eChurch Blog

A very good blog post from the Jubilee Centre

“There is, right now in this country, an intolerance of Christians of a sort that I never thought I would see. Street preachers are threatened and Christians expressing mainstream orthodox views on sexual behaviour are harassed and abused. A marriage registrar is bullied at work for asking to be excused from civil partnership duties; a housing charity worker is suspended for discussing with a colleague his beliefs about same-sex relationships.

“I fear that, if the Government get their way, not only will this intolerance grow, and those bent on silencing all who disagree with them gain new strength, but many will take the revocation of the safeguard as a signal that voicing views on morality — even making jokes about homosexuality — could attract the attention of the police and that they would be wise to keep quiet. People will be reluctant to express their views, when the right to express views, including views that other people might not like, is one of the hallmarks of a free society.”

Thus concluded Lord Waddington in the debate on the second reading of the Coroners and Justice Bill in the House of Lords on Monday. This is precisely the kind of legislation that Bristol University’s Professor of Jurisprudence, Julian Rivers warned against in his recent interview with the Jubilee Centre, which you can watch below. In this he suggests that the reason for the recent trend towards intolerance of Christians is a new “vision of human dignity that is very individualistic and which treats human beings as creators of their own identity and their own self”, so that “if you criticise someone for something they’ve done in their life or you disagree with them about some matter of ultimate truth, it’s seen as a personal affront or a personal offence.”

As Lord Waddington noted, “No decent person supports the stirring up of hatred, but no reasonable person should object to peaceful criticism and discussion of sexual behaviour. The law, as it stands with the free speech safeguard, makes the point with complete clarity. It is sad that the Government should be setting out to blur what is now clear and to remove a protection that events have already shown to be necessary.” Some suggest that this is simply Christians being homophobic, but the issue is freedom of expression, not freedom of sexual expression. Again, it is worth heeding what Lord Waddington had to say:

“While not out to weaken the protection that the Government say that they seek to give gays, I want what is outside the scope of the Bill to be made absolutely plain in order to avoid the scandals of the past and to protect freedom of expression. Not only have I said that, but Mr Straw’s own notes on clauses say that the free speech clause does not raise the threshold for the offence or make prosecutions more difficult.

“It has been suggested that any possible difficulties can be dealt with by guidance and that that is better than legislation. That, I suggest, is plain wrong. Guidance is not binding, so it can be ignored. Not only is a simple, short, pithy free speech clause more likely to be read than reams of guidance, but it is much more likely to be heeded. Furthermore, there is already guidance available in the shape of the 2007 CPS Guidance on Prosecuting Cases of Homophobic and Transphobic Crime, which, far from inspiring confidence, seems to make the case for the free speech clause. Somewhat surprisingly, the document says that homophobia does not necessarily mean hatred of gays but covers mere dislike of their practices. Basing their reasoning on the Stephen Lawrence definition of a racial incident, the authors go on to say that a homophobic incident is any incident perceived to be such,
“by the victim or any other person”.

“So there you have it. By that guidance, the police are as good as encouraged to investigate incidents that amount to no more than a member of the public complaining that someone else has had the temerity to criticise homosexual practices. Indeed, that is precisely what has been happening; it is what has caused outrage and precisely what gave birth to the free speech clause. It is what happened to the Roberts couple from Fleetwood; it is what happened to Lynette Burrows, who dared to question the desirability of gay adoption on the radio. There is a real danger that similar scandals will occur in the future, but it is a danger that the free speech clause can help to avoid.”

Ultimately, Lord Hylton was probably right when he later observed, “I fear that Her Majesty’s Government may have caved in to pressure from the fashionable homosexual lobby. What evidence is there that this important defence, protecting freedom of expression and speech, has done the slightest harm? … Innocent people should not have to be investigated unnecessarily.”

I am sorry but for some reason I found the below article from Ecumenical News International humorous. Please forgive me

To stem a nationwide shortage of full-time clergy, the Church of Scotland is considering the use of “virtual ministers” who would preach over a live video link to congregations that do not have a permanent minister. “Preaching by live video link to vacant congregations is one of many radical changes being proposed by the Ministries Council in consultation with the Mission and Discipleship Council,” Gordon Bell, media relations officer with the Church of Scotland told Ecumenical News International.

He said the ministries report to the Presbyterian church’s general assembly, running from 21 to 27 May, suggests the Kirk, as the Church of Scotland is known locally, should investigate the use of video technology in churches which struggle to attract full-time ministers.

There are 21 congregations in Orkney presbytery spread over more than 10 islands. Initially four congregations in Rousay, Shapinsee, Flotta and Hoy in the archipelago will be linked.

“The intention,” said Bell, “is that this will allow the minister to be physically present in a different island each week and virtually present in other ones. We think this is not only a first for Scotland but also a first for the whole of the United Kingdom.”

There are presently an estimated 190 full-time vacancies for clergy across Scotland, which has a population of 5.1 million. Under the proposal, churches would be linked by technology similar to that used in video conferencing.

As a result, a number of congregations in some of the most remote parts of Scotland would be able to take part in the same service.

If the scheme is successful, it could offer similar benefits to congregations in other rural areas which do not have a full time minister, Bell said.

The Rev. Trevor Hunt, a clerk of the Presbytery of Orkney, told The Scotsman newspaper on 12 May that it is vital the congregations participate in services and not sit in their pews imagining they were watching a television programme. “I think it has potential,” said Hunt.

The company involved in the plan to bring virtual ministers to different parts of Scotland is Sanctus Media Limited at Bo’Ness, central Scotland, near Falkirk.

The company’s chief executive officer, Neil MacLennan, told ENI: “I’ve visited Orkney and we’re waiting to hear their decision if they want to be first in this project. The islands are not served by broadband but we’ll be able to put in micro-wave transmitter links. It’s an exciting project and will fill the gap caused by a shortage of clergy in Scotland.”

Original Source: The Christian Institute

The Government says its new Equality Bill will force churches to accept practising homosexuals or transsexuals in youth worker posts and other similar roles.

Equalities minister Maria Eagle said religious believers should push ‘gay rights’ in their communities, but in the meantime the state would do it.

The move has been met with a strong response from Christian groups who have accused the Government of secular intolerance against the church.

The Bill dramatically narrows exemptions in sexual orientation employment laws which protect the religious liberty of churches and other faith groups.

Under the current law, religious groups can restrict certain posts to heterosexuals as long as those posts are for the purposes of organised religion, which could include jobs like a youth worker.

But under the Equality Bill the Government is specifying that this protection can only apply posts that mainly involve leading worship or explaining doctrine.

The Bill’s explanatory notes make it clear that this protection “would not apply to a requirement that a church youth worker or accountant be heterosexual”.

At the weekend, Government equalities minister Maria Eagle said that “while the state would not intervene in narrowly ritual or doctrinal matters” it would tell churches what to do in other areas.

She also said “members of faith groups have a role in making the argument in their own communities for greater LGBT acceptance, but in the meantime the state has a duty to protect people from unfair treatment.”

A spokesman for the Church of England said the proposed change in the law “was inserted in the Bill without our receiving any prior consultation or warning.

“It represents a substantial narrowing of the exception relating to employment for the purposes of an organised religion.

“It would have the effect that many of those employed in senior posts that involved representing the Church either locally or nationally (e.g. the posts of Secretary General of the Archbishops’ Council, or diocesan secretary) would not, for the purposes of this exception, be employed ‘for the purposes of an organised religion’.”

The spokesman added: “We shall be raising the issue with the Government and are likely to support the tabling of amendments that would preserve the status quo.”

The Christian Institute’s Mike Judge said: “The Government’s own explanation of the Bill clearly says churches must accept homosexuals as church youth workers.

“The Bill says nothing about the difference between an active homosexual and someone who has left the lifestyle but still experiences some same-sex attraction. This distinction is crucial for Christians.”

“The carnal mind is enmity against God” — Romans 8:7

THIS is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle Paul here prefers
against the carnal mind. He declares it to be enmity against God. When we
consider what man once was, only second to the angels, the companion of
God, who walked with him in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day;
when we think of him as being made in the very image of his Creator, pure,
spotless, and unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly grieved to find such
an accusation as this preferred against us as a race. We may well hang our
harps upon the willows while we listen to the voice of Jehovah, solemnly
speaking to his rebellious creature. “How art thou fallen from heaven, thou
son of the morning!” “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect
in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God every precious stone
was thy covering – the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was
prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed
cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones
of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee, and thou hast sinned, therefore I will cast
thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and will destroy thee, O
covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”

There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins of our race. As the
Carthaginian who might tread the desolate site of his much-loved city,
would shed many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Romans; or as
the Jew, wandering through the deserted streets of Jerusalem, would
lament that the plough share had marred the beauty and the glory of that
city which was the joy of the whole earth; so ought we to mourn for
ourselves and our race, when we behold the ruins of that goodly structure
which God had piled, that creature, matchless in symmetry, second only to
angelic intellect, that mighty being, man, – when we behold how he is “fallen,
fallen, fallen, from his high estate “and lies in a mass of destruction.

A few
years ago a star was seen blazing out with considerable brilliance, but soon
disappeared; it has since been affirmed that it was a world on fire,
thousands of millions of miles from us, and yet the rays of the conflagration
reached us; the noiseless messenger of light gave to the distant dwellers on
this globle the alarm of “A world on fire!” But what is the conflagration of
a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere material of the most
ponderous orb, compared with this fall of humanity, this wreck of all that is
holy and sacred in ourselves? To us, indeed, the things are scarcely
comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other.
The fall of Adam was OUR fall; we fell in and with him; we were equal
sufferers; it is the ruin of our own house that we lament, it is the
destruction of our own city that we bemoan when we stand and see written
in lines too plain for us to mistake their meaning, “The carnal mind” – that
very self-same mind which was once holiness, and has now become carnal -
”is emnity against God.” May God help me this morning, solemnly to
prefer this indictment against you all! Oh! that the Holy Spirit may so
convince us of sin, that we may unanimously plead “guilty” before God.

There is no difficulty in understanding my text: it needs scarcely any
explanation. We all know that the word “carnal” here signifies fleshly. The
old translators rendered the passage thus: “The mind of the flesh is enmity
against God.” – that is to say, the natural mind, that soul which we inherit
from our fathers, that which was born within us when our bodies were
fashioned by God. The fleshly mind, the phronema sarkos, the lusts, the
passions of the soul; it is this which has gone astray from God and become
enmity against him.

But before we enter upon a discussion of the doctrine of the text, observe
how strongly the Apostle expresses it. “The carnal mind,” he says, it is
ENMITY against God.” He uses a noun, and not an adjective. He does not
say it is opposed to God merely, but it is the positive enmity. It is not
black, but blackness; it is not at enmity, but enmity itself; it is not corrupt,
but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion: it is not wicked, it is
wickedness itself. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is
evil in the concrete, sin in the essence, it is the distillation, the quintescence
of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not
at enmity, it is actual enmity.

Nor need we say a word to explain that it is “enmity against God” It does
not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or
doctrines of Jehovah, but it strikes a deeper and surer blow. It does not
strike man upon the head, but it penetrates into his heart, it lays the axe at
the root of the tree, and pronounces him “enmity against God,” against the
person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the mighty Maker of this
world, not at enmity against his Bible or against his Gospel, though that
were true, but against God himself, against his essence, his existence, and
his person. Let us, then, weigh the words of the text, for they are solemn
words. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul, and
they were, moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who telleth man how to
speak aright. May he help us to expound, as he has already given us the
passage to explain.

We shall be called upon to notice, this morning, first, the truthfulness of
this assertion, secondly, the universality of the evil here complained of;
thirdly, we will still further enter into the depths of the subject, and press it
to your hearts, by showing the enormity of the evil, and after that, should
we have time, we will deduce one or two doctrines from the general fact.

I. First, we are called upon to speak of the truthfulness of this great
statement “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” It needs no proof, for
since it is written in God’s word, we, as Christian men, are bound to bow
before it. The words of the Scriptures are words of infinite wisdom, and if
reason cannot see the ground of a statement of revelation, it is bound, most
reverently, to believe it, since we are well assured even should it be above
our reason, that it cannot be contrary thereunto. Here I find it written in
the Scriptures, “the carnal mind is enmity against God;” and that of itself is
enough for me. But did I need witnesses, I would conjure up the nations of
antiquity; I would unroll the volume of ancient history, I would tell you of
the awful deeds of mankind.

It may be I might move your souls to
detestation, if I spake of the cruelty of this race to itself, if I showed you
how it made the world an Aceldema by its wars, and deluged it with blood
by its fightings and murders, if I should recite the black list of vices in
which whole nations have indulged or even bring before you the characters
of some of the most eminent philosophers, I should blush to speak of them,
and you would refuse to hear; yea it would be impossible for you, as
refined inhabitants of a civilized country, to endure the mention of the
crimes that were committed by those very men, who now-a-days, are held
up as being paragons of perfection. I fear if all the truth were written, we
should rise up from reading the lives of earth’s mightest heroes and
proudest sages, and would say at once of all of them, “They are clean gone
out of the way; they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that
doeth good; no not one.”

And did not that suffice, I would point you to the delusions of the heathen;
I would tell you of their priestcraft, by which their souls have been
enthralled in superstition; I would drag their gods before you; I would let
you witness the horrid obscenities, the diabolical rites which are to these
besotted men most sacred things. Then after you had heard what the
natural religion of man is, I would ask what must his irreligion be? If this
is his devotion, what must be his impiety? If this be his ardent love of the
Godhead, what must his hatred thereof be? Ye would, I am sure, at once
confess, did ye know what the race is, that the indictment is proven and
that the world must unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, “guilty.”

A further argument I might find in the fact, that the best of men have been
always the readiest to confess their depravity. The holiest men, the most
free from impurity, have always felt it most. He whose garments are the
whitest, will best perceive the spots upon them. He whose crown shineth
the brightest, will know when he hath lost a jewel. He who giveth the most
light to the world, will always be able to discover his own darkness. The
angels of heaven veil their faces; and the angels of God on earth, his chosen
people, must always veil their faces with humility, when they think of what
they were. Hear David: he was none of those who boast of a holy nature
and a pure disposition. He says “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in
sin did my mother conceive me.” Here all those holy men who have written
in the inspired volume, and ye shall find them all confessing that they were
not clean, no, not one; yea, one of them exclaimed, “O wretched man that I
am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this act,
who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. Conscience, I
will put thee in the witness-box, and cross-examine thee this morning!
Conscience, truly answer! be not drugged with the laudanum of self security!
speak the truth! didst thou never hear the heart say, “I wish there
were no God?” Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were
not true? Though they could not entirely rid their souls of the idea of the
Godhead, did they not wish that there might not be God? Have they not
had the desire that it might turn out that all these divine realities were a
delusion, a farce, and an imposture? “Yea,” saith every man, “that has
crossed my mind sometimes. I have wished I might indulge in folly; I have
wished there were no laws to restrain me; I have wished, as the fool, that
there were no God.” That passage in the Psalms, “The fool hath said in his
heart, there is no God,” is wrongly translated. It should be, “The fool hath
said in his heart, no God.” The fool does not say in his heart there is no
God, for he knows there is a God, but he says, “No God, – I don’t want any,
I wish there were none.” And who amongst us has not been so foolish as to
desire that there were no God?

