Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

the reconciliation and atonement of lost souls, by the shedding of His atoning blood. And consequent upon the belief of this system, you will see the believer broken down and humbled before God, as a holy, sin-hating God; and, conscious of his transgressions, lying in the very dust, at His footstool, as a God that cannot look upon iniquity. And you will trace the influence of that holiness breathing through his secret thoughts, and the habits of his darkest retirement from human eye, and establishing within him the abhorrence of a questionable thought. And at the same time you will perceive the same individual drawing near to that God in the warmest aspirations of his soul, as a sin-pardoning God, and rising in secret devotion towards that Almighty and immeasurable Being, with all the tenderest feelings of real love and gratitude, and holy, confidential friendship, and chastened familiarity of communication. "Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, therefore my lips shall praise thee." "Whom have I in heaven but Thee!" "This is my beloved," and "this is my friend." The union of these two feelings towards God is one of the great characteristics of all true Christians, and it is founded entirely on the view of God's character as both a just God and a Saviour. This is the fact which is unseen by the world. It is a stumbling-block to unenlightened men; it is the enigma which they cannot unravel; but it is seen by faith, and it gives peace and joy in believing.

Again. The believer discerns the presence and providential agency of God in this world. To other men it is unseen, and the idea of it is made very much the subject of ridicule;

but the Christian sees here also what is unseen by the world. He not only sees as a reality the moral character of God, but he discovers God's presence with him. His first effort in real and sincere religion, is an endeavour to feel after that God to whom he is a stranger, if haply he may find Him. The first experience of real religion is the discovery of God, and the life of real religion is the living with God, living near to Him, living in the light of His countenance, communing with Him as a real Being,a Being who takes an interest in him, and in communicating with him. The existence, presence, and kindly feeling and intercourse of a father, is not a greater certainty to his son, than is the existence, presence, and kindly communication of God with the believer's soul. The intercourse goes on habitually, as any other real intercourse. Events, circumstances, and inward experiences, are referred directly to God; complaints and lamentations are carried directly to Him, and heard; aid is sought and received; guidance is petitioned for and given. The Saviour states the fact of this presence of God with His people in language, the meaning of which even the unbeliever cannot resist, though as long as he is a stranger to the reality, it must be practically unintelligible to him. He said, "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." And Jesus admitted that this was a peculiar manifestation of Himself, in which the unbelieving world could not share; for when one of his disciples asked Him, "How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" He answered, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and

THE THINGS UNSEEN.

my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." This the world therefore cannot comprehend; but this the Christian experiences. In this way we find David saying, "In the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;" and the Saviour saying, “Lo, I am with you always;" and Paul saying, in one of his trials, "All men forsook me, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me;" and Stephen, in the hour of his martyrdom, saying, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." In this way we find Christians of the present day borne up in suffering, or oppression, or persecution, or approaching death, by the sensible presence of their God and Saviour; distressed if any thing impedes that manifest intercourse. And often, in the very crisis of mortality, realizing in the most animating and encouraging manner, and intimating by the most exulting and triumphant language, the increasingly bright manifestation of their Saviour's presence, as they sink in the arms of death.

And if these things are so, and the Christian has the experience of God's presence with him, to teach, to strengthen, and to comfort him, it follows of course, as a secondary matter, that he is able to trace, in a great measure, the providential operations of God's hand in the events of life. There is nothing more natural than the idea that a wise and beneficent Creator, who made and upholds all things, should in a great measure overrule, as a moral Governor, the operations of all things; and that, though here His justice may not be

