SERMON XLVII.

THE LORD'S NAME DECLARED.

"And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, GOD, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."-Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.

The sublime scene of which the record is before us must have been deeply impressive to Moses. It would recal in the most vivid manner his first vision at the bush. As there, so here, it was Jehovah filling an angel with his Spirit, (Ex. iii. 2), for the very person of Jehovah could not be seen, and was not seen before the incarnation.-John i. 18 and v. 37. An angel filled for the time with the glory of the Lord, his own consciousness laid asleep, was the Shekinah, the representative of the Godhead, and spake as God. What a series of wonders had passed since the first revelation had broken on the soul of Moses in the wilderness. The rescue of His people from haughty but humbled Egypt; the passage of the Red Sea; the descent of manna; the glories of Sinai.

There was the fulfilment of what God had promised; and the rebellion of the people, even his own distrust, in striking contrast. Moses hastened to bow down his head to the earth, and to worship. Deeply, doubtless, would this wondrous scene induce humility and adoration. Let us also enter into this spirit, and read and ponder over the divine character as proclaimed on that memorable occasion.

Let us notice, first, the Divine Trinity as presented in the words, "The LORD, the LORD, GOD;" or, Jehovah, Jehovah, God. This is a Trinity, inherent in the very nature of the Divine Being, in One Divine Person, for "Jehovah our God is one Jehovah."-Deut. vi. 4. There must be the Divine Love, the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Power. The Father, the Word,

the Spirit. God is Love, God is Light, God is Omnipotent. These three are ever in One; Jehovah, Jehovah, God.

The Word, or Wisdom of God, which manifests His love when clothed in the lower robes of our nature, became the Son; "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”—John i. 14, and xvii. 5. And God (EL) in Hebrew is the term for power. Hence, as we said, the three terms, Jehovah, Jehovah, God, present our Heavenly Father to us before the Incarnation in the essential Trinity which must have been eternal; Divine Love, Divine Wisdom, and Divine Power. God from eternity must have been infinitely loving, infinitely wise, and infinitely powerful. "Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God."-Isa. ix. 6. Thus, even in the very earliest records of revelation, our blessed Lord is presented as an object of the tenderest endearment, of adoration and love. The grim god of the ascetics, is not the God of revelation, or of the universe, but a transcript of their own harsh natures. They reproach, condemn, and curse; and they think that God" is altogether such an one as themselves." -Ps. 1. 21. But let us hear Him proclaim His own character, and how different is the sound. How full of encouragement is that consoling assurance which the Eternal proceeds to make, "merciful and gracious." It is not hard, repellant, stern and vindictive, but "merciful and gracious.' Penitents have ever found Him so. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him; to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him. He, also, will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth them that love Him." This is ever the divine assurance; blessing for the good, reception for the penitent, and this from the essential nature of His own Being, not for the sake of another. "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine OWN SAKE, and I will not remember thy sins." -Isa. xliii. 25. Let us remember to our comfort then, that the blessed God of heaven is, and ever has been, merciful and gracious. These two expressions indicate the Lord's love as it appears to souls of different degrees in the heavenly life.

To those who have not attained to the deep perceptions of their own unworthiness, the Lord appears gracious, kind and good. But to those who by reason of having entered more fully into the celestial life see their defects more truly, and more vividly, the Lord's goodness is seen to be all mercy. They feel no claim to favour, but only to mercy. They would begin like the

Psalmist, "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for His mercy endureth for ever;" and they would go through their whole lives, as the Psalmist did the Israelitish journey, attributing all to mercy, and nothing to self-merit. And they would end still with the same crowning exclamation, "O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his MERCY endureth for ever." The sense of favour, or grace, induces gratitude and satisfaction; but the sense of mercy induces prostration of heart, inmost love, and unspeakable joy and peace. The Lord is the source of both, and blesses both. He is "merciful and gracious."

We are next assured that our Heavenly Father is longsuffering. He bears with the evil, much and long. He is an ocean of charity, and "charity suffereth long and is kind.”—1 Cor. xiii. 4.

"See, how the mother watches o'er her son,
Fondly to hail and bless each grace begun ;
And should he glide from holy virtue's track,
Watches with tenderest care to draw him back.

Yet, oh! if all the love that ever ran

In every mother's breast since time began,
Were all in one vast bosom found to move,
"Twere nothing to our God's Almighty Love."

He is "longsuffering," and when His patience and His Providence have led a sinner to repentance and newness of life, how surely is He ever found to be "abundant in goodness and truth."

"Goodness and truth" are the spiritual food of the regenerating and regenerate mind, and there is an unfailing supply.

"O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men ! For He satisfieth the thirsty soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." Goodness and truth are the flesh and blood for the heart and the intellect of man; they impart eternal life. The spiritual and celestial man require this interior food for their daily bread. They hunger and thirst after it, and when they go to the Divine Saviour, who is the same God, Jehovah manifest, they ever find He is abundant in goodness and truth. He who goes to him never hungers, and he that believes on him never thirsts.—John i. 35. He keepeth, also, "mercy for thousands." Though the servants of the Lord advance in the regenerate life, they have many failings. They do not utterly fall down, but they have many slips. In word and deed they are far from perfect, but the Lord keepeth mercy for them, and will do so for ever. This term "thousands" is a word of indefinite extent, and implies to any amount, to infinity. "His mercy endureth for ever."

The Lord's treatment of evil is next brought before us, both

with the penitent and the impenitent. "He forgiveth iniquity, transgression, and sin; and that will by NO MEANS clear the guilty.”

The word here translated "forgiving," is one that has in it the idea of sustaining and removing. It is rendered in different parts of Scripture, bear, lift, carry, take away, and similar expressions. The word forgive in our language implies a change in the Divine Mind, but it is not so in the original language. The word there only teaches us that the Lord sustains the evils of those who come to Him, and at length removes them. He bears our sorrows, and carries our griefs, and in due time casts our transgressions away from us. "Far as the east is from the west so far doth He remove our transgressions from us. The Divine dealing with sin is thus like all His dealings, full of mercy. When the soul comes to its Saviour, sin and selfishness are so inwrought into its very texture, that were they eradicated at once, the soul would be scooped out, and disappear. Hence, it is needful that by little and little we should have our spiritual constitution changed by the wonderful working of our Saviour God, while we obey His commandments. Luther once said, "If

sin were in my coat I would soon strip it off, and cast it from me; if sin were in my hat I would remove it and get another, but it is through me, and through me, in every direction." "From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.”—Isa. i. 6. Through these corruptions and propensities, the powers of darkness press in upon and infest us. And if we were left un

But the and gives

aided we could no more bear the weight of their awful pressure, than our single arm could drive back the ocean's force. Lord comes to our help. He removes the force from us, us the consciousness of entire freedom. We exult in being released from captivity. We know not by what wondrous mercy the dark clouds have been broken off from us, our lions have been muzzled, our giants been hushed, and our darkness turned into day. But it has been by the Lord our Heavenly Father, who became our Redeemer and Saviour since the day we have sought His help. He beareth our iniquity, transgression, and sin.

In the days of His flesh it is written, that “When even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils; and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias, the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."

So, when we come to the same Saviour faint and sad, in the

evening of our states of weariness with the world and with sin, overloaded with the griefs and sorrows of a misspent past, He ever bears our iniquities, transgressions, and sins, delivers us from condemnation, and gives us the glorious liberty of the children of light.

The Lord does yet more. When we are strong enough, we are allowed to be tempted with such evils as we are able to overcome, as the Israelites fought with and conquered the polluted tribes of Canaan which they had to dispossess, and by His omnipotent help we overcome them. Then, the sins themselves are borne away to the recesses in the circumference of the soul, and their places are filled with holy affections, pure thoughts and sacred virtues of every kind. Thus, the soul, once a land of all impurities, like a Canaan utterly corrupt, becomes a kingdom of Solomon, a land of peace. The wilderness becomes like Eden; and the desert a garden of God. All this is the work of that adorable mercy, which bears first, and then carries away, our iniquity, transgression, and sin.

Iniquity, falsity in The Lord

The three terms used for evil are not synonymous. refers to evil in the affections: transgression, to thought; and sin, to the union of both in evil deeds. removes them all as we co-operate with His Holy Spirit by a sincere striving to walk in His divine commandments. We DO that which is lawful and right; and He saves our souls alive. -Ezek. xviii. 27. "Blessed be His Holy Name."

We come now to another portion of the divine description. "But by no means clearing the guilty."

Hitherto we have dwelt upon those aspects of the divine character which are manifested to the good, and to those erring ones who are striving to become good. We have now another aspect of the Divine Being to consider, His relation to the obstinately wicked. And this, too, is a relation of Infinite Love; for Divine Love requires Divine Order; and the salvation and happiness of the good require the separation and rejection of the wicked. Hence the words, "By no means clearing the guilty." "By no means.” Oh that these words might unceasingly sound in the ears of every wicked man. By no means clearing the guilty. For the wicked are continually deluding themselves that there are many means of avoiding punishment, while retaining sin.

The forgiveness of the priest, say some, is an admirable means specially provided to make a clean breast, and have all wiped away. A prayer for mercy just at the last hour; as if it had