SERMON XXXII.

(PREACHED ON WHIT-SUNDAY.)

WAITING FOR GOD IN CHRIST.

ST. JOHN, xiv. 19, 20.

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me : because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

MOST perfectly does the part of the subject of my late sermons at which I am now arrived, agree and harmonize with the services of this day. That blessedness which we were seeking, that security for you and for us, for all Christ's people, for all God's creatures, that which is their life and their only life, what words can describe it better than those which I have just read as my text, and which you heard read in the gospel this morning? “I am in my Father," says Christ, "and ye in me, and I in you." I am in you, as He explains it, "by my Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of the Father and of the Son." Here is described the Christian's perfect

state, his freedom and his safety and his victory. May God grant that it be not said of us of this blessedness as it was said to Moses of the land of Canaan: "I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither." Let us acknowledge where the difficulty is, as we did last Sunday. We pray, but our prayer is not a living prayer, mighty and effectual; we believe, yet we feel that we need to cry out, "Lord, help thou mine unbelief." And this step from the cold prayer to the living, from the weak faith to the faith victorious; who shall give it us? Yet in that one step lies every thing. Surely the experience of every one of us tells us, that our salvation is not of ourselves, neither in the last place, nor in the first; we can no more of ourselves apprehend Christ risen, than we could have atoned for our own sins without Christ crucified. the work must first and last be of God is surely no refined point in theology, but the very instinctive cry of our consciousness, when we see salvation before us, and our hand seems as it were palsied, we cannot lay hold upon it.

That

We are very weak, we feel that we are so; but surely it is in this condition that the Gospel promises belong to us, and we should do well to consider them. God willeth not our death but our life; there is no doubt at all of this matter, for He has given us His only begotten Son. Be

it that we are very cold to Him, be it that we are in darkness and see Him not, but at the most feel after Him dimly; what is it that the Scripture says? "God commendeth His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And are we to take away this word clean out of the Scriptures, and make it no living word but merely one historical, that once, eighteen hundred years ago, while the men of that one generation were yet sinners, He died for them, but now He has not died except for the righteous? That in all times to come, after that one most favoured generation, the source of salvation for those who most need it is closed? That because we were

brought to Christ in our infancy, and water was poured upon us, we nothing conscious of it, that therefore when we sin, our sin is that of theirs who have done despite unto God's Spirit; that when we are weak our weakness is judicial; that when we want faith, it is that we have forfeited it, and none may renew us to repentance; or if at all, yet by a most painful and doubtful process; it is no more, "believe and live"; but, "repent therefore and pray God, if peradventure it may be forgiven thee"? If this be so, doubtless the Gospel is not present but past; it was given for one generation; for one little hour the Sun of Righteousness shone, but again the clouds closed, and with a

blackness greater than ever: we are again and for ever under the law.

Most painful is it that any men should have carried their idolatry of forms to such a length as this; that they have actually taken away the Gospel, and considered that Christ's promises are to us inapplicable because we have received baptism in our infancy, and the forgiveness once given in baptism is repeated no more. Who does not see that Christ's promises and God's solemn warnings have nothing to do with any outward forms, but with the real state of the human soul? That it is not sin after baptism which is so dangerous, but a relapse after a begun recovery, an insensibility to divine truths which once moved us, an insensibility to motives which were once powerful, a turning away in weariness from duties once practised, a turning again to sins once repented of? There is indeed a fearful time to the human soul when its salvation is all but impossible; there is a state of sin for which St. John cannot assure us that prayer will be effectual. O remember this, ye that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you! Into this state we may fall, into this state we shall fall by continued carelessness; even before death comes, the judgment may be sure and its seal be manifest. From this state may God keep us all; from this second death, which

wakes not to Christ's tidings of salvation, but to His trumpet call to judgment!

But surely to you, at your early age, surely to older persons, weak and sinful, but not we trust utterly hardened, Christ is yet our Saviour. God commendeth His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And when we pray, and pray coldly, and our faith is weak, and God is dimly seen, and the world prevails over us; then of a surety we may say and feel that for such as we are Christ died; that for us He died, that for us He rose again, that the Father loves even us for His sake, and will give us His Holy Spirit. If He tarry wait for Him, because He will surely come, He will not tarry; strange words, it may seem, and even contradictory; but quite intelligible in this our case and quite applicable. Wait for Him, for ye are privileged to do so; wait for Him, wait at the outer gate, though the gate may seem fast closed and we can see nothing of the glory within; yet wait, for so Christ bids you; within that gate is your home, if you will not turn your backs upon it; wait, and it will one day be opened. But we grow tired of waiting; "seven days," so it is written, "Saul tarried according to the set time that Samuel had appointed; but Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him, and Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings, and he offered the burnt