Could for this mass of sin atone,

And sweep it all away.”

However high thy sin may be, there is the covert of a Rock in a weary land higher than thou art, and under this thou mayest shelter thyself.

Here comes another forward; he is not a man full of doubts and fears, but he is a man of hopeful spirit. “Oh!” says he, “I have many sins, but I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will take them all away. I have many wants, but I hope that he will supply them. I shall have many temptations, but I hope that he will ward them off. I shall have many difficulties, but I hope he will carry me through them.” Ah! man, I like to see thee have a good long measuring-rod, when it is made of hope. Hope is a tall companion; he wades right through the sea, and is not drowned; you cannot kill him, do what you may. Hope is one of the last blessings God gives us, and one that abides last with us. If a man is foodless, and without covering, still he hopes to see better days by-and-by. Now, sinner, thy hopes, I would have thee to see, are very tall, and very high; but remember, this Rock is higher than any of thy hopes. Hope whatever thou pleasest; let thy hope expand itself; let it climb the highest mountain, and stand on it; let it lift up itself higher and yet higher, but this Rock is higher still. Christ is a better Christ than thou canst hope for; he has more mercy than thou hopest for; he has more power to save than thou hopest to receive, more love than thou canst hope to have, he has a better heaven for thee than thou couldst hope to enjoy.

But here comes another, and he says, “Ah! my hope has grown strong, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is a precious Christ. I can speak well of him, for he has been my sure defence in every time of war, my refuge in every time of distress, my granary in every hour of famine, my light in every night of darkness. I can speak well of him; and in consequence of what I know of him, I can believe that he is able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by him. I believe him to be all that he says he is; I believe in his Word; I rejoice in him; my faith scarcely knows a bound when I begin to think what he is, and what he has done for me.” Ay, but he is a Rock higher than thy faith. I love to see thy faith mounting up very high, but Christ is better than thy faith, and higher than thy faith. Why, man, if thy faith were twice as great as it is, Christ would be a warrant for it all. Nay, if thy faith could be multiplied a thousandfold, so that thou couldst believe more of him, and better things of him, and higher things of him, still he would be higher than thy faith could ever climb. I do hope to grow in faith, and get more and more of that celestial virtue. I think I believe my Master better now than I did once, though sometimes I think my faith faileth me. Yet sure I am that I do enjoy a quieter conscience than I did, and a more peaceful calm than at one time I experienced; and I hope to believe in him still more. I pray that my faith may continually increase, so that, being rooted and grounded in him, I may grow up to the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus. But this I know, though you or I should grow till our faith should be greater than that of Paul, till it should be such a faith that it should say to the fig tree, “Be thou plucked up by the roots,” or to the mountain, “Be thou cast into the sea,” and it should be done; still, even then, Christ would be higher than our faith. We might believe a great deal about him, but would faith grasp all then? It has long arms, but not long enough to encompass Christ; he is greater than faith itself could conceive him to be.

Here comes another; he says, “Ah! blessed be God, I have a golden measuring-rod here;-not that of hope, or fear, or faith, but, better still, the measuring-rod of enjoyment.” “Ah!” says one, “how high have I been in enjoyment of Christ! He hath taken me to Calvary, and there I have seen the flowing of his precious blood,-

“ ‘With divine assurance knowing

He hath made my peace with God.’

“Not content with that, he has taken me to Tabor; there I have seen my Lord transfigured, and have beheld his glory, as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Nay, more, he has taken me to the top of Pisgah, and he has bidden me ‘view the landscape o’er.’ I have seen the joys which he has reserved for them that love him.” “But,” says the believer, “Christ has said to me, ‘Friend, come up higher.’ When I first went to the feast, I sat in the lower room of repentance: he came in, and said, ‘Friend, come up higher;’ and he took me into another chamber called faith. And then he came in again, and said, ‘Friend, come up higher;’ and he took me to the upper room of assurance. Then he saw me again, and he said, ‘Friend, come up higher;’ and he took me to the upper room of communion. And sometimes he seems to me to say, ‘Friend, come up higher, into the ecstatic bliss which the highest degrees of constant fellowship can give;’ and I am now waiting only till he should say, ‘Come up higher,’ and take me to his own bosom, to tarry with him for ever.”

