Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

III.-I hasten to the third particular of our subject, on which I must be very brief: the end or design of God's bestowing this gift. "God, which knoweth the hearts, beareth them witness.' Well, then, the Holy Ghost is an internal witness, for He enters the soul in that very character. Hence says the apostle, "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the sons of God." I beseech you, beloved, investigate this; for whatever others may think of your Christianity, whether they applaud it or condemn it, it will be of no value to you without this internal witness. What does He accomplish? Why, He bears His testimony to Divine relationship, and thereby so ennobles and dignifies the soul, as to separate it effectually from the world. He so testifies of Divine relationship, that the soul elevated and dignified by the sweet consciousness of belonging to God, being of the royal family, really an heir of heaven, really a temple of the Holy Ghost, will not stoop to the "beggarly elements" of the world. What! present yourself in the temple of the Lord and at the shrine of Diana? What! bring within the temple of the Holy Ghost vain forms which attract the attention and murder the time of worldlings? Impossible! What! a child of God, that can live embosomed in Deity, and in sweet participation of glory, holding converse with all the persons and perfections of Deity, stoop to be equally familiar with the slaves of the devil and his devices? Impossible! God Almighty make me more severe upon this point before I leave the world. "No man can serve two masters." My Lord has said it, and I repeat it. "For either he will hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The god of this world and the God of heaven dwell in the same heart? Astounding contradiction!

The internal witness which the Holy Ghost gives to Divine relationship, is always accompanied with sanctifying power, so that the soul in which He dwells is elevated in the scale of being; his rank, his education, his robes, his associates, his attendants, and his inheritance, are all of superhuman character, of heavenly origin, and being owned of God as a partaker of the Divine nature, he shuns and rejects everything which is likely to degrade his rank and family. He breathes most freely in the atmosphere of spirituality; he walks most gracefully when walking with God; he feasts most sumptuously upon the Paschal Lamb and the bread of life; yea, he feels that he only lives while Christ is his life, and he lives and walks in Him and with Him.

What are the gaudy shows of " Vanity Fair" to him? Is he to be tempted from his high station, his exalted sphere, by fading flowers, by brilliant bubbles, by filthy lucre, or by bewitching fame? God forbid! While the Holy Ghost keeps up His witnessing within, so as to preserve a sweet consciousuess of his being a "child of God, an heir, yea, a joint-heir with Jesus Christ," he will hate even the garment spotted with the flesh-he will loathe the husks which the swinish multitude eat, and obey that holy injunction, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean;" cheered and encouraged by the promise which follows, “I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." This is Divine relationship, indeed, which demands the corresponding life of devotedness to God, and of intimacy with God.

Moreover, those to whom the Holy Ghost is given as an indwelling

witness rejoice that Jehovah has laid claim to them, and that He owns them now, and will own them at last. He owns their persons, and allows, yea, enables them to walk with Him by faith and in close fellowship, He owns their wants and supplies them, He owns their prayers and answers them, having inspired them; He owns their praises, and says, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me;" yea, even their groaning is owned by Him, for it is written, "He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners." Will they not, then, delight to own Him by acknowledging the mighty acts of His grace, by embracing all the truths of His word, by espousing His cause on earth, and by exhibiting His likeness in their life before men? Surely the language of every act and of every step must be, "My beloved is mine, and I am His." Nor shall the frowns of the world, nor the menaces of Satan, silence their exultations in Divine relationship.

[ocr errors]

How solemn and how interesting is the prospect of being owned of God in the last great day, when assembled worlds and attendant angels shall hear the voice of Christ addressing His Father with "Here am I, and the children which thou hast given me.' And, addressing them with the blissful invitation, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The Father owning them as His choice-the Son owning them as His redeemed-and the Holy Ghost owning them as His sanctified ones made mete for glory; while all the harps in heaven shall strike up with celestial music to welcome them home.

But, oh! how appalling the contrast! Who can bear the thought of being disowned, when Jesus is seated upon His cloud-built throne, with eyes like a flame of fire, to discern His enemies, who would not that He should reign over them, who must hear His awful voice" as the voice of a great thunder," once for all pronouncing that awful sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Believe me, my hearers, nothing but the gift of the Holy Ghost, testifying of Jesus, can assure you of escaping that awful doom. But if He takes possession of your heart, and enthrones Christ there, He will own you at last as an object of Divine love.

One word more. Wherever the Holy Ghost thus comes to witness, it is to assert His own claim. Just as when God said to Pharaoh, "Let my people go; they are mine." And He carries out the sacred declaration, "But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children." And when God comes forth to contend with the world, He says, "These are my children, my household, my jewels, my especial treasure, my inheritance." "They shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels." Oh! the blessedness of knowing that God claims me as His own, and that He will claim me in the day of judgment, to enjoy His presence without interruption for ever. Let us see to it that we claim Him in close communion now, and that we own Him before men and devils, by an entire and unreserved consecration of body, soul, and spirit, to the glory of His name! O Holy Ghost! come and bear thy witness to these sacred statements. Come, and assure us that we belong to

God; come, and consecrate all our powers to thy great name, and sustain the life thou hast imparted, until it shall be consummated in glory; and to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be all the honour and praise for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN.

