his great scheme of salvation on the page of revelation. But while a
doubting, unbelieving world is slow to study and receive it, he sets his
people boldly up before them, and challenges them to read in their lives
and doings what his religion can accomplish. Look here, he bids an ungodly
world, and judge what the cross can do. Trace the influence of the gospel
upon these who have accepted it, and tried it, and hear what they are
saying of its power and grace; for they are my witnesses, saith the Lord.
Such is the Christian's attitude before the world: testifying every hour,
speaking through all his life for Christ. Oh what a blessed, an exalted
privilege! Oh what an awful responsibility! Every member of the church is
in this position; every professing Christian is testifying. And,
fellow-witnesses, what is the testimony we are giving? Are any disposed
to shrink back from the position? Are any conscious that their lives do
not read well for Christ? There is no escaping from the responsibility. Ye
who have made a profession of Christ before the world are committed. Ye
have taken the witness-stand, and the world is hearing you. Professing
Christians, the voice of God Almighty says, "Ye are my witnesses," and
there is no escape for you. You have spoken; you have got to speak. You
may seal up your lips, but your very silence speaks. "Ye are my
witnesses."
Hear it, ye professors, when ye go out into the world of ungodliness; when
ye stand in the market-place for gain, and deal with a world of
covetousness and greed; when ye seek for pleasure and preferment: "Ye are
my witnesses." Hear it when tempted to step aside and hold your religion
in abeyance for a season, that you may join hands with the careless and
the vain: "Ye are my witnesses." Ye cannot drop your vocation; ye cannot
stop the testimony. Go where you will, it follows you. Was your hoarse
laugh heard in the saloon, among the fast young men whose eyes were red
over the wine-cup? Were ye seen in the companies of fashion and
dissipation, whirling in the dance, rattling the dice, or bending over the
card-table? Have ye forsaken the services of devotion, the sanctuary, and
the prayer-meeting, for the society of open worldliness and ungodliness?
Ye have not done testifying yet. God Almighty's voice follows you, and
rings in your ears, "Ye are my witnesses." Your testimony may have been
dishonoring to God; it may have been damaging to the cause of Christ; but
God claims you as his witnesses, and will settle with you when he comes to
review the testimony at the judgment-day. And your false, treacherous
souls, blackened with the damning guilt of a life-long perjury, will meet
a doom which will make the hell of lesser sinners, when compared with it,
seem almost a heaven.
VI.
Christians Shining.
LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS,
AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. MATT. 5:16.
The people of God are the light of the world--luminous bodies, shining
amid the moral darkness around them.
Two kinds of bodies, in the physical world, are mediums of light. Those
which are in their very substance luminous, as the sun, the fixed stars,
or a burning lamp. These shine by virtue of their own properties. Their
light is inherent and underived. Another class of bodies shine only by
reflected light. Opaque in their nature, they send back only those rays
which are sent upon them. Such are the moon, the planets and their
satellites--luminous only upon the surface, but dark within.
In a certain degree, Christians resemble this latter class of bodies; but
not altogether. The light they possess is indeed a derived light, and not
self-originated. They are by nature dark and rayless; but the light which
has shone upon them penetrates beyond the surface, and makes the very
inner soul luminous with its radiance. It generates light: it transforms
them into living light-bearers. They not only reflect the beams which fall
upon the surface, but send forth from within new rays of moral brightness.
"God," says the apostle, "who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
Christians, then, are not mere reflectors, luminous only on the surface;
but they radiate light from their own inner being. This light is owing to
the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, awakening, converting, and
sanctifying them. By that power they are made in the image of Christ, and
saved. Such is the light they possess--a light enkindled within them, and
reflected from them.
Our Saviour teaches, in the text, that this light which they have _must
shine through their practical lives and conduct_. "Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven." It is the very nature of light to shine. Christians
shine through their holy lives. Their good works are the rays which they
emit. The world sees them, and judges of them. In all they say and do for
God, in the spirit which they manifest, and the example they exhibit, they
scatter light around them. Other men see it.
