521 LECTURE XXXVII. CONCLUSION. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." THE word rendered "grace" in the Bible means simply free, unmerited favour-love, loving-kindness, mercy. The idea that specially distinguishes it is that of undeservedness-something that is bestowed by gracious love, undeserved and unpurchased by him that receives it. Grace begins in Genesis and closes the Apocalypse. Grace gives us all our blessings; and it takes from us for God, what it is gain to lose-only a revenue of glory. The first sinner that was spared on earth, and the last saint that was crowned in glory, are there by grace: our privileges here, our blessings hereafter, are the gifts, the purchases, and the bestowals of grace. "We are saved by grace," is written upon all we are, all we have, and all we hope for. "Grace," which the evangelical seer wishes to be with us, may be regarded, first, as comprehending all that Christ has done. for us. This explanation is not conjecture: it is an apostle's statement. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," says the apostle. Now, what is it? "That though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich." I understand, therefore, that grace includes all that Christ has done. All he suffered as an expiation for our sins all he did as a title to that glory we had lost-all his imputed righteousness, are the fruits of grace. No necessity was laid upon him to interpose for us; if he had left us to perish in our ruin, heaven would not have been without inhabitants, and God had not been without glory. Under this "grace" is included and meant, not only all that Christ has done, but all that Christ now does. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye therefore and teach all nations." "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." "Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And again: "My grace is sufficient for thee." If Christ had remembered in heaven his reception on earth, and when he left it had renounced and abjured it for ever, he had only done what we merited. If, therefore, his sympathies in heaven are so intimate with sinners on earth, that wheresoever a Christian pines, there Christ feels, and wheresoever Christians are persecuted, there Christ sympathizes-all this is not the deserving of our merit, but the fruits of the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." If we take a retrospect of all recorded in the Apocalypse, we shall see that all has been of grace. What preserved the solitary seer in his exile of Patmos? what withdrew the mystic vail, and disclosed to him scenes unspeakable and full of glory? Grace. What saved and kept alive the church of Christ during the sanguinary reign of a Nero-amid the hot and scorching persecution of a Domitian? What made crypts and catacombs more glorious than cathedrals, and martyrdom more desirable than the laurel crown or the wreath of Cæsar? What made the people of God count it all joy when they suffered for their Saviour's sake? What preserved that church until it holds now the hopes of millennial glory? It was "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." What brought it to pass that when Constantine made the bishops kings, and the presbyters nobles, and the profession of Christianity a passport to political office; when the baptismal font came to be the most popular rallying point, and the religion of the fishermen of Galilee the religion of a mighty and a powerful empire; and when doctrine began to be corrupt, and purity and piety continued to decline, and faithfulness had all but evaporated;—what brought it to pass that the church was not utterly extinguished in the sunshine after she had survived the storm, and was preserved as a woman fleeing to the wilderness, to hide herself for a time, times, and half a time, till the corruption should be removed and the storm should cease, and she should again look forth "bright as the sun, and fair as the moon, It was and terrible as an army with banners?" The answer is, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." What preserved that church when the poisonous floods of Arianism roared and rushed after her to destroy her, and when the dragon stood ready to devour the man-child that she should bring forth? what spared the church from his fury, preserved her in her purity, and prevented the gates of hell from prevailing against her? "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." What was it when its terrible and medieval eclipse spread over Europe-when cathedrals were built by the spoils of widows, and finished amid the protesting cries of orphans-when the priests assumed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and only opened its gates, or pretended to do so, to those who paid them most liberally when the New Testament was a forbidden book—when the truths of the gospel were unheard in pulpits raised to proclaim them? what was it that amid all this preserved the "Lux lucens in tenebris," the beautiful motto of the Waldenses, "the light shining in darkness," still burning amid the Cottian Alps, and in sequestered vales, amid desert and untrodden moors? what kept those lights still twinkling, till they met and mingled and blazed in the splendour of the blessed Reformation? "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." What was it that raised up a Luther in Germany, a Knox in Scotland, and a Cranmer in England? It was "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." And what was it that, when the churches of the empire