ADDRESS VIII.

THE GREAT DISCHARGE.

"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owu sake, and will not remember thy sins."—ISAIAH xliii. 25.

READING from the 21st verse of this chapter, we find God's solemn indictment against the sinner; and His great discharge. As to the indictment—

"This people," says God, "I have formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." The chief end of man was that he might glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever. This was the end for which God created man. Have you ever thought whether or not you have answered that end? It is a simple question, but most important.

God formed man for His own glory, that he might live in His knowledge, and in the enjoyment of the Being that made him. How noble and glorious an end is this! "A people," says God, "formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." This was true of Israel, to whom the words refer, and it is true also of us. "But," says God,

"Thou hast not called upon me." God's charge is that we have not even called upon Him. How slighting is this! We have shown no desire for Him, and have

not gone the slightest way to meet Him; we have been living as if He had never formed us for His glory, and as if there were no God. It were worth twenty deaths, beloved friends, if we could get even one of you this morning to see and enjoy the end for which you had been created. Alas! men have wrong thoughts about God: their estimate of Him is, that He wants to punish them to keep them away from Him. But no: His unchanging thought is, that man should be brought into the fulness of all the love there is in Himself. Will you not look at Him in this light now? Do not make an imaginary God, as one who conceives an imaginary enemy, and then dreads him. Nobody has a better right to know me than myself. "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. ii. 11.) Only you, yourself, can know what you are, and it is only God who can tell what He in Himself is; and here in His Word He reveals Himself towards us as a God of love as having loved from all eternity; for He is unchangeable. "I am the Lord, I change not." (Mal. iii. 6.) I may change, you may change; but from everlasting to everlasting He is the same God, and He will be the same throughout everlasting ages. But what He complains of is, that notwithstanding such love, we have not called upon Him— have not come to Him-have not had communion with Him; or, if we have professed communion, it has not been such as He required-the communion of child with Father-of the saved with their Saviour. If men spoke truly, many of them would not call Him their Father, but Tyrant or Judge: but God made man for Himself, not that He might judge or condemn him, but that he might be like a stream of life and peace returning to the ocean of His love-that he might be like the light of yon orb, each beam pure as its fount

warming, and enlivening, and blessing everything that comes in its way. But, alas! how has the crown fallen, and the fine gold become dim! Where now is the fellowship of Eden-the love of Paradise?

Are you in the habit of calling God your Father? Do you know Him thus, or do you think of Him only as an enemy or a judge? Have you never spoken to Him as your friend? Have you been living all these years without God, without communion, without prayer, as if God had never been keeping you in life, preserving you from accident, watching over you, guarding you from evil? God only knows how you have forgotten Him. This is His charge against every one who is living without God-who does not call upon Him. You have had words; but words, of themselves, are not prayer. Prayer may be without words; as the poet says

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

Utter'd or unexpress'd

The motion of a hidden fire,

That trembles in the breast.

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear;

The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near."

Prayer is the looking of the heart towards God. As rivers on their way look along the earth, towards the the abysses of the deep; so a soul that knows God turns towards Him, longs for Him, and desires to be with Him and in Him. But God says to thee, O sinner, "Thou hast not turned towards me; thou hast made me a mere myth; thou hast counted me as dust; thou hast trampled me under thy feet; thou hast brought me words indeed, but not prayer-profession, but not reality; thou hast love for the creature, but not for me; thou hast gone after others, but thou hast

not even called on me :" and—

"Thou hast wearied me.' Is this in the Bible?— that the mighty God who rolls the hoar floods of the deep in their beds, as in the hollow of His hand-who formed the stars, and keeps them in their courses-is He weary? Is it in truth that He says to man, "Thou hast wearied me"? Wonderful language! God is wearied! With what? With watching thee? No. Loving thee? No: but with thine iniquities. No wonder He is weary. He says, further,

if

"Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins." Ah! you had faithfully served another, and he paid you back with sins-defamed your character, robbed you of your due, betrayed your confidence-would you not be wearied? Ah! dear fellow-immortal, that is what you have done: you have wearied God with your sins; you have made Him to serve with sins.

The figure is remarkable: it is God who takes the place of servant: God has been serving you, and you have repaid Him with forgetfulness; you have forgotten Him-you have denied Him.

And oh, dear people, does He not serve us? Each morning, in the past, when you awoke from gentle sleep, who caused you to come back to day? The great Father in heaven. But you did not even look towards Him. And during the day, who strengthened your back for its burden-" to bind sheaves to your bosom"-was it not God? But you paid Him in unbelief, in forgetfulness, in drunkenness. These were the wages you gave Him-you paid Him with sins! And when night came, who gave you to lay your head down upon its resting-place, and closed your eyes in unconscious sleep? Who took charge of the functions of being and life-Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday-aye! all through the week-a year of weeksfor twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years-shall I go on ?— sixty, seventy years? And you have given Him nothing but sins-sins! Says God, "Thou hast made

me to serve with thy sins." You ought to have loved Him-to have been grateful to have owned Him: there is not a blade of grass that does not own Him—not a lakelet, or a dewdrop that does not reflect the blue skies that overshadow it-not a flower that does not tell of Him—not a living insect, not a fly even, that does not tell of His existence-they pay Him back with all that they have: but you have paid Him in what? Says God, "I have laboured for you night and day, but you have paid me back in cursing and lies; you have denied me: you have made me to serve indeed, but you have paid me poor wages-miserable wages; you paid me only in sins."

"You brought me no small cattle." In the margin it is "lambs." "Thou hast not brought me lambs for thy burnt-offering." From age to age the Levitical sacrifices typified Christ, "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." Says God, "You have not called upon me-I complain of that; but when I gave you the Son of my love-gave Him from my bosom to die—to cover, by atonement, the guilt of the sinner-you did not bring Him to me; you came in your own religiousness: you have lived twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, without taking Him into your bosom, the Son of my love: you have brought me no lamb." "This is my sore charge." My friends, is this true of you, I know how true it was of me. I brought Him myself, my sins, my fears; but I did not bring Him Christ. But again, in this indictment—

"Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money." This, too, is Jesus-the fragrance of Jesus. He so glorified God, in the salvation of the sinner, His righteousness as well as love, that God is well pleased. Tell me a man is a murderer, and it would be lawlessness to let him go free. How, then, man being a sinner, can he go free? How is this? Why, clearly, when Jesus died, righteousness had full force in condemning sin;