Part 14
II. The due improvement of time requires,
1. That it should not be allowed to run to waste, or spent in idleness.
2. That it should not be employed in doing what is evil or useless.
3. That it should be employed, (a.) In the service of God. (b.) In selfimprovement. (c.) In doing good to our fellow-men. These are three great legitimate ends to which our time should be consecrated. All else is subordinate or included under those heads.
III. The way to improve our time.
1. All rules on this subject, to be of use, suppose the existence of a sense of its value, and of a purpose to turn it to the best account. Otherwise, we might as well prescribe rules for preserving life to the dead.
It must be taken for granted, then, that we possess the desire and purpose to improve our time, or rules will do us no good. The maxims of experience are,
1. A time for everything, and everything in its proper time. That is, first, there should be system, and secondly, no procrastination or delay.
2. Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves. Gather up the fragments.
3. Whatever you do, do it with your might.
4. Never be idle. Seek rest in sleep, and relaxation in change of employment.
IV. The motives to enforce this duty.
1. We are responsible to God for the use of our time. It is the great talent committed to our care.
2. It is short, uncertain and irrevocable.
3. Much of it has already run to waste.
4. The issues of time are in eternity. The present determines the eternal future.
CCXXIX. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom.—Ps. 90:12
[Jan. 2d, 1853.]
What is wisdom? What is it to number our days? How does the latter lead us to apply the heart unto the former?
I. What is wisdom? The fact is plain that religion is in the Scriptures often called wisdom, and wickedness, folly. The good are the wise; the wicked are fools. But why is this? Because it implies the selection of the best means and the use of the best ends. The highest end is God's glory; the best means, obedience to his will. It is the height of folly to select any creature good or temporary attainment as the chief end. This all but the righteous do, and therefore all but the righteous are fools.
The glory of God is the highest end,
1. Because he is infinitely superior to any other being, and to the whole universe. To know him, and to be the means of making him known is more important than all things else.
2. Because the manifestation of his glory secures all the excellence there is in the universe.
3. Because it secures all the blessedness rational creatures can enjoy. This, therefore, is wisdom. The wise are those who make God's glory the end of their being. Hence,
1. The gospel is called the wisdom of God. It is that system, (a.) Which reveals God as the highest end. (b.) Which makes known the means for the attainment of that end. (c.) And because it brings those who embrace it into the possession of wisdom, i.e., it makes them wise.
2. Hence the wisdom of men is called foolishness, (a.) Because it presents something else than God's glory as the end. (b.) Its means are futile for good, (c.) Those who embrace it are fools.
II. What is it to number our days?
1. To consider how few they are in the whole. 2. How few remain. 3. How many have been wasted.
III. How does a sense of the fewness of our years lead us to apply our hearts unto wisdom?
1. Because it leads us to see how little time we have to attain the greatest ends.
2. Because it leads us to see the folly of employing these few years to ends which can profit nothing.
3. Because it makes us feel that we are unprofitable servants, who have neglected our Master's work.
1. The duty of self-examination and reflection. We should see how we have failed in applying our hearts unto wisdom.
2. The duty of decision and renewed effort to become faithful servants.
3. The importance of availing ourselves of all the means in our power of impressing the uncertainty and value of time upon our hearts.
CCXXX. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom.—Ps. 90:12. (No. 2)
[Jan. 12th, 1868.]
There is a remarkable difference as to this verse in the versions. The Septuagint assumes a different reading: "Cause me to know thy right hand and those cordially, or in heart, instructed in wisdom." So the Vulgate. Luther's version: "Let us remember that we must die, in order that we may be wise." De Wette: "Teach us to number our days, that we may attain a wise heart." Young: "To number our days aright, let us know; and we bring the heart to wisdom." Alexander: "The number of our days let us know, and we will bring a heart of wisdom." Our version gives the true idea; a proper estimate of life tends to wisdom.
Life is short and uncertain. To act as though it were indefinitely long, or as though the possession of it was secure, is folly. This is a folly of which most men are guilty, and to which all men are exposed. We are ourselves sensible how little we lay to heart the brevity and uncertainty of life. How much we live as though we should live always. At twenty or thirty we live and feel as to life's continuance as we did at ten or fifteen. At fifty or seventy, it is all the same. We live
in the present, and the present is as real at one age as at another. It requires an effort, therefore, to bring this truth home to our minds, so that it shall really affect and control our lives.
This is difficult from the nature of the case. Duration is equable. There is nothing in time itself to mark the transition from one moment to another. The same is true of motion.
Nothing indicates the passage from one portion of space to another, but passing by some fixed object. Thus men feel in a balloon or on the ocean. Motion is noticed if the ship moves faster than the water; but not if it is only carried forward by a current. We are not sensible of the motion of the earth through space. Thus we are insensible to the flight of time. We have reason to pray that God would impress us with a sense of its rapidity, its brevity, its uncertainty. The reason in this matter must control the feelings.
There are two measures of time,—days, months and years being one, and events the other. A portion of time in which nothing specially important has occurred, may be as long as that which has determined the fate of an individual or of nations. What three years of the world's history can compare with those of our Lord's ministry? How far more important the first fifty years of the Church than the centuries that followed. How vast the consequences of the events of the Reformation period. How has the state of our country been changed by the four years of war just ended. How has the state of Europe been changed by the six weeks' campaign of the Prussian army.
So with the individual. If he is called upon to number his days he will estimate them not by hours, but by events. The years of his conversion, of his call to the ministry, of his ordination, of his entering into some special field of labor. One year may contain more to think of, more that moulds his destiny than all the other years of his life. The year a man yields to temptation may decide his fate for eternity.
The first lesson this teaches us is, the unspeakable value of time. In time we determine our eternal state. In time we do all we are ever to do for the good of others, or for our own advancement in good, or for the glory of God. This is our day for work. After this the night cometh when no man can work.
The second lesson is humility and penitential sorrow that our time has run so much to waste. What have we done? What progress in knowledge? Have we increased in piety? What have we accomplished for the Church or for the world? No man can make this review of life without being deeply sensible how greatly he has sinned; how he has wasted or allowed to lie unimproved this great talent of time which God has committed to our hearts. Regret is unavailing. Lost time and opportunity cannot be recalled.
The third lesson is that we should be brought to the solemn determination to make the most of the few days that remain. They must be few. They may be almost gone. Therefore let us apply our hearts unto wisdom. Let us be wise, wise in improving to the utmost our remaining days in living nearer to God, praying more, holding more constant intercourse with God our Saviour, in studying more, in laboring more for the good of others, for the progress of truth and holiness among men.