103

completed, yet, that symptoms of such a government should continually appear. It is equally clear, that the Scripture saints assert the fact of this moral government, or providential interference with the affairs of this life; as in the song of Hannah,— "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and raiseth up :" He "killeth, and maketh alive.” The idea of this providential control is also beautifully expressed in the song of Mary, in which she not only recognizes the Lord's retributive discipline to men in general, but the re membrance and performance of His mercy towards his peculiar people. Yet that truth, to which common sense and Scripture bear an united testimony, is not practically received among men. It is rejected by unbe. lief. And you will find that any one speaking on the common affairs of life, as calculating upon such an agency, would be received with contempt, as a vapouring enthusiast. Unbelieving men never look higher than second causes: the physician, to his medicine; the politician, to his contrivance; the merchant, to his experience; the strong, to his strength. And yet "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet fayour to men of skill." But the attention of the true Christian is fixed upon the providence of God. He surveys the grand scheme which has been in operation from the beginning; he reads of its gradual development in earlier days; he watches the events of the present age, as tending to its completion. In the revolutions and fates of empires, and the great moral changes of society, he sees parts, to him perhaps inexplicable, of the great

plan; but interesting as they tend to the fulfilment of the Divine will. He sees the hand of God ordering all events; even to the clouds that roll in restlessness along the sky, and delay the appointed weeks of harvest; when the clouds refuse to give the former and the latter rain, and the hope of the husbandman withers in the clods of the valley. And in his personal history, he traces yet more evidently the actual interference of his merciful Father, shielding him from evil, or appointing him to chastening. And the more he inspects his own case, the more he ascertains that the character of these dealings with him, when put in comparison with the moral discipline which he needed, would go directly to vindicate and establish the infinite wisdom and goodness of God, "He knows the way that I take," "Wisdom is justified of her children." And when we say that the Christian thus discerns the providence of God, we do not mean merely that he is rationally convinced of it. This may be the case with many, without any direct practical result. The Christian's at tention is directed to it. He feels that he must not calculate upon events, or reason on them, without taking the providence of God into the account. This he looks upon as the main agent in the production of all great results. The philosopher does not see the principle of gravity in falling bodies, or the principle of life in self-moved bodies, more clearly than the Christian sees the hand of God in the events of life. And it is his delight to see it, and daily to realize the fact of his being within the range of the uncontrollable operations of a benevolent Sovereign.

of this world sees the invisible God. He comprehends and approves His character; he lives in His presence; and he sees with a discriminating eye, and with a thankful heart, the operations of His providence.

But in the next place, he looks at the invisible world. The visible universe, within whose range our present habitation is appointed, is awfully capacious and magnificent, and it fills the minds of many. Anything beyond this, and their present duration in it, is so vague and indefinite, as scarcely to occupy a serious thought. These are "the things which are not seen." But there is a certain sense in which they are seen by the Christian. The unseen realities of a future state come up before the mind. The Christian looks beyond the bound of this material world to the illimitable expanse of another existence, and there he regards the things which now exist and the things which are promised.

never seen.

And first. The unseen realities which now exist. The fact of another kind of existence, where departed spirits are now in the more immediate presence of God, is with him as much a truth as the existence of other countries on this globe that he has "Ye are come," says St. Paul, "unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." What are the facts which are here stated? That there is a heavenly city, "the city of the So far, then, the Christian pilgrim living God;" that the Judge of all is

THE THINGS UNSEEN.

there surrounded by an innumerable company of angels; that Jesus is there as the Mediator; that the presentation of His blood, as the sprinkled blood of the atonement, is effectual for the redemption of the lost souls of men; and that in virtue of it, "the spirits of just men made perfect” are admitted there, are now there,-one general assembly, one glorious church. These are facts, to the ascertaining of which the believing mind has arrived. They are as much realities to it, as the merey-seat, and the ark, and the intercession and incense of the high priest, were to the Israelites, who were without the vail that covered the holiest of all. Nothing but a filmy vail seems to separate the two compartments of the Divine operations. And as the vail of the temple was wrought all over with cherubim, so the near connexion between the seen and the unseen world, is made more manifest by the ministration of angels, who are sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation.

But, besides this, the Christian looks at the things which are promised. A day is coming when the vail will be taken away, and the mysteries of eternity laid open. It is the day when God will complete the dispensation of His grace, and perfect the things concerning His kingdom. The Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him; He shall come with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God; and the throne of judgment shall be set, and the books shall be opened, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and the sea and the grave shall give up their dead; and all men shall be judged according to their works; and the Saviour shall then glorify His saints, and be glorified in them; and

.

