Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

preparation for the inheritance of saints in light, for the kingdom which cannot be moved, Let us not presume to "darken counsel by words without knowledge." Let us not presume to draw aside the veil which separates a material world from the world of spirits, which interposes between time and eternity. Scripture itself, after exhausting every image, every idea of negative and of positive glory and felicity, as descriptive of "the kingdom of heaven," refers us to a future revelation of that glory. Paul, "caught up to the third heaven, caught up into paradise," admitted to the intercourse of celestial beings, and sent back to earth, finds himself incapa

cipate the communications of distant friends; who are never to return! But of the expected guests, of the innumerable company invited to "the marriage of the Lamb," not one shall be missing, no bitter recollection shall intrude, no painful apprehension shall arise. And with what subjects of conversation are they eternally supplied! With what enlarged views of those subjects do they discourse! The glories of nature are contemplated with new eyes, and excite emotions before unfelt. The mystery of Providence, once so intricate and inscrutable is unravelled; the mighty plan, the minute parts, the universal and the individual interest are found in perfect unison. The won-ble of describing the heavenly vision. The ders of redeeming love, intermingling with the glories of creation and the mystery of Providence, communicating to them all their beauty, all their importance. What a theme for the whole company of the redeemed, for interchange of personal experience, for mutual congratulation and delight! What exalted employment, what inexhaustible source of joy for the endless days of eternity!

66

words which he heard were unspeakable, which it is not lawful, which it is not possible for a man to utter. In this blessed, undefined, undescribed state we leave it: "It is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

The contrast is dreadful: "But the chilThey shall sit down with Abraham, and dren of the kingdom shall be cast out into Isaac, and Jacob." There is a natural desire outer darkness, there shall be weeping and in man to be in the company of the eminent- gnashing of teeth." By "the children of ly great, and wise, and good. But this de- the kingdom," our Lord undoubtedly means sire is tempered by a consciousness of our to denote the posterity of Abraham after the own inferiority. We shrink from the pene- flesh, the original heirs of the promises, the trating eye of wisdom, we feel "how awful depositaries of the covenants, who, with all goodness is," we blush inwardly at the thought the advantages of birth, of education, of a of our own littleness. But those ingathered revelation which they acknowledged to be outcasts from the east and west feel no un- divine, and of which they made their boast, easy apprehensions on being introduced to obstinately rejected the promised Messiah, to society so dignified, for "there is no fear in whom all their prophets give witness; who, love." They indeed feel their inferiority, valuing themselves upon, and vainly resting but it excites no mortification. They are in in a mere natural descent from illustrious their proper place, and they have their pro- ancestors, without inheriting a particle of per measure of glory. While time was they their spirit, wilfully excluded themselves pronounced those venerable names with awe, from the kingdom of heaven. Their means they accounted those persons happy who of knowledge, their peculiar privileges were could claim kindred to men so highly distin- a horrid aggravation of their guilt, and a full guished, admission to the court of the Gen- justification of their tremendous punishment. tiles terminated their ambition, birth had The blessedness of the righteous in the heaexcluded them for ever from the common- venly world, is, in the preceding verse, wealth of Israel. Now they find that they represented under the well-known and famiare the real posterity of Abraham, "born, not liar image of the banquet, or marriage feast, of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of and various passages of the gospel history the will of man, but of God." If any man throw light upon the allusion, particularly hath not the spirit of Abraham, he is none of the parable of the ten virgins. Those sohis. By the spirit they are related to the fa- lemnities were usually celebrated in the ther of the faithful, and he joyfully acknow-night season. The apartments destined to ledges them as his children, and heirs with him of the promises.

"They shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." This implies a participation of all the privileges of saints on earth, communion and fellowship with one another, as members together of that body whereof Christ is the head, and joint "fellowship with the Father, and with the Son Jesus Christ." Such is the kingdom of God in this world, and such the

the entertainment of the guests were superbly illuminated. The bridegroom and his train came to the banqueting house in magnificent procession, by lamp or torch light. The invited guests were admitted through the wicket, to prevent promiscuous intrusion. As soon as the nuptial band had entered the doors were shut. The careless and the tardy were of course excluded, and no after expostulation or entreaty could procure admittance; they were left in outer darkness,

tendered more hideous by comparison with the splendour which reigned within; left, in the cold and damps of the night, to their own bitter reflections, dreadfully aggravated by the idea of a felicity to them for ever inaccessible. By a representation so powerfully impressive, so easily understood, so awfully alarming, were the elders of the Jews admonished of the guilt, danger, and misery of rejecting the counsel of God against themselves, of refusing the testimony which God had given to his Son Christ Jesus.

After this very solemn digression, Jesus returns to the subject which had given rise to it, the servant's malady, and the master's marvellous faith. He bestows a present reward on the one, by instantly relieving the other. "And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour." Here the Saviour condescends to be dictated to. He yields to the prayer of a faith so very extraordinary, he proceeds no farther on his way to the centurion's house. The petition runs, "speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed;" he speaks the word, he wills the cure, and virtue goes out of him to perform it. Neither of the evangelists pursue the history of the centurion farther. But we have every thing to hope, every thing to believe of a man who so eminently distinguished himself as an excellent soldier, a kind master, a moderate ruler, a pious worshipper of God, and an humble but firm believer in Jesus Christ. In his history the Christian world has to boast of another of the triumphs of the Captain of salvation, of another successful invasion of Satan's kingdom, of another display of divine perfection in the person of Jesus Christ. It is not unworthy of remark, that various persons of the same, rank and profession, that of centurion, stand with high marks of approbation on the sacred page. Next to this most respectable character, we find another employed on a very trying occasion. He, with the company under his command, was appointed to see the sentence of crucifixion executed, for soldiers are put upon many a painful service, and he was not an unconcerned spectator of that awful scene, Now when the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, truly this was the Son of God." The name of Cornelius of Cesarea, the centurion of the Italian band, is renowned in all the churches of Christ, as "a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." He is further honourably reported of by those of his own household, as a "just man, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews." The cenarion who had charge of Paul and the

66

other prisoners, on the disastrous voyage which terminated in shipwreck on the island of Melita, paid singular attention to the apos tle, followed his advice, and spared the rest of the prisoners, that he might preserve Paul's life. And upon their arrival at Rome, when this generous officer delivered over the rest of his charge to the captain of the guard, he had sufficient credit and ability to express his friendship for our apostle, by procuring for him a greater enlargement of liberty: "Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him."

From this interesting story let us learn, 1. To despise no man's person, feelings, opinions, profession, or country. His person is what God made it, and he makes nothing that is in itself contemptible. You are bound in equity to respect the feelings of another, for you wish that your own should not be handled rudely. It ill becomes one who has himself formed so many erroneous opinions, and veered about so frequently with the flitting gale, to prescribe a standard of opinion to other men. Unless a profession be radically, and in its own nature sinful, those who follow it ought not to be condemned in the lump: if it expose to peculiar temptations to act amiss, he who resists the temptation and overcomes himself is the more estimable. Over the place of his birth a man had no more power than over the height of his stature, or the colour of his skin. It is an object of neither praise nor blame. The apostle Peter received a severe and just rebuke or this head by a vision from heaven. He was prepared, and he needed to be prepared, for the exercise of his ministry at Cesarea, and to the family and friends of the excellent Roman centurion already mentioned, and whom his Jewish pride had taught him to hold in contempt, by a thrice repeated mandate which he dared not to disobey: "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." Let us consider it as addressed to ourselves. "Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ."

[ocr errors]

2. The fearful doom denounced against unbelieving Jews ought to operate as a warning to still more highly privileged Christians, lest any man "fall after the same example of unbelief." For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?" We sometimes express contempt for the pagan world, sometimes affect to pity the blinded nations, and without hesitation presume to pass a sentence of final condemnation upon them. The unhappy tribes of

Africa, in particular, Christian Europe calmly | minded, but fear: for if God spared not the reduces to the condition of beasts of burden natural branches, take heed lest he also spare in this world, with hardly an effort to ameliorate it in the next. And yet they are men, they possess many virtues which ought to put their tyrants to the blush, and which will one day rise up in judgment against them. We despise the miserable Jews, and stigmatize them as infidels, as if all those who bear the name of Christ actually believed in him. "Boast not against the broken-off branches;" -thou wilt say: The "branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standes by faith. Be not high-er than Solomon is here."

not thee." I conclude with the solemn denunciation of Christ himself, respecting the men of his generation, and which is still in equal force. "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a great

HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE CXXX.

After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? (and this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.) Philip answered him, Two hundred penny-worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. Whert they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world.-JOHN vi. 1—14.

