VI. this also. God could judge each one of us at this SERMON moment. He could say, "Notwithstanding this fault, that man is my servant: notwithstanding that good quality, this man I never knew." Now it shall be thus with our knowledge hereafter. Not only shall we believe and understand this item and that item, separately, of God's truth, but we shall see it all in its connection, in its combination, in its reconciling harmony, in its perfect unity. There will no longer be any spaces and gaps in our knowledge. There will be no longer crevasses and chasms, to be vaulted over on a staff of faith. The crooked will Isai. xl. 4. then have been made straight, and the rough places plain; and all flesh will see, as in one view, the salva- Luke iii. 6. tion of God. Then will not only wisdom be, as she Matt.xi. 19. ever has been, justified of her children, but also "the ways of God" will be universally and finally "justified to men." I close with a word of caution, and with a word of encouragement. 1. The contrast between the present imperfection. and the future perfection of a Christian's knowledge, must make no one idle in the pursuit of truth below. They who seek not here will never find there. It is they who seize and treasure and count over and use the separate fragments here vouchsafed to them of eternal truth, who will alone be capable of apprehending hereafter the key which VI. SERMON is to unlock the mysterious treasury which contains it all. In this sense, as in many others, whosoever hath, to him shall be given. Matt. xiii. 12. 2. Finally, do not imagine that, because we speak of imperfections of present knowledge, imperfections of kind as well as imperfections of degree; and because we would raise your thoughts to a Rev. x. 7. time yet future, when the mystery of God shall be not only finished but unfolded in a manner in which it has never yet been to the living; therefore we would imply that the very Person in whom all truth is centred may prove eventually something wholly different from that which He has been pictured to us, or that we may not recognize Acts i. 11. in the features of that Jesus who shall return, the lineaments of the Son of Man who first ascended. Dismiss every such fear. All that we now conceive of holiness, of truth, of tenderness, of love, will be verified then, beyond but never against our anticipations. Much that we have elaborated for ourselves out of formal and ponderous theologies may then, and probably will, be contradicted; but nothing that we have known of the living Saviour Himself, nothing that we have learned of Him by experience, nothing that we have seen of Him in prayer. If we would ever know the truth, we must 1 Cor.viii.3. begin by loving the Person. If a man love God, the same knoweth, or, let me rather say, is known of Him. EPISTLE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 1 2 CORINTHIANS VI. 1-10. AND working with Him we entreat also that ye receive not 2 in vain the grace of God: (for He saith, "At an acceptable season I hearkened to thee; and in a day of salvation I succoured thee:" behold, now is a season of favourable 3 acceptance; behold, now is a day of salvation :) taking heed not1 to give in any thing any cause of stumbling, lest the 4 ministry 2 be blamed; but in every thing recommending ourselves, like God's ministers, in much patience, in afflictions, 5 in sufferings, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in 6 tumults, in toils, in watchings, in fastings; in purity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, 7 in love unfeigned, in word of truth, in power of God, through the armour of righteousness on the right hand and 8 on the left; through renown and dishonour, through evil 9 report and good report; as deceivers, and true; as unknown, and well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as 10 chastened, and not killed; as sorrowing, but ever rejoicing; as poor, but making many rich; as having nothing, and possessing all things. This appears to be the force of the particular negative particle here used. 2 See chap. v. 18: the ministry of the reconciliation. 3 Literally, as God's ministers (should do). 4 The omission of the article is accounted for by the form of the sentence, as a sort of catalogue or enumeration of heads of inquiry. SERMON VII.1 THE PROTECTIVE POWER OF CONSISTENT HOLINESS. 2 CORINTHIANS VI. 7. By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. VII. THE opening of this day's Epistle reminds us that SERMON the Epistle itself has a context. We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. We look back to the close of the foregoing chapter, and find in it one of the most glorious summaries anywhere to be found of the work of Christ's redemption. 15. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus 2 Cor. v.14, judged, because this is our decision formed once and for ever, that, if one died for all, then did all die, in Him, and with Him: and that He died for all, that the living might no longer live unto themselves, in relation to themselves, with a selfish, self-seeking, self-contained life, but unto Him who for them died and was raised from death. The next verse describes 1 A collection was made after this Sermon for the Discharged Prisoners' Society. |