Part 2 (2/2)

For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.” Not only will his days endure but his kingdom will endure; not only will it endure but it will go forward with a perpetual progress. ”Thou shall arise and have mercy upon Zion.” The Lord is building a city in the world, a city that hath foundations, a city that is compacted together, a city that has its families and houses and companies, its solemnities and social joys; a city that is all one brotherhood though composed of every nation and kindred and people. The Lord will arise in his strength to build this city and one of the signs for his time to favour her is when her children take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof. We have that sign in our day. G.o.d's children are taking pleasure in the stones of Zion and favouring the dust thereof. Let us then, looking at the sign, lift up our eye for the fulfilment of the promise, ”When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in his glory.” We are trying to build Zion and the Lord is pleased to see it; but let us call upon Him--”Appear in thy glory! Do thou come and build! Give us the living stones, bring them to us by thy power out of the rocks, out of the heights and depths we cannot reach unto wilt thou not bring living stones to thy temple?” Call and He will come and He will build, and ”the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord.”

You will say, ”They have not heard it yet”--but they shall. You say many that have heard it do not fear it, but they shall, they shall fear the name of the Lord--”and all the kings of the earth thy glory.” The kings fear his glory! They think of ancestral glory, courtly glory, military glory, political glory; they do not think about Christ and his glory.

But they shall, they shall fear his glory. The proudest kings in the earth shall feel that the glory of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is to them much as the sun is to that shadow I have spoken of upon the hill. Their glory must pale and pa.s.s away. It is but a little time ago, only nineteen centuries ago, since Christ had no kingdom in the earth, no follower, no temple, no power. Now is there a monarch in the world will come out and say, ”I shall sweep the name, the law, the love, the power of Christ out of the earth?” No, of all powers now acknowledged there is none so deep, wide and mighty.

Every day adds to that power; every year opens to it new spheres, new languages, new adherents, and on will it go and on till the whole earth is subdued under the power of the Lord and his Christ. What is the instrument of its progress? ”He will regard the prayer of the dest.i.tute and not despise their prayer.” Not despise prayer! Why, do not the wise men of the world despise prayer? Do not many talkers tell us that prayer is a thing not to be looked upon as a force in the light of elevated reason? You may despise it if you please and try to rear a kingdom over human souls on a system that does. G.o.d will not despise it, Christ will not despise it. There is a kingdom to be invoked by prayer, with its throne and its crown and its sceptre. All the powers of that kingdom are moved with the cry of a dest.i.tute heart. It is so, and you cannot alter it. ”This shall be written for the generation to come,” how you go and write down that prayer is of no effect, and we will write ”He will not despise their prayer,” and let the ”generation to come” judge. Your predecessors, eighteen hundred years ago, wrote what you say--ours wrote these words, and see the kingdom of Christ to-day! ”This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people.” What people ”shall praise the Lord?” The people that are in Jerusalem? No. In Rome? in Athens? No. What people? The people that are not anywhere; the people that are neither in heaven nor in earth; ”the people that shall be created.” ”That shall be created”--existences now not existing, beings now not being, offspring of G.o.d and members of the family of immortals not yet born--they shall praise the Lord. Coming up out of the dark of that great future they shall rise to obey the King we wors.h.i.+p and to praise the Saviour we love. ”For He hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary: from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.” Ay, from that holy place, that sanctuary--from that high place, that heaven--He looked to behold this earth, this vile place, this base place. Yet it was not to curse it--He looked ”to hear the groaning of the prisoner; and to loose those that are appointed to death.” Here in every corner of the world you will see a man who is appointed to death, accused, guilty, a lawbreaker, with witness heard and evidence taken and judgment recorded--the sentence is against him. Oh, if we had an eye such as looks from above how many might we see in this fair congregation who are condemned to death. You know it; you are breakers of eternal law; just judgment is against you; you are appointed to death, and unless you are delivered from that condemnation die you shall, die by a public execution before all worlds in the great day. But He comes to deliver them ”that are appointed to death”--to bring you pardon, to bring yon salvation, to bring you mercy, to make you a child of G.o.d, to blot out all the sin that you have committed. Christ died that you might be delivered; reigns that you may be delivered, and this day He is speaking to thy heart that thou mayest turn from thy sin, seek mercy and follow Him in the way of life.

