tl: 
 
 '"cl."-^ 
 
 
 -/HI 
 •■■,.■ I., if 
 
 
 ff 
 
 f^J 
 
 -^^ft^Mq^t^ 
 
 ^ ^i 1: 
 
 iTfl" 
 
 
 u 
 
 I 
 
 :/; 
 
BS 2675 .R68 1858 
 Rogers, E. P. 1817-1881. 
 Everything in Christ 
 
 
 rhf John .>J. Krobs Donation. 
 
 L._^,^_ 
 
 I HI 
 
 • ^ 
 
 ^rc 
 

EVERY THING IN CHRIST; 
 
 AN EXPOSITION 
 
 FIRST CORINTHIANS 1: 30, 
 
 E. P. KOGEES, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "DISCOURSES ON ELECTION, "EARNEST WORDS 
 TO YOUNG MEN," "THE CLASSMATES," AC. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 OF THE 
 
 REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH 
 SYNOD'S ROOMS, 61 FRANKLIN ST. 
 
 18 6 8. 
 
EsTtREU ac-ording to Act of Congress, in the year l!^5S, by 
 
 REV. THOMAS C. STRONG, 
 
 On behalf of the Board of Publication of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church 
 
 in North America, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
 
 United States for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 HOSFORD & CO., 
 ;tationers and printbrs, 
 
 57 & 59 William St., N. Y. [ 2 ] 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Any attempt, however liumhle, to recoininend the Blessed Sa- 
 viour to the faith and love of men, and to induce them to seek 
 for all they need in Him, calls for no apologetic introduction. This 
 little treatise is such an attem})t. It contains no new or original 
 views of the great doctrines of the Gospel, and this, the Author 
 hopes, will prove one of its mei-its. The views of standard evan- 
 gelical writers are presented sometimes in their own language, 
 sometimes in that of the author. In treating of the doctrine of 
 Sanctification, great assistance has been derived from tlie writings 
 of the late venerable Dr. Leonard Woods, whom the Author re- 
 gards as one of the ablest and soundest of American Theologians. 
 He acknowledges, also, his obligations for some thoughts on the 
 relation of Christ as our " Wisdom" to Rev. Prof Shedd. He 
 hopes that his humble effort to commend Christ, as every thing 
 to man, may, by God's blessing, pi*ove not wholly vnin. 
 
 E. P. ROGERS. 
 
 Albany, July 1, 1858. 
 
 [8] 
 
CHRIST 
 EVERY THING TO MAN 
 
 i "Christ Jesus, who of God is made fnto us Wisdom, 
 AND Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Re- 
 demption." Ifit Cor. 1: 30. 
 
 [6] 
 
WISDOM 
 
 That passage from God's word, which we have 
 placed at the head of this treatise, is full of rich and 
 glorious signilicaiice. It sets forth Jesus Christ, in 
 every aspect, in which he is necessary and precious 
 to man. It describes the commencement, method, 
 progress, and completion of his great work of salva- 
 tion for the sinner. The grand features of that Avork, 
 are Insti'uction, Justification, Sanctification, and com- 
 plete Redemption. These answer to the great fea- 
 tures of the natural state of man. Ignorance, Guilt, 
 Pollution, and Condemnation. Christ enlightens our 
 ignorance, and is thus our Wisdom. He procures 
 our Justification, and is thus our Righteousness. He 
 purifies us from our pollution, and is thus our Sancti- 
 fication. And he assures us complete and eternal 
 freedom from the curse of sin, and is thus our Re- 
 demption. Thus in the passage before us, Christ is 
 presented in all the aspects in which as a Saviour, 
 he is necessary and precious to man. 
 
8 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 It is our purpose, iu the following pages, to consider 
 these different features of that great work, which by 
 the special appointment of God the Father, is accom- 
 plished for his people, by God the Son. 
 
 We notice then, first, the truth that Christ is made 
 of God, Wisdom, to his people. 
 
 Tlie natural state of man, is a state of ignorance in 
 respect to moral truth, obligation, and duty. It is 
 true that the direful effects of the Apostasy, have not 
 destroyed the intellectual nature of man, though 
 doubtless this part of his being felt the shock of that 
 rash act, which broke down the glory of his physical 
 and moral nature, and subjected them to the curse of 
 temporal and spiritual death. Man has still the noble 
 gift of mind. His powers of perception and reason, 
 still distinguish him from the brute creation. He has 
 wonderful capacities for the acquirement of knowl- 
 edge, and can make and does make great attainments 
 in learning and science. But in respect to moral 
 truth and moral obligation, the natural state of man 
 is one of profound ignorance. He feels no desire to 
 make these the subject of his investigation and in- 
 quiry. The instinctive language of man's heart in 
 respect to God, is, " Depart from us, for we desire not 
 the knowledge of thy w^ays." We do not assert that 
 man by nature is in a state of entire and wilful igno- 
 rance, in respect to the great facts and doctrines of 
 natural religion. The operations of his own mind, 
 will, and do lead him irresistibly to the conclusion, 
 that there is a superior mind, of which all that he 
 sees in the world around him, is the fruit and creature. 
 
 When we say that the natural state of man is one 
 
WISDOM. 9 
 
 of ignorance of God, we do not mean by this that he is 
 naturally an Atheist, or an Iniidel. He may concede 
 tlie truth of the Divine existence ; he may believe in 
 all the natural attributes of the Deity ; he may even 
 entertain grand conceptions of those attributes, and 
 yet after all be ignorant of God and moral truth. 
 He may be a firm believer in all that is taught by 
 what is called natural religion, and still be in a state 
 of deplorable and ruinous ignorance of God. And 
 here we would remark, that there is much claimed 
 for natural religion and its professors, which is in our 
 judgment not warranted even by an enlarged charity; 
 and that there is not after all so much difference be- 
 tween those who receive all the teachings of natural 
 religion in respect to the being and attributes of the 
 Deity, and those who worship a creature merely of 
 the imagination, or bow in false and degrading hom- 
 age before the workmanship of their own hands. 
 
 There are men in all Christian lands, who profess to 
 believe in God and his perfections. They recognise 
 and admire the evidences of his power and his wis- 
 dom, and his ubiquity in the natural world. They 
 trace his hand in the operations of nature, in the 
 courses of the stars, the changes of the seasons, the 
 processes of agriculture. They exercise some emotion 
 in view of the magnitude and beauty of the works 
 of his hands, and they claim that this is religious 
 emotion, and openly or secretly cherish a hope, that 
 this will stand them in stead when they meet God in 
 the judgment. But how much religion is there in the 
 emotion of admiration, which a sight of the starry 
 heavens is calculated to excite in an irreligious mind? 
 1^ 
 
10 CHRISTOUK 
 
 How much religion is there in that impression of wis- 
 dom and power, which an examination of tlie laws 
 and ministries of nature must create in any philosophic 
 mind ? 
 
 The natural religionist worships not God ; he adores 
 not the Deity as he is, in that which constitutes the 
 essence and glory of Divinity. If he pays any hom- 
 age, it is to the vital principle ; if he Avorships, it is 
 the force of gravity, or the laws of the solar system ; 
 if he exercise emotion, it is in view of the beauty of 
 a passing cloud, or the gold and the purple of the 
 setting sun, and he is as really an idolater as is the 
 heathen who bows down before a visible and material 
 idol. ''And that system of thought and emotion, 
 which never soars into the region of moral truth, and 
 supernatural realities, is as truly material as is the 
 most open and avowed mxaterialism." 
 
 It may seem to be a bold assertion, and yet we are 
 entirely willing to make it, that the natural attributes 
 of the Deity are of very little consequence to a moral 
 being, if these are all he considers of God. For as 
 such, they are not and cannot be, the ground or occa- 
 sion of true religious feeling in the creature. The 
 contemplation of these attributes merely, does not 
 awaken the moral sensibilities, impress a sense of 
 moral obligation, or induce that true fear and adora- 
 tion of the Deity which he recjuires of all his rational 
 creatures. Considered apart from his moral attri- 
 butes, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, and even 
 his wisdom, have very little meaning for man as a 
 religious being. Leaving out of view the moral atti-i- 
 butes of the Deity, there is very little diiference be- 
 
WISDOM. 11 
 
 tweeii the relations wliicli man sustains to God, and 
 those which are sustained by the brute creation. It 
 is the wisdom, the truth, the justice, the holiness, the 
 benevolence, the mercy of God, which appeal to man 
 as a moral being, and determine the superior charac- 
 ter of his relations to his maker. And if man knows 
 nothing of God but his natural attributes, and sustains 
 no relations to his moral perfections, he is but a no- 
 bler sort of brute, and his existence is on a level w^ith 
 brute existence. Let not that man who believes in 
 the Divine existence, and the teachings of natural 
 religion in respect to his attributes, think, that this 
 entitles him to claim exemption from the charge of 
 ignorance of God. The natural perfections which 
 she reveals are not what constitute the real glory of 
 Divinity. Tliey are not that w^hich draws out the 
 music of the angels, or the homage of the pious heart. 
 We have seen men who professed to be sincere be- 
 lievers in the religion of Nature ; who would read 
 you very fluent homilies from the stars, and the 
 rivers, and the flowers ; who would discourse right 
 eloquently and with apparent emotion, upon God in 
 IsTature, finding " sermons in stones, books in the run- 
 ning brooks, and good in everything," and seemed to 
 glow with much pious fervor as they dilated upon the 
 natural perfections of the Deity, standing by the 
 mighty cataract, or on the mountain top, or under 
 the blaze of the starry firmament. And we have seen 
 these same good men, shrink back in uneasiness and 
 alarm, the moment you tried to bring God before them 
 in the splendor of his moral attributes, and make them 
 sensible of their moral obligations, to his law and gov- 
 
12 C H K I S T () U K 
 
 erunient. Their God was only in Kature ; he spoke 
 to them in the gentle summer breeze ; he smiled upon 
 them from the starlit sky ; he painted his name upon 
 the rose, and appealed to their sense of the beautiful 
 and sublime in the natural world. But when you 
 placed the Almighty before them, in the solemn and 
 inexorable relations of a pure and holy Ruler, and 
 revealed the awful majesty of his justice, and the ter- 
 rible nature of his wrath, and let loose the thunders 
 of his law, and spoke of moral obligation, and sin, and 
 condemnation; oh! then they cried, "Depart from 
 us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 
 " This is not our God." 
 
 Now it is evident that no man can properly under- 
 stand his relations to God, and discharge the duties 
 inseparably connected with, and growing out of those 
 relations, who has no knowledge or appreciation of 
 his real character. The very first thing to be done 
 for a sinful man, is to enlighten him. His natural 
 state is one of ignorance, deep and deplorable igno- 
 rance of all that constitutes the true glory of Deity, 
 and on wdiich his own highest relations to his Maker 
 are founded. He must be made to know, not that 
 God is, but who God is, before he can feel the force 
 of the obligations, which bind him to his service. Let 
 him then go to Nature, and ask of her to describe to 
 him the character of the God she professes to reveal. 
 Let him ask of the towering mountain, who is God ? 
 and the utmost which it can say is, He is a being of 
 power enough to heave me up from the surrounding 
 plain, and bid the clouds of heaven shed their mois- 
 ture on my brow. Let him ask of the cataract, and 
 
W 1 6 D O M . 13 
 
 it cau only «ay, lie has poured my iniglity Hood of 
 waters down the precipice, and shaken the lirmanient 
 with the thunder of my roaring. Let him go to any 
 scene in nature; let him ask of all that is majestic 
 and beautiful on earth, Who is God ? and amid their 
 myriad voices, there is not one, that speaks of tlie 
 holiness, the truth, the justice, the love, the mercy of 
 God. The most learned man in the natural sciences 
 cannot, if he confine his investigations merely to na- 
 ture, receive the first idea of the moral character of 
 the Deity. I know we are told that we may " look 
 tlu-ough nature up to nature's God," but tliis is only 
 one of mau}^ well turned periods in vogue among men, 
 which have far more rhetorical beauty than theologi- 
 cal truth in them. "What is there in the law of 
 gravity, which has the least tendency to lead to the 
 recognition of the law of holiness ? Is there any simi- 
 larity between the two in kind ? What can the mo- 
 tions of the sun and stars, the unvarying return of the 
 seasons, the birth, growth and death of animated 
 existence, taken hy themselves^ teach, regarding the 
 supernatural attributes of God ? Take away from 
 man the knowledge of God which is contained in the 
 human spirit, and in the written word, and leave him 
 to find his way up to a personal and spiritual Deity, 
 by the light of nature alone, and he will grope in 
 eternal darkness, if for no other reason, because he 
 cannot even get the idea of such a being." 
 
 Many of our readers may be supposing that their 
 belief in natural religion, or in the revelations of God, 
 which they see in the world around them, is so fixed 
 and clear, so far as it goes, that it ought to exempt 
 
14 CHRISTOUR 
 
 them from the charge of utter ignorance of their Ma- 
 ker ; and also constitute a foundation for more ex- 
 tended and better acquaintance with him. In our 
 judgment, tlicy are mistaken in both impressions. A 
 man is truly ignorant of God, if he be not acquainted 
 witli that which constitutes the real essence and glory 
 of Deity. And for this he must look for a higher 
 revelation than is opened in the book of nature, and 
 instead of looking through nature up to nature's God, | 
 we hold that a man must have some knowledge of ' 
 God from other sources, to be able rightly to under- 
 stand nature herself. It is much more in accordance jj 
 with true philosophy to descend from nature's God to { 
 nature, and starting witli the great fact that God is, ' 
 and that he is a being of infinite wisdom, power, || 
 holiness, justice, goodness and truth, derived from a 
 higher source, to trace out in the wide field of nature, ; 
 amid much that is perplexing and apparently contra- ' 
 dictory, the manifestation of a being already believed 
 in, and the illustration of attributes already revealed, i ! 
 It seems to us that there is great danger, yea moral |l 
 certainty, that that mind which does not study God in '< 
 its own constitution, and derives no knowledge of him i 
 from direct and divine revelation, but attempts to 
 deduce the character of the Deity, only from the \ 
 developments of the natural world, must at last land j 
 in utter scepticism. A world where the spirit of good l| 
 seems ever to maintain an unequal conflict with the ' 
 spirit of evil ; a world of storms and deserts, of tire 
 and flood, of poisonous reptiles and abandoned men ; I 
 a world of ignorance and poverty, crime and wretch- i 
 edness, sickness and sorrow, pain and death ; what \ 
 
WISDOM. 15 
 
 can such a world, by itself, teach of the justice, the 
 holiness, the love of God. We know it speaks of his 
 ])ower and his intelligence ; but if there is a God, we 
 want to know something more than this about him. 
 If YOU were to tell me of a man to whom I sustained 
 the most solemn and important relations ; in whose 
 hands, and at whose absolute disposal, was all that I 
 held dear, I should ask of you with intense anxiety, 
 what sort of a man he was. You show me a steam 
 engine, and tell me that it is his work. I examine its 
 parts and see that it is a wonderful piece of mechan- 
 ism, and am impressed with the skill and ingenuity of 
 its contriver. I see it put into operation, and behold its 
 wonderful power, and efficiency, and usefulness, and 
 I am more and more impressed with the power and 
 skill of the inventor, but still I gain no knowledge 
 of his moral character. That wonderful machine tells 
 me not a word of his justice, his goodness, his integ- 
 rity, his purity, his mercy. I look at it again with an 
 intense yearning for some satisfying information, and, 
 lo ! with the noise of thunder it explodes — tears the 
 hapless men around it into a thousand pieces, and 
 scatters ruin and desolation all around. What lessons 
 do I now learn from this sole revelation of the being 
 you commend to my reverence and obedience? You 
 may tell me that he is wise, and just, and good, a^^ 
 well as skillful and powerful, and that I ought to obey 
 and love him, but I see nothing but the awful wreck, 
 the mangled bodies of the dead, the groans of the 
 dying, the shrieks of the widow and the oi-phan ; and 
 I must either deny that there is such a being as you 
 speak of, or demand, that in mercy to my distressed 
 
16 CHRIST OUR 
 
 and bewildered spirit, you will give me some other 
 revelation of a higher character, that may teach me 
 how to understand the scene before me, and reconcile 
 it with those moral attributes and qualities, which 
 would justly command my admiration and my love. 
 
 So man, in order to gain any correct, satisfying 
 knowledge of God : any knowledge that will be worth 
 anything to him as a moral and religious being ; any 
 knowledge, that will bring the Deity before him as a 
 Being to be revered, and loved, and obeyed, and con- 
 tided in, needs a higher revelation than nature, by 
 whose aid he can unravel all that is apparently con- 
 tradictory and confounding in her wide spread and 
 crowded volume. He who goes to nature only for his 
 idea of God, and who looks to her teachings as the 
 foundation for loftier discoveries, has no better philoso 
 phy, than the ancient Pagans, who rested the ever- 
 lasting heavens on the shoulders of "the earth born 
 Atlas ;" and though he may profess to entertain lofty 
 ideas and grand conceptions of that mighty Being who 
 regulates the movements of the heavens, and makes 
 " the crystal spheres ring out their silver chimes," yet 
 in respect to all that makes the essence and the glory 
 of the Deity, and all that is most important for a ra- 
 tional and accountable soul to know, he has inscribed 
 upon his altar, " To the unknown God." 
 
 On this universal condition of the human mind, or 
 condition of ignorance and darkness, God has out of 
 his own good j^leasure poured the light of revelation. 
 And he has made his Son the medium of this revelation. 
 " Christ is made of God unto us wisdom." Here is the 
 source of all our best knowledge of God. The question 
 
WISDOM. 17 
 
 then arises, how does Christ communicate the know- 
 ledge of God to the soul of man? We answer; in his 
 personal character, and his atoning work, Christ re- 
 veals God to man. 
 
 Christ is represented always in the Scriptures as 
 God, manifesting himself to men in a tangible form, 
 one like their own, and wdiich would have great power 
 over them, because it was one with which they could 
 most readily sympathize. The language of the Bible 
 is so plain and unequivocal on this point, that we can- 
 not regard the Redeemer as he appeared on earth, as 
 any other than God-man — Deity incarnate, " who is 
 the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express 
 image of his person." ^' In whom dwelt all the full- 
 ness of the Godhead, bodily." " Who is the image of 
 the invisible God." " God was manifest in the flesh." 
 All these passages declare, if there is any meaning in 
 language, that Jesus Christ was God manifested to 
 men, not in an angelic but in human nature. IN'ow, 
 the chai'acter of the Lord Jesus Christ, is just such a 
 character as we would suppose w^ould appertain to a 
 Being who was to be a manifestation of God to man. 
 It is in all respects a superhuman character. It stands 
 out on the pages of sacred and profane history, a liv- 
 ing, breathing, beautiful, miracle of goodness. It is 
 perfect, and the only perfect character the world has 
 ever beheld. We speak not of the humble position ^ 
 which tlie Bedeemer assumed, or the lowly paths in 
 which he walked. That was a part of his work, es- 
 sential to atonement, and satisfaction to law. But his 
 splendid moral character, to the beauty and sublimity 
 of wdiicli, earthlv rank and station would have added 
 
IS r n R I !^ T o r K 
 
 110 more, than ii rush light to the sun ; his perfect puri- 
 ty, goodness, truth, integrity — this was God manifest- 
 ed to man — Deity embodied — Divinity incarnate — the 
 infinitely glorious and perfect God displayed before 
 the eyes and hearts of men. God has been thus 
 numifested, only in Christ. Apart from him, the Al- 
 mighty is God abstract ; in Christ he is God embodied. 
 Apart from Christ, he is Deity absolute ; in him, he is 
 Deity revealed. From no other medium does the great 
 and glorious " I am " come down to the human soul. 
 In no other way does he communicate himself to us. 
 Christ, alone, " is made of God unto us Wisdom." — 
 He is just such a being as God would present to us, if 
 he wished to make a manifestation of himself to man, 
 in the best possible form, for his comprehension, ad- 
 miration and love. In his personal character, we have 
 every moral perfection, which we ascribe to the Deity, 
 or regard as essential to his nature. It is true these 
 are embodied in a human form, but while the form is 
 human, the character is divine. The flesh and blood 
 are those of a man ; the holiness, integrity, wisdom, 
 benevolence, truth, are those of a God. Here we must 
 go to learn what God is. ISTature has no teachings like 
 these. She may tell us that God is, but she cannot 
 tell us what he is. His natural attributes are not those 
 which the deej)est utterences in our souls are asking 
 for. His power and intelligence are nothing to us, if 
 we can know nothing else about him. They may be 
 the power and intelligence of a Being, whom we might 
 fear, but could not respect ; whom we might respect, 
 but could not love and trust. We must know more 
 about this God of nature. Our spiritual natures will 
 
WISDOM. 19 
 
 be wronged and beggared and outcast, if we have no 
 otliei" than material teachers, to reveal Him to their 
 capacities, and sensibilities, and aitections. 
 
 Christ comes to meet and satisfy this necessity of 
 tlie human soul. Without him, the night of ignorance 
 which broods over an apostate world, would have 
 been a starless night. Without him, the desert in 
 which the children of men are toilin^r throuc:h their 
 weary pilgrimage, would have been without a foun- 
 tain. AVithout him, man would have known but lit- 
 tle more than the bare fact that God is, and been tor- 
 tured with an ungratified longing to discover, what 
 he is. jSTow, in the superhuman splendors and per- 
 fections of Christ' s personal character, man may study 
 God ; through a veil indeed, as best suited to his weak 
 vision ; but yet his conceptions of his character, though 
 they must be inadequate, need not be erroneous, for 
 in Christ, he beholds the image of the invisible God, 
 and sees a moral character, which challenges his pro- 
 foundest reverence, commands his loftiest admiration, 
 and wins his purest affection. 
 
