We might possibly have had some difficulty in explaining this verse, or we might have referred it to the prophet Isaiah and his sons, had not inspiration been its own expositor. Turn to the New Testament and the text will be no mystery to you; its key hangs on its proper nail. In the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and at the eleventh verse, we read-“For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me.” We have thus from divine revelation assured evidence that it is our Lord who speaks, and speaks of his people as his children. This clue we will follow.

The context sets forth, as is most common throughout the whole of Scripture, the different results which result from the appearance of the Saviour. He is rejected by many, and accepted by others. He was set for the fall and rise of many in Israel. To those who received him he is a glory and a defence, but to others “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” Even now his gospel is a “savour of death unto death” as well as a “savour of life unto life.” The election of grace is always being worked out, the separating process continues, and will continue, until the eternal purpose has been completely fulfilled. Those whom the Lord has chosen feel the attractions of the Saviour, and come to him; while others wilfully and wickedly close their eyes to his brightness and reject him, and he leaves them in their willing unbelief. “He came unto his own and his own received him not, but to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.”

Of those who received the Lord, we find it written that the testimony of God would be left in their charge. “Bind up the testimony; seal the law among my disciples.” The outside world rejects the testimony of God; its own thoughts and opinions are much more pleasant to it; but among the Lord’s disciples his commands are prized, and his teachings sacredly preserved. They see the seal of the living God upon the gospel, and they also set to it their seal that God is true; they accept the gospel of Jesus as very truth, and hold it, and mean to hold it against all comers.

To the true disciples of Jesus there may come times of darkness; it has been so with the church of old, and will be so still, but they have this star to gild their midnight-that Christ their Master and representative is waiting upon the Lord, and expecting and pleading for brighter and happier times. “I will wait,” saith he, “upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.” Christ in the dark ages of Judaism looked for the dawn of gospel day, and even now he sets himself upon his watch-tower and looks for a golden age for his redeemed people. So interested is he in their welfare that he will not rest till their brightness shines forth as a lamp that burneth.

Having thus noted the context we will come closely to the text. On this earth a people exist who have accepted the Messiah, and have become his disciples, and look for all from their Lord. Of these people the text says, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me.”

Here we shall notice, first, a remarkable relationship ascribed to Christ; secondly, a spontaneous avowal of it-“Behold, I and the children whom thou hast given me;” and, thirdly, a common function, common to the Lord and to his disciples: they are appointed to be “signs” and “wonders” in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in mount Zion.

First, here is a remarkable relationship. Jesus is called a father. Now, this is not according to precise theology, or according to the more formal doctrinal statements of Scripture, and we must, therefore, take care that we do not make confusion in our minds. Jesus is not “the Father,” and we must always carefully maintain the distinction of persons in the Godhead. The Son of God is one with the Father, but he is not the Father; and we must take care we do not ascribe to the Son acts which are peculiar to the Father. According to correct speech, it is the first person of the divine Trinity whom we call the Father, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; and when we say, “Abba, Father,” “Our Father which art in heaven,” and “Thanks be unto the Father,” we do not refer to the Lord Jesus, but to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Still, the title of Father is very applicable to our Lord Jesus Christ for many reasons. And first, because he is our federal Head. We speak correctly of “father Adam,” and Jesus is the second Adam who heads up our race anew, and is the representative man of redeemed mankind. He only of mankind stands to others as Adam stood, head of a covenant, involving others in his acts. The second Adam, therefore, may well regard us as his children, in whom the covenant promise is fulfilled, “His seed also will I make to endure for ever.” As the first Adam looking down the ages upon us all may well cry with astonishment, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me!” so Jesus, viewing the vast company of the faithful, sees in them his seed, and finds in them a sacred satisfaction for the travail of his soul. We are in him, he stands for us, and we are in this sense his children.

Our Lord is also Father of the golden age of grace and glory. Isaiah calls him the “son born,” and the “child given,” and yet “the everlasting Father,” and our hymn has well translated that expression.

“Sire of ages ne’er to cease,

Prince of life and Prince of peace.”

There is an age of silver in which we now live, which Christ has produced by his first advent and the consequent proclamation of the gospel, and there is an age of gold yet to come, delightfully anticipated by the saints, of which Christ will be the Father and Lord. Then in him, and in his seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Indeed, I might say, that the eternity of blessedness in which the sanctified shall dwell is an age which owns Christ for its Father; and so he may well be called “the Father of eternity,” or “the everlasting Father.”

Again, there is a sense in which Christ is our father, because by his teaching we are born unto God. Just as the minister who brings a soul to Christ is said to be the spiritual parent to such a soul, and is, indeed, instrumentally so, so the Lord Jesus, as the author of our faith, is our spiritual Father in the family of God, and of him the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Our Lord, in bringing many sons unto glory, is truly their Father, for he it is who calls them into spiritual life, and puts them among the children of God. He is that “corn of wheat” which, except it fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but, inasmuch as he has died, he bringeth forth much fruit, and we-we all of us, who have believed in him-are the living fruit of our dying and risen Saviour, and we speak not incorrectly when we call him Father. He is our elder brother, but he is also “over his own house, whose house are we.” The word which quickened us came to us by Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

Now, let us see whether there is not much of teaching in this metaphor by which we are called children of the Lord Jesus. The expression denotes, first, that we derive our spiritual life from him as children take their origin from their father. Of him are we. If he had not created us we had not been in the world; if he had not redeemed us, we had not possessed a portion in the world to come. If he had not called us, we had still been in darkness and in death. If he had not quickened us-for he quickeneth whom he will-we had still lain among the dry bones of the valley of sin. That we are we owe to the Father’s providence; but that we are born again we owe to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from that matchless scheme of which Christ is the sum and substance, there had been no pardoned sinners, no believers, no children adopted into the family of God, no heirs of God, no priests and kings to reign with Christ for ever and ever. As we look at the dear wounds of Jesus we see the rock whence we were hewn, when we gaze upon his precious blood, we see the life blood of our souls. He is the root that beareth us, the stem of which we are the branches.

Children do not merely take their origin from their father, but they have a likeness to his nature; and this is most true in the case of our Lord and his regenerated people, for he has become like to us, and on the other hand he has made us like to him. Note how the apostle puts it, “Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same;” “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one;” “It behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.” As a father feels for his children because they are of the same flesh and blood as himself, so doth the Lord sympathise with his people, for they are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. No father can be so thoroughly one with his offspring as Jesus is with us.

Moreover our divine Lord is bringing us into his likeness, and making us partakers of his nature. True believers are as like their Lord as little children are like their father. As I said last Thursday night, the likeness may be in some points a caricature, so that we smile to see ourselves represented and misrepresented in our children, yet there it is, we see our image in them; and so the image of Christ is upon all his believing people, it is much marred and very miniature, but still it is the true image of his love. As on the prepared glass of the photographer the likeness is present, but needs to be brought out by means best known to himself, so it is with us; the image of God has been renewed in us, but it lies somewhat hidden, and the Holy Spirit has it in hand to develop in us the life of Christ, and his work will be complete at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour, “for when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

I believe that the text has in it very clearly the idea of charge and responsibility. Children are a charge always; a comfort sometimes. No parent has a child without lying under obligations to God to take care of it, and to nurse it for him. Sometimes the responsibility becomes very heavy, and involves us in much anxiety. Wherever conscience is lively, fatherhood is regarded as a solemn thing. Now, Jesus Christ, when looking upon his people, calls them “children whom God has given him;” as if he recognised the charge laid upon him to keep, instruct, and perfect his own people. Remember his last words to his Father before he went to his passion: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” Like Jacob with Laban’s sheep, our Lord looked upon his elect as a charge for which he was responsible; and ere he departed out of this life he rendered in an account to his heavenly Father. Even now also that great Shepherd of the sheep charges himself with the preservation of his own ransomed ones, and when he, at the last, shall gather all his redeemed people around him, there will not be one missing, and he will say, “Behold, I and the children that thou hast given me.” We call him Father, then, because as a father has charge of his family, and is before God responsible for their training and up-bringing, so Christ himself is surety for his people, and is under bond to bring the many sons unto glory.

In our relationship towards our children there is involved very often a great deal of care and grief. Happy parents who can say of a child, “He never caused me anxiety”! Happy father who can say of all his household, “I have had no sorrow from one of them”! I fear the case is rare. I know that this father of whom we are speaking had care and grief enough for his household; yea, for their sakes he bore a weight of woe which crushed him to the ground. Oh, you sorrowing parents! take comfort as you remember the greater griefs of the head of the chosen family, for all their infirmities and sins and wilful wanderings were laid upon him, and, for his children’s sake, his “soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” The pangs of his sacred fatherhood brought him to Gethsemane and its bloody sweat; ay, to Calvary, and its shameful doom: what are our griefs compared with these? Jesus must needs die for his family that he might be able to say, “Here am I, and the children which thou hast given me.” Count it not, therefore, a strange thing, since you cost your Lord so much anguish, if sometimes your children should pour coals of fire into your bosoms.

But, brethren, the possession of children involves a very near and dear love. You may try to love other people’s children, but I think there will always be a loving tenderness to your own which you cannot give to a stranger’s child, however much you try. Your own children after all, it is natural, and it is right, must have the warmest place in your heart. Even thus the Lord Jesus has a special love for his own, he is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe; he manifests himself to them and not unto the world. It is almost a degradation of the love of Christ to compare it to anything human; it is so amazing, so divine, that it transcends comparison. If all the loves of parents could be piled up together in one vast mound-the love of fathers, and the still tenderer love of mothers-yet the whole of that Alp would not equal the immeasurable love of Jesus Christ to his own people. Who understands its heights and depths, its lengths and breadths? Oh, thou dear Lord and Saviour! because of thy dear love to us we call thee not only Rabbi, but Father; and as we hear thee say to us, “Children, have ye any meat?” we answer, “Yes, thou Father of thy church, thy table feasts us to the full.”

Children, however, when they behave aright, bring to the heart of their parent sweet solace and dear delight. Oh, I love the thought, and I long to bring it out before you, that as a father is pleased when he sees his children growing up in the fear of God, when he observes their good character and qualities, when he marks their struggles for that which is right, and their attempts to curb themselves in that which is wrong-so is Jesus pleased with us. He speaks with great delight in our text, “Behold, I and the children.” He is evidently gratified with them. The sight of them gives him content. We readily see anything that is good in our children; we have a quick eye for their beauties; sometimes, perhaps, we do not sufficiently see that which is deficient or wrong: but assuredly our Lord must have a very keen eye for his people’s loveliness, for he says of his church, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” We can see many spots in ourselves, but he looks at us with other eyes. I suppose he looks at us through the glass of his own righteousness, with eyes full of perfect love. His delights are with the sons of men, he rejoices over us with singing. Never does a prayer of penitence rise from a breaking heart without rejoicing the soul of Jesus, for “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Never does a believer struggle against wrong, endure oppression patiently, or conquer sin, but Jesus is glad. Each budding grace and growing virtue charms him, even as parents are charmed with their hopeful little ones.

Our joy in our sons and our daughters looks forward and refreshes us with the prospect of what they will be. How many bright hopes light up a mother’s heart as she thinks of her son or daughter! She reckons upon comfort from them in her declining years. Our Lord knows what his people are to be, and he rejoices therein. Oh, if you could see yourselves as you will be in futurity, you would not know yourselves. If you could only have a photograph of your future glory, and could study it, you would say, “Shall I ever be like that? Shall I ever be so fair, and bright, and pure as that?” Now, the Lord Jesus sees you as you shall be, and he takes delight in you, and says, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me.”

Putting, then, all these things together, you will not fail to see the fitness of the figure by which our Lord is represented as standing in the midst of his own redeemed, as father among his children.

Now we shall turn to the second point, and utter a few words upon it. There is a spontaneous avowal. He says, “Behold, I and the children whom thou hast given me.” The Lord owns his children. Sometimes they are ashamed to own him, and he might always be ashamed to own them, but he never is: he speaks of them without hesitation. It is, “I and the children.” They are defiled and unworthy, they have been falling in the mire and have torn their clothes, and I know not what besides, but he says, “They are my children;” and he never thinks of casting them off. I wonder he does so avow them, but it is his infinite love to them, and his boundless delight in them, which makes him still say, “I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.”

Not only does Jesus own them as his thus publicly, but he glories in them as being God’s gift to him-“The children whom thou hast given me”; as if they were something more than ordinary children. They are the promised fruit of the “travail of his soul”; they are the reward which Jehovah covenanted to bestow on him for his agonies and death. He looks upon them as the spoil of his great life-battle, as the crown of his life’s labour. Solomon gave to Hiram, the King of Tyre, certain cities, and he did not like them, but called them Cabul, or foul; but our Redeemer is well pleased with his reward, he takes his purchased inheritance to his heart, and rejoices therein, saying, “Behold, I and the children whom thou hast given me.”

Observe, that the Lord not only owns his people and delights in them, but he challenges inspection. He says, “Behold!-look at them-I am not ashamed of them. Look at them, my Father-look at them all glorious in thy Son, all washed in my blood, all robed in my righteousness-look at them, and see how glorified I am in them. Thine eye, though full of fire against sin, can see no sin in them. Thy hand, though it grasps the thunderbolt of vengeance against transgression, will not smite them, for I have made atonement.” “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me” is a call to the whole world to look, “for these things were not done in a corner.” Jesus did not come into the world that he and his children should be hidden under a bushel and should not be known; but standing right out, as a city set on a hill, Jesus says, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me.” “Look at them, for they are meant to be looked at; they are set ‘for signs and wonders’ throughout all generations.”

And do notice again-for it affects my mind much more powerfully than I can express, “Behold, I and the children.” I can understand a mother speaking thus about herself and children, but for Christ the Lord of glory to unite his glorious name with those of such poor worms of the dust is very wonderful. There! sit down and wonder and weep over it,-Jesus says, “I and the children.” Well did old Rowland Hill sing,

“And when I shall die, receive me, I’ll cry;

For Jesus has loved me-I cannot tell why.

