CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 282 287 PRESENT TESTIMONY. 1. I. PAUL'S GOSPEL. DO YOU PREACH IT? INTRODUCTION. Is the Gospel of "The grace of God" as now usually preached, a presenting of the truth in the same form in which it was shown to Saul of Tarsus,-the very same form as that in which Saul, when he was called Paul the Apostle, preached it? I have raised this question on various occasions; with various results, perhaps, as to details; but generally, if among those who were both acquainted with Scripture and observers of what is passing around them, with the distinct answer, No. I have put the question to some, whom I esteemed Evangelists and men of God too,-and I have been told, often modestly and humbly, "I do not see what sense of need that preaching could produce in man. You must know yourself a sinner, ere you can feel your need of a Saviour"; or again, "What is there in the heart of man down here which could respond to such a proclamation ?" etc., etc. The diffidence and modesty of those that have thus replied, and the felt need which they have expressed for fuller light upon the subject, with the confession made by several of them, of a suspicion of a defect in their light (which, perhaps, left them to use what they did know, instead of the Gospel in its fulness), induce me to endeavour, God helping me, to present a few remarks upon this subject. VOL. I.-New Series. 1 Commenced Before considering what the form of the Gospel was which delivered Saul, which Paul preached, and which I conceive is the form delivered by him for the evangelists who were to follow after him-and the questions incidental thereto,-I would make a remark or two on the two-fold form in which grace may be presented, and on the reason why, of these two forms of grace, the one is better known now and has been more used in our day than the other. In dealing with souls we may begin with what man was and is, and has done, and go on from that to the answer thereunto, which God has provided in Christ, the Lord of all. Such was the form in which Peter presented grace on the day of Pentecost. He began with what had been seen down here, and then showed God and His thoughts about Jesus as Lord and Christ seated in Heaven. On the other hand, we may begin with what Christ is in Heaven and let that produce its own effect on the sinner; this was the form of grace in Paul's conversion and gospel. Our first impressions naturally take the deepest and most lasting hold of our minds. Subjects are then new to us, and they form themselves within us according to our first thoughts of them. Often, too, there are at those first hours of our acquaintance with the truth of God, peculiar circumstances which have arrested a former course of life and become turning points through which the outward life got, then and there, a new direction; often too dangers, needs, hopes of a new kind, have been then suddenly discovered, etc., etc. Account for it as we may, first impressions upon all subjects are, I think, in the very nature of things, the most likely to be the more lasting; and, in connection with this, I have remarked that the form in which the truth of God is apprehended by a man at first, is the form in which the mind is most inclined, most disposed to retain it. This was the case with Peter, it was the case with Paul, it was the case with Timothy, etc., etc. But of this more anon. I have found one corrective to this, in some respects and in so far as it is merely a result of human infirmity in myself and others, to exist in the considera tion of the history of the way in which the truth was brought out into the form in which God now presents it to us in His written word. There are two things to be noticed here. Christ is the truth. By Him, where, and as He is, we believe in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory; that our faith and hope might be in God: that is the first grand lesson; the Christ, Son of God and only begotten Son of the Father, is the medium by whom we believe in God, who raised Him out from among the dead and gave Him glory so as for our faith and hope to be in God. Himself, as He is, is our peace, our hope. But, secondly, there is the way in which God was pleased gradually to bring out the truth until it could be presented as it now is presented by Him. This, rightly understood, gives the most abundant confirmation to the Gospel as it is-and is that to which I referred as the good corrective, in some respects, to any imperfect view of the Gospel which may result from an undue cleaving in us, either to the thoughts of our day, or to first impressions of our own. So far as I understand the Gospel, it is: Jesus Christ Himself, seated on the throne of God, from whose face shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. A. Now, the first intimation about Him was spoken in the declaration to the serpent: "It (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his • God was pleased. In being and in nature, God was and is and will be. Being the source of all that has been or that is, He is necessarily above it all. Men speak of His sovereignty in this connection: on more accounts than one, I think the term an ill chosen one. I would prefer absolutism sovereignty seems to imply relationship. As to good, and as to the disposal of what is bad, He, clearly, alone has the right to will. But He does so, I judge, always according to His own perfect character; and His counsel is perfect in wisdom; Himself the blessed centre of the universe being the object set before Him. Man would make man, and alas! sinful man, to be the proper object of that counsel; but, thank God, such cannot be. We must remember that while this was the first word spoken about Him, the first Adam and his position, possession, family, etc., are declared in the New Testament to have pointed typically to the last Adam. |