vital error in religion. 
 But to affirm that the civil magistrate who, with general 
 consent, affords countenance and support to the truth and 
 kingdom of Christ in the land, acts unjustly by those who 
 are opposed to the arrangement, is to affirm that men are 
 wronged by having to live in a land in which, according to 
 the prevailing christian convictions, the best means are 
 being effectually used and divinely blessed for advancing 
 the highest interests, for time and for eternity, of the great 
 bulk and body of the people. 
 
 Fourth. It is said, however, that the truth and kingdom 
 of Christ are things too sacred to be honoured and helped 
 by the declarations and actions of civil rulers in their 
 favour. But the cause of Christ is not too sacred to re- 
 ceive the homage of every power and agency that has a 
 right to exist and operate on this earth. On the contrary, 
 His cause is placed and upheld on this earth for the very 
 purpose of receiving this homage, or of proving the de- 
 struction of all powers and agencies that refuse it. The 
 truth and kingdom of Christ are placed and maintained by 
 Him in the world, that they may subdue, regenerate, sanc- 
 tify, and control every agency, great and small, till holiness 
 to the Lord is written, not only on civil government, but 
 on all the myriads of smaller powers and agencies, down 
 
National Duty to Christ. 3 1 3 
 
 to the veiy bells of the horses, and Christ is indeed " all 
 and in all." 
 
 Fifth. We are told again that all direct, formal, distin- 
 guishing connection between the civil powers and Christ's 
 truth and kingdom ought to be avoided, because every such 
 connection is unavoidably and invariably corrupting to the 
 truth, and injurious to the prevalence of true religion. But 
 this reasoning, if it proves anything, proves a great deal 
 too much. For see where it lands us. Eeligion is always 
 corrupted by contact with depraved men, therefore all 
 such contact ought to be avoided. The church is always 
 corrupted by temporal power, riches, and honour ; there- 
 fore she ought to be kept in weakness, poverty, and dis- 
 grace. The kingdom of Christ must always suffer from its 
 connection with this fallen world ; therefore it ought not to 
 be in it. Surely to state is to prove the opposite argument, 
 viz., that as the corruption which fdls the kingdoms of this 
 world can be restrained and removed only by the penetrat- 
 ing and purifying power of true religion, therefore the more 
 thoroughly the kingdoms of this world are pervaded by its 
 power, the better will it be for them, and the more effectu- 
 ally will the ends of religion and of the church be accom- 
 plished on the earth. Civil rulers, with the word of Christ 
 to guide them, are bound to know this fact, and to foster 
 accordingly within the land both true religion and all true 
 churches of the living God. 
 
 Sixth. It is also argued that religion and the church do 
 not need state-recognition to enable them to live and to 
 thrive. The answer is varied and complete. Eeligion and 
 the church do not need to be free from persecution, for 
 they often thrive best in the fiery furnace ; but that is no 
 reason why they should not desire and benefit by outward 
 rest and other outward advantages. Moreover, whatever 
 they need or can do without, nations and rulers need them, 
 
3 1 4 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 need their presence and help to make the land safe and pros- 
 perous. And though Christ does not need the help of civil 
 rulers to His truth and kingdom, they need His presence 
 and blessing, and, in order to that, they need to own Him 
 as their ruler and disposer, they need to own His word of 
 truth, they need to offer their homage at His feet, they 
 need, for their own sake, to secure the influence, and to 
 further the prevalence and the power of His truth and 
 kingdom in the land. 
 
 Seventh. Notwithstanding these, as they appear to us, 
 manifest truths, the advocates of the neutrality of the civil 
 powers in reference to the truth and kingdom of Christ, still 
 insist that the best thing civil rulers can do for true reli- 
 gion and true churches, is officially to let them alone; to 
 protect them indeed from violence, and give them free 
 scope ; but beyond that protection, to be officially passive 
 in their presence, neither hindering them on the one hand, 
 nor, on the other hand, helping them with any positive aid. 
 
 But, Jirst, this doctrine is opposed to the obligations 
 which are involved in the fact that Christ is Head over 
 nations as well as Head of His church. For that fact car- 
 ries with it this consequence, that civil government and the 
 church are both in His hands, and ought, while they exist 
 side by side, to be positively and actively helpful to each 
 other. 
 
 Moreover, second, the doctrine which we are combating, 
 seems opposed to all the irresistible necessities of the case. 
 For, were it true that no natural, necessary, actual, formal, 
 and positive connection was to be established between 
 Christ's kingdom and those worldly kingdoms in the midst 
 of which it exists and prevails, then this extraordinary and 
 impossible state of things might arise in a land, viz., that 
 Christ's kingdom could be set up and advanced in it, till its 
 spiritual divine power transformed the entire character of 
 
National Duty to Christ. 3 1 5 
 
 both rulers and people, and yet the laws and institutions, 
 and whole government of the land, as to the letter and the 
 form of them, remained the same as before. But the idea 
 is preposterous. The kingdom of Christ cannot prevail in a 
 land without revolutionising not only the character of rulers 
 and ruled, but the laws, the government, and the whole 
 social institutions, habits, and condition of the people, and 
 even the very face of the land itself That very Eoman 
 empire, in the interest of which Pilate, at the time here 
 referred to, questioned Jesus, was speedily to be in a marked 
 degree so revolutionised by the very truth to which Jesus 
 refers, that He could not possibly mean, by what He said, 
 that His kingdom would not, by its advancement, seriously 
 affect that empire, or that its rulers were under no official 
 obligation to own Him, and to further His truth, and to 
 assist in setting up His kingdom. All that Jesus could 
 possibly mean was, that He was not to set up any rival 
 temporal power, but that the power which He was to estab- 
 lish, would operate only to bless the civil governments 
 which it found existing, and which welcomed its presence 
 and submitted to its influence ; and that it would bless 
 them by purifying and elevating them, and so giving to 
 them at once a more healthful and a more enduring 
 character. 
 
 Now, while the moral and spiritual forces of the kingdom 
 of Christ are thus telling on the whole condition of worldly 
 kingdoms, unless some positive command has come forth 
 from on high, which binds them to passiveness in its pre- 
 sence, it is neither possible nor proper for the kingdoms of 
 this world to let the kingdom of Christ alone, to let it remain 
 unnoticed or unacknowledged in their laws and their ad- 
 ministration. Such mighty forces, such a divinely revolu- 
 tionary power at active and decisive work within their 
 borders, cannot but require as well as compel them to deal 
 
3 1 6 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 with it. It is not reasonable to say that national rulers are 
 able or at liberty to allow such spiritual omnipotent forces 
 of the kingdom of Christ to operate in the land, and entirely 
 to revolutionise both them and the people, without giving to 
 that kingdom of Christ any official recognition and coun- 
 tenance. They could not, in fact, avoid legislating for or 
 against it. The attempt, moreover, to be neutral toward it, 
 or to give the same legislative and administrative treatment 
 to it and to its opposites, would be to act as its adversaries. 
 For, not to be with Christ, not to be for His truth and king- 
 dom, directly and decidedly, actively and avowedly, is, on 
 the part of any agency and power whatsoever, to be really 
 against Him. 
 
 And, third, This advocated neutrality of rulers toM^ards the 
 kingdom of Christ, gets no countenance from His words to 
 Pilate. " He that is of the truth heareth my voice." All, 
 in every condition, and as respects the real and avowed pur- 
 pose of all their actings, if true, not false, to themselves and 
 to others, to Christ and to God, offer the homage of their 
 hearts and lives to Christ, as King over all; King over all in 
 all conditions, and through all time. These words mean 
 that, if they mean anything. So that, according to their 
 just and only tenable interpretation, all departments of 
 human agency, governmental or otherwise, are in reality a 
 lie and a delusion, except they are purposely and formally 
 subject to Christ, and positively and actively subservient to 
 the interests of His truth and kingdom. It cannot be that, 
 according to these words, the laws and official actings of 
 civil rulers are to make no difference between religious 
 truth and religious error, between true churches of Christ, 
 true sections of His kingdom, and other societies, that may 
 take the name of His church and kingdom, while they deny 
 or set aside His truth ; are to treat such true and such false 
 churches with the same favour or the same indifference, or 
 
National Duty to CJu^ist. 3 1 7 
 
 the same neutrality, and to afford exactly the same help to 
 each to spread truth and falsehood respectively throughout 
 the land. 
 
 Eighth. All direct active helpful relations of civil rulers 
 to the truth and kingdom of Christ, is opposed on the 
 ground that civil rulers are not only not required, but are 
 incompetent, and even forbidden, to declare officially what 
 is true and what is false in religion. Of course, that really 
 means that the laws of a land are not to exhibit or contain 
 any distinction between truth and error in religion, are not 
 to offer any direct homage to the word of God as His word, 
 are to offer no direct homage to Christ, are to pay no pecu- 
 liar respect to His churches, as distinct from all other 
 societies, ecclesiastical or civil. Well, this doctrine cer- 
 tainly looks like that of Pilate when he said " What is 
 truth ? " Pilate evidently held that he knew of no set of 
 sentiments to which the word " truth " could be exclusively 
 or really applied, and that, at all events, as a ruler he could 
 and would take no cognisance of any doctrines whatever, 
 as entitled to have the term " truth " applied to them. 
 And, further, the opinion which we are now dealing with, 
 does look like a contradiction of the words of Jesus, when 
 He said, " Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 Eor these words certainly seem to mean, if they mean any- 
 thing, that all men, in all conditions, and in all their words 
 and actions, are true to Christ, true to their neighbours and 
 themselves, and true to their own and one another's interests 
 for time and eternity, only in so far as their actings em- 
 body the truth to which He came into the world to bear 
 witness. 
 
 Ninth. Amidst the various windings taken by the opinion 
 which we are now endeavouring to bring forth to view, and 
 to present in the clear light of truth, we may notice one 
 other turn which it takes, and by which it twists itself 
 
3 1 8 National Ditty to Christ. 
 
 round the imaginations and passions of many, and then holds 
 them fast by one of the strongest prejudices. The advocates 
 of official neutrality on the part of civil rulers, in the con- 
 flicts going on between truth and error in religion, are 
 accustomed to argue, that civil rulers could not legislate at 
 all in favour of the truth, without employing such coercion 
 in its favour as is contrary to the spirit and enactments of 
 the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, That means that 
 formal legislation, in every shape and form, in favour of 
 true religion, involves the offering of violence to the con- 
 sciences of men, and to the right of private judgment. But 
 this averment is surely an abuse of words, and the raising 
 up of a bugbear. 
 
 All legislation, indeed, in favour of the truth and kingdom 
 of Christ that sought to compel men to believe these doc- 
 trines which the laws set forth as truth, by subjecting those 
 who differed from these doctrines to penalties from which 
 such as received them were freed, — all that sort of legisla- 
 tion would be chargeable with the coercion of conscience, 
 and is therefore to be utterly abhorred. To employ such 
 coercion, under the professed design of securing regard to 
 the truth and kingdom of Christ, is to frustrate the very 
 end for which it is professedly employed. For the pro- 
 fessed end is to recommend the truth and to glorify Christ, 
 by making men good citizens, as the result of encouraging 
 them to become true christians. An end like that cannot 
 possibly be accomplished by attempting to compel men to 
 believe in Christ, or by compelling them to profess their 
 faith in Him. 
 
 But to say that civil rulers cannot officially and legisla- 
 tively set forth the claims of Christ, of His truth and king- 
 dom, to universal acceptance, without resorting to such 
 compulsion, is to contradict reason and observation, as well 
 as scripture. To say that civil government caimot use its 
 
National Duty to Christ. 319 
 
 moral influence alone, for any purpose, is to shut our eyes 
 to as plain a fact as that the sun shines. Even in political 
 matters, it often uses its mere moral influence with nations 
 abroad, and with its people at home, to secure the adoption 
 of sound principles and courses of action, in cases in which 
 it has and claims no power to enforce its counsels. And 
 surely what civil government does even in political matters, 
 it can do in reference to those higher truths and interests 
 in which it is bound to take the deepest concern. 
 
 If a national testimony on behalf of peace throughout the 
 world, as against the guilty designs of the nations that are 
 arming for war, if such a testimony can be nobly borne by 
 a nation like this, and that when no power is claimed or to 
 be exercised to enforce it, on what ground can it be denied, 
 that a national testimony in favour of the truth and king- 
 dom of Christ may be borne, without exercising or claiming 
 any power or right physically to enforce that testimony. 
 That witness-bearing to the truth, which is the echo of 
 Christ's own witness-bearing, may come from a thousand as 
 well as from one, and from millions as well as from thou- 
 sands, and from the collective body of a people as well as 
 from them individually, and from their rulers and their laws 
 as well as from themselves. 
 
 Nor is the value of such a national testimony to be 
 overlooked. For if God has appointed those who receive 
 the truth to be His witnesses for it on the earth, and if 
 He has promised to use and bless that testimony as a 
 means of its maintenance and advancement, a national tes- 
 timony to it is one of the likeliest ways of giving it sway 
 and power over the land, and throughout the world. 
 
 But a national testimony like that involves a legal 
 acknowledgment of the truth and kingdom of Christ, such 
 as alone can distinguish them from every other system of 
 opinion, and every other kind of organisation, political or 
 
320 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 ecclesiastical, and so become a security to the churches, that, 
 in prosecuting their work of spreading the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, by "their teaching and their discipline, they shall be 
 safe from all intrusive and coercive interference on the part 
 of the civil power. 
 
 (2.) I have now to mention one particular kind of neut- 
 rality in the relation of the civil magistrate to religion and 
 the church, which is insisted on with special emphasis, viz., 
 that which regards the withholding of all state aid for the 
 maintenance and extension of the truth and kingdom of 
 Christ. The advocates of neutrality, while opposed to all 
 legislation in regard to what is true or false in religion, are 
 if possible still more opposed to the doctrine that the civil 
 magistrate may give, and as occasion permits and requires, 
 ought to give, material aid, in a greater or less degree, to 
 the maintenance and advancement of true religion. 
 
 But, FIRST, civil rulers are not precluded by any general 
 principle or rule of scripture from giving material aid to 
 Christ's truth and kingdom. When they are to give it 
 indeed, to what extent they are to give it, and to lohom they 
 shall give it, are questions to be decided according to cir- 
 cumstances. But there is no principle of reason or rule of 
 scripture prohibiting it altogether. 
 
 Second. — 'Tis said, indeed, that to give such aid even to 
 true religion in a land, if there be some in that land who 
 dissent from the religion aided, and from the aid given, is 
 to " violate political justice." This is to say that the rulers 
 and people of a nation must, as such, avoid making any 
 profession, and abstain from giving anj^ practical proof of 
 their national relation and responsibility to the Prince of 
 the kings of the earth, the Governor among the nations, 
 if a few are not satisfied that the thing is rightly done, or 
 if a few are of opinion that the thing should not be done 
 at all. 
 
National Duty to Christ. 3 2 1 
 
 Third. — We hear again occasionally of " fiscal " respon- 
 sibility, as entitling and even requiring of civil rulers, 
 whenever they assist christian services, to direct and con- 
 trol authoritatively the services so assisted, in order that 
 they may have due control over the means applied for such 
 a purpose ; as if civil rulers had not sufficient control over 
 their own resources, in being able and bound, at any 
 moment, to withdraw them, when they ceased to reckon 
 the services worthy of their aid. 
 
 Fourth. — It is said, however, to be contrary to the 
 nature, the genius, and the spirit of Christianity, that civil 
 rulers should aid materially in its advancement. But true 
 religion has been essentially of the same nature from the 
 beginning of the world. And if assistance was given to it, 
 with divine approbation, not only by Jewish rulers, but by 
 Gentile monarchs, in ancient times, such assistance was not 
 opposed to the nature of true religion then, and cannot be 
 opposed to it now. Besides, the promises of this very aid 
 in these last days is given in the prophetic scriptures in 
 the most glowing colours, as one of the most prominent 
 attendants and aids of the advancement of true religion to 
 its approaching triumphs on the earth. 
 
 Fifth. — As a still bolder ground of opposition to all 
 material aid on the part of civil rulers to the truth and 
 kingdom of Christ, it is said that all such aid is precluded 
 by, and contrary to, the law of free-will offerings, which 
 Christ Himself has given as His sole ordinance for the 
 maintenance and extension of His kingdom. But the 
 resources for religious purposes now under government con- 
 trol were, to a greater or less extent, the free-will offerings 
 of our ancestors, and as such, according to the very principle 
 contended for, ought to go to the objects for which they 
 were freely given. Further, if at any time general un- 
 animity in regard to religion and its claims takes possession 
 
 X 
 
32 2 National Dtdy to Christ. 
 
 of the national mind, public contributions to the cause of 
 Christ, in accordance with the national sentiment, become 
 as truly free-will offerings as any others. 
 
 The particular notion pleaded for however is, that more 
 direct dependence for their maintenance by those who give 
 religious instruction on those who receive it, is tlu ordi- 
 nance of Christ. And the two passages chiefly resorted to, 
 as furnishing proof of this doctrine, are in i Cor. ix, and 
 Gal. vi. 
 
 In I Cor. ix. it is written, " Who goeth a warfare any 
 time at his own charges ? who planteth a vineyard, and 
 eateth not of the fruit thereof ? or who feedeth a flock, and 
 eateth not of the milk of the flock ? ... Do ye not know 
 that they which minister about holy things live of the things 
 of the temple ? and they which wait at the altar are par- 
 takers with the altar ? Even so hath the Lord ordained, that 
 they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." 
 Now wliat other lessons than the following are to be gathered 
 from these words ? First, Ministers of the gospel are en- 
 titled to maintenance as such, without having to support 
 themselves by any other calling, as soldiers, planters of vine- 
 yards, shej^herds, and Jewish priests lived, or live, by their 
 occupations. Second, There is not, at the same time, a word 
 to fix down the precise source and way of their maintenance. 
 Third, On the contrary, as the illustrative cases are cases 
 partly of national support and partly of private provision, 
 the natural inference is that either way may be held avail- 
 able. While, Fourth, The fact that Paul, even when minis- 
 tering to one of the wealthiest of the churches, refused to 
 depend on its liberality, and lived by following the worldly 
 occupation which he had learned, conclusively proves that 
 neither mode of maintenance is absolutely required by the 
 gospel ; that the right of ministers to a maintenance as such 
 is the only thing here set forth, while the whole question 
 
National Duty to Christ. 323 
 
 of how that maintenance is in every case to be obtained is 
 left undecided. 
 
 The passage in Gal, vi. is still more frequently and 
 emphatically urged as shutting up the church to dependence 
 on direct christian liberality, and to the refusing of all 
 state aid for the ministrations of religion. The words are, 
 " Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him 
 that teacheth in all good things." These words are held to 
 lay down, as the law of Christ, that the ministers of the 
 gospel are to depend for their maintenance only on those 
 who are instructed by them, and to exclude all state aid 
 for such a purpose, as contrary to this law. 
 
 But this literal, limited, stringent interpretation of the 
 words carries consequences for which the authors of the 
 interpretation are not prepared. For, Firsts according to it 
 the passage should run. Let only him that is taught in the 
 word, and no other party, and let every one who is taught 
 in the word, whether rich or poor, whether able or unable, 
 communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. 
 Second, If this law, as thus interpreted, is to be kept and 
 not broken, ministers must not follow the example of the 
 very apostle who uttered the words, for he would not allow 
 the wealthy church of Corinth, while he taught them, to 
 communicate to him at all in any good thing, but supported 
 himself by his own labour. Tliird, Nor according to this 
 interpretation can ministers take any help from property 
 given by donors who are or were beyond the pale of the 
 church, or perhaps even from central sustentation aid funds 
 within the church itself, since even such provisions come 
 between the teacher and his direct dependence on those that 
 are taught by him. Fourth, It will not avail to say that 
 the words confine the sources of supply to those that are 
 within the same church with the minister to be provided 
 for, or to those within the church on earth, and to such of 
 
324 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 them as are able. This is a way of free and easy inter- 
 pretation at one time, and of strict, literal, narrow inter- 
 pretation at another time, that cannot be admitted. And 
 even thongh it were, it would not suit the object in view, 
 for it would cover the actings of the state proceedings in 
 support of religion, when those who adopt them are by 
 profession within the visible church of Christ. Fifth, This 
 interpretation can thus be clung to only by its advocates 
 involving themselves in all manner of absurdities and con- 
 tradictions. Sixth, It is surely attaching a more natural 
 meaning to the words, to explain them as enjoining on all 
 who receive christian instruction, and profit by it, to con- 
 tribute as they are able, and as circumstances permit and 
 require, for the maintenance of those who are employed in 
 imparting it ; while, at the same time, ministers are not 
 confined to this kind of support, since Paul, who uttered 
 the words, himself refused it, but may rely on resources 
 that lie outside of the people's offerings, and even outside of 
 the church, since Paul did so, in living on the labour of his 
 own hands. 
 
 In making these observations, it is the furthest thing 
 possible from my mind to sink out of sight, or even to 
 bring down to a level with public aid to Christ's cause, the 
 free-will offerings of the people ; for I believe as firmly as 
 any living man that the constant and increasing oblations 
 of the faithful are to be the great means of maintaining 
 ordinances in the land, and of spreading the gospel from 
 pole to pole. But I think it of deep importance to allow 
 no channels of aid to be choked up through which the 
 Lord's cause may get what is due to it, and He may get 
 His glory. On these grounds I thus argue, that there is no 
 proof furnished by the word of Christ that nations and their 
 rulers are shut out from uniting their aid with all other efforts 
 for spreading the truth and kingdom of Christ on earth. 
 
National Dtity to Christ. 325 
 
 Before leaving this part of the subject, I may notice how 
 in this matter, as in many others, extremes meet. Advo- 
 cates of indiscriminate state support to all religions, and 
 advocates of the refusal of all state support to any, agree in 
 this, that all religions should be placed on the same level 
 in the eye of the law, the only difference between them 
 being the height of the level to be occupied by them all 
 alike. Neither of these doctrines seems to be that inculcated 
 on Pilate when Jesus said, " For this purpose came I into 
 the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth : he that 
 is of the truth heareth my voice." They both seem more 
 allied to Pilate's answer, " What is truth ? " as if he, as a 
 civil ruler, could and would make no distinction between 
 them. 
 
 It is to be hoped few faithful servants of Christ will be 
 found anywhere in any of the churches vindicating the 
 policy of statesmen in patronising all religions alike, and 
 especially courting those which are most unscrupulous, 
 intriguing, and dangerous ; and that the time is at hand 
 when, as unspeakably the least of two evils, the demand 
 will be made to cease from giving to any, such support as 
 is now given to some, rather than that it should be more 
 and more extended to all. 
 
 But 'tis, I think, not less to be resolved, that civil rulers 
 shall not be permitted unopposed to make no distinction 
 in law, and in such countenance and exceptional aid as 
 circumstances still permit and require, between Christ's 
 truth and the devil's lie. As a principle, this absolute 
 neutrality of civil rulers is as indefensible as their policy 
 of indiscriminate patronage of truth and error. Carry out 
 this principle of neutrality, and rulers have no more right 
 to appropriate the time of the people, which is to them the 
 same as money, than the money itself, and so have no more 
 right to interfere with the people's use of their time on 
 
326 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 sabbath, than with their use of it on the other six days of 
 the week. In fact, on this principle, there could be no use 
 made of the nation's time or the nation's means, or of the 
 official power of rulers to do homage to Christ. That is, 
 their Governor could have no national homage offered to 
 His sovereignty. This principle, therefore, carried out, 
 would eliminate from the constitution of the country all 
 those divine elements which give it its virtue and its 
 strength. 
 
 If, therefore, it is high time to bring to an end the in- 
 discriminate support of truth and error, it is not less high 
 time that the nonconformists of Britain were regaining a 
 little more of the principles and spirit of their Puritan 
 ancestors, and adjusting their sentiments in greater accord- 
 ance with divine truth, and with enlightened reason, so as 
 to be prepared to stand for Christ's will and honour against 
 all levellers, of whatever class. And, at all events, there is 
 a loud call to us, not to leave that sacred ground, on which 
 the Lord has given us grace to fight so many battles, and 
 win so many victories. 
 
 The principle contended for in this discourse keeps clear 
 on the one hand of the national corruption and abuse to 
 which Christianity has been subjected, and, on the other 
 hand, of the national atheism in which our country is 
 in danger of being engulfed. The persistent defence of 
 established churches in their present position and corrupted 
 state, will ensure and justly ensure their overthrow. On 
 the other hand, the most popular arguments employed at 
 present against them, if carried out in the legislation of the 
 country, will as completely separate all national law and 
 action from religion, as if civil government had nothing to 
 do with God, and God had nothing to do with civil govern- 
 ment. The church that formally adopts and pursues a 
 policy of which that separation is the natural and necessary 
 
National Duty to Ch'ist. 327 
 
 result, is damaging or destroying lier character and her 
 claims as representing the reformed church of our fathers. 
 As this question advances to its crisis, it is to be hoped 
 that the slumbering grand old instincts divinely inlaid in 
 our people, will yet awake under the merciful hand of God 
 upon them, and save our character and perpetuate our posi- 
 tion among the churches and nations of the earth, 
 
 III. The obligation lying on us to bear our testimony 
 to the relation in which nations and their rulers are thus 
 placed by Christ to Himself, to His truth, and to His 
 kingdom. 
 
 He Himself bore witness to this relation on the occasion 
 before us. He bare witness to it before a Eoman governor. 
 He would have borne the same witness before that gover- 
 nor's master, the Eoman emperor, and before all the poten- 
 tates of earth. To them all, therefore, that testimony is 
 addressed by Christ, and His church is appointed to con- 
 vey it. 
 
 It is worthy of special notice that the very witness- 
 bearing of Jesus, on this occasion, is set before Timothy as 
 an example for him to follow. " Thou hast professed a 
 good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge 
 in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and Christ 
 Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confes- 
 sion ; that thou keep this commandment without spot, un- 
 rebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ : 
 which in His times He shall show, the blessed and only 
 Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." ^ The same 
 example of Jesus is a rule and motive of conduct for us all. 
 
 Accordingly, it is also worthy of notice that, throughout 
 the scriptures, whatever is said of the progress of the 
 
 I Tim. 
 
328 National DtUy to Chi'ist. 
 
 kingdom of Christ, connects that kingdom with His supre- 
 macy over all things, as well as with His headship over the 
 church. 
 
 Thus when David, his princes, and his people contributed 
 so largely for the building of the temple, they did so ex- 
 pressly as their homage to Him who is " Head above all," 
 from whom all blessings flow, and by whose grace they were 
 made thus willing to give Him of His own.^ 
 
 When the second temple was erecting, and the people 
 fainted at their inadequate resources, and at the prospect 
 of an edifice so inferior to the first, they were told, as an 
 inducement to proceed, that the Lord of Hosts was coming 
 to " shake the heavens and the earth," that is, the " ecclesi- 
 astical and civil powers," and that, while His servants owned 
 Him in that character, He would furnish them with enough 
 of the silver and gold, which are His, for setting up " the 
 kingdom that cannot be moved." ^ 
 
 It is in His character of " Head over all things to the 
 church," that He is " perfecting " His people as His own 
 body, by filling them with His fulness.^ From Him, as 
 ascended far above all things, and filling all things, 
 are the gifts, needful for that purpose, bestowed upon His 
 church.* It is in His character of " the first begotten of 
 the dead," and " the Prince of the kings of the earth," that 
 He is redeeming by His power all whom He bought with 
 His blood.^ While it is with the life that flows into their 
 souls from Christ their Head, that His servants are prepared 
 to execute His commission to teach all nations, it is under 
 His protection, as He to whom " all power is given in 
 heaven and in earth," ^ that His servants are to "go into 
 all the world " for that purpose ; and it is therefore vain for 
 
 ^ I Chron. xxix. * Eph. i. ^ Rev. i. 
 
