untouched by any merit of these. Yet even in sacrifices, appointed as they were by God Himself, there was still felt by the intelligent and devout Israelite to be something lacking something was still to be got at, behind and beyond them. And accordingly we find David, in the anguish of his heart, under a feeling of transgression, and a desire to purge himself of it, and a longing to know the way of doing so yet more clearly, exclaiming, "Turn thy face from my sins, and put out all my misdeeds ;" and then adding, "Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee; but Thou delightest not in burnt offerings;" and we find Job, in a similar frame of mind, and under a similar consciousness that the true remedy for guilt was not yet fully revealed, crying, "Oh! that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat !" Our Blessed Lord, therefore, drew all men unto Him as soon as He was lifted up, because He then published a principle to mankind which made its appeal at once, and irresistibly, to the heart of every human being that breathes, if they would but consult their hearts honestly. And though it is true that a sect there is, calling themselves Socinians, who pretend to set this principle at nought, and accept the Gospel without accepting the Atonement (which is like believing in astronomy without believing in the sun), yet that sect has never been able to take root among the people, and never will; because their scheme wants that great principle which human nature craves for with an intense desire some fountain of forgiveness out of ourselves- some atonement for sin in some dependent of aught we can suffer or do ourselves · footing for relief from inward apprehension planted without. And this craving does but increase and wax stronger as we grow in years, and as the catalogue of our misdeeds lengthens, and as we see the day of reckoning approaching; for life, as it ebbs, sets men to think more closely what is to come next-what they have to fly to-and what they have to answer for. Our thoughts begin then to rise up in us, as they rose up in Samuel, when he was "old and greyheaded," and witness against us, "whose ox we have taken, or whose ass we have taken, or whom we have defrauded, whom we have oppressed." And at such moments, dismal, I think, must be that man's prospect who has in his creed no Cross to cleave to and firmly do I believe that many of that persuasion of which I have spoken, do feel their confidence in their faith shaken, when this hour of its trial comes; and feel too what a staff they have cast from them, when the Cross they put away. But we, my friends, have not so learned our Bibles. Had not Christ been lifted up, we acknowledge that the Gospel would have had little besides "to draw" us unto it; and we should have been dwellers in a world forlorn. The thought that we had no Saviour to fly to, but must depend on our own merits alone, and stand or fall by them for ever, would have poisoned everything that life has in it of sweet and enjoyable. We should have wandered in it restless and perplexed, in the spirit of Cain, feeling that our burden was greater than we could bear, and that we were driven from the presence of God, and could return to it no more. As it is, we are in possession of that which gives a charm to life, the blessing of a good hope. I say of a good hope - because it is a hope not founded upon ourselves, or upon any thing we have done, or can do ; but upon One Mightier and Higher-upon One who can understand man, his wants and weaknesses, because He has been man,-and who can intercede with God for us successfully, being at His right hand, and indeed One with Him. Thus He is in a condition to bring God and man together, having in Himself combined the natures of both; and by means of that union redeemed man from death by paying his ransom, and satisfying God's justice which could not let sin go free. What then ought to be our gratitude to God for our enjoyment of this unspeakable consolation, even the knowledge that He has provided us "a Man that is as an hidingplace from the wind, a covert from the tempest, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land?" What should be our love to Him who has Himself, of His own free will, abasing Himself of His Majesty, bowing Himself to the death, taken this office of mercy upon Him? How can we show our love to Him who has so loved us? Read the fourteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, and our Blessed Lord Himself will tell you tell you, repeating it again, and again, and again, that no man may ever after deceive you. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments," says He at the fifteenth verse of that chapter. He proceeds in the conversation there recorded, and at the twenty-first verse again He says, "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." He proceeds once more, and again at the twenty-third verse He says, "If a man love Me he will keep My words." And once more, in the twenty-fourth, "He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings." Who, after this, will continue in sin, because grace abounds? 213 SERMON XXV. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 1 CORINTHIANS, xv. 36. "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." Ir is remarkable that St. Paul calls the man who throws out difficulties and doubts about a resurrection. a fool. Yet no one can see a corpse, much more the dust of a corpse, without thinking how much is to be done before those poor remains can be quickened again. It is a sight, it might be imagined, to stagger faith, as much as any whatever; and no doubt, it was this spectacle which chiefly led the Sadducees of old to question the resurrection, as well as such heathens of old as were wise in their own eyes. Yet for all this, I say, St. Paul calls the man a fool who can seriously entertain a question about the matter. There must be, therefore, as he supposed, many strong reasons to convince any man, who will turn this most solemn subject in his mind, of the fact of a resurrection. We will consider some of these; for such consideration is a natural means of increasing our faith. Now, in the first place, there is no more difficulty in believing that we shall rise again, than in believing we have been brought into life at all. It is not more sur prising that Almighty God should gather up our dust and animate it again, than that He should have put it together at first, and animated it at first. Our resurrection is not more The two works are just of wonderful than our creation. the same kind; both bespeaking the finger of God, and the one not more than the other. The power which sufficed to give figure to that which was shapeless, to set in order that which was in confusion, to articulate that which was disjointed, to give life to that which did not live, will suffice also to combine that which shall be dissolved, to raise that which shall be prostrate, to quicken that which shall be dead, and to change the mortal into the immortal.* 2. In the next place, there is no more difficulty in believing that we shall rise again with fresh bodies, than in believing that we have now different bodies from what we had twenty years ago-yet it is very certain we have. We feel ourselves to be the same beings we were twenty years ago, nay the same which we were in our childhood; yet it is questionable whether there is the least particle of our bodies the same now as it was then. with our bodies, as time now deals with them, only with greater dispatch; and as they survive the changes of time, so will they survive the changes of death-and be triumphant over both. Death will by and by deal 3. In the third place, if there is any thing in the separation of body and soul, which takes place at death, to stagger our belief that they will ever be united again, why should not the same difficulty beset us with respect to sleep or a swoon? Sleep has been called death's brother—and certainly nothing resembles it more the senses suspended, the soul apparently absent; yet this does not stand in the way of the speedy revival of both; nay, so far from their having * Athenagoras. |