we have done is not to be retrieved! O God! souls that are lost through us cannot be saved now the gates of hell are so shut that they can never be opened. No restitution can we make. The redemption of the soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever; the sin is not to be washed away by repentance, nor retrieved by reformation. What then? Hopeless despair for you and I, and every one of us, were it not that there is another blood, the blood of one called Jesus, that crieth from the ground too, and the voice of that blood is "Father, forgive them; Father, forgive them." I hear a voice that says, "Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance," like the voice of Jonah in Nineveh, enough to make every man clothe himself in sackcloth. But a sweeter and a louder cry comes up-"Mercy, mercy, mercy;" and the Father bows his head and says, "Whose blood is that?" and the voice replies, "It is the blood of thine onlybegotten, shed on Calvary for sin. The Father lays his thunders by, sheathes his sword, stretches out his hand, and crieth to you, the sons of men, "Come unto me, and I will have mercy upon you; turn ye, turn ye; I will pour out my Spirit upon you and ye shall live." "Repent and believe the gospel." Hate the sin that is past, and trust in Jesus for the future. He is, able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Flee, sinner, flee! The avenger of the blood that thou hast shed pursues thee with hot haste; with feet that are winged, with a heart that is athirst for blood, he pursues thee. Run, man, run! The refuge city is before thee. It is there, along the narrow way of faith. Fly, man, fly, for unless thou reach that city ere he overtake thee he shall smite thee, and one blow shall be thine everlasting ruin. For God's sake do not loiter, man! Those flowers on the lefthand side-care not for them; thou wilt dye that field with thy blood if thou lingerest there? That ale-house on the right hand? Stay for none of these things. He comes! Hark to his footsteps on the hard highway! He comes, he comes, he comes now! Oh, that now thou mayest pass the portals of the refuge-city! Trust the Son of God, and sin is forgiven, and you have entered into everlasting life. Good Lord, add thy blessing! We are powerless; we can say no more. For Christ's sake, "by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his precious death and burial," bless these souls. Amen. CREATION-AN ARGUMENT FOR FAITH. A Sermon DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 27TH, 1862, BY AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Ah Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee."-Jeremiah xxxii, 17. AT the very time when the Chaldeans had cast up mounds round about the city of Jerusalem, and when the sword and famine of pestilence had desolated the whole land, Jeremiah, while in prison, was commanded by his God to purchase a field of Hanameel, his uncle's son at Anathoth, to subscribe the evidence of purchase by the usual witnesses, to seal the deed of transfer according to law and custom, and to do this publicly in the presence of all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. Now, this was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence could not justify it; it was purchasing an estate which was utterly valueless. Reason would repudiate the notion; it was buying with scarcely a probability that the person purchasing could ever enjoy the possession. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had bidden him, for well he knew that God will be justified of all his children who act in faith. He bought the piece of land, and it was secured to him; he did as he was commanded, and returned to his dungeon. When he came into his chamber alone, it is possible that he began to question himself as to what he had been doing, and troubled thoughts rolled over his mind. "I have been purchasing a useless possession," said he. See how he refuses to indulge the thought. He gets as far as saying, "Ah, Lord God!" as if he were about to utter some unbelieving or rebellious sentence, but he stops himself, "Thou canst make this plot of ground of use to me; thou canst rid this land of these oppressors; thou canst make me yet sit under my vine and my fig-tree in the heritage which I have bought; for thou didst make the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for thee." Beloved, this gave a majesty of the early saints, that they dared to do at God's command, things which were unaccountable to sense, and which reason would condemn. They consulted not with flesh and blood; but whether it is a Noah who is to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who is to offer up his only son, or a Moses who is to despise the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who is to besiege Jericho seven days using no weapons but the blasts of rams'-horns, they all act upon God's command; they act contrary to all the dictates of carnal reason; and God, even the Lord God, gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith. I would to God we had in the religion of these modern times, a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. But no; I see the Christian Church degenerating more and more into a society acting upon the same principles as commercial companies. The Church, I fear, cannot now say, "We walk by faith and not by sight." When Edward Irving preached that memorable sermon concerning the missionary, who he thought was bound to go forth without purse or scrip, and trusting in his God alone, to preach the Word, a howl went up to heaven against the man as a fanatic. They said he was visionary, impractical, mad, and all because he dared to preach a sermon full of faith in God. I do avow myself fully in sympathy with the views which he then enunciated; and I think, if the power of God were once more to baptize the Church, we should have men who would dare to trust in God instead of putting confidence in men; who would act once more as if God's bare arm were quite enough to lean on, as if faith were not fanaticism, as if confidence in an unseen Being were not an unjustifiable enthusiasm. I would to God the Church had once again a rich anointing of the supernatural, and I believe she would have if she would again act by faith; and if you and I, brethren, would venture more upon the naked promise of God we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. If we would but walk the waters of trouble by a living faith, we should find them solid as marble beneath our feet. If once again we could, like the world, be hanged upon nothing but the simple power and providence of God, I am sure we should find it a blessed and a safe way of living, glorious to God, and honourable to ourselves. I would that once again the Master would raise up a race of heroes who would be ridiculed by the world's scoff, and despised by mere professors; men who would act by faith in the God that liveth and abideth for ever, and venture on bold deeds where the weakness of the human arm would be manifest, and the might of Deity revealed. Then should we see the millennial age dawning upon us, and God, even our own God, would bless us, and all the ends of the earth would fear him. Dear friends, it is my business this morning, to conduct you to Jeremiah's place of confidence. Seeing that his case is hopeless, knowing that man can do nothing at all for him the prophet resorts at once to the God that created the heaven and the earth, and he exclaims, "Nothing is too hard for thee." I shall use my text in addressing three characters: to stimulate the evangelist; to encourage the enquirer; and to comfort the believer. I. TO STIMULATE THE EVANGELIST. And who is the evangelist? Every man and woman who has tasted that the Lord is gracious should be an evangelist. We should, without exception, if we have been begotten again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, tell to all around us what they must do to be saved. There should be no dumb tongue in all our host; we should have no idle hand in the harvest field, but every one in his measure, whether man or woman, should be doing something to extend the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And here, dear brother in Christ, my friend and fellow-labourer, here is your encouragement, the work is God's, and your success is in the hand of him who made the heaven and the earth. Let me refresh your memory with the old story of creation, and I think you will perceive flashes of light upon your work which will greatly encourage you in it. 1. Remember, in the first place, that the world was created from nothing. You have often said, "Mine is a very hard task, for I dress myself to men in whom I see nothing hopeful. I batter against a granite conscience, but it is not moved; I thunder forth the law, but the dead and callous heart has not been stirred; I talk of the love of Christ, but the eye is not suffused with tears; I point to hell, but no terror follows; and to heaven, but no holy desire is kindled! there is nothing in man that encourages me in my work, and I am ready to give it over." Brother, come thou back with me to the world's creation. Of what did God make the world? Was there any substance ready to his hand out of which to mould this round globe? What saith the Scripture? Did he not make it of nothing? Thou hast never yet grasped the idea of nothing. The idea cannot see it; it might peer into space, but space itself is something. We look up, and yonder is the blue ether, though we know not what it is; but the eye could not look on nothing; it would be blinded. Nothing is a thing which the senses cannot grasp, and yet it is out of this awful nothing that God made the sun, and moon, and stars, and all things that be. Had he spoken before creation, there would have been no voice to answer him; had he cried, there would have been no echo to repeat his voice. Nought was there anywhere, and yet he spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast! The case of the sinner is a parallel one. You say there is nothing in the sinner. Ay, then, there is room here for a recreating work. Inasmuch as that heart is now empty and void, there is space for the Eternal God to come, and with his outstretched arm to create a new heart and a right spirit, and put his grace where there was none before. If you had to convert the sinner, then, indeed, your task were as hopeless as to create new orbs out of nothing; but, inasmuch as it is not you but your God who worketh all things, you may console yourselves with this thought, that he who hath created all this marvellous earth, and had nothing to begin with, can give life, and fear, and hope, and faith, and love, where there were no heavenly ingredients upon which he might work. Take that, then, for your joy. 2. But you tell me you have none to help you or go forth in your work with you, and that you have no patronage. "Ah, sir;" saith one, "if I had a society at my back; if I had at least a few warm-hearted friends that were banded with me, that would give me some encouragement; but I have to go forth alone, and of the people there is none with me. I stand up to preach in a village where all are cold and callous; where even my minister tells me I am a rash, bold young man, and had better hold my tongue. I look to the world, and it hates me; I turn to the Church, and it despises me. I am too enthusiastic for the Church; I am too fanatical for the world. What can I do? I am a man alone, and I have no helper!" Brother, when God made the world-and the same God is with thee-he worked alone, with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him? When he balanced the clouds, and laid the foundations for the earth, who taught him the laws of gravity? Who hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Was he not alone? No parliament of angels bowed at his right hand, for he created even them. No archangel bowed his head and offered advice to the Most High, for the archangel himself is but a creature. Cherubim and seraphim might sing when the work was over, but help in the work they could not. Look ye now, what star did the angels make? What spot of earth is the creation of an archangel? Look ye to the heavens above or to the deeps beneath, where see ye the impress of any hand but God's, and that hand a solitary one? The lonely worker out of emptiness creates fulness; out of non-existence calleth all things, and out of himself getteth both the matter and the manner, the way, and the how. His courts need no revenue from abroad to sustain them, for from himself alone he draws the force which is needed. Roll thee, then, thy burden on thy God if thou be alone, for alone with him thou hast the best of company. If thou hadst the hosts of heaven with thee, what wert thou without thy God? If all the Church were at thy back, terrible as an army with banners, thy defeat were certain if the Holy Ghost did not dwell in thee. I tell thee, man, if all the saints and angels in earth and heaven should unite to speed thee in thine object, yet, if thy God should stand aloof from thee, thou wouldest labour in vain and spend thy strength for nought. But with him thou shalt prevail though all men forsake thee. "When he makes bare his arm, Let not this, then, trouble thee; that thou art alone. "Ah Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." 3. But you will reply to me, "My sorrow lieth not so much in that I am alone, as in the melancholy fact that I am very conscious of my own weakness, and of my want of adaptation for my peculiar work. I come back from my Sunday's toil, saying, 'Who hath believed my report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?' It seems to me as though I ploughed a rock, a rock so hard that it blunted the ploughshare. I can make no impression upon it. I have beaten the air; I seemed to have lashed the waters; I fear me that I have not the gifts which are necessary, nor have I the grace that I should have. Woe is me, for I am a man of uncircumcised lips! I am not sufficient for these things; but rather I feel like Jonah, that I would flee into Tarshish, that I might escape from the burden of the Lord against this Nineveh." Ay; but, brother, come, cast thy thought back again upon creation. The Eternal needed no instruments in creation. What tools did God use when he made the heavens and the earth? When the blacksmith bringeth forth his work, he fashioneth it with hammer and anvil: upon what anvil did God beat the red-hot matter of this earth when he formed it, and made it what it is? I know that the engraver |