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 LEAYES 
 
 A MINISTERS POKTFOLIO. 
 
edinburgh : 
 
 printed by ballantyne and company, 
 Paul's work. 
 
LEAVES 
 
 A MINISTER'S PORTFOLIO. 
 
 eev. d: eraser, a.m. 
 
 MINISTER OF THE FREE CHURCH, MONTREAL. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MONTREAL : B. DAWSON. 
 
 M.DCCC.LYIII. 
 
x: 
 
 o*a 
 
 f\o^ 
 
 
 £>}/*/>, 1 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This little book contains no elaborate exposi- 
 tion or treatise. I have grouped together 
 sundry short papers on religious themes, medi- 
 tative and illustrative, which may prove suit- 
 able reading, as I trust, for a Sabbath afternoon 
 or evening at home. Anxious to avoid pro- 
 lixity, I have not attempted fully to discuss, 
 far less to exhaust my topics. If one may 
 borrow the title given by a great writer to a 
 remarkable book, I have wished to supply 
 "Aids to Eenection" — hints, suggestions, and 
 outlines — rather than complete forms of truth. 
 Here, therefore, is no great mass of matter, but 
 a " little dinner of herbs." 
 
 D. F. 
 
 Montreal, 26th March 1858. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. MEDITATION, 
 II. THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE OLD AND 
 CREATION, 
 
 III. THE LOST GOD, . 
 
 IV. THE SOUL ASLEEP, 
 
 V. THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD, 
 VI. THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHURCH, 
 VII. THE ISOLATION OF THE HEART, 
 VIII. THE MYSTERIES OF GOD, 
 LX. THE ROD OF CHRIST'S STRENGTH, 
 X. THE URIM AND THUMMIM, 
 XI. OFFENCE IN CHRIST, . 
 XII. THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST, 
 XIII. A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY, 
 XIV. COMPENSATION, 
 XV. LESSONS FROM WINTER, 
 XVI. CHRIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS, 
 XVII. FORGETFULNESS, 
 XVIII. LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 19 
 23 
 30 
 37 
 43 
 50 
 54 
 57 
 67 
 71 
 76 
 80 
 
 93 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX. SEVEN WONDERS, 
 XX. HAND IN HAND, 
 XXI. A LESSON IN SPIRITUAL WAR, 
 XXII. THE HEALING OF HUMANITY, 
 
 XXIII. THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL, 
 
 XXIV. THE UNBROKEN BONES OF JESUS, 
 XXV. THE LORD'S VINEYARD, 
 
 XXVI. THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 97 
 103 
 107 
 111 
 116 
 123 
 128 
 136 
 
A PLEASANT glimpse of "the heir of promise" we get 
 from those simple words of Scripture, "Isaac went 
 out to meditate in the field at the eventide/' * It is an 
 example which we might profitably follow. Isaac, it 
 is true, had advantages which we have not, for religious 
 retirement and reflection. Heir to a rich inheritance, 
 he was exempt from worldly care and the spirit-chafing 
 struggles of modern busy life. He enjoyed rural quiet, 
 in a country and a climate that invited to walk abroad. 
 Withal he doubtless was largely endowed with those 
 powers of abstraction, contemplation, and introversion, 
 which have ever been characteristic of Oriental minds. 
 The pattern of a man of so much leisure and peace 
 does not deeply impress our bustling generation. 
 Nevertheless it is just in such an age as this, that 
 meditation is most needful to the religious mind; and 
 to the neglect of this duty may safely be attributed the 
 * Gen. xxiv. 63. 
 A 
 
2 MEDITATION. 
 
 light, fickle, and immature character of iffuch modern 
 piety. 
 
 Vain are the excuses offered for such neglect. To 
 urge that we have no time for quiet meditation On the 
 wonderful works and words of God, is virtually to say 
 that we have no time to attend to the very objects for 
 which time was given to us — the knowledge of God, 
 and the edification of our own souls. To say that we 
 have very little opportunity of retirement and quiet in 
 our occupied urban life, is only to state a reason for our 
 avoiding over-business, and studying to redeem time 
 for godly exercise. To confess that we cannot sustain 
 an interest in religious themes, is to betray our insuffi- 
 cient conversion to God. The language of a devout 
 heart is this, " My meditation of him shall be sweet : 
 I will be glad in the Lord." * 
 
 If the unquiet spirit of the times disadvantageously 
 affects our religious habits of thought, we also, in these 
 last days, have advantages for " increasing in the know- 
 ledge of God" far superior to those enjoyed in the 
 early ages of the world. In Creation we may see, more 
 clearly than the ancients, the traces of Jehovah. In- 
 heriting the studies and discoveries of all preceding 
 times, we have a greatly increased acquaintance both 
 with the vastness and with the minuteness of "the 
 things that are made ;" and so have matter of medita- 
 tion on the being, wisdom, and power of the Divine 
 
 * Psalm civ. 34. 
 
MEDITATION. 3 
 
 Maker, more ample than any former generation pos- 
 sessed. In the observation of Providence, too, we 
 possess a marked advantage. Century after century, 
 the history of the Church and the world becomes more 
 fruitful in instruction ; and he who studies history with 
 a serious mind, and marks in our own time the course 
 of life and of events, may discover abundant traces of a 
 presiding God, and have solemn and " sweet meditation 
 of Him " who moulds and fashions the lot of man, and 
 ordains and controls all things after the counsel of His 
 will. The like superiority of advantage have we in 
 regard to God's Holy Word. In our hands is the 
 completed canon of Scripture. Isaac had no Bible at 
 all, and David had one of far less extent and clearness 
 and fulness than we possess. Our pastures are wider 
 and richer than the flock of God of old time enjoyed. 
 And in all parts of the large field of Scripture — the 
 field that the Lord has blessed — we, if spiritually- 
 minded, may have sweet meditation on His perfections, 
 and on His most good and holy wilL 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ, the Leader and Pattern of 
 Christians, was much given to meditation, and loved 
 communion with the Father in heaven. He was much 
 abroad in grassy solitudes — in corn-fields — on high 
 mountains — on the shore and on the bosom of the 
 Galilean Lake — and everywhere looked on nature as 
 an expression of Deity, and a vast parable of spiritual 
 truths. He also mused on Providence, and taught His 
 
4 MEDITATION. 
 
 disciples to do likewise, to the comfort and confirma- 
 tion of their souls : — " Consider the ravens : for they 
 neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse 
 nor barn ; and God feedeth them : how much more are 
 ye better than the fowls ? . . . Consider the lilies how 
 they grow : they toil not, they spin not ; and yet I say 
 unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
 like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, 
 which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into 
 the oven; how much more will he clothe you, ye of 
 little faith V* * Our Lord also meditated much on God's 
 written Word. His human mind grew in wisdom and 
 knowledge by His familiarity with the Word — that 
 " volume of the book" in which it was written of Him. 
 And every one must observe, that in His conversations 
 with the twelve, and His replies to the rulers and the 
 people, quotations from, and references to the Old Tes- 
 tament abound. This command of the Scriptures the 
 man Christ Jesus acquired by study and reflection. In 
 perfection He combined thought and duty, meditation 
 and activity, and was at once the most occupied and 
 the most devout Being that ever dwelt among men. 
 
 The Christians of the present day appear to fail in 
 meditation, more than they do in activity. But it is 
 unsafe to neglect, in any particular, the example Christ 
 has given. 
 
 Lack of meditation keeps the mind always poor, the 
 * Luke xii. 24, 27, 28. 
 
MEDITATION. 5 
 
 bulk of what is read or heard being suffered to slip 
 away unnoticed, and making no part of the permanent 
 possessions of the soul. There are many who have 
 enjoyed such advantages that they ought to be teachers 
 rather than learners, who yet have their minds unfur- 
 nished, and their thoughts loose and scattered, just 
 because they have never formed the habit of pondering 
 well. They receive, but they do not retain knowledge, 
 or apprehend the scope, beauty, order, and mutual con- 
 nexion of great truths. Many a valuable thought they 
 have had, but the thought is transient, and leaves no 
 lasting impress on the soul — like sheet-lightning play- 
 ing on the horizon, then passing into darkness, or the 
 glance of a sunbeam on a dark wave of the sea. 
 
 The subject also intimately affects the progress of 
 piety. All the powers and virtues of the " new heart" 
 pine and are enfeebled, unless there is time given to 
 meditation with watching and prayer. Faith fails, and 
 hope grows dim, unless we dwell on the " precious pro- 
 mises/' and on the faithfulness of the promising God. 
 And love waxes cold unless our hearts muse on Him 
 who " first loved us." To use the language of Jeremy 
 Taylor, " This is a very great cause of the dryness and 
 expiration of men s devotion, because our souls are so 
 little refreshed with the waters and holy dews of medi- 
 tation. We go to our prayers by chance, or order, or 
 by determination of accidental occurrences, and we 
 recite them as we read a book ; and sometimes we are 
 
MEDITATION, 
 
 
 sensible of the duty, and a flash of lightning makes the 
 room bright, and our prayers end, and the lightning 
 is gone, and we as dark as ever. We draw our water 
 from standing pools, which never are filled but with 
 sudden showers, and, therefore, we are dry so often ; 
 whereas, if we could draw water from the fountains of 
 our Saviour, and draw them through the channel of 
 diligent and prudent meditations, our devotion would 
 be a continual current, and safe against the barrenness 
 of frequent droughts/' * 
 
 In every wise and pious heart religious musings 
 kindle a solemn joy. It is " sweet" to meditate on the 
 Loving and Holy One — 
 
 " Sweet on Thy faithfulness to rest, 
 Whose love can never end ; 
 Sweet on Thy covenant of grace 
 For all things to depend ! 
 
 " Sweet, in the confidence of faith, 
 To trust Thy truth divine ; 
 Sweet to lie passive in Thy hands, 
 And have no will but Thine ! " 
 
 The heathen poets fabled that the top of Olympus, 
 the seat of the gods, was always quiet and serene. And 
 this we may say, not in fable but in truth, of the top 
 of the mount of meditation, where the believer is with 
 God, and comes even to His seat. It is not easy to climb 
 the hill. A hundred distracting thoughts, and worldly 
 
 * Life of Christ, Part I. Disc. iii. 
 
MEDITATION. 7 
 
 cares, and devilish temptations, impede our way; but 
 if we persevere, our meditation shall be sweet ; on the 
 top of the mount we shall say, " ' Lord, it is good for us 
 to be here/ for we behold Thy glory" — a cloud hides 
 the earth from us, and we have a prospect upward, so 
 clear and calm, that we could almost think ourselves in 
 heaven. 
 
THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE 
 
 II. 
 
 ®{je Jawtops Miam t\t ®Ib anfo % fto totfa. 
 
 On the first page of the Bible we read of the old crea- 
 tion. A new creation is mentioned in other parts of 
 Holy Writ, as wrought upon the souls of men. We think 
 that in the order of the old, the course of the new may 
 be traced. Tor our purpose it matters not whether the 
 six days of the first chapter of Genesis are understood 
 to be ordinary periods of twenty-four hours, in which, 
 ages after the matter of the universe had been called 
 into existence, this world was arranged, and furnished, 
 and garnished for the habitation of man ; or whether 
 they be supposed to express long periods of time, cor- 
 responding to the " geological periods " of science, re- 
 vealed to Moses in a sublime vision, and by him opti- 
 cally described — the fading light and the growing light 
 of the successive dioramic scenes making an evening 
 and a morning to the eye of the seer, and the divisions 
 of time being therefore called by him "six days." 
 Whatever be the interpretation of the term " days," our 
 use of the Mosaic narrative is the same — to mark in it 
 
OLD AND THE NEW CEEATION. 9 
 
 a picture, or rather a sketch, of the order of that in- 
 ward creation which " avails in Christ Jesus" to eternal 
 life. 
 
 Before any change, natural or spiritual, there must 
 needs be a groundwork laid. Now, before the changes 
 of the six days began, a basis of change existed. " In 
 the beginning God created the heaven and the earth/' 
 Before the change of regeneration begins, a basis is also 
 laid in the sensitive and moral nature of man, the in- 
 telligence, the conscience, the emotions, and the will, 
 whereon God's grace and truth are to work mightily. 
 " By Him, and for Him, we are and were created/' 
 
 Where, however, we might look for beauty and order, 
 lo ! there is chaos, disorder, with darkness on the deep. 
 " The earth was without form, and void ; and darkness 
 was upon the face of the deep." No gray cloud was 
 there, nor blue sky, nor green field, nor silver sea ; no 
 shores, no vales, no mountains. What a figure this of 
 the dark and disordered soul of man before his new 
 creation ! He has no calm peace, nor lively hope, nor 
 clear apprehension of spiritual religion — tossed by 
 surging waves of fear and doubt— restless, dissatisfied — 
 chaos and darkness in his breast ! 
 
 Had the world been left to itself, it would, so far as 
 we know, have continued in perpetual chaos, having no 
 inherent power to mould, and vivify, and adorn itself. 
 But lo! a Power of God was there. The life-giving 
 " Spirit moved — brooded — on the face of the waters." 
 
10 THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE 
 
 Thus there began to be warmth, with some token of a 
 happier time; but as yet there was no light — darkness 
 hung upon the deep. So, on the soul that God is about 
 to regenerate, there is a moving of the Spirit, with 
 solemn brooding wing — there is an awe from the Lord, 
 a beginning of conviction, before any distinct ray of 
 light has come to guide, and gladden, and transform. 
 
 The time had now arrived for God's good and beau- 
 tiful work in the heaven and the earth. Then the first 
 gift He bestowed, the first influence He introduced, 
 was light — commanded to appear in words often noted 
 for their sublimity, " And God said, Light be ; and 
 light was." 
 
 " Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light 
 Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, 
 Sprung from the deep." 
 
 Who can imagine the startling change? On the 
 great chaos light arose — all things began to be new. 
 In like manner, God begins His new creation of the 
 soul, by causing light to arise. The ignorance and 
 self-deception which pertain to the state of darkness 
 are rolled away, and truths break on the mind as they 
 really are. The " Shorter Catechism " rightly teaches, 
 that the beginnings of " effectual calling " are the con- 
 viction of sin and misery, and the enlightenment of the 
 mind in the knowledge of Christ. And the words in 
 which the apostle Paul describes his own spiritual en- 
 lightenment contain a distinct reference to the original 
 
OLD AND THE NEW CKEATION. 1 1 
 
 Divine gift of light to the world. " God, who com- 
 manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined 
 in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ/' * 
 
 At the close of the first day or period known, the 
 light shone on a chaos still. It was on the second day 
 that order began to reign. A firmament appeared, and 
 the waters were divided — watery vapours above, in 
 thick, massy clouds, and waters beneath, covering the 
 earth ; for as yet no dry land was seen. Surely a 
 change analogous to this takes place in the soul that 
 God has enlightened — a new order begins where chaos 
 was — the waters are divided — there is a separation of 
 the higher affinities and capacities of the human spirit 
 from those that are lower and more earthly. Whereas 
 all hitherto was on one level, now there is elevation and 
 aspiration in the character ; there is a firmament in 
 the soul — a change (if one may so speak) of its atmo- 
 spheric conditions, so that there is a sky or a heaven as 
 well as an earth. The unregenerate man has only an 
 earth; but the regenerate has also a sky — a nether and 
 an upper department of character — an earth and a 
 heaven in the breast. 
 
 The third day continued the progress of order and 
 revealed the dry land, and covered it with abundant 
 specimens of vegetable life. Such also is the progress 
 of the new creation in the mind and heart of man. A 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
 
12 THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE 
 
 new and various beauty is given to the character ; 
 where there was barrenness, there comes fertility ; where 
 there was nothing, life appears. Now is there tender 
 grass of devotion, with the sweet herbs of pious desire, 
 and the fruits, varied after their kind, of a new and 
 loving obedience. 
 
 The fourth day disclosed to the eye of the seer " the 
 lights in the firmament/' which thenceforth were to 
 illuminate the earth — the sun by day, and moon by 
 night, and the stars also. It was the period of the 
 organisation of light. So, in the continued progress 
 of the soul's new creation, there ensues an habitual 
 reign of light — light that may, indeed, be obscured 
 thereafter by passing clouds of error or unbelief, but 
 that can never be quenched in thick and hopeless 
 gloom. Every man in Christ Jesus is a child of light, 
 illuminated from above with light to rule the day, and 
 light to rule the night. If he has the bright sunshine 
 of God's favour in the day of success, he is not left in 
 his night of sorrow without the gentle moon of conso- 
 lation and the glistening stars of promise. 
 
 When the world was lit up with its heavenly lamps, 
 it was made more and more to abound in creatures of 
 life. This was the event of the fifth day — the great de- 
 velopment of organic life. To this there is an obvious 
 parallel in the increasing vitality of the new-created 
 soul, which has received the light of life, and in all its 
 character and powers becomes more alive unto God. 
 
OLD AND THE NEW CREATION. 13 
 
 The enlightened Christian has life more and more abun- 
 dantly, develops new energies, and, in all the higher 
 relations of his being, gives signs of new activity. 
 
 The same development of life continued on the sixth 
 day : then came Adam in the image of God, with 
 dominion over all the earth, and all that lived on its 
 surface. So with the soul which God has made the 
 subject of His new creation ; when it is enlightened, 
 ordered, vivified, Christ the second Adam, the new 
 man, the image of the invisible God, is formed within. 
 This crowns the work of grace. " Christ in you, the 
 hope of glory/' takes possession of the soul, has do- 
 minion over all its parts and all its living powers, is 
 the acknowledged Monarch of the character, the wel- 
 come Euler of the clean heart and right spirit that God 
 has created within. 
 
 In this the mighty change is complete. As in nature 
 so in grace, the Lord will not at any point of imperfec- 
 tion forsake the work of His hands. He looks on His 
 accomplished work, and behold it is very good. Then, 
 as from Him came all the power that wrought such 
 effects, to Him redounds all the praise. What hath 
 God wrought ! Every instance of His new-creating 
 grace glorifies His name, gladdens His militant Church 
 on earth, and His triumphant hosts in heaven. Then 
 the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God 
 shout for joy. 
 
 The figure of a man working and resting is employed 
 
14 THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE OLD, ETC. 
 
 in Scripture to denote the procedure of Almighty God 
 at the first creation. " God rested from all his work 
 which he had made." After the same manner, the work 
 of the new creation issues in sweet sabbatic rest. God, 
 having " fulfilled all the good pleasure of his good- 
 ness, and the work of faith with power/'* rests in His 
 love, watching over the continued moral elevation and 
 culture of the renewed heart. The people of God cease 
 from their works as God did from His, and enter into 
 rest. Then cometh the end — the new creation is con- 
 summate — Grace, grace unto it ! It opened in Chaos, it 
 ends in Paradise. It opened in a confused and dark 
 abyss, it ends in Eden, a well-watered garden of " plea- 
 sures, at God's right hand for evermore." 
 *2 Thess. i. 11. 
 
THE LOST GOD. 15 
 
 III. 
 
 Lost soul — lost peace — lost hope — lost innocence — lost 
 happiness — lost heaven ; these are the terms often used 
 to express the woe of man. A view of that woe, more 
 sad and awful still, is suggested by the words, " a lost 
 God/' "When sin entered and made its home in the 
 human breast, God departed — withdrew the strength 
 and joy of His presence from the seed of evil-doers. 
 Not only is man lost to God, God is lost to man — a 
 stranger to his thoughts. It is true enough, that the 
 human race has not been, in any place or time, devoid 
 of religious ideas and instincts ; but such theologies and 
 rituals as men have devised only serve to shew how 
 darkened are their minds — how utterly they have lost 
 the true light of God. They feel after Him, and know 
 not how nor where to find Him. In the worship of 
 many gods, and goddesses, and demigods, the heathen 
 nations have sought to pacify their own accusing con- 
 sciences, and to connect themselves with the unseen 
 Infinitude ; but they could not reach to the Most High, 
 
16 THE LOST GOD. 
 
 or by searching find Him out. The imaginations of 
 philosophers, priests, and people, born in the most 
 palmy days of heathenism, were vain, and their foolish 
 hearts were darkened. The Gentiles, as an apostle 
 affirms, had "no hope, and were without God in the 
 world." * 
 
 Alas ! what more or better can we say of many in 
 modern Christendom ? This darkness is on their path, 
 even as on the paths of the heathen. God may be 
 honoured with the lips, but He is outcast from the 
 thoughts and affections of a wicked and perverse gene- 
 ration. Now, it is in the tone of life and conversation 
 that this fearful fact is betrayed. The " course of this 
 world" moves without any serious reference to God. 
 The current of life flows on without religion, which, 
 indeed, is regarded, if not quite as an intrusion and 
 burden, still as an exceptional and secondary thing. 
 Business and study, toil and pleasure, politics and 
 literature of this world — all are without God. The 
 mind of man is averse to humble recognition of a 
 Divine Being, or resignation to a Divine will. Busy 
 thoughts people his brain, but no devout thought of 
 God ! Warm affections glow in his heart, but no thrill 
 of love to God ! 
 
 The life of the natural man may, indeed, be carefully 
 guarded from all stains of gross, disreputable vice; and 
 yet it lies open to the charge of utter ungodliness. God 
 * Eph. ii. 12. 
 
THE LOST GOD. 
 
 is unknown, absent, lost. Earth seems the only reality, 
 while heaven is regarded as a shadowy land, and the 
 existence of heaven's Holy One little better than a 
 shadowy imagination. This is the practical atheism 
 which abounds : men live as they list ; they are " with- 
 out God in the world." This is the great woe of the 
 human race. Men, so long as they continue irreligious, 
 must suffer disorder and misery, for they have lost the 
 Supreme Order and the Supreme Source of happiness. 
 They have the name of God, the Word of God, and the 
 house of God ; and yet they have no God. 
 
