Christ receiving sinnners

Preface

The author believes that the simplicity of the Gospel is unjustly, but frequently, made a reason why many st amble at its threshold. Very often too, the preacher perplexes what is plain, with distinctions, limitations, and condition, alike unseasonable, inapplicable, and injurious. We seem to feel afraid to speak out one great truth, in all its fulness and directness, lest we should trench upon or obscure another, no less precious. This is a foolish fear. All truths are in harmony w r ith each other ; let us, therefore, enunciate each distinctly, directly, fully, and doubt not that it will illuminate, not darken, every other.

It is the object and aim of the author in this little work, to put the mode of a sinner's acceptance before God in the plainest possible point of view, to induce the sinner to arise and go at once as he is to

God in Christ, and to see and be satisfied that in-

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4 PREFACE.

stead of rejection, he will meet with instant and cordial welcome.

The author earnestly prays that this little work may be made useful — extensively useful. To be instrumental in leading souls to God, is the noblest privilege, the greatest honour, and the consciousness of it, the richest reward.

Chapter I

Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. Luke xt. 1.

We find in this chapter, three instructive parables : one, the lost sheep ; and the other, the hidden coin ; and the last, the prodigal son. I will touch, first of all, on the preface to the three — " Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him;" reserving for the next chapter the objection of the scribes and Pharisees — "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." These last words constitute, properly, the text ; the parables are the sermon upon it. The first two verses embody the great idea that our Lord designs to illustrate, and the parables are the vivid examples and illustrations of its precious truth. Upon this occasion, sinners and publicans — i. e. taxgatherers, most obnoxious to the Jew from their profession, and more particularly so from their severity and the iniquity of their practices — "drew near unto him." These publicans and sinners were persons notoriously profane, about whose character there could be no controversy, and about whose state in the sight

24* 7 of God there could be as little. But there was another class that drew near to him, "Pharisees and scribes," of whom I shall speak by-and-by ; distinguished from the rest in the sight of men, but more iniquitous than the rest in the sight of a holy and a heart-searching God. When these sinners drew near, Jesus treated them as they had never been treated before. The Pharisee felt it his duty to flee from the infected person, lest he himself might catch the contagion ; Jesus felt it his mission to draw close to the infected person, that that infected person might draw in the healing virtue of his mysterious character. Now this contrast between the treatment of the Pharisee, on the one hand, and the new treatment of our Lord on the other, startled and surprised not a few, and called forth the expression of amazement contained in the second verse of this chapter. Certainly, there never was a more remarkable audience, preacher, or discourse : all three are replete with instruction and profit unto every one that has ears to hear. In the auditory, if one might venture to analyze it, were two concentric circles, of which Jesus was the centre ; there was an inner circle which stood nearest to him, composed of publicans and sinners ; there was an outer cirele that looked on, and kept aloof from him — these were the scribes and Pharisees. The inner circle admitted itself to be as bad as the verdict of God could pronounce it : these publicans and sinners professed to be nothing ; they were outcasts in the sight of God, and they were sinners notoriously in the sight of man, and they felt it. They were the refuse of the earth, the reproached of men, the denounced of justice, confessedly, and without apology, excuse, or covering. Then there was the

THE AUDIENCE. 9

outer circle, the members of which did not wish to mingle with the publicans and sinners, who desired, in short, to be saved in a way more honourable than publicans and sinners ; who wished to have a royal road to heaven, in which no man but Pharisees and scribes might walk ; and certainly, if the salvation of the gospel implied that the accomplished Pharisee and the abandoned publican must be cleansed in the same fountain, clothed with the same righteousness, and admitted by the same door to heaven, the Pharisee was not prepared to believe in so unsparing a necessity, or to accept such terms. These Pharisees were holy in the estimate of men, though not one whit holy in the estimate and judgment of God. With them a broad phylactery, that is, a robe peculiar to their sect, covered a multitude of sins. In their theology, a text exquisitely and luminously written upon the frontlet, was a perfect atonement for trampling it under feet in the daily wear and tear of common life. In their judgment, the offering of tithes of mint and of anise was a sufficient excuse for the utter neglect of the weightier matters of the law. Who was most guilty God alone can decide ; but this I have noticed, that while the Saviour, to the heart-smitten, trembling, convicted publican and sinner, spoke in tones of mercy, reconciliation and love ; to the Pharisee, the hypocrite, the religious pretender, he spoke in the language only of severe, stern, and merited rebuke. The publican and sinner may do society the greatest harm ; the hypocrite may pass through society less marked by its crimes, but not less criminal and guilty in the sight of God. But it is not ours to pronounce upon their relative demerits ; it is our privilege to proclaim to both instant pardon and acceptance through the Saviour, who died for both, if they will.

