Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

done-now glance before the mind, and awaken the deep, the last, the long lament. "So perish all thy enemies, O Jehovah !"

"So do the dark in soul expire,

Or live like scorpion girt by fire;

So writhes the mind remorse hath riven,
Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven;
Darkness above, despair beneath,

Around it flame, within it-death!"

In conclusion of this discourse let us recapitulate a few of those practical considerations to which our discussion has led us. We here learn,

1. How delusive is that hope of future happiness, which, though it is built upon the natural goodness of God, manifested through a Mediator, makes no necessary reckoning of a holy life. But it is not in the province of Omnipotence to produce moral happiness in a polluted soul. Such happiness in such a soul would imply a contradiction. Omnipotence could change the mental constitution, but not the relation of sin and misery. Without moral fitness for

the place, heaven itself would lose its attractions-'twould be "the severest part of hell." Consider this, all ye that forget God-ye that slumber within the pale of the Christian church. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

2. We here perceive the reasonableness as well as certainty of future punishment. It would not become us to dogmatize upon any physical theory of a future state. The Bible says little here. Yet we can advance thus far. We can see that the misery of the lost is not wholly an arbitrary appointment, but results in great measure---we cannot tell how far-in a course of natural consequences. If our present existence could be maintained where none of our bodily senses, our appetites, affections, or desires, could meet with their appropriate objects, and still operate with unabated and ever-increasing intensity, it would not be in the power of the human mind to conceive the wretchedness of such a state. Yet all this misery would result in a way of natural consequences. Nothing would be superadded by way of positive infliction. There is a limit to the human capacity for suffering, as well as for knowledge and happiness, and whether the soul is capable of enduring

more than would naturally accrue to it in a condition the exact reverse of that for which it was intended, the Author of our constitution alone can tell. One thing is certain, moral punishment is in accordance with what we know of the constitution of the mind-is inevitable in certain moral conditions. Its extent, which is solemnly portrayed in Scripture, may also be judged of by the rule of analogy. The more complicated and delicate the animal system, the more serious, and distressing, and difficult to heal, is any violence offered to its organs. The higher we rise in the scale of being, the more fearful and ruinous would be our fall. The texture and powers of the soul bespeak the highest creative wisdom. The necessary law of all organic life applies analogically here. Its amazing altitude in the grade of existence, implies, by necessary consequence, an abyss of descent, inversely profound, through which it must inevitably pass, if it fail to reach the noble destiny of its being.

3. Behold here the extent to which man's moral destiny is placed in his own hands. Happiness results from right moral culture; misery from neglect and abuse. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."

4. Finally, learn from the text that human life is the limit of probation. When the "body and flesh are consumed," then," at the last,” bitter regrets arise to the wicked; but no hope of mercy, no offer of pardon, no purpose of repentance, alleviates their distress. "As the tree falleth, so it will lie." "After death is the judgment." Solomon associates no hope with the death-scene of this young profligate :

"Cut off, e'en in the blossom of his sins,

No reck'ning made, but sent to his account
With all his imperfections on his head."

Hearer, art thou ready for this account? If not, "nownow only-is the accepted time and day of salvation."

SERMON XXIV.

Character and Work of a Minister of Jesus Christ.

BY REV. NATHAN BANGS, D. D.,

OF THE NEW-YORK CONFERENCE.

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."--2 Cor. v, 20.

ALLOWING the truth of Christianity, it will follow that the character of a Christian minister is of the highest importance to the welfare of mankind. Without entering into an investigation of its truth, which would be out of place on the present occasion, I will endeavor briefly to inquire

I. INTO THE CHARACTER OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST.
II. INTO HIS WORK.

I. In respect to his character.

The text affirms that he is an "ambassador for Christ." An ambassador is considered of the highest dignity in the state, next to the sovereign, whose person and authority he is sent to represent at a foreign court. The will of the sovereign is communicated to his ambassador, and he is bound to regulate his conduct in his official intercourse with the foreign nation according to that will. Jesus Christ while on the earth represented the Sovereign of the universe. He is now in heaven, exalted to the government of the world, and hence his ministers are his representatives to man, sent by him to proclaim his will, to explain the terms of reconciliation between God and rebellious man. These remarks will show the high character an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ sustains in the economy of God, as well as the importance of the work assigned him.