Fourth lesson: Gratitude to God for his forbearance and his abounding mercy to us, unprofitable servants.
CCXXXI. Death
[April 13th, 1856.]
Death is the dissolution of the body, the separation of the soul from its earthly tabernacle.
I. Death is not natural. It is a penalty. If there had been no sin, there had been no death. Life had been immortal either here or hereafter.
II. At death there is a separation entirely from the world. The dead are the departed, the verewigte. The body is reduced to dust.
III. The soul, 1. does not cease to exist. 2. It does not become unconscious. Its eternal destiny is immediately decided.
IV. The souls of the righteous are, 1. Made perfect in holiness. How, we need not ask. 2. They do immediately pass into glory. This is proved, (a.) from Scripture, Christ's declaration. (b.) Paul's experience. (c.) Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. (d.) Christ's argument against the Sadducees. (e.) The universal belief of Christians.
V. Preparation for death is preparation for what is to take place at death.
1. We must be prepared to give up the world and all that it contains; friends, professions and pursuits.
2. To meet God in judgment. To give an account of the deeds done in the body.
3. To enter heaven. Therefore we must be regenerated.
VI. The death of the young should teach us not only our constant liability to death but to live while we live, to do all we can for the glory of God and the good of men.
Death and the future state are insoluble mysteries to the heathen. 1. Reason can decide nothing with certainty as to the fact of the future state. The natural instincts of our nature are in favor of it. And hence the mass of men have always believed in it. But science presents many difficulties; and hence scientific men, if not Christians, as a common thing, disbelieve it. 2. Reason can determine nothing as to the nature of our future existence. Hence the great diversity of opinions on this point. The Scriptures alone dispel the gloom which rests on the tomb. Christ has brought life and immortality to light.
CCXXXII. Triumph over death.—1 Cor.
15:54, 55.
[Feb. 18th, 1855.]
I. What it is to triumph over death.
1. Not to die as do the brutes without any appreciation of what death is.
2. Not to die as the sceptics who do not believe in a future state.
3. Nor as the Stoics, who submit in silence to an unavoidable evil. But it implies, 1. An intelligent apprehension of what it is for a man to die.
2. A scriptural and well-founded persuasion that the power of death to injure us is destroyed.
3. A joyful assurance that to die is gain.
II. The way in which the power of death is destroyed. 1. It is only so far as death is a final evil, and as it separates us from God, it is to be dreaded. 2. Therefore it is only to sinners and on account of sin that death is the king of terrors. 3. Sin, however, derives its power from the law. It is the law which gives sin its power to condemn. 4. What, therefore, satisfies the law, destroys the power of sin, and thus deprives death of its sting. 5. Christ having by his righteousness and death satisfied the demands of the law, gives us the victory over death.
III. How are we to avail ourselves of this provision for our triumph? 1. We must in fact be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. 2. We must know that we are in him. 3. We must be prepared at all times to give up the pleasures and treasures of this life for heaven. 4. We must therefore live near to God and elevated above the world.
IV. The experience of God's people.
1. Some die in doubt. 2. Some in praise. 3. Some in triumph. It matters little, provided we are only in Christ. But it is of great moment that when death comes we should have nothing to do but to die.
CCXXXIII. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his
rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. Heb. 4:1
[March 25th, ——.]
One great evidence of the inspiration of the Scriptures is the analogy between the outward experience of God's people with the inward experience of believers. The history of Israel was an adumbration of the history of the Church. 1. They were in bondage. So were we.
2. The Hebrews had been delivered from bondage. So were we. There is a sense in which this is true of all men. The death of Christ is an adequate atonement for the sins of the whole world. His righteousness is appropriate to the justification of all men. It is freely offered to all men. We are at liberty, therefore, to depart out of the house of bondage. The right and the power of Satan to hold us in subjection are as effectually broken as the right and power of Pharaoh to keep the Hebrews in bondage.
3. The third point of analogy is that a promise of rest is made to us as it was to them. To them it was an earthly rest, a land flowing with milk and honey. To us, an eternal rest.
4. The fourth point is that multitudes of those to whom that promise was made and that rest offered failed to reach it. So of those who
receive the promise of eternal rest, or have the opportunity of salvation. Multitudes fail of eternal life.
5. The fifth point of analogy is that the causes of failure are in both cases the same. (a.) Some did not wish to enter into Canaan. They preferred the flesh-pots of Egypt, though connected with slavery, to the inheritance in Canaan, connected with self-denial and effort. (b.) They did not believe they should perish through unbelief. The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them which heard it.
What does this mean? It does not mean that they did not believe there was such a land as Canaan. Nor that it was not a suitable inheritance. What they really disbelieved was the promise of God that he would give it unto the then and there. They came to the borders but they were afraid to enter. This is the case with thousands. They believe there is a heaven; they believe that it is a happy place. They desire to be saved; but they are afraid to trust God. They do not believe that God will save them, and therefore they are not saved. Had Israel, when they came to the borders of Canaan, gone straight forwards, regardless of the size of the Amalekites or of the number and strength of their walled towns, they would have inherited the promised land; but they refused, and perished in their unbelief. So now, if you come as you are to the borders of the kingdom of heaven, and are frightened by the number of your sins, or by the threatenings of Satan or of the law, and refuse to go forward trusting to God, you too will perish after the same example of unbelief.
6. A sixth point of analogy is that those who refused to enter when they had the opportunity were rejected when they tried to enter. How often is this realized in the religious experience of men! The Spirit often calls and strives; men refuse to attend and obey, and then when calamity or death comes, they strive to enter in and are not able. Today, therefore, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
CCXXXIV. There remaineth therefore a
rest to the people of God
[Oct. 31st, 1853.]
I. Exposition of the context.
The Apostle warns his readers against unbelief. He holds up to them the ancient Israelites as a warning. They had been brought out of Egypt. They had the promise of a rest in Canaan. They failed to enter it because of unbelief. There is an analogy between their case and ours. We have been delivered from worse than Egyptian bondage. A promise is made us of entering into rest. We should take heed lest we come short of it.
To prove that there is this analogy, the Apostle shows there is a rest for us. This he does by showing that the Psalmist spake of a rest as future, long after the Sabbatical rest established at the creation and long after the introduction of the people into the land of Canaan. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
II. The nature of that rest.
Three things are included in it. 1. Rest or freedom from labor. 2. Freedom from conflict. 3. The complete satisfaction of the soul arising from the attainment of the chief good.