 * Hag. ii., Heb. xii. * Eph. iv. * Matt, xxviii. 
 
National Duty to Christ. 329 
 
 them to think that they will find due heed given by sinners 
 tof His message, or a blessing from Himself upon it, if they 
 do not testify to them the claims of their Protector, as 
 Governoi; among the nations and King of kings, as well as 
 of His grace as Saviour of the lost. And when He comes 
 at length, as come He will, to accomplish the destruction 
 of all the powers and agencies of earth that are opposing 
 Him, and to accomplish also the salvation of a now ran- 
 somed world, besides revealing Himself by the name of the 
 " Faithful and Tkue," " the Word of God ; " He will also 
 have conspicuously written on His vesture and His thigh 
 the names " King of kings " and " Lord of lords ; " and while 
 He is gathering the ransomed to the " marriage supper of 
 the Lamb," He will at the same time receive that homage 
 of " kings " and " nations," which foreshadows the still more 
 glorious state of the church, which is to be characterised by 
 their bringing their glory and honour into it.^ 
 
 And so, if asked for a term summarily expressing that 
 gospel truth which is to regenerate and bless this world, 
 the proper reply is, " Christ all in all ; " Christ the Head 
 of every man, pouring divine life into the soul ; Christ the 
 Head of the church, giving her all her ordinances and laws, 
 and by His gracious presence in them, proving the glory of 
 them all; and Christ the Head of the nations, turning into 
 hell those that forget Him, and bringing the rulers of such 
 as are saved to offer their official homage at His feet, as 
 rendering their government light and easy by the prevalence 
 of His truth and kingdom throughout all their borders. 
 
 This supremacy of Christ was embodied in the national 
 system which Knox planned, and Melville perfected, and 
 Henderson, and Eutherford, and the other worthies of our 
 Eeformation illustrated. That system sought to provide for 
 
 ^ Rev. xix, 21. 
 
330 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 the proper education and godly upbringing' of all the 
 children of the land, for the advancement in all human arid 
 sacred learning of the more promising of the young, for the 
 maintenance of all the poor, for the religious in&trjaction of 
 the entire population, for the just administration of all 
 human law, and for the practice of piety and virtue by all 
 classes in the kingdom. Towards the support of religious 
 ordinances, it arranged for the appropriation to that object 
 of help of every kind from every quarter, including, in 
 a marked specific way, "the continual oblations of the 
 faithful." 
 
 The carrying out of this system, even in an imperfect 
 manner, has been the main source of all those triumphs of 
 civil and religious liberty, of art and science, of learning and 
 commerce, of religion and virtue, that have marked our 
 people, and that adorn our annals. The carrying of it out 
 still in its spirit, and, to a great extent, in its letter, might 
 make this nation an earnest of that approaching consum- 
 mation, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the 
 kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign 
 upon the earth. 
 
 The testimony to Christ's supremacy, which it has been 
 the distinguished lot of the Scottish church and Scottish 
 people to bear, has, from providential events, been empha- 
 tically rendered in the special form of a testimony to His 
 supremacy over the church and over the nation in their 
 direct relation to each other, under Himself. This, properly, 
 was not a lot of our Eeformers' choosing. It was a lot 
 assigned to them by Christ, and assigned to them, first, in 
 connection with their faithfulness to the whole truth as 
 regards His crown and covenant ; and, second, in connection 
 with, and as the result of, the resistance which our civil 
 rulers offered, early and late, to that truth. In the provi- 
 dence of Christ, it has thus been our peculiarly distinguished 
 
National Duty to Christ. 33 r 
 
 call and privilege to proclaim tlie duty of rulers to His truth 
 and kingdom. 
 
 Other churches have, equally with us — all churches, 
 indeed, in proportion to their faithfulness — borne wit- 
 ness, and have suffered for their witness-bearing, to the 
 duty which the church owes to herself and to her Lord, to 
 preserve her own integrity, and take law from Him alone. 
 And had that been our only duty, we could have done it, 
 by simply and quietly leaving our state connection, and 
 taking up our position, side by side, or at once amalga- 
 mating, with the non- established churches around. 
 
 But, with our convictions, and according to our standards 
 and our vows, this was a course which we were not at 
 liberty to take. We felt bound to struggle to retain our 
 integrity, and our temporal privileges as well, and to awaken 
 THE EULERS to a scnse of their duty to the truth and king- 
 dom of Christ. And even when we found our struggle 
 hopeless, and indeed no longer practicable, and therefore, 
 in 1843, surrendered our state establishment, we did not 
 cease from our testimony, when we could no longer gain, 
 but only suffer, because of it. The relations and obligations 
 of the rulers to Christ did not cease when they would not 
 own them ; and our duty to bear witness to these relations 
 and obligations has not ceased, because for a season rulers 
 may be determined, and may be allowed to turn a deaf ear 
 to it. They will not so easily get rid of their responsibilities, 
 and neither will we of ours. 
 
 It ought not to be a light matter in our eyes, that — as 
 the result of Christ's providential dealings with us for cen- 
 turies, as a church — this truth of national obligation to Him 
 is proclaimed in all our standards, documents, and deeds; 
 that it was blazoned on the banner given to our suffering 
 forefathers to display because of the truth ; that it was 
 proclaimed by these sufferers and martyrs from the hill- 
 
332 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 sides, aud from the dens and caves of our country, at the 
 bar of human judgment, in imprisonment aud exile, and 
 from their bloody scaffolds and honoured graves ; that it 
 lias made Scotland a land of sacredness, like the land of 
 Judah itself, among the ancient kingdoms of the earth; 
 and that we proclaimed it in connection v^^ith the state, and 
 have, if possible, more emphatically still proclaimed it in 
 our actings at the disruption, and in our Acts of Assembly, 
 one after another, in the years that followed. A testimony 
 so consecrated, we are, it is to be hoped, not to be left to 
 abandon now. There are no good reasons for abandoning it. 
 The reasons are very weighty for firmly maintaining it still. 
 
 The honour of Christ requires it. The rulers are break- 
 ing His bands and casting His cords from them. It is, 
 therefore, due to His honour to proclaim that there is " given 
 to Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom ; that all people, 
 nations, and languages should serve Him," ^ and " that all 
 dominions should serve and obey Him." " And we are to 
 proclaim the truth, until He overwhelms His adversaries, and 
 makes good His claims as " King of kings, and Lord of lords." 
 
 The safety of states and kingdoms depends on their hear- 
 ing this testimony, and doing the duties which it requires 
 at their hands. For Christ is about to speak to the kings 
 and rulers of the earth in His wrath, and to vex them in 
 His sore displeasure. His kingdom is about to break in 
 pieces and consume all hostile earthly kingdoms, that it 
 may itself stand for ever.^ Therefore as we would not 
 remain contented and unmoved, and see them broken with 
 a rod of iron and dashed in pieces as a potter's vessel, we 
 are to call upon them to be wise and receive instruction, to 
 serve the Lord with fear, and to pay their homage at His 
 feet. 
 
 s •^ Dan. vii. - Dan. vii. ^ Dan. ii. 
 
National D^ity to Christ. 333 
 
 Our welfare as a church requires this testimony. When 
 we appealed to our people to take up that cause which 
 their rulers had rejected, and to do their own part as a 
 people, and, so far as they could, the part of their rulers 
 likewise, in upholding the religion of their fathers, as at 
 once the true religion and the national religion too, and so 
 to honour Christ as entitled to rule over Scotland, as well 
 as in His church within the laud, we were the means of 
 awakening in their hearts the sacred memories that slum- 
 bered there, and of filling them with high and holy aims. 
 And they have poured their offerings ever since at the feet 
 of Jesus, and into the treasury of His church. Lower that 
 testimony to one merely for the integrity of His church as 
 her only King and Lord, and let her drop her testimony to 
 the claims which Christ has to the subjection of the rulers 
 and the nation as such to His truth and laws ; and half of 
 their heart will be taken out of our people, and then 
 our offerings will become contracted in their object and 
 diminished in amount, or given under the influence of less 
 enlightened regard for His glory, and so proportionably 
 unblessed. Yea, and when no testimony is longer faithfully 
 lifted up for the full relationship of civil government and 
 public law to Christ, His hand will more and more cease 
 to be upon the land for good, and be more and more 
 stretched out to punish; and floods of error, and immor- 
 ality, and pauperism, and crime, and other public calamities 
 and miseries, will flow over and desolate the land, and 
 submerge and sink the church herself. Whereas if we are 
 enabled faithfully to plead for the submission of the nation 
 to Christ, not only will He have still a redeemed and holy 
 people amongst us, but He may yet marry to Himself the 
 land, and render it a land of delight.^ 
 
 1 Isa. Ixi. 62. 
 
334 National Duty to Christ. 
 
 In the cause of union, this testimony ought to be faith- 
 fully upheld, for it is the only standard under which, with 
 the divine blessing, you can help to rally the Presbyterian 
 population of the land. Whatever may be said to the con- 
 trary, the system of Knox, and Melville, and Henderson, 
 and Eutherford, and Gillespie, and the Erskines, and M'Crie, 
 and Chalmers, is in all its essential characteristics so 
 christian, so wise, so comprehensive, so generous, so Scottish, 
 so practical, and so practicable a system, that if spoken 
 home to our people's hearts, it will yet though grace rouse 
 the deepest, holiest feelings of their nature, and lead them 
 to grasp with fresh firmness, and spread aloft, and rally 
 under, the old sacred banner, on which, in characters as 
 bright as ever, is to be seen inscribed, for Christ's Crown 
 and Covenant. 
 
 Finally, be the more immediate issues of these contend- 
 ings what they may, with such a form of sound words 
 committed to our keeping as a church, and with such a 
 testimony given to us to bear, our only safe, as well as 
 dutiful, course is, in all our actings, not only to serve Him 
 as the only Head of the church, but to bear witness to the 
 homage due to Him from the nations and rulers of the 
 earth, in the prospect of His coming to decide all contro- 
 versies between Himself and His enemies, and to take to 
 Him his strong power and reign. 
 
XV. 
 
 WOEK OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 
 
 "And when the day of Pentecost . . . But this is that which was 
 spoken by the prophet Joel ; And it shall come to pass in the last days, 
 saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh," &c. — Acts ii. 
 
 I. pONSIDER the position of Christ, and of His apostles, 
 at the time when this effusion of the Spirit on the 
 day of Pentecost took place. 
 
 Having died for the redemption of all that were given 
 to Him in the everlasting covenant, He had risen again ; 
 and having shown Himself alive by many infallible proofs, 
 He had ascended to heaven. His followers were to 
 see Him no more in this world, in His bodily presence, 
 until He comes at last in glory, to raise the dead, and 
 judge mankind. Formally clothed with all power in heaven 
 and earth, He had begun to establish His kingdom among 
 men, and had left His disciples behind Him to take care of 
 its interests, and to labour for its advancement. The dis- 
 ciples themselves were at length beginning effectually to get 
 quit of their carnal notions, desires, and hopes of an outward 
 and temporal reign of the Messiah, and to have their eyes 
 opened on the spirituality of the dispensation which Jesus 
 had introduced, and would employ them to establish. Left 
 behind Him in the world with such a charge, and encom- 
 passed with difficulties and dangers, they were now feeling 
 more deeply than before, that nothing but special guidance 
 and strength from on high could direct their minds, support 
 their hearts, and establish the work of their hands. Yet 
 
33 6 Work of the Spwit of Christ. 
 
 they were not so comfortless as might have been expected 
 from their former state of mind. They rather had begun to 
 feel that tliey were not forsaken by their Lord, and to 
 look for such tokens of His presence and power, as would 
 prove that in a very effectual manner He was still with 
 them. 
 
 Various circumstances were leading them to expect, and 
 to prepare for, a special visitation from their ascended Lord. 
 He had again and again promised, that as the result of His 
 bodily departure from among them, He would send the Com- 
 forter, the Spirit of truth, to dwell in them, and to abide 
 with them for ever. For the fulfilment of this promise, they 
 were now waiting with prayerful expectation. Further, they 
 were now beginning more adequately to understand and 
 realise the glory of Christ, as Head over all things to the 
 church, and as still truly with them, though unseen, as still 
 with them in respect of His divine presence and almighty 
 power, and of His all-sufficiency and faithfulness, as their 
 Redeemer and their Lord. They felt strong in Him, and in 
 the power of His might. They also had their minds filled 
 with altogether new views, both of this world and of the 
 next; of the shadowy nature of things seen and temporal, 
 and of the greatness of the things that are unseen and eter- 
 nal; of the vanishing nature of the heaviest earthly trials 
 before them, and of the enduring glory to which they now 
 felt destined. In a special manner they were manifestly 
 filled from above with anticipations of the coming of the 
 Spirit, and with a readiness to receive Him. In fact, the 
 Spirit was already in them, secretly and silently, yet strongly 
 and irresistibly, drawing out their desires, and enlarging 
 their expectations, and enlivening their hopes of His re- 
 markable descent. Carnal lusts were now repressed. Earthly 
 ambition was gone. Pride and jealousy had vanished. 
 Guilty fear had fled. The spirit of unholy rivalry had left 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 them. Deep humility clothed them as with a garment. 
 Holy love to God and to one another filled their hearts, 
 and breathed in all their conduct. And, or " ever they were 
 aware, their soul made them as the chariots of Aminadab," 
 in the swiftness of their approach to the presence of the 
 divine glory. Living faith and hope carried them near to 
 God, conveyed them within the vail, brought them near to 
 the eternal throne, and bound and held them fast to Christ, 
 as one in Him, yea, one with Him, and as ready, waiting, 
 and expecting to be filled out of His fulness. 
 
 This was the state of preparation into which the disciples 
 were brought for the reception of the richest blessings from 
 on high. . ATid these blessings were not withheld. Por while 
 they were with one accord in one place, " suddenly there 
 came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, 
 and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And 
 there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it 
 sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with tlie 
 Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the 
 Spirit gave them utterance." From that hour, the apostles 
 clearly perceived, and boldly proclaimed, the true glory of 
 Christ, and the spiritual nature of the salvation to be found 
 in Him. The views of Christ and of His salvation, how- 
 ever, that now and henceforth filled their minds, as this 
 chapter shows, and as we shall immediately and more par- 
 ticularly notice, were owing, in reality, not to the miraculous 
 gifts of the Spirit, but to the inwardly illuminating power 
 with which He accompanied His gifts. At the same time, 
 so remarkably did the Holy Spirit of Christ then work in 
 their minds, and in the minds of those who crowded to hear 
 tjiem, that multitudes trembled and cried out under convic- 
 tions of their sin and danger, and as many as three thousand 
 were actually and savingly converted to Christ. 
 
 Y 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 II. The threefold manner in which the Spirit came down 
 on that day. 
 
 I. In His miraculous gifts. He came with "a sound" 
 that arrested every ear and riveted every heart. He came 
 as " a wind " denoting the spiritual life and strength with 
 which He fills the soul. He came " suddenly " to mark His 
 sovereignty in working when and where He pleases. He 
 came as " a rushing, mighty wind," that " filled the house," 
 to mark the resistless force with which He acts in and upon 
 the subjects of His grace. And more impressively still, He 
 rested on the disciples in the form of " cloven tongues of 
 fire." To punish the pride and impiety of the builders of 
 the tower at Babel, and to put an end to their designs, God 
 confounded their language, and so scattered them ; and ever 
 since this difference of language has prevented the nations 
 of the earth from so effectually combining for evil as they 
 might otherwise have done. But now that the gospel was 
 to be spread as the means of reuniting mankind in a holy 
 bond of love to God and one another, the gift of divided 
 tongues miraculously came on the disciples, whereby they 
 could preach the gospel to men of all nations ; and, at the 
 same time, to symbolise the power of the Spirit as about to 
 be put forth through the gospel, to consume the corruptions 
 of sinners, and to kindle in their hearts the love of God, 
 the cloven tongues that came down upon the disciples were 
 " tongues of fire." And though that miraculous gift was 
 given only for the time, the history of it leaves on Christ's 
 followers the obligation to master all the languages of earth, 
 and through them to convey His gospel to every creature 
 under heaven. Moreover, this miraculous descent of the 
 Spirit served to strengthen the faith of the disciples in their 
 now adored Redeemer. It further proclaimed to the un- 
 believing His Deity and Messiahship, and His discijDles' 
 commission to spread His name throughout the earth. 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 "While it served the further and more immediate purpose of 
 arresting the attention of the multitudes from every nation 
 under heaven, who were then in Jerusalem at the feast, and 
 of bringing them in crowds around the apostles to listen to 
 their words. 
 
 But it is to be carefully noticed that the bestowment of 
 miraculous gifts was not sufficient, by itself, then or at any 
 time, to convert those who witnessed them, or even to con- 
 vert those who possessed and exercised them. Balaam 
 through the Spirit of God in him, uttered lofty prophecies 
 of Christ, and the church; yet Balaam lived and died a 
 wicked man. Many who, in their day, have cast out devils, 
 will, at the last day, be disowned by Jesus, and driven from 
 His presence, as workers of iniquity. The sight of all the 
 outward glories of heaven, and of all the outward horrors of 
 hell, would not suffice to turn any sinner from the love of 
 sin to the love of God. It was not the outward glory in 
 which Jesus appeared to Paul, that changed him from a per- 
 secutor into a preacher of the truth. His companion saw 
 that glory too, but seems to have risen up from beneath its 
 prostrating power, and to have departed as ungodly as before. 
 It was by the inward illumination of his mind and rege- 
 neration of his heart, accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that 
 he became at that moment a new creature. Hence he after- 
 wards refers his change, not to the outward glory revealed to 
 him, but to the divine work wrought by the Spirit in his heart, 
 saying, " When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me," &c.^ 
 
 No outward displays of the divine power and glory will 
 change the moral nature of sinful men. And so when the 
 disciples returned to Jesus, gladdened by the mighty works 
 which they had performed through His name, He said, " In 
 this rejoice not, that the sjiirits are subject uuto you ; but 
 
 Gal. 
 
340 IVor^ of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven." In 
 like manner we know from the nature of the case, as well 
 as from other parts of Scripture, and, indeed, from the 
 narrative contained in this chapter itself, that whatever 
 spiritual and saving effects were wrought on that day of 
 Pentecost in those who were concerned in the effusion of 
 the Spirit, were accomplished not by the miraculous gifts 
 in which He came down, but by the power which He gave 
 over their consciences and hearts to the truth proclaimed in 
 their hearing. This will be seen by considering the other 
 operations of the Spirit, on the occasion recorded in this 
 chapter. For the Spirit came down that day — 
 
 2. In His common operations. By these are meant 
 those influences under which hearers of the gospel are so 
 far convinced and affected, without being savingly changed. 
 As an example of what is meant, see how Peter preached, 
 and how his hearers were affected. After defending his 
 brethren and himself from the charge of intoxication, he 
 told them that, as foretold by God, the Spirit had now C3me 
 — that their resistance of the Spirit would bring down the 
 heaviest judgments — that all who truly called on the Lord 
 would be saved — that Jesus Christ was the only Mediator, 
 and had proved His mission by His works — that while 
 they wickedly crucified Him, God had raised Him from the 
 dead — that His resurrection was foretold by David — that 
 they. His followers, had witnessed, and now proclaimed it 
 — that the miraculous descent of the Spirit from Christ 
 that day, proved both His resurrection and His exaltation 
 at the right hand of power — that David had predicted 
 this exaltation when, in Psalm ex., he said, " The Lord 
 said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make 
 thine enemies thy footstool" — and that it now remained 
 for them and " all the house of Israel " to " know assuredly 
 that God had made that same Jesus whom they had cru- 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 341 
 
 cified-, Loth Lord and Christ." Now, this home-preaching 
 of Peter, as we may call it, this close application of the 
 truth was rendered effectual, by what we term the common 
 operations of the Spirit, to the extent of greatly awakening 
 and alarming many of the Jews. We learn this from the 
 3 7th verse, " Now when they heard this, they were pricked in 
 their heart, and said to Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, 
 Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " They had such a 
 sight of their conduct to the Lord Jesus forced upon them, 
 as filled them for the time with terror ; and, under the 
 power of an accusing conscience, they cried out for deliver- 
 ance from their danger. But, which ought to be particularly 
 observed, though they were convinced of sin, they were not 
 turned from it, or forgiven by God. They were filled with 
 fear, but not humbled. They had not as yet become true 
 penitents, true believers. As yet they were not truly 
 brought nigh to God by Jesus Christ. This is evident 
 from what Peter, finding them in that state, called on them 
 to do. " Eepent," said he, " and be baptized every one of 
 you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, 
 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost " (verse 38). 
 Up to that point, therefore, they had not yet repented, and 
 been forgiven, and born again : and so, had they gone no 
 further in their sentiments and feelings, they would have 
 continued carnally-minded and condemned, and would have 
 perished in their sins. Yet the alarm which they felt was 
 owing to a work of the Spirit on their minds, through the in- 
 strumentality of the word which Peter preached ; for it is 
 the Spirit that, even to that extent, thus convinceth of sin. 
 Similar convictions and alarms are felt by many who sit 
 under a faithfully-preached gospel, in whom, after all, these 
 convictions and alarms at length cease, witliout having led 
 to saving results. In the case of others, such convictions 
 and alarms, through the continued operation of the Spirit 
 
342 lVo7^k of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 of God upon them, end in their eternal conversion from 
 sin to God. This leads me to notice that on this day of 
 Pentecost — 
 
 3. The Spirit came down in saving power. 
 
 To see this, observe how Peter addressed the awakened 
 multitudes, and the final and decisive results of his address 
 in the case of a large specified number of them. He said 
 to them, " Eepent, and be baptized every one of you in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is 
 unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, 
 even as many as the Lord our God shall call." "And," as 
 we are further told, " with many other words did he testify 
 and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward 
 generation." The saving effects of these appeals in the 
 case of many, are next specified. " Then they that gladly 
 received the word were baptized, and the same day there 
 were added unto them about three thousand souls, &c.," 
 41-47. As we find stated in the words that follow, their 
 experience of salvation filled them with inexpressible thank- 
 fulness and joy. They clung to the servants of Christ, 
 through whose ministry they found themselves thus brought 
 nigh to God. They felt strangely drawn, and sweetly 
 bound to one another in the bonds of mutual love, as one 
 in Christ, and heirs together of eternal life. They con- 
 stantly communed together in sanctified social intercourse ; 
 and they daily drew near to God in prayer as children of 
 His ransomed family. And so clear were their views and so 
 deep their feelings as to the littleness of time with all its 
 interests, and of the greatness of eternity ; and so great 
 was their love to Jesus, and to one another for His sake, 
 that such of them as had any worldly property shared 
 it readily with their poorer brethren ; so that " they had 
 all thiDo;s common." ISTo discords were found among so 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 343 
 
 loving a company ; for they were seen keeping together 
 with one accord. All the springs of their happiness were 
 in God ; for " they continued daily in the temple." Mutual 
 love prompted mutual fellowship; for they were seen 
 " breaking bread from house to house." Even their common 
 meals were sanctified into feasts of christian love, and joy ; 
 for " they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of 
 heart." Nay their entire life was a life of continued thanks- 
 giving, and of uninterrupted access unto God, as well as of 
 singular acceptance with all around; for they were daily 
 found " praising God, and having favour with all the people." 
 And their consistent testimony to the truth was wonder- 
 fully blessed for the conversion of their neighbours ; for " the 
 Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved." 
 
 The recorded effects of the word preached that day show 
 the nature of the Spirit's saving work. If the three thou- 
 sand then brought to salvation felt their lost condition 
 and their need of redemption, it was because the Spirit 
 convinced them of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. 
 If they were truly enlightened, it was because the Spirit 
 guided them into the truth. If they were savingly changed, 
 it was by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost. If they were set free from the 
 bondage of sin and Satan, and the world, it was be- 
 cause where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. If 
 they became obedient unto God, it was because He put 
 His Spirit in them, and so caused them to walk in His 
 statutes, and to keep His judgments and do them. They 
 were filled with consolation by walking in the comfort of 
 the Holy Ghost. They were filled with peace and joy in 
 believing, and made to abound in hope, by the power of 
 the Holy Ghost. The gospel had come to them not in 
 word only, but in power, by coming to them in the Holy 
 Ghost. And it was by being made to live and walk in tlie 
 
344 Jl^07'/c of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Spirit that they brought forth these fruits of the Spirit, 
 love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
 meekness, temperance. By this work of the Spirit in their 
 heart and life, the Lord made it manifest that He had 
 effectually called these converts to Himself, and that it was 
 He Himself who in a similar way continued to add to the 
 church daily such as should be saved. 
 
 III. The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pente- 
 cost naturally leads us to notice the history of the work of 
 the Spirit as a work of saving grace during the past ages of 
 the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations on the one hand ; 
 and His work throughout the ages of the gospel dispensation. 
 
 I. The work of the Spirit during the past ages of the 
 patriarchal and Jewish dispensations. 
 
 ( I .) The Spirit was given from the beginning. By the Spirit 
 on Noah Christ preached to the wicked before the Flood.^ 
 When the Spirit ceased to strive with them they perished.^ 
 God gave His good Spirit to His ancient people to instruct 
 them,^ and to cause them to rest.* And all who experienced 
 the joy of God's salvation were upheld by His free Spirit.^ 
 
 (2.) Still the work of the Spirit had been very limited. 
 First, in patriarchal times only a few, like Enos, and Enoch, 
 and Noah, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job, are recorded 
 as having received and exemplified the grace of the Spirit 
 in their heart and life. Then, during the Jewish dispensa- 
 tion the Sjjirit's work was much confined to one land on 
 earth, and even then exhibited by a comparatively limited 
 number who were Israelites indeed. 
 
 (3.) The Spirit's power was not only limited to few, but 
 felt even by them in a feebler degree. The person and 
 work of Christ were but imperfectly revealed in types and 
 
 ^ I Pet. iii. * Neh. ix. * Ps. Ivii. 
 
 2 Gen. ix. * Isa. Ixiii. 
 
IToj-k of the Spirit of Christ. 345 
 
 figures ; and the way of salvation was but dimly seen. 
 From the prophets was concealed much that by the Spirit 
 in them they foretold of Christ's sufferings and consequent 
 glory/ Eighteous men were not permitted to see and hear 
 things which we see and hear,^ It did not enter their 
 heart to imagine the things which are revealed to us by 
 the Spirit of God as prepared for those that love Him.'' 
 
 The reason of all this is stated by John : The Spirit 
 was not yet given, that is, in His larger measures, because 
 that Jesus was not yet glorified.* Everything in its 
 proper order. The honour due to God's majesty, law, and 
 government required to be rendered by the great sacrifice, 
 before sinners were filled with His abundant grace. The 
 honour due to the Son of God required that, as His obedi- 
 ence unto death M^as to procure the Spirit, the Spirit's fuller 
 outpourings should be reserved till Christ had finished His 
 work and ascended to His glory. Moreover, a Saviour 
 come and revealed in all His fulness, and a redemption 
 completed and presented in all its freeness, were needful to 
 place sinners in circumstances for valuing and improving 
 aright the fullest measures in which the Spirit can be 
 bestowed. But, 
 
 (4.) While the church received the Spirit only within 
 a limited sphere, and in a feeble measure, previous to the 
 coming of Christ, the word of prophecy taught that His 
 coming would be attended by far more extensive and 
 abundant measures of grace. The promise was that, when 
 a king came to reign in righteousness the Spirit would be 
 poured out from on high;^ or as it is said here in the 
 words of Joel, " I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." 
 Hence John the Baptist announced the near approach of 
 
 ' I Pet. i. ' Isa. Ixiv. ; i Cor. ii. ' Isa. xxxii., xliv., li.\. 
 
 - Matt. xiii. •* John vii. 
 
346 Woj'k of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Christ as about to baptize with the Holy Ghost.^ Jesus 
 declared to Nicodemus the necessity of being born of the 
 Spirit.^ He offered the Spirit to the woman of Samaria as 
 the living water.^ He promised His Spirit to be in every 
 believing soul a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life.* Before His death He told the disciples over and over 
 of the advantages to them of His departure to heaven, to 
 send the Spirit down, to be in and with them and all His 
 followers till the end of time. After His resurrection. He 
 breathed on them saying, " Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost." 
 On the eve of His ascension. He told them to wait in 
 prayerful expectation for the Spirit, whom He and His 
 Father would send from on high.^ And no sooner had He 
 gone up than the promises of the Spirit began to be fulfilled 
 in this effusion of Him on the day of Pentecost. This leads 
 us to notice — 
 
 2. The work of the Spirit from the day of Pentecost 
 onward through all ages of the gospel dispensation. 
 
 Now that Christ had come, and finished His work, and 
 taken His place on the mediatorial throne, no hindrance 
 longer existed to the copious descent of the Spirit. Justice 
 was satisfied. The law was magnified and made honourable. 
 The way into God's holy presence was clearly revealed. 
 The minds of men were prepared for brighter and more 
 comprehensive views of the love of God, of the work of 
 Christ, and of all spiritual and eternal things. The shadows 
 and dawnings of a long morning had been succeeded by the 
 light of an advancing day. God's paths indeed had in all 
 ages dropped fatness. But the time had now come for 
 showers of blessing. 
 
 The day of Pentecost was significantly chosen for the 
 
 ^ Matt. iii. * John iv. ^ Acts i. 
 
 ^ John iii. * John vii. 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 347 
 
 commencement of these communications. That day among 
 the Jews signalised the gathering in of their harvest, by the 
 offering of the first-fruits unto God/ And now the in- 
 gathering of thousands of souls under the power of tbe 
 Spirit on that day, began that ingathering of sinners to 
 Christ under the power of the same Spirit, that shall go on 
 from age to age till the harvest of sinners saved is com- 
 pleted, and the whole church of the redeemed is ready to 
 be presented by Christ to His Father, and conducted by 
 Him into the everlasting kingdom. 
 
 The same thing is intimated by the name given to the 
 gospel dispensation of " the ministration of the Spirit." ^ 
 The name implies that the great agent on earth in applying 
 to the souls of men the redemption purchased by Christ, is 
 the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, when the gospel comes with 
 power, it comes in the Holy Ghost.^ Gracious affections 
 are fruits of the Spirit found only in those who live and 
 walk in the Spirit.* None are saved except by the washing 
 of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.^ And 
 Ordinances are effectual to salvation only in so far as in 
 and through them Christ is pleased to accompany them 
 with the grace of His Spirit.^ The only hope for this 
 world is that in a more and more abundant manner the 
 Lord shall yet pour out His Spirit on all flesh. When the 
 Spirit is thus poured out from on high, the wilderness shall 
 be turned into a fruitful field.^ Nations shall be born in a 
 day ; the Lord shall make bare His holy arm in the eyes of 
 all the nations, and all ends of the earth shall experience 
 the salvation of our God. In fuller explanation of what so 
 much concerns us, let us notice under another though 
 not altogether a distinct head — 
 
 1 Exod. xxiii, ^ i Thess, i. ^ Tit. iii. ^ Isa. xxxii, 
 
 2 2 Cor. iii. * Gal. v. ^ Ephes. iv. 
 
lVo7'k of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 IV. The nature and manner of the work of the Spirit 
 that is now going on in the church and in the world, And 
 
 1. His miraculous gifts have long ceased. They served 
 their purpose at the commencement of the gospel dispen- 
 sation by attesting the authority of those whom the Lord 
 employed to establish it, and by arresting the attention of 
 the world upon its claims ; and so they soon ceased. Sur- 
 prising enough events, even of an outward and sensible 
 character, may at times occur in connection with the work 
 of the Spirit still. But outward effects of it, when they do 
 ensue, are accidental accompaniments, and not essential 
 characteristics of such a work. And the less it is mixed 
 up and confounded with such outward accompaniments, the 
 more likely it is to be genuine, solid, extensive, and endur- 
 ing.- It was not in the whirlwind or in the earthquake, but 
 in the still, small voice, that the Lord made Himself known 
 to His prophets of old. And the Lord Jesus has told us 
 that the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, but 
 is within His people, a kingdom of righteousness and peace 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. In setting up the kingdom of Christ in men, the 
 Spirit acts upon them, in what we have described, first, 
 as His common operations ; and, second, as His saving 
 grace. 
 
 (i.) The Spirit acts upon men in His common operations. 
 That is to say, in His providential government and disposal 
 of them. He brings them into contact with the outward ordi- 
 nances of His word, and then so presents the word to them, 
 and so causes them to realise its truth, as to render them 
 inexcusable if they quench their convictions and refuse to 
 yield to its power. 
 
 (2.) The Spirit follows up these common operations in 
 the case of all who are brought to believe unto salva- 
 tion, by putting forth upon them His saving power, by 
 
Work of the Spirit of Christ. 349 
 
 actually regenerating their moral nature, by creating them 
 anew in Christ unto good works, by quickening them to a 
 new life, by dwelling and working in them, by making 
 their very bodies His temples, by implanting and cherish- 
 ing in their hearts all holy affections, by guiding and sup- 
 porting them in the performance of their duty, and by 
 leading them in this manner onward and upward to the 
 laud of uprightness. 
 
 3. As to the manner in which He savingly works on 
 the minds and hearts of men, the following things are to 
 be remembered — 
 
 (i.) The Spirit gives no new revelations to the minds of 
 believers apart from, or in addition to, those that are con- 
 tained in the Bible. The Quakers held, and more or fewer 
 of them still hold, that such revelations are afforded. And 
 the same opinion is taken up and acted on, especially in 
 times of religious excitement, by some who are in an ill- 
 instructed, perverse, or fanatical state of mind. This notion 
 of theirs, however, is a mere and mischievous delusion, 
 opening the door to extravagances and disorders which as 
 effectually help the kingdom of Satan, and hinder the king- 
 dom of Christ, as open enmity to religion, or the prevalence 
 of indifference and of spiritual death. For — 
 
 (2.) The Spirit accomplishes His saving work in men 
 only through the instrumentality of the Word and ordi- 
 nances of God. It was while Peter and the other apostles 
 were preaching the truth contained in Scripture, and press- 
 ing it on their hearers, that the Spirit, employing it as His 
 instrument, came upon them with power and converted 
 thousands of them unto God. While it is the same Spirit 
 that still regenerates and sanctifies believers, it is by the 
 same word of truth that they are begotten ^ and sanctified.'-^ 
 
 ^ Jas. i. * John xvii. 
 
350 Wo7'k of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 They are chosen to salvation through sanctification of the 
 Spirit and belief of the truth.^ It is by being builded on 
 the foundation of the apostles and prophets that they are 
 raised into an habitation of God through the Spirit.^ It is 
 only from the ordinances, as wells of salvation, that any can 
 draw the living and life-giving water of the Spirit.^ God 
 puts His Spirit in His people, and so causes them to walk 
 in His statutes, and to keep His judgments, and do them, 
 
 (3.) The presence and power of the Spirit in those in whom 
 He is accomplishing a saving change, are to be ascertained 
 only by the effects of His grace. They do not themselves 
 know, and they cannot enable others to know. His presence. 
 His indwelling, and His inworking, by His appearing in any 
 visions which their bodily eyes can witness, or by His utter- 
 ing any sounds which their bodily ears can hear, or by His 
 assuming any material form with which they can com& 
 into bodily contact, or by any direct manifestation of Him- 
 self to their imagination of which they can have a lively 
 perception, apart from all revelation of the truth 'in the 
 word of God. On the contrary, the Spirit operates upon 
 them only in and through the truth revealed and recorded. 
 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof; but canst not tell whence it cometh and 
 whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 
 It is in the effects produced in their hearts and lives that 
 any can have credible evidence of their having become the 
 subjects of the Spirit's saving work. Let them be con- 
 vinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Let them find 
 the Scriptures rendered profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
 for correction, and for instruction in righteousness ; so that, 
 as men of God, they become thoroughly furnished unto all 
 good works. And let them be inclined and endeavour to 
 
 ^ 2 Thess. ii. - Ephes. ii. ^ Isa. xii. 
 
Work of the Spirit of ChHst. 35 r 
 
 walk in all the commandments of the Lord blameless. 
 And assuredly in that case they have the only evidence 
 that can be possessed, and all the evidence needful to satisfy 
 them that the saving work of the Spirit is begun and being 
 carried on within them. 
 
 V. Practical remarks. 
 
 1, In its important practical bearings, this subject enters 
 into everything connected with our faith and duty, our pri- 
 vileges and practice, our interests and hopes. For while 
 Christ has purchased redemption, He has placed us under 
 the ministration of the Spirit, that He may apply redemp- 
 tion to our souls. It is not enough for us that Christ has 
 satisfied divine justice for our offences, and opened up the 
 way for the return of the guiltiest to God, and that He 
 presses on our acceptance the offers of salvation, and estab- 
 lishes and upholds among us the ordinances through which 
 the blessings of salvation are conveyed. One thing more is 
 indispensable in order to our actual experience and enjoy- 
 ment of redemption, and that is, its application to our souls 
 by the Holy Spirit. And this is the great work which, 
 under the dealings of divine providence and the dispensa- 
 tions of divine grace, is going on in the world. So that the 
 amount of good which we have received from the Gospel is 
 exactly measured by the extent to which the Spirit has 
 sanctified our nature. And if we are without the Sj^irit, 
 whatever be our religious professions, attainments, or exer- 
 tions, we still have in us that carnal mind which is enmity 
 against God. 
 
 2. Ordinances serve no saving purpose except as the 
 Holy Spirit is in them and operating through tliem on those 
 by whom they are observed. The Bible remains to its 
 readers a sealed book, except as the Spirit opens their eyes 
 to behold its wonders. The sabbath is a weariness to all, 
 
352 JVork of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 except to those who are in the Spirit on the Lord's day. 
 The preaching of Christ, and Him crucified, is a stumbling- 
 block or foolishness to all, except to those to whom the 
 Spirit renders it the power of God and the wisdom of God 
 for their salvation. The offering of prayer is fruitless as to 
 all saving effects, except as the Spirit helps the infirmities 
 of suppliants, and intercedes within them while Christ is 
 interceding for them, and the Hearer of prayer satisfies the 
 desires thus divinely created in their souls. The fellowship 
 of saints is without comfort except as the Spirit of Christ is 
 with their spirits, to convey His refreshing influence from 
 heart to heart through acts of brotherly intercourse and 
 communion. Baptism with water does no good spiritually 
 to those who receive it, except as they are baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost, and so buried with Christ and dead to 
 sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. 
 And the Lord's supper itself, with all its impressive repre- 
 sentations, is a useless or even injurious formality, destitute 
 of all spiritual meaning and benefit to those who receive it 
 except as the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit given to them, 
 makes Himself known to them in the breaking of bread, 
 and causes their hearts to burn within them with holy 
 desires and the blessed experience of His love. 
 
 3. Christ Himself and the benefits of His purchase do 
 not become ours, except as they are conveyed to us by His 
 Spirit. He appears to natural men without form or comeli- 
 ness, and the treasures of wisdom and grace that are in Him 
 are hidden from their eyes, until the Spirit takes of the 
 things that are Christ's and shows them to their minds, and 
 they thus begin to see His glory, and to receive out of His 
 fulness. When any are enabled to draw nigh to God as 
 sin-pardoning and gracious, it is because through Christ 
 they have access by one Spirit unto the Father. When 
 any are brought into His family, and partake of the privi- 
 
Wo7'k of the Spirit of Christ. 353 
 
 leges and hopes of His children, it is by having the Spirit 
 as the Spirit of adoption in them, crying, Abba Father. 
 When any are renewed in the whole man after the image 
 of God, and die to sin and live to righteousness, this change 
 is accomplished " through sanctification of the Spirit," and 
 because their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost. 
 When any make their light to shine before men, it is be- 
 cause the Spirit of God writes His law on the fleshly tables 
 of their hearts, and thus turns them into living epistles of 
 Christ which all men can know and read.^ When any come 
 to know the love of Christ, and to be tilled with the fulness 
 of God, it is by their being strengthened with all might by 
 His Spirit in their inner man,^ The holy satisfaction found 
 by believers in the ordinances and service of Christ is joy 
 in the Holy Ghost. In the anticipations of heaven that 
 gladden them the Holy Spirit is sealing them to the day 
 of redemption, and proving within them the earnest of their 
 inheritance. 
 
 4. Not less dependent are believers on the Spirit to 
 enable them to cherish and exercise the gracious affections, 
 and to perform the actions, and pursue the course of new 
 creatures in Christ- While their life is found in knowing 
 God and Jesus Christ, it is the Spirit alone who can guide 
 them into all truth, who can glorify Christ by taking the 
 things that are His and showing them to their minds, and 
 who can, by His anointing, teach them all things. Chris- 
 tians are to look to Jesus, and lean and live on Him by 
 faith ; but this faith is the gift of God, by being a fruit of 
 the Spirit in all who have it. Believers are to look on Him 
 whom they have pierced, and be in bitterness for sin ; but 
 this repentance flows only from the Spirit of grace and sup- 
 plication poured out upon them. We are to love God; but 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 2 ■^■^^^_ jjj^ 
 
354 Work of the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 the love of God can be shed abroad in our hearts only by 
 the Holy Ghost given to us. Brethren in Christ are to 
 love each other ; but it is only when they obey the truth 
 through the Spirit that they love one another M^ith a pure 
 heart fervently. Children of God are to walk circum- 
 spectly ; but they walk thus only when filled with the 
 Spirit.^ They are to walk in the way to heaven ; but it 
 is the good Spirit of God alone that leads them to the land 
 of uprightness.^ 
 
 5. As the whole work of carrying forward redemption 
 to its practical saving results in the character and destiny 
 of men is thus in the hands of the Holy Spirit, it is well to 
 know and remember that He is alike able and willing to 
 perform it. He is able to do it. Tor He is the eternal 
 Spirit from whom we cannot go, who searcheth all things, 
 and is full of wisdom, power, and goodness ; by whose crea- 
 tive energy all things were at first made ; by whose all- 
 pervading presence and agency they are preserved and 
 governed ; who formed the human nature of Jesus in His 
 virgin-mother, endowed it with all possible perfection, sus- 
 tained Him in offering Himself a sacrifice for sin, and then 
 raised Him from the dead ; and who is now, in fact, the 
 sum of all the gifts which from His exalted throne the 
 Lord Jesus is dispensing to men. And the Spirit is as 
 willing as He is able to perform His divine work in our 
 salvation. For He is the Spirit of goodness, grace, and 
 love, who moves up and down in the world, enters every 
 heart that is opened to receive Him, and dwells and works 
 in all believers, quickening, leading, sanctifying, strengthen-. 
 ing, and comforting them, until He conducts them to heaven, 
 full of His own light, and holiness, and joy. 
 
 1 Eph. V. 2 ps. cxliii. 
 
XVI. 
 
 EEST IN CHRIST FOR THE LABOURING AND 
 HEAYY-LADEN. 
 
 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will 
 give you rest. Take up my yoke, aud learn of me, . . . and ye 
 shall find rest to your souls." — Matt. xi. 28, 29. 
 
 TESUS had just been led by His notice of the rejection of 
 ^ Himself and of John His forerunner, to proclaim nothing 
 but woe to the generation around Him for their earthliness 
 and intractable pride. He then adored His Father's sove- 
 reignty in leaving such enemies of the truth to their self- 
 chosen blindness, while causing the humble-minded and 
 teachable to feel its saving power. To show that the ten- 
 derest mercy to the one class consists with the greatest 
 severity to the other, we have this gracious invitation from 
 the lips of Jesus, " Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
 are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest," &c. 
 
 I. The persons addressed are the labouring and heavy- 
 laden. 
 
 I. Those immediately addressed were two classes of 
 Jews. First, there were the oppressed and unhappy slaves 
 of the traditions of the elders, who laid heavy burdens as 
 religious obligations on the people, which they themselves 
 took care not to touch with one of their fingers; and Jesus 
 invites the people to abandon these inventions of priest- 
 craft, and to come to Him for the rest which, without money 
 and without price, He was ready to give them ; rest from 
 
35^ Rest m Christ. 
 
 guilt and fear, and rest in the favour, love, and service of 
 God. Second, there were others who, while rejecting these 
 burdensome inventions of scribes and elders, and, confining 
 themselves to the observance of the law of Moses, found 
 even it, as their fathers before them found it, a yoke which 
 they were unable comfortably to bear: and Jesus here in- 
 vites them to come to Him, and to find in Him and in His 
 salvation rest from their ceremonial bondage and uncer- 
 tainty, rest in the spiritual light and life and liberty and 
 gladness which He had come to bestow. 
 
 2. There are two great classes still addressed in these 
 words. 
 r First, Many are vainly seeking rest for their souls in 
 the world ; some in the sweat of their brow ; others in a 
 larger portion, which is more troublesome than poverty 
 itself; others in still greater abundance, which is only 
 fraught with still greater trouble ; others in higher positions 
 still, in which events are constantly occurring to fret their 
 ambition, and gall their pride. Others in sufferings from 
 the hands of men ; others in visitations of affliction from 
 the hand of God. But however they differ otherwise, they 
 one and all seek for a satisfying portion in the world, where 
 it can never be found. They feed on ashes, and sup up the 
 east wind. They spend their money for that which is not 
 bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not. They 
 labour in the fire, and weary themselves for very vanity. 
 They go up and down through dry places, seeking rest, and 
 finding none. Mortifications mingle with all their delights. 
 Sighs of sadness blend with their songs of mirth. They 
 often feel deeply solitary, even among scenes of gaiety. 
 Hours of depression follow moments of excitement. If 
 they look inward, they are miserable. They are forced to 
 escape from self-reflection. The future is looked forward 
 to with misgiving and fears. In times of affliction they 
 
Rest ill Christ. 357 
 
 are sickened by the sight of their unprofitable stores. 
 When life is drawing to a close, all things, past, pre- 
 sent, and future, are being lost to them in impenetrable 
 darkness. 
 
 To all such Jesus here proclaims that, so long as they 
 remain ignorant of, or separated from Him, and look to the 
 things around them for the food which their souls require, 
 they seek the living among the dead ; they seek for grapes 
 on thorns, and figs on thistles ; for living water in broken 
 cisterns; for quietness on a troubled sea; for solid ground 
 to stand upon, in the shifting sands: and He warns them 
 that they never can know what safety is, untd they betake 
 themselves to Him, and abide in Him as their refuge, and 
 rest on Him as the Eock of their salvation. 
 
 Second, The labouring and heavy-laden specially addressed 
 in these words are those whose eyes are so far opened 
 on their state by nature and practice as to feel their sinful- 
 ness and fear its consequences. They are burdened by their 
 manifold and heinous sins. While their carnal-mindedness 
 remains, nothing is blessed to them. Prosperity is their 
 ruin. In affliction they are without comfort. The depar- 
 ture of friends and neighbours from time warns them of 
 the possible nearness of their final doom. The sight of 
 others' christian joy deepens their own forebodings. The 
 promises as much as the threatenings of scripture seem 
 ominous only of evil to them. To mention God's name, is 
 to excite their fear of His anger. To speak of His law, is 
 to pronounce their condemnation. To speak of His gospel, 
 is to speak of their danger as having neglected the great 
 salvation. They begin to hear the earth groaning under 
 their feet, as if weary to bear them on its surface. They 
 begin to wonder that the very air which they breathe, and 
 the very food which they eat, instead of being ministers of 
 life, are not turned into ministers of death to them. In 
 
 ^ 
 
35^ Rest ill Christ. 
 
 short, every object in nature, and every event in providence, 
 and every part of the word of God become fraught to their 
 imagination with sources of evil, and occasions for fear. 
 Sin is thus bitter to them, even while yielding to it ; the 
 comforts of life lose their relish ; they have little sympathy 
 with the ways of those around them, and others have little 
 sympathy with them ; they lose their taste for the business 
 of life ; they pine away in their iniquity ; they are troubled 
 and bowed down greatly, and go mourning all the day ; 
 their bones wax old through their roaring all the day long, 
 for day and night the hand of the Lord is heavy upon 
 them, and their moisture is turned into the drought of 
 summer. They feel consumed by His anger, and troubled 
 by His wrath. Thus " they labour " indeed, " and are 
 heavy-laden." 
 
 II. The rest promised by Christ to the labouring and 
 heavy-laden who come to Him. 
 
 The rest is promised to the labouring and heavy-laden 
 who come to Christ. In coming to Him, they believe in Him, 
 receive Him, and rest upon Him alone for their salvation. 
 They no longer look or go to other quarters for help. Even 
 their sighs and tears, and confessions and purposes and acts 
 of reformation are seen to be but refuges of lies when 
 trusted in, for peace ; and they betake themselves to Christ 
 alone, as the only ark of their salvation, the only city of 
 refuge, the only hope set before them in the gospel. 
 
 I. The rest which they experience from their previous 
 life-long state of sin and misery, when they first come to 
 Christ and believe on Him unto salvation. 
 
 They seek shelter and abide under the covert of His blood ; 
 and their sins are pardoned ; the thick cloud that was raised 
 between them and God is blotted out ; the light of His recon- 
 ciled countenance is lifted upon them, and they are accepted 
 
Rest in Christ. 359 
 
 in the beloved ; the fears of His displeasure subside ; a feeling 
 of His forgiveness takes possession of, and tranquillises their 
 souls ; and they begin to joy in God through Jesus Christ, 
 by whom they have received the reconciliation. Not only 
 so; but in thus leading them to Christ, the Holy Spirit, by 
 accompanying the word with His regenerating power, has 
 so enlightened their understandings and renewed their wills, 
 as to animate them with the heavenly thoughts and desires, 
 and aims and hopes of those who are made new creatures 
 in Christ Jesus. In being thus enabled to come to Christ, 
 they get a peace unknown before. They look now for good 
 at the hand of God. Things wear to them now a smiling 
 aspect. The out-goings of the morning and evening rejoice 
 over them. They eat their meat with gladness and single- 
 ness of heart. They praise the Lord for turning His anger 
 away, forgiving their transgression and covering their sin ; 
 helping them when brought low ; redeeming their life from 
 destruction, and crowning them with loving-kindness and 
 tender mercy. They are no longer tossed as they were 
 before on a sea of darkness and of storms : realising the 
 presence and hearing the voice of Jesus, a heavenly sunshine 
 fills their souls. They have come to Christ, and He has 
 given them rest. 
 
 2. The rest promised to believers all through their life 
 of faith, on taking the yoke of Christ and learning of Him. 
 It has to be here emphatically stated, and to be carefully 
 remembered, that notwithstanding the restful relations into 
 which the labouring and heavj^-laden are brought by this 
 coming to Christ, in their after-life as christians they are 
 liable to many afflictions, from which they require con- 
 tinually to come anew to Christ for rest, the further and 
 habitually renewed rest which He promises to those who 
 live dependent on His guidance and obedient to His will. 
 They have to deny themselves and take up their cross, all 
 
Res I in Christ. 
 
 through life, and follow Christ, if they would at last win 
 the crown. They have entered on a journey through the 
 wilderness, and are to conduct themselves as pilgrims and 
 strangers here. They have enlisted as good soldiers of 
 Jesus Christ, and must endure hardness, fight the good fight, 
 and be faithful unto death, if they would receive the crown 
 of life. They have engaged in a race in which they must 
 win all, or lose all: and if they would be winners, they 
 must lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily 
 beset them, and, with unfaltering eagerness and energy, 
 run the race set before them, looking to Jesus ; they have 
 been called to a life of toil and trial in the service of Christ, 
 and must work the work assigned to them while it is day, 
 and not weary in well-doing, but be willing to spend them- 
 selves and be spent in doing and suffering for His glory in 
 their own and others' salvation, so that He may be mag- 
 nified in their body, by life and death. 
 
 It is only in thus facing and laboriously performing the 
 work assigned to them, in thus steadily running the race 
 set before them, in thus contending with and conquering all 
 evil agencies and powers, and in thus finding their way 
 through the wilderness that lies before them, however full 
 of straits and dangers, that they obey the call of Christ to 
 take His yoke upon them and to learn of Him, and that 
 they find His promise fulfilled. Ye shall find rest to your 
 souls. To see this more clearly and fully, let the following 
 particulars be noticed. 
 
 First. Even after any have come as labouring and 
 heavy-laden to Christ, and He has given them rest, 
 there remains in their minds much spiritual ignorance 
 to darken and perplex them. They have still confused, 
 unsatisfactory apprehensions of spiritual things. These 
 spiritual apprehensions are often obscured by the earthly 
 objects that are allowed to rush in and occupy their 
 
Rest ill Christ. 361 
 
 minds and hearts. They thus lose or weaken their power 
 of discriminating between truth and error, between good 
 and evil. And their path consequently becomes perplexed, 
 unsteady, and comfortless. In this condition of unrest, 
 their way is not in themselves ; the light that they need 
 comes from the Sun of righteousness. In His light alone 
 can they see light clearly. Sitting at His feet, listening 
 to His words, looking up to Him for His Spirit, Christ 
 guides them, when blind, in a way that they know not, 
 leads them in paths that they have not known, makes 
 darkness light before them, and crooked places straight ; 
 does these things unto them, and does not forsake them. 
 He makes His word to dwell in them richly in all wisdom 
 and spiritual understanding; putting His Spirit in them, He 
 causes them to walk in His statutes, and to keep His judg- 
 ments and do them. And thus in proportion as theyare taught 
 the way that they should choose, their soul dwelleth at ease. 
 Second. The felt power of the sin that remains in them, 
 and that is constantly ready to rise into action, is a great 
 cause of uneasiness and fear from day to day. It turns 
 them from duty, or unfits them for the due performance of 
 duty. It estranges them from God, and deprives them of 
 their proper relish for His word and ordinances. It defiles 
 their heart and life with evil thoughts, words, and actions. 
 It renders their head sick and their heart faint. It makes 
 them to groan with wretchedness that they feel themselves 
 still to such an extent under the body of corruption which 
 they have still to drag about with them. Against this 
 remaining sin in them they find it impossible to struggle 
 successfully in their own strength. Neither do they find 
 deliverance from it in any change of outward circumstances. 
 And when they think of the holiness of God, and of heaven, 
 and what is needful to fit them for His presence, they are 
 filled with restlessness, anxiety, and apprehension at the 
 
Rest in Christ. 
 
 presence and workings of this remaining sin in their thoughts 
 and tempers, their speech and conduct. No freedom from 
 this indwelling corruption is found in their own unaided 
 efforts, or in the help of others. But the deliverance needed 
 is found by them in Christ. While in His revealed presence 
 their very comeliness turns into corruption, and they fall at 
 His feet as dead, He lays His hand upon them, raises them 
 up to live before Him, strengthens them with might by His 
 Spirit in their inner man, and becomes Himself their light 
 and life. Yielding themselves up to His guidance and 
 government. He washes them in His blood, and sanctifies 
 them by His word and Spirit ; by His death He redeems 
 them from iniquity and purifies them to Himself; they are 
 made to feel and act as crucified with Him, and as they 
 that live by Christ living in them ; because He lives, they 
 live also ; risen with Him, they walk in newness of life ; 
 through His Spirit they strive to mortify the deeds of their 
 body and live ; they are under law to Christ ; they en- 
 deavour to serve Him as their Lord and Master ; to live in 
 the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, and bring forth the fruits 
 of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
 goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. They seek to do all 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, to be conformed to His 
 image, to have His mind in them, to imitate His example, 
 to walk in His steps. 
 
 And in proportion as they are thus enabled to take His 
 yoke upon them and bear it, is the rest which they experi- 
 ence. If they sow in tears, they reap in joy. If they 
 mourn for sin, they receive beauty for ashes, the oil of joy 
 for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- 
 ness. Their rejoicing is this, the testimony of their con- 
 science, that in simplicity and .godly sincerity, not with 
 fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, they have their 
 conversation in this world. In proportion as they serve the 
 
Rest in Christ. 36; 
 
 Lord in' holiness and righteousness, they serve Him without 
 fear. Light and gladness are sown for them as righteous, 
 and as upright in heart. The work of righteousness is 
 found by them to be peace, and the effect of it quietness 
 and assurance for ever. They are satisfied from themselves, 
 from what grace has done within them. They study to put 
 on love as the bond of perfectness, and the peace of God 
 rules in their hearts. They thus take the yoke of Christ 
 upon them and learn of Him, and so find rest to their 
 souls. 
 
 Third. In so far as Satan succeeds in his efforts to seduce 
 or frighten them from the way of faith and holiness, he keeps 
 believers oppressed by uneasiness and fear. 
 
 It might have been supposed beforehand that as regards 
 those who have come to Christ and found peace in believ- 
 ing, Satan would henceforth let them alone, as knowing 
 from much bitter experience how vain are all his efforts to 
 baffle that wisdom or bear down that power of Christ, under 
 the guidance and protection of which all believers are placed 
 and kept. But he probably remains ignorant of the fact of 
 who are really Christ's, and slow to believe in the evidences 
 which they give of it, while he is full of the hatred and 
 malice which prompt him to show undying enmity to them 
 and to their Eedeemer and Lord, by plying them with all 
 the cunning, and harassing them with all the violence which, 
 for wise reasons, he is, under limitations, permitted to em- 
 ploy against them. And so they can never exactly tell at 
 what time, from what quarter, or in what manner he will 
 assail them. Only they are informed in scripture, and 
 made to know from actual experience, that many are the 
 devices and the assaults by which he seeks to entrap and 
 to undo them. 
 
 Now under these temptations they have no wisdom of 
 their own to detect his presence and devices, and no power 
 
364 Rest in Christ. 
 
 of their own to withstand his assaults ; and they are there- 
 fore liable to manifold perplexities, agitations, and fears; 
 and, indeed, were there no higher refuge than their own 
 wisdom or might, in which to take shelter from Satan's 
 cunning and his rage, even believers would inevitably be 
 allured or carried headlong to their ruin. But in Jesus 
 they have a Saviour, who, being the Son of God, came into 
 the world, God manifested in the flesh, for the very purpose 
 of destroying the works of the devil, and who, in personal 
 encounter with the wicked one, spoiled him of his preten- 
 sions, covered him with confusion, and annihilated his 
 power. And so in all the troubles which their great enemy 
 causes to them, they come to Jesus that He may teach them 
 by His word and Spirit, and rule and defend, or deliver 
 them by His power. And the wiliest and most dangerous 
 and seductive of Satan's approaches are thus discovered to 
 them and despised, and the most fiery darts which he can 
 discharge at them are thus blunted, and fall powerless at 
 their feet. And while refreshed by the grace by which they 
 are enabled thus to triumph over him, this grace of Christ 
 is made so sufficient for them, and His strength is so per- 
 fected in their weakness, that they rest in safety and com- 
 fort behind the defence that Jesus thus proves to them, " 
 while Satan shrinks from assailing their Shield and Buckler. 
 Fourth. As Christ forewarned His followers, none can 
 believe in Him, and give themselves up to His service, 
 without such a separation from the men of the world, and 
 such opposition to their ways, as are sure to attract and 
 engage their attention and to excite their surprise, their 
 annoyance, their reproaches, their ridicule, their slanderous 
 speeches ; and to bring upon the objects of their dislike such 
 other injuries and wrongs as contempt, hatred, and vindic- 
 tiveness are able to inflict. Such experiences and liabilities 
 of christians, on account of their faith in and obedience to 
 
Rest in Christ. 365 
 
 Christ, are very trying to their flesh and blood ; they are, 
 indeed, often harder to bear than would be death itself. 
 Strong temptations, too, thus arise to believers to conceal 
 their faith, to conform to the customs, maxims, and examples 
 of the world, and to prove unfaithful in the service of 
 Christ, to His dishonour, their own injury, and the hurt of 
 immortal souls. And so they are troubled not only by the 
 working of the world's enmity, but by the questionable or 
 unworthy means which they employ to escape from it. 
 
 When thus harassed for their profession of the gospel, 
 and at the same time for their conscious unfaithfulness to 
 its claims, there is no rest, no true, solid, satisfying rest for 
 them, except in coming to Christ, repenting of their unfaith- 
 fulness, and receiving through His blood pardon for the past, 
 and in so surrendering themselves to His guidance and con- 
 trol, that they henceforward count His reproach greater 
 riches than all the treasures of earth. For in thus taking 
 up their cross and following Christ, they are supported and 
 cheered by their conscious fellowship with Christ in His 
 sufferings, by His indwelling Spirit as the Comforter, by the 
 felt presence of their Father in heaven, and by the hope of 
 soon dwelling in His house for ever. 
 
 Fifth. A more constantly operating occasion of disquietude 
 and depression to many Christians is the thought of their 
 present or future temporal lot on earth. 
 
 As has been justly remarked, they often find it easier to 
 look to Christ, and to trust Him for eternal life with Him- 
 self above, than for the temporal provision which, for a 
 short time, they need by the way. They find it diffi- 
 cult to make the ends to meet, and they cannot pierce 
 the clouds that hang over the future to them. They 
 are too apt, like unbelievers around, to separate God 
 from His own world, and especially from their own indi- 
 vidual concerns, and to feel and act as if, so far at least as 
 
366 Rest in Christ. 
 
 regards temporal events, mankind were left uncontrolled, 
 unprovided for, to work out their own destiny for time. 
 Coming too readily and too often under the power of the 
 atheistic spirit which prevails all around them, no wonder 
 that the followers of Christ are so apt to be tossed on a 
 sea of troubles with reference to what they shall eat, and 
 what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be 
 clothed. 
 
 Nor is there any remedy for such corroding cares, except 
 in coming to Christ, and taking His yoke upon them, and 
 learning of Him. The more simply and unreservedly that 
 is done, the more quietly and confidently will they live upon 
 the providence as well as grace of Jesus. They will learn, 
 like Himself when on earth, to live not by bread alone, but 
 by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 
 In seeking lirst the kingdom of God and the righteousness 
 thereof, while diligent in their earthly calling, they expect 
 and do not fail to experience, that things really needful are 
 added to them. They will endeavour to be content with 
 such things as they have, remembering Christ's promise, I 
 will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And they will find 
 rest in the utterance breathed for ages, from childhood to 
 old age, by all who love Christ, The Lord is my shepherd, I 
 shall not want . . . Thou spreadest a table before me, in 
 the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head 
 with oil ; my cup runneth over. 
 
 ' Sixth. The afflictions, personal and relative, which come 
 more immediately from the hand of God, to chasten and 
 prove His people, are in their own nature, and for the 
 present, not joyous but grievous. And the bodily pain and 
 mental sufferings which believers experience, are often 
 greatly aggravated by their inability to search out and 
 understand the designs of God in sending them. So that, 
 like Job, they are, amidst their trials and affliction, tempest- 
 
Rest in Christ. 367 
 
 tossed, and incapable of taking in the truth and the comfort 
 which it would bring to them. 
 
 When thus brought down and crushed under the burden 
 of their afflictions, their spirit can attain to no quietness, 
 but is tossed from billow to billow, so long as they look to 
 human causes of their calamities, and to human remedies for 
 their removal, and so despise the chastening of the Lord, 
 or so long as they see nothing but artger in the Lord's 
 visitation of them, and therefore faint under His rebuke. 
 And their only yet sure way of deliverance from their niur- 
 murings and meanings, their agitations and alarms, and of 
 attaining to meekness, and patience, and hope, under all 
 their afflictions from the hand of God, is just to place them- 
 selves in the hands of Christ, and at His disposal, and to 
 hear and obey His voice, and trust His grace, and faithful- 
 ness and power. For then they are made to see and feel that 
 His sufferings have taken the sting from theirs — that having 
 a fellowship in His sufferings, and conformableness to His 
 death, are preparing them for a glorious resurrection in Him 
 to life eternal — that meanwhile they have with them the 
 sympathy of Him who learned obedience by the things 
 that He suffered, and is afflicted in all their afflictions — 
 that by His word and Spirit in them they are being more 
 effectually taught the evil of sin, the vanity of earthly 
 things, the virtue of His peace-speaking blood, the precious- 
 ness and power of His grace, the reality of His presence 
 and faithfulness, and the sustaining and purifying power of 
 the believer's hope as an anchor of the soul, sure and stead- 
 fast, entering into that within the vail — that their tribula- 
 tion works patience, and patience experience, and experience 
 hope — and that in short as their sufferings abound, their 
 consolations in Christ correspondingly abound. 
 
 Seventh. The rest that is thus given by Christ to those 
 who come to Him and take His yoke upon them, and learn 
 
368 Rest ill Christ. 
 
 of Him, is experienced by them not only throughout their 
 christian course on earth, but at the conclusion of it. 
 
 When death approaches, their heart and flesh will fail 
 them. But even in the dark valley He is nigh with His 
 rod and staff to comfort them with His guidance and His 
 strength. When they pass through the waters. He is with 
 them. When they pass through the floods, they do not 
 overflow them. When they walk through the fire they are 
 not burned ; neither doth the flame kindle upon them. 
 Death to them is deprived of its sting, and changed from 
 the king of terrors into a messenger of peace. Death is not 
 dissolution leading to darkness and final ruin. It is a fall- 
 ing asleep to rest in their beds, from which they are soon 
 to wake again to immortal life. It is the departure of their 
 soul to the rest that shall never be broken, or disturbed, or 
 come to an end. 
 
 Concluding remarks. 
 I. The rest which the Lord Jesus Christ bestows on His 
 believing, and obedient, and truthful followers is not merely 
 that feeling of deliverance from wrath and condemnation, 
 and of access to and acceptance with God as their reconciled 
 God and Father in Christ which convicted, burdened, and 
 weary ones experience when first translated out of dark- 
 ness into marvellous light. While they live on earth, the 
 rest which Christ gives to them while working out their sal- 
 vation with fear and trembling, is such a rest as is found 
 time after time in Him, in the continual warfare between 
 what is now the law of their mind, and the law which 
 is still in their members, and in wrestling with princi- 
 palities and powers, with spiritual wickedness in high 
 places. And yet it is a true satisfying rest, a sweet, refresh- 
 ing, reviving rest found in the felt nearness and all-sufiicient 
 grace of the ever-jiresent Eedeemer ; found in the light 
 
Rest in Christ. 369 
 
 with which He shines into their hearts, and on their path; 
 found in the purifying power of His word and Spirit on 
 their affections and desires ; found in their conscious deli- 
 vferances from the devices and assaults of the wicked one ; 
 found in the self-denial, faith, and patience, uprightness, 
 and humUity, and meekness which they are enabled to 
 exercise in the midst of evil-doers ; found in mercies en- 
 riched by His grace, in afflictions from which that grace 
 has taken the sting ; found, when their heart and flesh are 
 failing, in the Lord's proving the strength of their heart 
 and their portion for ever. 
 
 2. But there are awakened and earnest inquirers who say 
 that they have not found this rest — that they are under the 
 burden of their sins, in spiritual darkness, full of doubts and 
 fears, in the midst of troubles and dangers, beset by ene- 
 mies, shut out from the presence of God, and know not 
 where to find Jesus. 
 
 The reason of this is not in Christ. He is able and will- 
 ing to help them, and to help them now. He invites them, 
 and is ready to welcome them ; He raises no obstacles in 
 their way. And He will in no wise cast them out if they 
 come to Him. He ever stands at the door of their heart 
 and knocks, ready, if they will but open the door, to enter 
 and begin a blessed and eternal fellowship. 
 
 If the reason is not in Christ, it must be in themselves. 
 Some evil habit has still a firmer hold of them than Christ 
 and His salvation ; and so long as that is the case, though 
 they sigh, they will go backward. In particular, when, per- 
 haps, no other form of prevailing evil in their nature or 
 conduct is easily to be traced, a secret and subtle pride 
 may remain to prevent that submission to Christ which is 
 followed by rest. Then in their trouble they may betake 
 themselves to prayers, and fastings, and tears, and other 
 self-afflicting exercises, and all the while they may be 
 
3 7o Rest in Christ. 
 
 labouring to make out a personal claim to the forbearance 
 and forgiveness and favour of God. No wonder if in that 
 case their darkness and distress continue or increase. For 
 relief is impossible until their hearts are so thoroughly 
 humbled that they lie down at the feet of Jesus as alike help- 
 less and unworthy ; helpless in themselves, and unworthy of 
 help from Him. Then do they find His hand laid in mercy 
 on them, and His revealed presence within them, proving 
 the light and life and strength of their souls. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE LOVE OF THE EEDEEMED TO CHRIST. 
 
 *' Wliom having not seen, ye love." — i Pet. i. 8. 
 
 TN considering these words, we may notice the object of 
 -*- the love here spoken of: the subjects of it, or those 
 by whom it is experienced and shown ; the nature and the 
 causes of it ; the necessity of it ; and its evidences, or the 
 way in which it is manifested. 
 
 I. The OBJECT of this love. The object of it is the un- 
 seen Saviour, " Whom having not seen, ye love." 
 
 The final appearing of Jesus Christ is referred to in the 
 immediately preceding words (verse 7), as well as in many 
 other parts of scripture, as the great crisis at which His 
 people shall be abundantly recompensed for their faith in 
 Him, and love to Him, and for all their labours and suffer- 
 ings in His service. 
 
 The Lord Jesus will then come in visible glory. " Be- 
 hold He Cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." ^ 
 
 When His glory is thus revealed. His people shall not 
 be ashamed, but have confidence and humble boldness, and 
 be glad before Him with exceeding joy. 
 
 The reason why they are then enabled thus to welcome 
 His final "glorious appearing," is that their hearts are 
 established unblamable in holiness ; that they are found 
 arrayed in that fine linen, clean and white, which is the 
 
 Rev. i. 
 
372 Love to Christ. 
 
 righteousness of saints, and are made like to Him so as to 
 enable them to see Him as He is. 
 
 At present, however, the still sinful condition of the best 
 of the followers of Christ unfits them for making a right 
 use of any such visible representations of Himself as He 
 gave in the days of His flesh, or of such as He will give 
 when He comes a second time. Were He to appear again 
 in the humble form which He took in the days of His flesh, 
 the carnality which is still even in believers would make 
 them to look more at the outward meanness of His appear- 
 ance than at the heavenly character which He carried 
 beneath it, and so to slight Him as He was slighted when 
 He dwelt on earth. Were He, on the other hand, to appear 
 in the glorious form in which He appeared to the apostle 
 John, and in which He will soon reveal Himself to all, the 
 consciously sinful state in which the best of His followers 
 still find themselves would fill them with overwhelming 
 fear at His presence, or lay them, like even the beloved 
 disciple, at His feet, as dead. 
 
 It thus suits the present half-sanctified and yet habitually 
 advancing spiritual state of believers to walk by faith rather 
 than by sight. For it is not outward and sensible mani- 
 festations of Christ which faith regards, but the moral 
 excellencies of His divine character, and the spiritual bless- 
 ings of His redeeming work. 
 
 And when the eye of their faith takes in the revelation 
 which His word, accompanied by His Spirit, affords to 
 them of His character and work as a Saviour, the eye of 
 their faith affects their heart, and the words are fulfilled in 
 their experience, " Whom having not seen, ye love," &c. 
 
 II. Consider who are the subjects of this love, or by 
 whom it is experienced, cherished, and made manifest. 
 The persons to whom it was more immediately ascribed 
 
Love to Christ. 'i^']^ 
 
 by the apostle were strangers scattered throughout Pontus, 
 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia : chosen of God, 
 sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled by the blood of Jesus, 
 begotten to the lively hope of the heavenly inheritance, 
 kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, 
 rejoicing greatly amidst the heaviest trials, and manifesting 
 a faith much more precious than the gold that perisheth, 
 though tried by fire/ The persons who still feel and dis- 
 play this love to Christ have undergone a similar divine 
 change in their character, condition, and prospects. They 
 too have become pilgrims and strangers on the earth, heirs 
 and expectants of the heavenly inheritance. They too have 
 been washed from their sins in the blood of Christ, and 
 regenerated by His Spirit, and quickened to a life of holy 
 obedience. They are raised up together with the risen 
 Saviour, to set their affections on things above, and are 
 waiting for their approaching and final salvation. In the 
 exercise of faith and patience they endure the temptations 
 and troubles of their present state, in the cherished desire 
 and expectation of the final glorious appearing of Christ, 
 the acceptance which awaits them in His presence then, 
 and the place to which He will conduct them in His ever- 
 lasting kingdom. 
 
 III. Observe the nature and causes of true love to Christ. 
 
 Love to any object implies a true or fancied perception 
 of good quaUties in it, that renders it worthy of esteem. 
 Love also implies a feeling of personal interest in the object 
 loved. There can be no love on our part to an object 
 which has in our eyes nothing lovable in it. Nor can we 
 love an object between which and ourselves there is no 
 link of friendly connection. 
 
 1 I Pet. i. 1-7. 
 
74 Love to Christ. 
 
 Love to Christ is love to Him both for His personal 
 character and for the benefits which He bestows. Some, 
 indeed, have argued that true love to Jesus is what they 
 call disinterested love, or love to Him for what He is in 
 Himself, or for what He is to others, without any regard 
 to any personal interest which such as feel that love may 
 have in His favour. Others, again, have represented love 
 to Jesus as awakened and sustained only by the blessings 
 which they receive or expect from His hands. Both views 
 are, we think, incorrect. The Bible blends these two views 
 of Christ together in placing Him before us as the object 
 of our love. It .sets forth His excellencies in connection 
 with His redeeming work, and His redeeming work in con- 
 nection with those inherent attributes of His nature from 
 which that work proceeds. And it calls upon us to love 
 Him on both accounts, to love Him as altogether lovely, 
 and to love Him also as having first loved us. As an 
 affection which has regard both to His personal character 
 and to His benefits, true love to Christ is at once a love of 
 delight, a love of desire, and a love of good-will. It is a 
 love of delight ; for they who exercise it see and relish His 
 excellence and grace, saying of Him, " My beloved is fairer 
 than the sons of men," "the chief among ten thousand, and 
 altogether lovely." It is a love of desire : " With my soul 
 have I desired thee in the night season ; with my spirit 
 within me will I seek thee early." And it is a love of 
 good- will : " Blessed be His glorious name for ever ; and let 
 the whole earth be filled with His glory." 
 
 The nature and character of true love to Christ will be 
 more clearly seen by considering the causes of the love 
 which the redeemed have for the unseen Saviour. 
 
 I. They love Him for the benefits which He imparts, 
 for His words of grace and deeds of mercy, and their interest 
 in both. Tliey love Him because He first loved them. 
 
Love to Christ. 375 
 
 (i.) They love Him for His words of grace. He tells 
 us that in the depths of the past eternity, in the view of 
 what He had undertaken to do for the salvation of sinners, 
 He rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and had His 
 delights with the sons of men/ In the view of His incar- 
 nation, earthly ministry, and obedience unto death, He pro- 
 phetically exclaimed, " Lo, I come ; in the volume of the 
 book it is written of me. I delight to do Thy will, my 
 God; yea, Thy law is within my heart." ^ He commenced 
 His public ministry by declaring that in Him the words of 
 Isaiah would now be fulfilled, " The Spirit of the Lord is 
 upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
 to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
 to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
 sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord : " and as He 
 explained and enforced the application of these words to 
 Himself, His hearers "wondered at the gracious words 
 which proceeded out of His mouth." ^ The language in 
 which He still addresses all who hear the gospel is, " Ho, 
 every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," &c.* " If 
 any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," &c.^ 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, 
 and I will give you rest," &c.^ " Him that cometh to me, 
 I will in no wise cast out."^ "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 sup with him, and he with me."^ 
 
 When sinners refuse to be gathered to Him, He com- 
 plains, " Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life." 
 When they persist in their impenitence, until their state 
 becomes hopeless, He weeps over them, saying, " Oh, that 
 
 Prov. viii. ' Isa. Ixi., Luke iv. ® John vii. ' John vi. 
 
 Ps. xl. •* Isa. Iv. ^ Matt. xi. « Rev. iii. 
 
2i'](i Love to Christ. 
 
 thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to 
 thy peace ! " When He sees any doubting His willingness 
 to receive them on their return, He says, As I live, I have 
 no pleasure in your death ; turn ye, turn ye, why will ye 
 die ? When His people shut or keep Him out of their 
 hearts, He says, " Open to me, my sister, my love, ... for 
 my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of 
 the night." When the believer is made willing, ready, and 
 joyful to receive Him as a Saviour from sin as well as from 
 wrath, He says, " Eise up, my love, my fair one, and come 
 away. 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," &c.^ When the hearts of His people are filled with 
 holy desires after Him, He comes into their hearts with 
 manifestations of His gracious presence, saying, " I am come 
 into my garden, my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my 
 myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honey-comb with 
 my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, 
 friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved." 
 
 Now such words of grace as these cannot be listened to 
 and felt by any without having their hearts inflamed with 
 vehement desires after Jesus, into whose lips such grace is 
 poured. Never man spake as He thus speaks to the under- 
 standing conscience and heart. And so when sinners are 
 made to hear His voice as He stands knocking at the door 
 of their hearts for admission, and when they know that He 
 asks for nothing at their hands except a heart broken and 
 contrite for sin, and when they find Him come nigh to 
 bestow upon them, according to His promises, all the un- 
 searchable riches of His grace, they are moved to open their 
 hearts to Him and to let Him in. Hearkening diligently 
 
 ^ Song of Sol. ii. 
 
Love to Christ. t^jj 
 
 unto Him, they are made to eat that which is good, and 
 their soul delights itself in fatness. Inclining their ear, 
 they come to Him. Hearing Him, their soul is quickened 
 into life. Henceforth their affections are set on things 
 above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. And 
 they are consciously taken into the everlasting covenant, 
 and rendered partakers of its satisfying and enduring 
 mercies. 
 
 (2.) His deeds of mercy equally with His words of grace 
 enkindle and foster love to Christ in such as believe. 
 
 They see Him entering into an everlasting covenant with 
 the Father for their redemption. They see Him coming to 
 our first parents when they had fallen, and reviving them 
 with the hope of salvation tlirough His own mediatorial 
 work. They see Him under the patriarchal and Jewish 
 dispensations revealing Himself time after time in types 
 and symbols, in prophecies, and even in visible forms, as 
 the Saviour of His people, and in His love and pity redeem- 
 ing them, and carrying them all the days of old. They see 
 Him coming into the world in the fulness of time, taking 
 our nature in the lowliest form, loading Himself with our 
 sins and griefs, living in the midst of miserable sinners, 
 performing miracles of mercy in their behalf, speaking to 
 them words of grace, and giving light, and life, and peace 
 to their souls. As the substitute of guilty millions of man- 
 kind, they see Him not only fulfilling the whole law of God, 
 but bearing the punishment of His people's iniquity, suffer- 
 ing all evil at the hands of men while working out for them 
 a great salvation; enduring the enmity of wicked spirits, 
 and by that very means spoiling them of their power ; and, 
 above all, suffering the wrath of God due to sinners, be- 
 coming for them exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and 
 at length forsaken of God that they may be delivered from 
 that wrath and partake of infinite and everlasting mercy. 
 
37^ Love to CkrisL 
 
 They see Him entering the grave and lying in it, to sanctify 
 its gloomy precincts into a safe and cheerful resting-place 
 for His people's dust. They see Him rising from the dead, 
 ascending on high, taking possession of His Father's house, 
 and there preparing places in its mansions for those on earth 
 who listen to His voice and follow Him. They see Him 
 living for evermore, and reigning as Head over heaven, earth, 
 and hell. Head over all things to the church, and, from age 
 to age, employing His almighty power in bringing many 
 sons and daughters unto glory. They see Him preparing 
 to make this earth the theatre of still greater triumphs of 
 His cross, in the vastly increasing numbers whom He saves 
 from age to age, even till the end of time. And they see 
 Him preparing to gather the whole of His redeemed to- 
 gether to Himself in the great day, and to welcome them 
 to the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of 
 the world. Thus did Christ love the church, and give 
 Himself for it, &c.^ And now it is impossible for any to 
 realise this love of Christ without loving Him in return, 
 and being constrained to say, " Blessed be the Lord God, 
 the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And 
 blessed be His glorious name for ever, and let the whole 
 earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen." 
 
 (3.) The personal interest which believers have in His 
 words of grace and deeds of mercy excite in true believers 
 this love to Christ. 
 
 To love Him in any aspects of His character implies a 
 loving union between Him and them, and some degree 
 of warrantable persuasion on their part, that this union 
 exists. And therefore, when any love Jesus, they love Him 
 as their own Eedeemer. By His word and Spirit in them, 
 He is their light in darkness. They are brought nigh to 
 
 ^ Eph. V. 
 
Love to Christ. 379 
 
 God, and have peace with Him through the blood of the 
 cross. In coming to God by Christ, they look to Him as 
 able to save them to the uttermost, seeing He ever liveth 
 to make intercession for them. He casts Satan out of them, 
 and enables them to resist and overcome the wicked one. 
 He subdues their corrujDtions, and enables them to walk in 
 newness of life. By His cross, the world is crucified to 
 them, and they are crucified to the world. Casting their 
 burdens on Him, He sustains them, and does not suffer 
 tliem to be moved. Casting all their care upon Him, He 
 cares for them. They spread their sorrows before Him, . 
 and experience His pity and help. They come to Him in 
 the time of temptation, and obtain His succour. They find 
 His grace made sufficient for them, and His strength per- 
 fected in their weakness. And while without Him they can 
 do nothing, they find that through Him strengthening them,' 
 they can do all things. They believe, in short, that because 
 He lives, they shall live also. Believers cannot take this 
 view, have any of this personal experience of Christ's relation 
 to themselves individually, without being constrained to say, 
 " Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon 
 earth that I desire beside thee : my heart and flesh faileth ; 
 but thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." 
 
