66

66

It can say, 66

66

my Lord," my King," my ShepAnd in the next place, excellences than in all

ends of it. The one looks at the right end, and sees distant things near; the other looks at the other end, and sees near things remote. Faith, in a believer, brings all things near to him; God near to him, Jesus near to him, the Holy Spirit near to him, eternity near, the judgment-seat near, heaven near-all that is mighty, precious, eternal, near to him-nearer, infinitely, than the neighbour that is next to him, or the circumstances in which he lives. Another feature of faith is, that it not only brings distant things near, but it writes the monosyllable my upon the best and brightest things that are beyond the skies. my Saviour," "6 my God," herd," " my all and in all." faith sees in Jesus greater besides. Moses could say, by faith, "I count the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." You will see this influence of faith in the instance of St. Matthew: Christ found Matthew at the receipt of custom-a most lucrative situation; he said to him, Follow me. Sense answered, What! Matthew, leave five hundred a-year, and follow one who was just telling us, a moment ago, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head? But faith was predominant ; and when Christ said "Follow," faith responded, from the depths of his heart, "I will;" and he rose up and followed Jesus. You have another instance of the working of faith in the case of Zacchæus ; he came down the moment that Christ called him, and he told Christ, that from that instant he gave half of his goods to feed the poor, and if he had wronged or defrauded any man he would restore him four-fold. Suppose that Zaccheus was worth 500l.; he says, I give half to the poor, that was 250l.; and suppose he had defrauded any one of 50l., he restored him four-fold, or 2007. thus, faith immediately gave up 450l., or ninetenths of his income at the call of duty: he preferred 50l. with Christ to 500l. with the world that was opposed to Christ. Again; faith enables the believer

to tread down and to triumph over all difficulties. Sense says, 66 My sins are like a great mountain :" "But God's mercies are like the great deep."

faith says,

Sense says, "I know not the way to heaven;" but faith reads, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Another very remarkable instance is cited in Hebrews xi. the case of Noah. God said to Noah, "I am about to destroy the world; now prepare an ark for the saving of thyself and thy household." Had Noah been guided by sense, he would have replied, “O Lord, I am no ship-carpenter; I never built a ship in my life; besides, I was never brought up as a sailor; and I have no compass; my vessel will be wrecked upon the rocks, or it will founder in the storm: if I admit all these animals into the ark, they will devour each other, and devour me in my turn; it is utterly impossible for me, either to make or manage the vessel which Thou hast commanded me to make." So sense argued : faith, however, was triumphant; and hence the Spirit of God has recorded that "by faith, Noah, warned of God of things not seen, being moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of himself and all his house."

:

And I know also, it is added, "thy patience." We have much need of patience in our passage through this world. "Bring forth fruit with patience," says the apostle "patient in well doing :" "patient waiting for Christ." And the greatest evidence of patience is when you can drink the bitter cup, bow your head beneath the beating storm, lie passive in the hand of Christ, and say quietly and submissively, "Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt."

And then the last good feature of this Church is, that "the last works are more than the first," i. e. progress in grace; the progress of the believer in all the excellences mentioned.

I have endeavoured to give an outline of the good features in this Church. I must reserve the analysis of the type that is here given, namely, the woman Jezebel, the true type of the Romish apostasy, for next

Lord's-day evening. In the meantime allow me to notice the peculiar characteristic of this Church, and of every true Church-namely, progress-" the last to be more than the first." Are you, I ask, making progress in Christian character? are you advancing in faith, in love, in patience, in meekness, in good works, in the service of the Lord? In order to make progress in the life that must soon die, we must have right food: no man will grow in strength and health without suitable nourishment. It is so in spiritual life : the soul needs to have manna - God's Word, the preaching of his Gospel, the knowledge of a Saviour, to enable him to grow, just as truly as the body needs its nutriment. The body needs pure air to enable it to have health; the soul needs the same. The moral air of society is tainted, but there are some spots in society whose atmosphere is purer than it is in others. There are some homes whose atmosphere is all corruption; there are other homes whose roofs are like the wings of the overshadowing cherubim-whose hearts are like holy altars, whose air is purity, whose communion is happiness and loyalty and love. There you can breathe the pure air and receive the true nutriment.

And in the next place I may notice, that exercise is necessary to the health of the body, and the proper development of its progress. Do you exercise these graces? do you exercise faith, service, patience, love? do you give to the cause of Christ? do you respond to the claims of the Gospel? Likewise, if you are growing in grace, and if your last works are more than your first, you are gathering views of your ownselves more humbling every day. He that learns to-day that he is far more sinful than he believed yesterday, is making progress in the hidden life he who has, not increasing wickedness, but an increasing sense of his wickedness, is growing in true grace. Paul, when he began the hidden life, said, worthy to be called an apostle:" as he hidden life, he said, "I am the least of all saints ;" and

The apostle

"I am not grew in the

when his hidden life had reached its highest perfection, his statement of himself was, "I am the chiefest of sinners."

Let us grow, let us thus make progress; so that when we come to lie down on the last bed, and to take a retrospect of our past biography, we may have some humble hope, not as a ground of merit, but as an evidence of grace, that our last faith, our last patience, our last love, our last service, our last works, have been greater and better than the first.

LECTURE XVIII.

CONSUMPTION OF BABYLON.

"Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols."-REV. ii. 20.

I EXPLAINED in the course of my reflections on the former part of this passage last Lord's-day evening, that I regarded the name of Jezebel as here employed in its typical and figurative sense; as, in short, a most expressive exponent or representative of that great ecclesiastical system, the ruin and the doom of which is so graphically delineated in the 18th chapter of Revelation. I cannot at present spare time to enumerate the points of coincidence; these I must defer, as I am anxious to submit to you what I conceive to be the highest possible presumptive evidence that the commencement of the fulfilment of the 18th chapter of the Apocalypse is now visible. I do not. say that all has yet happened which is denounced in that chapter-far from it; but I believe that what may be called "the rehearsal" of these judgments is already begun. I believe, from the period we occupy in prophecy, and from the points of contact, between the facts and phenomena which are now occuring on the broad face of Europe, from Vienna to Rome, and the striking and vivid apocalyptic predictions which I have read in the 18th chapter, that it is all but impossible to avoid coming to the conclusion, that the knell of the doom of Babylon has sounded at Rome, and vibrates through the air to the utmost circumference of the Papal dominions.