Psalm, LXIX 4- "Then I restored

that which I took not away."

No psalm, unless it be the
twenty- second, is more frequently
or more directly referred, in the
New Testament, to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You may take the following
citations as illustrations. Christ is
here prophetically represented as
saying they that hate me without a
cause are more than the hairs on
mine head: they that would destroy
me, being mine enemies
wrongfully, are
mighty." (V.4.) In
the fifteenth chapter
of the Gospel of]ohn,
this language is re-
produced: " But this
come th to pass , that
the word might be
fulfilled that is written
in their law, they hated
me without cause." In
the twenty-second
and twenty-third
verses of this psalm it
is wri tten : " Le t thei r
table become a snare
before them; and that
which should have been
for iheirwelfare, letit become a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened, that they
see not; and make their loins
continually shake." Which is cited
by theApostkPaul, in the eleventh
chapter oChis Epistle to the
" And David saith, let their
tabIe be made a snare (lnd a trap, and
a stiLmbltngblock, and a recompense
unto them: let their eyes be darkened,
that they may not see, and bow down
their back alway. Again, in the
twenty- first verse of the psalm, we
read, "They gave me also gall for my
meat; and in my thirst they gave me
Vinegar to drink;" which, in the
twenty- seventh chapter of the
Gospel of Matthew, is historically
stated : "They gave him Vinegar to
drink mingled with gall: and when
He had tasted thereof He would not
drink. And straightway one
of them ran, and took a sponge, and
filled it with Vinegar, and put it on a
reed, and gave Him to drink."
Under this view, the text can only
be explained of the perfect sinlessness
of ourLordJesusChrist, whilst bearing
the iniquity of us all. Though not
responsible for the breach which sin
had made upon the harmony of the
Universe, He comes to restore the same.
It is a theme singularly suitable for our
sacramental meditations this day,and,
without funher preface, I proceed to
show, in at least five paniculars, THIS
RESTORING WORK OF OUR
REDEEMER. "Thenlrestoredthatwh!ch
I took not away:
L He restores, to the law of God,
the honor of which sin had robbed it.
The law is too often regarded in the
light of a code- a collection of panicular
statutes, resdngsimplyupontheDivine
wilL Even under this aspect it is
sufficiently glorious; for " the law is
holy, and the commandment holy and
just and good;" and what can be more
majestic than God's solemn assertion
of His supreme and universal
dominion? But, in a higher view, the
lawis God's exPression of Himself- the
+ mE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 'F Julyl Augnst, 1994
first concrete revelation of His character
and of His attributes. In it wenbt oIlly
see what Jehovah claiffi$, but what He
is; and obedience to it is, in reality, the
homage which the soul pays to the
excellence and glory ofJehovah. .
Law is, therefore, strictly a relative
term. It pre- supposes a Being from
whom this revelation proceeds, and
who stands in the relation of a Ruler
and a Judge. It pre- supposes other
beings upon whom this revelation
terminates, and who
stand in the relation of
subjects capable of
rendering a response to
it. Now, my hearers, the
glory of the law consists
in the perfect impresSion
which it produces orthe.
Divine image, upon the
hean that is prepared to
receive it. Ai in the
Daguerrean art,
(photography), the
pencil oflight produces,
upon the plate prepared
for it within the camera,
the perfect fac- simile of
ourselves; every strand
of hair re-produced, the
very arch of the brow, the precise
character of the eyes, the eJ{act
expression of the lips, the form and
posture of the whole body : just so the
law, as a pencil oflight beaming directly
from Jehovah Himself, produces upon
a holy hean the perfect impression of
God's character. The highest view of
obedience is not, therefore, as a
collection of independent acts calling
for a separate energy, but the
spontaneous out-giving of the vinue
and holiness of the creatUre-just as the
essence and life of the floweris exhaled
in the fragrance. Thus obedience
becomes the constant worship of the
soul toward God. But, alas! sin
intervened and darkened ntan's nature;
and now, because the sinner's hean is
opaque, (clouded), there is no
reflection of God. Whilst the Jaw beams
as before, pouring down the revelation
of the Divine glory, there is no image
produced; and thus the law is robbed
ofits honor.