THE Course of nature is a standing mira- man? The same observation applies to the cle. To be an atheist is to cease from being religion of the Gospel. Here the learned a man. To think of arguing with such a have no advantage whatever over the illiteone is to undertake a labour as fruitless as rate. It consists of a few plain, unadorned attempting to reason the lunatic into a facts, authenticated by the testimony of a sound mind. A case like this ought to ex- cloud of unsuspected witnesses; of a few cite no emotion but compassion, mixed with simple, practical truths, level to the most orgratitude to God that he has not reduced us dinary capacity; and of a few precepts of to a condition so deplorable. Refinement in self-evident importance, which it highly conreasoning is, in general, both unprofitable cerns every man to observe. Should it be and inconclusive. The man of plain com- alleged that these are blended with things non sense may advantageously observe and hard to be understood, it is admitted. And devoutly acknowledge the wisdom and good- here again the wise and prudent have nc ness of the Great Supreme in the regular superiority over the vulgar, but both meet ebbing and flowing of the tide, though he the God of grace as well as the God of nacannot trace the process of the sun's action ture exercising his divine prerogative, in on the waters of the ocean; or of the wind, ministering to the necessities, while he checks in conveying the fluid to the mountain's top; the pride and presumption of man. or of gravity, sending it down to water the The miracles of our blessed Lord which plains beneath; or the supposed influence of have hitherto passed in review, had a more the moon, or of the melting of the polar ices, limited object. Their design was to relieve producing an alternate and regular flux and individual, or domestic distress; they were reflux on our shores, or in our rivers. Of an appeal, public indeed, to the understandwhat importance is the theory of vegetation, ing and senses of all who witnessed them, compared to the simple but valuable labour but slightly felt, imperfectly understood, and and experience of the gardener and husband- little improved, except by the parties more

[ocr errors]

inmediately interested in them. They were granted to importunity, and as a reward to the prayer of faith. That which is the subject of the passage now read, embraces a much wider range than any of these, and is the spontaneous effusion of his own divine benevolence and compassion. Ten thousand persons, at a moderate calculation, were at once the witnesses and the subjects of the miracle, and in a case wherein it was impossible they should be mistaken, for they had every sense, every faculty exercised in ascertaining the truth. And here he waits not, as in other cases, till the cry of misery reaches his ear, but advances to meet it, to prevent it; he outruns expectation, and has a supply in readiness, before the pressure of want is felt.

The duration of Christ's public ministry, from his baptism to his passion, has been calculated from the number of passovers which he frequented. This, as may be supposed, has occasioned considerable variety of opinion. The attentive reader will probably adopt that of our illustrious countryman, Sir Isaac Newton, who reckons five of these annual festivals within the period. The first, that recorded in the 2d chapter of St. John's Gospel, at which he purged the temple, predicted his own death and resurrection, and performed sundry miracles. The second, according to that great chronologist, took place a few months after our Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria, which he founds on that text, John iv. 35-"Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." The third, a few days prior to the sabbath, on which the disciples walked out into the fields, and plucked the ears of corn, when he cured the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda. The fourth, that which was now approaching at the era of this miracle; and the fifth, that at which he suffered. The people were now therefore flocking from all parts of Galilee, on their way to Jerusalem to keep the passover: and this accounts for the very extraordinary number who at this time attended his preaching and miracles.

"After these things," says John. The other three evangelists connect this scene, in respect of time, with a most memorable event in the history of Christianity, the decapitation of John Baptist in the prison. When these melancholy tidings were told to Jesus, Matthew informs us, that "he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof they fol`owed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick;" and then immediately follows the miracle of feeding

the multitude, recorded with exactly the same circumstances in all the four evange lists. Mark affixes an additional date. It was at the time when the disciples returned from the execution of their first commission, with an account of their success: "And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught." On this Jesus proposed a temporary retirement from the public eye, for the conveniency of private conversation, of repose, and of the necessary refreshment of the body: "And he said unto them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately;" and this, as before, prepared for the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The self-same circumstances are minutely narrated in Luke's gospel. These mark the precise epoch when Christ went over the sea of Galilee, and retired with the twelve to a mountain in the desert of Bethsaida. But though he went by water, to escape for a season the multitudes which thronged after him, the place of his destination is discovered, and thousands, filled with impatience, admiration, gratitude, hope, outstrip the speed of the vessel, by a circuitous journey along the shore of the lake. Their motives were various. The powerful principle of curiosity attracted many. A thirst of the word of life impelled others. "A great multitude followed him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were diseased," and many had themselves "need of healing." An affecting view is exhibited of Christ's benevolent character. As from the elevation of the mountain he beheld the people pressing forward by thousands to the spot where he was, all thoughts of food, of rest, of accommodation lost in an appetite more dignified and pure, his bowels melted: "And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things." The sight of a great assembly of men, women, and children, must ever create a lively interest in every bosom alive to the feelings of humanity. The view of his mighty host melted Xerxes into tears, merely from reflection on their natural mortality.What then are the "bowels and mercies" of the compassionate friend of mankind, on surveying innumerable myriads ready to perish everlastingly for lack of knowledge, dying in their sins! He feels even for their bodily wants, which, in the ardour of their spirits, they seem to have themselves forgotten, and a supply is provided before the cravings of nature have found out that it was necessary. And thus a gracious Providence, in things

