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THE

GENERAL BAPTIST

MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1862.

INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE, DELIVERED AT THE FAREWELL SERVICES OF BRETHREN I. STUBBINS AND W. BROOKS, OSMASTON-ROAD CHAPEL, DERBY, JULY 29, 1862.*

AND I SAID, IT IS A LIGHT THING THAT THOU SHOULDEST BE MY SERVANT TO RAISE UP THE TRIBES OF JACOB, AND TO RESTORE THE PRESERVED OF ISRAEL; I WILL ALSO GIVE THEE FOR A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES, THAT THOU MAYEST BE MY SALVATION UNTO THE END OF THE EARTH.-Isaiah xlix. 6.

GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE.— Mark xvi. 15.

We cannot miss the meaning of any prophecy of the Old Testament if we adopt the inspired application of it in the New. Without, then, pausing to consider the improbabilities of the quotation from Isaiah, and its immediate connection, referring, either to the people of Israel as a whole, or to the prophet Isaiah himself, or to the collective body of the prophets-for each of which opinions there have not been wanting learned and zealous advocates-it is enough for us that the Apostle Paul quotes the passage as applicable to the Messiah, and to the Messiah alone.

It therefore presents to every Christian mind a most attractive theme, a theme in the discussion of

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES, No. 9.

which one might easily be tempted to step beyond the limits assigned to the introduction of the solemn and impressive services of this day. We shall, however, very zealously guard against that temptation, and content ourselves with shaddowing forth, in a very hasty way, some of those thoughts which it awakens; and especially as there is a certain question suggested by our second text to which we may appropriately devote a moment or two by way of reply.

The words of the prophecy before us obviously allude to the two great

passed at the missionary meeting held in *Printed in compliance with the vote the evening.

divisions of the Redeemer's work, and describe the main features of both. They foretell the limitation of the personal ministry of Christ. They also foretell the breadth and grandeur of His mediatorial work.—It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

That the personal ministry of Christ should be confined to a limited sphere is not only predicted | in the words just quoted. It is also reiterated in many other passages in the Old Testament. Indeed, whatever the name or title under which the Messiah is foretold, all the predictions point to His primary work as limited to the raising of Jacob and the restoring of Israel.

Such limitation was also demanded by the very nature of the case. If God be localised in human form-if God become man-His presence must, humanly speaking, be necessarily circumscribed. Incarnation, from its very nature, is limitation. It pertains also to the human body that it dwell in one place at one time. It therefore seems a fair supposition, that if the Word were made flesh, that very region would be the scene of His labours in which the people dwelt whose nationality he had apparently assumed.

Furthermore, the idea of a Messiah was inherent in the whole structure of the national worship and history of the Jews. It was the climax of their dispensation. Say, rather, it was the focus towards which all the scattered rays of Divine glory in Judaism converged and centred.

from the nations of the earth. A national degradation was the chief bondage under which they groaned. Anational deliverer was the supreme wish of their carnal and worldly heart. God's truth was encrusted with fatal error, which the Jews were then perpetuating in various ways. One party, the largest and in some respects the most influential, added so many traditions to the pure Word of God as to make the commandments void, and elevated mere ceremonies above morality and truth. Another party, a reaction from the first, took away from the Inspired Oracles by far the larger portion. They grew deistical in their opinions, denied a resurrection and superintending Providence, and worshipped mere uprightness in society as their God. A third party, while claiming prophetic powers and pretending to a knowledge of the names of angels, forbad the ordinance of matrimony, refused to offer sacrifices at the temple, and even venerated the sun. A fourth party, bringing the principles of a pagan philosophy and the spirit of a pagan criticism to the Old Testament, entirely rejected the idea of a personal Messiah.

Here, then, were errors, very flagrant and very mischievous, which the preserved of Israel were doing their very best to promulgate. Need we wonder, therefore, when all these things were naked and open to the eye of Christ that He should reaffirm by His own lips what He had already inspired prophets to declare-the limitation of His personal ministry? Need we wonder that there should be such limitation when by it the errors, not of one age only, but of all ages, would be rebuked and

Need we wonder that He should send out the twelve apostles on their first errand of mercy, with the words, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?* Need we wonder,

Remembering, too, for what purpose the Jews had been chosen-corrected? witnesses for God-and how wilfully they had forgotten that purpose; their condition at the time of the Advent seems to make such a limitation of Christ's personal ministry highly probable. A national pride had grown up in the hearts of the Jews out of their misapprehension of God's design in separating them

* Matt. x. 5, 6.