 2. All who truly love Christ love Him for His personal 
 character. " He is altogether lovely." 
 
 (l.) His nature and perfections as God produce and 
 maintain in them this love to Him. They love Him as 
 divine ; as the true God ; ^ as Jehovah on His throne, high 
 and lifted up ; ^ as the Holy One and the Just ; ^ as search- 
 ing our reins and hearts ; * as He by whom all things 
 were created and consist ; ® and to whom all judgment is 
 committed, that all may honour Him even as the Father.^ 
 
 ^ I John V. 3 Acts iii. ® Col. i. 
 
 2 Isa. vi. : John xii. * Rev. i. ® John v. , 
 
3^0 Love to Christ. 
 
 And so His people love Him with a love of reverence for 
 His unsearchable greatness ; with a love of submission to 
 His sovereign authority ; with a love of confidence in His 
 grace and truth ; and with a love of gratitude for all His 
 benefits. 
 
 (2.) The humanity which He took and wears excites love 
 to Christ in all His people. They love Him as a man. 
 
 As a man, He was without sin. It was His meat and 
 drink to do His Father's will. Zeal for His Father's 
 house ate Him up. His trust in His Father's love was 
 ever unshaken. His submission to His Father's will was 
 ever perfect. His communion with His Father was un- 
 ceasing. As a man, all other virtues shone forth in Him 
 with unmiugled brightness. He lived in subjection to 
 earthly parents. The spirit of wisdom breathed in all He 
 said and did. When twelve years of age, He was found 
 standing among the doctors, the learned men in the temple, 
 answering and asking questions. The wisdom that filled 
 Him never failed Him in all His intercourse with friends 
 and foes. His love and practice of truth were incorrup- 
 tible. He went about continually doing good. His meek- 
 ness under injuries never forsook Him. And over all His 
 other graces as a man, there was thrown the covering of 
 perfect humility. 
 
 Such as love Christ love Him in this view of His 
 character. They have a true active sympathy with every 
 one of His virtues. They relish the pattern which these 
 virtues afford, and strive to copy it, so as to have it in 
 some degree transferred to their own character. They 
 strive to imitate His piety and purity. His benevolence and 
 self-control, His love of truth, His good-will to the souls 
 and bodies of men. His patience and fortitude, His meek- 
 ness and lowliness of mind. They long to have in them 
 the same mind that was in Him. As He left to them an 
 
Love to Christ. 381 
 
 example that they should walk in His steps, they endeavour 
 to " walk even as He walked," to run the race set before 
 them, looking to Jesus. 
 
 (3.) The wonderful union in Christ's person of the divine 
 and human nature, is a special cause of the love to Him 
 felt by the redeemed. 
 
 They love Him as God-man, as having the nature of God 
 and the nature of man for ever mysteriously united in His 
 one person. On this account they feel toward Him as the 
 most peculiar and overwhelming object of attraction in the 
 universe. They contemplate Him as a child born to us, and 
 at the same time the mighty God, and as having all the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead dwelling in Him as the Man Christ 
 Jesus. And so they join with all His servants in heaven, 
 in adoring Him as the Lamb that was slain, now the Lamb 
 in the midst of the throne. This love is awakened and 
 maintained in them as they see that, by this union of the 
 divine and human natures in His person, the whole distance 
 between God and them is filled up, inasmuch as, in coming 
 to Christ, they come to One who is bone of their bone and 
 flesh of their flesh, and who is not less truly at the same 
 time very God. 
 
 IV. The necessity of this love to Christ becomes thus 
 impressively manifest. 
 
 Without this love to Christ we can have no likeness to 
 God, and fellowship with Him, and no place among His 
 obedient and happy family. 
 
 I . Likeness to God, and fellowship with Him, depend on 
 the possession and exercise of this love to Christ. 
 
 To be like to God, or near to Him, requires that what 
 He reveals as the main object of His love, shall be the 
 main object of ours. But Christ is infinitely more dear to 
 Him than all things else. And so unless we love Christ 
 
382 Love to Christ. 
 
 unspeakably more than all things else, we cannot either be 
 like to God, or in fellowship with Him, 
 
 That Christ is so loved by the Father is evident. As tlie 
 only begotten and eternal Son of the Father, He is the 
 infinitely suitable object of the Father's infinite love. And 
 so from eternity He " was by " the Father, as One " brought 
 up with Him," and was daily His delight, rejoicing always 
 before Him.^ He was " in the bosom of the Father," and 
 so filled His heart, that chiefly in respect of the Father's 
 love to the Son from everlasting, it is said " God is 
 love." ^ 
 
 Then when the Son became incarnate, and presented 
 Himself before the eye of His Father as " God manifested 
 in the flesh," He was, as the God-man, still further the 
 object of the Father's infinite love. " Behold my servant 
 whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth." ^ 
 " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ^ 
 This love of God to His own Son accounts for the trust 
 reposed in Him by the Father, for the power committed to 
 Him, " The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all 
 things that Himself doeth." ^ " The Father loveth the Son, 
 and hath given all things into His hands." ^ 
 
 If this be the love of the Father to the Son, we cannot 
 be like to God further than as we love the Son also. The 
 chief display of God's character is His love to Christ, and 
 so the degree of our likeness to God is decided by the 
 degree of our love to Christ ; we are no further like to God 
 than as we love chiefly what God chiefly loves, that is. His 
 own Son, Our love to Christ must be, however faintly, an 
 image of God's love to Him. If in the presence of the 
 Father's love to His Son we have no love to Him, we have 
 no love or likeness to God Himself ; we have still in us 
 
 1 Prov. viii. ^ Isa. xlii. * John v. 
 
 " I John iv. * Matt. iii. ; John xvi. ^ John iii. 
 
Love to Christ. 383 
 
 that carnal mind which is enmity against God, and is not 
 and cannot be subject to His law. 
 
 In that case we can have no favour or fellowship with 
 God. It is only as in Christ that any of our sinful race 
 are loved by God. His love to such as are viewed by Him 
 in Christ, is part of the love which He has for Christ pass- 
 ing onward to them. But such as do not love Christ are 
 not in Him, and can have no experience of the love of God. 
 And so they can have neither any right to fellowship with 
 God, nor any fitness for it, nor any experience of it. This 
 will appear more and more by considering that — 
 
 2. For those who are without love to Christ, there is and 
 there can be no place in the great family of God. 
 
 Christ is the head of this divine family ; and all its 
 members are distinguished by their love to Him. Angels 
 belong to it ; ^ and love to Jesus prompts all their services. 
 It fills them with the deepest interest in His redeeming 
 work.^ It keeps them continually ministering to the heirs 
 of salvation.^ And it is breathed in all the praises which 
 they raise before the throne.* The redeemed on high belong 
 to this family ; and their life and blessedness are found in 
 loving Christ, in being with Him^ in the fulness of joy 
 which His presence yields,® and in singing the new song to 
 Him as having been slain, and as having thus redeemed 
 them to God by His blood.^ The redeemed on earth 
 belong to the same family. And they enter into it only by 
 so loving Christ as to be ready to forsake all things for His 
 sake.^ From the moment that any are thus minded, all 
 grace is with them as loving Christ in sincerity ; both the 
 Father and the Son love them, and come and make their 
 abode with them.^ 
 
 1 Ephes. i. iii.1 * Rev. v. "^ Rev. v. 
 
 2 Ephes. iii. ; i Pet. i. '- Phil. i. ^ pg_ ^Iv. ; Matt. x. 
 
 3 Heb. ii. ® Ps. xvi. ' John xiv. 
 
384 Love to Christ. 
 
 Love to Christ is thus the connecting link that binds 
 every member of the great family of God to every other, 
 and that binds all of them to the service and fellowship 
 of Christ Himself, as their divine and divinely-constituted 
 Head, and that also binds them all fast in willing and bliss- 
 ful homage to the throne of God, It is love to Christ that 
 alone leads any of this sinful race to occupy a place within 
 the precincts of the holy and happy creation, and fits them 
 for a share in its spiritual employments and blessed fellow- 
 ships. To be without this love, whatever else is possessed, 
 is to be in reality an outcast from the home and family of 
 God, a wandering prodigal, with nothing left but husks to 
 live upon, and nothing in prospect but inevitable, swift, 
 irremediable ruin. 
 
 The indispensable necessity and paramount importance of 
 love to Christ thus become emphatically manifest. We 
 cannot in any condition please God, except as we are 
 inspired and actuated in our performance of duty by the 
 love of Christ. We cannot approach to God at all, except 
 we love Christ as the way to the Father. We cannot love 
 God except as revealed in Christ's person and work, and so 
 in loving the Father, love the Son. We cannot love what 
 God loves, except we love Christ, for God chiefly manifests 
 Himself in loving His Son. And we cannot be fit for the 
 fellowship of angels, except as we love Jesus ; for the very 
 existence of angels, as holy and happy creatures, is bound up 
 and spent in their love to the Lamb that was slain, now the 
 Lamb in the midst of the throne. 
 
 So indispensable is this love to Jesus, that nothing will 
 serve as a substitute for it. We may have speculative 
 knowledge. We may be regular in keeping up the forms 
 of piety. We may be outwardly correct in character and 
 life. Yet there may be no true love to Jesus in us. And 
 
Love to Christ. 385 
 
 if so, under all our fair appearances, we are really dead to 
 God, alienated from, enemies to Him. 
 
 Many fair professors of the gospel will not believe or 
 feel this. They are ready to treat direct love to Jesus as a 
 pretence or a delusion. They make religion to consist in 
 the general belief of certain doctrines, and the outward 
 practice of certain duties. Eeliance on a personal Saviour, 
 attachment to Him, and communion with Him, are, in their 
 eyes, matters of imagination, not of actual experience. 
 
 But such love to Christ is not only a reality, it is an 
 indispensable, all-important reality. Without this love to 
 Him there can be no true religion in our heart or life. 
 There can be no spiritual life in the soul without it. No 
 true obedience can be rendered to the divine will without 
 it. No service can be acceptably offered to God without 
 it. Let men do what they may, they remain under the 
 sore displeasure of God, so long as they are without love to 
 Christ. " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let 
 him be anathema maranatha." 
 
 Hence the character given of all who are chosen to 
 salvation. Him having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though 
 now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory. With their eyes of faith directed 
 to Jesus, they see Him to be so full of all excellence in 
 Himself, and so precious as a Saviour to them, that they 
 cannot but love Him in such a manner as to spend their 
 energies in showing forth His praise, to find their happiness 
 in the contemplation of His glory, and to cherish the desire 
 and hope of soon reaching the fulness of joy that awaits 
 them in His presence. 
 
 V. The outgoings or evidences of this love to Christ or the 
 ways in which it is shown. True earnest love finds out 
 endless ways of showing itself toward its object. Such 
 
386 Love to Christ. 
 
 as love Christ manifest their love to Him in many ways, 
 such as the following — 
 
 Christ is the object of their supreme regard. He is in 
 their eyes fairer than the sons of men. — They often think 
 of Him ; " I have set the Lord always before me." ^ — They 
 live on Him by faith ; " I am crucified with Christ, never- 
 theless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the 
 life which I live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son 
 of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." ^ — They 
 long after His presence and favour; the desire of their 
 soul is to Him and the remembrance of His name. ' — 
 There is no satisfaction to them like that which they de- 
 rive from manifestations of His redeeming love ; " I sat 
 down under his shadow, with great delight, and his fruit was 
 sweet to my taste." * — They delight in His character, and 
 endeavour after conformity to His image. — They would not 
 have Christ to be less holy or less just than He is, any 
 more than less gracious. They rejoice in the Lord, and give 
 thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.^ — Instead of 
 trying to find comfort in fancying Him to be such an one 
 as themselves, they seek their peace as well as their safety 
 in having their judgments, dispositions, habits, and whole 
 character transformed into His likeness, in having thus the 
 same mind in them that was in Christ. — They endeavour 
 to " do those things that are pleasing in His sight," saying, 
 " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " and showing that 
 they are His friends by keeping His commandments.® 
 — They mourn over those shortcomings and transgressions 
 of heart, speech, and behaviour, by which they provoke 
 Christ to withdraw or to remain at a distance from them. 
 And when at any time on account of their sins He refuses 
 
 ^ Ps. xvi. ^ Isa. xxvi. * Ps. xxx. 
 
 8 Gal. ii. ^ Song ii. ^« John xiv. 
 
Love to Christ. 387 
 
 them access to His presence, they go about iu sadness seek- 
 ing till they find Him whom their soul loveth. — They cannot 
 rest without some comfortable persuasion of His forgiveness 
 and favour. And when visited with any evidence of His 
 love, having found Him whom their soul loveth, they hold 
 Him, and will not let Him go. — They covet' and cultivate 
 intimate acquaintance and communion with Him ; desiring 
 that to them, as friends, He would make known all things 
 that He himself has heard of the Father.^ — They hear 
 His voice and open the door of their heart to Him, as 
 He stands knocking at it, that He may come into them 
 and sup with them, and they with Him.^ — They daily 
 commend Him to others, testifying that His grace is pre- 
 cious, and inviting the sons of men to put their trust 
 under the shadow of His wings. — They make His honour 
 their chief concern. They love all that love Christ. 
 Loving Him that begets children of God out of sinful men, 
 they love those that are begotten of Him. They love 
 all that are " born again." " By this shall all men know 
 that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." 
 And they hate such as hate Him. They are grieved 
 with and count as enemies such as rise up against Him. 
 — Their love to Christ makes them ready to sacrifice 
 everything for His sake. They count all things but loss 
 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their 
 Lord, that they may win Christ, and be found in Him. 
 — They love as those who are waiting for Him from 
 heaven. They look for His glorious appearing. They love 
 it. They cherish the hope that when He appears, they 
 shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is. — And 
 they long and prepare to be finally and for ever blessed 
 in His immediate presence. They would be absent from 
 
 ^ John XV. - Rev. iii. 
 
388 Love to Christ. 
 
 the body and present with the Lord. They desire to enter 
 into His joy, and to be for ever with Him among that 
 multitudinous yet most orderly gathering of all angelic and 
 redeemed creatures, who are assembled around His everlast- 
 ing throne, to be for ever receiving all good from Him, and 
 for ever magnifying His fulness who filleth all in all. 
 
 Practical reflections. 
 
 I. The love due from the redeemed to their Eedeemer 
 far exceeds all that they experience or exemplify while on 
 earth. 
 
 When banished from his flock because of his faithful- 
 ness, Samuel Rutherford in his famous Letters gives utter- 
 ance to many touching words on this subject. " that 
 this nation knew what is betwixt Christ and me ; none 
 would scare at His cross ! I think aye the longer the 
 better of my worthy and royal Master. ... when 
 will we meet ! how long is it to the dawning of the 
 marriage day ! ... if He would fold the heavens to- 
 gether like an old cloak, and shovel time and days out of 
 the way, and make ready in haste the Lamb's wife for her 
 husband ! ... I am put to my wit's end how to get His 
 name made great." 
 
 The Scriptures show how inadequately He is loved by 
 even His most devoted servants. 
 
 " He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death ; 
 wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him 
 a name which is above every name ; that at the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow ; of things in heaven and 
 things in earth, and things under the earth : and that 
 every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
 to the glory of God the Father." — " His name shall endure 
 for ever ! His name shall be continued as long as the sun ; 
 and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call 
 
Love to CJirist. 389 
 
 Him blessed." — " Whom having not seen ye love ; in whom, 
 though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice witli 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory." — " Thy name is as oint- 
 ment poured forth ; therefore the virgins love thee. Draw 
 me, we will run after thee. The King hath brought me 
 into his chamber. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. 
 Behold thou art fair, my love. Let me see thy counte- 
 nance. Let me hear thy voice ; for sweet is thy voice, and 
 thy countenance is comely. My beloved is mine, and I 
 am his. 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 fruit." — " 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, Amen." — " And I 
 beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about 
 the throne, and the living creatures and the elders ; and 
 the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 
 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive powei*, and 
 riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, 
 and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and 
 on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the 
 sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and 
 honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 
 Words like these demonstrate that, as the love of Christ to 
 His people has a length and breadth and height and depth 
 that pass knowledge, so their most fervent love to Him 
 must ever inadequately express the love that is due for 
 that love wherewith He has loved them. 
 
 2. It is God only who by His Spirit given to them, im- 
 
;90 Love to CJirist. 
 
 plants, and revives, and renders fruitful tins love to Christ 
 in the hearts of men. 
 
 Before the Spirit comes into any, taking of the things of 
 Christ, and showing them to their minds, they satisfy them- 
 selves, ^s professors of religion, with a few outward forms of 
 worship added to the outward and ordinary proprieties of 
 life. Or if more earnest in religion, they still spend their 
 strength on services that are prompted by, and that satisfy 
 the merely natural tastes and feelings of the human heart. 
 
 When true and vital religion takes hold of any, it is God 
 who has interposed in their case, to make them to see and 
 feel, and to exemplify what true religion is. By a marvellous 
 work of His Spirit upon their hearts, such it may be as 
 were little esteemed in the church, or even in the world 
 before, become at once alive to their sinful and miserable 
 condition by nature and by practice, have Christ revealed 
 to their understandings and hearts, and are at once led 
 to Him, brought to His feet, as all their salvation and 
 all their desire. From that hour of their earthly 
 history, a true love to Christ, an enlightened, an all- 
 absorbing, and a manifest love to Him, takes possession 
 of their heart and governs their life. Like a divine fire 
 kindled in their bosoms, this love to Christ burns up and 
 reduces to ashes their formerly earthly and evil lusts and 
 habits. This love to Christ flames up within them in 
 heavenly fervours akin to those that fill the seraphim on 
 high. In the exercise of this love they become illuminated 
 with divine knowledge and fired with divine desires. This 
 love to Christ, shining out in their character and conduct, 
 casts a pure and brilliant light on the darkness of the sur- 
 rounding world, and even of the surrounding church, a 
 light too dazzling for the eyes of human philosophy, too 
 pure and heavenly for the tastes of natural men. In the 
 
Love to Christ. 391 
 
 light of this love to Jesus, simple and saintly converts who 
 are the subjects of it are found to walk habitually, realising 
 spiritual and eternal things, communing with one another, 
 and having their fellowship with the Father, and with His 
 Son Jesus Christ. In the light of this love to Jesus, they 
 especially look to, and contemplate Himself, receive from 
 His fulness, acknowledge His claims, and live to advance 
 His glory. By the praises, in which, with hearts full of 
 love to Jesus, they unite together on the earth, they antici- 
 pate and prepare for the services and songs of heaven. 
 
 3. As an overwhelming reason for the continual prayer 
 that this love to Christ may fill our life and govern our 
 conduct, we ought to remember that it is the closest attain- 
 able resemblance to God Himself, in the highest manifesta- 
 tion of His perfections, and the very soul of all the moral 
 excellence to be found in any of His intelligent creatures. 
 This love to Christ is a true though faint likeness of that 
 love which fills the heart of God toward His own Son. It 
 is essentially the same love to Christ which angels and the 
 redeemed in heaven cherish and express continually. It 
 fills, in fact, the atmosphere which is breathed by the holy 
 universe. This love of the saved to Jesus accordingly is 
 present in the first movements of every divinely-quickened 
 soul. It begins to be vented in the sighings of the broken 
 and contrite heart. It fills the longings of every true and 
 earnest suppliant. It is poured forth in the daily praises 
 of glad believers. It nerves tempted saints to fight and 
 vanquish all their foes. It urges the followers of the Lamb, 
 when departing from time, to press through the dark valley, 
 that they may close their eyes in death and open them in 
 the presence of Jesus, and see Him as the King in His 
 beauty in the land that is afar off. This love then leads 
 each of the redeemed to take his place in the society of 
 
\g2 Love to Christ. 
 
 the ransomed, and his part in their songs of everlasting joy. 
 It also forms their introduction into the innumerable com- 
 pany of angels, to aid in swelling their seraphic anthems to 
 the Lamb that was slain. Yea, their love to Jesus leads 
 them up to the very throne of God and of the Lamb, to find 
 their resting-place in the midst of the Father's glory, in 
 closest fellowship with His eternal Son. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 EELATION OF THE LOED'S SUPPER TO HIS 
 DEATH AND HIS SECOND COMING. 
 
 •' Till He come."— I COR. xi. 26. 
 
 TN the supper, christians celebrate the death of Christ till 
 He come. They commemorate the sufferings of His first 
 advent, and anticipate the consequent glory of the second. 
 
 In the supper, they show His death. They proclaim 
 it. They publish it as that of a sufferer of infinite dignity ; 
 of, in fact, the incarnate God. They publish it as really 
 undergone in our nature, and as the completion of a life 
 of inexpressible humiliation and endurance by a death of 
 unparalleled and inconceivable ignominy and agony. They 
 proclaim His death as that true and proper atonement for 
 sin by which the justice of God is satisfied for the offences 
 of all who believe ; His anger is turned away from them, 
 and all His perfections are harmonised and glorified in their 
 present and everlasting salvation. In the supper, believers 
 proclaim the death of Christ as the central fact of that 
 great work of redemption which more than all the other 
 works of God reveal His existence as the Three-One God, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They celebrate His death 
 as the only key to the whole providential government of 
 God over this and other worlds. They celebrate it as the 
 foundation of all the mediatorial relationships, offices, and 
 works which Christ sustained and performed before He 
 became incarnate, and during His abode on earth, and which 
 He still sustains and performs as the ascended, ever-living. 
 
394 Till He Come. 
 
 ever-reigning intercessor and King. They proclaim His 
 death as the source of all their blessings for the present, 
 and of their hopes for the future, as that which gives to 
 ordinances all their value, as that which furnishes the most 
 powerful motives to every duty, and shall form the theme 
 of their everlasting praise. And in the supper, believers 
 publish the death of Christ as now exercising a supremely 
 blissful influence throughout the holy and happy universe, 
 and a not less decisive power in determining the destiny 
 of the doomed portions of creation, and as in fact bringing 
 all things, literally and absolutely all things, under subjec- 
 tion to Christ. Thus, in the supper, christians show His 
 death. 
 
 But while christians thus publish the death of Jesus in 
 the supper, it is said here, with special emphasis, that they 
 do so in connection with His second advent. They show 
 His death, " till He come." That is, in the supper they show 
 His death as those who are avowedly looking for His second 
 coming, and who connect with His final advent the death 
 which He died upon the cross. The relation of the death 
 of Christ to His second coming, as set forth in the ordinance 
 of the supper, is the subject to which attention for a little 
 is now solicited. And, 
 
 I. To those who show the Lord's death in the supper, it 
 is a pledge from God of the certainty of Christ's second 
 coming. 
 
 God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the 
 world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, 
 whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He 
 hath raised Him from the dead. As the rainbow in the 
 heavens is a pledge to all who see it, and who know the 
 word of God, that He will never again destroy the world 
 with a flood, so the Lord's supper is a pledge to all believers 
 
Till He Come. 395 
 
 that their Lord will come agaiu in person to this earth. 
 As He was not entombed for ever in the sepulchre in which 
 He lay, as His life was not left in the grave, so neither 
 shall He remain for ever hidden from His people's eyes 
 within the veil that separates Him at present from their 
 view, the veil that separates His present dwelling-place 
 from this world. It is recorded in scripture ^ that " Jesus 
 led His disciples out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up 
 His hands and blessed them : and it came to pass, while 
 He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up 
 into heaven. And while they looked steadfastly toward 
 heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in 
 white apparel, who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand 
 ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, who is taken 
 up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 
 ye have seen Him go into heaven." Of the certainty of 
 His coming, as well as of the fact of His resurrection, which 
 is inseparably connected with it, the Lord's supper is a con- 
 tinual and impressive pledge. It is a pledge that God will 
 send Jesus Christ, although the heavens must receive Him 
 until the time of the restitution of all things. 
 
 11. In showing the Lord's death in the supper, His 
 people proclaim their own desires and hopes of His coming. 
 
 They thus proclaim their confident expectation of His 
 second advent. They specially remember at such a season 
 the words of Paul,^ " When Christ who is our life shall 
 appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." 
 While sitting at His table and partaking of it, they are 
 constrained to say within themselves. As surely as we are 
 now at the table of our Lord, and in His presence partaking 
 of these symbols of His broken body and shed blood, so 
 
 1 Luke xxiv. ; Acts i. ^ Col. iii. 4. 
 
39^ ' Till He Come. 
 
 surely shall we see Him coming in the clouds of heaven 
 with power and great glory. And the feelings of their 
 hearts find utterance in the language of the loved disciple, 
 " Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see 
 Him, and they also who pierced Him, and all kindreds of 
 the earth shall wail because of Him." ^ Their anticipations 
 of the Eedeemer's advent are thus rendered livelier, and 
 more abiding, and more influential than before. And so as 
 regards the confidence with which they are led at His table, 
 to cherish and express their expectations of His coming, 
 believers, so often as they eat bread and drink wine in the 
 supper, show their Lord's death till He come. 
 
 III. The Lord's supper in showing the Lord's death is 
 a lasting, and constantly repeated announcement, a pro- 
 clamation through all ages of His second coming. 
 
 It is a perpetual commemoration of His death, and a per- 
 petual pledge of His glorious appearing, even until He 
 actually rends the heavens and comes down. Were it given 
 up even for a limited period, were it for any reason even 
 but temporarily set aside, one great end of its appointment 
 would be sacrificed, viz., that of a constant, as well as en- 
 during testimony to the church and to the world, both of 
 the Eedeemer's death, which is past, and of His second 
 advent which is still to happen. Other ordinances serve 
 each their special purposes, and so does this emphatically. 
 Thus the weekly christian sabbath is a memorial of the 
 resurrection of Christ, and a pledge of eternal rest to His 
 true followers. Baptism is the memorial of their own 
 resurrection to a spiritual life in union with their risen 
 Lord. And the supper is a memorial of His having come 
 in humiliation, and a pledge of His speedy coming in glory. 
 
 Rev. 
 
