SPURGEON THE PEOPLE’S CHRIST
“I have exalted one chosen out of the people” Psalm 89:19
ORIGINALLY, I have no doubt, these words referred to David. He was
chosen out of the people. His lineage was respectable, but not illustrious;
his family were holy, but not exalted: the names of Jesse, Obed, Boaz, and
Ruth, awoke no royal recollections, and stirred up no remembrances of
ancient nobility or glorious pedigree. As for himself, his only occupation
had been that of a shepherd-boy, carrying lambs in his bosom, or gently
leading the ewes great with young — a simple youth of a right royal soul,
and undaunted courage, but yet a plebeian — one of the people. But this
was no disqualification for the crown of Judah. In God’s eye the extraction
of the young hero was no barrier to his mounting the throne of the holy
nation, nor shall the proudest admirer of descent and lineage dare to
insinuate a word against the valor, wisdom, and the justice of the
government of this monarch of the people.
We do not believe that Israel or Judah ever had a better ruler than David;
and we are bold to affirm that the reign of the man “chosen out of the
people” outshines in glory the reigns of high-bred emperors, and princes
with the blood of a score of kings running in their veins. Yea, more, we
will assert that the humility of his birth and education, so far from making
him incompetent to rule rendered him, in a great degree, more fit for his
office, and able to discharge its mighty duties. He could legislate for the
many, for he was one of themselves — he could rule the people, as the
people should be ruled, for he was “bone of their bone, and “flesh of their
flesh” — their friend, their brother, as well as their king.
However, in this sermon we shall not speak of David, but of the Lord Jesus
Christ, for David, as referred to in the text, is an eminent type of Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior, who was chosen out of the people; and of
whom his Father can say “I have exalted one chosen out of the people.”
Before I enter into the illustration of this truth I wish to make one
statement, so that all objections may be avoided as to the doctrine of my
sermon. Our Savior Jesus Christ, I say, was chosen out of the people; but
this merely respects his manhood. As “very God of very God” he was not
chosen out of the people, for there was none save him. He was his Father’s
only-begotten Son, “begotten of the Father before all worlds.” He was
God’s fellow, co-equal, and co-eternal; consequently when we speak of
Jesus as being chosen out of the people, we must speak of him as a man.
We are, I conceive, too forgetful of the real manhood of our Redeemer, for
a man he was to all intents and purposes, and I love to sing,
“A Man there was, a real Man
Who once on Calvary died.”
He was not man and God amalgamated — the two natures suffered no
confusion — he was very God, without the diminution of his essence or
attributes; and he was equally, verily, and truly, man. It is as a man I speak
of Jesus this morning; and it rejoices my heart when I can view the human
side of that glorious miracle of incarnation, and can deal with Jesus Christ
as my brother — inhabitant of the same mortality, wrestler with the same
pains and ills, companion in the march of life, and, for a little while, a
fellow-sleeper in the cold chamber of death.
There are three things spoken of in the text: first of all, Christ’s extraction — he was one of the people; secondly, his election — he was chosen out
of the people; and thirdly, Christ’s exaltation — he was exalted. You see I
have chosen three words, all commencing with the letter E, to ease your
memories that you may be able to remember them the better — extraction,
election, exaltation.
I. We will commence with our Savior’s EXTRACTION. We have had many
complaints this week, and for some weeks past, in the newspapers,
concerning the families. We are governed — and, according to the firm
belief of a great many of us, very badly governed, — by certain aristocratic
families. We are not governed by men chosen out of the people, as we
ought to be; and this is a fundamental wrong in our government, — that
our rulers, even when elected by us, can scarcely ever be elected from us.
Families, where certainly there is not a monopoly of intelligence or
prudence, seems to have a patent for promotion; while a man, a commoner,
a tradesman, of however good sense, cannot rise to the government.
I am
no politician, and I am about to preach no political sermon; but I must
express my sympathy with the people, and my joy that we, as Christians,
are governed by one chosen out of the people.” Jesus Christ is the people’s
man; he is the people’s friend — ay, one of themselves. Though he sits
high on his Father’s throne, he was “one chosen out of the people. Christ is
not to be called the aristocrat’s Christ, he is not the noble’s Christ, he is
not the king’s Christ; but he is “one chosen out of the people.” It is this
thought which cheers the hearts of the people, and ought to bind their souls
in unity to Christ, and the holy religion of which he is the Author and
Finisher. Let us now beat out this wedge of gold into leaf, and narrowly
inspect its truthfulness.