The Breadth and Grandeur of Christ's Mediatorial Work. 323

in fine, that when on a later occasion In the description of the breadth a Gentile woman earnestly besought and grandeur of the mediatorial His miraculous aid for her daughter, work of Christ which the prophet He should repeat the words of that supplies, so many things are suglimitation-not to chill her enthusi-gested that the difficulty lies in selection and compression. Let us very briefly note a few.

asm, but to strengthen her faith? I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.* Thou art my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel.

The words of this prophecy also show us the breadth and grandeur of Christ's mediatorial work. In this work the Messiah would have conferred upon Him-so the words of the prophecy suggest an honour more nearly commensurate with His dignity and glory. It is a light thing -(too small a matter, as Hengstenberg renders it,) It is too small a matter that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

The limitation was merely preparatory. By and bye the narrow sphere in which the Apostles were first told to labour was widened in the terms of the broadest commission. The narrow message solemnly given, was as solemnly retracted, and in one very notable case, completely reversed.

Nor is there weakness and vacillation of purpose in this. There are rather marks of the divinest wisdom, the wisdom which cometh from above. No proper use of the Old Testament could be made by the Gentiles until the errors superadded by the Jews had been peeled off; until God's truth was disentangled from man's error; until the formidable barriers set up by a faithless people to the free gospel once proclaimed to Abraham had been broken down; until the great mission of reconciliation had been accomplished. The sacred waters of divine love were confined in the narrow Jewish reservoir until they had gained sufficient strength and volume to irrigate and refresh a parched and thirsty world.

*Matt. xv. 24.

Among other things, the prophecy implies the permanence and imperishable character of the truths the Redeemer should teach by His lips and by His life. That implication is true, as the past eighteen centures declare, and as no coming centuries will ever reverse. Moral teachers cannot rise higher than Christ, The high table-land of His morality is far above the dwarfish mole-hills which would-be regenerators have cast up by throes the most gigantic and convulsive. There is no holy life only as it approaches, and in the measure and degree it approaches, the pure and sinless life of Christ.

He is the Pharos of humanity. He is the light for the Gentiles. He is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

The universality of the attraction of the Messiah is also predicted. The teaching and life of the Son of the Blessed revealed to men by the contrast between Himself and them -a common ruin, and thus prepared them for the consideration of a common remedy. By His sacrifice, the Redeemer fulfilled every type, and made an atonement for sin, and so exhibited the very remedy required. Herein is love!-boundless, fathomless, divine. Herein also is attraction, since His love is no longer narrowed off to the raising of Jacob and the restoring of Israel, but is offered as the salvation of the ends of the earth.

With such a mission, what inexhaustible resources must the Redeemer possess. His incarnation was necessarily limitation. His ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high is expansion. It has given Him a spiritual presence that may be felt by every soul of man. The heavens opened to receive Him, but they did not close

again until the Comforter had been | the Holy One, who said, to this end

shed forth upon the church for the benefit of the world universal. Those heavens still hold Him in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways. But the destinies of the world and of the universe are His. Nations are His. Riches are His. Gifts of mind and body are His All power is given Him in heaven and in earth. He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.

nay,

The prophecy also declares the magnificence and splendor of His conquests. The personal ministry of Christ was comparatively fruitless. The men who received the blessings scattered by the Redeemer with such prodigal hand could be counted by thousands. The men who believed His message might be told off in a few hundreds. He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there were none with Him. But His mercy and love, when made known to the Gentiles shall bring Him, have already brought Him, trophies of their power from every land. And yet how stupendous appear the difficulties in the way of any conquests whatever. Think of the perverted language of pagan people, so godless and so abominable. Think of their superstitions, deep-rooted in their corrupt hearts, and entwisted into the very texture of their being. Think of the deterioration of character which has been going on for ages where paganism flourishes. Think of the uncleanness practised at heathen temples as part and parcel of their very religion. Think of the lying that is so bred into the blood that detection scarcely awakens a feeling of shame. Think of the infanticide, the immolation of widows, the cruel abandonment of the sick and the aged, of the bloody rites of the Khonds, and the bloodier rites once practised in Polynesia, and still in existence in Dahomey. What can ever lift up a people so sunken and debased as these? Who can raise nations so fallen, and restore peoples so penetrated through and through with corruption? Who? The Christ, the Son of the Blessed;

was I born, and for this cause came I into the world. Yes; blessed be God, although it is a great thing to save one soul so debased and so degraded as the Hindoo, Christ can save him. Although it is a greater thing to save a nation of such men, Christ can save them. Although it is greatest of all to save a world, Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Has

If, then, this is the highest honour even for Christ-and the words of this prophecy assure us that it is— is not the inference most obvious, that participation in the work of Christ is the highest honour of the Church? not Christ given her the charter of her incorporation? Has He not in that charter declared the design of her institution and assigned the nature and extent of her missionary work? Does not the charter run thus:-Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature? And has it ever occurred to you that two words begotten of each of those dispensations by which God has made known His will to mankind—proselyte and apostle-exactly describe the character of both? that the Hebrew church brought the convert into a local organization that from its very nature was evanescent and preparatory; but that the Christian church, by the words of her divine charter, is sent out to make converts everywhere, to go after the lost and wandering sinner, under whatever stars he may be born, and to go after him with the spirit of patient invitation and with the message of gracious allurement and Christ-like love?

But how has the church regarded the work in which is found the highest honour of her Lord and of herself? You know how she regarded it in apostolical times, for one-eighth of the New Testament is the record of her missionary work.

Nor must it be supposed that her missionary spirit evaporated after the venerable John was caught up

Missionaries in the Dark Ages.

to share in the rejoicings of that New Jerusalem which he had so vividly described. In post-apostolic times, and in the ages succeeding, a greater missionary work was done than many Christians have been wont to imagine. Pliny, the Roman governor of Bithynia, shows us some of the effects of that work in the province over which he presided, and shows them a letter which he little dreamt would be chiefly valued in after centuries for its testimony to the virtues and the numbers of the early Christians.

The three centuries which followed -the third, fourth, and, fifth-were marked by great missionary success. Many whose names have not come down to us proclaimed the message of heavenly love, and are enrolled in the Lamb's book of life. Through their efforts it was that Greece shut up her temples and put away all her gods; that Britain all but abandoned every Druidical altar; that Northern Africa could send worthy delegates to a Christian council; and that Italy, which had once thronged her amphitheatres to see men welter in their own gore, deserted her amphitheatres for ever.

It cannot be denied, however, that later down than these times there was much error blended with the message of the missionary and with the method he pursued in his work. Results were sought in other ways than by the force of truth. Paganism and its philosophy showed their debasing influences, especially in the Eastern and African portions of the church. The natural tendency of the human heart to substitute empty forms for a holy life, and to transfer the ground of merit from the work of Christ to the performances of men increased, and thus fostered the asceticism that did so much to mar the usefulness of the church, and to promote the rising spirit of usurpation in the see of Rome.

But notwithstanding these mistakes and errors, the zeal and selfdenial of Christian missionaries in those ages cannot be over-praised.

325

The worldly sceptre fell from the hands of the church when the Northern savages overran and devastated the fair gardens of Italy; but the church, now deprived of the pernicious aid of the state, and thrown back on her own inherent power, (begotten of the truth of God, and nurtured by His spirit,)a second time conquered the world. She went forth to meet the barbarians and to wrestle with them in their rude homes, and she proved herself as mighty to subdue their brutality and refine their coarseness as she had already shown herself to measure swords with the philosophers of Greece, and to subdue unto the obedience of Christ the valorous soldiers of Imperial Rome.

It would be impossible for us to glance even at a tithe of the missionary work which was done in that period and in the centuries immediately succeeding. We may indeed very briefly remind you of the fact that Patrick, the humble and generous, became the apostle of Ireland; that the church of Gaul sent Germanus, Cæsarius, and Eligius to labour amongst the Franks; that Gallus, the disciple of the celebrated Columban, gave the truth to the Swiss; that Britain sent Willibrord, the presbyter, to Frankish Friesland, and Winfred, better known as Boniface, to the tribes inhabiting the forests of Germany; that Heligoland and the province now called Gröningen were the scenes where those models of genuine missionaries' labouredLindger, the Frieslander, and Willehad, the Englishman; that the impetuous Adalbert visited Hungary, and afterwards encountered the wild tribes who then peopled Prussia, and died like another Stephen praying for his murderers; that Anschar, the gentle and good, gave himself for thirty-four years to the evangelization of Denmark and Sweden; that the brothers Cyrill, of Constantinople, and Methodius, were gospel heralds to the wild tribes bordering on the Greek empire; that the self-denying Otto won the

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