"C"

48. Cares to be cast on God

Dear mother, the thought of the children at home has frequently disturbed your devotions in the assembly of the saints. Good friend engaged in business, you do not always find it easy to put a hedge between Saturday and Sunday. The cares of the week will stray into the sacred enclosure of the day of rest, and thus the cruel archers worry you. Ay, and perhaps in the case of those of us who are engaged in God's work, even our solemn engagements enlist against us a set of archers unknown to others; I mean anxieties about the right conducting of services, and arranging the various departments of the church. We become, like Martha, cumbered with much serving, even though we are serving the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and this deprives us of the delightful sitting at his feet, which is heaven below. It is well to be able to cast all our cares on him who careth for us, and thus, by an act of faith in our heavenly Father, to be delivered from the noise of these archers.

49. Carnal Mind, Ignorance of the The tree planted by the river feels not the ague which breeds in the fen and lurks in the morass; but, put a man there, and you will see him shivering from head to foot ere Long; and the carnal mind, dead in sin, knows not the miasma of temptation which lurks around him; but oh, if you were alive unto God your struggle would begin, and you would cry to the strong for help.

50. Cavillers

It is very likely that neither ministers nor their sermons are perfect—the best garden may have a few weeds in it, the cleanest corn may have some chaff—but cavillers cavil at anything or nothing, and find fault for the sake of showing off their deep knowledge: sooner than let their tongues have a holiday they would complain that the grass is not a nice shade of blue, and say that the sky would have looked neater if it had been whitewashed.

51. Ceremonialism, Quackery of

Dr. Ceremonial has patented a lotion for producing regeneration in little children, by the application of a few drops to their forehead. He puts his hands on the heads of boys and girls, and by what he calls occult influence, confirms them in grace. He professes to be able to make a piece of a loaf and a cup of wine to be actually divine, and in themselves a channel of grace to the souls of men. The substances are material—a mouse may nibble at the one, a bottle will hold the other; you can touch them, taste them, smell them, and yet fools adore them as divine, and imagine that material substances can be food for souls. Surely this Dr. Ceremonial flourishes all the more because of the monstrous absurdity of his teachings; his pills are huge, but men have wide swallows and can receive anything. Why, think for a minute, and then wonder for an hour: men are to be sanctified by gazing at genuflexions, millinery and candles! The east is said to be a more gracious quarter of the heavens than the west, and creeds repeated with the head in that direction possess a peculiar efficacy. It appears that in spiritual operation certain colours are peculiarly efficacious; prayers said or sung in white are far more prevalent than in black, and according to the age of the year and the condition of the moon, puce, violet, scarlet, and blue, are more acceptable to God. I have no patience with these things; it is hardly good enough sport for laughter; but so long as fools abound, knaves will flourish, and this Dr. Ceremonial will get men to spend their substance in abundance, and laugh in his sleeve to think that rational beings should be his silly dupes. I trust there are none such here. I hope none of you are so befooled. What can there be in crossings, bowings, and uttering over and over the same words? What is any worship unless the reason and heart enter into it? What can there be in one material substance to give it sanctity? Is it not as absurd as the fetishism of the Bushman, to believe that bricks and mortar, and slates and boarding, could make a holy place? That, indeed, any one place can be a jot holier than another; that any plot of ground can be holier than common ground; or that any man, because certain words have been said over his godless, graceless head, can be made a dispenser of the grace of God, and a pardoner of sins! We are not so befooled, but still this quack drives a good trade, and is held in very high repute.

52. Ceremonies, No Peace in

It may be you have been brought in connection with that church which vainly rests its faith upon the figment of apostolical succession, and the empty parade of episcopal ordination. You have been taught to believe in aquatic regeneration, and confirmation by palmistry; you are the dupe of the dogma of sacramental efficacy, and priestly potency; if so, it is little marvel that you have not found peace, for, believe me, there is no peace to be found in the whole round of ceremonies, even if they were such as God himself prescribed; there is no peace to be found in them, except it be that deadly peace which rocks souls in the cradle of superstition into that deep sleep from which only the judgment trumpet shall awaken them.

53. Character, Impression of

There are men in this world who never do anything with energy, who never under any circumstances throw force into anything they have to do. They walk over the sands of life with a light foot, and make no impression; while others as they tread the pathway which God has allotted for them, take care to bring down their feet with such firmness of purpose and fixedness of resolve, that they leave behind them "footprints on the sands of time," which shall be seen by others after many days. The puff-ball is the emblem of many a forceless life.

54. Childhood, Purity of, a Restraint upon Sin The exhalations of our moral conduct sweeten or defile the general atmosphere of society, and in this children as well as others are partakers. I would say to every man who is giving full swing to his. passions, if nothing else will check you, at any rate pause awhile when yonder fair-haired girls and lisping children are gazing upon you. If you care not for angels, stop for the sake of yon blue-eyed boy. Let not the leprosy of your sin pollute your offspring more than must be. Were you about to utter a lascivious sentence? Withhold it, I pray you, for it is not meet that little ears should so soon be desecrated by that which has become common enough to you, but will as yet be shocking to them. Were you about to blaspheme? Is it not enough to curse your Maker? Why need you bring a second curse upon that harmless little one? Why teach those lips that will be all too ready to learn to speak the hideous word? Man, if any feeling be left to you, respect the purity of childhood, and let the presence of youth, if it be not a motive for sanctity, at any rate be a reason for restraint in open sin. Do not sin cruelly and wantonly against the child.

55. Children in the Church I am very thankful that our heavenly Father has saved so many of the children of this church. We rejoice that

"Many dear children are gathering here, For of such is the kingdom of heaven."

May the Lord plant in his garden many more of those sweet flowers whose buds and blossoms he loves so well. Ah, mothers! you have not to keep a mournful vigil beneath your sons hanging upon the tree: do not grow weary, then, when you are called diligently to watch against your children's follies and failings. Have patience with them! Have compassion for them! What a mercy it is that they are yours! Notwithstanding the trouble they cost you, you would not for all the world lose the prattle of their little tongues, and the music of their merry feet; and as you remember—for perhaps you have already experienced it—how briny are those tears which fall upon little coffin-lids, thank God that you are indulged with the trouble of bringing up your babes; bless God that you have so sweet a weariness as that of caring for their souls.

56. Children, Salvation of

I hate to hear people say, "They have received a pack of children into the church." "A pack of children!" yes, and if Jesus carries them in his bosom, surely you are not imitating Christ, nor exhibiting much of his spirit when you look down upon them and despise them. To me one soul is as good as another. I rejoice as much in the addition of the poorest mechanic to this church as if he were a peer of the realm; I am as grateful to God when I hear of repentance in the young as in the aged, for souls, after all, are not affected in value by rank or age. Immortal spirits are all priceless, and not to be weighed in the scale with worlds. I pray you, therefore, rejoice if the Spirit of God dwells in the lowly or in the great, in the young or in the old. He is the selfsame Spirit, he makes each renewed person equally his temple, and each saved one is equally a jewel of Christ, dear to the heart of the Eternal Father, beloved by him who redeemed all his people alike with his most precious blood.

57. Child's Cry heard by God

It is very seldom Christ Jesus keeps poor sinners waiting long. Sometimes he does. He answers them not a word; but then it is to try their faith. Though he keeps them waiting, he will not send them away wanting; he will be sure to give them mercies, sooner or later. "Though the promise tarry, wait for it," and thou shalt find it yet, to thy soul's salvation. Child of God! has not thy Father come to thee yet? Cry for him! cry for him! Thy Father will come. Nothing fetches the parent to the child like the child's cry. Cry, little one, cry! Thou who hast but little faith. "Ah! but," thou sayest, "I am too weak to cry." Did you never notice that the little one sometimes cries so very low, that when you are sitting in the parlour with the mother, you do not hear it? Up she gets; there is the dear child crying upstairs; and off she goes. She can hear it, though you cannot; because it is her child that cries. Cry, little one; let thy prayer go up to heaven. Though thy minister doth not hear it; though unbelief says no one can hear it, there is a God in heaven who knoweth the cry of the penitent, who "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."

58. Cholera, Voice of the This cholera is like the sound of a trumpet. The voice of the Christian ministry is not heard. Those who go to listen to it do not all hear it, for they hear as though they heard not; while the great mass know nothing, and care less about the preacher's message. The ministry of London is not altogether powerless to those who attend it, but it is utterly without point or force to the dense mass who lie outside the house of God. Disease, however, is a trumpet which must be heard. Its echoes reach the miserable garrets where the poor are crowded together, and have never heard nor cared for the name of Christ,—they hear the sound, and as one after another dies, they tremble. In the darkest cellar, in the most crowded haunt of vice; ay! and in the palaces of kings, in the halls of the rich and great, the sound finds an entrance, and the cry is raised, "The death plague is come! The cholera is among us!" All men are compelled to hear the trumpet-voice—would to God they heard it to better purpose! Would to God all of us were aroused to a searching of heart, and, above all, led to fly to Christ Jesus, the great sacrifice for sin, and to find in him a rescue from the greater plague, the wrath to come!

59. Christ a Physician

There lies a poor man; he has been wounded in battle. In yonder hospital there is a bundle of liniment. The blood is flowing: he has lost an arm; he has lost a leg. There are plenty at the hospital who can bind up his wounds, and plenty of medicines for all that he now suffers. But what use are they? He may lie forlorn on the battle-field and die unfriended: unless there is someone to bring the ambulance to carry him to the place, he cannot reach it himself. He lifts himself up on that one remaining arm, but he falls down faint; the blood is flowing freely, and his strength is ebbing with it. Oh! then it is not the liniment he cares for; it is not the ointment; it is someone who can bring those things to him. Ay, and if the remedies were all put there by his side, it may be, he is so faint and sick that he can do nothing for his own relief. Now, in the Christian religion, there is something more than prescriptions for our comfort. There is one, even the Spirit of truth, who takes of the things of Jesus, and applies them to us. Think not that Christ hath merely put joys within our reach that we may get for ourselves, but he comes and puts the joys inside our hearts. The poor, sick, way-worn pilgrim not only finds there is something to strengthen him to walk, but he is borne on eagles' wings. Christ does not merely help him to walk, but carries him, and says, "I will bind up your wounds; I will come to you myself." O poor soul, is not this joy for you? You have been often told by your minister to believe in Christ, but you say you cannot. You have often been invited to come to Jesus, but you feel you cannot come. Yes; but the best of the gospel is, that when a sinner cannot come to Christ, Christ can come to him. When the poor soul feels that it cannot get near Christ, Christ will be sure to draw him. O Christian, if thou art labouring under deep distresses, thy Father does not give thee promises and then leave thee. The promises he has written in the Word he will grave on your heart. He will manifest his love to you, and by his blessed Spirit, which bloweth like the wind, take away your cares and troubles.

60. Christ a Tender Shepherd

There is a mother here this morning: she has seven children; I know what child she has been thinking of while we have been preaching. She has not been thinking of John, who is married and away, nor of Mary, who is in health, nor of Thomas, who is sitting by her side, but she has been thinking of the poor little one at home in bed, and she has wondered whether it has had any sleep this morning, and whether it has been well taken care of. You know that my guess is correct.

Now Jesus Christ, our loving Shepherd, if he should forget those of us who are strong and in sound health, will be sure to recollect the sickly ones. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom. He shall gently lead those that are with young.

61. Christ, Absolute Rule of

Some people are militia-Christians—they serve the King with a limitation, and must not be sent out of England; but others are soldier-Christians, who give themselves wholly up to their Lord and Captain; they will go wherever he chooses to send them. Some professors appear to belong to God by copyhold. They grant a limited kind of divine right to their energies and substance; but there are many clauses which limit the holding. I hope that you are, dear friends, God's portion upon an absolute freehold. You are absolutely the Lord's, that he may do precisely as he wills with you. We greatly prefer a limited monarchy when man reigns, but when the Lord rules we desire him to exercise unlimited power over us. Oh come, my Master, and be absolute Lord of my soul! Reign over me, and subdue my every passion to do and be, and feel all that thy will ordains.

62. Christ All to the Believer

One of old said, "Aut Cæsar aut nullus," he would be either Cæsar or nobody; and so Jesus Christ will be either acknowledged the anointed Saviour, or he will be nothing to you. If you will not take him to be an expiation for your sins, and the true refiner of your life, you refuse him altogether. Mere admiration of the physician gives no part in his healing power. The loudest praises of light give not vision to blind men. Jesus is either the Saviour or nothing. For this he lived, for this he died. Alas, for those who will not receive him in this character! In the long run you shall always find that, despite their soft, speeches, they have not received the true Christ of God. He who rejects Jesus as an atoning sacrifice is sure to doubt his Godhead, and so to reject his grander nature. The deniers of the atonement, who are supposed to be admirers, of the example of Christ, generally turn out to be the greatest enemies to vital Christianity. There are no more real enemies of Christ than those who deny the doctrine of the cross. If they do not accept Christ to wash them, they goon prove that they have no part in him.

63. Christ, Coming to, as a Sinner A certain king was accustomed on set occasions to entertain all the beggars of the city. Around him sat his courtiers, all clothed in rich apparel; the beggars sat at the same table in their rags of poverty. Now, it came to pass that on a certain day one of the courtiers had spoiled his silken apparel, so that he dare not put it on, and he felt, "I cannot go to the king's feast, to-day, for my robe is foul." He sat weeping, till the thought struck him, "To-morrow, when the king holds his feast, some will come as courtiers, happily decked in their beautiful array; but others will come and be made quite as welcome who will be dressed in rags. Well, well," says he, "so long as I may see the king's face, and sit at the king's table, I will enter among the beggars." So, without mourning because he had lost his silken habit, he put on the rags of a beggar, and he saw the king's face as well as if he had worn his scarlet and fine linen. My soul has done this full many a time, and I bid you do the same; if you cannot come as a saint, come as a sinner, only do come, and you shall receive joy and peace.

64. Christ, Encouragement from his Sufferings That defile between overhanging rocks is so dark. I, a poor timid child, shrink back from it; but how is my courage restored as, I see Jesus bearing the lantern of his love, and going before me into the thick darkness! Hark! I hear him say, "Follow me;" and while he speaks I perceive a light streaming from his sacred person; every thorn of his crown gleams like a star; the jewels of his breastplate flash like lamps, and his wounds gleam with celestial splendour. "Fear not," saith he, "for in all your afflictions I have been afflicted. I was tempted in all points like as you are, though without sin." Who can tell the encouragement given to the heir of heaven by the fact that the elder Brother has passed through all the dark passage which leads to the promised rest!

65. Christ Entertained by the Soul

Christ must be crowned in men's hearts, or we pine with grief. We cannot be satisfied to see him stand in the street, his head wet with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night: we must have the Son of God entertained, for oh! it grieves us even unto brokenness of heart; it troubles us exceedingly that he should be used so ill who loved us so well; that he should be rejected who gave up heaven and all its glories, that he might redeem us from going down to hell. By the wounds of Christ, and by the bloody sweat that covered him when he redeemed us from our sins, we do beseech you listen to this voice, "Where is the guest-chamber?" and reply, "Lord, that guest-chamber is in my soul to-day."

66. Christ, Face of, the Glorified Saints' Vision In the beatific vision it is Christ whom they see; and further, it is his face which they behold. They shall not see the skirts of his robe as Moses saw the back parts of Jehovah; they shall not be satisfied to touch the hem of his garment, or to sit far down at his feet where they can only see his sandals, but they "shall see his face;" by which I understand two things: first, that they shall literally and physically, with their risen bodies, actually look into the face of Jesus; and secondly, that spiritually their mental faculties shall be enlarged, so that they shall be enabled to look into the very heart, and soul, and character of Christ, so as to understand him, his work, his love, his all in all, as they never understood him before. They shall literally, I say, see his face, for Christ is no phantom; and in heaven, though divine, and therefore spiritual, he is still a man, and therefore material like ourselves. The very flesh and blood that suffered upon Calvary is in heaven; the hand that was pierced with the nail, now at this moment grasps the sceptre of all worlds; that very head which was bowed down with anguish is now crowned with a royal diadem; and the face that was so marred is the very face which beams resplendent amidst the thrones of heaven. Into that selfsame countenance we shall be permitted to gaze. O what a sight! Roll by, ye years; hasten on, ye laggard months and days, to let us but for once behold him, our Beloved, our hearts' care, who "redeemed us unto God by his blood," whose we are, and whom we love with such a passionate desire, that to be in his embrace we would be satisfied to suffer ten thousand deaths! They shall actually see Jesus.

