Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

which the noblest palaces, and temples, and cathedrals, are but thin shadows.

Seeing, then, that we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, our Passover, let us run the race set before us. Let our hearts be there; let our treasure be there; let our trust be there, where He is.

19*

VII.

The Great Attraction.

IN the passage, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," Jesus who died, "Christ our passover sacrificed for us," who rose again from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep, preaches himself; what an Apostle never did, what an Apostle's successor never should do, what was, in short, the prerogative of Jesus alone. The place or scene of this is not important. If I view lifting up in its widest sense of magnifying, it matters not where. It is the fact that has the virtue, not the place where the fact occurs. All earth was consecrated when Jesus stepped on it; and on every hill, and nook, and valley, and mountain crag, upon the bosom of every stream; and on the wave of every sea, Christ may be preached and proclaimed our Atonement, and our Resurrection from the dead.

The person who preaches Christ is not a material element. There is one order of persons whose duty it is to study, whose office it is to preach, whose privilege it is to illustrate what they preach in their walk and conduct, of divine institution, to be perpetuated till the arrival of that day when we shall no more teach every

man his neighbor. But notwithstanding this, it is true that wherever a word is said for Christ, it shall have an echo; wherever Jesus is praised or proclaimed, it shall not return unto God void.

Nor does it matter vitally when this is done. Any hour is canonical, all days are holy, for holy work. The preaching of Christ once occurred at midnight, when a prison was the only sanctuary, and a rude jailor the only auditor, who believed, and rejoiced, and was baptized.

But this supposes that lifting up is used in the broad sense of preaching. Let us see in what sense this word is employed in Scripture, and what precise meaning we may attach to it.

First, it refers specially and emphatically to his death. "This," we are told, "he spake, signifying what death he should die." It seems strange to apply an epithet that denotes exaltation to a fact in itself the most humiliating of all. Is it not strange that the expression, elevation, should be applied to the death and sufferings of the Son of man upon the cross? It is really not so. The crown of thorns was nobler than the diadem of Cæsar; the robe that was cast upon his shoulders in mockery was more resplendent than imperial purple. It was his shame that he died; it was his glory that he died, not for himself, but a Sacrifice for us.

He may be said to be lifted up-and this will be admitted by all-in his resurrection. Then he rose from the dead; it was not possible that he could be kept under the power of the grave. Death fastens only on the sinner. Where there is no sin, there can be no suffering. Jesus went into the grave bearing

our sins, but he left there after having expiated them. The grave thought it had received a victim; it found it had received its vanquisher.

It may be said, our Lord is lifted up by different beings in the universe. In this respect he was lifted up or magnified by God the Father, when he said, "This is my beloved Son;" by himself, when he said, "I am the way;" "I am the resurrection and the life;" and by the Holy Spirit, when he descended upon him like a dove. The angels in glory also magnify Jesus. The angels announced his birth, and the angels in the Apocalypse are represented as saying, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." He was exalted or magnified also by the Prophets. "To him give all the prophets witness." All the prophets from Samuel testified of him. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, He was lifted up in this sense by John the Baptist: "He that cometh after me is preferred before me." "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." He was exalted by the Apostles. His name is the key-note of every epistle; every sermon is inlaid with it; it is the music of every promise; it is the foundation of every precept. And he is magnified still by the true Church. It is the mark of a true Church that it sets forth Christ and him crucified. A certain class of divines say the Atonement ought to be a doctrine of reserve, that is, an isoteric doctrine, a mystery and hidden truth that the common people should not know; but wherever there is a true Church, it will preach Christ, and this alone will make Christians. The best sermons are not what are called eloquent or grand ones. Some people admire a sermon just in propor

tion as they fail to comprehend it. If language be, as the old French diplomatist said, designed to conceal thought, then such sermons must be most eloquent; but if it be of the very nature of language that it shall convey thought, and if the best speaking is that which is most transparent, the sermon that tells us most clearly the greatest truths in the fewest words, with the deepest emphasis, you will best comprehend, and God will most bless. By a law of our economy, all sermons must reach the heart through the medium of the head; and if they are not comprehended by the mind, I cannot see, unless by a special miracle, how their holy and sanctifying contagion can be conveyed to the heart. The sermon that is most eloquent and grand, is like the summer lightning that plays magnificently amid the clouds, which the rustic looks up to and admires; but it will not give warmth to a fireside, or benefit to those that see it. A single coal burning upon one's hearth on a winter evening, is more precious to the poor than all the lightning that ever illuminated eastern or western skies; and the simple truth that comes home to your conscience in all its penetrating simplicity, and remains there, a seed that will not perish, a truth that will not be hushed, a motive that will not part with its spring, is better than all the grand and eloquent appeals that were ever made. It is the essential duty of a Church to exhibit Christ. The best Church is that which holds up Christ, not itself, most distinctly. The Presbyterian would Presbyterianize the world, if he could; the Episcopalian would Episcopalize the world; the Tractarian would Tractarianize it; the Romanist would Romanize it; but there are, we hope, more than a few who care comparatively little for these things, whose

« ÖncekiDevam »