a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel." Sermons I. THOSE WHO MUST BE UNSATISFIED IN SPIRIT. There is a vast multitude of men who seek for satisfaction in the things which are seen and temporal - in taking pleasure, in making money, in wielding power, in gaining honor, etc. But they do not find what they seek. It is as true in London as it was in Jerusalem, eighteen centuries after Christ as ten centuries before, that "the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing." All the rivers of earthly good may run into the great sea of an immortal spirit, but that sea is not filled. Earthly good is the salt water that only makes more athirst the soul that drinks it. It is not the very wealthy, nor the very mighty, nor the very honored man who is ready to say, "I am satisfied; let me depart in peace." II. THOSE WHO MAY BE SATISFIED IN SPIRIT. Simeon knew by special communication from God - "it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost" - that he should reach a certain point in the coining of the kingdom of God, that his heart's deep desire for "the Consolation of Israel" should be granted him. And waiting for this, and attaining it, his soul was filled with joy and holy satisfaction. It is right for those who are taking a very earnest interest in the cause of Christ to long to be allowed to accomplish a certain work for him. Again and again has the parent thus striven and prayed and longed to see the conversion of all his (her) children, or the teacher of his (her) class; the minister of Christ to see the attainment of some pastoral design; the missionary to win some tribe from barbarism and idolatry; the translator to render the Word of God into the native tongue; the national reformer to pass his measure for emancipation, or temperance, or virtue, or education, or the protection of the lives and morals of women or children. And this deep desire of the heart has been a con- straining power, which has nerved the hand and energized the life, which has brought forth the fruit of sacred zeal and unwearied toil. God has given to these souls the desire of their hearts, and they have gone to their grave filled with a holy, satisfying peace. So may it be with us. And yet it may not be so. We may be called upon to quit the field of active labor before the harvest is gathered in. Others may enter into our labors. But if it should be so, there is a way in which we may belong. III. THOSE WHO CANNOT FAIL TO BE SATISFIED IS SPIRIT. For we may be of those who realize that it is in God's hand to fix the bounds of our present labor, and to determine the measure of the work we shall do on earth. We may work on diligently and devotedly as those who have much to do for God and man, yet clearly recognizing that God has for us a sphere in the spirit - world, and that he may at any hour remove us there, though we would fain finish what we have in hand below. If we have the spirit of Christ in our service, if we go whither we believe he sends us, and work on in the way which we believe to be according to his will. we may rest in the calm assurance that the hour of our cessation from holy labor is the hour of God's appointment, and a peace as calm as that of Simeon may fill our soul as we leave a not- unfinished work on earth to enter a nobler sphere in heaven. - C.
A light to lighten the Gentiles. I. EXPLAIN THE IMPORT OF THE TEXT.1. The character of Jesus is exhibited under the image of light — the most glorious of all the creatures of God.(1) Among the properties of light are penetration and universality. Light would have been an inappropriate image, in reference to Christ, had He not intended to illuminate the world. Not to a district, not to an empire, not to one quarter of the globe, does that glorious boon — light — confine its influences. It visits all in their turn. It burns within the torrid zone, it reaches the dark and distant poles; it proceeds with a gradual, yet inconceivable speed, in its restless career, till it has enlightened the whole.(2) Light is a source of comfort (Ecclesiastes 11:7).(3) Another quality of light is purity. It is this which renders it a fit emblem of Deity (1 John 1:5). 2. The subjects of His influences — "The Gentiles" — i.e., all nations that have not yet heard the tidings of the gospel in Him. 3. The result of the manifestation of Christ to the world will be universal illumination. He rises upon the nations to "lighten" them. II. APPLY ITS TESTIMONY TO MISSIONARY EXERTIONS. 1. Examine the principles on which they are founded.(1) They are founded in nature. The same cause should produce the same effects. Whoever sincerely loves the Saviour will feel a proportionate attachment to His laws, His people, His interests. He cannot sit down indifferent to the last, any more than he can consent to break the first.(2) They are founded on the purest principles of reason. Missionary effort must be used as a means, to bring about the end in view — the spread of the gospel. God employs in the meantime human instruments for the carrying out of His Divine purposes.