Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

obedience to the commandments of God, the condition of obtaining it. Contend earnestly for it; for the loss of it, will be the loss of eternal felicity -the incurring of endless woe. Watch then, labor and pray, that you may "do" with sincerity, with constancy, with perseverance, all "the commandments" of God. Everlasting glory will be your reward. And yet, when you have done all, your right to this reward must be founded on the free grace of God, through his Son Jesus Christ. Sinners you will still be, obnoxious to the displeasure of God, were he to judge rigorously, and utterly unworthy of the infinite glories of Heaven.

Our hopes then must rest upon thee, Lord Jesus! In thee only we can find righteousness and strength -in thee only everlasting salvation. And, in the language of one of thy most pious servants*, whose soul now waits in expectation of the consummation of bliss" It is our hope, our support, our comfort, and all our joy, to reflect, that wearied with the labors, and worn out with the cares and sorrows of a fallen world, we shall sit down under thy shadow with great delight, and thy fruit shall be sweet to our taste."

*Bishop Horne.

SERMON XIX.

FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY.
[QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY.J

1 COR. xiii. 13.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity; these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

IN the eloquent description which the Apostle gives, in the passage appointed as the epistle for the day, of Charity, the first of the Christian graces, he contrasts it with those miraculous gifts which were dispensed to the first Christians, as an attestation of the divine origin of the Gospel, and as the means of silencing the gainsaying, and converting the unbelieving. These gifts, divine in their origin, and splendid in the exercise, and which were therefore so much coveted, the Apostle places far below the exalted virtue of Charity or love. "Though I speak," says he, "with the tongues of men. and of angels, and have not cha

rity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." Nay, the highest external acts of zeal for God, and beneficence to man, unless prompted and influenced by the divine principle of Love, are of no avail. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Even that exalted virtue of Faith which accepts Jesus Christ as the only Saviour; and that Hope which looks forward with joy to the accomplishment of his gracious promises, are ranked lower in the scale of Christian virtues, than that Charity which is the perfection and consummation of them both. "And now abideth faith, hope, charity; these three: but the greatest of these is charity."

Brethren, here you have presented that bright assemblage of virtues which constitutes the Christian character; and you behold that supereminent grace, "without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before God." Here then you are furnished with the test by which you may ascertain whether you are, in power as well as in name, Christians; and whether you have secured your title to the blessed privileges of your Christian vocation.

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity; these

6

three." They are all Christian graces of high excellence and indispensable obligation.

please God "."

Faith, considered as a strong and lively assent of the mind to the existence and attributes of God, to the character and offices of Jesus Christ his Son, and to all those truths and precepts revealed and established in his Gospel, necessarily lies at the foundation of religion. Faith, is the condition of our justification, and by it as an active principle influencing the heart, the Christian life is quickened and preserved. "We are justified by faith," saith the Apostle ". "Without faith, it is impossible to "The just shall live by faith.". As sensation and consciousness are the means by which we obtain that knowledge of the objects around us, and of the intelligent agent within us, by which our animal and intellectual life is regulated, so faith is the principle by which we discern those spiritual truths, that quicken and preserve our spiritual life. Deprived of sensation and consciousness, the animal and intellectual life is arrested. And the spiritual life becomes extinct when faith ceases to supply it with those spiritual truths which are the objects of all its ope

rations.

If faith did not recognise the being of a God, the Maker of all things, the rewarder of the good, and

a Rom. v. 1.

b Heb. xi. 6.

c Ibid. ii. 4.

punisher of the wicked; religion, with all her lovely train of duties and joys would vanish, and virtue delude us like a phantom of the night. If Faith did not discern the attributes of this almighty Lord of the universe, his power, his justice, and his holiness, which command reverence; his goodness, his compassion, and his mercy, which excite love; that worship with which we now honor him would be vain; and the service which we now render to him would lose its obligation and its consolations. If Faith did not teach us to behold in this sovereign Lord of all things, a Benefactor as good as he is powerful, as compassionate as he is wise; prosperity, losing the all-perfect object to which she directs the feelings of gratitude, would be stripped of her highest joys; and adversity, no longer finding a comforter, would sink into the darkness of despair. If Faith did not embrace the reviving truth, that there is a Saviour, divine and almighty; who, by the merit of his sufferings and death, has appeased divine justice; by the perfection of his obedience, vindicated the divine law; and thus opened a way of access for the sinner to the throne of his offended Judge-where would the soul, accused and condemned by conscience, and smitten with the terrors of divine wrath, find a refuge and a solace? If Faith did not point out a Guide, a Sanctifier, a Comforter, in that Holy Spirit, which leads us into truth, and animates us to virtue-where would erring, sinful man find relief from his doubts,

« EdellinenJatka »