105

they shall dwell in the holy Jerusalem, which is above, and which has the glory of God; and there delivered from every principle and passion that defileth, they shall see the face of God and of the Lamb; they shall drink of the pure river of the water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb; and they shall eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God; and they shall serve God day and night, and know even as they are known, and reign for ever and ever. All these things are specifically promised in so many words. They are the words of Eternal truth, and they are as much a matter of certainty, as that God made the world and sustains it. To these promised glories the Christian looks with animated hope. Every thing else is uncertain and unsatisfactory; but there, in the full manifestation of God's glorious salvation,— there is fulness; there is enjoyment suited to the expanded capacities of an immortal mind; and to this the believer turns in all the vicissitudes of his earthly pilgrimage, as to an ample compensation for his present trials,-a destiny worthy of his origin, the certain issue of his light and momentary afflictions, in a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

We proceed, in the second place, to attempt an explanation of the nature of that regard with which the Christian surveys these eternal, invisible realities. We say, to attempt an explanation, because we enter here upon one of the most difficult portions of theological inquiry. The terms of Scripture imply a difficulty. These things are not seen, yet they are looked at. They are not seen in any way by some; but in a certain sense they are seen by others. They are

not seen by any, in the common notion of seeing, with the natural eye; but at the same time they are perceived and realized with an intensity of influential perception fully equal to the effects of natural vision. This, however, is the privilege of the believer. He will readily admit the truth, and feel the force of the statement we have to make in explanation of this seeming paradox; while other men will call all such declarations enthusiasm, or else liberally give us credit for sincerity in our statements, and consequently admit that some do possess a degree of spiritual perception to which they have not attained.

And first. We would say that the Christian receives the declaration of these unseen realities by faith in a credible testimony. The Scriptures, substantiated by every needful testimony as an inspired message from God, declare unequivocally the character of God, and His operations in redemption, and in providence. They affirm, also, all that we have stated of the unseen world. Now the Christian receives these affirmations, not with the half-satisfied assent,—the almost faithless acknowledgment of their Divine origin,—but with implicit reliance and submission; in fact, with faith, the ready, unequivocal acceptance of them as truths, so as to confide in them without reserve in the very respects in which they require confidence. In his conscience, he does not doubt the amplitude and efficacy of the grace of Christ,―the present joys of the redeemed who have died in the Lord, the present agonies of the departed impenitent. The principle of faith which he has received, makes the declaration of the testimony substantial realities to him. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the

evidence of things not seen." We cannot make this plain to an unbelieving mind; we can only affirm the fact; we can exhibit the plain words of the testimony, and say, This is to us a reality, and has all the force of it. And he will read with us the plain, unequivocal declaration, and allow it to be the word of God, and to mean such and such things; and yet he will say, I cannot see them. It does not follow that it should be so. It may be otherwise.

But again. We must not suppose that the acceptance of this testimony constitutes the whole of the Christian's looking at invisible things; for if so, it might be said that we only see God as we see the continent of India, i.e. we have a belief in its existence. This, however, falls far below the powers of spiritual perception. It must be remembered, that the reason why one man receives the testimony and another does not, though the evidence for it is quite conclusive and sufficient for either mind, is, that God in the one case mercifully overrules the moral unwillingness to receive the testimony on such a subject, and gives the individual power to become His son, so that in the Scripture he is said thenceforth to be born of God. This power is a spiritual power; it is called a quickening, an awakening from the dead; a receiving life and light from Christ. It is the gift of a spiritual influence, the fruit of which is this implicit faith in that record which before was disregarded. We affirm, then, that the things which are not seen by the material eye, and which are in no way visible to the unbeliever, are in the operation of faith spiritually manifested to the believing mind. Faith in the distinct testimony is the basis of all know

« VorigeDoorgaan »