The tendency of this is to prompt others to glorify God the Father--"that
they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven."
This too must be the motive to prompt Christians to diligence in good
works. It is not to exalt themselves, but to honor God. Not to establish a
ground of merit in the sight of God, not to build up a righteousness of
their own, do they strive for a holy life, but to glorify God. Not to
shine and bedazzle others by the splendor of their virtue; but to shed
around them that light which they have received, to reflect the beams
which have illuminated them, and thereby lead others to praise and glorify
God for his wondrous work of grace in them.
Hence we derive the proposition that God's people, redeemed by the blood
of Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, _are shining ones_,
exhibiting the glory of God, beyond any other of his creatures or works.
In illustrating this proposition I remark, that God is revealed to us only
through his works. "No man hath seen God at any time." Purely spiritual in
his nature, and infinite in his perfections, we cannot know him, except
through his works. How he is known to angels and the pure spirits of
heaven, we cannot tell; but to us, the Lord is known by the operation of
his hands. His character and glory are reflected to us by his doings. Yet
the different works of God manifest to us his glory in different degrees,
according to their nature.
1. His material creation exhibits to us his omnipotence, his wisdom,
skill, and greatness. When we cast our eyes upward and view the boundless
fields of immensity studded with suns and satellites, sweeping the
trackless territories of space with no discord or confusion, and then turn
our eye earthward and survey the infinite variety of material objects
around us, with properties varying endlessly, and yet all combined in one
beautiful and harmonious whole, our minds cannot resist the impression of
the might, the grandeur, the magnificence of Deity. Here we behold his
glory as the great Architect, the omnipotent Creator.
2. But when we advance from mere lifeless matter to his doings with
living, sentient creatures, who are capable of enjoyment and of suffering,
these exhibit his glory in a higher perfection than any material
handiwork; for here appears the goodness and benevolence of God, seen in
the constitution of these creatures for happiness, and the abundant means
which he has provided for their well-being. In moulding and shaping the
material universe into an infinite variety of forms, God publishes his
glory as a skilful and mighty builder; but when he comes to people these
material worlds with sentient creatures, and displays an adaptation of all
to promote their enjoyment, then does the Deity rise far above the place
of a mere architectural designer, and proclaim his kindness and his love.
The irrational creation, from the summer insect which sports out its
brief existence in the sunbeams, to the flocks and herds which range the
valleys clothed with verdure, all unite their testimony that God is good,
and his tender mercies are over all his works.
Ascend now a step higher. Follow up the scale of being from mere sentient,
irrational creatures, to moral, responsible intelligences. Here is
reflected a new class of the Creator's attributes. Here there shines a
glory which the whole material universe never could reveal. In creating
and dealing with moral agents, endowed with reason and moral sense, the
Almighty manifests the truth, the justice, and the holiness of his
character. These glorious perfections of God rise infinitely above his
mere natural attributes; and they require creatures endowed with a moral
nature, and under a moral government, in order to their manifestation. God
might build worlds upon worlds, and deck them with far more gorgeous
splendors than are flung over this one we live on; but were they unpeopled
by any rational intelligences, they could publish nothing of God's glory,
except that he was a builder of mighty power and skill. This is what
Nature, in her works, declares of God. But when God calls into being his
moral creation, he advances far beyond the position of a mere architect,
an almighty builder, to that of a moral governor; and in the unfoldings of
his character we discover what we never could see elsewhere, the beauty of
holiness, the majesty of justice, the excellency of truth.
These lofty perfections of the divine nature are reflected in His dealings
with moral beings, and nowhere else. In rewarding holiness, and punishing
transgression, Jehovah exhibits the transcendent purity of his own being.
Holy angels in their raptures, and fallen angels in their woes, reflect
the moral glory of the Godhead. In dealing with them, God publishes to the
universe his supreme regard for his holy law, and that "righteousness and
judgment are the habitation of his throne."
Is there any higher glory than this possible? Are there any perfections of
God back of these which wait to be revealed; any grander purposes and
movements of the divine mind which can enhance the lustre of his
character, and add to the splendor of that "light, inaccessible, and full
of glory," which surrounds his dwelling-place? Yes, there are.
It is in his relations and dealings with _redeemed men_, in saving
sinners, and restoring them from a fallen, ruined state, to holiness and
bliss. Here is a new glory thrown around his character, a new theatre of
action. Here the divine mind grapples with the great problem of moral
evil, and proposes to save the sinner without compromising His truth and
holiness. Here the perfections of love and mercy, compassion and
forbearance, favor to the wretched, grace to the undeserving, all break
forth.
These perfections of God's nature could never have been known to his
intelligent universe without a plan of salvation for sinners. The angels
in the realms of holiness never could have called them into exercise. Much
as God might delight to reward and bless them, he could not show aught of
compassion or grace to them, for there could be no possible room for God
to exercise any such dispositions towards such beings. Mercy can be
exercised only towards the wretched, grace only to the unworthy,
long-suffering and forbearance only towards the guilty; but in the case of
holy beings, God can find nothing to forgive, nothing to bear with,
nothing to develop the riches of his grace.
We see then, how redeemed sinners exhibit the glory of God in a strange
and peculiar light. When God moves to save them, he displays a new class
of perfections, which never could be known except as they are here
manifested. Every Christian is a living epistle, publishing something of
God which the intelligent universe can read nowhere else. Every Christian
declares that God is a God of infinite grace and mercy, long-suffering and
forgiving; a God full of compassion and love. He is a living witness to
these perfections, for he is a guilty creature rescued from sin and hell.
In him God displays precisely those traits of his character which awaken
the profoundest admiration of his creatures, which attract them towards
him, which enkindle love. Indeed we may say that, were it not for the
plan of salvation for sinners, there would exist in the divine nature a
class of perfections of which his creatures must be for ever ignorant.
But this plan lifts the veil, and bids us behold the infinite heart of
God. The Christian is the being in whom God displays these excellences; he
is the trophy of grace; he reflects the glory of the Godhead beyond any
thing seen in all other creatures. None but he can testify of Jehovah's
boundless grace and compassion, of the triumph of infinite wisdom and love
in baffling the arts of Satan, and rescuing a lost sinner from hell and
fitting him for heaven. This work is the climax of Jehovah's undertakings,
and the Bible plainly teaches that to angelic minds there are no
operations of the Godhead, throughout his vast dominions, which can
compare with this in interest and in glory.
Again, as has been already remarked, Christians are not mere reflectors of
God's glory; but there is a light beaming from within them which _makes
them luminous_, for they are made to resemble Christ in their character;
they are created anew in the image of Christ; they are begotten of him,
and are said to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." All true Christians do
thus resemble, at least in some degree, the Saviour.
But Christ is the grandest manifestation of the Godhead ever made to
creatures. He was "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express
image of his person." No other display of the Godhead can be compared with
that of the Word made flesh. And surely it must follow that creatures who
resemble him must reflect, in the highest degree, the glory of God. Angels
may be perfect in holiness, but their character does not present the same
moral aspect as that of Christians who have been saved and sanctified.
Both will be holy; but in the character of a perfectly sanctified
Christian there will appear many things which an angel never can exhibit.
It will resemble that of Christ more than that of Gabriel, and in so doing
will manifest the glory of God as it shone in the face of Jesus Christ.
To what an honorable and exalted position does the Bible advance the
Christian! Set in the firmament of intelligent beings, he shines with a
peculiar light, like a star whose beams emit a peculiar halo, and whose
twinkling disc wears a brighter effulgence than its fellows. "The heavens
declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." Angels
reflect that glory in a higher degree; but sinners raised from guilt and
ruin, and made sons of God, furnish the grandest exhibition of the divine
perfections ever made. Such is the relation Christians sustain to God and
to other intelligences--they are reflectors of God's glory.