It is said, "They drew near to Jesus." They "drew near," physically, geographically : we draw near also, but spiritually and morally. » Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you;" but who does not know that neither the best nor the worst of mankind can draw nigh to God, until the attractive influence of God is put forth upon the hearts of both ? Our drawing near to God is our response to his drawing us. He says; "No man can come to me, unless the Father who hath sent me draw him : and every man, therefore, who draws near to God in prayer, in praise, in communion, in sympathy, in faith, in love, in joy, in hope, is the subject of an attraction, which, begun in time, shall not terminate even in glory, but continue to put forth its sublime centripetal influence for ever and ever. It is specially stated, they drew near to Jesus Christ. What they did physically, every creature on earth is called upon to do morally and spiritually: that is, to draw near to none beside Christ, to none on this side of Christ, to none beyond ; above, or below Christ. It is an instructive fact, that when Christ was crucified, there was a thief upon his right hand, and another upon his left, as if to lead the sinner's eye to look neither to the right nor to the left, but to rivet it upon the crucified Lamb that hung between. It is possible for us now, when we profess to draw near to Christ, to draw near to the sacrament, and yet not to Him the substance ; to draw near to the Church, and rest on it, and find it is a tomb, instead of drawing near to Christ, and resting on him, and feeling in him a Saviour. And whatever in the minister's sermon, or

THE AUDIENCE. H

whatever in the rites and ceremonies of the church so rivets you that it keeps you there, and prevents you rising higher, is the very essence of all antichristian superstition. If, for instance, the architecture of the church should fascinate and keep you from thinking of Him who fills the church with his glory, it may be beautiful architecture, but it is bad divinity. Or if the splendour of the language of the minister's sermon should so captivate you, or if his doctrine, or his illustrations, or his metaphors should so dazzle you, that you lose the great penetrating, riveting thoughts they were designed to convey, it may be an eloquent address, but it is a very worthless sermon. Whatever, in short, keeps you from the great end and aim of all ministry — the Lord Jesus Christ — ought not to be there. It is the beauty of a proposition in Euclid, that every step helps you to the conclusion ; and as it is the highest evidence of all true architecture, all poetry, and all painting that everything in it and about it has a tendency to contribute to one great point, for which the painting or the building was designed, so in all church ceremonies, and services, in all preaching, in all reading, in all prayer, in all praise, we ought to be carried directly, and without obstruction to Him who is and ought to be the Alpha and Omega of all. Hence, it is the best creed which proclaims Christ most clearly ; be is the best preacher who points you to the Lamb of God most distinctly; and that is the best and the most apostolic church in which you can learn to know and love your Saviour most simply and directly.

"They drew near," it is added, "to hear him." What they did, we also may do. What is our object in drawing near to the sanctuary? Is it to stop there?

or is it our ultimate object, as it ought to be, and as it will be, if the Spirit of God has drawn us, to hear Christ ? Of all things the most pitiable is when a man preaches to please himself, and when an audience listens in order to be pleased with the minister. And the most glorious thing below is when the minister's preaching and the people's hearing lead to this conclusion, not, « How well the minister spoke to-day V and "How comfortably did we hear to-day !" but, " How glorious is that Saviour ! how precious this soul ! how solemn our obligations ! how weighty our responsibilities in the prospect of eternity, and of a judgment-seat I" We may always judge of what has been the sermon, or what has been the mood in which it was listened to by the first remarks we hear as we retire ; when people go home criticising the words of the discourse, instead of dwelling on and speaking of the glories of the subject, there is something w T rong in the people's hearing, or in the minister's preaching. May God grant that all that ministers preach, and all that people hear, may lead them to lift their hearts far beyond the temple, and to leave them nowhere except where our heart and our treasure should be, beside the throne of the Lord Jesus.