But this thing I find, we two are so joined,

He won’t be in heav’n and leave me behind.”

Jesus will not be without us. He cannot bear it. You mothers do not think it enough to be indoors in bed yourselves when night comes on, you want the dear children to be safely housed too. If you were pursued by wolves on some snowy plain in Russia, you would not be satisfied to escape yourself, and leave your children to be devoured. Your motto would be, “I and the children.” You would live or die with them. How often when mothers have been overtaken in snowstorms have they been found dead, with their little ones nestling in their bosoms still alive. The mother has often taken off her garments to wrap them around her babe, and even so Christ has stripped himself of every honour and comfort, and died to prove his infinite love for his own. It is no idle sentence in which he sets forth his union with his beloved in very deed, and of a truth he binds himself and them in one sacred bond. I cannot tell you how I rejoice in these words! I have them in my mouth and in my heart-“I and the children.” Blessed be our Lord for speaking thus!

Now, beloved, if Jesus owns us so lovingly let us always own him: and if Christ takes us into partnership-“I and the children”-let us reply, “Christ is all.” Let him stand first with us; and let our name be for ever joined with his name, let us be bound up in the bundle of life with him. It is plain that he delights in us: let us delight in him; it is clear he glories in us; let us glory in him. He invites others to look at us and him, let us invite all mankind to behold our glorious Lord. Let us get behind our Lord, and set him always before us. Whoever visits us, let them not leave us without taking knowledge that we have been with Jesus. If we show our treasures, as Hezekiah did, let us begin with showing our Saviour, for no Babylonians will ever come and take him away from us. Our “soul shall make her boast in the Lord,” and none shall ever stop us of this glorying here or hereafter. Enough, then, concerning the spontaneous avowal. Oh, may we be among the happy company of whom our Lord shall say, “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me”!

Thirdly-and into this I would throw the strength of the discourse-there is a common function. Christ and his people “are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion.”

Both Christ and his people are set for a purpose. First, they are to be “signs and wonders” by way of testimony. Our Lord is called the “Word of God.” A word is the means of communication between one mind and another; God speaks to men by Christ, nay, Christ is his speech. If you want to know what God has to say to you, see what Christ was and is. In the same manner, only in an inferior degree, believers are God’s voice to men: he speaks to the world through his people. In a happy Christian God says, “I will make you happy, too, as I have made this man, if you seek me in the same way as this man did.” In the believing Christian who gets his prayers answered God says to men, “I will hear your prayer if you pray as this man does, with faith in my promise.” All the world of nature reveals God, but the revelation is inarticulate, and rather resembles the teaching of a picture or a hieroglyph than a clear distinct voice; but we, my brethren, are to be God’s mouth among the sons of men, and our conversation, our profession, our life in its entirety, is to be a witness from God to man; a testimony for truth, for righteousness, for holiness, and also for the power of the quickening Spirit, for the efficacy of redeeming blood, and for all the truths contained in divine revelation. We are not to be blank sheets, or papers with a blot on them, and nothing more; but letters written by God, and passed round among men that they may read in us what God has to say. Now, it is very clearly so in Christ, his holy life and blessed death are a wonderful witness to the people; and as to us, the Lord has said, “Ye are also my witnesses.” I would inquire concerning many of you here who make a profession, whether you are really God’s voice to men. If not, what is the use of your dumb religion?

We are, secondly, signs and wonders among sinners by way of marvel. Believers, by their declaration of God’s testimony, become more and more singular in the judgment of men. No man but a Christian can understand a Christian. The spiritual discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. Carnal minds cannot make us out,” for we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God.” The person who never strikes you as having anything singular about him, who is just like men of the world, is probably no Christian. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ yourself, the unregenerate will misunderstand and misrepresent you; but if everybody is pleased with you it is pretty clear that God is not, for “the friendship of this world is enmity with God.” Genuine Christians will generally be reckoned by the world to be singular people. For instance, they profess to have been converted, and so to have undergone a miraculous change; they profess to have a new life, compared with which they were dead before. The world calls this nonsense. Regeneration! What fanaticism! In the days of Whitfield and Wesley the loose spirits made rare fun of the idea of being born again, and the preacher of regeneration was dubbed Mr. Wildgoose, and his followers a set of enthusiasts. The world now practises the crafty device of using our terms and phrases, and meaning something else by them; thus talking of being regenerated by baptism, and all that nonsense. To be “born again” is still a marvel to the sons of men.

The real Christian is a man who has faith in providence, and believes in God, and therefore he is calm and unmoved in times of distress; he believes in the lilies which do not spin and yet are clothed, in the ravens which sow not and do not reap and yet are fed; and therefore, though using his utmost diligence, he is not anxious, but lives in peace. The world envies him, but cannot comprehend him. Moreover, the Christian is a man who has power in prayer: he asks and receives, knocks and it is opened unto him; and the outside world either disbelieves the fact or else looks upon it as a strange affair. It must be so, we must be wondered at I do not say that some of you Christian people are any marvel or wonder at all for I do not think you are: the marvel is that you dare call yourselves Christians at all; but I do mean that the genuine Christian is in many points a singular person, so singular that others cannot read his riddle. When a man becomes converted in an ungodly family, he is like a young swan in a duck’s nest: they cannot understand him. They say, “This is a strange bird! Where did he come from?” They count him ugly, because he is not like the rest. Frequently ungodly relatives consider the young convert to be going out of his mind, or as being naturally weak in the intellect, They put him down as insane while he is sorrowful, and as idiotic when he is joyous.

The world cannot understand a Christian’s endurance of trial, but they set it down to hardheartedness. They see him calm and composed; he neither raves nor blasphemes, nor tears his hair, and if the worst comes to the worst, he still says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” This perplexes worldlings, and no wonder, for it puzzled the devil himself. He laid Job on a dunghill, covered, with boils, scraping himself with a piece of potsherd, brought to poverty, his own wife tempting him, and his friends accusing him, and yet that man, who was a greater conqueror than Alexander or Napoleon, still said, “What! Shall we receive good from the hands of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” When the Lord allows any of us to be similarly tried, and sustains us in the trial, we become “a wonder unto many.”

One of the greatest wonders to the ungodly is a Christian’s deathbed. Ungodly men, who have despised religion altogether, have been troubled in conscience and almost persuaded to be Christians through the holy triumphs of dying saints. Many an infidel remembers his mother’s holy life-how quiet, how loving she was, making the house always happy; and he remembers how grieved she was when her boy began to be sceptical about his mother’s Saviour. That dying charge of hers will ring in his memory for ever; that dying look of joyful triumph from that eye which had no tear in it except for those that were left behind, that expiring song, that shout of victory, he cannot get over it. If a man wishes to be sceptical, he must not see true Christians either live or die; otherwise facts will convince him against his will, or make it hard to doubt.

When the believer’s testimony for good becomes a marvel, it is not wonderful if he afterwards becomes an object of contempt. What did the world say of the Master? “They called the Master of the house Beelzebub”; he was despised and rejected of men, and, if you are one of his disciples, the world will despise you also. I will tell you what they say of us,-“They are all a parcel of dupes, led by the nose by a man. They will believe anything he tells them.” All this because you are true to your pastor and the word of God. Then, as soon as they see that you are not led by a man, but think for yourself, they cry, “Ah, you are one of those pig-headed ones, you will never be taught; why don’t you believe as your fathers did, and keep to the old church?” If the world cannot wound us on one side, it tries the other. If they cannot accuse us of being black, our enemies will say that we are of a sickly white.

Readily do accusers change their sweet voices, and cry, “Ah! it is all a scheme for money getting.” If the minister is zealous, they say, “Self-interest is at the bottom. If it is not love of money, it is love of power and influence.” To the Christian people they say, “No doubt you increase your business by it; many a man puts his religion in his shop window, and finds it pay amazingly well.” They know in their own souls that you are free from any sinister motive, but they will not do you justice. Like Satan, they say, “Does Job serve God for nought? Hast thou not set a hedge about him, and all that he hath?” Meanwhile, if you were in poverty through religion, they would sing another tune, and say, “A pretty thing comes of being a Christian! Why, you will soon be without a shoe to your foot! Look what you bring yourself and your family to.” If God pays good wages, the devil says, “You only serve him for the wages.” If present mercies are small, the old accuser tauntingly exclaims, “A pretty master you serve. See how he starves you!” There is no pleasing the world, and we have no desire to please it! As Paul said, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

I know the kind of tone adopted by others; they plume themselves upon their intellect and set us down as behind our times. “We have no patience,” say they, “with this believing in prayer, this expectation of conversion, this reliance upon atonement and imputed righteousness. Why, it is downright stupidity! Such preaching is only an echo from the graves of Puritans. No doubt Puritanism was a power in the days of Cromwell, but it is out of date now. We require more advanced thought in this enlightened age when we have collisions on railways and other grand improvements, and have discovered that the universe made itself. We cannot afford to keep behind these intelligent times, and must go in for a splendid smash like other people.”

If this does not wound us they will say, “These people are not thinkers: they have no culture;” and so they set us down for fools. In which we greatly rejoice; being glad to be fools for Christ’s sake. Christians in all ages have been considered fools. If you are travelling in Switzerland and see an idiot, he is a “cretin”-that is a Christian. Yes! Such was the bywords-the fool was called a Christian, and the Christian was thought a fool. We are satisfied to bide our time, knowing that the day shall come in which the worldly wise will not only be called fools by others, but will confess themselves so in endless despair.

But then they say, “These people are too precise, they make life dreary!” We are in our own esteem the happiest people in the world, and could not be much happier this side of heaven; but because we do not care for their vain pleasures, their husks, and swines’ meat, therefore we are austere and miserable. Only they think so who know nothing about us. We have meat to eat which they know not of, and like Daniel and his brethren, though we taste not of the world’s dainties, we are in better case than those who do.

Men of the world are apt to say, “You are such a set of bigots; you think everybody wrong but yourselves.” Is it wonderful that if we think we are right, we do not believe that those who are opposed to us can be right also? If we know that two and two make four we are intolerant enough to affirm that they cannot make five. It is a degradation to my intellect to expect me to believe that yes and no can be equally correct upon the same matter; triflers with religion may consent to such folly, but those who are in earnest cannot do so. If to be sure that what God says is true be bigotry, we confess that bigotry. Our Master says, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned,”-we believe this, and the damnatory clause too, and are content to abide the judgment of the last great day as to whether such a belief will then be accounted bigotry or no.

Our despisers often cry, “See what conceit and pride! They think themselves God’s elect, and that he has a special favour for them, and pardons their sins, and saves them.” Just so! Call that conceit if you please, we are not ashamed to confess it. If you saw a rich man going down the street and were rude enough to say, “See how conceited a man he is; he thinks himself worth ten thousand pounds,” he might quietly smile and say, “I do think so, and rightly too, for I am worth several hundred thousand pounds.” They say we are conceited because we rejoice, when it is our fault not to rejoice more. The Lord has done great things for us, we dare not deny it, and have no wish to do so. He has made us to be his sons and daughters, and we must glory in his name. If others mistake our joy for pride we cannot help it, for we know right well that we give all the glory to God in our own souls.

When believers thus become, as they will be, objects of contempt, they will be assailed with ridicule, and bespattered with slander; bad motives will be imputed to them, and the truths for which they are willing to die will be attacked, both in their persons and their testimonies. They must bear reproach, and if they do they will become wonders again. If they suffer but never retaliate, if they never return railing for railing, if they bear and forbear, their patience will make them wonders. As the ages shall roll on, the holy, and the godly, and the Christ-like, Jesus and his children, will go from victory to victory. In every coming age, even though persecution should rage as it did in former days, the church of God will bear it, and so defeat it; superstition, and heresy, and worldliness will come, but the church will pass through the storm; and at the last, when truth shall conquer, when Gethsemane shall be transfigured into Paradise, and the shame of the cross of Calvary shall be lost in the glory of the “great white throne;” when there shall be no more the crown of thorns, and nails, and sponge and vinegar, but when Jesus shall be proclaimed “King of kings and Lord of lords,” and all his people shall reign with him, then will the saints be signs and wonders indeed. Know ye not that ye shall judge angels, sitting as assessors at the right hand of God? Know ye not that ye shall be the glory of Christ in that day? When the ungodly shall cry, “Rocks, hide us! mountains, on us fall!” “the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Hold on, brother! and hold out to the end; be humbly and quietly faithful. Do not try to be a wonder, but be a wonder. Do not try to do some astonishing thing to attract attention; but “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Do not believe that the common Christianity of the present age will carry anybody to heaven. It is a counterfeit and a sham. It does not make men to differ from their fellows, it pretends to faith and has none, talks about love and does not show it, brags of truth and evaporates it into thin air in its latitudinarian charity. God give us back the real thing-staunch, strong belief in the gospel, real faith in Jesus, real prayer to him, real spiritual power. Then again there will be persecution, but it will only blow away the chaff, and leave the pure wheat! The world likes us better because we like the world better; it calls us friends because we doff our colours and sheathe our swords and play the craven; but if we preach and live the gospel in the old apostolic way, we shall soon have the devil roaring round the camp and the seed of the serpent hissing on all sides, but we fear not, for “the Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Isaiah 8:11-22; 9:1-7.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-Psalm 116 (Song II.), 255, 342.

ABUNDANT PARDON

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 27th, 1874, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“He will abundantly pardon.”-Isaiah 55:7.

