XI.

SALVATION FOR THE LOST.

LUKE xix. 10.

"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was

lost."

To be saved-or, to be lost! These are words full of the most solemn and sacred importance. One or the other is applicable to all men. The question therefore comes before each of you in the most serious and urgent manner,-What is your present condition? Are you in a state of salvation through faith in Christ, or are you still under the power, under the guilt, and under the curse of your sins? We may be lost, as the first man was, in a paradise, and amidst innocent delights and indulgences. We may be lost in a wilderness, as the Israelites were, through unbelief. We may be lost in the midst of privileges, as Judas was in the very company of Jesus Christ. We may be lost even in the fellowship of the church, as Demas was when he loved this present evil world. We may be lost in a labyrinth of errors, or on the little hill of pride, or on the high mountain of ambition, or amidst the clouds of vain and sinful imaginations, or as Sampson was in the lap of sensuality. In short, you may be lost in many ways:- you can be found and saved only in ONE. Now, the Son of man, Jesus Christ, is come to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to seek-he seeks to find he finds those he seeks-and he saves those that he finds. Here is a golden chain of inseparable links-a whole gospel in a single verse-the history of our salvation in a short sentence which all may remem

ber-which all must record deep in their heart, or lose for ever the benefit of this salvation by Jesus Christ. I. Let us begin with that which preceded his coming and was the occasion of it.

If he came, he came from some place or state, and he was induced to undertake this mission from some motive. He existed then before he came, in the glory and dignity of his eternal state as the Son of God. "I came forth from the Father." John xvi. 28. From "the bosom of the Father," where he dwelt, he beheld the lost condition of man. His coming was consequent upon his knowing, and compassionating because he knew, the condition of this apostate world, or all those included in the term lost. Lost, it seems, we were in his esteem, whatever we may be in our own : or else he never would have humbled himself to become man, to take the form of a servant, and to endure the accursed death of the cross. But some men dispute the fact, and many more never feel it. We think it necessary therefore that you should closely and seriously weigh this expression, LOST! Now those who doubt whether mankind are lost, or whether themselves are so, would do well to consider that such a doubt impeaches the divine knowledge of Jesus Christ; yea, the very judgment of God himself, who, according to such an opinion, sent his Son to save those that were not lost. But which would you rather trust, God or man? Your own weak judgment,-rather your own vague conjectures, or the clear testimony, both of the inspired word, and of the unquestionable fact, that the Son of God did actually come to save mankind? And only because they were lost. Judge then :

1. Were not all condemned by the divine law? Assuredly it is everywhere taught in the divine book that the sentence of condemnation had passed upon all; and it is not for us either to dispute the justice of the law, or the certainty of the fact. "Death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Whoever asserts or teaches to the contrary,―the Word of God, at least,

teaches us that we are lost, and that to be lost is to be at death cast out for ever from happiness and heaven, and to suffer the anguish of eternal misery. The most fearful and forcible terms are used to express the perilous condition of souls under this sentence; but no terms can express it, and no imagination can conceive the awful state of lost souls. Now, have you ever realised this as liable to become your own state? Have you brought it home to your own bosoms? Have you felt that you are exposed to this danger--that you are under this sentence? Have you shuddered and trembled at the idea of dying in such a state, and of being for ever imprisoned and tormented under this sentence of the divine wrath?

2. All are lost, for a state of spiritual death is now natural to all.-Every human being is born in sin. We become corrupt even from the womb. Psalm li. 5. This is a fact which every one may observe, and of which all ought to be conscious. We are declared by divine authority to be dead in trespasses and sins, and our own hearts testify to the truth of the assertion. Had our moral nature remained uncorrupt we might have doubted the truth of any such assertion. Indeed, we never should have heard of it. We should have needed no Saviour, and none would have been sent to us. But since there is this evident and universal corruption of our whole nature, and we see as well as feel, that "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," we may well believe the fact that it is so as scripture declares.

3. We are lost as to all means of recovery from ourselves. Our condition so far is hopeless. We cannot help ourselves we cannot help each other. "None

of them can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him." We have no spiritual power left; and we have no merit that can atone for our sins. We have no will even of ourselves to turn from our lost and sinful condition. We have no desire to become new creatures. But we love the state of sin, and wish to continue in it. It is the element and at

the same time the destruction, of lost souls. Ought not this then to affect each heart—and will it not do so, if we rightly view our own condition? We should consider ourselves as the voluntary slaves of sin, sold irrecoverably under its power, and with no wish to be released from the galling shackles. Left to himself, man, even in this life, is as really and truly lost, as if he had already passed into the state of eternal suffering. Look into your own heart, and you will find this condition clearly intimated by your natural enmity to God, your devotedness to evil, your unwillingness to repent and be converted.

II. Let us attend to the important and interesting step which Christ took in order to save the lost; -he came.

1. This leads us to observe, that before he came, he existed in the glory of his Father. His coming is uniformly spoken of as an act of condescensionhumility. This could not be unless he had been as he describes himself-with the Father-and the Son of God. In that divine state, he saw that there was none to help that the case of these lost souls was desperate to all but himself. Then "his own arm brought salvation." He left the high state of glory, of which no human mind is capable of conceiving. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." He was from the be

ginning he was the Creator of all things; he was Lord of angels: he was the brightness of the Father's glory, and all the fulness of God dwelt in him bodily. Yet, he who was so high, stooped to the condition of a servant. He who was so great, became an infant of days, a babe at Bethlehem, a man of

sorrows.

2. This leads us to trace in the expression" the Son of man is come"-his assumption of our flesh. This is an act of unspeakable condescension-it is a

NO. III.

mystery-a great mystery, a mystery in its own right to be announced as the mystery of godliness -God was manifest in the flesh. He assumed sinless humanity; that might be a proper form for the Son of God to wear, when he came to save the lost; but sinful humanity never could be an associate with the divine nature-nor be one person with the brightness of the divine glory-nor be any express image of his nature. He came therefore as the Son of man, bearing the nature of man, but yet a nature also infinitely above man's, for he was "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” He is the Son of the Father by an ineffable and mysterious relation, the precise nature of which human and finite ideas cannot reach, nor human language explain. It is not necessary that the mystery should be made plain. It is with the fact alone we have to do. The assertion of it is to be believed for the sake of the authority which declares it. Our confidence of faith rests upon the fact of his condescension, the truth of the revelation which says, God sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world, and Christ the Son of God became the Son of man. Here is a divine basis for our hopes of acceptance, and a divine authority for the all-sufficiency of the foundation. divine nature imparts infinite merit to his condescension and his atonement. This justifies the utmost confidence of the lost in the ability of him who came to save. Who could trust implicitly in a human saviour, when even a perfect man was found incapable of preserving himself in his first estate? But Jesus Christ" came in the likeness of sinful flesh, (not, in sinful flesh,) and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." O let the glorious and joyous announcement be heard and welcomed-" the Son of man is come." Let his unutterable condescension awaken your hearts to the most lively feelings of love, and gratitude, and faith. He did not send an angel-but he came and to give his life a ransom for many. How admirably is the whole method of salvation adapted to our condition !