At eventide. Discourses

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Boston Public Library

Do not write in this book or mark it with pen or
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This book teas issued to the borrower on the date
last stamped below.

FORM NO. 609! 12.15,32: 160U.

•

AT EVENTIDE.

DISCOURSES

BY

NEHEMIAH ADAMS D. D.,

SENIOR PASTOR OF UNION CHURCH, BOSTON.

BOSTON:
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY,

FKANKLEJT ST., COKNEB OF HAWLEY.

Copyright by

D. LOTHROP & CO,
1877.

TO

THE PAST AND PRESENT MEMBERS
OF UNION CHURCH, BOSTON,

AND TO

MY BRETHREN IN THE MINISTRY,

THIS VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

BV

NEHEMIAH ADAMS.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

THE PUBLICATION OF THIS VOLUME OF SER-

MONS, - ALL PREACHED NEAR THE CLOSE OF AN
ACTIVE MINISTRY OF NEARLY FIFTY YEARS, - IS
ENTIRELY DUE TO TIIE FOLLOWING KIND AND COM-
PLIMENTARY LETTERS:

CORRESPONDENCE.

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. >
January 22, 1874. )

REV. NEHEMIAH ADAMS D. D.,
Boston, Mass.

Dear Sir and Brother :

The undersigned, Min-
isters of the Gospel and Pastors of congregations
in this city, remember with sentiments of unfeigned
gratitude and pleasure, the visit you paid to our
city, and the services you performed in our several
churches, whilst you were the guest of your hon-
ored son, our esteemed brother in Christ, Rev.
WILLIAM H. ADAMS.

The frequent allusions to the pleasure and profit
which your numerous friends derived from your
ministrations whilst among us, have suggested the
propriety of a more tangible memorial of these ser-
vices than our unaided memories afford ; hence we
have concluded to ask — if consistent with your

IV

COEEESPONDENCE. V

views — for the publication of the sermons pre.vliecl
in the different Churches, and in the Orphans'
Chapel of this city, as well as those which have
"been prepared for several occasions when the de-
livery of them was prevented by Providential inter-
positions.

"In addition to the treasure we hope to possess in
having your labors in this place reduced to this
permanent form, we also desire on our part, to bear
grateful testimony to your eminent services for the
truth as it is in Jesus.

For the space of half a century your voice and
pen have been most industriously employed in de-
fence of " the faith once delivered unto the saints,"
and in your hands the Gospel trumpet has never
given an uncertain sound.

We would therefore feel honored in having our
churches and ourselves connected, however re-
motely, with the history of a servant of Christ so
justly distinguished as yourself.

********

In making this request, we would also cherish the
hope that the publication of a book written by a
Boston Divine, and its publication solicited by
Charleston Ministers, may tend to the promotion of
that "peace on earth and good" will toward men,"
which is such a cardinal element in our holy reli-
gion, and such an important desideratum in our com-
mon country.

With prayers for your continued health and use-

VI

CORRESPONDENCE.

fulness, and with considerations of highest respect
and esteem,

We remain,

Yours in the Gospel,

^TTTTM- A XT f Pastor of the Wentworth
W. S. BOWMAN, | St> Lutheran church.

( Pastor of Zion Presbyte-
(_ rian Church, Glebe St.

( Pastor of the Huguenot

J. L.

C. S. VEDDER,

J. A. CIIAMBLISS,

1

Church.

Pastor of the Citadel
Square Baptist Church.

TP A niTFTT J Pastor of the Second Pres-
G. R. BRACKET 1, j byterian Church.

QATVPT JPjlstor of tlie SPrhlS St'

RICHD D. SMAR1, | M E Church) South.

J. T. WIGHTMAN,
W. C. DANA,
T. W. DOSII,
L. H. SHUCK,

f Pastor of the Bethel M.
"^ E. Church, South.

( Pastor of the Central Pres-
\ byterian Church.

( Pastor of St. John's Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church.

(Pastor of the First Baptist
\ Church.

REPLY.

— *•*

BOSTON, February 3, 1874.

To the REV. TV. S. BOWMAN and others, Pastors of
Evangelical Churches in Charleston, S. (7.,

DEAR BRETHREN:

Your letter of January 22, was read by
me with a truly grateful heart. Your names, each
of them, are associated with pleasurable recollec-
tions of personal intercourse which can never fade
from my memory, and your references to my visit
among you last year will be a constant source of
pleasure. The request which you so kindly make
for the Sermons which I preached to your congre-
gations shall be considered. Meanwhile accept the
assurance of my warmest affection, with prayers for
your continued prosperity.

Most truly,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

X. ADAMS,
vii

viii REPLY.

Letter from the REV. PROF. PHELPS of Andover
Theological Seminary.

ANDOVER, MASS., February 7, 1876.

N. ADAMS, D. D. :

Dear Brother,

I am not sure that this letter is
not a " twice told tale," — the object of it has been
so often in my mind. I have read to-day, for my
own comfort one of your own sermons in the vol-
ume " Christ a Friend," and it suggests to me as
your books have done a hundred times before, the
query whether you have not among your manuscript
sermons, many which if published, would be an ad-
dition to our homilitic literature. I have for many
years recommended your sermons to my classes as
illustrating a department of that literature which
few sermons in the language illustrate as well. I
have only wished that we had more of them in print.
And now that the Biblical element in preaching is
receiving increased attention, I am confident that a
fresh volume of sermons from you would fall in
with that reform in the pulpit, and be well received.
I tell my pupils "Do this, do that, with your
texts, preach thus and talk so, in your discourses ;"
and over and over again they ask me, " Who does
it? Can you point us to the preacher who preaches
so ? " I often direct them to your two volumes of
Sermons and wish they were twenty. Will you not
look over your silent drawers of manuscript, and

REPLY. IX

see if there is not something there which the Church
of Christ wants ? Hoping that the years are deal-
ing more lightly with you than they are with me,
I remain as ever,

Tours Fraternally,

AUSTIN PHELPS.

CONTENTS.

SERMON. PAGE.

I. THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL. . 13
II. HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 32

III. PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF BE-

FORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 50

IV. GOD OUR DWELLING, AND IN OUR

DWELLING 71

V. THE JEW AND THE ROMAN WATCH-
ING THE SEPULCHRE. . . 87

VI. THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. . 106

VII. THE BRIEF MENTION OF ASTRON-
OMY IN GENESIS. . . . 118

VIII. EMULATION IN HEAVEN AMONG THE

REDEEMED 136

xi

xii CONTENTS.

IX. THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU TO THE

DESPONDENT. . . .158

X. ''THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY

YOUTH." . . . .178

XL THE DOCTRINE OF GERIZIM AND

EBAL. . . . . .194

XII. ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 213

XIII. ON PASSING BY ANGELS TO RE-

DEEM MEN, .... 226

XIV. THE BROKEN IN HEART HEALED ;

THE STARS NUMBERED AND
NAMED 245

XV. THE REMOVAL OF ISRAEL'S CLOUD

TO THE REAR. 262

AT EVENTIDE,

i.

THE OFFERS OF THE G-OSPEL.

•

" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no
money : come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money,
and without price." — ISA. 55 : i.

WE have here a man who wishes to dispose
of something which he calls on people to
buy. He is a minister of religion. He is like
all true ministers of religion every where. They
offer the same things, urge the same motives,
and announce the same conditions of sale with
Isaiah, who from ancient time has been called
the evangelical prophet, because he dwelt so
much on Christ and his times.

Whenever such a minister enters the pulpit, if
his heart is right, this is his purpose, to offer the
same things once more to men. We are here

(13)

14 THE OFFEBS OF THE GOSPEL.

professedly for this purpose, to offer you some-
thing. We shall speak, God helping us, hoping
and expecting to succeed in persuading you to re-
ceive at our hands that which we come to offer. •
Let roe preface what I have to say concerning
our object in appearing here from time to time,
that every thing which you buy of us is war-
ranted to be genuine and perfect. It has a
government stamp upon it. The purchaser is
perfectly assured against counterfeits. On
every thing sold you will find engraved, for ex-
ample, '; This is the true bread which cometh
down from heaven." " That is the true light."
" Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God." Moreover it has
a divine seal, the seal of the Holy Spirit, called,
" The earnest of the inheritance," signifying, as
this subjoined phrase expresses it, " the pledge of
the purchased possession," or warrant of some-
thing laid up for us in heaven.

We call your attention especially to this seal
on every thing which we offer, and which is con-
veyed to every one who buys of us ; namely, he
has in the gift of the Holy Spirit the pledge of
something laid up for him in heaven ; that is,
certain feelings, joys, hopes, are imparted to him
under the influences of the Holy Spirit which
are an advance payment of the heavenly inheri-
tance. Under those influences one may say, " I

THE OFFEES OF THE GOSPEL. 15

know and ani persuaded of the Lord Jesus that,
feeling thus, I have a witness in my heart that I
am born of God." This is the fruit of the Holy
Spirit ; his seal. So that accepting these offers,
every thing which you buy of us is not only war-
ranted ; it is guaranteed ; that is, not only is it
perfect ; it is sure.

In the name and by the authority of the Most
High God we give, release, assign, and covenant
with you to maintain, protect, defend, and guar-
antee your title against all adverse claims forever.
This we do in the name and by the authority of
God. This is assured to us and to you in these
words of the Saviour: "And no man shall pluck
them out of my hands." " Their inheritance
shall be forever." ''• Your joy no man taketh
from you." " And my people shall long enjoy
the work of their hands." " He that toucheth
you, toucheth the apple of his eye." " The Al-
mighty shall be thy defence."

The security, you perceive, is perfect ; " As
the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is
the Lord round about his people from this time
forth even forever." Indeed it is more perma-
nent than the earth. "For the mountains shall
depart, and the hills be removed, but my kind-
ness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the
Lord that hath mercy on thee."

1C THE OFFEES OF THE GOSPEL.

Some people who have bought the same things
which we now offer you, have already held them
for five thousand and six thousand years. Abra-
ham invested largely in them ; his possession
has increased, literally, as God promised him it
should, as the stars of heaven, and as the sands
of the sea shore. And he is the divinely ap-
pointed representative of all who have faith in
these things ; " for he is .the father of all them
that believe."

The terms and conditions of sale in all cases
are, payment on delivery. Any thing of a prom-
issory kind is not received.

You will wish to know how payments are to
be made. I answer, '_' Without money and with-
out price.'*

This, singular as we must all acknowledge it
to be, is greatly objected to as exorbitant ; it is
most unpopular; it hinders our success. But
God has so ordained it.

We have been offered all kinds of payment as
substitutes for this. Our purchasers are at first
extremely loth to buy " without money and
without price." We could have sold e.very thing
had we been willing to take payment in differ-
ent kinds of commodities.

Some have offered morality, pure and good, as
they called ic ; though we have an assayer who
'; sils as a lufiuer of silver, " and he says it is

THE OFFEES OF THE GOSPEL. 17

dross, as to any commercial value, if it be with-
out the addition of that which he counsels all to
buy of him.

We have been offered tears of repentance, his-
torical faith, respect for religion, prayers twice a
da}r, church going twice or three times a Sab-
bath, and much during the week, almsgiving,
visiting the sick, conviction of sin, fear of death
and hell, abstinence from swearing and tying and
all vice ; in short, every thing on earth, including
bodily torture and martyrdom ; but not one of
our treasures was ever sold in a single instance

o

for one of these things. If any one pretends to
have sold them for such things, Christ says of
him, " the same 'is a thief and a robber." Our
pearl of great price can be had only at grea.t
cost; viz: "without money and without price."
There are no other things on earth sold at such
a rate as these. You all know what this means.
If one present says he does not know and wishes
me to explain it, I must decline, for it would be a
reflection of your understanding to explain it.
You have all attended these sales for years, and
you understand that this is that which we always
get for our payment. And many of you know
that these terms are the reason that you have
not made the purchase. Every one else who has
any thing to sell looks for people who have
money.

18 THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL.

But our purchasers are in eveiy case those
who "have no money." If you have money you
will not buy of us to-day. "Everyone that
thirsteth " for these things, and " he that hath no
money," are purchasers ; " all others are merely
idle, curious spectators. We are aware that ours
are extremely costly, difficult terms, hard to
meet. But we hope to persuade you that you
will be gainers by the trade.

The first thing, then, which ive have to offer is,
ETERNAL LIFE.

Are there any here who wish for Eternal
Life?

I hear some one ask if Eternal Life means liv-
ing forever ? No. That might be the greatest
curse. It will be the greatest curse to many.
Some who have been deceived in this thing are
now weeping and wailing. They now seek to
be rid of that which was once falsely represented
to them as eternal life. Could they but get rid
of it, annihilation would be gladly received in
exchange. When it is evening they say, would
God it were morning ; and when it is morning
they say, would God it were evening.

The eternal life which we offer you is in the
soul. Life is not merely time ; it is a principle
in our nature ; and when that nature is in
healthy exercise you know that every thing goes

THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL. 19

well. Eternal life is order, law, happiness, right-
eousness, prosperity, bliss ; and that forever and
ever. Have you ever considered what forever
is ? The longest journey on earth has an end.
You get upon the summit at last and sa}7, " Now
we are at the top ; soon we shall begin to de-
scend.'' But there is no summit to " forever."
No Chimborazo, or Himalaya towering above
every thing else. Onward and upward forever
is eternal life. It is the best thing which God
ever made. God's greatest gift is thus ex-
pressed : " And I give unto them eternal life."
It is even coupled with the name of God : " This
is the true God and eternal life."

But any man can sell you any thing, and faster,
than we can succeed in selling you this greatest
of blessings.

II. I WILL OFFER YOU A THEONE.

But what authority have I to sell thrones ?

Here is my warrant : "• He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches : " " To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame and am set down with my Father in
his throne."

One inquires, But how may you know that
such things are to be obtained if we buy
them ?

20 THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL.

Here is the assurance from the evangelist John
who enjoyed a sight of heaven : " And I saw
thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given unto them."

He who offers these thrones, makes them. In-
deed He, only, makes thrones : " For by him were
all things created, that are in heaven and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers."

He disposes of twelve of them at once : " Ye
which have followed me, in the regeneration
when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, ye
also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel."

What does the throne which we are promising,

govern ?

Some who have now obtained these thrones
have told us in the inspired language of
prophecy, what for substance is meant by the
promise, " And hath made us unto our God
kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the
earth."

It might be injurious for us at present to know
what this literally means. It is sufficient to
know that our future elevation can be expressed
only by saying that we shall be priests of God
and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thou-
sand years. Am I trifling, using words with-

THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL. 21

out knowledge? I use the words of God. I
will vary my offers.

III. I WILL OFFEE, YOU A CEO WIST.

There is something more obviously possessive
in a crown than in a throne. I offer you a
crown ; and here you will at once agree that I
am safe. " Be thou fuithfal unto death and I
will give thee a crown of life."

Paul had obtained one of these crowns ;
" which," he says, " the Lord, the righteous Judge
shall give me at that duy ; and not to me ouh",
but unto all them also that love his appearing."

Paul was glad not to be peculiar in his crown.
People of good sense do not love to be peculiar
in that which they wear. Paul beautifully
shows his modesty, his humilit_y, in this.

There is one thing to be said about the crown
which you may obtain : It is capable, while we
are in this world, of being greatly enhanced in
value and beauty. Bring your jewels, and the
Maker will set them for you. Paul's crown will
be remarkable for this, the jewels which he
obtained to be set in it.

There are crowns for all, — for all them that
love his appearing.

" Think of the crowns which the ransomed shall wear,"

and obtain each of you one of them. Again :

22 THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL.

IV. WILL YOU HAVE A HAKP ?

Those who love music and frequent the music
halls surely will be attracted by this.

The great company of heaven are represented
as " having every one of them harps." Will you
spend your existence in praise ? We are always
happy when we are praising, if our hearts are
in it.

We read of the harps of God. Will you have
one ? Will you praise forever ? " No more sor-
row, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
death." Will you join the song of redemption
for eternity? " No man can learn that song but
they which are redeemed from among men."
There is a harp for you ; but I pray you re-
member this : It will not be hung up draped, if
you do not take it. Some one else will take it.
You might chance to hear it as you pass by and
forever pass awa}^, and think, how wonderful !
surpassing the instruments of earth. You
would be told, that harp, was destined once for
you.

Secure it while it is called to-day !

V. Again, strange to say I can put you in
possession of some thing more. You will hesi-
tate to credit me when I tell you

I HEREBY OFFER YOU EVEKY THING.

For only listen to these words of God : " He

THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL. 23

that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I
will be his God, and he shall be my son."

There is one word used in the Bible to express
the idea of "all things" which are promised to
every one who will accept them. That word is,
Salvation.

On this gift of salvation are inscribed such
words as these : u He shall not be hurt of the
second death." " They shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my
Land." "And I will raise him up afc the last
day." " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the founda-
tion of the world."

One peculiarity of it is, the author of it at-
tends personally and bestows it. Hence He is
called by the name of Salvation : " The God of
salvation." Salvation is ascribed to him as pe-
culiarly his work : " Salvation is of the Lord."
He is personally present whenever there is need
of it, under all circumstances : " Call upon me
in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and
thou shalt glorify me."

Thus we ministers of the Gospel professedly
spend our lives, you providing for our temporal
sustenance, and we repeating the invitation :
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye,
buy and eat, yea come, buy wine and milk with-

24 THE OFFEBS OF THE GOSPEL.

out money and without price." I say, tins is
professedly our employment. Sometimes, per-
haps, yielding to temptation, we may feel that
this is too monotonous, tame, not sufficiently in-
tellectual; so we are led "to please men " and
to come to you with excellency of speech and of
man's wisdom, seeking to gain popular applause,
yielding to the plea that men must be pleased in
order to be won. It is interesting to notice that
the apostle who disclaimed human eloquence and
the art of rhetoric, was without any attempt in
those directions, the most finished model of hu-
man persuasion among all writers, his epistles
being masterpieces of art ; while you nowhere
discover in them any striving after scholastic
skill. He carries out in his writings that which
he says was his aim in preaching at Corinth,
" the eye of Greece," as it was called ; the resort
of the skilled professors of every branch of schol-
arly attainment. Horace says, " It does not fall
to every man to go to Corinth." " I am deter-
mined," Paul says, "not to know any thing among
you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." So
we preach, God helping us, whether men will
hear or whether they will forbear. AVe have
nothing to do but offer you the things which I

o */ o

I have enumerated. We might make lyceums
of our places of worship, entertain you with
science, literature, political disquisitions ; but we

THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL. 25

have no commission so to do ; we are not in-
structed to lecture you on subjects of such tem-
poral, fleeting interest as the news, and politics,
or questions of the exchange and the street. Yet
in our humble vocation we are not forbidden to
be as eloquent as Isaiah, as consummate masters
of rhetoric as Paul, as wise as Ecclesiastes, as
philosophical as the Evangelist John. But all
the time we must make you feel that we are of-
fering you eternal life, a throne in heaven, a
crown in heaven, and every thing else which
God has to bestow, under the title of salvation.

This we shall continue to do, though often-
times we are compelled to cry, " who hath be-
lieved our report, and to whom is the arm of
the Lord revealed ? " We must often point out
the consequences of neglecting this great salva-
tion, show you the desperate wickedness of }rour
hearts, the fatal consequences of your unbelief,
and not spare to repeat the inspired representa-
tion of eternal damnation, with tribulation and
wrath, indignation and anguish, on every soul
that doeth evil. We must all the time be warn-
ing you that the time is short; that the shadows
are lengthening; that you know not what a day
may bring forth.

For, some of you, moved by our urgency in
pressing upon you these offers, say to us in your
hearts, "Perhaps I will take your offers to-mor-

26 THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL.

row." Dear friend, perhaps you may not be in
a situation to buy of us to-morrow. So long as
you have not accepted our offers of a Saviour,
you are living under condemnation ; there may
be put a step between you and death, of which
we have illustrations every week. It is most
wonderful that while God miu;ht do nothing in

O O

addressing us but warn, and threaten, he pleads,
he solicits; and the great apostle to the Gentiles
uses this language : " As though God did be-
seech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God." While doing this,
the effect of which oftentimes is to lull, and
soothe, he is speaking to those who have long
since forfeited all claim on divine forbearance ;
so that should the Most High whet his glitter-
ing sword and cut us off, should he, as the
Great Husbandman, say of us, " Cut it down,
why cumbereth it the ground," there is no rea-
son why the intercessor should plead : " Lord,
let it alone this year also ; " for he did so last
year, and the year before that, and five years
ago, nay ten, and with some of you twenty,
thirty, and with one and another even more.
How can you, then, promise that you will to-
morrow, perhaps, accept our offers, when you
may not hear these offers again ! You may be
imprisoned to-morrow for eternity. This call
you may have occasion to reflect upon with

THE OFFEKS OF THE GOSPEL. 27

never ceasing regret, saying, " How have I hated
instruction and despised reproof."

Some of you do not feel any need of these
things. What can we do? We cannot create

O

your taste. All that we can say further of the
things offered is, Here they are, full and free ; all
things are read}r. Ho, every one that thirst-
eth, come ; and he that hath no money, come.

Some of you, I repeat it, dislike our terms :
" Without money and without price." You say,
These are a poor man's terms, a beggar's terms.
You say, again, Those who are invited to buy are
those who are without money.

Never was there a poor man, not even a beg-
gar, so utterly poor and beggared as you and I
are in consequence of sin. " All we like sheep
have gone astray ; we have turned every one to
his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all," But " Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth." Believing in his sufferings and
death for you, will be the same as if you had
kept the law of God as the angels have. The
reason why heaven and salvation are " without
money and without price " is, " Christ died for
us." We once had a price to pay ; fallen angels
are paying it now for themselves, and will be
paying it forever ; which will be true of us if we
do not accept the offer made by the Gospel :

28 THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL.

" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life;" the consequence of neglecting to do so
being thus expressed : " And he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abide th on him."

" And was the ransom paid ? It was, and paid
(What can exalt its bounty more ?) for thee."

Therefore it is without money and without
price to us, because Christ, the God-man, tasted
death for every man. Hear the Gospel in these
few words: "Believe and thou shalt be saved."

But if you think these terms are such as any
one can easily meet, let me assure you they will
seemingly cost you all which you have and are.
One man went and sold all that he had and in-
vested it in a pearl of great price which he hap-
pened to meet with ; and Christ compares all
who buy these things which we offer }TOU, to
such a man. A young man who came to buy
and had great possessions was told by the Sa-
viour, " Go thy way, sell all that thou hast and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven, and come and follow me." The terms,
he also felt, were very hard ; only heaven for-
ever for his gold ! He went away sorrowful.
What would he give to have the same offer made
to him to-day! He might have been an apostle.
He might have written one of the Gospels. He

THE OFFEES OF THE GOSPEL. 29

might Lave been surveying myriads brought
home to God by his words. Where now are his
great possessions? Where are they? Ask, where
are the snows of that winter? And \vhereis
he ? He is somewhere to-day ; and we shall be
"somewhere " when we die.

I am not sure that I shall succeed in disposing
of one of these things to you. Must I return

O \i

and say, " Mere, Lord, are thy thrones, and
crowns, and harps, eternal life and salvation."
Another lost opportunity ! " Who has believed
our report ? '

And why do I not succeed ? The principal
reason is, the terms are, " Without money and
without price ! "

Again ; I am tempted to make you one more
offer :

VI. TAKE ONE OF THESE THINGS AND YOU

SHALL HAVE THE WHOLE.

For instance, if }'ou will have a harp you
shall have a crown and throne. If you will love
God and say as David did, " My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh
bless his holy name forever and ever,'' you shall
have salvation and all things; but on the same
inexorable terms, viz: "Without money and
without price." We cannot abate one iota from
these terms.

30 THE OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL.

These thrones will one day all be set, these
crowns be all put on, these harps be in hand,
salvation will be complete, eternal life will be
extending1 its reign over the full number of the

o o

redeemed. Listening, we perhaps shall hear
your voice, you standing without and saying,
" Lord, Lord, open to us." Ah, there is a great
multitude then without, wishing to buy. As we
listen we hear them crying out in words like
these : " How have we hated instruction and
despised reproof ! The harvest is passed, the
summer is ended, and we are not saved." Then
the voices fall to expostulation : " Will the
Lord cast off forever ? and will he be favorable
no more ? Is his mercy clean gone forever'?
Doth his promise fail forevermore ? Hath God
forgotten to be gracious ? Hath he in his anger
shut up his tender mercies ? " The song within
proceeds ; the harpers harp upon their harps ;
the multitude which no man can number, bow
like a field of ripe grain with the wind passing
over it; crowns unnumbered are cast at the
feet of Immanuel ; every throne is filled ; but
where are you, who cares for 3-011, who even
thinks of you ? The Registries of Deeds are
burned up, gold and silver are melted, houses
and lands, the earth and all that is therein
are in ashes ; voices are heard lamenting ;
O, that they were wise, that they understood

THE OFFEES OF THE GOSPEL. 31

this, that the}^ had considered their latter
end !

I have reserved one piece of information for
this moment. It is this :

VII. IF YOU FEEL INCOMPETENT TO BUY
THESE THINGS, THE PROPRIETOR OF THEM, IF
YOU SINCERELY DESIRE IT, WILL FURNISH YOU
WITH THE DISPOSITION.

He is able and willing. Onty signify to him
your sinful inability, your indisposition, to re-
ceive eternal life, the crowns, the thrones, the
harps of heaven without money and without
price, and sincerely beg of him to give you a
heart to make the purchase on his terms, and he
will do it.

Now what can I say more? He who sent me
speaks ; let man be silent : " Wherefore do ye
spend money for that which is not bread, and
your labor for that which satisfieth not ? hearken
diligently unto me and eat ye that which is
good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Incline your ear and come unto me, hear and
3Tour soul shall live, and I will make an ever-
lasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David."

II.

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE

GOD?

"I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." — Ps. 18: i.

IT will awaken surprise in you to hear this
question, yet it cannot exceed mine on hear-
ing it as I once did, from a distinguished man
whom I had long regarded as truly devout. He
was a member of one of the evangelical denomi-
nations, a regular attendant on religious ordi-
nances, a communicant, a firm believer in the
fundamental truths of religion. Being together
at the house of his relative, this man, of world-
wide reputation as a man of genius, astonished
me with this question when we were by our-
selves : " What do you understand by love to
God ? '' I looked at him with surprise ; but be-
fore I could speak, he added, " I know what fear
of God means ; but I do not understand what is
meant when I am called upon to love God."
Had I uttered the thought which arose in my
(32)

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 33

mind, I should have said : " I always supposed
you to be a Christian ; can ifc be possible that
you have need that one teach 3-011 the alphabet
of religious experience ? " I chose to put ques-
tions to him which would make plain the secret
of his difficulty ; his frank nature encouraged
me to ask them. His difficulty, I soon found,
was this, that loving God implied a degree of
familiarity which seemed to him unsuitable in a
finite creature when approaching his Creator.
He acknowledged that the language of the Bible
encouraged the idea of familiarity in our inter-
course with God ; still he preferred to explain
all such permission by what he called Oriental-
ism. In vain was it urged in reply that Orien-
talism rather forbade than encouraged liberty
in approaching Majesty ; prostration, even to ab-
jectness, was enjoined on ministers of state, as
well as menial servants. Still, he expressed a
fear of presumption in drawing near to God : he
would stand afar off with the publican, and not
lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, rather than
seem to trespass beyond the limit of reverence.

It was impossible not to love the spirit of hu-
mility which seemed to actuate this man. Some
I knew would doubt his piety, if they should
hear him ask what it is to love God ; therefore I
have never disclosed the conversation, being es-
pecially careful not to make allusion to it since

31 HAVE WE PERMISSION" TO LOVE GOD?

his decease ; no one therefore knows to whom I
refer. It was my firm belief that he was a child
of God, though his inquiry about love to God
might stir a question to the contrary in some
zealous, honest mind among his friends.

His question has had two effects on me ; one,
to make me endeavor to be charitable in judg-
ing others ; the other, to make clear to me the
answer to the question which I propose now to
consider : Have we permission to love Gfod ?

It would not surprise me to know that there
are serious persons in all our congregations who
are reluctant to profess «that they love God, for
the same reason that the individual to whom I
have referred was afraid to recognize in his reli-
gious experience so familiar an emotion as love.
He could not withhold an assurance that he did
fear God ; that this fear was not selfish, but rev-
erence and godly fear. But it may be that he
had heard some persons give utterance to emo-
tions which they called love, but which seemed
to him to betray a want of reverence for the
Most High. So there are estimable persons iu
every religious community who are repelled by
the freedom with which they hear others express
their affection for their Maker, when it seemed
devoutly to be wished that his dread would fall
on them and his excellency make them afraid !
Hence there are two extremes against which we

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 35

need to be on our guard. One is Familiarity ;
the other is Stoicism. The apostles maintain a
just medium between these extremes. We no-
where find affectionateness in their intercourse
with Christ approach an undue freedom ; nor are
we chilled by their reserve. The apostle John
might have pleaded an excuse for any appear-
ance of undue warmth of emotion. Peter with
his wonderful experience of forgiveness would
not have been blamed if his affection for his
Lord had showed itself in enthusiasm at every
mention of his name. But even Peter is a
model of soberness in his affection ; we feel that
his love is at full tide in his Epistles, but we are
nowhere offended by the want of self-control.

The question which I have already mentioned
as put to me by a man of distinguished genius,
was also expressed by a plain man, a mechanic,
a member of an evangelical church. He was in
the last stages of a decline, but in full possession
of his faculties. Once as I was leaving his bed-
side, he said : " One thing more I wish to ask :
I lie here and talk with God in a way which
startles me. I use expressions of endearment,
address him by affectionate names, make requests
as a child to a parent, indulge in words of adora-
tion ; all of which, on second thought, seem to me
too free for a mortal to use in his intercourse
with his Master. Yet my feelings are so strong

36 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

that I cannot restrain myself. Tell me, should
I love God in this manner? or should I repress
my feelings and check my words ? ''

I said to him : " You ask, May you love God
thus ? The Saviour s«iys, quoting the Old Testa-
ment, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy strength, and with all thy mind.' Do you
ever exceed this ? " An expression of satisfac-
tion came over his face. The next day he had
gone to see Him " whom not having seen " he
" loved."

I was personally acquainted with the following
incident in the experience of a lad, winch I will
mention for the instruction of the young, some
of whom have questionings whether their relig-
ious feelings are not to be suppressed as the
weaknesses of childhood.

A lad was on his way from school with others
in playful conversation. When he entered his
house he laid down his books in the entry, went
to his chamber, locked the door, and heedless
whether any one was in the room adjoining, said,
in a childlike language, " O God, my Heavenly
Father ! I have come to pray to thee. I do not
want any thing in particular, but I love thee. I
have come to say this. I don't know what has
made me feel as I have felt this forenoon, but I
have not been able to think of much besides

HAVE WE PEEmSSION TO LOVE GOD ? 37

God. I never loved any thing so. ' Whom
have I in heaven but thee ; and there is none
upon earth that I desire besides thee.' Yes,
there is one thing which I do desire, and that is,
that all the scholars may feel so toward thee.
There is, — " .then he named five or six. Aftei
a few words more he joined his brothers and sis-
ters in their amusements, not feeling, probably,
that he had expressed any thing of special inter-
est; yet it may be questioned whether in heaven
that day there had been alleluias which had
awakened divine approbation more than this
child's prayer.

Were we required to give a definition of love
to God, we might well be at a loss for one which
would seem more fitted to the subject than the
feeling of this dying Christian and of this child.
For it is questionable whether any tiling could
be found which better expresses love to God as
we learn it from the experience of good men in
the Bible. One expression is most common
among them : " My God," — used as a term of
endearment : " O God, thou art my God ; early
will I seek thee. My soul longeth for thee, my
flesh thirsteth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land
where no water is." If there is one thing for
which David is remarkable it is, Love to God;
and he is called " a man after God's own heart."
The words of the text leave no room to question

38 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

what was the predominant feeling of the swee'u
Psalmist of Israel : " I Avill love thee, O Lord,
my strength." Then he proceeds to heap up
epithets of love to God : " The Lord is my rock
and my fortress, and my deliverer ; my God and
my strength whom I will trust ; my buckler and
the horn of my salvation and my high tower/'
He draws his epithets, you perceive, from his
experience in wildernesses and caves. Suppose
that he hud been not a military, but a sea-faring
man, he would have drawn his epithets from a
sailor's experience. Among the objects of ex-
ceeding joy to the sailor are the light house, the
pilot, the harbor ; no words are more thrilling
than " homeward bound," " safe home." We
should hear David, if a navigator, say, " Thou
art my light house, my pilot, my harbor ; to thee
I am homeward bound ; with thee I am safe
home." It may be confidently said that not
even is romance more enthusiastic in passionate
expressions than the poetry which is framed by
those who love God and Jesus Christ. Such
hymns as that by Dr. Watts beginning, " My
God, my portion, and my love," and that by Mrs.
Steele, uMy God, my Father, blissful name, "and
hymns of all the ages of Christendom to Jesus
Christ, reveal this truth, that such love is the
principal emotion of the Christian heart. There
is one branch of evidence here which can be ap-

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 39

predated only by the regenerate; I refer to the
experience of people at conversion. When the
love of God is shed abroad in the heart bj^ the
Holy Ghost which is given to us, when the
change takes place in our nature which is de-
noted by being " born again," " created anew in
Christ Jesus," "heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Christ," when by as sudden a disclosure of spirit-
ual things as Paul received on his wav to Da-

ID -/

masons, the mind first has a conception of God,
is convinced of its sinf uliiess, its lost estate, when
Christ is revealed to the mind as the Divine Sa-
viour with as full a revelation as to Saul of Tarsus,
making him cry, " Who art thou, Lord," then is
kindled a flame of love to God and Christ which
the apostle Paul declares to be comparable only
to the creation of light : " For God who com-
manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
sinned in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ." Then is fulfilled that passage in
the Psalms : " He brought me up also oo.it of an
horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my
feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even
praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and
fear, and shall trust in the Lord." Is. 40 : 2, 3.
One instance will suffice to show what this
experience is. It takes place everywhere under

40 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

the preaching of the Gospel, sometimes in scores
of cases at once. A man was riding home on
horseback after evening service, meditating on

O 7 O

what he had heard. He was secretly persuaded
to yield himself up to God ; when all at once
light from heaven broke upon his mind, reveal-
ing to him the way of salvation by Christ with
a sense of peace with God and the joy of par-
doned sin ; so that he found himself in a new
world. Unable to contain his joy at the discov-
ery, having no one at home who could enter into
his feelings, turning his horses head, he rode
back three miles to the minister's house, and
called him to the door. Taking both of the min-
ister's hands in his, he cried out: " O, sir! what
a God we have ! " which was the substance of
all that he said, for it was impossible for words
to express his emotions, and he mounted ,and
rode home, singing and praying. No one would
have found it more impossible than he to answer
the question, " What do you understand by
loving God;'' he, whose whole being was at
that hour flooded with it, could have found no
words to define his emotions. Does any one
sa}r, u Of what value can such emotions be to
God ? " We might answer him, Of what value
is any thing to God ? He will one day give up
this globe to fire. There is nothing of any value
to God except love. The whole object of God

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 41

in the Bible seems every where to have been to
make men love him. You would not have sup-
posed that those lightnings and thunder and
voices on Sinai which made Moses exceedingly
fear and quake, meant, " Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart." But the}^
did. As we read the Old Testament we find
that God is continually directing his efforts with
men to make them love him. His terrific judg-
ments are owing wholly to the refusal of man to
love God. Will loving God satisfy Him ? Let
us inquire into the teaching of his word upon
this point.

I. THE EXPERIENCE OF MEN IN THE BlBLE
SHOWS US THAT THE SUM OF HUMAN DUTY IS
TO LOVE GOD.

No book is more satisfactory on this point
than Deuteronomy. Of the Saviour's three re-
plies to Satan's temptations in the wilderness,
two are from that book ; the third is also found
there, though it occurs elsewhere. In that book
we find Moses rehearsing to Israel their sins and
the consequences of them in the judgments of
God, how well it would have been with them
had they but loved Him ; then what expostula-
tions he uses to make them love God !

