mity of transgression be an obstacle to an immediate acceptance of his unspeakable gift. Sinners entertain most injurious thoughts of forgiving mercy. They measure it by their own contractedness. Be persuaded, brethren, that Jehovah is as far above you in grace as he is in majesty. You profess to believe that there is merit enough in Jesus to save you, but doubt his willingness to apply it to such sinners. This is accursed pride, vailed in the garb of humility. "If you were not such atrocious offenders, you would more easily take courage." That is, if you had less unworthiness, or, which is the same thing, were more worthy. You wish to come with a price in your hands. You are not reconciled to a salvation of which Christ Jesus shall have all the glory. Here is the secret. Men affect to doubt his willingness, but they are not willing. Let them take eternal life as a free gift, and it is theirs. O brethren! never question the superabounding grace of God in Christ. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. This glorious forgiveness is too high to be reached by carnal or merely rational apprehension. The mind will still shrink back from it as more desirable than credible? "Is this the manner of man? Is there any resemblance to it among the creatures? How can it be true? How can it be possible?" No, it is not the manner of man; there is nothing like it among the creatures; and yet it is possible, and yet it is true. Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye of little faith: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will ABUNDANTLY PARDON. "Thou hast multiplied sins upon sins," saith God, " and I will multiply pardons upon pardons." Ah! Lord God! I could not pardon with the ten thousandth part of such goodness, my brother that is as mine own soul; and how canst thou pour down such pardons upon me? "Because thou art a man, and I am God. Let not the thankless objection again pass thy lips, nor rise in thy heart." For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Let the doubting, disconsolate sinner throw himself, with all his guilt and vileness, into the arms of this forgiving mercy. It never yet repulsed any who came in the faith of the Mediator's blood, and it will not begin its repulses with thee. Go without delay; go with all boldness in this blood; and thou shalt find as cordial a welcome as grace can give thee. This forgiveness of sins in the redemption. of Jesus, imposes infinite obligations upon them who have believed it to the saving of their souls. Whoever disparage the doctrine of sovereignty, it must not be such as owe to it all their present interest in the salvation of God, and all their hope of his eternal glory. But such are we. By nature the children of wrath even as others; alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in us; rushing madly on in the paths of death; grace, unsought, undesired, met us; opened our eyes to our folly; hedged up our way with thorns; turned us back into the path of righteousness. Our wounded consciences and wearied hearts found healing and rest in Jesus Christ. His precious blood was the remedy of our guilt. How soothing the voice which whispered to our troubled spirits, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace! Shall we ever forget that we deserved everything the reverse of what we have received? That our birth and our nativity was of the land of Canaan, our father an Amorite, and our mother a Hittite? That we were cast out in the open field, to the loathing of our persons? And that the compassionate Saviour passed by us, and saw us polluted in our own blood; and said unto us when we were in our blood, LIVE: yea, said unto us when we were in our blood, LIVE! If we have fled from the wrath to come; if we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; if we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ABBA, Father; all this, and all the glory which is yet to be revealed in us, are the blessed fruits of forgiveness through the redemption of the blood of Jesus. Sweetly constrained by his love, shall we not judge, with the Apostle of the Gentiles, that we must henceforth live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us, and rose again? The sum of our duty and happiness, O believer! is comprised in this precept-As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so WALK YE IN HIM. The blood of sprinkling, kept by faith in the conscience, is the sure preservative from guilt; the holy secret of a comfortable and familiar walk with God. In this privilege let us go from strength to strength, lifting up our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our help; showing forth the righteousness and the salvation of Jehovah all the day long and waiting for that great consummation, when, all the sorrows of earth's pilgrimage ended, and all its defilements washed away, "Heaven lifts her everlasting portals high, And bids the pure in heart behold their God!" |