Now conscience, answer another question!
Thou hast confessed that thou hast at times wished there were no God,
now, suppose a man wished another dead, would not that show that he
hated him? Yes, it would. And so, my friends, the wish that there were no
God, proves that we dislike God. When I wish such a man dead and rotting
in his grave, when I desire that he were non est, I must hate that man;
otherwise I should not wish him to be extinct. So that wish – and I do not
think there has been a man in this world who has not had it – proves that
“the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

But conscience, I have another question. Has not thine heart ever desired,
since there is a God, that he were a little less holy, a little less pure, so that
those things which are now great crimes might be regarded as venial
offenses, as peccadillos? Has thy heart never said “Would to God these sins
were not forbidden. Would that he would be merciful and pass them by
without an atonement! Would that he were not so severe, so rigorously
just, so sternly strict to his integrity.” Hast thou never said that, my heart?
Conscience must reply, “Thou hast.” Well, that wish to change God,
proves that thou art not in love with the God that now is, the God of
heaven and earth; and though thou mayest talk of natural religion, and
boast that thou dost reverence the God of the green fields, the grassy
meads, the swelling flood, the rolling thunder, the azure sky, the starry
night, and the great universe – though, thou lovest the poetic beau ideal of
Deity, it is not the God of Scripture, for thou hast wished to change his
nature, and in that hast thou proved that thou art at enmity with him. But
wherefore, conscience, should I go thus round about? Thou canst bear
faithful witness, if thou wouldst speak the truth that each person here has
so transgressed against God, so continually broken his laws, violated his
sabbath, trampled on his statutes, despised his gospel, that it is true, aye,
most true, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

II. Now, secondly, we are called upon to notice the universality of this
evil. What a broad assertion it is. It is not a single carnal mind, or a certain
class of characters, but “the carnal mind.” It is an unqualified statement,
including every individual. Whatever mind may properly be called carnal,
not having been spiritualized by the power of God’s Holy Ghost, is “enmity
against God.”

Observe then, first of all, the universality of this as to all persons. Every
carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. This does not exclude
even infants at the mother’s breast. We call them innocent, and so they are
of actual transgression, but as the poet says, “Within the youngest breast
there lies a stone.” There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against
God; it is not developed, but it lieth there. Some say that children learn sin
by imitation. But no; take a child away, place it under the most pious
influences, let the very air it breathes be purified by piety; let it constantly
drink in draughts of holiness; let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and
praise; let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of sacred song; and that
child, notwithstanding, may still become one of the grossest of
transgressors; and though placed apparently on the very road to heaven, it
shall, if not directed by divine grace, march downwards to the pit.

Oh! how
true it is that some who have had the best of parents have been the worst
of sons, that many who have been trained up under the most Holy auspices,
in the midst of most favorable scenes of piety have nevertheless, become
loose and wanton! So it is not by imitation, but it is by nature, that the
child is evil. Grant me that the child is carnal, and my text says, “The carnal
mind is enmity against God.” The young crocodile, I have heard, when
broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to put itself in a posture of
attack, opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained. We know
that young lions when tamed and domesticated, still will have the wild
nature of their fellows of the forest, and were liberty given them, would
prey as fiercely as others. So with the child; you may bind him with the
green withes of education, you may do what you will with him, since you
cannot change his heart, that carnal mind shall still be at enmity against
God; and notwithstanding intellect, talent, and all you may give to boot, it
shall be of the same sinful complexion as every other child, if not as
apparently evil; for, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

And if this applies to children, equally does it include every class of men.
There be some men that are born into this world master spirits, who walk
about it as giants, wrapped in mantles of light and glory. I refer to the
poets, men who stand aloft like Colossi, mightier than we, seeming to be
descended from celestial spheres. There be others of acute intellect, who,
searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden
from the creation of the world; men of keen research, and mighty erudition;
and yet of each of these – poet, philosopher, metaphysician and great
discoverer – it shall be said “The carnal mind is enmity against God”. Ye
may train him up, ye may make his intellect almost angelic, ye may
strengthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles to us, and unravel
them with his fingers in a moment; ye may make him so mighty, that he can
grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms in his fist;
ye may give him an eye so keen, that he can penetrate the arcana of rocks
and mountains; ye may add a soul so potent that he may slay the giant
Sphinx, that had for ages troubled the mightiest men of learning; yet when
ye have done all, his mind shall be a depraved one, and his carnal heart
shall still be in opposition to God. Yea, more, ye shall bring him to the
house of prayer; ye shall make him sit constantly under the clearest
preaching of the word, where he shall hear the doctrines of grace in all
their purity, attended by a holy unction; but if that holy unction does not
rest upon him, all shall be vain: he shall still come most regularly, but like
the pious door of the chapel, that turneth in and out, he shall still be the
same; having an outside superficial religion, and his carnal mind shall still
be at enmity against God.

Now, this is not my assertion, it is the
declaration of God’s word, and you must leave it if you do not believe it;
but quarrel not with me, it is my Master’s message, and it is true of every
one of you, – men, women, and children, and myself too, – that if we had not
been regenerated and converted, if we have not experienced a change of
heart, our carnal mind is still at enmity against God.

Again, notice the universality of this at all times. The carnal mind is at all
times enmity against God. “Oh,” say some, “it may be true that we are at
times opposed to God, but surely we are not always so.” “There be
moments,” says one, “when I feel rebellious, at times my passions lead me
astray; but surely there are other favorable seasons when I really am
friendly to God, and offer true devotion. I have (continues the objector,)
stood upon the mountain-top, until my whole soul has kindled with the
scene below, and my lips have uttered the song of praise, -

“These are thy glorious works, parent of good,
Almighty, shine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair: thyself how wondrous then!”

Yes, but mark, what is true one day is not false another, “the carnal mind is
enmity against God” at all times. The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still.
The snake with its azure hues, may slumber amid the flowers, and the child
may stroke its slimy back, but it is a serpent still; it does not change its
nature, though it is dormant. The sea is the house of storms, even when it
is glassy as a lake; the thunder is still the mighty rolling thunder, when it is
so much aloft that we hear it not. And the heart, when we perceive not its
ebullitions, when it belches not forth its lava, and sendeth not forth the hot
stones of its corruption, is still the same dread volcano. At all times, at all
hours, at every moment, (I speak this as God speaketh it,) if ye are carnal,
ye are each one of you enmity against God.

Another thought concerning the universality of this statement. The whole
of the mind is enmity against God. The text says, “The carnal mind is
enmity against God,” that is, the entire man, every part of him – every
power, every passion. It is a question often asked, “What part of man was
injured by the fall?” Some think that the fall was only felt by the affections,
and that the intellect was unimpaired; this they argue from the wisdom of
man, and the mighty discoveries he has made, such as the law of
gravitation, the steam engine and the sciences.

Now, I consider these
things as being a very mean display of wisdom, compared with what is to
come in a hundred years, and very small compared with what might have
been, if man’s intellect had continued in its pristine condition. I believe that
fall crushed man entirely; albeit, when it rolled like an avalanche upon the
mighty temple of human nature some shafts were still left undestroyed, and
amidst the ruins you find here and there, a flute a pedestal, a cornice, a
column, not quite broken, yet the entire structure fell, and its most glorious
relics are fallen ones, levelled in the dust. The whole of man is defaced.
Look at our memory, is it not true that the memory is fallen? I can recollect
evil things far better than those which savor of piety. I hear a ribald song,
that music of hell shall jar in my ear when grey hairs shall be upon my head.
I hear a note of holy praise: alas! it is forgotten! For memory graspeth with
an iron hand ill things, but the good she holdeth with feeble fingers. She
suffereth the glorious timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down
the stream of oblivion, but she stoppeth all the draff that floateth from the
foul city of Sodom. She will retain evil, she will lose good. Memory is
fallen. So are the affections. We love everything earthly better than we
ought; we soon fix our heart upon a creature, but very seldom upon the
Creator; and when the heart is given to Jesus it is prone to wander. Look at
the imagination too. Oh! how can the imagination revel, when the body is
in an ill condition? Only give man something that shall well nigh intoxicate
him drug him with opium, and how will his imagination dance with joy!
Like a bird uncaged, how will it mount with more than eagles’ wings! He
sees things he had not dreamed of even in the shades of night. Why did not
his imagination work when his body was in a normal state – when it was
healthy? Simply because it is depraved; and until he had entered a foul
element – until the body had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication – the
fancy would not hold its carnival.

We have some splendid specimens of
what men could write, when they have been under the accursed influence
of ardent spirits. It is because the mind is so depraved that it loves
something which puts the body into an abnormal condition; and here we
have a proof that the imagination itself’ has gone astray. So with the
judgment – I might prove how ill it decides. So might I accuse the
conscience, and tell you how blind it is, and how it winks at the greatest
follies. I might review all our powers, and write upon the brow of each
one, “Traitor against heaven! Traitor against God!” The whole “carnal
mind is enmity against God.”

Now, my hearers, “the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants:” but
whenever I find a certain book much held in reverence by our episcopalian
brethren, entirely on my side, I always feel the greatest delight in quoting
from it. Do you know I am one of the best Churchmen in the world, the
very best, if you will judge me by the Articles, and the very worst if you
measure me in any other way. Measure me by the Articles of the Church of
England, and I will not stand second to any man under heaven’s blue sky in
preaching the gospel contained in them; for if there be an excellent epitome
of the Gospel, it is to be found in the Articles of the Church of England.

Let me show you that you have not been hearing strange doctrine. Here is
the 9th Article, upon Original or Birth Sin “Original Sin standth not in the
following of Adam; (as the Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and
corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the
offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original
righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh
lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and, therefore, in every person born
into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection
of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust
of the flesh, called in the Greek, phronema sarkos which some do expound
the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the
flesh, is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no
condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth
confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.” I want
nothing more. Will any one who believes in the Prayer Book dissent from
the doctrine that “the carnal mind is enmity against God?”

III. I have said that I would endeavor, in the third place, to show the great
enormity of this guilt. I do fear, my brethren, that very often when we
consider our state, we think not so much of the guilt as of the misery. I
have sometimes read sermons upon the inclination of the sinner to evil, in
which it has been very powerfully proved, and certainly the pride of human
nature has been well humbled and brought low; but one thing always
strikes me, if it is left out, as being a very great omission, viz. – the doctrine
that man is guilty in all these things. If his heart is against God, we ought
to tell him it is his sin; and if he cannot repent, we ought to show him that
sin is the sole cause of his disability – that all his alienation from God is sin that as long as he keeps from God it is sin.

I fear many of us here must
acknowledge that we do not charge the sin of it to our own consciences.
Yes say we, we have many corruptions. Oh! yes. But we sit down very
contented. My brethren we ought not to do so. The having those
corruptions is our crime which should be confessed as an enormous evil;
and if I, as a minister of the Gospel, do not press home the sin of the thing,
I have missed what is the very virus of it. I have left out the very essence, if
I have not shown that it is a crime. Now, “the carnal mind is enmity against
God.” What a sin it is! This will appear in two ways. Consider the relation
in which we stand to God, and then remember what God is; and after I
have spoken of these two things, I hope, you will see, indeed, that it is a sin
to be at enmity with God.

What is God to us? He is the creator of the heavens and the earth; he bears
up the pillars of the universe, his breath perfumes the flowers; his pencil
paints them; he is the author of this fair creation; “we are the sheep of his
pasture, he hath made us, and not we ourselves.” He stands to us in the
relationship of a Maker and Creator, and from that fact he claims to be our
King. He is our legislator our law-maker; and then, to make our crime still
worse and worse, he is the ruler of providence; for it is he who keeps us
from day to day. He supplies our wants; he keeps the breath within our
nostrils; he bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins; he
holdeth us in life, and preventeth us from death, he standeth before us, our
creator, our king our sustainer, our benefactor, and I ask, is it not a sin of
enormous magnitude – is it not high treason against the emperor of heaven – is it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all
our judgment – that we, his creatures, dependent upon him, should be at
enmity with God?

But the crime may be seen to be worse when we think of what God is. Let
me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style for this has weight
with it. Sinner! why art thou at enmity with God? God is the God of love,
he is kind to his creatures; he regards you with his love of benevolence; for
this very day his sun hath shone upon you, this day you have had food and
raiment, and you have come up here in health and strength. Do you hate
God because he loves you? Is that the reason? Consider how many mercies
you have received at his hands all your lives long! You are born with a
body not deformed, you have had a tolerable share of health; you have
been recovered many times from sickness; when lying at the gates of death;
his arm has held back your soul from the last step to destruction. Do you
hate God for all this? Do you hate him because he spared your life by his
tender mercy? Behold his goodness that he hath spread before you! He
might have sent you to hell; but you are here. Now, do you hate God for
sparing you? Oh, wherefore art thou at enmity with him? My fellow
creature, dost thou not know that God sent his Son from his bosom, hung
him on the tree, and there suffered him to die for sinners, the just for the
unjust? and dost thou hate God for that? Oh, sinner, is this the cause of
thine enmity? Art thou so estranged that thou givest enmity for love? And
when he surroundeth thee with favors, girdeth thee with mercies, encircleth
thee with lovingkindness, dost thou hate him for this? He might say as
Jesus did to the Jews: “For which of these works do ye stone me?” For
which of these works do ye hate God? Did an earthly benefactor feed you,
would you hate him? Did he clothe you, would you abuse him to his face?
Did he give you talents, would you turn those powers against him? Oh,
speak! Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of
your best friend? Do you hate your mother who nursed you on her knee?
Do you curse your father who so wisely watched over you? Nay, ye say,
we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Where are your
hearts, then? Where are your hearts, that ye can still despise God, and be at
enmity with him? Oh! diabolical crime! Oh! satanic enormity! Oh! iniquity
for which words fail in description! to hate the all – lovely – to despise the
essentially good – to abhor the constantly merciful  to spurn the ever beneficent – to scorn the kind the gracious one, above all, to hate the God
who sent his Son to die for man! Ah! in that thought – ”the carnal mind is
enmity against God,” – there is something which may make us shake; for it is
a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I could speak more
powerfully, but my Master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil
of this horrid state of heart.

IV. But there are one or two doctrines which we will try to deduce from
this. Is the carnal mind at “enmity against God?” Then salvation cannot be
by merit, it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can
we have? How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Even if
we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit; for I do not think
Adam had any desert before his Creator. When he had kept all his Master’s
law, he was but an unprofitable servant; he had done no more than he
ought to have done, he had no surplus – no balance. But since we have
become enemies, how much less can we hope to be saved by works! Oh,
no; the whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by
the works of the law, but by the deeds of grace. Martin Luther declared
that he constantly preached justification by faith alone, “because,” said he,
“the people would forget it; so that I was obliged almost to knock my
Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts.”

So it is true we
constantly forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always want to be
putting in some little scrap of our own virtue; we want to be doing
something. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: “Saved by your
works! you might as well try to go to America in a paper boat!” Saved by
your works! It is impossible! Oh no; the poor legalist is like a blind horse
going round and round the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadmill,
and finding himself no higher after all he has done; he has no solid
confidence, no firm ground to rest upon. He has not done enough-”never
enough.” Conscience always says, “this is not perfection; it ought to have
been better.” Salvation for enemies must be by an ambassador – by an
atonement – yea, by Christ.

Another doctrine we gather from this is, the necessity of an entire change
of our nature. It is true that by birth we are at enmity with God. How
necessary then it is, that our nature should be changed there are few people
who sincerely believe this. They think that if they cry “Lord, have mercy
upon me,” when they lie a-dying, They shall go to heaven directly. Let me
suppose an impossible case for a moment. Let me imagine a man entering
heaven without a change of heart. He comes within the gates. He hears a
sonnet. He starts! It is to the praise of his enemy. He sees a throne, and on
it sits one who is glorious; but it is his enemy. He walks streets of gold, but
those streets belong to his enemy. He sees hosts of angels; but those hosts
are the servants of his enemy. He is in an enemy’s house; for he is at enmity
with God. He could not join the song, for he would not know the tune.
There he would stand; silent, motionless; till Christ should say, with a voice
louder than ten thousand thunders, “What dost thou here? Enemies at a
marriage banquet? Enemies in the children’s house? Enemies in heaven?
Get thee gone! depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell!” Oh! sirs, if
the unregenerate man could enter heaven, I mention once more the oft repeated saying of Whitfield, he would be so unhappy in heaven, that he
would ask God to let him run down into hell for shelter. There must be a
change, if ye consider the future state; for how can enemies to God ever sit
down at the banquet of the Lamb?

And to conclude, let me remind you – and it is in the text after all – that this
change must be worked by a power beyond your own. An enemy may
possibly make himself a friend; but enmity cannot. If it be but an adjunct of
his nature to be an enemy he may change himself into a friend; but if it is
the very essence of his existence to be enmity, positive enmity, enmity
cannot change itself. No, there must be something done more than we can
accomplish. This is just what is forgotten in these days. We must have
more preaching of the Holy Spirit, if we are to have more conversion
work. I tell you, sirs, if you change yourselves, and make yourselves better,
and better, and better, a thousand times, you will never be good enough for
heaven, till God’s Spirit has laid his hand upon you; till he has renewed the
heart, till he has purified the soul, till he has changed the entire spirit and
new-made the man, there can be no entering heaven. How seriously, then,
should each stand and think. Here am I, a creature of a day, a mortal born
to die, but yet an immortal! At present I am at enmity with God. What shall
I do? Is it not my duty, as well as my happiness, to ask, whether there be a
way to be reconciled to God?

Oh! weary slaves of sin, are not your ways the paths of folly? Is it wisdom,
O my fellow creatures, is it wisdom to hate your Creator? Is it wisdom to
stand in opposition against him? Is it prudent to despise the riches of his
grace? If it be wisdom, it is hell’s wisdom; if it be wisdom, it is a wisdom
which is folly with God. Oh! may God grant that you may turn unto Jesus
with full purpose of heart! He is the ambassador; he it is who can make
peace through his blood; and though you came in here an enemy, it is
possible you may go out through that door a friend yet, if you can but look
to Jesus Christ, the brazen serpent which was lifted up.

And now, it may be, some of you are convinced of sin, by the Holy Spirit. I
will now proclaim to you the way of salvation. “As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Behold, O trembling penitent the means of thy deliverance. Turn thy
tearing eye to yonder Mount of Calvary! see the victim of justice – the
sacrifice of atonement for your transgression. View the Savior in his
agonies, with streams of blood purchasing thy soul, and with intensest
agonies enduring thy punishment. He died for thee, if now thou dost
confess thy guilt. O come thou condemned one, self-condemned, and turn
thine eye this way, for one look will save. Sinner, thou art bitten. Look! it
is nought but “Look!” It is simply “Look!” If thou canst but look to Jesus
thou art safe. Hear the voice of the Redeemer: “Look unto me, and be ye
saved.” Look! Look! Look! O guilty souls.

“Venture on him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good,”

May my blessed Master help you to come to him, and draw you to his Son,
for Jesu’s sake. Amen and Amen.

Churches will be banned from turning down gay job applicants on the grounds of their sexuality under new anti-discrimination laws, a Government minister said.

Religious groups are to be forced to accept homosexual youth workers, secretaries and other staff, even if their faith holds same-sex relationships to be sinful.

Christian organisations fear that the tightened legislation, which is due to come into force next year, will undermine the integrity of churches and dilute their moral message.

It comes amid growing concern that Christians are being unfairly targeted by discrimination laws, following a number of high-profile cases of courts finding against believers who stand up for their faith.

Religious leaders had hoped to lobby for exemptions to the Equality Bill but Maria Eagle, the deputy equalities minister, has now indicated that it will cover almost all church employees.

“The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between,” she told delegates at the Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Human Rights conference in London.

“While the state would not intervene in narrowly ritual or doctrinal matters within faith groups, these communities cannot claim that everything they run is outside the scope of anti-discrimination law.

“Members of faith groups have a role in making the argument in their own communities for greater LGBT acceptance, but in the meantime the state has a duty to protect people from unfair treatment.”

Under existing equalities legislation, any roles deemed to be necessary “for the purposes of an organised religion” are excluded from gay rights protection.

But the Equality Bill, which is currently passing through parliament, for the first time defines this as applying only to those who lead the liturgy or spend the majority of the time teaching doctrine – essentially just ministers, bishops and their equivalents in other faiths.

A spokesman for the Christian Institute, a religious charity, said that many churchgoers had deep concerns about how the bill would be enforced and accused politicians of hypocrisy.

“It would be absurd to pass a law demanding that the Labour Party employ card-carrying Conservative members, but that is effectively what churches are being told to do. We just want the same exceptions as political parties,” he said.

“Christians are sick to the back teeth of equality and diversity laws that put them to the back of the queue. We are quite prepared to accept that people will take a different view to use on moral and ethical questions, but that should not mean we have to withdraw from public life.”

Recent cases including the nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient and the British Airways worker sent home for wearing a visible cross have left many believers afraid to go public with their faith at work.

Neil Addison, a Roman Catholic barrister and expert on religious discrimination law, said that the new legislation would leave churches powerless to defend the fabric of their organisation.

“This is a threat to religious identity. What we are losing is the right for organisations to make free choices,” he said.

A spokesman for the Church of England said that while it supports the broad objectives of the Bill it “retains some concerns about the practical application of some specific aspects”.

The Equality Bill, which was introduced to the Commons by Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women and Equality, will also strengthen laws against gender, age and disability discrimination.

A Government Equalities Office spokesman said: “The Equality Bill will not force a church to accept someone as a priest regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.

“Churches, synagogues, mosques and others will continue to have the freedom to choose who they employ in jobs which promote their religion. But where they provide services to the public they will have to treat everyone fairly.”

“Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow” – 2 Samuel 23:5

THESE be the last words of David, so we read at the commencement of the
chapter. Many have been the precious sentences which have fallen from his
inspired lips seraphic has been the music which has dropped from his
fingers when they flew along the strings of his harp; but now that sweet
voice is to be hushed in death, and now the son of Jesse is to sleep with his
fathers. Surely it were well to press around his bed, to hear the dying
monarch’s last testimony; yea, we can conceive that angels themselves
would for an instant check their rapid flight, that they might visit the
chamber of the dying mighty one, and listen to his last death song.

It is
always blessed to hear the words of departing saints. How many choice
thoughts have we gained in the bedchamber of the righteous, beloved? I
remember one sweet idea which I once won from a death-bed. A dying
man desired to have one of the Psalms read to him, and the 17th being
chosen, he stopped at the 6th verse, “Incline thine ear unto me and hear my
speech,” and faintly whispering, said, “Ah, Lord, I cannot speak, my voice
fails me, incline thine ear, put it against my mouth, that thou mayest hear
me.” None but a weak and dying man, whose life was ebbing fast could
have conceived such a thought. It is well to hear saints’ words when they
are near heaven – when they stand upon the banks of Jordan.

But here is a
special case, for these be the last words of David They are something more
than human utterances; for we are told that the Spirit of the Lord spake by
him, and his word was in his tongue. These were his closing accents. Ah!
methinks, lisping these words he rose from earth to join the chorus of the
skies. He commenced the sentence upon earth and he finished it in heaven.

He began, “Although my house be not so with God” and as he winged his
flight to heaven, he still sang, “yet hast thou made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure,” and now before the throne he
constantly hymns the same strain — “yet hast thou made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.” I hope, my friends,
there are many of us who can join in this verse this morning, and who hope
to close our earthly pilgrimage with this upon our tongue.

We shall notice first, that the Psalmist had sorrow in his house —
“Although my house be not so with God.” Secondly, he had confidence in
the covenant — “yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant.” And
thirdly, he had satisfaction in his heart, for he says — “this is all my
salvation, and all my desire.”

I. The Psalmist says he had sorrow in his house – “Although my house be
not so with God.” What man is there of all our race, who, if he had to
write his history, would not need to use a great many “althoughs?” If you
read the biography of any man, as recorded in the Sacred Word, you will
always find a “but,” or an “although,” before you have finished. Naaman
was a mighty man of valour, and a great man with his master, but he was a
leper. There is always a “but” in every condition, a crook in every lot,
some dark tint upon the marble pillar, some cloud in the summer sky, some
discord in the music, some alloy in the gold. So David, though a man who
had been raised from the sheepfold, a mighty warrior, a conqueror of
giants, a king over a great nation, yet, had his “althoughs” and the
“although” which he had, was one in his own house.

Those are the worst
troubles which we have in our own household. We are not an evil beast
abroad, but we hate the lion most when it prowls upon our own estates, or
cruncheth on the floor of our dwelling. The greatest trouble with the thorn
is when it lieth in our bed, and we feel it in our pillow. Civil war is always
the fiercest – those are foes indeed who are of our own household. I think,
perhaps David interceded, when he said “Although my house be not so
with God, to speak partly of his affairs. If any man else had looked at
David’s affairs – the government of his country – he would have said,
“David’s government is the mirror of excellence.” His house was so rightly
ordered, that few of his subjects could murmur at him; but David
recollected that a greater and keener eye than that of man rested on him;
and he says, speaking of his empire and his house – for you know the word
“house” in Scripture often means our business, our affairs, our
transactions, (Set thine house in order, for thou must die, and not live,”) – he
says, although before man my house may be well swept, and garnished, yet
it is not so with God as I can desire.

Oh, beloved, there are some of us who
can walk before our fellow – men conscious of innocence; we dare defy the
gaze of our fellow-mortals; we can say, “Lord! thou knowest I am not
wicked.” We are blameless before this perverse generation: we walk
amongst them as lights in the world, and God has helped us, so that we are
clean from the great transgression; we are not afraid of a criticism of our
character, we are not fearful of being inspected by the eyes of all men, for
we feel that through God’s grace we have been kept from committing
ourselves; he has kept us, and the evil one toucheth us not. But with all this
conscious innocence – with all that dignity with which we stand before our
fellows – when we go into God’s sight, how changed we are! Ah, then, my
friends, we say not, “Lord! thou knowest I am not wicked;” but rather we
fall prostrate, and cry, “Unclean, unclean, unclean;” and as the leper cools
his heated brow with the water running in the cool sequestered brook, so
do we lave our body in Siloa’s stream, and strive to wash ourselves clean
in the water and blood from Christ’s river side. We feel that our house is
“not so with God;” though in the person of Jesus we are free from sin, and
white as angels are: yet when we stand before God, in our own persons,
we are obliged to confess, that honest as we may be upright as we have
been, just and holy before men, yet our house is “not so with God.”

But I imagine that the principal meaning of these words of David refers to
his family – his children. David had many trials in his children. It has often
been the lot of good men to have great troubles from their sons and
daughters. True, we know some households that are the very image of
peace and happiness where the father and mother bend the knee together in
family prayer, and they look upon an offspring numerous or not as it may
be, but most of them devoting their hearts to God. I know a household
which stands like a green oasis in the desert of this world. There be sons
who preach God’s gospel, and daughters who are growing up to fear the
Lord, and to love him. Such a household is indeed a pleasant halting – place
for a weary soul in its pilgrimage through this wilderness of life. Oh! happy
is that family whom God hath blessed. But there are other houses where
you will find the children are the trials of the parents. “Although my house
be not so with God,” may many an anxious father say; and ye pious
mothers might lift your streaming eyes to heaven, and say, “Although my
house be not so with God.” That first-born son of yours, who was your
pride, has now turned out your disgrace. Oh! how have the arrows of his
ingratitude pierced into your soul, and how do you keenly feel at this
present moment, that sooner would you have buried him in his infancy;
sooner might he never have seen the light, and perished in the birth, than
that he should live to have acted as he has done, to be the misery of your
existence, and the sorrow of your life.

O sons who are ungodly, unruly,
gay, and profligate, surely ye do not know the tears of pious mothers, or ye
would stop your sin. Methinks, young man, thou wouldst not willingly
allow thy mother to shed tears, however dearly you may love sin. Will you
not then stop at her entreaties? Can you trample upon your mother? Oh!
though you are riding a steeplechase to hell, cannot her weeping
supplications induce you to stay your mad career? Will you grieve her who
gave you life, and fondly cherished you at her breast? Surely you will long
debate e’er you can resolve to bring her grey heirs with sorrow to the
grave. Or has sin brutalized you? Are ye worse than stones? Have natural
feelings become extinct? Is the evil one entirely your master? Has he dried
up all the tender sympathies of your heart. Stay! young prodigal, and
ponder!

But, Christian men! ye are not alone in this. If ye have family troubles,
there are others who have borne the same. Remember Ephraim! Though
God had promised that Ephraim should abound as a tribe with tens of
thousands, yet it is recorded in 1 Chronicles 7:20-22: “And the sons of
Ephraim, Shuthelah and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eladah his
son, and Tahath his son, and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and
Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew,
because they came down to take away their cattle. And Ephraim their
father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.”

Abraham himself had his Ishmael, and he cried to God on account thereof.
Think of Eli, a man who served God as a high priest, and though he could
rule the people, he could not rule his sons; and great was his grief thereat.
Ah! some of you, my brethren in the gospel, may lift your hands to heaven,
and ye may utter this morning these words with a deep and solemn
emphasis – you may write “Although” in capitals, for it is more than true
with some of you -”Although my house be not so with God.”

Before we leave this point: What must I say to any of those who are thus
tried and distressing in estate and family? First, let me say to you my
brethren, it is necessary that you should have an “although” in your lot,
because if you had not, you know what you would do; you would build a
very downy nest on earth, and there you would lie down in sleep; so God
puts a thorn in your nest in order that you may sing. It is said by the old
writers, that the nightingale never sang so sweetly as when she sat among
thorns, since say they, the thorns prick her breast, and remind her of her
song. So it may be with you. Ye, like the larks, would sleep in your nest
did not some trouble pass by and affright you; then you stretch your wings,
and carolling the mating song, rise to greet the sun.

Trials are sent to wean
you from the world; bitters are put into your drink, that ye may learn to
live upon the dew of heaven: the food of earth is mingled with gall, that ye
may only seek for true bread in the manna which droppeth from the sky.
Your soul without trouble would be as the sea if it were without tide or
motion, it would become foul and obnoxious. As Coleridge describes the
sea after a wondrous calm, so would the soul breed contagion and death.

But furthermore, recollect this, O thou who art tried in thy children – that
prayer can remove thy troubles. There is not a pious father or mother here,
who is suffering in the family, but may have that trial taken away yet. Faith
is as omnipotent as God himself, for it moves the arm which leads the stars
along. Have you prayed long for your children without a result? and have
ye said, “I will cease to pray, for the more I wrestle, the worse they seem
to grow, and the more am I tried?” Oh! say not so, thou weary watcher.
Though the promise tarrieth, it will come. Still sow the seed, and when
thou sowest it, drop a tear with each grain thou puttest into the earth. Oh,
steep thy seeds in the tears of anxiety, and they cannot rot under the clods,
if they have been baptized in so vivifying a mixture. And what though thou
didst without seeing thy sons the heirs of light? They shall be converted
even after thy death; and though thy bones shall be put in the grave, and
thy son may stand and curse thy memory for an hour, he shall not forget it
in the cooler moments of his recollection, when he shall meditate alone.
Then he shall think of thy prayers thy tears, thy groans; he shall remember
thine advice – it shall rise up and if he live in sin, still thy words shall sound
as one long voice from the realm of spirits, and either affright him in the
midst of his revelry, or charm him heavenward, like angel’s whispers,
saying, “Follow on to glory, where thy parent is who once did pray for
thee.” So the Christian may say, “Although my house be not so with God
now, it may be yet.” therefore will I still wait, for there be mighty instances
of conversion. Think of John Newton. He even became a slaver, yet was
brought back. Hope on; never despair; faint heart never winneth the souls
of men, but firm faith winneth all things; therefore watch unto prayer.
“What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.” There is your trouble, a small
cup filled from the same sea of tribulation as was the Psalmist’s when he
sung, “Although my house be not so with God.”

II. But secondly: David had confidence in the covenant. Oh! how sweet it
is to look from the dullness of earth to the brilliancy of heaven! How
glorious it is to leap from the ever tempest-tossed bark of this world, and
stand upon the terra firma of the covenant! So did David. Having done
with his “Although,” he then puts in a blessed “yet.” Oh! it is a “yet,” with
jewels set: “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all
things, and sure.”

Now let us notice these words as they come. First, David rejoiced in the
covenant, because it is divine in its origin. “Yet hath HE made with me an
everlasting covenant.” O that great word HE. Who is that? It is not my
odd-father or my odd mother who has made a covenant for me – none of
that nonsense. It is not a covenant man has made for me, or with me; but
yet hath HE made with me an everlasting covenant.” It is divine in its
origin, not human. The covenant on which the Christian rests, is not the
covenant of his infant sprinkling: he has altogether broken that scores of
times, for he has not “renounced the pomps and vanities of this wicked
world,” as he should have done, nor “all the lusts of the flesh.” Nor has he
really become regenerate through those holy drops of water which a
cassocked priest cast on his face. The covenant on which he rests and
stands secure, is that covenant which God has made with him. “Yet hath
HE made.” Stop, my soul. God, the everlasting father, has positively made
a covenant with thee; yes, that God, who in the thickest darkness dwells
and reigns for ever in his majesty alone; that God, who spake the world
into existence by a word, who holds it, like an Atlas, upon his shoulders,
who poises the destiny of all creation upon his finger; that God, stooping
from his majesty, takes hold of thy hand and makes a covenant with thee.

Oh! is it not a deed, the stupendous condescension of which might ravish
our hearts for ever if we could really understand it? Oh! the depths! “HE
hath made with me a covenant.” A king has not made a covenant with me that were somewhat: an emperor has not entered into a compact with me,
but the Prince of the kings of the earth, the Shaddai, the Lord of all flesh,
the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting Elohim. “He hath made with me an
everlasting covenant.” O blessed thought! it is of divine origin.

But notice its particular application. “Yet hath he made with ME an
everlasting covenant.” Here lies the sweetness of it to me, as an individual.

“Oh how sweet to view the flowing
Of Christ’s soul-redeeming blood
With divine assurance knowing
That he made my peace with God.”

It is nought for me that he made peace for the world; I want to know
whether he made peace for me: it is little that he hath made a covenant, I
want to know whether he has made a covenant with me. David could put
his hand upon his heart and say, “Yet hath he made a covenant with ME.” I
fear I shall not be wrong in condemning the fashionable religion of the day,
for it is a religion which belongs to the crowd; and not a personal one
which is enjoyed by the individual. You will hear persons say, “Well, I
believe the doctrine of justification; I think that men are justified through
faith.” Yes, but are you justified by faith? “I believe,” says another “that we
are sanctified by the Spirit.” Yes, all very well, but are you sanctified by the
Spirit? Mark you, if ever you talk about personal piety very much, you will
always be run down as extravagant. If you really say from your heart, “I
know I am forgiven; I am certain that I am a pardoned sinner;” – and every
Christian will at times be able to say it, and would always, were it not for
his unbelief – if you say “I know in whom I have believed, I am confident
that I have not a sin now recorded in the black roll; that I am free from sin
as if I had never transgressed, through the pardoning blood of Jesus,” men
will say it is extravagant. Well, it is a delightful extravagance, it is the
extravagance of God’s Word, and I would to God more of us could
indulge in that holy, blessed extravagance. For we may well be extravagant
when we have an infinite sum to spend; we may well be lavish when we
know we never can exhaust the treasure. Oh! how sweet it is to say, “Yet
hath he made with ME an everlasting covenant. It is nought that you talk
to me of my brother being saved. I am very glad that my friend should get
to glory, and I shall rejoice to meet you all; but after all, the thing is, “Shall
I be there?”

“Shall I amongst them stand
To see his smiling face?”

Now, Christian, thou canst apply this personally. The covenant is made
with thee. Man, open thine eyes; there is thy name in the covenant. What is
it? It is some plain English name, perhaps. It never had an M.P. nor an
M.A. after it, nor a “Sir” before it. Never mind, that name is in the
covenant. If you could take down your Father’s family Bible in heaven,-
you would find your name put in the register. O blessed thought! my name positively mine! not another’s. So, then, these eyes shall see him, and not
another’s for me. Rejoice, Christian; it is a personal covenant. “Yet hath he
made with me an everlasting covenant.”

Furthermore, this covenant is not only divine in its origin, but it is
everlasting in its duration. I have had some very pretty letters sent me
from anonymous writers who have listened to me, and being great cowards
(whom I always abhor) they cannot sign their names. They may know what
fate they receive; the condign punishment I appoint to them. I cut them
asunder, and thrust them into the fire. I hope the authors will not have a
similar fate. Some of them, however, quarrel with me, because I preach the
everlasting gospel. I dare not preach another, for I would not have another
if it were offered to me. An everlasting gospel is the only one which I think
worthy of an everlasting God. I am sure it is the only one which can give
comfort to a soul that is to live throughout eternity. Now, you know what
an “everlasting covenant” signifies. It meant a covenant which had no
beginning, and which shall never, never end. Some do not believe in the
everlasting nature of God’s love to his people. They think that God begins
to love his people when they begin to love him. My Arminian friends, did
you ever sing that verse in your meeting? – of course you have -

“O yes, I do love Jesus,
Because he first lov’d me.”

That is a glorious Calvinistic hymn, though we know whose hymn book it
is in. Well, then, if Jesus loved you before you loved him, why cannot you
believe that he always did love you? Besides, how stupid it is to talk so,
when you know God does not change. There is no such thing as time with
him; there is no past with him. If you say, “he loves me now,” you have in
fact said, “he loved me yesterday, and he will love me for ever.” There is
nothing but now with God. There is no such thing as past or future, and to
dispute about eternal election and so on, is all of no avail; because, if God
did choose his people at all – and we all admit that he chooses them now – I
do not care about whether you say he did so ten thousand thousand years
ago, because there is no such thing as the past with God; with him it is all
now. He sees things, past and future, as present in his eye. Only tell me that
he loves me now; that word “now,” in God’s dictionary, means everlasting.

Tell me that God has now pardoned my sins; it means, that he always has,
for his acts are eternal acts. Oh how sweet to know an everlasting
covenant! I would not barter my gospel for fifty thousand other gospels. I
love a certain salvation; and when I first heard it preached, that if I
believed, God’s grace would keep me all my life long, and would never let
me fall into hell, but that I should preserve my character unblemished, and
walk among my fellow creatures pure and holy, then said I, “That is the
gospel for me, an everlasting gospel.” As for that sandy gospel, which lets
you fall away and then come back again, it is the wickedest falsehood on
earth. If I believed it, I would preach the gospel and be holy on the Sunday,
and fall away on the Monday, and be a Christian again on the Tuesday, and
I should say, I’ll have fallen from grace and have got up again.” But now,
as a true Calvinistic Christian, I desire to have in myself, and see in others,
a life of constant consistency, nor can I think it possible to fall away and
then return, after the many passages which assert the impossibility of such
a thing. That is the greatest safeguard on earth that I have something
within me that never can be quenched; that I put on the regimentals of a
service which I never must leave, which I cannot leave without having
proved that I never was enlisted at all. Oh! that keeps me near my God.

But once make me doubt that, and you will see me the vilest character
living under the sun. Take from me the everlastingness of the gospel, and
you have taken all. Dear old Watts Wilkinson once said to Joseph Irons,
when he said, “I love you to preach the covenant everlasting nature of
God’s love,”-”Ah!” said the old saint, “What is there else in the gospel if
you do not preach it?” Brother, what is there else? If we do not preach an
everlasting gospel, the gospel is not worth twopence. You may get
anything uncertain anywhere else; it is in the Bible alone that we get
everlasting things.

“I to the end shall endure
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
Are the glorified spirits in heaven.”

But notice the next word, for it is a sweet one, and we must not let one
portion go; It is ordered in all things.” “Order is heaven’s first law,” and
God has not a disorderly covenant. It is an orderly one. When he planned
it, before the world began, it was in all things ordered well. He so arranged
it, that justice should be fully satisfied, and yet mercy should be linked
hand-in-hand with it. He so planned it that vengeance should have its
utmost jot and little, and yet mercy should save the sinner. Jesus Christ
came to confirm it, and by his atonement, he ordered it in all things; he paid
every drop of his blood; he did not leave one farthing of the ransom-money
for his dear people, but he ordered it in all things. And the Holy Spirit,
when he sweetly applies it, always applies it in order, he orders it in all
things. He makes us sometimes understand this order, but if we do not, be
sure of this, that the covenant is a well-ordered covenant.

I have heard of a
man who bought a piece of land, and when the covenant was being made,
he thought he knew more about it than the lawyer; but you know it is said
that when a man is his own lawyer he has a fool for his client. In this case
the man had a fool for his client; and he drew up the covenant so badly,
that in a few years it was discovered to be good for nothing, and he lost his
property. But our Father’s covenant is drawn up according to the strictest
rules of justice; and so is ordered in all things. If hell itself should search it if
it were passed round amongst a conclave of demons, they could not find
a single fault with it. There are the technical terms of heaven’s court, there
is the great seal at the bottom, and there is the signature of Jesus, written in
his own blood. So it is “ordered in all things.”

That word things is not in the original, and we may read it persons, as well
as things. It is ordered in all persons – all the persons whose names are in the
covenant; it is ordered for them, and they shall come according to the
promise: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” O my beloved Christian, stop at
this promise a moment, for it is a sweet well of precious water to slake thy
thirst and refresh thy weariness. It is “ordered in all things.” What dost
thou want more than this? Dost thou need constraining grace? It is
“ordered in all things.” Dost thou require more of the spirit of prayer? It is
“ordered in all things.” Dost thou desire more faith? It is “ordered in all
things.” Art thou afraid lest thou shouldst not hold out to the end? It is
“ordered in all things.” There is converting grace in it, pardoning grace in
it; justifying grace, sanctifying grace, and persevering grace; for it is
“ordered in all things, and sure “Nothing is left out, so that whene’er we
come, we find all things there stored up in heavenly order.

Galen, the celebrated physician, says of the human body, that its bones are so well put together, all the parts being so beautifully ordered, that we could not change one portion of it without spoiling its harmony and beauty; and if we should attempt to draw a model man, we could not, with all our ingenuity, fashion a being more wondrous in workmanship than man as he is. It is so with regard to the covenant. If we might alter it, we could not change it for the better, all its portions are beautifully agreed. I always feel when I am preaching the gospel covenant that I am secure. If I preach any other gospel, I am vulnerable, I am open to attack; but standing upon the firm ground of God’s covenant, I feel I am in a tower of strength, and so long as I hold all the truths, I am not afraid that even the devils of hell can
storm my castle. So secure is the man who believes the everlasting gospel;
no logic can stand against it. Only let our preachers give the everlasting
gospel to the people, and they will drink it as the ox drinketh water. You
will find they love God’s truth. But so long as God’s gospel is smothered,
and the candle is put under a bushel, we cannot expect men’s souls will be
brought to love it. I pray God that the candle may burn the bushel up, and
that the light may be manifest.

But now, to wind up our description of this covenant, it is sure. If I were a
rich man, there would be but one thing I should want to make my riches all
I desire, and that would be, to have them sure, for riches make to
themselves wings, and fly away. Health is a great blessing, and we want but
to write one word on it to make it the greatest blessing, that is the adjective
“sure.” We have relatives, and we love them; ah! if we could but write
“sure” on them, what a blessed thing it would be. We cannot call anything
“sure” on earth; the only place where we can write that word is on the
convenant, which is “ordered in all things and sure.” Now there is some
poor brother come here this morning who has lost his covenant, as he
thinks. Ah! brother, you once had peaceful hours and sweet enjoyment in
the presence of God, but now you are in gloom and doubt; you have lost
your roll. Well, let me tell you, though you have lost your roll, the
covenant is not lost, for all that. You never had the covenant in your hands
yet; you only had a copy of it. You thought you read your title clear, but
you never read the title-deeds themselves, you only held a copy of the lease
and you have lost it. The covenant itself; where is it? It is under the throne
of God; it is in the archives of heaven, in the ark of the covenant; it is in
Jesu’s breast it is on his hands, on his hear t- it is there. Oh! if God were to
put my salvation in my hands, I should be lost in ten minutes; but my
salvation is not there – it is in Christ’s hands.

You have read of the
celebrated dream of John Newton, which I will tell you to the best of my
recollection. He thought he was out at sea, on board a vessel, when some
bright angel flew down and presented him with a ring, saying, “As long as
you wear this ring you shall be happy, and your soul shall be safe.” He put
the ring on his finger, and he felt happy to have it in his own possession.
Then there came a spirit from the vasty deep, and said to him; “That ring is
nought but folly;” and by cajolery and flattery the spirit at last persuaded
him to slip the ring from off his finger, and he dropped it in the sea. Then
there came fierce things from the deep; the mountains bellowed, and hurled
upward their volcanic lava: all the earth was on fire, and his soul in the
greatest trouble. By-and-bye a spirit came, and diving below, fetched up
the ring, and showing it to him, said, “Now thou art safe, for I have saved
the ring.” Now might John Newton have said, “Let me put it on my finger
again.” “No, no, you cannot take care of it yourself,” and up the angel
flew, carrying the ring away with him, so that then he felt himself secure,
since no cajolery of hell could get it from him again, for it was up in
heaven. My life is “hid with Christ in God.” If I had my spiritual life in my
own possession I should be a suicide very soon, but it is not with me; and
as I cannot save myself, as a Christian I cannot destroy myself, for my life
is wrapped up in the covenant: it is with Christ in heaven. Oh, glorious and
precious covenant!

III. Now to close our meditation. The Psalmist had a satisfaction in his
heart.; This is,” he said, all my salvation, and all my desire.” I should ill like
the task of riding till I found a satisfied worldly man. I suspect there is not
a horse that would not be worn off its legs before I found him; I think I
should myself grow grey with age before I had discovered the happy
individual, except I went to one place – that is, the heart of a man who has a
covenant made with him, “ordered in all things, and sure.” Go to the
palace, but there is not satisfaction there, go to the cottage though the poet
talks about sweet retirement and blest contentment, there is not satisfaction
there. The only solid satisfaction satisfying the mouth with good things – is
to be found in the true believer, who is satisfied from himself, satisfied with
the covenant. Behold David: he says, “As for my salvation, I am secure; as
for my desire, I am gratified: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.”
He is satisfied with his salvation. Bring up the moralist. He has been
toiling and working in order to earn salvation. Are you confident that if
you died you would enter into heaven? “Well, I have been as good as other
people, and, I dare say, I shall be more religious before I die;” but he
cannot answer our question. Bring up the religious man – I mean the merely
outwardly religious man. Are you sure that if you were to die you would
go to heaven? “Well, I regularly attend church or chapel, I cannot say that
I make any pretensions to be able to say, ‘He hath made with me an
everlasting covenant.’” Very well, you must go. So I might introduce a
score of men, and there is not one of them who can say, “This is all my
salvation.” They always want a little supplement, and most of you intend
making that supplement a little while before you die.

An old Jewish Rabbi
says, that every man ought to repent at least one day before his last day;
and as we do not know when our last day shall be, we ought to repent today.
How many wish they knew when they were going to die, for then they
fancy they would be sure to repent, and be converted a little while before.
Why, if you had it revealed to you, that you would die at twenty minutes
past twelve next Sunday, you would go on in sin up till twelve o’clock, and
then you would say, “There are twenty minutes more – time enough yet;”
and so until the twenty minutes past had come, when your soul would sink
into eternal flames. Such is procrastination. It is the thief of time, it steals
away our life, and did we know the hour of our dissolution, we should be
no more prepared for it than we are now. You cannot say, can you, that
you have all your salvation? But a Christian can. He can walk through the
cholera and the pestilence, and feel that should the arrow smite him, death
would be to him the entrance of life; he can lie down and grieve but little at
the approach of dissolution, for he has all his salvation; his jewels are in his
breast, gems which shall shine in heaven.

Then, the Psalmist says, he has all his desire. There is nought that can fill
the heart of man except the Trinity. God has made man’s heart a triangle.
Men have been for centuries trying to make the globe fill the triangle, but
they cannot do it; it is the Trinity alone that can fill a triangle, as old
Quarles well says. There is no way of getting satisfaction but by gaining
Christ, getting heaven, winning glory, getting the covenant, for the word
covenant comprises all the other things. “All my desire,” – says the Psalmist.

I nothing want on earth, above,
Happy in my Savior’s love.”

I have not a desire, I have nothing to do but to live and be happy all my life
in the company of Christ, and then to ascend to heaven, to be in his
immediate presence, where

“Millions of years these wondering eyes
Shall o’er my Savior’s beauties rove,
And endless ages I’ll adore
The wonders of his love.”

Just one word with my friends who do not agree with me in doctrine. I am
sure, my dear friends, that I wish not to anathematize any of those whose
creed is the reverse of mine; only they must allow me to differ from them
and to speak freely, and if they do not allow me they know very well that I
shall. But I have this much to say to those dear friends who cannot bear the
thought of an everlasting covenant. Now, you cannot alter it can you? If
you do not like it, there it is. “God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant.” And you must confess, when you read the Bible, that there are
some very knotty passages for you. You might, perhaps, remove them out
of your Bible but then you cannot erase them out of divine verities. You
know it is true, that God is immutable, do you not? He never changes – you
must know that, for the Bible says so. It declares that when he has begun a
good work, he will carry it through. Do not get reading frothy
commentators any longer, take the Bible as it stands, and if you do not see
everlasting love there, there is some fault in your eyes, and it is a case
rather for the Ophthalmic hospital, than for me. If you cannot see
everlasting, eternal security, blood-bought righteousness, there, I am
hopeless altogether of your conversion to the truth, while you read it with
your present prejudices.

It has been my privilege to give more prominence
in the religious world to those old doctrines of the gospel. I have delighted
in the musty old folios which many of my brethren have kept bound in
sheepskins and goatskins, on their library shelves. As for new books, I
leave them to others. Oh! if we might but go back to those days when the
best of men were our pastors – the days of the Puritans. Oh! for a puritanical
gospel again, then we should not have the sleepy hearers, the empty
chapels, the drowsy preachers the velvet-mouthed men who cannot speak
the truth, but we should have “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace,
and good-will towards men.” Do go home and search. I have told you
what I believe to be true; if it is not true, detect the error by reading your
Bibles for yourselves, and searching out the matter.

As for you, ye
ungodly, who hitherto have had neither portion nor lot in this matter,
recollect that God’s Word speaks to you as well as to the Christian, and
says, “Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house of Israel?” graciously
promising that whosoever cometh to Christ he will in no wise cast out. It is
a free gospel, free as the air, and he who has but life to breathe it may
breathe it; so that every poor soul here who is quickened, and has a sense
of his guilt, may come to Christ.

“Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream.”

All the evidence you require is to feel your need of Christ; and recollect, if
you only once come, if you do but believe, you will be safe through all
eternity; and amidst the wreck of matter, the crash of worlds, the
conflagration of the universe, and the destruction of all terrestrial things,
your soul must still be eternally secure in the covenant of God’s free grace.
God enable you now to become his adopted children by faith in Jesus.

“Come, see the place where the Lord lay” Matthew 28:6

EVERY circumstance connected with the life of Christ is deeply interesting
to the Christian mind. Wherever we behold our Savior, he is well worthy of
our notice,

“His cross, his manger, and his crown,
Are big with glories yet unknown.”

All his weary pilgrimage, from Bethlehem’s manger to Calvary’s cross, is
in my eyes, paved with glory. Each spot upon which he trod, is to our souls
consecrated at once, simply because there the foot of earth’s Savior and
our own Redeemer once was placed. When he comes to Calvary the
interest thickens, then our best thoughts are centered on him in the agonies
of crucifixion, nor does our deep affection permit us to leave him, even
when, the struggle being over, he yields up the ghost. His body, when it is
taken down from the tree, still is lovely in our eyes – we fondly linger around
the motionless clay.

By faith we discern Joseph of Arimathea, and the timid
Nicodemus, assisted by those holy women, drawing out the nails and
taking down the mangled body; we behold them wrapping him in clean
white linen, hastily girding him round with belts of spices; then putting him
in his tomb, and departing for the Sabbath rest. We shall on this occasion
go where Mary went on the morning of the first day of the week, when
waking from her couch before the dawn, she aroused herself to be early at
the sepulcher of Jesus. We will try if it be possible, by the help of God’s
Spirit, to go as she did – not in body, but in soul – we will stand at that tomb;
we will examine it, and we trust we shall hear some truthspeaking voice
coming from its hollow bosom which will comfort and instruct us, so that
we may say of the grave of Jesus when we go away, “It was none other
than the gate of heaven,”- a sacred place, deeply solemn, and sanctified by
the slain body of our precious Savior.

I. AN INVITATION GIVEN. I shall commence my remarks this morning, by
inviting all Christians to come with me to the tomb of Jesus. “Come, see
the place where the Lord lay.” We will labor to render the place attractive,
we will gently take your hand to guide you to it, and may it please our
Master to make our hearts burn within us, while we talk by the way.

Away, ye profane – ye souls whose life is laughter, folly, and mirth! Away,
ye sordid and carnal minds who have no taste for the spiritual, no delight in
the celestial. We ask not your company; we speak to God’s beloved, to the
heirs of heaven, to the sanctified, The redeemed, the pure in heart – and we
say to them “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Surely ye need no
argument to move your feet in the direction of the holy sepulcher; but still
we will use the utmost power to draw your spirit thither.

Come then, for
‘tis the shrine of greatness, ‘tis the resting-place of the man, the Restorer
of our race, the Conqueror of death and hell. Men will travel hundreds of
miles to behold the place where a poet first breathed the air of earth; they
will journey to the ancient tombs of mighty heroes, or the graves of men
renowned by fame; but whither shall the Christian go to find the grave of
one so famous as was Jesus? Ask me the greatest man who ever lived – I tell
you the Man Christ Jesus, was “anointed with the oil of gladness above his
fellows.” If ye seek a chamber honored as the resting – place of genius, turn
in hither; if ye would worship at the grave of holiness, come ye here; if ye
would see the hallowed spot where the choicest bones that e’er were
fashioned lay for awhile, come with me, Christian, to that quiet garden,
hard by the walls of Jerusalem.

Come with me, moreover, because it is the tomb of your best friend The
Jews said of Mary, “She goeth unto his grave to weep there.” Ye have lost
your friends, some of you, ye have planted flowers upon their tombs, ye go
and sit at eventide upon the green sward, bedewing the grass with your
tears, for there your mother lies, and there your father, or your wife. Oh! in
pensive sorrow come with me to this dark garden of our Savior’s burial;
come to the grave of your best friend – your brother, yea, one who “sticketh
closer than a brother.” Come then to the grave of thy dearest relative, O
Christian, for Jesus is thy husband, “Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of
Hosts is his name.” Doth not affection draw you? Do not the sweet lips of
love woo you? Is not the place sanctified where one so well-beloved slept,
although but for a moment? Surely ye need no eloquence; if it were needed
I have none. I have but the power, in simple, but earnest accents, to repeat
the words, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” On this Eastermorning
pay a visit to his grave, for it is the grave of your best friend.

Yea, more, I will further urge you to this pious pilgrimage. Come, for
angels bid you. Angels said, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
The Syrian version reads, “Come, see the place where our Lord lay.” Yes,
angels put themselves with those poor women, and used one common
pronoun – our. Jesus is the Lord of angels as well as of men. Ye feeble
women – ye have called him Lord, ye have washed his feet, ye have provided
for his wants, ye have hung upon his lips to catch his honeyed sentences, ye
have sat entranced beneath his mighty eloquence; ye call him Master and
Lord, and ye do well; “But,” said the seraph, “he is my Lord too;” bowing
his head, he sweetly said, “Come, see the place where our Lord lay.” Dost
fear then, Christian, to step into that tomb? Dost dread to enter there,
when the angel pointeth with his finger and saith, “Come, we will go
together, angels and men, and see the royal bedchamber?”

Ye know that
angels did go into his tomb, for they sat one at his head and the other at his
foot in holy meditation. I picture to myself those bright cherubs sitting
there talking to one another. One of them said, “It was there his feet lay;”
and the other replied, “And there his hands, and there his head;” and in
celestial language did they talk concerning the deep things of God; then
they stooped and kissed the rocky floor, made sacred to the angels
themselves, not because there they were redeemed, but because there their
Master and their Monarch, whose high behests they were obeying, did for
awhile become the slave of death, and the captive of destruction.

Come,
Christian, then, for angels are the porters to unbar the door; come, for a
cherub is thy messenger to usher thee to the death-place of death himself.
Nay, start not from the entrance; let not the darkness affright thee; the
vault is not damp with the vapours of death, nor doth the air contain aught
of contagion. Come, for it is a pure and healthy place. Fear not to enter
that tomb. I will admit that catacombs are not the places where we, who
are full of joy, would love to go. There is something gloomy and noisome
about a vault. There are noxious smells of corruption; oftimes pestilence is
born where a dead body hath lain; but fear it not, Christian, for Christ was
not left in hell, – in hades, – neither did his body see corruption. Come, there is no scent, yea, rather a perfume. Step in here, and, if thou didst ever breathe the gales of Ceylon, or winds from the groves of Araby, thou shalt find them far excelled by that sweet holy fragrance left by the blessed body of Jesus, that alabaster vase which once held divinity, and was rendered sweet and precious thereby.

Think not thou shalt find aught obnoxious to thy
senses. Corruption Jesus never saw; no worms ever devoured his flesh; no
rottenness ever entered into his bones; he saw no corruption. Three days he
slumbered, but not long enough to putrify; he soon arose, perfect as when
he entered, uninjured as when his limbs were composed for their slumber.
Come then, Christian, summon up thy thoughts, gather all thy powers; here
is a sweet invitation, let me press it again. Let me lead thee by the hand of
meditation, my brother; let me take thee by the arm of thy fancy, and let me
again say to thee, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

There is yet one reason more why I would have thee visit this Royal
sepulcher – because it is a quiet spot. Oh! I have longed for rest, for I have
heard this world’s rumors in my ears so long, that I have begged for

“A lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,”

where I might hide myself for ever. I am sick of this tiring and trying life;
my frame is weary, my soul is mad to repose herself awhile. I would I
could lie myself down a little by the edge of some pebbly brook, with no
companion save the fair flowers or the nodding willows. I would I could
recline in stillness, where the air brings balm to the tormented brain, where
there is no murmur save the hum of the summer bee, no whisper save that
of the zephyrs, and no song except the carolling of the lark. I wish I could
be at ease for a moment. I have become a man of the world; my brain is
racked, my soul is tired. Oh! wouldst thou be quiet, Christian? Merchant,
wouldst thou rest from thy toils? wouldst thou be calm for onset then come
hither. It is in a pleasant garden, far from the hum of Jerusalem; the noise
and din of business will not reach thee there; “Come, see the place where
the Lord lay.” It is a sweet resting spot, a withdrawing room for thy soul,
where thou mayest brush thy garments from dust of earth and muse awhile
in peace.

II. ATTENTION REQUESTED. Thus I have pressed the invitation: now we
will enter the tomb. Let us examine it with deep attention, noticing every
circumstance connected with it.

And first, mark that it is a costly tomb. It is no common grave; it is not an
excavation dug out by the spade for a pauper in which to hide the last
remains of his miserable and over wearied bones. It is a princely tomb; it
was made of marble, cut in the side of a hill. Stand here, believer, and ask
why Jesus had such a costly sepulcher. He had no elegant garments; he
wore a coat without seam, woven from the top throughout, without an
atom of embroidery. He owned no sumptuous palace, for he had not where
to lay his head. His sandals were not rich with gold, or studded with
brilliants. He was poor. Why, then, does he lie in a noble grave? We
answer, for this reason: Christ was unhonoured till he had finished his
sufferings; Christ’s body suffered contumely, shame, spitting, buffetting,
and reproach, until he had completed his great work; he was trampled
under foot, he was “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief;” but the moment he had finished his undertaking,
God said, “No more shall that body be disgraced; if it is to sleep, let it
slumber in an honorable grave, if it is to rest, let nobles bury it; let Joseph,
the councilor, and Nicodemus, the man of Sanhedrim, be present at the
funeral; let the body be embalmed with precious spices, let it have honor; it
has had enough of contumely, and shame, and reproach, and buffeting; let
it now be treated with respect.” Christian, dost thou discern the meaning,
Jesus after he had finished his work, slept in a costly grave, for now his
Father loved and honored him, since his work was done.

But though it is a costly grave, it is a borrowed one. I see over the top of
it, “Sacred to the memory of the family of Joseph of Arimathea;” yet Jesus
slept there. Yes, he was buried in another’s sepulcher. He who had no
house of his own, and rested in the habitation of other men; who had no
table, but lived upon the hospitality of his disciples; who borrowed boats in
which to preach and had not anything in the wide world, was obliged to
have a tomb from charity. Oh! should not the poor take courage? They
dread to be buried at the expense of their neighbors; but if their poverty be
unavoidable, wherefore should they blush, since Jesus Christ himself was
interred in another’s grave? Ah! I wish I might have had Joseph’s grave, to
let Jesus be buried in it. Good Joseph thought he had cut it out for himself;
and that he should lay his bones there. He had it excavated as a family vault
and lo, the Son of David makes it one of the tombs of the kings. But he did
not lose it by lending it to the Lord: rather, he had it back with precious
interest. He only lent it three days: then Christ resigned it: he had not
injured, but perfumed and sanctified it, and made it far more holy, so that it
would be an honor in future to be buried there. It was a borrowed tomb;
and why? I take it not to dishonor Christ, but in order to show that as his
sins were borrowed sins so his burial was in a borrowed grave.

Christ had
no transgressions of his own. He took ours upon his head; no never
committed a wrong, but he took all my sin, and all yours, if ye are
believers. Concerning all his people, it is true, he bore their griefs and
carried their sorrows in his own body on the tree; therefore, as they were
others’ sins so he rested in another’s grave; as they were sins imputed, so
that grave was only imputedly his. It was not his sepulcher: it was the tomb
of Joseph.

Let us not weary in this pious investigation, but with fixed attention
observe everything connected with this holy spot. The grave, we observe,
was cut in a rock. Why was this? The Rock of ages was buried in a rock – a
Rock within a rock. But why? Most persons suggest that it was so
ordained that it might be clear that there was no covert way by which the
disciples or others could enter and steal the body away. Very possibly it
was the reason, but oh! my soul, canst thou not find a spiritual reason?
Christ’s sepulcher was cut in a rock. It was not cut in mould that might be
worn away by the water, or might crumble and fall into decay. The
sepulcher stands, I believe, entire to this day; if it does not naturally, it does
spiritually. The same sepulcher which took the sins of Paul, shall take my
iniquities into its bosom; for if I ever lose my guilt, it must roll off my
shoulders into the sepulcher. It was cut in a rock, so that if a sinner were
saved a thousand years ago, I too can be delivered, for it is a rocky
sepulcher where sin was buried – it was a rocky sepulcher of marble where
my crimes were laid for ever – buried never to have a resurrection.

You will mark, moreover, that tomb was one wherein no other man had
ever lain. Christopher Ness says, “When Christ was born he lay in a
virgin’s womb, and when he died he was placed in a virgin tomb; he slept
where never man had slept before.” The reason was, that none might say
that another person rose, for there never had been any other body there,
thus a mistake of persons was impossible. Nor could it be said that some
old prophet was interred in the place, and that Christ rose because he had
touched his bones. You remember when Elisha was buried, and as they
were burying a man, behold he touched the prophet’s bones, and arose.
Christ touched no prophet’s bones, for none had ever slept there; it was a
new chamber, where the Monarch of the earth did take his rest for three
days and three nights.

We have learned a little, then, with attention, but let us stoop down once
more before we leave the grave, and notice something else. We see the
grave, but do you notice the grave-clothes, all wrapped and laid in their
places, the napkin being folded up by itself? Wherefore are the graveclothes
wrapped up? The Jews said robbers had abstracted the body; but if
so, surely they would have stolen the clothes; they would never have,
thought of wrapping them up and laying them down so carefully; they
would be too much in haste to think of it. Why was it then? To manifest to
us that Christ did not come out in a hurried manner. He slept till the last
moment; then he awoke: he came not in haste. They shall not come out in
haste, neither by flight, but at the appointed moment shall his people come
to him. So at the precise hour, the decreed instant, Jesus Christ leisurely
awoke took off his cerements, left them all behind him, and came forth in
his pure and naked innocence, perhaps to show us that as clothes are the
offspring of sin-when sin was atoned for by Christ, he left all raiment
behind him – for garments are the badges of guilt: if we had not been guilty
we should never have needed them.

Then, the napkin, mark you, was laid by itself. The grave-clothes were left
behind for every departed Christian to wear. The bed of death is well
sheeted with the garments of Jesus, but the napkin was laid by itself,
because the Christian when he dies, does not need that; it is used by the
mourners, and the mourners only. We shall all wear grave-clothes, but we
shall not need the napkin. When our friends die, the napkin is laid aside for
us to use, but do our ascended brethren and sisters use it? No, the Lord
God hath wiped away all tears from their eyes. We stand and view the
corpses of the dear departed, we moisten their faces with our tears, letting
whole showers of grief fall on their heads, but do they weep? Oh, no.
Could they speak to us from the upper spheres, they would say, “weep not
for me, for I am glorified, Sorrow not for me. I have left a bad world
behind me, and have entered into a far better.” They have no napkin – they
weep not. Strange it is that those who endure death weep not; but those
who see them die are weepers. When the child is born it weeps when
others smile (say the Arabs), and when it dies it smiles while others weep.
It is so with the Christian. O blessed thing! The napkin is laid by itself,
because Christians will never want to use it when they die.

III. EMOTION EXCITED, We have thus surveyed the grave with deep
attention, and, I hope, with some profit to ourselves. But that is not all. I
love a religion which consists, in a great measure, of emotion. Now, if I
had power, like a master I would touch the strings of your hearts, and fetch
a glorious tune of solemn music from them, for this is a deeply solemn
place, into which I have conducted you.

First, I would bid you stand and see the place where the Lord lay with
emotions of deep sorrow. O come, my beloved brother, thy Jesus once lay
there. He was a murdered man, my soul, and thou the murderer.

“Ah, you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were,
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.”
“Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?”

I slew him – this right hand struck the dagger to his heart. My deeds slew
Christ. Alas! I slew my best beloved; I killed him who loved me with an
everlasting love. Ye eyes, why do ye refuse to weep when ye see Jesus’
body mangled and torn? Oh! give rent to your sorrow, Christians, for ye
have good reason to do so I believe in what Hart says, that there was a
time in his experience when he could so sympathize with Christ, that he felt
more grief at the death of Christ than he did joy. It seemed so sad a thing
that Christ should have to die, and to me it often appears too great a price
for Jesus Christ to purchase worms with his own blood. Methinks I love
him so much that if I had seen him about to suffer, I should have been as
bad as Peter, and have said, “That be far from thee, Lord,” but then he
would have said to me, “Get thee behind me, Satan;” for he does not
approve of that love which would stop him from dying. “The cup which my
Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” But I think, had I seen him
going up to his cross, I could fain have pressed him back, and said, “Oh!
Jesus, thou shalt not die; I cannot have it. Wilt thou purchase my life with a
price so dear?” It seems too costly for him who is the prince of life and
glory to let his fair limbs be tortured in agony; that the hands which carried
mercies should be pierced with accursed nails; that the temples that were
always clothed with love, should have cruel thorns driven through them. It
appears too much.

Oh! weep, Christian, and let your sorrow rise. Is not the
price all but too great, that your Beloved should for you resign himself.
Oh! I should think if a person were saved from death by another, he would
always feel deep grief if his deliverer lost his life in the attempt. I had a
friend, who, standing by the side of a piece of frozen water saw a young
lad in it, and sprang upon the ice in order to save him. After clutching the
boy he held him in his hands, and cried out, “Here he is! here he is! I have
saved him.” But just as they caught hold of the boy, he sank himself, and
his body was not found for some time afterwards, when he was quite dead.
Oh! it is so with Jesus. My soul was drowning. From heaven’s high portals
he saw me sinking in the depths of hell. He plunged in.

“He SANK beneath his heavy woes,
To raise me to a crown;
There’s ne’er a gift his hand bestows,
But cost his heart a groan.”

Ah! we may indeed regret our sin, since it slew Jesus.
Now, Christian, change thy note a moment. “Come, see the place here the
Lord lay,” with joy and gladness, He does not lie there now. Weep, when
ye see the tomb of Christ, but rejoice because it is empty. Thy sin slew him,
but his divinity raised him up. Thy guilt hath murdered him, but his
righteousness hath restored him. Oh! he hath burst the bonds of death; he
hath ungirt the cerements of the tomb, and hath come out more than
conqueror, crushing death beneath his feet. Rejoice, O Christian, for he is
not there – he is risen. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

One more thought, and then I will speak a little concerning the doctrines
we may learn from this grave. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay”
with solemn awe, for you and I will have to lay there too.

“Hark! from the tomb a doleful sound,
Mine ears, attend the cry;
Ye living men, come view the ground,
Where ye must shortly lie.
Princes, this clay must be your bed,
In spite of all your powers;
The tall, the wise, the reverend head,
Must lie as low as ours.”

It is a fact we do not often think of, that we shall all be dead in a little
while. I know that I am made of dust and not of iron, my bones are not
brass, nor my sinews steel: in a little while my body must crumble back to
its native elements. But do you ever try to picture to yourself the moment
of your dissolution? My friends, there are some of you who seldom realize
how old you are, how near you are to death. One way of remembering our
age is, to see how much remains. Think how old eighty is, and then see
how few years there are before you will get there. We should remember
our frailty. Sometimes I have tried to think of the time of my departure. I
do not know whether I shall die a violent death or not, but I would to God
that I might die suddenly, for sudden death is sudden glory. I would I
might have such a blessed exit as Doctor Beaumont, and die in my pulpit
laying down my body with my charge, and ceasing at once to work and
live. But it is not mine to choose. Suppose I lie lingering for weeks in the
midst of pains, and griefs, and agonies, when that moment comes, that
moment which is too solemn for my lips to speak of, when the spirit leaves
the clay – let the physician put it off for weeks or years, as we say he does,
though he does not – when that moment comes oh, ye lips, be dumb, and
profane not its solemnity. When death comes, how is the strong man
bowed down. How doth the mighty man fall. They may say they will not
die, but there is no hope for them: they must yield, the arrow has gone
home.

I knew a man who was a wicked wretch, and I remember seeing him
pace the floor of his bedroom, saying, “O God, I will not die, I will not
die.” When I begged him to lie on his bed, for he was dying, he said he
could not die while he could walk, and he would walk till he did die. Ah!
he expired in the utmost torments, always shrieking, “O God, I will not
die.” Oh! that moment, that last moment. See how clammy is the sweat
upon the brow, how dry the tongue how parched the lips. The man shuts
his eyes and slumbers, then opens them again; and if he be a Christian, I
can fancy he will say:

“Hark! they whisper: angels say
Sister spirit, come away.
What is this absorbs me quite-
Steals my senses-shuts my sight-
Drowns my spirit-draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?”

We know not when he is dying. One gentle sigh, and the spirit break away.
We can scarcely say “He is gone,” before the ransomed spirit takes its
mansion near the throne. Come to Christ’s tomb then, for the silent vault
must soon be your habitat ion. Come to Christ’s grave, for you must
slumber there. And even you, ye sinners, for one moment I will ask you to
come also, because ye must die as well as the rest of us. Your sins cannot
keep you from the jaws of death. I say, sinner, I want thee to look at
Christ’s sepulcher too, for when thou diest it may have done thee great
good to think of it.

You have heard of Queen Elizabeth crying out that she
would give an empire for a single hour; or, have you read the despairing
cry of the gentleman on board the “Arctic,” when it was going down, who
shouted to the boat “Come back! I will give you £30.000 if you will come
and take me in.” Ah! poor man it were but little if he had thirty thousand
worlds, if he could thereby prolong his life, “Skin for skin; yea, all that a
man hath will he give for his life “Some of you who can laugh this morning,
who came to spend a merry hour in this hall, will be dying, and then ye will
pray and crave for life, and shriek for another Sabbath day. Oh! how the
Sabbaths ye have wasted will walk like ghosts before you! Oh! how they
will shake their snaky hair in your eyes! How will ye be made to sorrow
and weep, because ye wasted precious hours, which, when they are gone,
are gone too far ever to be recalled. May God save you from the pangs of
remorse.

IV. INSTRUCTION IMPARTED. And now, Christian brethren, “Come, see
the place where the Lord lay, to learn a doctrine or two. What did you see
when you visited “the place where the Lord lay?” “He is not here: for he is
risen!” The first thing you perceive, if you stand by his empty tomb, is his
divinity. The dead in Christ shall rise first at the resurrection, but he who
rose first – their leader, rose in a different fashion. They rise by imparted
power. He rose by his own. He could not slumber in the grave, because he
was God. Death had no more dominion over him. There is no better proof
of Christ’s divinity, than that startling resurrection of his, when he rose
from the grave, by the glory of the Father. O Christian, thy Jesus is a God;
his broad shoulders that hold thee up are indeed divine; and here thou hast
the best proof of it – because he rose from the grave.

A second doctrine here taught, well may charm thee, if the Holy Spirit
apply it with power. Behold this empty tomb, O true believer: it is a sign of
thine acquittal and thy full discharge. If Jesus had not paid the debt, he
ne’er had risen from the grave. He would have lain there till this moment if
he had not cancelled the entire debt, by satisfying eternal vengeance. Oh!
beloved, is not that an overwhelming thought?

“It is finished! It is finished!
Hear the rising Savior cry.”

The heavenly turnkey came; a bright angel stepped from heaven and rolled
away the stone: but he would not have done so if Christ had not done all;
he would have kept him there; he would have said, “Nay, nay, thou art the
sinner now; thou hast the sins of all thine elect upon thy shoulder, and I
will not let thee go free till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” In his
going free I see my own discharge.

“My Jesu’s blood’s my full discharge”

As a justified man, I have not a sin against me in God’s book. If I were to
turn over God’s eternal book I should see every debt of mine receipted and
cancelled.

“Here’s pardon for transgressions past,
It matters not how black their cast,
And O my soul with wonder view,
For sins to come here’s pardon too.
While through thy blood absolved I am
From sin’s tremendous curse and blame.”

One more doctrine we learn, and with that we will conclude – the doctrine of
the resurrection. Jesus rose, and as the Lord our Savior rose, so all his
followers must rise. Die I must – this body must be a carnival for worms, it
must be eaten by those tiny cannibals: peradventure it shall be scattered
from one portion of the earth to another; the constituent particles of this
my frame will enter into plants, from plants pass into animals, and thus be
carried into far distant realms; but at the blast of the archangel’s trumpet
every separate atom of my body shall find its fellow; like the bones lying in
the valley of vision, though separated from one another, the moment God
shall speak, the bone will creep to its bore, then the flesh shall come upon
it. The four winds of heaven shall blow, and the breath shall return. So, let
me die, let beasts devour me, let fire turn this body into gas and vapor, all
its particles shall yet again be restored; this very selfsame actual body shall
start up from its grave, glorified and made like Christ’s body, yet still the
same body, for God hath said it.

Christ’s same body rose: so shall mine. O
my soul, dost thou now dread to die? Thou wilt lose thy partner body a
little while, but thou wilt be married again in heaven, soul and body shall
again be united before the throne of God. The grave – what is it? It is the
bath in which the Christian puts the clothes of his body to have them
washed and cleansed. Death – what is it? It is the waiting room where we
robe ourselves for immortality; it is the place where the body, like Esther,
bathes itself in spices, that it may be fit for the embrace of its Lord. Death
is the gate of life; I will not fear to die, then, but will say,

Shudder not to pass the stream
Venture all thy care on him-
Him, whose dying love and power
Still’d its tossing, hush’d its roar;
Safe is the expanded wave,
Gentle as a summer’s eve;
Not one object of his care
Ever suffer’d shipwreck there,”

Come view the place, then, with all – hallowed meditation, where the Lord
lay. Spend this afternoon, my beloved brethren, in meditating upon it, and
very often go to Christ’s grave both to weep and to rejoice. Ye timid ones,
do not be afraid to approach, for ‘tis no vain thing to remember that
timidity buried Christ. Faith would not have given him a funeral at all; faith
would have kept him above ground, and would never have let him been
buried, for it would have said it would be useless to bury Christ if he were
to rise. Fear buried him. Nicodemus, the night disciple, and Joseph of
Arimathea, secretly, for fear of the Jews, went and buried him. Therefore,
ye timid ones, ye may go too. Ready-to-halt, poor Fearing, and thou Mrs.
Despondency, and Much-afraid, go often there, let it be your favourite
haunt, there build a tabernacle, there abide. And often say to your heart,
when you are in distress and sorrow, “Come, see the place where the Lord
lay.”

It is so nice to cite positive Christian news for once:

Original Source: Christian Today

London Mayor Boris Johnson has come out in support of a major citywide prayer event on Pentecost Sunday.

Each of the capital’s 33 boroughs will unite together for the Global Day of Prayer on 31 May to pray for London, the Government and the nation.

Previous Global Day of Prayer events have seen tens of thousands of Christians together in West Ham and Millwall football stadiums, and thousands are expected to take part again this year.

Johnson showed his support for the event last year by taking to the stage at Millwall, where he asked Christians to pray for his vision to transform London and work for better community cohesion. He was later prayed for onstage by the thousands-strong crowd and church leaders including the Bishop of Barking, the Rt Rev David Hawkins, and GDOP London convener Pastor Jonathan Oloyede.

Last year’s event also coincided with a meeting of some 80 key GDOP coordinators and organisers with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street, a sign of the movement’s growing influence in the political spheres.

This year, GDOP London is rolling out across each of the boroughs, with local church and civic leaders planning to come together in prayer. A video message from Johnson is to be broadcast to each of the gatherings.

Whilst previous years have focused on gun and knife crime, high on this year’s prayer agenda are the credit crunch and good governance.

“In recent years we have held a central event, in a football stadium and Christians across all denominations have joined forces together to pray,” said Pastor Oloyede.

“This year we want to focus our prayers on the needs of each borough of London and its many social issues, whilst also recognising the desperate state this country is in, both in terms of the those suffering from the credit crunch, and also the apparent lack of respect for our parliamentary system, rocked to the core by allegations of financial misconduct and lack of integrity.

“We shall pray for all involved.”

The Global Day of Prayer London is part of a worldwide day of prayer taking place across some 240 countries on May 31.

This year’s day of prayer in London is being precipitated by 10 days of 24/7 prayer at various points along the M25. The M25 Nutcracker will see churches along the M25 open their doors around the clock for people to come in and pray for God’s blessings upon London.

The May 31 event is part of an ongoing prayer movement across the UK, which organisers hope will take Christians to Wembley Stadium to pray for the nation in 2011.

On the web: www.gdoplondon.com

I had this emailed to me and really enjoyed it! Hope you do to:-

BBQ’s The Way It Is and the Way It Is Supposed To Be!

BBQ RULES We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine…

(1)   The woman buys the food.

(2)   The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables and makes desert.

(3)   The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill – beer in hand.

(4)   The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

Here comes the important part:

(5)   THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine…

(6)   The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(7)   The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat.

Important again:

(8)   THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine…

(9)   The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.

(10)   After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

(11)   Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

(12)   The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ‘her night off’,and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there’s just no pleasing some women.

BBQ’s The Way It Is and the Way It Is Supposed To Be!

The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
“him; but his bow abode in strength, and his hands were made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel)” – Genesis 49:23, 24

It must have been a fine sight to see the hoary-headed Jacob sitting up in
his bed whilst he bestowed his parting benediction upon his twelve sons.
He had been noble in many instances during his life – at the sleeping place of
Bothel, the brook of Jabbok, and the halting of Peniel. He had been a
glorious old man, one before whom we might bow down with reverence,
and truly say, “There were giants in those days.” But his closing scene was
the best. I think if ever he stood out more illustrious than at any other time,
if his head was, at any one season more than another, encircled with a halo
of glory, it was when he came to die. Like the sun at setting, he seemed
then to be the greater in brilliance, tingeing the clouds of his weakness with
the glory of grace within.

Like good wine which runs clear to the very
bottom, unalloyed by dregs, so did Jacob, till his dying hour, continue to
sing of love, of mercy, and of goodness, past and future. Like the swan,
which (as old writers say) singeth not all its life until it comes to die, so the
old patriarch remained silent as a songster for many years, but when he
stretched himself on his last couch of rest, he stayed himself up in his bed,
turned his burning eye from one to another, and although with a hoarse and
faltering voice, he sang a sonnet upon each of his offspring such as earthly
poets, uninspired, cannot attempt to imitate. Looking upon his son Reuben,
a tear was in his eye, for he recollected Reuben’s sin; he passed over
Simeon and Levi, giving some slight rebuke; upon the others he sung a
verse of praise, as his eyes saw into the future history of the tribes.

By and by
his voice failed him, and the good old man, with long drawn breath,
with eyes pregnant with celestial fire, and heart big with heaven, lifted his
voice to God, and said, “I have waited for thy salvation, O God,” rested a
moment on his pillow, and then, again, sitting up, re-commenced the strain,
passing briefly by the names of each. But oh ! when he came to Joseph, his
youngest son but one – when he looked on him, I picture that old man as the
tears ran down his cheeks. There stood Joseph, with all his mother Rachel
in his eyes – that dear – loved wife of his – there he stood, the boy for whom
that mother had prayed with all the eagerness of an eastern wife. For a long
twenty years she had tarried a barren woman and kept no house, but then
she was a joyful mother, and she called her son “increase.” Oh! how she
loved the boy; and for that mother’s sake, though she had been buried for
some years and hidden under the cold sod, old Jacob loved him too.

But more than that, he loved him for his troubles. He was parted from him to
be sold into Egypt. His father recollected Joseph’s trials in the round house
and the dungeon, and remembered his royal dignity as prince of Egypt; and
now with a full burst of harmony, as if the music of heaven had united with
his own, as when the widened river meets the sea, and the tide coming up
doth amalgamate with the stream that cometh down, and swelleth into a
broad expanse, so did the glory of heaven meet the rapture of his earthly
feelings, and giving vent to his soul, he sung “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall; the
archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him; but his
bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the
hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone
of Israel:) even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the
Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of
the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the
blessings of thy fathers have prevailed above the blessings of my
progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on
the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate
from his brethren.” What a splendid stanza with which to close! He has
only one more blessing to give; but surely this was the richest which he
conferred on Joseph.

Joseph is dead, but the Lord has his Josephs now. There are some still who
understand by experience-and that is the best kind of understanding-the
meaning of this passage, “The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at
him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his
hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”
There are four things for us to consider this morning: first of all, the cruel
attack,-”the archers have sorely grieved him, shot at him, and hated him;”
secondly, the shielded warrior,-”but his bow abode in strength;” thirdly,
his secret strength,-”the arms of his hands were made strong by the mighty
power of the God of Jacob;” and fourthly, the glorious parallel drawn
between Joseph and Christ,-”from thence is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel.”

I. First, then, we commence with THE CRUEL ATTACK. “The archers have
sorely grieved him.” Joseph’s enemies were archers. The original has it,
“masters of the arrows,” that is, men who were well skilled in the use of
the arrow. Though all weapons are alike approved by the warrior in his
thirst for blood, there seems something more cowardly in the attack of the
archer, than in that of the swordsman. The swordsman plants himself near
you, foot to foot, and lets you defend yourself and deal your blows against
him; but the archer stands at a distance, hides himself in ambuscade, and,
without your knowing it, the arrow comes whizzing through the air, and
perhaps penetrates your heart. Just so are the enemies of God’s people.
They very seldom come foot to foot with us; they will not show their faces
before us; they hate the light, they love darkness; they dare not come and
openly accuse us to our face, for then we could reply; but they shoot the
bow from a distance, so that we cannot answer them; cowardly and
dastardly as they are, they forge their arrowheads, and aim them, winged
with hell-bird’s feathers, at the hearts of God’s people. The archers sorely
grieved poor Joseph. Let us consider who are the archers who so cruelly
shot at him. First, there were the archers of envy; secondly, the archers of
temptation; and thirdly, the archers of slander and calumny.

1. First, Joseph had to endure the archers of ENVY. When he was a boy,
his father loved him. The youth was fair and beautiful; in person, he was to
be admired; moreover, he had a mind that was gigantic, and an intellect
that was lofty; but, best of all in him dwelt the spirit of the living God. He
was one who talked with God; a youth of piety and prayerfulness; beloved
of God, even more than he was of his earthly father. Oh! how his father
loved him! for in his fond affection, he made him a princely, coat of many
colours, and treated him better than the other – a natural but foolish way of
showing his fondness.

Therefore, his brethren hated him. Full often did
they jeer at the youthful Joseph, when he retired to his prayers; when he
was with them at a distance from his father’s house, he was their drudge,
their slave; the taunt, the jeer, did often wound his heart, and the young
child endured much secret sorrow. On an ill day, as it happened, he was
with them at a distance from home, and they thought to slay him; but upon
the entreaty of Reuben they put him into a pit, until, as providence would
have it, the Ishmaelites did pass that way. They then sold him for the price
of a slave, stripped him of his coat, and sent him naked, they knew not, and
they cared not whither, so long as he might be out of their way, and no
longer provoke their envy and their anger.

Oh! the agonies he felt, parted
from his father, losing his brethren, without a friend, dragged away by
cruel-mansellers, chained upon a camel it may be, with fetters upon his
hands. Those who have borne the gyves and fetters, those who have felt
that they were not free men, that they had not liberty, might tell how sorely
the archers grieved him when they shot at him the arrows of their envy. He
became a slave, sold from his country, dragged from all he loved. Farewell
to home and all its pleasures – farewell to a father’s smiles and tender cares.

He must be a slave, and toil where the slaves’ task-master makes him; he
must be exposed in the market, he must be stripped in the streets, he must
be beaten, he must be scourged, he must be reduced from the man to the
animal, from the free man to the slave. Truly the archers sorely shot at him.

And, my brethren, do you hope, if you are the Lord’s Josephs, that you
shall escape envy? I tell you, nay; that green-eyed monster envy, lives in
London as well as elsewhere, and he creeps into God’s church, moreover
Oh! it is hardest of all to be envied by one’s brethren. If the devil hates us,
we can bear it; if the foe’s of God’s truth speak ill of us, we buckle up our
harness, and say, “Away, away, to the conflict. But when the friends within
the house slander us; when brethren who should uphold us, turn our foes;
and when they try to tread down their younger brethren; then, sirs, there is
some meaning in the passage, “The archers have sorely grieved him, and
shot at him, and hated him.” But blessed be God’s name, it is sweet to be
informed that “his bow abode in strength.” None of you can be the people
of God without provoking envy; and the better you are, the more you will
be hated. The ripest fruit is most pecked by the birds, and the blossoms that
have been longest on the tree, are the most easily blown down by the wind.

But fear not; you have nought to do with what man shall say of you. If
God loves you, man will hate you; if God honors you, man will dishonor
you. But recollect, could ye wear chains for Christ’s sake, ye should wear
the chains of gold in heaven, could ye have rings of burning iron round
your waists, ye should have your brow rimmed with gold in glory; for
blessed are ye when men shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
Christ’s name sake; for so persecuted they the prophets that were before
you. The first archers were the archers of envy.

2. But a worse trial than this was to overtake him. The archers of
TEMPTATION shot at him. Here I know not how to express myself. I would
that some one more qualified to speak were here, that he might tell you the
tale of Joseph’s trial, and Joseph’s triumph. Sold to a master who soon
discovered his value, Joseph was made the bailiff of the house, and the
manager of the household. His wanton mistress fixed her adulterous love
on him, and he, being continually in her presence, was perpetually, day by
day, solicited by her to evil deeds. Constantly did he refuse still enduring a
martyrdom at the slow fire of her enticements. On one eventful day she
grasped him, seeking to compel him to crime; but he, like a true hero, as he
was, said to her, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against
God?” Like a wise warrior, he knew that in such a case fleeing was the
better part of valour. He heard a voice in his ears, “Fly, Joseph, fly; there
remains no way of victory but flight;” and out he fled, leaving his garment
with his adulterous mistress. Oh, I say in all the annals of heroism there is
not one that shall surpass this. You know it is opportunity that makes a
man criminal, and he had abundant opportunity; but importunity will drive
most men astray. To be haunted day by day by solicitations of the softest
kind – to be tempted hour by hour-Oh! it needs a strength superangelic, a
might more than human, a strength which only God can grant, for a young
man thus to cleanse his way, and take heed thereto according to God’s
word. He might have reasoned within himself, “Should I submit and yield,
there lies before me a life of ease and pleasure; I shall be exalted, I shall be
rich. She shall prevail over her husband, to cover me with honors; but
should I still adhere to my integrity, I shall be cast into prison, I shall be
thrown into the dungeon; there awaits me nothing but shame and
disgrace.” Oh! there was a power indeed within that heart of his; there was
an inconceivable might, which made him turn away with unutterable
disgust, with fear and trembling, while he said, “How can I? how can I God’s
Joseph – how can I – other men might, but how can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God.” Truly the archers sorely grieved him and
shot at him; but his bow abode in strength.

3. Then another host of archers assailed him: these were the archers of
MALICIOUS CALUMNY. Seeing that he would not yield to temptation, his
mistress falsely accused him to her husband, and his lord believing the
voice of his wife, cast him into prison. It was a marvelous providence that
he did not put him to death, for Potiphar, his master, was the chief of the
slaughtermen; he had only to call in a soldier, who would have cut him in
pieces on the spot. But he cast him into prison. There was poor Joseph.
His character ruined in the eyes of man, and very likely looked upon with
scorn even in the prison-house; base criminals went away from him as if
they thought him viler than themselves, as if they were angels in
comparison with him. Oh! it is no easy thing to feel your character gone, to
think that you are slandered, that things are said of you that are untrue.

Many a man’s heart has been broken by this, when nothing else could make
him yield. The archers sorely grieved him when he was so maligned – so
slandered. O child of God, dost thou expect to escape these archers? Wilt
thou never be slandered? Shalt thou never be calumniated? It is the lot of
God’s servants, in proportion to their zeal, to be evil spoken of. Remember
the noble Whitfield, how he stood and was the butt of all the jeers and
scoffs of half an age, while his only answer was a blameless life.

“And he who forged, and he who threw the dart,
Had each a brother’s interest in his heart.”

They reviled him and imputed to him crimes that Sodom never knew. So
shall it be always with those who preach God’s truth, and all the followers
of Christ – they must all expect it; but blessed be God, they have not said
worse things of us than they said of our Master. What have they laid to our
charge? They may have said “he is drunken and a winebibber.” but they
have not said “he hath a devil.” They have accused us of being mad, so was
it said of Paul. Oh, holy infatuation, heavenly furor, would that we could
bite others until they had the same madness. We think if to go to heaven be
mad, we will not choose to be wise; we see no wisdom in preferring hell;
we can see no great prudence in despising and hating God’s truth. If to
serve God be vile, we purpose to be viler still. Ah! friends, some now
present know this verse by heart, “The archers have sorely grieved him,
and shot at him, and hated him.” Expect it; do not think it a strange thing;
all God’s people must have it. There are no royal roads to heaven – they are
paths of trial and trouble: the archers will shoot at you as long as you are
on this side the flood.

II. We have seen these archers shoot their flights of arrows; we will now
go up the hill a little, behind a rock, to look at the SHIELDED WARRIOR and
see how his courage is while the archers have sorely grieved him. What is
he doing? “His bow abideth in strength.” Let us picture God’s favorite.
The archers are down below. There is a parapet of rock before him; now
and then he looks over it to see what the archers are about, but generally
he keeps behind. In heavenly security he is set upon a rock, careless of all
below. Let us follow the track of the wild goat; and behold the warrior in
his fastness.

First, we notice that he has a bow himself, for we read that “his bow abode
in strength.” He could have retaliated if he pleased, but he was very quiet
and would not combat with them. Had he pleased, he might have drawn his
bow with all his strength, and sent his weapon to their hearts with far
greater precision than they had ever done to him. But mark the warrior’s
quietness. There he rests, stretching his mighty limbs; his bow abode in
strength; he seemed to say, “Rage on, ay, let your arrows spend
themselves, empty your quivers on me, let your bow-strings be worn out,
and let the wood be broken with its constant bending: here am I, stretching
myself in safe repose; my bow abides in strength; I have other work to do
besides shooting at you; my arrows are against yon foes of God, the
enemies of the Most High; I cannot waste an arrow on such pitiful
sparrows as you are; ye are birds beneath my noble shot; I would not waste
an arrow on you.” Thus he remains behind the rock and despises them all.
His bow abideth in strength.

Mark well his quietness. His bow “abideth.” It is not rattling, it is not
always moving, but it abides, it is quite still; he takes no notice of the
attack. The archers sorely grieved Joseph, but his bow was not turned
against them, it abode in strength. He turned not his bow on them. He
rested while they raged. Doth the moon stay herself to lecture every dog
that bayeth her? Doth the lion turn aside to rend each cur that barketh at
him? Do the stars cease to shine because the nightingales reprove them for
their dimness? Doth the sun stop in its course because of the officious
cloud which veils it? Or doth the river stay because the willow dippeth its
leaves into its waters? Ah! no; God’s universe moves on, and if men will
oppose it, it heeds them not. It is as God hath made it; it is working
together for good, and it shall not be stayed by the censure, nor moved on
by the praise of man. Let your bows, my brethren, abide. Do not be in a
hurry to set yourselves right. God will take care of you. Leave yourselves
alone; only be very valiant for the Lord God of Israel: be steadfast in the
truth of Jesus, and your bow shall abide.

But we must not forget the next word. “His bow abode IN STRENGTH.”
Though his bow was quiet, it was not because it was broken. Joseph’s bow
was like that of William the Conqueror, no man could bend it but Joseph
himself; it abode “in strength.” I see the warrior bending his bow – how with
his mighty arms he pulls it down and draws the string to make it ready. His
bow abode in strength; it did not snap, it did not start aside. His chastity
was his bow, and he did not lose that: his faith was his bow, and that did
not yield, it did not break; his courage was his bow, and that did not fail
him; his character, his honesty was his bow; not did he cast it away. Some
men are so very particular about reputation. They think, “surely, surely,
surely they shall lose their characters.” Well, well, if we do not lose them
through our own fault, we never need care about anybody else. You know
there is not a man that stands at all prominent, but what any fool in the
world can set afloat some bad tale against him. It is a great deal easier to
set a story afloat than to stop it. If you want truth to go round the world
you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round
the world, it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is
well said in the old Proverb, “A lie will go round the world while truth is
pulling its boots on.” Nevertheless, it does not injure us; for if light as a
feather it travels as fast, its effect is just about as tremendous as the effect
of down, when it is blown against the walls of a castle: it produces no
damage whatever, on account of its lightness and littleness.

Fear not,
Christian. Let slander fly, let envy send forth its forked tongue, let it hiss at
you, your bow shall abide in strength Oh! shielded warrior, remain quiet,
fear no ill; but, like the eagle in its lofty eyrie, look thou down upon the
fowlers in the plain; turn thy bold eye upon them and say, “Shoot ye may,
but your shots will not reach half way to the pinnacle where I stand. Waste
your powder upon me if ye will; I am beyond your reach.” Then clap your
wings, mount to heaven and there laugh them to scorn, for you have made
your refuge God, and shall find a most secure abode.

III. The third thing in our text is the SECRET STRENGTH. “The arms of his
hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” First,
notice concerning his strength, that it was real strength. It says, “the arms
of his hands,” not his hands only. You know some people can do a great
deal with their hands, but then it is often fictitious power, there is no might
in the arm – there is no muscles, but of Joseph it is said, “the arms of his
hands were made strong.” It was real potency, true muscle, real sinew, real
nerve. It was not simply slight of hand – the power of moving his fingers
very swiftly – but the arms of his hands were made strong.

Now, that
strength which God gives to his Josephs is real strength; it is not a boasted
valor, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, an airy dream, an insubstantial
unreality, but it is real strength. I should not like to have a combat with one
of God’s Josephs. I should find their blows very heavy. I fear a Christian’s
strokes more than any other man’s, for he has bone and sinew, and smites
hard. Let the foes of the church expect a hard struggle if they attack an heir
of life. Mightier than giants are men of the race of heaven; should they
once arouse themselves to battle, they could laugh at the spear and the
habergeon. But they are a patient generation, enduring ills without
resenting them, suffering scorn without reviling the scoffer. Their triumph
is to come when their enemies shall receive the vengeance due; then shall it
be seen by an assembled world that the “little flock” were men of high
estate, and the “offscouring of all things” were verily men of real strength
and dignity.

Even though the world perceive it not, the favored Joseph has real
strength, not in his hands only, but in his arms – real might, real power. O ye
foes of God, ye think God’s people are despicable and powerless, but
know that they have true strength from the omnipotence of their Father, a
might substantial and divine. Your own shall melt away, and droop and die,
like the snow upon the low mountain’s top, when the sun shines upon it, it
melteth into water; but our vigor shall abide like the snow on the summit of
the Alps, undiminished for ages. It is real strength.

Then observe that the strength of God’s Joseph is divine strength. His
arms were made strong by God. Why does one of God’s ministers preach
the Gospel powerfully? Because God gives him assistance. Why does
Joseph stand against temptation? Because God gives him aid. The strength
of a Christian is divine strength. My brethren, I am more and more
persuaded every day that the sinner has no power of himself, except that
which is given him from above. I know that if I were to stand with my foot
upon the golden threshold of heaven’s portal, if I could put this thumb
upon the latch, I could not open that door, after having gone so far
towards heaven, unless I had still supernatural power communicated to me
in that moment. If I had a stone to lift, to work my own salvation, without
God’s help to do that, I must be lost, even though it were so little. There is
nought that we can do without the power of God. All true strength is
divine. As the light cometh from the sun, as the shower from heaven, so
doth spiritual strength come from the Father of lights, with whom there is
neither variableness nor shadow of a turning.

Again: I would have you notice in the text in what a blessedly familiar way
God gives this strength to Joseph. It says, “the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” Thus it represents
God as putting his hands on; Joseph’s hands, placing his arms on Joseph’s
arms. In old times, when every boy had to be trained up to archery, if his
father were worth so many pounds a year, you might see the father putting
his hands on his boy’s hands and pulling the bow for him, saying, “there,
my son, in this manner draw the bow.” So the text represents God as
putting his hand on the hand of Joseph, and laying his broad arm along the
arm of his chosen child, that he might be made strong. Like as a father
teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear him He puts his
arms upon them. As Elijah laid with his mouth upon the child’s mouth,
with his hand upon the child’s hand, with his foot upon the child’s foot, so
does God put his mouth to his children’s mouth, his hand on his minister’s
hand, his foot to his people’s foot: and so he makes us strong. Marvelous
condescension! Ye stars of glory, have ye ever witnessed such stoops of
love? God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from his throne and lays
his hand upon the child’s hand, stretching his arm upon the arm of Joseph,
that he may be made strong!

One more thought, and I have done. This strength was covenant strength,
for it is said, “The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob,” Now, wherever you read of the God of Jacob in the
Bible, you may know that that respects God’s covenant with Jacob. Ah! I
love to talk about God’s everlasting covenant. Some of the Arminians
cannot bear it, but I love a covenant salvation – a covenant not made with
my fathers, not between me and God, but between Christ and God. Christ
made the covenant to pay a price, and God made the covenant that he
should have the people. Christ has paid the price, and ratified the covenant,
and I am quite sure that God will fulfill his part of it, by giving every elect
vessel of mercy into the hands of Jesus. But, beloved, all the power, all the
grace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all the things we
have, we have through the covenant. If there were no covenant: if we
could rend the everlasting charter up: if the king of hell could cut it with his
knife, as the king of Israel did the roll of Baruch, then we should fail
indeed: for we have no strength, except that which is promised in the
covenant. Covenant mercies, covenant grace, covenant promises, covenant
blessings, covenant help, covenant everything – the Christian must receive if
he would enter into heaven.

Now, Christian, the archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and
wounded you; but your bow abides in strength, and the arms of your hands
are made strong. But do you know, O believer, that you are like your
Master in this?

IV. That is our fourth point – A GLORIOUS PARALLEL. “From thence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel.” Jesus Christ was served just the same; the
shepherd, the stone of Israel, passed through similar trials; he was shot at
by the archers, he was grieved and wounded, but his bow abode in
strength; his arms were made strong by the God of Jacob, and now every
blessing rests “upon the crown of the head of him who was separate from
his brethren.” I shall not detain you long, but I have a few things to tell
you: first about Christ as the shepherd, and then about Christ the stone.

Christ came into the world as a shepherd. As soon as he made his
appearance, the Scribes and Pharisees said, “Ah! we have been the
shepherds until this hour: now we shall be driven from our honors, we shall
lose all our dignity, and our authority. Consequently they always shot at
him. As for the people, they were a fickle herd; I believe that many of them
respected and admired Christ, though, doubtless, the vast majority hated
him, for wherever he went he was a popular preacher, the multitude always
thronged him and crowded round him, crying, “Hosannah.” I think, if you
had walked up to the top of that hill of Calvary, and asked one of those
men who cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him,” “What do you say that for?
Is he a bad man?” “No,” he would have said, “he went about doing good.”
“Then why do you say crucify him?” “Because Rabbi Simeon gave me a
shekel to help the clamor.” So the multitude were much won by the money
and influence of the priests. But they were glad to hear Christ after all. It
was the shepherds that hated him, because he took away their traffic,
because he turned the buyers and sellers out of the temple, diminished their
dignity and ignored their pretensions; therefore, they could not endure him.
But the Shepherd of Israel mounted higher and higher; he gathered his
sheep, carried the lambs in his bosom; and he now stands acknowledged as
the great Shepherd of the sheep, who shall gather them into one flock and
lead them to heaven.

Rowland Hill tells a curious tale, in his “Village
Dialogues”, about a certain Mr. Tiplash, a very fine intellectual preacher,
who, in one of his flights of oratory, said, “O virtue, thou art so fair and
lovely, if thou were to come down upon earth, all men would love thee;”
with a few more pretty, beautiful things. Mr. Blunt, an honest preacher,
who was in the neighborhood, was asked to preach in the afternoon, and
he supplemented the worthy gentleman’s remarks, by saying, “O virtue,
thou didst come on earth, in all thy purity and loveliness, but, instead of
being beloved and admired, the archers sorely shot at thee and grieved
thee; they took thee, virtue, and hung thy quivering limbs upon a cross;
when thou didst hang there dying they hissed at thee, they mocked thee,
they scorned thee; when thou didst ask for water they gave thee vinegar to
drink, mingled with gall, yea, when thou diedst thou hadst a tomb from
charity, and that tomb, sealed by enmity and hatred.” The Shepherd of
Israel was despised, incarnate virtue was hated and abhorred; therefore,
fear not Christians, take courage, for if your Master passed through it,
surely you must.

To conclude: the text calls Christ the stone of Israel. I have heard a story – I
cannot tell whether it is true or not – out of some of the Jewish rabbis; it is a
tale, concerning the text, “The stone which the builders refused, the same is
become the head – stone of the corner.” It is said that when Solomon’s
temple was building, all the stones were brought from the quarry ready cut
and fashioned, and there were marked on all the blocks the places where
they were to be put. Amongst the stones was a very curious one; it seemed
of no describable shape, it appeared unfit for any portion of the building.
They tried it at this wall, but it would not fit; they tried it in another, but it
could not be accommodated; so, vexed and angry, they threw it away. The
temple was so many years building, that this stone became covered with
moss, and grass grew around it. Everybody passing by laughed at the
stone; they said Solomon was wise, and doubtless all the other stones were
right; but as for that block, they might as well send it back to the quarry,
for they were quite sure it was meant for nothing. Year after year rolled on,
and the poor stone was still despised, the builders constantly refused it.
The eventful day came when the temple was to be finished and opened, and
the multitude was as embled to see the grand sight. The builders said,
“where is the top-stone? Where is the pinnacle?” they little thought where
the crowning marble was, until some one said, “Perhaps that stone which
the builders refused is meant to be the top-stone.” They then took it, and
hoisted it to the top of the house; and as it reached the summit, they found
it well adapted to the place. Loud hosannas made the welkin ring, as the
stone which the builders refused thus became the head-stone of the corner.

So is it with Christ Jesus. The builders cast him away. He was a plebeian;
he was of poor extraction; he was a man acquainted with sinners, who
walked in poverty and meanness; hence the worldly – wise despised him. But
when God shall gather together, in one, all things that are in heaven and
that are in earth, then Christ shall be the glorious consummation of all
things.

Christ reigns in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserve the praise.
He shall be exalted; he shall be honored; his name shall endure as long as
the sun, and all nations shall be blessed in him, yea, all generations shall call
him blessed.