In our childhood we learned from Dr. Watts’ Catechism that Isaiah was that prophet who spoke more of Jesus Christ than all the rest. In the chapter before us he had been declaring in the name of the Lord the coming and the character of the Redeemer, speaking of him thus, “Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.” No sooner had he thus proclaimed the appearance of the Christ than he beheld whole nations of the heathen rushing to him; and, inspired by that sight, he began at once to address himself to the sinners around him, and bade them fly to him too. As there is a natural connection between the physician and the sick, so is there between the Saviour and the sinner. The prophet can hardly think of Christ as coming to be a leader, and a witness, and a commander without at once turning to the wicked, and to the unrighteous, and bidding them forsake their ways, enlist beneath their commander’s banner, and participate in the blessings which he brings. Jesus is a grand attraction for guilty men. “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.” Christ is always welcomed by those who know they want him: the self-righteous Pharisees and Scribes murmur at him, but those who are humble and contrite, because conscious of their guilt, approach him, wishing, as it were, but to touch the hem of his garment, that they may be made whole. As the sun is attended by his planets, who borrow all their light from him, so is the Lord Jesus waited on by crowds of sinners, who find in him their hope, their all. As the thirsty harts resort to the water-brooks so do needy souls hasten to Jesus, and it is according to the divine order that it should be so.

Notice what the prophet has to say. He speaks to the unrighteous and the wicked, and invites them to immediate faith and repentance, for so I understand the passage to mean. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near,” is an exhortation to prayer and faith. We cannot approach God in prayer without faith, for a prayer that has no faith in it must die on the road. To seek the Lord aright we must believe that “God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” I take that sixth verse, coupled with the third, to be a plain exhortation to faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and for this reason it is written, “Incline your ear and come unto me; hear and your soul shall live.” As for repentance, that is clear in the seventh verse. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” The whole passage reads like a paraphrase of the gospel message, “repent ye, and believe the gospel.” It seems as if Isaiah were rather an evangelist than a prophet, as if he had lived before his time, and preached the gospel like an apostle who had seen the Lord. Like the morning star, which shines upon the earth before the sun has risen, Isaiah rejoiced the hearts of believers with his clear radiance. The gladness of his soul in the thought of the coming messenger of the covenant, even Jesus Christ, kindled his spirit, and the light shone forth from him. He was so glad within his heart that his tongue was loosed, and straightway he addressed himself to those that “sat in darkness and the valley of the shadow of death,” and bade them arise and quit the shades, and go unto their God, for there was no reason for despair; there was mercy, great mercy, abounding pardon to be had, and he bade them obtain it there and then. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”

The motive which he urged upon men was the certainty of their finding pardon. This was the tempting bait with which this ancient fisher of souls endeavoured to “catch men.” May the Holy Spirit aid me while I use the same, and invite you to consider with me-the abundant pardon which God bestows upon the guilty. Having discoursed upon that at length, we shall, in the second place, consider what fair inferences may be drawn from this encouraging truth.

First then, acccording to the text, God does abundantly pardon. We will turn that truth over and over, and see it in many lights.

The pardon of God may well be abundant, for it wells up from an infinite fountain; “mercy, which endureth for ever,” is the attribute from which that pardon springs. Pardon is the child of mercy, not of justice; and we may reckon that God will give abundant pardon because he delighteth in mercy. All the attributes of God are well balanced: like himself, they are infinite, and no one of them entrenches upon or dims the lustre of another. He is infinitely just, yet infinitely good; infinitely powerful, yet infinitely tender. We are quite sure that whenever an attribute of God comes into action it will be sufficiently revealed to make its glory manifest. There could be no mercy exercised by God until there was sin. Where all was blameless mercy had no sphere. As soon as the angels fell, the Lord might have exercised mercy had he pleased; but he did not choose to provide salvation for Satan and his rebellious hordes. As if to teach us that it is not inevitable that God should forgive, he suffered the fallen angels to fall irretrievably, and gave them up to everlasting fire as their due desert. Deceived by the old serpent, man also fell, and again there was space for mercy. Man was an inferior creature to the angels: should he be allowed to perish or should grace step in? In this case mercy bowed the heavens and came down, and the Lord of all, as if to show that he “will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and will have compassion on whom he will have compassion,” though he had passed the angels by, took up the race of men, and determined that his pardons should be bestowed upon them. Now, when he had resolved to let mercy come to the front and be seen-which I again say could not have been if there had been no sin-it was not wonderful that he allowed that blessed attribute to come forth in all the fulness of its might. In the creation you see power in its majesty, and wisdom in its grandeur; in providence you see goodness unbounded, and faithfulness unlimited; in the gulf to which the Lord has condemned the wicked you see justice in all its awful glory: and therefore when he determined to let mercy come forth from her ivory palaces it seemed but natural that he should give ample room and verge enough. It was not according to his mind that from the unfathomable depths of his love there should trickle forth a stinted stream of mercy, which might wash out a little sin, and water a scanty patch of the desert of our nature; but he poured floods upon the dry ground. When our sin abounded his grace did yet more abound; he opened the sluices of his mercy, he let down the cataracts of his infinite love from above, and drowned the mountains of our sin in a deluge of grace, so that we sang rightly just now-

“See here an endless ocean flows

Of never-failing grace,

Behold a dying Saviour’s veins

The sacred flood increase.

“It rises high and drowns the hills,

Has neither shore nor bound,

Now, if we search to find our sins,

Our sins can ne’er be found.”

“God is love” implies that love has a predominance in his character-not so as to mar other attributes, much less to destroy them-but as the consequence and blending of the whole; and, therefore, we may be sure that this most conspicuous of all the attributes, this summing up of them all, will have full range, and distribute abundantly its peculiar gifts.

But, secondly, as the attribute from which the pardon comes is abundant, so we know of a truth that the objects to which this pardon has been extended are abundant too. Well is it said, “He will abundantly pardon,” for God has already pardoned sinners more numerous than can be estimated by human arithmetic. From the first sinner down to the last that has ever fled for refuge to the hope set before him in the gospel of our Lord Jesus what incalculable numbers have looked to him and have been lightened. Think, my brethren, of the myriads that have lived and died forgiven. Heaven is not scant of inhabitants. If you could now lift up your eyes; you should see that the old covenant promise has been in part fulfilled-“thy seed shall be as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof.” The promised seed in covenant with God, of which covenant God spake to Abraham, is already as many as the stars in heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore, innumerable. They have come from every land, yea, from the uttermost parts of the earth have they come. Of every hue has their skin been, and their raiment of divers colours. Their language has been varied, and their condition also, but they have alike found grace in the sight of the Lord. Multitudes of the poor and needy, ay, of the outcasts have come-the women that ground at the mill, and the captives that fretted in the dungeon; God’s wondrous eye of love has found out broken hearts by millions, and he has abundantly pardoned them.

Ay! and even on the face of the earth now what a multitude there are whom God has pardoned! Blessed be his name! There may not be so many as latitudinarianism imagines, but there are certainly more than bigotry conceives. God has pardoned a great multitude of the sons of men, and he intends to pardon yet more, for the gospel will spread; and brighter days are coming, and the halcyon period is on the wing when nations shall be converted at once, and, like the flocks of doves that come to the dovecot, souls shall fly to Jesus for forgiveness. When the whole earth shall be filled with his glory, in the multitude of repentant and forgiven sinners of the golden age men shall see that God does “abundantly pardon.”

