the Spirit of God directs their minds to these exhibitions of coming wrath as the last means of conviction and conversion? Is it that they know that these texts speak too plainly of everlasting punishment for the people to be mistaken, and therefore need the mist of false philosophy-the force of ridicule, and the power of irony? Yet these texts remain-remain like flames on every page of holy writ, to flash their terrible meaning upon the reprobate's conscience till the end of time. Our text remains; declaring that the very mercy of God, that perfection upon which the Universalist suspends all his hopes, will render to every man according to his work. God is declared to be merciful on this account, that he will not let the sinner go unpunished. He is merciful, not because he will not execute the penalty of his law-not because he will acquit those on the left hand-not because he will even quench unquenchable fire, or put out everlasting flames-but he is merciful because he will render to every man according to his work. "Also, unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy for thou renderest to every man according to his work." Finally, what have been our works, and what will be our consequent recompense. What have been the works of this assembly? What have been the works of each man in this assembly? Look over your past life, and say what have been your works? Have you been working for God or for yourself? Have your toils been such as will give you pleasure millions of ages after the judgment day? Will the monuments of your exertions stand to your praise or your shame when the heavens shall be on fire? What a What a What a work the drunkard is doing! work the profane swearer is doing! work the whoremonger is doing! What a work the liar is doing! What a work the thief is doing! What a work the faithless parent, the faithless husband, the faithless wife, and the disobedient child are doing! What a work the warrior and the oppressor are doing! What a work the Atheist and Infidel are doing! They who poison not the body, but the mind-they who stab not the body, but the immortal soul! They who break fountains of poison for their children and for their children's children. They who poison mind around them, and send a poisoning influence down the stream of time, that souls not yet in being may drink and die! What a work he is performing who rejects the offer of pardon and eternal life!-who despises a Saviour slain!-who deafens his ears amid the cries and groans of the Son of God!-who will stand fast by the scene of crucifixion unsubdued, unmoved by its scene of atoning mercy! What a work he is performing, who declares before high heaven that neither its statutes nor its grace shall ever subdue, control or recover him! Who of you have performed any of these works? Are you all innocent? If any man say I have no sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him, What shall we do, then? We have sinned! Our sins are now written in the history of this world. They already form a part of the records of eternity! Who, who shall blot them out? Dying friends, who shall blot our crimes from the book of God's remembrance? If they stand there unblotted till the judgment day, then God will render to us according to our work. There is one who can blot them out. There is one who offers to blot them out. There is one who has suffered and died to blot them out. On condition of repentance and faith he will blot them out so that they will not blot us out from heaven. Hear his own. words: "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." t LECTURE II. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! John, i. 29.* JESUS CHRIST said of John the Baptist, "among those that are born of woman, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." Without stopping to inquire in what this greatness of the forerunner of the Son of God consisted, it evidently commanded universal respect, and on the part of his disciples, or at least some of them, an inordinate attachment. They regarded him not as the harbinger of the Son of Man, but as his equal, if not his superior. Hence John's declarations"And he confessed and denied not; but confessed I am not the Christ." When asked if he was that great prophet, he said, no. "He it is, who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes' * The following sermon is a reply to one by the Rev. S. W. Fuller, a Universalist minister of Philadelphia, (Pa.) which he preached from the same text. In his sermon he denied the total depravity of man, the supreme divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and laid great stress upon the sentence "taketh away," latchet I am not worthy to unloose." It was probably on this account that he was so soon withdrawn from his public ministry. He could not remain a rival of the Lamb of God, he was therefore withdrawn from the scene-his ministry prematurely closed, that the Saviour alone might stand forth as the way, the truth and the life among men. This view of the subject doubtless made John resign himself cheerfully to the bloody decree of Herod. But before he suffered his early martyrdom he gave ample testimony of him whose coming he was sent to announce. In the text we have a part of that testimony which he bore to Jesus Christ. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" We propose on the present occasion to ask three questions upon the text, and to furnish such answers to them as are afforded by the word of God. I. What is the sin of the world? "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." II. How was the sin of the world taken away? "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." III. By whom was the sin of the world taken away? "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." |