Till He Co7ne. 397 
 
 As the memorial of His death which is the spring of all 
 their hopes, and as the pledge of His second coming when 
 their hopes are to be fulfilled, the Lord's supper is to be 
 continued, and will, by christians, continue to be carefully 
 and gladly celebrated until all the hopes awakened by His 
 death are consummated by His return. So that, both by 
 the will of God and by the glad consent of christians, this 
 ordinance shall continue to be observed to the end. Already 
 for nearly two thousand years the faithful followers of 
 Christ have upheld it more or less carefully in its expres- 
 sive simplicity. To observe it has been their chief delight 
 in all their varied conditions. Sometimes they have been 
 reduced to a feeble persecuted remnant. But even in their 
 most afflicted condition, even when hunted like partridges 
 on the mountains, and forced to fly to the solitudes and 
 wildernesses, to the dens and caves of the earth, even then 
 they have, with more comfort and gladness than at other 
 seasons, partaken of the suppei", at once clinging to the 
 cross as their safety in times of trouble, and rejoicing in 
 hope of the rest to which they found themselves hastening 
 in the manifested presence of Christ. And in the more 
 peaceful and prosperous states of the church, this ordinance 
 has ever been to believers the chief and cherished means of 
 leading them back to that death from which their mercies 
 flow, and forward to that appearing of their Lord, at which 
 they shall appear with Him in glory. Yea, and even when 
 the church is at length brought into its promised state of 
 hitherto unexampled light and blessedness, the seasons of 
 communion in the supper shall be those at which, above all 
 others, the King shall bring His people into His banqueting 
 house, and spread over them the banner of His love, and 
 make them to ,sit beneath His shadow with great delight, 
 and render the fruits of His death sweet to their taste, and 
 fill them with bright and blessed visions of the splendours 
 
398 Till He Come. 
 
 in which He is Himself to be revealed, and of the exceeding 
 and eternal glory that shall then be theirs. It is thus that the 
 unceasing celebrations of the supper through successive ages 
 till the end of time, are destined to be the means of keeping 
 up the remembrance of Jesus' death and the prospect of 
 His final appearing, until the very day when He is beheld 
 coming with clouds, and the saints with trembling joy 
 exclaim, " Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for Him, 
 and He will save us ; this is the Lord ; we have waited for 
 Him ; we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation." 
 
 IV. As the showing of the Lord's death till He comes 
 provides for the perpetual observance of this ordinance 
 through all ages even till the end, this provision again 
 secures that there shall always be a church on earth to 
 keep up the remembrance of the Redeemer's death, and the 
 prospect of His coming, until His final appearing as the 
 Judge of all. 
 
 The death of Christ is to be shown in the supper till He 
 comes. There will therefore always be a church upon the 
 earth for this end, as well as for other purposes. The per- 
 petuation of the church of Christ on earth is thus a great 
 truth proved and published by this ordinance. Other 
 kingdoms shall perish, but this kingdom of Christ shall 
 endure. Other nations shall cease to be ; but this holy 
 nation shall remain till time has run its course. Eighteen 
 hundred years ago the institutions and festivals of the 
 Roman empire were filling the world with the reports and 
 manifestations of its power and splendour, and looked in 
 the eyes of men as if destined to continue through all com- 
 ing ages, proclaiming Rome's imperial greatness indestruct- 
 ible. These institutions and festivals have, however, long 
 since ceased to exist, and the dominion which they pro- 
 claimed has long since perished from " tlie eternal city." 
 
Till He Come. 399 
 
 But the supper of the Lord, instituted then in an upper 
 chamber in Jerusalem, and observed by a few humble 
 followers of One who, while presiding in the midst of them, 
 seemed more helpless than themselves, and emphatically a 
 man of sorrows, is still kept with even greater freshness 
 and power than when it was first appointed and observed. 
 Yea, and when all the present institutions and works of 
 men, and all the exhibitions of human power and pomp 
 that claim and get so high a place among mankind, and look 
 so likely to endure, have finally passed away, and the very 
 memory of most of them has perished, this simple yet sub- 
 lime ordinance shall continue, yea, shall be much more widely 
 and lovingly observed than ever, and shall be much more 
 powerful in regard of the glorious blessings with which it 
 is fraught to the nations of the saved. It is almost certain 
 that not one of all those works of man, in which the world 
 at present glories, shall survive till the end of time, and 
 that though it is to be the same earth, it shall be other 
 works of man that are then to be burned up. There can 
 be little doubt, that, amidst the changes continually passing 
 over human greatness to mark its vanity, other characters 
 and other institutions than those which are now in vogue 
 shall take their place, and live their little hour while time 
 is running out. But one thing shall continue the same 
 both in substance and in form, and that is the supper of 
 the Lord ; so that the last company of believers that the 
 earth is destined to contain shall assuredly sit at this table, 
 as we now sit at it, or as the first disciples sat at it eighteen 
 hundred years ago. And all this implies the perpetual 
 continuance of the church by which the supper is observed. 
 It implies that there shall never be awanting a people to 
 obey the command, " Do this in remembrance of me," up to 
 the moment when He shall be seen coming in the clouds of 
 heaven with power and great glory. 
 
400 Till He Co7Jie. 
 
 V. In showing the Lord's death in the supper till He 
 comes, christians proclaim the connection between the 
 death of Christ and His second coming. 
 
 His humiliation and exaltation are united as closely as 
 are cause and effect. He humbled Himself and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ; wherefore 
 God also hath highly exalted Him.^ For the suffering of 
 death. He is crowned with glory and honour.^ In his 
 vision of the providential government of all things, Ezekiel 
 saw an appearance as of a man upon the eternal throne.^ 
 Daniel, too, saw one like the Son of man come to the 
 Ancient of days and receive from Him universal dominion.* 
 John saw Him " in the midst of the throne, as a Lamb that 
 had been slain," and again, as One clothed in a vesture 
 dipped in blood, with the name written on it, " King of 
 kings and Lord of lords." ^ Everything said in Scripture 
 of Jesus' exaltation asserts or implies that it flows from 
 His present humiliation. But a great part of His exalta- 
 tion consists in His second coming, and in the work of 
 judgment which He will then perform. And so while in 
 the supper we commemorate His death and anticipate His 
 coming, we are to connect the two events, and to remember 
 that He shall come because He died. He died to redeem 
 His people with the great price of His precious blood ; and 
 He shall come to complete their redemption by His al- 
 mighty power. He died to purchase for them the heavenly 
 inheritance, and therefore He shall come again publicly to 
 put them in possession of it, and to take them to Himself, 
 that where He is, there they may also be. 
 
 VI. In showing in the supper the death of Christ till 
 
 1 Phil. ii. 3 Ezek. i. 5 Rgv. xix. 
 
 2 Heb. ii. * Dan. vii. 
 
Till He Come. 40 1 
 
 He come, the contrast is proclaimed between the meanness 
 of His first advent and tlie majesty of the second. 
 
 He came in outward meanness ; He is coming with 
 infinite glory. He came as a child born and as a Son 
 given ; He is coming as the mighty God. He came with 
 marred visage and wasted form ; He is coming with a 
 countenance like the sun when shining in its strength. 
 When here before, a few obscure persons were all the fol- 
 lowers whom He had on earth ; when He comes again, His 
 retinue shall be the hosts of heaven. When He came 
 before, few would listen to His voice ; when He comes 
 again, all who are in their graves shall hear it. When He 
 came before, He was despised and rejected of men ; when 
 He comes again, all kindreds of the earth shall wail be- 
 cause of Him. He came before to stand at the bar of 
 earthly rulers ; He shall come again to fill the great white 
 throne, and to bring all mankind before His judgment-seat. 
 He came before to be condemned and crucified ; He is 
 coming now as the Lord of all worlds, and the universal 
 dispenser of life and death to the righteous and the wicked. 
 
 VII. In showing, in the supper, the Lord's death till He 
 come, believers contemplate and publish the great and de- 
 cisive ends and designs of His second coming. What are 
 these ends and designs ? 
 
 I. He is coming to manifest His glory. "The Son of 
 man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His 
 angels." -^ " They shall see the Son of man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." ^ 
 
 2. He is coming to sit in judgment on all mankind. 
 " We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ ; " ' 
 " that every one may receive the things done in his body, 
 
 Matt. xvi. * Matt. xxiv. ^ Kom. xiv 
 
 2 C 
 
402 Till He Come. 
 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." ^ 
 Nothing shall then escape His inspection, God shall judge 
 the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.^ " All the churches shall 
 know that I am He who searcheth the reins and hearts, 
 and I will give unto every one of you according to your 
 works." ^ He will then effectually separate between the 
 good and the evil, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from 
 the goats, and welcome the former to His kingdom, and 
 send the latter into everlasting fire,* 
 
 3. In particular, He is coming to complete the salvation 
 of His people, and to present them to Himself at length as 
 a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such 
 thing. 
 
 Much is implied in this complete salvation of the re- 
 deemed. The following among other things is implied in it. 
 
 (i.) Sin is then extinguished in their nature. They 
 are made holy as the Lord is holy. They are made like 
 to Christ as both the condition and the consequence of 
 seeing Him as He is. Their very bodies come forth from 
 their graves at His voice, leaving all their corruption behind 
 them. So that, standing over the graves, from which they 
 have been raised, they sing in triumph, death, where is thy 
 sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? With that prospect, 
 they now look for the Saviour from heaven, to change their 
 vile body, and fashion it like to His glorious body.® 
 
 (2.) They are freed not only from sin, but from all the 
 evils that flow from sin. Thus, First, guilty fear ceases 
 from their bosom. All their doubtings are done away. 
 They have confidence, and are not ashamed before Him at 
 His coming.^ There is nothing left in their nature to be 
 ashamed of, or to hide from His inspection. Second, all 
 
 1 2 Cor. V. ^ Rev. ii. ^ Phil. iii. 
 
 2 Rom. iL * Matt. xxv. ^ I John ii. 
 
Till He Come. 403 
 
 their liabilities to bodily want, disease, and pain are gone. 
 In that land to which the Eedeemer has come to conduct 
 them, the inhabitants never say they are sick. Thirds 
 they are finally freed from the presence of the wicked. 
 Delivered at length from all their oppressors, they lift up 
 their heads in triumph. They escape from under every 
 cloud of calumny in that day of the manifestation of the 
 sons of God. They have no further contact or connection 
 with the wicked. Between themselves and the condemned 
 a great gulf is for ever fixed. Fourth, they are then also 
 finally freed from all further temptations of the wicked 
 one, who harassed and hung upon them to the last. 
 Fifth, and then, too, all further connection with this dis- 
 ordered and ensnaring world is terminated : for the earth 
 itself is burned up; and in its place they have prepared 
 for them the new heavens and the new earth wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness. 
 
 (3.) While freed from sin, and all its effects, whatever 
 is good but still imperfect in their present character and 
 circumstances is then completed, or is succeeded by what 
 is more adapted to their perfected condition. Thus — 
 
 [i.] Gracious affections and experiences suited to their 
 present state of sin, infirmity, and trial, are supplanted by 
 other and higher affections and experiences. For faith ter- 
 niinates in sight, and hope in actual enjoyment, and the 
 sighings of penitential sorrow in songs of unmingled and 
 unceasing gladness. 
 
 [2.] Ordinances of grace, too, such as are suited to the 
 present state, and precious to the souls of believers, are 
 succeeded by higher ordinances adapted to their glorified 
 condition. Thus, First, the weekly sabbath, the day of 
 blessing, having served its holy purposes on earth, is suc- 
 ceeded by the sabbath that never ends. Second, the 
 earthly temple, the habitation of God's house, so justly 
 
404 Till He Come. 
 
 loved by all tlie saints, is exchanged for the everlasting 
 temple, the house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens. Third, the joyful sound that so long issued 
 from the silver trumpet of a preached gospel, to cheer 
 the faithful from age to age, is now succeeded by the far 
 more thrilling words with which the myriads on high for ever 
 stir each other up to give to God the glory due, and to enjoy 
 His manifested presence. Yea, the gospel's joyful sound 
 is now succeeded by the voice of mingled majesty and love, 
 with which, like the sound of many waters, Jehovah-Jesus 
 speaks to His redeemed from the midst of the everlasting 
 throne. Fourth, the language of confession and of prayer 
 and supplication in which believers now pour forth their 
 feelings anent their unworthiness and destitution, and their 
 longing desires of grace, is succeeded by the language of 
 continual adoration and thanksgiving. Fifth, the feeble 
 notes of praise that at present ascend from the untuned 
 and broken harps of the church below, are succeeded by 
 the alleluias that proceed from the golden harps of the 
 church above. Sixth, the rite of baptism, the solemn sign 
 of sanctifying grace, is no longer needed : for all partakers 
 of that grace are for ever full of the Holy Ghost, and of 
 the life which flows from His indwelling. Seventh, even 
 the most solemn and blissful of all gospel ordinances, the 
 supper of the Lord, in which believers feast so sensibly 
 on Christ and on His benefits to their spiritual nourish- 
 ment and growth in grace, is also done away. The table 
 of the Lord, so long spread for His people in the wilder- 
 ness, is at length removed. The banner that so long waved 
 over the followers of Jesus is at length folded together and 
 laid aside. The loving commandment, " Do this in remem- 
 brance of me," is at length recalled. The holy ordinance, 
 so long associated with innumerable blissful recollections 
 in the minds of myriads of the redeemed, is now succeeded 
 
Till He Come. 405 
 
 by a still more glorious feast, the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 That' marriage supper of the Lamb awaiting the redeemed 
 at the coming of their Lord, is to be enjoyed in a more 
 spacious temple than any made with human hands. They 
 pass into the new Jerusalem, through precious gates of 
 pearl which look in all directions, stand open day and night, 
 and have inscribed on them the names of all the ransomed 
 of the Lord in token of their right of entrance. Within 
 tlie precincts of that holy city, feelings of perfect safety 
 reign; for its walls are great and high, and rest on sure 
 foundations. Its vast dimensions furnish abundant room 
 for the myriads of the redeemed. Order and harmony pre- 
 vail throughout its golden streets. The continual manifes- 
 tations of the divine presence fill that " perfection of beavity " 
 with uncreated light, in the midst of which is seen the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb. No evil is ever felt or 
 dreaded there. The dwellers there are constantly refreshed 
 by the river of life that is flowing out from the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb, and they are nourished by the fruit 
 of the tree of life that groweth on its banks. The eternal 
 Spirit fills them by His indwelling with all knowledge, 
 holiness, and joy. And they live upon the perfections of 
 the divine nature displayed for ever before their eyes in 
 the person and work of God their Saviour. There they 
 have perpetual and near communion with God ; for they 
 see Him face to face, and His name is written on their 
 forehead. There they live as heirs of God, and joint heirs 
 with Christ. Yea, each is dealt with as a son of God. Yea, 
 they are unto God as a bride adorned for her husband. 
 Yea, they are treated as the Lamb's wife. Yea, they are 
 one with God Himself, being partakers of the divine nature. 
 And so they enter into a blessedness which no tongue can 
 tell or heart imaoine. 
 
4o6 Till He Come. 
 
 With anticipations like these such as love Christ are 
 encouraged to show His death in the supper, till He come. 
 When He at length appears, the satisfaction which they 
 have experienced at His table shall be perfected in their 
 joy at His appearing. The defective services of the sanc- 
 tuary below shall be exchanged for the perfect services of 
 the sanctuary above. Their present state of comparative 
 distance and even exile from God, shall be succeeded by 
 fulness of joy in His presence, and pleasures at His right 
 hand for evermore. Instead of the mixed company met 
 v/ith at the table of the Lord on earth, only Christ-like 
 guests shall be found in the communion of the church 
 above. Instead of the limited and fleeting comfort derived 
 from short and passing seasons of communion here, the 
 feast of salvation at which they meet in the immediate 
 presence of their Lord on high, shall never terminate, the 
 table which He spreads for them in the everlasting kingdom 
 shall never be removed. 
 
 4. One other design and result of His looked-for 
 advent is kept in view and published by christians in 
 showing at His table their Lord's death till He come, and 
 that is, His purpose then to destroy His enemies, even all 
 that know not God, and obey not the gospel of His Son. 
 
 This destruction of the enemies of Christ is necessary to 
 vindicate the holiness of that God, with whom evil shall 
 not dwell ; for otherwise He could not be the object of the 
 reverence, love, and confidence of such as love and serve 
 Him. Besides, if anything defiled and defiling were allowed 
 to enter heaven, it would no longer be loved and looked to 
 by the children of God as their everlasting dwelling-place. 
 The present mixture of saints and sinners, of good and evil, 
 in even the most sacred meetings of the saints on earth, 
 helps to hide the glory of the Lord, and to restrain His 
 favour from His people, and so to render their present 
 
Till He Come. 407 
 
 liappiness incomplete. It is only when all evil is finally 
 shut out of His presence and kingdom, that their happiness 
 is perfect. And therefore anticipating His advent as the 
 signal for the final expulsion of all the workers of iniquity 
 from His presence and kingdom, believers at His table 
 show His death till He come. 
 
 Practical reflections. 
 
 First. What a solemn call communicants as such have 
 to thorough sincerity and earnestness in the service of 
 Christ. 
 
 They are, confessedly, soon to stand in His presence, and 
 at His judgment-seat, and to find Him who is now search- 
 ing their hearts and trying their reins, giving to them indi- 
 vidually according to their works. No merely outward 
 connection with His church and ordinances will then be of 
 any service. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision will 
 be of any avail, but only a new creation, in virtue of which 
 they are the workmanship of God created anew in Christ 
 unto good works. It will be of no avail to any in that 
 day to have had abundant means of grace, and to have 
 merely attended on them. " When once the Master of the 
 house is risen up and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to 
 stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, 
 open unto us ; and He shall answer and say unto you, I 
 know you not whence ye are : then shall ye begin to say, 
 We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast 
 taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know 
 you not whence ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers of 
 iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, 
 when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all 
 the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves 
 thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from 
 the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall 
 
4o8 Till He Come. 
 
 sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold there are 
 last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be 
 last." ^ 
 
 No human being, whatever His profession, or his place 
 among the guests at the table of the Lord, or even in 
 the offices of the church, if seen by Christ as wilfully- 
 practising iniquity in his life or regarding it in his heart, 
 shall abide the searching judgment of that day ; for the 
 Lord Jesus shall then bring to light the hidden things of 
 darkness, and make manifest the counsels of all hearts. 
 When the Shepherd comes. He will divide the goats from 
 the sheep. When the Husbandman comes. He will separate 
 the tares from the wheat. When the Master builder 
 comes, he will disentangle and consume the wood, hay, and 
 stubble that have been mixed up with the gold, silver, and 
 precious stones. When the divine Bridegroom comes, He 
 will shut out the graceless sleepers from His marriage 
 supper, and cast out the intruders who have entered among 
 the welcome guests. When the Judge comes, He will 
 discern between the righteous and the wicked, between 
 them that serve God and them that serve Him not. 
 Who, then, shall abide the day of His coming ? Who shall 
 stand when He appeareth ? None but those in whom He 
 now works, and over whom He now sits as a refiner and 
 purifier, to purge them in the furnace from the dross of sin, 
 and to promote and watch over the progress of His sanctify- 
 ing work in their heart and life, until He sees His own 
 holy image reflected from their character. 
 
 Hence the need of thorough deep sincerity and earnest- 
 ness on the part of those who sit at His table, showing His 
 death till He come. Everything sinful must be condemned 
 and cast out of them if they would not be condemned with 
 
 ^ Luke xiii. 
 
Till He Co7ne. 409 
 
 the world. They must see to it that they are not intruders 
 whom He already frowns upon and will at last reject, but 
 friends whom He welcomes to His table now, and whom 
 He shall at last receive among the ransomed in the Zion 
 that is above. 
 
 Second. In showing at His table the Lord's death till 
 He come, believers have at the same time a cheering call 
 to regard His coming with hope. 
 
 His coming indeed will be awful to such as mock at the 
 promise of it; for it will surprise them as a thief in the 
 night, and while they are saying Peace, peace, it will bring 
 destruction upon them, from which .they cannot escape. 
 His coming will be awful also for careless professors who, 
 while the Lord seems to delay His coming, meanwhile serve 
 the world and sin, and who, when the cry is raised, " The 
 Bridegroom cometh !" shall find themselves fatally unpre- 
 pared to meet Him. But even to His own people the 
 coming of Christ is apt to be a cause of misgivings and 
 fears. They think of Him coming with clouds, in great 
 power and glory, with myriads of angels, with the trump of 
 God, calling the dead out of their graves, gathering all 
 mankind before His great white throne, and judging them 
 out of the books of His law, and of their own memory, and 
 conscience, and disposing of them according to their works ; 
 and the prospect is apt to fill them with anxiety and fear. 
 Especially when their faith is weak and their sense of sin 
 is strong, their heart is ready to sink within them as they 
 anticipate that solemn and decisive day. 
 
 In the midst of the apprehensions and misgivings felt 
 even by christians at the prospect of the second coming of 
 their Lord, no season and no circumstances are more likely 
 to fill them with calm and hopeful anticipations of it, than 
 when at His table they show His death till He come. His 
 sufferings thus commemorated speak to them with great 
 
4IO Till He Cc 
 
 force of a love that cannot die, a love which many waters 
 cannot drown. His people are then specially reminded by 
 Him of the love with wliich, having loved them from the 
 beginning, He loves them to the end. They remember 
 that it is sinners for whom He agonised and died, that He 
 is coming to gather into His presence as the fruit of the 
 travail of His soul. To such as are looking and cleaving to 
 Him, and found in Him by faith, there is now no condemna- 
 tion. Of such as in and through Himself are seeking to 
 have, and to make evident, their place in the divine family, 
 He is prepared to say at last. Behold I and the children 
 whom thou hast given me. Yielding themselves up to 
 Him at His table, they are ready to say, He that hath 
 begun a good work in me, will perform it until the day of 
 Christ, and so make me to be like Him when I see Him as 
 He is. This bread and wine lead me to Christ as the life of 
 my soul ; and when He who is my life shall appear, I shall 
 appear with Him in glory. I hear Him saying now, " Eat, 
 
 friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ; " and 
 may I not expect to hear Him saying then, " Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father" ? He hath brought me into His ban- 
 queting house ; He will bring me to His marriage supper. 
 
 1 sit under His shadow with delight ; I shall find in His 
 presence fulness of joy. I am now ready to confess Him 
 before men ; He will then confess me before His Father 
 and the angels. I am resolved to abide the tribulations in 
 the world that are the portion of those who serve Him ; 
 and He will take me then to the place which He has gone 
 to prepare for His faithful followers in His Father's house 
 of many mansions. If we stand fast by His cause in a day 
 of rebuke and trouble, He will give us a place by His side 
 in the day of His final triumph. If we own Him in His 
 Immiliation, He will own us in His exaltation. If we 
 rejoice when counted worthy to suffer shame for His name, 
 
Till He Come. 4 1 1 
 
 He ■will rejoice in addressing us, "Well done, good and 
 faithful servant." In short, if He is all and in all to us as 
 our merciful and almighty Eedeemer, we shall find Him at 
 last our gracious Judge. 
 
 Such sentiments and feelings are the natural outcome of 
 the due celebration of the Lord's supper when, at His table, 
 His true followers show His death till He come. And so 
 it is at such a season and in such circumstances that they 
 are specially called, and enabled to anticipate His coming 
 with cheering hope, as an event thus divested of its terrors, 
 and looked forward to with a measure of calmness and of 
 comfort, and even of holy trembling joy. 
 
 Third. In showing at His table the Lord's death till He 
 come, they have what should prove to them a powerful call 
 to a present life of holiness and new obedience. If they 
 show His death at His table, they will bear about with 
 them in their body His dying, that His life may be manifest 
 in their body. They have their conversation in heaven 
 who are looking for the Saviour from thence. If they show 
 His death till He come, they will be diligent, that when He 
 comes they may be found of Him without spot and blame- 
 less. If looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing 
 of the great God and their Saviour Jesus Christ, they will 
 by His grace be taught to live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly in the present evil world. The prospect of His 
 coming will render them instant in season and out of season, 
 as in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge 
 the quick and the dead at His appearing and kingdom. 
 They may well be stirred up to all good works by the 
 recompense to be then bestowed upon them. " Behold I 
 come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every 
 man according as his work shall be." " God is not un- 
 righteous to forget your work and labour of love which 
 ye showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered 
 
412 Till He Come. 
 
 to the saints, and do minister." " Come ye blessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom. . . Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me." No service, even to the giving of a 
 cup of cold water to a disciple, because he is a disciple, 
 shall then lose its reward. Not a sigh of penitence 
 now escapes from the lips of believers, but shall then be 
 turned into a song of praise. Not a groan issues from 
 their burdened hearts, while labouring to make their re- 
 quests known unto God, but shall then be turned into a 
 higher note of thankful praise for having been made more 
 than conquerors through Him that loved them. Not a 
 trial of their faith is now taking place, but shall then be 
 found to honour and praise and glory at the appearing of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Such as now suffer for Him shall 
 then reign with Him. Such as watch in all things, endure 
 afflictions, live to Christ and are ready to die for Him, fight 
 thegoodfight, and keep the faith, till they finish their course, 
 shall then receive at His hands the crown of righteousness.^ 
 Such as now endure persecutions and tribulations with 
 patience and faith, shall then be counted worthy of the 
 kingdom of God, and be recompensed with rest when the 
 Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven.^ And all the fol- 
 lowers of the Lamb who, whatever be their outward condi- 
 tion, are careful in all circumstances to abound in love one 
 toward another, and toward all men, shall find their hearts 
 established unblamable before God, even our Father, at the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.^ The day of the Lord 
 will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens 
 shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
 melt with fervent heat ; the earth also, and the works that 
 are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all 
 
 ^ 2 Tim. iv. - 2 Thes. i. ^ ^ jhes. iii. 
 
Till He Come. 413 
 
 these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons 
 ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ; 
 looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of 
 God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, 
 and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ? Neverthe- 
 less we, according to His promise, look for new heavens 
 and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Where- 
 fore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be dili- 
 gent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, 
 and blameless.^ 
 
 . 1 2 Pet. iii. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE SONG OF THE KEDEEMED, OF ANGELS, 
 AND OE EVEKY CREATURE. 
 
 "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 
 twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them 
 harps, and golden vials, full of odours, which are the prayers of 
 saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take 
 the book, and to open the seals thereof ; for thou wast slain, and 
 hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," &c. — Rev. v. 8-13. 
 
 rriHE context records the vision which John the apostle 
 -*- had of heaven. The first sight that attracted his 
 attention was the throne of God. Upon the throne he saw 
 a glorious appearance betokening the presence of the Deity, 
 although in that glory there was no personal form to be 
 seen : for still, as ever, no man hath seen God at any time. 
 At the same time, the throne was encircled by a rainbow, 
 the emblem of covenanted mercy ; to denote that while 
 God dwells in glory unapproachable. He reigns in love. 
 Seated around the throne were twenty-four elders, repre- 
 sentatives of the whole church of God, clothed in white 
 raiment, and wearing golden crowns. From the throne 
 proceeded lightnings, and thunders, and voices, tokens of 
 God's awful majesty and righteous judgments. Seven 
 lamps of fire burned before the throne, emblems of the 
 Eternal Spirit, and of His work as the Enlightener, Sanc- 
 tifier, Guide, and Comforter of all believers. Before the 
 throne there was a sea of glass, like unto crystal, denot- 
 ing probably the calmness and unchangeableness of the 
 heavenly state. Nearest to the throne were four living 
 
Song of the Universe. 415 
 
 creatures, resembling respectively, a lion, a calf, the face 
 of a man, and a flying eagle ; each furnished with six 
 wings, and full of eyes within ; and they rested not day 
 or night, saying, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, 
 which was, and is, and is to come ; " these four creatures 
 representing, as it would seem, the ministers of Jesus, who 
 are bold, patient, intelligent, and active in His service. 
 As if in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne, 
 John saw a book, or parchment-roll, full of writing within, 
 but carefully sealed with seven seals ; the record of God's 
 purposes and arrangements with reference to the future 
 history of the church, throughout the whole course of time, 
 and until it is finally established in its everlasting state. 
 An angel was heard with loud voice proclaiming, " Who is 
 worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof ? " 
 When no creature was found worthy of the honour, John 
 wept with sorrow. But his feelings were speedily relieved. 
 For one of the elders told him that the Lion of the tribe of 
 Judah, the root of David, had prevailed to open the book, 
 and to loose the seals thereof, John could not fail to re- 
 cognise in this description the once humbled and lowly and 
 now exalted One, with whom he had been so intimate in 
 the days of His flesh. And his eyes were immediately 
 blessed with a sight of his divine Eedeemer. For he be- 
 held, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four 
 beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it 
 had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which 
 are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. 
 And He came and took the book out of the right hand of 
 Him that sat upon the throne. And His doing so was the 
 signal for the commencement of those adorations of God and 
 of Christ which are to form a leading part of the employ- 
 ments of heaven. The four living creatures, representing 
 the ministers of Jesus, and the twenty-four elders, repre- 
 
4 1 6 Song of the Universe. 
 
 senting the wliole of the redeemed, begin the praise. The 
 angels, in countless numbers, then unite their voices with 
 the ransomed of the Lord. And the spirit thus wakened 
 spreads throughout the works of God, till all creation joins 
 in the glorious concert, and the universal chorus fills the 
 boundless and everlasting kingdom of Jehovah. When 
 Jesus took His place on the mediatorial throne, and com- 
 menced His work of revealing and executing the Father's 
 purposes, these ascriptions of praise began. As He carries 
 forward His work, these ascriptions of praise proportionately 
 increase. When it is finished, they will be rendered uni- 
 versally and for ever. 
 
 John says that he saw and heard the universe thus 
 adoring God and the Lamb, when Christ commenced His 
 mediatorial reign : and no doubt these praises did then 
 begin to be rendered to Him. Yet it is evident that what 
 he witnessed was rather a representation of what shall 
 follow the completion of Christ's mediatorial work. The 
 scene which he beheld is rather what is to happen at the 
 conclusion of this world's history, than what has already 
 taken place. Things are tending to the happy state anti- 
 cipated ; but they have not yet reached it. Even in heaven 
 the souls under the altar are still crying, How long, Lord, 
 holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
 them that dwell on the earth ? ^ Creation around us still 
 groans beneath the burdens by which it is oppressed 
 through sin. It still travails in pain as if racked with sore 
 disorders. The sun still grudges to shine on this polluted 
 world. The moon proceeds on her nightly course as if she 
 felt it vain to repeat to this listless world the wondrous 
 story of her birth. The brow of nature is still furrowed 
 with care. Her wan and withered face still marks a deeply 
 
 ^ Rev. vi. 
 
Song of the Universe. a^i'j 
 
 seated disease "within her constitution, that is preying on 
 her vitals. The earth is still cursed with barrenness, con- 
 sumed with heat, blighted with cold, covered with gloom, 
 rent with earthquakes, laid waste with desolating storms. 
 Worse than all this, mankind too generally are still without 
 God, without Christ, and without hope in the world. Con- 
 temptible and malignant idols receive their homage. Im- 
 pure passions fill their hearts. Vicious practices defile their 
 lives. Their language is the language of profaneness and 
 of blasphemy. Their songs are songs of revelry and lewd- 
 ness. Their life is spent in the indulgence of fleshly lusts. 
 They are a world of sinners lying in the wicked one. And 
 their end is to perish in their own corruption. Amid this 
 scene of horrid disorder and wild uproar, indeed, praise is 
 faintly heard ascending to Jesus daily, from believing and 
 gracious souls; and the earth anticipates with hope, while 
 it looks with longing for its coming deliverance from the 
 presence of the wicked and the defilements of sin, and for 
 the gladsome light and liberty into which it shall then be 
 brought. 
 
 But mighty events both blissful and terrible must occur, 
 before the praises spoken of here are being actually and 
 fully rendered. In order therefore to realise in any degree 
 the true ultimate meaning and reference of these words, we 
 must imagine ourselves transported beyond the bounds of 
 all time, and placed among the final arrangements of the 
 eternal world. The whole multitude for whom Christ died 
 have been at length actually redeemed, and the number of 
 the elect thus made up. The number of the wicked is 
 also completed. The great day of judgment is over. Christ 
 has come in His glory, and raised the millions of the dead, 
 and separated the righteous from the wicked, and welcomed 
 the righteous to His kingdom, and shut up the wicked in 
 hell. The heavens have passed away with a great noise. 
 
41 8 Song of tJie Universe. 
 
 The elements have melted with fervent heat. The earth 
 and its works have been burned up. From amidst the 
 ruins of the visible creation, a new heaven and a new earth 
 have started into being, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
 Heaven and earth, for ever freed from the presence of 
 wicked men and fallen spirits, and purified from all sin, 
 have become the beauteous and blissful dwelling-place of 
 the one family of saints and angels. Creation has assumed 
 the form of a great and glorious temple. In the midst of 
 it is beheld Jehovah's everlasting throne. Upon that 
 throne the Three- One God is manifesting His special pre- 
 sence in the midst of the sight-consuming splendours that 
 betoken at once His spotless holiness, and enduring mercy, 
 and the immutability of His kingdom. In the midst of the 
 throne is seen conspicuous the person of the incarnate 
 Saviour, as one who had once been crucified but is now 
 crowned with glory and honour. Around Him are gathered 
 all His ransomed people, a multitude whom no man can 
 number, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation, washed in His blood from all sin, and arrayed in 
 bright unspotted righteousness. Encircling the redeemed, 
 are innumerable hosts of angels. And beyond them again 
 the face of redeemed and renovated nature stretches far 
 away on every side. 
 
 Not only are the purposes and counsels of God declared ; 
 they are actually accomplished. The work of revealmg and 
 of executing these designs, entrusted to Jesus as the reward 
 of His obedience unto death, has been carried forward by 
 Him to completion. All the intelligent and holy creatures 
 of God are assembled to survey and magnify this work of 
 grace, and truth, and power, and the blessed One by whom 
 it has been finished. And so the songs of praise begm, in 
 which all the great portions of the universe perform their 
 respective parts. The redeemed, as well becomes them, lead 
 
Sojig of the Universe. 4 1 9 
 
 the way. The angels follow. The whole creation joins in 
 concert. And each burst of adoration and of thanksgiving 
 is concluded by the affecting amen of the redeemed, and by 
 their own peculiar adoration of the Ever-living One. 
 
 I. Observe the part performed by the redeemetl:;'' •■ ^•' •• 
 
 ■ . _ They disclaim all merit in themselves and one another, "^v 
 
 /^ 'and acknowledge their conscious unworthiness by " falling 
 ^^^v^^down before the Lamb." They at the same time give all 
 "V^ ^ honouj to Christ, saying, " Thou art worthy." They have 
 ''^^'^110 fear of detracting from the Father's glory, by the homage 
 i^ which they render to the Son ; on the contrary, they honour 
 • the Son as the way of honouring the Father also. They 
 ^ adore the Saviour for submitting to death at the hands of 
 wicked men : " Thou wast slain." They adore Him for 
 suffering the just for the unjust that He might bring them 
 unto God : " Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." 
 They adore Him especially as having not only provided in 
 His obedience unto death a true and proper atonement for 
 them, but as having put them in possession of all its bene- 
 fits : " Thou hast redeemed us unto God." Having pur- 
 chased us at so great a price. Thou didst in Thine own 
 time and way deliver us by Thy mighty power. In virtue 
 of what Thou didst suffer for us, the wrath of God was 
 taken away, and His forgiveness extended to all our sins. 
 We were under the condemning sentence of the law ; and 
 it was cancelled. We were under the fears of a guilty 
 conscience ; and Thy blood sprinkled on it gave us peace. 
 We were captives of the wicked one ; and when the strong 
 man armed kept us as his goods in peace, Thou the stronger 
 than he didst come upon him and spoil him of his goods. 
 We were immersed in earthliness ; and Thou didst come and 
 deliver us from an evil world. We were enslaved by sin ; 
 and Thou didst come and break our fetters, free us from 
 
420 Song of the Univei'se. 
 
 the bondage of corruption, and introduce us into the glori- 
 ous liberty of the sons of God, We were exposed to many 
 evils in the world, to disappointments and crosses, to fierce 
 temptations and fiery trials, to manifold diseases and sore be- 
 reavements, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever ; 
 and Thou didst ward off these evils from us, or sustain us 
 under them, and sanctify them for our good, and in due time 
 redeem us from them all, and place us in this happy world, 
 where there is no more sorrow, or crying, or sin, or pain ; 
 and where there is no more curse. We were often borne 
 down by sorrow as we travelled through the vale of tears ; 
 but Thou hast removed our sorrows, dried up our tears, 
 attuned our hearts to praise Thee, and put into our hands 
 these golden harps. We had many a sore struggle with 
 spiritual foes ; and Thou hast enabled us at length to over- 
 come them all by Thy blood and by the word of Thy testi- 
 mony, and made us more than conquerors, and given into 
 our hands these palms of victory. We were long the 
 polluted servants of sin, and Thou hast purged our sins 
 away, and clothed us in these sacred robes of white, and 
 privileged us to bear these golden censers with burning 
 incense before the throne, and made us priests to the 
 Eternal. We were the self-degraded tools and victims of 
 our spiritual enemies, and Thou hast delivered us out of 
 their hands, and lifted our heads in triumph over them, and 
 raised us to a share in Thine own glory, and placed upon 
 our heads these golden crowns, and made us kings to God. 
 Worthy art Thou of our unceasing praises ; and they shall 
 be for ever rendered to Thee, Thou that wast slain, and 
 hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood. 
 
 They also adore the Saviour for their countless numbers, 
 and varied, eventful histories. . " Thou hast redeemed us 
 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." 
 More or fewer among these redeemed hosts lived before the 
 
Song of the Universe. 421 
 
 flood ; and liaving, by faith in the promised seed, presented 
 acceptable sacrifices unto God, and walked with Him, and 
 pleased Him, while on earth, were early brought to glory. 
 Others lived in patriarchal times, had the gospel even then 
 preached to them, saw afar off, with gladness, the day of 
 Christ, embraced the promises, became pilgrims on earth, 
 and long since reached the heavenly country. A conspi- 
 cuously honoured section of this vast society are the chosen 
 portion of the ancient people ; among whom are those who, 
 through grace, were rendered guileless Israelites, holy pro- 
 phets, faithful priests, and pious monarchs, who died in 
 hope of the Messiah's coming : among whom, too, are found 
 even a number who joined in crucifying the Lord of glory, 
 and yet were afterwards brought to repentance, and saved 
 through the blood which their hands had shed : among 
 whom also are multitudes who, after long rejecting Jesus, 
 and heaping dishonour on Him, and suffering grievously for 
 their sins, were brought by wonderful dealings of the Lord 
 Jesus, to open their eyes upon His glory, and wash away 
 their sins in His blood, and submit to Him as their King, 
 and enjoy His presence among them in their recovered 
 land, and, as His ministers, carry the unsearchable riches 
 of His grace to all the ends of the habitable world. Among 
 the redeemed are great numbers who, in successive ages 
 downwards from apostolic times, were made the true chil- 
 dren of God, in what were called christian lands. Here, 
 also, are found manifold companies of those who dwelt in 
 the dark places of the earth that were full of the habita- 
 tions of cruelty, but were saved from becoming, like their 
 fathers, victims of debasing and cruel superstition and idola- 
 try, and turned from dumb idols to serve the living and 
 true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. Here are 
 those who were brought out of the spiritual Babylon, and 
 saved from partaking of her plagues : and those who saw 
 
42 2 So7ig of the Universe. 
 
 througli the delusions of the false propliet, and embraced 
 Him who is the only Light of the world ; and those who 
 were delivered from the dreariness of infidelity, and led to 
 believe in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Among them 
 are many who heard the gracious call, when the Lord said 
 to the North, Give up ; and to the South, Keep not back ; 
 bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends 
 of the earth. In this society are found many who were 
 once slothful, sensual inhabitants of sultry climes, but are 
 now spiritual and active worshippers in this great temple. 
 Here are once wnld wanderers of the desert, now become 
 holy and peaceful dwellers in the presence of their brethren, 
 and in the house of their God. Here are once degraded, 
 enslaved, and wretched sons of Africa, now enjoying the 
 heavenly light, the moral dignity, and the glorious freedom 
 of the sons of God. Here are found those who were once 
 among the fiercest of the human race, but are now gentle 
 followers of the Lamb, following Him whithersoever He 
 goeth, and loving members of His holy and happy family. 
 Among the myriads are found a few of the wise and 
 mighty and noble of the earth, who were led by grace to 
 kiss the Son and serve Him ; but far more of the foolish, 
 the weak, and the base, who have been taken from the 
 dunghill, and made kings and priests unto God. Here 
 are those who were sanctified from the womb, and those 
 who were born again out of due time. Here are such 
 as were to a great degree preserved from the defilements 
 of earth, and prodigals who were received on returning 
 from their fearful wanderings. Here are persecutors who 
 were changed into devoted friends and promoters of the 
 cause of God ; and here, conspicuous, stand the company of 
 Christ's confessors, who suffered shame and torture and 
 death for their testimony to Jesus, and now wear the crown 
 of martyrdom, Here are those who, from being most pol- 
 
So7ig of the Un we rse. 423 
 
 luted sinners, publicans, and harlots, were washed and justi- 
 fied, and sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by 
 the Spirit of God, and are now among the brightest, holiest 
 monuments of redeeming grace and love. Here are multi- 
 tudes of God's hidden ones, of whom nothing was known 
 until the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. 
 Here are those who on earth were known as aged believers, 
 and tender youths, desolate widows, and fatherless children, 
 who have each a wondrous tale to tell of all the way by 
 which they were led to their holy and happy home. Two 
 vast multitudes more will be found in this assembly of the 
 redeemed: for here are the countless numbers who, in the 
 days of millennial light, scarcely knew the pangs of the 
 second birth, or the struggles of the life of faith, but passed 
 with ease from death to life, and lived in comfort, and 
 gently fell asleep in Jesus : and here are myriads of blessed 
 infants, who, before they knew the miseries of actual sin, 
 were washed in the Eedeemer's blood, and renewed by His 
 grace, 'and taken in mercy from the world to constitute a 
 bright and beautiful portion of Christ's glorious kingdom. 
 
 But time would fail to tell, it will require eternity itself 
 to unfold the varied characters, circumstances, and histories 
 of those who form the church triumphant. When, there- 
 fore, they survey their own boundless assembly, and think 
 of the mercy shown to each of those who compose it, while 
 others of their fellow-creatures on earth, not less promising, 
 it may be outwardly far more promising than they, were 
 left to perish ; and when they look to the Blessed One, to 
 the virtue of whose sacrifice and the power of whose grace 
 they owe their deliverance from ruin, and their preparation 
 for, and entrance into glory, the gratitude and gladness are 
 indescribable, with which they proclaim and magnify His 
 love. It heightens the happiness of each to behold the 
 vastness of their numbers. Each too finds his happiness in 
 
424 Song of the Universe. 
 
 the happiness of all around. That some are greater miracles 
 of mercy, have received greater measures of light and love, 
 have been called and enabled to labour more and to suffer 
 more for Christ, and are now shining as stars of greater 
 magnitude in the kingdom of the Father, is not an occasion 
 of envy, but a source of joy, to all the rest. Tor each feels 
 himself filled and blessed, up to the full measure of his 
 capacity, with all the fulness of God. The salvation of the 
 least of the vast assembly exhibits to himself and to all 
 around him, a love on the part of God that none can 
 fathom. All rejoice in the light, and love, and gladness 
 ■which they find in themselves and in one another, as 
 betokening how God dwells and walks in them, and they 
 dwell and walk in God. And surveying the manner in 
 which Christ first purchased them by His own sufferings 
 and death, and then delivered them by His power, and has 
 finally presented them faultless before the presence of His 
 glory, with exceeding joy, they at once begin, and rejoice 
 that they shall never cease, to magnify the glorious and 
 blessed One who was slain, and hath redeemed them to 
 God by His blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 people, and nation. 
 
 II. The praises of the redeemed are followed by those of 
 the native hosts of heaven (verse 11), " And I beheld, and 
 I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, 
 and the beasts (or the living creatures), and the elders, and 
 the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 
 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
 riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, 
 and blessing." The angels thus employed are past num- 
 bering up. This is in every respect a joyful thought. It 
 is joyful to think, that though whole legions fell, such vast 
 
Song of the Utiiverse. 425 
 
 numbers continue steadfast, and occupy their native place 
 around the throne of God, It is joyful to think that there 
 are so many illustrious creatures, who rejoice in the salva- 
 tion of lost sinners, and help them to celebrate the grace of 
 Jesus. Their position is round about the throne, and also 
 round about the ransomed ; so that the saints are nearer to 
 the throne than they. This last fact is no proof of any 
 merit in the ransomed. Nor does it excite either pride 
 within themselves, or envy in their angelic companions. 
 It only proves the worth of Jesus, and the virtue of His 
 death. And if the angels stand about the throne, enclosing 
 within their circle the countless multitude of ransomed 
 men, it is only that they may more emphatically exalt the 
 lledeemer, while gazing on the monuments of His matchless 
 grace. 
 
 And so they adore Him for what He has done for the 
 sons of men. They love the ransomed as their fellow-wor- 
 shippers, feeling their need of all who will help them to 
 praise the Lord. They love them all the more, that they 
 liave been rescued from such a guilty miserable state, at 
 such a price, and thus restored to the service of their Maker, 
 and raised to such dignity and usefulness as the servants and 
 sons of God, It is no new love that they thus show to the 
 redeemed. For while they were yet on earth struggling 
 their way out of darkness into light, these heavenly beings 
 ministered to them as heirs of salvation. And now that 
 they have aided them all along, and have at length con- 
 ducted them into the presence of God, their love for the 
 redeemed is unspeakably enhanced by finding them all 
 arrived in safety at their Father's house. And, loving 
 them, they love far more the Benefactor to whom their 
 salvation is owing, and so with seraphic ardour join the 
 redeemed in adoring the Lamb that was slain. 
 
 They adore the Lord Jesus for the benefits which they 
 
Song of the Universe. 
 
 themselves derive from His death. They have not indeed 
 been redeemed by it from sin and ruin, for they never 
 sinned. But they have had their hatred of sin greatly 
 deepened, and their reverence for the law and government 
 of God greatly increased by the cross of Christ. The work 
 of redemption has furnished them with far higher displays 
 of the perfections and glory of God than are furnished by all 
 the other works of His hands. In the redemption wrought 
 out by Christ, God's almighty power, unerring wisdom, 
 awful holiness, and amazing condescension and grace, are 
 exhibited with an altogether peculiar glory. And nowhere 
 else is His mercy seen at all. But for the redemption 
 revealed in the gospel, it would never have been known to 
 the universe that there is such an attribute as mercy in 
 God. Moreover, by what angels have seen of God in this 
 work of redemption, they are more confirmed in their love 
 and obedience than by any other manifestation which they 
 have witnessed of Him. To this work of redemption they 
 attribute more of their enjoyment than to any other work of 
 the Most High. And on these and other grounds they have 
 become, in fact, a part of Christ's family, and receive through 
 Him all the divine manifestations that are to advance them 
 in knowledge, excellence, and blessedness, through eternal 
 ages. Angels have thus far more benefits from Christ for 
 which to praise Him on their own account than they can 
 ever express or comprehend. 
 
 Angels adore Jesus also for the display which He makes 
 of His own glorious perfections as the divine Eedeemer. 
 They adore Him as the great revealer, the visible manifesta- 
 tion of the invisible One. They adore Him because of His 
 humiliation on earth, beneath which He concealed for a 
 time those inherent perfections and that glory which are 
 now displayed before the eyes of an adoring universe. In 
 union with the redeemed they adore Him as " worthy to 
 
Song of the Universe. 427 
 
 receive all power, and wisdom, and riches, and strength, and 
 honour, and glory." — They ascribe to Him " all power : " for 
 though He laid aside all authority and took the form of a 
 servant, He is the almighty upholder of all things ; and as 
 Mediator all power is given to Him in heaven and in earth. 
 — They ascribe to Him " all wisdom : " for though He made 
 Himself of no reputation, He is in His own nature the all- 
 wise God ; and He is also the source of wisdom to all 
 creatures, since no man, no creature, hath seen God at any 
 time, and the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the 
 Father declares God to all who know Him. — They ascribe 
 to Him "■ all riches : " for though He became poor that we 
 through His poverty might be rich, yet the riches of the 
 universe are His ; and, over and above them, He has in His 
 own nature the infinite fulness which suffers no diminution 
 by supplying the wants of every living thing. — They ascribe 
 to Him " all strength : " for though He was crucified through 
 weakness, He is the strength of all creatures, and stronger 
 than them all ; even on His cross He spoiled principalities 
 and powers, and the mightiest of His enemies are before 
 Him as chaff before the wind. — They ascribe to Him " all 
 honour : " for though His condition on earth was mean, 
 obscure, and despised, He is the fountain of all honour to 
 the whole family of saints and angels. — They ascribe to 
 Hun " all glory : " for though He hid not His face from 
 shame and spitting, He shines as the brightness of the 
 Father's glory and the express image of His person. — They 
 ascribe to Him " all blessing : " for He who on earth was 
 treated as accursed by rulers and ruled, priests and people, 
 is now magnified by all created virtuous intelligences, 
 as at once infinitely blessed in Himself, and the source and 
 centre of all their happiness. At the commencement of 
 creation these morning stars sang together, and all these 
 sons of God shouted for joy. Much more exalted will be 
 
428 Song of the Universe. 
 
 their praises at the commencement of the completed re- 
 novation of the universe, when creation is redeemed from 
 the presence and effects of sin, and all things are made 
 new. At the birth of the great Eedeemer and Eestorer, 
 they filled the heavens with their praises for this event, as 
 fraught with glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, 
 and good-will to men. When by His incarnation and 
 ministry on earth He has actually accomplished the re- 
 demption of men, and the reconciliation of heaven and 
 earth, and has united ransomed men and unfallen angels 
 in one great family, and has formed the new heaven and 
 new earth into one great temple, in which they have all 
 assembled to meditate upon the wisdom and power, the 
 holiness and love of God, as thus manifested, and to tell 
 of all His wondrous works, then the praises, with which 
 angels celebrated the birth of Jesus, will pass into the 
 adorations and thanksgivings with which they for ever 
 glorify Him for His accomplished work, as they stand and 
 minister before the throne. 
 
 III. Whatever other rational and unfallen creatures, be- 
 sides angels, are found in the universe, shall unite in these 
 ascriptions of praise. Beside that portion of creation which 
 we call heaven and earth, and its inhabitants whom we 
 know about as angels and men, the heavenly regions, in 
 their extended sense, include innumerable other worlds, 
 which are probably inhabited, to a greater or less extent, by 
 other orders of intelligent and virtuous creatures, of wdiom 
 as yet we know nothing. If so, there is no ground for 
 doubting, there is good ground for believing, that as Christ 
 made them all, and preserves and governs them all, they too 
 shall be summoned and privileged to unite at length in the 
 new song of the redeemed and the angelic hosts, Christ, 
 we know, is "head over all things to the church." The 
 
Song of the Universe. 429 
 
 Father is reconciliug all things by Christ unto Himself, 
 whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven (in 
 the heavens).-^ Christ, it is said, " ascended far above all 
 heavens, that He might fill all things." And the purpose 
 of the Father is to " gather together," or reunite, under one 
 head, in Christ, all things, both those which are in heaven 
 (in the heavens) and those which are on earth, even in Him. 
 It seems evident from such intimations as these, that the 
 influences and effects of Christ's mediatorial work shall ex- 
 tend to all created intelligences, that they shall all be brought 
 under Him as the Eedeemer, and so brought nearer than 
 otherwise they ever could have approached to God. In 
 fact, it would seem as if they had been made chiefly for the 
 purpose of knowing, serving, and glorifying God as the God 
 of salvation to His people.^ What God has done for sinners 
 in and through His own Son, seems destined to give them 
 far more glorious and soul-satisfying views of God, than all 
 that they see of Him in all His other works. Therefore, 
 when they see all the ransomed from the earth brought home 
 to their final rest in the immediate presence of God ; when 
 they find all the rational and obedient creatures of God 
 formed into one holy and happy family, from whose nature 
 and condition all sin and disorder are finally banished, and 
 in whose nature and society and circumstances a perfect, 
 holy harmony is introduced that shall reign for ever : and 
 when they look to Jesus as the great parent and producer 
 of this state of things, and as in this work, as well as in 
 all other works, the visible representative and manifestation 
 of the invisible glorious God, the praises of the Father and 
 of the Son and of the Holy Ghost shall be heard ascending 
 in unison, not only from myriads of beings, but from myriads 
 of worlds of worshippers. 
 
 1 Col. i. ^ Eph. iii. lo. 
 
430 Song of the Universe. 
 
 IV. Even the inanimate creation will become vocal in 
 praise of God the Saviour. "Every creature which is in 
 heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as 
 are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, 
 Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto Him 
 that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever 
 and ever." The very heavens were once defiled by the sin 
 of the angels that kept not their first estate. This earth, 
 especially, has been made subject to vanity by the sin of its 
 inhabitants. And while in their impenitence they continue 
 to burden the face of it, it is held through them in this 
 bondage of corruption. The ear^h travails in pain under 
 the curse of sin, and groans for deliverance, and keeps 
 earnestly looking for the share that it is by and by to 
 have in the glorious liberty of the sons of God. At pre- 
 sent, while sinners so burden it, the earth grudges to yield 
 to them its fruits, and the skies lower angrily over their 
 heads. As the gospel advances in its triumphs on the 
 earth, the very face of nature shall be lighted up with looks 
 of health and smiles of gladness. When the way of the 
 Lord is known upon the earth, and His saving health among 
 all nations, the earth shall readily and plentifully yield her 
 increase. "When the earth is covered with righteous men, 
 the very mountains and hills shall break forth before them 
 into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their 
 hands. 
 
 But still, as death must overtake believers before they 
 are freed from sin and pass into a state of perfect holiness 
 and happiness, so the visible creation must undergo its 
 appointed dissolution, before it is brought into a state of 
 perfect purity and beauty, a state of perfect life, and love- 
 liness, and joy. This change, however, is at length under- 
 gone by it. The visible creation has passed through the 
 fires of the last day, amid which the heavens have been 
 
Soiig of the Universe. 431 
 
 dissolved and the elements have melted with fervent heat, 
 and the earth and the works that are therein have heen 
 burned up ; and the earth and visible heavens have fled 
 away from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and 
 no place is longer found for them. But then in their place 
 new heavens and a new earth have risen out of the ashes 
 of the old. A far fairer and more beauteous creation than 
 that which made the morning stars and all the sons of God 
 to sing and shout for joy, now stands forth to view as the 
 appointed dwelling-place of the redeemed and angelic family 
 of Christ. This fair creation is the work of His hands, as 
 it is the result of His redeeming love ; and it shall own the 
 hand that made and fashioned it, by the part which it gladly 
 performs for ever in this work of praise. 
 
 The friends of Christ are gladdened to think that how- 
 ever He may now be dishonoured, the time is coming when 
 the honour due to Him shall be rendered to His name ; and 
 that His praises shall in fact fill the boundless and eternal 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 Meanwhile their present duty is to be learning daily this 
 work of praise, that is evidently destined to be a chief 
 employment of heaven. This is their duty on many 
 accounts. It is expressly enjoined : Sing unto the Lord ; 
 bless His name ; show forth His salvation from day to day. 
 The performance of this duty is the way to honour Him : 
 Whoso offereth praise, giorifieth me. It is alike profitable 
 and pleasant work : " It is a good thing to give thanks unto 
 the Lord ; and to sing praise unto Thy name, Most High ; 
 to show forth Thy loving-kindness in the morning, and Thy 
 faithfulness every night." It is the way to prepare for 
 heaven. The kingdom of heaven must now be begun in 
 the soul, if we would finally enter on its everlasting services 
 and joys. A principal part of these services and joys will 
 consist in adoration and thanksgiving. To these exercises, 
 
432 Song of the Universe. 
 
 therefore, believers ought now to become accustomed. In 
 them they are to find their happiness on earth, as their pre- 
 paration for sharing in the employments and blessedness of 
 heaven. 
 
 The leading subjects of the present meditations and 
 praises of the followers of the Lamb, ought to be His obedi- 
 ence unto death, and His consequent exaltation, and their 
 privileges in Him and from Him, as their once crucified 
 but now exalted Eedeemer. His death with what flows 
 from it to Himself and to them is the chief burden of the 
 songs of eternity ; and therefore it ought to be the leading 
 theme of all their praises in time. 
 
 All who hear the sound of the gospel have cause to 
 praise the Lord. Some, indeed, imagine that they have 
 cause only to mourn. There is, no doubt, abundant reason 
 that all should mourn. Even believers, as they think of 
 sin in themselves and others, may well lie low in the dust 
 of ashes and self-abasement. But the causes are not to be 
 overlooked that all have for gratitude if not for gladness. 
 All that really belong to Christ have unspeakable reason to 
 praise the Lord : some of them for their experience of joy 
 and peace in believing ; others, for darkness dissipated and 
 light vouchsafed ; others, for victory over temptation; others, 
 for strength received for duty ; others, for patience wrought 
 in them in seasons of trial ; others, for the mercy which, 
 amidst their despondency, invites them to its embrace. 
 Even unbelievers have unspeakable cause for thankfulness 
 for their place amidst precious outward privileges, for the 
 knowledge of Christ and of the way of salvation in and 
 through Him ; for a throne of grace, and for God seated on it 
 waiting to be gracious ; for the invitations, and offers, and 
 'promises of the gospel to every one that embraces them in 
 faith ; and for the assurance that all who truly seek the 
 face of God in Christ are not left to seek in vain. Let us 
 
Song of the Universe. 433 
 
 then strive to have our hearts filled with the grace of Jesus, 
 and our lips and life filled with His praise all the day long. 
 Let us endeavour, in however feeble and imperfect a manner, 
 to learn in time the employment that is to occupy the 
 universe in eternity. The proper characteristic of such as 
 are redeemed by the blood and power of Christ, is to be 
 continually expressing their wonder at the grace received, 
 and their thankfulness and love, in the daily song of praise. 
 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. Amen. 
 
XX. 
 
 CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. 
 
 " Christ is all and iu all."— COL. iii. ii. 
 
 rpHE truth more immediately set before us in these words, 
 -^ and which we have been endeavouring to open up, is 
 that Christ is all and in all to His redeemed. Whatever 
 distinguishes them from the rest of the world, whatever 
 tliey possess that is really good in the sight of God, 
 whatever privileges, blessings, virtues, enjoyments, and 
 hopes attach to their character, their condition, and their 
 destiny, are all derived from Christ. 
 
 At the same time we are to remember that, as we have 
 already shown, Christ is all and in all to all other creatures, 
 as well as to the redeemed. " For by Him were all things 
 created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible 
 and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or 
 principalities, or powers ; all things were created by Him 
 and for Him ; and He is before all things, and by Him all 
 things consist." ^ As the Maker and Preserver of all things, 
 He fills all creation with His presence, with His wisdom, 
 power, and goodness ; giving being and the continuance of 
 being to the entire created universe of matter and of mind, 
 and to everything animate and inanimate, rational and 
 irrational, which the universe contains. 
 
 Further, as we have also made plain from scripture, the 
 sufficiency of Christ to be all and in all not only to His 
 redeemed but to the whole creation, flows from what He is 
 
 1 Col. i. 
 
Christ All and in All. 435 
 
 in Himself and within the Godhead. For in regard of His 
 relation to the Father and the Holy Spirit within the divine 
 nature, as well as in His relation to the redeemed, it is said 
 of Him in chap. ii. 9, that " in Him dwelleth all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily." This language Calvin explains as 
 meaning that God is wholly found in Christ ; so that to go 
 beyond Christ is to go away from God. 
 
 We have thus set forth three great relations of Christ in 
 respect of which He is all and in all ; His relation to the 
 Father and the Holy Spirit within the Godhead ; His relation 
 to the created universe ; and His relation to the redeemed. 
 
 In illustration and enforcement of our text, let us re-state, 
 in a summary manner, what Christ is in the last of these 
 relations, in His relation to His redeemed as their all and 
 in all. This will be more clearly seen if we keep in view 
 the other relations of Christ ; if we first get a true though 
 passing glimpse of Him as all in all within the Godhead, 
 and then look at His relation to the whole created universe, 
 and lastly, and more particularly, view Him in His char- 
 acter and work of incarnate Eedeemer, as all and in all to 
 each and to the whole of His ransomed people. 
 
 I. As in Christ " dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily," He may be viewed as all and in all in His relations 
 to the Father and the Holy Spirit within the divine nature. 
 Accordingly the following things are said of Him in scrip- 
 ture : — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the 
 beginning with God.^ He is the only begotten Son of 
 God, who is in the bosom of the Father.^ He is the 
 brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image 
 of His person.^ He is the image of the invisible God.'* 
 
 1 John i, - John i. ^ Heb. i. * Col. i. 
 
436 Christ A II and in A II. 
 
 He is God over all blessed for ever ; ^ the true God, and 
 eternal life;^ the great God and our Saviour;^ the 
 mighty God,^ the first and the last/ searching the reins 
 and the hearts;® with His people always;' the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever.^ According to these un- 
 mistakable representations of Christ in the divine word. 
 He is the necessary, the absolute, and the everlasting 
 expression of the whole of the divine nature within that 
 nature ; as the uncreated, co-equal, co-eternal Son of the 
 Father He is the brightness of the divine glory in which the 
 Father sees Himself perfectly imaged forth ; He receives, 
 experiences, comprehends, and contains the whole love of 
 God ; He is the second person in the Trinity, from whom, 
 as well as from the Father, eternally proceeds the Holy 
 Ghost. If in regard of the nature and perfections of God 
 Himself Christ be thus " all in all," He is infinitely suffi- 
 cient to be all in all to His people. For He has thus a 
 power to which nothing is impossible ; a wisdom that can- 
 not err ; a holiness and righteousness that will secure the 
 reic^n of virtue and happiness throughout His boundless and 
 eternal kingdom; a goodness that supplies the wants and 
 satisfies the desires of all creatures as they wait upon Him ; 
 and a truth and faithfulness that cannot fail those who 
 embrace and live upon His promises. 
 
 II. In regard of His relation to the created universe, 
 Christ called into being all created things, and ever fills 
 them with the tokens of His presence and agency. He is the 
 maker and sustainer of the universe. To repeat the words 
 already quoted. By Him were all things created that are in 
 heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
 
 Rom. ix. 3 Tit. ii. ^ Rev. i. "^ Matt, xxviii. 
 
 I John V. * Isa. ix. * Rev. ii. ** jjeb. xiii. 
 
Christ All and in All. 437 
 
 thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things 
 were created by Him and for Him ; and He is before all 
 things ; and by Him all things consist. The whole crea- 
 tion, with all its capabilities and resources, is thus produced 
 and provided for by Christ's creative energy, and full of the 
 workings of His uncreated and infinite perfections. It is thus 
 under His control, dependent on His sovereign power, and 
 necessarily obedient to His will. This relation of Christ to 
 the whole of creation, as its Maker, Preserver, Governor, 
 and Disposer, explains the manner of the miracles which 
 He wrought when dwelling for a time in our nature on the 
 earth. To the leper He said, " I will, be thou clean. 
 And immediately his leprosy was cleansed."^ When He 
 saw Peter's wife's mother laid and sick of a fever. He 
 touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and 
 ministered to them. When they brought unto Him many 
 that were possessed with devils, He cast out the spirits with 
 His word, and healed all that were sick. By His touch 
 or word He made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the 
 dumb to speak, the lame to walk, and even the dead to 
 live. By His creative power He changed water into wine, 
 and multiplied a few loaves into food for thousands. As 
 the God of nature He walked upon the sea as we do on the 
 firm earth ; and at His bidding the stormy waves were 
 stilled into peace. Whatever anxieties, then, or fears are 
 experienced by the followers of Christ with reference to 
 their own or others' present condition or future prospects, 
 may well be allayed and vanish before the realised fact that 
 all their interests and all events in their lot are embraced 
 and provided for in the alike general and particular provi- 
 dence of Him who holds all creatures and whatever con- 
 cerns them in the hollow of His hand, and is thus infinitely 
 
 1 Matt. viii. 
 
438 Christ All and in All. 
 
 entitled to be looked upon by the whole and by each of 
 His redeemed as all and in all to them, 
 
 III. In a special sense Christ is all and in all to each 
 and to the whole of His redeemed people. 
 
 In order to His being so, He became man, God-man, the 
 incarnate Eedeemer, the Mediator between God and men. 
 The WoKD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. ^ The 
 mighty God became a child born, a Son given to us.^ In 
 the person of Christ, God was manifested in the fl^esh.^ 
 And His name is Emmanuel, God with us.* In the ful- 
 ness of time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, 
 made under the law, to redeem them that were under 
 the law.^ 
 
 This work of the Eedeemer of men indeed was assigned 
 to Him in the counsels of the past eternity, and undertaken 
 by Him in His covenant with the Eather. And He began 
 this work ages before He actually became incarnate, yea, 
 from the moment of the fall of Adam. Through the pro- 
 mises and prophecies, the types and figures which shadowed 
 forth the Redeemer and the redemption provided for sinful 
 men, He revealed Himself as the substance of all these 
 shadows. And such as through the light given to them 
 realised by faith His gracious presence, were made to sit 
 beneath His shadow with great delight, and to find the 
 fruits of His redeeming love sweet to their taste. At length 
 He became the Son of man, and by His obedience unto 
 death and consignment to the grave, finished the work of 
 redemption which He had undertaken personally to accom- 
 plish on the earth. And then raising Him from the dead, 
 the Eather of glory set Him at His own right hand in the 
 
 1 John i. 3 I rpjjj^ jjj 5 Qg^i jy 
 
 2 Isa. ix. < Matt. i. 
 
ClD'ist All and iii AIL 439 
 
 heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and 
 might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not 
 only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and 
 hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be 
 liead over all things to the church,, which is His body, the 
 fulness of Him that filleth all in all.^ 
 
 The mediatorial dominion thus given to Christ is distinct 
 from the natural dominion that belongs to God, to God the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as the Creator and 
 Governor of the universe. Christ's mediatorial dominion is 
 given to Him by the Father in His assumed character of 
 the God-man, the Eedeemer. It is given to Him to be 
 wielded for the salvation of all for whom He died. In His 
 possession and exercise of this mediatorial dominion, Christ 
 fills all things, all creatures, with His presence, and with the 
 blissful or terrible effects of His all-wise, all-powerful, all- 
 holy, all-gracious agency. And when the grand designs of 
 Christ's mediatorial dominion are accomplished in the final, 
 complete, and everlasting salvation of the redeemed. His 
 mediatorial dominion shall terminate. He shall deliver up 
 the kingdom, that is His mediatorial kingdom, to the Father. 
 And the natural dominion of God, of God the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, shall be the dominion displayed 
 before the universe for ever and ever, that God as God 
 may be all in all.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, in virtue of His mediatorial dominion, Christ 
 is all and in aU to His people. Of His fulness they all re- 
 ceive, and grace for grace. He is the way, the truth, and 
 the life : no man cometh unto the Father, but by Him. He 
 is the vine ; they are the branches : as the brancli cannot 
 bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more 
 can they except they abide in Him : they that abide in 
 
 1 Eph. i. ' I Cor. XV. 
 
440 Christ All and in AIL 
 
 Him bring forth much fruit, and without Him they 
 can do nothing. Other foundation can no man lay than 
 that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ : in Him be- 
 lievers are builded together for an habitation of God, 
 through the Spirit : in Him all the building fitly framed 
 together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord. Be- 
 lievers are the body of Christ, the fulness of Him that 
 filleth all in all. To see more clearly how Christ is all 
 and in all to His people, consider first, the state in which 
 they and all men are as sinners without Christ ; and, 
 secondly, what He is to those who believe in Him. 
 
 I. The state in which all men are, as sinners, without 
 Christ. The very fact that He is all and in all to such as 
 believe, implies that, apart from Him, there is nothing good, 
 nothing but evil in their character and condition. Accord- 
 ingly, the Colossians, before they became Christ's, were, as 
 this Epistle to them reminds them, under the power of 
 darkness ; they were dead in their sins : they lived and 
 walked in fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil 
 concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry : they 
 also lived in anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy (or evil-speak- 
 ing), filthy communication, and falsehood : and for these 
 things the wa-ath of God was ready to come down upon 
 them as children of disobedience. This state of the Colos- 
 sian believers before Christ became their Eedeemer, is the 
 state of all mankind before being made partakers of the 
 salvation that is in Christ Jesus. This is their condemna- 
 tion, that even though the light of the gospel comes to them, 
 and shines around them, they shut it out, and love the 
 darkness rather than the light, their deeds being evil. 
 They are within the world-wide sweep of the words, " What 
 things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under 
 the law ; that every mouth may be stoj)ped, and all the 
 world may become guilty before God." They are under 
 
Christ All and in All, 44 r 
 
 the sentence, " Cursed is every one that continueth not in 
 all things which are written in the book of the law to do 
 them," They have in them the carnal mind, which is enmity 
 against God, and is not subject to His law, neither indeed 
 can be. The imagination of their heart is evil from their 
 youth. So long as they live without Christ, they live without 
 God, and without hope in the world. Consider now — 
 
 2. What Christ becomes to any whom He finds in this 
 condition when His Spirit takes hold of them, and brings 
 them into saving union with Himself ; when, in other words, 
 He becomes their all and in all. 
 
 The Colossian believers were delivered from the jDOwer 
 of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's 
 dear Son : they had redemption through His blood, even 
 the forgiveness of their sins : through His death, they 
 were reconciled to God ; that He might present them holy, 
 and unblamable, and unreprovable, in His sight. Christ 
 was in them the hope of glory ; they were being prepared 
 to be presented perfect in Him ; risen with Christ, they set 
 their affections on things above ; and had their life hid with 
 Christ in God : the word of Christ dwelt in them richly, in 
 all wisdom and spiritual understanding : and whatsoever 
 they did in word and deed, they endeavoured to do it in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the 
 Pather by Him. 
 
 And still they that are Christ's have come to know that 
 there is salvation for them in none other; that there is 
 none other name under heaven given among men wliereby 
 they can be saved ; that an interest in Him is for them the 
 one thing needful ; that He is able to save them to the 
 uttermost in their coming to God by Him ; that at the 
 same time if He is not all in all to them, He is nothing ; 
 and that, therefore. He is indeed all their salvation and all 
 their desire. They have come to know all this, from the 
 cracious dealincrs of Christ with their souls. For throuo-h 
 
442 Christ All and in All. 
 
 ignorance and error they were in darkness to all spiritual and 
 eternal realities, until Christ by His word and Spirit opened 
 their understandings to understand the scriptures, and their 
 hearts to attend to the things spoken to them in His word ; 
 until God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 
 shined in their hearts, to give them the light of the know- 
 ledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. As trans- 
 gressors of the law of God they were exposed to His wrath, 
 both in this life and in that which is to come : but in Christ, 
 their surety and substitute, who, once in the end of the 
 world, appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him- 
 self, they now have redemption through His blood, the 
 forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. 
 As the perfect fulfilment of all and every one of the com- 
 mandments of God's holy and unchangeable law must 
 remain for ever to all rational creatures the one unchange- 
 able condition of His favour and of eternal life, so far as 
 any personal obedience of theirs was concerned, they were 
 utterly and for ever excluded from acceptance with God and 
 from the enjoyment of His favour : but Christ fulfilled all 
 righteousness in their behalf : for them He magnified the 
 law and made it honourable : by His obedience they are 
 now made righteous ; He is Jehovah their righteousness ; 
 they are made the very righteousness of God in Him : in 
 Him they have a title to the skies ; a title, against which 
 no plea from any quarter will avail, since it is God Himself 
 that justifieth. While their eyes continued closed to Christ, 
 or turned away from Him, they had not a friend in earth or 
 heaven that could dare to take up their cause, and stand in 
 the divine presence, and attempt to plead their cause before 
 the High and Holy One, and seek for a moment to avert 
 His anger due to their iniquities : but their eyes have been 
 opened by Christ on His work as their High Priest, in 
 shedding His blood in sacrifice for them on earth, and then 
 in passing with it into the holiest of all, to present Himself 
 
Christ All and in All. 
 
 443 
 
 before the mercy-seat as their advocate with the Father ; and 
 by this appearing in the presence of God for them, He is 
 proving able, and they look to Him as able, to save them to 
 the uttermost, in their coming to God by Him, seeing He 
 ever liveth thus to make intercession for them. They were 
 depraved in their moral nature ; sinful in heart and life ; 
 perverse in spirit ; rebellious ; easily tempted ; enslaved 
 and carried captive by sin and Satan and the world : their 
 bondage to moral evil was irremediable so far as their own 
 utmost efforts were concerned : they were earthly ; prayer- 
 less ; alienated from God ; hopelessly enthralled by carnal- 
 mindedness : and, so far as creature help availed, they were 
 destined only to continue departing further and further 
 from God, until they perished in their own corruption. 
 But Christ found them in that condition ; and, in a day 
 of His power, He made them willing to serve Him in the 
 beauty of holiness ; He quickened them from their death in 
 trespasses and sins, and became Himself the life of their 
 souls : He cast out of them the wicked one ; and delivered 
 them from this present evil world : by His blood and grace 
 they are being sanctified in all their faculties and powers, 
 in their habits and whole conduct, in their hearts and 
 lives ; and are being made to die to sin and live to righteous- 
 ness : by the cross of Christ, the world is crucified to them, 
 and they to the world : they are crucified with Christ, 
 nevertheless they live, yet not they, but Christ liveth in 
 them ; and the life which they live in the flesh, is by the 
 faith of the Son of God, who loved them, and gave Himself 
 for them. They were outcasts and hopeless wanderers in 
 a fatherless world ; but Christ, having redeemed them, has 
 found them out, and brought them into the divine family, 
 and God has given to them the adoption of sons, and put 
 into them the Spirit of His Son, crying Abba, Father. 
 
 In many other ways is Christ His people's all and in all. 
 They love and search the scriptures, because they testify 
 
441- Christ All and in All, 
 
 of Him ; and because He sanctifies and cleanses them with 
 the washing of water by His word. They are habitually 
 drawn to the throne of grace for mercy to pardon and grace 
 to help in time of need, because through Christ they have 
 access by one Spirit unto the Father. They cultivate and 
 enjoy fellowship with christian brethren, because where 
 two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, He is in 
 the midst of them. All the ordinances of the gospel are 
 loved and waited on, because in them the Good Shepherd 
 leads His flock to lie down in green pastures beside the 
 still waters, restoring their souls, and leading them in the 
 paths of righteousness for His name's sake. In all provi- 
 dences they seek to realise the hand of Christ ; remembering 
 that to Him, as governor among the nations, all power is 
 given in heaven and on earth, and that He is making all 
 things to labour together for their good. They are under 
 law to Christ, and keep His commandments, and so abide 
 in His love. He is their strength for all duty ; for while 
 without Him they can do nothing, through His strengthening 
 them they can do all things. He is their example and 
 pattern in all duty ; for they are to have the same mind 
 in them that was also in Christ, and are to walk even as 
 He walked ; and He hath given them an example that they 
 should walk in His steps. And He is their motive to all 
 duty ; for they are to love Him who first loved them ; and, 
 as bought with a price (the price of His precious blood), 
 they are to glorify God with their soul and body, and 
 spirit, which are His. Insufficient in themselves for 
 such a life, they are to come to Christ to make His grace 
 sufficient for them, and to perfect His strength in their 
 weakness. Empty in themselves, they come to Him and 
 are filled out of His fuhiess. When their souls cleave to 
 the dust, they come to Christ, and He quickens them 
 according to His word. With the impurities from which 
 they need deliverance, they come to Christ, and He works 
 
Christ All and in All. 
 
 445 
 
 ill them as their refiner and purifier, until His own ima^'e 
 is reflected from their character. In the time of perplexity 
 they come to Christ as the rock higher than they. Under 
 the pressure of varied anxieties and trials, they cast their 
 burdens on Christ, and He suffers them not to be moved. 
 In their tribulations they cling to the compassionate and 
 mighty Kedeemer, and He saves them from either despising 
 the chastening of the Lord, or fainting under His rebuke : 
 He proves their hiding-place from the wind, their covert 
 from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as 
 the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And when 
 they come at length to the solemn crisis of their history, 
 when earth and time are vanishing from their sight, and 
 eternity is immediately before them, and their dearest 
 friends on earth must leave them to pass alone to their 
 destiny, and their own heart and flesh are failing, there is 
 still nigh to them the one all-sufficient, never- failing Friend, 
 holding in His hands the keys of all the unseen and eter- 
 nal regions, opening up their way, and guiding them in 
 safety to their home. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The practical importance of the words before us is evi- 
 denced by the more immediate design with which they 
 were uttered. 
 
 The words " but Christ is all and in all " are introduced 
 by the apostle as the conclusive reason for the Colossians, 
 and so for all believers, departing from every evil way, and 
 devoting themselves to a holy and heavenly life, so as to be, 
 one and all, living epistles of Christ, and to reflect His 
 holy and blessed image. Says he, " Set your affections on 
 things above. . Mortify your members which are upon 
 the earth, . uncleanness, inordinate affection, . and 
 covetousness, which is idolatry . . Also put off all these, 
 anger, wrath, maHce, . . seeing that ye have put off the 
 
446 Ch'ist All and in AIL 
 
 old man with his deeds ; and have put on the new man, 
 which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him 
 that created him ; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, 
 circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond 
 nor free; but Christ is all and in all." And surely the 
 consideration, imperfect as it is, that we have just been 
 giving to these words, is fitted, as the words are designed, 
 to make us see clearly and feel deeply that as, away from 
 Christ, mankind are spiritually in darkness, bondage, and 
 death, so in Him alone can any have spiritual light and 
 life ; and, further, that all who are in Him have it equally 
 and alike. Within the spiritual region of the redeeming 
 work of Christ, and of His people's corresponding depend- 
 ence on and obedience to Him, no earthly distinctions of 
 any kind are recognised, or of any avail, or are so much as 
 allowed to assert their presence. The natural character and 
 condition, and the natural attainments or characteristics of 
 such as become the subjects of Christ's saving work, contri- 
 bute nothing to its efficiency and excellence, and present 
 nothing fatally to hinder its success. The wisdom of the 
 Greek, the outward religious actings and attainments of 
 the Jew, the ignorance and superstition of the barbarian, the 
 fiendlike cruelty of the fiercest savage, the utter degradation 
 of the enslaved, and the energy of the free, the profoundest 
 acquaintance of the man of science with the secrets of crea- 
 tion, the insight into nature of the moralist or the poet, the 
 highest scholarship and culture of the man of letters, and 
 the ignorance, rudeness, and moral and social debasement 
 of the unreclaimed and sunken, are respectively neither 
 necessarily effectual helps on the one hand, nor necessarily 
 effectual obstacles on the other hand, to the redeeming work 
 which Christ accomplishes in the subjects of His grace. 
 Whatever happens to be, or to become, men's natural char- 
 acteristics or actual attainments, so far as regards their 
 admission to, or exclusion from, the divine presence and 
 
Christ All and in All. 447 
 
 favour, they are all on the same level, there is no difference 
 between them as transgressors of the law of God so long as 
 they remain out of Christ ; and if they are enabled to come 
 nigh to God, and to find acceptance with Him, it must be 
 by finding the ground of their dependence before Him, out- 
 side of themselves, and in a finished work, to which they 
 have contributed and can contribute nothing. For, however 
 diversified their natural character, condition, and circum- 
 stances, there is in each and all of them alike a guiltiness 
 which it requires the same atonement to cancel ; there is 
 in each of them a darkening spiritual ignorance of God, and 
 of all divine and eternal things, which it requires the same 
 illumination from above to remove ; there is an enmity of 
 the carnal mind in each of them to God, which it requires 
 the same manifestation of His love as seen in the cross of 
 Christ, to slay. There is a subjection in each of them to 
 the power of the great tempter and deceiver and adversary, 
 from which it requires the same interposition of Christ, the 
 destroyer of Satan's work, to give deliverance. There is a 
 natural and inveterate enslavement of each of them to the 
 evil maxims, customs, and examples prevailing around them, 
 from the fetters of which it requires the regenerating and 
 sanctifying power of the Spirit of Christ to set them free. 
 They are all made to experience personal and relative 
 afflictions, which serve a blessed end only in so far as, by 
 means of them, the same softening, purifying, and strengthen- 
 ing grace of Christ brings them into subjection to the Father 
 of spirits, makes them partakers of His holiness, and prepares 
 them for having death swallowed up of life. In short, all 
 human creatures, from the highest to the humblest, in order 
 to their profiting by the truth as it is in Jesus, must, as 
 sinners, take the same place in the dust before God, must be 
 brought to rest on the same foundation, on the one founda- 
 tion of a sinner's hope, must derive all light and life and 
 peace from the same fulness of Christ, must be delivered 
 
44^ Christ All and in All. 
 
 into the same gospel mould, must be stamped with the 
 same divine image, must look to Christ, and yield to Him, 
 and be filled by His grace, and fashioned by His hand, must 
 rely on Him alone, and place themselves unreservedly at 
 His disposal as all and in all. 
 
 The life of all the redeemed from the earth is thus from 
 first to last derived from Christ, and found in Him alone. 
 And when at length they are taken to His presence, they 
 find His fulness which fills them to be the same fulness of 
 God which pervades the entire works of His hands, from 
 the highest intelligences and holiest worshippers in His 
 immediate presence, to the lowliest of the endless grades of 
 being that make up His boundless and eternal kingdom. 
 The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall eternally be to 
 all holy creatures, as well as to the redeemed, the brightness 
 of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person, 
 the visible image of the for ever invisible God. They shall 
 ever behold Him as the co-M^orker with the Father and the 
 Holy Spirit in calling creation into existence, and in cease- 
 lessly filling it with such endless tokens of divine power, 
 wisdom, and goodness. Especially they shall for ever look 
 to Him as the Eedeemer, who by such a wondrous mani- 
 festation and work of God in our nature on the earth, raised 
 such myriads out of their ruined state into the ransomed 
 family of God. And as they continue to gaze into the 
 unfathomable depths of wisdom, holiness, and love which 
 redemption displays, higher and higher degrees of knowledge, 
 love, and enjoyment of God shall be reached, and corres- 
 pondingly loftier praises shall ascend to the throne of God 
 and of the Lamb. 
 
^' .^ 
 
 -.Ja