As it is in nature, before the actual rising of the sun, that certain beams of light are visible, and, however inadequate to all our wants, serve many useful purposes: so was it with that spiritual light which had now fully risen. It had long been glimmering in dim and partial rays, before the prophet's words received their certain accomplishment, before it could be said of Jerusalem, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." 3

4

It was by that earlier light that some of the heathen, wiser than their fellows, and emerging out of the general ignorance, were led to "seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.” As certain of their poets said, "For we are also his offspring." Led by this light, they worshipped the powers which they perceived to be above them, though they worshipped they knew not what: so that Paul, as he "passed by and beheld their devotions, found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God." 5 And much farther would that light have conducted them, if they had not too often quenched it, because they "did not like to retain God in their knowledge." 6

Still, more particularly among the Jewish people this life was the light of men. Many had come to the light; had received life, had feared God, and wrought righteousness, "looking for glory, and honour, and immortality." It was by this light that "Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." It was by this light that Enoch walked with God: that Abraham obeyed the call of God, and left his country and his

kindred, looking for a better habitation, eternal in the heavens. It was by this light that Moses was enabled to refuse the pleasures of sin for a season, which he might have enjoyed at the court of Pharaoh, and "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." It was by this light that many prophets and righteous men, "of whom the world was not worthy, died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."7

But still there was too just cause to say, as St. John goes on to add, The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The law was but "a shadow of good things to come," and could not be compared with "the very image of the things" which had now been manifested to the world. Prophecy was as "a light that shineth in a dark place;" and even they who uttered it, desired to see the things which were now seen, and had not seen them; "inquired and searched diligently, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." The vast scheme undertaken by the Son of God, when he came to "give his life a ransom for many," could be but obscurely perceived and imperfectly understood, before the facts interpreted the predictions. The state of man, in regard to the things of God, in regard to present duties and future prospects, is exactly described in this expressive

7 See Hebrews xi. 4, 5, 8, 26, 13.
92 Peter i. 19.

8 Heb. x. 1.
1 1 Peter i. 11.

verse, The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Certain rays were discovered amid the general gloom, which glimmered, and shed forth a partial light, but did not disperse the darkness. There was not total ignorance, yet there was no clear knowledge.

It is a melancholy thought, that this representation too well describes even the present condition of too many in the world, who are now "without excuse." "The times of that ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." The dim light, the uncertain knowledge of the Jewish patriarchs, could not be imputed to them as sin. But, alas! what must we now say for the wilful darkness of those who close their eyes against the light, which shines in all its lustre! The Redeemer himself has said, "If I had not come and spoken unto you, ye had not had sin: but now ye have no cloke for your sin."

He who was in the beginning with God, and was God, undertakes the salvation of mankind; proposes a mighty scheme, determined "from the foundation of the world; " gives intimation beforehand, by the mouth of "holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost:" sends rays of prophetic light as messengers to prepare the way before him, and warn men to be on the watch for the "brightness of his rising." Till at last "the Sun of righteousness" is fully displayed, "with healing on his wings;" and a voice goes forth from one end of the earth to the other, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

66

2 Acts xvii. 30.

anew,

And well may we expect that this voice should be heard. For observe the certain inference which we must draw from what the Evangelist reveals concerning the Christ, the Son of God. We learn from it the miserable and ruined state of man: so ruined and miserable, that the same power must redeem life, which had given life: the same divine person must create who had at first created. He "without whom nothing was made that was made," now comes to seek and to save that which was lost." Low, surely, was the condition, which must needs be thus relieved and raised. Utter, surely, must be the ruin which could only be thus recovered.. If he who comes to save, is he who was in the beginning with God, and was God, no other argument is needed to prove the depth of ruin and of misery. We see it in the majesty of the Deliverer. In the greatness of the Saviour we read the greatness of man's necessity. In the vastness of the sacrifice, we learn to calculate the weight of our debt, the burthen of man's sin. And we learn to measure from it, too, the extent of our obligation. Which will be greatest, the heinousness of guilt, or the extremity of loss, to those who put this mercy from them, "count themselves unworthy of eternal life," and "neglect so great salvation?"

IV.

THE RUIN AND RESTORATION OF

MANKIND.

ROM. v. 18, 19.

18. As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

THE fact here revealed to us, the entrance of sin into the world, God alone could reveal. He does not explain it to us: why it came to be so, we are not told: he merely declares the fact, that he "made man upright," and man became corrupt through disobedience that he surveyed his works, and "lo, they were very good," and man amongst them: till sin entered into the world, and death by sin. He had issued a command, and required obedience from the creatures he had made; "saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." When this command was disobeyed, by the offence of one, or by one offence, judgment came upon all men to con

1 Eccles. vii. 29.

2 Gen. i. 31.

3 Gen. ii. 16, 17.