I have known of souls, at one moment dead to the dying love of Christ whose blood cleanseth from all sin, at the next tearfully singing "We have found a friend in Jesus- 'Tis His great delight to bless us- How our hearts delight to hear Him Believe in And now, O sinner, believe in this love! God, believe also in Jesus. Only believe that God loves, and that Christ died-died for the chief of sinners. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. I call you to record, dear sinner, that I bring not the texture of a cobweb between the love of God and you, or the semblance of a thread, to say nothing of a thick vail, between the salvation of God and your soul. God has made ample atonement for sins by the death of His Son. Hence our salvation. And you have nothing to do but to see and believe in that atonement. Stand still, and see the salvation of God! All ye that pass by, come! Come to the blood-stained tree! Come to the Cross, where this eternal, free, sovereign, dying, perfect, solitary, and unchangeable love of God was manifested-when "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”—"God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for He commends it to you now. He will not commend it to you always. He may not commend it to you long; soon you may die; soon you may be past its acceptance. Will it now? and now, on not accept you believing it, enter into rest? us. What we want is your salvation; salvation now, ere you leave. This you may have the moment you believe. And the Gospel we have brought you is a tangible Gospel-a Gospel that can be seen by the vilest and worst. For if CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY-died for such as are sinful and bad-then "why not for you?" This is the good news which God commends, and which we preach. "HARK! how the Gospel Trumpet sounds; "The Saviour died, and by His blood "The blood of Christ! how sweet it sounds, "Thus Jesus came the poor to bless,— To clothe them in God's righteousness: "Eternal life by Christ is given, And ruin'd rebels raised to heaven; ADDRESS III. EYE-WITNESSES. "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. . . . We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation."-2 PET. i. 16, 19, 20. ... THERE are two things to be considered in this passage. The one, the truth itself declared by the Apostle- "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and the other, the reasons he adduces in its support, namely, "We were eye-witnesses of his majesty;" and again, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy." Following in this line, beloved people, I shall try to open up and explain this Scripture. There were among the ancients, in their heathen mythology, certain fables, which were myths-mere myths; which fact the Apostle doubtless has in his mind when he says, "We"-we apostles, we Christians "have not followed cunningly devised fables." A fable is that which hath no foundation in fact; which must give way when needed as a rest or a refuge. We C have not believed or followed that on which we cannot rely, which will not or cannot bear examination. A myth, as the term shows, indicates its own folly and uselessness; nor less or more than such can it ever be, however elaborated, or "cunningly devised." What we have, implies the apostle, is as true, secure, and immutable as God. We have got hold of that which, instead of being a myth, a mere sham, is vast and vital, saving and eternal! It is not for me, in this brief moment this morning, to spread out before you the length and breadth, the height and depth, of the immeasurable truths of which the apostle speaks; truths, so unlike the mere cobweb of a myth which an infant's fingers even could not touch but to destroy; truths, in the study of which angels find their loftiest employ; truths which, like a fair sea 'neath summer skies, may well tempt one to go out on them as on a long navigation; I say it is not for me to speak so much of them just now, but the rather to draw a few solemn and practical deductions arising out of a sense of their reality. And, first, I draw a deduction for the sinner. O sinner, if we are not following a myth-if God be a reality, and Jesus Christ a reality, and a futurity of glory be a reality, and a futurity of hell be a reality; and if thy soul, in all its vast undying instincts, be a reality; and if the judgment day, in which God will meet thee, and will call thee to an account for the way in which thou hast treated His eternal truth, be a reality, what a warning-true as God, high as heaven, and deep as hell-is sounding in thine ears to-day! And the warning is, that the sooner thou makest thy peace with God, the better, for truly thou mayest say— Ah! sinner, if the soul and salvation were not a reality, I would go and take my place with the beasts that perish. If they were not a reality, God would never have given His Son, the only Son of His love, Christ Jesus, to suffer and to die for us on the accursed tree. Ah! no; if God were not true, I would hold to the sentiment of the philosopher, (falsely so called,) and for the rest of my days say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But God is a reality; heaven and hell are realities; Christ is a reality; and thy lost state at this moment, a reality. And I draw from it this solemn deduction, That thou, being yet in thy sins, and dying as thou art, it were better for thee never to have been born; better for thee to have been strangled at thy birth-to have had no existence, never to have seen the light. Oh! haste sinner! sinner, haste to be wise! Lay hold on eternal life! Let not one day intervene, for I am speaking to dying men. Sinner! I may never speak to thee again; my eye may never glance, as it now doth, into thine again; the burning marl of hell may soon divide between thee and peace for ever. Sinner! think, oh, think-Heaven or hell! damnation or salvation! God or devils! Such thy portion soon. Repent before the day of thy doom come; and, lo, it comes upon thee fast; for, O sinner! "We are not following cunningly devised fables." Ours is a reality. "Prepare to meet thy God." "It is God that justifieth. It is Christ that died." "Be lieve and live." "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" And another inference to be drawn from the truth to which the Apostle refers is, that to give a preference to anything else, to the neglect of salvation, is an act of the highest folly. What of that five yoke of oxen, that new domestic arrangement, or business, or profession, or any other of the engagements now occupying thy time? Better break with them all |