67. Christ, Fulness of When you contemplate the Saviour, you find all the virtues enshrined in him; other men are stars, but he is a constellation, nay, he is the whole universe of stars gathered into one galaxy of splendour; other men are gems and jewels, but he is the crown imperial, where every jewel glitters; other men finish but a part of the picture, and the background is left, or else there is something in the foreground that is but roughly touched, but he finishes the whole; not the minutest portion is neglected; the character is perfect and matchless. If I look at Peter, I admire his courage; if I look at Paul, I wonder at his industry and devotedness to the cause of God; if I look at John, I see the loveliness and gentleness of his bearing: but when I look to the Saviour, I am not so much attracted by any one particular virtue as by the singular combination of the whole. There are all the spices—the stacte, and the onycha, and the galbanum, and the pure frankincense; the varied perfumes combine to make up one perfect confection.

68. Christ, Gentleness of

How very gentle, though all but omnipotent, is the influence of the sun upon the earth and all the planets! How they constantly revolve around and follow him in his wondrous march; yet you never feel that he draws! If you harness a horse to your chariot, he tugs and pulls by fits and starts; but the Father of lights draws all the ponderous planets along their appointed ways, and yet there is not enough of jar to shake an aphis from a rosebud. So there is no noise in the loving drawings of the Saviour. Much of the fanaticism which comes with religious excitements is not of God. The genuine dew of heaven falls calmly.

"As in soft silence vernal showers Fall to refresh the fields and flowers, So in sweet silence from above Drops the sweet influence of his love."

69. Christ Growing in Value As you grow in grace you will find many doctrines and points of church government which once appeared to you to be all-important, though you will still value them, will seem but of small consequence compared with Christ himself. Like the traveller ascending the Alps to reach the summit of Mont Blanc, at first he observes that lord of the hills as one horn among many, and often in the twistings of his upward path he sees other peaks which appear more elevated than that monarch of mountains; but when at last he is near the summit, he sees all the rest of the hills beneath his feet, and like a mighty wedge of alabaster, Mont Blanc pierces the very clouds. So, as we grow in grace, other things sink and Jesus rises. They must decrease, but Christ must increase; until he alone fills the full horizon of your soul, and rises clear and bright and glorious up into the very heaven of God. O that we may thus see "Jesus only!"

70. Christ, Ill-Treatment of

"My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Ah, sorrowful remembrances, for those drops were not the ordinary dew that fall upon the houseless traveller's unprotected head; his head was wet with scarlet dew, and his locks with crimson drops of a tenfold night of God's desertion, when he "sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." My heart, how vile art thou, for thou shuttest out the Crucified. Behold the Man thorn crowned and scourged, with traces of the spittle of the soldiery, canst thou close the door on him? Wilt thou despise the "despised and rejected of men"? Wilt thou grieve the "Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief"? Dost thou forget that he suffered all this for thee, for thee, when thou deservest nothing at his hands? After all this, wilt thou give him no recompense, not even the poor return of admission to thy loving communings?

71. Christ: Intensity of his Zeal

Fancy yourselves, my brethren, standing on the beach when a ship is being broken on the rocks. If there were anything that you could do towards the rescue of the mariners, would you not feel within yourselves, "I must work"? Why, it is said that sometimes when the crowd see a vessel going to pieces, and hear the cries of the drowning men, they seem as if they were all seized with madness, because, not being able to give vent to their kindness and brotherly feeling towards the perishing ones by any practical activity, they know not what to do, and are ready to sacrifice their own lives if they might but do something to save others. Men feel that they must work in the presence of so dreadful a need. And Christ saw this world of ours quivering over the pit. He saw it floating, as it were, in an atmosphere of fire, and he wished to quench those flames, and make the world rejoice, and therefore he must work to that end. He could not, he could not possibly rest and be quiet. He knew not how to take his ease even at night.

"Cold mountains and the midnight air Witnessed the fervour of his prayer."

And when he was faint and weary, and needed to eat, he would not eat, because the zeal of God's house had eaten him up, and it was his meat and his drink to do the will of him that sent him. The love within and the need without acted towards one common end, and formed an intense necessity, so that the Saviour must work.

72. Christ, Inhabitation to

Hark! hark! I hear the chariot wheels of death. He comes! he comes! and the axles of his chariot are hot with speed. He stands aloft driving his white horse. The skeleton rider brandishes his awful spear, and you are the victim. God has spared you up till now, but he may not bid you spend another Sabbath-day. I hear the mower's scythe everywhere, as I pass along, making ready to cut down the grass and the flower thereof. Ah! death's scythe is being sharpened now. He proceeds to reap his harvest every day, and, whether prepared or not, you must be cut down when God's time shall come. Fly, then, I pray you, and though you be, like John Mark, unfit, and unprepared, remember you may come naked to Christ, for he can clothe you; you may come filthy to Christ, for he can wash you; you may come ail unholy and defiled to Jesus, for he can put away your sin.

73. Christ, Kingship of, our Comfort A pestilence has gone forth from which few of our churches are free. Human intellect is adored as an idol, and in its pride it changes the teaching of the word, and sets up new dogmas which the word of God utterly rejects. If these things depress our spirits, nevertheless let us. be of good courage; for if we cannot be joyful in our ministers, we will be joyful in our King. If the pulpit fail us, the throne is ever filled by him who is the Truth; and if we have to suspect the orthodoxy of one, and to know the heterodoxy of another, to see Judas here and Ahithophel there, nevertheless Judah still ruleth with God and is faithful with the saints. Our King abideth, and his truth endureth to all generations.

74. Christ, Kiss of Have you never heard of the Persian king who gave his various councillors different gifts: to one he gave a golden goblet, but to another a kiss; whereupon all the councillors of the court were envious of the man who had the kiss, and they counted the goblets of gold, and jewels, and caskets of silver, to be less than nothing as compared with that familiar token of royal favour. O poor but favoured saints, you will never envy those who quaff golden cups of fortune if you obtain the kiss from Jesus' mouth; for you know that his love is better than all the world beside, and the enjoyment of it will yield you richest rest. How can you feel the miseries of envy when you possess in Christ the best of all portions? Who wants cisterns by the river? Who cries for pebbles when he possesses pearls?

75. Christ, Likeness to

Now, here is a man who has been cutting a seal and making your crest, but when you come to stamp your letters with it, you find that the impression is very bad, that it is not your crest at all. You cannot make out what it is. It may be a griffin, but it is not at all like one. Well, what will you do? Will you try to polish up your wax, and so make the impression like what you wanted it to be? Would it not be a great deal wiser if you were to get the seal altered? Would not that set it all right directly? If you were to send the seal back to the man who cut the die, and get him to make the seal properly, would not the stamp then be right? Now, how do we get likeness to Christ? Why, it is faith which puts the stamp there, and instead of saying, "The impression upon my character is not like Christ, therefore I must try to alter it," my dear friend, think about your faith; go to Christ, and through him get your faith altered; and when the. stamp is set to rights, then the impression will be perfect. There is no holiness, no true holiness apart from faith.

76. Christ, Living on

Let the sons of earth be nourished as they may, and fattened like kings' sons, yet there are no faces that are so fair to look upon with holy joy and exultation, as the faces of the men who feed on Christ Jesus, who is the bread that came down from heaven; there are none who are so blest as those who live upon God himself, for they have this for their surpassing excellence, that eating as they do this bread, they live for ever. He that eats other bread derives temporary nourishment from it, but ere long he dies; he who feeds on Christ feeds on immortal food, and more, he becomes immortal himself—the food transforms the man. Matchless is the manna which comes from heaven, for it makes us heavenly and bears us up to the heaven from whence it came! They who live on Christ become like Christ; being fed upon him, they become conformed unto his image, made meet to be partakers of the glory of God in heaven.

77. Christ, Loving us in our Sins

We recollect the tears and prayers that we poured out day and night, asking for mercy; but Jesus, our friend, was loving to us then, taking delight in those penitential tears, putting them into his bottle, telling the angels that we were praying, and making them string their harps afresh to sweet notes of praise over sinners that repented. He knew us, knew us in the gloom, in the thick darkness in which we sought after God, if haply we might find him. He was near the prodigal's side when in all his rags and filth he was saying, "I will arise, and go to my Father," and it was Jesus through whom we were introduced to the Father's bosom, and received the parental kiss, and were made to sit down where there are music and dancing, because the dead are alive, and the lost are found.

78. Christ, Meditation on, Overwhelming The day in which I saw most of creation's grandeur was spent upon the Wengern Alp; my heart was near her God, and all around was majestic; the dread mountains, like pyramids of ice, the clouds like fleecy wool; I saw the avalanche, and heard the thunder of its fall; I marked the dashing waterfalls leaping into the vale of Lauterbrunnen beneath our feet, but my heart felt that creation was too scant a mirror to image all her God—his face was more terrible than the storm, his robes more pure than the virgin snow, his voice far louder than the thunder, his love far higher than the everlasting hills. I took out my pocket-book and wrote these lines.

Yon Alps, who lift their heads above the clouds, And hold familiar converse with the stars, Are dust, at which the balance trembleth not, Compared with his divine immensity. The snow-crown'd summits fail to set him forth Who dwelleth in eternity and bears Alone the name of High and Lofty One.

Depths unfathomed are too shallow to express The wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord; The mirror of the creatures has no space To bear the image of the Infinite.

'Tis true the Lord hath fairly writ his name, And set his seal upon creation's brow; But as the skilful potter much excels The vessel which he fashions on the wheel, E'en so, but in proportion greater far, Jehovah's self transcends his noblest works:

Earth's ponderous wheels would break, her axles snap, If freighted with the load of Deity:

Space is too narrow for the Eternal's rest, And time too short a footstool for his throne.

E'en avalanche and thunder lack a voice To utter the full volume of his praise.

How then can I declare him? Where are words With which my glowing tongue may speak his name?

Silent I bow, and humbly I adore.

But in musing upon the person of Jesus Christ, and the plan of salvation, a very different result has been experienced. I have been prostrate under the weight of Deity there revealed, and ready to die amid the splendour there so graciously unveiled to my soul in rapt communion. No fear which cometh of bondage, but that which is born of gratitude and bliss, has bowed me before the mercy-throne with awful wonder at divine goodness.

79. Christ Only

Happy would it be for us if our hearts and our lips could become like Anacreon's harp, which was wedded to one subject, and would learn no other. He wished to sing of the sons of Atreus, and the mighty deeds of Hercules, but his harp resounded love alone: and when he would have sung of Cadmus, his harp refused—it would sing of love alone. Oh! to speak of Christ alone—to be tied and bound to this one theme for ever; to speak alone of Jesus, and of the amazing love of the glorious Son of God, who "though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor." This is the subject which is both "seed for the sower, and bread for the eater." This is the live coal for the lip of the preacher, and the master-key to the heart of the hearer. This is the tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of heaven.

80. Christ, Perfect Consecration of

If, beloved, you knew that at—say ten o'clock to-night—you would be led away to be mocked, and despised, and scourged, and that to-morrow's sun would see you falsely accused, hanging, a convicted criminal, to die upon a cross, do you think that you could sing tonight after your last meal? I am sure you could not, unless with more than earthborn courage and resignation your soul could say, "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." You would sing if your spirit were like the Saviour's spirit; if, like him, you could exclaim, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt;" but if there should remain in you any selfishness, any desire to be spared the bitterness of death, you would not be able to chant the "Hallel" with the Master. Blessed Jesus, how wholly wert thou given up! how perfectly consecrated! so that whereas other men sing when they are marching to their joys, thou didst sing on the way to death; whereas other men lift up their cheerful voices when honour awaits them, thou hadst a brave and holy sonnet on thy lips when shame, and spitting, and death were to be thy portion.

81. Christ: Perfection of his Character The character of our Lord was such that no one virtue had undue preponderance. Take Peter, and there is a prominent feature peculiar to himself; one quality attracts you. Take John, and there is a lovely trait in his character which at once chains you, and his other graces are unobserved. But take the life of the blessed Jesus, and it shall perplex you to discover what virtue shines with purest radiance. His character is like the lovely countenance of a classic beauty, in which every single feature is so in exact harmony with all the rest, that when you have gazed upon it, you are struck with a sense of general beauty, but you do not remark upon the flashing eye, or chiselled nose, or the coral lips: an undivided impression of harmony remains upon your mind. Such a character should each of us strive after, a mingling of perfections to make up one perfection; a combining of all the sweet spices to make up a rare perfume, such as only God's Holy Spirit itself can make, but such as God accepts wherever he discovers it.

82. Christ: Perfection of his Character indescribable

You can depict the character of John, for a prominent excellence is visible; you can describe the characteristics of Peter; you can give an idea of Paul; for each of these is like a separate gem, and each one has its own especial brightness and colour, and I may add each one has its own peculiar flaw: but when you come to the altogether lovely One your descriptive powers fail you, for he is like the high priest's breastplate in which all the Jewels met in harmony. The excellences of all the excellent are in him, and none of the flaws. In him all perfections meet to make up one perfection. All the spices, the myrrh, the aloes, the cassia, the sweet cinnamon, and whatever else may be grateful to God and to holy men—all these divinely compounded with the art of the apothecary, and well-balanced as to the proportions, are to be found in one rare anointing oil upon the person of our Well-beloved.

83. Christ, Poverty of, in his Birth

Here in this quiet island, the bulk of men are comfortably seeking to acquire their thousands by commerce and manufactures. We are the sensible people who follow the main chance, and are not to be deluded by ideas of glory; we are making all the money we can, and wondering that other nations waste so much in fight. The main prop and pillar of England's joy is to be found, as some tell us, in the Three per Cents., in the possession of colonies, in the progress of machinery, in steadily increasing our capital. Is not Mammon a smiling deity? But here, in the cradle of the world's hope at Bethlehem, I see far more of poverty than wealth; I perceive no glitter of gold, or spangle of silver. I perceive only a poor babe, so poor, so very poor, that he is in a manger laid; and his mother is a mechanic's wife, a woman who wears neither silk nor gem. Not in your gold, O Britons, will ever lie your joy, but in the Gospel enjoyed by all classes, the gospel freely preached and joyfully received. Jesus by raising us to spiritual wealth, redeems us from the chains of Mammon, and in that liberty gives us joy.

84. Christ, Presence of

Jesus is actually present in the daily afflictions of believers. Jesus knocks at my door, and says, "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards!" I look forth from the window into the cold and dreary night, and I answer him, "The night is black and cheerless. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? I cannot arise and follow thee." But the Beloved is not thus to be refused; he knocks again, and he saith, "Come forth with me into the fields, let us lodge in the villages; there will I give thee my loves." Overcome by his love, I arise, and go with my heavenly Bridegroom. If the rain-drops fall pitilessly upon me, yet it is most sweet to see that his head also is filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night. The howling wind tosses his garments as well as mine; his feet tread the same miry places as my own; and all the while he calls me his beloved, his love, his dove, his undefiled and tells me of the land which lies beyond the darkness, and speaks of the mountains of myrrh and of the beds of spices, the top of Amana, Shenir, and Hermon. My soul is melted while my Beloved speaks, and my heart feels it sweet beyond expression to walk with him; for lo, while he is near me, the night is lit up with innumerable stars, the sky is aglow with glory, every cloud flames like a seraph's wing, while the pitiless blast is all unable to chill the heart which burns within while he talketh with me by the way. In after years we are wont to speak to one another of that dark night and its marvellous brightness; of that cold wind that was so strangely tempered, and we even say to one another, "I would fain pass through a thousand nights in such company; I would be willing to go on a midnight journey evermore with that dearest of friends, for oh! where he is night is day; in his presence suffering is joy; when he reveals himself pains are pleasures, and earth blossoms with flowers of Eden." Thus doth the Wellbeloved by his presence make our darkness light.

85. Christ, Presence of, Ensuring Success

It was enough for the army of Cromwell to know that he was there, the ever victorious, the irresistible, to lead on his Ironsides to the fray. Many a time the presence of an old Roman general was equal to another legion; as soon as the cohorts perceived that he was come whose eagle eye watched every motion of the enemy, and whose practised hand led his battalions upon the most salient points of attack, and each man's blood leaped within him, and he grasped his sword and rushed forward secure of success. My brethren, our King is in the midst of us, and our faith should be in active exercise—"The shout of a King is in the midst of us," it is said, for where the King is there the people shout for joy, and because of confidence of victory. The preacher may preach, bub what is that? but if the King be there, then it is preaching in very deed. The congregations may have met, and they may have gone again.

