SERMON IX.

Take up the stumblingblock out of the way of My people. ISA. LVII. 14.

BEING God's people, they will not 'stumble that they should fall;' but they may receive grievous injury, notwithstanding, from striking their foot against a stumblingblock. And such injury has the Church undoubtedly received from the doctrine of Eternal Evil.

We have already pointed out some of its injurious effects upon the world. Now let us see how it affects those who have been called out of the world, and have received the gift of eternal life, through faith in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps its worst effect is that it must necessarily, to whatever extent it is realised, cloud their view of God's love. They cannot get rid of an uneasy feeling, though hardly perhaps aware of it, which prevents them looking up to Him with entire confidence and perfect love. The knowledge that God is a consuming fire' to sin, and therefore to impenitent sinners, greatly helps us to love Him, and to confide in Him; for it assures us, that sooner or later there will be an end of evil, and that the whole universe will become 'very

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good.' But if there is never to be an end of it, if God is not to be a consuming fire, but only a torturing fire, in which His enemies will be kept alive for ever, then a perpetual effort must be made to keep the whole subject out of our minds, if we are to feel any confidence whatever in our Father's love. This was spoken of incidentally in a previous sermon; so that we may pass on to another consideration, which is not quite so palpable, but which exercises a more powerful influence than is commonly supposed.

The popular doctrine reduces to a minimum the grace of Christ in dying for us. People strangely talk as if the depth of misery from which we have been rescued, was a measure of Christ's self-sacrificing love in coming to our rescue. Surely it leans all on the other side. The same amount of sacrifice, that I might think very great for anyone to make, in order to save me from a small punishment, may appear trifling, if made in order to save me from a very heavy one. A Christian once told me how much distressed he was by his inability to overcome the feeling, that it would have been rather hard, if we had been left under condemnation, and nothing been done to save us from it. No wonder! The marvel is that such thoughts do not press so continually upon the minds of all men, as to make them search and see what it is that lies at the bottom of them, or at least constitutes their sting. If we are all born in such a condition, as without help

would render it practically inevitable that we should spend an eternity in misery, it is not easy to think very much of the grace, that was willing to make even the sacrifice that has been made, to deliver us from such a doom. As another believer once said to me, 'Who would not have done it?'

But embrace the teaching of Scripture, and the whole aspect of the case is altered.

For from what does Christ save us?

In the first place, from non-existence. But for Christ, Adam would have died the day he sinned, and we of course should never have existed. Would that have been at all hard upon us? What right have we to exist at all? None whatever. And we are indebted for our existence to the provision made in the everlasting covenant of grace, which was to be sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. Is not that free grace?

In the next place we are saved from that death which is the wages of sin, and which would be inflicted upon us at once on account of our own sin, but for the intercession of Christ. We are saved from the penalty of Adam's sin, in that we came into existence; we are at present saved from the penalty of our own sin, in that we continue to exist a moment after committing it; death being the natural wages of sin. And in these two ways Christ is absolutely the Saviour of all men' alike-He 'gave His flesh for the life of the world;' and in Him God

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reconciled the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.' The life of the world was forfeited in Adam, and freely given back in Christ. Everyone who lives long enough to know God's will, has forfeited his own life by not submitting to it. The infliction of that penalty is suspended, and far more than the remission of it freely offered to those who are willing to accept it through Christ. If they refuse it, they commit a worse sin than Adam's, and incur a heavier doom, a more fearful death. For them there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation, which shall devour (not keep alive in torture, but devour) the adversaries.' What is there 'hard' in this? Nothing whatever. We have only to clear away that terrible fiction of eternal suffering, and then we can see in its true light the wondrous 'grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich;' and to some extent can appreciate that love, which God commends to us, 'in that when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

Another loss which the Christian sustains through the belief of this unscriptural doctrine, arises from the difficulty it interposes in the way of his cultivating that highest of all Christian graces-'joyfulness.' Again and again is he urged to 'rejoice evermore,' again and again is he told that 'joy and peace in believing' are

among the fruits of the spirit. Now the main element of joy is hope. Peace comes from a sense of present reconciliation; but real joy can only be produced by the prospect of what is to come. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' But how is it possible to rejoice in a prospect that includes the endless suffering of millions of our fellow-creatures? It would be simply impossible, but for that happy, though not blameless, inconsistency between our opinions and our feelings, that we have so often had occasion to notice. What is it you are so earnestly longing for? Is it for your own individual happiness only? Far from it; you are not so selfish. You are longing for the groans of creation to cease, for sin and suffering to be at an end. Some terrible act of wickedness shocks you, some heartbreaking tale of woe makes you weep in sympathy, and you say, Ah, well, it will soon be over; this is not to go on for ever, it is but for a moment,' and then all will be peace and holiness and joy; 'Creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.' What are you talking about? Do you ever think what you are saying? Sin and suffering at an end! Why it will be multiplied a hundredfold. No enmity against God that is now felt by the most hardened sinner in the world, can compare with the intense hatred of Him that must be felt by those who are writhing under His hand in hopeless agony; whom He will neither allow