And there is a further resemblance: the sinner dreams, of happiness arising from worldly prosperity, from plenty and pleasure: and as the brain of a poor or disconsolate man, in a state of sleep, is often filled with ideas of such things, and he awakes and finds them sadly untrue; awakes from his pleasant dreaming to his state of drudgery and discomfort; so is the sinner often constrained to feel and confess, that his notions of happiness were no better than a dream; that they were unsubstantial and unreal, promising much and bringing little: still he is unconvinced; pursues his course of trifling, his disappointed dreamings, till at length he awakes in another world, and thoroughly perceives the wretchedness of his condition, which it is then too late, impossible to change. From this dreadful, fatal sleep of sin, the gospel is designed to rouse us: and I pray God, that our conscience may be effectually alarmed and awakened; that we may be alive and active in perceiving and following “the things that belong unto our peace!”
The text says further, “Arise from the dead;” from the death of sin; from the state of misery and ruin, in which ye insensibly lie. Here is another significant figure: the impenitent sinner is not only plunged into a condition of helpless wretchedness, but he has no energy to recover from it, no quickening or effectual desire of better things; no more perception of spiritual interests, of heavenly objects, than a corpse has of the natural world. When once the breath has left the body, the busiest scenes of earth can affect it no longer; nothing can “charm the dull cold ear of death:” when the breath of a divine life is not in the soul, when the new-creating spirit of God is not received and cherished, the beauty of holiness and the all-important interests of a spiritual and eternal world produce no effect upon the forlorn understanding and the deserted heart: no representations of spiritual truth can move the heavy ear of a besotted and determined sinner; none, while he is resolved, so to remain: not even the voice of the Son of God, “charm He never so wisely.” Till the heart be moved to repentance, till, the faculties of the soul are recovered from the fascination of stupor and sin, no living impression can be made, even with all the force that truth can carry. How often do we find this to be the case! how often does the sinner acknowledge the justice, the certainty, the necessity of what is urged upon him, but without any alteration in his character; without any effectual or lasting alteration. His heart is unchanged: the slave of sin; dead in sin; not alive or open to the force of truth, to the doctrines of righteousness or salvation.
Infatuated sinner! thine own conscience accuses thee; thou believest that there will be a world to come, a world of recompence, and yet thou turnest not to prepare for it; pray, when thou fearest; pray, when thou thinkest of these things; cry earnestly to thy Saviour, that he may deliver thee from this “gall of bitterness and this bond of iniquity;” pray for the convincing, converting, life-giving Spirit, that He may “set thine heart at liberty” from the thraldom of sin; and thus enable thee to listen to the call of the gospel, and turn thy feet in earnest to the Redeemer of thy soul. For if thou listenest and turnest not, “dead thou art while thou livest;” and when thou diest, eternally dead; dead to all comfort and happiness for ever; dead in a world of woe.
But if we will (and God grant that we all may) awake and arise, “Christ will assuredly give us light:” “He is the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;” [18] ready to shine upon every soul, to lighten it in darkness and quicken it in death. Believe in Him, and live in Him, and the clouds of ignorance shall be scattered away; and the drowsiness of the soul shall be cast off; and the cold heart of the natural man shall be warm with life again. In the midst of this world’s temptations and trials, troubles and perplexities, we shall see our way clear, our way to the heavenly Jerusalem; a brightness, the brightness of God’s presence, will be resting upon our souls; the world sees it not, but we shall see and enjoy it every hour: dark things will be made light, and “crooked things will be made straight, and the rough places plain:” we shall be living above the world, for “our life will be hid with Christ in God:” [19] cheerful we shall be when nature is sad: inspirited when nature is languishing; full of praises and thanksgivings when nature is mourning.
Say, Christian people, have ye never seen the triumph of faith over nature’s weakness and Satan’s power? have ye never, in the hour of trial, witnessed that the Saviour was near? never observed the fainting spirit animated and sustained? never beheld the closing eye, of the dying saint, beaming with heavenly fire; and the pale features lighted up with the smile of satisfaction and composure and peace? If ye have not, the dying Christian will shew you these things—go to his bed, and learn the lesson; go, and catch the hope, that “Christ will give you light.”
SERMON II.
THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST.
Eph. iii 8.
The unsearchable riches of Christ.
There is no passage, in the whole range of Scripture, in which the benefits and blessings of the gospel are more strikingly and fully represented, than by these few words: it is elsewhere described as the “pearl of great price,” as “the treasure that fadeth not away,” as “the true riches;” but here, as if in addition to the former descriptions, it is called, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, “the unsearchable riches of Christ:” impossible for men, impossible for angels to search out and discover its full excellency and value. The more it is examined, and the more it is experimentally known, the more is the believer convinced of the propriety and truth of this description; without a deep enquiry indeed, without a vital experience of its blessedness, it is not for any one to understand even the nature of its transcendent riches; to the world at large they are known only by name: but the sincere Christian, who makes them his own, is brought to admire their inexhaustible fulness; and to perceive, how utterly they extend beyond his comprehension, how highly they are removed above his loftiest thoughts and his most ardent imagination: “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” [21] They lie entirely out of the reach of the natural man; and even the spiritual man does but imperfectly understand them.
These unsearchable riches it was the province of St. Paul especially to declare unto the gentile world, that is, unto the world at large, when the offer of them had been rejected by the Jewish nation: in consequence of which blessed communication to the gentiles, the knowledge of them was conveyed, in process of time, to our favoured land.
Many learned persons have believed, that St. Paul himself preached in this island; of this, however, there is no certain evidence; it is enough for us to know, that we are partakers of the benefit of his preaching, that the sound of the gospel, which he sent “forth into all lands,” has long ago reached us; and that we are now in the full enjoyment of this inestimable privilege. He declares, in the chapter, before us, that Jesus Christ, by express revelation, made known to him the great mystery, the unfathomable purpose of His mercy; “which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel.” Unto me, he says, “who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which, from the beginning of the world, hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” [23]