1. Freedom from labor. In one sense labor is a blessing, in another it is a curse. It is a curse as entailing the necessity for a lower form of activity, and as attended with pain and fatigue. In the rest which remains for the people of God, there will be no necessity of securing the means of subsistence by the sweat of the face.
2. Freedom from conflict, (a.) Conflict with our own corruptions. (b.) Conflict with spiritual enemies. (c.) Conflict with conscience and remorse, (d.) with unsatisfied desires and cravings of our nature.
3. Rest is the chief good. There are three conditions of inward rest.
(a.) Harmony or peace in our own nature, which supposes freedom from guilt, and complete order or holiness of heart.
(b.) The possession of an adequate portion for the soul which fills and satisfies all its capacities and desires. The wicked can have no rest. The worldly can have no rest. Nor can the self-righteous or any who do not enjoy the favor and fellowship of God.
(c.) Assurance in the security of this possession.
III. When does the believer enter on this rest? At death. Proof, 1. From this passage. 2. From Revelation; "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth." Rev. 14:13. 3. From 2 Cor. 5:1–6, and other passages.
IV. Where is this rest? In heaven. This means negatively that it is not earthly, and positively that it is heavenly. Proof that it is in heaven. See 2 Cor. 5:1, John 14:1, with numerous passages in Revelation.
The practical use Paul makes of this truth is,
1. To urge us to the attainment of this rest, and especially to warn us against unbelief.
2. He holds up the efficacy and power of the word to assure us that neither the threatenings nor the promises of God fail.
3. He points us to Christ through whom alone we can attain to this rest.
CCXXXV. But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2
[March 27th, 1859.]
The common interpretation of this passage, which supposes that Christ is here referred to, as he who shall appear, is assumed to be correct.
Who and what is Christ? 1. He is the eternal Son of God. The second person in the Trinity, equal with the Father.
2. He is the eternal Son of God manifested in the flesh, i.e., clothed in our nature, having a true body and a reasonable soul.
3. As such, having lived and died and risen again, he has ascended up into heaven, and all power in heaven and in earth is now committed to his care. He is the head, the center, the radiant point in the universe, the clearest revelation to all intelligent beings of the Being and perfections of God.
II. In what sense are we said to be like him?
1. This likeness includes the sanctification of the soul; the conformity of our souls to his moral image. We are to be like him in knowledge, in feelings, in our whole inward life. This is plain, (a.) Because we are said to be destined to be conformed to the image of his Son; which is explained by saying that we are predestined to be unblamable before him in love. (b.) Because the good set before us is the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ. That is, complete conformity to him. (c.) Because everywhere in Scripture Christ is set forth as the pattern after which we are to be fashioned.
2. It includes the likeness of our bodies to his glorious body. This is directly asserted in Phil. 3:21: "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."
In 1 Cor. 15 it is argued at length, that as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly. This refers to the
nature of the resurrection body.
3. We shall be like him in glory. That is, we shall share in his exaltation and dominion. This is proved, (a.) By those frequently occurring passages in which we are said to reign with Christ, to be glorified together with him. We are said to be joint heirs with Christ, i.e., to share with him in his inheritance. (b.) The glory which the Father has given the Son he says he has given to his people. (c.) Man, our nature; the redeemed, the Church, or body of Christ, in the Scripture, is said to be destined to absolutely universal dominion. Rom. 4:13 says, that the promise to Abraham and his seed was that they should be heirs of the world, i.e., of the universe. In 1 Cor. 3:21, 22, "All things are yours, whether things present or things to come." In Ps. 8. God is said to have put all things under man. Paul twice at least expounds that passage, 1 Cor. 15:27, e.g., when he shows that nothing is excepted from this subjection save God himself. In Heb. 2 he argues from the same passage the universal dominion, not of Christ individually, but of that to which our race, i.e., the redeemed, are in Christ exalted. See also Eph. 1:20, 21.
III. When is the consummation to take place?
1. It is a progressive work. The first stage is regeneration. This conformity advances during this life.
2. The second stage is at death, when the souls of believers, being made perfect in holiness, do immediately pass into glory.
3. The last stage is at the second coming. This is taught in Rom. 8:18–24; in the Epistle to the Philippians; in 1 Thess. 2:14–18; 1 Cor. 15. Then will believers enter on that kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
IV. How is this transformation effected?
1. It is said to be by the mighty power of God. 2. To be, as far as the soul is concerned, by the truth. 3. It is the peculiar work of the Spirit.
4. It is said to be the effect of the vision of Christ. Paul was converted at the sight of Christ. He defined his conversion as the revelation of Christ in him. We are said to be transformed into his likeness by beholding his glory. The beatific vision has this transforming power.
The expression, "For we shall see him," may express not the cause or proof of our transformation, but that the necessary condition of our seeing Christ is that we should be like him.
V. Who are to be thus changed?
1. Not all men. 2. Not all professors or ministers. 3. But those who purify themselves as he is pure.
CCXXXVI. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens. 2 Cor. 5:6
[Feb. 2d, 1862.]
The doctrine of this passage, of the context and of the Scriptures is that believers at death being made perfect in holiness do immediately pass into glory.
This stands opposed, 1. To the doctrine that there is no future state of blessedness, that in this life only we have hope in Christ. 2. To the doctrine of a state of unconsciousness between death and the resurrection. 3. To the doctrine of purgatory, or a state of expiation and purification after death. The apostle found his consolation in the assurance that as soon as he was absent from the body he would be present with the Lord; that he would at death immediately enter
heaven. This is the greatest encouragement and support to the suffering believer.
The first remark we make on this subject is that we cannot enter into Paul's experience or share his exulting expectation of heaven unless we share in his labors and sufferings. We who have access at any moment to cooling water, can have no idea of the intense longings of those perishing from thirst on the sands of the desert, or on the battlefield. We often wonder at the strong language of the sacred writers and endeavor to force ourselves up to their standard of doctrine and desire. We cannot do it. It is impossible while we are at ease and satisfied. We must suffer if we would rejoice.
Our second remark is that this suffering need not be that of external afflictions as were those of Paul. They may be from inward conflicts, the burden of sin, the violence of our spiritual enemies. Paul felt this burden and cried, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The great truth is that we cannot have strong aspirations after holiness, longings after heaven, and joy in hope of the glory of God, unless we have a proportionate experience of the evil of sin and the unsatisfying nature of all creature good.
