Sermons

Contents

I. — Love is of God 1-16

" Love is of God." — i John iv. 7.

II. — God's Ownership of Souls 17-27

II. God's Ownership Of Souls

" Behold, all souls are mine ; — the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezekiel xviii. 4.

This passage contains the statement of two facts which have a most important bearing on man's moral destiny — 1st, That our souls belong to God; 2d, That He will punish every sinning soul.

That our souls belong to God is theoretically generally conceded, yet, in its full truth, it is but little acknowledged, and exerts but little influence on our hearts and lives. Yet few truths are more important or deserve deeper consideration. Let us give to them, then, at this time, our calm and patient thought.

" Behold, all souls are mine." Who speaks this? The Lord God. Here, then, is a distinct declaration of His right of property in the souls of men. Upon what, then, is this right based ? There is no branch of human jurisprudence which is more abstruse or extensive than the law of property. For there is such a variety of kinds of property — as property in possession and property in action ; so many degrees of right in property — as the right absolute, and the right qualified; so many titles to property — as by occupancy, prerogative, succession, gift, etc., and these various points open up so many collateral questions *which ramify into every

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

department of human rights, both of persons and of things, that claims to property are the most fruitful source of litigation; and the establishment of these claims taxes the keenest subtlety of the legal professions and has evoked the profoundest research into the primordial rights of man from the ablest jurists of the world.

The right of a man to any property is ever subject to the modifications or changes to which all human legislation is liable, and which at times, have overturned all human government. There is, then, no absolute and unqualified right of man to any property which may not be interfered with, or destroyed; for there is nothing stable this side of heaven. Such is the weakness and insecurity of human rights to human possessions.

You may say a man has a right to do what he will with his property; for example, he may give it away, or keep it, as he will. Not so ! With his rights are interlaced the rights of others, and the rights of God. Human laws and divine laws have thrown their meshes around each man, and he can not act irrespective of the will of the law, or of the will of God, without violating his obligations to both. He must adjust his rights to the rights of others, and to the claims of God, and hence his will is fettered, and can never act in an absolute and independent manner. So also of man's control over himself, or others. He can never act as he will. His control is always a control under law, limited by statutes, human or divine. He can not do what he will with his person, if it interferes with the rights of other persons; his line of duty is prescribed by many legal limitations, ever keeping in check his will and ever guiding his every step.

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

But when we turn from the rights of man to the rights of God, what a contrast! God's right of property in these souls is not derived, as man's is, but original ; His, not by conveyance from another, but by right of creation. He made man out of dust ; He made the dust out of which man was made; and, having made man in his physical being, He then breathed into him " the breath of life," and " man became a living soul." Here, then, is the absolute and unqualified right of God, by virtue of the act of creation, to the souls of men. There is no right behind this right; it is the primordial right of the Creator to the creature which he has made by the word of His power. But this soul which God has breathed into man is perpetually conserved and sustained by God. God did not breathe into man the breath of life and then leave the spirit which he has thus imparted to take care of itself. No; He daily, hourly preserves that soul, ministers to it the elements of its life, and sustains it in the being in whom He breathed it. But for this perpetual conservation, the soul would cease to be, and man would cease to be ; and hence by this right, therefore, as well as by the right of creation, God can truly say, " All souls are mine."

As the Creator of the soul, and the Upholder of the soul, God can do what He will with the soul. There are no codes of law to guide Him, no interlacings of other rights with His right to fetter or restrain His will. On the contrary, His will is His own law, and hence it is said, " He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." His will no one can question, no one control ; it is infinite as His own nature, holy as His owr^ essence, and hence the

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

law, which is but an expression of His will, is said to be "holy and just and good." Here, then, is a right of property in us beyond any thing which human laws can know or impart: God's right to the souls of men by creation, by preservation, and by governmental control ; a right inalienable, absolute, and eternal.