Christ, by his very birth was one of the people. True, he was born of a
royal ancestry. Mary and Joseph were both of them descendants of a kingly
race, but the glory had departed; a stranger sat on the throne of Judah;
while the lawful heir grasped the hammer and the adze. Mark ye well the
place of his nativity. Born in a stable — cradled in a manger where the
horned oxen fed — his only bed was their fodder, and his slumbers were
often broken by their longings. He might be a prince by birth – but certainly
he had not a princely retinue to wait upon him. He was not clad in purple
garments, neither wrapped in embroidered clothing; the halls of kings were
not trodden by his feet, the marble palaces of monarchs were not honored
by his infant smiles. Take notice of the visitors who came around his
cradle. The shepherds came first of all. We never find that they lost their
way. No, God guides the shepherds, and he did direct the wise men too,
but they lost their way. It often happens, that while shepherds find Christ
wise men miss him. But, however, both of them came, the magi and the
shepherds; both knelt round that manger, to show us that Christ was the
Christ of all men; that he was not merely the Christ of the magi, but that he
was the Christ of the shepherds — that he was not merely the Savior of the
peasant shepherd, but also the Savior of the learned, for
“None are excluded hence, but those
Who do themselves exclude;
Welcome the learned and polite,
The ignorant and rude,”
In his very birth he was one of the people. He was not born in a populous
city; but in the obscure village of Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” the Son
of Man made his advent, unushered by pompous preparations, and
unheralded by the blast of courtly trumpets.
His education, too, demands our attention. He was not taken as Moses
was, from his mother’s breast, to be educated in the halls of a monarch; he
was not brought up with all those affected airs which are given to persons
who have golden spoons in their mouths, at their births. He was not
brought up as the lordling, to look with disdain on every one; but his father
being a carpenter, doubtless he toiled in his father’s workshop. “Fit place,”
a quaint author says, “for Jesus; for he had to make a ladder that should
reach from earth to heaven. And why should he not be the son of a
carpenter?” Full well he knew the curse of Adam: “in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread.” Had you seen the holy child Jesus, you would have
beheld nothing to distinguish him from other children, save that unsullied
purity which rested in his very countenance. When our Lord entered into
public life, still he was the same. What was his rank? Did he array himself
in scarlet and purple? Oh! no: he wore the simple garb of a peasant — that
robe “without seam the top to the bottom,” one simple piece of stuff,
without ornament or embroidery. Did he dwell in state, and make a
magnificent show in his journey through Judea? No; he toiled his weary
way, and sat down on the curb-stone of the well of Sychar. He was like
others, a poor man; he had not courtiers around him; he had fishermen for
his companions; and when he spoke, did he speak with smooth and oily
words? Did he walk with dainty footsteps, like the king of Amalek? No, he
often spoke like the rough Elijah; he spoke what he meant, and he meant
what he said. He spoke to the people as the people’s man. He never
cringed before great men, he knew not what it was to bow or stoop, but he
stood and cried, “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Woe
unto you, whitewashed sepulchres.” He spared no class of sinners: rank
and fortune made no difference to him. He uttered the same truths to the
rich men of the Sanhedrin, as to the toiling peasants of Galilee. He was
“one of the people.”
Notice his doctrine. Jesus Christ was one of the people in his doctrine. His
gospel was never the philosopher’s gospel, for it is not abstruse enough. It
will not consent to be buried in hard words and technical phrases: it is so
simple that he who can spell over, “He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved,” may have a saving knowledge of it. Hence, worldly-wise men
scorn the science of truth, and sneeringly say, ‘why, even a blacksmith can
preach nowadays, and men who were at the plough tail may turn
preachers,’ while priestcraft demands, ‘What right have they to do any
such thing, unauthorized by us?’ Oh! sad case, that gospel truth should be
slighted because of its plainness, and that my Master should be despised
because he will not be exclusive — will not be monopolised by men of
talent and erudition. Jesus is the ignorant man’s Christ as much as the
learned man’s Christ; for he hath chosen “the base things of the world and
the things that are despised.”
