Page images
PDF
EPUB

this open way of access, and forthwith enter into peace with God. If, in lifting up your eyes to this contemplation, you still find that all above you is haze and that all within you is heaviness-continue to look-continue to give heed even until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your heart; and when this wondrous transaction between heaven and earth at length unfolds itself to your mental eye, in its characters of bounty and truth and tenderness-when the spectacle of God willing, and of God waiting to be gracious, is at length recognised by you-when all that moved His wrath and kept Him at a distance, is seen to be put aside by the work of the great Mediator, and that nothing is left but the exhibition of a mercy now rejoicing in the midst of the other attributes, and pouring fresh lustre on them all, as it passes onwards to a guilty world through the channels of a consecrated priesthood and an infinite sacrifice-It is when thus enabled to see God disarmed of all His terrors, and instead of the inflexible judge, to behold Him as now reconciled through Christ Jesus-it is when this assurance is made directly to bear upon our spirits from the word of revelation, that the confidence of our adoption enters into our hearts, and we can join the apostle and his converts in crying Abba, Father.

It does not follow, however, because you lift your eyes, that the manifestation is then in readiness, for your first and earliest regards towards it. There may be a cloud which intercepts it from your view;

and even after many a wishful look towards that quarter whence you expect the light and the comfort of divine truth to come down upon your soul, may you have to complain that I cannot believe, I cannot discern―neither is Jesus Christ evidently set forth crucified before me. One advice of an eminent theologian in these circumstances, and it is a good one, is that though you should have missed the object of which you are in quest a hundred times, still make the other and the other effort; and who knows but that next time you will be met with the very revelation which your soul longeth after? To this advice I would shortly add another. While busy in seeking after the development to your belief of Christ's work-be equally busy in your practice at the doing of Christ's will. Labour, though in the dark. Mortify sin, though in such a spirit of unsettledness as to be almost equivalent to the spirit of bondage. Be diligent in duty, and thus might you pioneer your way to clearness and to comfort in doctrine. Forget not the saying that Christ manifests Himself to those who keep his words; and that the Holy Ghost is given to those who obey Him; and that they whose eye or whose aim is single shall have their whole body full of light; and that to him that hath, more shall be given; and that he who wills to do the will of God, and proves the sincerity of his will by the vigour of his performances, that he shall be made to know of Christ's doctrine whether it is of God.

61

LECTURE LIV.

ROMANS, viii, 16.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."

WE can well imagine the desirousness, wherewith an earnest and aspiring Christian might enter into the interpretation of this verse. For, at the first view of it, he might think that it so far outstrips his own personal experience, as to leave him utterly behind all legitimate hope of his own personal salvation. He may be honestly conscious to himself, that he hath never felt any such witnessing as the text seems at least to advert to- -no secret and preternatural intimation of his being one of God's children-no inward communion going on between the Spirit of God and his own spirit, whereby he might assure himself of that test whereby the apostle and his converts assuredly knew that they were the heirs of coming glory-no whisper of this sort to the ear of the inner man-no feeling of any other principle that was active and astir in his own heart, but the thoughts, and the emotions, and the desires of his own busy and familiar self-And thus, on the perusal of this verse, and of those in St. John where the apostle speaks of the witness in himself, and of his posi

tively knowing that God had taken up His abode and dwelt in him even by the Spirit which He had given him—why there are many, who, from the want of all finding and participation in this sort of experience, feel themselves thrown at an utter distance from that which ministered the high hopes of immortality to the Christian of the New Testament; and who seek in vain for that inscription on the tablet within, which shone in characters of such bright and legible reflection to the primitive disciples, and assured them of their being indeed sealed unto the day of redemption, of their indeed having the mark imprest upon them of God's own family.

Now the first thing that I would say unto all who are in this state of painful ambiguity, is, that if they can obtain no satisfaction in their inquiry after the tests which they are looking for within, they ought to remember, that these tests, are come at in no other way, than by a believing contemplation on their part of certain truths which they should often and habitually be looking to without. Even the Spirit, whose presence and whose inward witness they so vehemently desiderate, cometh by the hearing of faith. It was in the act of listening to the words spoken by Peter, that the Holy Ghost fell upon Cornelius and the members of his household. The word of God is the vehicle upon which this heavenly visitant maketh entrance into the heart; and the very first announcement that He gives of His presence, is by the truths of that word imprest convincingly and feelingly upon the mind. This is

power

the way in which He becometh sensible; and if you look for the Holy Ghost in any other way than through the of Bible doctrine seen to be real, and felt to be morally touching and impressive, you will have no more success than if you looked for a spectre or some airy phantom of superstition. And therefore, if you will to realise upon your own person the test by which Paul knew of himself and his disciples that they were the children of God, begin at the beginning. Ere you look for that joy which is one fruit of the Spirit, look to the tidings by which you are made joyful. Ere you look for the peace which is another of His fruits, read the pacific message that came from Heaven to earth; and you will cease from your disquietude, when you know that God hath ceased from His displeasure. Ere you make sure of love being in your hearts towards God, made sure of love being in His heart towards you for it is only upon your believing sight of that love which looketh down from Heaven, that a responding love will rise back again from the earth. We know not if the shepherds of Bethlehem became spiritual men. It is very likely that they did, and that the Holy Ghost took up His residence within them. But they first heard the voice from the sky, of glory to God in the highest and peace on earth and good-will to men; and, under all the doubts and perplexities of your various cogitations, do we also bid you attend to the import of the same voice-and it is in the attitude of a full outlook on the objects, that you realise upon

« PreviousContinue »