(_Missionary Sermon._)
xxv. 6-8. _And in this mountain, &c._
What the spirit of prophecy has here recorded is the testimony of
Jesus and of His salvation, the subject presented to our view being
_the blessings of the Gospel of the Son of God._ They are described
in their general nature, in their unrivalled excellence, and in their
universal extent.
+I. The blessings of the Gospel are here described in their general
nature,+ as including instruction for the ignorant, consolation for
the sorrowful, and life for the dead. They thus correspond to the
state of man without the Gospel, which is a state of darkness,
misery, and death.
1. _The natural state of fallen man is a state of moral darkness._ A
veil is upon him, by which those things which make for his peace and
essentially affect his well-being are hidden from his eyes. It is a
triple veil. (1.) There is the fold of _native ignorance._ The merely
natural man is totally ignorant of God and eternity. He knows not
whence he came or whither he is going. He is altogether "sensual,
having not the Spirit," and cannot know those things of the Spirit of
God which are only spiritually discerned. Hence, ever since the Fall,
darkness has covered the earth and gross darkness the people.
(2.) There is the yet thicker fold of _moral corruption._ Sin has
exactly the same tendency in each particular case as in the case of
Adam. It darkens the understanding by its deceitfulness, as well as
hardens the heart by its malignity. It tends to extinguish that
candle of the Lord which shines in the conscience, and to render
useless and unavailing those other means which God has provided for
delivering us from the night of Nature. Those in whom it reigns
choose the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are
evil (cf. Eph. vi. 17, 18). (3.) There is the fold of _Satanic
infatuation._ "The whole world lieth in the wicked one." He rules in
the hearts of all the children of disobedience; and his kingdom is
the kingdom of delusion and darkness. He beguiled Eve through his
subtilty; and he still labours to corrupt and darken the minds of men
(2 Cor. iv. 4).
All this is true of all the unregenerate, however diversified may be
their external condition and local circumstances. Hence multitudes
even of nominal Christians are fit objects of our compassionate care
and exertion. But the description of the text is still more
applicable to the case of heathen nations not yet visited by the
Gospel. They have not the light which nominal Christians do not allow
to shine into them; in general, they have _no_ effectual light. Over
them is cast the veil not merely of ignorance and sin, but of
_superstition_ and _false religion,_ than which nothing can be more
fatally opposed to the entrance of light and the operation of Divine
grace. Their very systems of religion are the means of perpetuating
folly and vice, instead of reclaiming them to wisdom and
righteousness. In many cases that "religion" sanctions and prescribes
the most cruel of sacrifices and the most licentious of rites. In
Christendom men may be superstitious and wicked, licentious and
cruel, but it is _because they neglect their religion._ In heathen
and Mohammedan countries, they are so _because_ they attend to their
religion. They breathe its genuine spirit and exemplify its proper
tendency. All that is deemed sacred and authoritative in the name of
religion unites with all the ignorance and depravity of fallen man,
and with all the subtilty and power of the Prince of Darkness to
produce and perpetuate a system of error and iniquity. False religion
may pretend to be a sun which enlightens, but it is really a veil
which darkens all who come under its power--a veil much more
effectual to favour the ravages of sin, misery, and death than even
any of the coverings previously mentioned.
2. _Man is described in the text as the child not only of darkness
and error, but also of misery and death._ For ignorance is the
mother, not of devotion, but of sin, in all its multiplied forms. And
sin is invariably linked to misery! The wretchedness of men bears an
exact correspondence to their ignorance and wickedness (Rom. iii. 16,
17).
If this statement be true of natural men in general, it is still more
awfully verified in the condition of the heathen world in particular.
Infidel travellers who have cheated the public from time to time by
highly-coloured pictures of the happiness of pagans, ought not on
such a point to be believed. It cannot be that in the dark places of
the earth, the habitations of cruelty, no groans should be heard, no
tears be seen. The fact is, that while heathenism leaves its votaries
to the unmitigated operation of all these natural and moral causes of
distress which are common to man in general, it opens many new
sources of misery, inflicts many additional desolations, causes many
forms of terror, suffering, and destruction, which are peculiar to
itself. All men are born to tears, because born in sin; but the tears
of pagans are often tears of blood. Every groan they heave is big
with double wretchedness.
