CHIIST HIDDEN FROM TIIE WORLD.
F all the thoughts which fise in the mind when contemplating the sojourn of our Lord Jesus Crist upon earth, 1 none perhaps is more affecting and subduing than the obscurity which attended if. I do hOt mean Itis obscure condition, in the sense of its being humble; but the obscurity in which Ite was shrouded, and the secrecy which He observed. This characteristic of His first Advent is referred to very frequently in Scripture, as in the text, "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended if hOt;" and is in contrast with what is foretold about His second Advent. Then '" every eye shall see Him;" which implies that all shall recognize Him; whereas, when He came for the first time, though many saw Him, few indeed discerned Him. It had been prophesied, « When we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him;" and at the very end of His ministry, He said to one of 1 Preached on Christmas Day.
—40 Ehrist t-f/ddcn fvm the lUor[d. His twelve ehosen fi'iends, "H,ve I been so long ime with you, and yeç hasç thon noç known Me, Phip " I prop«se to seç befove you one or wo thoughts whieh rise ri'oto this very solemn circumstmce, and which may, through God's blessing, be profitable. 1. And tirst, let us review some of the ch-cmustances which lllflll']çed l[is sojom'n when on earth. I[is condescension in coming down ri-oto heaven, lcaving I[is Father's glory and taking flesh, is so çar beyond power of words or thought, tht oue might considcr at first sight that it mattcred ttle whether He came as a prince or a beggar. And yet after aH, it is nmch more wouderful that He came in low estate, for this reason; because it might have been thought beforehand, that, thougb He condescended to corne on earth, yet IIe wotfld hot submit to be overlooked and despised: now the rich are not despised by the world, and the poor are. If He had corne as a great l»rince or noble, the world without knowing a whit more that He was God, yet would at least hure looked up fo Him and honoured Him, as being a prince; but when He came in a low estate, He took upon Him one additional humiliation, contc»q)t,eing contenmed, scorned, rttdely passed 1)y, roughly profaned by l[is crèatures. What were the actual circumstauces of His coming? His Mother is a poor womau; she cornes fo Bethlehem to be taxed, travelng, when ber choice would have been to remain at home. She finds there is no room the inn; she is obliged to betake herself to a stable; she brings forfi ber firstborn Son, and lays Him in a man- Isai. liii. 2. John xiv. 9.
Christ Hddc+ fro+ he IUorld. "41 ger. That little babe, so born, so placed, is none other than flae Creator of heven and earth, the Eternal Son of God. We; he was born of 1,oor woman, laid in u manger, brought up to a lowly trade, that f a earpenter; and when He began to preach the Gospel Ile had hot a place to lay His head: lastly, He was put to death, to an infamous and odious death, the death whieh cfiminals then suffered. For the three last years of ]Iis lire, ]Ic preached the Gospel, I say, as we read in Seripture; lmt lit did not begin to do so till He was thirty years ohl. For the first thirty years of His lire, He seems fo have lived, just as a poor mat would live now. Day after day, season after seasou, winter and summer, one year and then another, passed on, as might happen to any of us. He passed from leing a babe in arlns fo being a child, and t.hen He beeame a boy, and sa He grew up " like a tender plant," increasing iu wisdom and stature; and theu Ite seems to have foHowed the trade of Joseph, his reputed father; going on in an ordinary way without any great occurrence, tfll tte was thirty years old. How very wonderful is all t.his that He should lire here, doing nothing great, so long; living