Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

call away his attention at once from himself to Christ, to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. And judge what must have been his amazement and joy; for God made him believe what his servants testified of Christ; it was given to him to believe that the Lord Jesus was a glorious and all-sufficient Saviour, able to save, unto the very uttermost, those that turn unto their God by him; and that the peace derived from a reliance on his atonement, was ratified in heaven. He entered into a new life from that very hour.

And, now, observe, the jailer has found Jesus; and his terror is turned into joy. It is said "He rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." And whereas, the night before, he would willingly see the disciples beaten, and fastened in the stocks, he now brings them forth and washes their stripes with his own hands, and was baptized, both he and all his house, straightway. It was the message of mercy which the Apostle uttered, which turned his sorrow into joy. Mark his great inquiry-"What must I do to be saved?" Mark their blessed answer-" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And then, as the blessed fruits of his believing, his heart is filled with joy and with love to the brethren of the Lord; and he attended, with swift obedience, to the Lord's laws, and entered, by baptism, upon his Christian course, having all his household immediately baptized into the sacred name of Jesus. O, no injunction could have wrought on him so blessed a change as this one gracious word-"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt Le saved." It is the message we are to bear to sinners, throughout this guilty and dying world: and those who believe us to be men of truth, the messengers of God, or who believe the message to be the message of his own mercy, sent down to their bleeding hearts, will be relieved by it as the jailer was relieved; and will put on beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. They will understand that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin; and joy, and love, and obedience will be in them, the blessed fruits of their believing. Men will be enraged, they will rejoice; sinners will oppose, they will be at peace-at peace with their Maker, and thus be hidden, as in the secret of his pavilion, from the strife of tongues. Numbers around them may pass on in the mere formalities of religion, and nations may still rise against nations, and the blood of men flow under the scourge of an offended God; but they will still be at peace, knowing that all real evil has this law imposed upon it, that it may never inflict its venom on those of mankind who are united to the Son of God by faith.

Now this affords many subjects for the grateful contemplation of all believers in God. It contains, first, a remarkable instance of free and rich mercy to a desperate sinner reduced to the last extremity. It shews us that a person driven even to the very brink of suicide, may, by faith in Christ, be forgiven everything, and made a new creature, and turn his whole household into a family of religion, full of peace and joy in believing, to be waiting together for the glory that is hereafter to be revealed.

It affords, likewise, an instructive instance of the mysteriousness of God's ways in the accomplishment of his purposes of mercy. Paul and Silas were preaching at Philippi in faith; and here God, instead of giving them success in the way they would have expected, permitted them to be persecuted and cast

into prison: but even there they trust in their God, and by these very means the greatest possible good is accomplished. The jailer's family, and possibly a great many of the prisoners, or all of them, are brought to the knowledge of salvation by the power of God. Now these instances of God's disappointing the designs of his servants that he may accomplish his own, are calculated to teach men to trust in him at all times, and to rely on him under every trial.

And this particular also may be observed as it respects the jailer-that the salvation of God is as free as it is vast. Many imagine that a long preparation is necessary before men may come to Christ, and be accepted in him; and that then a long time more must elapse before they may rejoice in him. But notwithstanding the greatness of this man's sin, the Apostles preached the same Gospel to him as they did to others; and he, being enabled to understand it, found rest and joy in Christ, the very day of his first awakening.

Observe also the simplicity of the Gospel. The inquirer comes: the Apostle does not ask him any questions as to what sort of life he had lived, nor as to the quantity of terror he had experienced then: no matter what his case or condition had been or was-" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," was the Apostle's declaration. If any man or woman in this church, however bad his or her case had been, could be admitted to the presence of inspired men with this cry in heart and lip, "What shall I do to be saved?" the same answer would be given as was given to the jailer. O, the riches of divine grace, how great they are! How great in the sight of God must be the atonement which Jesus made, when he immediately forgives every creature in the world whose heart trusts in that atonement!

Another observation is, that all the children of God are not awakened in the same way. The jailer was exceedingly terrified; his family perhaps were not so. At all events, we read, in the same chapter, of Lydia, who seems under one sermon of the Apostle, to have had her heart opened by the Lord, to receive the glad tidings of salvation, without any description at all of antecedent terror. Some are brought to repose their souls in Christ without undergoing that alarm which others have experienced: but every believer, whatever his case may have been, is accepted and justified in Christ Jesus for this very reason, that the obedience unto death of the Son of God, deserves the salvation of all that should confide on them.

In this prison at Philippi, we see, in some respects, a picture of the world. This earth is a prison; the persons in it are condemned to die-yea, a thousand are led forth to execution daily. And though the unconverted man may not draw a sword to plunge it into his own heart, the sword of divine vengeance is unsheathed against him, and may pierce him at any moment. And whereas, while Paul and Silas were praising God for redemption, the earthquake shook the prison, and the fetters fell off the prisoners, we see, as it were, a picture of the blessings of the Gospel, whereby "the prisoner leaps to loose his chains," and those who are enabled to believe are emancipated from the bondage of sin, and brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God.

My brethren, my design in preaching this sermon, was to bring sinners unto Christ, that they might be blessed by resting upon him. And glad indeed should I be to hear that many, numbers, who have heard the message of the Apostles

to this jailer, should be brought to happiness and joy in God after many a weary conflict with the world upon the same ground as he was.

But there is one word more, in the way of especial admonition, that I would add. The Apostle says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." And so when God sent his Gospel to Cornelius, it was to tell him "words whereby he," and not only he, but "all his house, should be saved." God delights to pour out his blessings largely upon households, as well as on individuals. O, it is a niggardly way of speaking of men, when they take that sentence from the Old Testament, which was meant to refer to something else, and says that God's way is to take one of a city and two of a family, and bring them unto Zion. Under the Gospel, we see that blessings are promised not to individuals only, but to households: not only was Cornelius to be saved, but all his house. And here the jailer is commanded to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he should be saved, and his house. And we read of the household of Stephanus, who were all addicted to the ministry of the saints: and we read of the house of Chloe. O, let us remember, how God under the Gospel blesses households together. You remember, in the first chapter of St. John, no sooner was Andrew awakened, than he goes and calls his brother Simon, and brings him to Christ; and they two are saved together. And when our Saviour findeth Philip, he has a friend whom he remembers, Nathaniel; he findeth Nathaniel, and though Nathaniel resists his arguments at the first, he cannot be put off so, but returns to him again, and at last prevails and brings him to Jesus; and they are saved together. O, if you believe in Jesus, and so enter into life, look for blessings, not upon yourself only, but upon your whole house. God is a God that maketh men to be of one mind in a house. Look for the salvation of all your household-every child in it, every dependant, every servant in it; look for this, because the atonement is so great, and because the grace of God is so large. And then God will recompense to you the charity himself infused, and recompense the expectation which the thought of himself has raised within you. And as in the case of the man who should harden his heart against the Gospel, it is likely that through him his little ones and all around him may perish with him and through him; so in the case of one that believes, and enters into life, he may not only save himself, but all his household with him, to the praise and glory of God.

THE REASONABLENESS OF THE GOSPEL.

REV. G. LEGGE, A.M.

BRIDGE STREET CHAPEL, BRISTOL, SEPTEMBER 30, 1834.

"As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." 1 PETER, ii. 2.

WHEN we addressed you last from these words, it was our principal object to set before you the spirit in which "the word" should be received. All the vile affections and vices which were mentioned in the first verse, were denounced, not only on the ground of their own demerit, but as disqualifying for the reception of the truth, as rendering the Gospel of none effect, or of worse than none effect-the "savour of death unto death." As we were exhorted to "lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings," because these were the expression of a depraved and diabolical nature, and because they are connected with misery and wretchedness, in time and in eternity; so did we exhort you, in connexion with the hearing of the word and the service of religion, to lay aside everything that had connexion with them; to lay aside the malice and spleen of the critic; to lay aside the evil eye and the envy of the censorious; to lay aside the cant and the disguise of the hypocrite. and, having laid aside all these, to receive as new-born babes the word-to receive with meekness, with a pure conscience, with faith unfeigned, the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.

This evening we would repeat the exhortation on which we insisted at the close of our former discourse, and urge you "as new-born babes" to "desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," because "the word" is the very element and the spirit of your life as Christians-the very element in which the Christian life breathes, the very food by which that life is supported, and without which the beauty of holiness withers, and the strength of righteousness droops, and the joys of salvation expire. We solicit your attention this evening, not to the general import of the words, or the general connexion of the words with the growth of the Christian; but we would request your attention to the phrase in connexion with the language in which the exhortation is couched the sincere milk of the word." This we believe to be the right rendering of the original, following out an idiom which is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament: but literally the expression would be, "desire the sincere rational milk." And accordingly certain commentators conceive that, as the Apostle Paul, in writing to the Romans, represented the exercise of devotion as a "reasonable," or rational, "service," so the Apostle Peter, as he had just before represented "the word" as incorruptible seed," represents it also as "rational," or reasonable," milk," suited to "new-born babes."

[ocr errors]

The Word of God is here called rational milk. The Word of God is rational on two grounds. It is so, first, because it developes a correspondence with reason; and, secondly, because it is suited to the spiritual, the immortal nature.

The Gospel, or the Word of God, I say, is rational because it developes a correspondence with reason. To the Jew it might be a stumbling-block, and to the Greek it might be foolishness, but it is not the less the wisdom and the power of God. It contains many things that pass our understanding, pass all finite understanding, for it speaks of the infinite. It contains many things above our reason, but none that are irrational. It contains a statement of things as they are in our world-of man as he is in the world; to which all experience gives confirmation. It offers to the view a prospect of things as they should be, and of man as he should be, to which our delighted hope would cling; and it reveals an expedient to bring about the change, from man as he is to man as he should be-a change which, though it could never enter into the heart of man to conceive, yet, being conceived, must be regarded as wise and reasonable, must fill him with wonder, love, and praise.

The Word of God announces the dread necessity in which human nature is, on account of which the whole creation groans and travails together in pain; and it meets that necessity in a manner the most wonderful and divine. It is, therefore, “rational," inasmuch as it is surrounded by evidence to which reason sets its seal. It is "rational," because its presentments, however stupendous and wonderful, do also in their design commend themselves to the approval of reason. It is "rational," in fine, because reason must rejoice in its effects; and its effects are the very reverse of "earthly, sensual, and devilish." Reason, I say, must rejoice in its effects-the filling the highest capacities with thought -the striking the finest chords of feeling-the multiplying the various sources of enjoyment, the purity of the heart, the rectitude of the mind, the well-being of the existence, the bliss of the individual, the bliss of the family, the bliss of the nation--the life, the death, the eternity-the realization of a paradise upon earth, and the assurance of a paradise in heaven. The Gospel is rational on these grounds-rational in its evidence, in its presentments, and in its results. Surely, then, it demands the homage of every understanding, and demands the affections of every heart. I ask, my dear hearers, whether it does not demand yours; and whether, if we have not yielded to the Word of God all the homage of the understanding, and all the affections of the heart, we are not of all men most irrational-whether we are not, emphatically, fools?

In the second place, the Word of God may be called "rational milk” for children, inasmuch as it is suited to the nature of man, suited to it as its element and its spirit-as indispensable to its well-being and its happiness-as that without which the reason and spirit of man must be destitute indeed. I am related to the material that is around me, and without some portion of its substance the material within me must die. I am related to the material, and without some relation to it, the social within me must die. I am related to the material, and without some knowledge of its results, the moral within me must die. I shall soon pass away from the material-I shall soon bid adieu to the social-I shall in a little while find myself amidst the realities of immortality; and O! if I should then find all those realities to be against me, and to be against me for ever, what will it avail at all that I had my share in the

« ZurückWeiter »