When it is stated, "they drew near to Christ in order to hear him," and it is added, "they all did so," we do not find that he said one single individual was present who should not have been there. Now this is remarkable. There were hypocrites, whom Jesus knew to be so : there were publicans and sinners, the most depraved and abandoned in the land, no less intimately known to Jesus : but he did not say, those who come to hear me must be a select circle, who have looked

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into the book of life, and seen that their names are written there, before they come to listen ; or they must have some other qualification of some other description. No such syllable is uttered. He took all that came. He felt there was a message to be delivered wherever there was an ear, however circumstanced that might be, to listen to him. In short, the gospel of Jesus Christ is an encyclical letter to the whole world ; and when a minister stands in his place and proclaims the gospel, he preaches Christ, and Him crucified, not to the elect, nor to the non-elect, not to the predestinate, nor to the reprobate, if such there be, but he preaches the gospel of Christ, to every creature under heaven, and leaves it with God to make the discrimination, taking to himself only the duty of rendering clearly and intelligibly his message, and leaving all beyond with God.

We read next — for every word in this verse seems emphatic — "tlien drew near unto him," &c. What was the cause of their drawing near ? It seems to me to have been that beautiful parable in the previous chapter, which describes the guests invited when " a certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and he sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready." In this remarkable parable the gospel of Christ, that is, salvation, is not described as something that we are to do, but something that we are to receive ; not a process that we are to work out, but a recipe or medicine that we are freely to accept. " All things are ready," every thing is done : you have only to come. And then some made excuses; but "the servant came and shewed his Lord all these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind." Now the publicans and sinners argued from the parable, and argued right, " Truly, if the halt, and the maimed, and the hedge-way beggars, and the highway tramps may come to Jesus, and receive the blessing of the gospel, we are not worse than they ; and desperate as our character is, it cannot be worse ; and if there be welcome for them, surely there will be no proscription for us : at all events let us try." " Then drew near unto , him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him."

Let us next notice the place where our Lord spoke. As far as we can gather from the previous chapter and from the parables- to which I have already alluded, our Lord was in the Pharisee's house, speaking to all that would come to hear him ; but it would appear from the fifteenth chapter that he left the Pharisee's house, and was walking to some other part of Judea, and that great multitudes followed him, listening to the words that proceeded out of his mouth. This teaches us that our Lord did not much mind what was the place on which he stood, or on which he sat. All places were sacred, all audiences were consecrated, when the great Saviour and a sinful company were there present. Hence we find our Lord preaching from the ocean's bosom, or from the mountain's brow; by the hedge and the highway side ; in a fisherman's boat, and in the Pharisee's house ; from the cross, and now from the throne ; all places are made holy by a holy work : for it is not the place that consecrates the work, but the work that consecrates the place. An orator may collect a mob ; Christ's presence can make that crowd

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a church. An architect may build a vast and glorious cathedral, but Christ descending into it in his glory alone can make that cathedral a church. It is the presence of the queen that makes the hut a palace, it is the presence of the Lord of glory that makes the way-side auditory a church ; and wherever such presence is, and such people are, there, there is a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. My dear reader, the holiest sanctuary in the universe is the chancel of a holy heart, and in that chancel the glory that dwelleth between the cherubim takes up its residence still.

We notice next in this interesting group — the preacher. It was Jesus, and what did he preach ? He spake as never man spake. I wish that all preachers would study less Blair's Belles-Lettres, and Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric ; less mechanical prescriptions and rules for making, what they always do make, most mechanical sermons ; but that they would study more our Lord's sermons. How exceedingly simple, yet how sublime ! words so plain that a child can understand them — thoughts so deep that an archangel's mind cannot fathom them. He spoke in the most childlike terms, and yet never in childish terms. There was no turgid straining of language, no bombastic metaphors like poppies in a cornfield, no swollen words and blazing similes ; all was simple, direct, pure ; in every sabbath-school, children will listen to and are delighted with, and comprehend the beautiful parables of Jesus : and yet wherever you meet with what is rare, a true philosopher, wearied with his flight through the universe in search of truth, you will find one who at length will pillow his head and soothe his heart by reading the simple and eloquent words of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord was not only an ex ample of the perfect believer, but he was also an example of the perfect preacher. And I do believe, though men do not naturally like the gospel- — while the human heart, before it is sanctified, is enmity to the gospel — that wherever a Christian minister will just speak God's truth in the simple language in which it should be spoken, he will not be without thirsty hearts and anxious souls to listen to him, A great many sermons, I fear, (without passing judgment upon others,) are like the play of summer lightning far up in the clouds while all is dark below. The meaning of preaching is not to make an eloquent exhibition before a people, but to make a heart-stirring, conscience-converting appeal to them. What a minister is to do is not to attempt to please his people, but to speak to the hearts and consciences of his people. Let him care little if there be sometimes a crooked sentence, or awkward metaphor, and sometimes a plain saying that displeases the critically fastidious taste of editors. I do not mind if I have displeased some cultivated taste, some accomplished litterateur, if I can be the means of awakening some conscience, and giving peace to some wounded spirit, and to others the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

CHAPTER II. &Ije ©bjcclioir

u This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." — Luke xv. 2.

• Let me now notice the carping, cavilling objection of the carping, cavilling, and miserable scribes and Pharisees. "This man," they said, "receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Is it not strange that what is the very glory of the gospel, should thus be quoted as the disproof that Jesus is the Author and the great Subject of it? If I understand the Old Testament Scriptures, it is declared to be the chief character of the Messiah, that he shall come into close contact with sin, have communion, or close fellowship with sinners, and yet not be their companion. But the Pharisees, wilfully or strangely ignorant of this, were chagrined because he had the impiety to eat with unwashen hands, or to speak a word of consolation to some poor widow, or some heart-broken, penitent, and afflicted sinner ; and they thought this neglect of all tradition, this violation of rubric and ceremonial, — this losing sight of the claims of the church and the dignities of the order, — was enough to condemn any man, and to show that Jesus was not what he professed to be, the great Messiah and the promised Saviour. But a chief reason, perhaps, why they objected to him, was the self-righteousness of their hearts. They said. b 2 17

If this man's preaching be true, all we have given to the poor goes for nothing in the way of merit ; all that we have done — all the learning we have acquired — all the accomplishments we have gathered — all the offices we have held — all the prayers we have made — all go for nothing. Self-righteousness, or the persuasion that what we are, and what we have done, entitles us to something better than publicans and sinners are entitled to—is the very last element in our sinful nature that leaves us. The last thing eradicated from the human heart and conscience, is the idea that if we can only do something, we are sure to be saved ; or that if we can only suffer something, it is sure to make an atonement for what is past. The very last, and the most difficult thing to induce a sinner to do, is to come to the Lord Jesus just as he is. I would undertake to persuade half the population of London, if I could reach them^ that God is an angry and avenging tyrant, ready to consume them, and that this is pure orthodoxy ; but it is the most difficult thing in the world to persuade a man that " God is love" — that he awaits to be gracious — that the chiefest of sinners are invited to his presence — that there is forgiveness for the greatest sin, and a cordial welcome for the vilest criminal. This is so difficult that the Spirit of God alone can do it. Yet the Pharisees, one would think, might have learned that this was to be the character of the gospel of Christ. They might have recollected the brazen serpent, which was raised to heal, not the whole, but the sick ; or the rock in Rephidim, whose waters were. not for those who were not thirsty, but for those who were dying with thirst ; that the manna was for the hungry, and that the tern-

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pie, which was a national one, was for all. They might, too, have wondered, if Christ did not receive sinners, whom he was to receive ? Whom besides could he receive? Not angels, they might have seen, for they were accepted already, they were the ninety and nine. Then whom did Christ come to receive, if not sinners ? All the inhabitants of the earth are sinners, and all the inhabitants of heaven are but sinners saved. Thus, instead of its being a disproof that Christ was the Messiah, and Christianity the gospel ; the fact, that " this man receiveth sinners and eateth w T ith them/' has always been the most magnificent credential of the one, and the most glorious demonstration of the other. Here, however, was exhibited, the evidence of their perversity and ignorance, in that they made that which was the proof of his Messiaship to be the very reverse. The strength of the objection lay not in its own merit, but in their crooked judgments and corrupted hearts. Our Lord met with this difficulty before: "John came, neither eating nor drinking;" and they said, "he hath a devil." The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said, " Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." In short, whatever our Lord did, an objection was sure to be raised from it and to it ; if he did as others did, they said, behold "a friend of publicans and sinners;" and if he did as John did, they said, "he hath a devil." In short, there is no bad man in the two millions that constitute the population of London, who has not some reason more or less conclusive to his own mind for the course which he pursues.