here, as if for the sake of living; hot çreachi N, or eoecting disciples, or apparently in any way furthering the cause whieh bro@t Him down ri'oto heaven. Doubtless there were deep and wise reasons in God's counsels for His going on so long in obscurity; I only mean, that we do hot know them. And it is remarkable that those who were about Him, seem to bave treated Him as one of the equMs. His v] brehren, t,ha is, His nex relaions, Uis cousius, did no believe in t[im. And iç is very obseable, t,oo, t, ha.t when ]le begau t.o preach and a mult, it,ude collected, we are tohl, "When tIis fi-ie,-ls heard of iL they went out t,o lay hold on tlim; for they sail, He is beside Hlmsett. They treated Him a.s we might ])e disposed, and right.ly, t.o t.rea.t auy ordinary person now, who begau t.o lweach in the streets. I say "rightly," because such l)ersous genera.Hy preach u tew Gospel, and theretbre ust be wrong. Also, they preach without being sent, and agaist aut.horit.y; all which is wrong too. Accordingly we are oft.e tempted t,o y t.hat such pe_qle are "beside themselves," or mari, and hot unjustly. It. is ofte charit.able to say so, for itis bett.er to be mad tha.u fo ]e disobedieut. H, what we should sa.y of such persous, this is vhat out Lord's friends said of Him. They had lived so long with Him, and yet, did hot know Him; did hot underst.aud what, He w. They sa.w ot.hing t.o mark u diflhrenee bet.ween Him and them. He was dressed as others, He a.te and dnk as ot.hers, He cnme in a.nd went. out, a.ud spoke, and walked, and slept, a.s others. He was iu all respects u ma.n, except t,hat, t[e did aot si; aud this gat difference the mauy w)uld uot detect, ]ca.use none of us understunds t.hose who are much ber,ter than himself: so t, hat Christ, the sidess Sou of God, might be liviç close fo us, and we ot discover i 2. I sa.y t,hat Christ, the sinless Son of Goal, might be living nosv in the world as out next door neighbour, and perhaps we hot. final it out. And this is a thought that. z Iark iii. 21.
Christ ]-[idd«sz from the IVorld. 43 should be dwelt on. I do noL mean to say that there are hot a nnmber of persons, who we conld be sure were hot Christ of course, no persons who lead bad and irreligious lires, lht t.here are a numl»er of persons who are in no sense irreligious or open to serious blame, who are very mueh like each other af fist sight, yet in God's eyes are very different. I mean the ga'eat mass of what are called respectable men, who va.ry very ranch: some are merely decent and outwardly correct perrons, and have no great sense of religi,n, do hot deny themselves, have no ardent love «f God, hut love the world; and, whereas their interesL lies in leing regular and orderly, or they have no st.rong passions, or have early goL into the way of loing regtlar, and their hahits are formed accordingly, they are what. they are, decent and correct, but very little more. Ilut there are ot.hers who look jusL the saine to the world, who in their hearts are very differenL; they make no great show, t.hey go on in the sanie quieL ordina.ry way as the others, but really they are training fo be saints in Heaven. They do all they eau to change themselves, to become like (} d, fo obey (od, to discipline themselves, to renounce the world; but they do it in secret, bot.h because God tells them so to do, and bec,anse they do hOt like if to be known. Moreover, flere are a number of ot.hers bet.ween these t.wo with more or less of worldliness and more or less of faih. Yet they all lool/a]»ou the saine, to common eyes, because true religion is a hidden lire in the heart; and though it cannot exist withou deeds, yeL these are for the mort part secret deeds, secret charit.ies, secret prayers, secret self-denials, secret strugg'les, secret victories.