Jesus Christ, in His incarnation,
appears as the typical and repre-
sentative man; and renders an
obedience, the true ideal of that which
was originally due. Nay more-
assuming the nature of
precept; which cannot be affirmed of
the obedience of any other being,
except of the Redeemer Himself. Or
look at the completeness of this
obedience; enabling the Savior to say
"it is finished," and give up the ghost-
an obedience which was rounded
within a period, and held up in its
entirety as the perfect measure of the
law in all its exactions; whereas the
determining the nature and measure
of that obedience which, through all
eternity, the law will continue to exact
of those who are under its jurisdiction.
Well might the prophet, therefore, say,
" the Lord is well pleased for His
lighteousness' sake; He will magnify the
law, and make it honorable." (!sa. xlii:
21.) Rendering an obedience which is
greater than the aggregate obedience
of all the beings that God
man, who is the lowest of
those intelligent beings of
whom we have any
knowledge, He includes
the intervening grades;
and, His obedience is the
ideal of that which was
due from all the creatures.
He gathers the light of this
law of God upon the
mirror of His heart, and
reflects from His perfect
human soul the exact
likeness of God's holiness.
He ascends to Heaven with
this typical and repre-
"this obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ is forever exhibited
in heaven from the throne which
the Mediator sits, as determining
the nature and measure of that
obedience which, through all
eternity, the law will continue to
exact of those who are under
its jurisdiction."
ever created, and which,
because of its ideal and
typical character, stands
over against the law as
the exact exposition of it,
the Redeemer may truly
say " then I restored that
which I took not away."
II. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has restored to His
people that image of God
from which they have
fallen. Thisimageispanly
NATURAL, consisting in
the faculties of
intelligence and of will
with which man was sentative obedience, and
holds it up before the Father, and
before the holy angels, and before all
the redeemed in glory; that through
eternity, they may behold the moral
excellence ofJehovah, and the honor
of the law, which is the exposition ofit.
It would lead me into too much
detail, if I should undertake this
morning to dwell upon the peculiar
properties of this obedience of Chlist,
which render it so transcendently
glorious. Yet without a glance at these,
we shall perhaps fail to see how Christ
restores to the law that which He took
not away. Look, if you please, at the
voluntaJiness of Christ's obedience-
voluntary, not in the sense that it is
cheerfully rendered- but in the higher
sense that it was wholly optional with
Him either to render or to withhold it.
Look, again, at its universality- an
obedience to the whole law, as strictly
rendered to the penalty as to the
obedience of all other beings in heaven
and upon earth, is an obedience forever
continuing and never brought to a
conclusion. Look at itas the obedience
of the God- man; who, by virtue of the
hypostatic union, brings all the
perfections of His divine nature to
flood with glory all that was
accomplished in the human. And,
lastly, look at this obedience as it is re-
produced in all the redeemed; who, by
virtue of it, are justified forever in the
sight of God. And then say if this
typical being, including all creatures
in that human nature which He has
assumed, does not, by this ideal
righteousness, render to the law the
honor which was originally due from
angels and from men.
Nay, my brethren, this obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ is forever
exhibited in heaven from the throne
upon which the Mediator sits, as
endowed; but principally MORAL, in
the direction and bent of these powers
in lighteousness and holiness. Paul
says in his epistle to the Ephesians:
"put on the new man, which after God
is created in righteousness and true
holiness." Sin defaces the natural image
of God, impairing and corrupting those
powers with which, as intelligent and
accountable beings, we are endowed;
and ithas destroyed thatoriginal purity
of nature, in which this moral image
was found. But Christ, as I have already
shown, reproduces this lost image of
Himself- typical of what man was at
the first, and of what man shall be
made through grace to be in the
kingdom of glory. In him, who was
"holy, harmless, undefiled, and
separate from sinners," there is found
once more a perfect reflection of that
image of God which was stamped upon
man at the beginning.
