profiteth nothing. Christ divides all men into the two classesthose that confess him, and those that confess him not; and he says, "Him that confesseth me I will confess, and him that denieth me, that is ashamed of me, and that will not follow me, I will deny." "There are few that be saved," says one prophet; "One of a city, and two of a family," says another. "Oh, my soul! (to use the language of D'Aubigné,) thou art, then, with God, or thou art far away from Him! Thou art converted, or thou art not! Thou dost either confess Christ, or deny Him! One of these two sides thou hast taken, and which is it? Art thou in the narrow path of life? or art thou in the broad way to perdition? Oh, my soul! this is worth consideration. Examine thyself; prove thyself; seek, and ascertain clearly what thou art." "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." Dear reader! you, whose conscience witnesses that you do not confess Christ-you do not know Him-you are still in the broad way-and why, then, will you not now be saved? Why will you not be this day transported into the path of life, where the "fellow-citizens of the saints" and confessors of Jesus Christ are found? One thing alone prevents you, and that I declare to you; it is your want of faith in the powerful, the lifegiving name of Jesus. So long as you do not believe in this name, by which alone there is salvation, your sins separate between you and God, and it is impossible to confess a name which has no glory in your eyes. But believe the word; this is what it tells you, (and in comparison with its teachings all else is darkness and error,) "Christ who is the brightness of the glory of God, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Understand well what the word of God here declares to you. Christ has, not by an angel, or by any of the heavenly intelligences which He created, but by Himself, purged the sins of all who believe in him; which is to say, he has purified, redeemed, and delivered them from their sins, as effectually as if they had never committed any. At the moment when Christ expired on the cross, being "made sin" for all, all the sins of his people, of every age and every nation, were blotted out. What! could you believe that the Lord Christ himself took the trouble to purify his people from their sins, and that there still remains something in them which defiles and hinders them from seeing God? To use an illustration within the reach of all—if a mother has bathed her child in pure water, and has said to him, "Go, now, you are clean," her child believes her, and goes to his play; but if, to assure himself that it is so, he should go to behold his natural face in a glass, according to an expression in Scripture, he would be insulting his mother, by thus admitting the possibility that she could speak falsely. Well! Christ himself, Jehovah, Jesus, says to the believer himself, "Go, thou art made clean; I have purged thy sins myself, I have made an end of all transgression; he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." And we will not believe this eternal word of truth! we would make our Lord a liar! Oh, my dear brother! do you truly believe that Jesus is the Saviour-do you believe it in your heart, and confess it with your mouth? Then do I declare to you from the everlasting Gospel, "You are clean." All your sins are forgiven. You have found grace in the sight of God. "There is no more condemnation" for you, says St. Paul. "You, who in time past were not a people, are now the people of God; you, which had not obtained mercy, have now obtained mercy." Listen, then, to the voice of the Lord. He summons you to quit the standard of error, that you may range yourself under that of truth. Go forth from the camp of his adversaries, and enter into that of his children and friends. Unite yourself to the holy band of his prophets and apostles-to those illustrious men of all ages, who confessed his name so nobly. There is not one of you who cannot do it, and that, too, this moment; the door is open, wide open, for all. Oh, why will you prefer the sullied and perishing banners of injustice and unbelief to the pure and immortal standard of Christ? Behold, "the fashion of this world passeth away;" already its grandeur is fading, and soon will be no more. What will then remain to you? "Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." |