Every sincere Christian can bear witless, that his acquaintance with the word of life is continually improving; that in every page, and almost in every passage, he is perpetually discovering fresh truth and beauty, fresh obligations and delights. Of all this, the carnal-minded and the sinner are profoundly ignorant; to them the Bible is comparatively a dead letter: they see little of its harmony or its excellency; and where they do see, it has no lively or permanent effect upon their heart; no more, than any other book, of history, or morality, or amusement.
The righteous are not free from suffering and pain, from trials and afflictions; but then they enjoy, under every visitation, a source of comfort and satisfaction, which the thoughtless votaries of this world cannot possibly experience. There dwelleth, in their hearts and minds, the peace of God; and that must ever be the gift of God, which He will never bestow upon His enemies; the peace of God, which fills them with a holy calm, and reconciles them to every thing. In seasons of trouble, the triumphs of the gospel are especially manifested; and the “secret of the Lord” especially revealed. The soul is in a more impressible condition; more ready to learn of Him, who “was meek and lowly of heart;” and therefore more capable of the enjoyment of His promised rest. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” [342]
The sensual and the proud are disappointed and mortified and rebellious under the various troubles of life; the Christian receives them in a different spirit, as tokens of his heavenly Father’s love; and tokens of love he finds them to be. They, who “walk by sight,” are ever complaining of hardships and inequalities in the world; they who “walk by faith,” can perceive in them all the sovereign and gracious hand of the Almighty, who “doeth all things well.” They, who live upon the favour of the world, must always be rendered unhappy by its frowns; but the Christian lives above it, and cares little for any opposition or evil report: he is fortified and comforted by a secret power, and protected by an invisible arm: and this power shall continue with him, if he continue faithful, even unto the end. When his journey through the wilderness is about to terminate, when he has arrived at the borders of the flood, and is entering upon the shores of the heavenly Canaan, when nature sinks and the soul is departing, then does the Lord reveal himself, in a manner not to be seen and not to be told: there is a hidden energy, a light within, a sustaining spirit, a mysterious and merciful communion with the Lord of life and death. This indeed is an awful secret, and one which the guilty can never know; which none can know, who do not, with all their heart and soul, embrace the promises of salvation revealed to them in the gospel: the foretaste of heavenly rest, like the rest itself, remaineth only for the people of God. They who have so feared and loved the Lord, as to have served Him with a good conscience and with integrity; they who have so believed and trusted in their Saviour, as to have followed whithersoever He led, as to have sacrificed every unholy gratification and pursuit, for the love of His name and for the “one thing needful,” they shall find, in their latter moments, a peace known only to themselves, a joy with which no “stranger can intermeddle.” The Lord will effectually “shew them His covenant:” they were made by baptism “members of Christ and children of God,” and became thereby entitled, through the free mercy of God in Jesus Christ, to an “inheritance in the kingdom of heaven;” having abided in that covenant, and walked faithfully therein, they will never doubt, but God will assuredly perform His part; and He will give them a full insight into the blessings, which He has covenanted to bestow; they have all along entertained a lively apprehension of the nature and principles of this holy covenant, and of their own correspondent obligations; its holy promises and its gracious rewards have been through life the solace of their souls; and it continues, yea increases, to the last; not indeed enjoyed in perfection here below, but enjoyed as the earnest and pledge of the fulness of their eternal felicity.
In this manner, my brethren, “acquaint yourselves with God,” and come to the true knowledge of His perfections and His ways, and live in the animating ennobling hope of a brighter manifestation of His glory hereafter—in this manner, by a spirit of humble, faithful, entire dependence upon Him, through the mercy of Jesus Christ; by fervent importunate prayer for the illumination and aid of the Holy Ghost; by “seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness by loving Him with all the heart and soul,” and “walking in His fear all the day long.” Thus are we to be taught of God, thus only can we acquire a capability and disposition to be taught; thus growing in grace, we grow in wisdom, in holy experience, in happy communion with our Lord and Saviour.
Receive this instruction, “high and low, rich and poor, one with another;” it is equally necessary for all. Unless this spiritual lesson be learnt, the stores of human science, the treasures of human wisdom, are vain and worthless; they can impart no knowledge, no true and saving knowledge, of the ways and dealings of the Most High; they cannot bring the sinner to his Maker: on the contrary, they prevent and hinder him, by ministering a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency. If thou wouldest know God, fear Him, and be taught of His Spirit and His word; this is His own appointed means, and there is no other. And ye poor, unlearned as ye may be, seek the Lord in this way, and ye shall assuredly find Him: His secret shall be with you; and He will graciously teach you more, than you can attain from all the world besides; more than the wisest can learn in any other way.
“The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble: but the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” [347] The Lord revealeth Himself unto the righteous, day by day; they grow in wisdom, as in years: the nearer they approach to the completion of their hopes, to the end of their earthly pilgrimage, to their heavenly and eternal kingdom, the clearer will be their knowledge, and the more delightful their anticipations; even until that day, when the veil of the flesh shall be utterly removed, when they shall “see their God face to face, and know even as also they are known.” [348]
SERMON XIX.
RESIST THE BEGINNINGS OF EVIL TEMPTATION.
Proverbs iv. 14, 15.
Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away.
This is one of those short, comprehensive, moral directions, with which the holy Scriptures abound, for our safe conduct in life; directions, that are seldom attended to with the earnestness, which their importance demands. Studied such words should be, with devout meditation and the spirit of prayer; imprinted on the memory, fixed in the heart. We are apt to trust too much to generalities in religion; we do not sufficiently concern ourselves with its individual precepts and practical admonitions. And I wish now to enlarge upon this point, before we enter into a consideration of the text; hoping that it may induce you, by God’s help, “to take heed how ye hear” such lessons of instruction.
For the attainment of a religious character, and the means of walking holily and uprightly in our course through life, doubtless the main thing is, to establish sound principles in the heart; and without such principles all the rules and helps in the world will prove of little avail; never to be depended upon in the hour of temptation and trial. Accordingly we find, in the word of God, these mainsprings of action continually insisted on, as of the highest necessity to be settled in the soul. A true, a right faith is inculcated, as the great foundation of all spiritual obedience; a vital faith in God, as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; a faith in His revealed word, in all the great doctrines of life and salvation there propounded to fallen man; a faith in the necessity of obeying all the commandments therein delivered for the formation of our character and the regulation of our lives; a faith in the world to come, after the death of the body; a world depending, for happiness or misery, upon our choice and conduct here. The love of God and the fear of God are also laid down as most powerful principles of thought and action; as spreading an influence over the whole of our behaviour.