No. 122 OF GROVE CHAPEL HYMNS.

Ho! ye whose anxious seeking minds,
To new pursuits new vigour binds,
This question, sure, concerns you most:
"Have ye receiv'd the Holy Ghost?"

He comes, and with a powerful ray,
He drives the love of sin away:

Those He wounds deepest love Him most:
"Have ye receiv'd the Holy Ghost?"

Where'er He comes, He comes to dwell,
And Christians like His presence well;
He fits them for the heavenly host:
"Have ye receiv'd the Holy Ghost?"

With love of sin, and cursed pride,
The Holy Ghost will not abide;
He scorns the Pharisee's vain boast:
"Have ye receiv'd the Holy Ghost?"

Dear Lord, before thy throne I bow;
Decide this question for me now;
Let me this heav'nly guest receive,
And never more thy Spirit grieve.

[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Sunday Morning, June 3, 1849, BY THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

"Who, then, can be saved?"-Matt. xix. 25.

THIS question was never asked in heaven; this question was never asked in hell. It is a question adapted only to our present earthly state; and I pray God it may be a question written and engraven upon the hearts of my hearers, and that they may have no peace or rest in their consciences until it is satisfactorily answered. We have been reading the history which gave rise to this question among the disciples, and it is a solemnly interesting one. This young man who came to our Lord appears to me to be a very striking sample of multitudes of persons in the present day. They have a kind of natural concern, under some alarms of conscience, to know what they shall do to inherit everlasting life. They have no idea of their inability to do whatever is ordered. This is quite common to old Adam nature. Nor have they any idea of obtaining heaven without creature doings. Ignorant of both, and dark as midnight, mortals go about to establish their own righteousness, refusing to submit to the righteousness of Christ.

The young man comes to our Lord full of vain confidence. And, mark you, he must have been a well educated man, for he was a ruler; and, mark you, he must have been a man of mind, or he could not have been admitted, in his early years, to that position; and, mark you, he must have been a man of external decency, for no man in the crowd round contradicted him when he said, "All these commandPublished in Weekly Nos., 1d., and Monthly Parts, 5d.

VOL. II.

E

ments have I kept from my youth upwards." I should imagine that he was a very amiable and lovely youth, so far as human opinion goes; quite correct in his conduct before men, thinking he had done all but some one great feat, which would complete the business, and secure eternal life to him. He came, full of confidence, to our Lord, just as Naaman the Syrian came to Elisha. Naaman expected that the prophet would come to him in a ceremonious manner; he stood before the gate, waiting for admission to the house; but the prophet (who probably was on his knees, in communion with God), without rising, sent him only a bare message, "Tell him to wash in the river Jordan seven times." "What! a Syrian captain cleansed by washing in an Israelitish river!" He treated it with contempt; he went away in a rage. Oh! when once this young man and this Syrian captain come to the plain everlasting gospel, with a "What must I do to be saved?"’ "What-must I do to enter into eternal life?" the proper answer fills them with disdain. And so, when we tell men that it is the Divine atonement of the Son of God, the mighty regenerating of the Holy Ghost, and the sovereign fulness of eternal love, without any creature doings, that must effect and secure salvation, they go away in a rage. They have got a new-fashioned phraseology for us now, and we are to be dubbed Antinomians, and to be spoken of as if we brought strange things to their ears which they could not comprehend.

or

Our Lord takes this young Pharisee upon his own ground. He says to him, "Well, if you are determined to go to heaven through your good works, let me see how far they extend. The law forbids all covetousness; it says, Thou shalt not covet (the Lord Jesus knew of his earthly possession and wealth), now thou lackest one thing; if thou wouldst go to glory through thy good works, go and sell all that thou hast, and give money to the poor, and come and follow me." This was quite enough; his idol was touched, the object of his worship was to be removed; "he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.” We never read of his coming back again.

On this our Lord takes occasion to preach to His disciples. And, first, He remarks how hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God. Bear with me in commenting upon this, which will introduce the subject itself. The riches intended may be viewed in a twofold aspect. Suppose the words refer to earthly wealth alone, what we call property among men; suppose, for argument's sake, that they are confined to that view, as I find most commentators do confine them, why then it follows that it is a hard, a rare, and a difficult thing for a man who possesses a large amount of this world's goods, to have his heart disentangled from them. These things engross the attention in many cases; and one of God's greatest mercies has been to strip some people of their wealth, in order that their hearts might be brought into closer fellowship with Himself.

To go a little further. In these words we are reminded that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." The great bulk of those of whom Almighty grace takes possession, are to be found among the middle and lower orders of society, as we generally term them. Christ says, "It is easier for a camel' -some read the word "cable;" I do not know why-"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." This must refer to the man who is rich in his own estimation. Rich as this man thought himself in moral

« ÖncekiDevam »