Sermons

24th May 1838

“And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the Temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” Luke 24: 52, 53.

For forty days after His resurrection did our Saviour Christ endure to remain below, at a distance from the glory which He had purchased. The glory was now His, He might have entered into it. Had He not had enough of earth? what should detain Him here, instead of returning to the Father, and taking possession of His throne? He delayed in order to comfort and instruct those who had forsaken Him in the hour of trial. A time had just passed when their faith

“If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19:17.

Let a plain man read the Gospels with a serious and humble mind, and as in God’s presence, and I suppose he would be in no perplexity at all about the meaning of these words. They are clear as the day at first reading, and the rest of our Saviour’s teaching does but corroborate their obvious meaning. I conceive that

21^st December 1834

“Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” John 20, 29.

St. Thomas is the Apostle who doubted of our Lord’s resurrection. This want of faith has given him a sort of character in the minds of most people, which is referred

“Ye shall be Witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1. 8.

So many were the wonderful works which our Saviour did on earth, that not even the world itself could have contained the books recording them. Nor have His marvels been less since He ascended on high;-those works of higher grace and more abiding fruit, wrought in the souls of men, from the first hour till now,-the captives of His power, the ransomed heirs of His kingdom, whom He has called by His Spirit working in due season

1st January 1837

“After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” Gal. 4:9.

It is a doctrine frequently used by St. Paul, I need scarcely say, as by the other sacred writers, that the New Covenant of the Gospel has superseded the Jewish Law

26th August 1832

“Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12:28, 29.

In every age of Christianity, since it was first preached, there has been what may be called a religion of the world, which so far imitates the one true religion, as to deceive the unstable and unwary. The world does not oppose religion as such. I may say, it never has opposed it. In particular, it has, in all ages, acknowledged in one sense or other the Gospel of Christ, fastened on one or other of its characteristics, and professed to embody this in its practice; while by neglecting the other parts of the holy

“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.” Luke 24:5, 6.

Such is the triumphant question with which the Holy Angels put to flight the sadness of the women on the morning of Christ’s resurrection. “O ye of little faith,” less faith than love, more dutiful than understanding, why come ye to anoint His Body on the third day? Why seek ye the Living Saviour in the tomb?

St Paul is engaged, in the chapter from which these words are taken, in humbling the self-conceit of the Corinthians. They had had gifts given them; they did not forget they had them; they used, they abused them; they forgot, not that they were theirs, but that they were given them. They seem to have thought that those gifts

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.” (Luke 15:18, 19)

The very best that can be said of the fallen and redeemed race of Adam is, that they confess their fall, and condemn themselves for it, and try to recover themselves. And this state of mind, which is in fact the only possible religion left to sinners, is represented to us in the parable of the Prodigal Son, who is described as

“The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1:5.

Of all the thoughts which rise in the mind when contemplating the sojourn of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth, none perhaps is more affecting and subduing than the obscurity which attended it. I do not mean His obscure condition, in the sense of its being humble; but the obscurity in which He was shrouded, and the secrecy which He observed.