 Here, then, is the first method in which Christ be- 
 comes the source of instruction to man, in respect to 
 God. In his personal character he exhibits those 
 moral perfections which are essential to Deity, and 
 which constitute the supreme excellence and glory, of 
 the Godhead. It is needless for me to specify and 
 describe those perfections in detail. They glow in 
 their celestial beauty, on every page in the record of 
 his life. Come then, ye who have only studied God 
 in nature, and have vainly imagined that she could 
 be a competent instructress ; come, ye who are learned 
 
20 CHRISTOUK 
 
 in natural science, who have bowed and worshiped 
 only in her temple, come and study God in Christ. 
 The laws of the planetary system, gravitation, mag- 
 netism, electricity, have never revealed God to you 
 in his most resplendent glories. They have not 
 spoken to you as a moral and accountable being, and 
 reached with their utterances, your spiritual ear. 
 They have never brought God home to your souls, 
 and made you feel the power of that grand idea in 
 the depths of your moral nature. The knowledge of 
 God, which you have gained from nature, has not 
 exerted, that enlightening, convicting, renewing, con- 
 trolling influence, over your moral sensibilities and 
 powers, which the idea of an infinitely holy, just and 
 benevolent God, ought to exert upon every subject of 
 his moral government. 
 
 You have never known God as yet, and conse- 
 quently you have never realized, how little you are 
 like him in moral character. But study now, God 
 in Christ ; make that character of superhuman, super- 
 angelic, infinite, immutable, and eternal perfection, 
 your study. Dwell upon every matchless virtue, 
 every exalted grace, which shone out in a God incar- 
 nate, until you begin to understand something of the 
 power and beauty of supreme moral excellence. Tlien, 
 under the quickening influences of the Divine Spirit, 
 you will be ready to exclaim, as the conviction of your 
 own immeasurable distance from such excellence, 
 forces itself with overwhelming power into your mind, 
 " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but 
 now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, 
 and repent in dust and ashes." Thus will the first 
 
WISDOM. 21 
 
 lesson wliicli Clirist, the wisdom of God, is appointed 
 to teach to sinful man, be imparted to your mind ; 
 thus will the first ray of heavenly light beam in upon 
 your darkened soul. 
 
II. 
 WISDOM 
 
 In the preceding cliapter, we endeavored to show 
 the superiority of the revelation which Christ makes 
 of the character of God, over the teachings of mere 
 natural religion. We showed that the latter revealed 
 only the natural attributes of the Deity, but shed no 
 light upon his moral perfections. These were display- 
 ed in the personal character of Christ, in all their per- 
 fection, and therefore, the conclusion was, that no man 
 can entertain correct views of God, which are essent- 
 ial to any understanding of his own relations to him, 
 and a discharge of the duties inseparably connected 
 with those relations, who has not studied God in a 
 higher and fuller revelation than nature affords ; wlio 
 has not become familiar with the history of the God 
 incarnate, and with reverence and humility sat at 
 Jesus' feet and learned of him. 
 
 But it would be doing great injustice to Christ, and 
 to the object of his mission to earth, to say that he is 
 made by God to ns Wisdom, or Knowledge, simply 
 
 22 
 
WISDOM. 23 
 
 by the beautiful exhibition of his personal character. 
 The revelation which he makes to man of those great 
 moral truths, which have the most intimate and im- 
 portant relations, to his spiritual being and his evci-- 
 lasting welfare, is not merely by the force of exam])le. 
 His whole work of Atonement, connnencing, as it did 
 when he drew his first breath in the manger at Betli- 
 lehem, to the hour of agony when on the cross, he ex- 
 claimed, ''It is finished, and gave up the ghost," is 
 full of instruction to man, in repect to the character 
 of God, his own relations to him, his state, his duty, 
 and his destiny. Christ, as our exemplar, is subordin- 
 ate to Christ as our atoning sacrifice. Tlie perfection 
 of his character, was essential to the validity of his 
 work of atonement, and we must first receive him as 
 our Redeemer, and learn the lessons taught by his sa- 
 crifice, before he becomes anything to us as a guide 
 and an example. 
 
 The atoning work of Christ then, is the source of 
 that revelation of God to man, which is needful to 
 enlighten his ignorance, and prepare the way for his 
 full redemption. 
 
 We are aware that the ground over wliich our sub- 
 ject calls us to pass, is very familiar ground. Bethle- 
 hem, Gethsemane, Calvary, are household words. The 
 history of our Saviour's life and sufierings is as well 
 known as the history of our native land; and yet 
 Christ and him crucified, is a theme which can never 
 be exhausted. For two thousand years, the noblest 
 minds have consecrated to it tlieir best efi'orts; the 
 deepest hearts have lavished upon it their choicest 
 affections ; yet it is to-day arrayed in all the freshness 
 
24: C H B I B T U U R 
 
 and bloom of youth; it has elements of beauty, and 
 pathos, and power, which can never die. '' Like mar- 
 ble, it may be polished as long as the very stone re- 
 mains; like gold, it but increases in brightness witli 
 every successive attrition." 
 
 Let us then turn to the history of Christ, as an aton- 
 ing sacriiice for sin, and see the splendid revelation 
 which it makes of the sublime moral truths, with 
 which the human soul is most deeply concerned. 
 
 The first thing that strikes us in this history, is the 
 wonderful discrepancy between the personal character 
 of our divine Redeemer, and the outward circumstan- 
 ces of his earthly life. This discrepancy is indeed 
 noticeable in the history of his birth and childhood. 
 A new orb in the heavens announces his birth, and a 
 choir of angels sing his natal song, in the melodies of 
 the skies. Wise men from the east are moved to fol- 
 low the guidance of the star, as it travels westward on 
 its radiant path. But it stops not to shed its light 
 upon the palace of a monarch, and to throw its radi- 
 ance around the slumbers of a new born prince. It 
 illumines a rude stable with its beams, and sheds a 
 halo round the manger, where lies the babe of Beth- 
 lehem. And as if to stamp even the hour of his birth 
 with a peculiar character, whicli should distinguish it 
 from that of all the sons of men, he whose entrance 
 into the world brought out a new star in the heavens, 
 and woke on earth the music of the skies, is born an 
 outcast from the sons of men, and draws his first 
 breath amid the beasts of the stall. "What a strange 
 blending of glory and of shame, of loftiness, and low- 
 liness, of the honors of heaven, and the reproaches of 
 
WISDOM. 25 
 
 earth, cliaracterizcs the early history of him who was 
 to be the great revcaler <>f God to man. 
 
 The same peculiarity marks his after life. lie is a 
 child of poverty and obscnrity ; an exile from the halls 
 of learning, and the discipline of the schools; and yet 
 in his boyhood, he stands in the temple, amid the ven- 
 erable iiabbi's and the learned Doctors, and not the 
 wisest of the throng can iind learning enough to an- 
 sw^er his questions; and they retire, wondering, con- 
 fused, humbled, yet admiring, from the unequal strife. 
 He becomes a man ; he does not leave the lowly sphere 
 in which he was born; he is but the carpenter's son; 
 yet he adorns that sphere with graces, which would 
 have added lustre to an angel's crown, and makes it 
 sublime with power wdiich seems to have been wrested 
 from Jehovah's throne. He is weary and faint with 
 hunger, and asks water for his thirst at the hands even 
 of an enemy of his nation. Yet he satisfies the hunger 
 of a starving multitude, by a miraculous multiplication 
 of that which w^ould have been a pittance for his few 
 disciples. He bears about a body that can feel the 
 pangs of sickness, that can quiver under the lash, and 
 bleed beneath the stroke; yet at his voice the sick 
 man springs from his couch in strength and gladness, 
 the blind man's eyes are opened, the withered mem- 
 ber is restored, and even the sheeted dead are recall- 
 ed from the cold bosom of the sepulchre. In all his 
 history, we see most strangely blended the power of 
 divinity with the w^eakness of humanity; the glories 
 of the God, with the sorrows of the man. The perfect 
 beauty and splendor of his moral character too, con- 
 tribute to the peculiarity of his history. No tongue 
 2 
 
26 C U K I S T O U R 
 
 has ever lisped a syllable against him. Purity, truth, 
 integrity, Imniility, disinterestedness, pity, benevo- 
 lence; every lovely and winning trait, which can dig- 
 nify and adorn character, was displayed in him. Yet 
 he was never popular with men. Many followed him, 
 but few loved him. He was a man of the people, 
 their friend and benefactor, yet he was never honored 
 or rewarded by the people. His many virtues, his i 
 numberless acts of kindness, of magnanimity, of gen- I 
 erosity, the devotion of his life to the good of others, | 
 all could not save him. In his early manhood, he was ! 
 sacrificed to the malice of an infuriate mob. A life \ 
 of scorn, and contumely, and persecution, was closed { 
 with the scourge, the thorns, the cross. The life which j 
 began in humiliation, was characterized by perfect 
 beauty and virtue, protracted in suffering, was closed j 
 in agony and blood. The breath which was first drawn j 
 in a manger, nnder the radiance of a newly kindled j 
 star, was at last exhaled upon the cross, nnder the 
 darkness of an extinguished sun. That brief existence, | 
 whose dawn was celebrated by the songs of angels, was J 
 embittered in its close, by the tannts of fiendish men. 
 And what an enigma w^ould this history be, taken 
 only by itself, apart from the written revelation of 
 God ! Who could solve it, without the key which the 
 doctrine of the Atonement, furnishes to the mighty 
 mysteries of the manger and the cross ? If the pro- 
 pitiatory character be divorced from the history of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who can understand that history ? 
 What human or angelic mind, can harmonize its dis- 
 cordant voices, or reduce its chaotic elements to order ? 
 In place of reflecting light upon God's character, or 
 
WISDOM. 27 
 
 man's well-being, it would itself be shrouded in dark- 
 ness. But when we apply the solution furnished by 
 the revelation of those who were inspired to speak of 
 the coming Redeemer, and describe the peculiarity 
 of his mission to our world ; when we read the ancient 
 })rophecies, which hold up Christ to view, as the great 
 atoning sacriiice for man ; when we study the scenes 
 of Calvary, from the base of Sinai, and understand 
 the teachings of the shadowy ritual of the Mosaic 
 dispensation; oh! then this dark page is radiant with 
 light ; and it gleams with glorious lessons of the sub- 
 limest perfections of God and the noblest interests of 
 man. 
 
 We have alluded to the perfect and beautiful char- 
 acter of Christ, a character such as we should suppose 
 would be assumed by a being who was intended to 
 be a manifestation of God to man. Every trait which 
 could challenge admiration, command respect, and 
 elicit affection, was displayed by him. His life was 
 one continued history of self-sacrihce for the good of 
 others, and never has there appeared in our world, a 
 being so worthy of the title of an universal benefac- 
 tor. Now, there are two remarkable features in the his- 
 tory of Christ : the one, that with such a character he 
 should have been the object of such constant and un- 
 relenting persecution and hatred ; the other, that he 
 sliould have voluntarily submitted to it all, and even 
 offered up his life a sacrifice, to the malice of his foes. 
 For it must be remembered, that his power was as 
 perfect as his virtue. He, at whose bidding tlie wild 
 waves of ocean hushed their angry clamors, and who 
 could break the sceptre of the King of Terrors, had 
 
28 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 nothing to fear from tlie malice of mortal men. With 
 a wave of his hand he could liave stretched them life- 
 less at his feet, or blasted them with the lightning ot 
 his eye. But he never so much as opened his mouth 
 in angry words, or exerted his wonderful power in 
 self-defence. He freely suffered and freely died. 
 
 Nothing but the doctrine, that Christ came to earth 
 to be a sacrifice for sin, and atone for man's trans- 
 gressions, can explain these peculiarities of his history. 
 But this explains them most full}^ Ilis perfect char- 
 acter made him a worthy ottering. Had any stain of 
 guilt rested upon him, then the meritorious character 
 of his sacrifice would have been vitiated. Had he 
 been an unwilling victim, then the justice of God 
 could not have been honored by his sufferings, and 
 his death would have cast an ineftaceable blot upon 
 Jehovah's spotless throne. By his own freedom from 
 liability to the penalty of sin, he was capable of being 
 a ransom for the guilty ; and by his voluntary self- 
 substitution in their stead, he enabled the govern- 
 ment of God to accept the surety, and remit its claims 
 upon man, the principal offender. 
 
 In this his atoning work, Christ is made of God, 
 Wisdom to man. He sheds light upon the character 
 of God, the claims of his law, man's relations to that 
 law, and the mode of his escape from its condemna- 
 tion. 
 
 The most glorious features in the character of Deity, 
 are his holiness, his justice, and his love. These are 
 the qualities that appeal most strongly to the moral 
 sensibilities of the soul. Nature luis no revelation to 
 make to man of these qualities of God. The sub- 
 
WISDOM. 29 
 
 lime silence of her forests is never broken, by voices 
 which speak of them, to the spiritual ear. In the 
 murmuring of her breezes, or the melodies of her 
 birds, there are no such lofty strains. Her most pre- 
 cious '' stones," deliver no sermons on these topics, 
 and the books in her " running brooks" have no pages 
 for them. He who studies God only in her volume, 
 will never see the real glories of his character, will 
 never feel the transforming influence of such know- 
 ledge, and know by his own rich experience, the beauty 
 and the power of " the life of God in the soul of man." 
 
 But what revelations does Christ, in his work of 
 atonement, make of the attributes of God ? Consider 
 how it manifests his holiness. 
 
 The holiness of God is that element in his nature, 
 which prompts him to entertain the deepest aversion 
 to sin. It ensures an infinite and everlasting abhor- 
 rence of all moral evil. In the personal character of 
 Christ, we can see this attribute of the Deity, but it is 
 rather subjective holiness, and therefore it does not so 
 speak to the world, of the depth and power of God's 
 essential holiness. But in his sacrifice we behold, 
 the objective manilestation of this attribute. We see 
 God expressing his utter abhorrence of sin ; the pro- 
 found revulsion of his nature from evil, not merely 
 by abstaining fi-om sin himself in the person of Christ ; 
 not merely exhibiting a pure and spotless personal char- 
 acter, for the admiration of men, but by pouring out the 
 vials of his wrath upon his beloved Son, who stood as 
 the surety and representative of a sinful and rebellious 
 race. To illustrate the difference between the revela- 
 tion wlilcli is made in the personal choracter of Christ, 
 
30 CHRISTOUR 
 
 of God's holiness, and that which is made by his 
 atoning work, we will suppose, that I have a iieigli- 
 bor, whose character has always appeared to me to be 
 unusually pure and upright. There has never been 
 Muy peculiar circumstance in his history, which has 
 l)rouglit his moral qualities especially before my con- 
 sideration. I have never seen him subjected to any 
 severe test, but from a general observation of his every 
 day walk, I have been led to entertain the Opinion, 
 that he is a just and good man. lie has an only son, 
 whom he loves, with all a father's fond affection. I 
 happen one day to go to his house, and I find him 
 chastising that son, with the utmost severity. It does 
 not seem to be the result of passion. The expression 
 of his face is that of mingled sadness and righteous 
 indignation; thei'e are deep lines of grief upon his 
 brow ; there are tears in his eyes ; nothing like rage 
 or fury, but calm, deep, just displeasure, blended 
 with intense and yearning affection. But his arm fal- 
 ters not, but resolutely inllicts stroke after stroke, un- 
 til the measure of punishment is filled up. I ask for 
 an explanation, and he gives it to me in tones of the 
 deepest feeling, but with no trace of passion. His son 
 has done wrong. He has been guilty of great wick- 
 edness. He has broken his father's solemn law, and 
 that father has inflicted the threatened and merited 
 punishment. As he tells me the history, and I see 
 how every moral sensibility of his soul recoils in hor- 
 ror from the sin, while yet there is not one shade of 
 vindictiveness in his anger against the offender ; as I 
 behold the sublime resolution which nerves his arm 
 against that offending son, every former impression 
 
WISDOM. 31 
 
 wliich I had entertained of that man's virtue and in- 
 tegrity is strengtliened a linndred-fohl, and the convic- 
 tion is forever riveted upon mv mind, that he is a just 
 and holy man. 
 
 llius, the contemplation of God's holiness in the 
 personal character of the incarnate Deity, may pro- 
 duce some impression upon the mind, but it cannot for 
 a moment compare with the power of the manifesta- 
 tion of this essential attribute, w^hich has been made 
 to the universe, by the amazing spectacle of the suffer- 
 ings and the death of his only begotten and well be- 
 loved Son. 
 
 Christ in tlie manger — Christ in the garden — Christ 
 in the judgment hall — Christ on the cross, teaches how 
 sublimely awful is that holiness which spared not its 
 best beloved, but laid upon him the stroke of that 
 fearful holy anger, which none but infinite purity 
 outraged, and eternal love slighted, could feel; and 
 which forced the pure and spotless Redeemer, bowed 
 and humbled under the burden of others' guilt, to 
 tread alone the wine press of the wrath of God. 
 
 So also, Christ the atoning sacritice for sin, reveals 
 to man, in awfully impressive lessons, the justice 
 of God. He is the substitut e for a sinful race. Guilt- 
 less himself, he stands in the place of the guilty. The 
 Father lays on him the iniquity of us all. He beholds 
 in him, not his innocent, holy Son; but he beholds 
 him only as the surety for a rebellious and condemned 
 creation, and he pours upon his devoted head, the tor- 
 rent of indignation which they deserve. Oh! what 
 an exliibition of stern and sublime justice is here. The 
 
32 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 character of God in Christ, displayed this attril)iite in 
 the daily history of his life ; but there were no such 
 revelations of it as in the history of Jesus, in atone- 
 ment. To use again our former illustration. Suppose, 
 when I behold the fond father inflicting severe chas- 
 tisement on the son of his bosom ; when I see the cruel 
 scourge laid upon him in all its fury, and his blood 
 flowing from the stripes, I am told that it is not for 
 his guilt, but that he has oflered himself a ransom for a 
 guilty and disobedient servant. A servant has wil- 
 fully disobeyed his master, and incurred the penalty 
 of rebellion. The authority of the master is at stake. 
 He cannot forgive the servant at the expense of that 
 authority. It would not be right, or safe, or wise, to 
 do it. His favorite son ofl^ers to bear the punishment 
 of the servant's fault. He sees that an exhibition 
 ought to be made of the fathers justice and holiness; 
 that it will not do to allow such conduct to go un- 
 punished. But his kind heart yearns over the rebel, 
 and he oflfers himself for the punishment due to him. 
 The father, with every flbre of his soul thrilled with 
 admiration and love for his noble child, yet allows the 
 substitution, and resolutely lays u2:)on him the full 
 weight of the terrible penalty. Oh ! what an exhibi- 
 tion of exalted justice in this? A¥hat man could ever 
 doubt the sublime integrity of that father, after such 
 an exhibition? So in the sufierings and death of 
 Christ for sinful man, what honor is reflected upon the 
 justice of God? "Who can charge upon the Almighty, 
 that he shrinks from the vindication of his law, when 
 they see that aw^ful inexorable law, breaking and 
 bruising, and scathing and blasting that innocent Son, 
 
WISDOM. 33 
 
 who volunteered to be tlie substitute for the guilty 
 servant ? 
 
 But when w^e have seen and trembled at this spec- 
 tacle, awful in its sublimity; the lessons it teachct^, 
 are but half learned, if we are not impressed to tlie 
 deep center of the soul, with the fearfulness of the 
 sinners position, who is still unreconciled to God. Oh ! i 
 dear reader, if you wish to study the guilt and danger 
 of every impenitent man, go not and stand on Sinai, 
 where the rolling thunder and the flashing lightning 
 speak of the terrible majesty of the law of God ; but 
 study the scenes of Calvary, and see that law, exact- 
 ing its merited but fearful tribute in the tears, and 
 agony, and blood of the Son of God, and then ask, 
 what must the guilt of that man be, and what must 
 his peril be, who, with suqIi a manifestation of the 
 evil of sin, and the justice of God, still continues his 
 insane rebellion, and rejects a dying Saviour. Can I 
 there be the faintest shadow of hope for him, when ' 
 he falls at last into the hands of an angry God? Will ' 
 he who spared not his son, when he became the surety ; 
 for the guilty servant, spare that servant if he con- | 
 tinues rebellious ? Here then is a lesson, which most \ 
 of all, man needs to learn, and which is taught him | 
 only by Christ in his objective work, and cannot be I 
 learned by his subjective character. It is the guilt of ; 
 sin and the dans^er of the sinner; these truths are i 
 taught man by that exhibition of the holiness and jus- ! 
 tice of God, which is made by the suiferings and i 
 death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The contemplation of i 
 his holy character as an example, might strengthen 
 and confirm an angel in his virtue, but could not con- 
 
34 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 vict a sinner at the same time of his guih and danger. 
 Man needs to be taught his rehitions to the law of 
 God; his actual position as a rebel, and the awful 
 peril of that position. And he needs a teacher, who 
 will speak in stern accents to his guilty soul ; who 
 will rouse him, if need be, with no gentle hand, from 
 his unconcern, and impress him with an overwhelm- 
 ing sense of his deadly peril. I know there are those 
 who revile our view of the work of Christ for man, as 
 a harsh and forbidding view ; who think that all that 
 man needs is a good example, and that this is all that is 
 furnished him in the history of our Divine Redeemer. 
 
 Tliev are the men who are devotees of the relio'ion of 
 
 t' ~ 
 
 nature ; who love to worship in her forest temple, and 
 chant their sentimental hymns under the soft silvery 
 radiance of the stars, and who find in revelation only a 
 more perfect and beautiful exhibition of the God of 
 nature; a beneficent Father, a pure and gentle teacher, 
 now only human, now almost divine, who by his 
 winning examj^le, and the heroism of his martyrdom, 
 gently and gradually educes the dormant good in hu- 
 man nature, and In-ings man ever into sympathy with 
 the true and the Infinite. Well may they find their 
 sermons in stones; for when you ask for the bread of 
 life, they give you a stone, and their teachings are as 
 unsatisfying to the spiritual nature, which has become 
 convinced of its deep necessities, as a block of marble 
 would be to a hungry man, begging for bread. We 
 feel that the disease of sin cannot be cured by such 
 fragrant but worthless balsams. For sin is not hypo- 
 chondria; it is a real and deadly disease, and needs 
 the severest treatment, in order that the moral system 
 
WIS!) O M . 35 
 
 may be purged Irom its fatal inliuence. And if it be 
 true that "an unskillful sculptor only spoils a block of 
 marble, but an unskillful physician spoils a man," 
 much more does he who makes not thorough work 
 with the sinner, spoil forever an immortal soul. Let 
 men caricature and abuse our system as they may, 
 this doctrine of Christ's atonement for lost sinners, 
 has always been the power of God and the wisdom of 
 God unto salvation to those that believe. Let them 
 complain that it is a system of thunder and of flame ; 
 well is it for him who is sleeping in the lair of the 
 lion, to be startled from his repose by the peal of the 
 thunder; well is it for him who is treading on the 
 verge of the precipice, to be admonished of his 
 danger by the flash of the lightning. 
 