Thirdly, even on the low level of the ordinary Christian experience the doctrine of the text is of unspeakable consolation. To revert to the figure before used. Although we cannot drink water with the intense delight of those perishing from thirst, it is nevertheless to us a pure, constant, and indispensable refreshment. Every man has enough to dissatisfy him with the present, to make him look forward with desire, and that he is not called to look on blank vacuity or utter darkness, but on the bright prospect of eternal blessedness, is an infinitely precious but unappreciated support and comfort.
Fourthly, the design of the revelation of heaven as immediately consequent on death is not merely to support believers under their afflictions or to comfort them on the loss of dear friends, but to wean them from the world. God has opened to them the prospect of a state
of existence in which holiness shall be attended with glory and blessedness, in order that they should not be worldly-minded. As the desire and pursuit of things of the world is degrading and leads the soul away from God, so the desire of heaven has the opposite tendency. To be heavenly-minded includes two things which are inseparably connected. 1. Having heaven constantly present to the mind as a subject of thought and object of desire. 2. Having that state of mind, those feelings and affections which are congenial with heaven. It is an approximation to that state of mind which those have who are already in heaven. Sanctification, then, as well as consolation is the end contemplated in this assurance of a heavenly state after death.
Fifthly, religious, or rather Christian experience is ever and must ever be essentially the same, because Christian experience is only the effect produced by Christian doctrine on the soul, by the Holy Spirit. As therefore Christian doctrine is a fixed quantity, always the same and always essentially the same in the apprehension of believers, Christian experience must always be the same. The only true standard of that experience is to be found in the Scriptures. Ours must correspond with that. We must feel as Paul and John felt about sin, Christ and heaven. If we have faith, it must overcome the world; it must be to us the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for; it must purify the heart, it must set our affections on things above; it must make us long for heaven and for the revelation of the Son of God.
CCXXXVII. O death, where is thy sting? O
grave, where is thy victory?—1 Cor. 15:56
[April 11th, 1875.]
Death is the king of terrors. The event of all others the most to be dreaded, and even to irrational animals an object of dread. As the love of life is natural and instinctive, so is the fear of death. It is,
however, not only instinctive, it is rational. (a.) It is the end of the only kind of existence of which we have any consciousness or experience. To the eye of sense, it is annihilation. The dead, to all appearances, are as non-existent as the unborn. Where are the generations of the past?
(b.) It is the loss of all our possessions, of all sources of enjoyment to which we have been accustomed. It is the sundering of all social ties, a final separation of parents and children, &c.
(c.) Though to the eye of sense death is annihilation, it is not so to the eye of reason or of conscience. Such is the intellectual and moral nature of man, that all men have the apprehension or conviction of a state of conscious existence after death. But what that state is, human reason cannot tell. It is Hades. The torch of Science and the lamp of Philosophy are extinguished in the mephitic exhalations of the grave. The soul at death enters upon the unknown, the dark, the boundless, the endless.
(d.) These, however, are not the considerations which render death so terrible. The sting of death is sin. We should have no fear. Knowing that God is everywhere, we should know that we should be safe and blessed within the arms of his love wherever he might see fit to carry us. Sin, of necessity, involves guilt, and guilt is a fearful looking for of judgment. As there is in our physical frame a capacity for suffering of which we seldom think, so there is a capacity for a degree of fear of the wrath of God of which we know but little. All men, however, know enough of pain to know how terrible it may be; so all men know enough of guilt to know that an awakened conscience may create a hell in a man's own bosom. Paul says of the heathen that they know the righteous judgment of God, &c.
It is because men know that after death there is the judgment, that all their life-time, through fear of death, they are subject to bondage. To the guilty, therefore, death is, must be, and ought to be, the king of terrors.
There are men so stupid that they die as the ox dies. There are others so reckless that they fear not to challenge God to do his worst. Multitudes are in such a state of lethargy at the approach of death that they have no apprehension. These facts do not alter the case. It remains true that for a sinner unreconciled to God, death is the most dreadful of all events, and is so regarded just in proportion as the soul is duly enlightened.
The only possible way to deprive death of its terrors is freedom from sin. But the strength of sin is the law, and the law is the nature of God, and is therefore immutable and inexorable. The law says: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them;" and "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The wages of sin is death." The demands of God's law, which are the demands of God's nature, i.e., of reason and right, must be satisfied. How is this to be done? To this object the efforts of men have been directed, by sacrifices, by asceticism, by self-discipline. To this end men still direct their efforts when awakened. They fast, they pray, they strive to subdue the evil passions; but all in vain.
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has done what we could not do. He has fulfilled the demands of the law, preceptive and penal. He has borne our sins; he was made a curse. God can now be just, and yet justify the ungodly. Those who trust in him are pardoned. Their guilt is removed. They are reconciled to God. Their normal relation to him is restored; and, as a consequence, they are transformed into his image. They are congenial with him. Wherever he is, "the nearer to him, the more blessed." Death to the individual believer is a messenger of grace, an angel sent to bear him nearer to God. Thus the believer can say: "O death, where is thy sting?"
The Scriptures reveal to us that the state on which we enter at death is one of holiness and conscious happiness. Paul in this chapter takes a wider range. Ever since the creation there has been a conflict over
the human race between good and evil, sin and grace, Satan and Christ. Satan apparently triumphed. The race fell under guilt and condemnation. Death reigned over soul and body. Death and the grave were for the time victorious. But Christ assumed our nature. He fulfilled the law. He delivered the soul from the curse and power of sin. He rescued the body from corruption. And when his word is accomplished, all the ransomed saved, and their bodies raised in glory, then will be heard the shout of Cherubim and Seraphim: "O death, where is thy sting?"
Therefore, 1. Believe in Christ. 2. Consecrate yourselves to him. 3. Strive to save your fellow-men.
CCXXXVIII. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man the things God hath prepared for
them that love him. 1 Cor. 2:9
[Jan. 15th, 1865.]
Paul had been accused of not preaching wisdom, and of not delivering his doctrines in the manner of the Greek rhetoricians and orators. In this chapter he teaches four things, after having in the first chapter taught, (1.) That the wisdom of this world was of no account. (2.) That God had determined to make the gospel, which men regard as foolishness, the power of God unto salvation, etc. The four things which he teaches here are 1. That the gospel is true wisdom; not indeed the wisdom of this world, but the wisdom of God. 2. That this wisdom, being undiscoverable by man, had been revealed by God through the Spirit. 3. That in communicating this wisdom, he used the words which the Holy Ghost suggested. 4. That this divine wisdom, or "things of the Spirit," the natural man does not receive, but they are received by those who are spiritual.
