But what saith the Scripture?-"I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand; my Father who gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." And what says the apostle "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I have not time to quote all the innumerable passages, but it is absolutely certain that if there be one doctrine in Scripture more clearly revealed than another, it is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the man who doubts that precious truth, has quite as much reason to doubt the Trinity, to doubt the divinity of Christ, or the fact of the atonement; for nothing can be more clear in the plain, common-sense meaning of the words than this, that they who are in Christ have, even to-day, eternal life and shall never perish. Now since this perseverance is not dependant upon our works, but like all the rest of salvation is an efflux from the bottomless love of God, boasting is manifestly excluded. But once again, and lastly, Boasting sometimes asks to be admitted a little into glorification. I fear sometimes that a doctrine which is popular in the Church, about degrees of glory, is not altogether unassociated with that old self-righteousness o. ours which is very loath to die. "One star differeth from another star in glory" is a great truth-but this the stars may do without differing in degrees. One star may shine with one radiance, and another with another; indeed, astronomers tell us that there are many varieties of colour among stars of the same magnitude. One man may differ from another, without supposing a difference in rank, honour, or degree. For my part, I do not see anything about degrees in glory in Scripture, and I do not believe in the doctrine; at least if there be degrees, mark this, they cannot be according to works, but must be of grace alone. I cannot consider that because one Christian has been more devoted to Christ than another, therefore there will be an eternal difference, for this is to introduce works; this is to bring in again the old Hagar marriage, and to bring back the child of the bond-woman, whereof God has said, "The son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." Oh! brethren, I think we can serve God from some other motive than that base one of trying to be greater than our brethren in heaven. If I should get to heaven at all, I do not care who is greater than I am, for if any one shall have more happiness in heaven than I shall, then I shall have more happiness too; for the sympathy between one soul and another will there be so intense and so great, that all the heavens of the righteous will be my heaven, and therefore, what you have I shall have, because we shall all be one in fellowship far more perfectly than on earth. The private member will there be swallowed up in the common body. Surely, brethren, if any of you can have brighter places in heaven, and more happiness and more joy than I, I will be glad to know it. The prospect does not excite any envy in my soul now, or if it did now, it certainly would not then, for I should feel that the more you had the more I should have. Perfect communion in all good things is not compatible with the private enrichment of one above another. It is all joint-stock in heaven. Even on earth the saints had all things common when they were in a heavenly state, and I am persuaded they will have all things common in glory. I do not believe in gentlemen in heaven, and the poor Christians behind the door; I do believe that our union with each other will be so great, that distinctions will be utterly lost, and that we shall all have such a joint communion, and interest, and fellowship, that there will be no such thing as private possession, private ranks, and private honours-for we shall there, to the fullest extent, be one in Christ. I do believe that Boasting is shut out there, but I think that if there were these degrees in glory, I mean if they are dependant on works done on earth, Boasting would at least get his tail in; if it did not insinuate its whole body, it would at least get some of its unhallowed members over the wall, whereas, the text says it is excluded. Let me enlarge this one word, and then proceed. It does not say, "Boasting, you are to be allowed to come in and sit down on the floor." No, shut the door and do not let him in at all. "But let me in," says he," and I will be quiet." No, shut him out altogether. "But at least let me put my foot in." No, exclude him; shut him out altogether. "But at least let me sometimes go in and out." No, shut him out altogether; exclude him; bolt the door; put double padlocks on it. Say once for all, "Boasting, get thee gone; thou art hurled down and broken in pieces, and if thou canst refit thyself, and come once more to_the gate to ask admittance, thou shalt be driven away with shame." It is excluded; it cannot be let in, in any sense, in any term, nor in any degree. As Calvin says, "Not a particle of boasting can be admitted, because not a particle of work is admitted into the covenant of grace;" it is of grace from top to bottom, from Alpha to Omega; it is not of man nor by man, not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, and therefore, boasting is excluded by the law of faith. III. And now, thirdly, and very briefly. Beloved in Christ Jesus, what a precious truth I have now to hold up to the eyes of poor lost sinners, who to-day are aware that they have no merits of their own. Soul, THE VERY GATE WHICH SHUTS OUT BOASTING, SHUTS IN HOPE AND JOY FOR YOU. Let me state this truth broadly, that the ignorant may catch it. You say to-day, "Sir, I never attend the house of God, and up to this time I have been a thief and a drunkard." Well, you stand to-day on the same level as the most moral sinner, and the most honest unbeliever, in the matter of salvation. They are lost, since they believe not, and so are you. If the most honest be saved, it will not be by their honesty, but by the free grace of God; and if the most roguish would be saved, it must be by the same plan. There is one gate to heaven for the most chaste and the most debauched. When we come to God, the best of us can bring nothing, and the worst of us can bring no less. I know when I state it thus, some will say, "Then what is the good of morality?" I will tell you. Two men are overboard there; one man has a dirty face, and the other a clean one. There is a rope thrown over from the stern of the vessel, and only that rope will save the sinking men, whether their faces be fair or foul. Is not this the truth? Do I therefore underrate cleanliness. Certainly not; but it will not save a drowning man; nor will morality save a dying man. The clean man may sink with all his cleanliness, and the dirty man may be drawn up with all his filth, if the rope do but get its hold of him. Or take this case. Here we have two persons, each with a deadly cancer. One