So the Psalmist goes on ever antic.i.p.ating the growth and stability of this kingdom. ”He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days.” G.o.d does not make his Church and work to depend upon the length of any man's days. ”I said, O my G.o.d take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure? yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shall thou change them, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Ay, and there is something else that has no end. The heavens shall perish, the earth shall perish. G.o.d will endure. And will nothing else endure.

Yes, ”The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.” The servants, the children of G.o.d, those that are born again by the Spirit's grace, those that come to Christ, the Messiah, and through Him recover, by adoption, the place in the family of G.o.d that was lost by sin, they shall continue, they shall be established.

What! when the earth flees away? Yes, when the earth flees away. What!

when the heaven falls? Yes, when the heaven falls; they shall be established with the same immortality as their Father in heaven. ”Thy years shall not fail.” G.o.d will not fail; Christ will not fail; the Rock of Ages will not fail; and all and every one that through Christ is in G.o.d will never fail. The world will pa.s.s away, the word of G.o.d will not pa.s.s away, and the child of G.o.d will not pa.s.s away.

Take then this word to thy heart and say ”Thy years shall not fail.” It will give you a worthy fear. Man is always rightly or wrongly fearing something. One is afraid of a man that has him in his power. He says, ”If I offended him I should lose my bread; it would be as much as my living is worth; I must take care not to offend him;” and rather than offend that man he will stain his conscience and offend his G.o.d. Come back in twenty years and ask where that man is, and they will take you to his grave, and that was what you were afraid of! Another fears this bright, witty, active young man, whose word either cuts or flatters with amazing power. He feels as if he could not face him; as if he could not bear that he should look him in the face and call him a saint or tell him he had been praying to G.o.d or been commending his soul for mercy to Christ. If he said these things to him it would actually appear as if it was something against him, something he ought to be ashamed of! Come back in twenty years and enquire for him--perhaps you will find him in a mad-house, perhaps in a gambling-house, perhaps in chains among convicts.

Perhaps you will find a broken-hearted mother in black, wis.h.i.+ng that he had never been born, and that is what you are afraid of! Another is afraid of the fas.h.i.+on. Every one does it, and if he did not do it he would be remarked. Every one says there is no harm in it, and if he scrupled they would make fun of him, and on this account he will do a thing that he knows ought not to be done. Come back in two generations and enquire from the grandchildren of these people about this fas.h.i.+on and you will find they are all laughing at the folly of their grandfathers and grandmothers. And that is what you are afraid of! Set the Lord alway before you. Say, ”Thy years shall not fail. Thou art worthy to be feared. I will fear thee. Thou hast power--power over my breath, over my body, over my day, over my night--power to destroy both body and soul in h.e.l.l; power to kill, power to make alive; power to condemn, power to save; power to cast me down, power to lift me up to heaven--I will fear thee, O G.o.d in Christ, and be thou my only fear.”

Set the Lord alway before you and there you will find a sure refuge.

Nature is changing and decaying, and we are changed faster than nature.

We are all pa.s.sengers in a s.h.i.+p that is floating in an ocean and has fire in her hold. This air around us has an ocean in it, an ocean of real water, and did G.o.d will it a little change in the weight of the air would bring a universal deluge. This earth has fire in it, stores of fire, and did G.o.d will a very little change in the chemistry of the air it would be a universal blaze. We are pa.s.sengers, I say, in a s.h.i.+p sailing in an ocean with fire in the hold, and we know that the fire is to break out and that the moment will come when the s.h.i.+p will be burnt up. You and I are pacing this deck with the fire beneath, and the day, the hour, the moment, that the signal will be given no man living can tell. Are we prepared to meet our G.o.d? Can we look forth from this frail world unto that infinite bosom of eternal rest and say, ”Thou art mine and I am thine to all eternity?” You may look to other refuges but they are not secure, to other coverts but they are not safe. Here is the Rock of Ages and that rock is cleft for you. G.o.d manifest in the flesh. Behold Christ crucified and flee to Him, flee for refuge, flee to-day; once in Christ you will know that you are safe. Let the storm come, let the winds blow, let the floods beat, let the fires break out, safe! safe!

safe! Nothing can move Him and nothing can touch thee. Thou shalt ”dwell under the shadow of the Most High.”

Set the Lord alway before thee and you will have an unfailing stay, an unfailing resource. Many things you may think will not fail. Here is the old man, and his friends tell him he does not fail, and how he likes to hear it! ”Thy years do not weigh thee down.” He goes on and it seems as if to him the years come as the snow falls on the mountains, not to enfeeble but to embellish. He does not fail. Ay, but he will fail and be bowed down to the dust. And the wiry woman that has gone through enough to kill many and yet hath more spirit and energy than the young.

Ay, she shall fail too; you will see her smitten and trodden under the gra.s.s. ”Well I know I must fail,” one says, ”I _am_ failing, but then there is my boy, I shall never want some one to lean upon, I can trust him.” Ah! he may fail; you may stand by the grave where they are saying, ”Dust to dust,” or you may with your hands over your eyes look upon a sadder grave where his character lies corrupting. Another says, ”Well, I know I am failing, but there is my daughter so good and sweet and true--I shall never want a comforter for my old age.” Ah, you do not know, she may fail, you may have to weep over her coffin or to blush over her faults. And another says, ”Well, I have never depended upon anything but my own honest industry. I have something to rely upon. Mine is not speculation, it is good steady business--I can trust it.” Can you? can you? G.o.d may permit you by one mistake to undo the doing of a life.

”But I am not depending upon the chances of business--my position is secure--settled property. I shall not fail.” Are you sure? You know not the ways by which earthly things can make themselves wings and flee away; or if they do not flee you may depart from them. Another says, ”Well, I have never trusted to anything but my right hand and I shall not want--wherever I go I can take care of myself.” Ay, but suppose the right hand should fail? As long as the strong arm and the strong will work together it is well, but suppose a day should come when an invisible knife should pa.s.s between the arm and the will: and the will said, ”Stretch forth!” but the arm hung idle by the side. It may fail. ”Well, but my heart never fails me; whatever goes wrong I can make the best of it.” But suppose your heart should fail and that you became one of those to whom the gra.s.shopper was a burden, one that made the worst of everything, that could look no difficulty in the face. Your heart may fail, your flesh may fail, your money may fail, your employ may fail, your friends may fail, everything upon earth may fail. If you have Christ for your friend you will never fail, if you have G.o.d for your Father you have a shelter, a home, a comfort that will never fail. If you have not you have nothing that you can count upon. Then come this day, come and say to all the shadows, ”I trample over you, I clasp the substance. Holy G.o.d, my Eternal Father, let me be reconciled to thee!

Be thou my G.o.d! Make me thy child! Give me a part and a lot in the family of the holy! For the sake of Jesus, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, write my name in thy book of life and cover me from the storm that is coming, so that amid the change of life and the ruin of death, the awe of the judgment-day, my spirit may abide under an everlasting shelter! may look forward to the eternity that is to be and say to it, 'Welcome--open all thy scenes--uncover thy deepest secrets--world of the unknown, bring out all that thou hast hidden, for all things are mine, for I am Christ's, and Christ is G.o.d's.'” Amen and Amen.

G.o.d'S CONTROVERSY WITH MAN.

REV. CHARLES PREST.

”Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy G.o.d, O Israel.”--AMOS iv. 12.

This chapter refers to the condition of Israel at the time of this prophecy, and to the expostulation and threatened procedure of G.o.d concerning the nation. G.o.d's people had revolted from Him; they had sunk into idolatry; they had been often reproved, but had hardened their necks, and therefore the Lord, after recapitulating the calamities which had befallen them, and which all came in the way of fatherly chastis.e.m.e.nts for their recovery to righteousness, and indicating that his anger was not turned away, says, ”and because I will do this unto thee”--and because having done this repentance does not appear, then prepare to meet me. That is, meet me in battle. If you will not submit, then let the battle be fought; if you will not bow down to these kind modes of discipline--kindly intentioned, however terrible in execution, then prepare to meet me. This expostulation proceeds upon a very intelligible principle--a principle, however, which we sometimes sadly forget, and which we are too much in the habit of neglecting--on the principle that man is an accountable creature; and secondly, that G.o.d will call him to account for his conduct.

