Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." Which is the last thing to be considered.

III. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are "heavy laden." Heavenly physician! Who would not be disposed, who would not hasten go unto Thee! We know, and rejoice in the reflection, that Thou callest us all by the voice of thy Ministers, of thy Sacraments, by the inspirations of thy Grace, by the compunctions of our conscience-in these several ways, Thou graciously criest unto every one of us, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy "laden."

To whom then shall we go? To thee, blessed Jesus, and to Thee only. "To whom, O Lord," says St. Peter," shall we go? thou hast the words of eter"nal life." Indeed it is by Christ, and by Christ alone, that we can be delivered from the power and the fear of sin, and established in a just and reasonable confidence. And in the ever-blessed Gospel, the sinner finds the assurance that his sins will not be imputed to him. Does he require clear and positive promises? Our Lord has given such: His whole Gospel is full of them. Is a sacrifice expected without spot, of infinite value, which has borne the punishment of our sins? Christ is that sacrifice. Must there be shedding of blood to wash away his sins? Christ shed his own blood for that very purpose. Must God accept the offered sacrifice? God has accepted the sacrifice of his dear and only-begotten Son, seeing He hath raised Him from the dead. sinner need a Saviour who will have compassion on his infirmities, and who will intercede with God for him?

Does the

Jesus

Jesus Christ is that Saviour. Does he desire power to defend him against all his enemies, and to introduce him into heaven? Christ" hath received all power " from his Father. He is able to save to the utter"most all that come unto God by Him. He is gone " into Heaven to prepare a place for us." To Christ then must we go, and to Him only. But how are we to go, and what is meant by going to Him? Is not He in heaven, and are not we upon earth?

[ocr errors]

We are to go to Christ by the faith and trust we have in Him, which affures us of the validity of His precepts and the truth of His promises; which leads us to put our whole dependence on Him, and on the merit of His death. Faith is represented as the way which leads to Christ, and to come to Christ, or to believe in Him, are synonimous expressions, which our Lord uses to signify the same thing. "I am the bread of "life. He that cometh to me, shall never hunger, and "he that believeth in me shall never thirst." We are to go to Him by repentance, by a sorrow for our past sins, which produces a change in our future conduct;-by fervent prayers that He will forgive us our offences;by devout Communions, beseeching Him that the bread and wine which we receive at his Table may strengthen and refresh our souls: we are to go to Him by the love we bear Him, by the desire we have to please Him, to obey Him, to be one with Him, to contemplate Him one day in His glory, to dwell with Him in Heaven, and to delight in "being made like " unto Him."

We are to go to Him by the support which He communicates to us; by our readiness in answering

when

when He calls, when He speaks to our hearts, when He draws us unto Himself.

But when are we to go to Christ ? To-day-this moment; and every day of our lives. Can we go to

Him too frequently, we who are beset with so many wants, exposed to so many temptations; we who are so subject to offend our heavenly Father?

I dare not neglect to warn you that there is one period of our life, when that blessed privilege of going to Christ will not be allowed us, because we shall not be objects of that mercy and rest which He promises in my text. That period is the end of our days, the approach of death. Not of a Christian and holy death, which has been preceded by a pious and an upright life-for then it is that we go, indeed, unto Christ, and that this merciful Saviour is still more disposed to support us with His consolations. But I am speaking of the death of a wicked man; of a death which has been preceded by a depraved and profligate life; of a death which leaves only behind it a long catalogue of neglect of religious duties, and of the commission of notorious sins. Christ can, indeed, grant His peace to a guilty sinner, if his repentance be such as will be accepted. But if, Christians, you ever mean to repent, begin: to-day, and let to-morrow see you new men. May you never know the difficulty which the sinner who has grown old in habits of vice experiences, of reforming his heart and subduing his inclinations, in the little time which remains to him to live, and of impressing on his mind those sentiments which constitute a true repentance! The sorrow, the remorse, the distraction which the approach of death occasions, may

avail little. Repentance, when it comes so late, is at best suspicious. Difficult must be the return to Christ, when we have neglected, during our life, to walk in the way that conducts to Him.

Let us then without delay go unto this Divine Saviour; and let us take care every day to approach to Him. Let us pour out our hearts unto Him: He will come unto us to comfort us, and to speak peace to our afflicted souls. Holy Jesus, grant us thy peace, thy Grace, that rest of the soul that we can find only in Thee let that rest be unto us a pledge of the eternal rest we hope to enjoy with Thee for ever,

Amer

[ocr errors][merged small]

SERMON VI.

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE VIRGIN MARY

THIS day is appointed by the Church in memory of the blessed Virgin, and particularly of the message of the Angel to her, concerning her being to bring forth the Messias, our Blessed Lord. This holy person was of the tribe of Judah; she derived her pedigree from king David; the branches of that royal family, after many descents, being reduced to a low degree of fortune.

That Joseph her husband was a widower, when he was espoused

to the Virgin, and had several children by his first wife, seems to have been the opinion of all the Greek, and of many of the Latin, Fathers; for they, generally, supposed, that those called our Lord's brethren in the Gospel, were Joseph's children by his first wife. St. Jerom, on the contrary, says, that our Lord's brethren were his cousin-germans. She was said to be fifteen years of age at the time of her espousals with Joseph-which was the usual time of marrying young women among the Jews. Some time after she was betrothed to Joseph, it was declared to her by an Angel, that she should bring forth One who was to be the Son of God, and who should have an everlasting kingdom; (Luke i. 32.) and that this extraordinary Offspring which should be born of her, should not be produced after the usual way of human conceptions, but by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost (35.) The Holy Scriptures record of her, that she was a person eminent for devotion and holy contempla.

« ZurückWeiter »