He is crying unto us, “Sing, O heaven”—that is, “Sing, O Church; and rejoice, O earth. Sing, O State: sing both Church and State of Scotland.” Oh! how should we sing? Hath not the Lord forsaken and forgotten us? Nay, though it appears so, yet it is not really so. “A woman may forget her sucking child, but the Lord cannot forget his people.” The purpose of God is pregnant and about to bring forth a great deliverance unto the Church and State of Scotland. If we saw the days that our Lord is to bestow upon us in Scotland, and had a view of the ministers that shall be in it, it would make us sing. Ye think now that the ministers are gone. Indeed a great part of them are so, and the magistrates are rejected by us. We declare before sun, moon, and stars that this is the case. But the Lord hath yet ministers that shall be polished shafts in His quiver; and He will yet give us rulers, and will make out that promise: “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers;” so that if we saw the good days that are coming upon the back of these troubles, we would not get men and women kept from dancing for joy. Ye would all go home with gladness, rejoicing as if ye were frantic for joy. But you may say, “How can this be?” For there are two things to be objected against it:
We are all in a state of trial and probation, for a permanent and eternal existence in another world. The space in which we move is but short at best, and by several circumstances very much contracted; but short and contracted as it is, scenes of the most weighty and important nature are transacted upon it. Man in his present fallen condition is truly forlorn. He is appointed to endure many severe afflictions, which he can neither foresee nor prevent. In the distribution of afflictions there is no doubt but the unerring wisdom acts, nor can chance have any place in His vast dominions, where even a sparrow falleth not to the ground without Him.
“Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”– Judges 5:23. In these deeply solemn words two things claim our attention – the sin of the inhabitants of Meroz, and the judgment of the Lord against them because of it. Let me rapidly touch on this sentence; on the judgment; with one or two practical lessons arising out of both.
The most immediate, and to this audience, the most impressive suggestion conveyed in this half sentence is, that a preacher of the Divine Law and Christian Gospel may be a castaway. Nay, when we remember who was the “I myself ” that wrote these lines, we perceive that even an Apostle, an inspired preacher, was not, on that account, beyond the peril. We have the still more positive confirmation of fact; for an older Apostle than Paul, one of the original twelve, called and endowed with power by Christ himself, fell by transgression from “this ministry and apostleship,” perished by suicide in the field he had purchased with the reward of iniquity, and went from Aceldama to what was, in a more fearful sense, “his own place,” a castaway.
“For I am persuaded, that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39). The comforting and invigorating doctrine of this precious passage is, that a soul in Christ cannot be separated from the Love of God.
On the way to the ruler’s house, where Jesus raised the dead Maiden to life, an unusual interruption occurred. This tried the anxious father’s spirit by his child’s death during the delay. We have now to take up the case of the Sufferer whose urgency occasioned it. But first of all it is to be observed, that the interruption itself is of a most remarkable character; there being nothing similar to it in the New Testament. Jesus, though hindered, was not stopped by the crowd, nor by an importunate petitioner that would not be denied, but simply by the change that passed on his own spirit. Virtue has gone out of him; a portion of the Spirit within him has entered into some one else. He has undertaken a great work which he goes to perform, and there is a pressing throng around him; but he instantly marks the alteration that has occurred within himself, and will not proceed till it is accounted for; although he possesses the Spirit without measure, and that is not lost by him which is gained by another.
My dear christian friends, you have been witnesses this day of one of the most solemn scenes presented to view on this sinful earth—the ministerial induction of a servant of Jesus Christ into a congregation of his church. Nay more, ye yourselves have been this day parties in this very transaction, and sharers in all its awful responsibilities. Even as your pastor, so ye also will have to give account in this matter; and as he has received the usual address, stirring him up to the diligent fulfilment of his duties, so do ye now receive the word of exhortation, which, by the appointment of my presbyters, I am delegated to address unto you. May the Lord help us all to improve this solemn occasion!
“I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it” (Psalm 39:9). When David composed this psalm, he was evidently labouring under some heavy affliction. What that was, we are not informed. But whatever it may have been, it seems to have borne hard upon his spirit; for he says respecting it, “I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.” Nevertheless, he did not murmur or complain under the pressure of his distress. He thought of the character, and the providence, and the purposes of that great Being, to whose appointment he traced it, and under whose government he suffered. And influenced by the considerations which these suggested, as well as upheld by the grace for which he earnestly prayed, he repressed every mutinous feeling, and cherished the sentiments, and uttered the language, of a becoming resignation. He looked up to God and said “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.”
None of the Evangelists or Apostles speak so much of the Father as John, who knew most of his Son Jesus Christ, and leant upon his bosom. The reason is, John felt that the mind of the Father and the mind of the Son were the same—entirely the same. He was, therefore, engaged in the same topic when he unfolded the Father’s love.
The general sound of heaven, eternal life, salvation, the love of God in Christ, is pleasing to the ears of men. There are few to be met with who suspect themselves to have any dislike at the things expressed by these terms; much less that they are in danger of being eternally damned on account of an obstinate refusal of such blessings. Every man thinks himself fond of heaven, and that his desires of eternal life are not only sincere, but sufficiently strong, to bring him, at one time or other, to go through whatever may be required that he may obtain that blessedness. Why do men entertain such flattering thoughts of themselves? It is because they know not the plague of their hearts, and because they consider not the true nature of the salvation and happiness which are brought to light by the gospel.