"The panoramic view which has dissolved," you say. Ah, so it may seem to you, but if the Spirit of God was there, all that has been done will abide, and remain even to that day of judgment, when the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. "Nothing but a simple girl sitting down to talk to a few little children about their souls." Just so, but if the Lord be there, what awe gathers round that spot! If the King himself sit in that class, what deeds are done that shall make the angels of heaven sing anew for joy! "Nothing but a humble man, unlettered, earnest, but not eloquent, standing at the corner of a street, addressing a few hundred people. His talk will soon be forgotten." The footprints of every true servant of the Lord shall not be in the sand, but in the enduring brass, the record of which shall outlast the wreck of matter.

86. Christ, Presence of, the Church's Inspiration

Just when the battle was about to turn with the Ironsides, and the Cavaliers were coming on with one of Rupert's hot charges, ready to break the line, and the brave old Ironsides were half inclined to turn, up came the General, old Noll, riding on his horse, and they passed the word along, "'Tis he, boys; here he comes!" and every man grew into a giant at once; they stood like iron columns, like walls of granite, and the Cavaliers as they came on broke like waves against rocks, and dashed away, and were heard of no more. It was the presence of the man that fired each soldier. And so it is now with us. We believe in Jesus Christ. We know that he is with his church. He was dead but rose again. He has gone to heaven, but his spirit is with us—King of kings, and Lord of lords is he. If he seems to sleep in the midst of our ship, yet he sleeps with his hand on the helm, and he will steer the vessel rightly; and now the love that we bear his name steers our souls to holiness, to self-denial, to seek after God, to make full proof of the faith and the fellowship of the gospel, to seek to become like God, and to be absorbed into God that he may be all in all. This is what was wanted—a stimulus potent enough, under God's grace, to break through the barriers of sin. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God has accomplished by sending his own dear Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, and having condemned sin in the flesh, he has now removed its guilt, and destroyed its power.

87. Christ Real to a Christian The Christ of a great many professors is only fit to occupy a niche on the church wall, as a dead, inactive, but revered person. Jesus is not a real Christ to many, he is, not a Christ who can really befriend them in the hour of grief; not a brother born for adversity, not a condescending companion. But the Christ of the well-taught Christian is one that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore, a sympathising, practical friend, who is actually near, entering into our sorrows, sharing in our crosses, and taking a part with us in all the battle of life.

88. Christ, Secret Rest in The Lord Jesus gives to his people a priceless casket, called the gift of rest; it is set with brilliants and inlaid with gems, and the substance thereof is of wrought gold; whosoever possesses it feels and knows that his warfare is accomplished and his sin is pardoned. After awhile the happy owner begins to examine his treasure. It is all his own, but he has. not yet seen it all, for one day he detects a secret drawer, he touches a hidden spring, and lo! before him lies a priceless Koh-i-noor surpassing all the rest. It had been given him it is certain, but he had not seen it at first, and therefore he finds it. Jesus Christ gives us in the gift of himself all the rest we can ever enjoy, even heaven's rest lies in him; but after we have received him we have to learn his value, and find out by the teaching of his Spirit the fulness of the rest which he bestows.

89. Christ, Self-forgetfulness of

Jesus saith, "Let not your heart be troubled." His own face was towards the cross, he was hard by, the olive-press of Gethsemane: he was about to be troubled as never man was troubled, and yet among his last words were these, "Let not your heart be troubled." As if he wanted to monopolise all tears, and would not have them shed so much as one; as if he longed to take all the heart-trouble himself and remove it far from them; as if he would have them exercise their hearts so much with believing, that they would not have the smallest room left for grief; would have them so much taken up with the glorious result of his sufferings in procuring for them eternal mansions, that they would not think about their own present losses, but let them be swallowed up in a mighty sea of joyful expectation.

90. Christ, Sight of, worthy Death To lie at Jesus' feet is a right experience; to lie there as sick and wounded is better, but to lie there as dead is best of all; a man is taught in the mysteries of the kingdom, who comes to that. Moses with dim legal light needs to be told to put off his shoe from off his foot in the presence of the Lord of Hosts, but John is manifestly far in advance of him, because he lies lower, and is like a dead man before the Infinite Majesty. How blessed a death is death in Christ! How divine a thing is life in him. If I might see Christ at this moment upon the terms of instant death, I would joyfully accept the offer, the bliss would far exceed the penalty. But as for the death of all within us, that is of the flesh and of fallen nature, it is beyond measure desirable, and if for nothing else, my soul would pant more and more to see Jesus. May that two-edged sword which cometh out of his mouth smite all my besetting sins; may the brightness of his countenance scorch and burn up in me the very roots of evil: may he mount his white horse and ride through my soul conquering and to conquer, casting out of me all that is of the old dragon and his inventions, and bringing every thought into subjection to himself. There would I lie at his dear conquering feet, slain by his mighty grace.

91. Christ, Standard of, to be Planted Everywhere When the Spanish mariners were traversing the seas upon voyages of discovery, they never touched upon new land, whether an insignificant island or a part of the main continent, without at once setting up the standard of Ferdinand and Isabella, and taking possession of the soil in the name of their Catholic Majesties of Spain. Wherever the Christian goes, his first thought should be to take possession of all hearts in the name of the Lord Jesus, consecrating all opportunities and influences to the Redeemer's service.

92. Christ, Sympathy with the Sufferings of The outside world knows nothing about Christ's soul sufferings. They draw a picture of him, they carve a piece of wood or ivory, but they do not know his soul-sufferings; they cannot enter into them. Nay, the mass of his own people even do not know them, for they are not made conformable to those sufferings by a spiritual fellowship. We have not that keen sense of mental things to sympathise with such grievings as he had, and even the favoured ones, the three, the elect out of the elect, who have the most of spiritual graces, and who have therefore the most of suffering to endure, and the most depression of spirits, even they cannot pry into the fulness of the mystery. God only knows the soul-anguish of the Saviour when he sweat great drops of blood; angels saw it, but yet they understood it not. They must have wondered more when they saw the Lord of life and glory sorrowful with exceeding sorrowfulness, even unto death, than when they saw this round world spring into beautiful existence from nothingness, or when they saw Jehovah garnish the heavens with his Spirit, and with his hand form the crooked serpent. Brethren, We cannot expect to know the length and breadth and height of these things, but as our own experience deepens and darkens we shall know more and more of what Christ suffered in the garden.

93. Christ the Believer's Pattern The painter would never attain to eminence if he went to an exhibition and devoted himself to the study of some work of moderate worth, and said, "I will attempt to reach this, and there I will stop contented." No, he goes to the galleries of the great masters, and though his timid pencil may not dare to hope that he shall strike out thoughts so clearly and make life stand out upon the canvas as they have done, yet he seeks to drink in their inspiration, hoping that he may rise to some proud eminence in art by imitating them. Let the Christian then aspire to be like unto his Lord, who is the author and finisher of his faith; and let him, as he runs the heavenly race, look unto Jesus, and make "the Apostle and High Priest of his profession" his continual study, and aim to be changed into his image from glory unto glory.

94. Christ the End of the Law

Christ was revealed in the end of the world to abrogate, to annihilate, utterly to abolish sin. Now, we all know what it is to have a thing abrogated. Certain laws have held good up to the first of January of this year with regard to the hiring of public carriages, but now we are under a new law. Suppose a driver complies with the new law, gets his license, puts up his flag, gives the passenger his card of prices, and afterwards the passenger summons him before the magistrate for asking a fare not authorised by the old law; the magistrate would say, "You are out of court, there is no such law. You cannot bring the man here, he has not broken the old law, for he is not under it. He has complied with the requisition of the new law, by which he declares himself no longer under the old rules, and I have no power over him." So he that believeth in Christ Jesus may be summoned by conscience when misinformed before the bar of God, but the answer of peace to his conscience is, "Ye are not under the law, but under grace."

"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." "All that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." In this way Christ has abrogated the sin of his people.

95. Christ the only Legislator for the Church

We deny that either king or parliament can legislate for Christ's church; for Thomas Cranmer's church they may if they please, but for Christ's church, never! In the midst of those churches which are true to Christ's authority, the Bible is the only statute book, and the living Jesus the only lawgiver As Christ alone is the fountain of all spiritual legislation, so he alone gives authority to that legislation. If we be commanded to baptise, we baptise not because we have been authorised by a consistory, or have been licensed by a bishop or a presbytery, but we baptise because Christ has said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." If we come together to break bread, it is not in the name of a denomination or a court, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you rest any church practice upon the authority of Augustine, Chrysostom, Calvin, or Luther, or base your faith upon some living preacher, and depend upon the force of his oratory, or upon the cogency of his argument, you put Christ out of his proper place. The reason why we should believe revealed truth is because Jesus has borne witness to it. His ipse dixit is the great ground of all our theology, for he is "the word of God;" and his regal supremacy is the argument for obedience to his commands.

96. Christ the Root of all true Religion

I like that story of the Sandwich Islanders who had been converted through some of our missionaries, and the Gospel had been preached to them for years. At last two or three gentlemen in long black gowns landed there, and the people asked them what they had come for. They said they were come to instruct them in the true faith, and to teach them. Well, they said, they should be glad to hear it if their teaching was true, and if it was like the Scriptures, so they would listen to them. By-and-bye there was a little diagram exhibited to the natives, which represented a tree. Now, this tree had many branches. The twigs which were farthest off were the different saints, the believers, those who do good works; then the limbs, which were a little larger, were the priests; the bigger boughs were bishops; the biggest boughs were the cardinals; and at last these all joined on to the trunk, which was the Pope, and that went all the way down to the bottom till it came to Peter, who was the root. So the natives asked about all these twigs, and branches, and so on, which they had to show, and there were certain rotten branches that were tumbling off into a fire. What were they? Well, they were Luther, and Calvin, and all those other heretics who had been cut off from the true tree of the Church. "Well," said one of the islanders, "and pray what is the root of the tree?" Well, that was Jesus Christ. So they clapped their hands at once for joy, and said, "Well, never mind about the branches, and stems, and those things; we have never heard of them, but we have got the root, and that will do to grow on." So, brethren, we can say tonight, if we have got Christ, that we have got "the root out of the dry ground." We have got the root of the matter, the basis, the sum, the substance of it.

97. Christ the Standard Bearer

Whenever the old Knights of the Red Cross fought the Saracens, they always endeavoured to make their steel ring upon the helmet of the man whose hand held the crescent, the standard of Mohammed; ever the fight was bloodiest around the standard. Sometimes when the battle was over if you walked the field, you would see it strewn with legs and arms and mangled bodies everywhere. In one place there would be a heap where they were piled one upon another, a great mountain of flesh and armour, broken bones and smashed skulls, and you would ask, "What is this? How came they here? How trampled they so upon one another, and fought in pools of human blood?" The answer would be, "'Twas there the standard-bearer stood, and first the adversary made a dash and stole the banner, and then fifty knights vowed to redeem it, and they dashed against their foes and took it by storm, and then again hand to hand they fought with the banner between them, first in one hand and then in another, changing ownership each hour. Well, dear friends, Christ Jesus has always been the object of attack. You will remember when justice came forth against the elect it made five rents in the great banner, and those five rents all-glorious are in the banner still. Since that day many a shot has sought to riddle, but not one has been able to touch it. Borne aloft, first by one hand and then by another, the mighty God of Jacob being the strength of the standard-bearers, that flag has bidden defiance to the leaguered hosts of the flesh and the devil, but never has it been trailed in the river, and never once carried in jeering triumph by the adversary.

98. Christ the Topstone of Humanity

I see before me a stupendous pyramid; the base of it is exceeding broad: it is the inanimate creation. Stars unnumbered lie close together at its base, like the sands of the Lybian desert: ponderous masses of matter underlie the whole amazing structure, all radiant with the glory of God, with a light like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Measureless fields of space, and all but infinite leagues of matter, form the grosser basis of the pyramid which now rises before my astonished vision. Overlying this, as though it were a layer of malachite or emerald, veined with blue, and scarlet, and vermilion, I see the vegetable creation with all its beauty of form and splendour of colour, cedar and hyssop, olive and lily, oak and bramble. No art of man, or polished jewels of the mine, can rival its magnificence. Over these, sparkling like the stone which was full of eyes, I see the animal kingdom with its mingled varieties of symmetry and strength, energy and vitality. Here on high the pyramid is narrower, but its light is far more excellent, for the likeness of the living creatures sparkles and flashes like burning coals of fire, with an energy unseen in the broader foundations which are placed beneath. Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, all magnify the Master-builder who has ordained for them their place in the pyramid of his manifested glory. Higher still, I see man, who is made to have dominion over all the lower works of God—man of whom it is written, "Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold."

Above these, I see men twice made, the regenerated men, the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, the peculiar portion and crown-jewels of Jehovah: but can my eyes endure to gaze upon the glowing brightness which forms the apex of the glittering pyramid? I looked, and lo! above the firmament, higher than the heaven of heavens, I saw the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the throne there sat the Son of Man in all the brightness of his Father's glory, encircled with a rainbow like unto an emerald, and hymned by innumerable spirits in strains like these: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." O my soul, art thou not overwhelmed with the vision of Man upon the throne of God, Man most true and manlike, born of a virgin, the woman's promised seed, and yet God over all blessed for ever! When that pyramid was crowned with such a matchless topstone, well might the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy; well might there be from men and angels joyous shoutings of "Grace! grace! unto it." The great Master of the feast hath kept the best wine until now. Richest and rarest of the wines on the lees, well refined, is that which was set abroach on Calvary by the soldier's spear. Rich was the store which the glorious monarch of the ages placed upon the table of his benevolence; but in these last days he bringeth out the choicest of his dainties, the bread of heaven, the wine which maketh glad the heart of God and man. "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."

99. Christ, The Water of Life

Yonder shipwrecked man has constructed a raft, and far out on the wild expanse of pitiless waters he has floated wearily day after day, sighing for a friendly sail or for sight of land; what would he not give for a little water, for water has become the essential of his life; his tongue is like a firebrand, and his mouth is as an oven, and he himself all dried and parched, sighs and cries to heaven, hoping that perhaps a merciful shower may drop refreshment upon him. Now, Jesus Christ is the water of life, and the bread of life, to such as live unto God. It is absolutely necessary for the continuance of their spiritual life that they should live upon him; and as they do live upon him, their thirst is quenched, their hunger is removed, and their spirit rejoices with a "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Life and the food that sustaineth life are among the most precious things man can possess, and these are for your souls stored up in Jesus

100. Christ, Thoughts of Do you think of Christ, desiring still nearer access and a clearer view of him, sighing out with sacred love-sickness, saying, "O that I were with him where he is, or that he were with me where I am"? Do you think of him with admiration, wondering at the Altogether Lovely One. Do you think of him with an ardent wish to be conformed to his image, saying, "Gracious Saviour, make me like thyself"? Do you think of him with practical love, so that you help his cause, succour his poor people, proclaim his truth, aid his church, and pity sinners for whom he shed his blood? Do you so think of Christ as to speak well of him, and commend him to the love of mankind? Do thoughts of Jesus keep you back from sin, and incite you to continue in the paths of holiness for his name's sake? Do you so think of Christ that you pray for him, that you give to him, that you work for him? "What think ye of Christ?" Is he worthy of your actual, practical, diligent service, or is it to be all talk and idle chat and broken resolutions and vain professions? "What think ye of Christ?"

101. Christ to be Praised

Let the loftiest panegyrics be heaped upon the head of Christ, and he will deserve something better. Let the angels make way for him, and let them pile their thrones one upon the other. Let them conduct him to the seventh heaven—even to the heaven of heavens, and let him fill a lofty throne there, yet, even then, is not he so high as his Father hath set him. Words cannot describe his glory—it boweth down all language beneath its weight. Metaphors, similes, though they were gathered with the wealth of wit and wisdom from all quarters of heaven and earth, cannot reach even to the skirts of his garments. Your love and your fidelity, your diligence and your zeal, are not fit even so much as to unloose the latchets of his shoes, he is so great and so good. O talk much of him then! Let your talk run over like the language of Rutherford in his letters, where he seems sometimes to break through reason and moderation to glorify his Lord. Let your language of Christ be like the apostle Paul, where he putteth aside all syntax, grammar, speech, and all else, and maketh new words, and cometh fresh expressions, and confoundeth tenses and moods, and I know not what beside, because his soul could not express itself after the commonplace language of mankind. O let your praise run over to your Lord and King. Love him, praise him, exalt him, magnify him, live out his life again. You can but praise him so; die in his arms, that you may for ever extol him in the upper skies.

