repentance, and who are therefore included among the wheat. But other parables there are which tell of God's mercy to returning penitents; and of sins pardoned, though the sum of them be as of ten thousand talents; and of the Father having compassion on His prodigal but contrite son, and running and falling on his neck and kissing him; and of great joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth. And therefore I would earnestly invite each and all. who either by living in allowed sin, or by the careless, fruitless profession of Christianity, are proved not yet to be of the children of the Kingdom, to fly from the condemnation of the last day, by returning now to God through Jesus Christ. Do not shrink from examining your hearts and lives, and laying your sins in sorrowful confession before God. Entreat His pardon in the all-prevailing Name and merits of His dear Son, who is the propitiation for our sins. Steadily, earnestly, but humbly, and in distrust of yourselves, resolve to lead henceforth a new and holier life; and pray for the transforming grace of the Holy Ghost; pray for a new heart and a new spirit; pray that old things having passed away, and all things being made new, you may no longer be as tares in the Lord's field, but may bring forth fruit to His glory and your own salvation. 3. And now, lastly, we may observe, that by this parable the servants of God should be fortified against the temptation which so often assails their faith, when they find themselves opposed, injured, and thwarted by evil, and by evil men, even within the Church. That it must be so is the consequence of their Lord's command, “Let both grow together until the harvest." 5 That it is good for them that it should be so, is the conclusion of faith from the fact, that it is His command who makes "all things work together for good to them that love him 4." What if the mingling of evil with good occasions them a struggle and conflict? Are they not Christ's soldiers, vowed to fight under His banner? What if it lays upon them a heavy burden of temptation? Have they not to take up their cross to follow Christ? What if it increases their sufferings? Was "it not even hereunto they were called? because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps "." What if it darkens life with many a sorrow, and the tried heart knows but too well its own bitterness? Is it not through much tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom of God? And is not "our light affliction which is but for a moment" to "work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory "?" Only let them be watchful against temptation, and circumspect; only let them beware of conforming to the evil which surrounds them; only let every trial bring them nearer to Christ, and make them trust more simply and entirely on His grace; and even here they may have cause to bless the Lord, that He has permitted the tares to remain among the wheat. Meanwhile let them remember that it is but for a little time; that the day is drawing on, when the Son of man will come to gather in His harvest. Then will their trials be over, and their conflict ended. Then will temptation be no more, and sin impossible. Then 4 Rom. viii. 28. 5 1 Pet. ii. 21. will they, clothed in white robes of righteousness, "washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb," "shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." "Who hath ears to hear,” adds our blessed Saviour, "let him hear." SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, LONDON. THE DEVIL'S WORKS DESTROYED. 1 JOHN iii. 8. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." (From the Epistle for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.) THE manifestation in human flesh of the second Person in the ever-blessed Godhead is, so far as we know, and perhaps cannot but be, without a parallel in the history of the universe. Time travailed in birth with it, till it came to pass; and from it all future existence takes its impression and destiny. So wonderful an event must be many-sided in its aspects, and manifold in its results; and, accordingly, its purpose is described in Scripture under a variety of phrases. In regard to mankind, Christ came to save sinners, to take away our sins, to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, to deliver us from the wrath to come. With perhaps a wider reference, embracing other orders of being, He purposed to destroy the works of the devil, to gather all things in one in Himself, and to reconcile all things unto the Father. And again, viewed in relation to God, the eternal Son came forth to do His will, and glorify His Name, and give world-wide utterance to the infinite love of His heart. All these expressions indicate differing parts of the one comprehensive purpose for which the Incarnation was decreed; and as our thoughts climb by them, as by so many steps, to loftier and wider views of God's majestic working, most fitly shall we exclaim [No. 14.] 185 with the Apostle, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God1!" One such phrase we are now to consider. If not of the widest order, it is at least comprehensive enough for all our needs, and shines bright on the inspired page as a charter of hope to suffering man. It will be convenient to take the subject in this order. First, "the works of the devil," what are they? Secondly, Christ's destruction of them, in regard to the world generally, and ourselves individually. I. "The works of the devil." Where shall we begin, in the attempt to describe them? From every side they start up; in every guise, physical, intellectual, spiritual, they crowd in on us; with such a multiplicity as to confound our arithmetic, with such a variety as to defy our classification, till the mind is oppressed and bewildered. It takes volumes to relate the works of men who have played a prominent part in the world; but the works of the archenemy are written over every inch of the earth's surface, and over every page of Time. There has been but one greater Worker. Second only to God's are the devil's works. In the world's infancy began his fatal activity. We see it in Paradise faded, and earth's virgin soil burdened with a curse; in the degradation of our first parents, when holy and happy they had come from their Maker's hands, new-minted with His own. image and superscription; in a world quickly reeking with pollution, and at a stroke drowned beneath the avenging waters; in mankind, with confounded tongues, broken up into estranged and hostile tribes; 1 Rom. xi. 33. |