 But it is a gross libel upon the doctrine that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ was a sacrifice for sin, that it pre- 
 sents God in a harsh and unlovely aspect, and robs 
 him of the more winning and attractive features of his 
 character. This is the chief glory of the Cross of 
 Christ, that in it the holiness, the justice, the truth 
 and the love of God are all harmoniously blended, and 
 that the one is awfully and gloriously manifested as 
 the other. In what page of nature's book will you 
 read of such love as that which is displayed in the 
 Gospel of Christ. "What can the deep blue sea, or tlie 
 I purple and gold of the sunset, or the fragrance of the 
 Yale of Shiraz, or the snow-capped summit of Mt. 
 Blanc, tell of the love of God towards guilty ruined 
 man. What can the dew-drop on the rose, speak of 
 that blessed quality, which "droppcth like the gentle 
 dew from heaven ?" Go to any convicted soul, with 
 
36 C H R I 6 T O U K 
 
 the burden of sin pressing wearily upon liim, an 
 awakened conscience goading him to agony, tossing 
 on a troubled sea of fear and struggling, and wild soul 
 conflict, quailing before the terrors of a broken law 
 and an angry God ; and call on all the ministries of 
 nature to bring peace and hope, and rest, to that for- 
 lorn and despairing soul. You call in vain. You 
 may speak of sweet fields, and gentle breezes, and 
 silvery lakes, and quiet skies ; but he sees black des- 
 erts, and untamed forests, and wailing blasts, and 
 stormy oceans, and angry clouds. He sees a corres- 
 pondence between the condition of his spirit and 
 these scenes in nature, and there is no light, no hope, 
 no comfort in nature's revealings. But point him to 
 the Cross of Christ ; speak to him of the atonement, 
 the reconcilement, which the Divine Saviour has 
 effected there, and while his impressions of guilt, and 
 helplessness, and ill-desert are deepened and strength- 
 ened, yet there is love as well as holiness ; there is 
 mercy as well as justice there ; he sees that God can 
 hate sin, and punish sin, yet love the sinner, and pro- 
 vide salvation for him, without money and without 
 price. Then it is that the glorious revelation is made 
 to him by Christ the wisdom of God, of the boundless 
 love of his injured Sovereign ; then light comes in 
 upon his soul from the Cross, " not the pale, wan sun- 
 shine of a winter's day, but the noontide flood of a 
 summer's glories, carrying warmth and life through 
 all the icy chambers of the heart." 
 
 Love — love — no exhibition of love in the doctrine 
 of the atonement? Then what meaning is there in 
 those forms of speech, which affection instinctively 
 
WISDOM. 37 
 
 uses to express its deepest intensity, to embody its 
 purest devotion, when it exclaims to the object of its 
 fond idolatry, I would suffer for thee ! I would die 
 for thee ! "What significance is there in that heart 
 breaking lament of the bereaved monarch of Israel, 
 ''Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my 
 son, my son !" What force is there in the reasoning 
 of the Apostle, "• For scarcely for a righteous man w^U 
 one die: yet peradventure for a good man, some 
 would even dare to die. But God commendeth his 
 love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners 
 Christ died for us." Ah, no ! though we catch but 
 feeble glimpses of the splendid revelation in this our 
 mortal and finite state, yet when we devote to it the 
 perfected powers and sanctified affections of our im- 
 mortality, we shall understand fully the teachings of 
 Christ, our atoning sacrifice for sin, of the love of God, 
 and celebrate it in the lofty anthems of eternity, as a 
 love that -was stronger than death. 
 
 The holiness, the justice, the love of God ; the guilt 
 and danger of man, his way of deliverance from bond- 
 age to sin, and death and hell, these are the sublime 
 and solemn revelations which Christ, the wisdom 
 of God to man, makes to the believer in his aton- 
 ing work. And what teacher but him ever spoke 
 to man on these lofty themes ? What teacher ever so 
 changed and purified the moral nature of his pupils ? 
 What teacher ever so opened the way to peace and 
 blessedness and glory ? What teacher ever thus ex- 
 alted and redeemed his pupils, from every false and 
 debasing and enthralling influence ; purged them 
 from the dross of earth, and made them fit for the 
 
38 CHRISTOUR 
 
 splendors of heaven? Wherever in this dai-kened 
 world light has been shed upon the excellence and 
 glory of the character of God, that light has come from 
 the Gospel of his Son. If a poor sinner ever saw his 
 guilt and peril, he learned it at the Cross of Christ. If 
 any soul ever became impressed with the value of its 
 immortality, and was stimulated to a desperate effort 
 to rescue it from the dishonors of sin, the lesson and 
 the influence came from Christ the wisdom of God. 
 If any poor child of Adam has felt within him the 
 workings of a purer and holier principle, and has been 
 made a partaker of the life of God, it has not been 
 while admiring the scenery of the heavens, or study- 
 ing the philosophy of earth ; but it has been, when 
 sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning of him. And 
 that mind, however enriched with the treasures of 
 natural science, however deeply it has drank at the 
 broken cisterns of earthly teaching, must still remain 
 ignorant of the sublimest moral truths, and unrefreshed 
 in his spiritual being, to whom Christ has not been 
 made the wisdom of God, the great revealer and 
 teacher of man. Go, then, dear readers, to the school 
 of Christ. Tlie truths you need most to know, can be 
 taught you only there. The truths you must know, 
 if you would be made wise unto salvation, are com- 
 municated by no other teacher. And Christ's method 
 is not that of theory, but of demonstration. He shows 
 man how far he has fallen, by revealing the height from 
 which he stooped to raise him up. He shows how 
 deep the stain his sin has cast upon the law of God, 
 by washing it out in his own blood. He shows the 
 terrible doom of the impenitent, in the horrors of his 
 
WISDOM. 39 
 
 death for tlie penitent and believing. Tliese are the 
 truths you need to know, and which you will never 
 learn but from this Divine instructor. You may study 
 the book of nature, and think yourself an apt disciple, 
 but from her right pages, you will never learn to read, 
 with agony and despair, the dark and hopeless record 
 of your own sinful heart. She may make you famil- 
 iar with the stars, but can never show you the way to 
 the better land, above their shining. She may show 
 you the resurrection of the spring, but this can never 
 teach you the way to attain to the resurrection of the 
 just. She may spread before you the beauties of the 
 glowing summer, but under her teachings the harvest 
 will pass, the summer be ended, and your soul will 
 not be saved. She may call you to behold the bril- 
 liant coronation of the winter, yet, alas ! those fleeting, 
 icy splendors, are no type or promise to you of the 
 coronation of the saints. By nature ignorant of God, 
 a rebel against his law; condemned, helpless, lost; 
 whither, oh whither will you go, dear reader, for in- 
 struction, for light, for pardon, for redemption ? Jesus 
 saith, " I am the way, the truth, and the life." And 
 a voice from heaven, rising above all the melodies of 
 nature, and the stammering articulations of human 
 philosophy exclaims with a divine energy, "Awake 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Chris'i' 
 shall give thee Light." 
 
III. 
 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 EJE who Las been taught by Christ, the wisdom of 
 God, his own guilt and peril as a sinner, asks eagerly 
 for further revelations. His first lesson of his own 
 state and prospects, is one that must fill him Avith 
 anguish and despair. He has learned that he is a sin- 
 ner, against a holy God, and that the fearful doom of 
 the sinner is impending over him. He now asks, 
 "Can I escape tliis doom?" How can I be forgiven? 
 As natui-e could not teach him his first lesson of sin, 
 neither can she teach the second lesson of salvation. 
 He must have another and a better teacher, and such 
 is provided for him. He who is made by God his wis- 
 dom, to teach him in his personal character, and his 
 atoning work, God's holiness, justice, and love, and 
 his own guilt and danger, is also made his righteous- 
 ness; to justify his gnilty soul, and make it consistent 
 with the character and government of God, to pardon 
 his sin and deliver him from his danger. Man's case 
 would be a sad one, if when he had been made pro- 
 
 40 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 4:1 
 
 foundly sensible of his own lost condition, and over- 
 whelmed with the agony and desj^air of such a con- 
 sciousness, no further revelation could he made to 
 him, of any method of recovery from the ruin in 
 which he found himself involved; if no ray of light 
 could break in upon his darkened soul; no voice of 
 cheering, speak in hopeful accents to his spiritual ear. 
 But he whose Gosj^el has taught him his danger, also 
 teaches him his refuge. In that Gospel, his bane and 
 antidote, are both before him. While on the one 
 hand it paints his guilt and helplessness in the darkest 
 colors, it reveals on the other a mantle of perfect 
 righteousness, which can forever hide it from the eye 
 of an angry God; and it assures him, that on a sim- 
 ple condition, that mantle may become his own, and 
 arrayed in it, he need not fear to tread even the pres- 
 ence chamber of a holy God. This is the second feat- 
 ure in which the Gospel represents Christ, as necessary 
 and precious to man. First, in his ignorance, he needs 
 a teacher to convince him of sin. Christ is made his 
 instructor, and teaches him by demonstration. That 
 sad lesson learned, then he needs some further revela- 
 tion. The second feature in his case is guilt, just 
 exposure to punishment for violation of law. To this 
 Christ his rigliteousness responds, and reveals the 
 method of his justification. 
 
 The term rigliteousness, in the text, may be ren- 
 dered justification, and the passage opens to our con- 
 sideration, that simple yet sublime doctrine, which 
 was the key note of the glorious Reformation, and 
 wliicli the great Itcformer styled, "the article of a 
 standing or a falling Cliurch," the doctrine of Justifi- 
 
42 C II R I S J^ OUR 
 
 cation by Faith. Christ, as the author of our justifi- 
 cation, is before us now ; and in him, as represented 
 by this passage, we find an answer to that inquiry 
 Avhich earth has re-echoed ever since the apostacy, in 
 every form of earnest and agonizing beseeching; whicli 
 she has inscribed on every altar of every faith; whicli 
 has been written in tears, and in bh)od, on all her 
 temples. "How shall man be just with God?" And 
 who can estimate the sublime importance of this en- 
 quiry. Time, fleeting, changing, dying time, cannot 
 comprehend its import. The unfathomable depths 
 of eternity alone can reveal it. Dear reader, when 
 a hundred years have passed away, of what conse- 
 quence will those things be to you, on which you are 
 expending the ardor and earnestness of your being 
 now? It will be of no interest to you then, that you 
 were the owner of millions, or wore the diadem of a 
 king, or drained every cup of pleasure or of love. 
 But it will be of immense, of never-ceasing interest to 
 you, to be made just and holy in the sight of God ; to 
 have the stain of sin purged out of your soul; to be 
 redeemed from the anathema of a holy and inexorable 
 law, and admitted to walk in white in the radiant 
 palaces of God. Christ, thus as the righteousness of 
 man; Christ, the justifier of the sinner, is worthy of 
 the instant, earnest, all absorbing attention of every 
 creature of God, to whom he has been revealed. 
 
 In our consideration of this subject, it will be well 
 for us to have a definite idea of the meaning of the 
 word justification. This is a forensic term, and it 
 means the pronouncing a person free from any liabili- 
 ty to the penalty of law. It is just the opposite 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 43 
 
 of condemnation, and is thus used in many places in 
 tlie Word of God. It is not pardon. Pardon is the 
 remission of a penalty which has been justly incurred, 
 and is an exercise of mercy toward a proved and ac- 
 knowledged offender. It implies guilt, or liability to 
 the penalty of a law broken. Justilication, on the 
 other hand, implies no such liability, and pronounces 
 the person free from any rightful exposure to punish- 
 ment. K a man is charged with a crime, and the evi- 
 dence does not substantiate the charge, the verdict of 
 acquittal justifies the man, and declares him free from 
 any liability to penal suflering. If, on the contrary, 
 he is proved gnilty of the crime charged, and sentenc- 
 ed, and afterwards pardoned, the act of pardon does 
 not jnstity him — does not say that he did not deserve 
 punishment ; but simply, in the exercise of mercy, re- 
 mits the penalty which was confessedly deserved. 
 Now the necessity of a man's justification, who is 
 charged with a crime before a tribunal, either of law 
 or of public opinion, lies in the fact that he is under 
 law, and is charged with being a violator of law. And 
 in order to his justification, he must show, either that 
 the law alleged to have been violated by him, did not 
 apply to him, or that he did not violate it in any par- 
 ticular. A man might plead, if arraigned for a viola- 
 tion of laws intended to apply only to aliens, that h<- 
 was a citizen, and that the law in question had n«> 
 claims upon him, and therefore, while he acknowledg- 
 ed having committed the act charged, justified him- 
 self by the plea that the law had no jurisdiction over 
 him, which would be a valid plea. But if he were 
 charged with a breach of law which did apply to 
 
4A CHRIST OUE 
 
 liim, tlien liis only metliod of justification wonld be, 
 to prove liis entire innocence of the act charged upon 
 liim. If successful in this, his justification is complete. 
 But unless he can establish his innocence perfectly, 
 he cannot be justified. All law demands perfect obe- 
 dience. It is in its nature immutable and inexorable. 
 It admits of no compromise. It simply and sternly 
 issues its mandates, and says : Obey and thou shalt be 
 justified. Disobey, but once, and thou shalt be con- 
 demned. 
 
 It is from the application of these well known prin- 
 ciples to man, in his relations to God, that we discov- 
 er the necessity of justification on his part. Man is a 
 being under law. He is the creature of God, made by 
 him, sustained by him, and accountable to him. 
 The law of God is the foundation of all law. It is per- 
 fectly right, just, and good, for it is the embodiment 
 of the immutable principle of rectitude — the founda- 
 tion of the throne of God. In its spirit and its letter 
 it is perfectly holy, and commends itself to every en- 
 lightened conscience. It is a comprehensive law. 
 Spiritual in its nature, and extending its scepter over 
 all spiritual existence, it cannot be satisfied by a mere 
 external or pliysical obedience. It demands the con- 
 formity of man's interior, or spiritual life. For instance, 
 a man who covets his neighbor's goods, is as much a 
 violator of the law of God, in its relations to the crime 
 of theft, as is he a violator of the laws of men, who 
 actually robs his neighbor of his purse. And the rea- 
 son is, that covetousness is the principle of theft, with- 
 out which the crime could have no existence. He, 
 also, who hates his neighbor in his heart with a mal- 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 4") 
 
 ignaiit enmity, is as mncli a murderer in the sight of 
 God's hiw, as is he by human law, who in the dead 
 liour of midnight phmges the dagger into tlie heart 
 of his unconscious victim. Hate is the principle of 
 murder, and by a spiritual law, recognized as the 
 crime. 
 
 Man, originally a holy being, and as such, capable 
 of yielding a perfect obedience to this pure, spiritual, 
 and comprehensive law of God, is now in a fallen 
 state, a state of guilt and condemnation, as a violator 
 of this law. He is arraigned before the tribunal, and 
 is called upon to plead. The Word of God has pro- 
 nounced him guilty, and his own conscience confirms 
 the condemnatory verdict of the revelation of God. I 
 assume that no man of intelligence and candor, can 
 possibly take the law of God, and compare himself 
 with it, without acknowledging that he is guilty of 
 numberless violations of that law, in thought, word 
 and deed. Let the purest moralist weigh himself in 
 those heavenly adjusted scales, and his own hand must 
 write against himself, "Tekel, thou are weighed in the 
 balances, and art found wanting." 'No man, who would 
 be considered as possessing common honesty or com- 
 mon sense, would venture to assert that he was not 
 conscious of a single sin against the law of God. Why, 
 the universal posture of the human race, since the 
 apostacy, has been one of conscious guilt, and depre- 
 cation of the wrath of Deity. Every plain lu\s had 
 its altar ; every mountain its shrine ; every grove its 
 sacrifice ; the rights of every nation have spoken 
 of guilt, atonement and intercession. They have 
 spoken of sin committed, God offended, punishment 
 
46 CHKISTOUR 
 
 deserved, and misery apprehended. The confessions 
 and sacrifices, the penances and prayers, of all kin- 
 dreds and nations and tribes, over tlie whole earth, 
 rise together, and blending in one sad chorus, mingle 
 with the moaning of the winds, and the ravings of the 
 storm ; and the burden of the whole is. Sin ! Remorse ! 
 Condemnation ! Death ! 
 
 This, then, is man's position before God. Under a 
 holy, just and good law — a law not one statute of which 
 can ever be repudiated by an enlightened conscience, 
 he is arraigned, and charged with innumerable instan- 
 ces of its violation. He must be justified, or the awful 
 penalty of that law must come down upon him and 
 crush him. Can he be justified or acquitted legally ? 
 'No ! lie cannot plead that the law is not binding 
 upon him. It was given to him — it is adapted to his 
 nature. That nature, in its best and purest state, re- 
 sponds to it, and his conscience reproves him for diso- 
 bedience to it. 
 
 Can he plead innocence ? This question has been 
 abeady answered. If his whole life had shown but 
 one instance of sin, this plea would be vitiated. 
 There is nothing in the law itself, which forbids the 
 justification of man on the score of his own obedience. 
 Adam, before he fell, could have been thus justified. 
 The commandment is holy, just and good, but man 
 is unholy, and unjust and bad. Therefore it is, " that 
 by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, for 
 by the law is the knowledge of sin." 
 
 There is then no possible way of legal justification 
 for man. He is condemned by the law of God, which 
 says, " Tlie soul that sinneth it shall die." But it may 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 47 
 
 be asked, suppose man should repent of his sins, and 
 seek the forgiveness of his offended God, could he not 
 be forgiven ? We answer, no ; because pardon is not 
 justification, and no good ruler will or can exercise 
 mercy at the expense of justice. Man has sinned ; by 
 sin he has invaded the eternal principles of moral rec- 
 titude, and he cannot be forgiven at the expense of 
 right and truth. But our reader may say, " I can for- 
 give a man who has injured me, if he be penitent. 
 Will you limit the exercise of God's mercy, and shut 
 him up to a rigid administration of law, and debar 
 him the precious privilege of forgiving enemies, which 
 is afforded to us ?" I answer, you cannot always for- 
 give your enemy, even if he be penitent. You may 
 be able, and you ought in all cases, to free your mind 
 of personal vindictiveness or animosity against him, 
 but it depends entirely upon the nature of the relation 
 you sustain to him, and how that relation is affected 
 by his offence, whether you may let him go unpun- 
 ished. A private injury between man and man may 
 be allowed to pass unpunished, but if there is any 
 public relation which has been violated or assailed, 
 you cannot forgive the offender ; and if you do it, you 
 yourself are an offender against the principles of 
 moral rectitude. If you are a ruler, you are bound to 
 administer the law, and execute its penalty upon 
 every real offender. And if you allow yourself to be 
 seduced from a faithful performance of your duty in 
 this respect, by your natural compassion, or the plead- 
 ings of a false benevolence, which cares more for the 
 criminal than the crime, and is more moved by the 
 murderer's remorseful terrors, than by the blood 
 
48 ' OHRI8TOUR 
 
 which crieth out from the ground against him, you 
 are not a just ruler ; you are not a wise ruler ; you 
 are not a benevolent ruler ; and the interests of socie- 
 ty are not safe in your hands. The judge cannot 
 forgive the murderer clearly convicted of his crime, 
 though he may have the sincerest pity for his hapless 
 case. The executive cannot pardon him if he be fairly 
 convicted ; and the many instances in which the par- 
 doning power has been shamefully abused in our 
 country, have almost made our criminal law a dead 
 letter, and the solemnities of our tribunals a meaning- 
 less farce. 
 
 l^either can the sinner be justified by any goodness 
 of his own — any works of obedience which he may 
 render to the law; for obedience to every statute, 
 from the commencement of accountable existence, 
 was always his duty, and the performance of duty at 
 one time, can never atone for its neglect at another. 
 The murderer at an earthly tribunal, cannot plead that 
 he will never again commit the dreadful crime which 
 has stained his hands with blood, and his soul with 
 guilt. Were his life for its remaining years, a life of 
 peace and honesty, still would the law claim its pen- 
 alty, and the blood of his victim cry out from the 
 ground against him. The performance of duty has 
 no atoning power. There is no merit in a man's do- 
 ing that which he is obliged to do, and there is no 
 possibility of any creature of God's exceeding in his 
 devotion, the limit of his obligation. When we have 
 done all that we can do for him, we must still say, 
 we are unprofitable servants. We have only done 
 that which it was our duty to do. 
 
K I u 11 r K c) u 8 X l; 8 s . 49 
 
 Tliere is clearlv, then, no ground whatever in 
 man's case for legal jnstiiication before God. The 
 only methods by which such justiiication can be se- 
 cured by law, are impossible in his case. He cannot 
 plead exemption from the law, nor innocence of its 
 violation. His penitential tears cannot wash out the 
 record of sin and condemnation, neither can obedience 
 to come, atone for past rebellion. He is condemned 
 to suffer the dreadful penalty, justly condemned ; and, 
 60 far as he is concerned, hopelessly condemned. 
 
 But is there no way by which man may be rescued 
 from this fearful position? If he cannot justify him- 
 self; if he cannot meet his liabilities to the law of 
 God, and satisfy the claims of justice, cannot some 
 one be found, in the wide universe of God, possessing 
 the ability and the willingness to ransom him from 
 the grasp of the law, by doing that for him which he 
 cannot do for himself, so that the law may be satis- 
 fied, and the eternal barrier w^hich it interposes to the 
 exercise of merey, be forever removed? Ah! this is 
 the great question, which never could have been an- 
 swered, but by the Gospel of the Son of God. Go ask 
 of nature, how can man be just with God, and listen 
 for a reply. The moaning w^nd may pour its sad dir- 
 ges around his dwelling, but there is no hope — no 
 cheering in its melancholy music. The earthquake's 
 shock — the ocean storm — the tornado's blast — the liffht- 
 iiing's fiery flood — the crashing avalanche — the black 
 forest — the dreary desert, of what do all these speak, 
 but of wrath, and malediction, and blighting, and 
 death? Go ask the angels. How can man be just with 
 God, and they will point you to those vacant thrones^ 
 
50 C H K I S T O U R 
 
 and voiceless harps, which were once tilled and tuned 
 by their fallen companions; and what say these, but, 
 "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Roam through 
 all the universe of God; tell of the pitiable state of 
 man — his guilt — his danger, and with a trumpet blast, 
 whose voice shall sweep around the outskirts of inter- 
 minable space, ask, "Is there no hope for man?" and 
 the slow aud sullen echo shall come back and strike 
 in dismal accents on your ear, "No hope for man." 
 
 Turn we then to that fuller and sublime revelation 
 which is made in the Gospel, and the momentous in- 
 quiry, "How shall man be just with God?" finds at 
 once an answer. Christ Jesus is made of God, unto 
 us righteousness. This is what man needs — a justify- 
 ing righteousness, and this is afforded him only by 
 Christ. 
 
 To understand fully this important subject, theo- 
 logians are accustomed to use illustrations drawn from 
 human law. When law has demands against an in- 
 dividual, the principle of justice is violated, if those 
 demands are not complied with by him, or for him. 
 And if the satisfaction be rendered by another, it 
 mnst be the same in kind and in degree which it 
 was incumbent on the man himself to render. ]N^o 
 man can be a surety for another, who has not the 
 ability to meet the demands which the law has against 
 his principal. I owe ten thousand dollars. I am not 
 able to pay. The law lays its strong arm upon me, 
 threatens to tear me from my home and family, and 
 shut me up forever in a dreary prison. That money 
 must be paid hy me, or it must be paid for me, or I 
 must go to prison. There is no hardship here. The 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 51 
 
 law is not in tault. It is necessary for the protection 
 and well-being of society, that the law of debt should 
 be stringent, and rigidly enforced. I cannot pay the 
 debt. My sorrow will not pay it. My abstaining 
 from contracting debt in future will not pay it. Ten 
 thousand dollars must be paid by me, or for me, or I 
 am ruined. I try to find a friend who will pay this 
 sum for me. I go to my father, and implore him to 
 save me from a dungeon. AVith tears of parental 
 fondness in his eyes, he exclaims, alas ! my son, I have 
 not a tenth of that sum. Take all I have, but it will 
 not avail. Here is willingness, but not ability. I go 
 to my neighbor with my sad tale. He tells me, "I 
 owe the same amount and I cannot pay my own debts, 
 and if I had the means I would not pay yours." Here 
 is neither willingness or ability. I make one more 
 effort. I go to a wealthy ' individual and ask his aid. 
 He has the money, but he harshly rebukes me for my 
 imprudence or extravagance, and tells me that I de- 
 serve to suffer. Here is ability without inclination, and I 
 have as yet found no deliverer. At last I find a gener- 
 ous friend, who owes nothing himself, is fully able to 
 advance the requisite amount, and entirely willing to 
 make the sacrifice. Now I can be free from the grasp 
 of the law; not that I am able to satisfy its demands, 
 but I have found a surety whom my creditor accepts, 
 and who places himself in my stead, assumes my 
 obligation, discharges the claim, and sets me free. But 
 though free, I am not independent of the law in future. 
 It is still to be my rule of life ; and gratitude to my 
 benefactor, who honored the law in my stead, will 
 give it fresh claims upon my future regard. 
 
52 <^ H F^ T S T (> U K 
 
 With tliis familiar illustration, let us turn to our 
 relations to the law of God. What are the things the 
 law requires at our hands? They are two: sufiering 
 for disobedience, inr we have already incurred the 
 penalty, and perfect obedience, in order to secure the 
 promised reward. But we cannot answer this double 
 demand of the law. We might endure the penalty, 
 but this could not take the place of obedience, and 
 secure for us a title to the reward which is promised 
 to those who have never sinned. Penal suffering can 
 never be meritorious suffering. Transgression not 
 only exposes us to suffering, but forever vitiates all 
 claim to reward. Therefore, in order that we may be 
 justified, we must find one who can save us from the 
 penalty, by enduring it in our stead, and can purchase 
 for us the reward, by a perfect obedience, which may 
 be placed to our account. -And not only so, but we 
 must find one who will be willing as well as able, in 
 the sense of adequate mei-it, and who will have the 
 right to become our surety to the law of God. 
 
 Now search the universe, and where but in Christ, 
 will such a being be found. Man cannot be the surety 
 for his fellow, for he owes more than he can pay, and 
 being in the same condemnation, is utterly powerless 
 as a surety. Angels might have the inclination, but 
 they owe as much to God's law as they can pay, and 
 their perfect obedience has no merit in it that can be 
 set over to the account of another. Gabriel has not a 
 grain of holiness above that which God requires of 
 him, so that he could not intercede for a solitary mor- 
 tal, on the ground of any merit of his own. Devils 
 have neither ability or inclination. Xo one is left but 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 53 
 
 God, and God in Christ alone is the righteousness, or 
 justification of the sinner. He has perfect ability and 
 entire liberty, and complete willingness to satisfy tlie 
 demand of the law. It demands a perfect righteous- 
 ness. No stain rests on the fame of Jesus. lie is 
 the only perfect character which the world has ever 
 seen. From his birth to his death, he obeyed every 
 precept of the divine law, in his inner and outer life. 
 He not only performed every requirement, but he ab- 
 stained from every thing forbidden. "The eye of a 
 holy God saw in him no sin, original or actual; 
 neither of omission, or of commission ; neither in 
 the secret purposes and imaginations of the heart, 
 nor in his external conduct and conversation. 
 Whatever the law enjoined upon man, that he 
 performed; thus rendering an obedience, such as 
 man had failed to perform." Thus the first requisite 
 to justification, viz : perfect obedience, is found in 
 Christ, the surety for sinners, and he is thus "made 
 of God unto us righteousness." But the perfect obe- 
 dience of Christ implied penal sufifering also. It was 
 an obedience unto death, unto a cursed, shameful, 
 awful death ; even the death of the Cross. This Christ 
 endured, as the surety for sinful man. He bore their 
 sins in his own body on the tree. He was made a 
 curse for them, that he might deliver them from 
 the curse of the law. His sufferings were penal ; not 
 that he was personally guilty, but by his assumption 
 of the guilt of his peoj)le, the law looked upon him as 
 guilty, and exacted of him the fearful penalty. I 
 know it is objected, that Christ could not endure the 
 penalty of the law, which sinners must have endured. 
 
54 (^ H R I S T OUR 
 
 inasmuch as he was incapable of remorse or despair, or 
 of eternal sufferings, which are the portion of the un- 
 godly. But they who present this objection, seem to 
 lose sight of the infinite capacities of suffering which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ possessed. It may be that those 
 mysterious and appalling agonies, which wrung out 
 the bloody sweat from the Redeemer's brow in Geth- 
 seniane, and embittered his soul, even to death, on 
 Calvary, had they been inflicted upon a mere man, 
 would have been eternally crashing and overwhelm- 
 ing. Who wdll dare to limit or describe the exact 
 nature and extent of the Redeemer's sufferings ? They 
 were in the place of those which man would have endur- 
 ed, and considering who it was who suffered, who shall 
 say that the reproach of his life, and the agonies of 
 his death, were not in him fully equal to an eternity 
 of suffering, such as that of which mere mortals are 
 capable ? And the sufl^ering of remorse was not pos- 
 sible in the nature of things, nor necessary to the 
 Redeemer's making a full satisfaction to the law. For 
 though he suffered for the guilty, he was guiltless 
 himself, and therefore could not feel remorse. You 
 may have committed a crime against the laws of your 
 country, and you may feel the deepest remorse for 
 your conduct. Influenced by affection for you, I vol- 
 unteer to suffer the penalty in your stead. The gov- 
 ernment accepts me, and inflicts the same punish- 
 ment upon me, which you had incurred. I suffer the 
 exact penalty and satisfy the law, but I cannot feel 
 remorse for the crime. 
 
 Christ, then, by his perfect obedience, and his en- 
 dui-ance of the penalty of the law, satisfies the justice 
 
R I G 11 T E O U S N E S S . 55 
 
 of God, iiiid furnishes a ground of justiiication for man, 
 and thus becomes his righteousness. God can now 
 be just, and yet justify the sinner who believes in 
 Christ, and chooses him as his surety. The perfect 
 righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, just as his 
 sin was imputed to Christ; and on account of this 
 righteousness, thus passed to his credit, to use a com- 
 mercial term, he is regarded as free from his liability 
 to punishment; and while he is not exonerated from 
 obligation to obey the law, is forever released from 
 its terrible condemnation. 
 
 This imputation of the righteousness of Christ, does 
 not imply the transfer of his personal acts to us, so 
 that they become ours, or of his moral character to 
 us, which is impossible in the nature of things. It is 
 simply a change in our relations to the law. Our lia- 
 bility to punishment is taken away, by the obedience 
 and sujffering of our surety in our stead ; and though 
 we were sinners, justly exposed to condemnation, yet 
 for the sake of what Christ has done, we are con- 
 sidered and treated as if we were righteous, just as 
 Christ, though sinless himself was, for our sake, con- 
 sidered and treated as if lie were a sinner. The whole 
 doctrine is contained in this passage : "For he hath 
 made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we 
 might be made the righteousness of God in him." 
 2 Cor. 5 : 21. 
 
 There is yet one more element in the plan of justifi- 
 cation through the merits of Christ, which is essential 
 to the completeness of the scheme. It is the mode 
 by which this righteousness of Christ becomes avail- 
 able for each individual who is saved. This mode is 
 
56 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 hj faith. "Therefore being justified hj faith, we. 
 have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."* 
 "The just shall live hj faith.^^ f What then is the re- 
 lation of faith to justification ? It is not the ground, 
 that is the obedience and sufi'erings of Christ. It is 
 not the condition, in the sense of a meritorious con- 
 sideration, on which salvation is suspended. But it 
 is the instrument of our justification. A man is starv- 
 ing for want of food. A supply is furnished and of- 
 fered. He reaches out his hand, takes the food, eats 
 and lives. What is faith here ? It is not the provid- 
 ing the food. That is the fruit of benevolence on the 
 part of him who provides. It is not the food itself. 
 It is not the relief consequent upon the repast. It is 
 the hand which is extended to take the food gracious- 
 ly provided, freely ofiPered; and w^hen taken, the 
 means of life and comfort. In vain the love which 
 provided the food ; in vain the price it cost ; in vain 
 its offer, unless the hand of the starving man is extend- 
 ed to receive it. Faith is the instrument of justifi- 
 cation, the hand which seizes the bread of life, the 
 manna in the wilderness of sin, provided by a benevo- 
 lent God, and purchased by the tears, the agonies, 
 and the blood of his own dear Son. Without such 
 a faith, salvation is impossible. Christ's death is un- 
 availing for your justification, dear reader, except 
 you believe. He never died for you, if you have no 
 faith in him. And call not your mere intellectual 
 assent to his history, evangelical faith. You may go 
 down to hell with such a faith in lively exercise. 
 
 * Romans, 5:1. t Romans, 1 : 17. 
 
R I G H T IC O U S N K S S . 67 
 
 Yours must be the desperate grasp of the starvhig 
 man at the food which can save his life — the death 
 gripe of the drowning wretch, at the rope wliich can 
 save him from destruction. 
 
 And now, behold the beauty and propriety of this 
 feature of Christ's mission and work, in the order of 
 that work. First, wisdom ; then, righteousness. First, 
 instruction as to the guilt and danger of the sinner ; 
 then, provision for his pardon, justification, and deliv- 
 erance. Christ the righteousness is as precious to the 
 soul as Christ the wisdom. 
 
 His office as a justifying Saviour, equally with that of 
 an enlightening Saviour, is one indispensable to man, 
 and one which no other revelation ever discloses, 
 but the revelation of the God incarnate. To the soul 
 convinced of sin, and struggling to find a way of par- 
 don, there is not a voice in all the harmonies of nature 
 which can whisper peace. Among all the arcana of 
 nature, man can never discover the secret of accept- 
 ance with God. No mathematics can solve the mighty 
 problem, how can God be just, and yet forgive the 
 sinner. Geology can teach him how the earth was 
 built, but she cannot provide him a better habitation 
 when it shall be no more. Astronomy can show him 
 the number, orbits, and distances of the stars, but she 
 cannot make him shine as tlie brightness of the firma- 
 ment, where the jewels of God sparkle like brilliant 
 constellations. Chemistry cannot show him liow to 
 wash out the stain from his polluted soul. Political 
 economy cannot teach him how to make good his re- 
 lations to the government of God. He must turn 
 from the obscure pages of nature, and forsake the 
 3^ 
 
58 CHRISTOUK 
 
 schools of Imman philosophy, and listen to the teach- 
 ings of one mightier than they, if he would be made 
 wise mito salvation. Christ only can teach man how 
 the claims of a broken law can be honored, and its 
 curse arrested. He only can provide a righteousness 
 for the sinner, arrayed in which, he need not fear to 
 face the stern inquisition of the law. Without it he 
 must stand in all his nakedness, shivering and quaking 
 in his defencelessness, before avenging justice. When 
 the fearful account of sin is presented, and payment is 
 demanded, alas ! how can he pay the debt ? The 
 treasury of his own goodness is filled, but with spuri- 
 ous coin. When tested by the law's assay, the base- 
 ness of the metal is at once apparent. The smallest 
 item in that long account, cannot be satisfied with all 
 his store. Let him hasten to secure the surety he 
 needs ; let him delay not to obtain the righteousness 
 of Christ ; for while he lingers and wavers, and seeks 
 to furnish the requisite amount from his own inade- 
 quate resources, lo ! the skeleton arm of the grim 
 sheriff of God's tribunal shall drag him, helpless and 
 despairing, down to the deep dungeons of an eternal 
 prison — shall lock forever upon him the inexorable 
 door, and sink the ponderous key in the bottomless 
 pir. 
 
 Seek then, dear reader, an interest in the righteous- 
 ness of Christ. By all that is blissful in salvation, by 
 all that is awful in perdition, seek now, first of all, a 
 justifying, saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Then, 
 redemption by his blood will be your song in the 
 house of your pilgrimage, the chorus which shall 
 
R I a H T E O U S N E 8 S . 59 
 
 ring among the shades of the dark valley, and re- 
 echo forever from the radiant summits of the mount- 
 ains of glory. 
 
IV. 
 SANCTIFICATION 
 
 ITS NATURE. 
 
 "When, by the teachings of Christ, the wisdom of 
 God, man is convinced of sin, and by faith in the 
 rio^hteousness of Christ, is justified and freed from the 
 condemnation of the law, God's great work in him is 
 not accomplished. His relations to the government 
 of God are entirely changed ; his sins are forgiven ; 
 his guilt, or liability to punishment, is removed, and 
 he is adopted into the family, and constituted a son of 
 the Lord Almighty. But though his guilt is taken 
 away, he is not made perfect in holiness, and assimi- 
 lated to the character of God. The germ of a new 
 life has been implanted within him ; he has been born 
 again with a spiritual birth, but he is only a babe in 
 Christ ; he must grow from infancy to youth, and from 
 youth to manliood, until at last he arrives, by the 
 grace of God, at the lofty stature of a perfect man in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 It is but a meagre and superficial view of religion, 
 that is satisfied with a bare escape from the maledic- 
 
S A N C T I F I C A T I O N . 61 
 
 tion of the law ; that encourages no lofty aspirations 
 after increasing holiness — no intense desires after a 
 richer and snblimer participation in the life of God. 
 He who is content with a bare escape from the tor- 
 ments of hell, and cares only to just cross the crystal 
 threshold of heaven ; who never feels his ^iritiial 
 pulses thrill with desires to reach a station near the 
 throne, where he may gaze full on the inclfahle 
 brightness, and live forever in the light and the glory, 
 gives very little evidence that he has been truly born 
 again, and rescued by an Almighty deliverer from his 
 thraldom to sense and to sin. For though the smallest 
 amount of heavenly blessedness is far above our 
 highest deserts, and needed to be purchased for us by 
 the blood of Christ, every drop of which was more 
 precious than the crown jewels of an empire, yet to 
 the redeemed and justified soul there are offered the 
 very loftiest prizes in the gift of heaven. He is told 
 that there are thrones, and principalities and powers 
 in heavenly places, stations of loftier eminence, and 
 crowns of richer jewelry ; and he is urged to strive 
 for the highest throne, and the brightest crown. He 
 is told that in the spiritual firmament " one star difier- 
 eth from another star in gloiy," and bid to put forth 
 every eflort in the path of Christian virtue and self- 
 denial and labor, that he may be one of the most bril- 
 liant stars in the constellations of the redeemed. The 
 bare entrance into heaven is not to be the end of his 
 strivings and his aspirations. He is sure of that at the 
 moment of his justification. When, by faith in the 
 righteousness of Christ, he is freed from all liability to 
 the penalty of the law, he becomes sure of a place in 
 
62 CHRIST OUR 
 
 the heavenly kingdom. But instead of taking him at 
 once to heaven, at the instant of his justification, God 
 keeps him here under the discipline of his providence, 
 and the influences of grace, until he shall be ripened 
 and fitted for a larger portion and richer allotment of 
 the blessedness and the glory which are laid up for 
 him there. When justified, he secures a title to the 
 heavenly inheritance, but he needs to be sanctified, to 
 become fitted for its enjoyment.* 
 
 Next then in the natural order of Christ's work for 
 man, to justification, comes sanctification, which feat- 
 ure of that work we are to consider in this chapter. 
 We are first interested in the nature of this work. 
 Wliat is Sanctification ? 
 
 The word sanctify means to separate, or set apart 
 any thing from a common to a sacred use — or to dedi- 
 cate to the service of God. When it is used in respect 
 to the people of God, it means the setting them apart 
 to the service of God, not merely by an act of outward 
 consecration, but by the infusion of holiness into them 
 by God's Spirit, by which they are purified from the 
 pollution of sin, and renewed in their moral nature 
 after the image of God. It signifies not only outward 
 devotement, but inward holiness ; purity of heart, and 
 purity of life. 
 
 The difierence between justification and sanctifica- 
 tion is this : justification is first in order, and sanctifi- 
 cation follows. Justification takes away guilt, or ex- 
 posure to punishment. Sanctification cleanses from 
 the stain or pollution of sin. Justification is an act of 
 God's grace, by which we are declared righteous in 
 
 •See Mellvill'a Sermon on " The Advantages of a State of Expectation." 
 
8 A X C T I F I C A T I O N . 63 
 
 our legal relations. Sanctilication is a progressive 
 work, by which sin is subdued and holiness wrought 
 in the soul. One is accomplished instantly, and in the 
 same way in the case of every believer. The other is 
 a work of time, and advances by different degrees in 
 different cases. Justification is a change in man's le- 
 gal relations. Sanctification a change in his moral 
 character. Tlie one is soinething done for us ; the 
 other, something done in us. In one word, justifica- 
 tion secures for the believer a sure title to heaven ; 
 sanctification educates and prepares him for its com- 
 plete enjoyment. It is as if a poor ignorant child, who 
 had always lived in low and vicious society, without 
 physical, intellectual, or moral culture, were suddenly 
 to inherit an immense estate. The title deed which se- 
 cured to him this vast property, could not of itself pre- 
 pare him to take that elevated rank in society to which 
 he was called, and to move with dignity and grace in 
 his new and exalted sphere. The influence of early 
 habits and associations must be removed ; his mind 
 must be cultivated ; his manners improved ; his whole 
 man undergo a humanizing, refining process, before he 
 is qualified to enter upon that new life which is opened 
 before him. Thus, while man is made sure of heaven 
 by the act of justification, he needs the influence of a 
 progressive sanctification, to educate him for its purer 
 and sublimer existence. 
 
 Sanctification does not consist in a mere external 
 reformation. Such a reformation is consistent with a 
 corrupt nature and an unholy heart. Many a man, 
 from a regard to his health, his reputation, or his secu- 
 lar interests, has reformed his outward life, and aban- 
 
64 ( ; H R T S T () U R 
 
 doned those sins which he forinerl j practiced, and yet 
 has been only like a whited sepulchre, beautiful indeed 
 outwardly, but within full of dead men's bones, and 
 all uncleanness. Sanctihcation does not lo^) oif the 
 branches, but aims its blows at the very root of sin. 
 It does not aim to dam up the streams, but it thi-ows 
 the salt of divine grace into the very fountain. 
 
 When a man is justified, tliough his liability to tlie 
 law is removed, he is still but partially changed in 
 his moral character. A new principle, antagonistic 
 to that which before reigned supreme, is introduced 
 into the soul, but the old one is not entirely eradicat- 
 ed. Henceforth there is to be a conflict between 
 these two powers of good and evil, and though in the 
 end, the principle of holiness shall be victorious, yet 
 the struggle is often a severe and bitter one, for sin 
 has so secured itself in tlie fastnesses and retreats of 
 the aflections, that it is no easy thing to dislodge it ; 
 and in the conflict, the heart is often torn and wound- 
 ed, so that the stricken and struggling soul is often 
 forced to exclaim, '' Oh ! wretched man that I am, 
 who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" 
 This conflict is not the work of a day. It is a life 
 work. The struggle begins when the man is regene- 
 rated, but it will never end as long as mortal life re- 
 mains. It is true that when the new life begins in 
 the soul, the principle of sin receives a deadly wound, 
 but it is a long time in dying, and it can struggle and 
 assail the believer until it makes its last malignant 
 eflPort in tlie pangs of the dying hour, and is van- 
 quished completely, only when the believer's last 
 prayer, " Lord Jesus receive my spirit," is breathed 
 
S A N C T I F I C A T I O N . 65 
 
 forth with his expiring breath. Then, indeed, this 
 obstinate foe is forever conquered, and the redeemed 
 and sanctified soul soars to sing the song of triumph 
 in the anthems of Heaven. 
 
 The evidences that this warfare is progressing in 
 the soul of man, and that the principle of holiness is 
 daily acquiring new strength, while there is a corres- 
 ponding weakening of the power of the contrary 
 principle, are very simple and easy of discernment, 
 to him who is accustomed to examine closely into his 
 spiritual state. If you have clearer and more aflect- 
 ing views of the evil of sin, and a deeper sense of its 
 intrinsic vileness and odiousness in the sight of a holy 
 God : if you are conscious that your own aversion to 
 all that is evil is a growing feeling, and that you are 
 more vigilant in detecting and striving against it ; if 
 you pray with more earnestness and frequency to be 
 delivered from its power, and are increasingly watch- 
 ful against the attacks of temptation ; if you are 
 sensible of greater desires after holiness, and more 
 earnest longing after more perfect conformity to the 
 law of God ; then you may be assured that the divine 
 principle of spiritual life, which was implanted within 
 you in regeneration, is growing in strength and ac- 
 tivity, and that the opposite principle of sin is declin- 
 ing in like degree ; then you may be assured that you 
 are dying unto sin, and attaining, by degrees, to a 
 nobler and richer participation of the " Life of God 
 in the soul of man." 
 
 To understand more fully the nature of the work 
 of sanctification, let us consider the relation it sus- 
 tains to the different faculties of the soul. 
 
06 CHUT S T U R 
 
 Ist. Consider it in relatiou to the understanding. 
 
 We have remarked, ah-eady, that the natural state 
 of man is one of ignorance as well as guilt, and that 
 in the work of salvation, Christ is first made of God 
 unto him wisdom or instruction. "With his first ideas 
 of truth in relation to God or to himself, the work of 
 instruction begins, and is carried on, until taught ef- 
 fectually his guilt and danger, he applies to Christ for 
 pardon, justification, and eternal life. But when he 
 has been justified and constituted a child of God and 
 an heir of heaven, the process of instruction is by no 
 means complete. He has but entered the school of 
 Christ, and his spiritual education is but just begun. 
 He has indeed made some advancement from the de- 
 plorable ignorance of his natural state, but he has 
 only entered upon a vast and unbounded field of spir- 
 itual knowledge and attainment, which will tax his 
 most exalted capacities to the utmost. As in natural 
 things, he who has made the greatest advancement, 
 only feels how little he knows in comparison with 
 what remains to be comprehended and mastered, so, 
 he that has launched upon the mighty ocean of spir- 
 itual and supernatural truth, finds that it is an ocean 
 whose waves break upon no shore, and that as he sails 
 along, new and sublime, and inspiring, and soul-sub- 
 duing revelations are constantly made to his expanded 
 mind, of God's wonders in this mighty deep. 
 
 Yes, dear readers, the mighty themes which the 
 Divine Spirit brings before the soul, whose imder- 
 standing has been enlightened by beams of celestial 
 light, cannot be mastered in a day. Even a divinely 
 instructed intellect cannot take the altitude of their 
 
S A N C T I F I C A T ION. 67 
 
 lofty lieiglitSj nor reach the bottom of their profound 
 abysses. They themselves are unchanging and eter- 
 nal, the same from age to age, trom generation to gen- 
 eration. But the ideas which a heavenly instructed 
 mind entertains of their beauty and power, are con- 
 tinually enlarging, " becoming more distinct, steady, 
 comprehensive, and affecting." What the eloquent 
 Kobert Hall so strikingly and truly said of the idea of 
 God, is equally true of all spiritual truths ; that " Avhen 
 once they enter the mind, they are capable of con- 
 tinual growth and enlargement. Our conceptions of 
 them are continually receiving fresh accessions — are 
 continually growing more extended and refulgent, by 
 having transferred to them new elements of beauty 
 and goodness, by attracting to themselves as a center, 
 w^hatever bears the impress of dignity, order or hap- 
 piness. They borrow splendor from all that is fair — 
 subordinate to themselves all that is great, and sit en- 
 throned on the riches of the universe." 
 
 Tlie redeemed and justified man has a Divine 
 teacher. He may not be a learned man in earthly sci- 
 ence, but there is a nobler knowledge, a higher sci- 
 ence, in which he may make advances which shall tell 
 upon his eternal dignity and enjoyment. Truth is a\ 
 means of sanctiiication ; and when the Redeemer, in I 
 his prayer for his disciples, revealed the great secret 
 of spiritual progress, his petition was, '' Sanctify them 
 through thy truth." It is through the influence of 
 eternal truth upon the mind and heart, as one great 
 means, that the work of sanctification progresses. 
 ISTor is this an inferior path, though it is one which not 
 many wise men after the flesh are called to tread. 
 
68 CHRIST OUR 
 
 Tlie sublimest, the most real and satisfying, the most 
 successful in expanding man's intellect, and bringing 
 peace to tlie soul, are the truths of religion. The 
 philosopher in his study, surrounded by the works of 
 the master minds of past ages, may look down upon 
 the Christian student with his well worn Bible, and 
 imagine, that whatever may be the influence of that 
 volume upon the heart, it cannot equip a champion 
 for the mental arena ; and yet, within that wonderful 
 book are found the truths, with which the human soul 
 has the deepest affinities, and which possess the 
 strongest power of purely intellectual development. 
 
 A more faithful attendance upon the study of the 
 Word of God, under the promised illumination of the 
 Great Spirit of truth, as a means of increasing in 
 holiness, is a means of intellectual as well as spiritual 
 advancement. Religion is adapted to the whole 
 nature of man. It is essential to the complete devel- 
 opement of his powers, and the satisfaction of his af- 
 fections. And the truth of God, applied to his under- 
 standing by a Divine teacher, is not only a means of 
 advancing in holiness, but in mental power ; and its 
 influence is not fully realized by man, when the ex- 
 panding and strengthening process is not as truly ap- 
 plied to his intellectual faculties, as to his moral sen- 
 sibilities. 
 
 In this connection we wish to ask, whether there 
 was not among our Puritan ancestors, in the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, a very remarkable degree 
 of original mental power. They were not literary 
 men, in the sense in which that term is now used, or 
 rather abused ; they were not men of elegant or varied 
 
8ANCTIFICATI0N. 00 
 
 learning. But we think it cannot be denied that tliev 
 were profound thinkers, bold and powerful reasoners, 
 and men who made themselves felt alike in council 
 and in battle. They were strong minded men, and 
 there probably never was a class of men who were 
 profounder students of the Word of God. Tlieir very 
 conversation was in the dialect of the Holy Scriptures, 
 and though they unjustly despised the writings of 
 philosophers and poets, they were more lamiliar witli 
 the sublimer philosophj^ and poetry of the Word of 
 God, than any class of men who have come after them. 
 Their piety too, though it had something of a gloomy 
 and ascetic cast, and often arrayed itself in a grim 
 visage and sad-colored apparel, was deep, manly, 
 earnest, and sincere. For the power of their minds, 
 and the piety of tlieir hearts, they were mainly in- 
 debted to the strengthening and purifying influence 
 of the truth of God. 
 
 In Sanctification, then, the understanding becomes 
 more and more illuminated by the Word and Spirit 
 of truth. The Christian becomes better acquainted 
 with spiritual things. His views of God — his perfec- 
 tions, and his law ; of Christ — the beauty of his char- 
 acter, and the nature of his work ; of himself — his 
 own ignorance, weakness and sinfulness ; of holi- 
 ness — its beauty, and desirableness ; all become more 
 enlarged, more absorbing, more powerful in their 
 transforming, restraining and purifying influence. 
 The frequent study of those divine principles and holy 
 precepts contained in the Word of God, carried home 
 to the heart and enforced by the teachings of a Divine 
 instructor, cannot fail to have a sanctifying influence ; 
 
TO -^ CHRISTOUR 
 
 and tlie man whose understanding is more and more 
 impressed with God's truth, will develope its purify- 
 ing and elevating power in his moral nature. 
 
 But there is a knowledge of the Scriptures which pro- 
 duces no such inliuence. There are those who are great 
 students of the Bible, and attain to an extraordinary 
 historical knowledge of its facts and its principles. 
 They study it as a literary work, for its history, its logic, 
 its poetry, its descriptions, its wise maxims, and its 
 graphic and afiecting narratives. They study without a 
 Divine teacher, and though they may be learned in 
 the Scriptures, it is but a speculative knowledge, 
 which brings with it no sanctifying influence upon 
 the soul. They never penetrate below the surface of 
 the text, and reach the deep vein of spiritual meaning 
 which lies beneath. They do not study prayerfully, 
 invoking the aid of the Divine Spirit, to teach them 
 in what the real value and beauty of God's revelation 
 consists. Tlie process with them is purely intellectu- 
 al ; the Spirit does not take of the things of God, and 
 show them unto them. And there have been often 
 presented, in the history of men, very beautiful illus- 
 trations of the superiority of that instruction which 
 the mind, which has been divinely illuminated, re- 
 ceives from its heavenly teacher, over that which is 
 but the fruit of the labor of reason, and the result of 
 plose and profound investigation. More than one 
 learned Biblical scholar, who could read the Scrip- 
 tures in their original tongues with marvelous fluen- 
 cy, and was familiar with the history and chronology 
 and geography of the Bible, has come in contact with 
 some humble, unlearned, but very pious Christian, 
 
SANCTIFICATION. Tl 
 
 and has found that the illiterate cottager had a deeper 
 and better understanding of the Word of God, and a 
 far more extensive insight into its spiritual import, 
 than all his learning and critical investigation had se- 
 cured for him. Yea ! the unlearned man, who per- 
 haps could not argue for the divinity of the volume in 
 which he had found such a wonderful adaption to his 
 spiritual necessities, but could feel the preciousness of 
 such an adaption, gained more of light and strength 
 and spiritual impulse from the truth of God, though 
 obliged to spell out its simplest passages in his 
 mother tongue, than did the scholar who could dis- 
 course learnedly on the peculiarities of the Hebrew 
 text, in w^hich the law-giver or the prophet uttered 
 their sublime annunciations, or the idiom of the 
 Greek, in which inspired apostles poured forth their 
 convincing and subduing eloquence. And the differ- 
 ence was, that the one was taught of that Divine in- 
 structor, who with a teaching which must be felt to be 
 understood, " maketh w^ise the simple." 
 
 The illumination of the mind with spiritual truth, 
 is one element in the work of Sanctification. 
 
 Let us now consider the relation of the work ot 
 Sanctification to the will. 
 
 The highest attainment of a Christian is the com- 
 plete subjection of his will to that of God. The very 
 essence of holiness consists in being like-minded with 
 him ; to love what he loves, to approve what he ap- 
 proves, to hate what he hates, and to avoid whatever 
 is displeasing to him. This is the peculiarity of 
 heaven, that there is no will there, l)ut the will of 
 God. This does not imply a state of despotism, but 
 
72 C H K I S T O U K 
 
 on the contrary, a state of the most perfect freedom. 
 Every volition of the glorified soul is entirely free, 
 and yet entirely in conformity with the will of God. 
 When a man is regenerated, the principle of uncon- 
 ditional submission to the will of God is implanted 
 within the soul, and the heart which was formerly re- 
 bellious, is subdued and brought into subjection. But 
 this work is not then perfected. Often does the w^ill, 
 even of the Christian, rise against God ; and where 
 the dispensations of his Providence are inscrutable 
 and afflicting, there is an intense struggle in the soul 
 before it can say, " 'Not my will, but thine be done." 
 When our fond ho23es are blighted, and God in his 
 sovereignty comes across our path, to lay our idols in 
 the dust, and shatter the temple of our heart worship, 
 oh ! then, how natural it is for the will to rise up 
 against God, and question the wisdom, the justice, 
 the goodness, of his dealings ! It is the noblest tri- 
 umph of faith to exercise submission. The passive 
 virtues of religion, underrated as they are by the busy 
 and unthinking, removed from the notice of the noisy 
 crowd, require a depth of j^rinciple, an intensity ol 
 affection, and a sincerity of devotion, which are re- 
 quired by no brilliant achievement which might win 
 the plaudits of an admiring world. To submit, for no 
 other reason, than that it is the will of God ; to sub- 
 mit, not with " an unwilling willingness " or a stoical 
 insensibility, but while every fiber of our sensitive 
 being is quivering with anguish ; to submit cheerfully 
 to God's dispensation, saying, " Even so, Father, for 
 so it seems good in thy sight ;" this is a great attain- 
 
S A N C T I F I C A T I O N . 73 
 
 ment, and proves that tlie work of sanctification has 
 made great progre8s in tlie tried one's soul. 
 
 The secret of such submission lies in a perfect con- 
 viction, which is the effect of that divine illumination 
 of the mind of which we have spoken, that the will 
 of God is not only supreme, but that it is perfectly 
 wise, and just, and good, and that it is entirely in con- 
 formity with the dictates of an enlightened reason, as 
 well as a humble piety, that we should always submit. 
 This is a rare attainment, and betokens a manly 
 growth of piety in the soul. It is one thing, when 
 our own will and pleasure seems not to come athwart 
 the w^ill of God ; when he allows us to carry out our 
 plans, and rejoice in the fruition of our hopes, to ac- 
 knowledge that the Judge of all the earth does right ; 
 and profess to have no will of our own, when the con- 
 fession costs us no sacrifice. But it is quite another 
 thing, w^hen the idol of our soul must be laid upon 
 the altar, and the finest chord within us strained to 
 the highest pitch of anguish, then to put the strang- 
 ling cord upon our dearest affection, and raise the 
 knife to slay the object of our fondest devotion. The 
 theory and the practice of submission are immensely 
 different, in the strain they make upon the heart- 
 strings. It is one thing to assent to the correctness 
 of the theory, and quite another to be the subject of 
 the experiment which is to demonstrate its truth. 
 
 In proportion, then, as we find ourselves less dis- 
 posed to set up our own will in opposition to that of 
 God ; when that will needs only to be intimated to our 
 understanding to secure the consent of our affections; 
 when we can say, we have and desire to have no will 
 4 
 
74 CHRIST OUR 
 
 but God's, we have good evidence that the work of 
 sanctification has made great progress in our hearts ; 
 that we are growing in grace, and approximating 
 towards " the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus." 
 It is only by Divine aid that this victory over the 
 imperious will can be attained. 
 
 Again the w^ork of Sanctification has important 
 relations to the affections. 
 
 It is a remark of one of the greatest and best men 
 whom the world has ever seen, Jonathan Edwards, 
 that "true religion in great part consists in holy affec- 
 tions." The difference between the two great faculties 
 of a moral being, the understanding and the affections, 
 or the mind and the heart, is, that the one perceives 
 and judges of things, and the other exercises emotions 
 in respect to them. The one reasons; the other feels, 
 approves or disapproves, loves or hates, chooses or 
 rejects. Now the understanding may act independ- 
 ently of the affections, and the affections may refuse 
 to follow the guidance of the understanding. But in 
 the work of Sanctification, the mind is not only assist- 
 ed to take right views of spiritual things, but the 
 heart is enabled to exercise right emotions towards 
 them. 
 
 Inasmuch as the affections have been constituted 
 the spring of action, so the change which takes place 
 in a man's nature, when he is regenerated by the 
 Holy Ghost, must have especial relation to them. 
 That they are thus the spring of action, who will deny, 
 who has felt within his bosom the tumultuous throb- 
 bings of a human heart? It is upon the heaving 
 swell of that shoreless ocean of feeling, which is found 
 
8 A N C T I F I C A T I O N . T5 
 
 in every bosom, tliat man is swept along to resolute 
 and energetic action. There is no such thing as ac- 
 tion, independent of the affections. Take away from 
 man, love, Iiate, hope and fear, desire and aversion, 
 joy or grief, and you have taken away the very soul 
 of action from him. Without these man is but a 
 block of marble, cold — passionless — dead. Let these 
 be excited, and Promethean fire is infused into the 
 statue, and it w^akes from its strong lethargy to an 
 intense and earnest life. As this is true in natural, 
 so it is true in heavenly things. Religion consists 
 not in the cold deductions of the reason, or the decis- 
 ions of the understanding. Her truths are to be in- 
 deed received into the mind, but they are not to be 
 the subject of cold and barren speculation. She 
 enters the empire of the heart — she dives into the 
 deepest cell of the affections. She enkindles love, 
 gratitude, hope, fear, desire, joy, sorrow, into lively 
 exercise. She opens new channels for the gushing 
 waters of the heart's fountain, where they may flow 
 on forever without bitterness, and without obstruc- 
 tion. She reveals to the soul the depth and refinement 
 of its own sensibilities, and at the same time directs 
 it to objects which can forever fill and gratify those 
 sensibilities. She comes to the heart which has lav- 
 ished its deep stores of tenderness, on some frail, un- 
 satisfying, and perishing thing of earth, and places 
 before it that which is worthy of its fondest devotion, 
 which will satisfy its intensest cravings, which will 
 not change and cannot die. She draws the affections 
 away from all low, and false, and sinful things, and 
 places them upon pure, spiritual, heavenly realities. 
 
76 H R I S T O U R 
 
 She makes them the source of holy joy, and the spring 
 of holy activity. She purges them from the grossness 
 of earth, and spiritualizes them, making them like the 
 affections of heaven. 
 
 This effect of the work of God's Spirit in the soul 
 of man, as it communicates and sets into action the 
 divine life in him, is that feature of spiritual religion 
 of which the natural man is most ignorant, and with 
 which he has no sympathy. You may talk with an 
 unrenewed man, about the doctrines of religion, its 
 mere intellectualities ; and so far as the mental opera- 
 tion in receiving truth and weighing evidence is 
 concerned, he may comprehend your experience and 
 sympathize with it. But when you go deeper, and 
 lifting up the curtain of the heart, display something 
 of the power of the Word and the Spirit upon the 
 affections ; when you speak of your perceptions of the 
 beauty and excellency of spiritual things; of your 
 sensible delight in them ; of the ministrations they 
 bring to the profoundest necessities of your nature, 
 and the life and gladness which they infuse into your 
 whole spiritual being, you speak to him in an un- 
 known tongue, and he has no better understanding of 
 what you say, than a deaf man would have of the 
 sweetness of a melody, or a blind man of the blended 
 colors of the rainbow. 
 
 But this work of the Spirit upon the affections of 
 the soul is tardy and often obstructed. The things we 
 see around us, often take our eyes and our hearts from 
 those better things which are revealed only to the 
 vision of faith. Our natural affections, not content 
 with that measure of indulgence which we may law- 
 
S ANOTIFIC ATION". 77 
 
 fully aftord tliem, grow more wilful and exacting, 
 until tliej claim and receive far more than their 
 rightful portion. AYe are apt to be satisfied -with that 
 understanding which we have of spiritual things, and 
 therefore by attaining no new views of their beauty 
 and excellency, give them no more of our admiration 
 and love. Our necessary connection with the busi- 
 ness, and cares, and friendships of life, is often a great 
 hindrance to the purification and elevation of the 
 affections. But by a daily and diligent study of the 
 revelation of the perfections of God, which he has 
 given us ; by a sedulous cultivation of the habit of 
 meditation upon spiritual things ; by a stern watch- 
 fulness against the lawless outbreakings of our natur- 
 al affections, and constant prayer to God for a quick- 
 ening of our spiritual sensibilities, we may overcome 
 these enemies and temptations, and find good evi- 
 dence that the work of the sanctifying Spirit, in its re- 
 lations to our affections, is making sensible progress. 
 Faith will be " strengthened by clearer apprehensions 
 of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Love will grow 
 warmer as the love of God is more steadily contem- 
 plated and more sensibly felt. Hope will brighten 
 at the glorious prospect of life and immortality brought 
 to light in the Gospel. Repentance will melt into 
 more copious tears, w^hile it looks at the cross, where 
 the vileness of sin is exhibited with a power which 
 the heart can feel, but which the tongue cannot de- 
 scribe." The wdiole man, body, mind, and heart, will 
 feel the transforming influence of divine grace, and 
 be daily ripening for a perfect assimilation to God, 
 and an eternal enjoyment of his presence in better 
 
78 S A N C T I F I C A T I O N . 
 
 worlds. Thus shall the righteous " hold on his way, 
 and he that hath clean hands wax stronger and 
 stronger." Thus shall " the path of the just be as a 
 shining light, which shineth more and more unto the 
 perfect day ;" and thus, going from strength to strength, 
 every regenerated, justified, and sanctified soul at last 
 in Zion shall appear before God. ''Thus shall we be 
 satisfied, O God, when we awake, with thy likeness ! " 
 Amen ! 
 
V. 
 SANCTIFICATION, 
 
 ITS MEANS. 
 
 "We have already considered the nature of the work 
 of Sanctification, and its relations to the understand- 
 ing, the will, and the affections. We have found that 
 it consists in an increasing knowledge of Divine things, 
 which is the fruit of the illuminating influence of the 
 Divine Spirit, through the Word, upon the mind ; in 
 a gradual subjection of the will to the will of God ; 
 and in the daily devotement of the deep affections of 
 the heart to God and holiness. Where these charac- 
 teristics are found, there the Divine work of sanctifica- 
 tion is progressing, and there is an undoubted increase 
 and growth of the life of God in the soul of man. 
 This should be the ambition of the Christian, an ambi- 
 tion worthy of an angel ; to be daily becoming more 
 like God in the depth, and purity, and intensity of spir- 
 itual life. ]N'ot satisfied with the bare hope of an 
 escape from hell, he should burn to reach the highest 
 
80 C^ H K I S T () U R 
 
 place in heaven. Xot content to cross the crystal 
 threshold, he should aspire to tread the radiant streets 
 with a nobler step, and strike the celestial harp-strings 
 to a loftier note. Ambition is indeed an unworthy 
 and a dangerous passion, where it is evoked and ex- 
 pended only upon the unsatisfying or corrupting 
 things of earth and time ; but when the soul's vision 
 is filled with the splendid realities of heaven and eter- 
 nity, and longs with all the unutterable cravings of its 
 immortal nature to obtain them, then ambition be- 
 comes a noble, an elevating principle, and it leads on 
 the man in the rugged path of virtue, undaunted by 
 obstacles, unallured by temptations ; for he has been 
 taught, that only in that path can his aspirations be 
 fully satisfied ; he has been told, as he longed to gaze 
 full upon the ineffable brightness of heaven and God, 
 to see not as through a glass darkly, but face to face ; 
 to know not in part, but even as he is known, that the 
 path of Christian virtue is the path of heavenly glory, 
 and that " without holiness, no man shall see the 
 Lord !" 
 
