"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Nay, not even such service as this could appease the just anger of God against sin, or make clean the polluted soul of fallen man? God knew this; God saw that after the devil had wrought his malicious object there was no goodness in man, no power to effect a single step in the work of restoration. He saw that the "imaginations of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually," and that he never would and never could atone for the transgression which lay so heavily upon him. And did God, then, condemn our first parents and their whole race to eternal punishment, as he might justly have done? No; for he yet loved man, though so rebellious, so proud, so ungrateful, so wicked; and even on the first occasion of speaking to the fallen pair, even while the announcement of the dreadful curse which they had brought upon themselves and the whole world was yet sounding in their ears, the grand promise of redemption was given forth to the "whole creation groaning and travailing together until now:" I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head; and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is what St. John meant and explained when he said, "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Thus, brethren, we have considered the second fact shown to us in the text, viz., that God loves man, and manifested his love by sending his Son to die for us. III. Let me now direct your attention to the provision his love has made for us, the means of salvation which God has provided: "He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." What is meant by this? Now, brethren, I beg the closest attention while I endeavour to make this important matter clear to all your understandings. Well then, remember that every man, by nature, does offend God; because God is holy, and man is unholy. To propitiate means to appease, to satisfy, the claims of justice, and so turn away the consequences of the just anger against transgression. The justice of God, then, demands that the sinner be punished. The holy law has been broken, and therefore punishment is due; and that punishment is death, "the wages of sin." But the mercy and love of God will the salvation, not the destruction, of the sinner. Then, if so, the calls of justice must be appeased and propitiated, the proper, just anger against sin must be turned away, Observe: the justice of God cannot be destroyed. It must be satisfied; not done away with. Then a propitiation must be made: something must be done which will enable God, as St. Paul says, to "be just, and yet the justifier" of the sinner. And, because we are sinners corrupted, defiled, and spoiled, and ruined by sin, we are unable to do any thing by which we could propitiate God, and so remove our own sins, and make us just beforeGod. We may be very sorry for our unholy state; but rivers of tears would not wash away any of our unholiness. We may reform a wicked life; but even this reformation, laudable as it is in one way, and beneficial as it must be to ourselves in this world, is mixed up with sin; and besides, even were it perfect, it could not atone for, could not remove, the sin we came into the world with, and the sin upon sin which we have committed ever since, and which we still go on committing. And was not all this known to the Almighty mind? Did he not see what a wreck sin had made of the once perfect creation; and did he not know that man was so lost that he never could, by any possibility, do any thing which could propitiate divine justice, and appease the right and proper and just anger of God against sin? Yes: but still his love for us was undiminished, and did indeed shine forth in glowing colours when he pitied our utterly lost and our utterly helpless state, and not only himself devised the means of propitiation, but, relieving man from any and every part of the work of propitiation, sent his only Son to be that propitiation to work that nighty work which could remove the sins of the whole world. And how was this effected? First, as man, Jesus kept God's law completely, entirely, which man cannot do; and he was therefore perfectly holy, which man of himself cannot be. "But without shedding of blood there is no remission" of sins. Nor was the blood of bulls and goats able to remove sin: that was only the type and emblem of the "blood of the covenant." Nor would the blood of a mere man have been sufficient:; for man is full of sin; and the only sacrifice which could propitiate God's anger against sin must be a spotless perfect sacrifice. Behold, then, the completeness of the wonderful provision! The Son of God was made man-perfect man. But being God as well as man, having been born man without any sin, be and was able to keep all God's law. He came into the world without sin, he lived without sin, and he died without sin. Not the faintest breath of sin ever passed over his righteous soul. Here, then, was the needed victim. Here was the only sacrifice which could atone for the curse of sin which was weighing down the whole created world. But would it be offered? Would the Son of God undergo such humiliation, such suffering, such lowliness, such degradation in fact, as to permit sinful and cruel men to imbrue their wicked hands in his pure blood? Yes; for, hear his own words: "Sacrifice and offering, and burnt-offering, and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not; neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law. Then said Jesus, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!" He came to do his Father's will; in humiliation, in suffering, in earthly disgrace, to yield up his life to be the propitiation for sins. And therefore does St. Paul conclude: "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Thus, my brethren, I have endeavoured to show you what God's great love for your guilty souls has done. The propitiation has been made for your sins. No other propitiation can ever be made. But now comes a most important question; and once more I beg your close attention. Since Christ has thus made the offering for sin, and propitiated the Father's anger, and satisfied his justice; and