July! August, 1994 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 5
This is not alL He proceeds now to
transfer this image from Himself to us;
through the agency of the Holy Ghost.
This Person of the adorable Godhead,
who in the original creation was the
author of all beauty as well as of all life,
becomes the Quickener, to breath once
more the life of God into the soul
which is dead in sin. And this life,
which He communicates in the new
birth, is the life which Christ has
redeemed from forfeiture
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God which liveth and abideth
forever.' (I Pet. i: 23). As an artist
transfers the image of a living person
upon the canvas before him, so does
the Holy Spirit complete in us the
likeness to our blessed Lord. The
featureswhich belong to Him are
copied in us, and become the attributes
with which our own religious character
is adorned. In the whole process of
death He transfigures the believer and
makes him "meet for the Saints'
inheritance in light." And what my
brethren shall be said more,? Only this:
that, on and forever, the redeemed in
heaven shall sit by the side of their
Lord- rejoicing in the open vision of
His face, through which they are
"changed into His image from glory to
glory." "Beloved, hnow are we the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what we
shqll be; butwe now thatwhen
under the law; and which
makes all those to whom it is
dispensed to become "new
creatures in Christ jesus."
Oh, the brightness ofDivine
truth, when you place the
doctrines of Grace together,
so that they reflect each upon
the'other! "New creatures in
Christ jesus" ! What is it
shonofanewcreation, when
the dead sinner lives again
~ s an artist transfers the
image of a living person
upon the canvas before him,
so does the Holy Spirit
complete in us the likeness
to our blessed Lord."
He shall appear, we shall be
like Him;forwe shall see Him
as He is. (I. john iii: 2.)
Have we the mental
enlargement to take in the
grandeur of the conception?
It is not only the image of
God in the soul, which sin
had defaced and destroyed;
but it is that image
graciously renewed <lnd
effectively preserved within
us by the indwelling
presence and power of the
by the power of a life
breathed into him from so
divine a Head! Verily, he may exclaim
with Paul: "I am cruafied with Christ;
nevertheless I live- yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me." (Gal.ii: 20).
Prom this point begins the whole
work of sanctification, which is but
the expansion of this life of Christ in
the believer'ssouL Even the truth which
is the ihStrument of this sanctification,
is the word of Christ, for however
boundless the Spirit's knowledge, as
co- equal with the Pather and the Son,
He is restricted in His revelation to
those things which Christ said and
wrought upon the eanh. "But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Fatherwill send in my name, He shall
teach you all things, and bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you:" "He shall not speak of
Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak:" "He shall receive of
mine and shall show it unto you . (John,
xiv: 26, and xvi:13,14). Thus, by the
Holy Ghost, are we "born again- not of
sanctification He is the pattern after
which it is wrought, whom the Aposde
describes as "the brightness of the Father's
glory and the express image of His person."
(Heb. i:3). The graces of the Spirit,-
"love,joy, peace, longsuifering,gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
- are but the features of resemblance to
Christ our Head, who is thus more and
more "formed in us the hope of glory."
As these first exist in Him, they are
transferred to us- the Holy Ghost
looking ever upon the originaI in Him,
whilst producing the copy in us. They
are not, therefore, merely personal
qUalities, which we may claim as our
own; but their chief glory consists in
being the reproduction of Christ's
image within us- which is but the
image of God from which man so
grievously fell in the first transgression.
This image, restored at the new
birth, continues to be brightened by
the indwelling Spirit; until that
supreme office is discharged when, at
6 ~ THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ~ July! August, 1994
Holy Ghost; and, grander still, it is this
recovered image of God glorified in Us
forever-as in the splendor of the upper
Kingdom, we enjoy "the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." Surelyin this prophetic
Psalm, the Messiah may anticipate his
fumre triumph in the words, " then I
restored that which I took not away.
Ill. Christ hasrestored permanency
and stability to the Divine Government,
assailed by the rebellion of man. In the
Fall, there was collision of will. Not
that jehovah's throne w;as shaken; for
there were resources in the law itself
by which its majesty should be
vindicated. Like the waves which break
into feeble foam at the base of an island
rock, and in their sullen roar confess
their defeat- so must every creamre
rebellion break before Omnipotent
power, which remains impregnabletn
its own steadfastness forever. But as
there had been the conflict" it must
have no issue but to strengthen that
which had been so vainly assailed. The
history of the collision itself must
furnish evidence that the foundation
of law were only more firmly
established, through the rebellion it
had extinguished.
Perhaps, we have never tasked
ourselves to consider the majesty of
power which the Almighty has
displayed in His treatment of fallen
man. It was not the first, but the second
rebellion, whichhad broken the repose
of the Universe. When the Angels
unfurled the standard of revolt in
Heaven, the audacity and the guilt
were almost immeasurable. But
Jehovah seemed content with the
simple exhibition of His power and
His Holiness. The guilty angels were
hurled from the glory of His presence
into everlasting fire, which is expressly
said to have been prepared for them.
(Matt. xxv: 41.) But this was all the
development of the Divine resources
which the first rebellion called forth. It
was sufficient, and it was awful; but it
was not the completest exhibition of
power that was possible with God.
The second rebellion ensued, hinging
upon the first. It was the insurrection
of a race inferior in degree, and who
were solicited to the act by the earlier
transgressors. These, perhaps, were
mitigations which made mercy
possible. At any rate, in the sublime
consciousness of His strength, God
would not repeat simply the exhibition
of his power; but, in the grandeur of
His of own repose, made the revelation
of His grace in the bosom of His justice.
It had been so easy for Him to
overthrow a conspiracy which was
stronger, that He could afford in this to
cherish thoughts of pity. Poweris never
felt to be so strong, as when it is serene
in its action. Whilst the law laid its
arrest upon the transgressor, a
Redeemer stepped from the bosom of
the Deity, and stooped beneath the
curse to bear it away forever. "Oh, the
depth oj the riches both oj the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
His judgments, and His ways past Jinding
out!" (Rom. xi: 33.) Intheverymoment,
when to the eye of the creature the
heavens and the earth were shaken to
their center, Jehovah saw fit to bring
out the hidden attributes of His
character, and to show Himself the
God oflove! Just then, in the majestic
consciousness of His power to deal
with all sin, He chose to produce from
the depths of His own heart the mystery
of grace- to exhibit the boundless
stretch of His compassion, and the
infinite reach of His love.
This display of mercy would, of
course, beno evidence of power, unless
truth and justice were conserved. But
in the methods by which Grace
achieved the wondrous reconciliation,
not the shadow of suspicion could rest
upon the integrity of the Divine
Government. There were resources of
wisdom by which, in the mighty plan,
"mercy and truth should meet together,
righteousness and peace should kiss each
other." CPs. Ixxxv:lO.) In every case,
the extension of executive pardon has
been an act of grace founded solely
upon "the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus." By this, "Cod's righteousness is
declared; that He might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
(Rom. iii:26.) All the redeemed who
upon the earth tell the stOlY of the
Cross, and all the glorified who in
Heaven chant the song, "worthy is the
Lamb that was slain," are wimesses of
God how deep He has driven the pillars
of His Empire, and how impreguable
it stands even under an administration
of mercy.
My brethren, doyou not sometimes
rejoice in the atonement of our Lord,
beyond the interest you feel in it
because of your own personal
salvation? This indeed would be
ground enough for all the praise your
hearts could render to Him who has
"redeemed you to God by His blood, and
hasmadeyouunto Godkings andpriests."
(Rev. v: 9.)Yet there is a view opening
beyond this, so glorious in its majesty,
that the mere selfishness of our own
individual interests is lost in
contemplating the total results of our
Lord's mediatorial work It is, that "He
appeared in the end oj the world to PUT
AWAY SIN by the sacrifice of Himself."