Of course in proportion as persons are brought out into public lire, they will be seen and scrutinized, and (in a certain sense) known more; but [ ara talldng of the ordinarv condition of peo 1 de in private life,sueh as out Saviour was )r thirty years; xld these look very like eaeh other. And thcre are so many of them, that unless we get very near t.heln, we cmmot see auy distinction between oue and another; we have no memts fo do so, and it is no business of ours. And yet, th,mgh we have no right to judge olhers, but must leave this to God, it is very certain that a really holy man, a true saint, though he looks like other men, still has a sort of secret power in him to attraet others ta him who are like-minded, and to influence ail who have any thing in them like hiln. And thus it oRen becomes a test, whether we are like-minded with the Saints of God, whether they have influence over us. And though we have sehlom means of knowing at the rime who are God's own Saints, yet after all is over we have; and then on looking back on what is past, lerhaps after they are dead and gone, if we knew them, we may ask ourselves what power they had over us, whether they attracted us, influeneed us, humbled us, whether they ruade out hearts burn within us. Alas too offert we shall find that we were close t.o them for a long rime, had means of knowing t.hem, and knew them hot; and that is a heavy condemnation on us, indeed. Now this was singulafly exemplified in our Saviour's history, by how mueh He was so very holy. The holier a man is, the less he is understood by men of t.he wofld. 1 who have any spark of living faith wfll understand him a measure, and the holier he is, they will, for the mo yr, be lh'oed he more bu huse who erve he wor]d w] be bl]nd o him, or oorn nd dis]ike him, the ho]]er he ]. çh], [ 7, hpyened o out Lrd. He was All-hly, lut "the light shined in darkness, nd the darkness comprehended it hot." His near relations did hot believe in Him. And if this was realy so, and for the reason [ have said, it surely becomes luestion whether we shouhl have understood Him better than they: wlet.he- though H had bee out next dor neihbout, or one of our çami]y, we sh,uld have distinguished Him i'om uny one else, who was crrect ud t[uiet in his depçrtment; or rather, whether we should hot, though we respected Him, (a]as, what a word wlmt ]anguage towards the Most High t_od ) yet even if we went as far as t.his, vhethe- we should hot lmve thought Him st-ange, eccentric, extravagant, and fanciful. Much less should we lmve dctected any sparks of thut glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and which was mely hidden not ([uenched by His earthly tabernacle. This, truly, is a very awftfl thoug'ht; because if He were nea.r us for any long time, and we did hot see any thing wonderful in Him, we might take it as u clear proof that we were hot His, for "His sheep know His voice, and follow Him;" we might take it as a clea- proof that we should hot know Him, or admire His greatness, or adore His glory, or love His excellcncy, if we were admitted to His presence in heaven. 3. And here we are brought to another most serious thotght, which I will touch upon. % are veT apt to wish we lmd been born in the days of Christ, and in this way we excuse our misconduct, when conscience re- proches us. We sy, ha hd we hd he dvantage of being wifi Christ, we should bave had st.ronger motives, st.ronger resrains agains sin. I answer, lm so far fl'Olll OIlr sinfltl habits being reformed by the presence of Christ, t.be chance is, that those saine lmbits would bave hindered us ff'oto recoglfizing IIiln. We shtfld hot have known I[e was present; and if He had even told us who 1 le was, we should hot have believed Hiln. Nay, had we seen t [is lniracles (ineredible as it lnay seem), even they wmld hot have lnade any lasting impression Oll tts. Without gfing into this sul,ject, consider only the possihility of ('hrist being dose to us, even though I le did no miracle, aad ottr lmt knowing it; yet I believe t.his literally would have been the case with mos men. P, ul5 enough on t.lfis sul,jeet. What 1 ara eomhg to is this: I wish you to observe what a fearful light this easts upon out prospects in the next world. "We tlfink heaven must be a llace of happinêss fo us, if we do but get t.here; but t.he great probability is, if we tan judge by what goes Oll here lelow, that a bad man, if brought to heaven, would not know he was in heaven;I do hot go to t.he fltrller question, whether, on the eontraw, the very fact of lais being in heaven with al] lfis unholiness upon hiln, would hot be a literal torment to him, and light up the rires of hall within him. This indeed would be a lnost dreadful way of finding otlt where he was. ]lut. let us suppose the lighter case: let us suppose he eould remain in heaven unblasted, yet it wotfld seeln that a least he would hot know that he was there. He would sec nothing wonderfltl there. Could men corne nearer t.o God than when t.hev seized Him, struck Him,