since we know that this has been done, not for the sins of a particular class only, or a particular nation, but for the whole world, will the whole world be saved? Will all people be Will all people who are baptized in Christ's name, and call themselves Christians, be saved? Alas! no; notwithstanding the great remedy, notwithstanding the display of God's vast love. My brethren, what are you to do? Will you perish? O, hear the gospel, preached by our blessed Saviour himself, when he reminds us of his Father's love for our poor lost souls. He says: "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then, perhaps, you will all say, "We do believe in him; and therefore we shall all be saved." So the enemy whispers to many a heart, and with this whisper ruins many a soul. How many people do you see everywhere who say, "We believe," yet who live the enemies of God still, with unconverted hearts, and follow their own lusts! How few people do you see anywhere who do not say, "We believe," and who would be angry if you told them they do not! They forget the difference between the belief of the understanding and the belief of the heart. It surely is easy enough to believe a thing you have been taught from your cradle, and which your common understanding, your common reason, your common sense tell you must be true, because it is written in the word of God. But, my brethren, that is no belief of the heart. Such a belief produces no change whatever in people's conduct. No true repentance accompanies this kind of belief; and condemnation is only increased by it. Yet this is the way Satan deceives the greatest number of so-called Christian people. The apostle says: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." They say: "We do believe; we cannot deny the truth of the gospel; we know it is from heaven; we know that Jesus died to be the propitiation for sin." And alas! many of them then conclude that they shall go to heaven. They forget the first requisite; the absolute necessity for the new birth of the Holy Spirit, the changed heart, which alone can enable them to believe with the heart; as St. Paul says, "unto salvation." "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God, our Lord says. And then, since many fancy they are born again, though living in opposition to the revealed will of God, there is a proof left by which to judge them, and by which they may judge themselves if they please: "If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. So be not deceived, my brethren. If you are living contrary to God's commandments, if you yet love sin, if you yet go on following your own inclination, whatever you may think, whatever you may say, whatever you may profess, yours is no belief of the heart; for your heart is yet unchanged, and you are "Judge 66 not believing unto salvation." I say this to warn you, not to condemn you. yourselves, that ye be not judged of the Lord." But I encourage you when I tell you that Jesus Christ died to make the propitiation for your sins, and that even now, if you turn to him in real belief, the great atonement he made upon the cross is allsufficient to remove your iniquities, and to make you just in the sight of God. Then, if you would be saved, "Seek the Lord while he may be found." Give up your fancies, your false trust in the mercy of God. I say false trust; for it is grievous to find people living in carelessness and disobedience and wickedness, and yet saying they hope to be saved because God is merciful. Such trust is false, and will lead to hell unless given up; for God is just as well as merciful, and must condemn impenitent sinners to everlasting wrath. My brethren, beware of such false trust: it is a snare of the wicked one to entrap your souls. Act according to the word of God, not according to your own fancies, or according to what people ignorant of God's word will tell you. Unless the Spirit of God is in your hearts, you can never know the truth nor the blessings of his gospel; you can never know the benefit of such a truth as I have brought before you to-day. Is the Spirit of God in your hearts? Not-most certainly not while you are living a wicked, careless life; while you are in the unrenewed, unconverted state. And while you are in this state you are in the state of condemnation; and, if you die in this state, your soul will be lost for ever O, may God grant unto you the gracious and wonderful influences of the Holy Ghost to convince you of the truth of his gospel, and to convert your hearts to him, and to make you new creatures in Christ Jesus; that you may possess the everlasting blessings of that propitiation which he made for sin when he poured out his blood on the cross at Calvary. you are 66 And, brethren, such of you as may be under the full blessing of this propitiation, let me urge you to remember the obligations which are therefore imposed upon you. It 66 washed," if you are sanctified," if you are "justified," remember the work which is to progress in your souls; the daily renewal, the increasing watchfulness, the growing likeness to the Saviour, the continual preparation to bid farewell to all below, and to go above, to discover what great things" indeed the Lord has done for your souls. Far behind, indeed, are you in the discovery of what these "great things" will prove to be. As long as God permits you to stay here, you have much to do in extending this discovery; in learning the deep lessons of true religion; in "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before; and pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." There is wealth belonging to the " unsearch able riches of Christ" which you have not yet attained: "covet earnestly the best gifts." Learn more to throw aside hindrances, to overcome obstacles, to set the affections on things above, to have the treasure really and truly in heaven. Do the work of the Lord as regards yourselves and others. You know how God loves you, how he has displayed you this boundless love for you. Surely, then, you need no other inducement to make his willing servants, his most devoted and faithful disciples. But you are helpless without his continued grace. You will