saved must be made spiritually alive. Spiritual life implies a conviction of the fact of spiritual death-the creation of a new heart and the renewing of a right spirit; and the existence of this life is manifested by a delight in God and the things of God. The life also of the text is a life of perfect blessedness. Spiritual life being the life of the soul, it goes along with the soul when the body is dropped; and such is the nature of this life, that in the presence of the Lord in heaven its possessor has full enjoyment. The future state of him who is endued with spiritual life in this world is one of pure and unmingled happiness. He there ceases from the toil, fatigue and trouble of his earthly pilgrimage; is made free from the bondage of sin; is no more tempted, terrified, or deceived; is united to the spirits of the just, to angels, to Jesus and to God, and has an eternal weight of glory. This life is likewise a life of endless advancement. The faculties of the soul, spiritually alive, are invigorated and exalted by constant renewal. They expand and receive fresh energy as ages roll away, and hence are enabled to comprehend more and more of the Divine character and government, and to penetrate farther and farther into the unfathomable depths of redeeming love! Such, briefly, is the life here spoken of: "Holding forth the word of life." We pass, 11. To the propriety of this phrase, to the GOSPEL. 66 "word of life," as applied 1. We observe that there is a marked propriety in it, because the gospel publishes the way in which this life may be obtained. The gospel is the only source from which information on this subject is derived. Previous to its promulgation, " darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." All mankind alienated from a life superior to rational, the life of God, and lying under the power of moral death, none could say how they might 'pass from death unto life." It remained for Christ to declare the way in his gospel. "I am come," said he, "a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." He proclaimed the mode in which it might be obtained, and inspired apostles to record this mode, and transmit it to us. He applied the key to this great mystery, hidden from ages and generations, unlocked it and made it plain. He sheathed the flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life, and opened the medium of access to its quickening fruits. Now all is level to the humble capacity of a child. He who runs may read the gospel, and, though dead unto divine things, be made alive unto God, through Jesus Christ. From these pages we learn, that when Jehovah might have poured out the vial of incensed wrath upon our guilty race, opened the armory of heaven and planted its artillery against us, that, amazing grace! he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotton Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." This life flows to us from the wounded side of the holy Sufferer. He who penitently embraces him who hung on Calvary, has by this union a current of immortal life rolled in upon his soul. "He who hath the Son, hath life." This the gospel tells us; this blessed truth it discloses, and hence is called "the word of life." Well may we exclaim with Simon Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life." 2. Again: It is the gospel which unfolds the excellency of this life. It not only reveals to us the life, but sets before us its value. It shows us that it is a remedy for death; that he who has it not is dead while he liveth, and must soon die to all hope and happiness for ever; while he who possesses it "is made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity." It meets the inquirer, "Who can show me any good?" and shows him that what he wants as a fallen, yet immortal creature, is this life of the soul. The gospel embosoms what the necessities of man demand. Here is pardon for guilt, sanctification for corruption, justification for condemnation; here is found peace of conscience, defense from danger, and the joys of the Holy Ghost. All this is wrapped up in the word of life; all this the gospel unfolds to make its value appreciated, and to urge the wisdom of cordially receiving it. 3. Again: The gospel is the word of life, not only because it publishes the mode in which this life may be obtained, and exhibits its inestimable excellence, but because it actually produces life. There is no life without it, and there is life with it. My words," says the Saviour, "they are spirit, and they are life." This is the grand peculiarity of the gospel: it makes itself felt. Other narratives, other treatises on morals, can only come before the mind; they have not power so to act upon the mind as to compel assent. Not so the gospel: there goes along with it a divine influence, which when put forth is irresistible. This influence is called "the spirit of Christ," as the word is called "the word of Christ;" and when the two are combined, as Christ is willing they should be, and often causes them to be, then is the gospel "quick and powerful," and "like the fire and like the hammer, it breaketh the heart of rock in pieces;" then is it "mighty to the pulling down of strongholds." As we have said, there is no life without the gospel. Go where you will, and, so you find not the gospel there, you find not life there. One dreary, uniform death broods over the entire region. Its inhabitants are but as corpses, so far as spiritual life is concerned. 'How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" Faith cometh by hearing, and life cometh by faith. And it is also true, as has been said, that where is the gospel, there is life. No where is it prayerfully read, or faithfully preached, for any considerable time, without its quickening effects are made visible. Minds are inclined to thought, to Christ, to heaven; and of some there it may be said, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Emphatically, therefore, is the word of life a proper representation of the gospel. 