(Heb. ix: 26.) In that hour, when He
hung, a willing man upon the tree, He
'finished the transgression and MADE
AN END OF SINS." (Dan. ix: 24.) In
His death was sealed the death of sin,
that it should not continue its ravages
upon the universe of God. Provision
was made for its final banishment to
the pit of eternal darkness, where Satan
and his angels are held in chains until
the judgment of the great day. When
the consummation of this scheme of
Grace is reached, the decree, which
banishes the wicked from the presence
of God and the glory of His power, will
emancipate all worlds through God's
wide empire from the future contact
and defilement of sin. Glorious jubilee
of grace! when Christ shall come with
the clouds of Heaven and shall sit
upon the throne of His glory- when He
shall pronounce upon sin its just doom,
and bind it in prison forever-when the
triumphant Conqueror shall proclaim
the universal reigu of righteousness
and peace, in the complete
establishment and supremacy oflaw,
forever exempt from trial and assault.
Does not Christ then, by His work
of redemption, establish upon eternal
foundations the throne of His Father?
Having solved the problem of grace,
He solved it for all eternity. The last
and complete disclosure of the Divine
perfections and will has been made to
His creatures under triaL Law has
fulfilled all its functions, in the
revelation of the Law- giver. Hence
forth sin is to be known only in Hell,
where it is imprisoned forever. Angels
and the Redeemed, confirmed in
holiness and blessedness forever, will
never bring their will and competition
Julyl August, 1994 t- THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 'i' 7
with the Divine supremacy, but will
express the whole energy of their nature
in obedience and worship. The history
of time has been dark stained and
scarred by the marks of sin; but, thanks
to God, the history is short. Eternity
will succeed, " unmeasured by the
flight of years;" and its history will be
bright with the holiness of God,
reflected in the character and life of the
myriads upon myriads who shall walk
before Him in white. Well may Jesus
say, "I restored that which I took not
away." He had no agency in
our mad assault againSt the
authority and power of His
Father. But He came as the
sinner's representative to
restOre that which the sinner
had attempted to destroy. We
sought to undermine the
throne of Jehovah and bring
it to its fall. Christ has
rendered it impossible that
this throne shall ever be
assailed through the eternity
to come.
IV. The Lord Jesus has
restored the broken
fellowship between the creatures. Sin
is essentially divisive. Its schismatic
tendency was disclosed in Eden, even
from the first. The fiery Cherubim,
guarding the way of the tree oflife, lest
the sinner should touch sacrilegiously
the seal of the covenant he had broken,
was an emblem alike of man's
separation from God and from all holy
beings in the universe. They held the
flaming sword and turned its glittering
blade to the guilty, as willing
instruments to execute the penalty
which disobedience had incurred. And
where in human history have you
found an exhibition of sin, which did
not interpose fences and bars against
human fellowship? It drives men in
their selfishness, to break down or to
overleap all the defenses oflaw- and,
in the promotion of individual
interests, to disintegrate society, and
bring order and government to an
end. But Christ comes as the restorer
of this broken fellowship; and in the
completion of the scheme of grace, we
see saints and angels responding to
each other in the parts they severely
sustain in the chants of the heavenly
temple.
It is a glorious truth indeed, to
announce the hannony of the creatures
as the corollary of reconciliation with
God. It is a marvelous triumph of grace
to subdue the schism which sin has
made. But the marvel will be singularly
enhanced, if you will consider the
method by which this universal
reconciliation is accomplished. We
might suppose it enough that man
should be made holy, and thus be
fitted to hold communion again with
the angels of God. The mutual
attraction would be deemed sufficient
to explain their gravitation to each
other and their joint participation in
the worship and fellowship of heaven.
Can it be that "grace doth much more
abound" even above this? Yes, my
hearers, the Redeemernot only restores
the fellowship, but renders it
impossible that it should ever be broken
again, by bringing angels and the
redeemed into one body in Himself.
"Having made peace through the blood of
His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things
to Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be
8 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon Julyl August, 1994
things in earth, or things in heaven."
