Christmas Evans Part 20

"THE HANDWRITING.

"When Adam sinned, there was issued against him the writ of death, written by the finger of G.o.d in the book of the moral law. Adam had heard it read before his fall, but in seeking to become a G.o.d, by eating of the fruit of the tree, had forgotten it. Now G.o.d read it in his conscience, and he was overwhelmed with fear. But the promise of a Redeemer having been given, Mercy arranged that sacrifices should be offered as a typical payment of the debt. When G.o.d appeared on Sinai, to enter into covenant with His people, He brought this writ in His hand, and the whole camp understood, from the requirements of the law, that they must perish; their lives had been forfeited. Mercy devised that a bullock's blood should be shed, instead of the blood of man. The wors.h.i.+ppers in the temple were bound to offer living sacrifices to G.o.d, that they might die in their stead, and be consumed. Manoah feared the flames of the sacrifice that was offered upon the rock; but his wife understood that, since the angel had ascended in the flame, in their stead, it was a favourable omen. Every wors.h.i.+pper, by offering other lives instead of their own on the altars of G.o.d, acknowledged that the 'handwriting' was in force against them, and their high priest had minutely to confess all their sins 'over' the victim. Yet, by all the blood that ever crimsoned Levi's robe, and the altars of G.o.d, no real atonement was made for sin, nor forgiveness procured for the smallest crime. All the sacrifices made a remembrance of sin, but were no means of pardon. More than two thousand years the question had been entertained, how to reconcile man with G.o.d. The 'handwriting' was real on Mount Ebal every year; meanwhile the debt was fast acc.u.mulating, and new bills were being constantly filed.

The books were opened from time to time; but to meet the claims there was nothing brought to the altar but the blood of sacrifices, as a sort of draft in the name of Christ upon the Bank of Gold. When Heaven, and earth had grown weary of this fict.i.tious or seeming, pardon of sin, I hear a voice exclaim: 'Away with sacrifices, and burnt-offerings: Heaven has no pleasure in them; a body has been prepared for me. Lo, I come to reconcile man with G.o.d by one sacrifice.' He came, 'leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills.' Calling at the office where the 'handwriting' lay, when only eight days old, He signed with His own blood an acknowledgment of the debt, saying: 'This is an earnest, and a pledge that my heart's blood shall be freely given.' The three-and-thirty years have expired; I see Him in Gethsemane, with the priceless purse of gold which He had borne with Him through the courts of Caiaphas and Pilate; but to them the image, and the superscription on the coin was a mystery. The Father, however, recognised them in the court of Sinai, where the 'handwriting' was that demanded the life of the whole world. The day following, 'the Virgin's Son' presented Himself to pay the debt in liquid gold; and the treasure which He bore would have set free a myriad worlds. He pa.s.ses along the streets of Jerusalem towards Sinai's office; the mercy-seat is removed to 'the place of skulls;' as He proceeds, He exclaims: 'I am come not to destroy, but to fulfil the law.' Send in, before the hour of three, each curse, and threat ever p.r.o.nounced against my people. Bring in the first old bill against Adam as their head. I will redeem a countless host of infants to-day; their names shall be taken out of old Eden's accounts. Bring in the many transgressions which have been filed through the ages, from Adam until now; include Peter's denial of me last night; but as to Judas, he is a son of perdition, he has no part in me, having sold me for thirty pieces of silver. We have here an exhaustless crimson treasure,-enough to meet the demand; enough to fill every promise, and every prophecy with mercy; enough to make my beloved, and myself happy, and blest for ever! By three in the afternoon of that day, there was not a bill in all Eden, or Sinai, that had not been brought to the cross. And when all was settled, Christ bowed down His head, but cried with a loud voice: 'It is finished!' The gates of death, and h.e.l.l trembled, and shook.

'The posts of the doors moved at the voice.' The great gulf between G.o.d, and His people was closed up. Sinai appeared with the offering, and grew still; the lightnings no longer flashed, and the thunder ceased to roar."

"DEATH AS AN INOCULATOR.

"Death may be conceived of as a gigantic inoculator. He carries about with him a monstrous box, filled with deadly matter, with which he has infected every child of Adam. The whole race of man is doomed by this law of death. But see! This old inoculator gets paid back in his own coin. The Son of Man, humbling Himself to death, descends into the tomb, but rises immortal. He seized death in Joseph's grave. But, amazing spectacle! with the matter of His own immortality He inoculated mortality with death, whose lifeless corpse will be seen, on the resurrection morning, among the ruins of His people's graves; while they, with one voice, will rend the air as if eternity opened its mouth, exclaiming: 'O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?'"

"TIME.

"Time, considered as a whole, is the age of the visible creation. It began with the fiat, 'Let there be light;' and it will end with the words: 'Come, ye blessed of my Father,' and 'Go, ye cursed.' Each river, and mountain, town, and city, hovel, and palace, every son, and daughter of Adam, must undergo the change, pa.s.s away, for whatever is seen is only for a time. The time of restoration, by the presence of the glory of Christ, will be the morning of judgment, and resurrection. That morning will be the last of time: then eternity begins. From that time, each man will dwell in his everlasting home: the unG.o.dly in a lake of fire, that will burn for ever; while the joy, and happiness of the blest will know no end.

"Oh the fearfulness of the word _everlasting_, written over the door of the lake of fire! Oh the happiness it will create when read above the eternal kingdom!

"Time is the age of the visible world; but eternity is the age of G.o.d. This limitless circle centres in Him. The age of the visible world is divided into years, and days, according to the revolutions of the earth, and sun,-into weeks, in memory of the world's creation, and the resurrection of Christ,-into hours, minutes, seconds, and moments. These last can scarcely be distinguished, yet they are parts of the great body of time; but seven thousand years const.i.tute no part of eternity. One day, and a thousand years, yea, millions of years, are alike, compared with the age of G.o.d, forming no part of the vast changeless circle that knows neither loss, nor gain. The age of time is winding up by minutes, days, and years: the age of G.o.d is one endless to-day; and such will be your age, and mine, when we have once pa.s.sed the limits of time, beyond which Lazarus is blessed, and the rich man tormented. My brethren in the ministry, who in years gone by travelled with me from one a.s.sociation to another, are to-day living in that great endless hour!

"Time is an age of changes, revolutions, and reforms; but eternity is calm, stationary, and changeless. He who enters upon it an enemy to G.o.d, faithless, prayerless, unpardoned, and unregenerate, remains so for ever. Great changes take place in time, for which the new song in eternity will never cease. Natures have been changed, and enmity has been abolished. In time, the life covenant was broken, and man formed, and sealed his compact with h.e.l.l. One, equal with G.o.d, died upon the cross, in the form of a servant, to destroy the works of the devil, and to unite man, and G.o.d in the bond of peace through His own blood. Time, and language would fail to recount what in time has been accomplished, involving changes from life, to death, and from death, to life. Here the pure have become denied, and the guiltless condemned; and here, also, the sinner has been justified, the polluted cleansed, the poor enriched, the enemy reconciled, and the dead have been made alive, where one paradise has been lost, and a better regained. The new song from the midst of eternity sounds in our ears. Hear it! It has for its subjects one event that took place in eternity, and three that have transpired in time: 'Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings, and priests unto G.o.d, and His Father: to Him be glory, and dominion for ever, and ever. Amen.'"

"THE TIMEPIECE.

"You may move the hands on the dial-plate this way, and the other, and finger as you please the machinery within, but if there be no mainspring there your labour will be in vain. So the 'hands' of men's lives will not move, in holy obedience, at the touch of the law, unless the mainspring be supplied by G.o.d through the Gospel; then only will the whole life revolve on the pivot of the love of Christ, as upon an imperishable diamond. It is not difficult to get the timepiece to act well, if the internal machinery be in proper order; so, with a right spirit within, Lydia attends to the word, Matthew leaves 'the receipt of custom,' Saul of Tarsus prays; and the three thousand repent, believe, and turn unto the Lord.