There are indeed three interpretations of the passage in which Paul speaks of himself as teaching wisdom. 1. That the wisdom which he taught was an exoteric doctrine, like the Greek mysteries; an arcana disciplina. 2. That while to beginners, to babes, he taught a popular doctrine, to the perfect or advanced he taught a higher doctrine. But first, This as well as the other is unworthy of Paul. He is not apologizing. He is not claiming to teach a system, which his opponent would respect and regard as wisdom. And secondly, he had pronounced the wisdom of this world to be foolishness; he had admitted the gospel to be foolishness to the Greek. Therefore the third interpretation is the true one. The gospel, although not wisdom in the sight of men, is the wisdom of God.
The main idea of the passage is that the gospel is a system of truth, undiscoverable by man, but revealed by God.
This is, 1. A fact. 2. It is a higher form of wisdom than any human knowledge. It is something which is not only undiscoverable, but which transcends all human wisdom in its truth, excellence and importance. 3d. It therefore is to be received, not because it can be proved, but because it has been taught. Confidence in it rests on the testimony of God.
This being the nature of the gospel, we learn, 1st. The state of mind necessary for its reception. We must become fools in order to be wise. We must renounce all human wisdom, in order to be receptive of the wisdom of God.
2. We must experience the teaching of the Spirit in order to receive it or to understand it aright.
3. In teaching it, we must present it, not philosophically but Scripturally. Not rhetorically but simply.
4. We must rejoice in it, and adhere to it, and not allow ourselves to be seduced from it, by the devices of men who teach a philosophy, falsely so called.
LAST WORDS
Papers prepared* during the last year of his life.
CONFERENCE AFTER DR. J. ADDISON ALEXANDER'S DEATH
CCXXXIX. The Lord reigneth, let the
earth rejoice
[Jan. 29th, 1860.]
I. Who is the Lord? II. In what sense does he reign? III. How this gives ground for rejoicing.
I. The Lord is Jehovah, the infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, almighty God.
The Lord is the Logos, the Son, the second person of the Trinity. Proof of this.
The Lord is the Theanthropos. The Redeemer. The risen and ascended Saviour.
II. In what sense does God or the Lord reign?
1. Over the angels.
2. Over the external world.
3. Over the affairs of men as individuals, determining every thing concerning their external circumstances, and their internal life.
4. Over the nations of the earth and all that concerns them.
5. Over the Church; its general destiny, and the course of every denomination. Over the dispensations of his Spirit and over the history of its several individual members.
III. Why the earth should rejoice.
1. Because the e of the Israelites in Egypt.
Their long sojourn in the wilderness.
Their subsevents of the world are not ordered by chance. Nor by fate. But by infinite wisdom, power and love.
Hence the assurance that all things, or the general course of the world will be guided to the accomplishment of the great object God has in view. For example:—
The conditionquent dispersion and captivity.
Their being so widely scattered over the world before the advent.
So the persecutions of the Church in every age. The civil war in England, the restoration of the Stuarts, and all great changes in the world.
So now in the present affairs of Europe, and in our own country, we may be sure that God will overrule all things for good.
2. As to the affairs of the Church, its times of declension and revival, the failure of particular enterprises, of particular missions, the loss of great and good men. We may be sure if the Lord reigns: if the Lord who loved the Church and gave himself for it, has all power in his hands, that all will turn out for the best.
3. When we regard ourselves we may rejoice that the Lord reigns, that he who loved and gave himself for us, who loves us more than a
mother her infant, directs everything concerning us, our health and sickness, our living and dying, our success or failure. Everything shall work for our good.
1. Hence the duty of submission and resignation.
2. The duty of cheerful hope and confidence.
3. The duty of alacrity and diligence in the discharge of all our duties.
This government of God is, 1. Universal.
2. It is absolute—a sovereign.
3. It is consonant with his nature and that of his creatures.
4. It involves the use of second causes and agents.
5. It is mysterious.
6. It is infinite, wise and benevolent.
JOSEPH ADDISON ALEXANDER
He was four years old when his father came to Princeton. His whole education was here.
I. It was conducted in a great degree in his father's family. He had teachers, of course, and went through college. But he was mainly self-educated. His disposition to study was such that he was left to follow his own tastes. Before fourteen he read through the Koran, then Persic, then Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee. Then Greek and Latin. Then the modern languages.
II. His literary culture, or familiarity with the literature of all these languages, and especially his own, was unparalleled.
III. His vast stores of learning in the departments of history, antiquities, of Scriptural interpretation and criticism. All works on all these subjects he had read.
IV. His intellectual powers. 1. His wonderful memory. 2. His power of logic. 3. His comprehensiveness of mind and the power of combination. 4. The vigor and chasteness of his imagination.
V. His ability as a writer, in the possession of language, in conciseness and clearness, purity and vigor of style.
VI. His sincere devotion to the truth. His faith in the infallible authority of the gospel, and his reverence for the word of God, and his thorough orthodoxy notwithstanding his familiarity with all forms of modern, historical, and doctrinal scepticism.
VII. His deep unassuming piety.
CCXL. As I was allowed of God to be put
in trust with the Gospel. 1 Thess. 2:4
[Oct. 21st, 1877.]
I. What does the word "allowed" mean?
The Greek word means, (a.) To try. (b.) To approve. (c.) To see fit. As in Rom. 1:25, the heathen it is said did not like to retain God in their knowledge, i.e., they did not see fit to do it. Allowed does not mean to judge fit, in the sense that Paul was made a minister on account of his own merits, nor on the ground of the foresight of what he would be, but that it was an act of God's sovereign grace. So in the account of his conversion, 1 Tim. 2:13, he gives thanks to Christ. In 1 Cor. 7:25, he says he had obtained mercy to be found faithful. He regarded his being put into the ministry as great and undeserved mercy, etc.
II. What is the gospel? It is the glad news contained in the plan of salvation revealed in the Scriptures. It is not a code of morals, nor a cultus, nor a life; it is a system of doctrines concerning God and concerning man and Christ. This work is the plan of salvation; through him is the offer of that salvation to all who will consent to be saved in that way. It is called the wisdom of God, so contrasted with the wisdom of men, i.e., what God has revealed as opposed to what reason teaches. Hence to be put in trust with the gospel means to be a steward of the mysteries, i.e., the truths revealed by God.
Two things are included in the gospel, the truth and the proclamation of that truth. The gospel is a report—something heard.
III. In what sense is the gospel a "trust?"
Two things are included in a trust, or two duties of a trustee. 1. The safe custody of what is committed to his care, and 2. The right administration. A steward has these two duties.