fall, unless he hold you up. You will grow dark, unless he continues to enlighten you. You will grow ignorant, unless he continues to teach you. Therefore, still apply to him for grace in every time of need; which, generally speaking, is every hour and every minute you breathe-for the Holy Ghost to dwell ever in your hearts, without ever de parting from you. Still persevere in diligent waiting upon him in and through Jesus Christ, your constant Mediator, your untiring Intercessor; in close attendance upon his di vine ordinances; in instant prayer; in prayer ful, humble study of his word; studied conformity to his holy will, and the perfect example which we have set before us in the spotless life of our adorable Redeemer. Honour him; and he will honour you. O, pray with me that he will now bless this his own ordinance of preaching his word (overlooking the weakness of the instrument), and granting success for his own name's sake, through Jesus, his Son. MAN must have a model. God made him imitative. He is led by the constitution of his nature to form himself on a model. Therefore we cannot attach too much importance to the circumstance of the nature or description of the model which is set up for his imitation. The character of the age itself will be determined by this. Hence I believe that of all the engines which Satan bimof more deadly energy could be devised than to self could employ to contaminate a people, none kindle amongst them an admiration of vicious and corrupt models. Once make a bad and vicious model the object of their admiration, the "god of their idolatry," and you infuse into the mass of the community the deadliest moral poison. There fore he, who has watched the progress of society, it no difficult thing to trace the growing corrup and the various aspects which it assumes, will find tion of an age to the admiration which has sprung O the mischief which a great but bad man may do by his example, it is fearful to think of! This, indeed, is what displays the power of example in its most awful light. Alas! the thousands and tens of thousands whose principles one bad example may undermine! By means of it, that faculty, the imitative faculty, which God has implanted in us for the highest and most useful ends, is perverted into the prolific spring of the most deadly evil. It may almost convert a man into a very demon. This is what makes us feel the tremendous responsibility which attaches to extraordinary genius and celebrity. The great but bad man does mischief to an extent that he himself never contemplates. Thousands whom he never suspects are watching his career eagerly to obtain a sanction for their own cherished sins. Nothing does the world delight in so much as to hear of the vices of the great. The vilest men, the most besotted men, without one redeeming trait, will justify themselves in the most detestable iniquities by the examples of the great. Did great and distinguished men know what use is often made of their celebrity, they would almost wish they never had it: they would loathe it. The lowest and most despicable characters shelter themselves in their enormities by the examples of distinguished men. They glory in their shame, because they think their iniquitous acts make them more like their favourite model. up in it of vicious models. To this beyond ques-ditional interest to him than to make him be retion much of the laxity of morals of the present garded in the odious light in which he deserved time, much of the pride, vanity, selfishness, in- to be viewed. And who therefore would not have subordination, want of natural affection, dis- a few such interesting peccadillos recorded of himobedience to parents, hardness of heart, and con- self? Who would not pluck a laurel from the tempt of God's word and commandments, is to be brow of transcendent genius and of unrivalled traced, even to the admiration of bad and corrupt greatness? models. For who have been the favourite models, with thousands and tens of thousands in this age? who have been the men that have most kindled their enthusiasm, and haunted their imaginations, whose words have been quoted as oracular, whose names are as a talisman, and have given interest to the most trivial incident connected with them? I would not speak uncharitably; but there is no use in concealing the fact that some of them have been men without virtue, integrity, dignity of character, vain, weak, voluptuous, selfish, affected men; but men around whose names their extraordinary genius and talents threw a false glare, which made their very vices attractive in the eyes of multitudes. This excited a wicked emulation in the breasts of thousands to imitate them; for, alas! one unmistakable proof of the apostasy of man is his propension to follow the bad example: the very vices of these men, owing to this propension, became the object of emulation. I fear I do not overstate the fact, when I say that thousands and tens of thousands have been corrupted, when they have heard and read of the errors and vices and profligacies of some men of great genius, acts which ought never to have been recorded-for it is a fearful thing to emblazon and eulogize the errors of great and celebrated men. For to emblazon them is the object designed, let people say what they will to the contrary: this gives a sanction and shelter to vice and iniquity; not only charity, therefore, but prudence and policy should throw into the shade as much as possible the immoralities of the great. The record of them has done immense and irreparable mischief. The recital of the vices and immoralities of celebrated men does not awaken an abhorrence of those vices, as might naturally be expected. On the contrary, it excites a horrid emulation in breasts of thousands to rival these delinquences, these acts of profligacy which should never have been permitted to insult the public eye. Numbers, it is well known, borrow a sanction for their own vices from the recorded vices of great and illustrious men; for nothing does man naturally so delight in as to hear of the secret vices of the eminent. Their profigacies cannot be too bad for them, because they give a patronage to their own sins. They make them "glory in their shame." Thus acts that have been recorded of illustrious men, acts which were worse in the sight of God than those of convicted felons, and which will be dealt with more severely hereafter by that God who will render to all according to the deeds done in the body-acts such as these have actually become objects of rivalry and of guilty ambition. And why forsooth should they not? Some individual, some great man, one whose name cannot be mentioned without a glow of enthusiasm, whose fame flies from lip to lip, whose are "the thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," was renowned for such and such failings. They have been recorded of him, and recorded in such a manner as rather to give an ad This circumstance should be a powerful consideration with the great to make them virtuous; nay, to almost assume the virtue, though they have it not, in order that they may deprive the base and low and mean of the sanction and warrant for their iniquities, which it is well known they derive from their examples. And indeed it may here be mentioned that one of the best symptoms of the moral healthiness of the age would be a deep loathing and scorn of the conduct of some characters which have excited its unbounded admiration. One of the best symptoms of the moral healthiness would be to find men universally regarding as despicable weakness what they once regarded with a sort of secret approval and admiration, as the aberrations of great genius; to find them regard as the basest villany and atrocious wickedness, exploits which carried with them a sort of éclat in the eyes of many, so that they should be ashamed to discern in themselves a trace of resemblance to a course of conduct which they now regard as unprincipled and detestable in every way; and that the feelings of thousands who once not only connived at, but admired those aberrations, should be this: "Whe ther I look to this world or to another, the character upon earth whom I should most abhor to emulate, or to bear any resemblance to, is that of a great, but a bad man." The peculiarity of the Christian system is that it meets and provides for that want or peculiarity of our nature which I have mentioned, and influences human character by means of a model. 4 It proceeds on the assumption that man is imitative, and will be as his model; and it influences him, through the medium of a model. It is through the overmastering love and admiration of a Being of faultless excellence, himself the combination and concentration of all virtues, that it raises and improves character. This model takes possession of the soul. The soul is fired with admiration of it. The model is the all-engrossing object of the mind. It is enthroned in the heart. All the characters which were before admired fade before this, as the light of the stars before the rising sun. All the examples of virtue, of magnanimity, of heroism, of philanthropy, of noble self-denial, which men before admired, sink into nothingness before this; so that the very utmost he can affirm of any character is, that he has a little of the mind of Christ, that he bears a little resemblance to that adorable Being, to that perfect model. Now, a desire to imitate the supreme Object of our admiration follows necessarily from the very law of our being. To catch a ray of his excellence, to imitate the virtues and qualities which shone so transcendently in him, though man's highest virtue, compared with his, be but as a drop of water compared with a mighty oceanunder the influence of such a feeling, and before the contemplation of such a model, all that is weak and vain and selfish and corrupt in his nature will gradually die. As he meditates on the matchless love of his model he will be shamed out of his own selfishness. The contemplation of the model will disgust him with the world's favourite, but vicious model. It will make him more meek, humble, patient, charitable, soberminded; in short, more like his Saviour. And all this will account for that peculiar description or phase of character which is the genuine fruit and offspring of Christianity. This will account for those striking moral changes which we have seen take place in every age under its influence. We have seen men of the worst passions lay aside their fierce nature, become "sober, meek, benevolent," and adorned with the highest Christian graces and virtues. This, moreover, will account for the involuntary homage which the world pays to Christianity. For even with them the name of Christian is a synonyme for every thing that is excellent in character and conduct. At least he who calls himself a Christian, if he be not a virtuous man, is accounted a pretender and hypocrite. This justifies our hope that the wider spread of Christianity is the true panacea for the evils that afflict the world. Yes, grant us the substitution of such a model as Christianity supplies us with, for that which has been too long the favourite one with the world, and we should ere long see the whole of society regenerated. "The moral wilderness would become an Eden, the desert a garden of the Lord." A new era would arise, which would more than realize the brightest conceptions that fancy ever formed to itself of "a golden age." Poetry. HYMNS FOR THE SUNDAYS IN THE YEAR. BY JOSEPH FEARN. (SUGGESTED BY SOME PORTION OF THE SERVICE FOR THE DAY). (For the Church of England Magazine). TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. "He hath done all things well."-(The Gospel for the day) MARK vii. 37. WHEN Jesus through Decapolis In mercy moved along, He caused the deaf to hear his voice, And forth the tale did tell ; While all the multitude exclaimed- And many are the souls that feel That saying to be true, As all the history of their lives Their memories review. In many a scene to them perplexed, They feel constrained the truth to own, Lord, graciously unstop mine ears, And make my heart rejoice. "All things together work for good" PRAYER FOR THE ILL AT EASE. BY THE EARL OF CARLISLE. Bid thy blest Jesus walk a stormier sea 1851. London: Published for the Proprietors, by JOHN HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 246, STRAND, LONDON. |
