Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

that which God has thus joined. Keep the commandments of God: deal with yourself honestly on this point; be not deceived; enter into judgment with yourself: it is far better that you should do this than 1 Co.11.31. that God should do it; and it is only if we judge ourselves that the promise is to us that we shall not be judged. I believe that of all Gospel Sermons the most Evangelical is the rehearsal of the Ten Commandments; the rehearsal of each and of all, in their solemn severity, in their spiritual import, in their personal application; and the enquiry which must ever follow them, How shall I, a sinner, become just Prov.20.9. with God? how shall I make my heart clean? how

Job 9. 2.

shall I be pure from my own sin? To a man so

questioning, the testimony of Jesus will sound sweet I Pet. 2.24. and attractive; telling of One who His own self bare Ez. 11. 19. our sins, of One who offers to endue us with a new

Spirit. To that man it will be no comfort to hear that he may sin on and not die for it; that he may fall asleep in his sins and yet awake to find himself pardoned. To him rather will it be a comfort to hear that already, now at once, not tomorrow but today, he may loose the burden from his back at the sight of Christ's cross, and go forth a forgiven man to be holy and to be strong in God. That is salvation. That is redemption. Not the liberty to keep the testimony of Jesus without keeping the commandments of God. Not the liberty to use

words of love and faith towards Jesus, and go forth in works to deny Him. But the grace, day by day, according to our need, to look upward and be sure of an answer; the infusion into the palsied withered arm of the power to be straight and flexible; the replacing of the leprous defilement, even while we wash in the fountain once opened for sin and for Zec. 13. 1. uncleanness, as with the very flesh of the little child, 2 Ki. 5. 14. so that, behold, we are again clean! That is what we call salvation. That is what includes in one whole the two blessed characteristics, they keep the commandments of God, and they maintain the testimony of Jesus.

2. Secondly, you will observe that it is against such persons that the dragon, who has given up attacking the Church collectively, has now gone forth to make war. Our great enemy, we have seen, does not now so much dread as once he did the existence of Christianity upon earth, or the establishment of the Church upon earth; he thinks he can deal with it in detail: if he can make havoc of the members, he cares less about the body; the body will soon be a mere inert lifeless trunk if he can only lop off one by one its limbs. So that, I repeat it, he is now dealing with Christians individually and in detail. Alas! my brethren, does he so deal quite unsuccessfully? Tell me, you who know something of the Christian life; tell me, you who know what it

is to be softened in heart by the thought of Jesus, and who also have taken pains not to disjoin faith from works, but rather to endeavour to keep the commandments of God as well as, and by the help of, the testimony of Jesus: have you not found this life a struggle? is it any exaggeration to say that you have found it a warfare, a daily battle? And are you not sometimes—yes, confess it, are you not every day more or less-worsted in that ever old, ever new conflict? Are you not sometimes saying in your heart, I must give it up? I am making Deu. 12.9. no way? I am as far from my rest and my inheritance now as I was five years or ten years or twenty years ago? My brethren, the dragon is making war with you just because you are one of those who do in some sense keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. Let that be some comfort to you. He would not go

if you were altogether on his side.

to war with you,

Draw encourage

1Tim.6.12. ment even from your defeats. Rise, renew the good Heb. 2.10. fight; look upwards yet again; see the Captain of

your salvation passing through all before you, sin

alone excepted; hear Him heaving on earth the deep Mat.27.46. sigh; hear Him saying, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? behold Him alone in the wilderness for forty days and nights with the tempter;

behold Him at last conquering not amidst only but

Gen. 3. 15. by means of defeat, bruising the serpent's head in

the very moment of the serpent's bruising his heel; hear Him saying to you, Be of good cheer; I have Joh.16.33. overcome the world: recall these things, ponder them,

digest them inwardly, and then, whosoever you be,

2.

lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so Heb. 12. 1, easily beset you, and run with patience yet a little longer the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus!

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT,

December 8, 1861.

LECTURE XXIV.

REVELATION XIII.

I

AND I was set upon the sand of the sea. And I saw a wild beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads 2 names of blasphemy. And the wild beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet [were] as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth [was] as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if having been slain unto death; and the stroke of his death was healed. And the 4 whole earth wondered after the wild beast. And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave the (such) authority to the wild beast; and they worshipped the wild beast, saying Who is like unto the wild beast? and who is able to war with him? 5 And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemy; and there was given him authority to act 6 [during] forty-two months. And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His 7 tabernacle and them that tabernacle in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints, and to conquer them; and there was given him authority over every tribe 8 and people and tongue and nation. And all they that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, [every one] whose name has not been written in the book of life of the Lamb that hath

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »