can give you, that he has "blotted out as a | death," he says in another place, "is sin, thick cloud your transgressions, and as a 66 and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Here we must stop. The sum of all you have heard is briefly this-I am not to look on my guilty soul as pardoned because heavy afflictions are sent me, or spiritual consolation is denied; because a troubled conscience weighs me down, or my own evil heart torments me; but if the Holy Spirit has stamped on me those marks which the redeemed have ever borne, none of these things can weaken their testimony; no, nor all of them together, prove me condemned. Troubled and comfortless, I am warranted to lift up my wretched eyes to heaven and say, "Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin." But who, under such discouragements, can raise his confidence so high? We can listen to the Christian minister or friend who tells us that these things ought not to cast us down. It is easy to understand his reasoning, and impossible perhaps to gain. say one of his words; but what good has he done us? What hope has he kindled in our souls? None. Our sins are as heavy as though he had not uttered a word, our hearts as sinking, our misgivings as strong. Learn here then the importance of a simple faith in the Redeemer's blood. It is true the holy Jesus sanctifies all he redeems. By these conflicts he is sanctifying you. They will end in the victor's shout, and the conqueror's crown. They will end in the purity, as well as the blessedness, of glory. Where is David now? Among the holiest and happiest around the throne of his God. But what was his state when on earth ?-his state, not in that awful year when an offended God gave him up to himself, but his state when sovereign mercy "renewed him again to repentance," and a messenger from God had pronounced him forgiven? He himself shall describe it; "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And did none of this inbred pollution remain? His prayer will tell us; Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.' ." "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." "But David," it may be said, "was just recovering from a polluting fall." Turn then to the blameless Paul, to him of whom, after his conversion to God, the Holy Ghost hast not left on record one sin or one folly. What says his experience? It goes further than we have yet ventured to lead you. It tells you that there may be conflict in a pardoned heart; and it tells you more that there may be in that very heart, amidst all its conflicts, a sense of forgiveness, a triumphant assurance of pardon. It tells you that a man may groan under a sense of sin, and yet look on himself as an heir of glory. "I delight," he says, "in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And what does At first, he examined, he reahe add? "I am unpardoned; I am lost?" soned, he "took counsel," as he says, in No; "I thank God through Jesus Christ his soul; but what could reasoning do for a our Lord." And for what does he thank sinner like him? What could self-examinaGod? For his corruptions? for the dread- tion do, but unveil to him more disheartenful burden under which he groaned? In ing views of his crimes? He tells us that no wise; for a deliverance which he these things did nothing to comfort him, foresaw and almost enjoyed; for a conquest that he had "sorrow in his heart daily." which was so certain, that he already He flies at length as a poor, sunk, helpless speaks of it as his own. "The sting of transgressor, to his God, and throws him There are times, brethren, when every effort to discover our interest in the divine mercy will fail us. Sin may cloud the evidences of our safety; or the Holy Spirit, for gracious purposes, may cease to shine on them; or infirmity of body or mind may hide them from our sight. We may search our hearts till they ache in the work; we may compare ourselves with one pardoned transgressor after another, and the only fruit of our inquiries may be thicker darkness, more painful uncertainty. How then, in these straits, shall we act? Mark how David acted. He applied to Jehovah for pardon. self on his mercy. He seeks peace through pardon. "Have mercy upon me, O God," he says, "according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and mercies yet to come. But turn your eyes cleanse me from my sin." And what fol- on "the sweet psalmist of Israel" now. O lowed? Years perhaps of sorrow; but what a mournful change! Not a single before he died, his guilty lips spake yet note of happiness comes from that once again of pardoning grace; "Blessed is he cheerful harp. All is complaint, distracwhose transgression is forgiven, whose sin tion, and misery. And what has wrought is covered." And on his dying bed, we this change? That accursed thing which see him calmly reposing in the covenant can turn a paradise into a desert. The and salvation of his God. man has been feeding on ashes. He has forgotten on his throne the law which was so dear to him in the fields of Bethlehem, and on the mountains of Judea. Sin has poisoned his happiness; it has made him a wreck. Look not at his wretched family in order to see what this tremendous evil can do. Look not at his dying babe, his injured daughter, his wicked sons, his murdered Amnon, his lost Absalom. Look not at the monarch driven by his own child from his throne, and followed with the curses of a rebel, as he flies, weeping and barefoot, to the wilderness. Look at the ravages of sin within that man. it done there? It has ruined a peace which God himself had given him from above; it has put an end to a joy which was almost divine; it has darkened the hopes which once soared to heaven. It has done more. It has made reflection a terror to him, conscience a scourge, life burdensome, death dreadful. It has thrown down the once firm, spiritual, towering mind of David, and turned it into a ruin. happiest of men. He had his troubles, but there was no sting in them; he did not heed them. His song from day to day was a song of joy, of thankfulness for mercies past, and of the liveliest hope of higher Let us follow his footsteps. Cease for a while, brethren, from your wearisome inquiries into your own state. If they have discovered to you how little you can do for yourselves, how utterly unable you are to obtain present peace, much less everlasting salvation, they have done their work. It is a blessed work. Amid conflicts and fears, they are not likely to do more. Nor need they. The great Saviour of sinners is both able and willing to accomplish all you desire. Look out of yourselves to him. And for what purpose? For the very same purpose that David, and Paul, and all who are in heaven, have looked to him; for the same purpose that you yourselves have looked to him in the days that are gone for the remission of your sins. Instead of asking whether you are pardoned or lost, cast yourselves at the feet of him by whom all the lost may be pardoned, and in whom only the pardoned can be safe. Approach him as sinners; as sinners, embrace anew his promises; as sinners, hope in his mercy, and righteousness, and blood. This is the way to heaven, and there is no other way to hope or quietness on earth. In the very first moment in which the assurance will not prove a curse to you, he will send, not a prophet, but his Holy Spirit to say to you, in a voice which you cannot misunderstand, "The Lord hath put away thy sin." "Thy sins are forgiven thee." There is a lesson also here for the peaceful Christian. Are you free from the fears which perplex many of your brethren? Do you live in the enjoyment of "a good hope through grace?" Then look on David, and behold what havoc sin can occasion in the noblest mind. There was a time when this was the What has Where then is the mind which can open itself to sin, and not be overthrown by it? Not yours, brethren; not mine; no, nor an angel's. It would be easier to bear the ravages of the plague, and not be weakened; easier to pass through the flames of a furnace, and escape unhurt. Sin never brings guilt on a Christian's conscience, without bringing pollution into his mind; without, in the end, weakening its powers, debasing its affections, blasting its hopes, and withering its joys. Would you continue happy? Continue holy. Remember David and all his troubles." Keep your hearts" with all diligence." "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.' "Walk in the Spirit." "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." SERMON XVI. THE MESSAGE SENT TO PAUL IN THE STORM. ACTS xxvii. 23, 24. There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Casar. A CHRISTIAN can often bring hope, where other men can bring none. His fellow-sinners make light of him; perhaps they do him much wrong; but when trouble comes, they learn his value. They generally find him to be their best comforter, and sometimes their only friend. Paul was now in the hands of his enemies. They were carrying him as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome. In their way thither, they encountered a storm, which raged so violently and long, that all hope of safety was at last gone. And now was the time for the Lord Jesus Christ to put honor upon his persecuted servant, and to bring glory to himself. He sends down an angel from heaven to assure him of his safety. He tells him too, that, for his sake, every life in the vessel should be preserved. And then the apostle comes forth, and proclaims to his despairing companions the joyful tidings he had received. I. If we would make his words useful to ourselves, we must bear in mind the character of the man who spoke them. Let us begin then with the description which the apostle has here given us of himself. This is short, but it is full of meaning; so humble, that the meanest Christian may lay claim to it; and yet so honorable, that the most aspiring can wish for nothing higher. It seems indeed to be the very description which an angel would rejoice to own. Were one of those exalted beings asked to tell us of his glory and his greatness, what could he do more, than take up the language of this storm-tossed voyager, point to the throne of the Holy One, and say, "His I am, and him I serve ?" 1. All the creatures which his hands have formed, are God's; but Paul was his in a special manner, in the same peculiar sense in which his own heaven and throne are called his. If we ask how he became so, he himself informs us. "By the grace of God," he says, "I am what I am." There was a time when he was the slave of sin, and consequently the property of Satan, "a blasphemer and a persecutor;" no more the Lord's, than the spirits of the lost are his. The glory of the Saviour seemed to require his destruction; the church perhaps expect. ed it; but he had long been set apart to give to mercy a more glorious triumph than vengeance could have found in him. In the everlasting covenant of grace, this very Saul had been given to the Lord Jesus Christ, as one whom he was to redeem and save. He did redeem him; he bought him with his own most precious blood, and made him all his own. In order to show how much sin he can pardon, how much enmity subdue, and how much grace impart, he first laid this persecutor trembling at his feet, and then sent him through the world, to labor, and suffer, and die, for his name's sake. 2. Paul also well knew the mercy which he had obtained, and the end for which he was destined. The grace bestowed on him " was not in vain.” He gave himself to the Lord, who had so freely chosen and redeemed him. Hence he goes on to say that he "served" him. We all know what it is to serve the world. It is to have our hearts much taken up with it, to be very careful and troubled about it, to toil early and late for what it has to give. What is there, which some of us will not do for the sake of this poor world? If need be, we would wear ourselves out in its service. So the apostle served Christ. He made his glory the great business of his life. Keeping ever in his remembrance the price at which he had been bought, he felt that he was not his own, that he was the Lord's, entirely and constantly the Lord's, and therefore bound to "glorify him with his body and with his spirit, which were his." Such was Paul, and such is every real Christian. He has obtained the same mercy, the same eternal, free, and rich grace, that this man found; and it produces in him the same effects. If then I would know whose I am, let me only ask myself. Whom do I serve? Where is my heart? Is it with Christ in heaven? or is it tied down to my enjoyments, or cares, or griefs on earth? What is my life? Is it a ceaseless toiling to get more of the world? or is it something higher and better? a daily crucifixion to the world, a living unto God, a preparation for the work and pleasures | to naught our best-laid schemes for the Reof the skies? deemer's glory. They force us to cease from this or that work which had begun to prosper in our hands, and which we had almost persuaded ourselves the Lord had pledged himself to bless. Look at the pious parent. He is laid pehaps for years on a bed of suffering, hardly able to speak to the children whom he longs to train up for God. The strength of the faithful minister deserts him in his work. He can do no more than look on and weep, where he had been among the first to labor and rejoice. The zealous missionary sickens and dies among the heathen whom he had forsaken all to save. II. Consider, in the next place, the situation of the apostle at this time. And this was not the situation in which we might have supposed the Lord would place one who was so dear to him, and who so faithfully served him. He is the Lord's, and yet he is in the power of heathen persecutors. He served the Lord, and yet the very winds and waves which the Lord commands, are threatening to destroy him. Jonah met with a storm, but he was flying from his work. Paul is in a tempest on his way to fresh labors in his Master's service. 1. We learn here that no devotedness to Christ will save us from tribulation. Many of our afflictions are sent to reprove us for our want of this devotedness; to stir us up; to remind us of neglected duties and forgotten vows. But very severe trials will sometimes come upon us, when our hearts are most constrained by a Saviour's love, when we seem to be doing, and risking, and suffering, all we can for Christ. Our love for him brings on us the ill usage of the world. We bear it, for we expect him to smile on us, to recompense us for the world's hatred by peculiar tokens of his regard; and our expectation is in general realized. But sometimes in the hour of persecution, he hides his face from us. He does more. He sends us tribulation. He wounds, even when Satan harasses and the world smites. 2. We are taught also here, that some of the trials with which the Lord visits his people, seem to hinder rather than fulfil his designs and promises. What use then are we to make of these truths? They bid us expect storms. They tell us that if ever we reach heaven, we must pass to it over an ocean where no one ever yet found rest, an ocean which the Lord himself often disturbs. We are ready to ascribe our trials to ourselves, and many of them, yea, most of them, are undoubtedly of our own creating; our sins are their authors. But the winds which tossed Paul, were not raised by Paul's sins. They were sent forth by another hand. We are prone also to blame others for what we suffer. We trace our troubles to the situations in which we are placed, or to the persons with whom we are connected. We may be in part right; but let us wait awhile. Circumstances may alter. We may be as far from all the persons and things that now pain us, as though they had ceased to exist. But are our troubles gone ? In no wise. They have changed their form; but we have troubles still, as real It was the will of Christ, that Paul should and great as ever. Paul is in danger of preach his gospel at Rome. His apostle his life from the persecuting Jews. He knew this. But from time to time, various appeals to Cæsar, and escapes their malice. circumstances arose, which threatened to But where is he now ? Ôn a raging sea, defeat the divine purpose. They were in an almost foundering bark. Is his life overruled, and Paul at length is safe in a safe? Every billow seems to rise for his vessel which is carrying him with a fair destruction. wind to Rome. Who now can hinder the The fact is, we are not only in a world fulfilment of the Saviour's promise? The of trouble, but, if we are the Lord's, we Saviour himself hinders it. He raises are the servants of a Master who was himagainst this vessel a tempest, which drives it from its course, and is now ready to overwhelm it. It is often thus. Some of the afflictions which are sent us from heaven, appear for a long time as though they would turn us from the way to heaven. They discourage us. They obstruct our usefulness. They bring self a man of sorrows, and who is determined to make his people like him. What did he say of Paul when he first made him his own? "I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." He says the same to all his disciples; "Ye shall have tribulation." Look at the covenant which he has formed with his chosen. What read we there? An exemption from sorrow? No. Among the blessings which it promises, stands this-written in characters so plain, that he who runs may read it "tribulation," "much tribulation." Hence David ascribes some of his bitter sufferings, not to the vengeance, no, nor even to the fatherly love of his God, but to his faithfulness. "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." And the more the Lord loves any of his servants, the more of this tribulation they are likely to receive; so that if we would find the people whom he most delights to honor, we must look for them where we here find Paul, in storms; where we so often find David, in the lowest depths; where Christ himself was found, in poverty, in reproach, in sorrows. But none of them are forsaken there. III. Consider the message which was sent to the apostle while he was tossing on the waves. 1. The first circumstance remarkable in this, is the person who received it. Why was Paul the only one in this crowded ship, to whom the angel said, "Fear not?" There were others in it who were the Lord's. Luke, we know, was there, and yet no angel comes to cheer Luke's heart in this trying hour. We may wonder for a moment at this seeming par. tiality, but there was no injustice in it. It is the righteous will of Christ to give his richest consolations to his most devoted servants. Comfort, as well as pardon, is all of grace. In administering it, "the God of all comfort" acts just as he acts in dispensing pardon-like a sovereign who "divideth to every man severally as he will." And yet he acts also like a God of faithfulness. He suffers some of his people to mourn while others rejoice-we see and own his sovereignty; and then he manifests the equity of his ways, by making the holiest of his servants the happiest. "Them that honor me," he says, "I will honor ;" and in the time of trouble, he fulfils his promise. He shows that he loves them most, who serve him best. 2. But turn from the man who received this consolation, to the messenger who brought it. The Lord generally comforts them that are his, by means of their fellow-sufferers. Thus he had often comforted Paul. But in this stormy and fearful night, he sends down to him a comforter from heaven. "There stood by me this night the angel of God, saying, Fear not." And what does the appearance of this angel teach us? A most encouraging truth -They who suffer for Christ, generally obtain the most signal marks of his favor when they suffer the most. In peculiar trials, they have peculiar consolations. The reason is plain-they most need them in those seasons. And not only so, but they most seek them. Affliction brings sin to remembrance. The remembrance of sin weighs down the soul; and then, sinking and trembling, it is forced to turn again in its anguish to its crucified Lord. We go to him for pardon; he gives us pardon, and, with pardon, quietness and rest. Besides, trouble makes us feel our weakness. It shows us too the weakness of all around us. It lays bare the emptiness of all earthly comforts, and the feebleness of all earthly props. We look within and without for relief, and there is none. Refuge fails us. We are constrained to cast ourselves on Christ. And though we go to him as our last Friend, we find him our best. He thinks of his own past sorrows, and he pities ours. He upholds us; he gives us strength to suffer. Sometimes he does more. He pours into our hearts a consolation so refreshing, so quieting, so unutterably sweet, that we bless the trouble which has made it ours. Are you strangers to affliction, brethren? Then are you strangers to some of the highest consolations that are known on earth. A man can never fully understand how Christ can comfort, till he has tried him in the depths of sorrow, till he has taken to him a wearied, bleeding, and almost bursting heart, which none other can ease or heal. Turn to the saints of old. An angel was repeatedly sent down to Daniel; and where did he find him? At one time, in a den of lions; at another time, in sackcloth and ashes, mourning over the transgressions of Israel. The aged John is banished to Patmos. He had before seen the Son of man in his humiliation; he sees him there in his greatness. Look at Saint Stephen. While surrounded with the betrayers and murderers of his Lord, the heavens suddenly open before his wondering eyes, and show him all the glory of God, and his cru |