Now if you will compare for a moment the tenure by which you hold any property or right, with the tenure by which God claims your soul as belonging to Him, you will see at a glance, that the highest and absolute rights of men are as worthless and defective titles, compared with the true original right of our divine Creator. Your right is given to you by others: God's right is self-derived. Your right rests upon deeds and conveyances, the whole value of which resides in certain legal technicalities, or official seals, or judicial records. His right in the sole proprietorship of a creating and an npholding God. Your rights are restricted by other rights; your will fettered by other wills; your tenure morticed in with other tenures. His rights are based on the counsels of His own will — the one sole controlling will in the universe. How truly, how sublimely, then, may He, the Creator and Upholder of all things, sitting on the throne of heaven, declare, "Behold, all souls are mine " !

"All souls." What a compass does this give to His spiritual proprietorship! All human souls are His. Every being who ever lived on this earth in whom God breathed the breath of an immortal spirit, belongs to God. The souls of all fallen angels are His. They have alienated themselves from God, cast off his authority, placed themselves in open rebellion to Him and His moral government, and are using the great powers

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

of mind with which they are endowed to thwart the divine will, and spread ruin and woe throughout the earth; yet they can not release themselves from the ownership of God. He has never vacated His right to their souls. They are His, despite their rebellion; His, despite their sin ; nor can they ever free themselves from the absolute right of God to do what He will with His own.

The souls of tlie dtceUers in heaven belong to God. Each and every order of spiritual existences, from the lowest who waits before the throne, to the tallest archangel in the hierarchy of heaven, belongs to God; for by Him, says the apostle, "were all things created, which are in heaven and in earth; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. "

What a mighty proprietorship is this ! to be able to stand on this world, and say of each generation of its hundreds of millions of beings, as they pass in a procession sixty centuries long, " Behold, all these souls are mine." To stand like Uriel in the sun, and say of the thronging myriads which inhabit the planets of this solar system, as they sweep their swift orbits around the central light, " Behold, all these souls are mine."

To go down to the gates of the world of darkness, where the angels " which kept not their first estate are reserved under chains" for the judgment, and say, in the hearing of these fallen spirits, causing each to tremble as it is uttered, "Behold, all these souls are mine."

To sit upon the throne of heaven, surrounded by the countless throng of angels, and say, " Behold, all these are mine."

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

Oh, surely, He who can say this must be the great and glorious God ! The question now arises, For what purpose did God make these souls? Let God Himself answer. By the mouth of Isaiah He declares, " I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him"; and again, He says, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise."

God's glory is, then, the great object of man's creation ; and the chief end of man is to glorify God. The ownership of our souls being then vested in God, and the object of the creation of those souls being God's glory, there result from these two facts certain inferences which are of most weighty import.

The first inference is, That man holds his soul in trust from God for the use of God. God has not given you a soul to do what you please with it, irrespective of Him. He has, indeed, implanted in you a will ; but with that will He has also given two laws, — the law of conscience, and the moral law of Sinai ; and that will must guide all its volitions according to these laws, and any breach of either is known to, and punishable, by God. You are held responsible for every act of that will, and each putting forth of that will in opposition to God's will is sin.

In human law, where a person holds property belonging to another, in trust for certain purposes, he is bound to adhere strictly to the terms of his trusteeship ; and nothing short of the power which constituted or recognized him a trustee, can discharge him of his obligation, or change the terms of his trust. Each deviation, therefore, in the use of the property from the original design is a breach of trust highly criminal, and attended with

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

human disgrace; yet how many there are who would scorn to pervert from its original use a trust estate, real or personal ; who would die, sooner than disgrace their names by untrustworthy acts, who do, every day, use God's souls, with which they are put in trust, in doing and thinking, in feeling and loving, persons and ob-. jects, hateful to Him, and insulting to His glory.

The terms of trusteeship inscribed on each soul are — "Occupy till I come." Occupy the powers, the affections, the sensibilities, the will of this soul for me. Occupy as my steward, for my glory ; and whenever these souls are used for any purposes contrary to God's will, then is there in you a great breach of moral trust, and that is sin.

But not only is there a breach of trust in thus misusing the soul with which you are placed in trust, there is also involved in such conduct, absolute treason and rebellion.