(Col. i: 20 .)"God hath highly exalted
Him andgiven him anamewhichis above
every name; that at the name oj jesus
every knee shouldbow, of things in heaven
and things in earth, and things under the
earth." (Phil. ii: 9,10.) The
recapitulation of all holy beings in
Christ, constituting one spiritual body
of which He is the Head, is affinned in
too many scriptures for me this
morning to cite. "For this cause, I bow
my knees to the Father of our Lordjesus
Christ, of whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is
named." (Eph. iii: l4,15.)
''When He raised Him from
the dead, and set Him at His
own right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all
prindpality, and power, and
might, and dominion, and
every name thatis named, not
only in this world, but also in
that which is to come; and
hath put all things under His
feet, and gave Him to be the
Head over all things to the
Church which is His body, the
fullness of Him that filleth all in all."
(Eph. i: 20,23.)
Let this testimony suffice for the
fact itself, that we may give ourselves
to adoring wonder of the riches of
grace which it displays. Saints and
angels not only brought into one, but
into one in Christ! How indissolUble,
then, the bonds of fellowship
established between them! Each must
be dissevered from their common
Head, before He can be separated from
the other. And how is this fellowship
glorified, as a fellowship in Christ-
reflecting the communion which each
is pennitted to hold with the Father
and with His Son,] esus Christ! (IJ ohn
i: 3.) If we meditate upon the broad
and sure foundation which is laid for
the fellowship in Heaven, between
thosewhoshallforeverbethemembers
of one glOriOUS body in Christ, we are
as much astonished at the method of
grace, as at the grace itself. Grace ripens
into glory before our view, when its
privileges are secured to us upon a
tenure, and by a method, which
constitute us sharers in our Lord's
exaltation and reward.
V. Last of all, Jesus restores the
channels through which the Divine
benevolence may eternally flow to
those whom He has redeemed. There
is an obstinate and willful
determination with men to cast
themselves upon the general goodness
of the Deity, irrespective of His justice
or His holiness. When the Scriptures
insist upon faith in Christ and
repentance of sin, as necessary
conditions of the Divine favor, - with
an audacity which would be sublime,
if it were not so wicked, they are
accused of putting an impeachment of
His prerogative, and a diminution of
His glory, to insist that He must regard
the character of His subjects in the
dispensation of His favor. How strange
perversion of God's greatness and
majesty, if it be viewed as disabling
Him from all moral discrimination
between those who approach His
throne! How monstrous the inference
from the infiniteness of the Divine
wisdom and power, that His love must
flow without distinction to all His
creatures, even though they should be
in rebellion against His authority!
Unquestionably God is infinite In
all His perfections; and it would be a
treasonable thought that should
venture to impose human limitations
upon anyone of them. But may He not
be allowed some discretion in their
exercise? May therenotbe obstructions
to the outflow of His benevolence,
which shall need to be removed? What
if the holiness and justice of Godshould
themselves interpose barriers, which
shall require all the resources of grace
to take down? Ah, my impenitent
friends, if you could but know how
entirely you are indebted to this grace,
for all the blessings you enjoy! The
dispensation under which you live, is
a dispensation of mercy. You have not
been left hopelessly under the curse of
the broken law. In the very hour ofthe
Fall, a promise of redemption broke in
upon the despair, which else would
have shrouded this eanh in darkness
forever. Had not a scheme of grace
supervened, the creature might have
lived his brief span- but life would have
been unmitigated tottllre, anticipatory
of the deeper terrors of the Hell which
should succeed. At the very moment
the sinner is trampling under foot the
Cross of the Saviour, he owes to the
suffering and passion of that Cross the
bread which he eats from day to day,
the clothing with which he invests his
fonn, and all the comfons and joys of
domestic life and love.
But Christ comes and opens these
closed channels. By His expiatory
sufferings and death, He removes the
obstructions interposed by Divinejustice.
Nay, in the greamessofHischarity, He
makes the channel broader and deeper
than it was before; and the fullness of
the Father's love may flow in an eternal
stream upon those who were guilty
and lost, but are now in Him the
recipients of blessedness and joy in
God's presence and kingdom forever.
In these five paniculars, Christ
restored that which He took not away.
He restores to the law, the honor of
which sin had robbed it. He restores to
His people that image of God from
which they had fallen. He restores
stability to God's throne, that it shall
be incapable of assault through all the
etemitytocome. He restores the broken
fellowship between the creatures, and
heals forever in Himself the schism
which sin had made. He opens again
the channels through which the divine
favor may flow foreverto the redeemed
in heaven. In view of all which we can
put a deeper emphasis on the
declaration ofthe text, "then I restored
that which I took not away."
Would that I could persuade the
unconvened in this house, of their
indebtedness to the Gospel! Would
that I had power to put the thought in
such language as would melt the heart!
What can uninspired man say, that
shall be half so impressive as Paul's
tender argument in the second of the
Romans? "Or, despiseth thou the riches
of His goodness and forbearance and
long suffering; not knowing that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance?" If the appeal to our
generous gratitude should fail of effect,
what shall the reckoning be hereali:er
at the judgment? Alas! Only consider
that the Redeemer shall then be the
judge; who must exact the penalty of
all who have spumed His mercy,
"treasuring up unto themselves wrath
against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God."
(Rom. ii: 5.) Even the devils have never
sinned against the Divine mercy, or
taken license from His grace to trample
upon His law. The sinners utter
insensibility to the goodness 0 f God is
the perpetual scandal of this apostate
earth. If the last proofbe demanded of
the hardness of the sinner's heart, let it
be found in this fatal insensibility to all
the benevolence and tenderness of God
in the Gospel of His Son.
I do not care to speak now of God's
terroTS. I do not allude, to- day, to that
judgment which He will pronounce
upon the guilty before His bar. But
when the very breath you draw, is the
gift of His kindness, - when every beat
of your pulse is the testimony to His
patience- when the common comfons
and joys oflife are the blessings of His
constant providence- how can a being,
with intelligence to know and with a
heart to feel, fail to respond to the
magnanimity which loads the criminal
with benefits who only deserves to be
loaded with chains! With all our
familiarity with the dreadful fact,
indignation and shame mingle with
astonishment in overwhelming the
July! August. 199-4 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 9
mind that contemplates it. "Be
astonished, a ye Heavens, at this, and
be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate,
saith the Lord: for my people have
committed two evils- they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living
wll.ters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken ctsterns, that can hold no
water." (Jer.ii: 12,13.) Year after year,
until you come to gray hairs, almost
standing in the presence ofthe]udge,
yet reckless of all these obligations
under which you lie to the charity of
Godc Oh sinner, it is a fearful memory
indictment! I beseech you to measure
its impon. And whilst God's children
gather, today, around their Master's
board, consider your debt to the
Saviour's cross which makes all this
goodness possible to you, and let this
goodness of God lead you, at last, to
the repentance which you have so long
withheld.
But however it shall be with others,
my brethren in the Lord, let us rejoice
in the mercy of our Redeemer; and as
we sit at His table, let us praise Him for
"the great salvation." One of the
sweetest aspects of grace is that it
makes the things to be for us, which
before were against us. It is the work of
the Restorer to take the sin which we
mourn, but which He has forgiven,
and make it quicken our pace in the
journey to heaven. Our miscarriages
and falls, over which we have wept as
wounds inflicted upon Him, Hemakes
to contribute strength and courage to
us in the conflicts which yet remain.
The accusations of the injured law,
which He has satisfied, become in His
hand the pledges of our final salvation.
When We shall presently hold
communion with Him through His
body broken and His blood shed, let
us rejoice not only in the grace by
which we are saved, but also in the
tender and loving way in which that
grace comm ends and secures to us the
blessings of eternal life. Though we
come weeping to His table, under the
memory of our grievous shortcomings
and sins, the Restorerbids us rejoice in
His power to blot them out forever,
and to f!ll us with blessedness
unspeakable and full of glory. Q
10 THE COUNSE.L of Chalcedon July! August, 1994