"A gentleman's timepieces were once out of order, and they were examined, when it was found that in one of them the mainspring was injured; the gla.s.s which protected the dial-plate of the other was broken; while the machinery of the third had got damp, and rusty, although the parts were all there. So the lack of holiness, in some cases, arises from the want of heart to love G.o.d; another man has not the gla.s.s of watchfulness in his conduct; another has got rusty with backsliding from G.o.d, and the sense of guilt so clogs the wheels of his machinery, that they must be well brushed with rebuke, and correction, and oiled afresh with the Divine influence, before they will ever go well again.

"The whole of a Christian's life is a reaching forward; but he has to begin afresh, like the people of Israel in the wilderness; or, like a clock, he has constantly to recommence at the figure one, and go on to that of twelve, through all the years of his experience on earth.

But after the resurrection, he will advance, body, and soul, to the figure of million of millions, never to begin again throughout eternity. The sun in that world will never rise, nor set; it will have neither east, nor west! How often has an invisible hand wound up thy religious spirit below, but there the weights will never come down again!"

"PARABLE OF THE BIRDS.

"A gentleman kept in his palace a dove, a raven, and an eagle. There was but little congeniality, or friends.h.i.+p amongst them. The dove ate its own proper food, and lodged in the aviary. The raven fed on carrion, and sometimes would pick out the eyes of an innocent lamb, and had her nest in the branches of a tree. The eagle was a royal bird; it flew very high, and was of a savage nature; it would care nothing to eat half-a-dozen doves for its breakfast. It was considered the chief of all birds, because it could fly higher than all. All the doves feared its beak, its angry eyes, and sharp talons. When the gentleman threw corn in the yard for the dove, the raven would be engaged in eating a piece of flesh, a part of a lamb haply; and the eagle in carrying a child from the cradle to its eyrie. The dove is the evangelical, industrious, G.o.dly professor; the raven is the licentious, and unmanageable professor; and the eagle the high-minded, and self-complacent one. These characters are too often amongst us; there is no denomination in church, or meeting-house, without these three birds, if there be birds there at all. These birds, so unlike, so opposed, never can live together in peace. Let us pray, brethren, for union of spirit in the bond of peace."

"PARABLE OF THE VINE-TREE, THE THORN, THE BRAMBLE, AND THE CEDAR.

"The trees of Lebanon held a council to elect a king, on the death of their old sovereign, the Yew-tree. It was agreed to offer the sovereignty to the Cedar; at the same time, in the event of the Cedar's declining it, to the Vine-tree, and then to the Olive-tree.

They all refused it. The Cedar said, 'I am high enough already.'

The Vine said, 'I prefer giving forth my rich juice to gladden man's heart.' In like manner, the Olive was content with giving its fruit, and would receive no other honour. Recourse was then had to the Thorn. The Thorn gladly received the office; saying to itself, 'I have nothing to lose but this white dress, and a berry for pigs, while I have p.r.i.c.kles enough to annoy the whole wood.' The Bramble rebelled against the Thorn, and a fire of pride, and envy was kindled, which, at length, wrapped the whole forest in one blaze.

Two or three vain, and high-minded men have frequently broken up the peace of congregations; and, by striving for the mastery, have inflicted on the cause of religion incalculable injuries; when they have had no more fitness for rule than the white-thorn, or the p.r.i.c.kly bramble."

The following extract is of another order; it is more lengthy, and it is upon a theme which always drew forth the preacher's most exulting notes:-

"THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD.

"Let us now consider the fact of our Lord's resurrection, and its bearing upon the great truths of our holy religion.

"This most transcendent of miracles is sometimes attributed to the agency of the Father; who, as the Lawgiver, had arrested, and imprisoned in the grave the sinner's Surety, manifesting at once His benevolence, and His holiness; but by liberating the prisoner, proclaimed that the debt was cancelled, and the claims of the law satisfied. It is sometimes attributed to the Son Himself; who had power both to lay down His life, and to take it again; and the merit of whose sacrifice ent.i.tled Him to the honour of thus a.s.serting His dominion over death, on behalf of His people. And sometimes it is attributed to the Holy Spirit, as in the following words of the Apostle:-'He was declared to be the Son of G.o.d with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.'