Chrisl ]-[iddcn from lhe IUor]d. 47 spit on Hiln, hurried I[hn along, stril,ped Him, stretched out His limbs upon the cross, nailed Him t) it, raised it up, stood gazing on Him, jeered tIim, gave Hiln vinegar, looked close whether He was dead, and then pierced Him with a spear? 0 dreadful thought, that the nearest approaches man has ruade fo God upon earth have been il, llasphelny! Whether of the two came closer to Hiln, St. TholimS, who was allowed to reach forth his hand and reverently touch His wounds, and Nt. John, who rested on IIis bosom, or the brutal soldiers wh,» lrofaned Him lilub by limb, and tortured l Iiln ,erve by nerve? His 131essed [other, indeed, came closer still to Him; and we, if we be true believers, still closer, who have Him really, though spiritually, within us; but this is another, an il,ward sort of apl,roach. Of those who approached Him externally, they calne nearest, who knew nothing about it. So it is with Silmers: they would walk close to the throne of God; they would stupidly gaze at it; they would touch it; they would meddle with the holiest things; they would go on intruding and pTing, hot meaning any thing wrong by it, but with a sort of brute curiosity, till the avenging lightnings destroyed them;—all because they have no senses to guide them in the lnatter. Out bodily senses tell us of the approach of good or evil on earth. By sound, by scent, by feeling we -know what is happening to us. We know when we are exposing ourselves to the veather, when we are exerting ourselves too much. We have wanings, and feel we must hot neglect them. Now, sinners have no spiritual senses; they ca.n presage nothing; they do not know what is goig fo happen the next moment to them. 8o they go feafless]y further and further a.mon precipices, till on u suddon they fall, or are smi- en and perish. Miserable leings and his is vha sin does fbr immortal smls; th hey should be like the cattle which are slaughtered at the shambles, yet touch md smell the very weapons which are o destroy them I . Bu you may say, how does this eoneern us? Chris is hot here; «c eanno flms or in any less way insNt llis Majesty. Are we so sure of this? CeraiMy we emmt eommit sueh open blasphemy; bu ig is another matter whether we cannot commit as great. For often sins m'e greater which are less startling; insults more bitter, whieh are hot so loud; and evfls deeper, which are more subtle. Do we not recoect a very awful passage? "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it sha be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him. ''* Now, I ara hot deciding whether or no this denunciation can be flflfied in the case of Çhristians now, thoug when we recollect that we are at present under the ministra.tion of that very Spirit of whom out Sauront speaks, this is a very serious question; but I quote if to show that there may be sins greater even than insult and injury oflhred to ('hrist's Person, though we should flink that impossible, and though they could hot be so flagrant or open. With this thought let it be considered: First, that Christ is sti on em'th. He said expressly that He would corne again. The Holy Ghost's coming is so reay His coming, that we might as we say that Matt. xii. 32.
He was not here in the days (,f IIis flesh, when I[c was visibly in this world, as deny that l[e is here nw, wheu He is here by His I)ivine Spirit. Tllis imleed is a mystery, how God the S(,u and God the H,,ly Gh,,st, two Persons, can be oue, hov He can be in t]e Sldrit and the Spirit in Him; but so it is. Next, if He is still on earth, yet is hot visil,le (which cannot be denied), it is plain that tic keeps IIimself still in the condition which ][e chose in the days ,ï I Iis flcsh. I mean, t[e is a hidden Savi¢,ul', and may be apprached (unless we are carefld) without due reverence and fear. I say, wherever He is (for that is a further questim), still He is here, and ag'ain He is secret; and whatever be the tokens of t[is Presence, still they nmst be «,f a nature to adroit of persons doubting where it is; and if they will argue, a.nd be sharpvitted and sul,tle, they may l»erplex themsclves and others, as the Jews did eveu in the days of His flesh, till He seems fo them nowhere present on earth now. And when they corne to think Him far away, of course they fi:cl it to be impossible so to inscrit Him as the Jewsdid of old; and if nevertheless He is here, they a'c perchance approaching and insulting Him, though they so feel. And this was just the case of the Jews, for they too were ignorant what they were doing. It is probable, then, that we can now COlnmit at least as great blasphemy towards Hiln as the Jews did first, because we are under the dispensation of that Itoly Spirit, against whom even more heinous sins cau be committed; next, because His presence lmW as little witnesses of itself, or is impressive to the many, as His bodily 1oresence formerly.