as established by law were dead, caused a Wesley to appear in England, an Erskine in Scotland, and innumerable others, who followed and rekindled the extinguished lamps, and began, by the blessing of God, that second Reformation, the effects of which, with those of the first, shall not cease till they mingle with the glories of the millennial day? What was it in the last century—when Voltaire, Marat, Hume, Gibbon, Paine, and all the other master infidel spirits of previous and succeeding years, seemed to have it all their own way, and anticipated the utter extinction of Christianity that interposed, and made the Baptist Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, the Tract Society, the Bible Society, all suddenly spring up, and standing on their lofty heights, look down and laugh to scorn the efforts of infidelity and skepticism? The answer is, It is "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." What was it that preserved this land amid the shocks and convulsions of 1848? what has supported it in its sublime safety amid the rocking countries of the continent of Enrope? what has made it feel peace when all around has been disturbed? what has made it, like the harpers on the glassy sea, while all Europe echoed with thunders and cries and voices, give its praise and glory and thanksgiving to God and to the Lamb? "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Grace has been with the church in the past; grace is with her in the present; grace has made her every sigh find an echo in glory, her every joy a reflection on the throne, her safety absorb the sympathies of heaven, and Christ still show how true is the promise that he made in Palestine, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against thee." I ask, Why has all this been? It is no accession of happiness to God, it is no addition to the splendour of that glory that exceeds the sun at noon. The only answer is, His own free and sovereign grace. "He has not chosen us," in the language he addressed to Israel, "because we were the greatest or most excellent among all nations, but because the Lord loved us." Grace, then, is in all that Christ has done; grace is in all that Christ has suffered; grace is in all the blessings which we have reaped; grace is in all that he has promised to do. It is of grace that he has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;" it is of grace that he has promised, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against us;" it is of grace that he has said, that he will come again and receive us to himself—that where he is, there we may be also. But let me look at this grace as it shines in various particulars. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is exhibited in the pardon of sin: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Why? He adds, "According to the riches of his grace." And again says the apostle, "Justified freely by his grace.' If I address a believer in this assembly, whose heart gives a responsive echo to that absolution which God alone can pronounce and make real, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"-if there be any one in this assembly who can say, "We are justified freely by his grace, and therefore we have peace with God"-need I ask thee, my brother, why it is so? Thon didst not inherit it, thou hast done nothing that can purchase it; the glad answer you will give in songs of gratitude and joy is, "By grace I am justified, by grace I must be saved." Grace is also exhibited in our sanctification. Justification is an act of grace; sanctification is a work of grace; and this work is not a process that we can begin, or carry on, or that we can consummate; but as it begins in grace, it is carried on by grace, and is consummated in glory. There is nothing we do, nothing we say, nothing we can promise, that can merit one blessing from God. From the least crumb that rests upon thy table to the diadem of glory that shall be placed about thy brow-all is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then grace shines not only in justification and sanctification, but also in adoption. What are we, if Christians? The sons of God. What a contrast to what we were by nature-the children of wrath! What has made us so? No authority of man's. The queen can make a nobleman: God alone can make a Christian. A nobleman is a mere adventitious and airy dignity-a Christian is a real, an ever-rising, an eternal rank; and yet, strange as it is, I may address some in this asssembly who would rather have some such title as our beloved monarch can bestow, than have that heart which the Lord of glory is ready and willing to give. What a miscalculation if it be so! When we lie upon that bed, on which recently I have seen not a few-that bed from which we take a calm retrospect of the past-prejudice, and passion, and anger, and ill-will, rolled away for ever, and from which we take a solemn gaze into that terrible and untried futurity, about which none of us have thought as we ought—you can have now very little idea how truly worthless, at such an hour, and at such a retrospect, and before such a prospect, crowns and coronets and wealth appear. My dear friends, realize at times a death-bed, and ambition will fold its wings, and the proud heart will lie low in the dust, and say, "O my Saviour, let thy grace make me but a child of God, and I care not how soon may perish all the pomp, the honours, the vanities, and the ambition of a world that passeth away." Yet, "to as many as received him, to them gave he |