4. I only add, further, that it likewise supports life. It is to the spiritual principle what the soil, the sun, and the shower are to the plant. It is the divinely prepared nutriment for the soul; it is to it what food is to the body: it is the pabulum of life. The living soul has an appetite, and without it is fed by the word, there is great debility, if not the extinguishment of vitality. Hence the exhortation of the apostle: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby ;" as also the striking remark of Christ: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." One principal reason why the cause of piety declined in the fourth century, after it had become so generally diffused, was, that this support of the word was taken away. The preacher's voice could not always sound, and there was then no printed page. This cut the sinews of strength. And the cause why religion now languishes in any heart is, because that heart does not sufficiently draw from the gospel stores. "Sanctity them through thy truth: thy word is truth." The thriving soul has the wholesome diet of the word, and by vigor thus communicated, approaches the stature and the strength of a perfect man in Christ. "Vigor of divine life cannot be sustained, without an earnest and constant use of the Word of God. The pale and sickly growth of a plant in a dark cellar is an apt similitude of the piety of those who make little use of the word of life. The intenser beams of the Sun of Righteousness, steadily playing upon the soul, are indispensable to give the soul the flush and vigor of health." So peculiarly appropri ate is the title "word of life" to the gospel, it reveals life, produces it, exalts it, and sustains it. It is enlightening, quickening, and imperishable; and when it shall be every where known and studied and believed, and "the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth," this earth, so long the valley of death, and the charnel-house of unnumbered abominations, shall be like to Paradise above. We come, III. To the mode in which this life should be held forth by Christians. "Holding forth the word of life." 1. They should hold it forth by a public arowal of their belief of it, and their purpose to obey it. This is an unbelieving world. Christ "came unto his own, and his own received him not." men." His gospel, too, finds many who deny the divinity of its origin, and multitudes more who view its contents as of trifling importance. It devolves then upon those who heartily believe. the gospel, who have felt its convicting and converting power upon their souls, to declare this their belief. Never should they when they hear it spoken lightly of, never should they when thrown into the society of the doubting or skeptical, fail to speak of their high appreciation of it, and that they bow in reverence to its authority. This, however, is not all. As it is the will of Christ that his people should live not solitarily, but in visible association, as he has commanded them openly to join themselves to him, every sincere believer of the gospel is solemnly bound to connect himself with those of kindred sentiments and feelings, and to enter into covenant with Christ. According to inspiration and established usage, he is to do this publicly. The broken body and shed blood of the Redeemer depict in rays of light his mediatorial character on which salvation is founded; and when "we eat of that bread and drink of that cup," we are expressly told that we thereby "show forth the Lord's death." It is the duty of believers thus to show it forth. "Do this," says Christ, "in remembrance of me." He well knew what effect his table, covered with the symbols of his suffering love, and his children seated around it, would have upon an unbelieving world; he knew that it was calculated to produce thought, and to open the sluices of penitence, and to multiply conquests to the truth. Hence the plain command to his friends to set that table, and to place themselves around it, and, from that heavenly place in Christ Jesus, to hold forth his word of life. The believer there says: "I acknowledge that I possess that guilt and depravity which rendered a Divine interference in my behalf necessary; I believe that such a work was undertaken and finished by the great Redeemer; I embrace his gospel and himself; and here, sitting at his table, with the memorials of his affection and compassion in my hands and at my lips, I proclaim him to be the all-sufficient and only Saviour of mankind!" Who does not see that such a confession before men is a confession that they must understand and feel; and that when Christians thus come together, and thus explictly and harmoniously declare their sentiments, that there goes from them a power to arrest attention and promote inquiry, and an influence most favorable to righteousness? Hence the stress laid upon the duty of professing religion by Jesus Christ, and the sin of those who shrink back from discharging this duty. The word of life is to be held forth by individuals in their collective capacity as a church. It is thus that their light, blending with the light of others, emits a splendor that is seen, a splendor which is far pervading, and which attracts, like the star of Bethlehem, to the person of the Saviour! "He is despised and rejected of 2. Again Christians are to hold forth the word of life by their consistent, exemplary deportment. As He who hath called them is holy, called them to resemble himself, called them to be his representatives on the earth, while he is gone. to prepare a place for them in heaven; so they are to be holy in all manner of conversation. If there is any thing just, pure, lovely, and of good reFort, the gospel enjoins upon us to practise it; and if there is any thing sinful, base, and dishonorable, the gospel enjoins upon us to avoid it. Those then who profess to believe the gospel and to make it "the man of their counsel and the guide of their lives," are expected, and properly expected, to be bright examples of the power of godliness. And when they are so-when there is a correspondence between their principles and their lives, when their profession is followed by legitimate fruits, then are the mouths of the wicked stopped, and the honor of God advanced upon the earth. Believers are called "the Lord's witnesses;" they witness, by their profession and conduct, to the excellence of his word. When this word meets the eyes, or is proclaimed in the hearing of the impenitent, it is designed that the force of it upon their minds and hearts should be augmented by the daily exemplary walk of Christians. If this walk is not exemplary, the contradiction between the word and the witness makes the word of none effect. On the contrary, if the arrows of truth are pointed and winged by the silent eloquence of the holy lives of the people of God, they reach the conscience and bring the rebel to submission. True religion is indeed experimental, and in this respect, as a matter between us and our Maker, is concealed from public view. The spark of grace is not kindled in the heart by observation. The soft gales of the Spirit, which subdue and regenerate, go, like the wind, where they please. But when they have once savingly visited a soul, they sanctify what is social, kind and tender in that soul, and produce appropriate results in the behavior of their subject. Then does he commune with Christ; then is the breath of prayer sweet; then is the gospel precious; then does he pant after assimilation to the Divine image; and then his affections, instead of being chained to earth, rise above earth, and fasten upon the skies. This cannot be, and be unnoticeable. A walk so different from the worldling, the avaricious, the ambitious, will be referred to a difference of principle, whose foundation is the word of life, and thus will he "adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour." This is preaching by action, the most effective of preaching. "Thus shall we best proclaim abroad grace subdues the power of sin." Here is "the living epistle," and it will be read-it cannot |