 It is a sad thing, that while we are ot\en obliged to 
 chide and restrain, and put the strong hand upon am- 
 bition in the worldly man, in whose sphere of emotion 
 and desire, and endeavor, there is so little which is 
 adapted to move and inspire the soul ; we are as fre- 
 quently obliged to chide its absence in the Christian, 
 before whose spiritual vision are beauties and glories 
 which should absorb his whole being, and rouse into ac- 
 tion energies which may have slumbered from his crea- 
 tion. The objects before him are like the powers which 
 he tasks in their pursuit, infinite and eternal. They re- 
 
SANCTIFICATION. 81 
 
 pay him for every exertion. They offer for every 
 victory a laurel which shall never fade. They make 
 every holy attainment but a stepping-stone to greater, 
 and open before him a field of affection and of action, 
 bounded only by a boundless immortality. 
 
 Let us realize, then, dear readers, the sublimity of 
 our vocation. We are not called to be rich, or 
 famous, or learned ; but we are called to be holy ; not 
 as some frail imperfect divinity of earth, but as tlie 
 Lord our God is holy. We are made nobles and 
 priests, not with the uncertain and limited temire of 
 an earthly creation and consecration, but by the right 
 of an eternal creation, and by the imposition of an 
 Omnipotent hand. Let us labor to walk worthy of 
 this lofty vocation, and bend every energy of the 
 body, every faculty of the mind, every affection of 
 soul, to the worl^ of constant, progressive sanctihcation. 
 
 The means of Sanctification, and the degree of its 
 attainment on earth, are the points which yet remain 
 for our consideration. But before we proceed to their 
 examination, let us inquire what relation does Christ 
 sustain to the sanctification of his people. It is evi- 
 dent that it is an intimate and important relation, for 
 Christ is said to be "made of God unto us, sanctifica- 
 tion." There are many other passages, where God 
 the Holy Ghost is said to be the chief agent in this 
 work, which is here ascribed to Christ. But although 
 it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that the 
 work of sanctification is carried on in the Christian's '; 
 heart, yet it is no less true that Christ may be called / 
 with perfect propriety the author of that work. He/ 
 is the author of every spiritual blessing. His atoning 
 4* 
 
82 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 work procures for us pardon, justification, adoption, 
 sanctification, and complete redemption. Thus the 
 Apostle declares, that Christ " gave himself for us, 
 that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purity 
 unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
 (Titus 2 : 14). In our natural state we are guilty and 
 polluted ; our moral nature utterly depraved and des- 
 titute of holiness. In this state of guilt and pollution 
 there was nothing in us, which could induce God to 
 exert upon us those influences which purify the soul, 
 and fit it for companionship with him. Our guilt 
 must be taken away, our relations to the law and jus- 
 tice of God must be changed, before we can properly 
 be made holy by divine and gracious influences. 
 Christ, as the sacrifice for sin, removes our guilt, and 
 brings us into such a relation to God, as that he may, 
 with perfect propriety and consistency, bestow upon 
 us all needed spiritual infiuences, to perfect that 
 gracious work in us which was begun at the moment 
 of regeneration. Therefore Christ, as the author of 
 our justification, must also be the author of our sanc- 
 tification. It is likewise in consequence of the inter- 
 cession of Christ, that the Holy Spirit is sent to carry 
 on the work of sanctification in the heart of the be- 
 liever. Our divine Redeemer will not leave his work 
 unfinished. Having by his obedience and death re- 
 moved the barrier between the grace of God and the 
 soul of man, and opened a channel through which 
 renewing infiuences may fiow in upon the sinner, he 
 now constantly intercedes for his people, that this 
 purifying infiuence may continue to be exerted upon 
 them — that they may "grow in grace, and in the 
 
8ANCTIFICATI0N. 83 
 
 knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," 
 and that they may at last arrive at the stature of per- 
 fect men in Christ Jesus. There is no coniiict between 
 the Avork of Christ and that of the Holy Spirit, The 
 latter is the agent in the regeneration of the soul, but 
 had not Christ died to open the way for these renew- 
 ing influences to be sent upon man, his moral nature 
 still stained with guilt unatoned, and crying for the 
 vengeance of heaven, never would have been changed 
 and renewed after the holy image of his Maker. So,^ 
 the Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification 
 in the soul, but our blessed Kedeemer, by his con- 
 stant and prevalent intercession, ensures the continued 
 work of the Spirit. If it were possible for our great 
 High Priest to suspend his covenant work of inter- 
 cession for his people, there would be an instant cessa- 
 tion of all saving and sanctifying spiritual influences 
 on the soul, and the Holy Spirit would abandon his 
 sanctifying work. So that Christ is truly our sanc- 
 tification, inasmuch as to his obedience, death and 
 intercession, we owe the commencement, progress, 
 and final perfection of holiness in the soul. 
 
 Tlie question now arises, what are the means of 
 sanctification? And there is no inquiry more im- 
 portant for the consideration of the Christian. It in- 
 volves the method of his continuance in holiness, and 
 his final attainment of salvation. It is a question of 
 life or death with him, and to be indifi'erent to it, 
 would be a grosser folly than his who should take no 
 pains in procuring bodily food, and yet should expect 
 to sustain his physical frame in strength and activity. 
 
 In regard to the means of sanctification, or in- 
 
84: CHRI8TOUR 
 
 creasing in holiness, men have sometimes greatly 
 erred. They have devised and employed mere human 
 methods, and as might have been expected, they have 
 miserably failed. They have withdrawn themselves 
 from the abodes of men. They have courted the se- 
 clusion of the cloister, and the solitude of the cave. 
 They have inflicted tortures upon the body, and 
 doomed themselves to the rigors of an ascetic life. 
 But they have found that no convent walls, no seclud- 
 ed cell, could shut out from man his greatest spiritual 
 foe, his own wicked heart, and that there was no 
 spiritual efficacy in mere bodily mortification. And 
 the history of monasticism, could its dark secrets be 
 fully revealed, w^ould show that it fostered depravity, 
 rather than promoted holiness, and was more redolent 
 of the atmosphere of hell, than of that of heaven. 
 
 " The rule of sanctification is the word of God." It 
 is the aim of the Spirit, to work in the believer all 
 those tempers and aifections which are therein de- 
 scribed and enjoined as being like God, and pleasing 
 ( o him. Conformity to the law of God is holiness, 
 and if we take this as our guide, and endeavor to effect a 
 correspondence between our volitions, desires, words 
 and actions, and its spirit, we are becoming holy in 
 its estimation. 
 
 But, as the Word of God is the rule of holiness, so 
 also it is the great means of its promotion and culti- 
 vation. In the first place, it clearly and forcibly pre- 
 sents us with a statement of the whole duty of man. 
 If any one Welshes to be informed what God's require- 
 ments are, he here finds the knowledge which he 
 seeks. Every precept, every principle, every exhor- 
 
S AXCTIFIC ATION. 85 
 
 tatioii, every injunction, wliich can place duty before 
 the mind, is found on tliese sacred pages. No case 
 can occur of doubt or uncertainty, wliicli cannot be 
 fully directed and decided by the Word of God, when 
 that Word is examined in a teachable and candid 
 spirit. But not content with the naked precept, or 
 the mere statement of duty, the Word of God pre- 
 sents the most affecting and powerful considerations 
 to its discharge. It not only presents arguments to 
 our reason, and precepts which commend themselves 
 to our sense of right, but it addresses the most power- 
 ful appeals to our affections, and strikes every chord 
 of feeling which is strung across the soul. Now it 
 appeals to the affection of love — now to that of fear. 
 It inspires our hope, it enkindles our desire. It adapts 
 itself to all our necessities, temptations, despondencies 
 and sorrows. It stirs the deep w^aters of conscience, 
 and speaks peace to the tempest which it has excited. 
 While, by its comprehensive and inexorable requi- 
 sitions, it brings forth from the soul, the earnest, the 
 almost despairing inquiry, "Who is sufficient for these 
 things?" it reveals a sympatliizing and all-sufficient 
 Saviour, who says, " My grace is sufficient for thee." 
 It also not only presents holiness in its abstract form, 
 but embodied in a real character of perfect excellence. 
 In the ancient saints, but above all, in the Divine 
 Redeemer, the holiness which God requires is mani- 
 fested in a form which appeals to our sympathies, 
 challenges our admiration, and wins our love. An 
 ancient philosopher once exclaimed, " O Virtue ! 
 couldest thou be embodied, all men would adore 
 thee!" In the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
86 CHRISTOUR 
 
 virtue has been embodied ; and though all men do 
 not admire its divine beauty, there are some who do 
 pay to goodness so manifested, the deep and earnest 
 homage of a pious soul. The contemplation of the 
 perfect character of Christ, exerts a sanctify ingpower 
 over the true Christian. As the constant study of the 
 best models in the arts refines the taste, and cultivates 
 the imagination, so the contemplation of the moral 
 beauty of his character, who linked Deity with hu- 
 manity in perfect though mysterious union, exerts alike 
 influence upon the moral sensibilities of the regenera- 
 ted soul, and produces a likeness to the sublime 
 original, which shall finally be made perfect and en- 
 during. 
 
 Thus, by its holy precepts, perfect rules of duty, 
 and exhortations to holiness ; by its promises of divine 
 assistance in the work of mortifying sin, and increas- 
 ing in holiness ; by solemn warnings against trans- 
 gression, and above all, by the glorious and perfect 
 model and example which it furnishes, of the holiness 
 which it requires, the Word of God becomes, through 
 the illuminating influences of the Divine Spirit, the 
 great means of promoting the work of sanctification 
 in the renewed soul. That this is true, is proved by 
 experience. The ages of the Church, when piety has 
 been most deep and earnest, when there has been the 
 most lively faith, and growing holiness, have been 
 those when the Word of God was most thoroughly 
 studied, and most devotedly loved. The men who 
 have been most exalted in Christian attainment, have 
 been men who were " mighty in the Scrijjturesy We 
 have seen believers in very humble spheres, and with 
 
S A N C T I F I O A T I O N . 87 
 
 very few privileges, far removed from the great centers 
 of religious knowledge and activity, who exliibited a 
 degree of spiritual cultivation and attainment, which 
 would have been extraordinary, but that it was found 
 that their seclusion from other sources of knowledge, 
 had driven them to the pure Word of God, and made 
 them diligent students of its sublime truths and holy 
 precepts. 
 
 The multiplication even of religious books may be 
 an evil, and certainly will be, if it tends to draw the 
 mind away from the daily perusal of the living ora- 
 cles of God. That there is less reading of the Bible 
 in these days, than in those of our fathers, we fear 
 cannot be questioned, and its results are plainly dis- 
 cernible. The instruction of the family in the Word 
 of God is not so generally and scrupulously attended 
 to by Christian parents, and while there may be much 
 reading and study about the Bible, there is not so 
 much reading and study of the Bible. Piety is a 
 more learned, but a more frigid piety ; and advance- 
 ment in knowledge has been by no means attended by 
 a corresponding advancement in holiness. Write it 
 upon your closet, dear reader ; write it upon your 
 heart ; " I cannot be eminently holy without constant 
 help from the Word of God." The Saviour revealed 
 the great secret of spiritual life in one prayer for his 
 people : " Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word 
 is truth." 
 
 The experience of every Christian has already 
 taught him that prayer is a great means of sanctiiica- 
 tion. By it, the mind is more fully impressed with a 
 eense of divine things, our reverence for God is deep- 
 
88 C H R I S T O U R 
 
 ened, our desires for spiritual blessings stimulated, and 
 our dread of sin greatly increased. It is the reniai'k 
 of an old English divine, that '' praying will make a 
 man leave sinning, or sinning will make him leave 
 praying." But we speak only of sincere and earnest 
 prayer, not of that poor counterfeit with which numy 
 quiet their consciences, and try to cheat their God. 
 Says good old Jeremy Taylor : " Can we expect that 
 our sins shall be washed by a lazy prayer ? Can 
 an indiiferent prayer quench the flames of hell, or 
 rescue us from eternal sorrow ? Is lust so soon over- 
 come, that the very naming of it, can master it ? Is the 
 devil so slight and easy an enemy, that he will fly 
 away from us at the first word spoken without power, 
 and without vehemence ? Read and attend to the ac- 
 cents of the prayers of saints, ' I cried day and night 
 unto thee, O Lord ! My soul refused comfort ; my throat 
 is dry with calling upon God, my knees are weak through 
 fasting ;' ' I will not let thee go, until thou bless me,' 
 said Jacob to the angel. Eead this account of a pray- 
 er from one of the early fathers : ' Being destitute of 
 all help, I threw myself down at the feet of Jesus ; I 
 w^atered his feet with tears, and wiped them with my 
 hair, and mortified the lust of my flesh with the ab- 
 stinence and hungry diet of many weeks. I remem- 
 ber that in my crying to God, I did frequently join 
 the night to the day, and never did restrain to call, 
 or cease from beating my breast, till the mercy of the 
 Lord brought to me peace, and freedom from tempta- 
 tion. After many tears, and my eyes fixed in heaven, 
 I thought myself sometimes encircled with troops of 
 angels, aiul then at last I sang to God. We will run 
 
SANCTIFICATION. 89 
 
 after tliee, unto tlie smell and delicionsness of tliy pre- 
 cious ointments.' " Fervency and importunity of pray- 
 er are essential to prevailing with God. Says Taylor 
 again : "Though your person be as gracious as 
 David's or Job's, and your desires as holy as the love 
 of angels, and your necessities great as a new peni- 
 tent, yet it pierces not the clouds, unless it be as loud 
 as thunder, passionate as the cries of women, and 
 clamorous as necessity." 
 
 A true prayer is always heard by God. And al- 
 though it may not always consist with his wise pur- 
 poses to grant just the thing for which we ask, yet the 
 very asking in a right spirit is a blessing to the soul, 
 for it enlarges its holy desires, excites its holy affec- 
 tions, and stimulates it to holy actions. Ko man ever 
 truly prayed to God to be made more holy, who did 
 not find an answer to his prayer ; and the measure of 
 our desires is often the measure of our attainments. 
 
 Prayer then is one great means of sanctification. 
 The Christian who has been wrestling with God with 
 fervor and sincerity, comes forth from his closet, like 
 Moses from the mount, with a spiritual glory on his 
 countenance, with strength from above made perfect 
 in his weakness, and addresses himself again to the 
 conflict with sin, feeling assured that he " shall be con- 
 queror, and more than conqueror, through him that 
 hath loved him." 
 
 Eemember this, and write it as a great fact upon 
 your heart : I cannot increase in holiness without con- 
 stant, sincere, fervent prayer. 
 
 The ordinances of the house of God are means of 
 sanctification. Its hymns of praise, sung not as a 
 
90 C H R I S T O U B 
 
 mere musical exercise or scientific performance, but 
 " with melody in tlie heart, unto the Lord ;" its solemn 
 prayers ascending on the wings of the holy Dove, to 
 dwell with God, in his lofty habitation ; its instruc- 
 tions, wise, timely, practical, and pungent ; its medi- 
 tations, solemn, sweet, and sacred, are all made by the 
 Divine Spirit, means of promoting holiness in the 
 pious heart. But he who would experience this effect, 
 must come to the house of God for that very pur- 
 pose, and bring with him a frame of mind adapted to 
 the due reception of a blessing. An indifferent, critic- 
 al, captious, or somnolent hearer, will not be sancti- 
 fied by the services of the sanctuary. 
 
 The dispensations of Divine Providence are also 
 means of sanctification. " We know," says the Apos- 
 tle Paul, " that all things w^ork together for good, to 
 them that love God." All the events which occur in 
 the varied lot of man, by the appointment of God, 
 tend to promote the spiritual welfare of his people. 
 Even those things which are in themselves evil, are 
 overruled by him, and made sources of good. Thus 
 afflictions, though they seem not for the present to be 
 joyous, but grievous, yet work out the peaceable fruits 
 of righteousness, to them who are exercised thereby. 
 Trials call • into active exercise, and strengthen the 
 rarest Christian virtues. Faith, submission, humility, 
 patience, are choice plants of grace, which grow 
 most luxuriantly in the soil which has been well 
 watered with the dews of sorrow. Afflictions " hum- 
 ble the pride of the people of God, awaken their vigi- 
 lance, make them feel their weakness, create a stronger 
 abhorrence of sin, and an increasing indifference to 
 
S A N C T I F I C A T I O N . 91 
 
 earthly things ; inspire meek submission to the will of 
 God, and, leading the thoughts to heaven, stir up long- 
 ing desires for the peace which awaits them there, and 
 for the pure joys of religion, which are earnest of its 
 felicity. 
 
 " The path of sorrow, and tliat path alone, 
 Leads to the land, where sorrow is unknown." 
 
 But unsanctified afflictions, only leave the soul 
 harder and more callous. For the substance which is 
 not melted, is only hardened by the flames of the fur- 
 nace, and the stain which is not thus burned out, is 
 only more deeply and hopelessly engrained. 
 
 We have thus alluded, to the prominent means of 
 Sanctification, which have been provided by God 
 through the mediation of his Son, and which the 
 Divine Spirit uses in enlightening and purifying all 
 believers. They are all in your hands, dear readers. 
 And if you are not growing in grace, it is not because 
 you have not the Word of God, the mercy seat, the 
 ordinances of the sanctuary, and the lessons of Di- 
 vine Providence, to aid you in the struggle after in- 
 creasing holiness. It is probably because you are too 
 much engrossed with the business or the pleasures of 
 this sinful world, to make that use and improvement 
 of your privileges which is essential to tJie growth 
 and developement of the life of God in your soul. 
 We exhort you then, fellow Christians, to live above 
 the world : not to be unduly conformed to its princi- 
 ples, its maxims, its fashions, its amusements. They 
 are inconsistent with your high vocation, and un- 
 friendly to your progress in the divine life. You can- 
 
92 SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 not serve God and mammon. Yon cannot preserve the 
 friendship of the world, and the love of Christ. Yon 
 mnst come ont and be separate, and tonch not the un- 
 clean thing, before yon can have any good evidence, 
 in your growing likeness to him, that you have been 
 made the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 
 
 We exhort you also, to exalt greatly your standard 
 of Christian character and attainment. We would pro- 
 voke in you a noble ambition to be better Christians. 
 We would inflame your holy desires, and rouse your 
 devout aspirations, by setting before you the glorious 
 prizes w^hich are promised to the victorious Christian. 
 We would remind you that the day is far spent, in 
 which many of you can secure these, and that the 
 shadows of the evening may soon fall across your path. 
 We would remind you that a great work must be done 
 in your soul, dear reader, before it is fit for heaven — 
 before it can take a place near the throne, and shine 
 as a brilliant star in the magnificent constellations of 
 the redeemed. And we would urge you, therefore, 
 to be up and doing. You profess to be a wrestler for 
 spiritual prizes. The glass may be almost run out, 
 and there is a garland which you have not won. You 
 are a traveller zion-ward. The night shades may be 
 gathering round you, and there are yet streams to be 
 forded, and mountains to be climbed. You are an 
 enlisted soldier of the Cross. The day of battle is 
 drawing to a close, and the victory is not fully won. 
 Up, pilgrim ! and hasten to your home. Rouse thee, 
 wrestler! and struggle for the garland. Fight on, 
 thou champion of the Lord ! till the last foe has fallen 
 before thee, and thine eternal crown is won ! 
 
VI. 
 SANCTIFICATION 
 
 ITS DEGREE. 
 
 Having already considered the nature, and tlie 
 means of Sanctification, we now proceed to the last 
 point of interest connected with this subject, i. e. the 
 degree of its attainment in the present life. 
 
 Any one who is familiar with the theological dis- 
 cussions of the last quarter of a century, need not be 
 told that the controversy on this point, has held a 
 prominent place among them. The doctrine of entire 
 Sanctification, or a perfect freedom from all sin in the 
 present life, has been promulgated by a certain school 
 or class of thinkers, and has obtained some currency 
 in portions of the Church. Yet it is a remarkable 
 fact, that those who have been the most strenuous in 
 their advocacy of the attainment of perfect holiness in 
 this life, have not always been the liappiest illustra- 
 tions of their own theory, but have occasionally mani- 
 fested the existence of those dead flies in the apothe- 
 
94: C H R I S T O U R 
 
 caries' ointment, wliich, while they do not destroy its 
 real curative properties, yet too often very seriously 
 modify the character of its fragrance. We have not 
 yet been so happy as to find among these theorists, a 
 practical exemplification of their confessedly beautiful 
 and attractive system. 
 
 The scriptural doctrine on the subject of Sanctifi- 
 cation, is, that we are not warranted in the expecta- 
 tion, that perfect freedom from sin is ever attained "l)y 
 the regenerated soul in the present life. That it is a 
 progressive work, constantly carried on in the heart, 
 until it is perfected in heaven. 
 
 Now, in reference to the doctrine of entire Sanctifi- 
 cation in this life, it must be acknowledged, that at the 
 first glance, there is much about it which is attractive, 
 and beautiful, and consoling. To every real Christian, 
 the daily sense of personal sinfulness, is the heaviest 
 burden on his soul. Even though he may hope that 
 he has been truly born again, and by faith in Christ,. 
 freed from the condemnation of the law, yet a con- 
 sciousness of his many and great imperfections, his 
 inconsistencies of life and conversation, his yieldings 
 to temptation, and his sore struggles with the enemy, 
 often bring tears of anguish from his eyes, and fervent 
 desires for that state of freedom from sin and tempta- 
 tion, which is revealed beyond the grave. The idea 
 of entire Sanctification, is to him the most delightful 
 and glorious, w^hich his mind can contemplate — and 
 there is nothing about this theory, calculated to shock 
 and corrupt liis moral sensibilities. Yet, on the other 
 hand, the doctrine to which we allude, may exert a 
 baneful influence upon the Christian character, by fos- 
 
SANCTIFICATION. 95 
 
 tering a spirit of pride and security, leading the 
 believer to feel that he has already apprehended, and 
 has become already perfect, and thus relaxing his dili- 
 gence, his prayerfulness, and his fidelity in the great 
 task of working out his complete salvation, and 
 making^ his callinoc and election sure. 
 
 If the doctrine of the actual attainment of entire 
 freedom from sin, is not taught in the Scriptures, then 
 it is not a truth of God — should not be embodied in 
 any creed or system, professing to be based upon his 
 word, and cannot exert a salutary influence upon the 
 Christian character, and attainments of his people. 
 
 Let us then, in a candid and prayerful spirit, exam- 
 ine those arguments which are relied upon by the ad- 
 vocates of this doctrine, for the support of their theory. 
 
 The first argument which we shall notice, is this rv 
 That God has made ample provision in the gospel plan \ 
 of salvation, for the perfect deliverance of his people I 
 from sin. 
 
