(4.) He is the only way to the Father.

Having thus exhibited himself as the way to the Father, our Lord adds, "No man cometh to the Father but by me,"-i. e., 'There is no other way to the Father.'

In order to the ultimate happiness of a being like man, under the government of a being like God, there must be adequate satisfaction made for the violation of the Divine law. Sin must be expiated in order to its being pardoned. The God of righteousness cannot clear the guilty. And where can expiation be found, but in that blood which, because it is the blood of God's own Son and elect Servant, "cleanseth us from all sin" ?" And not less necessary is a change of heart in the sinner to make him capable of holy happiness in God. No unholy man can ever enter heaven; and were it possible for him to enter it, he could not participate in its enjoyments. Where is this change to be obtained, but by the operation of the Spirit of Christ? And how could that Spirit, so rich a blessing, ever be conferred on men lying under the curse, had not "He who knew no sin, become sin in their room," had not the blessed One become a curse, "to redeem them from that curse, that they might obtain that Spirit"? And how could darkened, blind, bewildered man, find out this way, even supposing it opened, but by Christ," the truth," in his word, by his Spirit making it known? And how could man, "without strength," "dead in trespasses and sins," walk in this way, unless Christ "the life" quickened him, and enabled him to "walk up and down in his name" ?18

Numerous are the plans which perverted human ingenuity has devised to obtain the Divine favor. All these pretended ways to the Father in heaven lead, in reality, in a very different direction. The most likely of these ways into life, is keeping the commandments-understanding by the commandments the whole law. That was once a practicable way to life for man, but since the fall of Adam, the way of entering into life by personal obedience has been completely blocked up. With a depraved nature, will any man ever yield a perfect obedience to the Divine law-holy, just, good, perfectly reasonable, as are all its precepts? And at best, the law speaks on this wise: "He that doeth these things, shall live in them." These were its terms to innocent man. But now, supposing what never has, what never can take place, that man has yielded perfect obedience, from a certain point, What is to become of the guilt previously contracted? how is the curse to be removed? or how is it to be borne? And surely if there be no way into heaven, by doing what the law requires, there cannot be a way to that blessed place, by doing what that law does not require, or what that law forbids; and to one or both of these descriptions belongs every professed way to heaven, but the way which Christ has 17 1 John i. 7. 18 Rom. v. 6. Eph. ii. 1. Zeeh. x. 12.

19 Gal. iii. 12

opened up by his death and intercession, and Spirit, and word, and mediatorial administration. It were strange if we couldby doing what God never commanded, or what God has forbidden, offering "thousands of rams, pouring out ten thousand of rivers of oil, giving the first born for transgressions, the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul"-propitiate Him whom we had offended, and regain the favor which we had lost by our violating his holy commandments. At the senseless bloody rites of pagan superstition, enlightened humanity shudders and weeps. Man seems bereft of reason in seeking the expiation of his crimes, by committing others still more foul. And though less shocking, not less obviously fruitless, and still more presumptuous, must appear the attempts of enlightened civilized men, calling themselves Christians, to secure the favor of God, and attain eternal happiness, by their own self-devised plans, by their own unassisted exertions, without Christ, or in any other way than by Christ.

There is no salvation in any but Christ. He is he alone is -the Saviour. "Other foundation no man can lay"-other way no man can open up: "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus." "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." "His Blood cleanseth us from all sin.”21 No other blood can cleanse from any sin-his Spirit can mortify and destroy all corrupt principles, no other power in the universe can do this. Under his influence the faith of the truth, as it is in Jesus, can pacify the conscience, and purify the heart, and give confidence before God, and fill with peace, and hope, and holy joy. The belief of nothing else can do this. He can bring us to God. No man-no angel-can.

No truth is more explicitly stated than this. No terms can be plainer than those now before us. If we believe them not, we give the lie to him who "is the truth." Life is to be found only in him who is the life; and all who, seeking life, will not come to him to obtain it, shall find that their conduct is like one who loves death, for they could not take more certain means to obtain it. There is no true happiness but in knowing, and being loved by, and having intercourse and fellowship with, the Father; and the Father cannot be acceptably approached, either on earth or in heaven, but through him who is "the way, the truth, and the life." Those, then, who are, either in whole or in part, expecting to find acceptance with God at last, on any ground but that of Christ having gone, through expiatory suffering, to heaven, as our surety and representative, are assuredly deceiving themselves, and will find, to their everlasting disappointment, that they cannot obtain God's favor and fellowship-nay, that they cannot escape destruction from his presence and the glory of his power -who "neglect this great salvation," and contemn, by overlooking, the only Saviour.

20 Mic. vi. 7.

21 Acts iv. 12. 1 Tim. ii. 5. 1 John i. 7.

22 Heb. ii. 3.

To bring a sinner to God-either now, in penitent reception of the gift of his Son, and his salvation, or ultimately, in the enjoyment of perfect holy happiness in heaven,-is a wonderful exercise and manifestation of Divine omnipotence, as well as mercy. All the created powers of the universe are incapable of accomplishing either of these works. Had not God, in the exceeding greatness of his power, by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of his own Son, opened a way for bringing sinners to him as the Father, it must have continued an impossibility for one of our guilty race to experience how good it is to be near him. They must all have perished, being far from him. And, besides these general obstructions in the way of the sinner coming to God, rising out of the perfections of the Divine character, and the principles of the Divine government-difficulties which, from their very nature, are obviously insuperable by any power inferior to infinite, there are other obstructions in the case of every individual sinner, which, if the application, as well as the impetration, of the blessings of salvation were not the work of Omnipotence, would preclude the possibility of the coming of a single sinful soul to God.

There is a stupidity and thoughtlessness natural to men in their present state in reference to religious relations and interests, so great, that if anything approaching to it were manifested in reference to their other relations and interests, we should, without hesitation, reckon it insanity, and treat it accordingly. While this madness of the heart continues-and, alas! it often continues, with scarcely a lucid interval, till they awake, never to sleep again, amid the dread realities of eternity,-men remain unaware of, or unimpressed with, the misery and danger of those who are far from God, and who never can come to Him in mercy. Nothing but the power of God can dispel this stupor, and rouse men from this spiritual lethargy. The strongest reasoning, and the most persuasive eloquence-strains which, by their sweetness, might charm the adder, and by their energy, waken the dead,— produce no permanent impression. It is the voice that called creation into being that alone can effectually awaken thoughtless men to serious consideration.

And even when aroused, a divine power is necessary to make the awakened sinner come to God, in the only way he can be favorably approached by sinners. In the sinner's mind there is an indisposition, invincible by all human means, to "the way" to the Father. It is, no doubt, a great point gained, to have the deep slumbers of moral insensibility broken, and to have men impressed with the reality of unseen and eternal things, the value of the soul, and the danger of its being lost for ever. Would to God we had any ground to hope that this state of feeling were becoming common among thoughtless men. But this is scarcely even the first step from the city of destruction,-rather it is but the impression that there is no staying there. The sinner is not yet in the way to God, and nothing short of divine power will

bring him into it. "It is the unremitting and indefatigable desire of the natural mind, even when awakened, if possible to do without Christ." In the deep insensibility of his natural state, he had no wish to come to God. Now that he sees that he must come to Him, or perish for ever, he would come to Him in any way rather than by Christ: he will pray, fast, go pilgrimages, perform penances, submit to privations, do anything, indeed, in order to come to God-i. e., obtain pardon and security from endless misery, except what God requires him to do-to come to Him through Christ-" the way, the truth, and the life"-in believing his Gospel, depending on his atonement, relying on his Spirit. Simple and reasonable as this demand is, man will not comply with it. No. To do this, requires such an entire relinquishment of self-the cherished idol of the human heart, in all its forms-of pride of understanding, self-will, self-righteousness, self-dependence, self-glorying,-as nothing but the constraining omnipotence of Divine grace will ever induce any of the children of men cordially to make. Yet thus, my brethren, must we come to God, or we never can come to Him at all. Thus we must come, else we can never enjoy His favor here, nor His heaven hereafter. "No man cometh to the Father but by Christ."

These remarks are not intended to throw obstacles in the sinner's way to God, but to remove them. They are intended to impress the conviction, not that sinners cannot be saved but that they cannot be saved except by Christ, not to make them despair of salvation, but to make them despair of salvation without Christ, without Christ's atonement, without Christ's Spirit. "Men have devised innumerable ways of getting to heaven; but none ever were-none ever will be-successful in their attempts to reach it under the conduct of human reason or human fancy. All other ways, except Christ, are delusive paths that lead down to perdition. There were shadows and representations of the way to heaven under the Mosaic dispensation, which were of great use in directing the steps of ancient believers in the way of peace, by directing their eyes to him who was the truth, pointed out by all the typical ordinances. But, when men's blindness and corruption substituted them in the place of that which they prefigured, they were turned into by-paths, which led to the same end with those ways devised by human ignorance." It was only as the way to Christ that the ceremonies of the law were the way to heaven.

I conclude with affectionately warning those who think they are in the way to heaven, while they are not in Christ, "the way, the truth, and the life," that the path they are pursuing will, at the close of life, lead downward, not upwards. Let these "be assured, that the incarnate Only-begotten of God would not have lavished such expense of laboring, and suffering, and blood, to open and consecrate a path to the celestial blessedness, if means less costly could have accomplished the end; and that, as it is the

23 Dr. Lawson.

only way in which it is worthy of Jehovah to grant, so it is the only way in which it is possible for man to receive, access to a holy God, and admission into a holy heaven." While our Lord proclaimed, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," we would proclaim to all wayfarers for eternity that come within the reach of our voice, "This"-this "is the way: walk ye in it."

IV.

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS DEPENDENT ON, AND CORRESPONDING TO, OUR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.

JOHN XIV. 7-11.-"If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father! Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake."

ONE reason why so many of our wants remain unsuppliedso many of our evils unremoved--is ignorance or misapprehension respecting their cause. It is by the cause being removed that the effects are to be got quit of; but while we remain uninformed or misinformed respecting the cause of an evil, we are likely, either to use no means, or to use not the right means, for its removal. We are often painfully sensible of wants which originate in other wants of which we are not sensible at all, and which can never be removed till we become sensible of what may be termed the primary, parent want, and employ the appropriate means of having IT supplied.

It is no uncommon thing for professing, and even real, Christians, to complain of a want of comfort, and, it may be, a want of holiness, while quite, or in a great measure, unconscious of that want of faith in which both these other wants originate. Or, if they admit that they want faith, it is not that faith which consists in believing the well-understood statements of the word of God. They think they understand these very well; they think they be lieve these very firmly. The faith they think they want, is something quite different from this. But they are in a mistake. If they did understand and believe the truth as it is in Jesus, there could not be that want of comfort and holiness which they acknowledge, and of which they complain; and things will never be better till they become sensible of their ignorance and misapprehension, till they discover the primary, parent want, and, in

24 Brown Patterson.