of them is rich and clothed in purple, the other is poor and wrapped about with a few rags; and I say to them-"You are both on a par now, here comes the physician himself-Jesus, the king of disease; his touch can heal you both; there is no difference between you whatever." Do I therefore say that the one man's robes are not better than the other's rags? Of course they are better in some respects, but they have nothing to do with the matter of curing disease. So morality is a neat cover for foul venom, but it does not alter the fact that the heart is vile and the man himself under condemnation. Suppose I were an army-surgeon, and there had been a battle. There is one man there he is a captain and a brave man; he led his rank into the thick of the battle, and he is bleeding out his life from a terrible gash. By his side there lies a man of the rank and file, and a great coward too, wounded in the same way. I come up to both of them, and I say, "You are both in the same condition; you have both the same sort of wound, and I can heal you both." But if either of you should say, "Get you gone; I'll have nothing to do with you," your wound will be your death. If the captain should say, "I do not want you; I am a captain, go and see to that poor dog yonder." Would his courage and rank save his life? No, they are good things, but not saving things. So is it with good works, men can be damned with them as well as without them if they make them their trust. Oh! what a gospel is this to preach in our theatres; to tell those hedge-birds, those who are full of all manner of loathsomeness, that there is the same way of salvation open to them as to a peer of the realm, or a bishop on the bench; that there is no difference between us in the way of mercy, that we are all condemned; that there may be degrees as to our guilt, but that the fact of our condemnation is quite as certain to the best as to the worst! "Oh" you say, "this is a levelling doctrine!" Ah! bless God if you are levelled. "Oh," you say, "but this cuts at everything that is good in man!" Ah! thank God, if it kills everything in which man glories, for that which man thinks to be good is often an abomination in the sight of God. And oh! if all of us together, moral or immoral, chaste or debauched, honest or unholy, can come with the rope about our neck, and with the weeds of penitence upon our loins, and say, "Great God, forgive us; we are all guilty; give us grace; we do not deserve it; bestow upon us thy favour, we have no right to it, but give it to us because Jesus died." Oh! he will never cast out one that way, for that is the way of salvation. And if we can put our hand this morning-no matter though it was black last night with lust, or red up to the elbow with murder-yet if we can put our hand on Jesu's head, and believe on him-the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Where is boasting now? You who have done so much for humanity-you cannot boast, for you have nothing to boast of. You fine gentlemen and noble ladies, what say you to this. O be wise, and join in the prayer, "But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!" And may the Lord then pronounce over us his sentence, "Ye are clean, go and sin no more; your iniquities are all forgiven you." IV. I close by just observing, that THE SAME PLAN WHICH SHUTS OUT BOASTING LEADS US TO A GRACIOUS GRATITUDE TO CHRIST. We are sometimes asked by people, "Do you think that such a thing is necessary to salvation?" or, perhaps, the question is put in another way, "How long do you think a man must be Godly in order to be saved?" I reply, dear friend, you cannot understand us, for we hold that these things do not save in any sense, "Why, then," they say, "are you baptized?" or, "Why do you walk in holiness?" Well, not to save myself, but because I am saved. When I know that every sin of mine is forgiven, that I cannot be lost, that Christ has sworn to bring me to the place where he is; then I say, Lord what is there that I can do for thee? Tell me. Can I burn for thee? Blessed were the stake if I might kiss it. If thou hast done so much for me, what can I do for thee? Is there an ordinance that involves self-denial? Is there a duty which will compel me to self-sacrifice? So much the better. "Now for the love I bear his name, What was my gain I count my loss; This is the way to do good works; and good works are impossible until we come here Anything that you do by which to save yourself is a selfish act, and therefore cannot be good. Only that which is done for God's glory is good in a Scriptural sense. A man must be saved before he can do a good work; but when saved, having nothing to get and nothing to lose; standing now in Christ, blessed and accepted-he begins to serve God out of pure gratitude and love. Then, virtue is possible, and he may climb to its highest steeps, and stand safely there without fear of the boasting which would cast him down, though he will feel even then that his standing is not in what he has done, nor in what he is, nor in what he hopes to be, but in what Christ did, and in the "It is finished," which made his eternal salvation secure. O for grace, that we may live to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; to Him be glory for ever. Amen. THE TWO ADVENTS OF CHRIST. A Sermon DELIVERED ON SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22ND, 1861, BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."-Hebrew ix. 27, 28. WE must begin by noticing the parallel which the apostle here draws. The words "as" and "so" suggest a comparison between two truths the correspondence of which he designed to set forth; the one a fact generally allowed, the other a fact he was anxious to inculcate. Now you will note that he says "It is appointed unto men once to die," and only once. This is a truism. The rule is universal; the exceptions are inconsiderable. One or two persons may have died twice; as, for instance, Lazarus and those others who were raised from the dead by by Christ. These, we cannot doubt, after living for a little while, returned again to the tomb. But for the most part, speaking of the race, "It is appointed unto men once to die." The greatest affairs of life can only be performed once. We are once born naturally; we are once born spiritually; there are not two natural births, neither are there two spiritual births. We live on earth but once; we die but once; we shall be judged but once; we shall receive the final sentence but once, and then we shall once be received into the joy of our Lord for ever, or once be driven from his presence never to return. Now, a part of the apostle's parallel lies here. As men die but once, so Christ hath died but once. As the law required but one death, so Jesus Christ, having offered that one death as the ransom for his people, achieved his task. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt |