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here was treasure for him and all the world; and, by lighting his brother Simon's taper, he made his own light the greater and more glorious. And this is the nature of grace, to be diffusive of its own excellences; for here no envy can inhabit: the proper and personal ends of holy persons, in the contract and transmissions of grace, are increased by the participation and communion of others. For our prayers are more effectual, our aids increased, our encouragement and examples more prevalent, God more honored, and the rewards of glory have accidental advantages, by the superaddition of every new saint and beatified person: the members of the mystical body, when they have received nutriment from God and his holy Son, supplying to each other the same which themselves received, and live on, in the communion of saints. Every new star gilds the firmament, and increases its first glories: and those who are instruments of the conversion of others, shall not only introduce new beauties, but when themselves "shine like the stars in glory," they shall have some reflections from the light of others, to whose fixing in the orb of heaven themselves have been instrumental. And this consideration is not only of use in the exaltations of the dignity apostolical and clerical, but for the enkindling even of private charities; who may do well to promote others' interests of piety, in which themselves also have some concernment.

"Jesus, confirm my heart's desire,

To work, and speak, and think for thee;

Still let me guard the holy fire,

And still stir up thy gift in me."

OCTOBER 6.

R. WATSON.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.-Rom. viii. 16.

THIS subject applies itself to those whose conscience is burdened by the sense of guilt and sin. You desire to be able to cry" Abba, Father." You have heard of the Spirit of adoption, and his blessed witness with our spirits, " that we are the children of God." For this blessing you have perhaps been waiting and what is the reason that you have not received it? How is it that you are not now rejoicing in the mercy of God, through the

testimony of the Spirit of adoption? Have you earnestly desired this great grace? Has it been a special object of your prayers? Have you learned the art of waiting upon God, and of keeping your spirits in a waiting frame? Have you been expecting his mercy? Have you been fully persuaded that this is your Christian privilege and calling? Do you feel that this is a blessing to be obtained by faith in Christ? that you must plead the merit of his atonement? And do you know that mere hoping will not do? that those who really desire and hope, will also plead and pray? When once you get the faith that waits, and pleads, and prays, it will not be long before God will hear your earnest prayer, and say unto you, "I am thy salvation." Look up to him now. The blessing is purchased for you. You are sinful, and can never merit it; you need the heavenly gift; you deeply feel your need; you earnestly desire its supply; you therefore can never be better prepared for it. All things are ready; come to the marriage. There is the blessing of pardon, free justification before God, and the Spirit of adoption, to enable you to cry, “Abba, Father." Rest not short of the grace offered you in the gospel. It can not be that these impressions shall continue in all their strength, if they are not allowed to urge you to the great result. God has begun a good work in you; he has awakened you to a sense of the value of the blessings which he promises. You must "follow on to know the Lord,” and be determined to wait for him as they that watch for the morning; otherwise your impressions will become weaker, and by and by you will feel that you have grieved the Spirit of God, and that he has departed from you. God is pleased that you should take hold of his strength. Jacob, when he discovered that he was wrestling with the Angel of the covenant, when, he found that he had hold of a Being who could bless him, grasped him the more powerfully, and would not let him go. God is well pleased with your earnestTake hold, in earnest prayer, of the same condescending Angel of the covenant, say, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Yes, and he will bless you, and you shall be blessed.

ness.

Let those who have received the Spirit of adoption recollect both their privileges and their duties. "If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." Such is your blessed condition. Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, and of the blessings you profess to enjoy. In your

whole temper and deportment, show the real character and tendency of the blessings you profess to have received. If the Spirit of Christ has shown you your own personal interest in the blood of Christ, then has he made you Christlike,-humble, and meek, and gentle. The very feeling that your sin is pardoned increases your hatred of sin. You feel that you have much forgiven; and that very feeling produces and preserves the temper by which you are always disposed and prepared to be kind, and courteous, and forgiving. True happiness in God, and sweetness of temper, are always conjoined. God's Spirit bears no witness of pardoning mercy, where pride, and wrath, and bitterness, and self-willed obstinacy are indulged. You are called to adorn the gospel of God our Saviour in all things; adorn this doctrine also. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." But, "let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." Thus, if you walk with God, you shall have the testimony that you please God; you shall walk in the light of his counteAnd this joy of the Lord shall give you strength for labor, and patience for suffering and trial. Nor shall it be dimmed in death. When you are about to "sleep in Jesus," your last hymn shall be, ere you escape from earth to sing the new song, the song of the redeemed, in heaven, "My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

nance.

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But if the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.-Rom. viii. 11.

AGAIN, he touches the point of the Resurrection, since this was the most encouraging hope to the hearer, and gave him security from what had happened to Christ. Now be not thou afraid because thou art compassed about with a dead body. Have thou the Spirit, and it shall assuredly rise again. What, then, shall the bodies which have not the Spirit, not rise? How

then must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ? or how shall the account of hell be trustworthy? For if they that have not the Spirit rise not, there will not be a hell at all. What, then, is it which is said? All shall rise, yet not all to life, but some to punishment and some to life. This is why he did not say, shall raise up, but shall quicken. And this is a greater thing than resurrection, and is given to the just only. And because of this honor he adds in the words, By his Spirit that dwelleth in And you. if while here thou drive away the grace of the Spirit, and do not depart with it still safe, thou wilt assuredly perish, though thou dost rise again. For as he will not endure then, if he see his Spirit shining in thee, to give thee up to punishment, so neither will he allow them if he see it quenched to bring thee into the Bribe-chamber, even as he admitted not the foolish virgins.

So,

Suffer not thy body, then, to live in this world, that it may live then! Make it die, that it die not. For if it keep living, it will not live: but if it die, then shall it live. And this is the case with resurrection in general. For it must die first and be buried, and then become immortal. But this takes place in spiritual renovation. This has also happened with the Lord's body. For that also was crueified, and buried, and rose again. This, then, let us too be doing: let us keep continually mortifying it in actual works. I do not mean in its substance—far be it from me-but in its inclinations towards evil doings. For this is a life too, or rather this only is life, undergoing nothing that is common to man, nor being a slave to pleasures. For he who has set himself under the rule of these, has no power even to live, through the low spirits, the fears, and the dangers, and the countless throng of ills, that rise from them. For if death must be expected, he hath died, before death, of fear. And if it be disease he dreads, or affront, or poverty, or any of the other ills one can not anticipate, he is ruined and hath perished. What then can be more miserable than a life of this sort? But far otherwise is he that liveth to the Spirit, for he stands at once above fears, and griefs, and dangers, and every kind of change: and that not by undergoing no such thing, but, what is much greater, by thinking scorn of them when they assail him. And how is this to be? It will be if the Spirit dwell in us continually. For he does not speak of any short stay made thereby,

but of a continual indwelling. Hence he does not say the Spirit which dwelt, but which dwelleth in us, so pointing to a continual abiding. He then is most truly alive, who is dead to this life. Hence he says, The Spirit is life, because of righteousness. And to make the thing clearer, let me bring before you two men, one who is given up to extravagances and pleasures, and the deceitfulness of this life; and the other made dead to all these; and let us see which is more really the living one. For let one of these two be very rich and much looked up to, keeping parasites and flatterers, and let us suppose him to spend the whole day upon this, in revelling and drunkenness; and let the other live in poverty, and fasting, and hard fare, and strict rules, and at evening partake of necessary food only; or to go further, let him pass two or three days without food. Which then of these two think we is most really alive? Men in general will, I know, reckon the former so, the man that takes his pleasure and squanders his goods. But we reckon the man that enjoys the moderate fare.

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For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.-Heb. xi. 10.

In these words we have an intimation of the stability and security of that blessed place which we call heaven. The apostle is here speaking of the patriarchs who were in an unsettled condition, travelling into a strange country. It is said concerning Abraham, the father of them, He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Tabernacles were moving tents, that had no foundations, that might easily be carried from one place to another: but heaven is a city which hath foundations. This lower world, and the upper world that is visible to us, shall either be refined or consumed by fire, notwithstanding all that exquisite order and beauty that we see in them. The apostle tells us they are reserved for fire; now whether that fire shall be consumptive, or whether it shall be merely a reforming, purifying fire, we are not certain. Though there are some probable reasons that may induce us to

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