Ah, well! I am glad to hear thee talk thus; I would I had many of those whose pastures are in these high places, many who could say that they had grown tall in these delightful things; but, remember, this Rock is higher than thou art. All thou hast ever enjoyed of Christ is but as the beginning of a topless mountain. When I have been in Scotland, I have gone up some of the hills there; and I have thought, “This is a very high place indeed; what a fine view there is, what a height I have reached!” “Ah!” someone has said, “but if you were to see the Alps, this hill would only seem like the beginning, you would only have got to the foot when you had climbed as high as this;” and so it is with you. By your experience, your sweet enjoyment, you think you have reached the top of the mountain; but Christ comes and whispers to you, “Look yonder, far above those clouds; you have only begun to go up; this hill of communion is only one step; as yet, you have only taken a child’s leap; you have farther to go, far higher than you could imagine or conceive.” Ah! this is indeed a Rock higher than thou art, the highest in communion, and the next to the throne of God.

“Well,” cries another, “from what I have heard, and what I have read in God’s Word, I am expecting very great things of Christ when I shall see him as he is. Oh, sir, if he be better than the communion of his saints can make him, if he be sweeter than all his most eloquent preachers can speak of him, if he be so delightful that those who know him best cannot tell his beauties, what a precious-what a glorious-what an inconceivable Christ he must be!” Ah, friend, I am glad thou art measuring Christ by thine expectation! But let me tell thee, high as thy expectations are, he is higher than thou art. Expect what thou mayest; but when thou seest him, thou wilt say with the Queen of Sheba, “The half was not told me.” You may sit down, and think of Christ’s glories and splendours, of the happiness that he has provided for his people, till you lose yourself in a very sea of delightful meditation. The promise dropped into thy heart may go on widening in circles till thou hast grasped a whole universe of pleasure and delight in contemplating the name of Christ; but, remember, when thou hast conceived the most, Christ the Rock is still far above what thou hast conceived and imagined.

Let us pause here, and ask,-What shall we do with a hill that is higher than we are? Shall we lie for ever at its base, and not attempt to climb it? God forbid! Shall we pretend that we have climbed it? That were presumption; so let us press forward, evermore ascending it, ever crying when we get at the greatest height, “Lord, still lead me up, still lead me to the Rock that is higher than I am; lead me on, O Lord, till I come to heaven, and even then, still lead me beside the living fountains of water, still lead me to the Rock that is higher than I am; ever help me to be climbing, pressing forward, looking not on that which is behind, but on that which is before, pressing forward to the mark of the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus!”

Now, as some of you will be exercised with troubles, remember that the Rock is higher than you are; and when your troubles reach you, if you are not high enough to escape them, climb up to the Rock Christ, for there is no trouble that can reach you when you get there. Satan will be howling at you, and perhaps he will be nibbling at your heel, barking and biting at you; so climb into the Rock Christ, and he will not be able to reach you, and you will scarcely hear his howling; he will be low down in the valley when you are in the Rock higher than he is. Fears will arise, and doubts will come in like a flood; there is no place so safe in the time of a flood as a high rock, so climb to the Rock Christ, and then, though the waves of the sea roar, and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, you will be secure if you are on the Rock that is higher than you are. And oh! while the world is dragging you down, for ever be seeking to be climbing up. If the devil says, “Come down again, and be worldly; come down, and be selfish,” always cry, “Lord, lead me up, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I am. My country is in the skies, help me to be climbing upwards; never permit me to descend, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I am.”

And as for you who are still under a sense of sin, who have not yet found the Saviour, let this be your prayer, “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I am.” Do not get measuring Christ by yourselves. As high as heaven is above the earth, so high are his thoughts above your thoughts, and his ways above your ways. O beloved, you should measure God’s grace by the immeasurable; not by your nothingness, but by his infinity! Remember, God’s mercy is beyond all bounds, for it swelleth above the flood of our sins. If our sins be as mountains, Christ’s mercy, like the stars, shines as much above the mountains as above the valleys. Cry out, sinner, when Satan is dragging thee down to the pit, “Lord, save me from the devouring flames, and lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” And then, thank God, Christ is a Rock; not a mound that is raised by man; and that Rock shall stand for ever; and if I get on it, there is no fear that the Rock will shake. I may shake on it, but it will never shake under me; and if my enemies try to attack me, I can hide myself in the clefts of the Rock, where they cannot reach me, and though ten thousand ages roll away, and many a stone is moved from its place, this Rock shall still abide,-

“When rolling years shall cease to move.”