But when I read my text I learn that they are not mere passive reflectors.
They are to give light not merely as polished mirrors hung in the
sunbeams; they are to shine from within, as well as on the surface. There
must be a settled aim and purpose to scatter light about them. "Let your
light so shine," says Christ. The word "_so_" here implies that you have a
deep responsibility as to the kind of light you give, and the effect
produced by it. It is a light which must be made to shine through your
good works, your holy lives. And those works must be prosecuted in such a
way that men shall be led by them to "glorify your Father which is in
heaven." Here is the great law of Christian activity: that all you do
shall be done in a way which shall tell for the glory of God. Christian
friend, here is the governing principle of your life. It requires you to
act with reference to the good of others. It bids you keep ever in view
the influence of your conduct upon those around you. 'Tis a high, a noble
principle--the glory of God. 'Tis an unselfish principle, which will
enable you to display to the world all the graces of a holy life without
pride or ostentation, and so to walk that men will give God the glory of
any good they find in you.
Ah, we fear it is a principle too often wanting, even with those who
profess to be God's people. Many have no objection to let their light
shine while they can be appreciated; many are willing that others shall
see their good works, and glorify themselves for them; many will devote
their time and labor to the cause of Christ so long as they can have the
preƫminence, and impress others with the idea of their own importance.
Their light will shine, but shine only to let the world see their own
perfections, and pay homage to their sanctity.
But far different from this is the spirit of a Christian's service. It is
not self, but God who must have all the glory. Let it _so_ shine, says
Christ, that it shall lead all who see it to render God the glory. Let
ungodly men learn from your holy lives the reality and excellency of that
salvation which you have tasted. Let the light of your example shine so
that they too shall be led to seek the same divine illumination. Let all
your works point them to that Redeemer who has called you out of darkness,
and prompt them to seek him as their own. Thus will they glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
Such is the spirit of the Saviour's words before us, and the practical
inquiry for us all is, How do our lives correspond with this spirit?
First of all, have we really any light to shed around us? A mere
profession is worthless as an empty lamp. Have our hearts been illuminated
by divine grace? Has the darkness of guilt and ignorance and error been
scattered there; and have we tasted the sweets of pardon, peace, and
sanctification?
Depend upon it, we can give no light to others without first having our
own hearts illuminated by the Holy Spirit. A mere profession of religion,
unaccompanied by the active virtues of piety, will give no light. Let us
then look closely within, and ask, Have we any light of grace ourselves?
And in connection with this, and following it, will come the inquiry, What
good are we doing to the world by it? Oh, my brethren, the Saviour bids us
look around us upon our fellow-men and ask, What has all our religion
amounted to? What have we accomplished for God's glory? How much light
have we scattered? Whom have we enlightened and saved through our
Christian influence? What souls have we led to repentance and belief in
Jesus Christ? Has our light shone to any purpose? Have we been the
instruments of instructing and saving others? Inquiries like these must
come up, for God's people are the light of the world, and their mission is
to reflect his glory as no seraph even can do it. It therefore follows
that the question of your influence upon the world around has vitally to
do with the question whether you are a child of God at all; for if there
is no light radiating from your life, there is none in you. If your light
does not shine, it is because you have none; wherever it exists in the
soul it must shine out.
Every Christian has a positive influence for good. All do not shine with
equal power and brilliancy, but they shine. Some scatter their rays far
and wide, and become the moral lights of their generation, and some only
glimmer like a feeble taper; but even the taper gives light to some, and
so every Christian must shed rays of light upon some soul.
Christian friends, where are those rays falling from your lives and
conversation? Whose way do they enlighten? Do your children see them? And
have you, by the lustre of your Christian example, led a single soul to
Christ? Oh look well to the influence you are exerting. Beware lest your
profession be in vain; for "if the light that is in you be darkness, how
great is that darkness!"