25o Christ ]]idd«z fro,z the lF'orhL We see a furfler reason for his apprehension, when we consider whaL Lhe okens of His presence now are; hr Lhey will be fimnd Lo le f nture easily o lead nlell int, o irreverenee, unless t.hey be hulnble and watchful. F,r instance, the Chureh is ealled " His Body:" what tlis nmterial Body was when He was sille on eavth, such is the Curch now. I is the instrumen of llis Divine power; it is that whieh we lnust approaeh, to gain g,«,d ti'm tlim; it is that which by insulting we awaken Ilis anger. Nw, what is the Chureh but, as it were, a 1,,dy ,t" hulniliation, ahnost provoking insult and l»rothneness, when nlell do llOt lire ly tith? an earthen vessel, fitr more so even than His bdy of flesh, for that was at least pure froln aH sin, and the Chureh is defiled in all her members. We know that her ministers at best are 1,ut imperIhet and erring, and of like passions with their brethren; yet of theln He bas said, speaking hot to the Aposfles merely but to all the seventy disciples (to whom Christian ministers are in office surely equal), " He that heareth you, heareth Me, and He that despiseth you despiseth Me, and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me." Aga.in- He has ruade the poor, weak, and aicted, tokens and ilStl'mnelts of His Presence; and here ag'ain, as is plain, the saine telnptatiol lneets us to neglect or profime it. What He was, such are His chosen foHowers in this wofld; and as His obscure and defenceless state led men to insnlt and ill-treat Him, so he like peculiariries, in the tokens of His Presence, lead men to instflt Him now. That such m'e His tokens is plain from many passages of Scripture: for instance, He says of chfidren,
"Whoso shall receive one such littlc child in l[y Naine, receiveth Me." Again- He said go Saul, who was persecuting His followers, "Why persecutest t.h.u Me?" And He forewarns us, that af the Last Day He will say fo the righteous, "I was an lmngemd, and ye gave meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave 5le drink; I was a stranger, and ye took [e in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick and ye visited lle; I was in prison, and ye came mto Me." _And He adds, " Inasmuch as ye have done unto the least of t.hese 5Iy brethren, ye have d.ue unto Me. ''» He observes the saine connexion between Himself and His followers in ][is words to the wicked. Vhat makes this passage the more awfitl and apposite, is this, which bas been belote nov« remarked, that neither righteous nor wicked kncw what they had done; even the righteous are represented as unaware that they had al)- proached Christ. They say, "L)rd, whcu sav« we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee, or thirsty, and gave Thee drink?" In every age, then, Christ is both in the w, wld, and yet not publiely so more than in the days of I [is flesh. And a similar remark applies to His Ordinanees, whieh are af once most simple, yet most intimat.ely eonneeted with Him. St.. Paul, in his First E1)istle to the Corinthians, shows both how easy and how fearfifi if is to profane the Lord's Supper, while he states how great t.he exeess of the Corintlfians had been, yet also that it was a v«ant of "d.isceruing the Lord's Body." When He was born into the world, the world knew if hot. He was laid in a rude manger, among the cattle, but " all » lIatt, xviii. 5. Acts ix. 4. Natt. xxv. 35-40. //'/de Pascal's Thoughts.
the Angels of God worshipped Him." Noxv too I{e is present Ul.,n a t.able, homely perhaps in make, and dishonoured in its eireumstanees; and faith adores, but the world passes by. Let us t, hen pmy Him ever t.o enlighten t, he eyes of out mlderstanding, that we may belong to tlm Heavenly l[ost, hot t.o this world. As the earnal-minded would hot perceive l[im evcn in I[eaven, so the spiritual lmart may approach l[im, possess Ilim, see tlim, even ni)on earth.