G.o.d has a controversy with man, with us--a controversy with us because of our sin, our sin being an outrage against the divine love; a controversy with us because He is right and we are wrong; because He designs the welfare of all, and the sin that we love is productive of universal destruction; a controversy with sinners that can only be terminated in one of two ways--a controversy with every unconverted person here to-day.

Do not deceive yourselves: if you are strangers to the life of G.o.d, you are in opposition to Him, and with you as sinners there is a controversy only to be terminated--first, by your submission, your repentance--and, thank G.o.d, He has prepared a perfect and suitable method for our submission, and for our repentance. If He has a controversy with us, He wills it to be terminated in such a mode as shall secure the original purpose of his great love, which our sin has outraged. Christ has appeared in our behalf, and for this purpose has offered a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for our sins. For this purpose the Divine Spirit waits in all our a.s.semblies, and now in this place, that any of you who are now enemies to Him by wicked works, being p.r.i.c.ked in your hearts on account of your sins, and groaning under your condemnation, may fly for refuge to the hope set before you in Christ Jesus our Lord. So G.o.d would have this controversy terminated.

So He invites you in his great mercy to terminate it. And for this purpose we are ministers of reconciliation, and ”we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to G.o.d.”

There is but one other way of terminating this controversy, and that is by our destruction. If we will abide in our controversy, if we will wage the battle to the end, this destruction must ensue, here is no method else--no escape any where between the one extreme and the other; it is submission and life, it is battle and death--death eternal. O that death eternal! What is it? Not the annihilation of your souls. What is the death of a soul? The loss of the life of G.o.d--the loss of communion with G.o.d. The soul is made for such a communion: this is its true life; it has no satisfaction apart from this enjoyment. There cannot be communion without love; that is the soul of communion; and if you renounce the reign of love, and come under the dominion of enmity, you cut yourselves off from the life of G.o.d, you die, and must endure the bitter pains of eternal death. I pray G.o.d that you may terminate this controversy, and thank G.o.d that you may do so, by the submission of your hearts to his merciful provision of salvation, that so you may live in hallowed Christian blessedness here, and inherit perfect fellows.h.i.+p and communion with G.o.d hereafter.

We should humble ourselves in the presence of that great calamity which has fallen upon our flocks and upon our herds. I think it is well in times of public calamity that public attention should be called to these things; and our attention has been called thereto--not, it is true, by the governing authorities of the country. No matter for that. It is right that we should listen to the admonition that we have received in our own denomination, and do all we can rightly to humble ourselves, and above all, earnestly to pray to G.o.d that He would take away the evil from us, and that, in taking away the evil, He would render us the less liable to promote the dire necessity of future visitation. Let me then call your attention to some general principles connected with G.o.d's dealings with the nations.

There is a national as well as an individual providence. In the ancient government of G.o.d over the nations of the earth, in his dealings with his own people and with the heathen peoples about them, his hand was clearly discerned on many occasions, and his arm sometimes made bare. There were the predictions of certain events to come, and there was the recognised accomplishment of those predictions sometime afterwards. Then, again, you find miraculous interpositions of correction, of punishment, or of deliverance. If you turn your attention to the history of G.o.d's Church, you find all these things manifest; you find Israel in Egypt; then the command that they should be allowed to pa.s.s away from their bondage; you find Egypt resisting the command, and G.o.d sent among the people of Egypt signs and wonders, and plagues by the hand of Moses, but they submitted not. He called them to obedience, but they rebelled. By and bye, He slew their firstborn, the chief of all their strength, and then the people came out with silver and with gold. Nations are not simply chastised in this world, they are also punished. Every one of us shall give an account of himself to G.o.d at the last great day, and strictly speaking, the punishment of separate individuals will not begin in this life; but nations cannot be judged collectively hereafter; they are dealt with here; and G.o.d's dealings with the nations stand out in his palpable acts with these Egyptians. They saw the hand of G.o.d for a time, but they fell back into their ancient rebellion and pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea, and G.o.d made that sea a way for his ransomed and destroyed the pursuing host. Go through the entire history of G.o.d's ancient people.

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