 This is all the more shameful to man, since the sur- 
 rounding creation, animate and inanimate, is not with- 
 out God. The heavens declare His glory ; the firmament 
 shews His handywork. The earth displays His riches; 
 so does the " great and wide sea/' The countless crea- 
 tures that people the land, and air, and waters, wait on 
 God who gives them their meat in due season, and, in 
 the ways appointed to them, render praise to Him. 
 The stars in the sky, and the little flowers of the field, 
 unite in witnessing for God. 
 
 " The headlong torrents, rapid and profound, 
 The softer floods that lead the humid maze 
 Along the vale, and the majestic main, 
 Sound His stupendous praise." 
 
 There is not the same disjunction between God and 
 creation, as there is between God and the chief of that 
 creation, man. But here is the poignant misery. It 
 
 B 
 
18 THE LOST GOD. 
 
 is man who was formed and qualified for communion 
 with God; and now he has lost all — he has lost time 
 and eternity, he has lost his better self — since he has 
 lost God. 
 
 " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye 
 upon him while he is near." * How has the lost God 
 drawn near? Not with a voice of terror, shaking 
 earth and heaven — not with thick clouds, hailstones, 
 and coals of fire — not with sharp arrows or a glittering 
 sword. His ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts 
 as our thoughts. He came in a holy babe at Beth- 
 lehem, nursed in a virgin's arms. He came as a gentle 
 Teacher and Healer of men, walking to and fro through 
 Judea and Galilee. He came very nigh to us in Jesus, 
 the crucified Man of Calvary. At the cross God may 
 be found, the lost Jehovah is near. 
 
 * Isa. lv, 6. 
 
THE SOUL ASLEEP. 19 
 
 IV. 
 
 The soul of the sinner is asleep. The spiritual powers 
 and susceptibilities are deadened and benumbed. How- 
 ever awake and alert in earthly relations, the whole 
 character is lethargic toward God and His eternal truth. 
 The man who abides in sin has eyes but sees not, ears 
 but hears not, neither does he understand with his 
 heart. He is like one overtaken by intolerable drowsi- 
 ness, who sleeps, amidst the snows of St Bernard, a 
 quiet but fatal sleep. 
 
 He who sleeps is oblivious of the past, and ignorant 
 of the present. So is the sinner — forgetful of the good 
 impressions of days gone by, and heedless of the value 
 of the time that now is — not knowing it to be " the ac- 
 cepted time." His sleep is not altogether undisturbed. 
 Natural conscience sometimes alarms, and the sleeping 
 man turns and tosses on his bed ; at times appears al- 
 most certain to awake, almost persuaded to be a Chris- 
 tian. But he mutters, "A little more sleep, a little 
 more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to 
 
20 THE SOUL ASLEEP. 
 
 sleep/' and stretches himself again upon the bed of 
 irreligious indifference and sloth. There may be dreams 
 of great activity, but still there is no movement; or a 
 mere somnambulism, an outward mechanical activity, 
 as of one who walks in sleep, while the spirit within is 
 still torpid and insensible. 
 
 Some awake, from spiritual sleep only to perish. 
 Eefusing to be wise in time, they discover their danger, 
 with a start, when it is too late to seek salvation. In 
 the very agony of their awakening they are lost. So 
 is it with one who sleeps securely in his cabin at sea, 
 and the ship suddenly founders, and he is drowned 
 before he can even reach the deck. 
 
 " He wakes at the vessel's sudden roll, 
 And the rush of waters is in his soul." 
 
 So it is with the somnambulist, who is comparatively 
 safe while sleep continues, but may perish in the mo- 
 ment of sudden awaking. A young girl walked one 
 night in sleep, came out through a window upon the 
 house-top, and walked up and down the sloping roof 
 with fearless step. No one knew how to rescue her 
 from the fearful peril. Once and again she walked to 
 the very edge of the roof, still asleep, and appeared to 
 look over the verge. At that moment a light from an 
 opposite window flashed across her eyes ; she woke 
 affrighted, and with a scream fell lifeless to the street. 
 Such a waking of fear may await many who now walk 
 
THE SOUL ASLEEP. 21 
 
 gaily and fearlessly through the world, locked in spirit- 
 ual sleep. 
 
 There is a better awakening when the soul hears 
 and obeys the effectual call of God — an awakening, not 
 of fear but of faith — not of despair but of hope — not 
 of horror but of joy and love. To know this by expe- 
 rience is the privilege of the sinner saved by grace ; to 
 awake and arise — to be startled in conviction, and to 
 be raised into " newness of life." 
 
 Alas ! the soul of a saint, while on earth, may fall 
 asleep. Drowsy influences creep over the Church, and 
 overcome many that were truly awakened and converted 
 to God. The three disciples who slept in the garden 
 of Gethsemane are but sad types of Christians in every 
 age, who cannot watch one hour. At times a languor 
 or faintness creeps over pious hearts — the mind becomes 
 torpid and forgetful, and its former zeal decays. On 
 the bed of overmuch security the unwatchful Christian 
 stretches himself, and soon falls fast asleep. And the 
 Church stands still because of the self -pleasing lethargy 
 of her members. 
 
 It is high time to awake out of sleep — to be alive to 
 all the great interests of Immanuers kingdom, and to 
 be intent on the hope and joy of His appearing. It is 
 time to arise to the activities of the day of grace, and 
 watch for the splendours of the day of glory. " Watch- 
 man ! what of the night ? " Our prophetic watchman, 
 in the "burden of Dumah," answered, "The morning 
 
22 THE SOUL ASLEEP. 
 
 cometh, and also the night/' * But the apostolic watch- 
 man, in the service of Christ and the Church, cheerily 
 answers, " The night is far spent, the day is at hand/'f 
 These words ring like a morning bell, bidding us wake 
 and work. All things begin to stir — the heavy clouds 
 rise — the shadows flee away — the sun will soon be up — 
 
 " The shining day, that burnish'd plays 
 On rocks, and hills, and towers, and "wand'ring streams, 
 High gleaming from afar ! " 
 
 Would to God that the people of Christ were more 
 wakeful than they are, and more sensible of the sweet- 
 ness and dignity of living in and to their Lord! Is 
 our salvation, in its final triumphs, drawing nearer 
 every day? It is an argument for an increasing ardour 
 of soul. As the runner strains every nerve and limb 
 when he nears the end of the course, and the goal is in 
 his eye — as the sailor forgets the hardships of his long 
 and weary way across the sea, and works the ship with 
 new zeal and sleepless care so soon as he scents the 
 land breeze, or sees afar on the horizon the long ex- 
 pected shore — so should we, having hope in Christ, 
 increase our diligence, hold ourselves on the alert, and 
 press into the kingdom of God. So let us watch, and 
 walk, and work, and wrestle, and pray, as those who 
 are nearing the "inheritance of the saints in light/' 
 and would not lose it for worlds. 
 
 * Isa. xxi. 11, 12. f Rom. xiii. 12. 
 
THE THKEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 23 
 
 V. 
 
 %\t % \xnU\ €tttiMm jtf i\t IMr. 
 
 The Holy Ghost, the Comforter or Paraclete, is sent 
 to the Church, but His work is not confined to the 
 hearts of believers. When He is come, He operates, as 
 the Lord Jesus foretold, on " the world/' convincing 
 it "of sin, righteousness, and judgment/'* 
 
 The world is preyed upon by sin, and groans under 
 its weight ; yet indulges it, and dislikes to be reproved. 
 Eestraints there are for the prevention of flagrant 
 offences — restraints of law, of conscience, of public 
 opinion, and of self-respect. Yet by none of these is 
 the world convinced of sin. It may condemn crime 
 and bewail misery, but it has no sense of the base and 
 dreadful character of sin as committed against the 
 Throne of God and of the Lamb. The soul of the 
 world is not pierced with contrition, nor the stiff neck 
 of its will taught to bow, without the action upon 
 it of a power from on high — the power of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 * John xvi. 8-11. 
 
24 THE THKEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 
 
 Our Saviour, in speaking of the conviction of sin, 
 avoided vague general charges, and specified the sin of 
 unbelief. Human law can take no cognisance of this — 
 natural conscience is slow to perceive any great evil in 
 it; and were it not for the demonstration of its wicked- 
 ness by the Divine Spirit, it might pass for no sin at 
 all, whereas it is a root and mother of all sins. Unbe- 
 lief is divinely exposed in its true character, as a sin the 
 most base, committed against the love of God and of 
 His dear Son — the most ruinous, as rejecting the very 
 remedy for ruin offered in the gospel — and the most 
 comprehensive, as including all blindness and hardness 
 of heart, barring out the light of God's countenance and 
 the sweetness of His salvation. 
 
 As the world knows not its sin, so it fails to form 
 any true conception of righteousness. .All the world's 
 wisdom, before the descent of the " Comforter," knew 
 nothing of this. Philosophy, poetry, the modes of 
 religion, and the aspects of life, all were unable to teach 
 or exemplify righteousness. The Divine law, indeed, 
 prescribed the will of the perfectly Eighteous One, and 
 rebuked all unrighteousness of men. Yet they would 
 not learn — the world was not convinced. 
 
 The Comforter has come to shew righteousness to 
 the world; not its own righteousness, for it has none, 
 but the righteousness of Him who has "gone to the 
 Father." And as the sin of the world has been its 
 want of faith, so it can obtain righteousness only 
 
THE THKEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD. 2 
 
 through faith. Unbelief and unrighteousness go to- 
 gether ; so do faith and righteousness. 
 
 Excellent are the words of the late Archdeacon Hare : 
 — " As the sin of which the Comforter came to con- 
 vince the world, is of a totally different kind from 
 every thing that the world calls sin — as it is a sin 
 which the world, so long as it was left to itself, never 
 dreamed of as such, nor does any heart, left to itself, 
 so regard it — while yet it is the one great all-in-all of 
 sin, the sin by which men are cut off and utterly 
 estranged from God, the sin through which they grow 
 downward toward hell instead of growing upward 
 toward heaven ; — so, on the other hand, is the righteous- 
 ness of which the Comforter came to convince the world, 
 totally different in kind from every thing that the world 
 accounts righteousness — a righteousness such as the 
 world, in the highest raptures of its imagination, never 
 dreamed of; a righteousness, moreover, by which the 
 effect of sin is done away, and man, hitherto cut off 
 and estranged from God, is reunited and set at one with 
 Him. The Comforter came not to convince the world 
 of its own righteousness ; one might as fitly convince 
 a cavern at midnight of light. The Comforter is the 
 Spirit of truth, and can only convince of the truth. 
 But the world's righteousness is a lie, hollow as a 
 
 whited sepulchre, tawdry as a puppet in a show 
 
 Christ's going to the Father was indeed the fullest, 
 completest, most damnatory of all proofs of the world's 
 
26 THE THEEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 
 
 unrighteousness and iniquity. It was the proof that 
 Him, whom the world condemned, God justified ; that 
 the stone, which the builders rejected, God made the 
 Head-stone of the corner ; that Him, whom the world 
 had lifted up on high on a cross of shame, God lifted 
 up on high to a throne of glory in the heavens ; that 
 Him, whom the world cast out, nailing Him between 
 two thieves, God took to Himself, and set Him in the 
 heavenly places far above all principality and power. 
 But, while Christ's going to the Father was a proof of 
 the unrighteousness and desperate wickedness of the 
 world, it was also a proof of righteousness — namely, of 
 His own pure and perfect and spotless righteousness. 
 It was a proof that He was the Holy One who could 
 not see corruption. It was a proof that he could not 
 possibly be holden by death any more than it would be 
 possible to hold the sun by a chain of darkness ; and 
 therefore that, as Death, the ghastly shadow which ever 
 follows inseparably at the heels of Sin, fled from His 
 presence, He must needs be also without sin. It was a 
 proof that, while the world ' desired a murderer to be 
 granted to them,' He whom they denied was the Holy 
 One and the Just." * 
 
 To these sentences we need add nothing. The Com- 
 forter has come to demonstrate to the world the 
 righteousness of the ascended Saviour — righteousness 
 alike in His personal character and in His public 
 
 * Mission of the Comforter, pp. 129, 130. American edition. 
 
TEE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD. 27 
 
 representative position as the Substitute and Surety of 
 sinners. He is " the end of the law for righteousness 
 to every believer" — righteousness to clothe, as with 
 white raiment, those who now pine and shiver in the 
 nakedness of their sins. 
 
 The world also needs to be convinced of judgment — 
 to feel that God cannot be mocked — that under His 
 government evil has no impunity — that the evil will 
 inevitably be condemned and cast out, while the good 
 shall prevail and triumph. The world has not, of its 
 own wisdom, reached this conviction. No terrors of 
 Divine or human law — no miseries of the vicious — no 
 testimonies of past history, have sufficed to convince 
 the world of judgment. But the Holy Spirit convinces 
 by this evidence — " The prince of this world is judged/' 
 The prince of this world is no rightful sovereign, but a 
 usurper and tyrant — "the spirit that worketh in the 
 children of disobedience/' His commands are these — 
 " Thou shalt have as many gods as thou wilt, or no god 
 at all, according to thy pleasure. Thou shalt have 
 images, and any mode of worship that thou wilt, pro- 
 vided only that Christian simplicity be corrupted. Thou 
 shalt take the name of God in vain. Thou shalt break 
 the Sabbath. Thou shalt dishonour thy parents. Thou 
 shalt kill. Thou shalt commit adultery. Thou shalt 
 steal. Thou shalt lie. Thou shalt covet/' Such are the 
 ten commands of the prince of this world. Especially 
 he opposes himself to Christ, the Prince of Life ; and 
 
28 THE THEEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 
 
 as God has uttered a New Testament command — " That 
 we believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ" — the 
 prince and god of this world has dared to utter a 
 counter-command, saying, " Ye shall not believe ! " 
 
 But this prince is judged. The whole manifestation 
 of Christ, in His birth, in His holy life, and in His mira- 
 cles, especially His mastery over unclean spirits, was 
 a discomfiture of the prince of this world. At last, 
 the lifting up of the Eedeemer to die — which seemed 
 to be a victory for the Evil One — proved to be his utter 
 defeat. "Through death, Christ destroyed him that 
 had the power of death, that is, the devil." * It is too 
 true that the prince of this world is still at work 
 in the hearts and homes of men ; though judged, 
 he is not yet bound, as he is to be ; but the contest 
 between good and ill is virtually decided. The Seed of 
 the woman has bruised the serpent's head. 
 
 Now, to minds convinced of the sin of unbelief and of 
 the righteousness of Him who has gone to the Father, 
 the Holy Spirit carries home this lesson also — that the 
 prince of this world is judged, and that all who walk 
 after the " course of this world " are included in the 
 same condemnation. 
 
 On these three points — sin, righteousness, and judg- 
 ment — the world now, as much as ever, needs strong 
 and deep convictions. Eeligious sermons, and books 
 that please the taste, but do not search and enlighten the 
 consciences of men, are preached and written in vain. 
 * Heb. ii. 14. 
 
THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD. 29 
 
 Preaching and writing should be faithful and fearless, 
 and prayer should be made continually for the arresting 
 and convicting operations of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 It is interesting to observe that conviction is attri- 
 buted to the Comforter ; so has it comfort, if not 
 wrapped in its bosom, certainly close upon its steps. 
 Are we convinced of unbelief ? There is no cause to 
 despair. Christ freely pardons all who truly repent of 
 that sin, and grants His grace to every one who says, 
 with sincerity, " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine un- 
 belief." The conviction of righteousness carries conso- 
 lation too. Jesus is " the Lord our righteousness ;" 
 and if we cast away the sin of unbelief, His righteous- 
 ness is ours by faith. The conviction of judgment, too, 
 — the judgment of the prince of this world — has strong 
 consolation for those who desire deliverance from his 
 cruel yoke. As the conviction of righteousness con- 
 nects with the justification of believers, so the convic- 
 tion of judgment connects with their sanctification. 
 They are tempted to evil by the prince of this world, 
 and are at times so sore beset that their hearts begin 
 to fail, and they almost despair of ever being holy. 
 What comfort, then, in the conviction that the prince 
 of this world is judged ! The king of the house of 
 bondage is defeated. Jehovah hath judged him. Jesus 
 hath destroyed his power in the Eed Sea. The friends 
 of Jesus shall partake of all His victory. " The God 
 of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly/'* 
 
 * Rom. xvi. 20. 
 
30 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHITKCH. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The education of the Church has been gradual. Long 
 time she was treated as "under age/' placed under 
 restraints, subjected to a minute ritualistic training, 
 taught by line on line, precept on precept, initiated by- 
 slow degrees into " the mysteries of God." It is true 
 that piety of disposition was attainable in a very high 
 degree, and actually attained, in the days of old ; but 
 even in pious minds religious knowledge was limited, 
 for the Church was yet in her elementary education. 
 Many things might have been told to her which were 
 not told, for the Lord perceived that she could not bear 
 them then. 
 
 When the Old Testament education was fulfilled, and 
 devout persons — alas ! too few — were " waiting for the 
 consolation of Israel/' John the Baptist appeared to 
 prepare the way of the Lord. Then Jesus came, ac- 
 knowledged even by such a one as Nicodemus to be a 
 "teacher come from God ;" and immediately the higher 
 and more spiritual education of the Church began. In 
 
THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHUECH. 31 
 
 the sermon on the mount — in the parables — in His 
 answers to His enemies — in those occasional sayings of 
 His wisdom and love which distilled as the drops of dew 
 — and in the discourse delivered after the Last Supper, 
 the Lord Christ gave to the Church an immense supply 
 of new thoughts, of truly Divine conceptions. Yet the 
 disciples who heard Him were slow of heart, and the 
 multitude still more dull and prejudiced. Accordingly, 
 the Master saw meet not to express all the truth, or 
 bearings of the truth, but to inclose much in figures 
 and enigmatic sayings, not to be understood till after 
 His death and resurrection. So long as His followers 
 were children in understanding, Christ fed them with 
 milk, not with strong meat. With calm penetration 
 of their mental and moral state, He said, " I have yet 
 many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
 now." * 
 
 The unfinished education of His Church our Lord 
 has committed to the Holy Spirit. " When he, the 
 Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth." -f- This continues from age to age — the Spirit, 
 who abides with the disciples, ever developing and 
 revealing more and more truth out of the Word, 
 bringing latent or neglected doctrines to the vivid ap- 
 prehension of Christian minds, carrying forward to 
 perfection the Divine education of the Church. 
 
 It cannot be denied that gross heresies have arisen, 
 
 * John xvi, 12, 13. + Ibid. 
 
32 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF. THE CHTJECH. 
 
 and that the Church has again and again lost hold of 
 truths once firmly grasped. But gross heresies have 
 never been accepted by minds that were spiritually 
 taught, and truths lost by Christendom have been lost 
 only for a time. The history of great doctrines amply 
 sustains the general statement, that the Church is 
 educated by degrees. These doctrines all are inclosed 
 in the Bible, but did not at once shine out before the 
 eye of the Church. The Christian Church could not 
 bear them all at once — had not sufficient breadth of 
 capacity, or ripeness of spiritual judgment. Accord- 
 ingly, they have been evolved, one by one, generally in 
 connexion with severe controversies, and through the 
 instrumentality of individual men, to whom the Spirit 
 gave a special insight into particular truths. Thus the 
 calling of the G-entiles into the fellowship of the Church 
 was not apparent to the minds of the first disciples till 
 it was divinely revealed to Simon Peter, and there- 
 after clearly established by the arguments of Paul, 
 and by the decision of the Christian Council of Jeru- 
 salem .* In like manner the doctrines of the Holy 
 Trinity, of original sin, sovereign grace, the atonement, 
 and justification by faith, though easily pointed out by 
 us on the pages of the Bible, were not so clearly seen 
 there from the beginning. But the Spirit of truth en- 
 abled and employed Athanasius to bring out the teaching 
 of Scripture regarding the Tri-Unity of God — Augus- 
 
 * Acts x., xi., xiii., xv. 
 
THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHURCH. 33 
 
 tine to expound and establish the sovereign grace of God 
 and the original sin of man — Anselin to elucidate the 
 nature and necessity of our Lord's propitiatory sacrifice 
 — and Martin Luther to revive, with power, the ancient 
 doctrine of the apostles regarding justification by faith. 
 The Divine education of the individual follows the 
 same general rule. The soul cannot bear to know all 
 truths at once ; and he who thinks he knows all, knows 
 nothing yet as he ought to know. The mind of the 
 true Christian must never lose its docility; for only on 
 the docile and submissive mind the most sublime 
 truths are evolved, in due order and course, out of 
 Holy Writ, by the Spirit of truth sent down from 
 heaven. New light falls on old truths ; and others, 
 never perceived before, shine out to view, often for the 
 first time, in some night of weeping — 
 
 " Night brings out stars, so sorrow shews us truths." 
 
 The chief function of the educating, enlightening 
 Spirit of truth is to shew " the things of Christ," in 
 which are included all our Lord's personal excellences 
 and saving qualifications. These are declared in the 
 Bible, but are never deeply known or appreciated until 
 shewn by the Holy Ghost. He discovers Christ, in His 
 person, as very God and very man ; in His Messiahship, 
 His love, His power, His gentleness, His zeal, His sin- 
 bearing, His victory, His resurrection, ascension, inter- 
 cession, and coming again to judge the quick and dead. 
 c 
 
34 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHUKCH. 
 
 These things are not taught at once, and once for all. 
 The Spirit leads us farther and farther into the know- 
 ledge of Christ, while we undergo the discipline and 
 training of an actual religious life. Are we crushed 
 under a sense of sin ? He shews us the wounds of our 
 Propitiation on the cross, and the power of our Advo- 
 cate on high. Are we in sickness ? He shews us the 
 grace and skill of our good Physician. Are we in 
 tribulation? He shews us the faithful Promiser and 
 unfailing Friend. Are we drooping or downcast in 
 heart ? He bids us lift our eyes and see the Beloved 
 leaping on the mountains, hasting to our help. Are 
 we at the Lord's Supper? He enables us to discern 
 the Lord's body, and to know our Master in the break- 
 ing of bread. Are we on our deathbed? He shews 
 us the Conqueror of death, and bids us hear His voice, 
 saying, " Pear not ; I am the First and the Last : I am 
 he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive 
 for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hades and 
 of death/'* 
 
 There is yet more to be said regarding the " things 
 of Christ" shewn by the Spirit of truth. Thus sj:>ake 
 the Saviour : " All things that the Father hath are 
 mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and 
 shew unto jou/'-f The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
 are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and 
 glory; nevertheless, they are described in Scripture as 
 
 * Rev. i. 17, 18. t John xvi. 15. 
 
THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHUECH. 35 
 
 observing a gradation, or even subordination, one to 
 the other, in the plan and work of human redemption. 
 Such subordination is not of any inherent necessity (so 
 far as we may judge), but by arrangement; not essential, 
 but economical and manifestative. In this manner 
 the Son is represented as receiving from and submissive 
 to the Father ; the Spirit as receiving from and sub- 
 missive to the Son. The Divine Father is the source, 
 the Divine Son is the channel, and the Divine Spirit 
 is the applier or imparter of redemption. The " all 
 things" — the plenitude of grace — we read of as pri- 
 marily possessed by the Father : " All things that the 
 Father hath ;" " My Father worketh hitherto." In the 
 fulness of time the Father sent the Son, commissioned 
 Him to be the Saviour of men ; and then committed to 
 Him the " all things," that He might be the represen- 
 tative of the Father, work the Father's works, and ac- 
 complish the Father's will. This was often expressed 
 by our Lord: "All things are delivered unto me of 
 my Father f " My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
 work." * The Son came to save : as the messenger of 
 the Father, announcing His will; the servant of the 
 Father, finishing His work; the gift of the Father, 
 evincing His love; the witness for the Father, glorify- 
 ing His name; and the trustee of the Father, holding 
 and exercising His plenitude of power and grace. The 
 words of Paid, "It pleased the Father that in him 
 
 * See also John v. 19, 20, 26, xii. 49, 50. 
 
36 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHTJKCH. 
 
 should all fulness dwell/' are in exact harmony with 
 our Lord's own words, "All things that the Father 
 hath are mine." 
 
 When the Son had finished His work, and gone up 
 to the excellent glory, having received of the Father all 
 power in heaven and in earth, He sent the Paraclete 
 — the Holy Ghost was " shed forth." Then the " all 
 things" committed by the Father to the Son were by 
 the Son committed to the Spirit, and by Him are now 
 shewn to the Church, and imprinted on the minds and 
 hearts of individual believers. "He shall receive of 
 mine, and shall shew it unto you." 
 
 Thus the education of the Church is accomplished after 
 a manner truly sublime. All grace and truth descend 
 from Father to Son, from Son to Holy Ghost, and by 
 the Holy Ghost are immediately revealed and imparted 
 to human souls, elect of God. Then glory ascends, 
 praise redounds from the Church of the enlightened 
 and saved by the Spirit to the Son, and through the 
 Son to the Father. In the glory of the Father all the 
 results of the redemptive dispensation are gathered up, 
 as from the love of the Father they flowed. "Then 
 cometh the end, when Christ shall have delivered up 
 the kingdom to God, even the Father." * 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 24. 
 
THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 37 
 
 VII. 
 
 %\t %%Mm 0f i\t Jjmi 
 
 Eveey human being is new, without exact precedent 
 or counterpart. No two human histories, no two 
 human characters, entirely correspond. So vast are 
 the resources of the Creator, that He never repeats 
 Himself, even in forming generation after generation 
 — millions of men. As every face or every form, so also 
 every mind, every heart is a new product, and no 
 copy of any that pre-existed or that co-exists. Every 
 one has a course of experience and a way in life special 
 to himself — his own, and not another's. There is such 
 a community between man and man as lays a basis for 
 confidence, friendship, sympathy ; but even where there 
 is a very cordial reciprocation of feeling, there is, there 
 must be, an individual inviolability, without which, 
 indeed, there could be no liberty, no dignity — perhaps 
 no personal virtue. 
 
 Unreserved confession to a fellow-man is not only an 
 impropriety, but an impossibility. I might tell to a 
 " ghostly father " all the sins my memory retains or my 
 
38 THE ISOLATION OF THE HEART. 
 
 language can express ; but there is in me still that 
 which is incommunicable. I cannot expose my quiver- 
 ing heart; and, if I could, my fellow-man could not look 
 upon it. Jehovah only knows the heart. To search 
 the hidden recesses of man is His prerogative. As 
 John Foster finely said, "Each mind has an interior 
 apartment of its own, into which none but itself and 
 the Divinity can enter. In this secluded place the 
 passions mingle and fluctuate in unknown agitations. 
 Here projects, convictions, vows, are confusedly scat- 
 tered, and the records of past life are laid. Here, in 
 solitary state, sits Conscience, surrounded by her own 
 thunders, which sometimes sleep and sometimes roar, 
 while the world does not know/' 
 
 "The heart knoweth its own bitterness" — but one 
 heart cannot adequately express its grief to any other. 
 
 " Not even the tenderest heart, and next our own, 
 Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh." 
 
 The heart thirsts for sympathy, yet feels that it must 
 sorrow alone. Did not this appear in the " Man of sor- 
 rows acquainted with grief ? " He sought the society 
 and sympathy of His familiar followers, Peter, James, 
 and John, when in the garden " He began to be sore 
 amazed, and very heavy." And yet He was alone in 
 His agony. The disciples understood Him not. They 
 even fell asleep while He, isolated from all men, went 
 forward a little space alone, and, in the "bitterness" of 
 His soul, fell on the ground and prayed. 
 
THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 39 
 
 Bitterness of grief such as Jesus felt no one knows, 
 or can possibly endure. But in every serious distress we, 
 too, have a craving for sympathy, and yet a necessity 
 to be alone. And, indeed, the more intense the grief, 
 the more we have it to ourselves. Let the spirit be 
 pierced to the quick, or stirred to its depths, and no 
 human being can suffice to be its comforter. Hannah 
 knew her own bitterness, but Eli knew it not ; and 
 instead of comforting, gave her a rash, unjust rebuke. 
 Job knew his own bitterness ; but the friends who 
 came to visit him in his affliction little knew how his 
 wounded spirit should be healed. Perhaps there is no 
 man of a deep emotional nature, who has been in much 
 affliction, that has not found the sympathetic expres- 
 sions of fellow-mortals, though perfectly well intended, 
 yet hackneyed and unsatisfying — -just because entire 
 reciprocity between heart and heart is, in the present 
 life, impossible. 
 
 " One writes, that ' other friends remain,' 
 
 That ' loss is common to the race ' — 
 
 And common is the commonplace, 
 
 And vacant chaff well meant for grain. 
 
 " That loss is common would not make 
 My own less bitter, rather more ; 
 Too common ! Never morning wore 
 To evening but some heart did break! " 
 
 No sympathy is sufficient for the human heart but 
 that of the Lord Jesus. He knows what is in man ; 
 
40 THE ISOLATION OF THE HEART. 
 
 He looks upon the heart ; He never misunderstands our 
 case; and, whatever our peculiarity of temperament, He 
 is skilful to provide the very relief or consolation that 
 we need. The depth of His tenderness is not more won- 
 derful than its perfect adaptation to minds of different 
 orders, and of different degrees of strength and sensi- 
 bility. For a sorrow that utters itself in words, there is 
 the Saviour's open ear ; for that which may be soothed 
 by words, there are the Saviour's lips, pouring out 
 " gracious words ; " for that which cannot speak, which 
 is silent, tearful, Mary-like, there are drops of consum- 
 mate sympathy — there are the Saviour's tears ! 
 
 The heart is isolated, not only in its sorrow, but 
 also in its joy; no " stranger intermeddleth" therewith. 
 Especially is this true of the "joy in the Lord." It 
 cannot be known without personal religious experience. 
 Unconverted persons may read of the "pleasures of 
 piety," but are unable to form any just opinion regard- 
 ing them, and very often sneer at them, out of sheer 
 ignorance, as delusive or fanatical. " The kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field ; the which 
 when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof 
 goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that 
 field." * But one who traverses the field, and lights on 
 no treasure, cannot understand that joy of the treasure- 
 finder — sympathises not, intermeddles not therewith. 
 
 Sometimes the young Christian is surprised to find 
 
 * Matt. xiii. 44. 
 
THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 41 
 
 that he seems to stand so much alone; his ardent feel- 
 ings are not shared by others. But it is with the 
 heart's joys as with the heart's bitterness. One needs 
 not look for any perfect sympathy. It is no new 
 thing for those who rejoice greatly in God's service 
 to be misunderstood. King David's own wife scorned 
 and mocked his pious exultation. She despised him in 
 her heart, and she mocked him to his face. Michal had 
 " loved David/' but she was a stranger to the highest 
 and deepest joys of the royal Psalmist's heart.* 
 
 Every one who has any real spiritual experience 
 knows that he has something which he can, something 
 also which he cannot tell For the glory of God and 
 the good of the Church let there be an avowal of 
 mercy received ; but let it be made discreetly, delicately, 
 humbly. Such declarations are not for the ears of the 
 ungodly. These are strangers, who must not inter- 
 meddle with our joy. The often-quoted language of 
 Psalm lxvi. is addressed to those only who could under- 
 stand the feelings of a devout mind : " Come and hear, 
 all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath 
 done for my soul." But when the declaration is made, 
 there remains much untold. As great griefs are silent, 
 so also are the greatest joys. The most sacred emo- 
 tions are not to be "wrapped in coarse weeds of words," 
 and paraded before every curious eye. An awe of God 
 casts a chastening veil of silence over the most perfect 
 
 * 2 Sam. vi. 16, 20-23. 
 
42 THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 
 
 bliss. The joy that flows through the new heart is not 
 a babbling, shallow brook, but a deep, placid stream, 
 moving softly beneath the shady trees. 
 
 In joy as in sorrow we find the only consummate 
 sympathy in Jesus. Thus the Church describes Him, 
 " This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem ! .... I am my Beloved's, and his 
 desire is toward me!"* 
 
 * Cant. v. 16, vii. 10. 
 
 
THE MYSTEE1ES OF GOD, 43 
 
 VIII. 
 
 %\t fl^tos of §&h 
 
 " Mysteey " is a Greek word. In our language it is 
 employed to characterise something strange, dark, in- 
 comprehensible ; but this is not its meaning in the 
 New Testament. No passage can be quoted where this 
 word denotes a curious or inscrutable secret ; and no 
 Scriptural warrant exists for the superstitious applica- 
 tion of the term to religious rites, as when the elements 
 in the Lord's Supper are called "the Holy Mysteries." 
 Indeed, the term " mystery " belongs not to rites at all, 
 but to facts and truths; and it has been correctly 
 defined as " a sacred thing, hidden or secret, which is 
 naturally unknown to human reason, and becomes 
 known only by the revelation of God." The Scripture 
 calls that truth a mystery which it entered not into the 
 human heart to conceive, and which was for ages hid 
 from human cognisance, but in due time Divinely 
 revealed. The essential idea is, not inscrutable diffi- 
 culty of comprehension, but discovery to human minds 
 by superhuman wisdom ; and the " mysteries of God," 
 
44 THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. 
 
 of which the ministers of Christ are " stewards/' * are 
 not the unrevealed, unfathomable depths of the Divine 
 being and perfections, but the revealed truths concern- 
 ing God, His government, and all His ways of justice 
 and kindness with the sons of men. 
 
 At the same time, so much of the popular idea 
 regarding mysteries is to be retained, that we apply 
 the title, not to all religious truths, but to those of a 
 grand and impressive character — truths that transcend 
 the unassisted human conceptions, and which, while 
 revealed and understood in the fact of them, are yet, 
 in the manner of them, far above us, and out of our 
 sight. 
 
 Men have been, and are, who reject all mysteries as 
 superstitions, and repudiate all supernatural religion. 
 This is strange enough ; for the same men are compelled 
 every day to believe things the rationale of which they 
 do not understand. Who among us really knows how 
 a blade of grass springs, or how each herb preserves its 
 peculiar scent, or how the sunlight stimulates the growth 
 of plants ? Yet the facts are believed on sufficient evi- 
 dence. There is mystery in a flower that blows as truly 
 as in a star that burns. The old schoolmen said, 
 "Omnia exeunt in mysterium \" and truly there is 
 nothing known which does not reach out into the un- 
 known — nothing exists the absolute ultimatum of 
 which is not lost in mystery. 
 
 * 1 Cor. iv. 1. 
 
THE MYSTEEIES OF GOD. 45 
 
 Let us distinguish between the " Quid " and the 
 " Quomodo." We must needs ascertain the " What," 
 the import of that which we are asked to believe, and the 
 evidence by which it is attended ; but the " How," the 
 rationale, may not be within the range of our present 
 mental powers. Let reason have all her due province 
 in relation to revealed religious truths. No man can 
 be asked to receive or reject a doctrine alleged to be 
 from God until he understands the terms of the propo- 
 sition in which it is conveyed ; but the understanding 
 of the proposition does not necessarily imply that we 
 can define with mathematical exactness all its terms and 
 boundaries. Reason is an inquirer, and has an import- 
 ant function to perform in investigating the force of 
 evidence and the import of documents, but is not to 
 decide on the truth or falsehood of what is taught or 
 revealed by its own preconceptions and alleged intui- 
 tions, which may be no better than prejudices. Let 
 reason reject whatever is found to be without adequate 
 evidence, or to involve a contradiction in terms; but 
 let it not presume to reject any doctrine or fact on the 
 ground that the rationale of it is not comprehended, 
 as if it sat on the bench in a Supreme Court of Appeal. 
 Human faculties cannot grasp infinite relations; the 
 mind of man cannot " by searching find out God/' 
 
 This is not all. Mysteries are not only admissible, 
 but necessary to a true religion. It is vain to say that 
 they are not characteristic of true religion ; because all 
 
46 THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. 
 
 religions, even the most corrupt and degrading, have 
 set forth mysteries to impress and control the multi- 
 tude. Such a mode of attack on the Christian mys- 
 teries is grossly unjust. No analogy exists between 
 the pretended mysteries of Paganism and Popery on 
 the one side, and those of Christianity on the other. 
 The mysteries of ancient Paganism were secrets jeal- 
 ously preserved, to maintain the influence of the idols 
 and the priesthood ; and they were very often celebrated 
 with rites and practices of vile impurity. What is 
 there in common between such abominable inventions 
 and the mysteries of the pure and holy Christian 
 faith ? Equally unfair is it to compare the latter with 
 the false mysteries of Popery, of which the most pro- 
 minent is the astounding dogma of Transubstantiation. 
 This is not a mystery at all, but an arrant contradic- 
 tion. The Council of Trent thunders forth : "Si quis 
 negaverit, in venerabili Sacramento eucharistise, sub 
 unaquaque specie, et sub singulis cuj usque speciei 
 partibus, separatione facta, totum Christum contineri ; 
 anathema sit/' But that the body of Christ — a body 
 having " flesh and bones/' having a definite extent, cir- 
 cumference, and finitude — is literally and actually, at the 
 same moment, in heaven and in earth, on a thousand 
 altars at once, in every crumb of every consecrated wafer, 
 and every drop of consecrated wine, — all this is no 
 mystery of faith, but a contradiction which has and 
 can have no evidence, and which no "anathema" can 
 
THE MYSTEKIES OF GOD. 47 
 
 compel a sane man really to believe. One may shut 
 his eyes to its real nature — may bow himself to acknow- 
 ledge it — may say "Yes" to the dogmatic assertion; 
 but no man can force his own spirit to believe self- 
 contradictory ideas. The mysteries of the Bible are 
 not so. They claim belief on evidence, as contained in 
 a well-authenticated revelation from God; and they 
 involve no contradiction, bidding no man to receive 
 them at the cost of violating the first principles of his 
 intellectual and moral nature. 
 
 Such are the mysteries which we affirm to be essen- 
 tial to a true religion. Man cannot give a religion to 
 himself, transparent and complete ; he cannot find his 
 way up the awful steeps toward the Divine Perfection. 
 Eeligion is learned by revelation of God, by the vo- 
 luntary communication of the Infinite with the finite. 
 The idea of God as " infinite" necessarily involves the 
 existence of mysteries. From Him they proceed ; in 
 Him they centre. And in so far as we have religion, 
 or come into relation to the Infinite One, we must walk 
 on the margin of the incomprehensible — we must sail on 
 the bosom of a sea whose depths our longest plummets 
 cannot sound. 
 
 Eeligious truths have not sprung to light in the 
 mind of man, but have been radiated forth from the 
 God of truth, at such times and in such measures as 
 have seemed good to His inscrutable wisdom. Hidden 
 from the Pagan world — hidden, in a great degree, even 
 
48 THE MYSTEEIES OP GOD. 
 
 from the Church of the Old Testament — they were 
 brought to light by the Gospel. Such are the cardinal 
 doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the work of 
 the Holy Ghost, and the resurrection of the dead. They 
 are so numerous as to check the presumptuous mind ; 
 they are not so numerous as to discourage any humble 
 inquirer. The mysteries and the simplicities go hand- 
 in-hand in Eevelation. To use the words of Chateau- 
 briand, " Ce qu'il y a de veritablement ineffable dans 
 l'Ecriture, c'est ce melange continuel des plus prof onds 
 mysteres et de la plus extreme simplicite, caracteres 
 d'ou naissent le touchant et le sublime/' * 
 
 For the study of " the mysteries of God " we need a 
 humble heart, since nothing is more blinding than 
 pride. Every one knows that the most successful 
 students of God's works have been men of a lowly and 
 childlike spirit. The same observation applies to the 
 study of God's Word. The most truly enlightened and 
 religious spirits are the most ready to acknowledge 
 ignorance, and the most impregnated with sincere 
 docility. 
 
 We also need a loving heart. Love is the wisest 
 interpreter of the revelation of God. The sky — to 
 take an illustration well employed by Vinet on this 
 very point — is garnished with millions of stars, spark- 
 ling through the night ; but a blind man sees them 
 not, and forms no conception of their beauty. Another 
 
 * Genie de Christianisme. 
 
THE MYSTEKIES OF GOD. 49 
 
 sky overshadows us in Holy Scripture, with stars of 
 truth shining from the azure depths ; but the blind 
 and carnal heart perceives them not. There must be 
 an eye of the heart, and that eye is love. The loving 
 heart beholds the mystic stars. 
 
50 THE EOD OF CHEIST'S STRENGTH. 
 
 m. 
 
 %\t $0fo 0f tfjritf j Stegt|. 
 
 The deliverer Moses, called of God in Midian, went 
 down into Egypt without pretence or pomp, leading the 
 ass that bore his wife and little ones. But though he 
 seemed a poor weak old shepherd, he was mightier 
 than all Egypt, for the Lord was with him. He came 
 to scourge the most powerful kingdom of the world 
 that then was, and to set ah enslaved nation free. 
 Warranted to do this by a Divine command, he was 
 equipped with Divine might and strength. "And 
 Moses took the rod of God in his hand/'* This rod 
 was no other than the simple shepherd's crook, which 
 Moses had with him on Mount Horeb when he tended 
 Jethro's flock. It pleased God to connect with that rod 
 a miracle-working power, saying, " Thou shalt take this 
 rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs/'-j- 
 From that hour, Moses regarded his pastoral crook as 
 invested with sacred dignity and worth, and called it 
 " the rod of God." This rod he stretched over the Red 
 
 * Exod. iv. 20. f Exod. iv. 17. 
 
THE EOD OF CHRIST^ STRENGTH. 51 
 
 Sea, and the waters were divided; he stretched it out 
 again, and the waters returned to their place. With 
 this rod he smote the rock in Horeb, and a copious 
 stream gushed forth. This rod also he lifted up to 
 heaven till the going down of the sun, when he abode 
 all day long on the top of the hill, sustained by Aaron 
 and Hur, till Joshua had defeated Amalek with the 
 edge of the sword, and from the tents of Israel rose the 
 shouts of victory, echoing among the rocks, and resound- 
 ing far over the desert plains. 
 
 Herein is illustrated a principle on which all Divine 
 deliverances proceed. The means and instruments are, 
 to outward appearances, feeble and inadequate, but 
 " the excellency of the power is of God,'"' and the results 
 which He intends are sure. The shepherd's crook was 
 a feeble thing as "the rod of Moses," but it was mighty 
 as "the rod of God." In like wise, the gospel is a 
 feeble thing as the word of man, but it is mighty — even 
 omnipotent— as it is, "in truth, the word of God." 
 
 As Moses came without pomp on an errand of judg- 
 ment and mercy, on a mission of redemption, so came 
 Jesus to the world, so comes Jesus to the heart — without 
 noise or ostentation, but mighty to save. Do you ask 
 for a sign that He is sent of God ? Ask it not. While 
 He dwelt and ministered on earth, He indeed wrought 
 signs and wonders before many witnesses, and appealed 
 to them in attestation of His Divine mission, saying, 
 " Believe me for the very works' sake." But no longer 
 
52 THE EOD OF CHEIST'S STEENGTH. 
 
 are such signs given. No miracles are wrought on 
 outward nature, or on the bodies of mankind. We have 
 that which is better and greater than signs. "The 
 Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : 
 but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stum- 
 blingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto 
 them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ 
 the power of God, and the wisdom of God."* 
 
 The doctrine of His Holy Word, especially the truth 
 of His " dying love/' is that rod of Christ's strength 
 which does exploits. It is "sent out of Zion"-f- for 
 judgment and for mercy. It is to subdue Christ's 
 enemies, and to rule His willing people in His day of 
 power. " With righteousness shall he judge the poor, 
 and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth : and 
 he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and 
 with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked/' J 
 
 Though preachers of the Gospel are weak, their 
 weapon is mighty through God. It was no power of 
 Moses, but the power of God with Moses, that punished 
 Pharaoh, and delivered Israel. So with the rod of 
 Christ's strength. It is administered now by feeble 
 hands, wielded by sinful men. But it is none the less 
 a rod of strength, a divider among men, for it is the 
 truth of the Most High, and is accompanied by "the 
 demonstration of the Spirit and power." § It is that 
 
 * 1 Cor. I 22-24. f Ps. ex. 2. 
 
 X Isa. xi. 4. § 1 Cor. ii. 4. 
 
THE ROD OF CHRIST 'S STRENGTH. 53 
 
 instrument whereby the Holy Ghost, applying the 
 redemption by Christ, works mighty changes in the 
 moral world, devastating the kingdom of evil, and 
 rescuing from cruel bondage the Church of the First- 
 born — the " sacramental host of God's elect/' 
 
54 THE UEIM AND THUMMIM. 
 
 X. 
 
 %\t Irim ani)f f \xmam. 
 
 The higli priest in Israel bore the names of the twelve 
 tribes on his shoulders and on his breastplate, engraved 
 on precious stones. The Lord Jesus, " our High Priest 
 over the house of God/' sets His people as a seal upon 
 His breast, and a seal upon His arm. He bears the 
 Church on the shoulders of His strength, not only be- 
 fore the face of man, but even before the face of God. 
 He also carries the Church upon his breast, as the object 
 of His love — binds believers to Himself with the golden 
 chains of His everlasting faithfulness. 
 
 On his breastplate, the high priest in the ancient 
 sanctuary bore the " Urim and Thummim/' "What 
 these precisely were no one knows ; but it is certain 
 that, through means of these, the Divine will was com- 
 municated to the high priest in solemn emergencies. 
 In the days of the theocracy, the Most High, as the 
 King of Israel, gave audience to His chief minister in the 
 secret place of His pavilion, and transmitted through 
 him His commands to His loyal subjects, the thousands 
 
THE UKIM AND THUMMIM. 55 
 
 of Israel. The words, " Urim and Thummim'' (" lights 
 and perfections"), appear to have denoted the clearness 
 of the directions given to the high priest, and the 
 perfect rectitude and wisdom of the decisions he was 
 accordingly enabled to pronounce. 
 
 In the highest sense, the Urim and Thnmmim are 
 possessed by the " High Priest of our profession, Christ 
 Jesus/' To this very symbol St Paul may have alluded 
 when he wrote, " In whom (Christ) are hid all the trea- 
 sures of wisdom and knowledge/' * Among other 
 names of grace and glory, our Lord has this from the 
 pen of the prophet, " His name shall be called, Coun- 
 sellor/' f His counsels are all good and perfect. He 
 had and has the most complete insight into the pur- 
 poses of Heaven, and into the cares and wants of all the 
 children of men. He needs not that any should testify 
 of man, for He knows what is in man. He needs not 
 that any should tell Him what is in God, for He knows 
 what is in God. His knowledge is infinite, His wisdom 
 is consummate ; and we are to receive, not only healing 
 by His stripes, and pardon through His blood, but also 
 the law at His mouth ; we are to learn of Him who is 
 meek and lowly in heart, that we may find rest to our 
 souls. 
 
 The guidance which Israel's high priest obtained by 
 Urim and Thummim, and communicated to the people, 
 was confined to great national occasions. But Christ 
 
 * Col. ii. 3. t Isa. ix. 6. 
 
Ob THE UEIM AND THUMMIM. 
 
 is able and willing to give to His people who humbly 
 ask Him, Divine direction in all the detailed difficul- 
 ties and perplexities of personal and family life. As 
 many as rest upon the value of His sacrifice, and hope 
 in His continual intercession, receive freely the light of 
 His Spirit, whereby they understand the Scriptures, 
 and are moulded in disposition, and speech, and conduct 
 according to the will of God. It is not in man that 
 walketh to direct his steps ; but the Christian man has 
 Christ, the Wonderful Counsellor, on whom to lean — 
 has in Christ, the Urim and Thummim, the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge, at his prayerful command; so 
 that he cannot fatally err from the way of truth and 
 rectitude. Safely he is guided through the trials of the 
 outer and the temptations of the inner life, till he is 
 taken up, through death's dark gate, into the presence 
 of the High Priest, to join the fair ranks of those whom 
 He has made kings and priests to God, even His 
 Father — who shall reign for ever and ever. 
 
OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 57 
 
 XL 
 
 Mma k €\xM. 
 
 The Kock of salvation has ever been to many minds 
 " a stumblingstone and rock of offence/' The blessed 
 Bedeemer, while He dwelt among men, knew perfectly 
 that many were "offended in Him" — was well aware 
 of the opposition to His character and claims — and yet 
 was not careful to reply to all objections — was content 
 to appeal to those positive evidences of His healing 
 power and saving grace which might suffice to con- 
 vince an honest judgment — leaving opportunity to 
 others to question and cavil as they pleased. In this 
 lies an obvious analogy between the Incarnate Word 
 and the written Word of God. Neither in the mani- 
 festation and life of the one, nor in the structure and 
 language of the other, has provision been made against 
 all possible offences. On the contrary, the claims of 
 Jesus Christ, like the claims of the Bible, are so put 
 forth as to try the spirit of man — not compelling assent 
 as by a mechanical necessity — not rendering cavil and 
 objection impossible — but clothed in such evidence as 
 
58 OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 
 
 will test the moral fairness of each responsible human 
 mind. 
 
 The offence in Christ taken by the ancient Jews is 
 carefully recorded by the Evangelists for our admoni- 
 tion and warning; for men of the same dispositions 
 with those Jews exist among us, and are as much 
 offended as ever in the Lord Jesus. There never were 
 more Pharisees and Sadducees than now. The Phari- 
 sees are they to whom religion is a matter of self- 
 righteousness, or churchmanship,' or laborious routine. 
 The Sadducees are they by whom religion is frittered 
 away in scepticism, intellectual vanity, and " philosophy 
 falsely so called/' To them must be added the large 
 class of men to whom religion is a deathbed shadow, 
 and tenrporal success the only substance ; for the most 
 numerous sect in Christendom is the sect of the world- 
 lings, and the heresy most in vogue is the practical one 
 of secularism in all the feelings of the heart, and all 
 the aims and labours of the life. 
 
 The following were the chief causes of offence found 
 in the blessed Saviour of old time, and they are the 
 same in substance as those which prejudice many minds 
 and hearts against Him at the present hour : — 
 
 1. The constitution of His 'person as the God-man. 
 — At whatever time the truth concerning our Lord as 
 " the only-begotten of the Father/' or as " God mani- 
 fested in the flesh," was affirmed, the Jews were offended 
 in Him. When, on a certain day, they " took up stones 
 
OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 59 
 
 to stone Him/' it was on this charge, " For blasphemy, 
 because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." 
 There is evidence that almost any other claim on our 
 Lord's part would have been admitted, if He had sup- 
 pressed the claim of Divinity. The people received 
 Him as a great prophet, and were more than once 
 ready to make Him their king. But His assertion of 
 His Divine Sonship ruined His popularity, and finally 
 occasioned His condemnation to death in the court of 
 the high priest. Before Pilate He was accused of 
 treason •* but before Caiaphas, the charge on which 
 the Redeemer was condemned was blasphemy. " The 
 high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the 
 Christ, the Son of the Blessed ? And Jesus said, I am ; 
 and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right 
 hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 
 Then the high priest rent his clothes," &c.-f" Thus the 
 Jewish ecclesiastics were offended in the Lord Jesus, 
 because of the assertion of the truth regarding His 
 person as at once the Son of the Blessed and the Son 
 of man. But He went to death rather than compro- 
 mise that truth. 
 
 Is not this an offence that continues to the present 
 hour ? If we now say that Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 man, was and is the Son of the blessed God, and that 
 the Son and the Father are one, j are there not some 
 ready to charge us with folly, perhaps with blasphemy ? 
 
 * Luke xxiii. 2. f Mark xiv. 61-64. J John x. 30, 
 
60 OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 
 
 Do not the Arians and Socinians, the whole body of 
 those who have assumed the title of Unitarians, just 
 prolong the very "offence" taken by the unbelieving 
 Jews ? Ask them to say precisely " who the Son of 
 man is/' and their answers will vary as much as did 
 those of the Jews reported by the disciples.* Make 
 any claim for Christ other than that of Deity, and many 
 of them will hasten to concede it, and vie with you in 
 eulogistic and almost adoring language applied to the 
 Holy Jesus. But let us affirm that the Son of man is 
 the co-equal Son of the Blessed — let us say, with the 
 Apostle John, " This is the true God, and Eternal Life/' 
 and straightway they resist us, and are offended in Him. 
 The apostle of Unitarianism is Caiaphas. 
 
 2. The lowly state in which the Lord Jesus lived, 
 and in which the Christian Church took its beginning. 
 The meek and lowly Saviour, walking through the land 
 in humble guise, unnoticed by the magnates of this 
 world, attended by a few fishermen and peasants and 
 poor women, in no respect met the ambitious wishes 
 of His countrymen, and they were " offended in Him." 
 In " His own country/' they said, " Is not this the 
 carpenter's son ? Is not his mother called Mary ? and 
 his brethren, and his sisters, are they not all with us ? 
 .... And they were offended in him."+ Now it had 
 been easy for the Son of the Blessed to have chosen 
 His human birth in a higher station of life than that of 
 
 * Matt. xvi. 14. f Matt. xiii. 55-57. 
 
OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 61 
 
 ( ' the carpenter's house/' and His early human home at 
 Jerusalem, rather than at the proverbially despised 
 town of Nazareth — but He did not see meet to obviate 
 all occasion of offence. It pleased Him to take the form 
 of a servant, though He was Lord of all. It pleased 
 Him even to be of Galilee, out of which " cometh no 
 prophet." 
 
 The obscure condition of Christ's first disciples in- 
 creased this occasion of offence. The Jewish ecclesias- 
 tics and the whole sect of the Pharisees were especially 
 influenced by this ; for they felt, and took no pains to 
 conceal, an arrogant contempt for the common people. 
 Witness their reply to " the officers," who had refrained 
 from arresting Jesus, because never man spake like 
 Him — "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers 
 or of the Pharisees believed on him ? But this people 
 who knoweth not the law are cursed." * 
 
 This prejudice against a lowly Saviour, a companion 
 of the poor, a friend of the common people, has never 
 ceased. Advantage was taken of it by the early heathen 
 opponents of Christianity. Thus Celsus, who antici- 
 pated so many of the scoffs and gibes of modern infi- 
 dels, remarked with a sneer — men, " woollen manufac- 
 turers, shoemakers, curriers, and the like, the most 
 uneducated and boorish men, are zealous advocates of 
 this religion — men who cannot open their mouths be- 
 fore the learned." \ In fact, nothing could reconcile 
 
 * John vii. 45-49. f Quoted by Neander. 
 
62 OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 
 
 
 the proud Jewish sectaries, and equally proud Gentile 
 sceptics, to the thought, that from a " carpenter's house" 
 should issue the Saviour of the world, and that poor 
 and unlearned men should persevere to convert nations, 
 and establish on earth a " kingdom of heaven." In our 
 own times, this old offence continues to be felt. It is 
 shewn in the boastful language of some who affect an 
 air of superiority and patronage toward the apostles of 
 our Lord, if not our Lord Himself. It is shewn, too, 
 in the foolish desire to connect the Church with a social 
 exclusiveness — to set apart particular Christian circles 
 or places as fashionable or patrician — placing the 
 "lower orders" at a distance and disadvantage in reli- 
 gious privileges — despising the churches of the poor. 
 
 8. The strictness of our Lord's doctrine and pre- 
 cepts. — Many were offended by the bold, unsparing, and 
 holy ministry of Jesus. The evil conscience of His 
 generation was wounded by His fidelity, and its self- 
 indulgence chafed under His absolute claims. When 
 He preached of the heart's depravity, as flowing forth 
 and defiling the man, His disciples said to Him, 
 " Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after 
 they heard this saying? But he answered and said, 
 Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, 
 shall be rooted up. Let them alone : they be blind 
 leaders of the blind." * This was His unflinching 
 spirit. Let who would be offended, our Lord sparec] 
 
 * Matt. xv. 10-14. 
 
OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 63 
 
 no sin, recognised no hypocritical form of godliness, 
 allowed no compromise between God and Mammon, 
 demanded the surrender and devotion of all the heart ; 
 and, alike in the precepts He delivered and the ex- 
 amples He shewed, presented to His contemporaries, 
 and to all generations, the highest standard and purest 
 model of holiness. Had He been content to prescribe a 
 ceremonial strictness, a rigorous observance of external 
 religious usages, the Pharisees would have applauded 
 His zeal : had He, on the other hand, encouraged a 
 latitudinarian spirit, the Sadclucees would have lauded 
 His charity, complimented His superiority to the vul- 
 gar superstitions : but the course that He took — the 
 inward holiness and righteousness that He inculcated, 
 displeased them all, because it condemned them all; 
 and with one accord those carnaUy-minded men were 
 " offended in Him/' 
 
 Assuredly this remains a cause of offence to the 
 present hour. The strict sanctity of Christ's character 
 and precepts can never be congenial to the selfish, evil 
 heart of man. And men refuse to be Christians, or 
 become bad and inconsistent Christians, because, how- 
 ever desirous to be saved from hell, they are not will- 
 ing to part with their besetting sins, or to deny them- 
 selves, and daily take up the cross, following Jesus. 
 
 4. The manner and object of His death. — The Evan- 
 gelists describe, with all plainness of speech, the igno- 
 miny to which our Lord was subjected, the coarse de- 
 
64 OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 
 
 rision, and the tree of shame. The apostles also speak 
 of "His body on the tree," and His "being made a 
 curse for us." To enlightened Christians this has 
 always been cause of glorying ; but to others an occa- 
 sion of offence. Even the eleven disciples, truly loving 
 Jesus, could not bear that He should die as He did. 
 They laboured to dissuade Him from going up to Jeru- 
 salem to suffer ; and though they went up, resolved to 
 " die with Him/' they all flinched in the trying hour. 
 " Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended 
 because of me this night." * The thought of salvation 
 through a despised and rejected Sufferer was strange 
 to all minds, and confounded all expectations. 
 
 We have been wont, from our youth up, to think 
 of the death of Christ with thankfulness as a sacrifice 
 for the expiation of sins. But this continues to be 
 a stumblingblock to many. The modern Jews, when 
 they would express their contempt or hatred of the 
 Lord Jesus, call Him " the Hanged One." The Deists, 
 and Unitarians, and Universalists, and a multitude 
 who have not formally ranged themselves under these 
 denominations, but whose sentiments are very far from 
 the evangelical standard, continue stoutly to resist the 
 doctrine of atonement or propitiation. The offence of 
 the Cross has not ceased. 
 
 5. The afflictions of His people. — Our Lord never 
 concealed from His followers that trials and deaths 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 31. 
 
OFFENCE IN CHPJST. 65 
 
 awaited them ; and that certain hearers, not having root 
 in themselves, would be offended whenever " tribula- 
 tion or persecution should arise because of the word."* 
 He evinced the most tender desire that His chosen 
 disciples might stand firm in the day of rebuke, and 
 promised to them the support of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Comforter. 
 
 The like open persecutions do not ensue on our con- 
 fession of the name of Jesus ; but tribulation in some 
 form is appointed to all who are His. Many who 
 name His name incur an obloquy and derision very 
 hard to be borne. Tor this cause, some who are per- 
 suaded of the truth refuse or delay to take Christ's 
 yoke upon them, and are even "offended in Him/' 
 
 6. The discords and divisions of His Church. — In 
 the earliest times this was not so great an objection as 
 now, for the primitive Church, though no stranger 
 to factions and disputes, presented one front to the 
 heathens and the Jews. But, in modern days of con- 
 troversy and division, it is common to allege that it is 
 impossible to know who is right, and what is true ; and 
 on this ground to be offended in Christ. But it should 
 be considered that the discords and dissensions com- 
 plained of come not of the Spirit of Christ, form no 
 part of our holy religion, but spring out of the mis- 
 understandings, imperfections, and wilfulnesses of the 
 human mind. It should be noticed, too, in all fairness, 
 
 * Matt. xiii. 20, 21. 
 E 
 
66 OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 
 
 that many of the existing diversities affect not at all 
 the essentials of the faith in Christ, but are connected 
 with views of Chnrch polity, or with national or local 
 preferences, or with varieties in the forms of worship. 
 This at least we can say: In every Church, worthy of 
 the name, Christ is preached — the same Christ ; and it 
 is worse than folly, on account of subordinate questions 
 and variations among Christians, to reject Christ Him- 
 self, or be " offended in Him/' 
 
 So long as, for any one of these reasons, or on any 
 other account, we hold aloof from Christ, conjuring up 
 difficulties and doubts, we shall never be without occa- 
 sions of offence ; we can never know a calm and settled 
 peace. But whenever, heeding them not, we go straight 
 to Christ, and rest on Him as offered to us in the 
 Gospel, all perplexities become plain, all theoretic ques- 
 tionings find their best solution in our gracious expe- 
 rience, and every day convinces us more deeply that 
 " Christ is all and in all." Wisdom is thus justified of 
 her children. And while the children of that worldly 
 Wisdom, which is foolishness with God, continue to 
 cavil and object, the children of heavenly Wisdom are 
 not confounded world without end ; — the dwellers on 
 the Eock sing a new song, even praise unto our God. 
 
 
THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. 67 
 
 XII 
 
 %\t f rnnrntma of %m% €\mi 
 
 As " the Image of the invisible God/' our Lord Jesus 
 Christ has the pre-eminence. His is the glory of the 
 only-begotten of the Father. He is the manifestation 
 of the inscrutable Jehovah — declaring the Divine 
 nature and will — administering the Divine government ; 
 God with us, and God over all, blessed for evermore. 
 
 As the author of creation, and the upholder of all 
 that He has created, our Lord Jesus Christ has the pre- 
 eminence. Creation existed as an idea or plan in the 
 infinite mind of God : in due time it was carried into 
 effect by the power of the Logos, the only-begotten Son. 
 " All things were made by him; and without him was 
 not any thing made that was made/' * To us, all the 
 beauties and sublimities of creation, and all the har- 
 monies and intricacies of Providence, attest His pre- 
 eminence, and celebrate His praise. The bright worlds 
 that move in their courses, observing their times and 
 seasons, are made and ruled by the Christ of God. The 
 
 * John i. 3. 
 
68 THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 vast universe reverently declares His pre-eminence ; and 
 the praise of the First-born is set to the music of the 
 spheres. By the angels in their majestic order, thrones, 
 dominions, principalities, and powers, He is acknow- 
 ledged ever pre-eniinent ; for "all the angels of God 
 worship Him/'* His glorious name is written, too, on 
 this fair earth — its woods, and flowers, and gems, and 
 fruits, and wonders of the deep. In the order and 
 history of our earth, let us read the praise of Christ — 
 Christ in all present — Christ over all pre-eminent. 
 "AH things were created by him, and for him; and he 
 is before all things, and by him all things consist, "f 
 
 As the Source and Head of the Church, in His 
 capacity of Lord of the resurrection, Jesus Christ has 
 the pre-eminence. 
 
 He is the Ruler of the Church — governing the indi- 
 vidual Christian, as being "the Head of every man" — 
 governing also the Catholic Church, as its King and 
 Head. The pope is not head of the Church — the 
 sovereign is not head of the Church — the vox populi 
 is not head of the Church. No bishop nor archbishop 
 is primate of the Church of Christ. All such claims 
 are at variance with His own inalienable prerogatives. 
 He is the Head, holding all the members in subordina- 
 tion and harmony. He is also the Primate, the apxv 
 of the new creation — having both priority and supe- 
 riority ; the Founder of the Church, the beginning of 
 * Heb. i. 6. + Col. i. 16, 17. 
 
THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. 69 
 
 its existence, and source of the blessed influence whereby 
 it lives; and also the Chief, the Lord, the Leader and 
 Commander of the Church; and so the Primate, the 
 only Primate, the first in authority and rank.* 
 
 He, too, is the Saviour of the Church; and in this 
 pre-eminent, unapproachable, alone. " Neither is there 
 salvation in any other." In the exercise of His saving 
 powers and prerogatives He manifests this pre-emi- 
 nence. He sends to the Church the Holy Ghost, by 
 whose operation the world is convinced of sin, right- 
 eousness, and judgment ; the anxious are led to peace 
 in believing; the saints are edified; and the mourners 
 in Zion consoled. He reconciles sinners to God; for 
 in Plim, the pre-eminent One, the sin-polluted find 
 cleansing blood — the lost have redemption — the guilty 
 have justification — and the far-off are made nigh. He 
 keeps His own from perishing. Other shepherds may 
 lose some of their flock; but the pre-eminent One, the 
 Shepherd and Bishop of souls, has said of His sheep, 
 " I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never 
 perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my 
 hand."-)- At last He brings His own to heaven. The 
 Church is in many struggles and infirmities; but her 
 Lord guides her by His counsel, and will receive her 
 to glory. The life of the Church is in the Head, and 
 the Head- is "pre-eminent." With the Head, the 
 members shall be glorified together. "When Christ, 
 
 * Col. i. 18. + John x. 28. 
 
