4. And, once more, the followers of Christ, in the midst of all their difficulties, endure to the end. But if thus only are they saved, what shall be the doom of those who persevered in an opposite path, acquiring only, at every step which they advanced, fresh degrees of obduration, a more fixed habit of resistance to the will of God? "Where shall they appear?" This, as you perceive, is a more piercing expression than a direct declaration could have been; no description, however laboured, could prove so penetrating and awakening as this brief interrogation: it is a silence more expressive than the most alarming description.

The soul, you are aware, survives after death. There is that in man which sustains the stroke of dissolution, escapes uninjured from the ruins of its tabernacle, and becomes, probably with very enlarged capacities, the inhabitant of another state, where it retains its former principles fixed and unalterable, and "he that is unholy, and he that is filthy, must be filthy and unholy still." It returns to God; but how does it return? Does it go to Him as a Father, engage his smile, and mingle with himself as a portion of its own congenial element ? Having once ascended to his presence, it never more contemplates that presence but with anguish and dread! How awful must it be, in a state where all the blandishments of sense are removed, all that dimmed the view of faith withdrawn, to sustain the blaze of that omniscient Eye! This takes place at death; but how still more awful must be the situation of the guilty spirit, reunited to its body at the resurrection, at the day of judgment, "when the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the sea gives up its dead, and death and hell give up their dead, and all must appear to be judged according to their works!" Will Christ, the Judge, admit those who disobeyed Him, those who despised his authority and grace, to be the associates of those who fought the good fight of his friends? You read their sentence, already written upon the condemning conscience, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels! Ye rejected My warnings, and now they must be fulfilled." How dreadful, as they sink into the gulf of perdition, to think that their ruin was self-procured, selfwrought! that they might, but for their own impenitence, have now been among the blessed!

Do you believe these things? Let none persist any longer in the neglect of the salvation offered! Save yourselves from a rebellious generation! Come out and be separate from a world that lieth in wickedness, that is devoted to destruction, and you shall be made the sons and daughters of the Most High! The Lord Jesus Christ invites you to come to Him for life; the heavenly Father waits for your return; He will welcome you home; He will rejoice over you with singing; He will kill the fatted calf, and say, "This My son was dead, and is alive; was lost, and is found!" "For, as the Lord liveth, He hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent and live!"

LXXVI.

PUTTING ON CHRIST.*

ROMANS, Xiii., 14: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Lord's Day evening, April 13th, 1828.]

WHOEVER Would understand Christianity in its purity and dignity, as it is exhibited by the Holy Spirit, must read the Epistles, and especially those of the Apostle Paul. He generally commences with a full statement of the great truths of the gospel, which he often, as in addressing the Romans and Hebrews, vindicates by a chain of argument; but, as holiness is the end of faith, and practice of doctrine, he closes with practical details; as in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of his Epistle to the church at Rome, which present, perhaps, the finest compendium of moral and social duties that ever appeared: and, having specified the particulars of Christian virtue, he usually sums up the whole in one short expression, and this often of a figurative kind, for the sake of a greater effect on the reader. Thus, in the text, he concentrates the substance of all that he has been saying in the two chapters which he is closing, in the compendious direction, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ."

In considering these words, we shall first endeavour to show what they imply, and then to enforce their meaning by a few obvious mo

tives.

to use.

I. In the first place, we are to consider what is intended by "putting on the Lord Jesus Christ." This is a figurative expression, and one that is peculiarly appropriate to the Eastern writers. In Oriental countries, garments constituted an article of greater importance than is usual with ourselves: the finest garments were there accumulated, and preserved with the greatest care; a considerable part of Eastern wealth consisted in costly dress; and hence more frequent allusions are made to this part of the social economy than we are accustomed In the sacred writings, qualities of character are often represented by a reference to clothing. Job says, "I put on righteousness as a robe." In Isaiah, the Messiah is introduced as "clad with zeal as with a cloak." In the New Testament the same figure recurs, when our Lord represents the accepted character of a believer by the wedding garment of a guest; when Peter exhorts us to be "clothed with humility;" and Paul, to "put on the whole armour of God;" to "put on the armour of light;" and, in the text, to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." As if he had said, Cultivate the principles and practices of his religion, not for an occasion, but for a constancy; invest yourselves with the spirit and conduct of the gospel; as men wear

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

their garments daily, and never entirely lay them aside; that you may visibly appear as the disciples of Jesus Christ.

Now there are three ways in which we may visibly act as his disciples :

1. We put on Christ when we make an open profession of his name. It is not enough to believe, without a profession of our faith. If we retain our faith in our own breasts, it becomes of no avail to others. Latent faith, however sincere, faith that goes not forth beyond our own consciousness, can at the best only edify its possessor. But the Church is intended to be the light of the world; and Christians, by their consistent profession of their principles, are to leaven the whole mass of society. Profession, as well as faith, is an indispensable requisite to every Christian; and whoever conceals his religion must expect the consequence, as announced in such words as these: "Whoso is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will I be ashamed before the Father and the angels:" as, on the opposite side, "Whoso confesses Me before men, him will I confess before God."

The first fruit of faith, in a person that is converted, is a desire to glorify the Lord by our profession and example, to separate himself from the irreligious world, and to come into a sacred alliance with the people of God. There may be some peculiar cases where persons, though sincere, think it their duty to withdraw from an open profession, or an association of themselves with serious Christians: but, in all such cases, great care is required, lest a real recoiling from the reproach of the world, or a voluntary humility, be concealed under the pretended reason; and let it be considered what would be the consequence if such a conduct were admitted universally. There would be no such thing as religious profession, or, indeed, as religion itself, in the world! Did the martyrs and confessors act thus? and shall we, who are called on only for a sacrifice that comparatively costs us nothing, shall we suppose ourselves justified in retiring from the view of the world in our Christian character? No, my brethren, you can never rescue yourselves from the suspicion of some improper feeling, unless you are ready to go forth after Christ without the camp, bearing, if you must, his reproach.

2. We put on Christ by cultivating an acquaintance with the doctrines, imbuing our minds with the spirit and sentiments, of the gospel. All the doctrines of Christianity are intended to reform and pu rify the heart, to expel its native corruption, and raise us nearer and nearer to the character and will of God. We cannot, then, put on Christ, without the serious perusal of those Scriptures which reveal the Divine character and will. We must learn to estimate all things by that standard, to condemn whatever the Scriptures condemn, and pursue whatever they commend. The spirit of the world is at variance with the mind of God; and the truth of God is sent forth in order to counteract the evils arising from the spirit of the world. He who imbues his mind with the word of Christ is enabled to go contrary to the course and maxims of an evil world.

Set yourselves, my dear brethren, to have your minds inlaid with the principles, to imbibe and exhibit the spirit and temper, which the gospel prescribes; and especially fix your contemplation habitually on the cross of Christ! There you may see that which at once lays low and elevates you; divests you of pride, and spiritualizes your carnal mind; you may there find a disenchanting influence, which will crucify the world and your heart to each other; an influence which nothing besides can supply: for, as the apostle demands, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth in Jesus Christ?" "This is the victory, even our faith." In the doctrine of Christ crucified, you may furnish yourself with a sword of ethereal temper, a Divine panoply, sufficient to give you the advantage against all spiritual enemies. We must not receive Christianity as a system of mere speculations; we must aim, in all we know, to know it more spiritually; in all we feel, to feel it more deeply; in all we do, to do it more humbly; in a word, we must yield ourselves to be cast in the mould and fashion of the gospel.

3. And, especially, we put on Christ when we imitate his example. Other models are imperfect, and unsafe for universal imitation: but the example of Christ challenges our entire pursuit: we may abandon ourselves unreservedly to this standard; in Him there is not a shade of imperfection. Besides, it is presented for this very purpose. One great end of his obedience unto death was that He might leave us an example whose steps we might follow his sacrifice for sin might have been accomplished in a very short time; but He suffered also as a pattern of submission to the will of God. We are called to imitate no lower a standard than the character of God himself: but God is withdrawn from our view: it was necessary that God should be, as it were, imbodied in Christ: the best way to study the Divine character is to behold it in the face of Christ: we may there see God incarnate, tabernacling among us as our neighbour; for Christ is identified in character with the Father, so that he who has seen the one, is said, in his own words, to have seen the other.

In order to obey the will of God, therefore, you cannot adopt any method so simple and sure as to inquire, "How can I this day act in a manner most consonant to the mind of Christ? What can I do

most suitable to one who has one pattern, one Master, even Christ? Was I not baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and especially named a Christian after the name of Christ?" Alas! how many never once think of this, but yield themselves to all the propensities of nature, as much as if they had never been taught that the only thing which can make us lovely in the eye of the Deity is likeness to the Son of God; without which likeness we can have no place in his presence, but are condemned to hear the sentence of eternal exclusion, "Depart, ye cursed, I never knew you; depart, ye workers of iniquity !"

We must make our religion, my brethren, the business of every day of our lives we must not suppose it confined to one day in the seven, much less to the services of that day: we meet here, not to do all

that we have to do as Christians, but rather to learn how we ought to conduct ourselves on all other occasions. Religion is to become a habit of the mind and life; a new nature, operating with the steadiness of the old nature; influencing us in every situation; in health and sickness, in society and solitude, in prosperity and adversity, in life and death.

II. It remains, as the second part, to mention briefly one or two motives which may be urged for our putting on the Lord Jesus

Christ."

1. The first is, that Christ may be glorified by us. If we love Him who died for us, we shall desire to do what we can to glorify Him: but what can tend so much to his glory, as to let men see the efficacy of his doctrine on the character and condition of those who receive it? What can be so calculated to counteract infidelity? Nothing can be so suitable to convince men that there is a Saviour, as to see men saved from their sins by their alliance with Him. “Abide in Me," He said, “and I will abide in you; every branch that abides in Me brings forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing: and herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples." To see the purity and majesty of Christian holiness investing the character, this will be the best argument that can be used to convince and attract unbelievers. Otherwise, if we neglect Christian duty, Christ is made to appear the minister of sin.

2. A second motive why we should put on Christ is, that we may experience religious peace and joy, by making it clear to ourselves that we belong to Him. He that lives to the glory of God will be at no loss whose he is and whom he serves. Every thing tends to clear his prospect, prove his adoption, and brighten his hours, like the light that shines to the perfect day. You never knew a person, however depressed by poverty or sickness, who, if he sincerely served the Lord, was not happy: he had a secret spring of peace of which the world knew nothing, and which he would not have parted with for all its joys! It is only the path of transgressors that is hard; the path of wisdom is the path of peace. "Come unto Me," says Christ, himself this wisdom, "and I will give you rest; take My yoke, it is an easy yoke." Men are made wretched by a partial reception of truth, sufficient to disturb their conscience, while it fails to engage their affections; they remain divided between two masters: but make the service of the Lord your chief concern, and no doubts shall long remain to distress your mind.

3. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is the best and only preparation for a dying hour, and for the solemn scenes beyond. This is to put on the wedding garment; the want of this, in the day when the King comes in to see the guests, will leave a man speechless! Why did he act thus? he need not have been left thus unprepared. But he that serves the Lord will hear the joyful welcome, given before God and angels to every good and faithful servant; he will rest from his labours, and his works will follow him; he will enter into peace. and see, face to face, Him whom, not having seen, he loved.