66

both temporal and spiritual, outruns not only | ny different inclinations, pursuing as many the supplications of the miserable, but their different interests, with as many different cavery hopes and desires. pacities, should be brought to one point, The day began to wear away," they should co-operate in promoting the same purwere in a desert place, the multitude was pose, should, unknown to each other, invoprodigiously increased, they had fasted long, luntarily enter into exactly one and the same no provision of either victuals or lodging had pursuit, is not to be explained on the combeen made, and the adjacent villages promised mon principles of human sagacity, and can but a slender accommodation of either, even proceed only "from the Lord of hosts, who had there been money to purchase them. A is wonderful in counsel and excellent in case of truly aggravated distress! The fore- working." Philip immediately has recourse thought and sympathy of the disciples went to arithmetical calculation; he estimates the no farther than to suggest the propriety of multitude at so many, he examines into the an immediate dismission of the assembly, state of their finances, and finds them deplowhile sufficient light remained to procure what rably deficient: "two hundred pennyworth was needful for exhausted nature. "When of bread is not sufficient for them, that every the day began to wear away then came one of them may take a little." No, the diffithe twelve, and said unto him, Send the mul-culty was not to be thus resolved. Neither titude away, that they may go into the towns was the matter much mended to human apand country round about, and lodge, and get prehension, when Andrew, Simon's brother, victuals: for we are here in a desert place." brought information that there was a lad preBut their gracious Master looked much far-sent who had five barley loaves and two small ther, and felt more tenderly. He addresses fishes to dispose of. He himself sets no great himself particularly to Philip, who was of store by his intelligence; a single loaf to a the city of Bethsaida, and might be supposed thousand men appeared to him a mere noto know the state of the country, and how thing, an aggravation rather than an alleviamuch it could produce in an emergency of tion of the distress: "but what," says he, this kind, on the supposition that their stock despondingly, "are they among so many?” of money was equal to the demand: "he The case is thus brought to an extreme saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy point. Five thousand men, beside a multibread that these may eat?" Why the ap-tude of women and children, probably to an peal was personally made to Philip, may be equal, if not a greater number, feel the presaccounted for from some peculiarity in that sure of hunger, and of no one of our natural disciple's character. He appears to have been appetites are we more acutely sensible than one of those who slowly, suspiciously, reluct- of this; every one of this myriad, therefore, antly admitted the evidence of their Master's down to the youngest child, was a distinct divine mission; for we find him, long after and a competent witness upon the occasion, this, discovering a diffident, scrupulous in- of the individual and of the general calamity, credulous disposition; and his kind Master and of the total want of an adequate supply. administering a just and seasonable rebuke: Providence thus frequently permits things to "Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the come to the very verge of wo, that man Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith up-may feel his own weakness and insufficiency, to him, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou, then, show us the Father?" Thus was it needful that the witnesses of the truth to others should have their own As if every preparation of human sagacity doubts completely removed. And, thus, He, had been made, Jesus with dignified compowho knew what was in man, will bring out sure, commands, saying, "Make the men sit of the man himself what is in him; not with down." The attention and sympathy of the insidious design of deceiving and xpo-Christ are observable in minute circumstansing him, as men often act by each other, but of making him feel his own weight; of enabling him to form a just estimate of his wisdom and strength; of affording him a fresh and irresistible proof of his Master's supreme power, and divine intelligence. "This he said to prove him: for he knew what he would do,"

We have here a most sublime representation of the Redeemer's foreknowledge of the natural reasonings of the human mind, and of the existence and effect of second causes. That a thousand persons, of as ma

feel his entire dependence, and learn to acknowledge and to adore the seasonable interposition of heaven; that God may be seen as "our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble."

ces. His guests had passed a day of uncommon fatigue; they were now overtaken with two great infirmities, want of food and want of rest. A standing meal, weary as they were, would have been an unspeakable benefit; or to have stretched out their exhausted limbs to repose, even with a slender provision, for "the sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much." He who careth for oxen, who feedeth the raven, who sustaineth the sparrow on the wing, "shall he not much more" hear the cry of human wretchedness? Both the precious

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »