Chapter XII (1)

_SUMMARY OF GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTMAS EVANS AS A PREACHER_.

Remarks renewed in Vindication of his Use of Parable in the Pulpit—His Sermons appear to be born of Solitude—His Imitators—His Probable Acquaintance with “the Sleeping Bard” of Elis Wyn—A Dream—Illustrations—The Gospel Mould—Saul of Tarsus and his Seven Ships—The Misplaced Bone—The Man in the House of Steel—The Parable of the Church as an Ark among the Bulrushes of the Nile—The Handwriting—Death as an Inoculator—Time—The Timepiece—Parable of the Birds—Parable of the Vine-tree, the Thorn, the Bramble, and the Cedar—Illustrations of his more Sustained Style—The Resurrection of Christ—They drank of that Rock which followed them—The Impossibility of Adequate Translation—Closing Remarks on his Place and Claim to Affectionate Regard.

FROM the extracts we have already given, it will be seen that Christmas Evans excelled in the use of parable in the pulpit. Sometimes he wrought his mine like a very Bunyan, and we believe no published accounts of these sermons in Welsh, and certainly none that we have found translated into English, give any idea of his power. With what amazing effect some of his sermons would tell on the vast audiences which in these days gather together in London, and in our great towns! This method of instruction is now usually regarded as in bad taste; it does not seem to be sanctioned by the great rulers, and masters of oratorical art. If a man could create a “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and recite it, it would be found to be a very doubtful article by the rhetorical sanhedrim. Yet our Lord used this very method, and without using some such method—anecdote, or illustration—it is doubtful whether any strong hold can be obtained over the lower orders of mind. Our preacher entered into the spirit of Scripture parable, and narrative. One of the most famous of his discourses is that on the Demoniac of Gadara, which we have already given in preceding pages. Some of our readers will be shocked to know that, in the course of some of his descriptions in it, he convulsed his audience with laughter in the commencement. Well, he need not be imitated there; but he held it sufficiently subdued before the close, and an alternation of tears, and raptures, not only testified to his powers, but to his skill in giving an allegorical reading of the narrative.

For the purpose of producing effect,—and we mean, by effect, visible results in crushed, and humbled hearts, and transformed lives,—it would be a curious thing to try, in England, the preaching of some of the great Welshman’s sermons. What would be the effect upon any audience of that great picture of the Churchyard World, and the mighty controversy of Justice, and Mercy? Let it be admitted that there are some things in it, perhaps many, that it would not demand a severe taste to expel from the picture, but take it as the broad, bold painting of a man not highly educated,—indeed, highly educated men, as we have said, could not perform such things: a highly-educated man could never have written the “Pilgrim’s Progress”—let it be remembered that it was delivered to men, perhaps, we should say, rather educated than instructed, men illiterate in all things _except_ the Bible. We ourselves have, in some very large congregations, tried the preaching of one of the most famous of Evans’s sermons, “The Spirit walking in dry places, seeking rest, and finding none.”

Christmas Evans’s preaching was by no means defective in the bone, and muscle of thought, and pulpit arrangement; but, no doubt, herein lay his great _forte_, and power,—he could paint soul-subduing pictures. They were not pieces of mere word-painting, they were bathed in emotion, they were penetrated by deep knowledge of the human heart. He went into the pulpit, mighty from lonely wrestlings with God in mountain travellings; he went among his fellow-men, his audiences, strong in his faith in the reality of those covenants with God, whose history, and character we have already presented to our readers.

There was much in his preaching of that order which is so mighty in speech, but which loses so much, or which seems to acquire such additional coarseness, when it is presented to the eye. Preachers now live too much in the presence of published sermons, to be in the highest degree effective. He who thinks of the printing-press cannot abandon himself. He who uses his notes slavishly cannot abandon himself; and, without abandonment, that is, forgetfulness, what is oratory? what is action? what is passion? If we were asked what are the two greatest human aids to pulpit power, we should say, Self-possession and Self-abandonment; the two are perfectly compatible, and in the pulpit the one is never powerful without the other. Knowledge, Belief, Preparation, these give self-possession; and Earnestness, and Unconsciousness, these give self-abandonment. The first, without the last, may make a preacher like a stony pillar, covered with runes and hieroglyphics; and the last, without the first, may make a mere fanatic, with a torrent of speech, plunging lawlessly, and disgracefully abroad. The two, in combination in a noble man, and teacher, become sublime. Perhaps they reached their highest realization, among us, in Robertson of Brighton. In another, and in a different department, and scarcely inferior order of mind, they were nobly realized in Christmas Evans.

Perhaps there never was a time when ministers were more afraid of their audiences than in this day; afraid of the big man, with his wealth, afraid of the highly-cultured young man with the speculative eyeglasses, who has finished his education in Germany; afraid lest there should be the slightest departure from the most perfect, and elegant taste. The fear of man has brought a snare into the pulpit, and it has paralysed the preacher. And in this highly-furnished, and cultivated time we have few instances of preachers who, in the pulpit, can either possess their souls, or abandon them to the truth, in the text they have to announce.

It must have been, one thinks, a grand thing to have heard Christmas Evans; the extracts from his journal, the story they tell of his devout, and rapt communions of soul with God, among the mountains, the bare, and solitary hills, reveal sufficiently how, in himself, the preacher was made. When he came into the pulpit, his soul was kindled, and inflamed by the live coals from the altar. Some men of his own country imitated him, of course. Imitations are always ludicrous,—some of these were especially so. There was, says one of his biographers, the shrug, the shake of the head, the hurried, undertoned exclamation, “Bendigedig,” etc., etc., always reminding us, by verifying it, of Dr. Parr’s description of the imitators of Johnson: “They had the nodosities of the oak without its vigour, and the contortions of the sibyl without her inspiration.”

It was not so with him: he had rare, highly spiritual, and gifted sympathies; but even in his very colloquies in the pulpit, there was a wing, and sweep of majesty. He preached often amidst scenes of wildness, and beauty, in romantic dells, or on mountain sides, and slopes, amidst the summer hush of crags, and brooks, all ministering, it may be thought, to the impression of the whole scene; or it was in rude, and unadorned mountain chapels, altogether alien from the æsthetics so charming to modern religious sensibilities; but he never lowered his tone, his language was always intelligible; but both it, and the imagery he employed, even when some circumstances gave to it a homely light, and play, always ascended; he knew the workings of the heart, and knew how to lay his finger impressively upon all its movements, and every kind of sympathy attested his power.

It is a great thing to bear men’s spirits along through the sublime reaches, and avenues of thought, and emotion; and majesty, and sublimity seem to have been the common moods of his mind; never was his speech, or his pulpit, like a Gilboa, on which there was no dew. He gave it as his advice to a young preacher, “Never raise the voice while the heart is dry; let the heart, and affections shout first,—let it commence within.” A man who could say, “Hundreds of prayers bubble from the fountain of my mind,”—what sort of preacher was he likely to make? He “mused, and the fire burned;” like the smith who blows upon the furnace, until the iron is red hot, and then strikes on the anvil till the sparks fly all round him, so he preached. His words, and thoughts became radiant with fire, and metaphor; they flew forth rich, bright, glowing, like some rich metal in ethereal flame. As we have said, it was the nature, and the habit of his mind, to embody, and impersonate; attributes, and qualities took the shape, and form of persons; he seemed to enter mystic abodes, and not to talk of things as a metaphysician, or a theologian, but as a spectator, or actor. The magnificences of nature crowded round him, bowing in homage, as he selected from them to adorn, or illustrate his theme; all things beautiful, and splendid, all things fresh, and young, all things old, and venerable. Reading his discourses, for instance, the _Hind of the Morning_, we are astonished at the prodigality, and the unity of the imagination, the coherency with which the fancies range themselves, as gems, round some central truth, drinking, and reflecting its corruscations.

Astounded were the people who heard; it was minstrelsy even more than oratory; the truths were old and common, there was no fine discrimination, and subtle touch of expression, as in Williams, and there was no personal majesty, and dignity of sonorous swell of the pomp of words, as in John Elias; but it was more,—it was the wing of prophecy, and poetry, it was the rapture of the seer, or the bard; he called up image after image, grouped them, made them speak, and testify; laden by grand, and overwhelming feelings, he bore the people with him, through the valley of the shadow of death, or across the Delectable Mountains. There is a spell in thought, there is a spell in felicitous language; but when to these are added the vision which calls up sleeping terror, the imagination which makes living nature yet more alive, and brings the solemn, or the dreadful people of the Book of God to our home, and life of to-day, how terribly majestic the preacher becomes!

The sermons of Christmas Evans can only be known through the medium of translation. They, perhaps, do not suffer as most translations suffer; but the rendering, in English, is feeble in comparison with the at once nervous, bony, and muscular Welsh language. The sermons, however, clearly reveal the man; they reveal the fulness, and strength of his mind; they abound in instructive thoughts; their building, and structure is always good; and many of the passages, and even several of the sermons, might be taken as models for strong, and effective pulpit oratory. Like all the preachers of his day, and order of mind, and peculiarity of theological sentiment, and training, his usage of the imagery of Scripture was remarkably free; his use also of texts often was as significant, and suggestive as it was, certainly, original.

No doubt, for the appreciation of his purpose, and his power in its larger degree, he needed an audience well acquainted with Scripture, and sympathetic, in an eminent manner, with the mind of the preacher. There seem to have been periods, and moments when his mind soared aloft, into some of the highest fields of truth, and emotion. Yet his wing never seemed little, or petty in its flight. There was the firmness, and strength of the beat of a noble eagle. Some eloquence sings, some sounds; in one we hear the voice of a bird hovering in the air, in the other we listen to the thunder of the plume: the eloquence of Christmas Evans was of the latter order.

We have remarked it before,—there is a singular parable-loving instinct in Wales. Its most popular traditional, and prose literature, is imbued with it; the “Mabinogion,” the juvenile treasures of Welsh legend, corresponding to the Grimm of Germany, and the other great Teutonic and Norse legends, but wholly unlike them, prove this. But we are told that the most grand prose work in Wales, of modern date, and, at the same time, the most pre-eminently popular, is the “Sleeping Bard,” by Elis Wyn. He was a High Church clergyman, and wrote this extraordinary allegory at the commencement of the last century. Christmas Evans must have known it, have known it well. It portrays a series of visions, and if Mr. Borrow’s testimony may be relied upon, they are thoroughly Dantesque. He says, “It is a singular mixture of the sublime, and the coarse, the terrible, and the ludicrous, of religion, and levity, and combines Milton, Bunyan, and Quevedo.”

This is immense praise. The Vision of the World, the first portion, leads the traveller down the streets of Pride, Pleasure, and Lucre; but in the distance is a cross street, little and mean, in comparison with the others, but clean, and neat, and on a higher foundation than the other streets; it runs upwards, towards the east; they sink downwards, towards the north—this is the street True Religion. This is very much in the style of Christmas Evans, and so also is the vision of Death, the vision of Perdition, and the vision of Hell. This singular poem appears to have been exceedingly popular in Wales when Christmas Evans was young.

But our preacher has often been called the Bunyan of Wales—the Bunyan of the pulpit. In some measure, the epithet does designate him; he was a great master of parabolic similitude, and comparison. This is a kind of preaching ever eminently popular with the multitude; it requires rather a redundancy of fancy, than imagination—perhaps a mind considerably disciplined, and educated would be unable to indulge in such exercises—a self-possession, balanced by ignorance of many of the canons of taste, or utterly oblivious, and careless of them; for this is a kind of teaching of which we hear very little. Now we have not one preacher in England who would, perhaps, dare to use, or who could use well, the parabolic style. This was the especial power of Christmas Evans. He excelled in personification; he would seem frequently to have been mastered by this faculty. The abstraction of thought, the disembodied phantoms of another world, came clothed in form, and feature, and colour; at his bidding they came—

“Ghostly shapes
Met him at noontide; Fear, and trembling Hope,
Silence, and Foresight; Death, the skeleton,
And Time, the shadow.”

Thus, he frequently astounded his congregations, not merely by pouring round his subject the varied hues of light, or space, but by giving to the eye defined shapes, and realizations. We do not wonder to hear him say, “If I only entered the pulpit, I felt raised, as it were, to Paradise, above my afflictions, until I forgot my adversity; yea, I felt my mountain strong. I said to a brother once, ‘Brother, the doctrine, the confidence, and strength I feel, will make persons dance with joy in some parts of Wales.’ ‘Yea, brother,’ said he, with tears flowing from his eyes.” He was visited by remarkable dreams. Once, previous to a time of great refreshing, he dreamt:—

“He thought he was in the church at Caerphilly, and found many harps hanging round the pulpit, wrapped in coverings of green. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘I will take down the harps of heaven in this place.’ In removing the covering, he found the ark of the covenant, inscribed with the name of Jehovah. Then he cried, ‘Brethren, the Lord has come to us, according to His promise, and in answer to our prayers.’” In that very place, he shortly afterwards had the satisfaction of receiving one hundred and forty converts into the Church, as the fruit of his ministry.

As we have said, nothing can well illustrate, on paper, the power of the orator’s speech, but the following may serve, as, in some measure, illustrating his method:—

“THE GOSPEL MOULD.

“I compare such preachers to a miner, who should go to the quarry
where he raised the ore, and, taking his sledge in his hand, should
endeavour to form bars of iron of the ore in its rough state, without
a furnace to melt it, or a rolling mill to roll it out, or moulds to
cast the metal, and conform the casts to their patterns. The Gospel
is like a form, or mould, and sinners are to be melted, as it were,
and cast into it. ‘But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of
doctrine which was delivered you,’ or into which you were delivered,
as is the marginal reading, so that your hearts ran into the mould.
Evangelical preachers have, in the name of Christ, a mould, or form
to cast the minds of men into; as Solomon the vessels of the temple.
The Sadducees and Pharisees had their forms, and legal preachers have
their forms; but evangelical preachers should bring with them the
‘form of sound words,’ so that, if the hearers believe, or are melted
into it, Christ may be formed in their hearts,—then they will be as
born of the truth, and the image of the truth will appear in their
sentiments, and experience, and in their conduct in the Church, in
the family, and in the neighbourhood. Preachers without the mould
are all those who do not preach all the points of the Gospel of the
Grace of God.”

We will now present several extracts, derived from a variety of sources, happily illustrating the general character of his sermons.

“SAUL OF TARSUS AND HIS SEVEN SHIPS.

“Saul of Tarsus was once a thriving merchant and an extensive
ship-owner; he had seven vessels of his own, the names of which
were—1. Circumcised the Eighth Day; 2. Of the Stock of Israel; 3.
Of the Tribe of Benjamin; 4. A Hebrew of the Hebrews; 5. As
touching the Law, a Pharisee; 6. Concerning Zeal, persecuting the
Church. The seventh was a man-of-war, with which he one day set out
from the port of Jerusalem, well supplied with ammunition from the
arsenal of the Chief Priest, with a view to destroy a small port at
Damascus. He was wonderfully confident, and breathed out
threatenings and slaughter. But he had not got far from port before
the Gospel Ship, with Jesus Christ Himself as Commander on board,
hove in sight, and threw such a shell among the merchant’s fleet that
all his ships were instantly on fire. The commotion was tremendous,
and there was such a volume of smoke that Paul could not see the sun
at noon. While the ships were fast sinking, the Gospel Commander
mercifully gave orders that the perishing merchant should be taken on
board. ‘Saul, Saul, what has become of all thy ships?’ ‘They are
all on fire.’ ‘What wilt thou do now?’ ‘Oh that I may be found in
Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God. by faith.’”

“THE MISPLACED BONE.

“Let every one keep his own place, that there be no schism in the
body. There arose a fierce contention in the human body; every
member sought another place than the one it found itself in, and was
fitted for. After much controversy, it was agreed to refer the whole
matter to one whose name was Solomon Wise-in-his-own-conceit. He was
to arrange, and adjust the whole business, and to place every bone in
its proper position. He received the appointment gladly, and was
filled with joy, and confidence. He commenced with finding a place
for himself. His proper post was the heel; but where do you think he
found it? He must needs be the golden bowl in which the brains were
deposited. The natural consequences followed. The coarse heel bone
was not of the right quality, nor of the suitable dimensions to
contain the brains, nor could the vessel intended for that purpose
form a useful, or comely part of the foot. Disorder ensued in foot,
head, face, legs, and arms. By the time Solomon
Wise-in-his-own-conceit had reconstructed the body, it could neither
walk, nor speak, nor smell, nor hear, nor see. The body was,
moreover, filled with intolerable agony, and could find no rest,
every bone crying for restoration to its own place, that is to say,
every one but the heel-bone; that was mightily pleased to be in the
head, and to have the custody of the brains. Sin has introduced
similar disorder amongst men, and even amongst professors of
religion, and into congregations. ‘Let every one keep his own place,
that there be no schism in the body.’ The body can do much, can bear
heavy burdens, all its parts being in their own positions. Even so
in the Church; much good can be done by every member keeping and
filling his own place without high-mindedness.”

“THE MAN IN THE HOUSE OF STEEL.

“A man in a trance saw himself locked up in a house of steel, through
the walls of which, as through walls of glass, he could see his
enemies assailing him with swords, spears, and bayonets; but his life
was safe, for his fortress was locked within. So is the Christian
secure amid the assaults of the world. His ‘life is hid with Christ
in God.’

“The Psalmist prayed, ‘When my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead
me to the Rock that is higher than I.’ Imagine a man seated on a
lofty rock in the midst of the sea, where he has everything necessary
for his support, shelter, safety, and comfort. The billows heave and
break beneath him, and the hungry monsters of the deep wait to devour
him; but he is on high, above the rage of the former, and the reach
of the latter. Such is the security of faith.

“But why need I mention the rock, and the steel house? for the peace
that is in Christ is a tower ten thousand times stronger, and a
refuge ten thousand times safer. Behold the disciples of Jesus
exposed to famine, nakedness, peril, and sword—incarcerated in
dungeons; thrown to wild beasts; consumed in the fire; sawn asunder;
cruelly mocked, and scourged; driven from friends, and home, to
wander among the mountains, and lodge in dens, and caves of the
earth; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; sorrowful, but always
rejoicing; cast down, but not destroyed; an ocean of peace within,
which swallows up all their sufferings.

“‘Neither death,’ with all its terrors; ‘nor life,’ with all its
allurements; ‘nor things present,’ with all their pleasure, ‘nor
things to come,’ with all their promise; ‘nor height’ of prosperity;
‘nor depth’ of adversity; ‘nor angels’ of evil; ‘nor principalities’
of darkness; ‘shall be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus.’ ‘God is our refuge, and strength; a very
present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the
earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst
of the sea—though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the
mountains shake with the swelling thereof.’ This is the language of
strong faith in the peace of Christ. How is it with you amid such
turmoil, and commotion? Is all peaceful within? Do you feel secure
in the name of the Lord, as in a strong fortress, as in a city well
supplied, and defended?

“‘There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of
God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. God is in
the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and
that right early.’ ‘Unto the upright, there ariseth light in the
darkness.’ The bright and morning star, shining upon their pathway,
cheers them in their journey home to their Father’s house. And when
they come to pass over Jordan, the Sun of Righteousness shall have
risen upon them, with healing in His wings. Already they see the
tops of the mountains of immortality, gilded with his beams, beyond
the valley of the shadow of death. Behold, yonder, old Simeon
hoisting his sails, and saying, ‘Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant
depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation.’ Such is the peace of Jesus, sealed to all them that
believe by the blood of His cross.

“When we walk through the field of battle, slippery with blood, and
strewn with the bodies of the slain—when we hear the shrieks, and the
groans of the wounded, and the dying—when we see the country wasted,
cities burned, houses pillaged, widows, and orphans wailing in the
track of the victorious army, we cannot help exclaiming, ‘Oh, what a
blessing is peace!’ When we are obliged to witness family turmoils,
and strifes—when we see parents, and children, brothers, and sisters,
masters, and servants, husbands, and wives, contending with each
other like tigers—we retire as from a smoky house, and exclaim as we
go, ‘Oh, what a blessing is peace!’ When duty calls us into that
church, where envy, and malice prevail, and the spirit of harmony is
supplanted by discord, and contention—when we see brethren, who ought
to be bound together in love, full of pride, hatred, confusion, and
every evil work—we quit the unhallowed scene with painful feelings of
repulsion, repeating the exclamation, ‘Oh, what a blessing is peace!’

“But how much more precious in the case of the awakened sinner! See
him standing, terror-stricken, before Sinai. Thunders roll above
him—lightnings flash around him—the earth trembles beneath him, as if
ready to open her mouth, and swallow him up. The sound of the
trumpet rings through his soul, ‘Guilty! guilty! guilty!’ Pale and
trembling, he looks eagerly around him, and sees nothing but
revelations of wrath. Overwhelmed with fear, and dismay, he cries
out—‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me! What shall I
do?’ A voice reaches his ear, penetrates his heart—‘Behold the Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!’ He turns his eyes to
Calvary. Wondrous vision! Emmanuel expiring upon the cross! the
sinner’s Substitute satisfying the demand of the law against the
sinner! Now all his fears are hushed, and rivers of peace flow into
his soul. This is the peace of Christ.

“How precious is this peace, amid all the dark vicissitudes of life!
How invaluable this jewel, through all the dangers of the wilderness!
How cheering to know that Jesus, who hath loved us even unto death,
is the pilot of our perilous voyage; that He rules the winds, and the
waves, and can hush them to silence at His will, and bring the
frailest bark of faith to the desired haven! Trusting where he
cannot trace his Master’s footsteps, the disciple is joyful amid the
darkest dispensations of Divine Providence; turning all his sorrows
into songs, and all his tribulations into triumphs. ‘Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he
trusteth in Thee.’”

“THE PARABLE OF THE CHURCH AS AN ARK AMONG THE BULRUSHES OF THE NILE.

“I see an ark of bulrushes, daubed with slime, and pitch, placed on
the banks of the Nile, which swarmed with fierce crocodiles.
Pharaoh’s daughter espies it, and sends her maidens to find out what
there can be in it. Little Moses was there, with a face of
miraculous beauty, to charm the princess of Egypt. She determined to
adopt him as her son. Behold, a great wonder. On the brink of the
river, where the three great crocodiles—the Devil, Sin, and
Death—have devoured their millions, there lay those who it was seen,
before the foundation of the world, would be adopted into the court
of heaven. The Gospel comes forth like a royal princess, with pardon
in her hand, and mercy in her eye; and hastening with her
handmaidens, she glances at the thousands asleep in the perils of
sin. They had favour in her sight, and she sent for her maidens,
called Justification, and Sanctification, to train them for the
inheritance of the saints.”

“THE HANDWRITING.

“When Adam sinned, there was issued against him the writ of death,
written by the finger of God in the book of the moral law. Adam had
heard it read before his fall, but in seeking to become a god, by
eating of the fruit of the tree, had forgotten it. Now God read it
in his conscience, and he was overwhelmed with fear. But the promise
of a Redeemer having been given, Mercy arranged that sacrifices
should be offered as a typical payment of the debt. When God
appeared on Sinai, to enter into covenant with His people, He brought
this writ in His hand, and the whole camp understood, from the
requirements of the law, that they must perish; their lives had been
forfeited. Mercy devised that a bullock’s blood should be shed,
instead of the blood of man. The worshippers in the temple were
bound to offer living sacrifices to God, that they might die in their
stead, and be consumed. Manoah feared the flames of the sacrifice
that was offered upon the rock; but his wife understood that, since
the angel had ascended in the flame, in their stead, it was a
favourable omen. Every worshipper, by offering other lives instead
of their own on the altars of God, acknowledged that the
‘handwriting’ was in force against them, and their high priest had
minutely to confess all their sins ‘over’ the victim. Yet, by all
the blood that ever crimsoned Levi’s robe, and the altars of God, no
real atonement was made for sin, nor forgiveness procured for the
smallest crime. All the sacrifices made a remembrance of sin, but
were no means of pardon. More than two thousand years the question
had been entertained, how to reconcile man with God. The
‘handwriting’ was real on Mount Ebal every year; meanwhile the debt
was fast accumulating, and new bills were being constantly filed.
The books were opened from time to time; but to meet the claims there
was nothing brought to the altar but the blood of sacrifices, as a
sort of draft in the name of Christ upon the Bank of Gold. When
Heaven, and earth had grown weary of this fictitious or seeming,
pardon of sin, I hear a voice exclaim: ‘Away with sacrifices, and
burnt-offerings: Heaven has no pleasure in them; a body has been
prepared for me. Lo, I come to reconcile man with God by one
sacrifice.’ He came, ‘leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon
the hills.’ Calling at the office where the ‘handwriting’ lay, when
only eight days old, He signed with His own blood an acknowledgment
of the debt, saying: ‘This is an earnest, and a pledge that my
heart’s blood shall be freely given.’ The three-and-thirty years
have expired; I see Him in Gethsemane, with the priceless purse of
gold which He had borne with Him through the courts of Caiaphas and
Pilate; but to them the image, and the superscription on the coin was
a mystery. The Father, however, recognised them in the court of
Sinai, where the ‘handwriting’ was that demanded the life of the
whole world. The day following, ‘the Virgin’s Son’ presented Himself
to pay the debt in liquid gold; and the treasure which He bore would
have set free a myriad worlds. He passes along the streets of
Jerusalem towards Sinai’s office; the mercy-seat is removed to ‘the
place of skulls;’ as He proceeds, He exclaims: ‘I am come not to
destroy, but to fulfil the law.’ Send in, before the hour of three,
each curse, and threat ever pronounced against my people. Bring in
the first old bill against Adam as their head. I will redeem a
countless host of infants to-day; their names shall be taken out of
old Eden’s accounts. Bring in the many transgressions which have
been filed through the ages, from Adam until now; include Peter’s
denial of me last night; but as to Judas, he is a son of perdition,
he has no part in me, having sold me for thirty pieces of silver. We
have here an exhaustless crimson treasure,—enough to meet the demand;
enough to fill every promise, and every prophecy with mercy; enough
to make my beloved, and myself happy, and blest for ever! By three
in the afternoon of that day, there was not a bill in all Eden, or
Sinai, that had not been brought to the cross. And when all was
settled, Christ bowed down His head, but cried with a loud voice: ‘It
is finished!’ The gates of death, and hell trembled, and shook.
‘The posts of the doors moved at the voice.’ The great gulf between
God, and His people was closed up. Sinai appeared with the offering,
and grew still; the lightnings no longer flashed, and the thunder
ceased to roar.”

“DEATH AS AN INOCULATOR.

“Death may be conceived of as a gigantic inoculator. He carries
about with him a monstrous box, filled with deadly matter, with which
he has infected every child of Adam. The whole race of man is doomed
by this law of death. But see! This old inoculator gets paid back
in his own coin. The Son of Man, humbling Himself to death, descends
into the tomb, but rises immortal. He seized death in Joseph’s
grave. But, amazing spectacle! with the matter of His own
immortality He inoculated mortality with death, whose lifeless corpse
will be seen, on the resurrection morning, among the ruins of His
people’s graves; while they, with one voice, will rend the air as if
eternity opened its mouth, exclaiming: ‘O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?’”

“TIME.

“Time, considered as a whole, is the age of the visible creation. It
began with the fiat, ‘Let there be light;’ and it will end with the
words: ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father,’ and ‘Go, ye cursed.’ Each
river, and mountain, town, and city, hovel, and palace, every son,
and daughter of Adam, must undergo the change, pass away, for
whatever is seen is only for a time. The time of restoration, by the
presence of the glory of Christ, will be the morning of judgment, and
resurrection. That morning will be the last of time: then eternity
begins. From that time, each man will dwell in his everlasting home:
the ungodly in a lake of fire, that will burn for ever; while the
joy, and happiness of the blest will know no end.

“Oh the fearfulness of the word _everlasting_, written over the door
of the lake of fire! Oh the happiness it will create when read above
the eternal kingdom!

“Time is the age of the visible world; but eternity is the age of
God. This limitless circle centres in Him. The age of the visible
world is divided into years, and days, according to the revolutions
of the earth, and sun,—into weeks, in memory of the world’s creation,
and the resurrection of Christ,—into hours, minutes, seconds, and
moments. These last can scarcely be distinguished, yet they are
parts of the great body of time; but seven thousand years constitute
no part of eternity. One day, and a thousand years, yea, millions of
years, are alike, compared with the age of God, forming no part of
the vast changeless circle that knows neither loss, nor gain. The
age of time is winding up by minutes, days, and years: the age of God
is one endless to-day; and such will be your age, and mine, when we
have once passed the limits of time, beyond which Lazarus is blessed,
and the rich man tormented. My brethren in the ministry, who in
years gone by travelled with me from one Association to another, are
to-day living in that great endless hour!

“Time is an age of changes, revolutions, and reforms; but eternity is
calm, stationary, and changeless. He who enters upon it an enemy to
God, faithless, prayerless, unpardoned, and unregenerate, remains so
for ever. Great changes take place in time, for which the new song
in eternity will never cease. Natures have been changed, and enmity
has been abolished. In time, the life covenant was broken, and man
formed, and sealed his compact with hell. One, equal with God, died
upon the cross, in the form of a servant, to destroy the works of the
devil, and to unite man, and God in the bond of peace through His own
blood. Time, and language would fail to recount what in time has
been accomplished, involving changes from life, to death, and from
death, to life. Here the pure have become denied, and the guiltless
condemned; and here, also, the sinner has been justified, the
polluted cleansed, the poor enriched, the enemy reconciled, and the
dead have been made alive, where one paradise has been lost, and a
better regained. The new song from the midst of eternity sounds in
our ears. Hear it! It has for its subjects one event that took
place in eternity, and three that have transpired in time: ‘Unto Him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath
made us kings, and priests unto God, and His Father: to Him be glory,
and dominion for ever, and ever. Amen.’”

“THE TIMEPIECE.

“You may move the hands on the dial-plate this way, and the other,
and finger as you please the machinery within, but if there be no
mainspring there your labour will be in vain. So the ‘hands’ of
men’s lives will not move, in holy obedience, at the touch of the
law, unless the mainspring be supplied by God through the Gospel;
then only will the whole life revolve on the pivot of the love of
Christ, as upon an imperishable diamond. It is not difficult to get
the timepiece to act well, if the internal machinery be in proper
order; so, with a right spirit within, Lydia attends to the word,
Matthew leaves ‘the receipt of custom,’ Saul of Tarsus prays; and the
three thousand repent, believe, and turn unto the Lord.

“A gentleman’s timepieces were once out of order, and they were
examined, when it was found that in one of them the mainspring was
injured; the glass which protected the dial-plate of the other was
broken; while the machinery of the third had got damp, and rusty,
although the parts were all there. So the lack of holiness, in some
cases, arises from the want of heart to love God; another man has not
the glass of watchfulness in his conduct; another has got rusty with
backsliding from God, and the sense of guilt so clogs the wheels of
his machinery, that they must be well brushed with rebuke, and
correction, and oiled afresh with the Divine influence, before they
will ever go well again.

“The whole of a Christian’s life is a reaching forward; but he has to
begin afresh, like the people of Israel in the wilderness; or, like a
clock, he has constantly to recommence at the figure one, and go on
to that of twelve, through all the years of his experience on earth.
But after the resurrection, he will advance, body, and soul, to the
figure of million of millions, never to begin again throughout
eternity. The sun in that world will never rise, nor set; it will
have neither east, nor west! How often has an invisible hand wound
up thy religious spirit below, but there the weights will never come
down again!”

“PARABLE OF THE BIRDS.

“A gentleman kept in his palace a dove, a raven, and an eagle. There
was but little congeniality, or friendship amongst them. The dove
ate its own proper food, and lodged in the aviary. The raven fed on
carrion, and sometimes would pick out the eyes of an innocent lamb,
and had her nest in the branches of a tree. The eagle was a royal
bird; it flew very high, and was of a savage nature; it would care
nothing to eat half-a-dozen doves for its breakfast. It was
considered the chief of all birds, because it could fly higher than
all. All the doves feared its beak, its angry eyes, and sharp
talons. When the gentleman threw corn in the yard for the dove, the
raven would be engaged in eating a piece of flesh, a part of a lamb
haply; and the eagle in carrying a child from the cradle to its
eyrie. The dove is the evangelical, industrious, godly professor;
the raven is the licentious, and unmanageable professor; and the
eagle the high-minded, and self-complacent one. These characters are
too often amongst us; there is no denomination in church, or
meeting-house, without these three birds, if there be birds there at
all. These birds, so unlike, so opposed, never can live together in
peace. Let us pray, brethren, for union of spirit in the bond of
peace.”

“PARABLE OF THE VINE-TREE, THE THORN, THE BRAMBLE, AND THE CEDAR.

“The trees of Lebanon held a council to elect a king, on the death of
their old sovereign, the Yew-tree. It was agreed to offer the
sovereignty to the Cedar; at the same time, in the event of the
Cedar’s declining it, to the Vine-tree, and then to the Olive-tree.
They all refused it. The Cedar said, ‘I am high enough already.’
The Vine said, ‘I prefer giving forth my rich juice to gladden man’s
heart.’ In like manner, the Olive was content with giving its fruit,
and would receive no other honour. Recourse was then had to the
Thorn. The Thorn gladly received the office; saying to itself, ‘I
have nothing to lose but this white dress, and a berry for pigs,
while I have prickles enough to annoy the whole wood.’ The Bramble
rebelled against the Thorn, and a fire of pride, and envy was
kindled, which, at length, wrapped the whole forest in one blaze.
Two or three vain, and high-minded men have frequently broken up the
peace of congregations; and, by striving for the mastery, have
inflicted on the cause of religion incalculable injuries; when they
have had no more fitness for rule than the white-thorn, or the
prickly bramble.”

The following extract is of another order; it is more lengthy, and it is upon a theme which always drew forth the preacher’s most exulting notes:—

“THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD.

“Let us now consider the fact of our Lord’s resurrection, and its
bearing upon the great truths of our holy religion.

“This most transcendent of miracles is sometimes attributed to the
agency of the Father; who, as the Lawgiver, had arrested, and
imprisoned in the grave the sinner’s Surety, manifesting at once His
benevolence, and His holiness; but by liberating the prisoner,
proclaimed that the debt was cancelled, and the claims of the law
satisfied. It is sometimes attributed to the Son Himself; who had
power both to lay down His life, and to take it again; and the merit
of whose sacrifice entitled Him to the honour of thus asserting His
dominion over death, on behalf of His people. And sometimes it is
attributed to the Holy Spirit, as in the following words of the
Apostle:—‘He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according
to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’

“_The resurrection of Christ is a clear and incontestable proof of
His Divinity_.

“He had declared Himself equal with God the Father, and one with Him
in nature, and in glory. He had told the people that He would prove
the truth of this declaration, by rising from the grave three days
after His death. And when the morning of the third day began to dawn
upon the sepulchre, lo! there was an earthquake, and the dead body
arose, triumphant over the power of corruption.

“This was the most stupendous miracle ever exhibited on earth, and
its language is:—‘Behold, ye persecuting Jews and murdering Romans,
the proof of my Godhead! Behold, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, the power,
and glory of your Victim!’ ‘I am He that liveth, and was dead; and
lo! I am alive for evermore!’ ‘I am the root, and the offspring of
David, and the Bright, and Morning Star!’ ‘Look unto Me, and be ye
saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and besides Me there
is none else!’

“_Our Lord’s resurrection affords incontrovertible evidence of the
truth of Christianity_.

“Pilate wrote the title of Christ in three languages on the cross;
and many have written excellent, and unanswerable things, on the
truth of the Christian Scriptures, and the reality of the Christian
religion; but the best argument that has ever been written on the
subject was written by the invisible hand of the Eternal Power, in
the rocks of our Saviour’s sepulchre. This confounds the sceptic,
settles the controversy, and affords an ample, and sure foundation
for all them that believe.

“If any one asks whether Christianity is from heaven, or of men, we
point him to the ‘tomb hewn out of the rock,’ and say—‘There is your
answer! Jesus was crucified, and laid in that cave; but on the
morning of the third day it was found empty; our Master had risen,
and gone forth from the grave victorious.’

“This is the pillar that supports the whole fabric of our religion;
and he who attempts to pull it down, like Samson, pulls ruin upon
himself. ‘If Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins;’ but if the fact is
clearly proved, then Christianity is unquestionably true, and its
disciples are safe.

“This is the ground on which the Apostle stood, and asserted the
divinity of his faith:—‘Moreover, I testify unto you the gospel,
which I preached unto you; which also ye have received, and wherein
ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain; for I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was
buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the
Scriptures.’

“_The resurrection of Jesus is the most stupendous manifestation of
the power of God_, _and the pledge of eternal life to His people_.

“The apostle calls it ‘the exceeding greatness of His power to
usward, who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.’ This
is a river overflowing its banks—an idea too large for language. Let
us look at it a moment.

“Where do we find ‘the exceeding greatness of His power’? In the
creation of the world? in the seven Stars and Orion? in the strength
of Behemoth and Leviathan? No! In the Deluge? in the fiery
destruction of Sodom? in the overthrow of Pharaoh, and his host? in
hurling Nebuchadnezzar, like Lucifer, from the political firmament?
No! It is the power which He wrought in Christ. When? When He
healed the sick? when He raised the dead? when He cast out devils?
when He blasted the fruitless fig-tree? when He walked upon the
waters of Galilee? No! It was ‘when He raised Him from the dead.’
Then the Father placed the sceptre in the hands of the Son, ‘and set
Him above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come; and put all things under His feet, and gave Him to
be Head over all things to the Church.’

“This is the source of our spiritual life. The same power that
raised the dead body of our Lord from the grave, quickens the soul of
the believer from the death in trespasses, and sins. His riven tomb
is a fountain of living waters; whereof, if a man drink, he shall
never die. His raised, and glorified body is the sun, whence streams
eternal light upon our spirits; the light of life, that never can be
quenched.

“Nor here does the influence of His resurrection end. ‘He who raised
up Jesus from the dead shall, also, quicken our mortal bodies.’ His
resurrection is the pledge, and the pattern of ours. ‘Because He
lives, we shall live also.’ ‘He shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.’ We hear Him speaking
in the Prophet:—‘Thy dead shall live; together with my dead body
shall they arise. Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for
thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her
dead.’

“How divinely does the Apostle speak of the resurrection-body of the
saints! ‘It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it
is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness,
it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a
spiritual body. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory! O
death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting? Thanks be
unto God that giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

“Ever since the fall in Eden, man is born to die. He lives to die.
He eats, and drinks, sleeps, and wakes, to die. Death, like a dark
steel-clad warrior, stands ever before us; and his gigantic shadow
comes continually between us, and happiness. But Christ hath
‘abolished death, and brought life, and immortality to light through
the gospel.’ He was born in Bethlehem, that He might die on Calvary.
He was made under the law, that He might bear the direst penalty of
the law. He lived thirty-three years, sinless, among sinners, that
He might offer Himself a sin-offering for sinners upon the cross.
Thus ‘He became obedient unto death,’ that He might destroy the power
of death; and on the third morning, a mighty angel, rolling away the
stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, makes the very door of death’s
castle the throne whence He proclaims ‘the resurrection, and the
life.’

“The Hero of our salvation travelled into Death’s dominion, took
possession of the whole territory on our behalf, and returning, laden
with spoils, ascended to the Heaven of heavens. He went to the
palace, seized the tyrant, and wrested away his sceptre. He
descended into the prison-house, knocked off the fetters of the
captives; and when He came up again, left the door of every cell
open, that they might follow Him. He has gone over into our promised
inheritance, and His glory illuminates the mountains of immortality;
and through the telescope which He has bequeathed us we ‘see the land
which is very far off.’

“I recollect reading, in the writings of Flavel, this sentiment—that
the souls in Paradise wait, with intense desire, for the reanimation
of their dead bodies, that they may be united to them in bliss for
ever. Oh what rapture there shall be among the saints, when those
frail vessels, from which they escaped with such a struggle, as they
foundered in the gulf of death, shall come floating in, with the
spring-tide of the resurrection, to the harbour of immortality! How
glorious the reunion, when the seeds of affliction, and death are
left behind in the tomb! Jacob no longer lame, nor Moses slow of
speech, nor Lazarus covered with sores, nor Paul troubled with a
thorn in the flesh!

“‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.’
The glory of the body of Christ is far above our present conception.
When He was transfigured on Tabor, His face shone like the sun, and
His raiment was white as the light. This is the pattern shown to His
people on the mount. This is the model after which the bodies of
believers shall be fashioned in the resurrection. ‘They that be wise
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn
many to righteousness, as the stars for ever, and ever.’

“In conclusion:—The angel said to the woman, ‘Go quickly, and tell
His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and behold, He goeth
before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him; lo! I have told
you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre, with fear, and
great joy; and did run to bring His disciples word.’

“Brethren! followers of Jesus! be ye also preachers of a risen
Saviour! Go quickly—there is no time for delay—and publish the glad
tidings to sinners! Tell them that Christ died for their sins, and
rose again for their justification, and ascended to the right hand of
the Father to make intercession for them, and is now able to save
unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him!