102. Christ to be Real to the Christian

Let not Jesus be a shadow to you or your religion will be unsubstantial; let him not be a name to you or your religion will be nominal; let him not be a myth of history or your religion will be mere fancy; let him be not alone a teacher or you will lack a Saviour; let him be not alone an exemplar or you will fail to appreciate the merit of his blood; let him be the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the all in all of your spirits.

103. Christ, Transparency of his Character

It is really wonderful how little Jesus Christ seemed to notice what people thought of him. There used to be an idea that Christ did a great many things to prevent people forming such and such erroneous impressions of him. For instance: it was supposed that he was anxious after his resurrection to make it clear that he was himself, and that he was not an impostor. I do. not. think such a motive ever entered into his mind. He was so simple and child-like that he acted out his whole self, not perpetually guarding against misconstruction, nor restricting himself because of the adversary. His character was too transparent, and his actions were too unvarnished, to admit of his continually blocking up that loophole, or stopping up that gap. Not he! His life was clear, without a spot of defilement; his whole soul drifted right on to this one thing, the glory of God through the salvation of man. He was not deluded for a moment by the golden, apples that were cast in his pathway. They would have made him a king, but he was a King too great to stoop to an earthly crown.

104. Christ, Victory of

Hercules cleansed the Augean stable, saith the fable, but what an Augean stable was this world! Yet Christ will purge it; he is purging it, did purge it by his death. This Aceldama shall yet become an Elysium; the field of blood shall be transformed into a garden of delights. Christ came to bear a load upon his shoulder, compared with which the burden of Atlas is as nothing. Atlas, according to the heathen mythology, bore the world between his shoulders, but Jesus bears the world's sin, and that is more. Can you see him there in the garden? Great drops of sweat prove what a tremendous toil he has undertaken. Do you see him on the cross? Not a bone is broken, but every bone is dislocated, to prove how great the labour, but how greater still the strength which achieved the whole. O Lord Jesus! when we see that thou hast burst the gates of death, that thou hast trodden on the neck of sin, that thou hast broken the head of Satan, that thou hast led captivity captive, and opened the gates of heaven to all thy people, we may indeed sing, "Thou hast a mighty arm."

105. Christ's ability to Save

Able to save is Jesus still. "No hope" is not to be said by any of the mariners' life brigade while he sights the crew of the sinking vessel. "No hope" is not to be said by any one of the fire brigade while he knows there are living men in the burning pile. "No hope" is not to he said by any one of the valiant brigade of the Christian church while the soul is still within reach of the sound of mercy. "No hope" is a cry which no human tongue should utter, which no human heart should heed. Oh, may God grant us grace whenever we get an opportunity to go and tell all we meet with that are bowed down, "There is lifting up." And tell them where it is likewise. Tell them it is only at the cross. Tell them it is through the precious blood. Tell them it is to be had for nothing, through simply trusting Christ. Tell them it is of free grace, that no merits of theirs are wanted, that no good things are they to bring, but that they may come just as they are, and find lifting up in Christ.

106. Christ's care of his People When Wickliffe was faint with standing, and begged to be allowed to sit, the bishop tells him that heretics shall have no seats, but John of Gaunt with rough, uncourtly words swears that he shall sit when he wills; and when the time comes the good man goes forth through the midst of the rabble protected by his friend. I know not that John of Gaunt knew the truth, but yet God touched the man's heart to protect his servant in the hour of peril. Vultures, when God has willed it, have protected doves, and eagles have covered with their wings defenceless children, whom God would save. When the Lord wills it, if all hell should shoot such a shower of arrows as should put out the sun, and if all those arrows were aimed at one poor heart, yet not a single shaft should hit, but all be turned aside by an invisible but irresistible power from the man whom Jehovah ordained to save. We understand, then, that Jesus has issued a royal passport for all his servants, which enables them to live on in the midst of deaths innumerable.

107. Christ's Place of Prayer

Jesus, to prevent interruption, to give himself the opportunity of pouring out his whole soul, and to avoid ostentation, sought the mountain. What a grand oratory for the Son of God! What walls would have been so suitable? What room would have worthily housed so mighty an intercessor? The Son of God most fittingly entered God's own glorious temple of nature when he would commune with heaven. Those giant hills, and the long shadows cast by the moonlight were alone worthy to be his companions. No pomp of gorgeous ceremony can possibly have equalled the glory of nature's midnight on the wild mountain's side, where the stars, like the eyes of God, looked down upon the worshipper, and the winds seemed as though they would bear the burden of his sighs and tears upon their willing wings. Samson, in the temple of the Philistines, moving the giant pillars, is a mere dwarf compared with Jesus of Nazareth moving heaven and earth, as he bows himself alone in the great temple of Jehovah.

108. Christ Crucified, no Fear in The man who has lived a life of service, at last dies a felon's death! Look upon his head girt with the crown of thorns! Mark well his cheeks whence they have plucked off the hair! See the spittle from those scornful mouths, staining his marred countenance! Mark the crimson rivers which are flowing from his back where they have scourged him! See his hands and his feet which are pierced with the nails, and from which ensanguined rills are flowing! Look to that face so full of anguish, listen to his cry, "I thirst, I thirst; "and as you see him there expiring, can you think that he will spurn the seeker? As you see him turn his head and say to the dying thief by his side, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," you dare not belie him so much as to deem that you may not come to him. You will outrage your reason if you start back from Jesus crucified. The cross of Christ should be the centre to which all hearts are drawn, the focus of desire, the pivot of hope, the anchorage of faith. You may come, sinner, black, vile, hellish sinner, you may come and have life even as the dying thief had it when he said, "Lord, remember me."

"There is life in a look at the Crucified One."

Surely, you need not be afraid to come to him who went to Calvary for sinners.

109. Christ Crucified, the Everlasting Father

Look yonder at Christ on the cross! He did that day light such a candle as never can be put out. He is "the everlasting Father." He set rolling that day as it were a snow-flake of truth as he died upon the cross; and you know what the snow-flake does upon the high Alps; a bird's wing perhaps sets it rolling, and it gathers another and another and another, till, as it descends, it becomes a mass of snow; and by-and-by, as it leaps from crag to crag, it grows greater and greater and greater, until ponderous masses of ice and snow cohere together, and at the last, with an awful thundering crash the avalanche rolls down, fills the valley, and sweeps all before it; even so this Everlasting Father "on the cross set in motion a mighty force which has gone on swelling and increasing, gathering to be a ponderous mass of a mighty teaching, and the day shall come when, like an irresistible avalanche it shall fall upon the palaces of the Vatican and upon the towers of Rome, when the mosques of Mahomet and the temples of the gods shall be crushed beneath its stupendous weight, and the Everlasting Father shall have done the deed.

110. Christ Crucified, the Preacher's Theme Do not tell me that we ought mainly to preach Christ exalted. I will preach my Lord upon the throne and delight therein, but the great remedy for ruined manhood is not Christ in glory, but Christ in shame and death. We know some who select Christ's Second Advent as their one great theme, and we would not silence them; yet do they err. The second coming is a glorious hope for saints, but there is no cure in it for sinners; to them the coming of the Lord is darkness and not light; but Christ smitten for our sins, there is the star which breaks the sinner's midnight. I know if I preached Christ on the throne many proud hearts would have him; but, oh, sirs, ye must have Christ on the cross before ye can know him on the throne. Ye must bow before the Crucified, ye must trust a dying Saviour, or else if ye pretend to honour him by the glories which are to come, ye do but belie him, and ye know him not. To the Cross, to the Cross, to the Cross! write that upon the sign posts of the road to the city of refuge! Fly there, ye guilty ones, as to the only sanctuary for the sinful, for "with his stripes we are healed." There is joy in this.

111. Christ Glorified, Attractions of

Nowhere on earth is Christ, and therefore nowhere on earth may our heart build her nest. Nowhere,—no, not in the high places, or in the quiet resting places; not in the garden of nuts, or in the beds of spices; not in the tents of Kedar, or between Solomon's curtains; not even at his sacramental table, nor yet among the means of grace, is Christ bodily, actually, present. So we will take the sweetness of all, and the spiritual good there may be in all outward means; but still they shall all point us upward; they shall all draw us away. As the sun exhales the dew, and attracts it upward towards heaven, so shall Christ magnetise and draw our hearts away, and our thoughts up, and our longings up, and our whole spirits up, towards himself! "He is not here." Then why should I be here? Oh, get thee up, my soul; get thee up, and let all thy sweetest incense go towards him who "is not here, for he is risen."

112. Christian, a Memorial of Christ

You have at home to-day some trifle which, notwithstanding its little value, you would not sell for a thousand times its weight in gold because it belonged to a son or to a daughter since departed this life. That little memento is connected with some little deed of daring or act of generous self-denial on the part of your beloved child, and therefore, -though in itself nothing, you count it very precious. Now, to the Father you, beloved brother, are a memorial of the Saviour's condescension in taking upon himself the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of human flesh. You are a memorial of his being found in fashion as a man, and becoming subject to death, even the death of the cross. As God looks at each of you he sees what his Son has done, beholds in you the griefs of Calvary, hears anew the sighs of Olivet and the groans of Golgotha. You are to God, therefore, most precious, as the token and memorial of the death of the Well-beloved.

113. Christian, Death of a

Ah! it is sweet to see a Christian die; it is the noblest thing on earth—the dismissal of a saint from his labour to his reward, from his conflicts to his triumphs. The gorgeous pageantry of princes is as nothing. The glory of the setting sun is not to be compared with the heavenly coruscations which illumine the soul as it fades from the organs of bodily sense, to be ushered into the august presence of the Lord.

114. Christian, Promptness of the

There have been some men in this world who have had little else to recommend them except that by which they have attracted their fellow men to yield them homage—like Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance, when he said to his soldiers at Austerlitz, "Soldiers, this battle must be a thunder-clap; we must hear no more of the foe." And the men, filled with eagerness by his passionate energy, did his bidding, and made it such a thunder-clap that all Europe shook beneath the march of those men-at-arms. He had the power, somehow or other, of making men yield to him, as if they were all machines, impelled by the force of his personal will. They were not dragged into battle, but rushed with enthusiasm to the fight, longing to win glory or death. Now, the voice of God should be to the Christian a voice that speaks to all his soul, wakes up his dormant faculties, and stirs the enthusiasm of his noblest nature, so that his heart says, "I will indeed seek thy face." As the British sailor, when Nelson said to him, "Ready?" replied, "Ready, ay, ready," and fired red-hot shot at the foe, so should our hearts respond to God, "Seek ye my face." "Lord, blessed be thy name for telling me to do that, for thou and I are of one mind here; thou lovest me to seek thy face, and I love to seek thee; my heart responds—not my lip, not my body, dragged slavishly into the form of obedience—but my heart says, 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'"

115. Christian Vigorous in Death When travellers sail near to certain spice-islands, they tell their nearness to the gardens of perfume by the odours wafted to them on the winds; even so, as the Christian runner advances nearer to heaven, he enjoys new delights such as celestial spirits rejoice to experience. In proportion as he draws nearer and nearer, the perfume from the many mansions, from the garments of Christ who dwelleth there, and whose garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia—that perfume, I say, comes to him, and it quickens his pace. The body may be waxing feeble, but the soul is growing strong. The tabernacle may be falling, but the sacred priestly soul within carries on its devotion with greater zest; so, when you would think that the pilgrim's soul must faint, he grows vigorous; when he sinks to the earth, he stretches out his hand and grasps his crown.

116. Christian, Work of, Continual

I heard once of a clergyman who used to go hunting, and when he was reproved by his bishop, he replied that he never went hunting when he was on duty. But he was asked, "When is a clergyman off duty?" And so with the Christian, when is he off duty? He ought to be always about his Father's business, ready for anything and everything that may glorify God. He feels that he is not sent on Sunday only, but sent always, not called now and then to do good, but sent throughout his whole life to work for Christ.

117. Christian Experience, Seasons of

It is impossible to draw a fair comparison between the various stages of Christian experience, so as to give a judicious preference to one above another. Consider, as in a parable, the seasons of the year. There are many persons who, in the midst of the beauties of spring, say, "Ah, but how fitful is the weather! These March winds and April showers come and go by such fits and starts, that nothing is to be depended upon. Give me the safer glories of summer." Yet, when they feel the heat of summer, and wipe the sweat from their brows, they say, "After all, with all the full-blow of beauty around us, we admire more the freshness, verdure, and vivacity of spring. The snowdrop and the crocus, coming forth as the advance guard of the army of flowers, have a superior charm about them." Now, it is idle to compare spring with summer; they differ, and have each its beauties. We are in autumn now, and very likely, instead of prizing the peculiar treasures of autumn, some will despise the peaceful Sabbath of the year, and mournfully compare yon fading leaves to funeral sermons replete with sadness. Such will contrast summer and autumn, and exalt one above another. Now, whoever shall claim precedence for any season, shall have me for an opponent. They are all beautiful in their season, and each excels after its kind. Even thus it is wrong to compare the early zeal of the young Christian with the mature and mellow experience of the older believer, and make preferences. Each is beautiful according to its time. You, dear young friend, with your intense zeal, are to be commended and imitated; but very much of your fire I am afraid arises from novelty, and you are not so strong as you are earnest; like a newborn river, you are swift in current, but neither deep nor broad. And you, my more advanced friend, who are much tried and buffeted, to you it is not easy to hold on your way under great inward struggles and severe depressions, but your deeper sense of weakness, your firmer grasp of truth, your more intense fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his sufferings, your patience, and your steadfastness, are all lovely in the eyes of the Lord your God. Be thankful each of you for what you have, for by the grace of God you are what you are.

118. Christian Experience, High, to be sought

I believe that high-toned Christian experience is, to a great extent, what common Christians think to be quite out of their reach. Oh to get up above yon mists which dim the valley! Oh to climb the mountain's top which laughs in the sunlight! Oh to get away from the heavy atmosphere of worldliness and doubt, of fear, of care, of fretfulness; to soar away from the worldlings who are always earth-hunting, digging into its mines and prying after its treasures, and to get up there where God dwells in the innermost circle of heavenly seclusion; where none can live but men who have been quickened from among the dead; where none can walk but men who are crucified with Christ, and who live only in him. Oh to get up there! where no more question concerning our security can molest us; where no carking care can disturb, because all is cast upon the Lord and rests wholly with him. Oh to live in such an entireness of confidence and child-like faith, that we will have nothing to do with anything now except with serving him and showing forth the gratitude we owe to him who has done so much for us.

119. Christianity contrasted with Profession

It is almost painful to watch little children when some little pet of theirs has died, how they can hardly realise the difference between death and life! Your little boy's bird moped for awhile upon its perch, and at last dropped down in the cage; and do you not remember how the little fellow tried to set it up, and gave it seed, and filled its glass with water, and was quite surprised to think that birdie would not open his little eye upon his friend as it did before, and would not take its seed nor drink its water! Ah, you had at last to make him know that a mysterious something had gone from his little favourite, and would not come back again. There is just such a spiritual difference between the mere professor and the genuine Christian. There is an invisible, but most real, indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the absence or the presence of which makes all the difference between the sinner and the saint.

120. Christianity, Fountain of As the heathens spoke of Minerva leaping armed from the head of Jove, so did the religion of Christ spring armed from the very heart of Jesus Christ; and it stands in the midst of the world an enemy of all unrighteousness, the foe of all oppression, the friend of the poor and needy, and the enemy of everything that is at enmity to God. You are no Christian if such is not your Christianity, for Jesus Christ brought not a slumbering faith, but fire into the earth.

121. Christianity, Unostentatious As you travel over the mountains and are smitten with thirst, you look for the cooling stream, but the traveller who has often passed the hills never stoops to drink of the little streamlets which run uncovered down the mountain side; he knows that their exposure to the heat of the sun has warmed the water, and taken away its grateful freshness and coolness; but he looks for the trickling rill which gushes fresh from the rock, or bubbles up as a spring, or has found its way under the moss and great stones all hidden from the light, and he loves to satisfy himself thereat. It is thus with our gifts and graces. If we expose them to public view, they lose their acceptability with the Most High God: but if we keep ourselves as much as possible from all ostentation, and seek to serve God humbly and in quiet, Jehovah himself finds delight in the gracious works of his own beloved people.

