Another And A Nobler Exhibition

Another And A Nobler Exhibition
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 4, 1862, BY REV. C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."
Ephesians 3:10.
ALL the world has been talking during the last three days of the
splendid pageant which adorned the opening of the International
Exhibition. Crowds have congregated in the palace of universal art.
Representatives of all the nations of the earth have journeyed for many
a league to view its wonders. Eminent personages of all empires have
appeared in the gorgeous spectacle, and such a scene has glittered
before the eyes of all men, as has never before in all respects been
equaled and may not for many a year find a successor to rival it.
Why all these gatherings? Why muster you, all you nations? Why do you
come here, you gazing sons of men? Surely your answer must be, that you
have come together that you may see the manifold wisdom of MAN. As they
walk along the aisles of the great Exhibition, what do they see but the
skill of man? First in this department, and then in the other. At one
moment in the magnificent, at the next in the minute. At one instant in
a work of elegance in ornament, in the next in a work of skill and
usefulness–"manifold wisdom"–the works and productions of many minds.
The different hues and colors of thought, embodied in the various
machines and statues and so forth, which human skill has been able to
produce.
We grant you that God has been most rightly recognized there, both in
the solemn prayer of the Archbishop and in the hymn of the Laureate.
But still the great object, after all, was to behold the manifold
wisdom of man. And had they taken away man's skill and man's art, what
would there have been left? Brethren, may the greatest results follow
from this gathering! We must not expect that it, or anything else short
of the Gospel, will ever bring about the universal reign of peace. We
must never look to art and science to accomplish that triumph which is
reserved for the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yet may it spread the feelings of benevolence–may it bind together the
scattered children of Adam–may it fuse into a happy and blessed union
the kindreds of men that were scattered abroad at Babel, and may it
prepare the way and open the gates, that the Gospel may proceed to the
uttermost ends of the earth. It is, however, very far from my mind to
direct your attention to the marvels which crowd the area of the huge
temple of 1862. I invite you, rather, to follow me to a nobler
exhibition than this, where crowds are gathering–not of mortals but of
immortal spirits.
The temple is not of art and science but of Divine Grace and goodness,
built with living stones, cemented with the fair colors of atoning
blood, "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone." That temple, the Church of
the living God, "the pillar and ground of the truth." Into this great
palace crowd ten thousand times ten thousand of the host of God,
"cherubim and seraphim," or by whatever other names those bright
intelligences may be known among themselves–"principalities and
powers."
The different degrees in the hierarchy of immortal spirits, if such
there is–they are all represented as intently gazing upon the wondrous
fabric which God has reared. Along the aisles of that Church, along the
ages of its dispensations, stand the various trophies of Divine Grace
and love–the jewel cases of virtues and graces which adorn the
Believer–the mementoes of triumphs gotten over sin and hardness of
heart and of victories achieved over temptation and trial. And as the
spirits walk along these corridors full of Divine workmanship, they
stand, they gaze, they admire and wonder and speed back their way to
Heaven and sing more loudly than before, hallelujahs to the God whose
manifold wisdom they have beheld in the Church of God below.
Beloved Friends, our text is a strange one. If you will reflect that
the angels, the elder-born of creatures when compared with us, have
been with God for many an age. And yet I do not know that it is ever
said that by anything else they ever learned "the manifold wisdom of
God." They were with Him when He made the earth and the
heavens–perhaps during those long periods when the earth was forming.
"In the beginning," when "God created the heavens and the earth," the
angels were likely to visit this world and to behold alive, and in
their glory, those strange shapes of mystery which now we dig up in
fossil from the earth.
Certainly in that day when "the earth was without form and void and
darkness was upon the face thereof," the angels knew the hidden
treasure. And when He said, "Let there be light and there was light,"
when that first ray of light seemed like a living finger to touch the
earth and waken it to beauty, then seraphic fingers swept their
heavenly harps and "the morning stars sang together, and the sons of
God shouted for joy." Yet I do not learn, though they were with the
Great Worker during the six days of creation, though they saw "the
cattle after their kind and the fowls of the air after their kind," and
the fish of the sea and all the plants and herbs, yet I see not that in
all this there was made known unto them "the manifold wisdom of God."
No, more–when man, the Master's last work, walked through Eden–when,
with his fair consort by his side, he stood up to praise his Maker,
though he was "fearfully and wonderfully made," though in his mind and
body there was a display of wisdom unrivalled before–yet I do not
learn that even in man, as a creature, there was made known "the
manifold wisdom of God." Yes, and more than this, when other worlds
were made, when the stars were kindled like glowing flames by light of
Deity, if there were other peoples and other kindreds and other tribes
in those myriads of far-off lands, I do not find in the creation of all
those hosts of worlds which adorn the wide fields of ether, that there
was then made known to celestial spirits "the manifold wisdom of God."
No, more, in all the dispensations of Divine Providence apart from the
Church, in all the mystic revolutions of those wondrous wheels that are
full of eyes, apart from the Church, there has not been made known to
these beings to the fullest extent the wisdom of God. Ah, and Brethren,
remember yet once more, that they with undimmed eyes look upon the
glory of Him that sits upon the Throne, so far as it can be seen by
created vision. They behold the Beatific Vision. They are glistening in
the splendors of Deity and veil their faces when at His footstool they
cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth."
And yet, though standing, as it were, in the sun, though they are
foremost of all the creatures, nearest to the eternal Throne, I do not
read that by all this they have in the highest sense learned "the
manifold wisdom of God." What an idea, then, does this give to us of
the importance of the Church! Brethren, never let us despise any more
the mean member of it, since there is more to be beheld in the Church
than in creation in its utmost breadth. More of the wisdom of God in
the saving of souls than in the building the arches of the sky. No,
more of God to be seen than even Heaven with all its splendors can
otherwise reveal.
Oh, let us open our eyes that we lose not those Divine mysteries which
angels desire to look into! I have now already explained the meaning of
the text. We have, therefore, but to direct your attention to those
points of interest upon which angelic intelligence would be sure to
linger. And we shall pray that, while we mention these in brief and
running catalog, our hearts may be led to meditate much upon the
manifold, the varied wisdom of God displayed in the Church which Christ
has bought with His blood.
I. And first, dear Brethren, we think that the grand object of
attention in the Church to the principalities and powers, is THE SCHEME
AND PLAN OF SAVING THE CHURCH. It is this that they so much admire and
wonder at. It has been exceedingly well said by others, that if a
Parliament had been held of all the spirits in Heaven and in earth, and
if it had been committed to this general assembly to ordain and fix
upon a plan whereby God might be just and yet the Justifier of the
ungodly, they must all have failed to achieve the task. Those lofty
minds, doubtless, consider with delight the fact that in God's way of
saving His Church, all His attributes shine out with undiminished
luster.
God is just. They know it in Heaven, for they saw Lucifer fall like
lightning when God cast him out of his dwelling place on account of
sin. God is just. And as much so upon Calvary, where his Son hangs and
bleeds, "the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God," as He was when
He cast down the Son of the Morning. The angels see in salvation this
great wonder of justice and peace embracing each other–God as sternly
just as if there were not a particle of mercy in His being, smiting His
Son for the sin of His people with all the force of His might–God, yet
as merciful as if He were not just–embracing His people as though they
had never sinned and loving them with a love which could not have been
greater had they never transgressed.
They understand how God so hated sin that He laid vengeance on His only
Begotten and yet, "God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have
everlasting life." As in the crowns of Oriental princes the most
precious jewels shone in clusters, so as in one wonderful corona all
the infinite attributes of God shine out at once in all their combined
glory around Your Cross, O Jesus, earth's wonder and Heaven's prodigy!
This difficulty, so delightfully met, so completely disposed of by the
Atonement of Christ, causes the angels to behold "the manifold wisdom
of God."
But, further–when the angels see that by this great plan all the ruin
that sin brought upon mankind is removed, they again wonder at the
wisdom of God. And when they especially notice the way in which it was
removed, the strange and mysterious methods which God used for rolling
away the stone from the door of the human sepulcher, they yet more bow
down with awe. Did we lose Eden in Adam? Lo, the Lord Jesus Christ has
given us a better than Paradise! Did we lose the dignity of manhood?
Lo, today we regain it in Christ–"for You have put all things under
His feet." Did we lose spotless purity? Again we have obtained it in
Christ. For we are justified through His righteousness and washed in
His blood.
Did we lose communion with God? We have obtained it this day. For "we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." Did we lose
Heaven itself? Ah, Heaven is ours again. For in Him we have obtained an
inheritance and are "made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light." And all this mischief is made to destroy itself,
God overruling it to be its own destruction. The dragon stung with his
own sting. Goliath killed with his own sword. Death is slain by the
death of the Man who was crucified. Sin is put away by the great sin
offering, who "bore our sins in His own Body on the tree."
The grave is plagued by its own victim since Christ lay a captive
within it. Satan casts out Satan in this case. We rise by man as by man
we fell–"As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive."
The worm in whom Satan triumphed, is the worm in whom God is glorified.
It was man whom Satan sought to make the instrument of Divine dishonor
and it is man in whom God triumphs over all the crafts and cruelties of
Hell. This the angels wonder at, for they see in this scheme of
salvation, meeting as it does every mischief and meeting it on its own
ground, "the manifold wisdom of God."
Observe, also, that through the great scheme of salvation by the
Atonement, God is more glorified than He would have been if there had
been no Fall, and consequently no room for a redemption. The angels
admire "the manifold wisdom of God" in the whole story of the human
race, seeing that in the whole of it, from the beginning to the end,
God is more glorified than He would have been had it all been written
in letters of gold, without one sin or one suffering on the part of the
human race. O Lord! When You did permit for a moment Your people to go
astray like lost sheep, there might have been silence in Heaven, since
Your enemy had triumphed, since the precious ones whom You had loved
were given up into the hand of the enemy!
When the jewels of Christ were lost for a little season amidst the miry
clay and ruins of the Fall, there might have been a furling of
Jehovah's banner. For perhaps it seemed to angels as though God had
been defeated in His highest praise. But when Christ comes back "from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah," wearing upon His royal head the
crown in which every jewel is securely set that once was in the hand of
the enemy–when the Shepherd comes back from the mountains, wearing on
His shoulders the lost sheep which had gone astray, there is more joy
in Heaven over the lost ones that are found again than there could have
been over all of them had they never gone astray.
The deep bass of the Fall shall swell the song of the restoration. The
hollow moans, as they seemed to be, when heard alone, shall but make a
part of the grand swell of the eternal song, as it shall peal up to the
Throne of the Lord God of Hosts. Brethren, if you would think for
awhile upon the whole work of God, taking in it the Fall as being
foreseen and foreknown, until the day when all the chosen seed shall
meet around the Throne, I think you will be struck with its glory as a
whole. It was within the compass of the power of God to make creatures
that would love Him, to make beings that would be attached to Him by
very close ties.
But–I speak with reverence–I do not see how Omnipotence itself, apart
from the Fall and the Redemption by the sacrifice of Christ, when He
gave Himself to die for us, could have made such creatures as the
redeemed will be in Heaven.
Brethren, if we had never fallen and never been redeemed, we could
never have sung of redeeming Grace and dying love. We could not, and
the angels could not. We could not have known the heights and depths
and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
Feasted with heavenly food, we might have admired His bounty, but not
as we now do when we eat the flesh of Christ.
Made to drink the wine pressed from Heaven's own clusters, we might
have blessed the Giver of the feast, but not as we now can do, when we
drink the blood of Jesus as our sweet wine, pure and holy. We could
have praised Him and we should have done so, but not as we now can,
when we have "washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb." There is a nearer relationship now than there could have been in
any other way, if God had not taken humanity into alliance with
Himself, if the Word had not been made flesh and dwelt among us.
I say there may have been other plans but certainly no mortal mind can
conceive any other. This seems to be the most wonderful, the most
God-like, the most Divine, that a creature shall be made perfectly
free. That that creature shall offend, shall discover the justice of
God through the punishment being laid upon a Substitute, but shall
learn the love of God through that Substitute being God Himself! This
creature was ordained to be attached to the Eternal One by ties of
filial relationship, by bonds of affection so strong that the pains of
the rack and the flames of the fire should not be able to separate it
from the love of God.
And in Heaven this creature shall feel that it owes nothing to itself,
nothing to its own natural efforts, but all to Him who loved it, and
who bought it with His blood. And therefore this grateful being shall
praise God, after a sort, superior by many high degrees to the
attainment of any other. Oh, dear Friends, I think if we study the
subject for a few hours alone, we shall see that in nothing that God
has done is there such a discovery of His wisdom as in the plan of
redeeming love.
Go round about her, O angels of the Lord! Mark well her bulwarks and
tell the towers thereof–consider her palaces. Behold the impregnable
strength of Covenant engagements! See the largeness and broadness of
electing love. Behold the veracity and truthfulness of Divine promises!
See the fullness of Divine Grace and efficacy in the pardoning blood.
See the faithfulness and the immovability of the Divine affection, when
once it is set on men. And when you have admired the whole, go back,
Spirits, and more sweetly than before, unite with us in our
song–"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive honor and blessing
and majesty and power and dominion forever and ever."
II. Secondly, without a doubt the wisdom of God is made known to angels
and principalities in THE VARIOUS
DISPENSATIONS THROUGH WHICH THE CHURCH HAS PASSED.
At first the Church was, indeed, a little flock, a few chosen out of
the mass–Abram, the Syrian, ready to perish and a few godly ones in
his household. Then the stream widened a little and there became twelve
tribes. And soon the dispensation became more clear. Moses was raised
up, and Aaron, whom God had chosen. Then the angels desired to look
into the typical rites and ceremonies of that ancient dispensation.
They were pictured standing on the Mercy Seat, with wings outstretched,
with their faces bent downwards as if they would gladly behold the
secret which the golden lid concealed.
Doubtless, as they saw the sacrifice, whether it was the burnt
offering, the peace offering, or the sin offering–as they saw the
gorgeous ceremonies of the tabernacle, or the yet more splendid rites
of the temple, they admired the wisdom of God, as it was set forth in
the dim symbol and shadow. How much more must they have admired it,
when the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing beneath His wings,
when they saw the sacrifice superseded by the one great offering. The
high priest set aside by the Man, who having once offered one sacrifice
forever, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. How they
have marveled since that time as truth after truth has been expounded
in the experience of Believers, as doctrine after doctrine has been
revealed to the Church of Christ by the illuminations of the Holy
Spirit!
Oh, Brethren, the angels, when they compare the past with the present
and again, the present with the past–the choosing of the Jewish olive
and the leaving out of the rest of the trees and then, the grafting-in
of the Gentiles from the wild olive and the casting out of the natural
branches–how much they must have admired the singular variety of God's
dispensations, when they know, as certainly they do, that His Grace
remains the same! In climbing or in descending a lofty mountain, one is
struck with the sudden change of views. You looked on the right just
now and you saw a populous city in the plain. But you turn a corner and
looking through a break in the forest you see a broad lake.
And in a moment or two your road winds again and you will see a narrow
valley and another range of mountains beyond. Every time you turn,
there is a new scene presented to you. So it would seem to the angelic
spirits. When first they began to ascend the hill on which the Church
stands, "Mount Zion, which is above, the mother of us all," they saw
the wisdom of God manifested as Abraham saw it. A turn in the road, and
they saw it as Moses beheld it. Another, and they had a view as David
was likely to gaze upon it. And then, when they ascended to clearer
light, and the mists that hung about the mountainside had all been
scattered and had fallen in one gracious shower of Divine Grace, they
saw it as the Apostles beheld it when they stood upon Mount Olivet!
And since then, through every trial of the Church, as the eighteen
centuries have rolled on since the Master went up to Heaven, they have
been constantly catching fresh views and seeing fresh manifestations of
the varied and constantly-changing wisdom of the unchanging God, as it
is manifested in His dealings with the Church. So that both in the
dispensations, as well as in the plan, there is made known to
principalities and powers "the manifold wisdom of God."
III. Thirdly, to be brief upon each point, we may conclude, without any
doubt, that they mainly see the wisdom of God in His Church, IN THE
CHURCH'S COVENANT HEAD AND REPRESENTATIVE.
Oh, when first they heard that the Lord of Life and Glory was to be
made flesh and to dwell among us, how they must have admired the plan
of Heaven's going down to earth that earth might come up to Heaven! The
Babe in the manger commanded all their songs. When they saw that Babe
become a Man and heard Him preach, how they must have marveled at the
wisdom of sending God Himself to be God's own Prophet! When they saw
that Man living a life of perfect holiness, how they must have clapped
their wings at the thought that man could see perfection now in God's
own Self, shrouded in human form!
But when it came to Atonement and they learned that God's people must
be crucified in Christ, how struck must they have been, as the thought
burst upon them for the first time, that the whole host of the elect
were to sweat great drops of blood through one Man–that they were to
be flagellated, to be scourged, bruised and spat upon, in one Man–that
the host of the chosen were to carry the Cross of their condemnation
upon one Man's shoulders–that that one Man was for them all–to take
all their load of guilt and, nailed to the tree, bleed away His life
for the whole body!
Oh, I say, when they saw that lowly Man, with all the sins of the whole
chosen company resting upon His shoulders and knew this solitary Man to
be God–able to carry the whole–they must have marveled, indeed, at
the wisdom of God. And when that triumphant Man cried, "It is
finished!" having drained the cup of damnation to its utmost dregs,
till there remained not one black drop for another of the elect to
drink–when that one Man descended into the grave and the whole company
of the faithful were buried with Him, oh, how they marveled!
When again they beheld the second Adam bursting His cerements, rending
the chains of death as though, like another Samson, He had broken the
green withes of the Philistines as though they were but thread, how
astonished they were when they thought that the elect were risen in
that glorified Person! And when that Man was received up into Heaven
and the cloud hid Him from mortal view, how they rejoiced to see Him
rise! But much more to think that we, also were risen in Him and in Him
had ascended up on high–in Him the whole Church, I say, leading their
captivity captive!
When that representative Personage, with acclamation beyond all
measure, rose to the throne of the Father and took His seat at the
right hand of the dreadful Majesty on High, how wonderful must have
been the admiration of the spirits when they thought that He had raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus! Perhaps there is no doctrine that is more astounding to
Christians than this. I know if we want a theme that will enlarge our
minds, the subject of the union of the chosen with Christ is certainly
the most expansive–
"O sacred union, firm and strong,
How great the Grace, how sweet the song,
That worms of earth should ever be
One with incarnate Deity!
One when He died, one when He rose,
One when He triumphed over His foes;
One when in Heaven He took His seat,
And angels sang all Hell's defeat.
This sacred tie forbids all fears,
For all He has and is ours;
With Him our head we stand or fall,
Our life, our surety and our all."
"The manifold wisdom of God," in thus constituting Christ the Covenant
Head and representative of the elect in all its various shapes and
shades, must have been discovered to angelic beings.
IV. Though that were a theme that might require a full discourse, we
leave it at once to turn to another. In the fourth place, the manifold
wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers IN THE
CONVERSION OF EVERY CHILD OF GOD.
There are some very singular implements in this present Great
Exhibition. Marvelous feats of human skill. But there is one thing they
have not there that is to be found in the Church of the living God and
that is a heart-melter, an instrument for turning stone to flesh. There
are inventions for melting granite and for liquefying flesh but I know
of no invention, but one, and that is not to be found in any earthly
show, for melting the adamant of the human heart.
Now when the Lord takes the profane man, or the infidel, or the proud,
self-righteous Pharisee, or some tall, intimidating, careless sinner,
and casts his heart into a fountain filled with Jesus' blood, and it
begins to melt with penitence, the angels see the matchless wisdom of
God. But I am sure, also, that there is not in the Exhibition another
instrument called a heart-healer–an invention for binding up broken
hearts and making them one again and healing all their wounds. But the
Lord is pleased by the same instrument by which He breaks hearts to
heal them.
That blood which melts the flint restores us the heart of flesh. Having
first melted the heart, He next shows His matchless skill by taking
away despair, despondency and terror, and giving to the poor conscience
perfect peace and rest–no–exulting joy and boundless liberty. As the
angels see the proud man bow his knee, as they hear him in his silent
chamber pour out his heart in sighs and groans, they say, "It is well,
great God, it is well." And as they see him come down from that
chamber, light of foot, and joyous of heart, because his sin is all
forgiven, with his groans all turned into songs, the angels say, "It is
well, great God, it is well. You wound, but You heal. You kill and You
make alive."
Conversion is the greatest prodigy that we know of. If there are no
such things as miracles today, believe me, I have neither eyes nor
ears. But you say, "What miracles?" I answer, not miracles in smitten
rocks that yield rivers of water or seas that are divided by prophetic
rods, but miracles in hearts and consciences, obedient to holy,
heavenly power. I have seen in my short life more miracles, and
stranger miracles than Moses ever worked, and wonders as great as
Christ Jesus Himself ever performed on flesh and blood. For they are
His miracles today that are worked through the Gospel.
If it were appropriate just now, I might point to some in these
galleries and on this ground floor and ask them to tell what miracles
God did for them and how they are here in one happy circle today met
for the praise of God. Men who once were everything that was vile. But
they are washed, they are sanctified. The tears start in their eyes now
when they think of the drunkard's cup and of the swearer's oath with
which they were once so well acquainted. Ah, too, and of the dens and
kens of filth and of lasciviousness which they once knew. And they are
here, loving and praising their Lord. Oh, there are some in this house
today who, if they could speak, would say they are the greatest sinners
out of Hell and the mightiest wonders out of Heaven!
If our Gospel is hid, it is only hid to those who willfully shut their
eyes to it. When one sees harlots reclaimed, thieves, drunkards,
swearers made to be saints of the living God, do not tell us that the
Gospel has lost its power. O Sirs! Do not dream that we shall believe
you while we can see this power, while we can feel it in our own souls,
while every day we hear of conversions, while scarce a week rolls on
without some score of brands being plucked from the eternal burning!
And, I say, if the Church of God on earth admires these conversions,
what must angels do who are more acquainted with the guilt of sin and
know more of the loveliness of holiness and understand better the
secret heart of man than we do?
How must they gladly and exultingly admire in each distinct conversion
as it presents phases different from any other, the "manifold wisdom of
God!" That ingenious toy called the kaleidoscope at every turn presents
some near form of beauty, so the different converts who are brought to
Christ by the preaching of the Word are every one unlike the other.
There is something to distinguish each case. By them, to the very
letter, our text is proved, the manifold wisdom, the much varied wisdom
of God is displayed.
I have sometimes understood the word "manifold" as comparing Grace to a
precious treasure that is wrapped up in many folds. First this, then
the next, then the next, must be unfolded. And as you unwrap fold after
fold, you find something precious each time. But it will be long before
you and I shall have unwrapped the last fold and shall have found the
wisdom of God in its pure glittering luster, lying stored within as the
angels behold it in the Church of the living God.
V. But time has failed me, and therefore I must leave points upon which
I wanted to dwell. The principalities and powers to this day find great
opportunities for studying the wisdom of God in THE TRIALS AND
EXPERIENCE OF BELIEVERS, in the wisdom which subjects them to trial, in
the Divine Grace which sustains them in it, in the power which brings
them out of it, in the wisdom which overrules the trial for their good,
in the Grace which makes the trial fit the back or strengthens the back
for the burden.
They see wisdom in the prosperity of Christians when their feet stand
like hinds' feet upon their high places. They see the same in the
despondencies of Believers when even in the lowest depths they still
say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." As every day brings
to us our daily bread, so every day brings to Heaven its daily theme of
wonder, and the angels receive fresh stores of knowledge from the
ever-new experience of the people of God.
They lean from the battlements of Heaven today to gaze on you, you
tried Believers. They look into your furnace as did the King of Babylon
and they see the fourth man with you like unto the Son of God. They
track you, O you children of Israel in the wilderness. They see the
places of your encampment and the land to which you are hastening. And
as they mark the fiery cloudy pillar that conducts you and the Angel of
God's house that leads the van and brings up the rear, they discover in
every step of the way the wonderful wisdom of God.
VI. And lastly, beyond all controversy, WHEN THE LAST OF GOD'S PEOPLE
SHALL BE BROUGHT IN and the bright angels shall begin to wander through
the heavenly plains and converse with all the redeemed spirits, they
will then see "the manifold wisdom of God." Let the angel speak awhile
for himself. "Here," he says, "I see men of all nations and kindreds
and tongues, from Britain to Japan, from the frozen north to the
burning zone beneath the equator. Here I see souls of all ages, babes
here snatched from the womb and breast, and spirits that once knew
palsied age to whom the grasshopper was a burden.