His pardon is, in the third place, abundant when we consider the abundance of the sins which the love of God blots out. Oh, what a subject I have now before me! Here is a river for depth unfathomable, and for breadth a river which cannot be passed over; it is a river to swim in! I must correct myself, and call it an ocean. Indeed, what shall I say of this sea of sin? Therein are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts; there is that leviathan who doth mightily disport himself, and there are fierce tempests and horrible storms, which well may sink the barque which tempts them. I am overwhelmed with the thought of the abundance of transgression. Sin! From thy fruitful womb what myriads of ills proceed! What countless hosts of evils are the fruits of sin! How many are the sins themselves! Sins of thought-rebellious thoughts, proud thoughts, blasphemous thoughts, atheistical thoughts, covetous thoughts lustful thoughts, impatient thoughts, cruel thoughts, false thoughts, thoughts of ill memory, and dreams of an unholy future; what swarms are there! Moreover, the omission of thoughts which should have been, such as thoughts of repentance, gratitude, reverence, faith, and the like, these are equally numerous: with the double list my roll is written within and without with a hideous catalogue. As the gnats which swarm the air at eventide, so numerous are the transgressions of the mind. Then there are sins of word. I should have to repeat the list again. What words have vexed the pure and holy ear of God! Words against himself, against his Son, against his law and gospel, against our neighbour, against everything that is good and true! Words proud and hectoring, words defiant and obstinate, words untruthful, words lascivious, words of vanity, and words of wilful unbelief. Oh God! how many are our sinful words. The sins of our tongue-what man is there who is able to reckon them up? Then come the sins of deed, which in very truth are but the fruits which grow out of sins of thought. Can any man here estimate the number of his own sins from the first transgression of his childhood until grey old age, or to his present period of life? “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” Perhaps the sins we do not know are more numerous than the sins we are conscious of. Conscience may not be properly enlightened, and hence many a thing may not seem to be sinful which really is so; but God’s clear eye perceiveth everything that is obnoxious to his holy law; and all our errors are written down against us until the whole is wiped away by an abundant pardon through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Our sins are as the countless horde of locusts which descend upon the fertile land and devour everything, leaving nothing for man but famine and despair. But as it was in Egypt so it is at this day; the Lord commands the wind of mercy to blow every locust from off the face of the land, and as they all depart at once our hearts rejoice and are glad. Our sins are countless as the drops of dew in these autumn mornings when every leaf is wet, for every tree is weeping tears of sorrow over the dying year; and yet when the sun has risen, with a little of his heat the moisture is gone, the dews are all exhaled, they are as if they had never been. So countless are our sins, and so complete is the removal of our transgressions when the infinite love of Jesus shines upon us, and God in his Son has reconciled us by his atoning blood. Innumerable sins are forgiven by one word from the life of divine love.

In the fourth place, we can see the truth of this in the abundant sin of those sins which are pardoned. Just think of the abundant sinfulness of any one transgression; for every sin has a myriad sins in its bowels. Did you ever find a spider’s nest just when the young spiders have all come to life, it is a city of spiders; now, such is any one sin, it is a colony of iniquities, a living mass of offence. You have but to stir it, and you will see countless sins running out of it: it is an aggregation of evils. I remember once studying with much care various works upon the sin of Adam, and I was convinced by each writer that it was a different sin, and came at last to the conclusion that the sin of Adam, simple as it was, had all sorts of sins hidden within it. Sin is not only a double flower, but it blooms sevenfold, it is a complicated mischief, in a thousand ways abhorrent to the holy God, and yet he pardons it! abundantly pardons it!

Some sins are plotted and planned and performed with presumptuous deliberation, so that when the act itself is perpetrated it is only one part of a whole mass of transgression. The man has first to consider how to do it, and there is sin in the consideration. If it were a sin of revenge, for instance, the anger which first suggested it was a sin: then the malice which preyed upon the supposed injury and turned it over was sin, and then the prostitution of wit and wisdom to the scheming of some cunning mode of vengeance-all this was sin. Many a sin is a development from a long succession of sins, and may have a genealogy far longer than the pedigree of the man himself, and be intensely full of sin all along. Some sins have in them strange contradictory mixtures. We have known men sin from pride and covetousness, and yet fall into that which was at once mean and ruinous to their hope of gain. We have seen self-righteousness and lust riding on the same saddle. What art thou, O sin! A monster of forms uncouth and contrary! I see thee one moment as an angel of light, and the next thou art a fiend, black as the midnight of Gehenna! Thou grovellest like a serpent, and anon thou shinest like a seraph! Thou art “all things to all men,” if by any means thou mayest deceive some and cast them down into the pit! Yet this vile thing the Lord forgives to men for Jesus’ sake! Does he not abundantly pardon?

In addition to there being many sins in one sin, I want you to remember how much virus of sin we sometimes manage to stow away in a sin. A man has done wrong and smarted for it, yet he does the very same thing again wilfully, against his own conscience and against the warning he has received. A man will sometimes acknowledge what a fool he has been, and yet play the fool again. Some men sin for no motive whatever-for mere wantonness of sin. It is very astonishing to read in the newspapers of crimes that persons will sometimes fall into, who appear to have had no inducement to do so at all-persons in good circumstances, who might have purchased readily enough the very things they steal. This increases guilt, and makes sin by far the more heinous, if we do it in sheer wilfulness. If any of us have been blessed with a tender conscience, and with pious training, have heard the sound preaching of the gospel, and have had light and knowledge, if we go deliberately into sin, there is in that sin a degree of obnoxiousness to God which is not to be found in the transgressions of the poor and the ignorant, who have lived in darkness and scarcely know what they do. Yet, sins against light and knowledge God pardons; deliberate and presumptuous sins he forgives; blasphemous, impudent and provoking sins; sins that would otherwise sink us low as the lowest hell, his mighty mercy sweeps, away in one single moment, when we believe in Jesus Christ. At the foot of the cross not merely sins vanish that are a little stain upon us, but the deep and double crimson of deliberate guilt, and the staring scarlet of gross iniquity, all disappear when we are washed in the “fountain filled with blood,” which is open for sin and for uncleanness. Abundance of sinners are forgiven the abundance of sins, and the abundance of the sin which lies in each one of the sins is removed. “He will abundantly pardon.” Our text grows, does it not?

Let us notice next, that the Lord “abundantly pardons,” when we consider the abundant means of pardon which he has been pleased to provide for sinners. It was not possible that God should so pardon sin as to leave a slur upon his moral government. If a judge sitting upon the bench should pass over great crimes without any kind of retribution, it would be a great misfortune to a country; for very soon crime would be regarded as a mere trifle. Leniency to the wicked would turn out to be cruelty to the just. When a man who commits violence in the streets has the lash used upon him, we may pity him if we like; but if that lash were not used we should have a greater need to pity those good and honest citizens who are half killed when they are seeking their homes at nightfall. A judge must never so pass by offences as to increase them. God will not show pardon in such a way that men shall think lightly of sin, or question the vigour of his justice. What, then, was he to do? Why, he must provide a way by which he can be “just and yet the justifier of the ungodly.” And he did provide it. His own Son became the substitute for the guilty, and in their room and stead he suffered the wrath of God for man; so that now the severity of God is upheld in the death of Jesus, and the mercy of God in the forgiveness of those for whom he died.

Now, that there is abundant pardon may be clearly seen from the fact that the substitute was not an angel, was no creature of bounded power and merit; but he who came to save us was none other than God himself-“very God of very God.” The fountain filled for us to wash in, is not a fountain which can only cleanse a little and then will be exhausted of its virtues. The Son of God has filled it from his pierced heart, and the merit of the atoning blood is without limit. There was a limit to the purpose for which it was shed, for he loved his church, and gave himself for it; but it is blasphemous to imagine that there is any boundary to the merit of the atonement itself. There is in the sacrifice of the Son of God a degree of power which seraphim cannot conceive. Were all the stars worlds, and were they all filled with myriads of inhabitants who had revolted against God, if an atonement had been wanted for them all, it is not within my power to conceive that a greater atonement could be required for the whole host of creatures than that which Christ presented upon the cross. The boundless merit of it, therefore, makes us rejoice, for our God “will abundantly pardon.” Sinner, if there had been a little Saviour, you might have despaired. Sinner, if the Saviour had offered a small sacrifice, if there had been but a narrow degree of merit in his agonies. and cries, I might have spoken to you with bated breath; but now I know he is “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him;” and, therefore, I am warranted to declare to you that God, even our God-in Christ Jesus “will abundantly pardon.” May God send these things home to the hearts of those who are labouring under a sense of guilt.

And now I must notice, in the sixth place, the abundant ease of the terms of pardon. When a man says he will forgive another and does not mean it, he puts hard conditions, and says, “I will forgive him under certain circumstances, if he does this, and if he does that.” This is not abundant pardon. It is a little niggardly spirit of forgiveness; in fact, it is no forgiveness at all. But look how God puts it. Does he say to a man, “I will forgive you if you weep for seven years, or do penance for a lifetime”; or “I will forgive you if you bring so much gold or silver, or promise this or promise that”? No, no, no. It is hearty forgiveness, and therefore the terms are simple and easy. When I say “terms” I merely use the word from want of a better, for indeed the terms are no terms at all. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” That is all! No man can expect to be forgiven if he goes on with his sin. You cannot expect God to pardon that which you continue to provoke him with. That were absurd. The sin must be given up. The gospel says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” you cannot expect a medicine to cure you if you will not take it; neither can you expect God to pardon you if you will not accept pardon from his Son Jesus Christ. So that all that he asks is that you do ask, and are willing to receive; and even that he gives you, for the power to pray, to repent, and to believe, all come from him; and though he bids men believe, and so makes it a duty, yet he gives them faith, and so makes it a privilege. What a God he is! He gives to his enemies, to the rebellious, to revolters that go aside more and more, that which makes them repent of their sin and believe in his Son; and this puts their sin for ever behind his back, and casts it into the depths of the sea. “He will abundantly pardon.”

Observe, again, the abundance of this pardon may be seen in the fulness of it. God’s pardons are no shams, no superficialities. “He will abundantly pardon”-that is to say, he will really pardon. Have you that are pardoned never asked yourselves this question, “Is it really true? Can it be so? Am I really forgiven?” Yes, it is true. God does not pretend to forgive; he does not play at pardoning When once he says, “Absolvo te,” he does indeed absolve. The forgiveness is valid; it is valid on earth in the court of conscience, and above in the court of heaven. The pardoned sinner is truly pardoned, and no one shall ever condemn him. His sin is not merely supposed to be gone, it is gone. It is not put a little way off from him, but “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” “I will cast their iniquities into the depths of the sea,” saith he. “I will cast them behind my back,” is another of his strong expressions. Ah, soul! if thou believest in Jesus, thy sins do not exist; for it is written, “He hath finished transgression, and made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness.” And here is the consequence of it-that when God puts away sin he so abundantly pardons that he even imputes righteousness to those who were unrighteous. He doth not impute sin, but he doth give to us the righteousness of Christ, with which we are rendered acceptable in his sight, and Christ Jesus is made unto us “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Our Lord does nothing by halves. He found us black, he washes us white: we are naked and he clothes us.

“And lest even shadow of a spot

Should on our souls be found,

He took the robe the Saviour wrought,

And cast it all around.”

For filth there is washing, for nakedness dress, for deformity adornment, for uncomeliness beauty, for all our possible wants a boundless supply. Is not this pardon plenteous, when we see what is bound up with it?

I am sure I do not know how to speak well enough of this glorious pardon which our God gives. One point is always full of joy to me; and that is, that it is irreversible. Those whom the Lord forgives he never condemns. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” He does not play fast and loose with his creatures-forgive to-day and condemn to-morrow. Once let him blot out the sin, the sin is gone for ever. “If they search for it, it shall not be found; yea, it shall not be, saith the Lord.” How I delight to preach about everlasting salvation and irreversible pardon. My God and King changeth not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed, and the covenant blessings are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”

Once more only. There is so much to say that I am obliged to multiply particulars.

The eighth point is, he doth “abundantly pardon,” because of the abundant blessings which attend that pardon. See how he takes the poor imprisoned soul out of bondage and delivers it, takes off every chain from its hands and feet, and makes it rejoice in Christ Jesus. Oh, you that have once been set in the stocks of conviction on account of sin, and made to cry out in your sore bondage, you now know, since you are forgiven, what the glorious liberty of the children of God is. You are not now in “durance vile,” but being justified by faith you have peace with God through Jesus Christ your Lord.

The Lord gives us freedom from the power as well as from the guilt of sin. Those dear lips of Christ are put to the wounds of our sin to suck the poison out, lest the virus of our old transgressions should breed a fresh disease. The blessed dove descends with a healing branch from the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, and our soul is made to seek after holiness till it perfects it in the fear of God. This is abundant pardon indeed! If a king were to forgive rebels it were great mercy certainly, but to take those rebels and make them his friends that is more abundant mercy. Then to adopt them and make them his children; ay, to put coronets on their heads, and make them kings and priests in his empire, this were abundant pardon indeed! To take the rebels and provide them royal sustenance; place them at his table; educate and train them; admit them to his palace; grant their requests; commune with them, and take them into his palace with him; that would be an abundant pardon! And yet all this God does for sinners. He makes them his children; he hears their prayers; he gives them fellowship with himself and his dear Son; he employs them in offices of trust; sets them about bringing their fellow sinners to himself; and, by-and-by, he takes them home to heaven, where they shall dwell for ever at his right hand in all the bliss and glory of his only-begotten Son. Oh, is not this abundantly to pardon?

I would to God some seraph could descend with burning tongue to take my place and speak to you this morning on such a theme as this but no; perhaps I am a better speaker to you in such a case, for-

“Never did angels taste above

Redeeming grace and dying love.”

But I have tasted it. This forgiveness is mine to day; and I rejoice in it; and, as I preach it to you, I preach that which I do know, and set before you that which I have enjoyed. Oh, that others may come and participate in this amazing pardon-this boundless forgiveness of boundless sin!

We shall consider next, very briefly, what are the inferences which flow out of abundant pardon. The first inference is this: There is no room for anybody to despair. If there be here this morning one who has been a drunkard, a man of filthy and unclean life, a thief, or worse, if worse can be, there is no reason why he should despair. Suppose I were only able to say this morning, “God does pardon sometimes some few sinners; there are a few people who have been guilty of great sin, who have been forgiven, and are in heaven.” Why, if men were in their senses they would find hope even in this, and would exclaim, “Who can tell? Who can tell? Perhaps he will pardon us?” Even on such a slender thread as that they would hang a hope, and if they were wise they would go and seek mercy. Jonah could only go through Nineveh and say, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Nothing about mercy-not a word of it. But the people of Nineveh said, “Who can tell? He may turn from his fierce anger that we perish not;” and on the strength of “Who can tell?” they tried it, and the God of mercy spared the guilty city. Oh, poor sinner! if you had only a “Who can tell?” it were worth while to go and try it. But look at my text; there is no “Who can tell?” in it. “He will abundantly pardon.” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” for it must be heart-work-“and let him turn unto the Lord”-let him seek his face by repentance and faith, that is the meaning-“and He will abundantly pardon.” The Lord has great mercy for great sinners. I will set the big bell a ringing, and I will let it ring and ring again, “Come and welcome! Come and welcome! Come and welcome, for the great gates are set wide open! The tables are long, and the oxen and fatlings upon them are plentiful, and myriads are coming! Come along with you!” The great bell rings out again, “Come and welcome! Come and welcome! Come and welcome! for He will abundantly pardon.” Would God some soul would hear the proclamation of this best of news, and fly to Christ for pardon this very day!

Another inference from my subject is this-that there is a loud call to every one who has not repented to do so; for who would be so base as to offend so good, so kind a Lord? I think that ought to touch each man’s heart. Here is one whom you have offended; you think he is very angry, and you feel very angry too, and you offend therefore again; you count him an enemy, and you keep up the quarrel, and you do more mischief to him, you damage his estate, and speak against his reputation. You suppose that all this while he is preparing to deal a very heavy blow at you, and avenge the injuries he has sustained. So you grow more angry still, and hate him more and more. You chew the cud of malice, and you get such bitterness out of it that you become worse and worse; until you find one day that you have been mistaken all along. A friend meets you and says, “Why do you speak so ill of your neighbour?” “I hate him, abhor him.” “What for?” says the other. “Do you know that when he hears of all that you do he only says, ‘I am very sorry for him: I never did him any hurt, and I never will.’ Do you know he has often done you great service? You were in debt, and you would have been in prison, only he called and paid your debts for you. When you were very ill he sent the physician to you; although you never knew that he sent him, it was so, and you were restored. Do you know that he has been buying an estate for you against the time of your trouble which is creeping upon you, and he has settled it in your name, and entailed it on you, and he means that you shall live in a mansion for ever?” The man says, “I never thought that: I could not have believed it, and I do not believe it now.” “Yet it is true,” replies the other. “Does he know of all that I have done against him?” “Oh yes! He has been behind the door often, and heard you call him all sorts of bad names.” “What did he say then?” All he said, was, “Poor soul! he will be sorry for what he did one of these days, when he knows me better.” “Do you mean to say that is all he said” “Yes.” “But did he not grow red in the face, and threaten a law-suit, or anything of that kind?” “No: he said he should win you one of these days, when you came to know him.” Now, I am sure if you had thus treated any one of your fellow-creatures you would be ashamed of yourself, and want to hide your face. Would you not? If you then received an invitation from the person whom you had so badly treated, and he said, “You need not have any fear to come; I shall never say a word of upbraiding to you as long as you live.” “Well,” you would say, “bad as my nature is, I will go and make it up with him.” So I pray God that he may plead with you ungodly ones and turn you to himself. What hurt has God ever done you? His laws-is there anything wrong in them? Are they hard, harsh, severe? They are only meant for your good. They are nothing but danger signals, telling us not to hurt ourselves. Would God we would not persist in going where we should not.

God has prepared for some of you full, unqualified forgiveness, and he means to bring you to himself, and bless you and carry you safely to heaven. Oh, hold not out against him, but yield by mighty grace subdued. Can you resist its charms? Come now and reason with God while he thus reasons with you. Let your conscience say, “Lord, thou art full of mercy. We come to thee. We would be reconciled to thee through the death of thy Son.” God grant that the words of the text may have power with many of you.

Another inference is this. If there is anybody in this house the text specially calls this morning, it is the biggest sinner here; because there cannot be abundant pardon where there is not abundant sin. If any one here feels that he or she is an abundant sinner, you are the person this text is meant for. Where are you, dear soul? Away back there in the fog? My Master calls you. “He will abundantly pardon.” Mary! You who have been a Magdalene, you are the woman! John, there! you who have been a persecutor, and an opposer of the gospel, you are the man! There is room for abundant pardon in you. You that have never cared for God or devil, you who feel your hearts so hard and stubborn that you think you can never be saved, you are the very people the text is for; for there is room for abundant mercy in you. While my text invites each sinner it has a special finger with which to beckon this morning to those who have abundant sin-“Come hither, come hither, come hither; for the Lord will abundantly pardon.”

Now, for such a forgiving God as this we ought in return to have great love. If he “abundantly pardons” we ought to be abundantly grateful.

“Love I much, I’ve more forgiven;

I’m a miracle of grace.”

You believe God has done much for you: never think you can do too much for him. Black sinners, when they get saved, make the fairest saints. In proportion as they earnestly rebelled, they throw the same vigour often into the service of God, and become desperately in earnest for that dear Lord who loved them, and gave himself for them.

But to close, dear friends. What if that mercy should be slighted? What if there should be such abundant mercy, and it should be rejected? What if we do despite to the mercy of God, and to the blood of his dear Son? Those that are unwilling to be forgiven doubly deserve to be left to their own deserts. If God speaks you fair and you will not have him, you must not wonder if by-and-by he changes his note. The lamp holds out to burn, and while it burns you may have mercy. It will soon burn out, remember! The longest life is short, and after that there will be no further mercy, no terms of grace. The mercy seat will be gone, and the judgment throne will fill its place. Oh, if God only gave us five minutes to find mercy in, surely, if we were not fools, we should avail ourselves of it; but while he has lingered with some of you for fifty years, and still lingers, do not provoke him; but “to-day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts,” but turn unto him. Oh, may the Spirit of God turn you, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Portions of Scripture read before Sermon-Isaiah 1:10-20; 43:22-28; 48:1-11.