 You will find in the writings of those who maintain 
 the doctrine of entire Sanctification in the present 
 life, that this argunient is advanced, as if it were a 
 truth peculiar to their system. But this is a most un- 
 candid and untruthful representation. We know of 
 no body of evangelical Christians ; we know of no 
 evangelical writer, who do not hold to and rejoice in 
 this glorious truth. It is " one of the grand peculi- 
 arities of the Gospel." But it is one thing to say, that 
 God has made full provision in the plan of salvation, 
 for the entire redemption of his people from all sin, 
 and quite another thing to say that this complete re- 
 demption will be attained in this life. God has made 
 
96 CHRIST OUR 
 
 a complete provision in the gospel plan of salvation, 
 so far as the sufficiency of the work of Christ is con- 
 cerned, for the pardon, justification, and redemption 
 of every sinner. Christ is set forth as a sufficient 
 Saviour, an adequate propitiatory sacrifice for the sins 
 of the whole world. But does this fact, this glorious 
 fact, prove that every sinner will be brought to re- 
 pentance, faith, and final salvation ? We grant that 
 there is no deficiency in the means of Sanctification, 
 which God has provided for his people, to which their 
 failure of the attainment of perfect holiness may be 
 charged. In like manner, the condemnation of the 
 finally lost, cannot be charged upon any deficiency in 
 the provision which God has made in the plan of sal- 
 vation. Yet it is a fact of daily occurrence, which no 
 one will venture to question, that in spite of the ample 
 and adequate provisions of the Gospel, multitudes oi 
 men do go down to everlasting destruction, from the 
 presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. 
 Therefore we say, that the mere fact that God has made 
 full and adequate provision for the entire deliverance 
 of his people from sin, does not prove that this perfect 
 deliverance will take place on this side of heaven. 
 
 But the advocates of the doctrine under considera- 
 ' tion, assert that this provision is sufficient for the 
 ! entire sanctification of believers in the present life. 
 We are willing to admit this, but it does not relieve 
 the question of actual attainment, of difficulty. For 
 it is equally true, and cannot be denied, that God has 
 also equally provided for their entire Sanctification 
 during the present day, or the present hour. If the 
 intrinsic efficacy of the power of the Divine Spirit, 
 
8 A N C T I F 1 C A T ION. 97 
 
 and all the array of means wliicli God has provided 
 for the complete deliverance from sin, be adduced as 
 an evidence that this deliverance will be effected 
 during the present life, it can with perfect truthfulness 
 and logical accuracy be adduced, to prove that it can 
 as well be effected during the present day or moment. 
 But do believers thus attain to entire Sanctification i 
 'No one will venture to assert this. But if this is not 
 the case with these same adequate, and intrinsically 
 efficacious means ; if the completion of this work is, 
 from whatever causes, delayed or retarded for a 
 shorter, why may it not be for a longer period ; if it 
 may not take place for years, why may it not be re- 
 tarded for the brief space of this mortal life ? 
 
 The mere fact then, that the provisions of grace are 
 sufficient for the entire deliverance of believers from 
 sin, does not necessarily establish the truth of the 
 doctrine, that such deliverance will be actually at- 
 tained in this life. 
 
 Again ; it is claimed as a peculiarity of that system 
 which we are considering, that there is nothing in the 
 nature of the case to forbid the assertion, that perfect 
 holiness is attainable in this life. But it is not denied, 
 according to our knowledge, that there is a sense in 
 which this is true. We do not claim that entire Sanc- 
 tification is not at^inable ; all we say is, that it is not 
 attained. The attain ableness of a thing, is very dif- 
 ferent from its actual attainment. There is nothing in 
 the provisions of grace, on the one hand, or the ca- 
 pacities of the soul on the other, which make it im- 
 possible, in the nature of things, that entire Sanctifica- 
 tion may be attained. There is no impossibility in its 
 5 
 
98 CHRIS T OUR 
 
 kttainment, such as to excuse Christians from striving 
 to attain to it. But we contend that a thing may be' 
 ■attainable, and yet may never be attained. 
 
 ]N'o man could say that it was impossible, in the 
 nature of things, for an individual to amass a fortune 
 of a hundred millions of dollars, and yet it is very safe 
 to say that no man will actually attain to this state of 
 enormous wealth. In like manner, no man will deny, 
 that under the Gospel, salvation is attainable by all 
 men. It is freely offered to their acceptance ; all the 
 means are furnished ; the way is opened, and every 
 one may secure the blessing ; but how many there 
 are who never make it theirs. Salvation, then, though 
 attainable by all, is, in a majority of cases not at- 
 tained. 
 
 When we say that a thing is unattainable, what do 
 we mean? — Simply that there is an impossibility in the 
 nature of the case — it is beyond our power. In such a 
 case we are not guilty, or deserving of censure for its 
 non-attainment. For instance, omnipotence, omni- 
 science, or ubiquity, are unattainable by man. They 
 are inconsistent with his finite nature, and utterly 
 beyond his reach. But he is not deserving of censure 
 for this — it is no fault of his. 
 
 In this sense of the term, we do not hold that entire 
 Sanctification is unattainable in the present life. There 
 is nothing inconsistent with the nature of things, 
 nothing in the provisions of the Gospel, the means of 
 grace, or the capacities of the renewed soul, which 
 positively forbid its attainableness. But this is not 
 saying that it is actually attained, nor does it give us a 
 reasonable ground for the expectation that it will be 
 
SANCTIFICATION. 99 
 
 attained in the present life. AVe can say the same 
 things of the nniversal attainment of individual sal- 
 vation. It is attainable, and yet it is not attained. 
 
 Again. — It is argued by the advocates of this doc-{ 
 trine, that it is implied in the promises" of God to be- 
 lievers. It is said that there are many and very pi-e- 
 cions promises in the I>ible, in which a state of entire 
 freedom from sin, is promised to God's people. There 
 is one passage, especially, which is relied on to sup- 
 port this idea — the promise of the new covenant. "I 
 will put my laws into their mind, and write them in 
 their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they 
 shall be to me a people, and all shall know me, from 
 the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their 
 unrighteousness, and their sins will I remember no 
 more." It is claimed that the fulfilment of this and 
 kindred promises, implies the effecting in believers a 
 confirmed state of perfect holiness — an entire con- 
 formity to the divine law. But we ask, if this is 
 necessarily true ? May this promise not be fulfilled 
 in a degree in this present life, without the attainment 
 of entire Sanctification on the part of the Christian ? — 
 May not God's law be written upon the heart of a 
 Christian, without that law is perfectly obeyed in 
 thought, word, and deed? Can there be no obedience 
 unless there is perfect obedience ? On this supposition, 
 no man can be a Christian at all, who is not a perfect 
 Christian. According to this reasoning, there can l)e 
 no sanctification, unless it is entire. The advocates of 
 the doctrine under consideration, seem to imply, in 
 reasoning from the promises of God, that these promi- 
 
100 C H K I S T O U R 
 
 ses cannot be fulfilled, unless tliey are completely 
 and entirely fulfilled. 
 
 But if this be true, then there is a part of the pas- 
 sage which we have quoted, as one on which they 
 place great reliance, which must involve them in diffi- 
 culty. It is this, "All shall know me, from the least 
 unto the greatest." 'No one will say that this promise 
 has been perfectly fulfilled. 
 
 It is not true in a national or universal sense, that 
 all men really know God. It has been fulfilled in a 
 degree, and is going on to complete fulfillment. Yet 
 God is faithful who has promised, in this respect. 
 Therefore he may be faithful in respect to those promi- 
 ses which relate to the entire sanctification of his 
 people, while those promises are fulfilled by degrees, in 
 their progressive deliverance from sin, and steady ap- 
 proximation to the stature of perfect men in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 It is indeed a precious promise, that Jesus " shall 
 save his people from their sins." But is this promise 
 perfectly fulfilled ? Are all the people of God entire- 
 ly rescued from sin ? They are indeed saved from the 
 guilt, for " there is therefore now no condemnation to 
 them which are in Christ Jesus ; " " whosoever believeth 
 in him is not condemned." But are they all entirely 
 delivered from the power of sin ? Are there none who 
 like a godly man of old, still find a law in their mem- 
 bers warring against the law in their minds, and bring- 
 ing them into captivity to the law of sin ? Are there 
 none who are struggling with temptation, beset sorely 
 by spiritual adversaries, and often fainting in the strife ? 
 Does not the cry often come from the burdened heart. 
 
S A N C T I F I c A T ION. 101 
 
 " Who is sufficient for tliese tliini!:s ? " Is not 
 
 "The rapture of pardon, oft niinglcd with fears, 
 And the cup of thanksgiving with penitent tears." 
 
 All, yes ! The good work of deliverance is 
 begun — the condemnation is taken off — the curse is 
 removed. Sinai thunders no more around the sinner's 
 head, nor darts its vengeful lightnings across his path ; 
 but the power of sin is not fully destroyed — the victory 
 is not yet complete — great progress is yet to be made 
 in holiness, before the believer can walk in white, in 
 the city of God ; and the last stains of sin must be 
 washed away in the flowings of Jordan, before the 
 brilliant diadem of perfect holiness, and unfading 
 glory, shall be placed upon the believer's head at the 
 great coronation day. 
 
 The promises of God, then, do not sustain the doc- 
 trine that entire sanctification is attained in the pres- 
 ent life. They do indeed imply and assure us that 
 perfect holiness shall eventually be the portion of the 
 believer, but there is not a solitary promise which as- 
 signs the present life as the limit, during which this 
 glorious portion shall be secured. That it shall ulti 
 mately be theirs, is a truth, and one of great power to 
 strengthen and comfort them, while struggling through 
 this wilderness. 
 
 Again, an argument in support of the doctrine 
 we are are considering, is drawn from the prayers 
 f Christians. 
 
 It is said that Christians pray, and are to be exhort- 
 ed to pray, for entire freedom from sin and perfect 
 holiness ; and how can tliey pray, or how can they be 
 
 c 
 
102 CHRIST O U K 
 
 exhorted to pray for that which they cannot receive ? 
 This is an argument much relied on, and often used, 
 by those who differ from us on this subject. They say 
 God has promised to hear and answer the prayer of 
 faith, and that Christians do pray to be entirely de- 
 livered from the power of sin. IS'ow we grant that 
 Christians do and ought to pray for entire conformity 
 to the divine law, and we grant that God will and does 
 always hear and answer the prayer of faith ; yea, that 
 he will give us abundantly above all that we ask or 
 even think. But we ask, must the answer to prayer ne- 
 cessarily be confined to this life, to render God faithful 
 to his promises. We do expect, confidently, that God 
 will hear and answer our prayers, for entire deliver- 
 ance from sin, and it is a shame to us, with the grounds 
 for this confidence so fully afforded us, that our pray- 
 ers are so faithless, and our endeavors so feeble. AYe 
 do expect to be like our blessed Saviour when we see 
 liim as he is. And is not this fidelity on God's part, 
 to his promises to hear and answer prayer ? Where 
 has he ever told us, that he will answer our prayers 
 within a given time ? You can no more prove that 
 God has promised to grant to his people, in answer to 
 prayer, the blessings of entire sanctification, within 
 the limits of the present life, than you can prove that 
 he has promised to do it at the moment when the 
 prayer ascends to heaven. 
 
 Suppose we take the ground of our opponents. It 
 is my duty to pray for entire sanctification. God has 
 promised to answer prayer. I pray ! If an hour 
 elapses, and I am not perfectly holy, then God is not 
 faithful to his promise. ]^o — says my opponent, you 
 
S A. N C T [ F I (; A T ION. 103 
 
 have no power to limit the fultiUmeut of the divine 
 promise to a single hour. Ihit 1 have just the same 
 right to limit it to a shorter, that lie has to a longer 
 period. He limits it to lite, and 1 limit it to a day or 
 an hour. And he cannot show any more authority 
 tor limiting God and his promises to a year, or two 
 years, or twenty years, or life, (which may not be a 
 day), than I can for limiting it to a day or an hour. 
 The truth is, that God has not himself fixed the limit, 
 and therefore neither my opponent or myself have 
 any right to do so. 
 
 Prayer is answered really, when it is answered in 
 God's own time. " The patriarchs longed and prayed 
 for the coming of the Messiah, and were not their 
 prayers as really answered by his coming after so 
 long a time, as if he had come before ?" God will 
 answer every prayer of a true believer. Many a 
 pious parent has lifted up his heart in prayer for his 
 child, that God would convert him from sin to holi- 
 ness, and has gone down to his grave with his last 
 breath invoking the grace of God in behalf of a still 
 impenitent son. After the grass has waved for many 
 summers over the sleeping father, the prodigal is re- 
 claimed. Is there here no answer to prayer ? Has 
 not God vindicated at once his fidelity and his sover- 
 eignty ? The time and the mode in which prayer 
 shall be answered, is with God alone ; but where he 
 has promised, heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
 not one jot or title shall pass from his word, till all be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Again, the advocates of the doctrine of sinless per-| 
 fection in this life, argue in its favor from sundry pasy 
 
104: CHRIST O L' R 
 
 sages of Scripture, whicli seem to declare that it has 
 in some instances been attained in the present life. 
 There are places in which the old Testament saints 
 are spoken of, as if they had attained to a state of per- 
 fect holiness. Job is often spoken of as a perfect 
 man. David, is said to have been a man after God's 
 own heart, and to have followed the Lord wdioUy, ex- 
 cept in the matter of Uriah. Paul speaks of himself 
 as being crucified to the world, and living only in 
 Christ. A bishop, it is said, must be blameless, &c., 
 &c. Now it is possible to make the Bible teach almost 
 any form of error, by taking isolated passages, out of 
 their connection, and interpreting them in a literal 
 unrestricted sense. I would be willing to undertake 
 to bring scriptural authority, for the grossest heresies, 
 if this mode of adducing evidence is allowed. The 
 question is — Do these passages, properly intei-preted, 
 teach the doctrine imputed to them? The sacred 
 writers employ other like terms in a qualified restrict- 
 ed sense. Thus it is said that Joshua took the whole 
 land of Canaan, though some parts still remained in the 
 hands of the native tribes. The meaning is, that no 
 considerable parts remained unsubdued, and that he 
 proceeded unmolested to divide the land among the 
 Israelites. It is said, that Judah was wholly carried 
 away captive, though a remnant continued in the land. 
 ''Jerusalem and all Judea, and the region round about 
 Jordan, went out to John and w^ere baptized of him,'' 
 which means that there was a general, or very ex- 
 tensive gathering of the people to him. Now in these 
 passages, the words are obviously to be taken in a re- 
 stricted and qualified sense. This is equally true with 
 
SA NOTIFICATION. 105 
 
 those which relate to the doctrine of entire sanctiiica- 
 tion. Job is said to have been a perfect man ; but 
 was he without a fault? AVas the matter of Uriah, 
 the only Haw in the Jioliness of David? His own con- 
 fessions prove the contrary. A bishop must be blame- 
 less? — Does this mean that a man cannot be a minis- 
 ter of the Gospel, who is not absolutely sinless ? — 
 Where then shall one be found worthy to bear tlu^ 
 office ? " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
 sin!" — Perfectionists claim this as a strong passage. 
 But it proves too much in their mode of inter23retation. 
 What it says of Christians, it says of all, and it is 
 in the present tense, and declares that all believers 
 are now, by the blood of Christ, made pure from all 
 sin. 
 
 • ISTo man will believe this. The sense of the passage 
 then, must be restricted. Again; "If we confess our^ 
 sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and J 
 cleanse us from all mirighteonsness." The absolute/ 
 sense is, that all believers, on confession of sin are for- 
 given, and at once made perfect in holiness. This 
 again is claiming too much for the perfectionists, who 
 always acknowledge that entire holiness is only at- 
 tained by a favored few. There must then be a lim- 
 itation, a restriction of the sense in some respect, to 
 preserve the integrity of the record. " He that hath 
 this hope in him purify etli himself, as he is pure." 
 As Christ is pure. This is absolute perfection. If we 
 interpret on the principle of our opponents, this pas- 
 sage also teaches, that every believer becomes, at 
 once, as pure as Christ himself. Restriction again is 
 called for, and must be applied to this passage. The 
 5* 
 
106 CHRIST OUR 
 
 experience and observation of all, prove that it is not 
 absolutely true. If the immediate attainment of 
 complete purity be implied in this passage, it is pre- 
 dicated of all Christians, and this is at war with the 
 plainest facts. If it teach, as we claim, that it means 
 that every true Christian is pursuing such a course of 
 self-purification, as will at last eventuate in his com- 
 plete likeness to Christ, then no violence is done 
 either to the language of the word of God, or that of 
 1 human experience. Another passage ; " Whosoever 
 is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed re- 
 jmaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is 
 born of God." This must be subjected to the same 
 principle of interpretation. If it is to be understood 
 with absolute literalness, it declares that no man is a 
 Christian, who is not entirely sinless. This would at 
 once sweep away the hopes of all the people of God. 
 
 This process may be applied to all the passages 
 which are relied upon, to prove the doctrine of sinless 
 perfection in the present life. Taken in their proper 
 sense, they inculcate no such doctrine, but only de- 
 clare what is the general belief of all evangelical 
 Christians, as to the nature and degree of the work of 
 sanctification in the heart of the believer. 
 
 It remains now for us to remark, that the passages 
 of Scripture relied on by the advocates of the doctrine 
 of entire sanctification in the present life, not only 
 cannot be susceptible of an interpretation favorable to 
 their views, but that the tenor of the language of 
 the Scriptures generally, is hostile to the error which 
 we are endeavoring to refute. 
 
 If there is any truth with regard to the life of God 
 
SANCTIFI CATION. 107 
 
 in tlie soul of man, plainly taught in the Bible, it is 
 tliat this life is progressive in its nature. It commen- 
 ces at conversion, and proceeds from one degree of 
 holiness to another, until it is made perfect and com- 
 plete, at the time of the deliverance of the believer 
 from his body of death, and a world of sin. Tlie Bible 
 abounds in admonitions to grow in grace and know- « 
 ledge — to add to the Christian virtues, and " forget- 
 ting those things that are behind, and reaching forth \ 
 unto those things which are before, to press toward 
 the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Jesus Christ." Says the Apostle to the Philippians ; 
 " Being confident of this very thing, that he which 
 hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until 
 the day of Jesus Christ." The work of sanctification 
 would be completed in the day of the Lord Jesus. 
 So said the Psalmist. " I shall be satisfied, O Lord! \ 
 when I awake with thy likeness." "The path of thev 
 just is as the shining light, which shineth more and/ 
 more unto the perfect day." 
 
 There is a very important class of texts which favor ! 
 our views — those which represent the desires of Chris 
 tians after holiness. Desire implies that the good as 
 pired after is still future, not obtained. "When they 
 are said to hunger and thirst after righteousness, it: 
 implies that they are longing after holiness not yet' 
 attained. Said David, " my soul thirsteth for God ;''/ 
 "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so pant-i 
 eth my soul after thee, O God!" Strong language 
 this, to express the desires of the renewed and par- 
 tially sanctified soul for greater holiness. 
 
 Pass then from the Scriptures to the pages of the 
 
108 CHRIST OUR 
 
 soul. Ask the lioliest men that have ever lived, what 
 is the testimony of their conscious experience on this 
 subject. They will tell you, as does the holy man of 
 TUz: "If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me 
 \perverse." Tliey will tell you that they pray witli 
 the pious monarch minstrel of Judea, "My soul 
 cleaveth to the dust, quicken thou me according to 
 thy Word." They will tell you with Paul, that they 
 find " a law in their members, warring against the 
 law in their minds, and bringing them into captivity 
 to the law of sin." They find sin still lurking in their 
 hearts ; they are but partially sanctified ; they may 
 see evidences of progress, but the victory is not yet 
 wdh ; they are to fight on till death, before the un- 
 fading laurel of the more than conqueror, shall be 
 worn upon their brow. 
 
 What, then, is the conclusion to which we come on 
 this subject? It is this : that though there is nothing 
 in the provisions of the Gospel, nor the properties of 
 the human soul, absolutely inconsistent with the at- 
 tainableness of entire sanctification in this life, yet 
 that, neither from the promises of God, the declara- 
 tions of the Scriptures, or the experience of Chris- 
 tians, are we warranted in expecting that we shall 
 actually attain to it in this life. We believe it to be 
 a progressive work, advancing with life, begun, con- 
 tinued on earth ; perfected in heaven. 
 
 Let it not be said, then, that we are the advocates 
 of imperfection. ]^ot so ! We are believers in the 
 perfection of the saints. We stand on the rock of the 
 promises of God. We do expect to be completely 
 free from sin ! We do expect to be entirely conformed 
 
S ANCVriFIC AT ION. 109 
 
 to Christ. We do not look for tliis to be tally accom- 
 plished, during the brief space of this mortal life. But 
 what is this life ? " It is even a vapor, which appear- 
 eth for a little while, and then vanisheth away." Xo 
 advocate of perfection can be more contident than we 
 are, of our ultimate perfection. " We know that when A 
 he shall appear, we shall be like him." " For now ' 
 we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. A 
 ISTow I know in part, but then shall I know even as / 
 also I am known." " I shall be satisfied when I awake / 
 with thy likeness." ^ 
 
 Nor let the slanderous assertion be made, that we \ 
 lower the standard of Christian aspiration and endea- \ 
 vor, in our system. Kot so. We tell you that the 
 standard which God sets before his people, i s pei;f ec- 
 tion. We tell you that you are to strive for that, live 
 in its pursuit, bring all the energies of your redeemed 
 regenerated sonl, to bear npon it, pray for it, labor for 
 it, struggle for it, sacrifice for it, if need be suffer, 
 bleed, die for it. You will attain to it at last, and in 
 the struggle, in the growth, in the progress through 
 your mortal life, you will make brighter evidence that 
 the great work is really begun, and is going on with- 
 in your soul. 
 
 If yon do not struggle, pray, labor, agonize, for 
 greater measures of holiness, you have reason to fear 
 that you have only a name to live, and that the heaven- 
 sent principle of the life of God, has never found its 
 way into your dead and ruined soul. So that one 
 legitimate influence of our doctrine, is to stimulate 
 Christians to increased diligence, vigilance and prayer, 
 that they be going from grace to grace, until at last, 
 
110 SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 their conflict over, the last enemy vanquished, they 
 shall reach the goal of perfect holiness, and wear the 
 crown of eternal blessedness — prepared to sing, in the 
 music of the skies, the glorious anthem, '' Unto him 
 who loved us, and washed us from our sins, in his own 
 blood, and made us kings and priests unto God, and 
 his father, to him be all praise and glory, dominion 
 and power, forever and ever, Amen, and. Amen !" 
 
VII. /^u^, j-/^' 
 REDEMPTION. 
 
 In this magnificent word, Redemption, we have the 
 summing up and the climax of tlie apostle's descrip- 
 tion of the work of Christ for man. In the passage 
 whose numerous and glorious truths have been under 
 our consideration, the divine Saviour is set before us 
 in all the different phases and relations, which make 
 him so unspeakably precious to the human soul. As 
 the natural state of man is one of spiritual ignorance, 
 and as without divine illumination he will never attain 
 to a knowledge of God, so Christ is first revealed as 
 his instructor, who in the forcible and beautiful lessons 
 of his character, and his atoning work, pours light 
 upon the great truths which man needs to know. 
 Then, when this illuminating process has been accom- 
 plished, inasmuch as man has learned the dark lesson 
 of his own guilt, and just exposure to the displeasure 
 of a holy God, and the awful malediction of a broken 
 law, and needs a justifying righteousness, in which he 
 may appear before his judge, Christ is next presented 
 
 111 
 
112 C U K I S T <) U K 
 
 as his righteousness, as one who has made good liis 
 relations to the viohited hiw, and made it possible for 
 God to be just, and yet justify the repenting and be- 
 lieving sinner. The next great necessity of man, lies 
 in the fact, that the new life which has been implanted 
 within him is feeble, easily choked by the hostile in- 
 fluences of remaining corruption, and an unfriendly 
 world. He needs constant assistance, in order that 
 the holy principle which has been implanted within 
 him, may be strengthened, and grow in beauty and 
 fruitfulness, day by day. Therefore, Christ is next 
 revealed to him as the author of the work of sancti- 
 tication, which the Divine Spirit, in consequence of 
 the Saviour's death and intercession, carries on in the 
 heart of every true believer, by the appointed means, 
 until he is perfected in heaven. And now what is left 
 for the Christian to wish for, in his Saviour ? What 
 phase can Jesus now assume, essential to the com- 
 pleteness of his w^ork for man ? If he is his wisdom, 
 his righteousness, his sanctification, what more can he 
 be ? If he provides instruction for his darkened mind, 
 justification for his guilty soul, purification for his 
 polluted nature, what more is there for him to do ? 
 Oh ! my readers, all this work is as yet partial and 
 unfinished. We know in part. The touch of the 
 Almighty Redeemer has been on our sightless eye- 
 balls, but we see men as trees walking ; we see as 
 \ through a glass, darkly. The justifying work of our 
 Saviour is hideed complete, when we are pardoned 
 and accepted as the children of God ; but the blessed 
 fruits of that justifying work do not all grow upon 
 earthlv soil. The title deeds of "an inheritance, in- 
 
REDEMPTION. 113 
 
 corruptible, imdefiled, and that fadetli not away,"/ 
 are indeed drawn up, and surely sealed with the blood 
 of Jesus, but that inheritance is still reserved in heaven 
 for us, and many a mile of w^eary travel through the 
 wiUlerness is before us, before Ave shall reach the bet- 
 ter country, where we shall attain to its full fruition. 
 The sanctifying w^ork of the Spirit is indeed going on 
 within us, if we are Christ's, but it progresses slowly, 
 and many a hard fight must be had with sin, l)efore 
 we shall wave the palm branch of victory, and sing 
 the conqueror's song, beyond the cold waters of Jor- 
 don. We want an assurance that the process of in- 
 struction will be perfected ; that the day will come, 
 when w^e shall see not as through a glass, darkly, but 
 face to face. We want an assurance, that we shall see 
 the King in his beauty, and gaze full upon the ineffa- 
 ble splendors of his unveiled countenance. We want 
 an assurance, that we shall truly enter upon the pos- 
 session and enjoyment of that glorious inheritance, 
 which is reserved in heaven for us. We want an as- 
 surance, that this conflict with sin, under which we 
 are daily striving, shall one day be closed in final 
 triumph ; that w^e shall at last be conquerors, and 
 more than conquerors, through him that hath loved 
 us. We know that our redemption is begun ; but oh ! 
 we long for complete deliverance. We know that we 
 •are now the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear 
 what we shall be ; and there w^ould still have been 
 something w^anting in the revelation of our precious 
 Saviour to us, if it had not been told us, as it is told 
 us in our text, that Christ Jesus is made of God unto 
 
114 CHRIST OUR 
 
 US, not only Wisdom and Righteousness, and Sanctifi- 
 
 cation, hut full and complete Redemption. 
 
 I Complete Redemption ! perfect freedom from igno- 
 
 / ranee, from guilt, from pollution ; entire deliverance 
 
 \ from temptation, from struggling, and from sorrow ; 
 
 I rest from every burden, triumph over eveiy foe, ease 
 
 i from every pain ; every grief removed, every tear 
 
 I wiped away, every sigh hushed, every longing satis- 
 
 1 fied; the enlarged capacities of the perfected soul 
 
 ■ filled to overflowing, with pure and unalloyed blessed- 
 ness ; this is to be the everlasting portion of every 
 
 ■ true believer, wdien Christ Jesus is made, as he will 
 one day, be made of God unto him complete, finished 
 Redemption. 
 
 That the great saving work of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, in the heart of man, is to be finally completed, 
 and the top-stone of glory, placed upon the w^ork of 
 grace, among the hallelujahs of heaven, is abundantly 
 taught in the Scriptures. The ancient Prophet, after 
 describing in most graphic language, the humiliation 
 and sufle rings of the Redeemer, declares that " he 
 shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied." 
 And can the sufl'ering, dying Saviour, be satisfied with 
 any thing less, than the complete Redemption of those 
 for whom he died ? Has he not given his life in sacri- 
 fice for sinners, and paid their ransom in the rich 
 drops of his heart's blood, and will he be satisfied, 
 if every believing and penitent soul is not, by the 
 meritorious efiicacy of that blood, cleansed from sin 
 and made an heir to glory ? Ko ! He is " the author 
 and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before 
 
REDEMPTION. 115 
 
 him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set 
 down at the right hand of the throne of God." 
 
 Wlien on eartli, he declared to his disciples, that all 
 his people should come to him, and that not one of 
 them should perish. And the Apostle Paul expresses, 
 under the promptings of the Holy Ghost, his firm 
 conviction, that he who had begun a good work in the 
 Christians of his times, " would perform it until the 
 day of the Lord Jesus." And the banished Apostle, 
 who though a prisoner on a solitary ocean rock, cut 
 off by a cruel tyrant from all communion with tliis 
 lower world, had such magnificent visions of Heaven, 
 and communion with angelic spirits, has told us in the 
 most beautiful language, something of what complete 
 Redemption is. " They shall hunger no more, neither 
 thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, 
 nor any heat. The Lamb that is in the midst of the 
 throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto liv- 
 ing fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all 
 tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there 
 be any more pain, for the former things are passed 
 away." Multitudes of believers have realized the 
 truthfulness of these splendid revelations. They have 
 gone up from this wilderness, weary and foot-sore, 
 with their shoulders galled with the burden of sin and 
 sorrow, to tread with a free step and a joyful heart, 
 the radiant streets of the Xew Jerusalem. They have 
 gone up from the by-waj^s of obscurity, and the lowly 
 dwellings of poverty, to take precedence of angels, 
 and to be made " kings and priests unto God." They 
 have gone up from the valley of humiliation, where 
 
116 CHRIST OUR 
 
 they sang the dirges of despondency, and wet the 
 ground with the tears of penitence, to sing on the 
 summits of the mountains of glory, the jubilant an- 
 thems of the skies. They have gone up from the bat- 
 tle field, all marked with the scars of the conflict, to 
 rest from their struggles, while the wreath of the con- 
 queror forever adorns their brow. And the day is 
 coming when we shall join them there. As we cross 
 over Jordan, the loved ones who have gone before us, 
 and over whose graves we shed many a bitter tear, will 
 troop down to greet us as we reach the shore, and 
 with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, will welcome 
 us to fruition with them, of the blessedness of com- 
 plete Redemption. 
 
 The redeeming work of Christ which is yet to be 
 fully perfected in heaven, consists of those elements 
 which are presented in this passage, and which in pre- 
 vious chai^ters have been at some length considered. 
 Tlie illumination of the darkened mind ; the justifi- 
 cation of the guilty soul ; and the purification of the 
 polluted nature. These difi*erent processes, in the 
 same great work, when fully perfected, make com- 
 plete Redemption. 
 
 To si^eak of what this will be is almost presump- 
 / tuous. '' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 hath entered into the heart of man, the things which 
 ^ God hath prepared for them that love him." But if 
 we can catch but a faint glimpse of its glory, as we 
 toil on in our pilgrimage, it will be most grateful to 
 us, as the first faint pencilings of the dawn, to the eye 
 of the watcher, through the live long night. 
 
 Think then, dear readers, what it will be to know 
 
REDEMPTION. 117 
 
 God fully, as we shall know him in Heaven. Tlie 
 truly pious lieart, ever longs for more intimate ac- 
 quaintance and fellowshi]) with God. Thus David 
 says : ^' As the hart panteth after the water brooks, S'> 
 panteth my soul after thee, O, God!" "My sou! 
 thirsteth for God, for the living God ; when shall i 
 come and appear before God?" Xow we see through 
 a veil. The medium of vision, is the gross material 
 world, and the glowing pages of revelation, but the veiy 
 richness, and beauty, and sublimity of these mani- 
 festations of the Almighty, only make us more desi- 
 rous to see him as he is, and to know even as we are 
 known. What revelations of God will Heaven make 
 to the believer ? What floods of liglit will be poured 
 upon the eye of the soul, in the day of complete Ke- 
 demption, which the weak mortal vision could never 
 bear ! What exalted communications of the perfec- 
 tions of the Deity, will be made to the expanded 
 mind ! What a clearing up of all mystery, which sur- 
 rounded his dealings, and which often put our faith 
 and submission to so severe a test, while still subject 
 to the discipline of his providence ! Then shall we 
 know the full meaning of the title which our Saviour 
 bears in one department of his redeeming work, — 
 Wisdom. In this world there is much that we long 
 to know of God, and all spiritual truth, which we 
 cannot learn while in the flesh. Especially is this true 
 of those dispensations of Providence, which are mys- 
 terious and overwhelming in their character. You 
 did not know why God saw fit to afflict you, sorrowing 
 mother ; why he blighted your hope, and withered the 
 fair bud of promise, which blossomed so sweetly in 
 
118 CHRIST OUR 
 
 your arms. Your faitli indeed exclaimed, " Even so 
 Father, for so it seemed good in tliy sight !" But your 
 reason was staggered, and you could not comprehend 
 why that stunning blow was struck. The day of com- 
 plete redemption draweth nigh. Then all that mys- 
 tery shall be cleared up. Then every dark place shall 
 be filled with light. Then you shall be taught why 
 God's dealings were so mercifully severe, and the 
 knowledge shall only increase your adoration and 
 love. And you too, — the bereaved and desolate one, 
 from whom relentless Death has torn the companion 
 of your youth, and the dearer friend of your riper 
 years ; you have been unable to fathom the depth of 
 the mystery, whose darkness lingers yet upon your 
 soul. Still do you ask, " Ah ! why am I thus deso- 
 late and alone." Tried one — complete redemption 
 is at hand. Then the cloud and the mist shall be 
 rolled away from before your vision, and you shall see 
 clearly the thing, which is now hidden from your eyes. 
 You shall understand God's dealings fully, and the 
 knowledge shall only give increased depth to your 
 homage and your affection. 
 
 There is one subject on which complete redemption 
 will shed clear and satisfying light. It is the value 
 of the soul. The worth of the soul ! Little do we 
 know of the preciousness of the immortal spirit. We 
 may have sat down, and attempted to solve that tre- 
 mendous problem in moral arithmetic, which the 
 great Teacher has given us in his word, " What shall 
 it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose 
 his own soul ? " — but we can gain but an indistinct 
 idea of the stupendous answer. " The worth of the 
 
REDEMPTION. 119 
 
 soul," said an ancient preacher, '' the \^alue of tlie 
 soul," who can tell it? Angels know it not — they 
 never fell ; devils know it not — their snfFerings are 
 never at an end. Son of God — thou knowest it ! — 
 for thou didst pay the price." Complete Redemption 
 will teach us all, what these souls of ours are worth. 
 
 Complete Redemption will also introduce the be- 
 liever to the full enjoyment of that portion which is 
 secured to him by Christ his Righteousness. 
 
 There is, in a degree, a present realization of the 
 blessed results of the justifying work of Christ, for us. 
 " Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace 
 with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom 
 also w^e have access unto this grace wherein we stand, 
 and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." The ex- 
 perience of every true believer has borne testimony 
 to the power of the hopes of religion, to bring joy, 
 and strength, and consolation, in the varied scenes of 
 this earthly pilgrimage. Godliness is profitable unto 
 all things, for it hath tlie promise of the life that now is, 
 and of that which is to come." Says one,^ "I have seen 
 this Gospel hush into a calm, the tempest raised in the 
 bosom of conscious guilt. I have seen it melt down 
 the most obdurate, into tenderness and contrition. I 
 have seen it cheer up the broken-hearted, and bring 
 the tear of gladness, into eyes swollen with grief. I 
 have seen it produce and maintain serenity, under 
 evils which drive the worldling mad. I have seen it 
 reconcile the sufferer to his cross, and send the son 2: 
 of praise, from lips quivering with agony. I have 
 seen it enable the most affectionate relatives, to part 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Mason. 
 
120 CHKIST OUE 
 
 and with a cordial surrender of all they held most 
 in death, not without emotion, but without repining, 
 dear, to the disposal of their heavenly Father. I have 
 seen the fading eye, brighten at the promise of Jesus, 
 ' where I am, there shall my servant be also.' I have 
 seen the faithful spirit, released from its clay, now 
 mildly, now triumphantly, to enter into the joy of its 
 Lord." 
 
 Such present effects of the justification of the sinner, 
 through faith in Christ his righteousness, are familiar 
 to the experience of every believer. Tliey are present 
 Redemption. But a large and important part of the 
 office of religion, in this life, is to comfort, and make 
 us strong, under sorrow, and in conflict. — But when 
 Redemption is complete, there will be no sorrow to be 
 comforted, no struggle, in which the soul will need to 
 be strengthened. Faith now sheds light upon the 
 darkness, but there is no night there. Faith now 
 gives us an anchor in the storm, but in heaven, "there 
 is no more sea." Faith now enables us to bear sick- 
 ness, and bereavement, but, 
 
 " No chilling winds, or poisonous breath, 
 Can reach that healthful shore ; 
 Sickness and sorrow, pain and death. 
 Are felt, and feared no more." 
 
 If then, when Redemption is complete, there will 
 be no sorrow, sickness, pain or sin, to be contended 
 with by the believer, who can describe, who can con- 
 ceive of the blessedness of such redemption. It is not 
 the mere freedom from sorrow and suffering, which 
 will make it so glorious, but the freedom from sin, 
 
REDEMPTION. 121 
 
 which is the parent of suflering. It is not merely 
 the absence of evil, but it is the increased and ever 
 increasing presence of good to the sonl. No time, 
 no strength is to be expended there, in strnggling 
 against backsliding ; but every faculty of the sanc- 
 tiiied soul, will be expended in progress in holiness, 
 and likeness to God. Then every hope which glim- 
 mered before the eye of the soul, like a star shedding 
 its pale beam on this wilderness, shall give place to 
 full fruition ; every aspiration of the soul, in its holiest 
 moments, will be more than realized, and the believ- 
 er who longed to see God, and behold his glory, while 
 yet the veil was upon his face, then " beholding as 
 with open face, the glory of the Lord, shall be changed 
 into the same image from glory to glory, as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord." 
 
 '' It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we 
 know that when he shall appear, we shall be like 
 him, for we shall see him as he is." "I shall be 
 satisfied, O Lord, when I awake with thy likeness." 
 
 Complete Redemption is entire sanctification. The 
 last stains of corruption shall be washed off in the 
 flowings of Jordan. Let the tried believer take 
 courage, with whom in this imperfect state 
 
 " The rapture of pardon is mingled with fears, 
 And the cup of thanksgiving with penitent tears." 
 
 The day of deliverance draweth nigh. ''Kow is 
 your salvation nearer than when you believed." " He 
 that hath begun a good work in you will perform it 
 until the day of the Lord Jesus." And when that day 
 comes, it shall witness our final triumph over everv 
 6 
 
122 CHRIST OUR 
 
 sin, the last refining process will be over, and we shall 
 come forth from the furnace of earth, to reflect in 
 perfect brightness and beauty, the great Refiner's 
 image. 
 
 Oh, Redemption ! Redemption, is the great culmi- 
 nating point of the universe. Towards this, every 
 thing in God's economy, is tending. To its comple- 
 tion, angels are looking with earnest and intense an- 
 ticipations, and when this new creation shall be ended, 
 the morning stars will sing together in a nobler anthem, 
 and all the sons of God, will shout for joy. 
 
 Redemption — complete Redemption, will be our 
 song in heaven. It is a sweeter song than the cherubim 
 sing. Glorious in their holiness, splendid in their 
 beauty, wonderful in their power, the angelic hosts 
 surround the throne of God. Day and night their 
 chanting ceases not. " Holy, holy, holy Lord God 
 Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come !" But 
 behold there comes up one, toil worn from earthly 
 labors, foot-sore with earthly wanderings, timid from 
 earthly stragglings, but there is a bright crown upon 
 his head, and a shining robe around him, and a golden 
 harp in his hand ; and he presses near the throne ; 
 and the shining ranks open to admit him ; and the 
 Father smiles on him, and then such a strain of melody 
 bursts from his harp, as Heaven never heard before, 
 and its rich chorus swells through the heavenly arches, 
 " Worthy the Lamb that was slain, for he redeemed 
 me with his own blood." It is the song of Redemp- 
 tion, sung by a redeemed and glorified sinner ; our 
 song, dear readers, which we begin in the stammering 
 language of earth, but which we shall sing forever in 
 
REDEMPTION. 123 
 
 the nobler dialect of the skies, and the burden of that 
 song shall ever be, '' Christ Jesus, who of God is made 
 unto ns, ^' Wisdom, and Bighteousness, and Sanctificor 
 tioji and Redemption^ 
 
 Remember, dear readers, what this Eedemption 
 cost. " For ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
 things," such as silver and gold, but with the precious 
 blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and 
 without spot." Redeemed ones ! bought back from 
 sin, and death, and hell, behold the price of your 
 Redemption. Can you compute its vast amount. 
 Place the work of Jesus in one scale, and the treasures 
 and crowns of ten thousand times ten thousand worlds 
 in the other, and what are they, but the small dust of 
 the balance ; one drop of the Redeemer's blood will 
 far outweigh them all. 
 
 If you cannot then compute the vastness of the 
 price, can you comprehend the value of the Redemp- 
 tion itself? m ! not fully. For, '' eye hath not seen,! 
 no ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of \ 
 man, the things which God hath prepared for them ^ 
 that love him." 
 
 But, by an ever increasing love to your Redeemer, 
 by renewed diligence and zeal in his service, by a 
 growing indifference to earthly things, and a deeper 
 desire after more entire deliverance from sin, you can 
 show that you value, in some degree, what Christ has 
 done for you. Redeemed Christians ought to be 
 faithful Christians, for " ye are not your own ; ye are 
 bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your 
 bodies and your spirits, which are God's." 
 
 Let your life, dear reader, be one constant anthem 
 
124: CHRIST OUK 
 
 of tlianksgiving to God, for Eedemption. He cares 
 not for the praises of the lips, nor the mere outward 
 bodyings forth of devotion. He listens for the voices 
 of the heart — he is pleased with the grateful music of 
 the soul. A good man's life is a constant hymn of 
 praise to Jehovah. It makes God glorious in the eyes 
 of men. It commends the Divine Redeemer to their 
 love. It is a constant testimony to the excellence of 
 spiritual things. It is "a shining light, shining more 
 and more unto the perfect day." "As ye have received 
 Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." " Let your 
 conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ ; 
 and the life which you live in the flesh, let it be by 
 the faith of the Son of God, who loved you and gave 
 himself for you." 
 
 Finally, — let redemption by the blood of Christ be 
 your song, in this house of your pilgrimage. If you 
 lose sight of the Cross, you must hang your harp uj)on 
 the willows. Without Redemption, the world is but a 
 great sepulchre — the charnel house of souls, and its 
 diy bones can never live. The last ray of hope for 
 man, goes out in darkness, when he loses sight of the 
 Cross of Christ. Its glory eclipses every other, and 
 the day is coming, when the whole universe will be 
 flooded with that glory. The Church of Christ, re- 
 deemed by his precious blood, is yet to overspread the 
 earth, and from pole to pole, is to reach the chorus of 
 Redemption. " Who is this that cometh up from the 
 wilderness, leaning on her beloved ? Who is she, that 
 looketh forth from the morning, fair as the moon, clear 
 as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners ?" 
 "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. 
 
REDEMPTION. 125 
 
 and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in 
 her, nor her voice of crying." " For the ransomed of 
 the Lord shall retnrn and come to Zion, with songs 
 of everlasting joy npon their heads. They shall ob- 
 tain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
 flee away." Eising high, above all the melodies of 
 the earth, above the songs of pleasure, above the 
 shouts of the warrior, the triumphal odes of the con- 
 queror, the mingled voices of nature, shall yet l)e 
 heard the pealing notes, of the song of Tledemption. 
 From the north and the south, from eastern and west- 
 ern shores, and from the isles which sparkle upon the 
 bosom of the deep, it shall be borne aloft, and like the 
 mingling of many w4nds, shall rise to blend with the 
 shoutings of the cherubim over a world redeemed. 
 
 THE END. 
 
PrmcPlon Theoioyicil Se,nin,„y • Sp..., l ,hr ,, 
 
 1 1012 01002 3598 
 
imiiii 
 
 m 
 
 n-W