But our Lord received sinners as alike his mission and his glory; and this was not an isolated fact, but the very tone and predominating character of his whole ministry: "He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Again, "His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins/' Again, " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." Again, " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." These are but the great harmonies tnat revolve around this one central truth, "This man receiveth sinners." Thus the miserable Pharisee did not know that what he thought an objection was really a credential, and that what he pronounced to be the disgrace of the ministry of Jesus was its peculiar glory.

But he not only receives sinners, but he invites sinners to come to him. What does he say? "Come unto me;" "him thatcometh unto me I will in nowise cast out." "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." " I am the way." If one merely heard that Christ "receiveth," one might think it was some cold judge, far A removed into the distance, who would receive men if they could muster strength and life and energy to travel the way that leads to him. But when we are told that he not only receives, but that he positively invites, the encouragement is increased a hundredfold. More than this : Christ not only receives sinners, he not only invites sinners, but it is his office to receive, to invite, to save sinners. I am sure many of us fail to look at Christ in this light, viz. that it is his very office to save. When we hear of a physician, we understand by this that it is his office to prescribe ; of a lawyer, that it is his office to plead, and make the most of our cause and claims; of

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a preacher, that it is his office to preach; even so it is Christ's office to save, as truly as it is the office of the sun to shine, of winds to blow, of waters to roll, or of the ocean to wash its shores. Hence, Christ cannot refuse you; it is impossible that he should refuse the greatest sinner that goes to him seeking truly that forgiveness which it is his office to bestow.

But not only is it his office, but it is his glory, to do so. Many persons have an idea, that Christ may receive them, as he has invited them, and he may forgive them, as it is his office to do so ; but that it will be, in some degree, a compromise of what is due to his glory, a weakening of the severity and strictness of his justice. It is all the reverse: for not only is Christ just and faithful to forgive, but he is covered w r ith the greatest glory when he forgives the transgressions of the greatest sinner. Never is God so great as when he pardons. Never is the Saviour so glorious as when he saves. When he said, " Let there be light," and there was light, how glorious was he, the Creator ! But when he says, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," the speaker is more glorious still. It is a nobler monument of omnipotent power — it is a richer evidence of divine love, to forgive a sinner than to create and control the shining orbs that are, as it were, the footprints of Deity upon the sands of infinite space. If this be true, how worthy is the gospel of the name that is given to it — good news ! The difficulty it would rather seem is for one that knows these things tc be lost. One wonders that any man can live without a Saviour ; that any one can fail to be a Christian, hearing of a Saviour who receives publicans and sinners, invites them, commands them to believe, whose office it is to save, whose glory it is to save, who is just and faithful, when he saves the greatest sinner; how is it possible that any one can continue in his sin, and perish in the presence of such truths? I might show the reader many touching instances of this. Read at your leisure our Saviour's conversation with the woman of Samaria : read also that beautiful statement in Luke xxiii. 42. Recollect the dying criminal; and that criminal's last breath giving utterance to this his last cry, "Remember me;" and lo! the instant that he said so, there came a response from the Crucified, who was yet the Enthroned, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Read John vi. 37, also John vii. 37. Read, as we may have often read, the parable of the prodigal son.

He receives sinners ; for what purpose ? Not to keep them so, but to make them saints. He receives sinners, to sanctify them, and unhappy men, to make them happy, and wicked men, to make them holy, and slaves, to make them sons, and enemies, to make them friends ; and not only receives them so to make them, but he makes them so in order to keep them so for ever and ever. Are there then among my readers any weary and heavy laden ? are there any whose retrospect of the past gives rise to fears ? whose consciousness of the present creates only smiting of conscience, and condemnation of heart ? Are there any saying, " wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Hear the good news, " This man receiveth sinners." As fully, as cordially, as freely, this year, as when he received the thief upon the cross, or forgave the persecuting Saul, and made him the devoted Paul. " God is in Christ