There was also that great captain, Joshua, who
led Israel in the conquest of Canaan, taking

42 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

cities walled up to heaven, slaying mighty kings;
then in his farewell address to the nation using
language which would sound strangely, we
would all acknowledge, from the lips of the
Queen of Great Britain to Parliament, or from
any President of these United States. Imagine
those dignitaries saying in their addresses, " Take
good heed to yourselves that ye love the Lord
your God."

It deserves remark that he does not call upon
them as he well might have done, in view of
their stupendous history from Egypt through the
Red Sea and the wilderness, to fear and tremble ;
but, " take good heed to yourselves that ye love
the Lord your God." Perhaps some will say, It
was a strange method of making men love God,
to threaten them ; to make men entreat that the
voice might not be spoken to them any more.
Let him consider that there is no way in which,
on account of the hardness of our hearts God
brings us to love him more effectually than by his
terrible dispensations.

We have seen those who had withstood the
gentle methods by which God sought to bring
them to himself; they have broken the cords of
love, the bands of a man, which would have
bound their affections to God ; till at last some
great affliction has won their alienated affections ;
fire has consumed their property ; failures have

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 43

set them at the foot of the hill which all their
life time they had been climbing ; death has de-
spoiled them of a companion or child, so that the
pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at
his reproof. Instead of growing sullen, then de-
spondent, they have humbled themselves under
the mighty hand of God, and he has exalted
them in due time.

Years after we have seen them walking the
heavenward path, testifying, " It is good for me
that I have been afflicted." " Before I was af-
flicted I went astray ; but now have I kept thy
word.'' In heaven they will probably adore the
wisdom and goodness which devised the chas-
tisement that brought them to their senses.
" Why is it," we have heard them say, "that God
should in mercy have afflicted me, thereby bring-
ing me to himself, while so many are left to have
their portion in this life, and perhaps perish ? '

These people can understand us when we say
that 'Mount Sinai was intended to make men
love God ; the law was our school-master, to
bring us to Christ. There are doubtless some
who read these lines who look upon the trials
which have crushed them as the chief blessings
which God has bestowed. These trials will
make the basis of their songs of thanksgiving in
heaven.

When night comes down in the Azores, the

44 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

lavender beds yield perfumes, which all d;iy long
the hot sun hud consumed. After a storm we
look for sea-mosses and pebbles which the work-
ing of the sea has brought on shore. Solomon
says in his prayer at the dedication of the temple,
" The Lord hath said that lie would dwell in the
thick darkness." If God desires to draw a Chris-
tian very near to himself, he will almost always
send a heavy trial upon him. David said,
" When He hath tried me I shall come forth as
gold."

Sutan thought that he would destroy the man
of Uz ; so he moved God to put forth his hand
and touch his flesh ;. but it had the contrary ef-
fect ; God said to the friends of Job : " Ye have
not spoken of me the thing that is right as my
servant Job hath." We see Christians who have
been grievously afflicted, cleaving to God the
more that he smites them. God seems to shake
them off, as the angel did wrestling Jacob ; but
they will not be shaken off: "I will not let thee
go except thou bless me."

They testify that they never loved God so
much as when he had taken their treasures from
them. He sometimes chooses sharper arrows
from his quiver, that we may turn to him that
smiteth us. If He does this, in exchange for all
which they have on earth, Christians sometimes
come to the conclusion that God is the best Por-

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 45

tion ; that his loving kindness is better than life ;
that heavenly mindedness is well purchased by
the loss of all things ; that to love God as Hab-
akkuk did, is better than to have the fig tree
blossom. Why is it better ? Because God says,
" I love them that love me ; " and what if God
loves a man? We would give up all that we
have, including those nearest to us, when God
bestows himself upon us.

God in his infinite wisdom finds his " declara-
tive " glory in the happiness of his intelligent
creatures. He resolves to make them love him,
knowing that thereby they will be happy, and
their happiness will glorify him. Hence he seeks
to make us love him. He sometimes uses the
loudest voices in creation to proclaim, " Thou,
shalt love the Lord thy God." He lightens, he
thunders, he uses that voice which made Israel
tremble, or the still, small voice which made Eli-
jah who stood firm under the fire and earth-
quake and the wind, wrap his face in his mantle
and stand in the door of the cave. If God has
set his love on a man he may honor him by great
trials. He cannot trust all to bear great trials.
They are not asbestos ; but combustible. But he
said of Saul of Tarsus, " 1 will show him how
great things he must suffer for my sake."

Probably there is nothing which excites the
admiration of angels more, than to see us loving

46 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

God the more that he afflicts us. Then they see
the power of faith; how it makes a man endure
as seeing him who is invisible. Angels see God
face to face ; perhaps they never have any thing
in their personal experience to try their confi-
dence in God. But to see us in this sinful world
loving an unseen God and Saviour, cleaving to
him the more that he chastens us, seems to them,
no doubt, a stupendous thing.

Perhaps God afflicts some Christians to make
of them a spectacle to angels and men. While
men are pitying them, saying, " Yon have more
than your share of trouble," it is because they
can endure. God will let them see hereafter
that the trial of their faith was much more pre-
cious than of gold which perisheth though it be
tried with fire and was found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ.

II. THE CROSS OF CHRIST is THE DIVINE

TESTIMONY TO MAN, NOT ONLY THAT HE MAY,
BUT THAT HE MUST LOVE GOD.

There seems to be an argument on this point,
addressed to man as an intellectual being, in the
three epistles of John. That man had written
"the fourth Gospel," as free thinkers call it,
some of whom would sacrifice much could they
undermine the confidence of men in its apostolic

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 47

authority. He had seen visions beyond the ex-
perience of all the prophets. Now lie comes to
write some farewell lines to the people of God in
all ages. What mighty work shall that be which
is to crown his earthly labors ? Some Epistle to
the Romans, perhaps ; or, it is the Epistle to the
Hebrews, whose opening chapter always seems
like the tread of battalions. Instead of this,
there is nothing in all the New Testament of
more artless simplicity than those three epistles
of John. It is given to him in those epistles to
dwell upon this : God is love ; to enjoin upon
Christians, not that they remember one and an-
other of the important texts of the Christian
faith, but that we have known and believed the
love which God has toward us.

God is not wisdom, nor power, nor holiness, nor
justice ; though each of these attributes in him
is infinite ; but the governing principle, motive,
end, in his character is love. Strange would it
be if love to God were not insisted on as the
governing principle in his intelligent creatures,
in man made after his own image and likeness,
especially in the second birth conferred upon him
by the Holy Ghost, the third person in the God-
head, the author of the new creation. The Holy
Ghost is the author of the human nature of
Christ. Shall he be the author of Incarnate
Love, j-et fail to make man, renewed, for whom

48 HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ?

Divine love is made incarnate, partaker of love
to God? Shall man, his new creation, be a cold,
phlegmatic, intellectual being ?

See man's Redeemer an infant, then a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief, with no certain
place where he could lay his head, despised and
rejected of men, enduring every form of con-
tumely, bound, buffeted, crowned with thorns ;
consider him who endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself; say, " He loved me and
gave himself for me ; " recount each sorrow
which he carried for us ; then ask, From what
region of the earth did a man proceed who pro-
pounded to us the question, Have we permission
to love God ? We would in reply counsel him
to consider that marvellous sentence in the writ-
ings of the Apostle Paul who breaks forth with
this strange utterance while sending messages of
affection to the Corinthians : " If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema,
maranatha." Let him explain why the absence
of love to Christ should deserve denunciation ;
and why may not the absence of love to God be
equally criminal ?

May we be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and
height ; and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with
all the fulness of God.

HAVE WE PERMISSION TO LOVE GOD ? 49

Nothing will probably occupy the thoughts of
some through eternity with more profound as-
tonishment than that they ever had to be asked
twice to love God, except it be that God conde-
scended to ask them twice to love him. Did the
Almighty ever receive a refusal or neglect from
me, and ask me a second time to love him ? Has
he asked twice for my heart and asked in vain ?
If the Final Judge pronounces upon one of us
the sentence, "Depart from me," it will be the
occasion of everlasting astonishment to that soul
that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
could severally and together say to him, " How
often would 1 have gathered you — and ye would
not." Let this appeal now prevail. If not, God
grant that it may not prove to be the last.

III.

PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF BE-
FORE AND AFTER CONVERSION.

"If any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might glory in the flesh, I

more/' r „. . ,,

" But what things were gam to me, those I counted loss lor Christ. -

Phil. 3 : 4, 7-

IN these words we have the apostle's different
opinion of himself before and after conver-
sion.

We could not succeed in finding a better spec-
imen of an apparently religious man before con-
version, than Saul. He had deep reverence for
God. He observed all the requirements of the
faith in which he was brought up. We proba-
bly err if we think that his conduct toward
Christians was from a blood-thirsty disposition.
It was zeal for his religion that made him a per-
secutor. It grieved him to think that the Chris-
tians should seek to overturn such a religion as
Moses had received from God. No miracles
claimed to be wrought by Christ, he thought
(50)

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 51

could go beyond the miracles of the Old Testa-
ment. That religion was built on miracles, be-
ginning with Israel in Egypt, the burning bush,
the Red Sea, Sinai-, Horeb, the conquest of Ca-
naan, Mount Hor and Nebo.

The idea that a man who had been crucified
between two thieves, while his timid followers
fled, should be deified, after being stolen away
from his sepulchre, all power in heaven and on
earth be claimed for him ; that such men as Jo-
seph of Arimathea, Nicodemus a ruler, and
Stephen, should be duped by him, only exasper-
ated him ; he felt that strong measures were
needed to crush the growing delusion. Not

o o

from mere love of giving pain, but from zeal for
God, he became a persecutor.

When it became necessary to put such a man
as Stephen to death, he was glad, no doubt, that
natural courage did not fail ; he consented to it,
and kept the raiment of them that slew him. In
all this, he was still an accomplished scholar, a
prominent member of Jewish society, but an un-
believer, which in view of demonstrative evi-
dence was inexcusable. Yet if any one had ac-
cused him of cruelty from the love of giving
pain, no doubt he would have resented it, and
would have defended himself by setting forth
the enormous imposture which he would say he
was piously seeking to expose.

52 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

No one can read the religious papers of our
times in days of high religious excitement, with-
out seeing how far even cultivated men can go
in opposing others who differ from them. Let
some one who has become prominent in the com-
munity as a champion of their sect become a con-
vert to an opposite faith, and you will see in the
studied sarcasms of some, perhaps their vituper-
ation, open pity, the abandonment of him to
what they consider deserved neglect, not to say
contempt, for daring to impugn their faith. If
these things are done in our day by those who
claim to be Christians, we cannot wonder that the
growing success of the Nazarene's supposed im-
posture, should have carried even such a man as
Saul of Tarsus beyond the bounds of humanity.
All this time he was a liberal scholar, a polite,
courteous, and in private, kind man. He could
talk about Moses and the prophets, the Levitical
law, the ceremonies of religion, the rules which
ouo'ht to regulate one's behaviour in society, how

£D O

much mint, anise, and cummin were a proper meas-
ure of one's piety, if he wished to be scrupulous
in keeping the law. It was a great satisfaction
to him that all the externals of his religious his-
tory were so unexceptionable.

There was no question that he had been cir-
cumcised the eighth day ; his lineage was un-
doubted; the Scribes had verified it; in the

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 53

tribe of Benjamin he delighted to find his name
written. Young people loved to be told that
they were of the tribe of " little Benjamin ; "
they could not but feel even when grown up
that there was fondness on the part of Provi-
dence for all of that tribe.

Young Saul had proved to the High Priest and
all the estate of the elders that he was a true
Israelite of that tribe. All the paths of distinc-
tion were open to him ; but more than all, his
pharisaic strictness in keeping the law, joined
to his unquestionable Jewish descent, and his ar-
dent piety evinced by his being willing to perse-
cute for the defence of Moses and the prophets ;
his determination to uphold the religion of the
fathers, cost him what it might on the score of
personal feeling, made him willing to challenge
comparison with any young religionist the world
over.

Indeed, from what we know of Paul in his
writings we are ready to believe that all which
he sa}rs of himself in the text is fur from boast-
ing. For we may venture to say that the world
fails to furnish us with a more lovely natural
character than he evidently possessed. We may
not suppose that he grew at once from a malig-
nant fiend to such a perfect specimen of a man
as his epistles show him to be. He must have
had in him the germ of those remarkable quali-

54 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

ties which he manifested in his intercourse with
the Christians of his day. We infer from his
writings that he suffered greatly from the tem-
pers of men ; that the behaviour of some profes-
sing to be Christians, was irksome to him in the
extreme ; yet can we anywhere find such great-
ness as marks his words of reproof?

Instead of studying Lord Chesterfield for prin-
ciples of politeness in our intercourse with one
another, it may be safely said, that a careful ob-
servance of the treatment by Paul, of people who
had given him occasion for offence, is the best
guide to men and manners, to that true polite-
ness which springs from benevolence. One can-
not read, for example, the words of Paul to the
Corinthian Christians, and remember their con-
duct at the Lord's table, and not wonder at the
kindness which prevails in his reproofs. Paul
must have had in his natural character a founda-
tion for such things as he here and elsewhere ex-
hibits ; much as he owed to sovereign grace we
feel that he was a man greatly to be loved, and
worthy to be studied ; he could not by imitation
have acquired at once those traits of character
which we find in his writings. Judging from
the effects of conversion since his day, we are
made to feel that he must have had many amia-
ble traits either by nature or education.

At the risk of seeming to digress from my sub-

BEFOKE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 55

ject, I feel constrained to say that we greatly err
if we let our children go at large in the world
with evil companions, or furnish them with
money, to gratify every expensive, worldly taste,
neglecting to restrain them, and to bring them
tip after a godly sort, then, laying the blame of
their not being converted, on ministers. Should
they be converted we must not wonder to see
them chastened by the hand of covenant love.
If we spare the rod, God has one which he
will surely use with our children, if he loves
them. He will take them in hand, and, in
dealing severely with them, break our hearts
also.

We see in Paul the beautiful effects of paren-
tal culture. It seems as though there had been
verified to his parents the quaint saying, " Fill
the waterpots with water and Christ will turn it
into wine." Give the children right moral train-
ing, not neglecting it because it is not " the one
thing needful," in the comparative sense of that
term. Though the fruit may not be seen at
once, it will be seen when regenerating grace is
given in answer to prevailing prayer.

But to return. Here we have a man who by
nature and education is a model man. The mor-
alists, the religionists of that day would place
any crown on his head which his ambition would
have reached after. Indeed I shall gain, the as-

56 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

sent of all when I say, — let young Saul of Tar-
sus, the unconverted Saul, now appear in some
parts of our country, and it would be deemed il-
liberal, even bigoted, not to receive him into full
communion in many of our religious circles.
His differences of opinion on subjects of a relig-
ious nature would be treated as mere matters of
speculation; it would be said, " If such a man
cannot be saved, who will be ? Show us a pro-
fessed Christian who is such an example of the
virtues, the graces of character, of all which
adorns humanity.

" Listen to his lectures. The eloquence of
Isaiah, the grace of Ecclesiastes, the tone of the
old desert rhetoric of Moses and Elijah appear in
his speech. Can he not- be persuaded to modify
his speculative belief about Christianity a little,
that we may settle him over one of our churches?
What audiences he would draw ! What a reve-
nue would flow into that parish ! " Thus he
would be the most admired of preachers, unless
some accomplished Hindoo, for example, should
arise, conceding things to Jesus Christ as a
teacher ; and then the young Jew would prove
to be superseded.

All this excellence of natural character by it-
self, however, is of no avail before God. Some
would say, If Saul were such a roan as you de-
scribe, what need had he of being regenerated ?

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 57

Paul shall answer. We will now see 'this
joung Jew in the fulness of his attainments as a
model man, casting it all away as a ground of
justification, and, to use his most expressing fig-
ure, counting it but dung. But tell us not that
he has now become a fanatic, that he has gone
from the extreme of pharisaism. Unless we are
ready to believe that such a man became in one
day a bigot, for nothing, yea, worse than nothing,
for stripes, imprisonment, stoning, wearisome
journeys, the loss of professional reputation, his
standing as a scholar gone, death everywhere
threatening him, we must candidly inquire, what
is the explanation of so mysterious a change ?
His writings prove beyond suspicion that he is
upright, and not only so, but severely logical in
all this ; for was the epistle to the Romans writ-
ten by a fanatic ? Does the book of Acts record
any vagaries ?v It is an unvarnished tale of
Saul's conversion by the appearance to him of
Jesus Christ with a light at noon surpassing the
brightness of the sun, with a superhuman voice,
saying, "Why persecutest thou me ?" We can-
not withhold our belief from the declaration, that
straightway he preached in the synagogues that
Jesus is the Son of God.

We find the burden of his doctrine from that
time till his death to be, that " this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus

58 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

Christ came into the world to save sinners," " and
that for this cause he obtained mercy, that Jesus
Christ might show forth in him a pattern of all
Ion "•-suffering to them who should hereafter be-

O O

lieve on him to life everlasting." Four words
contain the burden of his message : "Christ died
for us." Going deeper into the explanation of
the plan of salvation we find him dwelling con-
stantly on this, that simply believing on Christ
saves us ; that believing on Christ is imputed to
a sinner for righteousness ; so that pardon is
given for nothing except the taking of it in the
ordinary way in which a guilty person accepts
pardon.

Eternal life is a gift; this must be received
freely, not be paid for by meritorious works on
the part of the sinner. Then we learn from him
that his previous good character, his excellence
as a man was what he calls the righteousness
which is of the law ; not the righteousness which
is of faith ; that a man may strive to have the
righteousness which is of the law, but it will
perish ; that he tried the plan of being good as
the way to be saved, but suffered intensely in do-
ing it ; for this was his experience : " I find a
law in my members warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. O wretched
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 59

body of this death ? " All the time so moral, yet
so wretched ! Here is his answer to the ques-
tion, " Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?" "I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord."

You would, perhaps, expect merely to find
this man confessing only that he had made a
mistake ; that now he had gained more light,
and in consequence had changed his opinion
concerning Jesus of Nazareth, that he still in-
sisted on the moral virtues as the ground of sal-
vation, taking Christ as an excellent teacher,
admitting that the Sermon on the Mount was an
improvement on the old law. You would, per-
haps, look to see him come forth under the name
of " the reformed Jew," retaining all his old
opinions as to the way to be saved, admitting
merely that Christ had given us more light than
Moses.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We
may be surprised to find how he calls his whole
past experience by severe names : " What things
were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things." And what things does it ap-
pear that he includes in the expression, " gain to
me ? ' The answer to this important question

GO PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

is seen in ascertaining the things for which he ex-
changed them. Because these were the op-
posites of the things which were "gain 'to him."
We find him prizing the following things as pre-
eminent beyond any thing which he ever was, or
possessed, or knew before : —

The first which he specified is, To know Christ,
" That I may know him." That the last thing
which once he could have desired, should now be
the first object in this enumeration is wonderful.
His writings tell us what he had found Christ to
be ; instead of an imposter, " God manifest in
the flesh, seen of angels, preached unto the Gen-
tiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory."

Worship paid to Christ now took the place of
contempt; love supplanted hatred; gratitude
was the new, strange emotion which ruled in his
feelings toward Him. He began at once to study
a theme which was to be his employment for-
ever,— the God-man, instead of an imposter,
God manifest in the flesh, instead of a pretender.
To know him and the power of his resurrection;
which opened to the mind of Paul the future
eternal state of souls, the truth of which even if
known by him before, now shone in his mind
with the brightness of a sun.

Never had he before such contemplations as
this revelation of the resurrection- seems to have

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 61

given : for he became at once enthusiastic in his
delight: "If by any means I might .attain unto
the resurrection of the dead." The prospect of
being raised from the dead by the Lord Jesus,
with a body like unto Ins Saviour's glorious body
captivated him ; " it so filled his thoughts that
nothing else seemed to bear any comparison with
it : "I shall rise from the dead with a body like
Christ's;" that expectation became his ruling mo-
tive. He who before had such an aversion to
the name of Christ that he entered into houses
with authority from the rulers, dragging men
and women to prison, compelling them by tor-
ture to blaspheme the name of Jesus, now mak-
ing it his chief joy " to know him and the power
of his resurrection," when he would have a bocty
"like unto his glorious bod}7," is a marvel which
even fiction has nothing to surpass. The fruit
of it was a desire to have a " fellowship with
him in his sufferings," longing to be like Christ
to such an extent that he was glad even to be
beaten, to be scourged for his name's sake ; even
to be made " conformable unto his death."

We have onl}- to read passages from his pen
such as the following, to see the secret of his en-
thusiasm about Christ : " Who loved me and
gave himself for me." " Remember them that
have the rule over you." " Whose faith follow,
considering the end of their conversation:

62 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and
forever." "lean do all things through Christ

o o

which strengtheneth me." " Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword ? Nay, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us."

This wonderful change was not by a gradual
process of amendment; it was an instantaneous
change. "Suddenly there shone upon him a
light from heaven above the brightness of the
sun." As one brought to life has his powers of
body and mind put in action, though for a few
days feebly, yet each hour gaining strength,
so this marvel of regenerating grace became a
new creature, " and straightway he preached
Christ in the synagogues that he was the Son of
God."

Let any one of us imagine a change of any
kind to happen to him. Suppose yourself to be
invested with a power to read strange languages.
A friend lately gave me a book consisting of one
of the creeds composed of twenty-four articles,
printed in thirty-three tongues. A few of them
1 could read, the rest were unintelligible, though
in the English characters, but the larger part of
them, the Russian, the Chinese, the Assyrian,
the Ethiopic, were in strange letters. Suppose
that a power were given you at once to read such

BEFOKE AND AFTEK CON VERSION. 63

a book from beginning to end, or that you had
the ability to travel from star to star ; or, sup-
pose that any other bodily or mental faculty
equally marvelous, became yours to-day at noon,
and in a week }TOU found yourself using these
faculties as familiarly as though you had alwaj^s
possesse^l them.

Paul thus suddenly found himself worship-
ping, loving, and with all his mind and strength
serving a man of Galilee, who he knew had been
nailed to a cross between thieves, then was placed
in a tomb, and stolen from it, he believed, by his
friends, whom he himself was engaged but
lately in tempting, while torturing them to blas-
pheme.

Standing chief among equals he had the pre-
eminence, and kept the raiment of the men wlio-
stoned the first Christian martyr. In two or
three weeks, or less, he was preaching in the
synagogues that this same Jesus is the Son of
God. Such is converting grace ; in all men the
same, notwithstanding the phenomenal circum-
stances may be wanting; yet substantially, the
change is in every regenerated man the same.
We perceive that one who had experienced it,
must have had a different estimate of himself
before and after it took place.

Two things appear to have been the secret of
the power wrought by Christ in the mind of
Paul.

64 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

I. CHRIST MADE HIM FEEL FOB THE FIRST

TIME THAT HE WAS A SINNER.

That was a new idea to him. He a sinner?
He had never sinnecl, he thought, beyond the
common frailties of men. To atone for this, he
had fasted, worn broad passages of Scripture on
his dress, kept the Levitical law punctiliously,
persecuted the Christians who offended against
the religion of the Old Testament. Hear the
man that once had no idea that he could be
classed among sinners, afterward say, "Jesus
Christ carne into the world to save sinners of
whom I am chief."

We hear him who once had such an estimate
of himself as this, " touching the righteousness
which is of the law, blameless," afterward say,
"in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing." How can we account for this? There
is no such teacher of self knowledge as Christ.
When he takes possession of the soul, he makes
a light shine through it brighter than the sun.

"All the churches shall know that I am he
that searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of
the Children of men." Simeon said to his mother,
"This Child is set for the fall and rising again
of many in Israel, and that the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed." The woman of Sama-
ria understood this when she left her water pot

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 65

at the well and went into the city and said,
" Come, see a man that told me all that ever I
did ; is not this the Christ ? "

I quote the language of learned men from their
biographies, that the disclosures made to them
under conviction of sin has opened to them a
knowledge of their nature more than they have
learned from books. " Said an eminent man who
late in life became a Christian, "I once thought
myself as good as any who lived, or had lived ;
but in one day, reading the New Testament, I
suddenly became convinced that probably there
never was a heart which was worse than mine."
So Paul : " I was alive without the law once ;
but when the commandment came sin revived
and I died." All who have passed through this
experience declare, that the belief of the aton-
ing death of Christ for sin, brings into the mind
a marvelous experience. Everything seems to
be revolutionized, and all this in consequence of
perceiving " how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. Finding himself
under condemnation as a sinner with no means
of recovery,

II, PAUL DISCOVERED THAT THROUGH FAITH

IN CHRIST A RIGHTEOUSNESS is PROVIDED FOR

THE SINNER.

66 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

This is safer than the righteousness which
Adam had, or the angels that sinned ; for Adam
and fallen angels lost their original righteous-
ness: Dr Watts says :

" He raised me from the deep of sin,

The gates of gaping hell,
And fixed my standing more secure
' Than 'twas before I fell."

For the righteousness which is imputed to one
who believes in Christ cannot be lost ; it is " the
righteousness which is of God by faith," not of
man, by his works. So that it is better than the
state of the first parents of our race, better than
that of the angels who stood on their original
sinlessuess. Therefore, Paul made this the
theme of his principal epistle, the Epistle to the
Romans. Salvation by faith in Christ is thence-
forth his theme. Through life it was uppermost
in his thoughts. I cannot illustrate it better
than by the following case. I was called to
see an intelligent young lady who was sup--
posed to be near her end. Though I went
as soon as requested, she exclaimed, "You
have come too late ! ' adding, that she had sin-
ned away the day of grace. I told her that I
would disprove this by one passage of Scripture ;
but as I was saying this, the mother, a Christian
woman, interrupted me by asking that 1 would
not sit so near the bed as to' touch the bed

BEFORE AND AJTTEE, CONVEESIOK. 67

clothes, for the patient had a brain fever, and
the least jar or touch seemed almost to distract
her. The passage, I said, was this : " To him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that jus-
tifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him
for righteousness." Helpless as she was, she
turned herself over in the bed and said, " What !
are such words in the Bible ? Say them again."
After repeating them, I said, " If one feels that
he has nothing to offer to God, but simply puts
his trust in Him who died for him, pleading His
merits instead of his own, his faith is imputed
to him for righteousness. A calm came over her
troubled thoughts — she fell into a peaceful
sleep. I said to her, on her recovery, as Paul
said, " Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole."

We meet with many who^are acknowledged to
be eminently moral people, patterns of amiable
tempers, generous, and as Paul said of himself,
"blameless."

He tells us that, before his conversion, he was
as good as they. " If any other man thinketh
that he hath whereof he may trust in the flesh,
I more." He felt that he was so good that he
was willing to have Stephen put to death: " and

when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed,
I also was consenting unto his death, and kept
the raiment of them that slew him." In one
hour he met with a change which made him a

68 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

new man, because he became acquainted with
Jesus Christ as the atoning Saviour.

We infer from his preaching that the impres-
sion which Christ made upon him was, that he
came into the world to save sinners. This made
him feel that he was a sinner ; that his righteous-
ness was worthless ; he could not be saved
by it ; while he had whereof to glory, yet not in
the sight of God. When he came to see his need
of perfection in order to be justified, he saw that
it was not attainable by him; that it was pro-
vided for sinners by God, an imputed righteous-
ness constituted by the merits of the Saviour ; a
righteousness without works, perfection imputed
to one deserving of hell, a constructive perfec-
tion through faith in him who imputes his merits
to the sinner that believes in him, and reckons
faith for righteousness. Such is the plan of sal-
vation by Christ, that it is declared to be " the
power of God and the wisdom of God."

The disclosure to him of this way of justifica-
tion made him feel as nothing else ever did that
he might be a sinner indeed, if he needed such
justification. The ability of Christ to make a
perfect righteousness not only for him, but for
the whole world, seems to have convinced him,
without argument, of the Saviour's divinity; and
he began at once to preach Christ crucified, to
offer salvation to all men. The wall of separa-

BEFORE AND AFTER CONVERSION. 69

tion between Jew and Gentile disappeared at
once from his view ; he proclaimed the righteous-
ness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ,
given to every human being for nothing.

He saw that he must come without meritorious
preparation, waiting for no repentance, no re-
morse for sin ; that faith in the atoning sacrifice
must be the one all-sufficient act of every sin-
ner, which will be followed spontaneously by
godly sorrow working repentance unto life.

Paul saw that " if the righteousness of God "
by faith in Jesus Christ, was the appointed way
of pardon, then he never could be good enough
to be saved by his own merits. After being jus-
tified by faith through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus, he might become as nearly perfect
as human nature is capable of being. But no
one was ever saved by this, nor can be, for
" Neither is there salvation in any other ; for
there is none other name under heaven, given
among men, whereby we must be saved."

It is deeply interesting to know that this case
of Paul's conversion, was intended as a pattern
of all cases of conversion from his day. No one
can suppose that circumstances of hours, place,
language, and all the other incidents of each in-
dividual can be the same, any more than the un-
essential incidents of stature, place, and weather.

70 PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF.

But tins passage makes it plain that conversions
are the same all around the globe. " Howbeit,
for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first
Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter be-
lieve on him to life everlasting."

It is loving-kindness in God, our Saviour, that
He works by a plan in redemption, doing the
self same things for all from age to age ; from
Paul to each heir of grace in our day. Let every
one, therefore, looking to Christ for converting
mercy be assured of this, that " the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him."
There is great encouragement in this to every
one who may now and hereafter be a suppliant
for his grace. Perhaps, some of us may be
tempted to think, " there never was such a sinner
as I ; no one ever trespassed against such long-
suffering, abused such forbearance." Let him
who is tempted thus to test the willingness of
Christ to make him a subject of his grace, re-
member, that the man who said that "Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief," sets himself forever as a pat-
tern of the Saviour's long-suffering to them who
from that time forth should believe on him to life
everlasting.

You may prove that He is able and willing to
save you, by believing on Him, " to-day."

IV.

GOD OUR DWELLING, AND IN OUR
D WELLING-.

" He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty." — Psalm 91 : i.

WHERE is the secret place of the Most
High ? There is such a place, a habita-
ble place, for the text speaks of dwelling there.

We can find it by two spiritual lines of meas-
urement, as by latitude and longitude at sea.
Longitude is not sufficient of itself, nor latitude,
but bring the two together, and a child who has
used a map knows ho\v we determine places.

These two measures, both of which being used,
determine the question suggested by the text.
As there can be no other place like this in which
a man can abide, it is an inconceivable privilege
to have directions by which we can find it. This
we can do with more certainty than we can find
latitude and longitude. We will call it the rule
of spiritual latitude and. longitude. The longi-
(71)

72 GOD OUR DWELLING,

tude, we will say, is the omnipresence of God.
All do not practically believe that God is every-
where. " He that cometh to God must believe
that he is," we may say without assumption. But
this is not enough. Many will acknowledge this
in words, while they have no realizing sense of
it, as it is called, which makes it of practical
value.

To know the longitude at sea would be of lit-
tle use without another element in the calcula-
tion, the latitude; as to know the latitude with-
out the longitude leaves the mariner bewildered.
Frequently, a passing ship will set her signals
to inquire of another ship, What is your longi-
tude ? though the latitude may have been deter-
mined by the sun at noon. Hence the other ele-
ment of measure to find the secret place of the
Most High, though we know him to be every-
where, is, A praying heart.

As there is not a place on land or at sea wdiose
location cannot be determined by the two meas-
ures already given, so every place in this world
of faith, which serves for sight, can be determined
whether it be the secret place of the Most High.
For as one does not know at sea where lie is,
without reckoning, so no one knows any place in
the secret place of the Most High, unless he
brings these two things .in conjunction. 1st, God
is here. 2d, I desire to draw near to Him in

AND IN OUR DWELLING. 73

prayer. By these two elements you may infal-
libly ascertain that your heart is the secret place
of the Most High.

It is interesting to know that the place here men-
tioned is not confined to one spot. A man may al-
ways live under the same tent ; the place where
he eats and sleeps will always be a secret place to
him ; yet the tent may be moveable, sometimes
in a valley, then on the side of a hill ; then upon
the hill top. So the secret place of the Most
High is moveable. At the risk of dwelling too
long on the figure, I will venture to say, that as
there is no latitude at the poles, no longitude at
Greenwich, because longitude is the distance
east or west from Greenwich and latitude is the
distance from either pole, this represents that
which heaven will be to us, where there are no
seeming distances from God ; for we shall no more
walk by faith but by continual sight. But on
earth in all our journeyings toward heaven, we
have constant need to find the secret place of the
Most High, that is, a place of communion witli
God.

The promise in the text is to such as make
praying their breath ; who hold continued com-
munion with God, referring all things to him as
their fixed habit ; breathing out love, adoration,
confession, supplication, more intimately than
they commune with the dearest fiiend. The

74 GOD OUR DWELLING,

promise is, that they shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. This may signify several
things, as 1st, Nearness. A child walking with
you abides under your shadow ; you are never
far from him, you keep him in sight, within
reach. 2d, Protection ; you shade him against
sun-stroke. So " the sun shall not smite them
by day."

As though encouraged by the declaration in
this verse, this good man resolves to make ex-
periment of it. " I will say of the Lord he is
my refuge, and my fortress." Such is the life of
one who is godly. He applies the principles of
earthly friendship to intercourse with God. Not
a day passes when we do not need a refuge from
apprehension. This good man says, " Be thou
my strong habitation whereunto I may continu-
ally resort."

There are assaults of conscience, temptation
affliction, calamity, pain. " I will say of the
Lord, He is — my Grod." Every thing seems to be
summed up in these two words. They are the
best which we can use ; they were the best which
the Saviour could employ in the hour of his
greatest need. " My God, my God ! '' He who
can affectionately adopt them. has all things. He
never need fear. He may say, " hi him will I
trust."

Some one here seems to speak in reply : "Surely

AND IN OUR DWELLING. 75

he .shall deliver thee from the snare of the
fowler and from the noisome pestilence." The
snare of the fowler is the peril of birds; they
more easily see the sportsman and fly ; but the
snare with leaves and grain scattered over it, is
laid in secret. Such is our source of danger.
We do not see what a mistake we are about to
fall into in a bargain, or investment, or friend-
ship, or connection. Perhaps a winning pleasure
is cunningly devised by the great fowler for your
soul. God's eye is on you when yours is not on
him, if it be your habit to dwell with God.

We look back in the course of the day in which
we have experienced some great blessing, and
remember that we reproached ourselves with not
using such importunity or child-like love as would
have been becoming ; or perhaps a sudden call
prevented our devotion ; yet a wonderful mercy,,
or, some gratifying intelligence has arrived, and
we say, " Thou preventest me with the blessings
of goodness," anticipatestmy wishes. You know
by your words that you dwell in the secret place
of the Most High, and God has rewarded you by
looking after your interests.

We cannot estimate the benefit of frequent
prayer. Influences to prayer should be-followed ;
impressions which come over us when at work, or
reading, or journeying, or waking from sleep.
" Prayer and provender hinder no man's journey."

76 GOD OUR DWELLING-,

God stirs us up to pray, it may be, because lie
sees our coming need, or, because lie will do us
some good and would prepare us for it.

Birds flying into noxious atmosphere sometimes
fall dead. There was nothing to mark between
the pure and pestilential air. Thus, perhaps, we
are venturing into error by hearing or reading
something, or resorting to baleful companies.
God may, perhaps, restrain you while you are not
aware of it. You may wonder at some accident
or interruption which kept you from going some-
where, as you intended ; you murmured, perhaps,
at the rain or snow storm, you were disappointed,
but God was thereby delivering you from the
noisome pestilence. We see calamity happen to
others through foolish mistakes. God has cov-

o

erecl you with his feathers. Under protection
from the parent bird, its young lie safe from the
fowling piece, arrow, or bird of prey.