"_The resurrection of Christ is a clear and incontestable proof of His Divinity_.

"He had declared Himself equal with G.o.d the Father, and one with Him in nature, and in glory. He had told the people that He would prove the truth of this declaration, by rising from the grave three days after His death. And when the morning of the third day began to dawn upon the sepulchre, lo! there was an earthquake, and the dead body arose, triumphant over the power of corruption.

"This was the most stupendous miracle ever exhibited on earth, and its language is:-'Behold, ye persecuting Jews and murdering Romans, the proof of my G.o.dhead! Behold, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, the power, and glory of your Victim!' 'I am He that liveth, and was dead; and lo! I am alive for evermore!' 'I am the root, and the offspring of David, and the Bright, and Morning Star!' 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am G.o.d, and besides Me there is none else!'

"_Our Lord's resurrection affords incontrovertible evidence of the truth of Christianity_.

"Pilate wrote the t.i.tle of Christ in three languages on the cross; and many have written excellent, and unanswerable things, on the truth of the Christian Scriptures, and the reality of the Christian religion; but the best argument that has ever been written on the subject was written by the invisible hand of the Eternal Power, in the rocks of our Saviour's sepulchre. This confounds the sceptic, settles the controversy, and affords an ample, and sure foundation for all them that believe.

"If any one asks whether Christianity is from heaven, or of men, we point him to the 'tomb hewn out of the rock,' and say-'There is your answer! Jesus was crucified, and laid in that cave; but on the morning of the third day it was found empty; our Master had risen, and gone forth from the grave victorious.'

"This is the pillar that supports the whole fabric of our religion; and he who attempts to pull it down, like Samson, pulls ruin upon himself. 'If Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins;' but if the fact is clearly proved, then Christianity is unquestionably true, and its disciples are safe.

"This is the ground on which the Apostle stood, and a.s.serted the divinity of his faith:-'Moreover, I testify unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you; which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain; for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.'

"_The resurrection of Jesus is the most stupendous manifestation of the power of G.o.d_, _and the pledge of eternal life to His people_.

"The apostle calls it 'the exceeding greatness of His power to usward, who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.' This is a river overflowing its banks-an idea too large for language. Let us look at it a moment.

"Where do we find 'the exceeding greatness of His power'? In the creation of the world? in the seven Stars and Orion? in the strength of Behemoth and Leviathan? No! In the Deluge? in the fiery destruction of Sodom? in the overthrow of Pharaoh, and his host? in hurling Nebuchadnezzar, like Lucifer, from the political firmament?

No! It is the power which He wrought in Christ. When? When He healed the sick? when He raised the dead? when He cast out devils?

when He blasted the fruitless fig-tree? when He walked upon the waters of Galilee? No! It was 'when He raised Him from the dead.'

Then the Father placed the sceptre in the hands of the Son, 'and set Him above all princ.i.p.ality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church.'

"This is the source of our spiritual life. The same power that raised the dead body of our Lord from the grave, quickens the soul of the believer from the death in trespa.s.ses, and sins. His riven tomb is a fountain of living waters; whereof, if a man drink, he shall never die. His raised, and glorified body is the sun, whence streams eternal light upon our spirits; the light of life, that never can be quenched.

"Nor here does the influence of His resurrection end. 'He who raised up Jesus from the dead shall, also, quicken our mortal bodies.' His resurrection is the pledge, and the pattern of ours. 'Because He lives, we shall live also.' 'He shall change our vile body, that it may be fas.h.i.+oned like unto His glorious body.' We hear Him speaking in the Prophet:-'Thy dead shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead.'

"How divinely does the Apostle speak of the resurrection-body of the saints! 'It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pa.s.s the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting? Thanks be unto G.o.d that giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.'