God says your soul is His, consequently He has a right to rule over it and receive its fealty as its governor and king; but you cast aside His rule, and give your fealty and obedience to God's enemy. Is not this treason, rebellion ? Writers on constitutional and civil law tell us, that it is high treason where a man is adherent to the king's enemies ; and do you not adhere to God's arch enemy? Christ declares, "He that is not with me is against me." Locke, in his work on Civil Government, says, "Rebellion is an opposition not to persons, but authority which is founded in the constitution and laws of the government." Are you not opposing yourself both to the person and authority of God; rebelling against His divine sovereignty, and breaking, day by day, the great and foundation laws of His kingdom ? Adjudging your conduct then by the plain principles of human law, you must stand charged with rebellion against God, in opposing yourself to His rightful authority, and with high treason against your divine King, in adhering to, and aiding and comforting, His enemy, the Prince of Darkness. There is no possible escape from these conclusions. They are the verdict of conscience, of reason, of revelation ; and by this verdict you will be sentenced at the day of judgment.

But we have not yet done with this inference that you hold your souls in trust for God; for your conduct in withholding your souls from Him is not only a breach of trust, not only treason, not only rebellion, but it is absolute robbery of God. If you keep from God, what belongs to God, is it not robbery? God thinks so, for He charged His people of old with robbery, when they withheld from Him the service and love which was His due. By the mouth of the prophet Malachi He asks, " Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have robbed me." " But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee ? In tithes and offerings." " Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." If those who withheld "tithes and offerings" robbed God, how much more those who withhold the love and devotion of their souls ?

Now is it not strange that while, if you are honest, you are forced to confess that you occupy this position, you yet feel no dishonor or disgrace concerning it. I speak to you who are men of probity and honor, who would eat the crust of poverty sooner than betray a human trust — feel you no sense of shame in betraying the divine trust which God has placed in your charge ? I speak to you men of patriotism, who would shed your

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

blood sooner than join the enemies of your country or foment rebellion against the government which protects you — feel you no compunctious smiting of conscience, no goaclings of remorse, at your treason in adhering to the enemy of all righteousness, in being a child and follower and servant of him who plotted rebellion in heaven, who plotted rebellion on earth, and who is ever waging war with God ? I speak to you men of honesty and business integrity, who would scorn to do an act of fraud, who would beg, sooner than rob — feel you no sense of shame in thus robbing God of the love and service and devotion of your souls ? That love which should be God's, you give to another ; that mind which should be used for God, you use for another ; that service which should be God's, you give to another.

This brings us to the second inference which is — that all misuse of this trust is sin. God requires us to love Him with all ovft soul; this, He says, is the first and great commandment. Each want of conformity to this law is sin, for the apostle distinctly states, " Sin is a transgression (or want of conformity to) of the law." Each soul, then, which withholds itself 'from God, does, by that act, break the first and great commandment, and consequently commits sin. And now, what does God in the text say of such sinning soul? "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

What a fearful doom is this! Yet it is the doom which the owner of the soul pronounces upon every soul which spurns His ownership and does not render Him true and faithful worship. What is meant by this death of the soul, human thought can not understand ; because we know not what man loses when he loses heaven, what man suffers when l^e enters hell. The

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

two great elements of this death of the soul are — 1st, The absence of all that constitutes everlasting life ; 2d, The presence of every thing that constitutes everlasting despair. There is forever present to the soul, the consciousness of this its twofold misery. The death of the soul does not deprive it of its consciousness — it is ever conscious, ever sensitive, ever active. It is dead, indeed, as the apostle states, in trespasses and sin. Dead to all influences of spiritual joy and peace. Dead to all enjoyments of eternal bliss in heaven. Dead to all love to God and things holy and divine. There is no living joy in such a soul, no active love, no calming peace, no animating hope. Like the Dead Sea, nothing pure, good, lovely, healthful, lives in it, moves over it, grows around it; it is a bleak, bare, stagnant, desolate pool of bitter sorrow, barren of every delight, and breeding only the noxious exhalations of a miasma, which ever wraps the soul as in the winding sheet of eternal death. When to this loss of heaven and this absence of every thing that can give life or joy, you add the other great element of spiritual death, — the presence and endurance of every woe which God has denounced against the wicked; the withdrawal of the light of His countenance and the restraining influences of the Holy Ghost ; the giving up of the soul to the full development of its own lusts and passions ; the ever-present goadings of a conscience fully awakened at the judgment, and never again to be seared or silenced ; the agonies of a remorse that ever preys upon the spirit with more than the tearing fangs of a Promethean vulture; and the ever-increasing guilt which grows up in that soul as the ages roll on, — then will you be able, in some measure, to know what is meant by the words of the text, "The

GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS.

soul that sinneth, it shall die." Continue to withhold your souls from God, and that doom must be yours. But if, recognizing God's right to your soul, you give it to Him to be washed in the blood of Jesus, and to be robed in his spotless merit, then is your salvation sure, and the soul which God breathed into you at your birth will live forever a redeemed poul in heaven.

III. The Personal Presence Of The Comforter

" And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth in you, and shall be in you." — John xiv. 16, 17.

The true Christian has three Comforters, and each of them is divine. God the Father is styled by St. Paul, in his second epistle to the Corinthians, " the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation." God the Son, in the words of the text, speaks of Himself as one Comforter; and St. Paul tells us that u our consolation" or comfort "aboundeth by Christ." God the Holy Ghost is specifically named by Jesus Christ in several instances as u the Comforter," and His peculiar office as such is fully unfolded in the last discourse of our Lord to His disciples before His crucifixion. * Thus each person of the ever-blessed Trinity is a Comforter, divine in character, infinite in fulness, eternal in duration. There is, then, no true comfort or consolation, that the heart can desire, which may not be found in God the Father as the God of all comfort; in God the Son as the Paraclete with the Father; and in God the Holy Ghost as "the Comforter " who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.

The Greek term Paracletos, here translated Comforter, and in another place translated Advocate, is peculiar to the writings of St. John, and is found in no other part of Scripture. We have no word in English which exactly corresponds to it in meaning ; that meaning being, according to the etymology of the word, 44 one called to be beside another." This explanation brings before us its true classical use, which " denotes a person who patronizes another in a judicial cause." It was the custom in the ancient tribunals for the parties to appear in court attended by one or more of their most influential friends, who were called in Greek paracletes, in Latin advocates. These paracletes, or advocates, gave their friends — not from fee or reward, but from love and interest — the advantage of their personal presence, and the aid of their judicious counsel. They thus advised them what to do, what to say, spoke for them, acted in their behalf, made the cause of their friends their cause, stood by them and for them in the trials, difficulties, and dangers of their situation. In this sense our Lord is said by St. John to be our Paraclete — where he says, "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" — One in heaven before God, who appears there in our behalf, patronizes our cause, urges our plea, ever living to u make intercession for us."

While on earth, our Lord had counselled, advised, spoken for, and on behalf of, His disciples. They had looked to Him for aid, succor, comfort, truth, grace; and thus with Him ever at their side, He had been to them a paraclete, or advocate. He had most thoroughly identified Himself with them, had taught them to pray, to preach, to live, to work miracles, and the mysteries of the kingdom. But He was now to leave them.

His bodily form was to be removed. Yet, with a sweetness of compassion peculiarly touching, He says, " I will not leave you comfortless," orphans, undefended, unadvocated, unsustained. " It is expedient for you that I go away; but I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever."

This " other" Comforter is the Holy Ghost, as our Lord declares in the twenty-sixth verse — " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost." And this Comforter is said to proceed from the Father and the Son, sent in Christ's name, in answer to Christ's prayer, and to carry on Christ's work in the world, from which Christ was now to depart.

Let us, then, consider the personal presence of the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, as the great and abiding blessing of the individual believer and of the Church.

There can be no doubt that the believer now stands in a better relation to God, and Christ, and the mysteries of redemption, than those did who were privileged to behold our Lord with their bodily eyes, and hear His words, and touch His hands, and follow His person. This truth will be apparent if we analyze the office and nature of this Comforter as described by Christ Himself.