(3) They are founded on the purest principles of humanity. The gospel is the only effectual remedy of all this world s evil and misery.(4) They are founded on the purest principles of patriotism. Religious lethargy precedes national ruin; patriotism, therefore, calls for the support of religious zeal.(5) They are founded on the purest principles of religion. 2. The considerations by which we are encouraged.(1) Revelation.(2) Experience.(3) Existing circumstances. Is there not crying need throughout the world of those consolations which the gospel alone can bring, and of the Saviour whom the gospel alone proclaims? (W. B. Collyer, D. D.) He gives the light of truth, of spiritual sight, of knowledge, of holiness, of joy, of heaven. The natives of arctic regions put on their holiday attire, and enthusiastically welcome the returning sun, when after months of absence, he again revisits them with his rays. How much more should we rejoice in the light of "the Sun of Righteousness?" There was a light once on or near the Goodwin Sands, called "The light of all nations," because it was supposed that some of all nations would see it. The "light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" will one day "cover the earth." When Christ gives us light, we must reflect it (see Matthew 5:14-16). The lighthouse, when its lights burn truly, will warn the mariner against danger, and enable him to pursue the right and safe way. So we may each guide some from the darkness and danger of sin, to the light and safety of God's mercy in Christ.(Henry R. Burton.) There is no figure more common nor more beautiful in the Scriptures, than that by which Christ is compared to "light." Incomprehensible in its nature, itself first visible, and that by which all else is so; "light" represents to us Christ, whose generation none can declare, but who must shine on us ere we can know aught aright whether of things Divine or human. Pure, uncontaminated, though visiting the lowest parts of the earth, and penetrating the most noisome recesses; what is "light" an image of, if not of that Divine Mediator, who contracted no stain, though born of a woman, in the likeness of sinful flesh? Instrumental in all the processes of vegetation, so that, without its vivifying power, the earth could not yield its kindly fruits, nor expose its verdant hues, what is "light" but the emblem of that source of illumination, of whom the Evangelist declares that "He was the Light and Life of men"? And without searching too narrowly into the particular sources by which this resemblance might be proved, we may say that Christ is to the material world what the sun is to the natural; and wherever the gospel has been published and received as a communication from God, the darkness has fled, as night flies before the day; and we know, that wherever the revelation made through Christ has been dispersed, wherever it has vouchsafed its cheering rays, the clouds of ignorance, and superstition, and irreligion have vanished, and holiness purity, and morality have illumined the horizon. It has done more. It has hung the very grave with bright lamps, and re-kindled the blazings of an almost quenched immortality.(H. Melvill, B. D.) And the glory of Thy people Israel We shall now employ the natural Israel as a type of the Lord's elect ones, and surely there is no straining of the text, when we say that Jesus Christ is the glory of the spiritual seed, the redeemed people. And why, with evident propriety, may the saints of God be compared to Israel?1. Surely because God has made a covenant with them as He did with Jacob. 2. We may be compared with Israel, again, because if we be the children of God we have learned to wrestle with the angel and prevail. 3. It may be that you have another likeness to Israel in the fact that you are much tried. Faith must be tried. God had one Son without sin, but He never had a Son without the rod. 4. The true Israel, which are spiritually the Church of Christ, are said, according to the text, to be the Lord's people. (1) (2) (3) I. When we say that Christ is our glory, we mean that WE GET ALL THE GLORY WE HAVE THROUGH HIM. Some men go to the schools for glory, others to the camps of war. In all kinds of places men have sought after honour, but the believer saith that Christ is the mine in which he digs for this gold, Christ is the sea in which he fishes for this pearl; he gives up all other searchings and looks for glory in Jesus, and nowhere else. 1. The glory of election. 2. The glory of redemption. 3. The glory of adoption. 4. The glory of justification. 5. The glory of sanctification.Thus I might continue showing you that there is not a single treasure which a Christian possesses which does not come to him through Christ. He has nothing in which he can glory but what he is sweetly compelled to say of it, "I gained this in the market of Calvary; I found this in the mines of a Saviour's suffering; all this came to me through my bleeding, buried, risen, coming Lord, and He shall have the glory of it as long as I live." II. WE SEE A GLORY IN CHRIST which swallows up all other glories, as the sun's light conceals the light of the stars. 1. In Christ's person. 2. In Christ's sufferings. 3. In Christ's resurrection. 4. In Christ's ascension. 5. In Christ's intercession. 6. In Christ's second advent. III. The text is true in the sense that WE GIVE GLORY TO HIM. There is life in a look at the Crucified One. There is life in simple confidence in Him, but there is life nowhere else. God send to His Church an undying passion to promote the Saviour's glory, an invincible, unconquerable pang of desire, and longing that by any means King Jesus may have His own, and may reign throughout these realms! In this sense, then, Jesus is and must be the glory of His people. IV. But there is another sense — namely, FROM JESUS IS REFLECTED ALL THE GLORY WHICH IS PUT UPON HIS PEOPLE. Whatever glory they have, and they have much in the eyes of angels, and much honour in the eyes of discerning men, it is always the reflection of the Saviour's glory. I know some holy men and women for whom I cannot but feel the deepest and intensest respect, but the reason is because they have so much of my Master about them. I think I would travel many miles to talk with some of them, because their speech is always so full of Him, and they live so near to Him. V. The text may be read in this sense: Christ is the glory of His people, that is to say, THEY EXPECT GLORY WHEN HE COMES. Our glory is laid up. When you follow Jesus in resurrection, what glory! But we must not begin to speak of that, for we should never leave off at all if we began to talk about that glory — the glory of perfection, the glory of being delivered from sin, the glory of conquest, having trodden Satan under our feet; the glory of eternal rest, the glory of infinite security, the glory of being like Christ, the glory of being in the light and brightness of God, standing, like Milton's angel, in the very sun itself. If you want to know what heaven is, you can spell it in five letters, and when you put the five letters together they sound like this: Jesus. That is heaven. It is all the heaven the angels round the throne desire to know. They want nothing better than this, to see His face, to behold His glory, and to dwell in it world with. out end. VI. THE PRACTICAL DRIFT OF THE SUBJECT. 1. We would give a word of warning to those of you who seek your glory anywhere else, because as surely aa you do so, even if you meet with honour for a time, you will have to lose it. It is always ill to put your treasure where it will be stolen from yon. Now, suppose you seek your glory in your learning. Well, well, well! Let the sexton take up your skull after you have been dead a little while, and what learning will there be in it, what show of wisdom will be found in it when it is resolved into a little impalpable brown powder? What will your science, and your mathematics, and your classics do for you in death and judgment? Suppose you seek your glory in fame, and become the favourite of the nation as a great soldier. When the grave-digger rattles your old bones about, what will that signify? You will have great fame, you say, and men will talk about you. But he who hath his glory in Christ, when he openeth his eyes in the next world will see Christ, and so behold his glory safe, and firmly entailed upon him. 2. Another word, and that is a word of rebuke. There are some preachers we know of, and I suppose there will always be some of the genus, who preach, preach, preach, but they never preach what is Israel's glory. They talk of anything but Christ. 3. There are some of you to whom I have a last word to say, and that is, some of you love Jesus Christ, but you are ashamed to say so. Now, since He is the glory of His people Israel, I shall be afraid of you and for you if you do not make Him your glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. Because He was a Jew by birth. 2. Because His history has vindicated all that was peculiar in the Jewish polity. 3. Because He confined His personal ministry to the Jews. 4. Because He has stamped the impress of Jewish thought on the mind of man. 5. Because He has invested the condition and prospects of the Jews with universal interest. (G. Brooks.) (Dr. Newton.) 2203 Christ, titles of 6704 peace, divine NT Was, Is, is to Come The Boy in the Temple Simeon's Swan-Song Shepherds and Angels The Angel's Message and Song December the Nineteenth the Sun of Righteousness December the Twenty-Fifth Christmas Cheer Religious Joy. The Wilderness: Temptation. Matthew 4:1-11. Mark 1:12, 13. Luke 4:1-13. Joy Born at Bethlehem "Nunc Dimittis" Christ About his Father's Business The First Christmas Carol Christ's Boyhood The Christ Child (Christmas Day. ) Music (Christmas Day. ) Of Having Confidence in God when Evil Words are Cast at Us The Birth of Jesus. Circumcision, Temple Service, and Naming of Jesus. |
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