70 THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHEIST. 
 
 our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
 him in glory/'* 
 
 To take up the strain of Samuel Eutherford — " Oh 
 but Christ is heaven's wonder, and earth's wonder! 
 What marvel that His Bride saith, 'He is altogether 
 lovely'? Oh that I could invite thousands, and ten 
 thousand times ten thousand, of Adam's sons to flock 
 about my Lord Jesus, and to come and take their fill of 
 love ! Pity for evermore, that there should be such a 
 One as Christ Jesus — so boundless, so incomparable in 
 excellency and sweetness — and so few to take Him ! 
 Ho ! why will ye not come hither, with your empty 
 souls, to this huge, fair, deep, sweet Well of Life, and 
 fill all your vessels ? Come all and drink at this living 
 Well, and satisfy your deep desires with Jesus l"f 
 
 * Col. iii. 4. f Rutherford's Letters. 
 
A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEAKY. 71 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Jl SMr in jtam to t|e Itorg. 
 
 A good word is always a weapon of power, doubly so 
 when spoken at the right time in the right place. It 
 is a proverb of Solomon, "A word fitly spoken (marg., 
 ' spoken upon his wheels ') is like apples of gold in 
 pictures (network) of silver." * The beauty of the sil- 
 ver basket gives a heightened attraction to the golden 
 fruit. So does the seasonableness of a true saying 
 much enhance its value and effect. " A word spoken 
 in due season, how good is it ! " — a word apt to the 
 occasion, not forced or formal, but running as on 
 chariot wheels ! This was characteristic of the sayings 
 of the Lord Jesus. They had an aptitude to some pre- 
 sent event or want, or rose out of a conversation ; not 
 dragged in of set purpose ; but, running on in a manner 
 of inimitable ease and dignity, they were words upon 
 the wheels. Thus the discourse against covetousness 
 and worldly care rose out of the saying of " one of the 
 company/' " Master, speak to my brother, that he divide 
 
 * Prov. xxv. 11. 
 
72 A WOED IN SEASON TO THE WEAEY. 
 
 the inheritance with me/' * The successive parables of 
 the lost sheep, the lost drachma, and the prodigal son, 
 are all "words on the wheels," starting from that mur- 
 mur of the Pharisees and scribes, " This man receiveth 
 sinners, and eateth with theni/'-f* The "gracious 
 words" in regard to the " living water" sprung from the 
 simple circumstance that a woman of Samaria came 
 to Jacob's well to draw water, and Jesus, sitting by the 
 well, said to her, " Give me to drink " J From the be- 
 ginning, His words of spiritual instruction ran "upon 
 wheels/' One instance more. Our Lord's discourse on 
 " the bread of life " followed the miracle of multiplying 
 loaves in the wilderness, and took its rise most appro- 
 priately from this saying, " Ye seek me, not because ye 
 saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, 
 and were filled. Labour not for the meat which 
 perisheth," &c. § So the word ran speedily. 
 
 The words of our Lord were sometimes swift and 
 sharp reproofs. The Holy One of God could not live 
 in this world for thirty years without finding much to 
 deplore and reprehend ; and nowhere can be found 
 language of more uncompromising denunciation than 
 that which the Lord Jesus employed against pretentious, 
 hypocritical, carnally -minded men. Yet, mainly and 
 characteristically, the work of Christ was a work of 
 gentleness — His mission, a mission of kindness — and 
 
 * Luke xii. 13. + Luke xv. 2. 
 
 ± John iv. 7. § John vi. 26, 27. 
 
A WOED IN SEASON TO THE WEAEY. 73 
 
 His words distilled as seasonable clew on parched and 
 weary souls. The Man of sorrows was no stranger to 
 weariness, and he had compassion on the weary and 
 heavy laden. He knew how to speak to their hearts, 
 for " the Lord God had given him the tongue of the 
 learned."* He did not strive or cry in the streets. 
 His ministry was not one of clamour and noisy noto- 
 riety, of " lo ! here, and lo ! there/' But, after the 
 whirlwind, and earthquake, and fire, He spoke with " a 
 still, small voice." He uttered terrible things to the 
 proud ; but His ministry to the humble was mild, 
 patient, encouraging, with a mighty secret power — 
 soul-moving, soul-melting, soul-healing, soul-cheering, 
 soul-winnbig — not understood by the stout-hearted, 
 but well suited to all the weary ones. 
 
 Reader ! Are you weary under the burden of sin ? 
 Has the pressure of a guilty conscience borne you down 
 to grief and shame? The Lord, "with the tongue of 
 the learned," has a word in season for you. " Know 
 that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
 sins." " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." 
 
 Reader ! Are you weary under vexation of spirit ? 
 Have you been deceived, disappointed, chagrined ? Has 
 the wretchedness of an unsatisfied heart fallen upon 
 you ? You detect the hollowness of worldly hopes and 
 joys, and yet have no better portion ; so are you jaded, 
 desolate, ill at ease. Weary one ! the " tongue of the 
 
 *Isa. 1.4. 
 
74 A WOED IN SEASON TO THE WEAEY. 
 
 learned " has a word in season for yon. " Come nnto 
 me, all ye that labonr and are heavy laden, and I wil 
 give you rest." * 
 
 Reader ! Are yon weary under the toil and care of 
 life ? Early and late do you labour for daily bread ? 
 Or, do difficulties rise before you, like threatening 
 spectres, and you know not how to face them ? All 
 day long you are embarrassed, and even by night, upon 
 your bed, you are vexed and sick at heart. Hearken 
 to "the tongue of the learned:" — "Seek not ye what 
 ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of 
 doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of 
 the world seek after : and your Father knoweth that ye 
 have need of these things/' -j* 
 
 Reader ! Are you weary under a weight of afflic- 
 tions ? Have bereavements and sorrows fallen on you 
 till your eyes are dim, and your heart is faint ? Have 
 earthly consolations failed you, and even dear earthly 
 friends proved miserable comforters all ? There is One 
 who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, who 
 loves to " comfort all that mourn," and who knows how 
 to speak a word in season to the spirit desolate. 
 
 " A bruised reed shall he not break." J We are not 
 as the solid rocks, or hoary hills ; rather as the blades 
 of grass, or as the reeds in a fen or by a river bank — 
 short-lived, slender, and susceptible. If we stand erect 
 in our seeming prosperity and strength, affliction, sent 
 
 * Matt. xi. 28. f Luke xii. 29, 30. $ Isa. xlii. 3. 
 
A WOKD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY. 75 
 
 in mercy, reveals the frailty of our frame. Pressed with 
 disquietudes, bent with sorrows, man is a bruised reed 
 But then, when the reed is bruised, how delicate the 
 touch of our Saviour's hand ! He does not break, but 
 sustain ; He does not upbraid, but upbincl ; He does 
 not discourage, but revive. It is man who is harsh 
 to man ; but the Lord " healeth the broken in heart, 
 and bincleth up their wounds/'* 
 
 The intercourse of Christians should be marked by 
 the gentleness as well as the faithfulness that dwelt in 
 Christ. That is the most truly " learned tongue/' which 
 speaks in season healing words to the wounded, guiding 
 words to the anxious, reviving words to the weary. A 
 feeble Christian may, by a "word upon the wheels," 
 give comfort to one much stronger, who for the time is 
 harassed and faint. Martin Luther said, " The word of 
 a brother, pronounced from Holy Scripture in time of 
 need, carries with it an inconceivable weight. Thus 
 Timothy, and Titus, and Epaphras, and the brethren 
 who met St Paul from Rome, cheered his spirit, how- 
 ever much they might be inferior to him in skill and 
 learning in the word of God. The greatest saints have 
 their times of faintness, when others are stronger than 
 they/' 
 
 * Psalm cxlvii. 3, 
 
76 COMPENSATION. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 A LAW of compensation pervades all nature. All things 
 that exist, organic and inorganic, in the explored uni- 
 verse, are, with extreme niceness and delicacy, ordered, 
 proportioned, collocated, and balanced, so as to maintain 
 the conditions necessary to the life and happiness of 
 the creatures, and effect, without flaw or failure, the 
 Creator's comprehensive and benevolent designs. 
 
 Beautiful is the working of the same law in the life 
 of individual man, producing a balance of natural well- 
 being, wonderfully equal in all countries and ranks. 
 No man is so ill off, but has something in his favour. 
 No man is so fortunate, but has some worm gnawing 
 the root of his enjoyment. Poverty is relieved by a 
 cheerful spirit — wealth burdened with many cares. 
 Hard toil is recompensed by sturdy health — luxury 
 punished by a feeble constitution. " The choicest plea- 
 sures of life lie within the ring of moderation/' 
 
 No wise man will give place to discontent, when he 
 surveys the conditions of his fellow-men, and sees how 
 
COMPENSATION. 77 
 
 easily advantages and disadvantages are balanced. He 
 who has eminence is exposed to envy. He who lives 
 in great state, foregoes the simple comforts of a home. 
 The honoured warrior leaves wife and children dear, to 
 face danger and death. The man of thought and learn- 
 ing bows beneath a spirit overstrained. Truly, obscu- 
 rity has its compensations : and he is wise who, desir- 
 ing not high things, seeks the prize of happiness within 
 the charmed circle of content. 
 
 Consider even the undoubted sores and trials of this 
 mortal life. " Sweet are the uses of adversity." With 
 all pains and losses, there are sent blessings, or reme- 
 dies, or, at the least, alleviations, if we will only receive 
 them. Of old time was it not found, that what the 
 Church lost by martyrdom was more than repaid by 
 new accession of converts and new fervour of zeal? 
 The Church lost a Deacon, Stephen ; but how rich and 
 strange the compensation ! — as from the Deacons 
 martyred dust there sprung an Apostle, Paul. For 
 the individual, too, as well as the community, disease 
 and calamity have their uses, their alleviations, even 
 their ample compensations. Uses — forasmuch as they 
 serve to refine, humble, and hallow the character. 
 Alleviations — since " God stayeth His rough wind in 
 the day of His east wind." * And even compensations 
 — for some help, some vantage, not seen at first, is sure 
 to reveal itself to those that are watchful and wise. 
 
 * Isa. xxvii. 8. 
 
78 COMPENSATION. 
 
 When Paul came to Macedonia, Ms "flesh had no rest" 
 — " without were fightings, within were fears ; " but 
 God comforted him " by the coming of Titus/' * Thus, 
 often, when we are in great straits, some unexpected 
 Titus comes — some friendly compensation — and we are 
 not weaker, rather stronger ; and after our tears — some- 
 times in our tears — we are happier than before. It is 
 true of life, as of nature, that with the dark cloud God 
 sets a rainbow in the sky. 
 
 Alas ! indeed, there is an awful incubus lying on the 
 life and happiness of earth and earthly beings. There 
 is a disorder that was not in our world when the 
 Creator pronounced it " very good." There is a dark- 
 ness that may be felt. There is an anguish at the 
 heart of humanity. In one word, there is moral evil 
 — there is sin. Because of this, man aches, and fears, 
 and dies. Because of this, the whole creation groans 
 and travails in pain. But God hath not left us without 
 help. There is a remedial plan revealed in the glorious 
 Gospel. There is a redeeming blood — there is a renew- 
 ing power. There is a Divine provision, whereby man, 
 though evil and wretched, may be made a new crea- 
 ture, and with him all sin-stained things made new. 
 
 The more we consider human life, the more vast 
 appears the action of the law of compensation. Evils 
 are permitted for a season to oppress the good ; but 
 the good are saved by hope, and the things hoped for 
 
 * 2 Cor. vii. 5, C. 
 
COMPENSATION. 79 
 
 bring the abundant recompence. One cannot think, 
 even from present appearances, that this is the final 
 state. Human life is evidently cut short — broken off, 
 fragmentary, and incomplete. The sowing time is now 
 but the reaping time, for the most part, after death. 
 The faintness of the long wilderness has compensation 
 in the milk and honey of the promised land. In fact, 
 the doctrine of compensation applied to men, both the 
 evil and the good, involves " the doctrines" of judgment 
 and future states. 
 
 ' ' This world shall burn, and from her ashes spring 
 New heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell : 
 And, after all their tribulations long, 
 See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds." 
 
80 LESSONS FEOM WINTEB. 
 
 XV. 
 
 $mm$ fnrat WM%. 
 
 In our Canadian climate, winter is not so gloomy as in 
 many other regions of the world. With bright skies 
 by day and night, crisp snow, and bracing air, the 
 season is cheerful, notwithstanding its inexorable 
 severity. Would that another Cowper were among us, 
 to sing of "The Winter Evening," "The Winter Morn- 
 ing Walk," and " The Winter Walk at Noon" ! Mean- 
 time, in such poor prose as we command, we inquire 
 what occasions of human life, and what lessons for 
 those occasions, the winter months suggest. 
 
 1. Is not the winter an obvious emblem of old age — 
 not necessarily cheerless, but chill, rigid, decayed ? The 
 trees are dry and bare — with no sap in their boughs, 
 and on them no foliage. So baldness comes on the old 
 man's head, his limbs stiffen, and the fire passes from 
 his blood, telling that life's last season has arrived. 
 Now, he who is wise will be careful not to repine under 
 the pressure of age, but, looking up to God, will say, in 
 submission of faith, "Thou hast made winter." Is He 
 
LESSONS FEOM WINTER. 81 
 
 the God of youth only? Nay; but of old age also. 
 He has ordained the withering of age as truly and lov- 
 ingly as the budding and springing of youth. Nay, 
 more. Winter does not extinguish Nature's life, but 
 secretly husbands her powers for a glorious revival. It 
 is so with the winter of old age among the people of 
 God. In their roots is the sap of immortality. In 
 their old age and dissolution there may seem to be a de- 
 cay of their life and hope ; but this is only preparatory 
 to their glorious resurrection, and to an existence that 
 shall never feel the icy breath of winter again. " Thou 
 hast made summer and winter/'* And the summer 
 that God makes to follow the last winter of this earthly 
 life is the summer of eternal joy at His right hand, 
 under the beams, not of sun, or moon, or stars, but of 
 the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb ! 
 
 This thought need not be confined to actual old age. 
 It may comfort every believer who has by any cause 
 waxed early old, and lost the bloom and glow of life. 
 Let him submit himself unto God, who makes both 
 winter and summer, and let him cleave to Christ, in 
 whom all the saints shall be made alive : so will he 
 renew his youth after a manner that eye hath not seen 
 and ear hath not heard on earth; his "heart shall ever 
 live; and his very body, that dwelt in dust, shall awake 
 to sing, having a dew from the Lord as the dew of 
 herbs, when the earth shall cast out the dead."*f* His 
 
 * Psalm lxxiv. 17. f Is?, xxvi. 19. 
 
 F 
 
82 LESSONS FEOM WINTER. 
 
 winter shall be followed by the bright springtide of the 
 heavenly summer, that is never ended, never blighted, 
 in the promised ]and. 
 
 2. Is not the winter, bleak and bare, also a figure of 
 those times of bereavement and affliction, whereof 
 almost all have some experience? The leaves have 
 fallen, the woods are stript, the flowers are dead, the 
 open country is a waste of snow, and the flowing waters 
 are a frozen mass. So is it with the sons of sorrow. 
 As fade and fall the leaves, so "friend after friend 
 departs/' Some that had children and relatives thick 
 around them are now alone, like naked trees, shivering 
 before the wind. Life now seems a wintry waste — no 
 landscape, no flowers, no flowing streams — and the 
 heart lies chill and hopeless. 
 
 But who hath done these things ? Surely it is the 
 Lord who made thy winter, son of sorrow ! and 
 made it for His glory and thy good, since " He doth 
 not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." * 
 He, also, He only, can make thy winter pass away. 
 Only be patient, prayerful, and of good cheer, and He 
 who made the winter will make a summer too ! The 
 Lord knows how to turn sorrow into joy, and shivering, 
 cheerless feebleness into cheerful godly confidence : 
 and as for those dear ones of whom we are bereaved, 
 He knows how to give them back to us in a home that 
 sorrow never enters, in a fellowship that death never 
 
 * Lament, iii. 33. 
 
LESSONS FEOM WLNTEK. 83 
 
 divides. " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
 be comforted/'* In the coming summer, the trees of 
 righteousness shall be clothed anew with more than 
 they had ever lost, and the gentle flowers shall lift up 
 their heads to bloom again in an immortal youth. 
 
 3. May not the winter also illustrate those times of 
 spiritual hardness and coldness, through which even 
 godly persons sometimes pass? It is rare to spend 
 all the Christian life under warm sunshine and among 
 clustering flowers. Seasons there are, in the experience 
 of many, when the pious affections seem to be con- 
 gealed, if not extinct; hope languishes, love waxes 
 cold, and the very Sun of righteousness appears low 
 on the horizon, and greatly shorn of His power. When- 
 ever this chill comes upon the soul, through unwatch- 
 fulness or relapse into sin, it is to be penitently be- 
 wailed; and it will not pass away without the softening 
 of contrition and the ardour of prayer. When it comes, 
 not as the penalty of specific sinfulness, but according 
 to the sovereign will of God, who permits the feelings 
 of the human heart to undergo a sharp reaction after 
 religious joys, as though they fell from summer into 
 the cold bosom of winter, it is to be borne as the good 
 pleasure of Him who hath made summer and winter, 
 and it is to be accepted as a season, if of painful, still 
 of useful discipline. Provided always that there is 
 grace in the heart, that there is union with the Prince 
 
 * Matt. v. 4. 
 
84 LESSONS FEOM WINTER. 
 
 of life, such a winter of the soul as we now indicate 
 can be no more than the outward semblance of death. 
 It may kill noxious weeds that are not of Christ, but 
 cannot kill any plant that His heavenly Father has 
 planted. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the 
 world/'* Whatsoever hath life spiritual from God 
 will live through the winter into spring. Whatsoever 
 hath a root in Christ will also have a flower. 
 
 One of the Olney Hymns gives expression to the 
 thought : — 
 
 " Winter and spring have each their use, 
 And each in turn Grod's people know; 
 One kills the weeds their hearts produce, 
 The other makes their graces grow. 
 
 " Though like dead trees awhile they seem, 
 Yet, having life within their root, 
 The welcome spring's reviving heam 
 
 Draws forth their blossoms, leaves, and fruit." 
 
 Happily these winters are not periodical; and the 
 more buoyant and diligent of God's people have them 
 much less frequently and severely than others. Nay, 
 one may "grow out" of them altogether. As in the 
 progress of a new country's settlement, there is an ame- 
 lioration of climate, and the winters become less severe ; 
 so, in the progress of piety, the inward climate ame- 
 liorates, and it is rare for an advanced Christian to 
 undergo a long, unbroken winter of spiritual heaviness. 
 More and more does the Light that lighteneth every 
 
 * 1 John v. 4. 
 
LESSONS FEOM WINTEE. 85 
 
 man exert His powerful influence — kindling, reviving, 
 and rejoicing the heart, until the last wintry month is 
 over and gone, the snows are melted, the storms are 
 hushed, and there opens on the saved soul an endless 
 summer of joy in the Lord. 
 
 Some have no sensitiveness to spiritual climate. It 
 is because there is no life in them. Life shrinks in the 
 cold, and basks in the sunshine ; but lifeless things 
 heed not the changes of the rolling year. The stones 
 shew no distress in winter, and in summer evince no 
 joy. Their surface may be slightly chilled or warmed, 
 but no more. So insensible to spiritual climate are all 
 they who have a heart of stone, and not a heart of flesh. 
 
 After all, to those who are Christ's, this earth must 
 ever be a bleak, wintry place ; for they contrast it with 
 that heaven to which they hasten, where there is no 
 chill, no grief, no fading away. As Eutherford said, 
 " The land of Immanuel is an excellent soil. Oh but 
 His heaven lies well and heartsomely, nigh to the Sun, 
 the Sun of righteousness ! The fruit of the land is 
 excellent ; glory grows in the very outfields thereof. 
 Oh, what pure, unmingled joys lie on those eternally- 
 springing mountains, and in those gardens of spices ! 
 And what do we here ? Why toil so much in gather- 
 ing sticks to our nest, when to-morrow we shall be gone 
 out of this ?"* Well for us all to think less of our 
 earthly nests, and more of our heavenly home 1 
 
 * Euther ford's Letters. 
 
86 CHRIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Christ among \\t Wx\\ %w%\L 
 
 The Evangelist Mark, referring to onr Saviour's sojourn 
 of forty days in the wilderness, affirms that He " was 
 with the wild beasts." * This is not a mere incident 
 mentioned without purpose. It is characteristic of 
 Mark, who is no mere copyist or epitomiser of Matthew, 
 to record great matters in short clauses, and give hints 
 and glimpses of large truths in few and simple words. 
 
 The Lord Jesus was tempted in solitude. No human 
 being was near. Satan, the wild beasts, and the angels, 
 are said to have been with Him in the dreary wilderness. 
 It was at the outset of His ministry : the Seed of the 
 woman was about to begin the work of restoration. 
 Satan came to Him, not, however, in the disguise of a 
 serpent, but as prince of this world. The scene was 
 no garden of pleasures, but a wilderness ; and the 
 beasts, once submissive to man, were "wild." But 
 Satan, and the wild beasts too, were made to feel that 
 the second Adam was there. 
 
 * Mark i. 13. 
 
CHEIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. 87 
 
 On the foiling of Satan we may have often reflected 
 — not so on the mastery over the wild beasts. Herein 
 we have another glimpse of Christ's restoration of Para- 
 dise. When man lost the favour of God, he lost his con- 
 trol of the creatures. A certain temporary subjection 
 of them, indeed, appeared again in the times of Noah, 
 who prefigured the Saviour. But after the Deluge, 
 they cast off the fear of man. If Daniel in the den 
 was unharmed, it was only because God had sent His 
 angel to stop the mouths of the lions. But Christ was 
 with the wild beasts, ruling them by the energy of His 
 own will. The angels did not come to Him to minister 
 till after His wilderness trial was successfully past.* 
 He ruled the creatures as the second Adam. As the 
 Son of man, He had dominion over " the beasts of the 
 field/' and all things were " put under His feet/' + 
 
 A golden age is promised to the Church, wherein 
 Satan shall be bound, and the lower creatures shall serve 
 man in peace. " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, 
 and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
 calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together ; and 
 a. little child shall lead them/' J 
 
 Meantime, in the victorious progress of the Gospel, 
 the devices of Satan are constantly being baffled, and 
 they that would rage against Christ are quelled. Strong 
 " bulls of Bashan," and ravening lions, are made to hold 
 their peace. Every knee shall bow to the Lord Jesus 
 
 * Matt. iv. 11. f Psalm viii. 6-8. J Isa. xi. 6-9. 
 
88 CHEIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 — every tongue shall swear by Him ; " and all that are 
 incensed against Him shall be ashamed/' * 
 
 All this, on a smaller scale, takes place in every con- 
 verted soul. When into the wilderness of an unre- 
 newed heart Jesus comes in the power of the Spirit, 
 unruly passions are tamed by His presence. No longer 
 can there be the glare of hate, the sting of malice, the 
 ravening of violence or revenge. The wild beasts in 
 the human breast are mastered by grace. There also 
 the Devil, who riots in misrule and violence, is foiled. 
 The New Man gains the victory ; and ministering 
 angels spread a feast of joy within the soul that be- 
 lieves, obeys, and loves. " The wilderness and the soli- 
 tary place shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall 
 rejoice, and blossom as the rose." -f* 
 
 * Isa. xlv. 23-25. f Isa. xxxv. 1. 
 
FOBGETFULNESS. 89 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The Almighty entered this grave charge against His 
 ancient favoured nation, "My people have forgotten 
 me days without number/'* The same charge lies 
 with too great force against all Christendom. Habitu- 
 ally the objects of human vanity and ambition are in 
 view and in recollection, while the Lord God is utterly 
 forgotten. The true secret of this lurks in the obsti- 
 nate ungodliness of the carnal mind of man. This 
 hinders the recollection of God in one or other, or 
 all, of the following modes : — 
 
 1. In habitual inattention to Divine truth, when 
 presented to the mind. The Bible confessedly treats of 
 momentous themes, and affects our highest interests; 
 yet it is opened with apathy, and read or heard with 
 many wandering thoughts. It follows that no lasting 
 impression is made. Yet some try to excuse their igno- 
 rance of God and His inspired Word, pleading, " I have 
 such (a bad memory," when the memory is quite good 
 
90 FORGETFULNESS. 
 
 enough, if Divine truths were once well lodged in it by 
 due and fixed attention. No memory, however excel- 
 lent, can retain that which was never allowed to make 
 an impression. As it is written, "We ought to give 
 the more earnest heed to the things which we have 
 heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." * 
 
 2. In neglect of reflection on Divine truth read or 
 heard. It is to the want of after-thought, of mental 
 rumination on holy things, that much spiritual leanness 
 must be traced. Where there is little meditation on 
 God and His Word, it is vain to expect a rich experi- 
 ence, or a solid religious character. Those who add to 
 attention reflection, and in whom the Word abides, are 
 always the healthiest, and strongest, and wisest among 
 the children of grace. 
 
 3. In the occupation of the mind with comparative 
 trifles. Eemembering a great deal that we ought to 
 forget, we forget a great deal that we ought to remem- 
 ber, rilling our measures with chaff, we leave no room 
 for good and solid grain. The maid thinks of her 
 ornaments, and the bride of her attire. The young — and 
 not they only, but many to whom increasing years have 
 brought no wisdom — fill their thoughts and conversation 
 with the fashions and on dits of society, the equipages, 
 and amusements, and entertainments of the season; 
 and so can have, in their foolishly-occupied minds, no 
 grave recollection of that God with whom they have to 
 
 * Heb. ii. 1. 
 
FOEGETFULNESS. 91 
 
 do. One of the first conditions of godly wisdom is the 
 riddance of the soul from the bondage of trifles. We 
 must hear many things as if we heard them not, and 
 learn to forget that we may learn to remember. It 
 was a judicious answer of Themistocles to Simonides, 
 who had offered to teach him the art of memory, 
 "Rather teach me the art of forgetfulness ; for the 
 things which I would not I remember, and cannot 
 forget the things I would." 
 
 4. In excess of worldly cares. The minds of men, 
 forgetful of God, are not occupied entirely with trifles 
 and gaieties. There are grave anxieties regarding suc- 
 cess in business, or the attainment of a coveted position, 
 that so press upon the soul as to preclude the earnest 
 recollection of religious truth. Hence it happens that 
 shrewd men, who easily remember whatever affects the 
 markets and business of this world, cannot remember 
 how to "buy the truth;" and readily quoting the stocks 
 and share lists of commercial enterprise, cannot accu- 
 rately quote the verses of the blessed Word of God. 
 No one can have a religious memory who does not 
 check and moderate his worldly cares. 
 
 To shew the evil of forgetfulness, let it be considered 
 how much a religiously stored and exercised memory 
 tells on the development of the Christian mind and 
 formation of the Christian character. It constitutes 
 knowledge, it deepens repentance, it fortifies faith, it 
 supplies comfort, and moves continual thankfulness. 
 
92 FOKGETFULNESS. 
 
 It is a solemn thought, that every man's memory holds 
 more than it tells. In every mind it is secretly at 
 work, laying np its stores, to minister hereafter either 
 to eternal pain or to eternal joy. The memory of God's 
 mercy refused, God's Sabbaths broken, God's Word de- 
 spised, God's love trodden under foot, shall smite with 
 anguish the lost in hell. And the memory of God's 
 goodness and forbearance on earth — of the warn- 
 ings and the winnings, the bereavements and the bene- 
 fits, that He sent in love — shall contribute largely to 
 the joys of saints in heaven. 
 
 Yea, we surely shall remember 
 
 How He quicken'd us from death — 
 How He fann'd the dying ember 
 
 With His Spirit's glowing breath. 
 We shall read the tender meaning 
 
 Of the sorrows and alarms, 
 As we trod the desert, leaning 
 
 On His everlasting arms. 
 
 And His rest will be the dearer 
 
 When we think of weary ways; 
 And His light will seem the clearer 
 
 As we muse on cloudy days. 
 Oh ! 'twill be a glorious morrow 
 
 To a dark and stormy day ! 
 We shall recollect our sorrow 
 
 As the streams that pass away. 
 
LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 93 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 IMmg at %\mp mrt Smt. 
 
 This, which seems a paradox, is the daily habit of reli- 
 gious minds. They are intent on objects that the eye 
 of the body has never seen — objects that have on them 
 the stamp of endurance, and that shine in the beauty 
 of holiness. No man has this elevation of mind by 
 nature. It is given to the Christian in his " effectual 
 calling." And indeed no man, though effectually called, 
 forms at once the habit of looking at things not seen. 
 All habits are formed by steps and degrees ; and this 
 is eminently true of the habits of the spiritual mind, 
 which must be progressively formed under sanctifying 
 grace, and confirmed and braced by the discipline of 
 actual Christian life. It is true that in the ardour of 
 young piety there is much looking upward — much 
 " converse with the skies." But impulses are not to be 
 relied on as habits; and the habit of looking up, of 
 eyeing God's will and glory, of aiming at spiritual ends 
 in temporal concerns, is one that characterises mature, 
 well-exercised believers. Young Christians need not 
 be discouraged because they have not such a habit. 
 
94 LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 
 
 Having the right impulse and desire, they will acquire 
 the habit in due time, if they cultivate vigilance and 
 prayer. To borrow a simile from Dr Cheever : An 
 albatross rising from the sea, runs upon the waves at 
 first ; but once risen and soaring, how sure and easy 
 the movement ! There is scarce a perceptible undula- 
 tion of the broad white pinions of the majestic bird. 
 Such are the wings of holy habit, wrought out by 
 Divine grace, and bearing the regenerated nature, after 
 its first struggles, calmly upward to the things not 
 seen, and to the very throne of the eternal God. 
 
 The habit of looking at the things not seen as yet, 
 confers great benefits on the Christian. 
 
 It lifts him above a base, unworthy life. He who is 
 religious in the habits of his mind and heart, cannot 
 but live well. Whatever charges may he against men 
 professing religion whose profession is false, it can 
 never be — it would contradict the surest laws of the 
 human mind — that one should really and habitually 
 look to the things that are pure and heavenly, and yet 
 live in base vices, defiling his own conscience, and 
 belying the firmest convictions of his soul. Assuredly, 
 in whatever condition or rank of life he is placed by 
 Providence, a certain purity and dignity must attach 
 to that man's character, whose " citizenship is in 
 heaven/'* and whose eyes, anointed with eye-salve, 
 look within the veil. 
 
 * Phil. iii. 20. 
 
LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 95 
 
 This habit of mind also ministers comfort and guid- 
 ance to the Christian in changes and adversities. The 
 Apostle Paul felt his affliction -to be light, and but for 
 a moment, while he looked at things not seen.* The 
 same consolation will come to us from the same spring, 
 if we draw. The same pole-star will guide and cheer 
 us, if we, like Paul, look up. We may learn a lesson 
 from the good helmsman in a storm making for a safe 
 harbour. His eye is steady on the light that shews 
 the entrance. If the ship can keep her head to that 
 light, he is of good cheer. It is no matter how the 
 wind shrieks, and the vessel trembles in the heavy sea, 
 and the breakers thunder on the rocky beach. Not at 
 these dangers the helmsman looks, but ever at the port 
 of hope, and steers steadily on for the light, till, with a 
 throbbing heart, he takes his ship across the bar, and 
 gliding past the lighthouse, drops anchor in the smooth 
 water within. So should it be with the Christian, 
 when storm-tost and agitated among the cares and 
 pains of life. Looking at the things that are seen, he 
 looks only at waves and rocks, and cannot be com- 
 forted. But let him look at the things unseen and 
 eternal : let him steer straight for these — steer by that 
 light — and his soul, like a weather-beaten but well- 
 guided ship, shall ride over the rough foaming waves, 
 and at last drop anchor in the harbour of eternal rest. 
 
 Let it be added, that the habit referred to tends 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. 
 
96 LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 
 
 greatly to prepare the Christian for his summons to 
 die. To die without forethought and preparation is 
 the part of a fool. It is appointed unto men once [to 
 die ; and he who has any claim to be numbered with 
 the wise, will form and cherish the habit now of look- 
 ing forward to death, and the things that are after 
 death, — 
 
 " Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore 
 Of that vast ocean we must sail so soon." 
 
SEVEN WONDEES. 97 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Shim 
 
 Geeat marvels meet in the character and life of a man 
 of God. Seven of these we shall mention. However 
 paradoxical they may sound, they are matters of solid 
 experience among the godly.* We speak throughout 
 not of the nominal, but of the converted, spiritually- 
 minded Christian. 
 
 1. His life in the flesh is a life of faith. -f- The 
 disciple of Jesus Christ must not "walk after the 
 flesh/'' in the sense in which it is opposed to " the 
 Spirit ; * yet he must live in the flesh even as others ; 
 and in this sphere he manifests the practical value and 
 power of faith. The Christian life is one ; and faith in 
 the Son of God must animate and guide that life, even 
 in the most homely and prosaic pursuits. 
 
 The object of faith is not a dead letter or prescribed 
 dogma, but the dying, living, loving Saviour — the Son 
 of God, the suffering Surety for men. Him faith appre- 
 
 * See Mason's Select Remains — " The Mystery of a Christian." 
 f Gal. ii< 20. 
 
98 SEVEN WONDERS. 
 
 hends, and, indeed, appropriates, prompting the words, 
 " He loved me, and gave himself for me/' On Him, 
 by faith, the Christian lives, eating the flesh and drink- 
 ing the blood of the Son of man ;* and in the strength 
 so received, overcomes the world, and quenches the 
 fiery darts of the Wicked. 
 
 2. He sins, and yet he cannot sin. It is written, 
 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 
 and the truth is not in us." f But it is also written, 
 " Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not ; whosoever 
 sinneth (is sinning) hath not seen him, neither known 
 him." J The most pious men on earth confess that they 
 sin daily. Any other allegation would contradict both 
 Scripture and conscience. Yet he that abides in Christ 
 is characteristically, and in his style of thought and 
 practice, not a sinner but a saint, a new creature, " is 
 not sinning," lives not in habitual neglect of duty, or 
 wilful transgression of the right. Compassed, indeed, 
 with imperfections and infirmities, and bewailing his 
 frequent failures and inconsistencies, he yet sincerely 
 follows the Lord Jesus in the way of holiness, and 
 cannot do otherwise ; for the seed of his regeneration 
 remaineth in him, vital, influential, incorruptible, inde- 
 structible — he is "born of God." 
 
 3. The less his burden grows, the more he feels it. 
 We refer to the burden of indwelling sin. Every 
 man who is regenerated parts with the love of sin, and 
 
 * John vi. 53-57. + 1 John i. 8. J 1 John iii. 6. 
 
SEVEN WONDEKS. 99 
 
 not only obtains the blessing of pardon, but is cleansed 
 from inherent corruption. Yet the less the load 
 of this corruption becomes, the more does it vex and 
 oppress his soul. The reason is plain : his conscience 
 has become tender ; his spiritual sensibility is more 
 delicate than before. As a little weight bearing on a 
 tender part of the body is more irksome than a much 
 greater load pressing where bone and muscle are firm, 
 so does a comparatively small measure of sinfulness bear 
 heavily on the tender conscience of a godly man — more 
 heavily than heinous evil oppresses a man unrenewed. 
 One does not hear boasts of sanctity from truly en- 
 lightened and godly persons. They are more ready to 
 bewail remaining corruption and hardness of heart, the 
 body of sin and death. Sighs of contrition rise from 
 the purest lips ; and confessions of hell-worthiness sin- 
 cerely issue from men whose souls are on the edge and 
 verge of heaven. 
 
 4. He is in the world, and yet not of the world. The 
 Christian is not only born into the world, as other men, 
 but also sent into the world by the Lord Christ. He 
 is not to shrink from duty in the world, and yet is not 
 to be of the world, as his Master, Jesus of Nazareth, 
 was not of the world. He is to mingle with general 
 society, and actively occupy his due position, and pur- 
 sue his daily avocations among men ; and, at the same 
 time, must not be " conformed to this world ;" must act 
 on unworldly principles ; must follow, in midst of the 
 
100 SEVEN WONDEE& 
 
 agitations and competitions of this nineteenth, century, 
 the unchangeable mandates of his Bible — a man with 
 his hands busy on earth, but his heart with his treasure 
 in heaven. 
 
 5. When he is weak, then is he strong. The heroes 
 of faith, in the days of old, " out of weakness were made 
 strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies 
 of the aliens/' * The Lord Jesus Himself was no 
 stranger to this experience. The hours of His exhaustion 
 proved to be the hours of His triumph. It was when 
 worn out and an hungered by long fasting in the wil- 
 derness, that He encountered and defeated the tempter. 
 It was when sitting by Jacob's well, wearied with His 
 journey, that He awakened and instructed " the woman 
 of Samaria." It was when fainting on the cold ground 
 in Gethsemane, that He quelled all reluctance to drink 
 the bitter cup, " and there appeared an angel unto 
 Him from heaven, strengthening Him/ , -(* Yet once 
 more, it was in the hour of apparent exhaustion and 
 defeat, when stretched, pallid, and bleeding, on the cross 
 — it was then that He was strong to bruise the serpent's 
 head, and destroy the works of the devil. The same 
 rule applies to all who follow Christ. Weak as they 
 are for the conflicts and distresses to which they are 
 ordained, they are supported by an invisible arm. 
 Sometimes, when they seem to be in extremity, ready 
 to faint and fail, they find themselves endowed with a 
 strength that nothing can bend or break. This is the 
 
 * Heb. xi. 34. + Luke xxii. 43. 
 
SEVEN WONDERS. 101 
 
 power of Christ This is the might of the Spirit in the 
 inner man. This it is which gives firmness of principle, 
 coherence of religions character, fortitncle and patience 
 in adversity. The Lord said nnto Paid, " My grace is 
 sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect in 
 weakness/'* 
 
 6. His afflictions are his best friends. We have 
 adverted to the strength with which afflictions may be 
 borne. We now point to the good uses they subserve. 
 
 No affliction lights upon a child of God without a 
 merciful appointment. It is sent as a fatherly chastise- 
 ment or correction ; for " whom the Lord loveth He 
 chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He re- 
 ceiveth."-)- Or, it is sent without reference to any 
 particular fault, to promote the believer's general sanc- 
 tification. Thus it helps the crucifixion of the flesh. 
 It is needful that the flesh, as the opponent of the 
 Spirit, be mortified and crucified with its affections and 
 lusts ; and every affliction, sent and blessed of God, 
 drives another nail into the slowly-dying "flesh," en- 
 feebling and exhausting its strength. Further, the 
 discipline of trial exercises, and so improves, the Chris- 
 tian graces and virtues. It gives an edge to conscience 
 and a fervency to prayer. In prosperity and ease, the 
 powers of the " new man " begin to languish ; but 
 tribulation develops and braces the nobler powers of 
 the regenerated soul. " Tribulation worketh patience ; 
 and patience, experience ; and experience, hope/'J Afflic- 
 
 * 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. f Heb. xii. 6. % Rom. v. 3, 4. 
 
102 SEVEN WONDEKS. 
 
 tion also tends, under the grace of the Spirit of God, to 
 wean the heart from this world, and prepare it for that 
 which is to come. In loving-kindness, the Lord puts 
 some bitterness into the cup of earthly pleasure, lest we 
 drink it to our ruin. In very faithfulness, He cuts 
 away the tendrils of our affection and hope from the 
 earth, and, gathering them in His hand, trains them to 
 twine and clasp around His heavenly throne. 
 
 Sustained by such considerations and mercies, the 
 godly man faints not in adversities ; he can smile 
 through his tears. In the deepest distress, the Com- 
 forter is with him, and assures him that the smiting 
 rod of God is among the best of the " all things " that 
 co-operate for his good. 
 
 7. He is content to live, yet wishing to die. Content 
 to live ! — to accomplish his appointed work, to do his 
 Lord's will, to promote His cause, and " abide in the 
 flesh " among His people for mutual " furtherance and 
 joy of faith." But he is willing to die — 
 
 ' ' A pilgrim, panting for a rest to come ; 
 An exile, anxious for his native home !" 
 
 He must not in impatience or petulance call for death, 
 but he may welcome, and even desire it, whenever God 
 may see meet to send it, because it shall introduce him 
 to the very presence of the Lord Christ in paradise. 
 " We are confident, and willing rather to be absent 
 from the body, and to be present with the Lord/' * 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 8. 
 
HAND IN HAND. 103 
 
 XX. 
 
 in laift. 
 
 The wicked join hand in hand, encourage one another 
 in evil modes and practices, concur in paths of sin. 
 The individual emboldens himself in ungodliness and 
 worldliness of life by the consideration that he is one of 
 a multitude, and that his friends are no better or more 
 godly than himself. 
 
 Even children greatly strengthen one another in 
 disobedience and sin; so much so, that many parents 
 are almost afraid to allow their sons and daughters to 
 have any associates whatever. Playfellows, of course, 
 they must have, but these cannot be too carefully 
 selected; for children will soil one another's hearts, 
 harden one another's consciences, educate one another 
 in evil thoughts and words, deceitful or profane. They 
 join their little hands together, the strength of many 
 overbearing the scruples of any single one. In public 
 schools, in street rambles, and in playgrounds, evil 
 communications corrupt the manners and defile the 
 hearts of those who are mere children. 
 
104 HAND IN HAND. 
 
 In the days of wilful and impetuous youth, the same 
 mutual encouragement in evil has a most powerful 
 effect. Impatience of control is characteristic of that 
 stage of life. Eegardless of the advice and experience 
 of their elders, the young, especially young men, delight 
 to cast off restraints, to walk on the edge of precipices, 
 or, cutting the moorings of their boat, without oar or 
 rudder, to go wildly clown the stream, little thinking 
 of the rapids below in which so many have been lost. 
 This gross folly is seriously aggravated by the combina- 
 tion and clubbing together of youth, by hand joining 
 in hand. Does a young man, into whom good princi- 
 ples were instilled, begin to make light of them; does 
 he begin to garble his speech with a few oaths, or 
 saunter through the streets or fields on Sabbath-days, 
 rather than attend the house of God; or take pride in 
 the reputation of being " a little wild/' and of u staying 
 out late o' nights;" or look on the wine when it is 
 red, when it giveth its colour in the cup ? He has not 
 arrived at this perilous state of his own inclination 
 merely — companions have led him on ; they joined 
 hand in hand, laughed at his scruples, took him by the 
 arm, and cried, " Come on, and be a man ! " " To-morrow 
 shall be as this day, and much more abundant l" He 
 went with them, and now is become a fool even as 
 they. Alas ! he is also a tempter to others, persuading 
 them also to join hands, eager to have as many as pos- 
 sible in the same wickedness as himself. 
 
HAND IN HAND. 105 
 
 In manhood, too, hand joins in hand. A conven- 
 tional morality is formed, to which individuals, not 
 presuming to be singular, are contented to conform. 
 It is held, that what one does another must do, else he 
 cannot cope with the world. So men corrupt each 
 other, countenancing one another's disingenuousness 
 and clever selfishness. Sometimes, in associations and 
 " companies," they carry out schemes with joined hands 
 which individually they would never undertake or 
 justify. 
 
 The aged are more reserved, and in their habits 
 more isolated than the young. But they also encou- 
 rage one another in old sins, and join hand in hand — 
 making a covenant with death that it shall not smite 
 them, and with " the overflowing scourge/' that it shall 
 not come unto them. 
 
 Holy Scripture says, " Though hand join in hand, 
 the wicked shall not be unpunished/'* Numbers gain 
 no impunity from the Lord ; union is not strength 
 against Him. The sinner is not excusable because he 
 is one of many. However men form confederacies 
 against Jehovah, they shall be judged and punished 
 one by one. 
 
 Let the children of God learn a lesson, and join 
 hand in hand for the truth. If there is so much com- 
 bination of the wicked in their wickedness, let there be 
 combination of the righteous in their righteousness. 
 
 * Prov. xi. 21. 
 
106 HAND IN HAND. 
 
 Those who have entered at the strait gate, whereto 
 they have attained, should walk by the same rule, and 
 mind the same thing. Those whom the Lord Jesus " is 
 not ashamed to call brethren/' must not " fall out by 
 the way/' but " strengthen the weak hands, arid confirm 
 the feeble knees," — help and encourage one another in 
 the path of life. How fair the sight of the affectionate 
 children of an earthly family walking hand in hand, 
 the elder assisting the younger over the rough places 
 of the way ! We, too, as little children, hand in hand, 
 loving and helping each other, must enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Union against the Lord is nought, but on the Lord's 
 side is strength. Souls prosper and gain victories by 
 sympathy and alliance with other faithful souls of 
 God's redeemed. How can religious people be cold or 
 unkind one to another — ready to suspect, to whisper 
 evil tales, or take part against brethren ? " Beloved, 
 let us love one another : for love is of God ; and every one 
 that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that 
 loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."* 
 
 * 1 John iv. 7, 8. 
 
A LESSON IN SPIEITUAL WAK. 107 
 
 XXI. 
 
 % %mm in Spritol Mux. 
 
 Theee is a passage in the life of King David which 
 may teach us a great lesson in the art of spiritual war. 
 When the Philistines, burning to avenge a former de- 
 feat, invaded Palestine, the devout king " inquired of 
 the Lord." He had recourse to Divine counsel and 
 strength. He sought the Lord to be on the side of 
 Israel, " when men rose them to slay." The answer to 
 his inquiry bade him both do and wait* He was to 
 muster his armed men to attack the enemy from the 
 most advantageous quarter, making a forced march in 
 their rear, and falling upon them at a probably un- 
 guarded position. But, while acting to the best of his 
 military skill, David was to bear in mind that the 
 battle was the Lord's, and that He must give the vic- 
 tory. Therefore, after reaching his post under cover of 
 a grove or wood, the king was to wait and listen for a 
 sign of the Lord's presence and help — " the sound of 
 a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees." 
 
 * 2 Sam. v. 22-25, 
 
108 A LESSON IN SPIRITUAL WAR 
 
 Obedient to the word of the Lord, David had a 
 glorious success. He did his part, gat him with his 
 troops to the place of watching and prayer : the ap- 
 pointed sign failed not; and the king, "bestirring" 
 himself, while giving the glory to God, " smote the 
 Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer/' It 
 was their last struggle in the land of Israel. David 
 carried the war into the enemy's country, and com- 
 pletely subdued those restless and dangerous neigh- 
 bours.* 
 
 In every emergency of the soid, in every hour of 
 temptation, it is our wisdom to inquire of the Lord ; 
 and in every new trial, to inquire again. David, though 
 a brave and skilful general, inferior to no captain of 
 his age, moved not without prayer against invading 
 foes. So in the spiritual war, the contests of the inner 
 man: the Christian, however well trained and well fur- 
 nished in his own mind, needs not fight, cannot succeed, 
 without prayer. Moreover, he who prays will, like 
 David, get the victory through his own endeavour, and 
 yet not by his own wisdom or strength, but by the 
 counsel and might of Jehovah. In the struggles and 
 conflicts of the spiritual life, victories are won not by 
 doing only or waiting only, but by doing and waiting — 
 waiting and doing. We must do our best, or God will 
 not help us. We must wait on God for guidance and 
 help, or our best doings will miserably fail. The ten- 
 * 2 Sam. viii. 1-12. 
 
A LESSON IN SPIEITUAL WAE. 109 
 
 dency of the present times is to foster the working rather 
 than the waiting dispositions, and so to indnce a bustling, 
 showy Christianity, that lacks the secret of snccess. 
 
 One should learn also to seize opportunity and push 
 advantage, when God indicates a favourable time, so 
 that there is " the sound of a going in the tops of the 
 mulberry-trees/' In this way the apostles gained their 
 mighty victories. Though armed with "the whole 
 armour of God," they went not up at once to the great 
 contest with Jewish prejudice and Gentile ignorance 
 and unbelief. They tarried in the appointed place 
 "for the promise of the Father;" and when, on the day 
 of Pentecost, they heard " the sound from heaven as of 
 a rushing mighty wind, they knew that the Lord was 
 with them, and went on boldly" in the Christian cause. 
 So is it in all the progress of the Church. There are 
 periods of apparent inaction, which yet are far from 
 lost. The Church is then waiting at the mulberry 
 grove. When the " set time to favour Zion" comes, 
 she "bestirs" herself, and makes advance. It is so, 
 also, in the life of the individual Christian. There are 
 favourable opportunities for which he must watch, and 
 on the due improvement of which his religious progress 
 dejDends. He who arms himself will yet do nothing 
 unless he watches and prays.* But he who both arms 
 and waits, listening for prayer's answer, will hear a 
 rustling of the tree tops, the sound of the Lord going 
 
 * Eph. vi. 10-18. 
 
110 A LESSON IN SPIRITUAL WAE. 
 
 before. Bestirring himself then, he will beat back his 
 foes, and in God's name do exploits. 
 
 Be admonished then, Christian ! to be at the place 
 of prayer, and have your arms and armour on, that you 
 may take advantage of the favourable hour, and rout 
 your spiritual foes. Have your sails spread, that when 
 the fair wind comes you may elude the pirates, and 
 stand well out from the quicksands and the rocks, and 
 speed forward to the safe harbour of your eternal rest. 
 
THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. Ill 
 
 XXII. 
 
 ®|e paling tf fmmmutg; 
 
 Sickness and sin are closely connected together. They 
 are disorders marring the original goodness of crea- 
 tion. In the primitive state, which was " very good," 
 physical and moral perfections were united. In the 
 present condition of the human family, physical and 
 moral imperfections and evils are combined. Society, 
 corrupted by many vices, and ravaged by many dis- 
 eases, presents a terrible contrast to " the first estate." 
 
 We must distinguish, however, between a general 
 fact which we know, and particular individual applica- 
 tions of a wide principle, such as we are not competent 
 or warranted to make. 
 
 It is the general fact, that disease is one of the 
 results of the entrance of sin. Death is by sin : and 
 what is disease but a partial or approximate death? 
 It is sin that, like the box of Pandora, has scattered 
 direful pains and woes over the whole world. Some 
 forms of sin lead by direct natural consequence to 
 disease. Such are intemperance and unchastity, which 
 
112 THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 
 
 waste, degrade, and sometimes horribly torment the 
 human frame. Some offences have provoked the Lord 
 to inflict diseases as penalties. Thus Miriam was 
 struck with leprosy because she murmured against 
 Moses ; * the men of Ashdod, and other Philistines, 
 were smitten with " emerods " because they desecrated 
 the ark of God ;■(* King Jehoram, the unworthy son of 
 Jehoshaphat, was visited with an incurable disease for 
 his wickedness.]: In the New Testament, also, St Paul 
 teaches that disease and death are sent upon a Church 
 when the Lord's Supper is administered or observed 
 without due reverence and godly fear — " For this 
 cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many 
 sleep/' § 
 
 Specific applications of the general principle, how- 
 ever, it is not for us to make. We are not to pro- 
 nounce judgment — that sickness enters this house, or 
 lights on that individual, as a judgment for a certain 
 specified offence. We are incompetent to draw such 
 conclusions, and in venturing upon them may violate 
 both charity and truth. We look on outward appear- 
 ances, and cannot have the materials for judging God's 
 ways with our fellow-men. One who enjoys robust 
 health and undisturbed prosperity may be an enemy of 
 God, who is secretly " reserved to the day of judgment 
 to be punished." Another, who is sorely and variously 
 
 * Numb. xii. 10. % 2 Ckron. xxi. 12-19. 
 
 1 1 Sam. t. § 1 Cor. xi. 30. 
 
THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 113 
 
 afflicted, may be not punished at all, but " chastened 
 of the Lord " in love. 
 
 Sickness has its uses and its alleviations ; neverthe- 
 less it is a disorder, and humanity cannot be blessed 
 till sickness with sin is utterly abolished. Such an 
 abolition is hoped and longed for by the Christian 
 heart, and it is to be accomplished only through Christ 
 the Physician-Saviour. When He was on earth, our 
 Lord shewed Himself able and willing to cope with all 
 the forms of disease, and remedy all the outbreaks of 
 human misery.* Christ refused none who came or 
 were brought to Him to be healed. 
 
 " The dumb began to speak, the blind to see, 
 
 And the lame leap'd, and pain arid darkness fled; 
 The mourner's eye grew bright with glee, 
 
 And from the tomb awoke the wondering dead." 
 
 Christ, however, was no mere physician, but a 
 Physician- Saviour. He dealt with sin as the radical 
 disease of the human race. When He declared, 
 " They that be whole need not a physician, but they 
 that are sick/' He further explained His meaning in 
 the words, " Por I am not come to call the righteous, 
 but sinners to repentance/' ■(- Our Lord's cure of the 
 paralytic at Capernaum is a familiar instance of the 
 removal of sin and sickness together. " He said unto 
 the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." 
 Again, He " saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto 
 
 * Matt. iv. 23, 24 ; Mark i. 32-34, vi. 54-56. f Matt. ix. 12, 13. 
 
 H 
 
114 THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 
 
 thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into 
 thine house/'* It may be added, that the same con- 
 nexion between sickness and sin, the same linking 
 together of the removal of the one with the removal of 
 the other, appeared in the ministrations of the primi- 
 tive elders of the Church. As it is written, " Is any 
 sick among you? let him call for the elders of the 
 church ; and let them pray over him, anointing him 
 with oil in the name of the Lord : and the prayer of 
 faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him 
 up ; and if he have committed sins, they shall be for- 
 given him/' -f- 
 
 The power of Christ is put forth still to soothe and 
 relieve human pains, and to restore the disturbed har- 
 monies of our physical and moral nature. His dis- 
 ciples, indeed, are subject to disease as other men ; 
 but it is disease without the sting of unforgiven sin, 
 suffered for a season, that their patience may be 
 proved, and God glorified in them. Even if their 
 sickness be unto death, they are sustained by the hope 
 of that which is beyond and after death. They look 
 for a city which hath foundations, as it is promised, 
 " Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation/' j 
 A few more pangs, a few more groans, and the sufferer 
 who is in Christ enters the gates of pearl, and shall 
 never suffer any more for ever. Why ? There shall 
 be no sin there. " The people that dwell therein are 
 
 * Mark ii. 5-11. t James v. 14, 15. % Isa. xxxiii. 20. 
 
THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 115 
 
 forgiven their iniquity/'* No more shall they be 
 tempted or inclined to commit iniquity. This is the 
 law of the city — " There shall in no wise enter into it 
 any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
 abomination, or maketh a lie : but they which are 
 written in the Lamb's book of life."" -f- 
 
 This is the key to the future blessedness, just as 
 the entrance of defilement and untruth into the world 
 that now is, is the key to our present wretchedness. 
 In the new dwelling-place there will be no spot, no 
 wrinkle, or any such thing — no guilt, no stain, no lie, 
 and therefore no curse, no pain, no grief. The heirs 
 of the kingdom, " the nations of the saved," healed by 
 the leaves of the Tree of Life, and rejoicing in its 
 fruit, stand before the throne in the health and vigour 
 of immortality — in holy beauties that never fade away ; 
 " and the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick." J 
 
 * Isa. xxxiii. 24. f Rev. xxi. 27. + Isa. xxxiii. 24. 
 
116 THE VIVIFYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Sty O'Mfjpg pte jof ik (Sflsgcl. 
 
 Peehaps tliere is in nature no better expression of 
 exuberant life and strength than the flow of a mighty- 
 river. The rocks, and forests, and giant mountains, 
 suggest ideas of power, but of power restricted in place, 
 without motion, without impetus. But what beauty in 
 the shining river, what grandeur in the rolling flood ! 
 — ever moving as of some living will in itself, never ex- 
 hausted or faint; without weariness pouring itself by day 
 and night down wild ravines, and through quiet mea- 
 dows ; now watering a green valley, where trees skirt its 
 banks, now passing through villages or towns, with 
 houses and gardens on either shore, but never resting, 
 ever rolling on to the bosom of the deep sea ! Indeed, 
 the great rivers of the world have so impressed the un- 
 tutored mind with awe, and so blessed and enriched 
 the lands through which they have their course, that 
 they have been personified and worshipped. It has 
 been so with the Nile, the Ganges, even the turbid 
 Tiber. Living, as we do, on the bank of a nobler river 
 
THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 117 
 
 than any of these — the St Lawrence — -we can sympa- 
 thise, not certainly with superstitious worship, but with 
 a warm enthusiasm in favour of a mighty stream, that 
 fills the eye, and gives wealth and beauty to the land. 
 
 The Bible tells of a river that "went out of Eden 
 to water the garden," and parted, and became four 
 streams ;* throws a sacred memory round the little 
 river of Jordan, and even the soft-flowing rill of Siloam ; 
 and not only so, but celebrates a river above all Greek, 
 above all Roman fame — a river, " the streams whereof 
 make glad the city of God/'-f- 
 
 " The river of God is full." We mean by this not a 
 river of pleasures far away in heaven, but a river of 
 heavenly grace on earth, the grace of salvation — a 
 living, flowing stream, useful and pleasant to all who 
 frequent its banks, and a river that gives life whither- 
 soever it comes. £ The source of this river is in the 
 sanctuary of God, or place of His abode. Its increase, 
 as it rolls, is obtained not from tributaries flowing into 
 it, but entirely from the fulness of its original fountain. 
 Its course is through a barren land, illustrating the 
 efflux of Divine grace on a dead and sinful world. As 
 the barren soil through which the river in EzekieFs 
 vision passed became fertile, so, under the vivifying, 
 fertilising, and healing grace of God, the wastes of 
 human nature, human society, human life, are made to 
 live again, and flourish in holy beauties. 
 
 * Gen. ii. 10. f Psalin xlvi. 4. $ Ezek. xlvii. 9. 
 
118 THE VIVIFYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 What is the life of a nation without this grace ? Let 
 history speak. The powerful nations of antiquity are 
 powerful no more. They had genius, courage, letters, 
 even art and civilisation; but having no moral health, 
 and no spiritual life, they had no real endurance, and 
 have proved no better than brilliant failures at last. 
 In so far as any modern nations have more vitality than 
 the ancient, it is due to their possession of a true reli- 
 gion — their contact with the flowing water of life. 
 True it is, that a nation unvisited by the stream from 
 the sanctuary of God may obtain a certain extension 
 and eminence ; but it is frivolous, or treacherous, or 
 ferocious, or immoral and corrupt; and no form of 
 political constitution, or change of j)olitical rulers, will 
 remedy the case of such a nation, so long as the mass 
 of the people continue ungodly, and the highest motives 
 are not brought to bear on the private and public 
 conscience and will. We are well convinced that, even 
 in countries which present the most favourable religious 
 aspect, the most serious public danger comes from the 
 ungodliness of the people at large. The true health of 
 nations is in virtue; the true wealth of nations is in 
 moral culture and the fear of God. History will corro- 
 borate the doctrine of Scripture, that the only inexhaust- 
 ible spring of public life, powers, dignity, and self- 
 government, is in the knowledge and acknowledgment 
 of our Lord and His Christ. Flowing through the 
 heart of a people, the stream of pure religion will heal 
 
THE VIVIFYING POWEK OF THE GOSPEL. 119 
 
 that which is bitter or corrupt, will cause everything to 
 live, impart soundness to all the internal relations of 
 the body domestic and politic, and will gradually give 
 rise to good government, equal laws, just institutions, 
 a pure literature, a warm benevolence, a diligent atten- 
 tion to the arts of peace, — in a word, will ensure a 
 high and broad and graceful civilisation. If it is not 
 practicable to have a truly national Church, we still 
 must have, for the public weal, a sincerely received 
 national religion. Through the deep courses of a na- 
 tion's convictions, "let judgment run down as waters, 
 and righteousness as a mighty stream." * 
 
 Let us reflect, not only on the life of nations, but on 
 the life of the Church. The most orderly and orthodox 
 Church on earth is a formal, almost useless institution, 
 unless it be vivified by the touch of the waters flowing 
 from Mount Zion — the present grace of God, the supply 
 of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. There was no charge of 
 disorder or heterodoxy against the Church in Sardis, 
 yet it is written, " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and 
 art dead."+ That Church maintained a good reputa- 
 tion; the ordinances of the gospel were therein regularly 
 dispensed, and, we presume, the doctrines of the gospel 
 accurately avowed. No heresies of Nicolaitanes or 
 others are reprehended at Sardis, as at Ephesus, 
 Pergamos, and Thyatira. All things were there but the 
 one needful thing — life. The form of godliness was 
 
 * Amos v. 24. f Rev. iii. 1. 
 
120 THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 complete, but power thereof there was none. There 
 was a full-length shadow of religion, but the substance 
 was not there. With the credit and semblance of life, 
 the Sardian Church was spiritually dead. 
 
 A Church thus dead cannot long remain really 
 orthodox, but it may continue to profess a sound tradi- 
 tional creed. First piety declines, gives way before the 
 encroachments of a cold, secular spirit ; then the doc- 
 trines of grace are disliked, concealed, or corrupted, 
 while yet the old standards of belief are not formally 
 and openly renounced. But the word of Christ is not 
 there in power; and without this word in power, with- 
 out the quickening Spirit, a Church has no energy, no 
 beauty, no fruitf illness, no vitality; whereas, with this, 
 the waste place becomes as a well-watered garden, and a 
 field which the Lord hath blessed. 
 
 It is the way of our Lord to keep His Church in 
 constant dependence on Himself for life and godli- 
 ness, and so to draw forth the prayers of all faithful 
 ones for quickening grace — a grace which flows from 
 His seat, and, instead of spending itself, still swells and 
 deepens as it flows, diffusing its healing waters from 
 house to house and heart to heart, and covering all its 
 banks with unfading and fruitful trees. 
 
 The life of the individual soul is imparted and main- 
 tained by the same grace. The blessed man " shall be 
 like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 
 forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not 
 
THE VIVIFYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 121 
 
 wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."* It 
 is the root in the river that sends sap and vital force 
 through all the tree, even to its utmost boughs, yielding 
 rich foliage and abundant fruit. 
 
 Every tree of righteousness must have its own con- 
 nexion with the river of life through its own roots; 
 every Christian must have connexion and communion 
 with the Lord in the grace of the Spirit, through his 
 own faith. A pastor's roots will not draw up enough 
 for the flock, or a father's enough for his children. 
 One by one, the Christian people must have their roots 
 in the river of God. There is room enough for all of 
 them on the banks thereof. Paul desired that the 
 Colossians might be " rooted in Christ," and that the 
 Ephesians might be "rooted and grounded in love." 
 This desire have all they who know the Lord's grace, 
 that others may obtain like precious faith, and like 
 spiritual strength, till the river of God's pleasure on 
 earth is thickly lined on either shore with good and 
 pleasant trees. As it was in the prophetic vision 
 already alluded to, "By the river, upon the bank 
 thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all 
 trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall 
 the fruit thereof be consumed : it shall bring forth new 
 fruits according to his months, because their waters 
 they issued out of the sanctuary : and the fruit thereof 
 shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." *j- 
 
 * Psalm i. 3. f Ezek. xlvii. 12. 
 
122 THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 In Paradise restored, the river shall flow clear as 
 crystal from the very throne of God and of the Lamb, 
 and pass no longer through a salt and waste land, but 
 through a region and city of holiness, where there is no 
 more curse.* 
 
 " happy harbour of God's saints ! 
 
 sweet and pleasant soil ! 
 
 In thee no sorrow can be found, 
 
 No grief, no care, no toil ! 
 
 " Quite through the streets, with pleasant sound, 
 The flood of life doth flow ; 
 Upon whose banks, on every side, 
 The trees of life do grow. 
 
 " These trees each month do yield their fruit, 
 For evermore they spring ; 
 And all the nations of the world 
 To thee their honours bring. 
 
 ' Jerusalem, God's dwelling-place, 
 Full sore I long to see ; 
 that my sorrows had an end, 
 That I might dwell in thee ! " 
 
 * Rev. xxii. 1-3. 
 
THE UNBEOKEN BONES OF JESUS. 123 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 %\t Itttato § ms j&f l«ns. 
 
 Whosoeyee has a broken heart shall never have a 
 broken bone. " The Lord is nigh unto them that are 
 of a broken heart ; and saveth such as be of a contrite 
 spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous : but 
 the Lord delivereth him out of them alL He keepeth 
 all his bones : not one of them is broken/'* In various 
 psalms, the pious in affliction speak of " bones vexed/ 7 
 " bones consumed/' " bones waxed old/' " bones burned 
 as an hearth," and " cleaving to the skin." But the 
 righteous, though cast down, are not destroyed ; their 
 bones may be " vexed," but " not one of them is broken." 
 It is true that David in a certain place refers to his 
 bones as broken. -J- But it was thus with him when he 
 sinned, when he fell from his steadfastness, and thereby 
 forfeited the privileges of a righteous man. So soon as 
 he is penitent — so soon as he gets from God, and pre- 
 sents to God, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite 
 heart — he prays for restoration, and expects even his 
 
 * Psalm xxxiy. 18-20. f Psalm li. 8. 
 
124 THE UNBROKEN BONES OF JESUS, 
 
 broken bones to come together again, and " rejoice " in 
 God his Saviour. 
 
 Not only in providence does God keep His people 
 from harm, sending His angels to encamp around them, 
 but He also succours and sustains them in His grace. 
 Though at times their " bones are vexed " — i. e. their 
 hearts are disquieted and distressed — a word of gracious 
 promise comes to them, that their bones may not be 
 broken ; in other words, that their souls may not de- 
 spair. Christ knows well how to give health and quiet 
 to His disciples in the inner man. His "pleasant 
 words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and 
 health to the bones/' * 
 
 Of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, it is emphatically 
 true that " Jehovah keepeth all His bones ; not one of 
 them is broken." This was prefigured in the passover, 
 and fulfilled on the cross. At the first institution of 
 the paschal rite, this Divine command was given regard- 
 ing the lamb, the type of Jesus Christ, " Neither shall 
 ye break a bone thereof/' -f- In the wilderness of Sinai 
 the Lord repeateth this injunction : " They shall leave 
 none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of 
 it." | This was strictly fulfilled on the cross, when 
 " Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." In His 
 sacred body, His flesh was pierced, and His blood shed ; 
 but not one of His bones was broken. The fact is ex- 
 plicitly narrated in the Gospel of John : " The Jews 
 
 * Prov. xvi. 24. f Exod. xii. 46. % Num. ix. 12. 
 
THE UNBKOKEN BONES OE JESUS. 125 
 
 therefore, because it was the preparation, that the 
 bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sab- 
 bath-day (for that Sabbath-day was an high day), be- 
 sought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that 
 they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, 
 and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which 
 was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, 
 and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his 
 legs. . . . For these things were done, that the scripture 
 should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken/'* 
 Thus the " Lamb of God " died, a complete and unbroken 
 sacrifice for sin. Jesus, having power to lay down His 
 life, willed to die, gave up the ghost, before the soldiers 
 came. 
 
 This is not all. The Lord Christ has also a mystical 
 body, all the members whereof are kept by the grace 
 and power of God. 
 
 Like His physical body, the body mystical of Christ 
 is divinely formed. In remote eternity it was designed 
 or " prepared," according to the election of grace. The 
 members were written in God's book when as yet there 
 was none of them. The body thus prepared is fearfully 
 and wonderfully made. It is not of blood, or of the 
 will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. In 
 its formation there is an overshadowing power of the 
 Highest. The grace of the Holy Ghost, in the regene- 
 ration of sinners, is continually making and moulding a 
 
 * John xix. 31-33, 36. 
 
126 THE UNBKOKEN BONES OF JESUS. 
 
 body for Christ. The " new birth" is a birth into the 
 spiritual being and body of the Redeemer. All who 
 are truly born again are united to Jesus Christ, as 
 " members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."* 
 
 This mystical body is ever growing. Christ must 
 increase. There are constant accessions to the Church, 
 which is His body ; and by the grace flowing from 
 the Vital Head, and the continual and harmonious 
 exercise of the various parts and members, the growing 
 body strengthens day by clay, " increasing with the in- 
 crease of God." As it is written, " From the head, 
 even Christ, the whole body fitly joined together and 
 compacted by that which every joint supplieth, accord- 
 ing to the effectual working in the measure of every 
 part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of 
 itself in love."f 
 
 The mystical body of the Lord, thus formed and 
 increased, is a suffering body on earth. Like His 
 natural body, it is lightly esteemed, wounded, even 
 crucified." All that are Christ's are made to feel the 
 strangeness of the world, the malice of the devil, and 
 the sharpness of the cross. His spiritual members 
 suffer with Him, if so be they may also be glorified 
 together. 
 
 But here we perceive another point of analogy. The 
 mystical body, like the natural body of Christ, though 
 pierced is not parted, and comes through all its tribula- 
 * Eph. v. 30. f Eph. iv. 16. 
 
THE UNBROKEN BONES OF JESUS. 127 
 
 tion without a broken bone. That which took place 
 literally on the cross of Calvary, takes place spiritually 
 in universal Christian experience. However severely 
 afflictions bear on the people or members of Christ, they 
 cannot separate them from Him, or destroy their hope 
 of glory. The bones may be sore vexed, but " not one 
 of them is broken/' 
 
 The doctrine of the union of believers to their Lord 
 involves, as a consequence, the doctrine of their preser- 
 vation unto eternal life. If in Holy Writ this union is 
 represented as a betrothal, it is "for ever;"* and 
 when it is likened to a body with joints and limbs, it is 
 a body not to be mangled or divided. Christians must 
 have discipline, suffering, chastisement ; but " there is 
 no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus/' -f 
 We rely on the sure word of the Lord, that not one, 
 not the least member of Christ, shall be lost ; not one 
 of Christ's bones, not the smallest, not a little finger of 
 His body, shall ever be broken. 
 
 In the great day of the Lord, all the living body that 
 has come through tribulation, death, and resurrection 
 without a broken bone, shall be revealed. When the 
 Head shall appear, all the members shall appear with 
 Him in glory. J A glorious sight indeed ! — Mystical 
 Christ complete ! and the Eedeemer and the redeemed 
 rejoicing together in the fruition of the promises of 
 God! 
 
 *Hos. ii. IP. f Rom. viii. 1. J Col. iii. 4. 
 
128 THE LOED'S VINEYAKD. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 ©e £ axVs DmeprtL 
 
 The Lord God has planted his Church as " a choice 
 vine " in the earth. During the first ages of the 
 world, His vineyard was not hedged in — there was no 
 organisation of a religious community. But the call- 
 ing of Israel out of Egypt marked a very important 
 epoch in Church history. " Thou hast brought a vine 
 out of Egypt ; thou hast cast out the heathen, and 
 planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst 
 cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land/'* 
 This vine never perishes. There are diversities of dis- 
 pensation. The Jewish aspect of religion has been 
 abrogated ; but the vine planted of old shall never die 
 out. Every plant which the heavenly Eather has not 
 planted shall be rooted up, but this vine flourishes and 
 puts forth tender grapes. 
 
 This is due entirely to the Divine care. Jehovah 
 demands, "What could have been done more to my vine- 
 yard, that I have not done in it ? "-(- Eor the preserva- 
 
 * Psalm lxxx. 8, 9. + Isa. v. 4. 
 
THE lord's vineyard. 129 
 
 tion of the truth through centuries of the world's gross 
 idolatry, religion was connected with the Jewish polity. 
 Even the geographical position of Palestine hedged in 
 the people and Church of Israel — guarded as was that 
 good land by the Jordan and the two lakes on the 
 east, the desert and mountainous Idumea on the south, 
 the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by Anti- 
 Libanus on the north. Besides this, the peculiar 
 ecclesiastical system, the Theocratic polity of Israel, 
 strongly fenced in the vineyard of the Lord. With 
 this external fence of separation and protection, every- 
 thing essential to the internal completeness of a vine- 
 yard was also supplied. The Owner thereof made a 
 wine-press, digged a wine-vat, and built a tower from 
 which watchmen might guard the fruit. In other 
 words, God furnished to His Church, even in the Old 
 Testament times, all the advantages needful in those 
 times for life and godliness. If fruits were not duly 
 rendered to the Divine Owner, the blame lay, not on 
 the appurtenances of the vineyard, as though they 
 were defective, but on the misconduct of "the vine- 
 keepers/' and the negligence of the men of Judah and 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem. "For the vineyard of the 
 Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of 
 Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, 
 but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but behold a 
 cry/' * 
 
 * Isa. v. 7. 
 I 
 
130 THE lokd's vineyard. 
 
 The vine-keepers in ancient times were the priests 
 Levites, and rulers of the people. The interests of the 
 Church and of true religion were confided to them ; 
 the vineyard was let out to them that they might 
 cultivate it, and obtain a yield of good fruit, as a 
 revenue for their Lord. When the keepers of the Old 
 Testament vineyard proved unfaithful in their office, 
 so that nought was yielded but wild grapes — when 
 they at last became so wicked, as not only to stone the 
 prophets, the servants, but even to kill the Son, the 
 Heir — God made a great change in His vineyard. 
 Taking down the fence of Judaism, He planted the 
 vine in the lands of the Gentiles. At the same time 
 He changed the keepers thereof, the husbandmen.* 
 In lieu of the Jewish priests and elders, the Lord has 
 given charge of His vineyard, in New Testament 
 ages, to apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and 
 teachers. In our own time, as many as " labour in 
 word and doctrine/' walking in the steps of apostolic 
 belief and example, are not only builders under the 
 Master-Builder, and shepherds under the Chief Shep- 
 herd, bat also vine-dressers under the Great Keeper of 
 the vineyard. There is need of them. The vine is a 
 plant that cannot endure neglect, that requires constant 
 and minute attention. In every season of the year it 
 must be watched and tended with assiduous care. In 
 like manner the interests of religion, of the kingdom 
 
 * Matt. xxi. 41-45. 
 
THE LOED'S VINEYAED. 131 
 
 of God on earth, demand the watchful and untiring 
 assiduities of faithful men, who will give themselves 
 wholly to the work of the vineyard. 
 
 This is not all. The Lord himself from heaven 
 watches over His choice vine. He makes the Sun of 
 righteousness to shine, and the rains of grace to 
 descend, that His "pleasant plant" may grow and 
 fructify. It is God who "gives the increase." "In 
 that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I 
 the Lord do keep it ; I will water it every moment : 
 lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."* 
 
 The Divine " keeping " is rendered necessary by the 
 serious dangers to which the Lord's vineyard on earth 
 is exposed. Scripture mentions three such dangers : — 
 
 1. The boar out of the forest. As it is written, 
 " The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild 
 beast of the field doth devour it/'-f- This is a figure 
 of the violent persecution by which the Church of God 
 has suffered. From the forests of heathenism the 
 invader rushed again and again on Palestine, and the 
 foot of the wild boar trod down the ancient vineyard of 
 the Lord. In Christian times, the same violence has 
 often been repeated. The havoc made of the primitive 
 Church by Jewish and Pagan enemies — the suppression 
 of the truth after the Eeformation, in various Euro- 
 pean countries, by the sword drawn at the instigation 
 of Papal Eome — and the cruelties inflicted on young 
 
 * Isa. xxyii. % 3. f Psalm lxxx. 13. 
 
132 the loed's vineyard. 
 
 Christian communities on heathen shores in our own 
 time — are all so many rushes of " the boar out of the 
 wood/' enraged against the heritage of Christ. 
 
 Yet the Lord has proved a faithful protector of His 
 " pleasant plant." His vine, trodden down by violence 
 of persecution, has often revived with more vigour and 
 beauty than before. History contains many instances 
 in which injustice and attack have tended to the fur- 
 therance of the gospel. God, at such time as pleaseth 
 Him, stays the oppressor ; but even while the oppres- 
 sion lasts, and the boar out of the wood seems to work 
 his will, Jehovah restrains his wrath, and overrules all 
 for good. The experience of this in the early Pagan 
 persecutions of the Christian Church is boldly expressed 
 in the words of Tertullian — "Plures efficimur, quo ties 
 metimnr a vobis ; semen est sanguis Christianorum/' 
 
 The Divine Keeper of the vineyard has defeated, and 
 will defeat, the cruelty of " the boar out of the wood/' 
 
 2. A second danger lies in the ravages of " the 
 little foxes/' These make no crashing sound like the 
 wild boar, give no sign of their approach or presence, 
 but enter unobserved, and soon spoil the vines, by 
 preying on the tender grapes. "Take us the foxes, 
 the little foxes, that spoil the vines : for our vines have 
 tender grapes." * 
 
 Poxes represent all cunning deceits of error and sin ; 
 and the "little foxes" are those so-called little sins 
 
 * Cant. ii. 15. 
 
THE lord's yineyaed. 133 
 
 which eat away the tender grape, the good promise of 
 religion in youth. Great and glaring offences are more 
 easily watched against and resisted ; but the little foxes 
 glide in, and are in the heart of the vineyard, busy in 
 destruction, before we know ; in other words, minute 
 acts of inconsistency grow insensibly into habits, and 
 work great mischief while we are unaware. The little 
 foxes creep in at the smallest hole in the fence ; little 
 sins creep in at the smallest crevice of unwatchfulness, 
 and, once in, make sad havoc of young religion, of 
 the tender grape. Therefore the Lord, who watches 
 over His vineyard, cries, " Take us the foxes, the little 
 foxes \" Let these little ones of Babylon be dashed 
 against the stones ! 
 
 3. The third danger comes from unfaithful pastors 
 or false husbandmen : " Many pastors have destroyed 
 my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, 
 they have made my portion of desire a desolate wil- 
 derness/'* 
 
 In the days of old the Church was wasted and cor- 
 rupted by false prophets and unworthy ministers of 
 religion : hireling shepherds, that fed themselves, and 
 not the flock — lying prophets, telling " visions of their 
 own heart" — keepers of the vineyard, unfaithful to their 
 trust ; — such were the men to whom Scripture ascribes 
 the declension and corruption of the Jewish religion. 
 The New Testament also contains frequent warnings 
 
 * Jer. xii. ]0. 
 
134 THE loed's vineyard. 
 
 against false apostles and teachers, " deceitful workers/' 
 "seducing spirits;" and the history of the Church 
 since the Christian era has shewn how much these 
 warnings are needed, in the baneful effects wrought in 
 the Church by men who have alleged themselves to be 
 its only trusty guardians. Heresies, strifes, persecu- 
 tions, and bigotries have commonly entered the Church 
 through irreligious and unworthy clergy. Not even 
 the boar out of the wood has done so much harm to 
 the vineyard as popes and priests, and unconverted or 
 cold-hearted Protestant ministers have done. Clerical 
 pretensions and ecclesiastical garments may be wrapped 
 about men who are no true keepers of the vineyard. " Be- 
 loved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether 
 they are of God ; because many false prophets are gone 
 out into the world."* 
 
 The end for which the vineyard exists is the produc- 
 tion of fruit. All the plantation, culture, defence, and 
 care are pointed to this result — "much fruit." "Solomon 
 had a vineyard in Baal-hamon," and from each of the 
 keepers received a thousand pieces of silver as a return 
 for the produce of the vincf* Christ our King has, by 
 the ministry of His servants, a rich vintage, a grateful 
 return for His manifold grace, so that His soul " is 
 satisfied." The entire dispensation of saving mercy, 
 the culture of the vineyard, and the labours of all 
 faithful husbandmen therein, unitedly tend to one good 
 
 *1 John iv. 1. tCant. vi;i. 11. 
 
THE loed's vineyard. 135 
 
 result — the increase of godliness, to the glory of the 
 Father in heaven, and the joy of the ascended Saviour. 
 In the time of vintage, when the clusters of ripe grapes 
 shall be gathered in, all heaven shall ring with the shout 
 of praise — " Grace, grace unto it ! " 
 
1.36 THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 %\t gngfyt anir Itoutiwf Star. 
 
 All thoughtful men have reverenced the stars. The 
 mind is soothed and awed by the expressive quiet of a 
 starry sky. Not the poets only, but all men of reflec- 
 tion and sensibility, have imitated the son of Jesse in 
 the night watches : "I consider thy heavens, the work 
 of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast 
 ordained."* 
 
 In the noble imagery of Scripture, the lights of the 
 firmament are made preachers of righteousness : " The 
 Lord God is a Sun;"*)" the Church is to be " fair as 
 the Moon. "J One beautiful emblem in the sky the 
 Lord Jesus has appropriated to Himself — the stead- 
 fast day spring from on high : "I am the Bright and 
 Morning Star."§ Many are the stars in the sky, one 
 differing from another in glory, but this excelleth them 
 all — the chief among ten thousand, and " altogether 
 lovely/' 
 
 * Psalm viii. 3. + Psalm lxxxiv. 11. 
 
 $ Cant. vi. 10. § Rev. xxii. 16. 
 
THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. ] 37 
 
 Two clays are given to the Church — a clay of grace, 
 and a day of glory. The dayspring of each is the 
 appearing of the " same Jesus " in His first and second 
 advents. 
 
 From the sad era of the Fall, darkness settled on the 
 human race. Losing original righteousness, man lost 
 the light of life. The promise, indeed, of a victorious 
 Seed of the woman, given to our first parents before 
 they left the garden of Eden, relieved the gloom of their 
 expulsion. The hope kindled by this and other promises 
 was a light in darkness to the Church of the Old Testa- 
 ment, while thick clouds yet covered the sky. The 
 ancient believers were " saved by hope/' the hope of 
 the Lord's appearing. So one of them wrote, "My 
 soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch 
 for the morning/'* 
 
 The ancient Pagan world lay in gross darkness. It 
 was unhappy, indeed, and restless : for human souls 
 were all made for light, and its philosophers, and 
 priests, and people alike groped and stumbled in the 
 gloom ; now glorying in some poor lantern of this 
 world, as if it were a planet in heaven — now rushing 
 after some ignis fatuus, till they lost their way more 
 hopelessly than before. 
 
 The fulness of time brought the world's second clay- 
 break, and the Church's first daybreak in Judea. We 
 know that in nature the morning star appears at its due 
 
 * Psalm cxxx. 6. 
 
138 THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 
 
 time in silence, without clamour or ostentation — no 
 thunder peals through heaven to herald its approach. 
 So did Jesus come. In Bethlehem-Judah, and in the 
 very stable of the inn, was the nativity of the Son of 
 the Highest — the dawn of redemption, the rise of the 
 Bright and Morning Star. 
 
 " For Thou wert born of woman ! Thou didst come, 
 Holiest ! to this world of sin and gloom ; 
 Not in Thy dread omnipotent array, 
 
 And not by thunders strew'd, 
 
 Was Thy tempestuous road ; 
 Nor indignation burnt before Thee on Thy way ; 
 
 But Thee, a soft and naked child, 
 
 Thy mother, undefiled, 
 
 In the rude manger laid to rest 
 
 From off he* virgin breast." * 
 
 Obscure as was the nativity, there were signs and 
 tokens sufficient that a good era for man had arrived. 
 A multitude of the heavenly host sang praises when 
 the Star of our redemption rose. The shepherds, angel- 
 taught, saw the Babe in the manger, and wondered. 
 Magi from the East, star-guided, fell down before the 
 Divine Infant, and worshipped ; and aged Simon in 
 the temple, holding the virgin's Child in his arms, 
 spake of Him as the " light to lighten the Gentiles, 
 and the glory of God's people Israel. "+ 
 
 Signs of enmity soon appeared from the powers and 
 lovers of darkness. These could not love the Lord 
 
 * Milman. t Luke ii. 32. 
 
THE BEIGHT AND MOENING STAE. 139 
 
 Jesus, and wished Him extinct because He disturbed 
 them with His light. The attempt was made to 
 destroy Jesus in His infancy. Murderous Herod tried 
 to quench that Morning Star in blood, when first it 
 faintly rose in Bethlehem. The demons, too, whose 
 element is darkness, complained that the Star had 
 appeared too soon, exposing their malignant tyranny : 
 " What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of 
 God ? art thou come hither to torment us before the 
 time V* Wicked men were no more glad than the 
 very demons to see the day break. By long habit 
 men become so inured to moral darkness, that it is 
 painful and irksome to them to look on heaven's pure 
 light. It was thus with the elders and chief priests, 
 the scribes and Pharisees. They felt the presence of 
 the Lord Jesus a constant rebuke to themselves ; hence 
 their plots to weaken His influence, to blacken His 
 reputation, to eclipse the provoking radiance of that 
 bright Star, and, if possible, extinguish it utterly in 
 the darkness of death. These plots had their consum- 
 mation and apparent triumph in the crucifixion. But 
 from that hour, when all seemed lost, there was given 
 a brighter lustre and a more extended radiance to our 
 exalted Morning Star. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, that the day ushered in 
 by the first advent of the Saviour has not been a 
 
 * Matt. Tiii. 29. 
 
140 THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 
 
 day without clouds. The brightness has been inter- 
 cepted and concealed from many ; the powers of dark- 
 ness struggle hard and long to impede the growing 
 light. 
 
 The Church looks forward to another and more per- 
 fect day, to be ushered in by the second advent of the 
 Son of man. Simon Peter has given directions to 
 Christians how to walk " till the day dawn, and the 
 day-star arise in your hearts/'* He points to the 
 time of Christ's appearing in the resurrection morn — 
 " Behold ! he cometh with clouds/' but the clouds 
 shall not hide His radiance from the eyes of angels or 
 men, for " every eye shall see Him." - )* " The sun shall 
 be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 
 and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of 
 the heavens shall be shaken : and then shall appear the 
 sign of the Son of man in heaven/' J 
 
 Ungodly men and unclean spirits may fear that 
 dawn of day, but it is an object of earnest hope to 
 believers. Not more ardently did the Old Testament 
 worthies wait for the first, than the New Testament 
 Church ought to wait for the second coming of the 
 Lord. " Joy cometh in the morning/' Eeunion of 
 the long-parted cometh in the morning. Crowns of 
 righteousness come in the morning to all who love 
 the Lord's appearing. Thereafter no clouds or dark- 
 
 * 2 Peter i. 19. f Rev. i. 7. % Matt. xxiv. 29, 30. 
 
THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAE. 141 
 
 ness shall fall upon the Church. The children of 
 light shall be gathered before the throne, "And 
 there shall be no night there ; and they need no 
 caudle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God 
 giveth them light : and they shall reign for ever and 
 ever/'* 
 
 * Eev. sxii. 5. 
 
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