408

The Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity.

MORNING SERVICE.-The Works of Christ and the Believer, John xiv.

Verse 12.-" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

OUR Saviour's works upon earth consisted of two kinds. The one kind He performed as Mediator, the other He performed as man. In His work as Mediator He was exclusive, none could assist, nor imitate Him; they comprised all that He came to accomplish in working out the scheme of redemption, by which God and man can be reconciled, by which alone God can be glorified in the salvation of a rebellious world. In His works as man He laid down a perfect rule of morality for the guidance of all His followers, so that every believer of whatever station may look to Him as his patron, and imitate Him as his great exemplar.

To these works He directs the attention of the disciples in the text, showing both the duty and the privilege of those who acknowledged and trusted in Him. Three enquiries suggest themselves to the mind in reading this passage of scripture. First, What works are common to Christ and the believer? secondly, In what do the works of the believer excel His? and, thirdly, For what reasons do they excel.

I. The works which are common to Christ and the believer. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also."

Observe, there is a qualification necessary, without which

no one can rightly imitate Christ. "He that believeth in me." Without faith it is impossible to please God. It is faith that gives the power and energy which is necessary to please God in imitation of the example of Christ. Such a power does not compel, but attract the mind to God, just as the needle is attracted to the loadstone. The force of attraction is not in the needle but in the loadstone, still the needle must be composed of the right material, common iron, or even silver or gold would not reciprocate the force, nothing except genuine steel can be thus acted upon. The spiritual attractive power is in God, but nothing except genuine faith can qualify the believer to imitate the works of Christ as man.

Those works consisted

1. In obedience to the will of God. He came to do the will of the Father; in compliance with that object He rendered perfect obedience to every command of the Divine law. If we would be His followers we must render the like obedience, not in the same perfection, but from the same principle, which is that of love to God, and a desire to please Him. He being without sin was not subject to the deviations to which our sinful nature is susceptible, consequently a perfect imitation is above the mark to which we can hope to attain, still, in all we do we must aim at no lower standard than His example.

2. They were works of teaching. "Never man spake like this man." Doctrines and precepts had been previously taught to the world. Philosophers and moralists had advanced theories of considerable worth for the guidance of human conduct, many of which, however, being founded on mere conjecture without sufficient data, tended to distract rather than satisfy the mind. Moses and the prophets, being aided by Divine revelation, declared the will of God as received in visions and dreams, in signs and symbols, which were, nevertheless inadequate for the wants of mankind. Christ, on His part, came from the bosom of the Father, revealed the whole of God's character, the whole of man's duty, and the whole of the realities of the present and future world. These doctrines He committed to the charge of His followers, so that as they were taught of Him, they might teach others.

3. They were works of charity. He "went about doing good." All His actions, whether private or public, had a tendency to relieve the necessities of the sick, the bereaved, the poor, and the needy; all of which He did that we may go and do likewise.

4. They were works of refers chiefly in the text. also." What mostly attracted the attention and excited the admiration of the people in respect to Christ were the miracles which He wrought. Not that those miracles were to them a proof of His Divine nature, for they knew that miracles of equal magnitude had been wrought by Moses, Elijah, and some others of their ancient prophets; but they felt that the miracles were a proof of His Divine mission. They could reciprocate the feeling of Nicodemus when he said, "No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Our Saviour assures His disciples that as the Father had sent Him, so He was about to send them. He thus transferred the power of working miracles to His immediate followers, that their ministry might be confirmed by the signs which should accompany it, and be established by those miraculous evidences. As miracles are a suspension ora counteraction of the laws of nature, Divine power is absolute in their performance, for no one has the power of disorganizing the order of fixed laws but the Author of those laws Himself. Christ and His apostles having been endowed with the power which they possessed is an incontestible evidence that as the former so were the latter sent from God.

miracles. To these, I believe, He "The works that I do shall ye do

But we shall enquire more especially—

II. In what particulars do the works of the believer excel the works of Christ? "Greater works than these shall he do." The excellency does not consist in the imposing magnitude of the works, nor in the Divine energy necessary to render them effectual, but it must be in the different aspects taken of the works themselves.

1. The dispensational changes required of the operation of

He

the believer's works render them greater than Christ's. was born of a woman and under the law. During His life He observed the regulations of the ceremonial law; He lived and died subject to the ordinances of the Mosaic economy. The Christian believer is "not under the law, but under grace." After our Saviour's resurrection from the dead the dispensation was changed, and His ascension to heaven was the epoch of a brighter era to the world, an era of more transcendent glory, an era of clearer light and more extended privileges, an era in which the Gentiles as well as the Jews should share the benefits of a Divine covenant. So great was the change that the Sabbath-day was transferred from the seventh day to the first day of the week.

2. The works of the believer excel in the extent of their limits. "I was not sent," said Christ, "but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." His personal ministry was confined exclusively to the Jews; even amongst them He had but few followers, the greatest number of whom we read were five hundred brethren who saw Him at once, and those were chiefly of the poorer and inferior classes of society; when the baffled officers sent to apprehend Him returned to their employers, they were justly asked, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?" The son of a carpenter did not attract the faith and approbation of those who were in the higher stations of life. In giving their commission to His followers He says, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Under the very first sermon preached by the disciples after His ascension three thousand souls were added to the Church. Those men "turned the world upside down." Not only did the inhabitants of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee flock to their standard, but Asia, Europe, and Africa were filled with their doctrines, and not many ages elapsed before they could number emperors, kings, and princes among their ranks. "Greater works than these shall he do."

3. The spiritual nature of the works shewed their excellency. Christ in working miracles operated on matter; His followers

in preaching the Gospel operated on mind: which think, you, is the most difficult to subdue? We do not find that matter ever offered any opposition to the touch of Divine power. When it was first created God merely said, Let it be, and it was. Look at Christ standing on the deck of that little ship, in the midst of the pelting storm and raging billows, which threatened to engulph the whole into the cavern of the sea of Galilee. He merely lifted up His hand and said, "Peace, be still;" and there was a great calm. But mind is not so submissive to a command. There is an obstinacy in the will, a resistence in the inclinations of the heart, which require an extra effort to conquer it. Christ's miracles benefited the bodies of men; His followers aim at benefiting their souls. As the soul is of infinitely greater value, to save a soul is a greater work than to save a body.

4. The durable effects of the works of the believer render them greater. The effects of Christ's miraculous works were transient. The sick whom He healed were afterwards subject to disease, the dead whom he restored to life fell again victims to death, and were seized by the arms of corruption. The effects of the spiritual operations of His followers are permanent; a soul once saved is saved for ever. As it is in its nature immortal, and will survive the wreck of nature, so will the salvation obtained by the Gospel be co-existent with its being. Time is the measurement of all material operations; eternity itself will be the measurement of spiritual works. "Greater works than these shall he do."

III. We have the reason why the works of the believer are greater than the miraculous works of Christ. "Because I go unto the Father."

Two important sequences were dependent upon Christ's ascension to the Father.

1. It was a pledge of the descent of the Holy Ghost to earth, by whose agency the works of the believer were to excel. On a subsequent occasion He tells the disciples, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away: