The Alter

The Alter

A Sermon
(No. 831)

Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, September 20, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON.

"The altar that sanctifies the gift"
Matthew 23:19.

Had man remained perfect, his communion with God would have been as
unrestricted as that of an obedient child with an affectionate father.
Adam might have worshiped his God acceptably anywhere, at any time, and
in any mode he chose. Had there been literal offerings as well as
sacrifices of praise, he might have brought before his God the
delicious fruits of the garden or poured forth libations from Eden's
golden-sanded river–and these might have been presented on the high
places of the earth or in the shady groves, or amid the verdure of the
plains–anywhere the Lord would have received the grateful offerings of
men whose hearts were perfect towards Himself.

But the Fall intervened. Man became a rebel to his King. Man, by his
depravity of nature, was placed far off from God, and his once
unrestricted fellowship with Heaven was brought to an end. Mercy gave
tidings of renewed communion, but the good news came by slow degrees.
And meanwhile, if man would approach his God, it must be under rules
and regulations which should remind him of his changed estate. If he is
permitted to draw near to his offended God at all it is a great favor,
and he shall be made to learn by the way of coming how great that favor
is. He shall, before a fuller ceremonial is revealed, only be allowed
to offer a bleeding sacrifice.

He shall not present to God that which costs him nothing–the growth of
the soil–but he must bring a victim from his flock or herd, and by his
own hand he must cause the victim to suffer and die, for God will
accept only a life poured forth in blood as a sacrifice from man, whose
own life was forfeited to justice. And while rules and regulations were
laid down as to sacrifices, altars were also under commandment–they
must be built of earth or unhewn stone–and at the last all altars of
burnt-offering were suppressed, save one only, the consecrated bronze
altar of the tabernacle. All the rest of the world was left without
altars.

One spot was selected, and only one. First in the place where the
tabernacle was pitched, and afterwards the temple of Jerusalem, the
altar for bloody sacrifice was set up. And everywhere else, when men
offered to God on their high places, they did so in defiance of His
command. Prophets might make exceptions to the rule, but for the many,
the unbending rule was that all sacrifice must be made at the one holy
altar. Brethren, the outward Truth of God clearly reveals to us its
inner meaning. We must, had we remained innocent, have brought before
God every day the thank-offerings of our hearts without a mediator–but
we are guilty and our holiest acts are the deeds of imperfect men–and
our purest worship is the worship of fallen beings.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. And before we
can be accepted in our best things, there must be the shedding of the
blood which takes away sin. There is no door of acceptance for us
except through the merit of the great Surety who solemnly laid down His
life for His people! There is but one way by which we, who have been
washed in the blood of Jesus, can offer unto God our humble service and
our loving hearts, namely, through Jesus Christ who stands as the type
of that one and only permitted altar! To Him we must bring ourselves as
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God–for it is only by
Jesus Christ that this reasonable service can be accepted of the Most
High.

In the one altar of the tabernacle or the temple, we see a type of the
Person and merit of our glorious Lord Jesus, and learn that apart from
Him there is no acceptable worship–for this is the Truth of God which
we desire, this morning, to teach. Many mistakes have been made through
applying the emblem of an altar to matters to which it has no correct
reference. There was but one authorized altar of Jehovah, as we have
already noted–that one altar finds its fulfillment in the Person of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But through loose talking, if not through
doctrinal error, other things have come to be called altars which are
not so–certainly not such altars as meet the requirements of my text,
for they do not sanctify the gift and are not greater than the gift.

Frequently have we seen the Cross spoken of as an altar. Upon the
Cross, as upon an altar, our Lord is said to have been offered as the
great Sacrifice for sin. But the expression is mere poetic flourish and
no more. As a Man, Jesus died on the Cross and the wood to which He was
nailed was a gallows–not an altar–it was never appointed as such by
God, nor is it ever so called in His Word. The cross of wood was simply
the instrument of our Savior's torture and death, and is no more to be
reverenced than the whips of Pilate or the spit of the scoffers. The
Cross used at Calvary, and all other crosses, whether of wood, or
stone, or gold, are no more to be esteemed than the same material
shaped in circles or squares.

Indeed, if we are to attach any kind of moral quality to the material
and visible form of the Cross, it is rather a thing accursed than a
thing to be blessed, for the Divine curse fell on everyone that was
hanged on a tree. Certainly this fancied altar of the Cross in no way
sanctified the victim. What honor did our Lord Jesus derive from the
tree on which He hung? What virtue came from this so-called altar to
make God's unspeakable gift acceptable? A piece of wood and nothing
more was that Cross! It could give no sanctity to Christ and we ought
never to use words concerning that piece of timber which would in any
way lead men to associate its material substance with the meritorious
work of Christ.

It is to be feared that the constant use of the emblem of the cross, in
itself as innocent as an oval or a square, often leads men into a
species of idolatry. When I see a cross embossed on Bibles, worked out
in jewelry or fashioned gold, I cannot but think how contradictory it
all seems–the Cross, a thing of shame, the instrument of our Lord's
execution by those who abhorred Him–and yet worn as an ornament!
Surely men might as well wear at their girdles the dagger with which
their friend was stabbed! Why do not the ladies wear a gallows from
their necks? For what more or less is a cross? Such was not the cross
which Paul gloried in–he would have despised such idolatry.

Paul gloried in the Gospel, which is a spiritual cross, and he says of
it, "By which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world."
Which of those cross-wearers was ever crucified to the world by the
cross which dangles on their bosoms? The sign of the cross, when
reverenced, is much the same as the bronze serpent when Israel fell to
adoring it–it must be broken and Christian people should
discountenance its use. Clearly it is no altar! We occasionally read,
and especially in poetry, of the "altar of the heart," but is not that
also a misnomer, and may it not one day lead to doctrinal error? The
heart an altar? It certainly does not sanctify the gift!

If there is anything in the gift that is acceptable to God its sanctity
must come from its being offered on a very different altar than that of
our poor, corrupt, and depraved heart! I know the meaning is that
sincerity makes our service acceptable, but I doubt the truth of that
assertion, for however sincere our devotions may be, apart from the
Atonement of Jesus, God does not accept them! Sincerity there must be
or there can be no offering made to God at all–but still, all the
sincerity that ever dwelt in human bosom could not make an offering to
be received of God unless faith found an altar in Jesus and relied for
acceptance upon the grand Sacrifice and finished Atonement of the
Mediator. Talk not quite so loosely lest mischief come of it.

A more common and dangerous mistake, however, is to call the table
which is used for the purpose of the Lord's Supper an altar. If it had
been called a house, or a horse, or an angel–either title would have
been quite as correct a name–for there is no likeness whatever between
the table of communion and an altar. The mistake is offensive and the
mischief flowing from it is most terrible. All through Scripture we
read of the communion table, but never find it either plainly,
obscurely, directly, or indirectly called an altar. Jesus said, "The
hand of him that betrays Me is with Me on the table." He did not say,
"The traitor is officiating with Me at this altar," and yet surely that
first celebration was quite as complete as any which have succeeded it!

Paul says, "You cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table and of the
table of the devil," and that, too, in a connection in which he would
surely have said the Lord's Altar had the term been allowable. Neither,
except by the most violent straining can there be found any passage of
Scripture which represents this table, used to celebrate a feast, as an
altar for the consumption of a sacrifice. Indeed, what sacrifice do the
modern priests place upon their so-called altars? See, they bring forth
bread and wine–fit furniture for a table–but where are the fire and
the wood for a burnt-offering? If the table is an altar, then according
to our Lord, it is better and holier than the bread and wine placed
upon it, for the "altar sanctifies the gift." And yet our modern
ritualists will hardly venture to say that their altars of wood and
stone are really more holy than the body and blood of Jesus Christ
which they profess to offer on them!

I know not to what length folly may go, but one thing I marvel at–if
these gentlemen need to have a material altar, why do they not follow
the Scriptural form for one? Why do they make a kind of sideboard or
dresser of it, by setting it against a wall–a thing that was never
heard of in all the world before, for everywhere altars are so placed
as to be compassed about. David said, "So will I compass Your altar, O
Lord." Elijah dug a trench about the altar. The altar of the Old
Testament could be surrounded–but from where came these new-fashioned
erections which are not even according to the fashion of Judaism?

From what heathenism did they borrow their steps to the altar, such
things being forbidden of the Lord? Where did they contrive their "high
altar"? What means those ornaments on an altar? Strange intrusions,
these, for an altar! Surely they must have taken their models from
those altars of Baal, of which we read that there were images on high
above them–for how commonly do we see either their pieces of plate
with superstitious symbols, or their sumptuous common prayer books,
adorned with silver crucifixes! And what is worse, pictures and images,
and candles, and I know not what of trumpery besides? Let us never,
therefore, use the term altar as synonymous with the communion table
lest we countenance deadly error.

Of all delusions that have ever happened to the human race, surely that
of transubstantiation has been at once the most absurd and the most
profane! Both that doctrine and all growing out of it should be
protested against by every sincere Christian, especially at this dreary
time when superstition is daily increasing. If ever we shall have
Popery back in this land it will owe much of its advance to the misuse
of terms. Call not a table an altar lest you come to bow before it as
the Popish heathens do! Use it as a table of fellowship and communion,
but never dream of it as an altar! The one Altar which sanctifies the
gift is the Person and merit of our Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing
else!

Come we then to the consideration of this subject. I shall first refer
you to the passage in the book of Exodus in which the great bronze
altar of the tabernacle was described, and try to work out the type as
it reveals our Lord. And then, secondly, I shall ask a few practical
questions.

I. In the 27th chapter of the book of Exodus you have the Lord's
command: "And you shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long,
and five cubits broad. The altar shall be four-square: and the height
thereof shall be three cubits. And you shall make the horns of it upon
the four corners thereof: its horns shall be of the same: and you shall
overlay it with brass."

Jesus Christ is the antitype of this bronze altar. All that it
signified typically, we have in Him. And first the altar typifies our
Lord, if we consider the use of it. The altar had at least two uses.
First, to sanctify that which was put upon it, and then, secondly, to
sustain it or bear it up while the fire was consuming it. Our Lord
Jesus is Himself the Sacrifice as well as the Altar. Whatever is
offered to God by Him or by us is accepted, because of the excellence
of His Person. As God and perfect Man in one Person, all that He does
and all that He presents becomes acceptable because of the excellence
that dwells in Him. And so, also, He bears and sustains all the violent
heat both of the fire of Divine wrath and the fire of Divine Presence
which consumes the sacrifice put upon the altar.

How our Lord Jesus Christ lifts up our gifts towards Heaven! How of old
did He lift up our sins! And when the holy flame descended and consumed
Him, as the great Victim for human guilt, what strength and power there
was in Him, fitting Him like an altar of brass to endure all those
furious flames! And now, today, He does sweetly lift up before God all
the offerings of His people and renders them acceptable in Himself! The
old Puritans were apt to say that the altar represented the Deity of
Christ because the Deity of Christ lent power as well as virtue to the
Manhood of Christ–but may we not consider His entire Person to be the
sustaining and sanctifying Altar of mediation?

As the One appointed Mediator for mankind, He puts a value into the
gifts of His people and His own Sacrifice derives efficacy from His
Person and Character. In Him we are able to bear the Presence of God
when He accepts us, for our God is a consuming fire and we can only
meet Him in Jesus! It is only on the bronze altar that the heavenly
fire can consume our sacrifice. The wrath which consumes Jesus has
endured once and for all that glory of consuming love we are able to
learn through our union with the Incarnate God.

Let it never, then, be forgotten by us all that if our souls and
bodies, which we offer to God, are to be presented before the Lord, it
must be by Christ as an Altar! And if we are to be sanctified and
rendered acceptable, it must still be by Christ as an Altar! There
never could be but this one Altar for Israel–for all Israel, according
to Divine appointment– this was the only Altar. Every victim must be
slaughtered here! Every acceptable burnt-offering must be brought here,
and so with us. We cannot offer a prayer, much less ourselves, except
by Him. There is one Christ for all the saints. One Jesus for you who
are grown in Divine Grace. One Jesus for those who are but beginners in
spiritual things. One Lord Jesus for the black and filthy sinner when
he first seeks for mercy. One Lord Jesus for the Christian made perfect
when he enters into his rest!

There is but one Altar for all Israel, and that one Altar for all
times–for Israel in the days of Moses, for Israel in the days of
Solomon–for Israel until the end of the dispensation. You and I come
to God by the same road which was traveled by David, and afterwards by
the Lord's Apostles. Never a Believer accepted except in Jesus, in any
age! Never a word done that was acceptable to God in any period except
through Jesus Christ! One Altar, and only one for all ages, for the
whole chosen seed! We hold this as a Truth of God–let us prize it and
defend it!

The place of the altar next deserves your consideration. You will
remember that the moment you entered into the door of the tabernacle
you saw this altar of burnt-offering, and before you could reach the
veil which separated the holy from the Most Holy Place, you must pass
hard by the altar. So at the very beginning of the Christian life, the
first thing we have to learn is that we approach God through Jesus
Christ! You know nothing of Christianity unless the most prominent
thought of your soul is Jesus as the Mediator between you and God. Talk
not of Christian example or of Christian holy teaching–these things
are but secondary–you must know Jesus Christ as suffering and pouring
out His soul unto death as a Propitiation for sin, or you do not know
the inner sense of the Divine religion of the Cross.

Nobody could help seeing that bronze altar. Walking with his eyes open
through that court, every observer must see it. There was its perpetual
smoke and smell–and this everyone would perceive–while in itself it
was so large and important that it could not be overlooked. Even so, my
Hearer, you cannot abide in the religion of Jesus, even for an hour,
without beholding Him and without resting in Him. You know nothing
unless you know Him as the Altar of God! The way to the Most Holy Place
was by this Altar. "No man comes to the Father but by Me."

We cannot enter into fellowship with God, nor understand the deep
things of God, nor penetrate into the Divine mysteries or the highest
of the doctrines of the Truth of God except by first passing where the
Atonement is offered and where Jesus stands–the only Mediator between
God and man! How many have tried to learn the doctrines apart from
Christ? And how many try to preach them! But they are unedifying and
even lead to mischief. The best of all preaching of doctrines is such
as that which we had in Dr. Hawker's day, when he preached election,
but it was always election in Christ. The doctrine of predestination
was clearly enough stated, but its sweet relationship to the Lamb of
God was always dwelt upon. Let it be our desire, when we enter into the
deep things of God, to view them in relation to Jesus, and pass by the
Altar to reach the veil.

The form of the altar deserves our attention, as it helps to bring out
something more of Christ. The altar was foursquare. Where shall we
learn to measure the heights and depths, the lengths and breadths of
the love of Christ that passes knowledge? If we may not so measure them
just yet, it is satisfactory to know that everything about Christ is
well ordered and arranged by Infinite Wisdom. The altar is not made
haphazardly, it is four-square. There is no excess in Him, there is no
lack in Him–all that we need to render our sacrifice acceptable to God
we have in Him. Ainsworth says that the form of four-square represents
stability and endurance–and truly our Lord is the same yesterday,
today, and forever.

Other altars have been overturned, but this, never! The saints came to
Him thousands of years ago, and there He stood between the porch and
the veil. We come to Him today and He stands there still. And when the
ages shall have passed by, and things that men have dreamed to be
everlasting shall have melted like the morning's hoar frost, there
shall still be the same Savior fixed in His place to offer, still, the
prayers and the praises of His people.

At each corner of the altar was a horn. The horn is always the emblem
of power, and these horns indicated, doubtless, the power which lies in
the Person of Jesus Christ–the power with God on our behalf. We never
need be afraid of acceptance in the Beloved when we see what might,
what virtue, what sacred merit dwells in Him. God reject His Son?!
Impossible! The Adored of angels, the eternally beloved must be
accepted of God! Having given His hands to the nails, and His heart to
the spear. Having suffered even unto death, it cannot be that the Lord
should deny Him and disrespect His sacrifice. He must be forever
prevalent with the Most High.

Put yourself on the Altar, Christian–God must accept you, for He
accepts the victim because of the Altar which sanctifies the gift! He
must accept you, feeble as you are, for Jesus infuses merit into you as
the Altar into the gift. Come with your tears, come with your sighs and
your groans, poor trembling ones–there is no fear but what you shall
be victorious–those four horns indicate how meritorious Jesus is, and
He will render you as acceptable as He is Himself! The altar, too, as
we are describing its form, we must remember was built originally so
low that it was reached by the priests without the use of steps, and,
indeed, steps were expressly forbidden–the reason being given that, in
going up to the altar, it might not be possible that the nakedness of
the priest should be seen.

God would have nothing indecorous in His service. The spiritual meaning
being, I suppose, that Jesus Christ, when we go to Him, is most
accessible. We are not to climb to Him by steps of creature effort,
merit, and preparation. Those preparations for Christ, of which so much
is made by certain preachers, are all blasphemous. Divines will tell
you you must feel this and feel the other. They say you must pass
through this experience and the other. But truly–

"All the fitness He requires,

Is to feel your need of Him."

And this He gives you! There are no steps up to the Altar. There are no
human preparations for Christ. You may come to Him just as you are, for
He is waiting to be gracious. Solomon's altar in the temple was on a
large scale, to show the greatness of our Lord's power and Divine
Grace. And in order to maintain proportions, it was made much too high
to be reached without some mode of ascent–and it is supposed,
therefore, that the priests reached it by a gradual incline, since
steps must not be made to it.

And here we should be taught how, in coming to Christ, we ascent
towards God. When we draw near unto Him with true hearts, we are
elevated. Man is never more truly exalted in spirit than when he bows
lowest at the foot of the Cross. Calvary, though it was no mountain,
nor scarcely a hill, outsoars the Hermons and Pisgahs–its top is
nearer Heaven than Carmel or Bashan–

"Here it is I find my Heaven,

While upon the Cross I gaze."

Let me but tarry there, and if I am not in Paradise, I should be, at
least, in the suburbs of the New Jerusalem! No Truth of God is so dear
as Jesus Crucified–the Altar of His Atonement is so low that a child
may reach it–and yet it is so high that by it we ascend to Heaven!

It is notable, and you will kindly look, this afternoon, into your
Bibles and investigate the matter, that this altar was increased in
size in the temple. It was far smaller in the tabernacle than in the
temple–so may our conceptions of Christ be ever growing! If we know
Him well enough to find that He is sufficient for our present needs,
may we yet understand His all-sufficiency. If we have discovered
something of His excellence, and of the admirable way in which He
secures our acceptance with God, may we know this more and more. May
Jesus grow upon us, until unable to comprehend Him, we shall rejoice in
His exceeding greatness and be filled with His fullness!

I must not forget, in speaking of the form of the altar, also, that as
the observed passed round it, he would be constantly struck with its
bespattered appearance. Entertain not the notion the tabernacle and the
temple must have been very pleasant places–we can scarcely imagine
anything that must have been more awe-inspiring and even revolting to
the mind of the observer than the court of priests when sacrificing was
being carried on. It must, on great occasions, have resembled a
butcher's shambles with the addition of smoke and fire. And this bronze
altar was so frequently besmeared with blood, and so constantly were
there full bowls of warm gore thrown at its base, that it must have
presented a very ghastly appearance.

This was all to teach the observer what a dreadful thing sin is, and
how it can only be put away through suffering and death. The Lord did
not study attractive aesthetics, He did not prepare a tabernacle that
should delight men's tastes. It was rich, indeed, but so blood-stained
as to be by no means beautiful. No staining of glass to charm the eye,
but instead the guts of slaughtered bulls! Such sights would disgust
the delicate tastes of the fops of this present age! Blood. Blood on
every side! Death, fire, smoke and ashes mingled with the bellowing of
dying beasts–and the active exertions of men whose white garments were
all crimson with the blood of victims! How clearly did the worshipers
see the sternness and severity of the Justice of God against human sin,
and the intensity of the agony of the great Son of God who was, in the
fullness of time, by His own death to put away all the sins and
transgressions of His people!

By faith come, my Brothers and Sisters, and walk round that
blood-stained altar. And as you mark its four-square form and its horns
of strength and see the sacrifices smoking thereon, acceptable to God,
look down and mark the blood with which its foundations are so
completely saturated and understand how all salvation and all
acceptance rests on the Atonement of the dying Son of God!

We will pass on to observe, next, the materials of which the altar was
made, for these also were instructive. It was made of acacia wood,
overlaid with brass. The acacia wood is always understood to represent
the incorruptible Human Character of our Lord Jesus, for this was a
wood which would not rot, even as Jesus, when tempted, even in all
points like as we are, yet remained without sin. The brass, of course,
was necessary as an outer covering, lest the altar should be consumed
by the flames. It had to bear perpetually the blazing and the burning
fire–and so we in the brass see the endurance of Christ–how His loins
were girt about with power, and how the Divinity within sustained the
perfect Man while He bore–

"All that Incarnate God could bear,

With strength enough and none to spare."

Look on that brass, Christian, with admiring eyes. Think how oftentimes
it was heated by the fire, and then look upon your Lord and think how
in soul and body He was tortured and tormented for your sins, and
reflect how strong He must have been to suffer so as to be able to bear
the whole of Divine wrath and make a complete Atonement for the
transgressions of His elect! The fire which burnt upon the altar also
deserves to be noticed. It was doubtless no common fire of ordinary
culinary use. It fell from Heaven and there may have been qualities
about which rendered it different than any other. For instance, it may
have left none of that residue of ash, and smoke, and filth that would
be found in the use of ordinary fire.

It may have been like lightning in its force and pureness. Complaints
were always made of the old heathen temples, of the abundance of flies
and filth found there. Hence the Jews were accustomed in derision to
call the idol god Baal, Baalzebub, or the god of flies, because of the
abundance of such noxious creatures found in his temples. Probably
there were none such in God's temple, for the Lord's fire slew every
unclean thing. This fire had noble and distinct qualities, consuming
and blazing after a nobler and purer sort than ordinary flames–and
certainly our Lord Jesus Christ has burning upon His altar no impure
flames! Love burns there which sprang only from His own bosom! A holy
zeal burns there without the slightest admixture of self-love! The Holy
Spirit burns there, that purest and best of flames that can rest on
mortal men! And there, too, burned the fire of Divine wrath, which was
a holy jealousy against sin! And when God Himself comes upon that altar
to accept His people, it is a Divine acceptance unutterably glorious!

But I must not detain you longer. If you will read the passage at home
you will find abundance of matter suggestive of the Person and the work
of Jesus Christ. To Him must we always come in heart and soul. We know
of no holy place now, nor holy days, nor holy implements. Our soul
serves God in spirit, for He is a Spirit and seeks those to worship Him
who do so in spirit and in truth. Our soul gives to Jesus Christ
preeminence in all her trusting–coming to God only through Him–and
never thinking that she can either serve, or worship, or live aright
except as she dwells in Christ, and the merit of Christ commends her to
the Father.

That is the thought, the one thought I wish to bring forward–and
though I cannot speak this morning as I would–yet if that abides with
you, this hour shall not have been lost time.

II. Now a question or two. My first inquiry is, Have you and I always
taken care to keep to the one spiritual Altar? The sin of this age is
idolatry. The whole tendency of this generation is towards the setting
up of other than spiritual altars. The only way to come to God is
spiritually through Jesus Christ–but you will find yourself, dear
Friend, frequently tempted to make something else the vehicle of access
to God–and to render homage to Him through some other vehicle.

You may depend upon it, that the belief that this building or that any
other building is a house of God, a place peculiarly suitable for
worship, is idolatry! You are giving to bricks and mortar some little
of the honor which is due only to Christ as an Altar! If you suppose
that there is any more acceptableness to God in a Church or a Cathedral
than in any public hall or in the open air, you have made a material
building into an altar–you have gone back to the types and have missed
the Antitype–and so far have robbed Christ of a portion of His glory.
If you look upon any material substances as being holy, or, I will add,
upon any postures–whether kneeling, standing, or sitting–as having in
them any kind of holiness, or if, in fact, you get away from the
spiritual in any manner–begin in any sort, or mode, or degree, to
attach reverence to the physical and to the material–you have so far
wandered away from the simplicity of Christ, you have set up an
Antichrist–and you have robbed the Lord Jesus.

God will never put away the sin of this land until the belief in
material consecration is given up! Thus spoke Isaiah of old: "By this
therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the
fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar
as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall
not stand up." We must do away with idols and learn that there is no
more holiness in our parish steeple-houses, called Churches, or in our
Chapels or Cathedrals, than in barns and hovels! God abhors our
idolatry, and will visit us for it unless we repent and turn from it!
We cannot hope, in this England of ours, to see restored to us the
purity of the Gospel until Protestants cleanse themselves of this
antichristian, Popish belief and reverence for our postures, and
places, and men, and days, and books, and I know not what beside!

Worship God, men! Demean not yourselves by paying reverence to anything
else! Worship God in Jesus Christ! That is the one and only canon of
worship–in the power of the eternal Spirit approach God through the
merits of the Redeemer! And as for your so-called priests, and your
churches, and your holy things–away with them! They are not to be
borne by reason, much less by men of spiritual minds. Worship God in
Jesus Christ and give the glory due unto His name wholly to Him–give
none of it to things of human devising.

The next question is, Are there not some among you who have been
offering to God without an altar at all? I mean this–you have been
striving, you say, to do your duty–you are an honorable member of the
State. You have sought to be religious, too, and you have come up with
the assembly of God's people. You never forget the Sabbath, nor the
offering of your morning and evening prayer. You believe yourself,
therefore, to be among the good and the righteous, and you hope to be
accepted at the bar of God.

Yes, I see your sacrifice, but where is your Altar? For be assured, God
will not receive your sacrifice without an Altar, and for altars there
is but one! You have forgotten, my dear Friend, the one great essential
thing! According to our text, the altar sanctifies the gift–your gift
is not sanctified at all then–it is an unsanctified, unacceptable
gift. The whole of your life, though commendable in itself, and to be
imitated by others in its outward development, is not accepted of God
because you have never placed that life upon the appointed Altar of
Christ Jesus! You have not offered it to God, having first trusted in
Christ and looked to His merit for its acceptance. You have been
depending upon yourself, and therefore you are no more likely to be
saved than Cain was when he went about to offer a sacrifice of his own
and could not submit to bring the lamb according to Divine appointment.

Oh, I could weep over some of you who have so much that is good about
you, because you forget the Lord Jesus! Why, you have forgotten the
one, the main, the essential thing! Those morning and evening prayers
of yours–what are they? If you have not seen Jesus on the Cross–if
you have not looked to His wounds–you have not prayed at all! That
helping of the poor which is so kind of you–yes, but if you have not
done it for His sake, trusting in Him, who, though He was rich, yet for
your sake became poor–you have not done it unto God at all! And if you
have been working and going about to establish your own
righteousness–and have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of
Christ–it will all be a failure.

You gentlemen who have brought up your families so well. You honest
working men who fight the battle of life so valiantly. Oh, it is
grievous to think that you should labor in vain and spend your strength
for nothing! You bring your bullocks and your rams and sacrifice to
God, and they are all an offense and an abomination because you do not
bring them to the one appointed Altar! God help you to think of this
and to repent of the folly and from now on live in consistency of
character as you have done, but make not that your trust–come to Jesus
first, and let the rest follow!

Next, my Brothers and Sisters, another inquiry for those of us who have
brought our offerings and ourselves to God through Jesus Christ. Let me
ask whether we have not often forgotten to attach the importance to the
Altar which we should have done. I mean this–I pray, and when my
prayer is done, I think within myself–will it prevail? And I remember
that I did not plead the blood of Jesus as I ought to have done. I
said, "for Jesus' sake"–I should be ashamed to pray except in His
name–but did I realize that I could not be acceptable with God in
myself–that it must be because of the Redeemer's perfections,
sufferings, bloody sweat, passion, and resurrection that I must be
heard?

Now my prayer has lost much power if I have not pleaded Christ's work,
and Christ's merit with all my heart, and soul, and strength. To plead
the merit of Jesus is the marrow of prayer–good words are but the
bone. This is the soul of prayer! This it is that takes Heaven by
storm! This moves the heart of God–the bringing before God the
sacrifice of His dear Son, the making Gethsemane to ring, again, in the
paternal ears–making the Cross to shine again before the Father's
face, pleading earnestly because Jesus deserves abundantly!

Have we not often missed this? And if we have in our prayers, I am sure
we have much more in our other engagements. I am afraid we preach
without putting the sermon on the bronze Altar, and that we distribute
our tracts or teach in the Sunday school, or talk of Christ with the
sick and do it without presenting the service through the meritorious
Person of our Lord. Oh, it is blessed when one has preached, and felt,
"Well, I have not succeeded as I could desire. I have felt heavy in my
Master's service, shut up so that I could not come forth. But still I
meant to honor Him, and now, my God, accept my poor service for my
Redeemer's sake." This is the way to put our service right on the
Altar, and there it is sure to conquer!

Oh, then, it is so blessed to know that Jesus sanctifies the gift! The
gift was nothing–a poor speech for His name, a scanty gift to His poor
saints–but still, God receives it as He accepted the bullocks–not for
the bullocks' sake, but for the Altar's sake! And so will He receive
our faulty services for the sake of Jesus when we offer them through
Him. Let your souls anchor themselves to the Atonement of Jesus! Cast
more cords about yourself and bind your spirits fast to Him! You are
never healthy, you are never strong, you are never happy, you are never
lifted up towards Heaven except when you abide close to the Person of
the Son of God made flesh for you. Never journey away from the Cross.
Seek other Truths of God and delight in other beauties if you will, but
the first Truth and the first beauty in Heaven and earth is the
Crucified Redeemer–keep to Him and rejoice in Him.

I shall not detain you longer except to say this. Have we, dear
Friends, as Believers, ever fed at this Altar? For we have an Altar of
which they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle. That is to
say, those who trust in ceremonies have no right to Christ! Those who
think themselves priests above their fellow Christians cannot taste
Christ–they are shut out by their own act and deed–they have no right
there. But we who do not serve the outward tabernacle–we have come to
spiritual worship, by God's Grace, and we have a right to eat at the
Altar of Christ. Here is a choice morsel for us–God has accepted us in
Christ!

Feed on that, Christian! You have condemned yourself but God has
accepted you! Men have criticized and censured you, but in Christ God
has accepted those imperfect works of yours! Why, it is enough for a
courtier if his king smiles– is it not enough for you? No, lie not
down and groan, and cry because you have not acted perfectly–but
having repented of every omission and transgression, rise up with
courage to do better things–because even your worst things have been
accepted! Feed on Christ who makes you accepted! Feed on the acceptance
itself, and so like the priest, commune with God at His table. And if
you have already laid yourself upon the Altar of Christ as a reasonable
sacrifice, come and do it again!

It is very desirable to frequently renew our consecration to Jesus.
"Yours we are, Son of David, and all that we have." You who have been
bought with His blood, drawn near to Him and yield yourselves anew to
Him this morning. You admit the soft impeachment that you are His in
blessed marriage bonds–come, then, and declare anew–"My Lord, take me
wholly! Use me, use me to the last ounce! Use me up! Grant that there
may not be a hair of my head, nor a drop of my blood, nor a beating of
my pulse which is not Yours! Lord, I make no reserve. I give You my
children, my house, my property, my time, my body, my soul–and I do
not ask You to spare me and give me an easy life. Do as You will with
me, only glorify Yourself in me!"

When the bullock was on the altar, the flesh-hook was used to aid in
burning it completely–the priest desired that there should be nothing
of the offering left. "So, Lord, if You use the flesh-hook of
affliction to drag me into the fire, so let it be. I would that You
should win as much glory out of me as You can extract from a mortal man
by suffering, or by service. Appoint me what you will, only, Father,
glorify Yourself, and enable me to glorify You!"

If we shall thus consecrate ourselves, there will be better days in
store for us than we have as yet known, and the Church and the world
will know that God has worked wonders for us! May God give you a
blessing, for His name's sake. Amen.
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The Best Cloak

A Sermon