1. It is essential that he should know the mind and will of God. In order to this, he should not only study them as a theory, but the truth of God should be sealed upon his conscience by the Holy Ghost. However accurate may be his theory of divine truth as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and indicated in His works and ways, unless his heart be made to feel its weight and importance, from

an experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ as his Saviour, who has saved him from his sins, he cannot either understand or explain this truth to others: "If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch." And until a man's understanding is enlightened by the Spirit of God, however expanded and improved his intellect, he is blind to spiritual and divine things; and hence he is incompetent to instruct others in those lessons of heavenly wisdom. Nor can human learning, splendid talents, all the acquireanents of human science, supersede the necessity of this experimental knowledge of pure religion,-though with this experience, this learning, these talents and acquirements, may be made powerfully subservient to the advancement of the cause in which he is engaged.

How indeed can a man who has never been converted, justified, and sanctified, explain to others what conversion, justification, and sanctification, are? You might as well call upon a blind man to judge of colors, as to allow a blinded sinner to judge of and to explain the nature and effects of true religion. This, then, is considered an essential prerequisite for a minister of the Lord Jesus.

2. But not every one who has been thus brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, is competent to the ministry of the gospel. In addition to this, he must be especially called to this work by the Holy Ghost. This is acknowledged, in form, by nearly all orthodox churches under heaven; while in practice it is discarded by many as enthusiasm. If we turn our attention to the Holy Scriptures, we shall find all the prophets and apostles recognizing this divine call to the work in which they were engaged; and the same truth is acknowledged in the formularies of all those Christian churches which are considered orthodox; a most manifest proof this, that an inward call by the Holy Spirit is to be considered as necessary to entitle a man to enter into the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

He, as the sovereign of heaven and earth, claims and exercises the right of selecting his own "ambassadors," because he alone knows who are the fittest persons to be employed in this grand and important work. And he can as easily suggest his mind to the heart of a Christian man, now, as he did to Paul, when he said unto him, "I have

appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee." A man who is conscious of this inward call to the Christian ministry, feels himself impelled on, often indeed with great reluctance, under a sense of his high responsibility to God, his heart heaving under a deep conviction of the worth of immortal souls; and so pressed is he in spirit that he cries out in the language of the apostle, "Wo is me if I preach not the gospel." Such a man is not actuated by motives of ambition, by worldly interests, or to gratify self-love, but by an intense desire to advance the Redeemer's kingdom in the present and eternal salvation of immortal souls. Hence, so far from striving to shine in the galaxy of human wisdom, to display himself in the exhibition of his talents in science and oratory, he naturally shrinks from human observation, bemoans himself before his God, seeks to enter into the se'crets of the Most High, to penetrate into the meaning of his word, that he may unfold it to the multitude in language plain, simple, and pointed. Such a man, indeed, will not preach "with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." His countenance, his gestures, the intonations of his voice, as well as the words of his lips, will all declare the earnestness of his heart and the sincerity of his intention, whenever he appears "in that holy place, the pulpit," to unfold the counsels of God to a fallen world-to beseech sinners "to be reconciled to God."

3. This heartfelt experience of divine things, and this consciousness of God's will respecting his calling, must be accompanied with a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the plan of redemption and salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. It would be preposterous to suppose that God would call a man to negotiate a peace between him and màn, who did not understand the terms of reconciliation—who did not comprehend, in some tolerable degree, what He has done for the salvation of a lost world, and the conditions on which this salvation is to be obtained and kept. Is it to be supposed that God would select a man to be his ambassador, and send him to represent him to a revolted world, who could not understand the very terms on which

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »