Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Is it not therefore of the first importance, that parents should have right views and feelings respecting the Sunday School? Let your leading object and desire be their eternal welfare, and then you will look upon the Sunday School, as helping you to train up your children for God, and not as easing you of responsibility, and lessening your trouble, then you will be glad to assist their Teachers in correcting faults, and will be anxious to follow up during the week, the instructions of the Sabbath.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

These mysterious beings, as well as the Seraphim, appear to be a superior order of angels or a high class of the heavenly inhabitants. In all the works of God we find orders and gradations; and in heaven we know there are thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. It is difficult to define the differences between the Cherubim and the Seraphim: the one order appears to be distinguished by light-the other by love :-the one manifesting great knowledge and holiness, the other great zeal, fervour, and warmth. Gen. iii. 24. Ezek. ix. 3., xli. 18., i. 5-15. Rev. iv. 6-8. Representations of the Cherubim were placed on the mercyseat overshadowing it, and are thought to exhibit the intense interest which the heavenly being took in the union of the

law and the gospel in Jesus Christ, as typified by the ark containing the tables of the covenant, with the mercy-seat for its covering, and the glory cloud over all.

It is not known that any correct figures of the Cherubim are in existence. Even Paul said of which we cannot now speak particularly,' no authentic sculptures having even reached his day. Our engraving represents the only image which has ever been discovered, and which appears to approach the descriptions of the Bible. It was found on a column in ancient Persia. The wings partly reach the head and partly the feet. The head is seen to be surmounted by horns a common symbol of scripture-supporting a curious mitre. The Cherub appears in the act of benediction. Porter, the Eastern traveller, says, "With the exception of the mitre, there is nothing which I have ever seen which bears so strong a resemblance to the angels described under the name of Cherubim and Seraphim.' He also thinks it probable that the sculptures, among which this image was found, were effected by Cyrus, and that among the spoils of the first temple which he saw amidst the treasures in Babylon, the model of the figure may have been discovered.

'NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM.'

A Sermon to the Sunday Schools connected with the Newington, Lambeth, and Camberwell Branch Union, preached at Lion Street,

By the Rev. J. ANGUS, A. M.

Mark xii. 34, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.'

My dear children,

I dare say you could all tell me what the word kingdom means. You know a kingdom means the dominion of a king, the place where he dwells and where he reigns. Thus, for instance, Great Britain is the kingdom of the king of England, it is his dominion, the place where he lives and reigns. Then, the kingdom of God means the place where God reigns. Now where does God reign on earth?-Boy. Everywhere.

Yes, that is perfectly true, God does reign everywhere in a certain sense, but God reigns in the hearts of his people in a peculiar sense. This is where he is reigning; this, then, is his kingdom. Jesus said to this scribe, 'Thou art not far from the place where God is reigning. Thou art very nearly being a subject of his. God is very nearly reigning in that heart of thine.'

Now I'll tell you why I have read this passage. I mean to take first a little girl from the left-hand gallery, then a little boy from down below, and last another little girl from the right-hand gallery, and I shall tell you what sort of children they are; and I shall say to each of them, thou art not far from the kingdom of God. I shall ask them

questions, and though I shall answer them myself, I want you to think they are speaking, in order that you may know what sort of persons they are to whom this language is to be applied,Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.' Now I take the little girl from the left-hand gallery, and say to her, Minister.-Can you tell what the Bible is? Girl.--The Bible is the book of God; God's own book. M.—And what does the Bible tell you? me about Jesus.

I

G.-It tells

M.—And what does it say about Jesus? G.-It says that he was the Son of God, and that he came down to this world to die for sinners.

M.-And what does it tell you about yourself? G.-It tells me I am a sinner.

M.-And where does it say sinners will go? G.-It says they will go to hell.

Now you (I mean the little girl) have got knowledge, but you may know all this and a great deal more, and yet after all, you are not in the kingdom, you are only near it, not far from it. You may know all this, and yet not be a Christian; to be a Christian, is to be sorry that you have offended God, to love Jesus, to seek to please God. Ah, there are many children just within a few feet of the kingdom, but who have never yet entered into it.

Now I take a little boy from below, and I say, this little boy knows all that the little girl in the gallery has been saying; he knows that the Bible is the book of God, that it tells him about Jesus, and about himself being a sinner, and a great deal more. And this little boy has got feelings too; he is sometimes afraid to die, and to be afraid to die is a feeling; he is afraid of going to hell, and to be afraid of going to hell is a feeling; he is afraid that God is angry with him, and this is a feeling. He has got feelings. He has more than the little girl had, she had only knowledge, while he possesses knowledge and feelings. He does not like to break the Sabbath, and not to like to do this is to have a feeling. It is very possible for him to have all these and many more and deeper feelings, and yet after all he is not in the kingdom of God-he is just as much out of

the kingdom as the little boys and girls I saw coming down Lion street are out of the chapel. He has not passed the boundary yet; he has not crossed the borders yet; he does not know what it is to love Jesus and to hate sin yet. It is one thing to be afraid of the punishment of sin, and quite another to hate sin because God hates it. It is one

thing to be afraid of going to hell, and quite another thing to love heaven. To love the Sabbath-to love the Bibleto love to pray to God-these are the feelings of Christians, and it is possible for a little child to go a very long way towards these feelings, and yet not have them after all.

You recollect what Jesus said to the man who came to him by night.-Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Now what does this expression- be born again,' mean? B.-To have a new heart.

Well, that's a tolerably good explanation, but I want a plainer, a more simple one. I will give you the answer a Sunday scholar once gave when the same question was put to him; said he 'It is just to love the things I once hated, and to hate the things I once loved. I once loved sin, and now I love Jesus.'

This is what is meant by the new birth. It is to love what you once hated, and to hate what you once loved. Now what the text tells us is this, that it is possible for a little child to hate the punishment of sin, and yet not to hate the thing itself. Such an one is not far from the kingdom of God, but he has not yet entered into it. will explain what I mean by this.

There is a little child and its mother; the mother has told him not to do so and so to-day while she is out, or she will punish him for it. He does not like the punishment his mother said she would inflict, but he wishes to do the thing itself; he does the thing which he ought not to have done, and leaves undone that which he ought to have done. Now he was not afraid of offending his mother, he had not strong love for his mother, he was only afraid of the punishment, and even that did not prevent his disobedience, This is just the case with the sinful child. He is not afraid of offending God, he has not got that perfect change that the Bible speaks of, he is not born again, therefore he is not far from the kingdom of God.

Now for the little girl in the right-hand gallery-and she not only knows and feels all that this little boy knows and feels, but she knows a great deal more, and she has

very strong feelings; she is one of the most affectionate sisters, she is one of the most contented children you ever knew; as to her obedience, whatever her mother tells her to do she does it; she is such a good-tempered girl; she is so amiable;-yet after all she is not a Christian. She is a little nearer than the little boy, she is a great deal nearer than the little girl; but she has not yet passed the borders. She likes to read the Bible; when she reads about Moses and about David she is ready to cry over it, but she is not a Christian. She is very fond of her mother, but she never loves the Saviour that died for her; she loves her father, but she does not love Jesus. If her mother be angry with her, she is ready to burst her heart with grief. But if it is only God that is angry with her, it passes quickly out of her mind. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God; dear children you are on the borders, but you have not passed over yet. All I have to say to you little children is, I wish you to pass the borders, I wish you to come even now into the kingdom of God, to let God reign over you. I am now going to tell the little boy and the little girls what it is that is keeping them where they are. They are standing on the borders, and a few more steps would lead them safe inside. They are not quite so near as they appear to be-every moment they appear to be standing still, is taking them more and more backward from the kingdom.

I am now going to mention some things which keep him there, and

1.—I remember the case of a very little boy; his father had given him two large oranges, and the little fellow grasped them very firmly and safely in his hands; his father then took him into a room, and he showed him a table full of fruit; there were apples and pears, and fruit of different sorts. His father said, 'You may take whatever you please, only if you drop the oranges down I shall keep them. The little boy looked at the fruit, he longed to have some of it; he went to the table; he tried to take some, but it was no use, his hands were full of oranges, he could not find room for anything else.

Now every little child's heart that is standing on the borders of the kingdom of God, is just like this little boy's hands. What do I mean by this? It is just this.-Their hearts are so full of sin, they have not room for Jesus; their hearts are just as full as the little boy's hands were. Though their hearts are not in the kingdom of God, all

« EdellinenJatka »