As to the first. It must be preserved in safety, and preserved from deterioration. If gold is committed to a man, he must not deposit it in an insecure place; he must defend it, and preserve it. He can't substitute worthless paper for it. The gospel is the most precious treasure, far more so than gold or power. The minister is bound to preserve it, and not substitute the worthless products of his own brain for it. He must use it, not keep it hid in a napkin. He must use it for the purpose for which it was designed, not for his own advantage.
Paul says of himself, 1. That he acted not as pleasing men, but God. 2. Not using flattery. 3. Not covetously. 4. Not seeking glory of men.
The guilt of an unfaithful trustee is great.
His doom dreadful.
The reward and blessedness of a faithful minister the greatest conceivable.
CCXLI. Let every one please his neighbor
for good to edification. Rom. 15:2
[November 18th, 1877.]
The apostle makes a special application of the principle here stated, to the conduct of the strong in reference to the weak. Taken by itself, it is the injunction of the comprehensive duty of courtesy. The etymology and frequent usage of that word would confine it to what is outward, i.e., to polished manners. Court, courtier, and courtesy are nearly allied. Court, palace of a king; courtier, one who frequents a court; courtesy, the style of manners becoming a court. But the word has a higher meaning. The word court means also the art of pleasing, to pay court; to court is to endeavor to please; courtesy is the desire and effort to please arising from a good motive and directed to a right end. This is precisely what the apostle enjoins. The sycophant and flatterer desires to please but not for edification. He acts for a selfish motive, and for a selfish object. A courteous man endeavors to please for a good motive and for a good object. Every Christian, so far as his Christianity moulds his character and controls his character, is courteous.
The sum of Christian wisdom is to be Christ-like. We are not to please ourselves, even as Christ pleased not himself.
Nothing can exceed the courtesy of Christ and his condescension, kindness, and tenderness towards the humble, the poor, the suffering, and the penitent. "Woman, hath no man condemned thee?" etc. Many of the earlier Christians wished to expunge that paragraph. But no purer, brighter ray shines upon the earthly life of our Lord than that which fell upon him when he uttered those words.
Courtesy has a negative side. It is manifested by avoiding to give pain. 1. By impressing others with their inferiority, of their position, of their knowledge, their talents, their force in argument, or their liberality. The strong among the Corinthians despised the narrowness and weakness of their scrupulous brethren. 2. By in any way hurting their feelings.
The positive or affirmative of this virtue, is the endeavor to please, to heal wounded feelings, to inspire confidence and affection.
This is the way to do good; whatever alienates the people from a teacher tends to alienate them from what he teaches, and on the contrary. Example of Paul. Be infused with the spirit of the gospel. Do to others what you would have them do to you.
CCXLII. Above all these things put on Charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Col. 3:14
[December 14th, 1877.]
These words come after an exhortation to the practice of the Christian virtues of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forgiveness. In addition to all these put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Not perfect bond, but that which renders perfect. Love is that which unites all the other virtues into one complete whole. It is compared to the outer garment which completes the array of the person.
Another interpretation. As in 11th v. Paul has said in the Church and in Christ: "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all;" he is understood to say here v. 14, that love is this unifying principle, which binds together all the otherwise discordant members of the Church. Ἀγάπη, in Greek Scriptures used, 1st. of
love, benevolence, kindness to our fellow-men. 2. of God's love to us. 3. of our love to God. 4. Of brotherly love among Christians. 5. Of love in general as a Christian grace, without specification of its object. It is spoken of in 1 Cor. 13. Its characteristics are 1. Suffereth long. 2. Is kind. 3. Does not envy. 4. Vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. 5. Doth not behave itself unseemly. 6. Seeketh not its own. 7. Is not easily provoked. 8. Thinketh no evil. 9. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. 10. Beareth all things, believeth all things hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Of this love it is taught, 1. That without this all other passions are worthless, all professions, all hopes, are empty and vain. No amount of knowledge, or orthodoxy, or of power, natural or supernatural, no almsgiving or devotion to the poor, no church membership, no assiduity in all religious duties, is of any avail.
2. That this love is the fruit of faith. It cannot exist without it, and faith without it is dead. Why?
3. It is the bond of perfectness. (a.) It unites all the Christian virtues, (b.) It unites all the members of Christ's body.
4. It is the image of God. It makes us like Christ.
5. It is the beauty and blessedness of heaven. Perfection of the religion of the Bible.
1. Not Ritualism.
2. Not mere benevolence.
3. Not orthodoxy.
4. But faith in the doctrines revealed, which faith produces love and all its fruits.
CCXLIII. Christian Stability
[Feb. 10th, 1878.]
The exhortation "stand fast" occurs no less than six times; and still more frequently the same duty is enjoined in equivalent forms of expression. The duty, therefore, is one of primary importance.
There are two requisites to standing fast, viz., something to stand upon, and strength. A man may have his feet on a rock, yet if he be as weak as a rag, he cannot stand; and no matter how strong he is, if his feet are on quick-sand, he cannot be stable.
FIRST, as to the ground on which to stand.
1. It must be truth. 2. Right principles. Truth is permanent, error is changeable, and therefore in every department, unless a man's views are correct, there is no security for his stability. But as our subject is Christian Stability, the truth demanded is religious truth, the truth of the Bible. Some men's faith rests on tradition, that of others on speculation, and that of others still, on feeling. They believe what is agreeable to them.
These foundations are all unstable. The traditions of the Pharisees have all passed away; the traditions of the Church change from age to age. Speculation results in philosophy, than which nothing is more unstable; e.g., the different schools of Greek philosophy, of the middle ages, of our own day, as Rationalism, Pantheism, Materialism, Atheism, and now Pessimism.
Feeling. Many believe in God; they believe in his mercy, but not justice, not in salvation by blood, not in depravity, not in God's sovereignty, not in eternal punishment. The only stable foundation is the Bible; the firm conviction that the Bible is the word of God, that what it teaches is true infallibly. The only ground of this faith, which
is stable, is the witness of the Spirit. True experimental religion is the only security against error, and the only security for stability.
Right Principles are necessary; not expediency, not self-interest or the interest of parties, but what is right.
SECOND, we must have STRENGTH. There is much difference naturally among men, but the strength needed is not our own. It is of the Lord. It is his, and his gift. If we trust in ourselves, we fall.
CCXLIV. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. 2 Pet. 3:18
[Feb. 24th, 1878.]
Few words in the New Testament are of more frequent occurrence or of more varied application than the word grace. All its specific meanings spring from its primary sense of undeserved love. The love of a parent is not grace; but the love of a superior to an inferior, and especially to the undeserving, is grace. Hence the love of God to sinners is grace. It is a wonderful and glorious attribute; not mere compassion, but love, delight in its object. Hence any gift flowing from this undeserved love is grace, as repentance, faith, etc., etc. Hence, also, the great gift, the influence of the Spirit, is preeminently grace; then the effect which the Spirit produces, φρόνημα τοῦ πεύματος, spiritual-mindedness, i.e., the new heart, the law on the mind. The word has, therefore, an objective and a subjective sense. Here it is used in the latter sense. To grow in grace is to grow in piety.
1. The new nature is a new life, and all life is progression; vegetable, animal, rational and spiritual. All these have their limits. Spiritual life does not reach its limit in this world. Paul says, when he was a child, he had not the perfection of a man.
2. Wherein this growth consists. It consists mainly in increase of knowledge and increase of strength; strength to resist evil and to do good, to preserve a right state inwardly and a right action outwardly.
3. The conditions of growth, are nourishment, air, exercise, light and heat. It is so in plants, in animals, in rational life, and in spiritual life. The nourishment of spiritual life is truth. Exercise is bringing into action all Christian graces, action inward and outward. Light and heat are the presence and communion of God and Christ. The air is the constant sense of nearness to God.
4. Cultivation, in this case, is the diligent use of the means of grace. The farmer must labor; so must the student, and so also the Christian. Good fruit will not grow of itself; neither will the mind, nor will piety.
5. Connection of growth in grace and knowledge of Christ. In one sense they are identical. In another, the latter is the means of the former. We grow in grace as we grow in the knowledge of Christ.
Importance of this subject:
We go back unless we go forward.
We go forward only by labor.
We cannot float up stream.
CCXLV. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense
of reward. Heb. 10:35
[March 3d, 1878.]
The apostle addresses his readers in this chapter, as a general would address his army, engaged in a desperate battle. Every thing depended on their holding their ground. If they broke their ranks, or fell back, destruction was inevitable and direful.
These Christians were exposed to the severest persecutions, and the most insidious seductions. Their situation was analogous to that of the ancient Hebrews surrounded by enemies, who often persecuted and often allured them. The latter form of trial was the more dangerous and the more frequently successful. The one great unpardonable and fatal offence under the Old Testament was apostacy from the worship of Jehovah. This was punishable by death. It admitted of no repentance.
The apostle strives to impress upon his readers, that their danger was the same, their crime if they forsook Christ would be greater, and their punishment far more severe. It was greater, as much as Christ was greater than Moses, and his blood more sacred than that of bulls and goats.
We need this caution and exhortation. A ship sailing rapidly in a smooth sea, among hidden reefs and shoals, is often in more danger than when tossed about by a hurricane in mid-ocean. In the one case all on board are secure and careless, in the other all are watchful and alert.
Our danger is,
1. From within; an evil heart, not to be despised, not to be neglected, but strenuously watched.
2. From the influence of the world, its avocations, its amusements, its spirit, its opinions leading to indifference, latitudinarianism and infidelity.
3. The powers of wickedness in high places.
Our security, is perseverance. This is often insisted on in the Scriptures. When a man is overboard, it is not the first grasp of the rope that saves him. That is essential; but it is equally essential that he hold on. So a soldier in battle. So the Christian. He may hold on through life, but make shipwreck at the end.
This confidence—παρρησία—includes inward faith and hope, outwardly, frankness and confession. Both are necessary. The Christians in the time of persecution were required to confess as well as to believe.
How this is to be secured. Here, as everywhere, the grace is a gift, but must be cultivated. The soldier must cultivate courage—determine to be brave. We must look constantly to Christ, who is our strength.
Great recompense of reward, conditioned on perseverance. It is infinite, i.e., inconceivable, inexhaustible, unending. We shall be like Christ and share his glory.
CCXLVI. Occupy till I come
[March 10th, 1878.]
The oldest, most plausible, and the most commonly repeated objection to salvation by grace is that it destroys the necessity of good works and also their importance. If men are not saved for their works, works are not necessary; if God is as willing to save the chief of sinners as the most moral of men, good works are not important. And, moreover, if the grace of God is more manifested in the salvation of the wicked than of the good, then the worse we are the better. These objections were made against Paul's doctrine, and he answers them. They have been repeated a million times since. As the same objections were urged against the apostle's teaching as are urged against the Protestant doctrine, it proves that our doctrine is the same as his.
The truth is, that good works are as necessary under the Gospel as under the law. It is still true that "without holiness no man shall see God," that no adulterer, or drunkard, or reviler, or extortioner, or avaricious man, or liar, can enter into the kingdom of God. The necessity of good works is the same; the ground of that necessity is different. Under the law the ground is that moral works and reward stand in the relation of service and hire. Under the Gospel the necessity arises,
1. From the nature of God and the immutability of the moral law.
2. From the nature of faith, which is fruitful in good works, or it is not saving.
3. From the nature of salvation, which is a deliverance from sin.
4. From our relation to God as his children. We are not his children unless we reverence, love and obey him.
5. From our relation to Christ as partakers of his life. We are not partakers of his life, unless we live as he lived.
TWO CLASSES OF THESE GOOD WORKS
I. Those religious and moral duties which are founded on our relation to God and our fellow-creatures.
II. Those we owe to Christ as his servants.
A slave is bound to be a religious and moral man, to be kind to his family and neighbors, but he is also bound to serve his master, to do the work assigned him. Such, indeed, is our relation to Christ, that these two classes are only different phases; for all religious and moral duties may be regarded as service rendered to him. Nevertheless, it is well to consider them distinct in their relations.
The command, "occupy till I come," has reference to the latter class.
What are talents? All our physical and mental gifts, all our attainments, all our influence, all our time, everything capable of being used in his service are talents.
1. Our duty is to regard these advantages as gifts, not as natural or acquired endowments, but as things given for a definite purpose.
2. They are given, not to be used for ourselves, our society, or for the world, but for Christ. It is a higher thing to use them for the community and for mankind, than for ourselves, but it is not serving Christ unless done as such. A man may perform all his circle of secular, political duties, but if a religious man, he would do it as serving God, and if a Christian, as serving Christ.
3. These talents, as they are not to be used for our own ends, so they are not to be used at our discretion. The slave and soldier must do as he is directed. He cannot follow his own will, or his own judgment. So we have a prescribed rule. Many men think they can serve Christ in a better way than that prescribed in the Bible (neglecting the order prescribed, commanding what Christ has not commanded.)
4. We are to give an account of the use of these talents. The servant who did not use his was condemned. What shall be done to those who misuse theirs? or who use them for their own selfish purposes?
5. Men will be rewarded according to their fidelity. Not according to their success, but according to their desire and effort to serve Christ. This is consistent with free grace.
6. When we look back, how much we have to humble us. When we look forward, how much we have to animate and encourage. "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me."
CCXLVII. My Lord and my God. Jno.
20:28
[March 31st, 1878.]
I. This is not an exclamation.
1. Because such exclamations were abhorrent to the Jews.
2. It would be without an example in the Scriptures.
3. It is by its form necessarily an address; Thomas said to him, i.e., to Jesus. He acknowledged Christ to be his Lord and God.
II. Meaning of the words, or the difference between the words Lord and God.
Κὐριος, lord, means owner, and as ownership includes control, hence Κὐριος expressed (a.) The idea of Lordship founded on possession, as Lord of the vineyard, Lord of slaves, Lord of the whole earth. (b.) The Lordship without reference to its ground; hence kings are called lords, so also heads of families, husbands, teachers, etc. (c.) Hence a mere title of courtesy as dominus, mister, etc. (d.) As applied to God, it retains its relative meaning. It expresses the relation of God to his creatures as their owner and absolute ruler. It is used hundreds of times in the Septuagint for God inappropriately, as when it is substituted for Jehovah, Shaddai and for Elohim, and not only for Adhôn and Adhonai. Hence in the New Testament it is used for Christ. He is our Lord, in the sense in which Jehovah was the Lord of the Hebrews. He was their absolute owner and ruler. Christ owns us both as Creator and Redeemer.
What the word "God" means passes all understanding and imagination.
It is easy to say "God is a Spirit infinite, eternal," etc. etc. But who can comprehend the infinite? We know that a being infinite in his Being and perfections must be (a.) The object of adoration, (b.) of supreme love, (c.) of absolute submission. (d.) The ground of
confidence. (e.) That his favor is spiritual and eternal life. All that God is Christ is. All that is due to God is due to Christ.
What is the force of the word "my?" It is a possessive pronoun. It means not only that Christ is the person whom we acknowledge and confess to be our Lord and God, to the exclusion of all other persons out of the Godhead; but that he stands in the relation of Lord and God to us and that we stand in a corresponding relation to him; that he is to us Lord and God, that we recognize his ownership and authority, depend on his protection, adore, love, trust and serve him as our Lord and God.
This it is to be a Christian. "No man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Ghost." Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God is born of God. The way in which a man becomes a Christian is by having Christ revealed to him as Lord and God. And the way in which men grow in grace is by growing in the knowledge of Christ.
The great duty of men, therefore, is preaching Christ. The blessed glory of heaven is to know Christ as we are known.
CCXLVIII. Fight the good light of faith. 1
Tim. 6:12
[April 14th, 1878.]
The fight of faith may mean first the fight which faith wages; in which faith is one of the contending parties; the world, the flesh, and the devil is the other party. In this case faith is to be taken in the subjective sense. It is an inward organ by which we perceive things unseen and eternal, and through which we experience their favor. In this view the fight of faith is that spiritual conflict which is so fully described in Gal. 5. and Eph. 6 and elsewhere. Second. It may mean the fight for the faith. The command, then, is the same as in Jude ver. 3: "Contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to
the saints." In this case faith is used objectively for the doctrines believed. Paul speaks of those who have "erred from the faith." He speaks of himself as having "kept the faith." He draws a broad distinction between the "wisdom of the world," and the "wisdom of God." By the former he means the opinions or convictions which men arrive at by speculation. These may be either true or false. In neither case do they belong to the category of faith.
By the wisdom of God he means the truths supernaturally revealed by God; things which "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." These constitute the faith for which we are to contend.
They are objects of faith, because they are received on testimony, the testimony of God. The faith therefore delivered to the saints and which we are to preserve, propagate and transmit, are the truths supernaturally revealed which are contained in the Scriptures.
1. The first necessary condition of contention for the faith is the firm conviction that the Bible is the infallible rule of faith, i.e., that whatever the Bible teaches God teaches, and therefore is infallibly true, and consequently no man can reject it without rejecting the testimony of God. If a man allows himself to depart from what he sees the Bible teaches, there is no security for him. He may believe anything.
2. A firm conviction of the importance of the things thus revealed. Without holiness, no man can see God, and without truth there can be no believers. Our own salvation and that of others depends on the truth. Look at the heathen world and those once Christian countries which have lost the truth.
3. An inward experience of the power of the truth. No man contends for anything which he does not value. The want of this experience is the great source of error.
The way to contend for the truth is,
First, to confess it, to proclaim it. The power is in the truth.
Second. To answer misrepresentations and gainsayers.
This should be done with meekness, speaking the truth in love, remembering that Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God who gives the increase.
THE VERY LAST
CCXLIX. The Administration of the Lord's Supper to the Graduating Class
[April 21st, 1878.]
I. Read the Scriptures relating to it.
II. Nature and Design.
1. A Commemoration.
2. A Communion.
3. A Consecration by Covenant.
I. Commemoration.
Includes (1.) Administration. This, in the present instance, rises to adoration; not simply adoration, but the peculiar form of it due to God in fashion of a man. Not only does he possess all divine perfection, the ἀπαύγασμα of the Father's glory, but he is also clothed with the perfection and loveliness of humanity. It is this that makes him the central point of the universe to whom all eyes are turned.
(2.) Gratitude. First, the benefits. Deliverance (a.) from hell, (b.) power of Satan (c.) and sin, (d.) restoration to the favor and fellowship of God, (e.) fellowship with Christ, including participation with his life and glory. Second, the cost at which these benefits were secured. Christ's humiliation and suffering.
II. A Communion. (1.) An act and means of participation. We participate in his body and blood, i.e., of their sacrificial virtue. (2.) The effect of this makes us (a.) one with him, (b.) one body.
Illustration from the Jewish rites. Participation at the altar made a man a Jew—a partaker of the benefits of the Theocracy. So participation of the heathen sacrifices effected a union with the objects of worship.
In this ordinance our union with Christ and with each other is far more intimate.
III. Consecration.
We cannot commemorate Christ as our Saviour without thereby acknowledging ourselves to be his, the purchase of his blood and devoted to his service.
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Princeton Sermons, by Charles Hodge Copyright © 2021
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