Again, what think ye of Christ as the son of David, the promised Lord and King who should sit on the throne of the true Israel, and own and rule all God’s chosen people? Do you feel that He is indeed your Lord and Master; that He has purchased you wholly to Himself; that you are pledged and bound to His entire service; that every precept which He has delivered, must be implicitly obeyed; that there must be no doing of what He has forbidden, no omitting of what He has commanded, no self-seeking, no mammon-worship; that all your faculties and talents must be laid out, and all your work done for Him; that there must be no empty profession, “Lord, Lord,” while you do not the things that He bids—no wasting of His goods, no neglecting of His service? As your Lord, He claims you wholly, body, soul, and spirit, thoughts, words, and deeds. As your King, He has prescribed the service you are to render. By and by, sitting on His throne, He will bring you to account, and deal with you according to your merits. What think ye of Him as your Owner, your Ruler, your Judge?
Again, what think ye of Christ as the son of Mary, the perfect human being; partaking of all the properties and qualities, the infirmities and sufferings and sympathies, the desires, the wants, the hopes and fears of man, as far as they are separate from sin? Do you contemplate His life on earth, to ascertain what you can and ought to be, and to follow His example? Are you encouraged in every aim, every resolute resistance of evil, every patient submission to suffering, every fulfilment of duty, every pursuit of righteousness by the thought “Man has done it, the Man Whom I am required to imitate.” Do you think of Him as still retaining His manhood with all its experience, and acquired wisdom, and perfected obedience? Do you rejoice in such a Sympathizer, such a Mediator, such a Helper, such a Judge? One who can feel for you in your trials, can describe faithfully to His Father, from His own experience, your condition and necessities, through His knowledge can supply exactly what you need, and make due allowance for your shortcomings and offences?
Once more, what think ye of Christ as the Son of God? very and eternal God, with all the Divine attributes, power, knowledge, justice, holiness, and exaction of obedience, abhorrence of evil, wrath against sin, love of righteousness? Do you feel that He is mighty to save? Do you live as under His all-searching eye? Are you convinced that He is impartially just, alike to approve and disapprove, to reward and punish, in His present and future dealings with all the partakers of His covenant? Do you realise the utter impossibility of being loved by Him, of being allowed to draw nigh to Him, of deriving any benefit from Him now or hereafter, if you are impure, worldly, unloving, indifferent? Are you impressed with the guilt of disobedience to Him, a twice revealed, a doubly jealous God, binding you to Himself by the mercies and responsibility of redemption, as well as creation, and by the threats and forebodings of a particular and most righteous judgment? Is it thus you think of Christ as God?
Dear brethren, make use, I beseech you, of these brief and plain suggestions, to ascertain your past thoughts of Christ, to rebuke them, if they have been low and partial, to lead you on to perfection. Beware of separating what God has joined together, of recognising in Him who is the Son of God, only the son of David. Never allow yourselves to joy over salvation without remembering judgment. Dwell not on the Deliverer apart from the Purchaser; appropriate not promises, if you do not observe commands; count not on human sympathy, if you do not deserve Divine compassion; expect not heavenly blessings, without using appointed means. You do not think of the Christ of the Bible, unless every phase of His character there represented, has its due place in your thoughts. And so your thoughts are unacceptable to Him, and unprofitable to you; they are neither worship, nor helps to salvation; they do not recognise Him at all, because they do not recognise Him altogether; they prompt to no service, because they prompt not to all. An imperfect Christ is no Christ. A Christian who regards Him as imperfect, is no Christian.
Oh, may He who has given Christ to be our All in all, enable us to recognise and incline us to serve, and love, and depend on Him, as indeed our All in all!
SERMON III.
THE CHURCHMAN’S THOUGHTS ABOUT DISSENTERS.
St. Luke, xvii., 16.
“And he was a Samaritan.”
The people known as Samaritans had their origin from certain Gentile tribes sent into the country of Samaria early in the Babylonish captivity. They were of course idolaters, and they continued to be mere idolaters, until, being troubled with lions, which had become very numerous in Samaria, and understanding that these were let loose among them by the god of the country (for various countries in their creed had various gods) to punish them for neglect of his worship, they applied to King Shalmanezer for one of the captive priests to teach them the Levitical law. Then they began to combine with their own superstition the acknowledgment and ceremonial service of Jehovah. “They feared the Lord,” we read, “and served their own gods.”
On the return of the Jews, these Samaritans, who, it would appear, had now relinquished much of their idolatry, sought permission to take part in the rebuilding of the temple; but being properly rejected, they in revenge hindered and harassed the builders, and at length, by false representations to the Syrian King, procured a decree which suspended the continuance of the devout work. This naturally made the Jews bitterly hostile to the Samaritans: and the building of a rival temple on Mount Gerizim—the rejection of all the inspired Books, excepting those of Moses—the encouragement given to Jewish criminals and outlaws to seek refuge among them, and many other provocations, had so sustained and deepened the feeling against them, that, in our Lord’s time, the Jews would have no dealings with the Samaritans; and in any want or danger, would much rather have suffered death, than receive succour at their hands.
Thus were the Samaritans despised and shunned; and that there was at least some measure of justice in their treatment, we may safely infer from our Lord’s rebuke of them—“Ye worship ye know not what;” and from His charge to the apostles, “Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not.” Their creed was heretical, their worship schismatic. They belonged not to the covenanted people of God. And yet the only one out of ten miraculously healed lepers, who discharged the religious obligation of rendering thanks and glorifying God, and who received spiritual benefit from Christ, was a Samaritan. The model neighbour to the man who had fallen among thieves, was a Samaritan. They were Samaritans who so early and so openly professed, “We have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” And when the Jews persecuted the disciples, and thrust them out of Jerusalem, Samaria readily and largely received the Word of God at their mouths. Thankful and acceptable adoration of God, exemplary brotherly love, enlightened faith, prompt renunciation of error, and acceptance of truth—these were graces which shone conspicuously in heretical and schismatic Samaritans, and won for them from the Saviour of Israel approbation, and love, and blessing.