Ah! much as I love true science and real
education, I mourn and grieve that our ministers are so much diluting the
Word of God with philosophy, desiring to be intellectual preachers,
delivering model sermons, well fitted for a room full of college students
and professors of theology, but of no use to the masses, being destitute of
simplicity, warmth, earnestness, or even solid gospel matter. I fear our
college training is but a poor gain to our churches, since it often serves to
wean the young man’s sympathies from the people, and wed them to the
few the intellectual, and wealthy of the church. It is good to be a fellow citizen in the republic of letters but better far to be an able minister of the
kingdom of heaven. It is good to be able like some great minds, to attract
the mighty; but the more useful man will still be he, who, like Whitfield,
uses “market language,” for it is a sad fact that high places and the gospel
seldom well agree; and, moreover, be it known that the doctrine of Christ
is the doctrine of the people. It was not meant to be the gospel of a caste, a
clique, or any one class of the community. The covenant of grace is not
ordered for men of one peculiar grade, but some of all sorts are included.
A few there were of the rich followed Jesus in his own day, and it is so
now. Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus were well to do, and there was the
wife of Herod’s steward, with some more of the nobility. These, however,
were but a few: his congregation was made up of the lower orders — the
masses — the multitude. “The common people heard him gladly;” and his
doctrine was one which did not allow of distinction, but put all men as
sinners naturally, on an equality in the sight of God. One is your father,
“one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” These were
words which he taught to his disciples, while in his own person he was the
mirror of humility, and proved himself the friend of earth’s poor sons, and
the lover of mankind O ye purse proud! O ye who cannot touch the poor
even with your white gloves! Ah! ye with your mitres and your croizers!
Ah! ye with your cathedrals and splendid ornaments! This is the man whom
ye call Master — the people’s Christ — one of the people! And yet ye look
down with scorn upon the people — ye despise them. What are they in
your opinion? The common herd — the multitude. Out on ye! Call
yourselves no more the ministers of Christ. How can ye be, unless,
descending from your pomp and your dignity, ye come amongst the poor
and visit them — ye walk amongst our teeming population and preach
to them the gospel of Christ Jesus. We believe you to be the descendants of
the fishermen? Ah! no, until ye doff your grandeur, and, like the fishermen,
come out, the people’s men, and preach to the people, speak to the people,
instead of lolling on your splendid seats, and making yourselves rich at the
expense of your pluralites!
Christ’s ministers should be the friends of manhood at large, remembering
that their Master was the people’s Christ. Rejoice! O rejoice! ye
multitudes. Rejoice! rejoice! for Christ was one of the people.
II. Our second point was ELECTION. God says, “I have exalted one chosen
out of the people.” Jesus Christ was elected — chosen. Somehow or other,
that ugly doctrine of election will come out. Oh! there be some, the
moment they hear that word, election, put their hands upon their
foreheads, and mutter, “I will wait till that sentence is over, there will be
something I shall like better, perhaps.” Some others say, “I shall not go to
that place again; the man is a hyper-Calvinist.” But the man is not a hyper-
Calvinist; the man said what was in his Bible — that is all. He is a
Christian, and you have no right to call him by those ill-names, if indeed an
ill-name it be, for we never blush at whatever men do call us. Here it is:
“One chosen out of the people.” Now, what does that mean, but that Jesus
Christ is chosen? Those who do not like to believe that the heirs of heaven
were elect cannot deny the truth proclaimed in this verse, — that Jesus
Christ is the subject of election — that his Father chose him, and that he
chose him out of the people. As a man, he was chosen out of the people, to
be the people’s Savior, and the people’s Christ. And now let us gather up
our thoughts, and try to discover the transcendent wisdom of God’s
choice.
Election is no blind thing. God chooses sovereignly, but he always
chooses wisely. There is always some secret reason for his choice of any
particular individual; though that motive does not lie in ourselves, or in our
own merits, yet there always is some secret cause far more remote than the
doings of the creature, some mighty reason unknown to all but himself. In
the case of Jesus the motives are apparent; and without pretending to enter
the cabinet council of Jehovah, we may discover them.
1. First, we see that justice is thereby fully satisfied by the choice of one
out of the people. Suppose God had chosen an angel to make satisfaction
for our sins — imagine that an angel were capable of bearing that vast
amount of suffering and agony which was necessary to our atonement, yet
after the angel had done it all, justice would never have been satisfied, for
this one simple reason, that the law declares, — “ The soul that sinneth IT
shall die.” Now, man sins, and therefore man must die. Justice required,
that as by man came death, by man also should come the resurrection and
the life. The law required, that as man was the sinner, man should be the
victim — that as in Adam all died, even so in another Adam should all be
made alive. Consequently it was necessary that Jesus Christ should be
chosen out of the people; for had yon blazing angel near the throne, that
lofty Gabriel, laid aside his splendours, descended to our earth, endured
pain, suffered agonies, entered the vault of death, and groaned out a
miserable existence in an extremity of woe, after all that, he would not
have satisfied inflexible justice, because it is said, a man must die, and
otherwise the sentence is not executed.
2. But there is another reason why Jesus Christ was chosen out of the
people. It is because thereby the whole race receives honor. Do you know
I would not be an angel, if Gabriel would ask me. If he would beseech me
to exchange places with him, I would not, I should lose so much by the
exchange, and he would gain so much. Poor, weak, and worthless, though
I am, yet I am a man, and being a man, there is a dignity about manhood —
a dignity lost one day in the garden of the fall but regained in the garden of
resurrection. It is a fact, that a man is greater than an angel — that in
heaven humanity stands nearer the throne than angelic existence. You will
read in the Book of the Revelation, of the four and-twenty elders who
stood around the throne, and in the outer circle stood the angels. The
elders, who are the representatives of the whole church, were honored with
a greater nearness to God than the ministering spirits. Why man — elect
man — is the greatest being in the universe, except God. Man sits up there
— look! at God’s right hand, radiant with glory, there sits a man! Ask me
who governs Providence, and directs its awfully mysterious machinery; I
tell you it is a man — the man Christ Jesus. Ask me who has during the
past month bound up the rivers in chains of ice, and who now has loosed
them from the shackles of winter, I tell you a man did it — Christ. Ask me
who shall come to judge the earth in righteousness, and I say a man. A real,
veritable man is to hold the scales of judgment, and to call all nations
around him. And who is the channel of grace? Who is the emporium of all
the Father’s mercy? Who is the great gathering up of all the love of the
covenant? I reply a man — the man Christ Jesus. And Christ, being a man,
has exalted you, and exalted me, and to put us into the highest ranks. He
made us, originally, a little lower than the angels, and now despite our fall
in Adam, he hath crowned us, his elect, with glory and honor, and hath set
us at his right hand in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to
come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus.
3. But, my brethren, let us take a sweeter view than that. Why was he
chosen out of the people? Speak, my heart! What is the first reason that
rushes up to thyself? for heart thoughts are best thoughts. Thoughts from
the head are often good for nothing, but thoughts of the heart, deep
musings of the soul, these are priceless as pearls of Ormuz. If it be a
humbler poet, provided that his songs gush from his heart, they shall better
strike the cords of my soul than the lifeless emanations of mere brain. Here,
Christian: what dost thou think is the sweet reason for the election of thy
Lord, he being one of the people? was it not this — that he might be able
to be my brother, in the blest tie of kindred blood? Oh! what relationship
there is between Christ and the believer? The believer can say
“One there is above all others
Well deserves the name of friend;
His is love beyond a brother’s
Faithful, free, and knows no end.”
I have a great brother in heaven. I have heard boys say sometimes in the
street that they would tell their brother, and I have often said so when the
enemy has attacked me — “I will tell my brother in heaven.” I may be
poor, but I have a brother who is rich. I have a brother who is a king. I am
brother to the prince of the kings of the earth; and will he suffer me to
starve, or want, or lack, while he is on his throne? Oh! no; he loves me; he
has fraternal feelings towards me; he is my brother. But, more than that:
think, O believer! Christ is not merely thy brother, but he is thy husband.
“Thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.” It rejoices the
wife to lean her head on the broad breast of her husband, in full assurance
that his arms will be strong to labor for her, or defend her; that his heart
ever throbs with love to her, and that all he has, and is, belongs to her, as
the sharer of his existence. Oh! to know by the influence of the Holy
Ghost, that the sweet alliance is made between my soul and the ever
precious Jesus, sure, tis enough to quicken all my soul to music, and make
each atom of my frame a grateful songster to the praise of Christ.
Come,
let me remember when I lay like an infant in my blood, cast out in the open
field; let me recollect the notable moment when he said, “Live!” and let me
never forget that he has educated me, trained me up, and one day will
espouse me to himself in righteousness, crowning me with a nuptial crown
in the palace of his father. Oh! it is bliss unspeakable! I wonder not that the
thought doth stagger my words to utter it! — that Christ is one of the
people, that he might be nearly related to you and to me, that he might be
the goel, or kinsman, next of kin.
“In ties of blood with sinners one,
Our Jesus is to glory gone;
Hath all his foes to ruin hurled —
Sin, satan, earth, death, hell, the world.”
Saint, wrap this blessed thought, like a necklace of diamonds, around the
neck of thy memory put it, as a golden ring, on the finger of recollection,
and use it as the king’s own seal, stamping the petitions of thy faith with
confidence of success.
4. But now another idea suggests itself. Christ was chosen out of the
people — that he might know our wants and sympathize with us. You
know the old tale, that one half the world does not know how the other
half lives, and that is very true. I believe some of the rich have no notion
whatever of what the distress of the poor is. They have no idea of what it is
to labor for their daily food. They have a very faint conception of what a
rise in the price of bread means. They do not know anything about it; and
when we put men in power who never were of the people, they do not
understand the art of governing us. But our great and glorious Jesus Christ
is one chosen out of the people, and therefore he knows our wants.
Temptation and pain he suffered before us, sickness he endured, for when
hanging upon the cross, the scorching of that broiling sun brought on a
burning fever; weariest — he has endured it, for weary he sat by the well;
poverty — he knows it, for sometimes he had not bread to eat, save that
bread of which the world knows nothing; to be houseless — he knew it,
for the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but he had not
where to lay his head. My brother Christian, there is no place where thou
canst go, where Christ has not been before thee, sinful places alone
excepted. In the dark valley of the shadow of death thou mayest see his
bloody footsteps — footprints marked with gore; ay, and even at the deep
waters of the swelling Jordan, thou shalt, when thou comest hard by the
side, say “There are the footprints of a man: whose are they?” Stooping
down, thou shalt discern a nail-mark, and shalt say “Those are the
footsteps of the blessed Jesus.” He hath been before thee; he hath
smoothed the way; he hath entered the grave, that he might make the tomb
the royal bedchamber of the ransomed race, the closet where they lay aside
the garments of labor, to put on the vestments of eternal rest. In all places
whithersoever we go, the angel of the covenant has been our forerunner;
each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the shoulders of
Immanuel.
“ His way was much rougher and darker than mine;
Did Christ my Lord suffer, and shall I repine?”
I am speaking to those in great trial. Dear fellow-traveler! take courage:
Christ has consecrated the road, and made the narrow way the King’s own
road to life.
One thought more and then I will pass on to my third point. There is a
poor soul over there, who is desirous of coming to Jesus, but he is in very
great trouble, lest he should not came right; and I know many Christians
who say, “Well, I hope I have come to Christ, but I am afraid I have not
come right.” There is a little footnote to one of the hymns in dear Mr.
Denham’s collection, in which he says, “Some people are afraid they do
not come right. Now, no man can come except the Father draw him; so I
apprehend, if they come at all, they cannot come wrong.” So do I
apprehend, if men come at all, they must come right. Here is a thought for
thee, poor coming sinner. Why art thou afraid to come?” “Oh!” sayest
thou, “I am so great a sinner, Christ will not have mercy upon me.” Oh!
you do not know my blessed Master, he is more loving than you think him
to be. I was once wicked enough to think the same, but I have found him
ten thousand times more kind than I thought. I tell you, he is so loving, so
gracious, so kind, there ne’er was one half so good as he. He is kinder than
ever you can think; his love is greater than your fears, and his merits are
more prevalent than your sins. But still you say, “I am afraid I shall not
come aright, I think I shall not use acceptable words.” I tell you why that
is: because you do not remember that Christ was taken out of the people. If
Her Majesty were to send for me tomorrow morning, I dare say I should
feel very anxious about what kind of dress I should wear, and how I should
walk in, and how I should observe court etiquette, and so on; but if one of
my friends here were to send for me, I should go straight off and see him,
because he is one of the people, and I like him. Some of you say, “How can
I go to Christ? What shall I say? What words shall I use?” If thou were
going to one above thee, thou mightest say so: but he is one of the people.
Go as thou art, poor sinner — just in thy rags, just in thy filth — in all thy
wickedness, just as thou art. O conscience-stricken sinner, come to Jesus!
He is one of the people. If the Spirit has given thee a sense of sin, do not
study how thou art to come, come anyhow, come with a groan, come with
a sigh, come with a tear, — any come, if thou dost but come, will do, for
he is one of the people. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; let him that
heareth say, Come.” Here I cannot resist airing an illustration. I have heard,
that in the deserts, when the caravans are in want of water, and they are
afraid they shall not find any, they are accustomed to send on a camel, with
its rider, some distance in advance, then after a little space follows another,
and then, at a short interval, another: as soon as the first man finds water
almost before he stoops down to drink, he shouts aloud, “Come!” The next
one, hearing the voice, repeats the word, “Come!” while the nearest again
takes up the cry, “Come!” until the whole wilderness echoes with the word
“Come!” So in that verse, “the Spirit and the Bride say, first of all, Come:
then let him that heareth say, Come, and whosoever is Thirst, let him come,
and take of the water of life freely.” With this picture I leave our survey of
the reasons for the election of Christ Jesus.
III. And now I am to close up with his EXALTATION. “I have exalted one
chosen out of the people.” You will recollect, whilst I am speaking upon
this exaltation that it is really the exaltation of all the elect in the person of
Christ; for all that Christ is, and all that Christ has, is mine. If I am a
believer, whatever he is in his exalted person, that I am, for I am made to
sit together with Christ in heavenly places.
1. First, dear friends, it was exaltation enough for the body of Christ to be
exalted into union with the divinity. That was honor which none of us can
ever receive. We never hope to have this body united with a God. It cannot
be. Once has incarnation been done — never but once. Of no other man
can it be said, “He was one with the Father, and the Father was one with
him.” Of no other man shall it be said, that the Deity tabernacled in him,
and that God was manifest in his flesh, seen of angels, justified of the spirit,
and carried up to glory.
2. Again: Christmas exalted by his resurrection. Oh! I should have liked to
have stolen into that tomb of our Savior, I suppose it was a large chamber;
within it lay a massive marble sarcophagus, and very likely a ponderous lid
was laid upon it. Then outside the door there lay a mighty stone, and
guards kept watch before it. Three days did that sleeper slumber there! Oh!
I could have wished to lift the lid of that sarcophagus, and look upon him.
Pale he lay; blood-streaks there were upon him, not all quite washed away
by those careful women who had buried him.
Death exulting cries, ‘I have slain him: the seed of the woman who is to
destroy me is now my captive!’ Ah! how grim death laughed! Ah! how he
stared through his bony eyelids, as he said, ‘I have the boasted victor in
my grasp.’ ‘Ah!’ said Christ, ‘but I have thee!’ And up he sprang, the lid of
the sarcophagus started up; and he, who has the keys of death and hell,
seized death, ground his iron limbs to powder, dashed him to the ground
and said, “O death, I will be thy plague. O hell, I will be thy destruction.”
Out he came, and in turn the watchmen fled away. Startling with glory,
radiant with light, effulgent with divinity, he stood before them. Christ was
then exalted in his resurrection.
3. But how exalted was he in his ascension! He went out from the city to
the top of the hill, his disciples attending him while he waited the appointed
moment. Mark his ascension! Bidding farewell to the whole circle, up he
went gradually ascending like the exaltation of a mist from the lake or the
cloud from the steaming river. Aloft he soared: by his own mighty
buoyancy and elasticity he ascended up on high — not like Elijah, carried
up by fiery horses; nor like Enoch of old, it could not be said he was not,
for God took him. He went himself; and as he went I think I see the angels
looking down from heaven’s battlements, and crying, ‘See the conquering
hero comes!’ while at his nearer approach again they shouted, ‘See the
conquering hero comes!’ So his journey through the plains of ether is
complete — he nears the gates of heaven — attending angels shout “Lift
up your heads, ye ever lasting gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors!” The glorious hosts within scarce ask the question, “Who is the
king of glory;” when from ten thousand thousand tongues there rolls an
ocean of harmony, beating in mighty waves of music on the pearly gates
and opening them at once, “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty
in battle.” Lo! heaven’s barriers are thrown wide open and cherubim are
hastening to meet their monarch.
“They brought his chariot from afar,
To bear him to his throne;
Clapp’d their triumphant wings and said,
‘The Savior’s work is done.’”
Behold he marches through the streets. See how kingdoms and powers fall
down before him! Crowns are laid at his feet, and his Father says, ‘Well
done, my Son, well done!’ while heaven echoes with the shout, ‘Well
done! well done!’ Up he climbs to that high throne, side by side with the
Paternal Deity. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people.”
4. The last exaltation of Christ which I shall mention is that which is to
come, when he shall sit upon the throne of his Father David, and shall
judge all nations.
You will observe I have omitted that exaltation which Christ is to have as
the king of this world during the millennium. I do not profess to understand
it, and therefore I leave that alone. But I believe Jesus Christ is to come
upon the throne of judgment, “and before him shall be gathered all nations;
and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his
sheep from the goats.” Sinner! thou believest that there is a judgment; thou
knowest that the tares and wheat cannot always grow together — that the
sheep and the goats shall not always feed in one pasture; but dost thou
know of that man who is to judge thee that he who is to judge thee is a
man? I say a man — a man once despised and rejected.
“The Lord shall come, but not the same
As once in lowliness he came:
A humble man before his foes;
A weary man, and full of woes.”
Ah! no. Rainbows shall be about his head, he shall hold the sun in his right
hand as the token of his government, he shall put the moon and stars
beneath his feet, as the dust of the pedestal of his throne, which shall be of
solid clouds of light. The books shall be opened — those massive books,
which contain the deeds of both quick and dead. Ah! how shall the
despised Nazarene sit triumphant over all his foes. No more the taunt, the
jeer, the scoff; but one hideous cry of misery, “Hide us from the face of
him that sitteth on the throne.” Oh, ye, my hearers, who now look with
contempt on Jesus and his cross, I tremble for you. Oh, fiercer than a lion
on his prey, is love when once incensed. Oh despisers! I warn ye of that
day when the placid brow of the Man of Sorrows shall be knit with frowns;
when the eye which once was moistened by dew-drops of pity, shall flash
lightning on its enemies; and the hand, which once was nailed to the cross
for our redemption, shall grasp the thunderbolt for your damnation; while
the mouth which once said, “Come unto me, ye weary,” shall pronounce in
words louder and more terrible than the voice of the thunder, “Depart ye
cursed!” Sinners! ye may think it a trifle to sin against the Man of
Nazareth, but ye shall find that in so doing ye have offended the Man who
shall judge the earth in righteousness; and for your rebellion ye shall endure
waves of torment in the eternal ocean of wrath. From that doom may God
deliver you! But I warn you of it. You have all read the story of the lady,
who, on her marriage-day stepped up stairs, and seeing an old chest, in her
fun and frolic stepped inside, thinking to hide herself an hour, that her
friends might hunt for her; but a spring lock lay in ambush there, and
fastened her down for ever, nor did they ever find her, until years had
passed, when moving that old lumbering chest, they found the bones of a
skeleton, with here and there a jewelled ring and some fair thing. She had
sprung in there in pleasantry and mirth, but was locked down for ever.
Young man! take heed that you are not locked down for ever by your sins.
One jovial glass — it is all. “One moment’s step.” So said she. But there’s
a secret lock lays in ambush. One turn into that house of ill-fame — one
wandering from the paths of rectitude — that is all. Oh, sinner! it is all. But
dost thou know what that all is? To be fastened down for ever. Oh! if thou
wouldst shun this, listen to me, whilst — for I have but one moment more —
I tell thee yet again of the Man who was “chosen out of the people.”
Ye proud ones! I have a word for you. Ye delicate ones, whose footsteps
must not touch the ground! ye who look down in scorn upon your fellow
mortals — proud worms despising your fellow worms, because ye are
somewhat more showily dressed! What think ye of this? The man of the
people is to save you, if you are saved at all. The Christ of the crowd —
the Christ of the mass — the Christ of the people — he is to be your
Savior! Thou must stoop, proud man! Thou must bow, proud lady. Thou
must lay aside thy pomp, or else thou wilt never be saved; for the Savior of
the people must be thy Savior.
But to the poor trembling sinner, whose pride is gone, I repeat the
comforting assurance. Wouldst thou shun sin? Wouldst thou avoid the
curse? My Master tells me to say this morning, — “ Come unto me all ye
that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I remember the
saying of a good old saint. Some one was talking about the mercy and love
of Jesus, and concluded by saying, “Ah, is it not astonishing?” She said,
“No, not at all.” But they said it was. “Why,” she said, “it is just like him: it
is just like him!” You say, can you believe such a thing of a person? “Oh
yes!” it may be said, “that is just his nature.” So you, perhaps, cannot
believe that Christ would save you, guilty creature as you are. I tell you it
is just like him. He saved Saul — he saved me — he may save you. Yea,
what is more, he will save you. For whosoever cometh unto him, he will in
no wise cast out.