[CHAPTER XI.]
"THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."
THE preacher opened his Bible, and read from it two passages:—
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Then Mr. Kennedy began to speak about the verses he had just read.
"'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.' These are very familiar words. We teach the little children to repeat them, when they have learned to say, 'Our Father,' at the mother's knee, followed by the simple prayer, 'God bless father, mother, brothers, sisters, all kind friends and relations, and make me good.'
"Again, we tell the little ones to 'say grace' before they eat of the 'daily bread' given in answer to the prayer which Jesus taught us, thus owning that we want God's blessing with the food.
"But common words are like common blessings. The first are often spoken without a thought of their meaning, the second without a thought of Him who gives them. It is so with those I have read. Here we see what the 'grace of our Lord Jesus Christ' means. It means the free love, favour and gift of God's own Son for sinners. It means all that Jesus gave up, and all that He gave, to buy back for them what sin had lost. Jesus was rich, in the form of God and equal with God. Creator of the universe, ruler of heaven and earth, joint-owner with the Father and the blessed Spirit of all that is meant by creation. 'For without Him was not anything made that was made.' Jesus was, as He still is, 'the Lord of glory.'"
"It is a great deal easier, dear friends, to say these words than to take in all they mean. Let us try to do it by comparison with earthly things. We must come down, not a little, but a long way. All the way from heaven to earth, from the court of the King of kings to the home of our own Queen. What a great space still remains to be bridged over! Think what a distance there is between the palaces of our sovereign and the cottages in which most of us live!