"Here I see men from all periods, from Adam and Abel down to the men
who were alive and remained at the coming of the Son of God from
Heaven. Here I see them from the days of Abraham, and the times of
David and the period of the Apostles and the seasons of Luther and of
Wickliffe, even to the last times of the Church. Here I see them of all
classes. There is one who was a king and at his side, as his fellow, is
another that tugged the oar as a galley-slave. There I see a merchant
prince who counted not his riches dear unto him and by his side a poor
man who was rich in faith and heir of the kingdom.
"There I see the poet who could sing on earth of Paradise lost and
regained and by his side one who could not put two words together but
who knew the Paradise lost and the Paradise regained within the Eden of
his own nature, the garden of his own heart. Here I see Magdalene and
Saul of Tarsus, repenting sinners of all shades and saints of all
varieties, those who showed their patience on a lingering sick bed,
those who triumphed with holy boldness amid the red flames, those who
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted,
tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
"The monk who shook the world and he who cast salt into the stream of
doctrine and made it wholesome and pure. The man who preached to his
millions and brought tens of thousands of souls to Christ and the
humble cottager who knew but this Bible true and herself the partaker
of the life of Christ–here they all are." And as the spirits wander
and look first at this and then at that–first one trophy of Divine
Grace and then at another monument of mercy, they will all exclaim,
"How manifold are Your works, O God! In wisdom have You made them all.
Heaven is full of Your goodness which You have worked for the sons of
men."
And now, dear Friends, the sermon is done, when I ask you just these
questions. The first shall be a question for the children of God and
the other for those who know Him not. First, to the children of God. Do
you think you and I have sufficiently considered that we are always
looked upon by angels and that they desire to learn by us the wisdom of
God? The reason why our sisters appear in the House of God with their
heads covered is "because of the angels." The Apostle says that a woman
is to have a covering upon her head, because of the angels, since the
angels are present in the assembly and they mark every act of indecorum
and therefore everything is to be conducted with decency and order in
the presence of the angelic spirits.
Think of that, then, when this afternoon we shall be talking together.
Let us not talk in such a way that a visitor from Heaven might be
grieved with us. And when we are in our general assemblies met
together, let us not discuss ignoble themes but let the matters which
we discuss be truly edifying, seasoned with salt. Especially in our
families, might we not say more about Christ than we do? Do we not
often spend days, perhaps weeks, without making any mention of such
things as we could wish angels to hear?
You are watched, Brethren, you are watched by those that love you. The
angels love us and bear us up in their hands lest we dash our feet
against the stones. They encamp about our habitations. Let us entertain
these royal guests. Since they cannot eat our bread and sit at our
table to partake of our good cheer, let us talk of subjects which will
delight them in a manner with which they shall be gratified. And let
their presence be to us a motive why we should so conduct ourselves
that to angels and principalities may be made known by us the wisdom of
God.
And, lastly, what do some of you think angels would say of your walk
and conversation? Well, I suppose you don't care much about them and
yet you should. For who, but angels, will be the reapers at the last
and who but they shall be the convoy to our spirits across the last
dark stream? Who but they shall carry our spirit like that of Lazarus
into the Father's bosom? Surely we should not despise them. What has
your conduct been? Ah, Sirs, it need not that the preacher speak. Let
Conscience have her perfect work. There are some here over whom angels,
could their eyes have known a tear, would have wept day and night.
You have been almost persuaded to be Christians. You have known the
struggles of conscience, and you have said, "I would to God I were
altogether such as the saints are!" But you are unconverted still.
Stay, Spirit, guardian Spirit, you who has watched over this son of a
sainted mother, wing not back your disappointed flight to Heaven! He
relents, he relents! Now the Spirit of God is moving in him. "It shall
be," he says, "it shall be." "I repent and believe in Jesus," but oh,
Spirit, you will be disappointed yet, for he is about to say, "In a
little time, go your way for a little season, when I have a more
convenient season I will send for you."
Angel, you will be disappointed yet, but if the soul shall say, "Now,
even now, in this House of Prayer, I cast myself upon the finished
Atonement of Christ. I trust in Him to save me," wing your flight
aloft, you glorious angel! Tell the cherubs around the Throne of God
that the prodigal has returned and an heir of Heaven has been born! Let
Heaven keep holiday and let us go into our homes rejoicing, for he that
was dead is alive again and he that was lost is found!
May the Spirit of God do this, for Jesus' sake! Amen.