One source of security to the good is confi-
dence in the truth of God. It serves as a shield
and buckler. It was so with Joseph in Egypt,
with Daniel in Babylon, and the three children
in the fiery furnace ; such is their safety, that if
a plague raged, and thousands die, they may es-
cape. In battle, no weapon formed against them
may prosper.

1 1 is related in the life of Washington, that an
Indian took aim at him several times when he

AND IN OTJK DWELLING. 77

had reason to expect to see him full, and he won-
dered that his shot failed. Perhaps he who guided
David's sling turned aside the rifle ball. I heard
a minister say in his pulpit that he knew a man
who came to. a friend's house at midnight, on
horse back in a storm of rain, to the astonishment
of the family who knew that the bridge had been
carried away. In the morning they went to the
river and found one of the timbers standing in
the place across the stream, serving for a path to
the horse's feet, so that the horse with more than
animal sagacity, gave his rider to say of Him
who preserved man and beast, " He maketh my
feet like hind's feet." But terrible oftentimes is
the end of the wicked. " Surely thou didst set
them in slippery places."

True, one event outwardly seems often to hap-
pen to all, both to the righteous and the wicked ;
but far different to good men and bad men is
death by accident. Sudden death is sudden
glory to the good, while to the wicked it is sud-
den destruction.

In cases of detection, exposure, conviction,
"only with their eyes shall they behold and see
the reward of the wicked." Then to the good
man is known the blessedness of a good con-
science. Many are the congratulations in the
book of Psalms and in Job to a good man, in con-
trast with the fate of the wicked. The sense of

-\

78 GOD OUR DWELLING,

safety which the righteous man has when he
pours out his heart to his preserver, appealing to
him for a Avitness, " Thou knowest that I am not
wicked," is a full recompense for self-denial in
refusing to court human praise.

God loves and rewards confidence in him.
We are moved to do the same when it is showed
to us. Few things are more grateful to us. We
are always liable to suspicion in some minds.
You do. things which perhaps you cannot explain.
Some, therefore, speak ill of you, and forsake
you. Others give you credit for good motives
when some things are dark. So we are led to
feel confidence in God. Then, "because thou
hast made the Lord, which is thy refuge, even
the Most High, thy habitation ; there shall no evil
befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling."

Strange promise in such an evil world as this :
" there shall no evil befall thee." It will prove
to be "no evil." The promises are fulfilled by
equivalents ; thereby faith is encouraged, per-
haps rewarded. If we take God as he offers
himself to us, he takes us with all our concerns,
our frailties, mistakes ; he identifies us with him-
self; it is practically the same as though every
one who makes God his refuge, his habitation,
were omnipotent. " If God be for us," not only
who is, but "who can be against us?" The

AND IN OUK DWELLING. 79

forces of the universe are on our side. Think
of the meaning in such words as these : " thy
habitation." Then, God is our dwelling. What
is your dwelling to you ? Such is God. Nor is it
an accidental expression ; "he that loveth dwel-
letli in God and God in him." Can any plague
come nigh such a dwelling to do real harm ? But

O O

dwellings can be plagued in other ways than b}-
pestilence. We experience other forms of sal-
vation when we are kept from being plagued, by
evil dispositions, from annoyances which make
life burdensome. When sickness is healed, and
the joy of restoration succeeds trouble, rich
fruits of gratitude, spiritual benefits of many
kinds, compensate for the sickness ; that which is
called an evil is converted into a blessing:.

* O

No doubt there are angels in the dwelling of
every one who fears God. If we thought that
angels were moving about in our habitations,
those dwellings would seem hallowed. " He
shall give his angels charge over thee to keep
thee in all thy ways." God saj's, Behold my
servant is beginning a journey, or entering into a
ship. Go with him in all his ways. Keep the
ship from collisions ; fly before the locomotive ;
see that the track is right, watch every revolution
of the wheels, "'lest at any time he dash his
foot against a stone."

If it be necessary in order to accomplish some

80 GOD OUE DWELLING,

important purpose that there should be ship-
wreck or other calamity, He can sa}-, Guard his
life ; defend the vital part ; he is an heir of
glory; minister to him.

Every one who discharges his duty, sooner or
later meets with opposition. All who live godly in
Christ Jesus will suffer some form of tribulation.
It is easy in some cases to evade it. Some dread
responsibility ; which it is true we ought neither
to seek nor shun ; but when God lays it upon us,
we may incur both secret and open hostilities.
There is " the lion and adder," the dragon, with
power at least to terrify. If 3^011 have truth on
your side, if you meekly trust in God, he will
cause you to tread on them all. " Behold I will
make them which are of the synagogue of Satan
which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie,
behold I will make them to come and to worship
at thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee."

Not by our own right hand or wisdom will this
appear ; God will shape events, who alone cloetli
wonders. He can turn the Euphrates from its
channel in one night, and fill Babylon with her
enemies as with caterpillars; He can make a barley
cake tumble into the camp of Alidian and over-
throw a multitude ; He can cause an iron gate
to open of its " own accord," and let the won-
dering prisoner pass through ; He can make even

AND IN OIJR DWELLING. 81

the wrath of man to praise him and restrain the
remainder. He turns the tides of popular feel-
ing. To-day one is caressed, to-morrow the
world is in arms against, him. Yesterday one
was contemned, to-morrow there may be none
like him in almost universal esteem. Now a set
of principles are repudiated ; soon they are
adopted as the only salvation.

A good man seldom need go about to defend
his character by hunting down reports. He has
only to do right, trust in God, and everything
will be well. People often judge at once by re-
sults. If a viper fastens on a man's hand, the
barbarians think that he is doomed ; but when
he shakes it off feeling no harm, they change
their minds and say that he is a god.

Now God speaks, confirming the Psalmist's
words ; and we cannot doubt that the Most
High reciprocates every act of love :' " Because
he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I
deliver him." There never was any misplaced
confidence in God, however we may have erred
in our judgment of ourselves. " For the Lord is
good to them that wait for him, to ihe soul that
seeketh him. The prophet Isaiah says, " For
since the beginning of the world men have not
heard, what he hath prepared for him that wait-
eth for him."

Not only will God deliver the righteous man :

82 GOD OUR DWELLING,

"I will set him on high because he hath known
my name." It would not always be safe for God
to set us on high ; it is only safe when he has
made us humble ; when we have forborne to
avenge ourselves. Jf one undertakes to avenge

o O

himself, God may stand aloof and let him try.
But if we have made him our strong tower
into which we run for safety, in due time he not
only delivers us, but sets us on high. He causes
us to triumph ; He exalts us above destruction,
shields us from malice, gives us signal prosperity.
What can be better than this: "He shall call
upon me and I will answer him." Let God an-
swer when we speak, and all is well. Let a rich
man say that he will honor any draft you may
make upon him, and it may put you at ease. Let
one feel that he has only to speak and friends
come and stand' around him; and he is at peace.
But will he never be troubled ? God says that
he will. " I will be with him in trouble." We
are not worth much till we have been in trouble.
We would not part with troubles which we feel
have been blest to us. You would not but have
had a sorrow which has proved a spiritual bles-
sing. What would Daniel now take for the
lions' den? or the Hebrew children for their
being cast into Nebuchadnezzar's furnace ? or
Peter, for his experience in Herod's prison ? or
John, for his history while in the isle which is
called Patmos ?

AND IN OUR DWELLING. 83

The best thing which God can do for a man
sometimes, is to put him in a place like one of
these, and be with him in it Truly, this may
be better than prosperity. When we are in pros-
pent}7 he may only keep us there. But if he is
with us in trouble he says, " I will deliver him
and honor him." It makes men afraid when they
see God appear in behalf of a man. As we read
the songs < f Hannah and Mary, we are particu-
larly struck with their allusions to their enemies,
the exultation with which they triumph over ad-
versaries. We are made to say, " Blessed are
all they that put their trust in him."

Thus it will be with the righteous till life has
been so full of the goodness of God that the
man will say, It is enough. When his time to
die arrives, though it be sudden, he may start,
nature may tremble ; but soon he grows calm and
reflects : I have had full experience of God's
love ; all that life can teach me and do for me,
I have known ; its joys,' its trials have had their
designed effect upon me.

" Why should not fruit when it is mellow, fall ;
What do we longer here when God doth call ? "

By " showing him my salvation," God does not
mean merely " bring him safely to heaven," but
in getting him there will reveal the wonders of
the way.

84 GOD OUR DWELLING,

A party of persecuted Huguenots fled, and
mounted up a high place in a stormy night.
When the sun rose they came down and saw the
wry by which they came, narrow, precipitous,
full of sudden turns. They stood and prayed,
and sung ; God showed them his salvation.
Thus you will be led by the Most High and re-
visit all the eventful places of your earthly pil-
grimage ; places now dark and sad. " And show
him my salvation." As the morning of the
third day of creation broke on the former Avorld,
revealing some of the works of God and disclos-
ing further designs, so the light of heaven will

O O ' O

fall on his doings with you, and you will see that
all was good.

We have been considering some of the richest
and sweetest of the blessings which God be-
stows on man. The Psalm which we have but
imperfectly analyzed, contains in one of its pas-
sages the conditions on which they are given.
" He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty." We have seen that this pas-
sage has a paraphrase in the second verse : " I
will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my
fortress ; my God ; in him will I trust.'' It may
seem a truism to say that religion is a most simple
thing; but a poet has ventured to say the same
of the firmament :

AND IN OUR DWELLING. 85

" Like that which o'er our head we see,
Majestic in its own simplicity."

The Apostle John, in his Epistles, gives us in
his style of thought, some wonderful correspon-
dent incidents of simplicity which awaken sur-
prise, as for example : " This then is the message
which we have heard of him, that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all." " No lie is of
the truth." " If we ask any thing according to
his will he heareth us."

Religion is to love God, "to whom we have
access by faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Religion is so simple that the young may under-
stand it as well as the learned. We see this con-
firmed now and then in some young persons who
have decided not to go the first half of the jour-
ney of life without him ; that it is best to have
God for their guard and guide at the outset.
Even one who is old enough to have a conscience
may consider whether he is not old enough to
love God. We should not fail to notice the con-
nection of these words : " I love them that love
me.'; We say then confidently to the j'oung :
This Psalm may be yours. The piece of
paper on which it can be written is not so
large as a tide deed to a ten foot dwelling;
yet' the Lord who dictated it, you may have
made your refuge, and the Most High your habi-
tation. God manifest in the flesh in the person

86 GOD OUR DWELLING.

of Jesus, who was once precisely at your age,
and without whom not a sparrow falleth to the
ground, will not be more pleased with the love of
angels, who always behold his face, than He is
with the love of the young, whom the Saviour
bids men take heed that they do not despise.
Seek ear1}' this God and Saviour ; the promise
to all such is, They shall find me.

Let every one set up an altar in their hearts
and at their hearths. Make God}Tour dwelling,
and the Most High will make your house His
habitation.

V.

THE JEW AND THE ROMAN WAT CH-
IN a THE SEPULCHRE.

" Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as
you can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and
setting a watch." — Matthew 27 : 65, 66.

HERE we see the Jew and the Roman watch-
ing the Sepulchre of Christ while he lies
entombed. God was about to complete the work
of man's redemption by raising up Christ from
the dead.

Notwithstanding their avowed unbelief, we can-
not but think the approaching resurrection of
Christ threw a shadow on the hearts of his ene-
mies. Had they been thoroughly satisfied that he
was an impostor, all that they would need to show
would be the proofs of his dying, 1o answer any
future pretence of Ids being alive. Their en-
deavors to forestall the expected assertion of his
disciples, that Christ had come to life, proves that
they regarded his resurrection possible.
(87)

THE JEW AND THE EOMAX

Putting a living man in the tomb and stealing
away the dead Christ, seems too clumsy a trick
to give the enemies of Christ any real apprehen-
sion. Concerning whom else did men ever feel
it necessary to use precautions against his pi*e-
tended resurrection, beyond an undoubted evi-
dence that he had died? We would not brino-

O

a hasty accusation against the enemies of Christ,
it would be in marked contrast with the evange-
lists so to do. But Avhen you remember that
men had seen Lazarus raised from the dead by the
word of Christ, the daughter of Jairus and the
widow of Nain's son brought back from death by
his command, would it not have been strano-e

O

had they not expected something supernatural at
his tomb? Graves had opened when he died;
might not the same happen at his tomb? The
disciples probably had little if any confidence
that he who could suffer himself to be betrayed
and crucified, was able to make good any pro-
mise of rising from the dead.

Guilty consciences frequently will apprehend
dangers when the innocent fail to expect help.
Therefore, the fears of the Jews were more than
the hopes of the Christians ; so that" they used
measures to prevent the evidence of a resurrec-
tion from transpiring ; not merely to keep thieves
away from the tomb. They enlisted the Roman
authority to aid them in confuting the Saviour's

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 89

promise to re-appear on the third day. The
chief priests and Pharisees came' together unto
Pilate, saying, " Sir, we remember that that de-
ceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three
days I will rise again. Command, therefore,
that the sepulchre be made sure until the third
day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal
him away, and say unto the people. He is risen
from the dead : so the last error shall be worse
than the first." Their fears of the resurrection
and their efforts to prevent it, show how reason-
able it is for the Scriptures to lay such stress on
the resurrection as the crowning proof of the
Saviour's claims. The life and the death of
Christ had not failed to make his enemies feel
uneasy. A voluntary watch could have sufficed
in ordinary cases, but they would have something
more imperative, an official guarantee from the
government, which would admit of no suspicion
nor resistance. Having no civil authority they
were obliged to invoke the aid of the Roman
Pilate for an official watch. He granted their
request. "Ye have a watch," (a government
guard stationed near the temple) "go your way,
make it (the sepulchre) as sure as ye can. So
they went their way and made the sepulchre sure,
sealing the stone and setting a watch." Sealing
it so that the soldiers and the Christians could
not conspire without detection.

90 THE JEW AND THE ROMAN

The sepulchre being hewn out of a rock, it is
supposed that a slab was fitted to the opening1
and a cord was stretched across it, the ends of it
being fastened with wax bearing an official seal.
The door, therefore, could not be opened without
cutting or tearing away the cord, thereby violat-
ing the government seal. Thus, the Roman
power, in some sense, assumed the guardianship
of the Saviour's tomb when the body was there.

Doing this, the Roman government and the
Jew unwittingly performed a stupendous service
for the Christian religion. For it was important
to Christ and his cause that his dead body should
not be removed, and that even his friends should
be prevented from doing it, though with the best
motives. Every thing depended on his rising
from the dead on the third day, being proved.
But what if friends of his in their affectionate
zeal to get possession of his body, had succeeded
in removing it from the sepulchre? It was the
last resort of his enemies to fasten upon them the
charge that they had done this, though to pre-
vent it, the aid of the Roman government had
been invoked. It was desirable therefore, that
his friends should be wholly removed -from all
suspicion of being able to get possession of his
body. Moreover, by enlisting the Roman govern-
ment to assume the custody of it and of the tomb,
the Jews prevented their own people from inter-

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 01

fering with it; and thus they forever barred
themselves from pretending that they hud med-
dled with the body, by doing which they would
make it difficult for the Christians to prove that
the identical body which was crucified and buried
had not disappeared. In the tomb where he was
confessedly laid, everything depended on his
being kept, till after the third day. All the un-
speakably precious interests which centered in
Christ, required that his dead body should not
be disturbed ; nay, that it should not be visited
by his friends. For suppose, for example, that
medical men had been allowed to enter that tomb,
it could be easily pretended by the enemies of
Jesus that some professional skill had been used
to bring Christ to life. They could also have
made the pretext, if friends had entered the
tomb, that a man resembling the crucified one
had been placed there alive and that the dead
Christ had been conveyed away ; and then a new
impostor released from the tomb- could be said to
have palmed himself on the credulous as the
risen Christ.

It would have been for the interest of the
Christians themselves could they have contrib-
uted "large money" to make it sure by means
of a state guard that no one of them had ap-
proached that sepulchre to tamper with it. It
would have well repaid them had every believer

92 THE JEW AND THE ROMAN

in Christ volunteered to spend the two nights
and the one day, on guard before the tomb, to
place it beyond doubt that it was He who had
slept there that had returned to life. But God
who did not forsake his soul in Hades, provided
for the Saviour a surer testimony. For we im-
mediately see that however honestly intended,
so partial, so interested a guardianship as that of
his disciples would not have been wise. The
Jews could have said, The Christians had a
guard of their own; of course they had oppor-
tunity to do as they pleased in the sepulchre.
The best tiling for the Christians, therefore, was
to be dra wn away from the tomb. The less
they were seen there, the better it would be for
their reputation with their enemies. Let those
enemies watch over the dead body of the Lord,
thereby doing the thing most essential to placing
the resurrection beyond all possible doubt. This
his enemies did of their own accord.

The wisest of men could nut have contrived
so excellent a scheme. If some of the Chris-
tians, say, Joseph of Arimathea himself, wishing
that the Saviour's promise to rise on the third
day should have a perfectly fair trial, had re-
quested Pilate to set a guard over the sepulchre,
Pilate might have been suspected of conniving
to favor the impression .of the Saviour's having
risen. Pilate's wife, who had suffered many

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 93

things iii u dream because of him, could have
been charged as accessory to the plot. No, let
the enemies of Christ in their malice, be known
as having sole custody of the Saviour's tomb, for
so they will be able to satisfy themselves of his
resurrection if he is to rise. His enemies will
not surely steal the body, nor use surgical arts ;
it is for their interest to keep the tomb so sealed
up as to prevent a resurrection, or a removal of
the body which might give semblance to a pre-
tended resurrection.

That which no wisdom nor contrivance of the
Saviour's friends could by any means accomplish,
was done for them without their agency, by their
foes. The faithful Joseph and Nicodemus were
superseded as watchers over the crucified Re-
deemer, by the civil power. The very murder-
ers of Jesus were used by God to take the best
possible care of his body, and of his tomb. None
but God, however, could influence them to as-
sume it. The Christians could not have made
them do it. Suppose that the Christians had
challenged them to keep watch. Their cowardly
consciences, struck with the bold assurances,
might have shrunk from the test.

The last divinely appointed passover had now
come. The moon which lighted Israel out of
Egypt after the first, now rose on the last of the
passovers ; their appointment receiving its ful-

94 THE JEW AND THE ROMAN

filraent in the completed mission of the Son of
God.

Our earth must have become intensely inter-
esting to angels, with the Prince of life sealed up
in one of its sepulchres, and with him the hopes
of prophets and the whole church of God, past,
present, and to come. What if that tomb is now
sealed up forever? He who said, " I am the
resurrection and the life," is dead. .The Roman
power. has taken in charge the sepulchre by al-
lowing its guard to watch there. All the Chris-
tians have gone from the spot in fear ; or such is
their distrust of their Lord's promise to rise again
that they have brought sweet spices to embalm
his body, as if God were about to suffer his Holy
One to see corruption. Had they expected him
to rise the third day, of course no sweet spices
had been necessary. Grief and bewildering fear
are in their hearts, triumph fills their enemies, for
imperial Rome itself, has condescended to help
the crucifiers of Jesus, in demonstrating the
fa]sehood of "that deceiver."

And when at length God had fully served him-
self of the Roman arm through its representa-
tive, Pontius Pilate, when the royal authority
had stood guard long enough over the tomb of
his dear Son to make it as clear as demonstration
that the tomb had not been violated, that neither
an ingenious plot nor a mistaken friendship had

WATCHING THE SEPULCHKE. 95

thrown the shadow of a doubt on the question
whether the Christ that was laid in the tomb was
there still, then, very early in the morning of
the third clay, while it was yet dark, a single
angel descended from heaven and rolled away
the stone from the door of the sepulchre and sat
upon it.

What became of that cord which was stretched
across the tomb door? Who dared to break
those seals with the device of the Jewish princi-
pal men upon them ? See you not those three
crosses standing yet on Calvary ? Beware lest
you be hurried to one of them by the same power
which sent the impostor of Nazareth to die
there.

O, that moment unequalled in the history of
this planet, and not to be surpassed at the con-
summation of all things, when the victim of Cal-
vaiy walked forth from that sepulchre and stood
upon the earth. Not when he shall stand upon
the earth at the latter day, will his triumph be
more sublime. Not then will adoring angels
greet him with stronger love than that which
must have flooded their souls when they cried
one to another, He is risen !

Honored angels ! who can you be among the
sons of the mighty to have gained that distinc-
tion from God to lay your hand on that stone and
unseal that door ? One might have given you

96 THE JEW AND THE EOMAK

every throne on earth for that seat of yours
upon that stone. We fancy that you are that
Gabriel who appeared to a virgin espoused to a
man named Joseph of the house of David, say-
ing, " Hail, thou that art highly favored among
women, the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou
among women." How appropriate for that same
anjiel to announce before her the resurrection of

O

her son.

But.no ! for the mother of Jesus is not among

o

the women at the tomb. Can we believe it ?
Consonant with our thoughts and wishes it would
have been, had Gabriel repeated his annunciation
to her at the door of her son's deserted sepulchre.
Surely this angel is no Papist. Raphael, Ru-
bens, all the papal artists, would have had Mary
at the door of the sepulchre in her Son's arms.
But there is not a word concerning Mary in con-
nection with the Resurrection. We do not hear
of her- till in the Acts of the Apostles we find
her mentioned among those who assembled after
the ascension. What a divine touch is there in
the absence of Mary, and of the mere human af-
fectiouateness of mother and child. Earthly re-
lationships which we are all so apt to exalt over
the spiritual and heavenly, are not recognized in
the stupendous scenes of the Resurrection.

Therefore, it may not have been Gabriel, —
perhaps it was Michael the archangel who sat

WATCHING THE SEPTJLCHEE. 97

upon that stone. For it was Michael who dis-
puted with the devil in Moab about the body of
Moses; now, perhaps he disputes with Caesar,
and Pontius Pilate, and Rome, and Jerusalem,
abont the body of Jesus. Thus Moses and the
Lamb were both of them, perhaps, for a time in
charge of the archangel. His first dispute with
Satan was safely burying the body of Moses.
This was to pluck from him that had the power
of death, the Resurrection and the Life.

We are strongly impelled to fancy that it was
the archangel who has in charge the resurrection
of the dead, who rolled away the stone from the
door of the sepulchre. Most appropriate would
it be that he who has in charge the graves of
God's elect, should be detailed to preside at the
resurrection of Him who is the Resurrection and
the Life.

If the archangel Michael is one principal figure
of this drama, who is the principal figure on the
other side ? Pontius Pilate ! Think of this, ye
followers of Jesus, and be not faithless but be-
lieving. Unbeliever ! Pontius Pilate is your re-
presentative ; ours is Jesus, the Resurrection and
the Life.

If there were ever any raptures in this world
equalling the raptures of heaven, it 'must have
been when the Christians saw how God had raised
up Jesus. We remember how much is said in

98 THE JEW AND THE KOMAtf

the New Testament of the "mighty power" of
God in raising np Christ, — "according to the
working of his mighty power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead."
But it was not so much the simple aet of omni-
potence in bringing him to life which illustrated
the power of God, as the scheme by which his
wisdom was employed to counteract the designs
of the wicked. Prominent among the great acts
of God in connection with this event, no doubt,
was the divine contrivance by which he made
his enemies and the enemies of his Son keep
possession of that crucified body till it came to
life. God has placed the body of his Son in the
hands of his enemies to make plainly certain his
resurrection. A man never feels more humbled ;
is never placed in a more embarrassing predica-
ment, than when his adversary makes him the
means of showing the folly of his own doings.

We may venture to imagine how the Chief
Priests and Pharisees bit their lips and hardly
looked each other in the face when they saw
that their own cunning was the evident means of
proving the identity of Christ at his resurrection.
" How much better," no doubt they said, " if in-
stead of sealing up the sepulchre and keeping
watch over it, we had let the tomb remain open,
and so had given the Christians a chance to steal
the body ; then there could have been no possi-

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 99

bility of proving conclusively that Christ came to
life. But we ourselves have furnished the es-
sential evidence of his identity. No friends
could so well have done this. We are caught in
our own net, and in the pit which we have dig-
ged have we fallen ourselves,"

You see what power of meaning is thus given
to such passages as these : "But God raised him
from the dead," and those words once before
quoted: "According to the working of his
mighty power which He wrought in Christ when
He raised him from the dead." It shows more
wisdom to do a thing by wise contrivance against
opposition than by a mere word of omnipo-
tence. Therefore, when the Christians saw what
was done, and received again from the dead their
infinite Friend, we may ask, Which filled them
with the greatest pleasure, which imparted the
greatest strength to their hearts, — that Christ
was risen, or the manifest interposition of the
Almighty in effecting it? Surely that word,
" Thou didst it," was after all the foundation of
their joy.

I. THIS PASSAGE OF SACKED HISTORY IL-
LUSTRATES THE TRUTH THAT GOD HAS " MADE
ALL THINGS FOR HIMSELF, YEA, EVEN THE
WICKED FOR THE DAY OF EVIL."

" There is no counsel nor wisdom nor under-
standing against the Lord."

100 THE JEW AND THE ROMAN

Many think of God, of his attributes and provi-
dence, as mere conveniences, useful upon oc-
casions. Human affairs, they seem to think, are
governed by an eternal necessity they know not
what, and God appears in them to keep them
steady with a little help, no more, however, than
a steersman renders in keeping a ship true to the
wind, over which wind, however, he has no con-
trol. The true doctrine in opposition to this is,
that man and his affairs are appointed instru-
ments in the hands of One of whom, and by
whom, and through whom are all things, to make
God himself known, for the one hundred and
seventh Psalm, and all the Hebrew triumphal
odes are mainly occupied in glorifiying God ; not
in chronicling the marching of a host, but the
stately goings of the Most High.

The Red Sea was for God to show his power,
the famine was for his gift of the manna and
quails, the thirst was for the rock to be smitten ;
the rebellion against Moses and Aaron was for
the earth to open ; the hard pursuit of Saul
around the hill to cut off David was for God to
send the messenger to Saul saying, The Philis-
tines are invading the land. Jehosaphat's inva-
sion by the children of the east was for an angel
of the Lord to slay a hundred and eighty-five
thousand of them in one night. Peter was im-
prisoned that an earthquake might open the

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 101

doors of the prison. Paul and and Silas were
beaten and put in the stocks, to make their jailor
ask a question, echoing through all ages, " What
must I do to be saved ? r

And so the sleeping Saviour was affectionately
guarded against any injudicious act on the part
of his friends, and was delivered over to his ene-
mies for safe-keeping against them, and to con-
vince the world that no stratagem had con-
founded his identity; in order that he who was
to be the Resurrection and the Life might be de-
clared to be the Son of God with power by the
Spirit of holiness which raised him from the
dead.

II. SOME CHRISTIANS ARE CHOSEN OF GOD

TO DISPLAY BY THEIR GREAT TRIALS His
POWER AND WISDOM, AS CHRIST WAS BY HIS
DEATH AND BURIAL AND RESURRECTION.

Such Christians may be said to have been
statuary marble, while other blocks were used
merely for doorsteps and posts, employed for the
divine artisan to show some .immortal statue.
So that we shaH hereafter say, " Behold, happy
is the man whom God correcteth : " and we
would gladly send from heaven this message to
surviving friends, — u therefore despise not thou
the chastening of the Almighty." It is an honor
to have God interest himself in your affairs,

102 THE JEW AND THE ROMAN

making use of them as He does of the black
cloud, to bend the rainbow upon it.

The wickedness of men instead of casting us

o

down, ought to make us look for the appointed
time when God will show his power and make
his wrath known. Is there a more terrible thing
said against bad men than this ? " When the
wicked spring as the grass and when all the
workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they
shall be destroyed forever." Thus if the pros-
perity of the wicked shall destroy them, it
should never dishearten us.

In bad times, moreover, we may be sure God
is carrying on his work in many an upright
heart. The dreadful temptations which infest
our cities and large towns, appealing to the
senses with arts wrhich venture closer every year
to the brink of shamelessness, are strengthening
the virtue of such as make the first Psalm their
rule, and " walk not in the counsel of the un-
godly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in
the seat of the scornful."

III. BAD MEN SHOULD BE OBJECTS OF PITY
BATHER THAN OF FEAR OR ANGER.

In the first place, there is an eternity of weep-
ing before them unless they repent ; and in the
next place, one of their chief sorrows there will

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 103

be that all their deep laid plots Avere made use
of by the Most High to accomplish his purposes.
We do not see how the work of redemption
could have been accomplished had it not been
for such men as Judas and Pontius Pilate. " The
Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil." Some enemy
must draw the cord across the door of the sepul-
chre and seal it and set the guard, to keep the
dead Christ from the well-meant approach of his
friends ; else the proofs of his coming forth alive
will not be complete.
Finally, —

EVERY THING RELATING TO THE RESURREC-
TION OF CHRIST is UNSPEAKABLY INTERESTING

FOR THIS REASON, " HE WAS RAISED AGAIN FOR
OUR JUSTIFICATION."

Many do not see the reason of this ; they do
not appreciate the evident stress which the Scrip-
tures lay upon Christ's rising from the dead. So
long as he died, they feel that their redemption
was made complete. Let us submit our pre-con-
ceived opinions to the Divine will. The satis-
faction which Christ made to divine justice was
not publicly acknowledged by God till he had
raised Christ from the dead. Had he not been
raised, the plan of redemption would not have

104 THE JEW AND THE EOMAN

been completed. He " was declared to be
the Son of God with power by the spirit of
holiness which raised him from the dead."
We were not to be saved by a dead Christ.
In Roman Catholic countries we see many dead
Christs. He must die for our sins, it is true,
but as a Saviour he is not made perfect till it
can be said, " It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again." Had his bones been broken
on the cross like those of the thieves, his death,
indeed, would have been equally effectual ; but
it was not the purpose of God to redeem us by
subjecting the crucified body of his Son to the
needless indignity of maiming. The same Di-
vine wisdom chose that a dead Christ should
not be a perfected Redeemer. We are glad that
we are not justified by a dead Christ. Had we
been, we should receive him as now we accept
the whole mystery of redemption, — " but God
raised him from the dead," and " by him AVC be-
lieve in God who raised him from the dead and
gave him glory," and we receive him just as he
is revealed, a risen Redeemer, all his work of
satisfaction for our sins sealed by the Almighty
when he raised him from the dead.

Therefore consider what a glorious thing it is
to be justified by faith in Christ, seeing that such
an event as his resurrection was essential to
make him perfect as your Redeemer.

If everything else in your Redeemer is as

WATCHING THE SEPULCHRE. 105

great and glorious as his insurrection, you who
have had this Christ imputed to you as your
righteousness, have received from God the great-
est of all his gifts.

Believer ! God has already done for 3^011 spirit-
ually that " which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and set him at his own
right hand in the heavenly places." You are
redeemed if you are in Christ. All that Christ
is, all that Christ has done, is made over to you
by 3'our simply believing in Him. All the pow-
ers of sin in earth and hell cannot hinder your
salvation.

The sign of the cross is to you the S}^mbol of
the atoning death of your Redeemer ; the break-
ing, by the hand of God, of that seal which the
Jew and the Roman had placed upon the Re-
deemer's tomb, is the sign and pledge of your
completed redemption. "Rejoice evermore."
"Pray without ceasing." " In every thing give
thanks."

" Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ,"
to every one who yet needs his grace ; " as
though God did beseech you by us ; we pray
you in Christ's stead, be 3^6 reconciled to God."
We preach unto 3^ou Jesus and the Resurrection.
The hour is at hand when nothing else will seem
to 3Tou of any importance. Therefore " seek the
things which are above, where Christ sitteth at
the right hand of God."

VI.

TEE MAN AT THE WHEEL.

(WRITTEN AT SEA.)

" Thou shall guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to
glory." — Psalm 73 : 24.

DURING -a long voyage few things inter-
ested me more than the man at the wheel.

While some of the crew were heaving the an-
chor, one sailor took his place at the wheel, point-
ing the ship on her course before the anchor had
risen a few feet from the ground.

In a voyage of a hundred and eleven days to
San Francisco, and thence to the Sandwich Is-
lands, China, the East Indies and New York,
there was a man at the wheel every moment, day
and night, in storm and sunshine. Every man,
except the officers, was in his turn two hours at
a time during the whole voyage, the man at the
wheel. Not till the word of command was given

(106)

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. 107

inside the Golden Gate, " Let go the anchor,"
was the wheel deserted. Every two hours, the
man at the wheel was relieved by some ship-
mate who knew when it came his turn. The
man at the wheel would say what point of the
compass must be kept in mind ; the man taking
his place' would repeat his words. " South west
by south half south," says the man who seizes
the wheel to take his place.

Going on deck at midnight there is the man
at the wheel. Coming up to watch the sunrise
you salute the man at the wheel. During a gale,
if you venture on deck curious to see the swell-
ing ocean, you find the man at the wheel. In
a dead calm, the ship motionless, there stands the
man at the wheel. The sea runs high, the wave
looks down upon you as though it would swal-
low you up. "Meet her! " cries the mate ; the
man at the wheel swings the bowsprit in the
teeth of the billow ; you go up to the heavens ;
then down again into the deep.

You always feel on shipboard that there is one
man doing something for you. During divine
service on Sabbath morning, two men at least,
ar.e always absent, one, the officer of the deck,
the other, the man at the wheel. If you start
in your sleep you instantly think, There is at
least one who is awake, the man at the wheel.
I never passed him day or night, without giving

108 THE MAN AT THE WHEEL.

and receiving- a salutation. You feel that he is
your personal friend.

The compass lies directly in front of the
wheel ; the binnacle lamp shines all night upon
the compass, which points the way the ship is
headed, and the man at the wheel is told to keep
her so. If the wind sets her off her course the
endeavor is to get as near to it as the wind will
allow, keeping the sails "full and by" the wind,
the steersman using his discretion how to do so.

One cannot see himself thus continually kept
on his course through the deep without being re-
minded that if he is a child of God, he has
Christ Jesus as the man at the wheel to his soul
as trul}1" as at every moment of a voyage, how-
ever long, he has a man at the wheel of his ship.
Without presumption, but with the utmost con-
fidence, with full assurance of faith, every one
who loves God may say to the Saviour, " Thou
shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory." He may be as confident
of the incessant guidance of his soul by Christ,
as the passenger is of the perpetual service of a
man at the wheel.

It used to occur to me, Suppose that instead
of having twenty-eight men taking turn, each of
them two hours at a time, to steer me across the
globe, the service were done by a single man who,
day and night should be my steersman, standing

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. 109

eveiy moment at the wheel, buffetted by the
gale, pelted by the rain, scorched by the sun,
straining every sense in the dark nights to guard
against collisions, till finally I should see the an-
chor dropped in the desired haven, without any
casualty, delay, loss, damage, from the beginning
to the end of the voyage, I could, not part with
that man without emotions unutterable. Yet
here I am on the voyage of life with One at the
wheel who has been there from my infancy to
the present hour, to whom I may with joyful
confidence .repeat these words, " Thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards re-
ceive me to glory."

We bless the memory of this translator who
used the word "shalt" in this passage, instead
of "wilt." He lets David here speak not pro-
phetically, but trustfully, confiding himself to di-
vine guidance, not merely foretelling that he will
be guided, but declaring his willingness to be.
There may be all the difference between a be-
liever and unbeliever in saying "shalt"' rather
than " wilt " in such a case as this ; whether you
as from the heart, avouch the Lord God to be
your Supreme ruler, or merely declare that Fie
will be. Using here the word " shalt," implies
a cordial choice of divine guidance. He who
has made such choice has the hand of infinite
love on his helm. Some helms seem to have no

110 THE MAN AT THE WHEEL.

Jmnd upon them. They steer wild. They are
blown about ; sometimes they are in the trough
of the sea ; they have broached to ; some of them
go down forever.

One would think that none would need to be
repeatedly told, " In all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he shall direct thy paths." We meet
vessels of every maritime country at sea, and
every one of them has a man at the wheel. It
is not thus with all on the voyage of life. By
the way in which some steer, you might al-
most imagine Satan at the helm. But there are
others who have made that inspired direction
their rule : "In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths." It was so with
a good man, foreign born, who had lately found
a home in one of our cities as missionary, who
was offered a situation instead of one which he
then filled. The gentleman urgently requested
his answer at once. The good man replied, " O,
not now; I have not mentioned it to the Lord."

