To Thee alone my sorrows shall appeal; Hath earth a wound too hard for heaven to heal?" FRANCIS QUARLES. No. LV. Subject: SIN THE DESTROYER, GOD THE RESTORER. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help."Hosea xiii. 9. I. SIN THE DESTROYER. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." What connected with self does a man destroy? Not his mental faculties, not his conscience, not his moral responsibilities. These he cannot put an end to. But he destroys the liberty, the peace, the blessedness of his being. He can destroy all connected with his existence, that can make existence tolerable or worth having. How is this done? By SIN. Sin is the soul destroyer. Every sin is destructive of something. From the eternal laws of moral mind man cannot commit a wrong act without the infliction of an injury to the soul, without blinding the judgment, deadening the sensibility, curtailing the liberty, drying up the affection, enfeebling the will. Sin is suicidal. "He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul." What is a sinner doing? Murdering himself. Every lying word, every dishonest act, every impure thought, every impious sentiment, every lustful gratification is a deadly blow inflicted upon the soul. 66 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." There is nothing arbitrary in Subject: No. LVI. THE GREAT CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD CONQUERED. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes.". -Hosea xiii. 14. Delitzsch translates this: "Out of the hand of hell will I redeem them; from death will I set them free. Where are thy plagues, O death? Where thy destruction, O hell? Repentance is hidden from mine eyes.” Primarily these words apply to God's restoration of Israel from Assyriapartially and in times yet future, fully, from all the lands of their present long-continued dispersion and political death. But Paul's reference to it (1 Cor. xv. 23) authorizes us to give it a wider application ; and we may regard it as referring to death and Christ. I. Here is the great CONQUEROR, called the "death and the grave." What a conqueror is death! (1) Heartless, dead to all appeals. (2) Resistless. Bulwarks, battalions, castles, are nothing before him. (3) Universal, his eyes fasttened on the world. Young, old, rich, poor, he has marked them all as victims. (4) Ever active. He does not pause a moment. Year after year, month after month, day after day, minute after minute he works without a pause. Thousands fall before him every hour. This is the Conqueror keeping the world in awe, filling our houses with mourning, our streets with funereal processions, our cemetries with the dead. II. Here is the great Conqueror of the world CONQUERED. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. I will be thy plagues, I will be thy destruction.' I. Who? "I am the resurrection and the life, whoso believeth in Me shall never die." How bas He conquered death? Not by weakening his power, or arresting his progress, for he is as mighty and active as ever, but by stripping him of his terror. Mentally He overcomes him, swallows him up. He fills the souls of His people with such love to the infinite Father, such interest in the spiritual universe, such desire for a higher life, that they say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." A few weeks hence, and spring will come forth as а messenger from the great fountain of life, and look abroad over the earth in winter desolation under the icy reign of death; and will say to every withered plant and buried germ, "I will ransom thee from the power of the grave." This Christ says to all dead souls.* "It is not death, to die: To leave this weary road, And 'midst the brotherhood on high To be at home with God. "It is not death, to close The eye long dimmed by tears, And wake in glorious repose To spend eternal years. "It is not death, to bear The wrench that sets us free From dungeon chain, to breathe the air Of boundless liberty. "It is not death, to fling Aside this sinful dust, And rise on strong, exulting wing To live among the just. "Jesus, Thou Prince of Life, Thy chosen cannot die; Like Thee, they conquer in the strife, To reign with Thee on high." * For notes on the parallel passage in Isaiah see "Homilist," Vol. XXII., page 170. THE man who seeks his own happiness will never get it. It is God's law, that happiness should come to man, not by his seeking it as an end, but by seeking goodness as the great aim of life. Homiletical Breviaries. No. XCVII. Subject: THE TAKING AWAY AND THE GIVING OF LIFE, THE PREROGATIVES OF GOD AND GOD ONLY. "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up."-1 SAM. ii. 6. The text is part of Hannah's splendid song-a song full of poetry, devotion, and music. It asserts the two great prerogatives that belong to God and God only. I. "Killing" IS THE PREROGATIVE OF GOD AND GOD ONLY. Killing, of course, we take to mean the destruction of human life. No man has the right to destroy the life of his brother. "Thou shalt not kill." This applies to man, not only in his individual, but in his corporate capacity. The command is moral, and binding upon man as man, everywhere, at all times, in every combination and office. It is written in characters of light on the page of reason as well as in the decalogue of Sinai. The Creator alone has this prerogative. First: He has a right to kill whomsoever He pleases. He might strike down the greatest angel as well as the humblest creature, He might shatter a universe or destroy a hovel. There is no one to dispute His right. Secondly: He has a right to kill how He pleases. He may do it by instrumentality or without instrumentality, directly or indirectly. He may do so by poisonous pestilences, by noxious reptiles, savage beasts, or bloody war. Thirdly: He has a right to kill when He pleases-in childhood, youth, manhood, or age, now or then, to-day or to-morrow. Who can dispute His right or justly complain that it is too soon or too late? "There is one Lawgiver, says James, that has power to destroy." Yes, one and only one. What is the inference from this? (1) Hold all human life as sacred to violate it, is to infringe the prerogative of God. (2) Be ready to yield up your life at His bidding. He has a right to it. Hold it ever as a trust from Him. When it is taken away, say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." II. "To make alive" IS THE PREROGATIVE OF GOD AND GOD ONLY. Men cannot infringe this prerogative if they would. They have tried, but failed, signally failed. The sculptor in the marble and the painter on the canvas give the form of life, but not life itself. Bring all the scientific men of the age together in order "to make alive one dying rose, and they would fail. There is One only that "maketh alive." First: He can create new life. This He has been doing for ages; this He has done to an infinite extent; this He will continue to do for ever and for ever. Secondly: He can resuscitate extinct life. This He does every spring. This He has done with many men recorded in the Scriptures, and this in all probability He will do on a grand scale at last. He is the Fountain of Life, the primal, independent, sole Fountain. Conclusion.-Reverence these prerogatives. Woe to him who dares to infringe on the first, and "kill." And woe also to him who, although he cannot infringe on the second-" make alive "does not practically recognize all life as streams from Him the Everlasting Fountain. Hearken to His own declaration-" See now that I, even I am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand." No. XCVIII. Subject: MAN SEIZING THE STRENGTH OF OMNIPOTENCE. "Let him take hold of My strength."-ISA. xxvii. 5. Some substitute the word protection for strength here, and suppose the words refer to the horns of the altar which fugitives often laid hold of as an asylum. But the refuge of safety for any moral intelligence is nothing without God's strength. His strength, in fact, is the only true refuge. As the text contains a grand idea with the word "strength," I shall let it remain for the sake of illustrating a great practical thought. For an insignificant creature like man to lay hold upon the strength of Omnipotence, seems at first not only an absurd but a blasphemous thought, and yet the thought is not without support in the Word of God. What meaneth the expression, "Let me alone, Moses," etc.? I make two observations: I. It is POSSIBLE for man to lay hold on the strength of Omnipotence. In what does the real strength of a moral intelligence consist? Not in material bulk or muscle, if he has them; but in the leading disposition of his heart. This is the soul of strength, the sap in the oak, the steam in the engine, the vis in the muscle. He that can take hold of this in a man takes hold of his strength. Vanity is the leading disposition in some men; and if you would take hold of their strength you must flatter them. By adulation you will grasp them body and soul. Greed is the leading disposition in others. Avarice controls them, works their thoughts, and concentrates their energies. Minister to this greed, and you will take hold of their strength, you will have them in your hands. Let them see you pour treasures into their coffers, and you will have them soul and body. They will work for you, almost die for you. Philanthropy is, thank God, the leading disposition of others. Present to them the claims of down-trodden slaves, of broken-hearted widows and starving orphans, and you will take hold of their strength. Coriolanus was a mighty man. He is thus described by Shakspeare, our great dramatist : "The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corset with his eye, talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in." And yet his mother and wife, by appealing to the love in his nature, took hold of his strength; and hence we hear him exclaim, " Ladies, you deserve to have a temple built you. All the swords in Italy and her confederate arms could not have made this peace." Now the leading disposition of God, if I may so say, is benevolence. He not only loves, but is love. He is full of compassion. His love nerves His arm when He creates worlds and systems. His love inspires and controls Him in all His omnipotent operations. He, therefore, who appeals to His compassion, takes hold of His strength. See how Omnipotence halted as Abraham cried. See how in Christ it stood still on the road when two blind beggars said, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me." Thus let the poor sinner go stricken in penitence and appeal in all his misery to the Great Father, and he will take hold of His strength. As the cries of a dying child take hold of the strength of the laurelled hero of a hundred battles, so the suppliant wails of a repentant soul will seize the strength of God Himself. II. It is NECESSARY for man to lay hold on the strength of Omnipotence. The only hope of sinful, dying man is to appeal to God's compassion. "If My people which are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then |