122. Christian's Adieu to Earth When we loose our cable, and bid farewell to earth, it shall not be with bitterness in the retrospect. There is sin in it, and we are called to leave it; there has been trial in it, and we are called to be delivered from it; there has been sorrow in it, and we are glad that we shall go where we shall sorrow no more. There have been weakness, and pain, and suffering in it, and we are glad that we shall be raised in power; there has been death in it, and we are glad to bid farewell to shrouds and to knells; but for all that there has been such mercy in it, such lovingkindness of God in it, that the wilderness and the solitary place have been made glad, and the desert has rejoiced and blossomed as a rose. We will not bid farewell to the world, execrating it, or leaving behind us a cold shudder and a sad remembrance; but we will depart, bidding adieu to the scenes that remain, and to the people of God that tarry therein yet a little longer, blessing him whose goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our life, and who is now bringing us to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

123. Christians, Almost A leaky ship went to sea, and a passenger was almost persuaded not to trust his life in it, but he did so, and he perished. A bubble speculation was started in the city, and a merchant was almost persuaded not to have shares in it, but he bought the scrip, and his estate went down in the general shipwreck. A person exceedingly ill, heard of a remedy reputed to be most effectual, and he was almost persuaded to take it, but he did not, and therefore the disease grew worse and worse. A man who proposed to go into a subterranean vault in the dark, was almost persuaded to take a candle, but he did not, and therefore he stumbled and fell. You cannot have the blessing by being almost persuaded to have it. Your hunger cannot be appeased by almost eating, nor your thirst quenched by almost drinking. A culprit was almost saved from being hanged, for a reprieve came five minutes after he was turned off, but alas! he was altogether dead, despite the almost escape. A man who has been almost persuaded to be saved, will at the last be altogether damned; his being almost convinced will be of no conceivable service to him. This seems so grievous, that the life of God, and the light of God, and the heaven of God, should glide, by some of you, and you should be almost persuaded, and yet should miss them, through not being Christians.

124. Christians, Sleeping

Some somnambulists have been able to walk on places where, had they been awake, they never would have been able to endure the dizzy height; and I see some Christians, if indeed they be Christians, running awful risks which I think they would never venture upon unless they had fallen into the deep sleep of carnal security. Speak of a man slumbering at the mast-head, it is nothing to a professor of religion at ease while covetousness is his master, or worldly company his delight. If professors were awake, they would see their danger, and avoid sinful amusements and ungodly associations, as men fly from fierce tigers or deadly cobras.

125. Christians, Unoccupied

I walked, a few days ago, by, rows of houses all empty, and all shut up. and I could not help thinking if the landlords would take the smallest rent and put in the very poorest tenants, it would be better than to let them stand empty; for the boys had made all the windows targets for their skill in stone-throwing, the thieves had taken care to remove every piece of lead and movable metal they could get at, most of the lower rooms had evidently been play-rooms for children and dogs, and the unsightly carcases were giving the neighbourhood a bad name from which it was not likely soon to recover. Better to have had the worst of tenants than to leave the houses to become rums. Some Christians had better take to the meanest occupation than let their souls stand in such a disreputable state as they do, like empty, unoccupied, useless, decaying, dilapidated houses.

126. Christless Souls, Danger of

I understand drinking bitter medicine, if it is to make me well; but who would drink wormwood and gall with no good result to follow? I can understand toiling if a wage is in prospect, but I cannot see the sense of toiling when there is no reward for it. Now, you who love not God, your lives are not all flowers and sunshine. It is not all music and dancing with you now. I know you have your cares and troubles, you have your thorns in the flesh, and perhaps a great many of them; but you have no Saviour to run to. You are like a ship in a storm, and there is no harbour for you; you are as birds driven before the wind, and you have no nests in which to shelter, but must be driven for ever before the blast of Jehovah's wrath. Consider this, I pray you, meditate upon your condition and prospects, and when you have so done, may your heart cry out, "I would fain have God to be my friend."

127. Church assured of Success in her Mission

We heard it said, the other day, that the religion of Jesus Christ could not be expected to prosper in some places unless it had a fair start. Did that remark come from an infidel, or a bishop? If I were asked and knew not, I know what my answer would be. A fair start indeed! Put the religion of Jesus Christ into any arena, and it asks but liberty to use its weapons; and even where that is denied it, it triumphs still. It only wants its own innate strength to be developed, and to be let alone by the kings and princes of this world, and it will work its own way. To be let alone, I said: let them oppose if they like, yet still our faith will overcome the regal opposition; only let them withdraw their patronage, that deadly thing which paralyzes all spiritual life, and the unshackled truth of God will most surely prevail. We do not tremble, then, we must not, because the servants of God may be poor, or may not be gifted, or may be but few. God shall, even our own God, shall bless us; and if we be few, as the twelve fishermen, and as unlettered as they, yet as the twelve fishermen made old Rome's empire to shake from end to end, and laid colossal systems of idolatry even with the ground, even so will the Christianity of to-day, if God do but return in power unto her, in the midst of her weakness, wax valiant in fight, and turn to flight the armies of the aliens.

128. Church, Building up the Did you ever win a soul to Christ? Did you ever get a grip of the hand of spiritual gratitude? Did you ever see the tear starting from the eye when the convert said, "Bless you!

I shall remember you in heaven, for you have brought me to Christ." Ah, my dear friend, you will not be satisfied merely with this. This is a kind of food that makes men hungry. Oh that you had a rich banquet of it, and yet wanted more still. The church will be built. If you and I sit still, it will be built. This is a truth, though it is often turned to a mischievous end—the church will be built, even without us. But, oh, we shall miss the satisfaction of helping in its building. Yes, it will grow; every stone will be put in its place, and the pinnacle will soar into its predestinated place, but every stone from foundation to pinnacle, will seem to say to you, "Thou hadst nothing to do with this! Thou hadst no hand in this!" When Cyrus took one of his guests round his garden, the guest admired it greatly, and said he had much pleasure in it; "Ah," said Cyrus, "but you have not so much pleasure in this garden as I have, for I planted every tree in it myself." One reason why Christ has so much pleasure in his church is because he did so much for it; and one reason why some saints will have a greater fulness of heaven than others to rejoice in will be because they did more for heaven than others. By God's grace they were enabled to bring more souls there; and as they look upon the church they may, without self-reliance, and ascribing it all to grace, remember what they were enabled to do in its building up.

129. Church, Conversion of Souls her Mission A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be. Not for thyself, O church, dost thou exist, any more than Christ existed for himself. His glory was that he laid aside his glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside her respectability and her dignity, and counts it to be her glory to gather together the outcasts, and her highest honour to seek amid the foulest mire the priceless jewels for which Jesus shed his blood. To rescue souls from hell and lead to God, to hope, to heaven, this is her heavenly occupation. O that the church would always feel this! Let her have her bishops and her preachers, and let them be supported, and let everything be done for Christ's sake decently and in order, but let the end be looked to, namely, the conversion of the wandering, the teaching of the ignorant, the help of the poor, the maintenance of the right, the putting down of the wrong, and the upholding at all hazards of the crown and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

130. Church, Crown of the As a church we have a crown, and for many years we have held it; but I would use the language of Christ in the Book of the Revelation, when, speaking to one of the churches, he says, "Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Now, what has been our crown as a church? It has not been our wealth, for in that we do not excel. It has not been our learning, we do not make any show of it. It has not been our tasteful services, the beauty of our music, and the sweetness of our chanting. No, we do not care about such things but cultivate simplicity. Our crown has been this one thing, that if there has been a church in Christendom which has given itself to winning souls, this church has done so. Our ministry has aimed always at this, the plucking of the brands from burning, the bringing of sinners out of darkness into marvellous light; and I do you nothing but simple justice, my brethren, when I say that by far the larger part of this church is really alive for soul-winning. It does my heart good to meet with divers knots of brethren among you who everywhere about this city are working away unostentatiously but successfully in bringing souls to Christ. I hope it always will be so. Hold fast, O church, what thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Let it always be our joy and glory that God gives us spiritual children, and souls are born to him.

131. Church, Divisions in the

Some of the old Roman walls are compacted with such excellent cement, that it would be almost impossible to separate one stone from another; in fact, the whole mass has become consolidated like one rock, so embedded in cement, that you cannot distinguish one stone from another. Happy the church thus built up, where each cares not only for his own prosperity, but for the prosperity of all—where if there be any joy in one member, all the members rejoice, and if there be sorrow in any one part of the body, all the rest of the body is in sorrow too, "remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and those that are in adversity as being yourselves also in the body." And yet, what are some churches but semi-religious clubs, mere conventions of people gathered together? They have not in them that holy soul which is the essence of unity; there is no life to keep them in entirety. Why, the body would soon become disjointed, and a mass of rottenness, if the soul were not in it; and if the Spirit of Christ be absent, the whole fabric of the outward church begins to fall to pieces; for where there is no life there can be no true union.

132. Church, Enemies a Blessing to the

We have looked upon our adversaries, though they seemed like stormy petrels, as being the index of a favourable wind to the good barque of Christ's church. Persecution seems to be the wave that, when it leaps up around her, speeds her course. Let the mountains be removed, and cast into the midst of the sea; but after long experience of Jehovah's faithfulness towards his people, we are confident that his church shall not be moved: in quietude shall she possess her soul.

133. Church, every Member to work for God A certain band of men, like knights, had been exceedingly victorious in all their conflicts. They were men of valour and of indomitable courage; they had carried everything before them, and subdued province after province for their king. But on a sudden they said in the council-chamber, "We have at our head a most valiant warrior, one whose arm is stout enough to smite down fifty of his adversaries; would it not be better if, with a few such as he to go out to the fight, the mere men-at-arms, who make up the ordinary ranks, were to stop at home? We should be much more at our ease; our horses would not so often be covered with foam, nor our. armour be bruised in returning from the fray, and no doubt great things would be done." Now, the foremost champions, with fear and trembling, undertook the task and went to the conflict, and they fought well, no one could doubt it; to the best of their ability they unhorsed their foe, and they did great exploits. But still, from the very hour in which that scheme was planned and carried out, no city was taken, no province was conquered, and they met together and said, "How is this? Our former prestige is forgotten; our ranks are broken; our pennons are trailed in the dust; what is the cause of it?" When out spoke the champion, and said, "Of course it is so! How did you think that some twelve or fifteen of us could do the work of all the thousands? When you all went to the fight, and every man took his share, we dashed upon the foe like an avalanche, and crushed him beneath our tramp; but now that you stay at home and put us, but a handful, to do all the work, how can you expect that great things should be done?" So each man resolved to put on his helmet and his armour once again, and go to the battle, and so victory returned. I speak to you, I, one of the rank of God's servants, and I say, my brethren, if we are to have the victory you must be every one of you in the fight. We must not spare a single one, neither man nor woman, old nor young, rich nor poor, but you must each fight for the Lord Jesus according to your ability, that his kingdom may come, and that his will may be done upon earth even as it is in heaven. We shall see great things when you all agree to this and put it in practice.

134. Church, Glory of the

There is one lamp; well, that is very bright, very pleasing; you like to have it in your room; but think of all London illuminated to the very top of the cross of St. Paul's, and what an idea you then have of brightness. Now, one glorified Christian is a lamp. Think, then, of all heaven, with its domes of glory lit up with ten thousand times ten thousand companies of blood-bought spirits, whom Jesus Christ has taken up—a glorious church!

135. Church, Greatness of the A drop of water may be very precious to a thirsty tongue, but a river full of it! Children are pleased when for the first time in their lives they sail across some little lake, but how surprised they are when they come to the deep and rolling sea, which seems without shore or bottom. Well, so pleased am I at the very thought of the glorious church. As yet I have never seen anything but one little lake—this church, the church of God in England, the church of God in the world, what is it after all but "as a drop of a bucket!" but the glorious church—the whole of the people of God gathered together in one, all perfectly free from sin, all made like unto Christ, and all bedight and bright with the glory which excelleth even that which Moses and Elias had when they were with Christ in the holy mountain, or such as Moses had when he came down from the top of Horeb, when he had been forty days with God—a glorious church, a mighty company of glorified b

136. Church, Hope for, in the worst Circumstances

Suppose it should ever come to this, as some say it will, that the churches, many of them, should desert the old truths, and the ministers become dumb dogs that cannot bark, and one by one their testimony should be silent, and every candlestick should be taken out of its place, and the whole head should be sick, and the whole heart faint, and Zion be under a cloud, and there should be none to help her, and none to lift up the banner for the truth? What then? Why, then God would arise, and take again from the fishermen in their boats new apostles; and from the lowest dens of iniquity, and the worst haunts of vice, from the saloons of frivolity where the rich resort, and from the chambers of commerce and the palaces of merchandise where buyers and sellers make their contracts, he would take a fresh staff of men. Out of the roughest material he can make the finest fabric; out of the newest recruits he can raise the noblest regiment to show forth his praise, to do his work, and to secure victory for his cause.

137. Church, No need to Despond about the

According to the gloomy prophets, all England is going to the bad—not England alone, but all countries are hastening on to a general and everlasting smash. Then one begins to fret about the church of God; for according to the soothsayers of the age, Antichrist is yet to come, and new heresies are to spring up; the dogs of war are to be let loose, the Pope is to rule and burn us, and one hardly knows what else. Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, have been made sometimes to minister poison to every bright hope, but here is our comfort with regard to the future—

"He everywhere hath sway, And all things serve his might; His every act pure blessing is, His path unsullied light."

Let the worst come to the worst, the best will come of it ere long. "If the heavens were a bow," saith one, "and the earth were the string, and God should fit the arrows of his vengeance thereon, and shoot at the sons of men, yet they could find shelter with the archer himself." Our refuge is in God; let the worst calamities occur to the world in years to come, we are secure. It must be well: it cannot be ill. "Jehovah-Jireh." Lift high the banner and hopefully advance to the battle, for the victory shall surely come unto the arm eternal, the will immutable.

138. Church not to be forsaken in Adversity

Perhaps some of you are living in a district just now where the ministry is painfully devoid of power. The lamp burns very low in your sanctuary, the members worshipping are few, and zeal is altogether dead. Do not desert the church, do not flee away from her in the time of her necessity. Keep to your post, come what may. Be the last man to leave the sinking vessel, if sink she must. Resolve as a friend of Christ to love him at all times, and as a brother born into that church, feel that now, beyond all other times, in the season of adversity, you must adhere to her.

139. Church not to be Judged by her Hypocrites Was there ever a club in all the world without disreputable persons in it? Was there ever any association of men that might not be condemned, if the fool's rule was followed, of condemning the wheat because of the chaff? When with all our might and power we purge ourselves of deceivers as Boon as we detect them, what more can we do? If our rule and practice is to separate them wholly as soon as we unmask them, what more can virtue itself desire? I ask any man, however much he may hate Christianity, what more can the church do than watch her members with all diligence, and excommunicate the wicked when discovered? It is a foul piece of meanness on the part of the world that they should allege the faults of a few false professors against the whole church: it is a piece of miserable meanness of which the world ought to be ashamed. Nevertheless, so it is. "Ha! ha!" they say.

"So would we have it! So would we have it!" The daughter of Philistia rejoices, and the uncircumcised triumphs when Jesus is betrayed by his friend, and sold by his traitorous disciple. O deceitful professor, will not the Lord be avenged upon you for this? Is it nothing to make Jesus' name the drunkard's song? Nothing to make the enemy blaspheme? O hardened man, tremble, for this shall not go unpunished.

140. Church nothing without the Spirit

It awakens melancholy reflections when we hear of the bodies of old Egyptian kings, proud lords of millions of men, dragged by our discoverers out of their secret chambers in the pyramids and exposed to every vulgar eye. The great sarcophagus has had its lid uplifted, and the monarch who once ruled the world has been taken out, and his corpse unrolled for the sake of a little old linen, and an ounce or two of the embalming gum. Poor mummy! once a Pharaoh whose voice could shake a nation and devastate continents, now used to heat an Arab's kettle or to furnish an object for a museum. So with a church: alive by the divine indwelling, God gives it royalty, and makes it a king and priest unto himself among the sons of men; its influence is felt further than it dreams; the world trembles at it, for it is fair as the sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners; but when the Spirit of God is departed, what remains but its old records, ancient creeds, title-deeds, traditions, histories and memories? it is in fact a mummy of a church rather than a church of God, and it is better fitted to be looked at by antiquarians than to be treated as an existent agency.

141. Church, Order of the A church is not a load of bricks, remember; it is a house builded together. A church is not a bundle of cuttings in the gardener's hand: it is a vine, of which we are the branches. The true church is an organised whole; and life, true spiritual life, wherever it is paramount in the church, without rules and rubrics, is quite sure to create order and arrangement. Order without life reminds us of the rows of graves in a cemetery, all numbered and entered in the register: order with life reminds us of the long lines of fruit trees in Italy, festooned with fruitful vines. Sunday-school teachers, bear ye the banner of the folded lamb; sick visitors, follow the ensign of the open hand; preachers, rally to the token of the uplifted brazen serpent; and all of you, according to your sacred calling, gather to the name of Jesus, armed for the war.

142. Church, Purification of the

While a church is without the Spirit of God it will keep in its old way, it will plead precedent, it will endure grievous abuses, it will make excuses for this, and excuses for that; but, let the Lord once come, and out the hawkers and hucksters must go, tables, money-bags, doves, and all. He will not have them in his house of prayer; bag and baggage they must go when he comes in, and he only in his truth and power must reign in the midst of his own church. I do not believe we shall thoroughly purify any church by Acts of Parliament, nor by reformation associations, nor by agitation, nor by any merely human agency. No hand can grasp the scourge that can drive out the buyers and sellers, but that hand which once was fastened to the cross. Let the Lord do it and the work will be done, for it is not of man, nor shall man accomplish it.

143. Church Recruited by Conversion

I should reckon it to be a burning disgrace if it could be said, "The large church under that man's pastoral care is composed of members whom he has stolen away from other Christian churches." No, but I value beyond all price the godless, the careless, who are brought out from the world into communion with Christ. These are true prizes, not stealthily removed from friendly shores, but captured at the edge of the sword from an enemy's dominions. We welcome brethren from other churches if in the providence of God they are drifted to our shores, but we would never hang out the wrecker's beacon to dash other churches in pieces in order to enrich ourselves with the wreck. Far rather would we be looking after perishing souls than cajoling unstable ones from their present place of worship. To recruit one regiment from another is no real strengthening of the army; to bring in fresh men should be the aim of all.

144. Church, Safety of the

I stood this week by the side of a church which once was a considerable distance inland, but now it stands just by the ocean side. Almost every year a great mass of the clay cliff falls into the sea, and in a year or two this parish church must fall. It stands now in quietude and peace, but on a certain day it will all be swallowed up into the sea, as certainly as the elements still work according to their ordinary laws. I could not help thinking that the edifice was a type of certain ecclesiastical bodies, which stand upon the clay cliff of statecraft, or superstition. The tide of public enlightenment, and above all the ocean tide of God's Spirit, is advancing and wearing away their foundation till at last down the whole fabric must go. What then? Will you hold up your hands and cry, "The church of God is gone?" Forbear the foolish utterance; God's church is safe enough. Look yonder, there stands the church of God upon a stormy promontory, where the sea always dashes and perpetually rages on all sides, and yet she fears no undermining, because she is built on no clay cliff, but on a rock against which the waves of hell shall not prevail. There, let your earthborn, state-propped churches go! Swallow them up, O sea of time, swallow them all up, and leave no wreck behind! But the church of the living God shall stand all the more glorious, because of the ruin which has overtaken her rivals and discovered their human origin.

145. Church Strengthened by her Conflicts

Every age produces a new crop of heretics and infidels. Just as the current of the times may run, so doth the stream of infidelity change its direction. We have lived long enough, some of us, to see three or four species of atheists and deists rise and die, for they are shortlived, an ephemeral generation. We have seen the church attacked by weapons borrowed from geology, ethnology, and anatomy, and then from the schools of criticism fierce warriors have issued, but she survives all her antagonists. She has been assailed from almost every quarter, but the fears that tarry in the church to-day are blown to the wind to-morrow; yea, the church has been enriched by the attacks, for her divines have set to work to study the points that were dubious, to strengthen the walls that seemed a little weak, and so her towers have been strengthened, and her bulwarks consolidated.

146. Church Sustained by God The church of God is God's battle-axe and weapons of war in fighting his battles for truth and righteousness; and, up till now, history shows that none have been able to stand against God in the midst of his people. It is the fact, that along the whole line of spiritual battle the victory has been to God's people. At first the enemy attacked the church with persecution. Those rough and barbarous weapons of war were used which were to be found in the Colosseum, with its wild beasts and cruel men, or in the axe, the stake, and the rack. Men have grown somewhat wiser now, but in those days, men and devils sought to destroy the testimony of our God by the destruction of the saints; and what was the result? O persecution, where are thy trophies? The virgin daughter of Zion hath shaken her head at thee, and laughed thee to scorn. The church, like a good ship beaten by the waves, has cut through every billow, and has been hastened on her way by the storm. Washed and cleansed and purged by opposition, the more the church has been opposed the more brightly glorious has she shone forth. God was in the midst of her and helped her; he helped her, and that right early. Our pulse beats fast, and our blood grows hot when we read of the persecutions of old pagan Rome. And when we turn to the story of the Reformation, and see the hunted ones among the Alps, the Huguenots driven out of France, our own Lollards, and the Covenanters of Scotland, we feel proud to belong to such a race of men, we glory in their lineage, and arc amazed that the policy of persecution should so long have been continued by shrewd, sharp-witted men, when it ought to have been clear to them that in every case in which they persecuted the church, it multiplied the more exceedingly. God has indeed broken "the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle," by sustaining his people in times of persecution.

147. Church, the Garden of Christ

One flower is very sweet. I smell its perfume. But I walk into some vast conservatories, into some gentleman's garden acres in extent, and there are beds of flowers, the blue, and scarlet, and yellow. I see the verbena, the calceolaria, and the geranium and many others, all in order, and in ranks. Oh, how glorious is this! Those undulating lawns, those well-trimmed hedges, those trees so daintily kept, all growing in such luxuriance. One flower is sweet, but a garden! a garden! who can tell how sweet this is! So, one glorified saint is one of God's flowers, but a glorious church is Christ's garden.

148. Church, the Garden of the King

If Louis Napoleon could call a senate of all the potentates in this world in Paris, and hold a congress there, the whole of them put together would not be worth the snap of a finger compared with half-a-dozen godly old women who meet together in the name of Christ as a church, in obedience to the Lord's command; for God would not be there with the potentates—what cares he for them?—but he would be with the most poor and despised of his people who meet together as a church in Jesus Christ's name. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," is more glorious than ermine, or purple, or crown. Constitute a church in the name of Christ, and meet together as such, and there is no assembly upon the face of the earth that can be compared with it, and even the assembly of the first-born in heaven is but a branch of the grand whole of which the assemblies of the church on earth make up an essential part. The church is the King's garden.

149. Church, the Place of Broad Vision

It was one of the common enjoyments of the citizen of any walled city to come to the top of the wall in order to take views afar. And when a man once gets into the altitudes of gospel doctrines, and has learned to understand the love of God in Christ Jesus, what views he can take! How he looks down upon the sorrows of life! How he looks beyond that narrow little stream of death! How, sometimes, when the weather is bright and his eye is clear enough to let him use the telescope, he can see within the gates of pearl, and behold the joys which no mortal eye hath seen, and hear the songs which no mortal ear hath heard, for these are things not for eyes and ears, but for hearts and spirits! Blessed is the man who dwelleth in the church of God, for he can find on her broad walls places from which he can see the king in his beauty, and the land which is very far off!

150. Church to be Self-sacrificing

O that the Christian church had more self-sacrificing men, like old Curtius, who, when there is a chasm to fill up, leap into it, and feel it an honour to be swallowed up for Christ's sake and the truth's sake. O for many a Christian Scævola, who, like the Roman hero, will hold his hand in the fire if need be, and flinch not, feeling that all suffering were little to bear for one who bled for us. We want more consecrated men. May God raise them up; and he will if you who feel your special sinnership find special mercy, and then render to God special returns

151. Church to Confess her Sin As a church we want to be kept low before the Lord. Why what are we as a church? There are some sad sinners among us, who are such clever hypocrites that we cannot find them out, and there are others who walk so ill that we fear they are tares among the wheat. The best of us are far from being as good as we should be. We have all grave accusations to bring against ourselves. If the Lord Jesus were to write on the ground here and say, "He that is without fault among you, let him throw the first stone at lukewarm Christians." I do not know who is the oldest and whether he would try to go out first, but I should follow very closely at his heels. We are all verily guilty before the Lord; we have not done as we ought, nor as we might: we are unworthy that he should use us; and if he should write "Ichabod" in letters of fire over this Tabernacle, and leave this house to be desolate as Shiloh was of old, he might well do it and none could blame him. Let us all confess this.

152. Church, Worldliness of, her Curse A worldly church chases away the Spirit of God. Whereever there is a people conformed to the maxims and ways of the world, indifferent in prayer and sluggish in effort, there will be the name to live, but there will be death; but where there is a people who with little strength have, nevertheless, kept God's word, and above all have kept their garments unspotted, there will ere long come the making bare of the almighty arm in the eyes of all the people. Wash ye, make ye clean, put away your secret iniquities, humble yourselves, O professors, before God. May the Lord give you the spirit of repentance, may he pour out his Spirit upon each of us, may we put away the old leaven, and so shall we keep the feast. May we shake ourselves from the dust of every sin, so shall we put on our beautiful garments, and the time of the church's glory and our triumph shall come.

153. Church Discipline, Object of

Some backsliders, I fear, are apostates, for having brought dishonour upon the Christian church, they nevertheless are far from being humbled, but impertinently thrust themselves and their supposed claims to attention upon the church whom they have grieved and injured; their much-talked-of repentance appearing to us to be more early than deep, and to be more pretentious than true: but at the same time, if a man hath fallen, and even if the church be obliged to put him away, we do not deliver such a one to Satan that he may blaspheme, but that he may learn not to blaspheme. The object of church discipline should always be the good of the person who has to endure it. There is no more Christlike work anywhere than for elder Christians to be watching over the young ones, checking their first declensions, nipping the evil in the bud—no nobler work, unless it be the restoration of those who have actually gone astray.

154. Church of England, Unsoundness of The Church of England is eaten through and through with Sacramentarianism, but Nonconformity appears to me to be almost as badly riddled with philosophical infidelity. Those of whom we thought better things are turning aside one by one from the fundamentals of the faith. At first they gave up the doctrine of the eternity of future punishment, now it must be the doctrine of the fall: first one thing, then another. If some men have their way, all the doctrines of the word must go. They treat the doctrines of Scripture as though they were all disproved, and only held by a few ignorant bigots. Through and through, I believe, the heart of England is honeycombed with a detestable infidelity, which dares still to go into the pulpit, and call itself Christian. I pray that God may preserve our denomination from it; but my prayer shall go up that he will give us the Holy Spirit, for men never go wrong with the Holy Spirit; he will keep them right, and lead them into all truth. Soundness of doctrine is only worth having when it is the result of the living indwelling of God in the church; and because too much the Holy Spirit has departed, we see the signs that the orthodox faith is given up, and the inventions of man preached instead thereof.

155. Coldness of Heart a Barrier to Communion As one said, on a certain occasion, there is a fleet lying in the river richly laden, but it cannot come up, because the river is blocked up with the ice; so, methinks, I see my Master's love lying out far down the river, and would fain come to my poor soul to enrich me, and make me holy and heavenly; but, alas! the coldness of my heart, like ice, blocks up the channel, and I get not what I might obtain. Come, heavenly love, and melt the ice; flow streams of grace, and dissolve every barrier; come Jesus, come Thou in to my own heart, and let thy treasures be mine for evermore!

156. Comfort for Troubled ones The saint's lot has its blacks, but it has also its whites; drops of wormwood are ours, but milk and honey are not denied us. We mourn at Marah, but we sing at Elim. Bochim still stands, but Bethel is ours too. The lion roars, but the turtle also yields her cheering note. Clouds are above us, but the stars smile on. Our sea has its ebbs, but, by turns, it comes to the flood. Winters bluster and freeze, but summer comes anon, and blossoms with joy, and autumn follows with its mellowness. We are cast down, but we are not destroyed; nay, we are not even injured, for if for a little time we seem to be losers by our castings down, we ere long discover our greater gains. Happy are the people that are in such a case, yea, blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. The cup of tried David is far better than that of proud Belshazzar; none are so comforted as those to whom the Holy Ghost is Comforter.

157. Comfort, Undying, in God

None of your dearest and most cherished loves are at all worthy to sit upon the throne of your heart—far down in the scale must they be placed when the God who gave them to you is brought into comparison. That broad bosom of your beloved husband beats fondly and faithfully, but when death lays it low, as ere long it must, how wretched will be your condition if you have not an everlasting Comforter upon whose breast to lean! Those dear little sparkling eyes, which are like stars in the heaven of your social joy, if these be the gods of your idolatry, how wretched will you be when their brightness is dim, and the mother's joy is mouldering back to dust! Happy is he who hath an everlasting joy and an undying comfort; and there is none in this respect like unto the God of Jeshurun. There would be fewer broken hearts if hearts were more completely the Lord's. We should have no rebellious spirits if, when we had our joys, we used them lawfully, and did not too much build our hopes upon them. All beneath the moon will wane. Everything on these shores ebbs and flows like the sea. Everything beneath the sun will be eclipsed. You will not find in time that which is only to be discovered in eternity, namely, an immutable and unfailing source of comfort.

158. Comforters, Awkward

You know, in common life, there are some people who seem to be born nurses. Others there are, to be sure, who cannot nurse at all; if you were ill, you would never have them about you even if they would come for nothing and pay you for having them. They mean well, but somehow or other they would stamp across the room every time they moved, and would be sure to wake you up; and if there were any physic to be taken at night, it would taste all the worse if they gave it to you. But you have known a real nurse—perhaps your own wife—you never did hear her walk across the room when you were ill, and you never would even if you had an instrument to your ear like a microscope to the eye, magnifying the minutest thing; she steps so softly that you might almost sooner hear her heart beat than her footfall. Then, too, she understands your taste exactly, and always knows what to bring you. Whoever heard of a nurse more fit for her work than Miss Nightingale? She seems as if she could do nothing else, and as if God had sent her into the world on purpose, not only that she might be a nurse herself, but that she might also teach others to nurse. Well, it is just the same in spiritual things. I have used a homely illustration to show you what I mean. There are some people who, if they try to comfort you when you are distressed, go so awkwardly to work about it, that they are sure to give you a great deal more trouble than you had before. They really mean well, and try to do their best, but they cannot do what you want done. It is not their work; they are not "helps;" they take a great crowbar to do the thing which a little picklock would easily effect, and they go about everything in such a strange, clumsy style, that you can see they were not made for their work, The true "help "to a distressed soul is a person who, though his head may not be very big, has a large and warm heart. He is a man, in fact, all heart. It was said of John, that he was a pillar of fire from head to foot. This is the kind of man the soul wants when it is shivering in the cold winter of despondency.

159. Coming of the Lord, Welcoming the In Pompeii's last tremendous hour the bread was in the oven, but the baker never saw it taken from it; the meat was seething in the pot never to be eaten; the slave was at the mill, the prisoner in the dungeon, the traveller at the inn, the money dealer in his treasury, but none of these saw aught of their labours, their pains, their pleasures, or their profits again. The burning dust fell over all, the poisonous vapours sought out every crevice, and the ocean of mud buried inhabitant and habitation, worshipper and temple, worker and all that he had wrought! Should a sudden overthrow come upon us also, are we ready? Could we welcome the descending Lord, and feel that for us his coming with clouds to recompense justice would be a joyful appearing, to be welcomed with exulting acclamation? The question is too important to be dismissed until honestly answered: may sincerity direct the examination it suggests.

160. Communion, Bliss of

Communion with Christ has no after-bitterness in it. It never cloys; it is a sun without spots; it is a moon which never wanes; it is an ocean which never ebbs; it is a river which flows on for ever—it is all heaven and all bliss.

161. Communion, Gates of This city of communion has many pearly gates, every several gate is of one pearl, and each gate is thrown open to the uttermost that we may enter, assured of welcome. If there were but one small loophole through which to talk with Jesus, it would be a high privilege to thrust a word of fellowship through the narrow door: how much we are blessed in having so large an entrance! Had the Lord Jesus been far away from us, with many a stormy sea between, we should have longed to send a messenger to him to carry him our loves, and bring us tidings from his Father's house; but see his kindness, he has built his house next door to ours, nay, more, he takes lodging with us, and tabernacles in poor humble hearts, that so he may have perpetual intercourse with us. O how foolish must we be, if we do not live in habitual communion with him.

162. Communion with Christ, the means of Growth The well-head and fountain of growth in grace is well-sustained communion and manifest oneness with Christ; we may strive after moral virtue if we will, but we shall be like those foolish children who pluck flowers and thrust them into their little gardens without roots; but if we strive after increasing faith in Jesus, we shall be as wise men. who plant choice bulbs and living seeds, from which shall in due time uprise the golden cups or the azure bells of lovely flowers, emblems of things that are lovely and of good repute.

163. Communion Table, Christ seen at the The elements of bread and wine become the lenses of a far-seeing optic-glass, through which we behold the Saviour; and I say again, if there be one spot of earth clear from the smoke of care, it is the table where saints have fellowship with their Lord. A door is often opened in heaven at this banquet, when his banner over us is love; but if it be so sweet to enjoy the emblem, what must it be to live with Christ himself, and drink the wine new with him in the kingdom of our Father!

164. Communion Table, Music for the

We should not choose a tune for the communion table which is not very soft. These are no boisterous themes with which we have to deal when we tarry here. A bleeding Saviour, robed in a vesture dyed with blood—this is a theme which you must treat with loving gentleness, for everything that is coarse is out of place. While the tune is soft, it must also be sweet. Silence, ye doubts; be dumb, ye fears; be hushed, ye cares! Why come ye here? My music must be sweet and soft when I sing of him. But oh! it must also be strong; there must be a full swell in my praise. Draw out the stops, and let the organ swell the diapason; In fulness let its roll of thundering harmony go up to heaven; let every note be sounded at its loudest. "Praise ye him upon the cymbals, upon the high-sounding cymbals; upon the harp with a solemn sound." Soft, sweet, and strong, let the music be.

165. Companionship of Jesus

If Jesus Christ be thy companion, thou mayest walk unharmed through Vanity Fair; and if thy path should lie through it, thou needst not care for all the fools that pluck at thy garment. Through a shower of mud it is safe and blessed travelling if Jesus be our companion. I hope you are not one of those who would choose to walk with him in silver slippers, but who would leave him if he came in poverty and shame! If so, you do not know the love of Jesus at all. Through briars and thorns lies the path of love; and yet that thorny road is paradise if Jesus do but tread it with us, and permit us to lean upon his arm. The more severe the troubles of life become, the higher shall your comforts rise if Jesus be with you. Tried soul, rest in Jesus! Only cast yourself on him, confide entirely in him, and you shall find that the peace which he gives you none can take from you.

166. Companionship with Jesus In days of persecution those who believed the Bible on secondhand have denied the faith, but those who have had it worked into the warp and woof of their being, who have had their souls dyed and tinctured through and through with it, because they have lived upon Christ, and Christ has lived in them—these are the people who have stood on the fagots to bum, and have learned to sing the high praises of God while their flesh and bones were being consumed. If we want to become stalwart men, who cannot be turned aside by every wind of doctrine, whom neither Rationalism nor Sacramentarianism can shake from the gospel, we must be those who have been with Jesus, and in that way have learned experimentally from him, for such experimental Christians can never give up the truth.

167. Conceit of Man A certain worthy of our acquaintance, being out of a situation, made application to a friend to recommend him to a place, and remarked, that he would prefer a somewhat superior position, "for you know, Tomkins," said he, "I am not a fool, and I ain't ignorant." We would not insinuate that the brother was mistaken in his own estimate, but the remark might possibly excite suspicion, for the case is similar to that of a timid pedestrian at night alone, hurrying along a lonesome lane, when a gentleman corner out of the hedge just at the turning by Deadman's Corner, and accosts him in the following reassuring language, "I ain't a garrotter, and I never crack a fellow's head with, this here life-preserver." The outspoken self-assertion of the brother quoted above, is but the expression of the thought of the most, if not all of us. "I am not a fool, and I ain't ignorant," is the almost universal self-compliment, which is never out of season; and this is the great barrier to our benefiting by good advice, which we suppose to be directed to the foolish and ignorant world in general, but not to our elevated selves. The poet did not say, but we will say it for him, "All men think all men faulty but themselves." It would be a great gain to us all, if we had those elegant quizzing glasses of ours silvered at the back, so that the next time we stick them in our eyes, in all the foppery of our conceit, we may be edified, and, let us hope, humbled, by seeing ourselves.

168. Condemnation not for the Believer The sin of the believer was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, "for the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." And from that day forward the penalty of sin has been discharged and removed by the Redeemer's having endured it himself. The black cloud of my sin has no rain in it; it has emptied out its rain upon Christ. Nay, the black cloud itself has ceased to be. The Red Sea of my sin cannot drown me; it is dried up by Christ; I have a safe passage through it. My sin is in itself most deadly and destructive, as I see it to have been in the person of my Lord Jesus; but it shall neither destroy nor condemn me, for it hath destroyed and condemned Christ, and he has destroyed and condemned it.

169. Condemnation through rejecting Christ

Here is a man out at sea; he has got a chart, and that chart, if well studied, will, with the help of the compass, guide him to his journey's end. The pole-star gleams out amidst the cloud-rifts, and that, too, will help him. "No," says he, "I will have nothing to do with your stars; I do not believe in the North Pole; I shall not attend to that little thing inside the box; one needle is as good as another needle; I do not believe in your rubbish, and I will have nothing to do with it; it is only a lot of nonsense got up by people on purpose to make money, and I will have nothing to do with it." The man does not get to shore anywhere; he drifts about, but never reaches port, and he says it is a very hard thing, a very hard thing. I do not; think so. So some of you say, "Well, I am not going to read your Bible; I am not going to listen to your talk about Jesus Christ; I do not believe in such things." You will be damned, then, sir! "That's very hard," say you. No, it is not. It is not more so than the fact that if you reject the compass and the pole-star you will not get to your journey's end.

170. Confidence in God That is a grand story of Alexander's confidence in his friend and physician. When the physician had mixed him a potion for his sickness, a letter was put into Alexander's hand, warning him not to drink the medicine, for it was poisoned. He held the letter in one hand and the cup in the other, and in the presence of his friend and physician, he drank up the draught, and after he had drained the cup, he bade his friend look at that letter, and judge of his confidence in him. Alexander had unstaggering faith in his friend, which did not admit of doubt. "See now," said he, "how I have trusted you." This is the assurance which the believer should exercise towards his God. The cup is very bitter, and some tell us it will prove to be deadly; that it is so nauseous that we shall never survive the draught. Unbelief whispers in our ear, "Your coming tribulation will utterly crush you." Drink it, my brother, and say, "If he slay me, yet will I trust in him." It cannot be that God should be unfaithful to his promise, or unmindful of his covenant. Your trial, then, will cease when it culminates: he will make darkness light before you when the darkest hour of the night has struck.

171. Confidence in God, Childlike

You heard your little boy the other day crying bitterly. His mother called him, and asked what ailed him? It was a splinter in his finger. Well, that was a small affair; you did not want to call in three surgeons to extract it, or raise a hue and cry in the public press. Bring a needle, and we will soon set it right. Oh, but what a great thing it was to that pretty little sufferer, as he stood there with eyes all wet with tears of anguish. It was a great concern to him. Now, did it occur to that boy that his pain was too small a thing for his mother to attend to? Not at all; what were mothers and fathers made for but to look after the little wants of little children? And God our Father is a good father, he pities us as fathers pity their children, and condescends to us. He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, yet he healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. The same God who kindles the sun, has said, "I will not quench the smoking flax." If you have but confidence in God, you will take your great things and your little things to him, and he will never belie your confidence, for he has said they that trust in him shall never be ashamed or confounded, world without end. Faith must succeed.

172. Congratulations, Spiritual

Let us congratulate one another that our prayers, with all the faults that we are apt to find with them, are being heard. They are penetrating heaven, they are entering the pearly gate, they are swarming the throne of the Most High. Through Jesus' blood, which they use as their great prevailing weapon, they are moving the arm which moves the world; blessings are coming down upon our sons and daughters, and upon our kinsfolk and acquaintance, in answer to our wrestling, believing prayer. Let us congratulate one another. If we were depressed, if we were like a wilderness, we would condole with one another. Let us now congratulate; let us take the right hand of fellowship over again, and looking back upon the past, vow for the future, in God's name, that, if he will but strengthen us, nothing shall daunt our courage, nothing restrain our zeal. What he has done shall make us aspire to more! what has been accomplished by us as a people shall be but a stepping-stone to more daring attempts, to more zealous adventures, to more arduous labours for the promotion of his kingdom and the extension of his sway.

173. Congregations, Thin, Comfort in

Some years ago there was a young man, who, upon much such a morning as this—cold, snowy, dark—entered a house of prayer, as you have done to-day. I thought as I came here, this morning, of that young man. I said to myself, "This morning is so very forbidding that I shall have a very small congregation, but perhaps among them there will be one like that young man." To be plain with you, it comforted me to think that the morning when God blessed my soul, the preacher had a very small congregation, and it was cold and bitter, and therefore I said to myself this morning, "Why should not I go up merrily to my task, and preach if there should only be a dozen there?" for Jesus may intend to reveal himself to some one as he did to me, and that some one may be a soul-winner, and the means of the salvation of tens of thousands in years to come. I wonder if that will occur to that young man yonder, for I trust he has the enquiry of the wise men upon his lips. I trust he will not quench those desires which now burn within him, but rather may the spark be fanned to a flame, and may this day witness his decision for Jesus. Oh, has the Lord looked on that young woman, or on that dear child, or on yonder aged man? I know not who it may be, but I shall indeed bless God this morning, if the cry may be heard from many a lip, "Sir, what must I do to be saved? Where is he that is born King of the Jews?"

174. Conscience, Awakened, Terror of

Seeing that there had been no wars in Cain's day, and that the human heart had not been brutalised as it now is, so as to speak of war as we now do in such gentle terms, surely if he had had any conscience at all, it must have been a horrible thought to him that he had killed his brother. "I have killed a man, I have shed his blood." Surely it made him start in his sleep. How could he be quiet upon his lonely couch? That red-handed man! Guilt, a grim chamberlain, with fingers bloody red, would surely draw the curtains of his bed. Would not the spectacle all come up before his mind? The talk in the field, the sudden impulse, the blow, the blood, the look of his victim as he cried for pity as one cruel stroke succeeded another; and then the sight of the ghastly body and the streaming blood, and the crimson marks on the soddened earth. Oh, it must have been a remembrance clinging like a viper around the murderer whenever he might be! He might well build a city, as we are told he did, in order to quench these fiery remembrances. Then would the thought come upon him, "You slew him though he was your brother."

"Am I my brother's keeper?" said he, but men can talk more braggingly than their heart talks in secret. The horror of brother-killing must have haunted Cain: "I slew my brother, I, the first that was born of woman slew the second born." And then it would be suggested, "And wherefore did I slay him? What evil had he done me? What if he did offer a different sacrifice from mine, and what if God did accept him and not me, yet what hurt had he done me?" The innocence of his victim, if Cain had any conscience, must have increased his uneasiness, for he would recollect how inoffensively he had kept those sheep of his, and had been like one among them, so lamblike, that shepherd man, himself a true sheep of God's pasture. "Yet," would Cain say, "I slew him because I hated God, the God before whose bar I am soon to stand, the God who set this mark on me." Can you picture the man who had thus to be daily schooled and upbraided by a brother's blood? It needs a poet's mind to teach him. Think how you would feel if you had killed your own brother, how the guilt would hang over you like a black cloud, and drop horror into your very soul.

175. Consecrated Buildings

If it be true that there is some sanctity this side of a brick-wall more than there is on the other side of it; if it be true that the fresh air blows away grace, and that for the highest acceptance we need groined arches, pillars, aisle, chancel, and transept, then farewell, ye green lanes, and fair gardens, and lovely woods, for henceforth we must, without ceasing, dwell where your fragrance and freshness can never reach us. But this is ridiculous; wherefore I gather that the frequenting of some one particular place has little or nothing to do with prayer; and such a conclusion is consistent with the saying of Paul upon Mars' Hill, "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands."

176. Consecration, every Believer's Desire

You know in the church of Rome they have certain orders of men and women who devote themselves to certain benevolent, charitable, or superstitious works, and who come to be especially considered as the servants of the Lord Jesus. Now, we have never admired this form of fraternities and brotherhoods, and sisterhoods; but the spirit of the thing is just that which ought to enter into the heart of every Christian man and woman. Why, you members of the Christian church, you ought to be—what you are, if you are what you profess to be—wholly consecrated to the Saviour. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father," should be practised by all the church, not merely by certain orders thence to be called religious. Speak, O Sisters of Mercy! Every Christian woman is a sister of mercy. We hear of men who belong to what is called "the order of Passionists." Every believing man ought to be of the order of the Passionists, moved by the passion of the Saviour to consecrate himself to the Saviour's work.

177. Consecration, Exhortation to

If you could know regrets in the realm of blessedness, would not these be the regrets, that you have not served Christ better, loved him more, spoke of him oftener, given more generously to his cause, and more uniformly proved yourselves to be consecrated to him? I am afraid that such would be the form of the regrets of Paradise, if any could intrude within those gates of pearl. Come, let us live while we live! Let us live up to the utmost stretch of our manhood! Let us ask the Lord to brace our nerves, to string our sinews, and make us true crusaders, knights of the blood-red cross, consecrated men and women, who, for the love we bear Christ's name, will count labour to be ease, and suffering to be joy, and reproach to be honour, and loss to be gain! If we have never yet given ourselves wholly up to Christ as his disciples, now hard by his cross, where we see his wounds still bleeding afresh, and himself quivering in pain for us, let us pledge ourselves in his strength, that we give ourselves wholly to him without reserve, and so may he help us by his Spirit, that the vow may be redeemed and the resolve may be carried out, that we may love Christ, and dying may find it gain.

178. Consecration, Partial

I noticed the other day, a remark which struck me. Speaking of a certain congregation, the writer said he believed there were a hundred persons in it who were worth not less than five thousand pounds a-year each, and then he mentioned the sum that was given for the maintenance of the work of God, and he added, "If any ordinary person who was not a Christian, went in there and heard them sing—

'And if I might make some reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God with zeal so great, That I would give him all,'—

he would say to himself, "I was at the theatre on Saturday night, and saw a farce, but if I want a screaming one I must come here on a Sunday." Indeed, I thought the remark to be sadly true. When I see how much there is of available strength both in worldly substance, in mental vigour, and in other forms in the church, which is never used, I dare hardly say that any church now upon earth really labours for Christ. A little of your spare strength is given to Jesus, and then ye think ye have done well. He is put off with odds and ends, the cheese parings and the potatoe peelings of the church. I ask you, does he get much more? What are the gifts of most? Do they give as much as would keep the lowest menial in their kitchens? It was not so in early times. Then men were Christians all over and altogether, and served Christ first, Christ last, Christ midst, and Christ without end; but now it is enough if we gloss over life with a little varnish of holy talk and pious profession. Would God these eyes might live to see a church that really laboured, putting forth all its strength with all its might, using all the force in its possession for the propagation of the gospel of the Lord and the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom.

179. Consecration to be Entire

We must bring before God, if we would be accepted in our works, something of all virtues. It must not be all galbanum nor all stacte; not all intrepid courage without any subdued reverence, nor all the simplicity of affection without any of the sublimity of faith; it must not be all self-denial, though there must be some of it; gravity itself must be tempered with cheerfulness; there must be something of every form of virtue to make up the blessed compound. We must endeavour to bring something of all exercises; not prayer without praise, nor work without prayer; not mental energy without spiritual gifts, nor gifts without holiness; a mixture, a compound of the whole. We must bring something of all our powers: not all intellect, not all heart; something of intellect in judgment and understanding; something of the heart in enthusiasm and joy; something of the body, for the members of the body are members of Christ; but much of the soul, for the soul's service is the soul of service. We must bring to God a compound of excellencies from all the powers which he has renewed and consecrated to himself. Oh it were matchless, if God the Holy Spirit should graciously enable us to imitate Christ in this, that we might have some of all the graces, not lacking in any respect, but as a man of God throughly furnished unto every good work.

180. Consisting its own Reward To this hour truth offers no dowry but herself to those who will espouse her. Abuse, contempt, hard fare, ridicule, misrepresentation—these are the wages of consistency; and if better comes it is not to be reckoned on. If any man be of a noble enough spirit to love the truth for truth's sake, and God for God's sake, and Christ for Christ's sake, let him enlist with those of like mind; but if he seek anything over and above that, if he desire to be made famous, or to gain power, or to be well beneficed, he had better keep his place among the cowardly dirt-eaters who swarm around us. The church of God bribes no man. She has no mercenary rewards to proffer, and would scorn to use them if she had. If to serve the Lord be not enough reward, let those who look for more go their selfish way: if heaven be not enough, let those who can despise it seek their heaven below.

181. Consolation, Everlasting A man goes to work to make money, and after toiling hard for it he gets it, and it is a consolation to him, but it is not an "everlasting consolation," for he may spend or he may lose all his money; he may invest it in some company (limited or unlimited), and very soon find it vanish; or he may be compelled by death to leave it; it cannot be, at the best, more than a temporary consolation. A man toils hard for knowledge; he acquires it; he becomes eminent; his name is famous. This is a consolation to him for all his toil, but it cannot last long, for when he comes to feel the headache, or the heartache, his degrees and his fame cannot cheer him; or when his soul becomes a prey to despondency he may turn over many a learned tome before he will find a cure for melancholy. His consolation is but frail and fickle, it will only serve to cheer him at intermittent seasons; it is not "everlasting consolation." But I venture to say that through the consolation which God gives to his people they are unsurpassed for their endurance. They can stand all tests—the shock of trial, the bursting out of passion, the lapse of years; nay, they can even stand the passage to eternity, for God has given to his people "everlasting consolation."

182. Consolation, Strong

What is strong consolation? I think strong consolation is that which does not depend upon bodily health. What a cowardly old enemy the devil is! When we are strong and vigorous in body, it is very seldom that he will tempt us to doubt and fear, but if we have been racked with hours of pain and sleepless nights, and are getting to feel faint and weary, then he comes in with his horrible insinuations: "God will forsake you. His promise will fail!" He is vile enough to put his black paws on the brightest truth in the Bible, ay, upon even the very existence of God himself, and turn the boldest believer into the most terrible doubter, so that we seem to have gone bodily over to the army of Satan and to be doubting every good thing that is in the word of God. Strong consolation, even at such times, enables us still to rejoice in the Lord though every nerve should twinge, and every bone should seem melted into jelly with pain. "Though he slay toe, yet will I trust in him." Let him crush me, but he shall get nothing out of me but the wine of resignation. I will not fly in his face, but still say, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." O may you have such strong consolation, my dear brethren.

183. Contentment through the Cross

Believers in Jesus carry the pearl of content in their bosoms. Jesus takes away the restless spirit, and gives us rest. Jesus is the door that fits the heart, and when he is near to us he shuts out the world's cold and heat, and gives us sweet content. O ambitious man, thou that runnest after something, and thou canst not tell what it is that can gratify thine immortal spirit, turn to the cross, for at the foot of it there springs a sacred fount of soul-satisfying delight, and if thou wilt but stoop and drink, thine ambition shall be over, and thou shalt want no more. There is satisfaction for the deepest longings of heart, and head, and conscience, in the fount which springs from the wounds of Jesus. Faith is the silver cup. Dip it into the overflowing stream and drink.

184. Conversion, Day of, Retrospect of the Do you recollect the day when the gospel carried your heart by storm? You never can forget when the great battering-ram of truth began to beat against the gates of Mansoul. You recollect how you strengthened the posts and bars, and stood out against the gospel, resolving not to yield. You were at times compelled to weep under impressions, but you wiped away your transient tears—your emotion was "as the morning cloud, and the early dew." But eternal love would not relinquish its gracious assaults, for it was determined to save. Providence and grace together besieged the city of your soul, and brought divine artillery to bear upon it. You were straitly shut up till—as it was with Samaria, so it was with you—there was a great famine in your soul. You recollect how, Sabbath after Sabbath, every sermon was a fresh assault from the hosts of heaven, a new blow from the celestial battering-ram. How often, when the gates of your prejudice were dashed to shivers, did you set up fresh barricades! Your heart trembled beneath the terrible strokes of justice, but, by the help of Satan, your depraved heart managed to secure the gates a little longer with iron clanps of pride, and brazen bars of insensibility; till at last, one blessed day—do you remember it?—one blessed day, the gospel battering-ram gave the effectual blow of grace, the gates flew wide open, and in rode the Prince of Peace, Immanuel, like a conqueror, riding in the chariots of salvation. Our will was subdued, our affections were overcome, our whole soul was brought into subjection to the sway of mercy. Jesus was glorious in our eyes that day, "the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." That day of days we have registered upon the tablets of our heart: it was the true coronation-day of Jesus in us, and our birthday for eternity. When our glorious Lord entered into our souls, wearing his vesture dipped in blood, pardoning and blessing in the plenitude of his grace, then the bells of our heart rang merry peals; the streamers of our joy floated in the fragrant air; the streets of our soul were strewn with roses; the fountains of our love ran with rich red wine, and our soul was as full of bliss as a heart could be this side of heaven; for salvation had come to our house, and mercy's King had deigned to visit us. Oh, the sweet perfume of the spikenard, when, for the first time, the King sat at our table to sup with us! how the savour of his presence filled every chamber of our inner man! That day when grace redeemed us from our fears, the gospel was a glorious gospel indeed! Ah! dear hearer, you stood in the crowded aisle to hear the sermon, but you. did not grow weary, the lips of the preacher refreshed you, for the truth dropped like sweet-smelling myrrh. You could have gone over hedge and ditch to hear the gospel at that season of first love; no matter how roughly it might have been served up by the preacher, you rolled the bread of heaven under your tongue as a sweet morsel, for it was the gospel of your salvation.

185. Conversion, Wisdom of God in

You know the children's toy, the kaleidoscope? Every time you turn it there is some fresh form of beauty. You seldom see the same form twice. So it is with nature, each time and season has its special beauty. There is always variety in its scenery; diversities of form and colour are strewn throughout the world. You never saw two hills moulded to the same pattern, or two rivers that wound after the same fashion from their source down to the sea; nature is full of variety. So is the work of the Holy Spirit. In calling sinners to Christ, there is singleness of purpose but no uniformity of means. Your conversion, my dear friend, in the main outline, is very like mine, yet your conversion has its distinctive incidents. God's wisdom is displayed equally in bringing you in that way, and in bringing me in another way. I believe there will be found evidence at the last of the wisdom of God in the very date, the very place, the very means in and by which every soul is brought to believe in Jesus; and angels will, no doubt, be able to perceive in every conversion some singular marks of beautiful originality proceeding from the inexhaustible Artist of Grace, the Holy Spirit.

186. Conversion Times, the Church's Joy

What joy there is in the church of God when sinners are converted! We have our high holidays, we have our mirthful days downstairs in the lecture-hall, when we hear of souls turned from the paths of the destroyer; and in the vestries behind, your pastors and elders often experience such joy as only heaven can equal, when we have heard the stories of souls emancipated from the slavery of sin, and led into the perfect liberty which Jesus gives.

187. Converts, not all Professed Ones Genuine The florist does not expect all his slips to become shrubs. Look ye at the trees which, in a few short days, will be smothered with blossoms and glorious with beauty; do you expect those blossoms all to become fruit? No gardener thinks that such a thing can be. He understands that full many of those flowers will wither, will be blown off in the March gales, or smitten by the evening's frost. He looks for fruit proportionate to the blossoming, but not to a fruit that shall be equal to the full promise of the bloom. And so think not ill of Christ's great days, because they seem to inexperienced eyes greater on the surface than they are. Thank God there is a residuum of reality, be thankful for that; but, do not be disappointed, much less scoff, because it is not all that you had hoped it was. If some be saved we are glad; if had a thousand professed converts, and only a hundred of them turned out to be genuine, I would be more grateful than if all my converts were genuine, and there was only half a dozen of them.

188. Conviction, Ordeal of

Sooner or later each saved man will have his hand-to-hand fight with the prince of darkness; and as a general rule, it is a great mercy to have it over on the outset of one's career, and be able afterwards to feel, "Whatever comes upon me, I never can suffer as I suffered when I was seeking Christ. Whatever staggering doubt, or hideous blasphemy, or ghastly insinuations, even of suicide itself, may assail my feeble heart, they cannot outdo the horror of great darkness through which my spirit passed when I was struggling after a Saviour." Now I do not say that it is desirable that we should have this painful ordeal, much less that we should seek it as an evidence of regeneration, but when we have passed through it victoriously, We may so use it that it may be a perpetual armoury to us.

188. Conviction, Ordeal of

Sooner or later each saved man will have his hand-to-hand fight with the prince of darkness; and as a general rule, it is a great mercy to have it over on the outset of one's career, and be able afterwards to feel, "Whatever comes upon me, I never can suffer as I suffered when I was seeking Christ. Whatever staggering doubt, or hideous blasphemy, or ghastly insinuations, even of suicide itself, may assail my feeble heart, they cannot outdo the horror of great darkness through which my spirit passed when I was struggling after a Saviour." Now I do not say that it is desirable that we should have this painful ordeal, much less that we should seek it as an evidence of regeneration, but when we have passed through it victoriously, We may so use it that it may be a perpetual armoury to us.

190. Co-operation in work for Christ

Jesus sent out his disciples by twos, for he knew that each would cheer his fellow. Service is usually best in companionship: he who works altogether alone will be in his temper either too high or too low, censorious or desponding. Two are better far than one; they not only accomplish twice the work, as we might have expected but they frequently multiply their power seven times by their co-operation. Happy are those wedded souls whose life of love to their Lord and one another is like the cluster on the staff, which they joyfully bear along! Happy those Christian companions who share each other's joys and sorrows, and so pass onward to the skies knit together as one man. Communication enriches, reticence impoverishes. Communion is strength, solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast, and lies prone upon the sward: in the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane. The sheep of Jesus flock together; the social element is the genius of Christianity. To find a brother is to find a pearl of great price; to retain a friend is to treasure up the purest gold. Between two upon a staff we find happiness. The monastic or hermit death-life is not our Master's beau ideal, but holy companionship is his chosen means for affording us help in service and advance in joy.

191. Courage necessary for the Christian

You tell me a deacon has thrown cold water upon your efforts. Cold water! Does that discourage you? Are you in a fluster about that? What would you have done if, like old Latimer, you had been called to take off your garments some cold morning in Smithfield, to be warmed after an awful fashion, by standing on a stake to play the man and light up a candle for your God? The pity that some people sigh for on account of their petty persecutions and troubles, it is a shame to ask and a waste to give. Cannot we suffer for Christ? If we cannot, it must be because we are not runners, and scarcely walkers; our spiritual strength must be low, and our life unhealthy. O for more love, and more faith, and more spiritual vigour in our constitutions, and then we shall clear half our difficulties at a running leap, and scarcely call them other than light afflictions which are but for a moment, and are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

192. Covetousness, Danger of

Beware of a growing covetousness, for covetousness is of all sins one of the most insidious. It is like the silting up of a river. As the river comes down from the land it brings with it sand and earth, and it deposits all these at its mouth, and by degrees, unless the conservators watch it carefully, it will block itself up, and it will be difficult to find a channel for ships of great burden. You cannot see when the river closes its own mouth, but so it is, by daily deposit it creates a bar which is dangerous to navigation. Many a man when he begins to accumulate wealth begins also to ruin his soul, and the more he deposits the more he stops up his liberal spirit, which is, so to speak, the very mouth of his life.

193. Covetousness and Liberality

There is nothing in this world but lives by giving, except a covetous man, and such a man is a piece of grit in the machinery; he is out of gear with the universe. Man is a wheel running in the opposite direction to the wheels of God's great engine. He is a jibbing horse in the team. He is one that will not do what all the forces of the world beside are doing. He is a monster; he is not fit for this world at all. He has not realised the motion of the spheres. He keeps not step with the march of the ages. He is out of date; he is out of place; he is out of God's order altogether. But the cheerful giver is marching to the music of the spheres. He is in order with God's great natural laws, and God therefore loveth him, since he sees his own work in him.

194. Critical Christians

You shall usually find that the sharpest critics are those who never write; and the best judges of battles those who keep at a prudent distance from the guns. Christians of the kid-gloved order, who never make an attempt to save souls, are marvellously quick to tell us when we are too rough or too light in our speech; and they readily detect us if our modes of action are irregular or too enthusiastic. They have a very keen scent for anything like fanaticism or disorder. For my part, I feel pretty safe when I have the censures of these gentlemen; we are not far wrong when they condemn us. Let a man begin earnestly to work for the Lord Jesus, and he will soon find out that he is unworthy of the meanest place in the employ of one so glorious.

195. Critical Hearers, Warning of

Ah, dear hearer, beware of head knowledge without heart knowledge; beware of being so orthodox as to set yourself up as a judge of the preacher, and to refuse to be obedient to the truth. Beware of saying, "Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, that is very applicable to So-and-so, and very well put." Do not criticise but feel. It were better for you that you had been a common ploughboy, whistling at the plough, who never heard these things until to-day, and have now listened to them, and have received them in all their novelty, and power, and beauty for the first time; this were better for you than to have heard them till they ring in your ears like the bell which you have heard every Sabbath-day, of whose monotony you are weary. Beware of going down to hell with a millstone of sound doctrine about your necks, for if ye will be damned you may as well perish knowing the truth as not knowing it. Nay, if you catch the formula and lay hold upon the creed, and imagine yourself to be teachers of others, it is even easier to perish in that state than it is if you came in to hear the Word, untaught heretofore in its glad message.

196. Cross, The, arresting Passion The stripes of Jesus, when well considered, arrest spiritual disorder. The man is brought to view his Lord as suffering for him, and a voice saith to his rising lusts, "Hitherto shall ye come, but no further. Here at Calvary shall your proud waves be stayed." My feet had almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped, had not my Master's cross stood before me, as a most effectual barrier to stay me in my fall. Many a man has gone post haste onward unchecked by any power, until a vision of the Man, the crucified Man, has appeared before his eyes, and he has been brought to a blessed halt. Read the memorable life of Colonel Gardiner, for what happened to him literally has happened to tens of thousands spiritually—they have been enlisted to sin, and sold to Satan, but a sight of the Saviour slain for sinners has made them pause, and henceforth they have no longer dared to offend. Now, it is a great thing for a physician to find a remedy which will hold the disease within bounds so that it reach not the direst stage of malignity; and this the cross of Christ does, it binds in chains the fury of unhallowed passion. What a miraculous power the griefs of Jesus have upon the believer! Though his corruption is still within him, yet it cannot have dominion over him, because he is not under the law, but under grace.

197. Cross, The, revealing Love

Standing, as it were, at the world's end, at the grave's mouth, and at hell's door, the cross of Jesus reveals love to the utmost end, and is a grand display of the immutability and invincibility of the affection of the heart of Jesus.

198. Cross, The, revealing the Glory of God

If any created mind would fain see the glory of God, he need not gaze upon the starry skies, nor soar into the heaven of heavens, he has but to bow at the cross foot, and watch the crimson streams which gush from Immanuel's wounds. If you would behold the glory of God, you need not gaze between the gates of pearls, you have but to look beyond the gates of Jerusalem and see the Prince of Peace expire. If you would receive the noblest conception that ever filled the human mind of the lovingkindness and the greatness and the pity, and yet the justice and the severity and the wrath of God, you need not lift up your eyes, nor cast them down, nor look to Paradise, nor gaze on Tophet, you have but to look into the heart of Christ all crushed and broken and bruised, and you have seen it all. Oh, the joy that springs from the fact that God has triumphed after all! Death is not the victor; evil is not master. There are not two rival kingdoms, one governed by the God of good, and the other by the God of evil; no, evil is bound, chained, and led captive; its sinews are cut, its head is broken; its king is bound to the dread chariot of Jehovah-Jesus, and as the white horses of triumph drag the Conqueror up the everlasting hills in splendour of glory, the monsters of the pit cringe at his chariot wheels.

199. Cross, The, the place for Worship From nature up to nature's God is well, but from grace to the God of grace is the more sure and easy way. I have never worshipped even in the presence of Mont Blanc, or amid the crash of thunder, as I have at the foot of the cross. A sense of goodness creates a better worshipper than a sense of the sublime. In our best seasons the most excellent sublimities of nature become too little for us, they dwarf rather than magnify our conceptions of God.

200. Curse put away by the Cross

O unhappy men, unhappy men, who are under God's curse to-day! You may dress yourselves in scarlet and fine linen, you may go to your feasts, and drain your full bowls of wine; you may lift high the sparkling cup, and whirl in the joyous dance, but if God's curse be on you, what madness possesses you! O sirs, if you could but see it and understand it, this curse would darken all the windows of your mirth. O that you could hear for once the voice which speaks against you from Ebal, with doleful repetition: "Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out." How is it you can rest while such sentences pursue you? Oh! unhappiest of men, those who pass out of this life still accursed. One might weep tears of blood to think of them. Let our thoughts fly to them for a moment, but O let us not continue in sin, lest our spirits be condemned to hold perpetual companionship in their grief. Let us fly to the dear cross of Christ, where the curse was put away, that we may never come to know in the fulness of its horror what the curse may mean

201. Curse of Sin gone

Since our Lord Jesus Christ has taken away the curse due to sin, a great rock has been lifted out from the river-bed of God's mercy, and the living stream comes rippling, rolling, swelling on in crystal tides, sweeping before it all human sin and sorrow, and making glad the thirsty who stoop down to drink thereat.