The Old Testament everywhere makes the im-
pression on a serious reader, of God's particular
providence. If any are ever inclined to unbe-
lief, there is a portion of Scripture biography
where we should suppose that they would as soon
as any where, stumble. We might ask them,
not, " Do you believe that Joshua made the sun
and moon to stand still ; but, Can you believe

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. Ill

that the being who made the worlds, once came
to the bedside of a boy, called to him, " Samuel !
Samuel ! '•' and when the child awoke he ran to
Eli, and was told by him to lie down again for he
did not call him ; God came the second time and
called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and the child went
to Eli again, and again was sent back to his bed,
and the third time God came and called, and
again he insisted that Eli did speak, and Eli per-
ceiving that God had called the child, told him
to answer accordingly, and the fourth time God
came and said, " Samuel ! Samuel ! " and then
broke to him his purposes and made the child his
messenger, acquainting him with some of his
purposes, — I repeat the question, can you be-
lieve this? Will you believe it? Do you be-
lieve it? then you are in one good sense a
believer ; you have a commendable faith ; you
only need to exercise the same simple confidence
in the New Testament, to have in a more impor-
tant sense, faith, which, accompanied by heart-
felt reliance on Christ as the sinners substitute
before the law of God, answering its righteous
demands by his atoning death, would make 3-011
to be in all respects a believer, as truly as Abra-
ham was who, in an exemplary sense, was the
father of all them that believe. If you believe
in the historical narratives of any of the Old
Testament miracles, it may be gratifying to you

112 THE MAN AT THE WHEEL.

to know that the words of David in the text,
can by the help of the Holy Spirit be acted upon
by you, will be, as soon as you are willing to say
with David, to David's Lord and David's son,
"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and
afterward receive me to gloiy."

This faith may be exercised by you through
the operation of God at any moment. ' For
wherein does the greatness of God consist?
There is one thing in the acts of God too great
for some men to believe. Not that he made
the distant planet Uranus. I never met with
one who could not believe that which astrono-
mers tell us of his perturbations and their prob-
able cause. But I have met with men who,
while they believed all this, could not believe
that this God numbers the hairs of their heads,
or that not a sparrow falls to the ground with-
out him. That was too much for their faith ;
which proves that God's condescension is more
incredible to man}7", than his omnipotence.

It is not too much to believe that God may
have arranged and has in mind at one and the
same moment myriads of worlds, their geolog\~,
mineralogy, crystal logeny, botaii}r, their animals
and birds ; but that such a Being will guide a
man with his counsel, and afterward receive him
to glory, is oftentimes too much for faith. With
no more power to explain this than others, you

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. 113

believe it. That willingness to believe it so im-
plicitly is one kind of faith ; only exercise it with
the heart in regard to the words of Christ in
what he says of the soul, its present character,
its destiny, the way in which alone it can be
saved ; and then, for there is still one thing with-
out which all this faith will prove useless,
with all your heart accept the offers of this Re-
deemer, love him, be his disciple, and consent-
ingly say to him, " Thou shalt guide me with
thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory."
There are some who have believed all this who
do not have the consolation to which they are
entitled, because they fail to keep this faith in
exercise.

Instead of reading treatises on faith, and try-
ing to understand speculations on things be}-ond
our knowledge, they will be far more happy, for
they will make more progress in religious
knowledge, if they will sit b}^ the> side of Sam-
uel's bed, listening to the Almighty as he talked
with him I owe more to talk with children
after they had gone to bed than to books,
if I ever have had lessons in faith. Their in-
quiries, which I could not answer ; their implicit
but wondering acquiesence in my statements,
have taught me more than the teachings of men,

<_J O

how to receive with meekness, the engrafted
word which is able to save the soul. Their
confidence in my love and care has done more than

114 THE MAN" AT THE WHEEL.

man}- other things esteemed among men, to make
me understand how I am to love God, and how
God loves them who trust in Him.

That which the sailor when he is at the wheel
does for all on board, He who is .the " Wonder-
ful, Counsellor," accomplishes, but in a far
higher sense, every moment day and night, for
his believing child. The hands of the man at
the wheel are in effect tied to it while he is
on duty as steersman. There is One who can at
the same time act for us in the capacity of the
man at the wheel, but also do everything else
needed by us on the voyage.

It was kind in the captain of our ship to close
our window shutters for us one night in a ter-
rific storm of lightning off the Rio de la Plata,

o o

that we might sleep. So the watchman of Israel
sometimes closes the senses of a dying friend
when about to pass through the valley of- the
shadow of death; suffering the friendlv delirium

O «/

to act the part of a veil. In numberless ways
does he make kind offices act the part of friends
when indeed friends could not discern our need;
or render aid, even could they discern our ne-
cessit}7. Christ is doing wondrous acts of kind-
ness for us all the time. When you are asleep
he is perhaps directing the thoughts of some who
on the other side of the globe are at that instant,
under their noonday sun, inditing letters which
may deeply affect your welfare.

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. 115

While we are under the guidance of this om-
niscient, omnipotent Friend, it is wonderful that
we are in full possession of free agency. I have
already quoted the command which the mate
sometimes gives to one steering, when he sees an
enormous wave ready to break over the side of
the ship. " Meet her ! " he cries ; an elliptical
sea phrase, meaning, make her meet it; so in-
stead of suffering the billow to swamp the ship
by coming upon her broadside, she by turning a
little out of course rides the wave safely. Thus
he sometimes says to us in view of a coming duty
or danger, " Meet her." With the word he fills
the heart with inward strength. We seem to be
making use of self-inspired courage, but it is
God that worketli in us to will and to do of his
good pleasure.

Was it mere fancy when I said that some souls
make one feel as though Satan was at their
helm ? No, for the Bible speaks of the spirit
that now worketli in the children of disobedience ;
it tells us to admonish them, that they may re-
cover themselves " out of the snare of the devil,
who are led captive by him at his will."

In the days of Odin and Thor in Great Britain,
and in times of witchcraft in some parts of our
country, we know how fearful a thing it was for
one to believe himself possessed by an evil spirit.
It is enough to make the stoutest heart shudder to

116 THE MAN AT THE WHEEL.

read in the New Testament of one wholly given
up to the possession of the devil and his legions.
The Apostle Peter says to Christians, " Be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary the devil,
walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour ! '' If then, even the best of men
are liable to be his prey, how must it be with
those who tempt the devil with hearts standing
wide open, filled with wicked passions and evil
desires, thus soliciting the devil instead of wait-
ing to be tempted.

Such are we, if not under the protection of
Christ. Every heart is either under the protec-
tion of, or led captive by, the evil one. If we are
under the protection of Christ, guided by his
counsel, we are safe in any place, in the worst
company, if we are there against our will or
without our choice. Daniel and his companions
were safe in the palace of Babylon. Joseph was
safe in Potiphar's house. I have known j-oung
men and boys subject day and night to the
worst examples, in the forecastle and on shore,
who seemed to be purified by the fiery furnace
of sin which burned around them. In their
prayers they could say, " Thou shalt guide me
with t\\y counsel."

We notice the way in which God is said to
guide " with his counsel," and not by force.
"I will truide thee with mine eve." We must

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL. 117

give heed to the suggestions of conscience. "Be-
hold also the ships, which though they be so
great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they
turned about with a very small helm, whither-
soever the governor listeth." When we take the
Bible in our hands it should be with prayer.

• 'The suggestions of the Holy Spirit are " the
man at the wheel" in our souls. God, the
Father, Son and Hol}r Spirit, it is not too much
to say, will be to euph one that which is repre-
sented by a human hand upon the helm of a ship.
It is not too late to regain Him if we have lost
his guidance. When we find ourselves in evil
company, we imvy be sure that we have not been
led thither by the Divine Author of the First
Psalm. Some will have this for their painful re-
flection \\ithoutend: — My Saviour, the Judge,
offered to be " the man at the wheel " to my soul.
We may from this hour have him whose name
is " Wonderful, Counsellor," to guide us through
life and afterward receive us to glory. It was
not a meaningless record. " Then they willingly
received him into the ship, and immediately the
ship was at the land whither they went."

VII.

THE BRIEF MENTION OF ASTRON-
OMY IN aENESlS.

"He made the stars also." — Genesis i : 16.

The narrative of creation passes over the stars
with brief notice. After saying that God made
two great lights, the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night, it says in
the Hebrew, — " the stars also." The words,
" He made " are in italics.

The stars had been created when Genesis was
written. The nearest fixed star was twenty bil-
lions of miles from the earth. As light travels
two hundred thousand miles a second, if a star
in Centaurus for example, had been struck out
of existence at the death of Moses, it would be
more than eleven thousand years hence before
its light would disappear ; the star would for
that length of time be apparently in the same
place. The planets being at their nearest ap-
(nS)

ASTKONOMY IN GENESIS. 119

proach to one another so distant, there must be
solitudes between them inconceivable ; so that
could we measure the universe by its solitudes
alone, no finite mind can conceive of its boun-
daries.

While this was before the mind of God, noth-
ing is disclosed in revelation unless in keeping
with the limited knowledge of the aire when the
Bible began to be written. That limited knowl-
edge was to be stationary for thousands of years.
We can conceive what perplexity would confuse
the minds of men should the pen of inspiration
write in a way transcending the knowledge of
men, on a subject which takes such hold upon
human curiosity as astronomy. A benevolent
regard for human happiness would need to say
a great deal, if it said anything, upon this sub-
ject. This would be opening the gates of knowl-
edge more than was consistent with the scheme
of providence. None but infinite wisdom could
keep the gates of knowledge so closely barred
that some disclosure would not inadvertently be-
tray the secrets of nature ; say something which
would make men half insane to know what was
meant when they could not be told without dis-
closing things so many and so profound, that
many would turn astrologers.

We know what mischief was wrought by as-
trolog}r. We may confidently say that the silence

120 THE BRIEF MENTION OF

of the Bible is a powerful proof that it is the book
of God. There is something more interesting
than science, something more important than the
starry world. It is not life eternal to know
what are the sweet influences of Pleiades, the
bands of Orion.

The book which the Most High wrote for men
is not a book of science. You would suppose
from much of the literature of the da}7", that the
very best thing is to be scientific, by all means
literary. While the Bible inculcates early in-
struction with discipline, it seeks to make men
feel that to know God and the way of peace
•with him, are the first things to be understood.
Having learned these, we are taught that there
are to be no bounds to our knowledge. But the
Bible is not a book of science ; yet science is of
practical use. Had the Romans, for example,
understood the scientific truth that water in
pipes under or above ground conveyed even
to great distances, will rise as high as its source,
it would have been of immense practical use ;
for the knowledge that water in a pipe could
after going down into a valley, come up of itself,
would have saved untold wealth besides labor.

None of these things, however, were subjects
of divine revelation ; yet none but the wisdom
which is infinite would have omitted them in iis
disclosures ; for had men been allowed to dictate

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 121

a divine revelation, undoubtedly we should have
had at the very beginning an encyclopedia of
useful knowledge.

The history of such a people as the Jews, we
imagine, would have been disposed of in a brief
space, with all the lessons which it teaches con-
cerning the character of God and our duty to-
ward him. Such an age and people as that of
the Greeks at their highest advancement, would
no doubt have been celebrated in revelations, yet
the Bible speaks of them disparagingly in com-
parison with that which it declares to be its great
theme. " The Greeks seek after wisdom ;" —
more than intimating that the wisdom which dis-
tinguished Greece was not the principal thing.
There was something which Greece never found,
Greater than all its lost arts.

O

Seeing the disproportioned value which men
place on human learning, we* can easily think
what stimulus would have been given to curi-
osity, had the Most High set the example of ele-
vating mere knowledge to the first place in our
estimation. Wisely has our Divine instructor
refrained from setting us such an example as to
make his revelation a series of disclosures con-
cerning mere scientific truth.

The Apostle Paul tells us that " whether there
shall be prophecies they shall fail, whether there
be tongues they shall cease, whether there be

122 THE BRIEF MENTION OF

knowledge it shall vanish away." For after we
reach, heaven, the humblest of our race who shall
be saved, will in a brief period know more of
the universe than the wisest of men here who
know not God.

In a recent eulogy on Humbolt who, all agree
had not a superior, if he had an equal, in scien-
tific knowledge, the author, a great naturalist,
discussed the question whether he was an Athe-
ist. He had found a sentence in his volumin-
ous works which contains a mention of God as
Creator. Think of this, fellow men ! The
greatest of your race in mere scientific knowl-
edge in modern times, the most adventurous ex-
plorer among the works of God, instead of over-
flowing with adoring tributes of love to Him.,
makes it necessary for his eulogist to search his
books in order to find whether he did really be-
lieve in God. If he did not, the least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he, for the
Bible tells us in the passage just quoted about
prophecies and tongues and knowledge, that all
distinctions of knowledge in this world will
vanish away.

The light of heaven will make our present in-
quries with their most brilliant results pale by
the noon-day brightness then to flood them.
There the man who did nothing but study na-
ture, neglecting ' that truth, "he that lovel.li

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 123

knoweth God," will be left to confusion, when
some of the weakest men shall come to know by
intuition all which the other had arrived at after
years of toil. If there is one of our race who
will be most pitiable hereafter, it will not be so
much the rich fool who said to himself, " Thou
hast much goods laid up for many years," as the
great scholar, who had he been a worshipper of
God with faith in his Son, our Saviour, would
have been greatly prepared by his earthly studies
for immediate advancement in knowledge con-
cerning the works of God. Having only sought
and found the knowledge of material things he
wall see hereafter that those who worshipped God
in Christ are at once abreast of him in such knowl-
edge ; that then and ever after they are to be his
superiors, while he must be consigned to dark-
ness with his misused powers.

While the Bible is in effect the most literary
of all books, has given existence to more vol-
riines than any other stimulant of thought, more
of the master pieces of painting, for example,
being suggested by it, than by any other, so that
the human mind has been in a larger measure
cultivated by works of imagination drawn from
it than from any other source, — still the Book of
God was not written for that as its avowed pur-
pose, but is continually admonishing us that to
know God, to love, obey and enjoy Him is bet-

124 THE BRIEF MENTION OF

ter than the knowledge of material things. We
learn this from the remarkable silence of the
Bible as to scientific subjects, particularly from
the wonderful conciseness in its information about
the stars, saying only that God made two great
lights ; " the stars also."

Let any one ask himself whether we do not
find in this reserve, a proof of a superior hand.
This is not the manner of man. Human wisdom
does not refuse to teach the things which men
are most curious to know. It does not set science
by lightly, when it seeks to instruct men in things
pertaining to God. Therefore, if we believe this
book to have been given by inspiration of God,
we shall do well to follow the instruction afforded
by its example of preferring the knowledge of
God, especially to know his will, above every
thing which science or literature can impart.
While the desire for divine knowledge is not in-
consistent with personal improvement, there are
occasions, questions, which give opportunity to
show that we are to consider this to be " Life
eternal, to know Him, the true God, and Jesus
Christ whom he has sent."

Having considered that the brief way in which
astronomy is treated in the Bible is a proof of its
divine inspiration, we shall admit that

II. WHILE GOD SAYS so LITTLE ABOUT

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 125

THE STARS, IT IS WONDERFUL THAT HE HAS
SAID SO MUCH ABOUT MAN AND HUMAN AF-
FAIRS.

One would think on reading the Bible only,
that there is no other world than this under the
care of the Almighty.

While we can never cease to blame the persecu-
tors of Galileo for not consenting to look through

O O

his telescope, we can account for the incredulity
of many who would not believe his doctrine,
from the fear which they probably had of losing
their belief in the exclusive regard which the
Most High seems in the Bible to feel for our
earth.

It was a satisfaction to think that this earth
was the sole object of Jehovah's care as an in-
habited sphere. The Bible, they thought, taught
them so ; it would be a loss to their sense of im-
portance, if Galileo could prove that there were
other worlds ; for if like this in other respects,
why might they not prove to be inhabited ; and
if inhabited, what becomes of our Bible? for the
Bible made them feel that there could be no
other world than this ; else how could the Al-
mighty seem to bestow upon men such minute
regard ?

Whatever may be our speculations on this
topic, no one can read the Bible and not be filled

126 THE BRIEF MENTION OF

with amazement if be suffers himself to dwell
upon the minute regard which God shows for in-
dividual men and human affairs. Some illustra-
tions will make this appear.

There are places in the sacred history which,
no doubt, try the faith of every one who believes
in God. I will refer to a passage in Exodus for
an example. The God of the universe giving
directions for making the tabernacle in the wilder-
ness, is so minute as to describe how the candle-
stick should be shaped, then ornamented. Not
only so, he even speaks of the tongs ; then of
the snuff-dishes. He who made the orbit of Ju-
piter to be two hundred and seventy thousand
miles, who had ordained Saturn to wander
twenty-nine of our years before completing one
revolution, the comet of 1843 to move at the rate
of a million three hundred thousand miles in an
hour, wrote in His book how the pins of the
tabernacle should be fixed, what the loops, tas-
sels, fringes should be, how much carved work
should adorn the furniture. When we come to
the sacrifices, there is anatomical minuteness :
mention is made of clean and unclean creatures
as discriminately as would be done by a natural-
ist. The exact measures of flour and oil are
given ; parts of the animal are specified for use
or to be rejected.

It seems strange to notice the frequent use of

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 127

the expression in speaking of bullocks, rams, and
kids, "a sweet-smelling savor unto the Lord."
Can this be He who made " the stars also ? ': Will
He designate the color of the skins to be used

O

for the roof of the tabernacle in the wilderness ?
And when He legislates, will He do anything
more than ordain a nation, then leave it to rulers
how to frame enactments?

We have a remarkable case in point. The
daughters of Zelophehad came to Moses repre-
senting that their father did not .die in Koran's
rebellion, but for his own sin; therefore they
petitioned that the right of inheritence might
be restored to them. What did Moses answer ?
He told them to wait till he had referred the
matter to the Almighty. Having laid the case
before God, he received from Him an enactment
that the females of a family might in certain
cases inherit !

While God was ruling among those orbs which
led Job to exclaim, " Is there any number of His
armies ? and on whom doth not His light arise,"
He bestowed as particular attention to fae juris-
prudence relating to family inheritances among
this migratory people, as though they had been a
constellation, or zone of the heavens.

We are led to question whether the people of
Galileo's time read their Bibles in a way to show
that they were more noble than those of Thessa-

128 THE BRIEF MENTION OF

lonica in searching the Scriptures ; for they could
not have considered such revelations of the mi-
nute attention of the Infinite God to individu-
als, yet hesitate to look through a telescope from
fear of seeing more worlds than they could be-
lieve that the Almighty was able to comprehend
in his regard. The New Testament takes up the
subject. If five sparrows were sold for two
farthings in the Saviour's time, and not one of
them was forgotten before God, all questions as
to the doctrine of a particular providence, we
would suppose, should cease in every mind which
is willing to accept the God of the Bible.
The smallest occasion may be great. A spider
stretched his web across the entrance of the cave
where Mahomet had secreted himself. The men
in pursuit.of him said : " He cannot have entered
here ; for he would have brushed away the web
on going in : there has not been time, since we
knew he was on the road, for the spider to have
done his work." They, therefore, -passed on.
Hence, Mohammedanism.

We live under the government of a Being
who, while He guides a comet in a sphere which
a radius of hundreds of thousands of miles must
be taken to describe, legislates about birds' nests ;
rules in the armies of heaven, yet understands
your thoughts afar off. " Behold ! God is great,
and we know Him not : neither can the number

ASTKONOMY IN GENESIS. 129

of His years be searched out. For He maketh
small the drops of water which the clouds do
drop and distil upon man abundantly." " Also,
can any understand the balancing of the clouds,
— the wondrous work of Him who is perfect in
knowledge ? "

There cannot be greater happiness (we might
infer from the light df nature, without the aid of
personal experience) than to be on terms of per-
sonal friendship with the Being who is at the
same time swaying his sceptre over the universe,
yet a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without
Him. If God has kindled in our hearts love to
them, He has done for us a greater act than for
the heavenly bodies, none of which can hold com-
munion with Him. It is better to be a Christian,
though ignorant, than an undevout astronomer,
though in possession of every secret in nature.
God cares as little for the man who has mere
knowledge, as we care for the ant whose hill of
sand we perceive to be larger than that of his
fellows. "Behold, He put no trust in His
servants, and His angels He charged with folly."
Knowledge involves no exercise of the will.
The human will is the seat of free agency,
therefore, of moral character. One who has ex-
ercised his will in owning allegiance to God has
done that, though, in his knowledge, he be the
least of all, which the man who is familiar with

130 THE BKIEF MENTION OF

the laws of the heavenly bodies, but does not
spiritually know God, has failed to do. If God
charges His angels with folly, He cannot respect
a man, whose wisdom a child or a fool can baffle
by simple questions. When men die who were
eminent only for learning, eloquence, statesman-
ship, what value is placed on their learning, their
eloquence, their statesmanship, among celestial
inhabitants ? These things, which may have
made them conspicuous here, in another world
are like street-lamps left burning after sunrise.
The humblest of the heavenly inhabitants could
make an unregenerate man feel that, being ig-
norant of spiritual things, he knows nothing.
Had he known God, his eminent intellectual
powers, of course, might have helped him greatly
in his heavenly career.

To many of earth's wise men it must be said,
hereafter, of the first principles of spiritual
knowledge: "Art thou a master of Israel, and
knowest not these things ? " Let the young,
who are ambitious of literary distinction, let all
who are leaders among men in worldly knowl-
edge,— remember that, to know God in the
Scriptural sense of that expression, is the great-
est attainment. We cannot know God but
by loving Him, — which we may do by accept-
ing Christ as our Redeemer. And he that lov-
eth knoweth God ; for God is Love !

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 131

" He that loveth is born of God."
Let any one consider what it must be to come
into that relation with this Infinite Being which
a child has to its father. Such a relation
we have, when we begin to love God, and
not before. Oiie might appear before him with
an exact description of the heavenly bodies ; but
God could open before his eyes in a moment one
of those nebulse which now puzzle the wisest
astronomer, — thereby making his knowledge
fade before that superior light. There is no ex-
hortation, therefore, more important than the
one which Joshua gave Israel at the close of his
life, — an exhortation worthy of the man who
had been the conqueror of Canaan ; an exhorta-
tion which even so great a warrior was not
ashamed to make ; an exhortation never made
by Napoleon, nor by a modern Field-Marshal to
their troops: "Take good heed to yourselves
that ye love the Lord your God."

Think of Him who made the stars, causing to
be prepared two tables of stone ; those fingers
whose work the heavens had been, making He-
brew letters, so becoming penman for the chil-
dren of men. In which do we see most to adore ?
That He made the planet Jupiter with his moons,
together with Saturn and his belt, shining on the
hill tops, into the valleys of the wilderness of
Sinai; or, that He who made Jupiter and Saturn

182 THE BRIEF MENTION OF

caused those tablets to be made, wrote the char-
acters of a human alphabet with the same hand
which drew the orbits for the comets, made laws
for the heavenly bodies, ages before Kepler was
born or man arose from the dust ; and when man
had ruined himself by sin, wrote on stone for
men to read, " Thou shalt have no other gods
before me ? '

One thing is a climax to all which has been
said, being at once proved by it and proving it.
Need I say it is the work of Redemption by
Christ? Perhaps it has seemed to some too
much to believe that God could condescend to
this little earth, become flesh, and as God-man
be a sacrifice for sins. But is there anything
more condescending in Redemption than we find
in the books of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and
Deuteronomv ? If I can believe that the same

»/

God who made the stars made the laws, especi-
ally the regulations in Leviticus, I can believe
whatever the Bible may declare ; and can be-
lieve it without demanding explanations ; I can
accept any declaration concerning it, made by
the condescending God.

It was God manifest in the flesh who washed
the feet of Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot. He
who hung on the cross made the stars also ; " all
things were created by him and for him ; with-
out him was not anything made that was made."

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 133

Whoever lives and dies insensible to all this, will
have for his chief reflection 'hereafter, that the
God who made the stars made him and redeemed
him by giving Christ to die for him ; and all in
vain.

It should be to us a source of the riches b
pleasure in this world to believe. At every ex-
perience of God's goodness to us we may say,
" He made the stars also ;" thus deepening our
sense of his marvelous loving-kindness. It will
seem to ennoble the future greatness of redemp-
tion in each particular case for an angel in con-
templating it to say, " He made the stars also."
It will be a joy to have walked by faith in this
world with such a Bible ; we thus accomplish-
ing, each of us, the great purpose of our redemp-
tion, which is, to believe. Or, must we have
every thing explained? Do we require the God
who made the constellations to help us under-
stand every thing before we receive it? Ex-
cept we see in- the -Saviour's hand the print of
the nails, and put our finger in the print of the
nails, and thrust our hand into his side, will we
refuse to believe ?

Simply refusing to believe God in the wil-
derness, postponed the entrance of Israel into
Caanau one generation, till the unbelievers had
all perished. Inspiration speaks of them as car-
cases ; " Whose carcases fell in the wilderness."

134 THE BEIEF MENTION" OF

Unbelief is the great human sin. It will cost
more people the loss of heaven than any other
one thing. Christ himself is set to be with every
man a corner stone, or a stone of stumbling.
We should never ask, Do you believe our heav-
enly Father would do thus and thus ? but we
should ask, Has He done it? Does the Bible de-
clare it? Then implicitly believe, nor make
your intellectual apprehensions nor your moral
sentiments the rule for the divine proceedings.

When a discoverer or thinker embraces a
theory which conflicts with revelation, we should
class it at once with " science, falsely so called."
We are prone to exalt our wisdom above inspi-
ration. If men would remember of how little
importance they are in themselves, and that it is
infinite condescension in God to ask for their
love ; if they would ponder that question of the
inspired words, "Is it gain to the Almighty that
thou makest thy way perfect ? will he reprove
thee for fear of thee ? will he enter with thee
into judgment," the exhortations of the Gospel
would not make us think, as perhaps they do, that
God solicits our love for benefit to himself.

He who made the stars also, made us, a little
lower than the angels, and crowned us with glory
and honor. This God, the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost, made us and redeemed us by
the sacrifice of the Son in the flesh. lie offers

ASTRONOMY IN GENESIS. 135

to sanctify our natures by the Holy Ghost, the
third person of this adorable Trinity. Will any
one of us fail of so great salvation ? " Where-
fore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To day, if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

VIII.

EMULATION IN HEAVEN AMONa THE
REDEEMED.

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." — i Timothy
i: 15.

If there is anything like emulation among the
redeemed in heaven, we may suppose that it is
of a kind unknown on earth. It was written
long ago by a good man, that if certain men
should enter heaven as they now are, their great
surprise would be not to find angels laying
.schemes to make themselves archangels. Per-
haps these words of Paul in the text, express
the chief subject of emulation among the re-
deemed, " sinners, — of whom I am chief."
With them it imvy be, that emulation consists in
harmonious strife to settle among themselves who
of them were chief sinners, and are now chief
debtors to the grace of God.

It would not be easy for any of us to conceive

(136)

AMONG THE EEDEEMED. 137

of such emulation, unless we have already come
to the deliberate opinion, that anything which
we can experience short of hell is to us mercy.

Wlio will probably seem in heaven to have
the highest claim as the chief of sinners, to be
greatest debtors to infinite grace ?

Let us suppose the inhabitants of heaven from
among men engaged in this rivalry, pleading each
his claim of owing most to divine mercy. We
will judge between them in this harmonious
strife.

I. THE APOSTLE PAUL FIRST BEINGS FOK-

WAKD HIS CLAIM.

" I persecuted the Church of God. That in-
fant church, the fruit of a Saviour's tears and
blood was my prey. I hated it with implacable
hatred. I went into houses and dragged Chris-
tians to prison. Neither age nor sex found
mercy at my hands.

" Being exceedingly mad against them I com-
pelled some of them to blaspheme. I saw their
agony with heartfelt satisfaction. Around you
in the heavenly company are the witnesses
of my crimes. Behold the spirits of those whom
I persecuted even to death. They came out of
great tribulation, inflicted on them by me.

" The most affecting thing in my heavenly his-

138 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

tory, was .my first interview with the martyr
Stephen. When I saw him last on earth, he was
kneeling to receive the stones from the murder-
ers hands, and I was consenting unto his death,
and kept the raiment of them that slew him. I
did it not from love of pain and blood, but as a
religious duty. Little did I ever think of meet-
ing him in heaven ; but his must have been the
greater surprise to meet me here, though with
his last breath he prayed for me : ' Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge.' His blood infuri-
ated me with more zeal for Christian blood.

" On my way to Damascus with full authority
to bind, imprison and kill every Christian, He
who loved me and gave himself for me, appeared
and spake, to me, and in a tone of mingled re-
monstrance and pity, said, . ' Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou ' me ? ' When he might have
consumed me with his lightnings, he spoke to me
with gentle upbraiding. He could have suffered
me to go on and fill up the measure of my ini-
quity, and be the most guilty spirit in hell ; in-
stead of which he has made me, as you will all
acknowledge, chief debtor to his love.

" In contrast with my former life of blood, see
what he permitted me to do. When it pleased
God who separated me from my birth, to reveal
his Son in me, forthwith I became a preacher

AMONG THE REDEEMED. 139

and an Apostle to the Gentiles. I preached to
the nations who had never known Him, the un-
searchable riches of Christ. I was permitted to
write a large part of the New Testament to be
the guide of thousands of generations to heaven.
I was permitted for Christ's sake to be in dangers
more abundant than all my companions, in stripes
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in
deaths oft.

" I appeal to what I once was, and what I was
permitted to do ; to what I was by the grace of
God, and to my present bliss in looking upon
millions who by my influence were brought to
heaven, if I was not in the first place the chief
of sinners ; if I am not now the greatest debtor
to the grace of God."

II. Our attention is now demanded by a small
company of men who cannot admit the claims of
their beloved brother Paul, to be a greater sin-
ner and a greater debtor to mercy than they.
They are THE CRTJCIFIERS OF CHRIST, whom
we will suppose to have been converted at the
day of Pentecost.

" Is it possible," they say, " that blood can
fall with so deep a stain on a murderer's hand
as the blood of the Son of God? " " With my
hands," says one of them, " the crown of thorns

140 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

was forced upon his head." " But I bound his
hands." says another. " I scourged him," says
another. " I drove the nails into his hands and
feet." " I am the Centurion who thrust the
spear into his side." " It is a great crime to have
been the means of death to a good man ; but to
have killed the Prince of Life, to have been the
• betrayers and murderers of the Son of God, is
the chief transgression. Better to have been
the murderers of the universal Church than to
have platted a thorn of the Saviour's crown, to
have driven one nail into that mysterious flesh
of the God-man. Why did not the graves re-
lease their dead and swallow us up ? Why did
not the rocks of Calvary crush our bodies, and
the darkness of the ninth hour leave us in ever-
lasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day ?

" Instead of this, the Saviour sent his Apostles
first of all to us; — 'beginning at Jerusalem,'
he said, ' with offers of pardon through my
blood.' On us was the first descent of the
Holy Spirit, at Pentecost ; we were the early
fruits of the harvest from that corn of wheat
which on Calvary fell into the ground and died.

" If any guilt surpasses ours, declare it ; men-
tion one thing which surpasses this : ' and killed
the Prince of Life.' Tell us, if you can, who
owes more to divine forbearance than we. The

AMONG THE EEDEEMED. 141

guilt of the Apostle Paul, — it sinks into insig-
nificance by the side of ours. Never did he
know such sensations, not even in his meeting
with the martyr Stephen, as we had, when we
first looked upon the face of our Redeemer in
heaven. ' When we last saw thee,' we said, ' we
were nailing thee to the accursed tree ; ' but ere
-we could repeat our thanks for pardon, we were
filled with full assurance of his love. We walk
these golden streets, we range these heavenly
fields, and talk of Calvary with feelings un-
known to all the heavenly host. If any are to
be recognized here as chief sinners on earth and

o

chief debtors to the grace of God, they must be
The crucifiers of Christ."

III. "Give room," says a company of shin-
ing ones, whom we recognize as A BAND OF

ONCE HEATHEN CHIEFS AND WAKRIOKS.

" We shall conclude this contest by our re-
hearsal. We were the Gentiles that knew not
God. We worshipped the devil, and faithful
subjects we were to our lord. No souls went
lower than we in degradation ; no vices, no
crimes were too abominable for us. Some of us
were worshipped as gods ; on our altars human
victims bled and burned. Tribes fell by tribes
into our hands, and we were following them down
to darkness and the pit. The Son of God sent

142 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

missionaries to our islands ; they told us about
the true God ; of the Sacrifice for our sins ; of
pardon, regeneration, holiness, heaven. Then we
were washed, justified, sanctified, by the renew-
ing of the Holy Ghost. God never found souls
lower in guilt than we ; of course, none were
ever raised so far by divine grace.

" Here is the martyr of Raratonga, whom we
slew, the missionary John Williams ; but instead
of Christians sending fleets to destroy us, the
children of Great Britain sent a missionary
packet to our shores and her name was, ' John
Williams ;' as though they would heap coals of
fire on our heads ; and the children of America
sent the Morning Star with Bibles, to which they
told us we should do well to take heed until the
day dawned, and the day-star should arise in our
hearts. In all this we saw the hand, we felt the
heart, of God ; this was the Gospel of peace ; it
melted our hearts ; we were led captive by
mercy. We almost question the claim of angels
to the highest tokens of the love of God. At
least we can say, if they are the height, we are
the depth, of the love of God; and it was more
for that love to reach down to us than up to
them.

" What unmerited love, to find us out in our
islands, and bring salvation to us ! True, we can
speak of no striking exhibition of God's power

AMONG THE REDEEMED. 143

that is uncommon, in the conversion of sinners,
like that which Paul experienced, and our breth-
ren at Pentecost. But we were the lost sheep
in the wilderness of ocean : the Good Shepherd
found us, and brought us home to His fold. We
cannot }Tield to any who have yet spoken, in our
conviction that we were the greatest sinners, be-
cause our guilt was sickening: we were more
than brutal ; we had the instincts of brutes, and
the passions of animals. Hideous, loathsome,
fiendish, as we were, we are now companions
with the saints in light. If the contrast of the
heavenly with the earthly condition may enter
into the account, whose robes seem to them so
resplendent as ours? And if distance from God
enhances the love which brings back the lost,
give us the joy of confessing that we are debt-
ors to His mercy more than you all."

IV. Before the eyes of the assembled multi-
tude appears a company who -represent THE
CHILDREN OF HEAVEN. Peculiar beauty
dwells in their faces and forms ; immortal youth
breathes from their looks and motions. The at-
tention of the multitude is chained while they
thus proceed : —

u

We represent the innumerable host of spir-
its who came to heaven in infancy ; we are from
every tribe under heaven. There was not one

144 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

• of all the tribes of men who did not send some
infants to heaven. Some of us were murdered

*

by our parents as soon- as we were born. Each
heathen river, each island shore, is the burving-
place of our bodies. Among us is the compan}1"
of those who were slain by Herod, — martyrs
for the Child Jesus, — and those who have per-
ished by the wars, famines, and diseases which
have swept the earth. With us are the children
of Christian families, baptized in Christian tem-
ples or homes, buried amid broken hearts, but
waiting with surprising beauty and glory to wel-
come pious parents hither. Do you speak of the
grace of God ? If grace consists in the absence
of all merit, who are debtors at all to divine
grace compared with us ? We did not even be-
lieve on Christ, — for we never knew him ; but,
beinor involved in the first father's transgression,

^3 O /

without opportunity of repentance and faith in
the Saviour, we were included in the free gift :
salvation was bestowed on us, who never sought
it. Consider, too, the goodness of God, in our
early death. If those of us who were born in
heathenism had lived to manhood, we should
have perished in our sins ; but God removed us
from such exposure, to heaven. Some of us,
though born in Christian lands, were the chil-
dren of irreligious parents, whose example and
influences, if we had lived, might have prevented

AMONG THE REDEEMED. 145

our salvation. Look at some of our homes, —
our parents and all our brothers and sisters un-
converted! See what peril we have escaped, by
the merciful hand of death ! God in His good-
ness interposed to save us. He has made our
death, in many instances, the means of the con-
version of parents. Such joy as we behold in
the recognition of a glorified child by the parents
as they enter heaven, we cannot utter: angels
cannot witness it without emotion. We have
seen fathers and mothers meeting the children
who died in infanc}', and left their parents with-
out hope ; and God sanctified the affliction, and
the parents ascribe their salvation and eternal
union with their children in heaven, to the re-
moval of the children by an early death. Those
of us whose parents lived and died impenitent,
and are lost, though the first budding instinct of
filial affection remained in our hearts, and made
us hope to meet our parents here, nevertheless,
are made to see what a mercy it is that God
snatched us away from an irreligious, prayeiiess
influence, and saved us. Why did He not leave
us to perish with our parents ? Because He set
His love upon us, therefore did He deliver us ;
and our rescue from such imminent danger and
the peculiar love of God in our early death
bids us not to weep for those who would have
destroyed us by their influence, if God had not

146 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

interposed to save us. God and heaven are our
father and mother, sister and brother. ' O
Death ! where is thy sting ? ' The monster
Death was the means of our salvation. < O grave !
where is thy victory ? ' Our graves received our
bodies each for safe-keeping against the resur-
rection of the just, and the strange union of soul
and body, of which we have no remembrance,
and can form no conception, is to be ours, with
sensations of pleasure unknown to the rest of the
rising dead. Though every saint will have im-
mortal youth, our youth will have in it some-
thing peculiar ; for the only homes, the only
scenes of childhood, which we can remember, are
are those of heaven. We were children in
heaven ; and through eternity the vivid recollec-
tions of the first impressions made upon our
opening minds by the scenes of heaven will make
our whole being an eternal morning. We were
never conscious of sinning against God. Had
we lived, \ve should have had consciousness of
sin. We never rejected the Saviour, or cruci-
fied Him afresh, or grieved the Holy Spirit of
God ; and it is the subject of our grateful praise
that by death God prevented us from so doing,
and, instead of letting us spend years in sin,
gave us those years in the purity of heaven.
Adore with us that grace which selected us from
a ruined world, and saved us of its own accord,

AMONG THE REDEEMED. 147

when we were unconscious of it. You all seem
to have had grace bestowed on you ; but we are,
as it were, grace itself. Boasting is, indeed, ex-
cluded from any share in our salvation. Grace,
grace in us is all in all."

V. There follows these words, from the army
of children in heaven, — a deep, rich song, its
joy mingled with pensive strains, from a host
whose feelings burst forth in notes of praise
whenever the grace of God is mentioned in their
hearing. They are THE CONVERTS OF CHRIS-
TIAN CONGREGATIONS. Most of them declare
that their Christian privileges and their long re-
sistance of God's call and His forbearance with
them under their great guilt, make them the
chief debtors to divine grace. " What is the
guilt of Paul," they say, " who did not sin un-
der the clear strivings of the Divine Spirit, but
ignorant!}-, in unbelief? What is the guilt of
the crucifiers of Christ, and of barbarians, who
did not enjoy the teachings of that Spirit?
What are the obligations of the children, com-
pared with ours, when you think that we were
saved, not only without merit, but against infin-
ite demerit ? Was not blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost the unpardonable sin ? Does it not
follow that any sins against the Holy Spirit are
greater than others, — because, to sin against

148 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

right and conviction constitutes the most inex-
cusable sin? We had the whole Bible from
childhood, and Sabbaths and sanctuaries, and
with us the Holy Spirit early began to strive.
But for a long time we grieved him every day,
We despised his warnings, turned away from the
Gospel, walked after our own hearts: one year
after another ended, and left us without God.
With a full impression of what we ought to do,
we refused to do it. Should not the servant
who knew his Lord's will, and did it not, be
beaten with many stripes? Who of all this
heavenly company, professing to have been the
chief of sinners, knew their Lord's will so well
as we ? Think of us as members of Bible-
classes, studying the Word of God, knowing it
by heart, hearing earnest, affectionate appeals
from our teachers and companions, — yet resist-
ing all.

" In yonder world of punishment, there are
none who suffer so much from conscience as those
who died under the preaching of the Gospel, and
now remember the awakenings, the convictions,
the sermons, the solemn scenes of religious inter-
est, — the times when they were ' almost per-
suaded.' Souls who went from the sight of the
Lord's table to lie down in sorrow, have no
keener anguish than when they recall that table
as it stood in the Louse of God, — its white

AMONG THE KEDEEMED. 149

cloth, its silver flagon and cup, the bread ready
to be broken, the looks and words of the pastor,
repeating the invitation of Jesus, ' This do in re-
membrance of me ; ' and then the dividing as-
sembly, — such an emblem of the separations at
the last day! Now, had we, with all our culti-
vation of minds, our enlightened consciences
our memories stored with Scripture and hymns
— had we perished, you all admit that no souls
in hell would be so tormented as we. For us to
have lost heaven and to have spent eternity with
the wicked, would have been the severest suffer-
ing which God can inflict. Some who worship-
ped with us, and sang out of the same book now
suffer it. How near we came to the brink of
ruin ! Our feet had well-nigh slipped. The
centuries of our heavenly life have not abated
our astonishment at being saved. We find our-
selves, often repeating that inspired description
of ourselves, — ' For we ourselves also were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, serving divers
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful and hating one another.' It is our de-
liberate opinion that the greatest sinners and
the greatest debtors to the grace of God are to
be found among members of Christian Congre-
gations."

The controversy might be prolonged ; it doubt-
less is. May we hear it forever !

150 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

If asked now what our judgment is, in view
of this friendly contest in heaven for the chief
place as debtor to the grace of God, could we
hesitate for a reply? When we think of the
criminality of rejecting, of simply neglecting
Jesus Christ, under all the influences of educa-
tion, of Christian example, of persuasion, of pro-
vidence, of death, of conscience enlightened by
the Bible and illuminated by the suggestions of
the sanctuary, beginning with childhood, extend-
ing through mature years, and in some cases to
old age, of living under the persuasive influen-
ces of the Christian religion ; sacraments, pro-
vidences, the Holy Spirit, prayer, special bless-
ings ; the rich gifts of an all-bounteous loving
kindness and tender mercy ; and then when we
consider what we should have suffered had' we
perished under these influences, what our reflec-
tions would have been, what an eternity, ours,
with all our knowledge, opportunities, — and
heaven lost ! forever lost ! Tell us, ye who fell
from heaven, would not our loss of heaven have
been greater to us than it would have been to
any others of the children of men?

This question, my hearers, may none of us have
occasion to ponder when it is forever too late for
the consideration of it to be of any avail.

Some of the most amiable of this congregation
in the esteem of their fellow men, might be told

AMONG THE BEDEEMED. 151

by their Judge, " It shall be more tolerable for
Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for
you." None have more occasion than you who
have enjoyed the privileges of the sanctuary to
say, " How shall we escape if we neglect so
great salvation ! r Let me then strive to impress
these few truths upon you by the help of this
subject.

I. Of all the titles of Christ this holds the
chief place, Saviour of Sinners.

The Apostle Paul tells us, assuredly true and
worthy of the fullest acceptance is this, that
" Jesus Christ came into the world to save sin-

ners."

The full acceptance of this truth will put an
end to the idea, that Christ's mission was one of
philanthropy ; that he was a great reformer ; that
human salvation is merely development.

He came into the world to save sinners. Ev-
ery thing else, civilization, science, culture, arts,
social human happiness, is each a fruit of redemp-
tion and of pardon. Other blessings are merely
the things, which Robert Hall says, " Christian-
ity scatters about her profusely on her sublime
march to immortality."

But the great work of Christ is to save sin-
ners. If you are a sinner, you are an object of
redeeming grace ; if you are not a sinner in need

J.52 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

of an infinite atonement, you may, indeed,
gather many of the scattered blessings of Chris-
tianity ; but you will at the most, only eat of the
crumbs which fall from the Master's table.

But believe and feel yourself to be, in view of
your privileges, one of the chief debtors to the
grace of God, and you will be a rival with Paul
for the distinction. There probably is not a bet-
ter unconverted man among us, than the young
man at the feet of Gamaliel. Many a virtuous
man, many an estimable woman, has feelings to-
wards evangelical religion which compare well
with those which Saul of Tarsus had towards
Stephen. They would be willing to keep the
raiment of those who would stone it.

It is to be doubted if Saul was more conscien-
tious than some people among us are, in their
strong dislike of the doctrines of the cross.
"And such were some of you, but ye are
washed ;" and have taken place with the claim-
ants for the largest indebtedness to divine grace.

It is plain from what has been said,

Secondly, that nothing on earth is more unlike
the spirit of heaven than a self -justifying spirit.

Some of our friends say, " I am no worse than
others ; I shall fare as well as others ; I have
suffered enough here without suffering hereaf-

AMONG THE REDEEMED. 153

ter ; God will not punish me for a few sins ; I
am less guilty than some who profess more than

I."

If this be our spirit we may be sure that we
have no inheritance with the company of heaven.
The spirit of heaven is a humble self-condemn-
ing spirit. The language of heaven is, " Unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in his blood."

It appears from our subject,

Thirdly, The greatness of guilt may be a ground
of hope rather than of despair.

Some of the greatest sinners on earth will be
in heaven ; indeed we may say that if there be
one whose guilt we are ready to feel, is unpar-
alleled, we may have hope that heaven will con-
tain him when they bring the glory and honor of
the nations into it ; the greatest glory and honor
will be penitent thieves, the woman who was a
sinner, and Saul of Tarsus.

Has any one here been a great transgressor ?
Will you have uncommon happiness in heaven?
Will you be a conspicuous monument of the
grace of God ? To find great sinners, those
whom God adjudges to be such, we would not
probably be sent to the haunts of vice, to the
ignorant, the neglected, or even the abandoned ;

154 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

but perhaps to the house of God where some,
exalted to heaven in their opportunities of know-
ing God and their duty, are in their hearts without
God. They probably would have more to reflect
upon if lost, than any ; and, if saved, will not
admit that any deserved it less than they.

There are among us those who are ready to
dispute with Paul his claim to be the chief debtor
to the grace of God. Should opportunity be
given, some would humbly but earnestly declare
that they would not admit that there is a soul
on earth or in heaven who has greater reason than
they to adore the grace of God, or one who
owed more to divine forbearance, long-suffering,
gentleness and compassion.

We are each destined to spend eternity in re-
viewing life ; and unquestionably the most ab-
sorbing object of our thoughts will be Jesus
Christ : and the theme on which we shall chiefly
dwell will be that "Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners." But it may prove to be
the case that some one of us will have occasion
to say, No one has lost more in losing heaven
than I ; no one lost it for less than I ; so that of
all who have occasion to weep and wail, I am
chief.

No doubt every one of you will have occasion
in heaven or hell either to claim that he is chief
debtor to the grace of God, or that he is of all
men most miserable.

AMONG THE REDEEMED. 155

You will say, Who had more to enlighten, re-
strain, subdue, in parentage, religions instructions,
warnings, escapes from destruction, recoveries
from sickness, the death of companions, awaken-
ings, forgivenesses, answers to prayer when on
the brink of destruction. " As for me, my feet
were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slip-
ped." Many and many a time there was but a
step between me and death. How I abused the
mercy of God, how defiant I was to his threat-
enings, how insensible to sparing mercy ; I feel
willing to contest with any sinner from earth his
claim as owing most to the grace of God. I
would demand of him to prove: if he could, that
there was more long-suffering, gentleness, unde-
served mercy in his case than mine.

Others may *be heard to say, Come and see
if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow.
To whom of you, companions in misery, is
heaven more of a loss than to me ? Who of you
came nearer to being saved. Who had more done
to save him ? Who gave up heaven for less than
I ? To whom is the company of the lost more
distressing than 'to me? Is there anv sorrow

*-* V

like unto my sorrow ?

And so forever and ever, succeeding ages will
but repeat our assertion, that no one owes more
than each of us to the grace which bringeth sal-
vation ; or has more occasion to lift up his voice

156 EMULATION IN HEAVEN

in loudest lamentations. And all this in conse-
quence of one act of accepting or neglecting the
great salvation. One single submission to the
call of God, or one refusal to accept his offers,
will be the decisive act which will determine
whether we spend eternity claiming to be chief
debtor to the grace of God, or chief debtor to
His avenging law and neglected gospel. It is
indeed a solemn thing to die, but is it not
a more solemn thing to live under such lia-
bilities ? I would not close my eyes in sleep till
I had committed my soul to those hands which
on the cross had on one side the impenitent
thief and on the other the penitent thief, Jesus
in the midst, proclaiming as it does to all men.
their danger and their only refuge. Some
stand on slippery places. " Their feet shall
slide in due time." No one has listened to
the voice of mercy but will see the time when
he will say as Bradford the martyr once did
when he looked on a felon going to execution,
" There, but for the grace of God goes John
Bradford ;" or who would not be willing to ex-
change his conscience for that of the felon ; sup-
posing, in the greatest of his agony, that any
and every burden must be lighter than his.

Therefore, " Escape for thy life; neither stay
thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain, lest
thou be consumed." Come, take up this moment

AMONG THE BEDEEMED. 157

the endless song of praise to divine grace ! Enter
the lists of competitors for the chief crown
which shall be cast at the feet of your Re-
deemer !

"• We, then, as workers together with Him, be-
seech you that ye receive not the grace of God
in vain. For He saith, I have heard thee in an
accepted time and in the day of salvation have
I succored thee ; behold, now is the accepted
time, behold now is the day of salvation."

IX.

THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU TO THE
DESPONDENT.

" Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before
him ; therefore trust thou in him." — Job 35 : 14.

THERE is no word which the worshippers
of God need to have whispered to their
hearts more frequently than this : " Trust thou
in Him."

We are in a world and under a system of
events wonderfully adapted to try our faith.
We have reason to think that angels look with
astonishment when they see one who is in great
affliction trusting in God. Angels can trust in
Him without effort. Indeed what would become
of them at times when they see His great judg-
ments, if they could not? They see more that
calls for faith than we : for they not only wit-
ness, but are called to execute His dark designs.
They never start back from fulfilling His com-
(158)

TO THE DESPONDENT. 159

ruancls, saying, This is too dreadful. • But let us
hear what they say: "And the third angel
poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains
of waters, and the}" became blood." " And J
heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art
righteous, O Lord, which art and wast and shalt
.be, because Thou hast judged thus." "And I
heard another angel out of the altar say, Even
so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are
Thy judgments."

Seeing so many of the terrible acts of the Al-
mighty, perhaps it is well for them that they are
not required to walk by faith ; so that without
question they look on us under great bereave-
ments in this dark world, and say, " What
should we do if we had to suffer thus and knew
no more than they ? " So when they see one be-
reft of a child, for example, under circumstances
peculiarly trying, perhaps following the loss of a
companion, or of one child after another, till at
length the last coal is quenched, no doubt they
say, "Earth is indeed a spectacle to us angels."

While we wonder ho\v angels endure such

o

revelations as God makes to them, they wonder
how Christians endure such nrysterious chastise-
ments. It is easy for angels to' love God ; they
always did; there is nothing in His works and
ways to baffle their trust, nothing in themselves
to call in question His justice: to make them

160 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU

doubt His goodness. So when they see us en-
during sharp trials not only with long-suffering,
but jo}7f ally, they do not question the truth which
they often hear from our pulpits, that there is
more that is wonderful in the faith of some
Christians than in the obedience of the angels.

o

Our faith also fills them with astonishment
because it is not universal among men. They
see many nominal Christians who have very lit-
tle ; some have none at all. I was once called to
minister consolation to a mother who had lost a
child under trying circumstances. She replied
thus to my remarks : " I cannot see why God
should afflict me so ; my sister has brought up a
large family of children, nor lost one ; and here
rny only daughter who would have -been such a
comfort to me, is snatched away." Angels
took no pleasure in her faith ; and now twenty-
five years from that time she herself is wast-
ing away, having no hope, and without God
in the world. In contrast, they did take pleas-
ure in a bereaved mother who anticipated all
which I was ready to say to her, by exclaiming,
"Can you tell me why this affliction makes me
love God so ? ' Said I, " perhaps you have
learned to say with the Psalmist, ' Whom have
I in heaven but thee ! and there is none on earth
that I desire besides thee.' " — Consider

I. IF WITHOUT FAITH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO

TO THE DESPONDENT. 161

PLEASE GOD, WE MIGHT INFEK THAT FAITH IS
EMINENTLY PLEASING.

If faith, such as I have mentioned, makes an-
gels wonder as they see it in the clouds and
darkness under which we suffer, there can be no
question that God himself is pleased with it. For
you have time and again noticed in the New
Testament, that Christ was more pleased with
faith than anything else. Once he said, " O
woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, eveh
as thou wilt ! ' At another time, he turned from
a suppliant and said to the people : " Verily, I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel ! '

There is in Scripture no list of those who dis-
tinguished themselves for zeal, or humility, or
hope ; but the eleventh of Hebrews emblazons
the names of men and women who through faith
did marvellous things. God made Abraham the
heir of the greatest blessings for his faith. Faith
is the crowning glory of the Christian character.
Faith in Christ saves the soul. The trial of it
is said to be much more precious than of gold
that perisheth ; it is to be found unto praise and
honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus
Christ.

Such being the distinguishing glory of trust-
ing in God in this distant dark world, it so ex-
cites the wonder of angels, and commands the

162 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU

approbation of God himself, we shall do well
to make it our study to live a life of faith. Every
one has abundant opportunity to practise it.
Could the secrets of our hearts be unfolded, we
should find that every one is ready to confess
that he needs nothing so much as trust in God.

II. A PRINCIPAL DESIGN OF THE OLD TES-
'TAMENT IS TO TEACH US FAITH.

We have before us in the book from which
the text is taken, a wonderful illustration of our
subject. The oldest of all writings is the book
of Job. It is marvellous to see what the subject
of it is ; how God began to teach the children of
men. Wise men among us would, perhaps, have
prescribed that the oldest record in the Book of
God should be a plain statement of truths relat-
ing to science, when and how the world was
made ; how many worlds were created 'at once 5
were they peopled ? the number, character, em-
ployments of their inhabitants. Instead of these
things, the subject chosen is a man reduced from
affluance to abject poverty, loathsome disease,
excruciating pain. The devil is allowed to ex-
periment with him by bereaving him, by torment-
ing him, by setting against him all his friends,
some of them good men. His wife conjures him
to abandon his confidence in the Almighty:
" curse God and die ! '

TO THE DESPONDENT. 163

The Scripture says : " Ye have heard of the
patience of Job, and have seen the end of the
Lord, how that the Lord is very pitiful and of
tender mercy." We are bold to say, that God
meant to teach mankind by the first writing
which He has communicated to us, that the great
business of man in this world is to trust God ;
that He does this by opening first before the
eyes of men, not the book of Proverbs, not the
book of Ecclesiastes, not the Psalms, not the story
of creation, but the duty of implicit trust in God.
As an example, He gives us a rich man, the
greatest of all the men of the East, stripped at
once of every thing, sitting down in the ashes,
scraping himself with a piece of potsherd, yet
giving the sacred historian occasion to say, " In
all this Job sinned not, nor charged God fool-
ishly."

There came three men to talk with him ; they
intended to teach him, as we all think that we
know so well, perhaps, how to do when we see
others in trouble. Among the wonders of in-
spiration I know of nothing more remarkable
than this, (and it may be accounted one of 'the
chief proofs of the inspiration of the Bible),
that while these three .friends of Job were
wholly mistaken in their judgment of him, and
said many things which were wholly wrong as
applied' to Job, so that God was angry with

164 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHTJ

them, }-et not one word did they say which in
its general application is not true. So that a
minister can take a passage from any part of their
speeches for a text and preach from it as the
word of God.

The Homers and Miltons "pale their ineffec-
tual fires " in comparison with this first poem,
this master-piece of wisdom, ingenuity, wisdom,
eloquence, religion ; three men talking wrong-
fully, so that they moved the wrath of God against
them ; for He said to Eliphaz, seemingly the
best of the-three, " My wrath is kindled against
thee and against thy two friends ; for ye have
not spoken of me the thing that is right as my
servant Job hath ; " yet neither of them saying
one word which in itself and bv itself, and with

i/

a right application, was unsuitable to be recorded
in the Bible.

Let the students of language, proficients in
logic, rhetoric, eloquence, come and see this
great sight, and acknowledge that the Book of
Job "must have been inspired to have accomp-
lished this unparalleled feat of wisdom ; and if
this one book is inspired, why not all the rest
from the same hand, bearing the same seal of the
apostles and of Christ ?

Our text is both an example and illustration
of what I have now said. No wonder that it
made God angry to hear those good but mistaken

TO THE DESPONDENT. 165

men say to Job, " Acquaint now thyself with
Him and be at peace;" — a man who probably
knew more of God than they. Yet that pas-
sage is a truthful, a beautiful word. So is the
text. Very little, did Job need such an exhor-
.tation ; but we all need it, and by divine help
we will profit by it.

III. THE COUNSEL or ELIHTJ IN THE TEXT

IS PROFITABLE TO A SINKING HEAET.

" Although thou sayest thou shalt not see
Him." If Job did not say this, perhaps we do ;
and we are grateful for this counsel. Job. said,
"He knoweth the wray that I take ; when He
hath tried me I shall come forth as gold." The
meaning of the text is, "Although you say }rou
will never see Him appear for you, yet He will
exercise judgment when to do so ; therefore trust
thou in Him."

There are times, we have all seen them, we
may be seeing them now, when a dark provi-
dence has settled down like a cloud on our pros-
pect. Something has happened which is the very
worst thing which it seems to us God could have
chosen where with to afflict us. There is no ex-
planation ; there is no mitigation, no cheerful
outlook; all is dark, bewildering; the wisest
thing which our best friends can do is to keep
silence ; they, are mistaken if they tell us not to

166 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU

weep ; only He who can touch the bier and raise
the dead can properly say, " Weep not." " Je-
sus wept ; " it was a relief to Him ; it is to us.
Nature finds comfort in cries, groans, tears ; but
still we say, " All is in vain;" and as Job said,
" Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged ; and
though I forbear, yet what am I eased ? ' We
say, " It is impossible not to weep ; shall the dead
be raised? can the past be recalled; can the bit-
terness of this affliction be soon taken away ?
Stern, inexorable providence has done what Job
said God had done to him. ' He hath compas-
sed my way with hewn stone ; ' not with heaps
of stones, but each one cut, ' taken out of wind,'
mortised, set up with plumb and level, all de-
signed, a perfect piece of work, built so as ex-
actly to confound me. There is no use in argu-
ment ; all is hopeless ; God was my friend once ;
now He lias set me up as His mark. ' The ar-
rows of the Almighty are within me, the poison
whereof drinketh up my spirit.' :

To such afflicted souls the Word of God says,
"Although thou sayest thou shalt not see Him,
yet judgment is before Him." You think that
you will never see His design to accomplish good
in you and by you in this affliction. It seems to
you without plan, confused, reckless. God seems
to have let chaos overspread you ; infinite wis-
dom does not appear to have had any thing to do

TO THE DESPONDENT. 167

with the events which have befallen you. To
gather up the thread of your broken history
hereafter, seems to }TOU as impossible as it would
to pick out your carriage-track from the multi-
tude of tracks which fill the streets of a city.
Even if it were not so, we learn from the inferior
creatures that animal instinct is capable of scent-
ing a track even more confused. You have seen
an animal that has lost his master, finding his
steps among ten thousand which have been im-
printed there during that da}r, and finally tracing
his way home for miles by that fine sense. How
can one who knows this to be so, question the
ability of Infinite Wisdom to keep the remem-
brance of all hid affairs distinct ?

This good man, Job, says, " Doth not He see
my ways and count all my steps ? " David makes
this appeal to the all-knowing God : " Put thou
my tears in Thy bottle ; are they not in Thy
book ? " God keeps a record of every tear,
when, why it was shed ; David prays him to be
still more observant of them ; — "Put my tears
into thy bottle," he says : catch every falling
drop. O the infinite, yes, the infinite love of
God for every child of His here appears. We
speak of God as a father ; He does more ; He
speaks of Himself as a mother." As one whom
his mother com forte th, so will I comfort you,
and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.'' " Can

168 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU

a woman forget?" says God ; " yea they may for-
get ; yet will I not forget thee." Judgment is
before him as it is before the tenderest friend.
God never forgets ; never mistakes. He keeps
the time-table of the comets ; He knows when
one planet is to cross another's track ; He remem-
bered Israel in Egypt; and in the last two verses
of the second chapter of Exodus we read these
remarkable words: "And God heard their
groaning, and God remembered his covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob ; and
God looked upon the children of Israel, and God
had respect unto them." Four times in those
few lines is that adorable name repeated in con-
nection with His remembrance of His afflicted
people. Judgment is before Him, whenever a
child of His suffers; the arrow that pierces us,
wounds His heart ere it reaches ours.

IV. OUR DUTY IN DARK HOURS IS HERE
MADE PLAIN.

" Therefore trust in Him." This is done by
special heartfelt address to God by word of
mouth. It is not enough to think a prayer, unless
we are speechless by reason of sickness, then our
thoughts are prayers. We cannot but think that
when the Psalmist says, "My voice shalt thou hear
in the morning, O Lord ; in the morning will I di-

TO THE DESPONDENT. 169

rect rny prayer unto thee and will look up," he
means to be understood literaflly; that he would
not as a rule lie in bed and think a prayer to
God. There is meaning in his resolution to let
God hear his voice. Speaking requires an effort
of mind which is not made when we lie still and
muse, unless, as I said before, we are under some
infirmity. To rise and go upon our knees, im-
plies a serious determination to seek God, and
the act of framing our speech, shows that we are
in earnest. Cotton Mather says of Rev. N.
Rogers of Ipswich, that every morning for many
years, while in health, it was his custom on ris-
ing from his bed immediately to fall upon his
knees. So that when we are in trouble it is a
good thing for us to draw nigh to God with
words. " Take with you words and turn unto
the Lord ; say unto him, Take a\vay all iniquity,
and heal us graciously ; so will we render the
calves of our lips." We do well if we remem-
ber this in our approach to God.

When David says, " Awake up, my glory," he
means, 'my tongue, the glory of my frame.' An
effort to speak is often a sure sign that our
powers are summoned by us to a serious effort.
The time, the place, the manner, the attitude of
our approach to God are regarded by Him.
There may be a serious deficiency in our habit
of approach to God ; a carelessness, a negli-

170 THE COUNSEL OF ELTHU

gence, which we would not be guilt}?- of in our
intercourse with one another. A solemn, delib-
erate expression of our trust in God is sure to be
regarded by Him. " Trust in Him at all times ;
ye people, pour out your hearts before Him ;
God is a refuge for us." You may not be aware
that your address to God has been heard ; but
David says, " I will direct my prayer unto thee
and will look up," as one who shoots an arrow
follows it with his eye to see how it speeds.
Having committed our prayer to God, declaring
our trust in Him, we must show our since'rity by
a quietness of mind which, be it remembered, is
not inconsistent with importunity. Yet we need
not suspect ourselves of impatience if we find
ourselves saying, " How long wilt thou forget
me, O Lord, forever ? " " Make no tarrying, O
my God."

But there are some events in which we feel it
proper to abstain from specific requests in pray-
er, as, in hopeless sickness, the recovery of aged
persons whose restoration cannot be desired by
themselves or their friends. Again, there are
sorrows which neither earth nor time can heal.
In such cases, " it is good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord ! ' Eternity will witness great surprises.
Some who never awaken any solicitude, no doubt
will prove to have no oil in their vessels with
their lamps when the Bridegroom conies.

•TO THE DESPONDENT. 171

It has fallen to my lot to meet with more than
one case like this : A man has suddenly died
who followed false doctrine, giving no sign of
recantation. His young widow said, " His
friends of course suppose that he failed to be
saved. If so, let me perish with him." So she
resolutely embraced his erroneous views, becom-
ing more zealous than he in defending them.
One day I startled her with this question :
" What makes you feel so sure that your hus-
band did not recant in his last hours? Perhaps
he did, though for two days he could not speak
to inform you of the change in his views. Sup-
pose that when you die you should find that he
is saved by accepting Christ in those last days,
and that you, trying to follow his steps in unbe-
belief, have missed him, and he is comforted and
3*ou are not. What a sad mistake you will
make, to have persisted in following a mortal in-
stead of listening to the suggestions of the Holy
Spirit, urging you to Christ. Believe the- Gos-
pel ; then 3-011 will either find your companion in
heaven, or have a satisfactory reason given you
why he is not there. Do not conclude that your
husband is not saved because 3*011 did not hear him
make a confession of faith. It might have had
a disastrous effect on survivors to know that he,
after such a life, was saved in the last hour.
Make your own calling sure." It was gratifying

172 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHTJ

to see her confess Christ, choosing rather to fol-
low His plain instructions than the bewildering

J. . O

light which was leading her among tombstones,

over graves.

It is wrong to assume that we are possessed of
full knowledge concerning that which has taken
place between the soul and God. His ways are
not as our ways, neither His thoughts as our
thoughts. Many times He shuts up a man and
there is no opening, not a gleam of light ; there
is silence and he hears a voice, "Be still and
know that I am God." All that one can do at
such a time is to fulfil the ordinary duties of
life, faithfull}'-, patiently, bearing the grievous
burden. Some people seem unwilling to forgive
God, if He has done thus and thus : but who
shall say to Him, " What doest thou? "

We should never abandon ourselves to incon-
solable grief in the darkest hours. God takes
pleasure in those who against hope, .believe in
hope, taking part with God by insisting that He
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
'we ask or think. While faith in Jesus Christ is the
superior act of faith, it cannot be questioned
that before Christ came, believing in God was
imputed to Abraham for righteousness, and that
God will justify many of the heathen through
faith, whose knowledge of God does not reach
beyond those invisible things of Him which are

TO THE DESPONDENT. 173

•

clearly seen, being understood from the things
which are made. " Was not Abraham our father
justified by works when he had offered Isaac, his
son, upon the altar ? "

Thunder never strikes ; it is only lightning
that strikes. At the same time while thunder
never strikes, the lightning which has no thun-
der is only heat-lightning. So repentance can-
not save ; faith only saves ; yet faith without
repentance is only heat-lightning. Repentance
has no power to save ; yet it is essential to faith.
Thus, works have no saving power; yet faith with-
out works is dead. So while faith in Jesus Christ
is the power of God and the wisdom of God
unto salvation, and nothing can supplant it,
Abraham's offering of Isaac on the altar showed
a readiness to accept Christ; therefore it was
imputed to him for righteousness, as it is writ-
ten, ''Abraham believed God, and it was im-
puted unto him for righteousness." Therefore
say, -"Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and
why art thou disquieted witLiii me ? Hope thou
in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the
health of my countenance."

Did we but know it, God is wooing those
whom He is afflicting. " He scourgeth every
son whom He receiveth." Therefore be of good
courage, desponding souls. Submit yourselves
under His rod. If you are of a melancholy dis-

174 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHU

position, read in the epistle of James. " Paul
and Peter require three or four verses to finish
their salutatories before thev be<nn their doc-

*/ o

trine ; but James seems so full of something
good to tell us that he cannot wait beyond one
verse, but bursts forth with these words of cheer
in his second verse: "My brethren, count it all
joy when ye fall into divers temptations." If
3"ou are despondent, seek out the poor, many of
whom are rich in faith, and talk with them. A
good man who was melancholy, began in a
gloomy tone to say to a colored woman, "Does
it not seem strange to you that God should pass
by the rich people who live in these mansions and
come to your hovel to make you a Christian ? "
" No, sir, it is not strange," said she, "it is just
like Him." The answer did more to cure his
melancholy than did his books. So we say to you
who are cast down : " Wait on the Lord." " Be of
good courage, and He shall strengthen your
heart, all ye that hope in the Lord."
I have asked you to consider

I. If without faith it is impossible, to please
Crod, we may infer that faith is eminently pleas-
ing to Him.

If. A principal design of the Old Testament-
is to teach us faith.

TO THE DESPONDENT. 175

»

III. The Counsel of EWm in the text is pro-
fitable to a sinking heart.

IV. Our duty in dark hours is here made
plain.

FINALLY. EVERYTHING WHICH HAS BEEN

SAID OF TRUST IN GOD IN TIMES OF DESPON-
DENCY, IS EMINENTLY TRUE OF FAITH IN THE
SAVIOUR.

It is one proof of His equality with God that
Christ said, "Let not your heart be troubled,
ye believe in God, believe also in me." An ini-
poster might say this arrogantly ; but none save
a divine being could properly speak of himself
in comparison with God. Despondency is never
so much out of place as in coming to Christ.
There it is sinful. God classes the fearful and
unbelieving with all liars ; and we know where
they a%re to have their part. Afraid to trust
yourself in those hands which were nailed to the
cross for the sins of the whole world ! The hands
of Him who said, "All power is given unto Me
in heaven and on earth ? " " All that the Father
hath given Me shall come to Me, and him that
cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out ? ':
If confidence, if boldness, is proper at any

176 THE COUNSEL OF ELIHTT

•

time, and in any, it is eminently so in a guilty
creature coining to the Saviour of sinners. Let
a trembling soul hear these words : " Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy." Paul says of Christ,
" In -whom we have boldness and access with con-
fidence by the faith of Him." To the Hebrews
who saw the High Priest going alone once a year
into the Holy of holies, he says, " Having there-
fore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus — let us draw near."
John uses this astonishing expression : "Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have bold-
ness in the day of judgment."

Come then, one and all, and only believe. Be-
lieve and you shall be established. " He that
believeth shall be saved." Begin with believing
in Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith. In every event of life, in trials, sorrows,
losses, disappointments, remember this :

•

" With patience, then, the course of duty run :
" God never does, nor suffers to be done,
"But thou would'st do thyself could'st thou but see
" The end of all events as well as He."

»

" Blessed are they that have not seen and yet
have believed." Happy is he here and hereafter,

TO THE DESPONDENT. 177

who can say, not as an intellectual, philosophical
truth, but with the heart, " Lord, I KNOW that
Thy judgments are right." Verily it will be said
of such as of Israel, "He led them forth by
the EIGHT way."

X.

THO UART THE a UIDE OF MY YO UTH.

" Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the
guide of my youth? "—Jeremiah 3 : 4.

THERE is nothing more 'wonderful than
prayer. One would think that every child
might agree to this. If asked to prove it, he
would need only to point to the text. God
invites the youngest to pray to Him. There can
be nothing more wonderful than this. It is
indeed astonishing that God should listen to
prayer; much more, that He should invite us to
pray ; but a child may well say, that for God to
wonder at him for not praying, thus apparently
deeming a child's prayer of sufficient importance
to be inquired into if neglected, almost exceeds
belief. One who admits this truth, that God
really pays attention to prayer, not only invit-
ing but exhorting to it, will be prepared to ap-
preciate the remark of Daniel Webster to a
kinsman who spent a night at his house at Marsh-
(178)

THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 179

field, and related the conversation to me. He
said " that of all the things which ever inter-
ested his mind this was chief: The personal re-
lation of a soul to God." He explained, saying,
that he perceived in the Scriptures that God re-
cognized, every man as accountable to Him for his
conduct, even to his thoughts and words ; that
He took a. personal interest in all that transpired
within him, listening to his words of supplica-
tion, understanding his thoughts afar off, making
him feel that he and every one has an individual
relation to God which does not seem to be de-
pendant on rank and endowments ; but every
soul is the handiwork of God. This appeared
to Mr. Webster the chief subject of interest
among the things which had ever engaged his
thoughts.

God may be said to solicit our prayers. The
Old Testament seems to instruct us how men
formerly walked by sight ; the New Testament
teaches us that now men are to walk by faith.
Visions, voices, dreams, messages from God by
His servants the prophets, are now withdrawn.
But God has not changed ; He is educating us
to trust in Him, giving us His written Word in-
stead of signs and wonders. It must have been
of thrilling interest, when messages, instructions,
promises passed from heaven to earth, some of
them direct answers to prayer ; and not to a man

180 THOU AKT THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

only, but even to young persons. George Her-
bert says :

" Sweet were the days when Thou didst lodge with Lot,

Struggle with Jacob, sit with Gideon,
Advise with Abraham, when Thy power could not
Encounter Moses' strong complaint and moan."

We cannot wonder if it should seem to any
that the greatness of God consists in His conde-
scension ; certainly if to them nothing is more sur-
prising in the Most High than His notice of inferior
things. God himself directs our attention to this.
" For thus saith the High and Lofty One that
inhabiteth eternity," (surely such a Being cannot
intend to speak to me,) " whose name is Holy ;"
(then, of course there can be no hope that he
can have regard for sinners;) " I dw«ll in the
high and holy place ;" (and what more could be
said to make us feel that He is unapproachable ;
but hear the words which follow,) " with him
also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to
revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the
heart of the contrite ones."

Such being the disposition of the Most High,
we cannot doubt that He loves the child who
loves Him. As David told Solomon, his son,
•" If thou seek Him He will be found of thee.''
We may conclude that the younger a child is, the

THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 181

more disposed God is to take notice of him. If
we were called to say what attracts the special
notice of God, \ve should reply, a young person
praying. The younger you are the more notice-
able are you to God. Therefore, we may say
that young people should be considerate in their
prayers, think seriously of what they say, re-
membering that the Most High God of heaven
and earth hears every word, knows the thoughts
of the heart.

No one may say with more assurance than a
child, "The Lord thinketh upon me." God
says, " When Israel was a child then I loved him
and called my son out of Egypt." And in
the text He says to the nation of Israel, " Wilt
thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father,
Thou art the guide of my youth ? " From which
we infer that God is in a peculiar manner inter-
ested in youth ; whether a nation or individual
is young, the period of youth is in an espe-
cial manner interesting to God ; He in the text
invites a nation to think of this, to love him as-
having been their guide when they were help-
less as a people. We are warranted in apply-
ing these words to every young person as an in-
vitation from God to choose Him to be the guide
of his youth. ,

I will show you why we may suppose that
God feels this peculiar interest in young per-
sons.

182 THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

I. GOD SEES THAT YOUTH IS THE FORM-
ING PERIOD OF OUR BEING.

His eye surveys eternity, and along its meas-
ureless paths He sees your spirit capable of joy
or woe. He who says, " I know all the fowls
of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the
field are mine," of course has a kind regard for
you, who, the Saviour says, " are of more value
than many sparrows." " Your heavenly Father
feedeth them ; are ye not much better than the
fowls?" God says of Himself : " Of my years
there is no end."

We may, each of us who love Him, lie in the
dust before Him and joyfully say, Of my years
there is no end. God says, "For I lift up my
hand to heaven and say, I live forever." We
may lay our hand upon our mouth and our mouth
in the dust and say, I live forever. We know
that this is as true as the words of God, when
He says the same of Himself. We cannot but
believe that God feels an uifutterable interest in
every one who is to inhabit a coming eternity.
He looks upon every one destined to such an ex-
istence with peculiar interest in the opening years
of life, for He knows that the first few years of
that life determine in a great degree what we
shall be.

We who have lived to manhood, look back to

THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 183

the time when we were at the age of some of
you 'r we could at that age as well as later, have
yielded to the invitation of God ; would that we
had done so ; we should have been spared bit-
ter sorrows, unavailing tears. We did not be-
lieve then, as we now see jt to be true, that we
were in the most important period of our being ;
forming habits, committing sins, indulging tem-
pers, cherishing dispositions, which years have
been spent in correcting, if indeed we have up
to the present time succeeded in conquering
them. We should have been kept from displeas-
ing God, awakening His lament over us : " O
that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end."
We hope now through infinite grace to stand
accepted before God in Christ Jesus. But we
say, " Would that we had never sinned against
Thee ; that we had barkened to Thy voice ; that
our first years had been spent in obedience to
Thy commands ; that we had, like the child Je-
sus when twelve years old, been "about our Fa-
ther's business," which would have been keep-
ing His commandments, loving Him and loving
others, — His two great precepts. Then we
should have been spared regrets which forever
will live in our memories, and in the memories
of those who were witnesses of our sins.

In heaven we shall esteem those of our race

184 THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

as greatly to be honored, who began in early
j-outh to love God, instead of spending their
first years in sinful ways. Perhaps we would
willingly return to earth and renew our proba-
tion, to put our promise to the test of instantly
obeying the commands of God ; but in vain
should we desire another probation; the good
and the wicked will have lived their allotted
time on earth, and it cannot be repeated ; if ut-
terly wasted it will be the subject of never end-
ing sorrow ; if partly misimproved and we are
saved, though we have spent years in disobedi-
ence, we shall remember the words of God which
•we learned in youth: "O that they were wise.,
that they understood this, that they would con-
sider their latter end."

God foreseeing this, calls upon us to be wise
betimes. He cries to us, " Wilt thou not from
this time cry unto me, My Father, Thou art the
guide of my youth ? "

II. ANOTHER REASON WHY GOD MAKES

THIS APPEAL TO US IS, HE REJOICES IN A

YOUNG CHILD'S LOVE.

We none of us set any value on our love to
God ; especially ib is difficult to persuade chil-
dren that it is a precious thing to God to be
loved by them. Yet we are told that God re-

THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 185

joiced iii His works, He is pleased with the objects
of His creative wisdom ; the wonders of the uni-
verse, stupendous as they are, make us ready to
adore Him who gave them being. The colors
which He has painted on the minerals, the vege-
table kingdom, the waters, the sky ; the curious
things which abound every where in the works
of His hands ; the motes of music which greet
us on all sides, do not fail to excite in us the be-
lief that the Most High takes pleasure in these
proofs of His divine wisdom. Many a young per-
son has felt reproved for needlessly taking the
life of a harmless creeping thing, by thinking,
" I have destroyed that which it is beyond the
skill of men and angels to restore. God alone
gave the life of this creature which I have now
destroyed ! " That which could excite this just
reflection in us is not to be compared with the
interest which a human soul excites in God.
Though, we are chief among the works of

O ' O

God, yet our foundation is the dust and we
perish before the moth, and in the sight of God
we are less than nothing, and vanity, yet we
see plainly in the Scriptures that God is pleased
to se't a value on human affection above all
things. As we read in the Old Testament, we
cannot but notice that nothing occupies the
thoughts of God so much as the feelings of men
toward Him. You may have noticed that the

186 THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

tiling which is always mentioned first in the
Books of the Kings and Chronicles is, whether
each of those kings did right or did evil in the
sight of the Lord ; and according as they did
either, they had the blessing of the Almighty,
or they incurred His displeasure.

We ;ire to infer that the pleasure which it ex-
cites in the readers of the Bible who notice the
commendable conduct of the young persons who
are brought to view in Scripture, is but an echo
of that which is called the voice of God in the
soul. Great as His works are, none of them are
capable of the emotion of love to God. The planet-
ary world cannot feel like a child when it says,
" Our Father which art in heaven." The poet
represents them singing as they shine, " The
hand that made us is divine ; " but none of
them framed a prayer, nor conceived of an utter-
ance such as breathes from the Psalms : " I will
love thee, O Lord my strength." There are, it
may be, many kinds of voices in the world,
and none of them is Avithout signification;
but it is only a devout heart Avhicli interprets
their motions and brightness to represent
its own love to God. We do not err if we
suppose our own feelings on witnessing a child's
love to its parents, to be a transcript of the feel-
ings of God toward a child Avho loves Him.
" Take heed that ye despise not one of these lit-

THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 187

tie ones ; for I say unto you," the Saviour tells
us, (for so we interpret His words), " angels ap-
pointed to guard them are angels of my presence,
who do always behold the face of my father
which is in heaven." We are prepared to be-
lieve that God loves the affection of a child if
we fully receive the Saviour's testimony as to
the love which is felt for them by the Most
High God.

If God loves the young with a tender compas-
sion, and merely for their being young, I ob-
serve

III. HE HONORS THE YOUNG PERSON WHO
RENOUNCES SATAN AND THE WICKED, FOR
HIM.

Probably Satan is never more ashamed than
when defeated by a child. Young persons are
right in believing that the wicked one tempts
them ; they allege this when they are persuaded
that there is something preternatural in certain
violent impulses which they are conscious of, cer-
tain temptations which they feel persuaded could
not have originated from themselves ; and they
insist on this when they are in a mood which is
far from a self -justifying spirit.

The apostle John speaks to the young as par-
ticularly liable to Satan's devices: "I write un-
to you, young men, because ye have overcome

188 THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

the wicked one." Satan has great designs on the
young. He would do more to succeed with the
young, than with those who are confirmed in sin
by evil habits ; for such persons need less solici-
tude on his part to accomplish their ruin. It is
affecting to notice that in addressing fathers,
young men, and children, the apostle John speaks
first to children ; and more especially it is inter-
esting to observe that which he says to them :
" I write unto you, little children, because your
sins are forgiven you for His name's sake."

The sins of childhood need the atonement as
realty as the sins of the whole world. It seems
to have been a great pleasure of the beloved
disciple, who, at the time of writing this was in
extreme old age, to assure these pious children
that the great propitiation reached even to them.
One other source of joy to him in connection
with them he adds in the verse following : "I
write unto you, little children, because ye have
known the Father." He in these words gives
us an assurance of the love of God to children
who love Him ; for if they love Him, it is be-
cause He first loved them. We may feel confi-
dent that it excites the love of God and of hoty
beings to see the young resist temptation ; and
here we repeat a remark just now made, that Sa-
tan is never filled with shame in a measure so
marked, as when that Goliath is humbled by the
sling and atone of a child.

THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 189

We imagine the heavenly host, angels and
saints, looking on with delight when a young
person is steadfastly resisting his temptations,
saying to him as the man Christ Jesus did when
tempted of the devil : " Get thee behind me, Sa-
tan ;" nor do the evil spirits probably feel more
humbled than when they see the prince of hell
overcome by a child. Perhaps it seems a little
thing to a young child, tempted to do wrong to
say, " How shall I do this great wickedness and
sin against God?" Yet for saying this young
Joseph in Egypt became " the shepherd and the
stone of Israel ; " he saved his father and breth-
ren in famine, thus laying the corner stone of the
nation of Israel. Saying this when tempted of
the devil, as Joseph did, a young person may
have it recorded of him on high, " then the devil
leaveth him, and behold angels came and minis-
tered unto him."

Probably Satan dreads the derision of angels
as they see him skulking away from a little child
who has resisted him, more than to meet Michael
and his battalions in array against him. What
means yonder shout ? A child has refused to do
wickedly when tempted by the devil ; the devil
retreats from him ashamed ; the angels of God
look on, and as- they see their enemy and ours
hieing away defeated by a young person, their
exultation, perhaps, mortifies the hosts of hell

190 THOU AET THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

more than their shouts of conquest when lie and
they are defeated by the archangel and his
cherubs. So the evangelist John tells us, " I
write unto you, young men, because ye have
overcome the wicked one." It is more to have the
apostle who " saw the Apocal}- pse," write those
few words to you than to have an emperor write
your name in his legion of honor. For him to
write it twice in two successive verses to young
people, " I write unto you, young men, because
ye have overcome the wicked one," is more to
be desired than any earthly distinction. Such a
crown fades; but to overcome the wicked one,
is to have that young person's name emblazoned
to the everlasting shame of wicked angels and
wicked men.

The God of heaven is standing here making
direct appeal to you in these affectionate words :
" Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My
Father, Thou art the guide of my youth ? r He
has His eye on one and another young person
who has occasion to say, " When my father and
my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take
me up." God is interested in such, for "A
father of the fatherless and a judge of the widow
is the Lord in His holy habitation ; " by which we
infer that in heaven where many who dwell with
Him have left their wives and children mourning

THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 191

for them, God is known in a pesuliar manner the

father and the judge of the bereaved ones.
Therefore, it is always peculiarly interesting to
preach to those who have God for their God in
a special sense. To them we may suppose that
God intends the words of the text to be peculi-
arly addressed.

I will take it for granted that each one who
hears this kind appeal from God will, in retire-
ment, kneel and make response to it. Your an-
swer may decide the course of your whole future
life. God may connect blessings with your an-
swer, for He has never said to the seed of Jacob,
"Seek ye my face in vain." The heart of one
and another will happily prompt them to say,
"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart
said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Jf
so, there will be joy in heaven, because young
persons whom I here address, are to make a cove-
nant with God.

A young man slept in a field. He took of the
stones of the place and set them up fora pillow.
No one would have anticipated for him such an
experience as there befel him, for he was obliged
to take that journey in flight from his brother
whom he had defrauded. But the angels of God
Lad appeared to him ascending and descending
upon a stairway reaching from heaven to earth,
and God stood above it and made covenant pro-

192 THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH.

mises to him and to his posterity which extend
to the present day. This same God speaks now
to every one on the journey of life, offering to
be the guide of his youth.

Methinks I hear some say, We would like to
have this God for our guide ! Blessed emotion !
Cherish it, for it is a whisper of the divine
Spirit. Use the means by which the spark of
holy desire shall kindle to a flame. Seriously
consider that declaration of Jesus Christ: "No
man cometli unto the Father but by me." He
who said this is He that came into the world to
save sinners. lie saves them by liis death en-
dured on the cross as an atonement for the sins
of the world. This death was endured for us
as individuals, and must be applied to you as an
atonement for your sins. Believing on Christ is
the way by which you can be at peace with God,
and there is none other way under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. God
wall not be the guide of one who has not made
application to this Saviour, with faith in Him ;
but him that cometh unto Him, "He will in no
wise cast out." Put yourself us a condemned
sinner in His hands, trusting in His sufferings
and death for you. Then a covenant-keeping
God; — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will be
your Guide. This Guide \vill not only take you
safe home, but will keep you and bless you by

THOU ART THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH. 193

the way. You will feel constrained to talk with
Him ; you will read His Word ; you will find it
your constant support and joy. Your exulting
song will be,

" Wherever He may guide me

No want shall turn me back ;
My Shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack. .

" His wisdom ever waketh,

His sight is never dim ;
He knows the way He taketh,

And I will walk with Him."

Thus commit yourself to the Saviour who has
been knocking at the door of your heart, and
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost, will be your Guide and Portion forever.

XT.

THE DOCTRINE OF GERIZIM AND

EBAL.

" Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth
down?" — Deuteronomy xi : 30.

When Israel was about to cross the Jordan,
God commanded Moses to set apart two
mountains in Moab soon to be in the possession
of Israel, to be symbolical places, proclaiming
from the first entrance of the nation into the
promised land, by an observance to be estab-
lished upon them, a doctrine of which their future
history would be an emphatic illustration.

The views of prophets from age to age re-
peated that doctrine. Isaiah, a prophet of kingly
origin, uttered it five hundred years from the
time of Moses, when he said, " Say ye to the
righteous it shall be well with him, for he shall
eat the fruit of his doings. Woe unto the
wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward
of his hands shall be given him." Even to the
(104)

THE DOCTRINE OF GERIRIM AND EBAL. 195

time of Hosea, not many years before the curry-
ing a\vay captive into Bab}*lon, the doctrine was
declared by that prophet to be destined still to
continue. For he says, "Then shall ye return
and discern between the righteous and the
wicked: between him that serveth God and him
that serveth Him not." That it was to be per-
petuated to the end of time, is manifest in the
last chapter of the Book of Revelation, at its
close. Therefore the appointment of those two
mountains, Gerizim and Ebal, before the children
of Israel were settled in Canaan, to be as it were
oracular places from which this doctrine alone
should be statedly proclaimed, is impressive.

Moses was directed before the people had en-
tered the promised land, to put the blessing on
mount Gerizim, and the curse on mount Ebal, six
of the tribes to stand over against the one and
six over against the other ; between the two,
several hundred thousand people would assem-
ble. With loud voices six of the Levites would
read, or repeat from the lips of the leader of the
nation, the blessings from Gerizim and the
curses from Ebal.

When assemblies were held in the open air,
the sense of the hearing was more acute than
now, as we also know that memory was more re-
tentive before printing was discovered, when the
bards used to recite their poems and historians

196 THE DOCTEINE OF GEEIZIM AND EBAL.

their histories to great assemblies, showing a fa-
cility both on the part of the speakers and of the
audiences, respectively, of uttering from memory
and retaining long discourses. It may not be
unsuitable to remind ourselves as a help to faith
with regard to certain representations in the
Scriptures, what power of voice is acquired by
venders of articles in streets, also by command-
ers, by navigators, which gives us some idea of
the distinctness as well as strength of those
voices resounding through the plain ; blessings
from Gerizim and curses from Ebal, heard by
many thousands at once. This was the earliest
form of preaching, under the impression of which
the tribes kept up the memory of their duties to
their Maker, enforced by the rehearsal of bles-
sings and curses received by dictation from God.
The Bible, written book after book in the acres

O

following the settlement of Israel in Canaan, is
a repetition of the feature in the government of
God which seems to have been hung over the
doorway into Canaan. From the Red Sea into
the Promised Laud through the times of the
Judges and of the Kings till the Captivit}', and
through the Captivit}r to the coming of Christ's
blessings and curses, are continually announced
with the same distinctness ; though if either the
blessings or the cursings can be said to have the
greater prominence, one thing inclines us to say,

THE DOCTRINE OP GEEIZIM AND EBAL. 197

that the curses have the predominence. For it is
to be observed that the curses engraven on the
altar are rehearsed, while the blessings are not
given.

The New Testament continues the same strain
of blessing and cursing ; if heaven is promised,
hell is with equal distinctness declared to be the
portion of the unregenerate ; everlasting life and
everlasting damnation are the two distinguish-
ing phrases which set forth the destiny of the
righteous and the wicked. If 'there be one
sacred writer who is peculiarly emphatic in his
distinctions between the two classes' of mankind,
or singular in his descriptions of the respective
allotments which are to fall to either class, it is
the beloved disciple who writes the Book which
closes the Bible. Peter, Jude and John seem to
be charged with special electric force in setting
forth the doom of the wicked, as well as with
special energy in depicting the rewards of the
righteous. To them succeed a long line of min-

o o

isters, whom Christ, when He ascended up on
high, received as gifts to men; they were
charged by their master with this message : —
" He that believeth shall be saved, and he that
believeth not shall be damned." With varying
degrees of faithfulness they have made this their
message to men. When in times of apostasy the
people and their teachers have degenerated, God

198 THE DOCTBINE OF GEEIZIM AND EBAL.

has now and then raised up one and another who
have made the people feel that the duty of every
minister is to be continually saying, " Woe is me
if I preach not the Gospel." There is a temp-
tation not to preach it, for it is a self-denying
task to be continually prophesying evil to the
sinner.

The experience of Jeremiah is seen to be the
certain lot of those who like him are reprovers.
So ministers lower their tone. Some persuade
them that they can more easity draw than drive
their hearers to repentance. Therefore, they
prophesy smooth things ; they preach about the
Gospel instead of enunciating its warnings, mak-
ing men see and feel the certain doom which
awaits the impenitent ; they fall into moral dis-
quisitions, portray the beauties of Christianity,
the character of Christ, the love of God ; but
the great theme of endless retribution is by some
of them seldom mentioned ; indeed those who
dwell upon salvation from endless perdition by
Christ, and warn men night and day with tears,
are loaded with opprobrious epithets. The
natural consequence of this is, union with
pulpits who deny this doctrine, a most ominous
feature of our times.

But here and there we find those who
preach as the Levites uttered the words of the
Most High on Gerizim and Ebal. George White-

THE DOCTHINE OF GEEIZIM AND EBAL. 199

field was an example ; our large towns, North
and Sou-th, record his faithful ministr}' which
set forth with the impartiality of Gerizim and
Ebal the goodness and the severity of God.
Some of the places where he preached bear wit-
ness that even his wonderful eloquence did not
avail to make the doctine of retribution accepta-
ble to the human heart.

Another example of faithful enunciation of the
doctrine of endless retribution, was seen in the
preaching of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards of
Northampton, Massachusetts. Considering how
far the times have lapsed from his standard of
preaching, we can scarcely believe that a man was
bold enough, since the days of the prophets and
apostles to preach as he did. He was celebrated
in England and Scotland as a prince among di-
vines ; in this country, no stated preacher ever
had greater celebrity among the churches and
pastors. Owing to his ministry, the influence
of which was widely diffused, one part of our
country was favored of God with a revival of
religion in 1740, which was seldom if ever sur-
passed in this or an}r land, — a signal testi-
mony to the power of a stated ministry, to the
diffusive influences of a single pastor aided by
the influences of the Holy Spirit. But what
were the themes which this great man with his
feeble voice, inanimate gesticulation, dwelt upon

200 THE DOCTRINE OF GEEIZIM AND EBAL.

in his preaching ? for while we adore the sover-
eignty of God in the success of such a man, we
cannot fail to recognize the connection which the
Holy Spirit institutes between truth and the be-
stowment of His influences. Here is a list of
Iiis principal discourses, though in several in-
stances when delivered, it was a series of dis-
courses. In the seventh volume of his Works,
some of the principal are these: "Justifica-
tion by Faith alone; Men naturally God's ene-
mies; The True Christian's Life a Journey to-
ward Heaven ; True Grace Distinguished from
the Experience of Devils ; The Excellency of
Christ; Ruth's Resolution ; The Justice of God
in the Damnation of Sinners; Eternity of Hell
Torments; The Punishment of the Wicked In-
tolerable ; The Folly of Looking back when
fleeing out of Sodom ; The Unreasonableness of
Iiide termination in Religion ; Unbelievers con-
temn the Excellency and Glory of Christ; God
glorified in Man's Dependence ; Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God."

The last of these sermons when preached at
Enfield in 1741, is said to have electrified the
congregation; it made them weep aloud; and
this was not owing to the speaker's manner of
delivery, for nothing could be more in contrast
with the rhetorical power of Wliitefield than the
oratory of Edwards. A minister who sat in the

THE DOCTRINE OF GEEIZDI AND EBAL. 201

pulpit was so much affected by the preacher's
inculcation of his subject, that he reached for-
ward and pulled him by the coat saying, " But,
Mr. Edwards, remember that God is merciful."
Mr. Edwards knew that, and in its proper place
he made it to be felt ; but he was preaching then
from the second clause in the thirty-second chap-
ter of Deuteronomy : " their feet shall slide in
due time."

No man's published sermons are more full of
Christ than his. It was his intense conviction of
what Christ is and has done, as appears in his
History of Redemption and other treatises, the
most of them being the substance of discourses
from the pulpit, which made him feel the power
of the apostle's question : " How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? '

O, that we who preach were willing to speak
to men under the solemn impression that our
hearers who die without accepting the great pro-
pitiatory sacrifice for sin, " shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abideth on them." \Ve are
not called of God to preach to scholars, as such,
any more than Paul regarded himself ordained
to preach so as to gratify those who were seek-
ing after a sign or wisdom, but to those who may
be hearing from us for the last time the way of
salvation from endless punishment. If we wish
to please God we must tread popularity under

202 THE DOCTKINE OF GEEIZIM AND EBAL.

foot, urging men to accept the ransom which Je-
sus Christ has made for them in his own body on
the tree.

We shall not be popular with the unbelieving
world if we preach distinctively on retribution.
It is not in place here to rehearse the history of
this faithful preacher, his unpopularity at last
with the rising generation, his fruitless efforts to
maintain the way of the fathers. He yielded (o
the current and retired to be president of a col-
lege ; but the foe of God and man has not
ceased to this day to cast out his name as evil.
You see him mentioned with reviling in our own
day. So the enemies of Wickliffe, years after
his death, dug up his bones and burned them
and threw his ashes into the brook "Swift,"
which as it was said, "conveyed them into the
Severn and the Severn into the sea, and so like his
doctrine they have been spread the world over."

We must tread popularity under foot, and be
ready to suffer the loss of all things. Doing this
we shall indeed verify the words of the Saviour,
"He that hateth his life shall keep it unto life
eternal." We shall secure the lasting approval
of good men in this world if we make it mani-
fest that our constant aim is to preach salvation.

Here this question arises: Salvation from
what ? Salvation implies damnation. There is
no salvation if there be no damnation. Who

THE DOCTRINE OF GIIRIZIM AND EBAL. 203

hesitates to admit that Jesus Christ is a Saviour?
But, Saviour from what? Tell me what is the
opposite of Salvation ? In other words, What
will happen to a man who is not saved? We
are told that " God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever be-
lieveth in Him should not perish but have ever-
lasting life." What does " perish " mean ? In
what sense did the old world, being overflowed
with water, "perish"? We can have no argu-
ment with one who says, It means that God took

J

them to heaven ; that Sodom and Gomorrah are
no\v under discipline, and not suffering the ven-
geance of eternal fire.

This impressive ordinance of God, Gerizim.
and Ebal, was to keep before the minds of Is-
rael the truth that the government of God over
the children of men had inscribed over it, as it
were, these words, " Behold, therefore, the good-
ness and the severity of God ; on them which
fell, severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou
continue in His goodness ; otherwise thou shalt
be cut off." If there were any among them who
were disposed to argue that God was too merci-
ful to punish men for a few crimes committed in
this short life ; that He would wink at their
short comings, that He would not suffer His in-
finite goodness to be overpowered by His dis-
pleasure against sin, they must have felt rebuked

204 THE DOCTRINE OF GEEIZIM AND EBAL.

when they saw one half of the nation gathered
together to hear the promises of God, and the
other six tribes employed to read the curses which
God had threatened against sin. Some ma}" say,
No doubt, each tribe would have preferred to
read the blessings. It may seem hard to you
that the same six should always stand on Ebal.
It seems like compelling the same minister to be
always preaching sermons on punishment, and
allowing his brother to dispense good tidings.
But God does not take the same view with men
of His ministry of wrath ; if He did He would
appoint bad angels only to execute His threat-
nings against him.

But we may doubt if the angel who cut off
the first-born of Egypt was any the less amiable
than the angel who led Joseph and Mary out of
Egypt with the child Jesus, or that the angel
who cut off Sennacherib's army, a hundred and
eighty-five thousand Assyrians in one nisfht, was

O »/ •- O 7

less lovely than the angel \vho appeared to Gid-
eon as he threshed wheat by the wine-press.
That is a striking passage in the fifteenth chapter
of Revelation : " And the seven angels came out
of the temple clothed in pure and white linen
and having their breasts girded with golden gir-
dles." Executioners, in modern literature, are not
arrayed in white linen or girded with gold. Po-
ets and painters represent the officers of justice

THE DOCTKINE OF GERIZIM AND EBAL. 205

as short, stout men, bow-legged, savage. Shake-
speare has such dxecutioners of kings, roj-al la-
dies and children. None of God's acts of jus-
tice arc cruel ; so that the executors of them are
arrayed in white with golden girdles.

Will this life be an end of retribution for sin ?
Such is the expectation of main-. They pic-
ture the Most High as employing the agencies
of \voe to make men submissive under Him ;
having accomplished which they say, He
will take all who submit, to heaven. All who
continue to rebel will, they think, endure further
discipline, by which all of them will be forced
to yield ; so that the universe will finally be set
free from sin.

Who has been his counsellor to teach the Most
Hi°ii so beneficient a scheme ? We would all

O

be willing to see such a happy consummation.
There would not be one of our race who would
not say Amen ! to this good hope, did the Scrip-
tures countenance it. Singular it is that the
readers of the Bible have none of them pre-
vailed on the learned, humane, philanthropic, of
whom there have been so many in every age, to
substitute that scheme for the theory of endless
retribution. If the Word of God furnished the

t

semblance of an argument or less than that, of an
inquiry like that of Job about a future state,
"If a man die shall he live again?" may we

206 THE DOCTRINE OF GERIZIM AND EBAL.

not suppose that some Christian nation would by
this time have witnessed the formation of a party
of believers who would have rallied a multitude
around them? But the silence of evangelical
men with regard to any intimation in Scripture
that the expectation of the wicked will not per-
ish, is appalling.

One of the ablest men who has written on the
subject resorts to mathematics for an argument.
Pie says for substance, " Reckon up all the sins
which a mortal or even a devil can have com-
mitted, the mortal in his three-score and ten
years of probation, the fiend in his ten thousand
years of depravity. A fearful sum. Take the
largest. Call in as many millions as 3*011 will.
Then think of eternity, which by and by will
overpass all this, and suppose the foil owing prob-
lem:— the dividend eternal retribution, the divisor
the number of sins committed by an individual,
the quotient the number of years of suffering al-
lotted to each sin, which in due space of being
will be millions of years of suffering for each
sin. What can you say to this? we are confi-
dently asked. Any one who is willing to attempt
to answer had best be at the foot of the cross,
where the God-man is making expiation for the
sins of the whole world, the sum of which is
larger than the small sum above stated. There
let him propose this question: "How shall we

THE DOCTRINE OF GERIZIM AND EBAL. 207

escape if we neglect so great salvation ? " Let
him not feel it necessary to answer questions
with which some will try to perplex him about
the heathen, infants, imbeciles, backsliders ; but
insist on saying after a divine example, "I will
also ask you one thing," " How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? "

It must be a great salvation if He who came
into the world to save sinners was God made
flesh, a propitiation not for our sins onl}r, but for
the sins of the whole world. Let me repeat an
illustration used elsewhere. Columbus argued
that there must be a western continent to bal-
ance the globe. So we say that this great salva-
tion implies that there must be a great damna-
tion. The unutterable horror with which the
mind is filled in contemplating endless punish-
ment may be regarded as having its equivalent
in the astonishment with which the mind is filled
in contemplating God made flesh for sinful men,
going to the cross, thence being the tenant of the
tomb, delivered for our offences, raised for our
justification. Let him who tries to measure with
the eye of an insect, the great gulf fixed to make
impassable the return of the impenitent dead
from hell to heaven, first measure with his eye
the distance traversed by the Incarnate God from
the throne which was before all things, to close
the prison-door of lost angels, ere the morning

208 THE DOCTEINE OF GERIZIM AND EBAL.

stars sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy over this world ordained to be the
scene of man's redemption. Could we institute
the comparison, we should learn, perhaps, that
for the Word to make Himself of no reputation,
and take upon Himself the form of a servant,
stands first among the things into which angels
desire to look rather than the everlasting pun-
ishment of those who pierced Him, crucifying
Dim afresh, compelling the remonstrance, "How
often would I have gathered you, — and ye
would not."

If we stumble at the assignment of intermin-
able misery for sin committed in a mere span of
time, let us ask ourselves why do we begin to
stumble at this, when there is long before, more
than enough to confound us. The Bible says,
that by one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin ; that by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners; that by one man's of-
fence death reigned by one ; that by the offence
of one, judgment came upon all .men to condem-
nation. This has continued for at least five
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three years ;
all in consequence of one man's disobedience.
Reckon, if you can, the misery of the human race
for these fifty or sixty centuries, the consequence
of one man's disobedience ; say how long it took
that one man to commit that one act of disobe-

THE DOCTEINE OF GERIZIM AND EBAL. 209

clience. Can you believe tliat by one man's of-
fence committed in a brief space of time, there
have been fifty or sixty centuries of human sin
and misery ? Believe it or not, the truth stands
recorded ; yet men say, God cannot surely in-
flict ages of misery for the consequences of sins
committed in a life time ; whereas He has done
it in consequence of one man's disobedience.
The added transgressions of each and every sin-
ner make it no less true that by one man's of-
fence death reigned by one.

All through the New Testament there is the
same parallelism of blessing and cursing which

L, CD O

there was in the Old Testament. Gerizim and
Ebal stand with responsive blessings and curses
on the saint and sinner. The language of the

o o

blessings and curses from Gerizim and Ebal were
nob so terrible as the language of the Saviour in
the New Testament. • Revelation does not as-
sume milder tones as it approaches the evening.
There are words in the Saviour's discourses re-
lating to future retribution which we are more
disposed to read in a lowered tone than anything
in Deuteronomy. Then we come to the apostle
Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, in the first
two chapters of which language is brought to the
highest pitch of intensity in describing the in-
dignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish
threatened against every soul that doeth evil.

210 THE DOCTEIKE OF GEKIZIM AND EBAL.

At last comes the beloved disciple and closes
the sacred book with imagery, because literal
'speech was not adequate to express the intense-
ness of his conceptions. One expression is used
by him to denote the future punishment of the
wicked which has no equivalent in the Old Tes-
tament : " And said to the mountains, Fall on us,
and to the hills, Cover us from the face of Him
that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath
of the Lamb." Thus we are brought down to
the end of the world and find the Gerizim and
Ebal of Deuteronomy extending their sjonboli-
cal presence through the last book of the Bible,
where the waves of a dread ocean come ashore.

I come now to propose the question in the
text. If it is in figurative language, the great-
ness of the theme justifies it. Gerizim and Ebal
extend their influence down to the boundary line
of this world and the next. The question is:
" Are they not on the other side Jordan by the
way where the sun goeth down?" Is there not
a Gerizim and Ebal in eternity? forever a heaven
and hell? Do not blessing and cursing follow
us? Is not God the same on the other side Jor-
dan by the way where the sun goeth down, as
He is here ?

I once looked from the window of a hotel in
Switzerland on the lake of Geneva, one morning
just before sunrise, and was astonished to see im-

THE DOCTRINE OF GEEJZIM AND EBAL. 211

ages of mountains in the lake. No mountains
were near, or in the horizon. An intelligent
fellow traveler said to me, " They are the Alps.
You cannot see them, but the refraction of the
rising sun-light throws down their images upon
the lake from the upper air." The Bible is a lake
on the surface of which the light beyond Jordan
throws down images of things which are there,
among which are Gerizim and Ebal.

On this subject of the eternity of retribution
after death, one consideration has for a long time
settled the question which used to agitate my
mind when I thought if it could be just to award
an endless penalty for sins committed here.
Leaving to the omniscient Judge many things
which the light of eternity alone can make plain,
I said, If the Word was made flesh and suffered
death for me, and I reject or neglect that propi-
tiation for my sins, I believe that there is no
other remedy. He that spared not His own Son,
will not spare him who treads the blood of that
Son under foot. We must not think the hein-
ousness of sin is in the number or character of
our misdeeds ; but in not believing on Christ.
No one can be lost who believes in Christ, fla-
grant, numberless, though his sins may have been.
Observation and reflection have deepened my
conviction that more are saved by simple faith in
Christ at the last than may have been feared ;

212 THE DOCTRINE OF GEBIZIM AND EBAL.

and this I sa}r, without abating one tittle of con-
viction that too much cannot be said of the haz-
ard which there is in delaying compliance with
the terms of salvation.

Such cases as the following make a happy im-
pression on my mind : A young sailor fell from
the 3'ard-arm of his ship into the sea. The ship
was put about, lie was found, but senseless. Re-
storatives were successful. On regaining his
consciousness he soon turned over upon his knees
and uttered a prayer of consecration to Christ,
saying to those around him, " This is what I
did when I supposed myself to be drowning. I
gave my soul to Christ. I felt that I was ac-
cepted through that one simple act of faith in
the Saviour." It will not be your sin that will
destroy you. Unbelief will be the perdition of
more under the Gospel than all sins. All the
curses of Mount Ebal will light on him who had
the offers of pardon from the Son of God and
died in unbelief. The blessings of a thous-

o

and Mount Gerizims will be imputed to the
greatest sinner who simply believes in Jesus.
" Who is wise, and he shall understand these
things ; prudent, and he shall know them ; for
the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall
walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall
therein.'

XII.
ONLOVINa THE UNSEEN REDEEMER.

" Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." — t Peter
i: S.

THE most remarkable illustration of human
love is and always has been, the personal
attachment of Christian believers to Jesus Christ.
The larger part of his Apostles suffered martyr-
dom from love to Him. The history of Christi-
anity under the emperors shows that inge-
nuity was exhausted in the invention of tor-
tures for them. Letters, hymns and prayers,
written in the early ages, rehearsing the words
and deeds of the first Christians show, that
whether they were fanatics or otherwise, their
love to their Lord and Master was unpar-
alleled. The apostle Paul tells us that from per-
sonal love to Christ, he had suffered the loss of
all things ; and many things had he to lose. He
lost a lucrative practice as a Roman and Jewish
lawyer ; his reputation was utterly destroyed ;

(213)

214 ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER.

he having no friends left to him but the despised
Christians. It would seem strange to us if some
member of the bar in great repute, should be
publicly beaten with rods l>y the civil authorities
and several times stoned; well might he say that as
a professional man he had suffered the loss of all
things ; after that, none would entrust their lives,
fortunes, characters in his hands. His was a
specimen of the treatment which the followers of
Jesus of Nazareth endured, from love to Him.
One specification of their treatment might have
been expressed in these words : " they were
tempted." It was not all stones, dens and caves,
wandering in sheepskins and goatskins ; bland-
ishments, flattery, tears, the loss of most desirable
connections, prospects of wealth, reputation,
fame, solicited many of them ; and we may sup-
pose that in resisting these things, especially
when pressed upon them with kindness, disinter-
ested affection, and gentleness, some of them
actually suffered more than others did who en-
dured martyrdom. It was hard parting with en-
deared friends ; but there were times when some
of them had to give and receive the last embrace,
see their friends going back to home and afflu-
ence, and the sweet securities of law and order,
and they themselves consigned to want and ob-
loquy ; homeless ; outcast, among the dens of
wild beasts. And all this when a single word of

ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 215

recantation, abjuring the name of Jesus Christ,
would make their fortune, would put the crown
of professional or social distinction upon them.
But their motto was one which was perpetuated
down to the sixteenth century, used by Lambert
the martyr when at the stake for his religion, he
said, in answer to the men who offered him life
and liberty if he would sign a recantation, "None
but Christ, none but Christ." Pliny the younger
wrote to the Emperor Trajan : " They are accus-
tomed to meet before daylight, and sing hymns
to Christ as to God."

This love to Christ is perpetually mani-
festing itself from the dawn of Christianity, as
though the multitude of the heavenly host had
given the melody, and it were learned and sung
by all who loved the babe of Bethlehem.

But the most remarkable thing in this love to
Christ is, that it was felt by those who had never
known, personally, this wonderful being. Peter
being then alive, of course there may have been
others living who were cotemporaries of Christ.
None of them it seems, were included in this
address. The people to whom Peter now writes
were not, therefore, a small company of enthusi-
asts, who by association, with celebrations, lec-
tures, and mystical ceremonies, had created a
fictitious kind of enthusiasm among their own
clan. Such clans were common, especially when

216 ON LOVING THE UNSEEN EEDEEMEE.

a new teacher or founder of some school arose.
But tjiere was no society. These epistles are
not addressed to any body of people in one place,
organized, and keeping up each other's zeal and
love, or even their faith, by their rites, proces-
sions, harangues. The words of the text are ad-
dressed to " strangers scattered abroad through-
out Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithy-
nia." You will observe, therefore, that it is to
individuals that these words of the text are ad-
dressed. They might reach a man in a prison,
or hidden in a den from persecutors, or working
in the mines as a slave ; or a solitary believer in
the household of the emperor ; no meetings for
exhortation within reach ; forgotten, it may be,
by all ; yet in the solitary heart of each of these
strangers, scattered abroad, Peter knew that his
words would find a response.

Like a great magnet passing over heaps of
rubbish there would be pieces of steel, which, as
the attraction went by would turn. And so it
is now. When this text is read, there are hearts
which sa}r, " Now we shall hear something about
Christ." His name is as ointment, poured forth.
His name is " above every name." It is the only
name which among believers is universal, sover-
eign. They will differ over the name of every
thing else, even in religion ; but when it comes to
this name, there is a power like that of the morn-

ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 217

ing light in nature. May His Spirit guide us as
it shall now be set forth.

The subject of my discourse is

The love of Christians to the unseen Redeemer.

I. WHO is HE ?

One word expresses Him : "WONDERFUL."
Within a fe\v weeks, by steam, from any of our
ports, you could reach a place where a child was
born who is now at the head of the universe.
You will not understand this as a figure of
speech, nor am I indulging in large expressions.
As 3~ou, once an infant, are now at man's estate,
He is now Lord of all. He was a man like us,
hungry, athirst, asleep, limited in the exercise of
His powers of mind and body. Yet "all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not
any thing made that was made." Now, He has
" gone unto heaven and is at the right hand of
God ; angels, authorities, and powers being made
subject unto Him." He will one day sit as
Judge of all ; before Him shall be gathered all
nations, and He shall separate them one from
another. He is " God manifest in the flesh."

II. BY HlS DEATH HE MADE AN ATONE-
MENT FOR SIN, REACHING IN ITS INFUENCE
FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END OF TIME.

218 ON LOVING THE UNSEEN EEDEEMEE.

He was " slain from the foundation of the
world."

They who have believed in this unseen Re-
deemer, have had personal experience of His
power to effect their peace with God. Had He
been made known to them merely as a prodig}r,
though the most wonderful of beings, this would
not have excited their enthusiasm. The powers
of nature do not so affect the hearts of men as
Christ has affected them. They believed in Him
as the God-man whom the apostles dwelt with
as a personal friend, with whom they sat at meat,
who called them " friends," had compassion on
their ignorance, prayed for them, laid His hands
on them and blessed them. They thus believed
that all which He had been and promised to be
to His immediate disciples, He would be to them.
Some of His words, no doubt, were reported by
ear witnesses; for example, "Where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them." That passage re-
peated, when two or three of them met in a
desert, created enthusiasm. Take another : " If
any man love Me my Father will love him, and
I will love him and will manifest myself to him."
They lived on those words, no doubt, from day
to day. Then came those gracious promises: " My
sheep shall never perish ; '; " All that the Father
hath given Me shall come to Me ; and him that

ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 219

cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."
"• As My Father hath loved Me, even so have I
loved you ; continue ye in my love." Then
those affecting words foretelling His death : —
" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends." " I lay down
my life for the sheep." " Every one which seeth
the Son and belie veth on Him hath everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Then the story of His betrayal, and His volun-
tary surrender of Himself, and His furnishing
the testimony on which His life was taken ; of
His words and actions on the cross to His mother
and to the beloved disciple, and the penitent
thief, and His prayer for His murderers, His
death, His burial by Joseph and Nicodemus, His
resurrection attested by the eleven and by other
companies, and by five hundred brethren at once;
His ascension, the appearance of the two men
in white apparel declaring His coming again ; —
all this made believers love Him, trust in Him,
"rejoice in Him with joy unspeakable and full of
glory," and " suffer the loss of all things for
His name's sake," and die for Him.

Ignatius bared his breast to the lions in the
amphitheatre when led forth to die for the Lord
Jesus. Polycarp said, " Eighty and six 3rears
have I served Him and He has never failed me ;
shall I now forsake Him ? " This was " joy un-
speakable and full of glory."

220 ON LOVING THE UNSEEN EEDEEMEK.

One thing he could not have said unless he were
either an arrant imposter, or, divine : " He that
loveth father or mother more than Me is not
worthy of Me, and he that loveth son or daughter
more than Me is not worthy of Me."

A young father and mother are bending over
their first-born asleep, and they think of those
words ; there is one who claims a stronger love
than they feel for the little child ; not that they
must not love their little one, 'but this unseen
Friend says, " there is more in me to love than
natural affection can find in that child." The
young parents acknowledge it and give them-
selves and their child to their unseen Redeemer.
Never, never was there such love on earth, never,
we may safely say, was there such love in heaven
till redeemed sinners bore it thither. It has been
well said, that but for sin there would have been
no minor key in music ; and what would music
be without that key ?

The fall of angels, the vacant thrones, their
harps hung up, inspired angelic strains no doubt,
with the impassioned Avail which so wonderfully
varies the earthly hallelujah; but the death of
Christ and all the melting themes inspired by that
event, have given to the song of redemption that
unequalled power which made the writer of the
Revelation say of it as he listened, " And no man
could learn that song but the hundred and forty

ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 221

and four thousand which were redeemed from
among men/'

III. THE LOVE OF CHRISTIANS FOR JESUS
CHRIST is THE SAME NOW AS EVER.

*w

This love to an unseen Saviour which Peter
in the text describes as felt bv those believers to

•j

whom he wrote, continues to our day. It is a
love which absorbs eveiy other, supplants every
other, compensates for the loss of eveiy other.

There was a young Christian engaged to be
united in sacred bonds to one who, on further
acquaintance, proved not to be as she at first
supposed, a believer in Christ. It cost her a
mighty sacrifice to dissolve the tie, as she felt
constrained to do. She gave up a competency
and something more ; she sacrificed relationships
which were inviting, because she could not take
for her nearest and dearest earthly friend one
who did not love her Redeemer. And what was
the consequence ? By this experience that
young Christian was qualified to write the hymn
beginning,

" Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow Thee ;
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
Thou henceforth my all shall be."

All over the world wherever the name of Je-

222 ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER.

sus is known, there are hearts which love Him
with this joy which is unspeakable and full of
glory. Among the powers of nature there is one
which reminds us of it: The supposed influence
of the moon over the tides. Dark, and even
stormy may be the night, and the sky give no
sign of the moon, yet the mariner in mid ocean
may feel the influence of the tide, and every
shore wall record its ebb and flow. The sand
rows on the beach, and the small pools with
their tiny inhabitants, the lifted keel and the
floating vessel, witness every six hours its
changes. He who thus influences the sea by the
earth's satellite, controls unseen, the hearts of all
His people, scattered over continents and oceans,
in islands, deserts, and the city.

IV. IT IS NOTICEABLE IN LOVE TO AN UN-
SEEN CHRIST, THAT THOSE WHO HAD NEVER

SEEN HIM LOVED HlM AS MUCH AS THOSE
WHO WERE HlS PERSONAL ASSOCIATES.

•

Indeed we may go further; they loved Him
more than these did when He was yet alive.
After His ascension, Peter might be expected
still to love Christ. James and John with Peter
had peculiar reasons for loving Him. All who
personally knew Him and were touched by His
character, words and sufferings, might be ox-

ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 223

pected to cherish a life-long affection for Him.
But you will notice in the words of the text and
context that Peter does not exhort these Chris-
tians on this subject, — no, he merely describes
them and rejoices over them ; he speaks twice of
their overflowing love to the unseen Christ.

If love to Christ, then, is not dependent on
sight, and those who have lived since His day
have loved Him even more than His first disci-
ples could before His death and resurrection,
one thing follows of exceeding great importance
and interest to us.

I observe then,

V. ALL MAY LOVE HIM.

This is important to us, because without it the
subject of love to Christ is of no more interest
to us than the love of Joseph and Benjamin, or
of David and Jonathan, or, in profane history, of
Damon and Pythias. If they to whom Peter
wrote, scattered everywhere, loved Christ more .
than Peter himself during the Saviour's life ac-
tually did, we see that love to Christ can be felt
by us, can be enjoyed by us, as well as by them.
Joyful thought ! we are included in those to
whom Peter addressed his epistles, — " to all
who in every place call on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours : and with

224 ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMEE.

those on whom another apostle pronounces that
benediction : " Grace be with all them that love
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

If the characteristic of love to the Saviour is
love to an unseen Christ, A CHRISTIAN OUGHT

NEVEE TO FEEL UNHAPPY AT HlS SUPPOSED
ABSENCE FROM HIM.

We should so feel toward Christ as to warrant
those words being addressed to us when cast
down : " In whom though now ye see Him not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory." Let Him manifest. Himself
as much or as little as He pleases, we should not
allow our feelings to depend on this.

Much of the despondency in Christians is
owing to their not understanding one object
which there evidently is in these words : "Whom
not having seen ye love." We are to love Him
by faith ; love Him unseen as though we saw
Him ; for faith is a substitute for sight. " Ye
see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory."

FINALLY. IF so MUCH is TRUE AS RE-
GARDS THE LOVE OF CHRISTIANS TO THE SA-
VIOUR, WE MAY BE ASSURED THAT THERE IS
RECIPROCAL LOVE ON THE PART OF CHRIST
TO THEM.

Strange would it be if He who is love incar-

ON LOVING THE UNSEEN REDEEMER. 225

nate should prove cold and heartless, He Avho
inspired His servant John to write such loving
words to us as we find in His gospel.

Let us take heed to the whispers of the Holy
Spirit, whose mission it is to reveal Christ unto
us.

His name closes the word of God, who is
called the Word : " He which testifieth these
things sal th, Surely, I come quickly. Amen.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.

XIII.

ON PAS SIN a BY ANaELS TO RE-
DEEM MEN.

" For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham." — Hebrews 2 : 16.

Apart of an angelic race, superior to man,
apostatized from God. No Redeemer
interposed to help them. The inhabitants of
this world apostatized from God, and a Redeemer
took on Him their nature to redeem them. Who
He was, we learn from these inspired words : "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were
made by Him, and without Him was not any
thing made that was made. And the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father full of grace and truth."

Here is a disclosure ; and- then a veil is drawn
over it. Doubtless this is best for us. We could
not have understood a clearer revelation. As it
(226)

ON PASSING BY ANGELS TO REDEEM MEN. 227

is, we cannot solve one of the questions which
human curiosity would ask. He " was with God
and He was God." If any one will resolve that
mystery, he ma}r, perhaps, proceed and explain
the dark things which multiply as we proceed.
One who is God " was made flesh and dwelt

A

amcnec us." And of Him we are told in the

o

text, " He took not on Him the nature of angels,
but He took on Him the seed of Abraham."
Some one, then, in the Jewish line took on Him
the nature of man, and did not take on Him the
nature of angels. Who was He ? One is
spoken of here who existed first not as man or
angel, but took on Him the nature of man, not
of angels. He, therefore, has two natures ; one
of them is ours. But it is implied in the text
that it was optional with Him which of these
two natures He should take; In the plainest
terms, therefore, an incarnation is here declared;
and the first chapter of John makes it certain
that the Divine Word joined human nature to
Himself, and with these two natures in one per-
son, He became the Redeemer of men.

Why did He not for the same purpose for
which He took on Him our nature, take the na-
ture of angels? Here is the interesting point
which the text brings to view.

Among the spheres which compose our solar
system, this world is the smallest of the primary

228 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

planets but two. But we greatly err if we esti-
mate the worth of a world by its size. We are
in the habit of supposing that our Earth must be
inferior in all respects because it is small. The
Creator, has not adopted such a standard of value.
The wise men of the East came to Jerusalem no
doubt expecting that the King of kings was
was born there ; but they found His birthplace to
be Bethlehem, which was little among the thous-
ands of Judah. " He chose David also, and took
him from the sheepfold, to feed Jacob his people
and Israel His inheritance."

We may expect to find that the Creator has
made use of this world of a size thus inferior, to
pour contempt on pride. If He who made all
things took upon Him man's nature, we may feel
sure that there is in that nature some intrinsic
excellence and greatness, one proof of which is
that it is capable of being united with the per-
son of the Word who was in the beginning with
God, and was God.

But so, unquestionably, was the angels' nature;
for man is a little lower than the angels. Here
were two fallen races before the eye of the Re-
deemer, and we cannot doubt that it was optional
with Him to redeem either of them, or both.
Why He did not redeem both must be left to
sovereign wisdom ; to Him who giveth no account
of any of His matters. Why in deciding to re-

TO REDEEM MEN. 229

•

deem one of them He chose to save man and not
angels is the subject before ns, not for our opin-
ion or judgment, but for our contemplation and
humble fear,

I. FALLEN ANGELS, IF REDEEMED, WOULD

NO DOUBT BECOME AS GREAT AND GLORIOUS
AS BEFORE.

Aii angel certainly is as precious as the soul of
a Hottentot. Why are the inhabitants of Labrar
dor or of the South Seas redeemed by Christ, and
not angels ? What can be said of a pagan's soul
as to its future development and happiness which
cannot be said of an angel redeemed ? There
would have been one consideration at least in
favor of redeeming an angel. The pagan does
not know what he has lost. The angel is con-
scious of his depravity. An angel's memory
surely is worth redeeming. He recollects the
moment when he waked into life in heaven ;
when he first looked upon the face of God ;
when consciousness first possessed him ; when
he said, What am I ? who am I ? where am I ?
and joy began to course through him and the
whispers of divine love soothed him and made
him acquainted with himself, and the first-born
of his companions drew near and taught him,
and at last he came to the full knowledge of
what existence is. All the succession of the

230 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

heavenly hours, clays, years, and centuries, or
whatever they are called, is remembered by him ;
his loves, his joys, his discoveries, his first ad-
ventures into unknown latitudes of bliss open-
ing still into new and more ecstatic joys ; and
all those quiet, meditative hours when in com-
munion with God and his own soul he said, This
is heaven, eternity in heaven ; and looking upon
beings superior to himself and gazing abroad on
a universe unexplored, he said, "It doth not yet
appear what we shall be."

Though it is revolting to the thoughts to con-
template the condition of fallen angelic beings
'on account of their unspeakable degradation, it
is only more so than to contemplate Satan, be-
cause his cliiefdom gives him a dignity in our
eyes, much as we respect a principal bandit,
while \ve detest his men. There is no reason to
doubt that those evil spirits who took possession
of the souls and bodies of human beings in the
time of Christ were fallen angels, because Satan
is called their prince. Moreover, they were an-
ticipating a day of judgment, which is some con-
firmatory evidence that they were those for whom
a day of doom is prepared, when they will be
sent out into the abyss. It was a legion of fal-
len angels who had possession of that poor de-
moniac among the tombs, crying and cutting him-
self with stones. It was a fallen angel who tor-

TO REDEEM MEN. 231

men ted that child at the foot of the mount of
transfiguration ; and they were fallen angels who
becked to be sent into the swine.

oo

We see in this world enough of degradation
made by sin to keep us from doubting the power
of sin to degrade fallen angels into devils, and

o o

devils into alliance with swine. But the mem-
ory of innocence and of bliss in heaven no doubt
remains in them. What a good work it would
have been to redeem that memory and restore
that angel. How sad, one might say, to think
that Christ would not redeem him, but went af-
ter South Sea Islanders and the Aborigines of the
British Isles, than whom none was ever more
lost to shame, or more distant from God. And
what a wicked world this, which He redeemed,
has proved. How hard to bring any portion of
it right and to keep it so. In countries where
the Gospel has had influence for generations,
scenes are enacted which equal the deeds of bar-
barous tribes. After a long conflict between
good and evil in this world, the end will be that
the earth and the works that are therein shall be
burned up. Thus far the few are saved; the
many hate God.

II. But in reply it may be said, His SUC-
CESS MIGHT HAVE BEEN NO BETTER HAD

CHRIST MADE REDEMPTION FOR ANGELS IN-
STEAD OF FOR MEN.

232 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

Suppose that Christ had become angelic in-
stead of becoming- flesh, taking the nature of an-
gels instead of ours, and in their abode had lifted
up His voice, "Repent ye and believe the Gos-
pel;" "Behold I stand at the door and knock; "
" Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest." " The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, to open the prison doors, to
set at liberty them that are bound;" and then
that He had suffered an ignominious punishment
there as Pie did here, stooping as low in shame
us on Calvary, bearing some awful emblem of
woe as He bore the cross ; and thus, making
atonement for angels, had pointed them to
heaven through His sufferings for them ; would
they have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope
set before them ? would there have been a for-
mer occupant of a throne in heaven but would
have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and been
saved ?

While we cannot settle this question, it may
be well to ask, What has His success been with
men who have actually been slipping on
the brink of perdition? How has it been in
our congregations ? Are there any among your
acquaintances who have been brought near to
death and who in their own just apprehension
would have perished had they died, but are now
as careless as ever, as far from God, as ignorant

TO REDEEM MEN. 233

of Christ? What would keep fallen angels from
saying in answer to kind and earnest appeals,
" I know all this, but I do not feel it ; how am I to
believe in Christ; how can I love Him; how
can I love God, with such a heart as mine ? " and
would they not say this up to the last moment
of probation, as members of Christian congrega-
tions do when they come to their end ?

Angels might have invented objections to Him
as men did ; some might go so far as to deny
His Godhead and incarnation, and ask whether
a good God would let His innocent Son visit
such an abode, to suffer and die for devils ; and
what virtue there could be in the sufferings of
one for the sins of others ; and whether it is just
to substitute an innocent being for the guilty?
If any one supposes that every fallen angel
would at once have accepted the offers of Christ
and would have returned to his allegiance with
godly sorrow and repentance, it may be asked
why men in full view of perdition refuse to ac-
cept pardon by Christ ? Does any one sa}r, The
experience of the infernal prison and the pros-
pect of returning to heaven would prevail where
all other reasons might have been fruitless?
Being in the prison would not of itself change
the feelings of the sinner toward God. Some
might think it would. But a feeling of degra-
dation and humiliation, of having been a con-

234 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

viot, of going back to the old service and scenes
with the recollection of apostasy is no prepara-
tion to accept forgiveness.

We are inclined to think that if rational crea-
tures called to repentance are treated as free
agents, they stand a better chance to accept for-
giveness and the offer of restoration in such a
world us this, than in a place where they have
been subjected to ignominious torture. In. this
world, no distinction is made by the common
providence of God between the evil and the
good; but the same sun and rain, the fruits of
the earth and all the blessings of life come alike
to the good and to the sinner. Therefore, however
great our sins against God may be, we need none
of us feel abandoned, or made ignominious.
We cannot conceive of more favorable circum-
stances than ours for accepting the offers of par-
don; or a condition less likely to predispose the
mind toward accepting them than the loss of
heaven would be, and the degradation of being
thrust down to hell.

It is seriously to be questioned whether fallen
angels ever could be disposed by their punish-
ment to love God. We will not argue the
point, for it is not debatable. They never will,
and whether they ever would requires more
knowledge than we possess to decide. But, per-
haps it may be said, one reason why Christ did

TO REDEEM MEN". 235

not take upon Him the nature of angels to re-
deem them is, that having fallen into the pit they
could not consistently with the laws of their na-
ture be recovered ; that an intelligent beinor sub-

o o

jected to such punishment would not accept any
efforts to save him, or if saved, that his recovery
would not exalt the grace of God so much as the
restoration of the effeminate races of men.
While we recognize this as a possible second
cause, we must not forget that the power and
grace of God could overcome all such second
causes ; that the God who found a ransom for
man could find a way of redeeming lost angels;
but that being hopelessly lost the sinning angel
is given over to the direct operation- of natural
laws ; these laws being such as are now de-
scribed. While God is not hindered by natural
laws from doing His pleasure. He does not vi-
olate them ; but He can find a way to maintain
and even exalt them while He suspends them as
to the sinner himself; which we s-ee was done
by the atonement. So we see this world won-
derfully adjusted as a probationary state ; every-
thing in it says, "Be ye reconciled to God."

Mercies and afflictions come hand in hand to
our dwellings and our hearts, and the affliction
seems to be equally our friend with mercy ; all
things being arranged to spare our feelings of
pride and shame, making it reputable and be-

236 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

coming to be a Christian, instead of its being like
standing in the stocks or coming out of a peni-
tentiary, or going into one in joining the Chris-
tian church. Without making any statement
which would properly be construed as limiting
the power of divine grace, we are justified in
saying that according to the laws which govern
free agents, it was a more hopeful work to redeem
man, than the angels who kept not their first
estate.

He who took nofc on Him the nature of angels
has not meb with these results which reason
would have predicted. Jesus Christ has not won
the hearts of the nations, or the hearts of any
one of them, even where His Gospel is perfectly
understood. He knew from the beginning that
it would be so. He knew it when He was about
to make the atonement. It is a sad representa-
tion for us to say that He will finally console
Himself by declaring that on the whole He is
glad that things are no worse, that as many are
saved as could be expected, and though He re-
grets His failure to save all, He- is grateful that
so many have accepted His offers.

Christ will never be the object of commisera-
tion, of sympathy and condolence. "These
words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to
heaven and said, Father, the hour is come ; glo-
rify 'thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify

TO REDEEM MEN. 237

tliee. As tliou hast given Him power over all
flesh that He may give eternal life to as many as
thou hast given Him." While the atonement is
sufficient for all, and all a;:e invited to avail them-
selves of it, there is a certain portion of the race
for whom it is efficient who will assuredly be
saved ; and of course the Saviour had special re-
ferQnce to them Avheii He gave Himself a ran-
som for all. He " is the Saviour of all men,
specially of those that believe."

We cannot find fault with this on the ground
of its being partial, unless we begin further back
and impugn the justice of God in passing by fal-
len angels and determining to provide for the
salvation of men. He did not take upon Him-
self the nature of angels ; He might have clone
so ; He left them where He found them, where
they had chosen to be. He finds all men in a
state of ruin ; if they will acknowledge it and
avail themselves of His interposition in their be-
half, they may be saved ; 'but some will not be-
lieve, and they prefer to run the risk and take
the consequences. It is optional with God to
let them all perish, or interpose and make some
willing to believe. He does no injustice to any
if He prevails on some ; none can find fault with
God for leaving them to have their own way ;
it will with perfect truth be said to every one
who fails to be saved, " Ye would not come to

238 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

Me that ye might have life." Every one is as
religious as, on the whole, he wishes to be.

It is the great mystery of wisdom that while
God does His pleasure, it is in such a way that
eveiy man exercises his free choice.

III. THOSE WHO DO NOT ACCEPT REDEMP-
TION PROVIDED FOR THEM BY THE SON OF
GOD ARE TO BE ASSOCIATED HEREAFTER WITH
A RACE OF SINNERS WHOM CHRIST DID NOT
REDEEM.

Nothing surely is better adapted to make us
accept the offers of the Gospel ; for if Christ
passed them by and came to save us, no fancy
can picture what it must be to receive from His
lips a consignment to their abode and to their
societ.y. It is well known on the authority of
the early Christian writers that the power of evil
spirits over men was wonderfully abridged with
the coming of Christ. He told the seventy whom
He sent out, when they returned and told Him,
"Lord, even the devils are subject unto us
through thy name," "I beheld Satan as light-
ning fall from heaven." Their power contin-
ued for a while after the coining of Christ ; as
we see in the New Testament, where we learn
their awful malice and also their power, no
doubt that we may be warned lest we fall into

TO REDEEM MEN. 239

•

their hands. If they took possession of a human
being, a legion of them at once, they must be
cruel and brutal ; nor can fancy picture the dire-
ful miseries of the poor victims who fell into
their hands.

People do not like to be reminded of such a
fearful liability ; but if too painful to be re-
minded of it in a world of mercy, let us think
what it must be to have the last sentence upon
all who did not love Christ sufficiently to give
Him common hospitality. " I was an hungered
and ye gave me no meat." Then mercy will
have finished all her invitations and returned for-
ever to the bosom of her injured, her slighted
God.

IV. THE SUBJECT OPENS TO us A VIEW

OF HUMAN HAPPINESS FOR ALL WHO ACCEPT
OF SALVATION.

If the Redeemer sought the greater amount
of happiness in those for whom He decided to
make atonement, He surely will find it in us
who enter heaven, not as a recovered seat from
. which we were ignominiously expelled, but a
world new, untried, awakening in us sensations
of wonder and joy which now it doth not enter
into the heart of man to conceive. There will
be a quality in our joy which could never be

240 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

known to those who fell from heaven. And shall
we lose it ? Are we looking diligently lest any
man fail of the grace of God ? u And these shall
go away into everlasting punishment, prepared"
(not for them, but) "for the devil and his an-
gels."

God exercises the same sovereignty now in
choosing whom to save which He did in choos-
ing men rather than angels. There is often a
feeling of wonder at the class of people who
are called into the kingdom of God, and at the
same time astonishment at the omission of
many whom we should consider an acquisition,
and creditable to Him who saves them. Look-
ing into the community we may often question
why certain persons of remarkable endowments
are not brought into the number of the faithful,
while some are added to it whom we never would
have chosen. So in the Christian church, we see
some who we cannot doubt are regenerate per-
sons, but it requires forbearance and Christian
charity to regard them as members of the body
of Christ: and some are passed by whom we
would choose first if the selection had been con-
fided to our judgment and taste. We forget
that, perhaps, to the searcher of hearts Ave and
those interesting people give more occasion for
forbearance than those who repel us. But
whether it be so or not, we must apply our text,

TO EEDEEM MEN. 241

and remember Him who " took not on Him the
nature of angels but the seed of Abraham."
The wise, the mighty, the noble, are not all the
subjects of the divine call ; indeed " not many "
of them are so distinguished ; but " base things,
and things which are not hath God chosen to
bring to nought things that are, that no flesh
may glory in His presence." Lady Huntingtori
said that she thanked God for the letter " m,"
without which the Scripture must have read,
" not any noble are called."

It will exalt the grace of God to behold high
hi honor and power hereafter, some whom we
thought hardly worth saving except as objects of
compassion, and however much joy there may
have been among the angels of God at their re-
pentence, it made little sensation here. "And,
behold, there are last that shall be first." Let us
take heed how we despise one of these little
ones. Find a soul in whom there are Scriptural
evidences of regeneration, and it is one whom
Almighty God has quarried and hewn, and is
preparing for some honorable place in His build-
ing which that soul will fill with a most remark-
able adaptation. As the stone which the builders
refused is become the head of the corner, so will
it be with much of the material in the whole
building. And, therefore, if we are highly cul-
tivated or possess great natural endowments, it

242 ON PASSING BY ANGELS

does not increase our prospect of being saved ;
for unless we are humble God will pass us by ;
" for verily He took not on Him the nature of
angels." " He will beautify the meek with sal-
vation." Perhaps one reason why angels are
forever passed by, while to the poor the Gospel
is preached, and very common people are made
kings and priests unto God, is to show all the
subjects of God's government, that none are too
high for God to reach if they sin, none too pre-
cious for Him to spare if they keep not their first
estate.

V. THERE ARE LIMITS TO MERCY AND PRO-
BATION.

While we must ascribe this wholly to the sov-
ereign pleasure of God, we perceive that apos-
tacy makes recovery in the Scriptural sense im-
possible. " It is impossible for those who were
once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift, — if they shall fall away to renew them
again to repentance." Hence apostate angels
were less likely to be redeemed, and we have
seen that they were not recovered. Here we
have an argument against probation after death.
If Christ fails to redeem us in this world, the
abandonment of fallen angels who were once on
probation shows us the probability that re-

TO REDEEM MEN. 243

demption with us will cease forever. Consign-
ment to the company and doom of those who fell
from heaven confirms this anticipation. Punish-
ment is not the power of God and the wisdom
of God unto salvation. Angels have not been
made better by punishment. They have sunk
to a level with the swine among the Gadarenes.
Christ crucified is the power of God and the
wisdom of God. " Neither is there salvation in
any other."

WE ARE PRESENTED BY THIS SUBJECT WITH
A VIEW OF THE FUTURE COMPANY OF THE
GOOD.

We are going to dwell with the unfallen sous
of God ; —

'• And heaven He gives us to possess
Whence those apostate angels fell."

Only two orders of beings, angels and men,
are represented as being in heaven. This world
seems unlikely to be repaired, at least for our
use ; for ' we are destined for the metropolis,
where the throne of God and the Lamb is. "Fa-
ther, I will that they whom thou hast given me
be with me where I am." We are to behold His
glory. We are to be the redeemed whom Christ
came to save, and passed by the former occupants

244 ON PASSING BY ANGELS TO REDEEM MEN.

of thrones in heaven. You will instruct the un-
f alien sons of God how to love and praise Him
who created them, and redeemed us to vie with
them in service. Then do not fail to be of the
number of the redeemed. Make your calling
sure. Think what it must be to spend eternity
with those who lost heaven and to be subjected
to their taunts !

" Seize the kind promise while it waits,
And march to Zion's heavenly gates,
Believe, and take the promised rest,
Obey, and be forever blest."

XIV.

THE BROKEN IN HEART HEALED:
THE STARS NUMBERED
AND NAMED.

\

A THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE.

" He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names."
— Psalm 147 : 3, 4.

WITH New England people the histories of
the Annual Tkausgiviug days from child-
hood would be a good epitome of life. No recol-
lections of childhood and youth are more vivid.
The weeks of vacation, of visits paid or received,
the excursions and sports, the preparations for the
feast assailing every sense, the rich joy afforded by
being sent on errands of love to the needy,
the visits to the market-places where nature
seemed to have brought together her stores

o o

as though for some great sacrifice, the throng
of people and vehicles in the streets, show-
ing that some great movement was going on,

(245)

246 THE BROKEN IN HEAET HEALED:

the innocent satisfaction of being employed, —

" Something between a hindrance and a help,"
to do a little service the evening before the im-
portant day, the careful observance of the
weather signs, the necessity of being detained
from meeting by pressing need of your service at
home, or for errands, or if }TOU went to church,
the demonstration in the singing seats, the pleas-
ures of a good conscience in being in the house
of God and not at the games on the Common,
and the satisfaction in hearing something from

o o

the pulpit which was not so admonitory as
usual, and then the grand climax around the
table where feasting and merriment were suc-
ceeded by the household games till tired nature
welcomed forge tfuluess in sleep, all combined
to make Thanksgiving Day to many of you as
full of true enjoyment as probably any festival
of any kind, in any nation, in any age of the
world.

So you grew up, and each returning Thanks-
giving was better than the last, and was height-
ened by the return of one and another who had
gone out from the homestead. Then the little
high chairs, long disused were brought down from
the attic, with the forgotten cradle for one who
like a diamond added to a full dress, was last, and
least, and best.

We loved to hear the minister read some of

THE STARS NUMBERED AND NAMED. 247

those five or six concluding Psalms, in which
every imaginary thing is called upon to praise
God, and which blazing forth with joy and
thanksgiving, seemed like the last piece in the
exhibition of fireworks on the other great festi-
val of the year when the heavens were ablaze
with the closing outburst of the demonstration.
Perhaps never in childhood and youth was there
more enjoyment crowded into the same space.
And so, from }rear to year, the keen sense of
pleasure grew more intense, being helped by
memory and anticipation.

As we became older we were less turbulent in
our joy ; the duties and responsibilities of life
looked in upon us, one by one, with serious face.
Then came the first great sorrow, and at the fes-
tival there was a vacant chair, and you began to
wonder why you ever thought Thanksgiving
Day the best in the }rear.

Some of the family were far off and could not
return , and one and another had gone, alas ! for
us, where thanksgiving had become their cease-
less employment. And when years were multi-
plied the festival had a large memorial tablet
with inscriptions of lost ones, of changes, of
sorrows, the recollection of all which, mixed
with natural anticipations of thickening troubles,
made Thanksgiving season a time of deep reli-
gious thought, never more profitable, yet clad in

248 THE BROKEN IN HEART HEALED:

russet garb instead of gay colors. At the same
time, probably no one who has experienced all this
and has made right improvement under it, will
fail to testify that such sorrow was better than
laughter, or that in the multitude of his thoughts
within him, there are consolations and comforts
which he would not exchange for hilarity, not
even for the innocent pleasures of his child-
hood.

Let not the young think by any means that
Thanksgiving Day turns into a day of mourning
as we grow old ; for on the contrar}^, it may be
increasingly a day of deeper, richer joy. We
always regret to have the season of blossoms
end, and to look on the trees, recently -laden with
beauty and fragrance, of a sudden changed to
a sombre state. But in that change, Spring has
taken an exulting step. The trees are more
precious than under their flowery crown.

For, as we advance in life, we have an accu-
mulated debt of gratitude for the past, with its
evergrowing experience of lovingkindness and
tender mercy ; for capacity of enjoyment, for
treasures not lost but laid up for us; for in-
creased qualification to do good and to make
others happy ; nor can we forget the goodness
of God to our childhood : the care taken of us,
the friends we had, and special favors of preser-
vation and blessing when we were heedless and

THE STARS NUMBERED AND NAMED. 249

unthankful. So that when the moons of life
wane we must remember that they are hasten-
ing to new moons, and that to them who fear
God it will be so without end.

It will be safe to say, that amid all the festiv-
ity of these occasions, the most enviable happi-
ness will be possessed by some who are reminded
by them, of the various dealings of God with
them in years past. Perhaps, if AVC should be
called upon by different classes to hear their
reasons for thanksgiving, none would be urged
more earnestly than the wonderful ways in which
the God of all comfort who comforteth them that
are cast down, has comforted many who were in
tribulation. It would seem to us among the
wonderful things of God, how He healeth the
broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

But what have the stars to do with the broken
in heart, or comforts with the number and names
of the heavenly bodies ?

There is a remarkable conjunction of ideas in.
the two verses in the text. It seems a very sud-
den, abrupt transition from one to the other,
was it intended to be so ? Or was there an as-
sociation of ideas and a real connection between
the thought of divine power in healing broken
hearts, and the knowledge and ordering of the
heavenly bodies ?

Without attempting to answer this assuredly,

250 THE BROKEN IN HEART HEALED:

we are at liberty to examine whether there be
any connection between the two by fair inter-
pretation. Can we pass from one to the other
by any perceived analogies ?

How may it be made apparent that it is the
same God that healeth the broken in heart and
bindeth up their wounds, who telleth the num-
ber of the stars and calleth them all by their
names ?

I. IT REQUIRES THE SAME DIVINE KNOWL-
EDGE TO HEAL THE BROKEN IN HEART, AS TO
TELL THE NUMBER OF THE STARS AND CALL
THEM BY NAME.

When we say this, we speak far within the
truth.

The number of the stars is to the divine mind
a simple matter of arithmetic, however compli-
cated they may be to our apprehension.

They stand apparent to Him whose all seeing
eye takes them in at one view.

But before we proceed, let us consider what
power it is to do this. For although to the unaided
eye there are not more than six thousand heavenly
bodies, yet science discloses a multitude in the
hosts of heaven which is beyond comprehension,
and even fancy cannot convey any adequate idea
of them. The language of science here is itself

THE STARS NUMBERED AND NAMED. 251

appalling. For when we see the expressions,
thousands of millions of millions, we give up all
attempt at grasping the sum. We should not
feel it if the astronomer made a mistake of sev-
eral millions. So when Sir William Herschel
tells us that lie has penetrated with his tele-
scope seventy-five million times further than
with the naked eye, and can see stars the near-
est of which is fifteen billions of miles from us,
that is, a hundred and seventy million times the
distance of the sun from the earth, and that the
light of some of the nearest neighbors to that
star, traveling one hundred and ninety-two thou-
sand miles a second, must have set out seven
hundred thousand years ago ; that in a portion
of the Milky Way, not larger than one tenth of
the moon's disc, he computed that there were
twenty thousand stars, and that by the most
moderate estimate the number of stars in the
whole firmament reached by the telescope can-
not be less than one hundred millions, and that
beyond these there are clusters and nebulae which
have not been resolved, and that each of the fixed
stars which can be seen has a system of unseen
worlds revolving about it, with great voids be-
tween them to keep the planets from disturbing
each other, billions of miles being necessary for
this purpose, we have an idea of creatorship, and
of the extent of the universe, and of divine ora-

252 THE BROKEN IN HEART HEALED:

niscience which, as David sa}^s, " is too wonder-
ful " for us ; it is " high," we " cannot attain un-
to it." The astronomers themselves feel and
confess their weakness. They wished to meas-
ure the space through which one of those distant
heavenly bodies moved. Could they ascertain
this, however small it might be, they could cal-
culate its orbit, size, distance and rate of motion.
They took for a base line the distance from
Greenwich to the Cape of Good Hope, and drew
imaginary lines from the extremities of that base
line to get an angle ; but in vain ; there was no
angle at the star, and tlie star did not seem to
move. Their base line therefore proving too
short, they took one represented by the diameter
of the earth's orbit, that is measuring from the
place where the earth is on the first of January,
to where it is on the first of July, a distance of
one hundred and ninety million six hundred
thousand miles. Even then they could not see
an appreciable movement in that most remote
orb.

At last, in 1839, two astronomers succeeded in
finding a movement in a star, but it was only
one second in a degree. The base line was still
too short for more distant explorations.

"Is there any number of his armies? and on
whom doth not his light arise ? " How can
broken hearts, though every human heart were

THE STARS NUMBERED AND NAMED. 253

broken, find any representation in such enor-
mous measurements as these?

The answer is this : The God who can span
from earth to the remotest world and then sweep
that radius through all space, and number and
name those heavenly bodies, can easily know ev-
er}' earthly mourner. He who follows that swift
traveler in the heavens, Arcturus, with his fifty-
four miles each second, or three times faster than
our earth, knows our wanderings, and all the
succession of our sorrows.

There may not have been more broken hearts
than there are stars; yet the number is such
that none but the power which numbers the
heavenly bodies can comprehend them. But in
those hearts there have been more wounds which
needed to be healed than there are stars. It is
not so great a thing to number the stars as to
search the hearts and try the reins of the chil-
dren of men.

IT. THE SAME DIVINE WISDOM WHICH AR-
RANGES THE HEAVENS, OVERRULES OUR INDI-
VIDUAL AFFAIRS.

We may be tempted to think that there is no
plan or reason in the things which happen to us,
for they sometimes throw us into confusion, our
desolation is apparently wild and reckless. Bat

254 THE BKOKEN IN HEAET HEALED:

it is easy to show that all which happens to us is
ordered by a plan, notwithstanding the seeming
littleness of our affairs when compared with the
extent of the universe and the number of Avorlds.
Indeed the astronomical view rather tends to dis-
hearten us unless we call in the aid of faith. To
help our faith, look at the minute things which
God has made ; we'see in them the same God at
work as in the celestial spheres. The micro-
scope reveals a hidden color of great beauty on a
beetle's wing, curious form and order on the
scale of a fish, prismatic colors on a particle of
dust, architectural design in the tiniest shell ;
which all the worlds above us do not surpass as
products of divine handicraft. We feel the
power of God in the revelations of the micro-
scope as much as in those of the telescope.
Some who have been most distinguished in the
use of the telescope go further, and say that
the microscope by its disclosures has affected
them more than has the telescope. Perhaps this
was the effect of contrast, but surely we know of
nothinGf in God which affects us more than that

o

the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity
and who dwells in the high and holy place de-
clares that He dwells also with him who trembles
at His word. If God chooses to manifest His
glory in this way, surely we must not make ob-
jection. We must not say to our Lord, " Thou

THE STAKS NUMBERED AND NAMED. 255

slialt never wash my feet." Especially when
Christ Himself teaches us that not a sparrow
falleth to the ground without our Father,- and
that the very hairs of our head are all numbered,
we must not hesitate to think that the Creator
of the worlds is to each of us the God of provi-
dence, that He "telleth" our " wanderings,"
puts our " tears into " His " bottle," and that they
are " in " His " book." So that each one may
confidently say, " When my spirit was over-
whelmed within me, Thou knewest my path."
Nor can we refuse to believe in the perfect
knowledge and watchful providence of God in
our affairs when we read, "For there is not a
word in my tongue, but lo ! O Lord thou know-
est it altogether." " Thou understandest my
thoughts afar off."

The God who comprehends the spaces of the
universe and peoples them, is not only able to com-
prehend us, but He who has made order His first
law among the spheres, has reduced every thing
relating to us into a wise arrangement in which
there is nothing confused. We may therefore
feel assured that He who has mado of this seem-
ing infinitude of worlds one great system, and
creates every atom by a perfect pattern and in
reference to a general design, has also a wise pur-
pose in breaking and binding up our hearts.

Probably that which will most affect us here-

256 THE BROKEN IN" HEART HEALED:

after with a sense of divine wisdom and power
as well as goodness, will be our personal history.
We shall be better acquainted with this than
with any thing else. We shall be able to judge
concerning this better than with things foreign
to us, and perhaps this will be our chief wonder,
that the God who made Arcturus, Orion, Pleia-
des, and the chambers of the South, did actually
consult for each of us ; that He who sends the
comet on his errands round this measureless
space and secures its return at the appointed min-
ute did watch over the heedless steps of your
childhood, and that He who maketh peace in his
high places, so that these worlds, many of them
crossing each other's track, do not interfere, has
made your orbit, and had regard to all its dan-
gerous exposures, and brought you safely on
your way, while not for one moment you had an
absolute control of yourself, or defence against
destruction.

We shall see that stupendous as the universe
is in its plan, the history of our redemption up
to the hour when you will be presented faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding
ju}r, involves more that is astonishing than the
stars, and that He who is " the brightness of the
Father's glory," and is now " upholding all
things by the word of His power," by Himself
purged your sins, and then, and not till then as

THE STAES NUMBEEED AND NAMED. 257

God and man, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high, thus declaring human redemp-
tion to be the chief of all His works.

Let every one, therefore, who has been called
to great sorrow, rejoice that God has been occu-
pied with his affairs even though it be by afflic-
tion. For in the creation of worlds, no doubt
there is erreat confusion at first. " The earth was

o

without form and void and darkness was upon
the face of the deep," and a spectator might
have thought that annihilation was coming

O &

sooner than order and beauty.

We feel that our losses and sorrows will de-
stroy us ; but not so if we love God. We are
" of more value" not only than " many sparrows,"
but many worlds. Indeed those billions of fixed
stars with all their planets considered as mere
matter, are not worth your soul. They cannot
love God, nor can they glorify Him as much as
your redemption and salvation. Were the ques-
tion to arise whether to save you all those
orbs shall perish, the answer has already been
given, in that He who made them has given
Himself for you, and " He that spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things ? " " He that built the house hath
more honor than the house ; " therefore, if the
Maker of suns and planets gave Himself for

258 THE BROKEN IN HEAET HEALED:

your sins, if you, every time you pray, make
mention of a sacrifice for your soul more costly
than all this astronomy, do not think that when
it is said that He who binds up broken hearts
numbers the stars and calls them all by their
names, there is any exaggeration. If there be
exaggeration it is on the other side, in compar-
ing the material universe with your incompara-
ble being, as a son, an heir, of God, a joint heir
with Christ.

When we travel throughout this great ex-
panse of suns and planets, wearing, each of us,
a glorified body like unto the Son of God, we
shall perhaps find that to be a member of the
human family redeemed by Christ, " which is
the head of all principality and power, is the
chief distinction among the creatures of God.

Reflect on the wisdom and power of the Most
High in the wa}*s by which He has comforted
you. He has compensated you for losses, or
made them the means of good which is worth
all it cost. He has shed abroad in your heart a
peace which passeth all understanding. He has
made some of your sorrows like a discovered
star, a centre to some system of truth, or new
order of things in your life revolving around
that affliction. None but God could do this,
" who turneth the shadow of death into the
morning," who giveth "joy for mourning and

THE STARS NUMBERED AND NAMED. 259

the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi-

ness."

The more we reflect upon it the less shall we
be surprised at the connection of these two
verses seemingly so unlike. For the God who
may have sowed the year for you with sorrow,
is the God who planted the heavens with those
heavenly bodies which make up the several con-
stellations, all having a plan and order, as in the
purpose of God your trials have, which at last
will evolve themselves into a cluster to the praise
of Him who holds the seven stars in His right
hand.

It- is better to have hearts broken, and to have
God heal them than that they should not have been
broken, better to be wounded and have God bind
us up, than not to have been wounded. Look-
ing back upon our troubles and seeing how they
helped us on to heaven, and finding again, as
many will, all whom they lost for a season, we
shall s;iy that if there be one cause of thanks-
giving above another in our personal experience,
it is, that a faithful God broke our hearts to heal
them ; wounded us, to bind us up.

But, if we have not been afflicted, can we on
such an occasion as this ; can we, in view of un-
mingled happiness in the past, derive instruc-
tion and comfort from this theme ?

Yes, for if you love God, losing these bless-
ings will work for your good.

260 THE BEOKEN IN HEART HEALED:

We are sometimes made to sigh even when
we are merry. " Surely in laughter the heart is
sad." On every annual festival we involuntarily
repeat, What changes another year may bring !
But they who love God are sure that nothing
will happen to them by His appointment which
will not be for the purpose of enlarging the
sphere of their spiritual vision. Christian peace
and joy, therefore, are well founded ; they are
rational. It is not fanciful to suggest that every
miraculous gift bestowed on the apostles has a
spiritual counterpart in the experience of all
who are born of the Spirit.

Our Saviour, speaking of His own marvellous
works, says to the apostles, " And greater works
than these shall ye do, because I go to my Fa-
ther,"

That we do not err in supposing that there is
a designed connection between these two pas-
sages, and that the contemplation of the heavens
is here designed to illustrate the wisdom and
power of God in His treatment of the afflicted
whom He loves, we have only to recall the fol-
lowing words : " Lift up 3*0111* eyes on high,"
says the Great God, " behold, who hath created
these things? that bringeth out their hosts by
number ; He calleth them all by their names
by the greatness of His might, for that He is
strong in power, not one fuileth. Why sayest

THE STAES NUMBERED AND NAMED. 261

thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way
is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is pas-
sed over from my God ? Hast thou not known,
hast thou not heard that the everlasting God,
the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainted not neither is weary? There is no
searching of His understanding. He giveth
power to the faint ; and to them that have no
might He iucreaseth strength."

XV.

THE REMOVAL OF ISRAEL'S CLOUD
TO THE REAR. *

"And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed
and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their
face, and stood behind them." — Exodus 14 : 19.

ON the border of the Red sea the children of
Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold the
Egyptians marched after them, and they were
sore afraid. Six hundred chosen chariots were
there and with them all the chariots of Eg}rpt,
and captains over every one of them. Destruc-
tion seemed sure. The Israelites were an un-
disciplined host ; their wives and children were
mingled with them ; no munitions of war ; a
desert on either side ; the Red sea in front ; all
Egypt in pursuit infuriated by the plagues which
the God of these Hebrews had sent upon them.
The faith of Israel gave way to despair. They
said to Moses, "Because there were no graves
in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the
wilderness? Is not this the word that we did
tell .thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been bet-
(202)

THE REMOVAL OF ISEAEL's CLOUD. 263

»

ter for us to serve the Egyptians than that we
should die iu the wilderness." Little did they
dream, however, that they were brought there to
be a spectacle to the world through all ages;
they did not remember that man's extremity is
God's opportunity.

The pillar of cloud which had been to them a
pioneer in the desert now began to countermarch,
and took its position at the entrance of the camp.
Dark as a rising storm to the Egyptians the
cloud shed light upon Israel, " So that the one
came not near to the other all night." The
leader of Israel, by divine command, stretched his
hand over the sea and straightway the waters
saw it and fled ; the bottom of the sea, which for
ages had not seen the light, became a floor for
their feet, a solid road for their beasts of burden ;
the waters stood up like a' heap on either hand.
" They went through tlie flood on foot, there did
they rejoice in Him." But as much as they en-
joyed the wall of waters on either hand and the
marvellous faith which .gave them firm foot-
hold over the bottom of the deep, they were
ever thinking of the whole military force of Egypt
in their rear. What if they should be suddenly
overwhelmed by horses and chariots? These
walls of water hemmed them in ; flight was im-
possible. .Has God dried up the sea to make a
grave for Israel ? With an eye of faith one and

264 THE REMOVAL OP

another looked behind to the pillar of fire which
had now planted itself in their rear. God was
there, the angel Jehovah who smote Egypt in
their first-born, whose mercy endureth forever.
While before them the light from the cloud
reached to the further shore, the cloud itself
formed an impenetrable veil between Israel and
the pursuers : no sight of horses and chariots af-
frighted them any more ; they saw their ene-
mies only when the returning waters washed
their dead bodies to the shore.

All this was effected l?y the removal of the
pillar of cloud from before them to a position in
their rear, mercifully bringing darkness between
them and their enemies. The veil hung down
to keep the pursued from seeing the pursuers,
while it hid them from their enemies.

Some of the painters, and an artist in the
mother country who has illustrated the " Pil-
grim's Progress," have had wonderful skill in
throwing light forward and making darkness be-
hind it. But no pencil is like the hand of Him
who at creation divided the light from the dark-
ness ; which He did here, making the past dark
and the onward way bright. He can let down
a veil from heaven to earth, and on one side of
it there shall be darkness which can be felt, and
on the other side light.

Though Israel had seen the power of God in

ISRAEL'S CLOUD TO THE REAR. 265

the plagues of Egypt, we doubt if any one or
all of those plagues affected them as did the re-
moval of that pillared cloud from their front to
their rear at this crisis in their history, closing
up to their eyes the terrifying sight of their ene-
mies, and to the enemies all sight of their help-
less victims.

This passage leads me to speak of GOD OUR
REARWARD. It is God alone who can make
the past a source of peace and comfort. We
think much of the future ; we desire greatly to
have an assurance that all will be well with us
in time to come. But do we sufficiently reflect
how much this depends on having the past mer-
cifully considered by our Almighty Friend?
We accept with gratitude the promise, " The
Lord shall go before thee ; " but do we fully
consider how important the concluding part of
that passage is : — " and be thy rearward ? "

Never, in any stage of their history, did Israel
.need God to go before them more than when
with the Red Sea in front and Pharaoh pursuing
them, they needed that God should be their
rearward. Our happiness depends much at
times on having the angel of God " which went
before " us seem to remove and stand behind us.
For

I. WE OFTEN NEED TO BE DEEPLY IM-

266 THE REMOVAL OF

s

PRESSED WITH THE MEMORY OF PAST BLES-
SINGS.

Perhaps at the present time, we have, and in
coming days shall have, occasion to recall the
interposition of God in our past history. There
will be times when we shall only need that God
should do for us according to His past mercies
to make us perfectly happy ; times when we
shall say, " Lord, where are Thy former loving-
kindnesses which Thou swarest unto David in
Thy truth ? "

The burden of many a prayer will be, " O
continue Thy loving-kindness unto them that
know Thee." Time after time it will be the
richest comfort in trial, to recall the favors which
God did for us in days gone by ; "I was brought
low and He helped me," will be the all-power-
ful rebuke to every fear. We are brought into
straits oftentimes merely for God to show His
power, or His wisdom, or His surprising good-
ness ; and therefore it is wise at such times, in-
stead of murmuring, to think of past experience,
saying, " How can the God who did such won-
derful things for me, fail me now ? "

The 136th Psalm has twenty-six verses, each
of which ends with this : " For His mercy en-
dureth forever." We feel ashamed when we
read how Israel said, " Can God furnish a table

ISRAEL'S CLOUD TO THE REAR. 267

in the wilderness? Behold He smote the rock
that the waters gushed out, and the streams over-
flowed ; can He give bread also ? Can He pro-
vide flesh for His people ? ' We acquiesce in.
the punishment which followed, and then, per-
haps, we sin in like manner. O that the cloud
would go behind us now and then, to keep us
from forgetting all His benefits. The remem-
brance of the past is sometimes as good as new
mercies. We need and still shall need to be im-
pressed with the memory of past blessings.

II. WE NEED THE PILLAR OF CLOUD BE-
HIND US FOR OUR PROTECTION FROM THE
EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PAST.

It availed nothing to Israel that God had
brought them out of Egypt with a stretched out
arm, if they were now to fall a prey before the
pursuing army of Pharaoh. So they cried out,
" It had been better for us to serve the Egyp-
tians than that we should die in the wilderness."
Then the cloud rose and went behind them to
intercept any evil consequences of their flight
from Egypt. Thus we shall need, in. future,
protection from the mistakes, follies, sins of the
past. We may have already erred, and the con-
sequences, if not arrested, may be a Pharaoh
and his host. Therefore, let the angel of the

268 THE REMOVAL OF

covenant go behind us, and let the fiery pillar
stand there, to prevent us from direful memor-
ies. For it is safe to say that a large part of
human misery arises from regretful recollections.
We would gladly atone for hasty words and
rash actions ; but perhaps the wish is vain. We
omitted some duty and we feel the effects.
We took a wrong step, and it led into snares. We
gave occasion for hatred, perhaps lasting en-
mitj'. What would we not give if we could for-
get some unpleasant passage in our behavior!
Must we go through life with a Pharaoh and his
chariots and their captains behind us ? We feel
it were better for us to die than to live. But we

•

should gain nothing by dying ; we should re-
trieve nothing, unless we should sleep in Jesus,
and be at peace with God through our Lord Je-
sus Christ. " Son ! remember " this. For other-
wise there would be added to these dreadful recol-
lections which we invoke the grave to bury, ten-
fold more which a quickened memory would
bring to mind, enmities, sense of loss, partings
with loved ones, indented in our memories. It
is better to live and make memory our friend
through the blood of Jesus.

There are also remembered joys, and it is the na-
ture of memory to make remembered joys the
source of sadness unless faith in Jesus and hope
through grace be in active exercise. Worse than

ISRAEL'S CLOUD TO THE BEAK. 269

all there is the recollection of our sins. With the
memory of them there mingles self-reproach per-
haps, exceeding everything else in our recollec-
tion of them. Better for us always if we could
then say, " Against Thee, Thee only have I sin-
ned and done this evil in Thy sight." Better
for us to fall into the hands of God with sor-
row for sin. For God can forgive us, and does
forgive us many a time when we do not forgive
ourselves ; our pride is wounded, we see we
are not humbled, when we are unwilling to be
forgiven. God can confer no greater favor upon
us in the way of making us happy, than by
standing behind us with the tokens of forgive-
ness, declaring His righteousness for the re-
mission of the sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God. Were we only as just in
our intercourse with God as we are with men,
in one respect, it would be for our comfort.
For are we not uneasy when a man has inadver-
tently paid his bill the second time ? Do we not
make haste and send him word that the account
was settled once ? We are not willing to sleep till
we have returned the money ; we cannot endure
to be twice paid. God may be said to have such
feelings toward us ; in proof of* which hear these
words: '-If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness;" — "faithful and

270 THE REMOVAL OF

just," — implying that there would be injustice in
His exacting any thing of one who has accepted
the atonement, pleaded the substitution which
has been made. It is wonderful that we may
say this ; but " having boldness by the blood of
Jesus " we may.

Some will inquire " Is it not presumption in
you to say that ? Do you think that confessing
our sins lnys God under obligation?" I reply,
He lays Himself under obligation ; I fear that
you are timid, unwilling to take God at His
word.

There would be a scriptural hope of accept-
ance with God in mairy, if they would believe
this simple truth, that confession of sin and ac-
ceptance of offered pardon through Christ saves
the soul at once and forever. Divine justice
will not suffer itself to be paid twice for sin.
The reason is, Christ died for us ; and " in than
He died, he died unto sin once." Some think
that they cannot have the pleasure of repentance
if they are forgiven. Let them know that they
do not repent at all till they are forgiven. "Re-
turn unto Me for I have redeemed Thee.'' — Jer-
emiah 44 : 22. Repentance after pardon, is not
only proper; but there is no repentance so deep
as that which comes with a sense of forgiveness.
We see this in a child to whom we sa}r, 1 for-
give you. Ho\v the little heart breaks, how the

ISRAEL S CLOUD TO THE HEAR. 271

tears flow, how passionately the arms enfold
your neck. So through the Christian life. We
all testify that we never have felt such sorrow
for sin as when at the foot of the cross we em-
brace the feet which were nailed there for our
sins. Rowland Hill said, " If when I lay down
my pilgrim staff at the gate of heaven I should
drop a tear, it would be at taking leave forever
of that sweet, safe, profitable companion, Repent-
ance.

There is less danger of conviction of sin being
counterfeit than anything else. We may be de-
ceived when a child tells us how he loves the
Saviour; the child may err in thinking its emo-
tions under the pathetic representations of the
Saviour's appeals, to be Christian love. But
when we have seen a child rationally convinced
of its sinfulness and yet weeping with gratitude
with a sense of forgiveness, seldom have we
erred in believing its repentance to be genuine.
Repentance is the sorrow of love. If we confess
our sins, pleading the. satisfaction which Christ
has made and which God has accepted, and then
do not believe that we are forgiven, we are pay-
ing justice twice ; and that is unbelief. Not be-
lieving, after all that God through Christ has
done for us, is surely wrong. To say " I have
not repented enough," shows that we are trying
'to make atonement for sin. You cannot do it ;

272 THE REMOVAL OF

even eternal misery would not be an adequate
satisfaction for sin, for it is not the sacrifice
\\liicli divine justice has appointed. The Word
made flesh is the sacrifice. A soul that pleads
it, need not say, " I have not repented enough."
You never can repent enough as a satisfaction
to divine justice, for repentance is not an atone-
ment. It is a great mystery, an adorable mys-
tery, it never ceases to amaze the mind of a be-
liever that trusting in the atonement satisfies
the conscience of a sinner at once, and he cannot
explain why it is. Dr. Watts has expressed the
idea,

Jesus, my Great High Priest,

Offered his blood and died ;
My guilty conscience seeks

No sacrifice beside.
His powerful blood did once atone,
And now it pleads before the throne.

Why a guilty conscience which has found the
sacrifice of Christ, is at once quieted, as every
believer testifies, is a question which no doubt
the inquisitive Israelites might have asked about
the brazen serpent, by faith in which, the people
were restored. Therefore desist at once from
trying to " feel more," as many say ; as though
that could atone for you. Believe this : If you
accept the atonement of Christ as a free gift, you

ISRAEL'S CLOUD FKOM THE BEAK. 273

are saved. One might stake his own personal
hope of acceptance with God, if he could, on the
truth of this declaration, that every one who
confesses to God his sinfulness and accepts -Je-
sus Christ as his substitute, has repented, is jus-
tified, "shall not come unto condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life."

Therefore 3^011 may look behind you over the
•whole of life, and see the pillar of cloud moving
over all, standing behind all, shedding its beau-
tiful radiance over all your history, as though it
were sajdng, "Who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ that died." One may boldly plead for
pardon before he is conscious of having satisfied
himself with sorrow for sin. Sorrow for sin
without looking at Christ is self-righteousness.

The greatest experience in Israel's history,
forever mentioned in their songs of thanksgiving,
was this act of grace, bestowed upon them when
they were unbelieving, weak, ready to despair,
seemingly on the brink of ruin : — wonderful
sight ! the angel of the Lord breaking camp and
going to their rear ! that beautiful meteor, the
guiding cloud, sailing back over their six hun-
dred thousand fighting men, powerless as their
infants, while Egypt was pouring out its swarm-
ing myriads to swallow them up. So, my soul!
thy sins and the hosts of hell are ready this day
to destroy thee ; but the angel of the covenant

274 THE BEMOVAL OF

has not forsaken tliee ; faith can see Him, as
plainly as Israel beheld Him going to their rear to
stand between them and danger; are not His
promises a pillar of cloud to you, and do they
not stand, between you and the past, saying,
" I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy trans-
gressions for mine own sake, and will not remem-
ber thy sins ? ::

This removal, mentioned in the text, of the
angel Jehovah and His pavilion of cloud from
the front to the rear of Israel's camp, on the oc-
casion of their going out of Egypt, is peculiarly
fitted to instruct us in reviewing the past. So
it instructed Israel going out of Egypt into the
untrodden desert. Good people in Israel must
have been deeply affected to see that wonderful
meteor which had led their way, taking its posi-
tion behind them. They must have felt safe, as
safe as omnipotence could make them, seeing
that fiery sign hanging down between them and
Egypt. No dark night or tempest had yet been
able to quench or even eclipse its preternatural
lio-ht. Egypt finds it as dark as Israel had found
it luminous. The Israelites were baptized unto
Moses by this evolution of the cloud and by his
guidance of them through the sea; we would have
been willing to predict their confidence in him
their leader, until they had reached the Prom-
ised Land. And as for God, He, by one act

ISRAEL'S CLOUD TO THE KEAK. 275

passing from front to rear in that critical hour, the
cloud shedding darkness on Pharoah, and Ikrht

i_J / Q

on Israel, the waters too, standing up on either
side of them, stretched His line upon them, and
His hand gave the sea His decree that the waters
should not pass over.

Of all that host that came out of Egypt by
Moses, only two adults reached Canaan ; because
they believed not God, but forsook the counsel
of the Most High. Therefore, God kept the na-
tion wandering forty years in the wilderness ;
unbelief postponed the settlement of Israel in
Canaan for a whole generation.

Now I will point you to several things and ask
you a question. See that angel who is destroy-
ing all the first-born of man and beast in Egypt
pausing before each door where the hyssop
branch had sprinkled the passover blood, leaving
the little company within unharmed. Take
your place in imagination where you can see the
hosts of Egypt struggling in the waters; seethe
light thrown forward on the hindmost of Israel's
company arriving safe ashore. Now as you join
in the song of Moses there, or follow the com-
pany of women with their timbrels, this is my
question ; Are you not willing to make prophecy
that a people with such a God is sure be a na-
tion of believers ? For still look on : Nation af-
ter nation melts away before them ; Jordan emu-

276- THE REMOVAL OF

lating the Red sea, and the people passing out of
its dried 'bed ; from which twelve stones are
taken, for an altar of witnesses. See them going
round a great city in silence six days ; on the
seventh day blowing rams' horns, and without a
javelin thrown, those walls fall as by an earth-
quake ; a great city is made defenceless in a
moment. Israel is soon in possession, not only
of that city but of the land of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Gerizzites, Hivites and Jebu-
sites. O, had they hearkened to the voice of
God and walked in His way !

We cannot conceive of the national greatness
to which that people would have attained; or of
the progress which they would have made in
the arts of life, discoveries, inventions, and all
that can ennoble the human race. Contemptuous
word of inspiration, " their carcasses fell in the
wilderness." Carrying out their unbelief they
killed the Prince of life, of whom they were the
betrayers and murderers, and they have never
repented of it; they are now in their dis-
persion a standing monument of unbelief and
its consequences. God help us to do contrary
to their example. We are worse than they if
we are unbelievers in Christian congregations.
Believe God. Believe on His Son whom He has
sent. Obey His gospel. Keep His command-
ments.

ISRAEL'S CLOUD TO JDBE BEAK. .2.77

And now, Angel of thq/t covenant ! stand we
pray you over against JJie past ; cover our sins
with the atoning blood^ remind us of past mer-
cies ; be a shield to ils against the evil conse-
quences of our sins aifd of our follies ; make the
way behind us a Rod Sea, burying unpleasant
recollections, fears, transgressions ; then go be-
fore us on our heavenward way.

Finally, This rearward angel and this pillar of
cloud seem to bid/ne to say to believers, It shall
be well with you. *For these two things are true
concerning all wl» believe in Jesus. First, You
have not seen jpur best days; and, Second^,
You never will. Never through eternity, will
you arrive atjthat summit of bliss from which
you will anticipate declension. Onward and up-
ward is to be tyour way. "Thou wilt show me
the path of Ufe ; in Thy presence is fulness of
joy ; at Thy* right hand are pleasures forever-

more." Such is the prospect of all who repent
and believe.

To all others remaining in unbelief it is equally
true, First, You have not seen your worst da}rs.
No angel of the covenant is standing behind
you ; for you have made no covenant with God.
No pillared cloud has been leading you ; uncov-
enanted mercy, liable at any time to leave you,
good fortune, luck, chance, is your only security.
Bitter as your .sufferings may have been, there

278 THE REMOVAL OF ISRAEL'S CLOUD.

are greater in storeVf you continue without

Christ. Great as youV losses have been, you

have more to lose ; bereavements can make you

still more desolate; enmkes more excruciating

are laid up for you ; you! way is into a Red sea

with the waters standing rVmdto bury you; and,

Secondly, As you have ndfeyet seen your worst

days, so, remaining withouY Christ, you never

will. There will be alwaysfomethmg worse to

come. Prevent this by immediate acceptance

of that Gospel which you ha^ heard so long in

vain.

Now, he who with one act^pf faith

Shall confidently say,
I look for pardon through T|y blood,

Is saved, saved now ; alwaj
"AND THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY,

COME. AND LET HIM THAT B^ARETH SAY,
COME. AND LET HIM THAT is A^ HIRST COME.

AND WHOSOEVER WILL, LET HlT£ TAKE THE
WATER OF LIFE FREELY."

)AILYADV£RTISER,

book was

RHINO- H'T O io.-a (av9rable opinion
I±I>VJT, \JL i. y, Ibio. Lutions darina- a

I for his health,
discussion in the
i Dr. Adams after-
respondeuce with
be subject.
s an officer of the
of the American
ign missions. On
5 obliged in 1869 to
society refused to
g rather to obtain
w Dr. Adams to
ealth. He made a

hip GolUeii Fleeuc

F. Weld & Co. and
Two daughters ac-
s a delightful one,
fit to Dr. Adams.
1869 the ship went
to Honolulu and
870. i'or several
een in very feeble
een anticipated for

NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D.D.
TheRev.Nehemiah Adams, D.D., senior pastor
Union Congregational church, Columbus
Avenue, died at the residence of his son-in-law
Mr. Daniel W. Job, in the Highland district late
Sunday night at the a^e of seventy-two years and
seven months. Dr. Adams was at the time of his
death the oldest pastor in Boston, havino- held
the pastoral relation to the Union church for
tony-four consecutive years. His active partici-
pation in the famous Unitarian controversyTave
bun a wide reputation as a theologian. He wal In
able pulpit orator and an industrious writer, and
» bis lifetime published several religious works
oesides contributing to various periodicals In
his writings be did n. t confine himself to the field
ol religion, however, but took up secular subjects,
a notable departure in this line being a discussion
ot the slavery question, upon which in 1854 he
published a book written from the Sotitharn point

Dr.' Adams was born at Salem, Mass., February
19, 1806, and graduated at Harvard University in
the class of 1826. Among his classmates were
Robert Rantoul, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Dr
Edward Jarvis and a number of gentlemen who
subsequently became Unitarian ministers, includ-
^g ^r> ,A> TF' Pea°°dy, Professor O. Stearns and
Drs. G. W. Hosmer, John c. Palfrey and George
Putnam. He pursued his theological studies at
Andoyer Theological Seminary, where he gradu-
ated in 1829. On the 17th of December of that
year he was installed as colleague pastor with
tbe Rev. Dr. Holmes of the First church, Cam-
bridge, and on March 26, 1834, he was installed as
pastor of the Essex-street church in this city
His relation with the latter society, which became
some years ago a component part of the Union
Congregational society, remained unbroken to
the time of his death, thoush for a number of
years past the active duties of the pastorate have
been performed by a colleague. It was after en-
tering upon his ministry in Boston that lie be-
came engaged in the Unitarian controversy, oil
which topic be preached vigorous and scholarly
sermons, and published several books in
detence of the Trinitarian doctrine. One of
these publications was entitled "Remarks on the
Unitarian Belief." In a periodical entitled the
Spirit of the Pilgrims, published from 1826 to
1833, and devoted to the defence of the Puritan
faiih as against tbe modifying and destructive
tendercies of modern liberal thought, he appeared
with great frequency. Other published writings
of bis are, "The Friends of Christ in the New
Testament," (1853) a "Life of John Eliot," an "Au-
tobiography of Thomas Shepard," "Christ a
Friend," "Agnes and the Key of her Little Cof-
fin," "Bertha and her Baptism," "Communion
Sabbath," and others of a devotional or otherwise
religious character, including tracts and address-
es. His "South-Side View of Slavery," published
in 1854, is perhaps the best remembered ot his
books, from the stronar feeling it called out on the

omorrow at 11 A.M.
avenue.

H ADAM 3.
ho Rev. jNeliemiah
ay morning at the
e, which was well
iceased, including a
In the rear of the
•niag colors, and on
s b en u : i f u 1 11 o r al o f -
e casket, which was
ounteil with silver.
The Rev. F. A. VYar-
nductecl the services,
r. Blagclen ot Uie Ola
Chickering of \Yash-
tbe Rev. E. K. Aiden,
>t Springfield and the
rt address was made
followed by a review
of Dr. Adams by Dr.
music by a selected

•emains were taken to
he v) all -bearers being
he Rev. J. H. Mean?,
lev. A. MeKeuzie of
Stt, Scurtder of Great
• Punch an! of P.oston
of Novthborougli.

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