The Gospel, in its provision of blessings for the human race, adapts
itself to that state of darkness, wretchedness, and mortality which I
have faintly described.
1. _It removes darkness._ It reveals to us the existence, character,
and will of God, our own origin, immortality, and accountableness,
the way of salvation and the path of duty; and, used by the Holy
Spirit as His great instrument, it changes the heart of those who
receive it, and delivers them from the delusions and dominion of
Satan. In these several ways does the Gospel become the instrument of
illumination. By it, and in connection with it, God destroys the
covering which is naturally on man's faces, and the veil that is
spread over their understandings and hearts. The consequence is, in
instances innumerable, that "beholding as in a glass," with unveiled
face, "the glory of the Lord, that are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
The glorious diffusion of light and purity which results from
Christianity is still more striking when it obtains access to heathen
nations. In proportion to the deeper gloom of their former ignorance
is the splendour of the new illumination, when the Sun of
righteousness arises upon them with healing in His beams. On such
occasions, it may be said with peculiar emphasis, "The entrance of
Thy Word giveth light,"--a light which is able to penetrate and
destroy even the thickest veil of false religion.
2. _It wipes away tears._ This is here declared to be a part of its
design, and experience proves it to be one of its actual operations
(Ps. lxxxix. 15, 16). It leads to repentance, and so to pardon,
purity, and genuine peace. It comforts in sorrow. It cheers in death.
To the heathen it is peculiarly valuable and welcome. It opens to
them, in common with others, the sources of spiritual enjoyment and
the hopes of eternal bliss. And besides, it abolishes pagan cruelties
and diffuses principles of humanity and kindness. Hence result the
amelioration of their civil institutions, the increase of domestic
happiness, and the improvement of social life (H. E. I. 1122-1133).
3. _It swallows up death in victory._ It delivers every believer from
the fear of death (Heb. ii. 14, 15; H. E. I. 1109-1111, 1589, 1594).
God will most gloriously swallow up death in victory when He shall
actually recover from the territories of the grave, by His almighty
power, those spoils which death has won.
In proportion to its progress in heathen countries, the Gospel will
not merely extract the sting of death, but arrest and diminish its
most awful ravages. The waste of human life in many pagan lands is
incalculable. As true religion increases, even in Christian
countries, wars, which it has already rendered less sanguinary, will
be less frequent too (chap. ii. 4).
+II. The unrivalled excellence of the blessings of the Gospel.+ "A
feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full
of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." Variety! richness!
abundance! (See outline THE GOSPEL FEAST, pp. 253-256.) Who does not
recognise, in the unrivalled excellence of the blessings the Gospel
conveys, the most powerful arguments for missionary exertion? Who can
think of the Gospel feast, in contrast with the famine of the
heathen, without wishing that they also might be bidden to the
heavenly entertainment?
+III. The universal extent of the blessings of Christianity.+ "The
Lord of hosts shall make unto _all_ people a feast of fat things."
1. They are adapted to all people. 2. They are sufficient for all
people. 3. They were designed for all people. 4. The wide world
shall, sooner or later, partake of them.
One result of this universal spread and triumph of Christianity is
stated in the text: "The rebuke of His people shall He take away from
off all the earth." 1. By the successful exertions of God's people to
evangelise the world, the reproach, which is at present too
well-founded, of neglecting to care for those who sit in darkness and
the shadow of death, shall become no longer just and applicable.
2. In consequence of the general spread and influence of
Christianity, the reproach of Christ, the scandal of the Cross, shall
cease; and the Church, formerly despised and laughed to scorn, shall
be held in great honour and reputation (chap. lx. 13-16). 3. The
particular reproach of spiritual barrenness--the reproach founded on
the paucity of her converts, and the small number of her
children--shall for ever cease. At present "Jacob is small," and the
flock of Jesus is, comparatively, a little flock. This fact has been
converted by infidels into matter of attack upon Christianity itself.
They have tauntingly urged the narrow extent of our religion as an
argument against its Divinity. That argument admits, even now, of
solid refutation. But in due season the fact itself shall be altered,
and no shadow of plausibility shall be left for the reproach (chap.
liv. 1-5).