VII.
The Raven and the Dove.
AND IT CAME TO PASS AT THE END OF FORTY DAYS, THAT NOAH OPENED THE
WINDOW OF THE ARK WHICH HE HAD MADE: AND HE SENT FORTH A RAVEN, WHICH
WENT FORTH TO AND FRO, UNTIL THE WATERS WERE DRIED UP FROM OFF THE
EARTH. ALSO HE SENT FORTH A DOVE FROM HIM, TO SEE IF THE WATERS WERE
ABATED FROM OFF THE FACE OF THE GROUND. BUT THE DOVE FOUND NO REST FOR
THE SOLE OF HER FOOT, AND SHE RETURNED UNTO HIM INTO THE ARK; FOR THE
WATERS WERE ON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH. GENESIS 8:6-9.
The narrative which contains these words introduces us to one of the
darkest and most desolate periods in the history of our world. Rapid and
appalling had been the progress of human degeneracy. Religion and virtue
had well-nigh become extinct, and all flesh had corrupted its way on the
earth. The good men of the antediluvian age were dead, while but one of
the hoary patriarchs was left to bear witness for Jehovah before a
God-despising generation, and to perpetuate the succession of the faithful
in the world. It was time for God to work, for men had made void his law.
The vast population of this globe was swept away by a deluge of
waters--that most awful visitation of divine vengeance, the evidences of
which are to this day found, and the traditions of which are preserved
among the primitive nations of every continent.
Righteous Noah and his household were alone preserved by special divine
interposition. Forewarned of God, he prepared an ark for the saving of
himself and his family, which in due time was freighted with the remnant
of the human race and pairs of the various tribes of the irrational
creation, and floated upon the wide waste of waters, beneath which lay
buried all the monuments of an apostate and heaven-daring generation.
Forty long days were numbered after the flood began to abate, and still
the huge ark floated on the boundless deep, and the patriarch's heart grew
anxious about the future. With a trembling hand he opened the window of
the ark, and sent forth the raven to seek for some tidings of a buried
world; but the bird came not back. Though the waters were dark and the
desolation unbroken, still she returned not to the friendly shelter which
had so long protected her, but chose to allay the cravings of hunger, and
live amid the wrecks and ruins which drifted to and fro upon the broad
abyss. Days again pass slowly away. Another messenger is dispatched to
seek for tidings. The dove leaves the window of the ark, and spreads her
pinions and soars away over the wild expanse; but the unpropitious skies
are overhead, the green fields and shady woodlands are gone; no
nourishment is found amid the shattered fragments, and no objects of
delight are seen across the dreary wastes. The raven may perch upon the
drifting offal, and screech out its hoarse notes amid the awful solitudes;
but the timorous dove, finding no rest for the sole of her foot, hastens
her flight back to the patriarch, and nestles securely in the friendly
ark.
There are materials for profitable reflection in this simple story. Let us
condescend to learn lessons of true wisdom from the raven and the dove.
1. In the solitary ark floating securely on the flood you may discover no
unfit emblem of that _only spiritual refuge_ which God has provided for
our ruined race in the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ. The
fearful apostasy of our first parent drove our race out upon an ocean of
gloom and of peril. The special presence and favor of the Almighty was
withdrawn, though his providential care over us as his creatures remained.
But purposes of mercy were yet cherished in the divine mind, and the plan
of salvation was revealed through Jesus Christ.
Here alone, in Christ, God manifests to us his gracious presence. Nowhere
else in all the departments of his works does he admit us to his
fellowship, or speak to us of his mercy. Take away from the world the
special manifestation of God in Christ, and there is no way left for man
to hold any communion with his Maker, no pledge of mercy or grace to him,
no hope of security and happiness in the favor of his Sovereign. Man is
left to drift on the dark billows of sin without a ray of deliverance, and
without a single speck floating upon the wide expanse to tell him that he
is not utterly abandoned to destruction.