262 I HAVE SET BEFORE THEE THE BLESSING, ETC.

the Maran-atha? Its simple meaning in the Syriac is, our Lord cometh. It appears here as a kind of watchword, passing between the Christian teacher or apostle and his disciples. That watchword the Christian sentinel repeats from hour to hour. Oh, let it lend force to our last exhortation and warning from God this last night of the year. Let this solemn witness and affirmation of Christ's Church in early days be no obsolete and forgotten form of speech. Maran-atha, our Lord cometh; not the Lord, but our. Let the Advent leave those tones still ringing in our ears; for " every one that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”* "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless."+

Let us carry on the sound, and hand it down to those that come after, if so be He come not as yet. Let it be one of our thoughts each morning when we rise through the new year; so shall our lights be kept burning, our heart's affections more living and warm, till the day come and the shadows flee away, and the Maran-atha of the Church shall be exchanged for that song of praise and realized joy: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us : this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."‡

*

I John iii. 3.

+ 2 Pet. iii. 14.

Isa. xxv. 9.

XVII.

The Church's Office as arising out of Infant Baptism.

MATT. xxviii. 19, 20.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

WE may well approach with deep reverence the

words of the risen Lord; especially these last words, the words spoken in those last hours, into which were compressed the momentous instructions which were to serve for His Church's guidance to the end of time. They are variously expressed for us by the four evangelists; so that all the four both mutually elucidate and mutually supplement each other. By the virtual and practical agreement which is between them, all our faith is established, while by the variations our interest is deepened and intensified, as well as our information enlarged.

We take St. Matthew's words as the basis of these last instructions before the Ascension-not taking them to-day in the missionary aspect, in which they are commonly regarded, but as embodying generally the commission and office of the Church, and the authority vested in it; the instructions on which it is to act, the object it is to aim at, and the methods by which it is to seek to further and promote that object; together with the sure and abiding promise on which it may rest.

First, then, we are struck with the width and breadth of the commission thus entrusted to the Apostles and their successors. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." St. Mark has it, "Goye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to all the creation" (in the English version, "to every creature");* St. Luke, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem: "+ whilst he limits the first commencement of the preaching, there is no limit imposed as to the further expansion and extension of it. St. John, recording our Lord's charge," delivered at an earlier date in these forty days, has it: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."‡ Here is an equal breadth and illimitableness reported on the part of all the evangelists in different and various, but not discrepant, forms of speech. From marge to marge of this world's vast horizon no exception is made for those who, for hoary antiquity's sake, for the strong hold achieved on the popular mind, because of roots struck deep in respect to the sympathies and habits of mankind, might claim reprieve or exemption from this world-wide decree. In the sphere of the commission and authority thus delivered is nothing found of exception or exemption: Go ye into all the world; to every creature; to all the nations. "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Most ingenious devices have been struck out to escape from this conclusion. Some saying the world meant the church; others the civilized world, not the African or South Sea Islander; but still the great word of God's unfathomable, illimitable love returns upon us; and * Mark xvi. 15. + Luke xxiv. 47. John xx. 23.

those who dispute its terms, after making what they can of it, have to leave it where and as they find it; and while their glosses and narrow comments perish, the original text is ours and our children's ; thank God for it.

Secondly, if such is the breadth of the commission, then it is important to know what the commission itself is. We perceive that the commission is the right of admission into God's great covenant made with Christ, in the behalf of man, before the worlds; made in particular with Abraham and the patriarchs, with David and the prophets; called therefore the Old and New Covenant. Old, because older than the law in God's purpose and in the first announcements; new, because its full disclosure and announcement, the breaking forth of it as a great sunlight upon a sin-shadowed, sorrow-blighted world, was after the law in point of time. The old covenant of the law came in as a partial and temporary interruption of the overflow of God's grace. The hands of the clock, as it were, were put back a while for a necessary purpose, before the hour of redemption struck, and the year of the covenant, and..of the great Gospel jubilee, was ushered in. But now the seal is broken, the proclamation of the covenant is fully, freely made; obstructions have been cleared; the breaking of the bars of death and the grave has removed barriers and interruptions. He that has the key of the house of David has. rolled back the bolts of the long closed door. He has opened, and none can shut. And the words in which He announces the unrestricted admission into the new covenant, have a correspondence to words in which the Lord. was pleased to announce the covenant to Abraham. The Lord appeared, and said, "I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make

my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly."* So here, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;"" go ye therefore, and

teach all nations." Thus the Church is commissioned to announce this. Put into the compass of a few short words it is, as St. Luke reports: "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Or as St. Mark: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." And St. Matthew is still shorter: "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations." We might show, had we time, how there are embraced in these words all the promises of the new covenant; as in repentance, for example, the promise of the stony heart being taken away, and the heart of flesh given: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." In the preaching of the remission of sins, the covenant promise, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” In making disciples of all nations we find reference to the promise, They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."

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It was the making known, then, of this great covenant promise, not so much binding men with the yoke of command to repent, believe, and obey, but promising them the gift of that Holy Spirit, through whom this should be wrought in them: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh; I will give you an * Gen. xvii. I. + Luke xxiv. 46, 47. Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.