What are the points where the soul of man needs comfort? or, to put the question in another form, What are the things which give real distress to the soul ? A sense of guilt; a consciousness of being under the curse; absence of the divine favor ; exposure to doubt and error ; uncertainty as to the future. Comfort comes to such an one, not by removing the sense of guilt, but by implanting a hope of pardon. Comfort comes to one lying under the curse of the law, by showing him that that curse is borne by another, and he is exempt from its infliction. Comfort comes to one feeling the absence of the divine favor, in the sweet assurance that God is reconciled to him in the face of Jesus Christ. Comfort ^ comes to one exposed to doubt and error in the consciousness that he can be led by the Spirit into all truth. Comfort comes to one uncertain as to his future, when he knows that his life is hid with Christ, and that when Christ who is his life shall appear, he "shall appear with Him in glory." To each of these special cases it is the office of the Holy Ghost to minister ; and no other being can relieve the real distress of the soul: for even the scheme of salvation — devised in the infinite love of God the Father, and wrought out in the infinite love of God the Son — is valueless to save the soul, unless applied and made effective, by the Holy Ghost. So that in very truth, in very essence, He is the Comforter.

This Comforter, Christ says, "the world can not receive," because it "seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." By the world is here meant carnal men engrossed in things of time and sense. Thus St. Paul says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." And again, "To be carnally-minded is death." The world's aims, views, plans, are earthly, temporal, sensual; the very opposite of the aims and plans of the Holy Ghost, so much so that the world can not either see them or know them. "The natural man," says St. Paul, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The things of the Spirit, can be seen and known o^ily by those whose eyes have been anointed by the Spirit with the power of spiritual vision.

The apostle puts the question in this form: "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in Him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." It is neither by any worldly learning, or worldly schemes, or worldly philosophy, that we are to receive the Comforter. On the contrary, the possession of a worldly mind puts us in a nonreceptive condition, and as soon can sunshine dwell in a dark dungeon as the Comforter abide in a worldly heart. The Comforter will displace the world, or the world will keep out the Comforter.

"But ye," says Christ, addressing His disciples, "know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The persons whom our Lord addressed were rude, uncultivated, unlearned men. Had they attempted to establish schools like Hillel, or Gamaliel, they would have been frowned upon by the Scribes and Pharisees as ignorant pretenders. Had they gone to Alexandria and given themselves out as teachers of religion, the Egyptian philosophers would have sneered at their pretensions. Had they visited the Stoa Pecile, the Grove, or the Academy, the Stoics, and Cynics, and Platonists of Greece would have mocked at their words and turned a deaf ear to their teaching. But to these Galilean peasants and fishermen was given by Christ Himself the Spirit of truth itself, the very Lord and Giver of life, who was to dwell with them, in them, and abide there forever. Truly may we also lift up our eyes to heaven and say with Jesus, " I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." And truly may we say with the apostle, "The world by wisdom knew not God," and that "The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God." Yes, we have what the profoundest minds of earth have sought for in vain, — the Spirit of truth ; and from these men, not from the temples of India, not from the halls of Alexandria, not from the schools of Athens, has gone forth the truth, which has enlightened, revolutionized, and redeemed the world.

The truth which this Spirit of truth as the Comforter is to reveal, is "the truth as it is in Jesus." When Jesus says of this Spirit that "He shall guide you into all truth," it does not mean that the Holy Ghost will guide you into natural truth, or scientific truth, or metaphysical truth; but into those great central truths — the atoning death, the justifying righteousness of J esus Christ ; those poles on which turn as on an axle the whole round scheme of redemption and grace. As it was by this Spirit of truth that the prophecies concerning Christ were uttered which fill the Old Testament ; as it was by the Spirit of truth that Jesus was conceived by the Virgin Mary ; as it was by this Spirit of truth that He was anointed for His ministry after His baptism : so is it declared that His office is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto men. Hence Christ says of this Spirit, He shall teach you all things. He shall testify of me. He shall glorify me. He shall show you things to come. He will guide you into all truth. Who can so teach all things as the Spirit that "searcheth all things; yea, the deep things of God?" Who can so testify of Christ as the Spirit which revealed His person and advent through three thousand years of prophecy? Who can so glorify Christ as the 3 \