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mand of the Lord Jesus Christ? And how can he infer that he has any love to God, who is never willing to avow it; how can he have any true dependence on the Saviour who is unwilling to recognize it; how can he have any sympathy with him who is unwilling to take up his cross, and to suffer shame and reproach, if need be, in his cause? God, therefore, has put this subject just where all other things are put. And as we infer that a man has no friendship for us whose name and influence are with our enemies, and who never ranks himself with us; as we infer that a man has no love of country who prefers that his name should be enrolled among her enemies, and who never comes forth to fight her battles, or to advance her cause, so are we not to infer the same thing respecting the great truths and duties of religion? Every man who truly loves the Lord Jesus is required in a proper way to express that love; every man who does not in the proper way express that love, gives evidence that it has no existence in his heart.

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(2.) We learn from our subject that men have no excuse if they are not Christians, and are not saved. have seen that that salvation is proposed on the simplest terms possible, and on the lowest conditions on which God could offer it to guilty men. And no one can doubt this fact who ever looked at the scheme. Nor can any one doubt it who contemplates what it has done. Thousands and tens of thousands of the poor, the illiterate, the despised; thousands of children, as well as of the rich and the great, have embraced it, and been saved. But if this is so, then man is without excuse. Had it been a scheme fitted to an intellect above that of man, then he could not have been under obligation to embrace it. Had it required us to do a work like raising the dead, or creating a world, then man would have been free from blan e if he did not embrace it. And in like manner, if God had required all to go on a pilgrimage to a distant land; or all to purchase salvation with gold, how few of the race could have availed themselves of the privilege, and been saved!

And thus, too, if it were dependent on any other impossibility, or any thing beyond the powers and capabilities of man, he would have been innocent in respecting

it. Nay, he would not only have been innocent in rejecting it, but would have been required to reject it. But none of these things can be pretended. It is as simple as it can be; so plain that he that runs may read; as wide in its offers as the world; and it is offered to men on the lowest possible conditions. The simplest thing imaginable is all that is required to be saved. "Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." What can man ask more than this? What terms more easy, more feasible, more merciful, more just? And what excuse will be rendered in the last day if these terms are rejected, and if the soul shall be lost? Who will be to blame for the destruction of the soul? Who, if eternal ruin is brought down on our heads, and we sink down to wo? What can man say in the day of judgment, if he will not ask for pardon? Why should he not be lost if he will not do it?

(3.) Finally. I may state in one word the true reason which operates on many minds to prevent their being Christians. A nobleman of the East, rich and honored at a magnificent court, was affected with the leprosy. He heard, by a servant girl, of a celebrated prophet. He went to him." Go," said the man of God, "and wash seven times in Jordan, and thou shalt be healed. And he turned away in a rage." rage." "Lo, I thought," said he, "he will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of JEHOVAн his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean ?" 2 Kings v. 11, 12. To man, proud even in the deep leprosy of sin, God also sends a message of mercy. Go,' is his language, 'to the man of Nazareth. Go to the cross. Go, without money and without price; go, poor, and weary, and heavy laden, and penitent. Go not on a pilgrimage; go not with pomp and parade; go not with your gold and your honors; go not depending on your rank, or your deeds of righteousness; go with the beggar and the slave. Go, and lie down beneath the cross with the most degraded of the human race, a lost, wretched, ruined, leprous man; go, and receive life as the mere gift of God,

and render to the bleeding victim on the tree all the praise of your redemption.' And O when this is said, in how many hearts does the spirit of the proud yet leprous Assyrian rise; and the lip curls with scorn, and the brow is knit with anger, and the sinner turns away in a rage. 'Am I thus to be saved?' is the language of his heart. Rather let me die.' And he dies-and sinks to wo, because it was too easy to be saved!

SERMON XI.

THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH A PROFESSION OF RELIGION SHOULD BE MADE. NO. I.

II. Cor. vi. 17. 18. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

THIS passage of Scripture is an address to Christians, and states the principles on which they should act in reference to the world. It demands a separation from the world; and it contains the assurance that if such a separation exists, God will be their father, and that they shall sustain to him the relation of adopted children.

My wish, at this time, is, not however to apply it to Christians in general, but to the first public act of a Christian's life-the act of making a profession of religion. That, emphatically, is an act of coming out from the world; an act of separating ourselves from others; an act by which we express our purpose not to "touch the unclean thing"; an act by which we publicly declare our purpose to live as becomes "sons or daughters of the Lord Almighty." The doctrine which it will be the main object of this discourse to defend, is, that a profession of religion implies a separation from the world, and a purpose to lead a life of holiness; and my aim will be to derive from the New Testament the principles on which such a profession should be made.

It is the duty of every man to make a profession of religion. It would be easy to make this apparent if it were necessary to the design of this discourse. Nothing can be more evident than that every man should profess to be the friend of the one only God who made him, and of the Redeemer who died to save him. But this obligation to profess religion supposes a previous obligation to embrace it, and to become a sincere Christian. It supposes that

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there should be certain qualifications in order that it may be done in a manner that will be acceptable to God.

The importance of just views on this subject will be apparent from two considerations. One is, that a profession of religion is one of the most important steps in a man's life. Its vows are sacred; its results such as must deeply affect his destiny. Henceforward he will be recognised as a professed friend of God, and stand before the world as a publie witness of the truth and a candidate for immortal glory. A part of the obligation of evincing the nature of true religion, and of defending and extending it, will rest on him; and to him the world will look as an example of what religion is designed to be. The other consideration showing the importance of just views in making a profession of religion, is, that his whole Christian character and usefulness will probably depend on the feelings with which he enters the church. It is undoubtedly a fact, that of those who become professing Christians, scarce one in five contributes much to its real strength. Some have very limited means of usefulness. Some are scarcely fitted, either from want of talent or education, to do good at all except in the very narrowest circles. But of those who do not labor under these disqualifications, the number of those who are the bone and sinew of the church; who are the bold and unflinching advocates of the truth; who sustain the prayer meetings and the institutions of benevolence; who can be depended on when a tide of worldliness and vanity comes in upon the church; who labor with a zeal that never tires, and an ardor that never cools to save souls from death, is comparatively very few. Part are zealous for a time, and then their zeal dies away like "the morning cloud and the early dew." Part are characteristically indolent, and bring no active energy to the cause of Christianity. Part become soon conformed to the world, and are better known there than in the church. Part become immersed in political strifes, and their influence as Christians expires of course. Part become rich, and are introduced into new circles of life, and their first attachment to the church becomes chilled and cold. Part form new connections in life, and their ardor languishes, and they thus show that whatever there might have been

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