SECRECY AND SUDDENNESS OF DIVINE VISITATIONS.
LVKE xvii. 20. " The kingdom o.f God cometh not with observation."
E commemorate on this day the ]'resentation of Christ in the Tenple according to the injunction of the Mosaic Law, as laid down in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus and the twelfth of Leviticus. When the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, the firstborn of the Egyptians (as we all know) were visited by death, "from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle."" Accordingly, in thankful remembrance of this destruction,.and their own deliverance, every male among the Israelites who was tle first-born of his mother, was dedicated to God; likewise, every first-born of catle. Afterwards, the Levites were taken, as God's peculiar possession, instead of the first-born: e but still the first-born were solemnly bought Exod. xi. 29. lumb, iii. 12, 13.
humble ceremony commemorated on this day. And, when we consider the grandeur of the prediction, and how unostentatiols this accomplishment was, we are led to nmse upon God's ways, and to draw useful lessons for ourselves. This is the reflection which I propose to make upon the subject of this Festival. [ say, we are to-day reminded of the noiseless course of God's providence,—tIis tranquil accomplishnmnt, i, the course of nature, of great events hmg designed; and again, of the suddenness and stillness of IIis visitations. Consider what the occurrence in question consists in. A little child is brought to the Temple, as all first-born children were brought. There is nothing here uncommon or striking, so far. His parents are with him, poor people, bringing the offering of pigeons or doves, for the purification of the mother. They arc met in the Temple by an old man, who takes the child in his arms, offers a thanksgiving to God, and blesses the parents; and next are joined by a woman of a great age, a widow of eighty-fore" years, who had exceeded the time of useful service, and seemed to be but a fit prey for death. She gives thanks also, and speaks concerning the child to other persons who are present. Then all retire. l'ow, there is evidently nothing great or impressive in this; nothing to excite the feelings, or interest the imagination. We know what the world thi,ks of such a group as I have described. The weak and helpless, whether from age or infancy, it looks upon negligently and pses by. Yet all this that happened was really the solemn fulfil,nent of an ancient and emphatic prophecy. The infant in arms was the Saviour of the world, the rightful heir, come in disguise of a stranger to visit IIis own house. The Scripture had said, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple: but who may abide the day of His coming, and who may stand when He appeareth?" Ite had now taken possession. And further, the old man who took the child in his arms, had upon him the gifts of the Itoly Ghost, had been promised the blessed sight of his Lord before his death, came into the Temple by heavenly guidance, and now had within him thoughts unutterable, of joy, thankfulness, and hope, strange.]y mixed with awe, fear, painthl wonder, and "" bitterness of spirit." _ma too, the woman of fourscore aud four years, was a prophetess; and the bystanders, to whom she spoke, were the true Israel, who were looking out in faith for the predicted redemption of mankind, those who (in the words of the prophecy)" sought" and in prospect "delighted" in the "Messenger" of God's covenant of mercy. "The glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former," was the announcement made in another prophecy. Behold the gloD; a little child and his parents, two aged persons, and a congregation without ntme or memorial. " The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." Such has ever been the manner of His visitations, in the destruction of His enemies as well as in the deliverance of tIis own people;silent, sudden, unforeseen, as regards the world, though predicted in the face of all men, and in their measure comprehended and waited l-]aggai ii. 9.
12 Pz, riflcalion of t]e g[essed And such, too, will be His final visitation of the whole earth: men will be at their work in the city and in the field, and i will overta.ke them like a thunder-cloud. " Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; tim one shall be ta.ken, and t.he other left. ''1 And it is impossible that it should be otherwise, in spite of warnings ever so clear, considering how the world goes on iu every age. Men, who are plunged in t.ho pursuits of active life, are no judges of its coarse and tendency on the whole. They confuse great events with little, and measure the importance of objects, as in perspective, by file mere standard of ne,rness or remotehess. It is only a a distance that one can take in the outlines anti features of a whole country. I is but holy Daniel, solitary among princes, or Elijah the recluse of Mount Carmel, who can withstand Baal, or forecast the time of God's providences among the uatios. To the multitude all things continue t.o the end, as they were from the beginuing of the creation. The business of state affairs, the movements of society, the course of nature, proceed as ever, till the moment of Christ's coming. "The sun was risen upon the earth," bright as usual, on that very day of wrath in which Sodom was destroyed. Men cammt believe their own time is an especially wicked time; fo; with Scripture unstudied and hearts untrained in holiuess, they have no standard to compare it with. They take warning from no troubles or perplexities, which rat.her carry them away to search out the earthly causes of Luke xvii. 35, 36.
such season of service may, for what we know, be wonderfully connected with some ancient purpose of His, announced before we were born, and may have its determinate bearing on our eternal welfare; let us fear to miss the Saviour, while Simeon and Anna find Him. Let us remember that He was not manifested again in the Temple, except once, for thirty years, while a whole generation, who were alive at His first visitation, died oft" in the interval. Let us carry this thought into our d,ily conduct; considering that, for what we know, our hope of salvation may in the event materially depend on our avoiding this or that momentary sin. And further, from the occurrences of this day let us take comfort, when we despond about the state of the Church. Perhaps we see not God's tokens; we see neither prophet nor teacher remaining to His people; darkness falls over the earth, and no protesting voice is heard. Yet, granting things to be at the very worst, still, when Christ was presented in the Temple, the age knew as little of it as it knows of His providence now. lather, the worse our condition is, the nearer to us is the Advent of our Deliverer. Even though He is silent, doubt not that His army is on the march towards us. He is coming through the sky, and has even now His camp upon the outskirts of our own world. Nay, though He still for a while keep His seat at His Father's right ha.nd, yet surely He sees all that is going on, and waits and will not fail His hour of vengeance. Shall He not hear His own elect, when they cry day and night to Him? tIis Services of prayer and praise continue, and are scorned by the multitude.
just now wretched; for ve must not speak of sinners, according to the fflsely charitable vay of some, styling them ufortunate instead of wicked, lest we thus learn to excuse sin in ourselves, tie was doubtless inexcusable, as we shall be, if we follow his pattern; and he nmst be viewed, n)t with pity, but with fear and awe. TILe reflection which rises in the mind on a consideration of the election of St. Matthias, is this: how easily God may effect liis purposes without us, and put others in our place, if we are disobedient to Him. It often happens that those who have long been in His favour grow secure and presuming. They think their salvation certain, and their service necessary to Him who has graciously accepted it. They consider themselves as personally bound up with liis purposes of mercy manifested in the Church; and so marked out that, if they cofld fall, His word would fail. They come to think they have some pecfliar title or interest in His promises, over and above other men (however derived, it matters not, whether from His eternal decree, or, on the other hand, from their own especial holiness and obedience), but practically such an iLterest that tile very sup position that they can possibly fall offends them.:Now, this feeling of self-importance is repressed all through the Scriptures, and especially by the events we commemorate to-day. Let us consider this subject. Eliphaz the Temamte thus ansvers Job, who in his distress showed infirmity, and grew impatient of God's correction. "Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?:Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is word; but as truly as I live, all tle eart] shall be filled with the glory of tle Lord." _Again, on the former occasion, He gave the Rule of His dealings with them. Moses wished for the sake of his people to be himself excluded from the land of promise: "If thou wilt forgive their sin:—and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy bool which Thou hast written. _And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, 1 in will I blot out of My book." So clearly has He shown us fl'om tile beginning, that His own glory is the _'nd, and justice tile essential Rule, of l iis providence. Aoain, Saul was chosen, and thought himself secure. His conduct evinced the self-will of an independent monarch, instead of one who felt himself to be a mere instrument of God's pro'poses, a minister of His glory, under the obligation of a law of right and wrong, and strong only as wiehlcd by Him who formed him. So, when he sinned, Samuel said to him: "Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God.... for now would the Lord have established fly kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart." _And again, "The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou." 2 In like manner, Christ also, convicting the Jews out of their own mouth: " He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will Ict ott His vineyard unto other husbaMmen, which shall render Him the fruits in their 1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14. -" Ibid. xv. 28.
honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no resTect of persons with God. ''1 Such was the unchangeable Rule of God's government, as it is propounded by St. Paul in explanation of the Jewish election, and significantly prefixed to his discourse upon the Christian. Such as was the Mosaic, such also is the Gospel Covenant, madc without respect of persons; rich, indeed, in privilege and promise far above the Elder Dispensation, but bearing on its front the same original avowal of impartial retribution, "peace to every man that worketh good," "wrath to the disobedient;" predestining toglory, characters not persons, pledging the gift of perseverance not to individuals, but to a body of which the separate members might change. This is the doctrine set before us by that Apostle to whom was revealed in an extraordinary way the nature of" the Christian Covenant, its peculiar blessedness, gifts, and promises. The New Covenant was, so far, not unlike the Old, as some reasoners in these days would nmintain. We are vouchsafed a further witness to it, in the favoured Evangelist, who finally closed and perfected the volume of God's revelations, after the death of his brethren. "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with hie, to give every man according as his work shall be..... Blessed are they that do His commandments, tlat they nay have ri.qht to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." - And a hird witness that the Christian Election is, like the Jewish, conditional, is our Lord's own declaration, tton, ii. 6—11. u Roy. xxii, 12, 14.
which He left behind Him vith llis Apostles when He was leaving the world, as recorded by tle same:Evangelist. " If a man abkle ot i ][e," He said, "he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into t.he fire, and they are }urned." Ad, lest restless and reluctant minds should shelter t.heir opposition to this soleum declaration under some supposed obscurity in the expression of "abiding in lIim," and say that none abide in Him but the predestined, He adds, for the removal of all doubt, "If ye keep my commadmcts, ye shall abide in my love. '' Lastly, in order to complete the solemn promulgation of His Eterna! Ihde, lie exemplified it, while He spoke it, in the instance of aa Apostle. He knew whom He had chosen; flint they were "not all clean," that "one of them w a devil;" yet He chose all twelve, as ff to show that souls chosen for eternal life might fall away. Thus, in the case of the Apostles themselves, in the very foundation of/[is Church, He laid deep the serious,nd nerciful warning, if we have wisdom to lay it to heart, "Be not high-minded, but fear;" for, if God spared not Apostles, neither will He spare thee! What solemn overpowering thoughts naust have crowded on St.. Matthias, when he received the greetings of t.he eleven Apostles, and took his seat among them as their brother! ttis very election was a witness against himself if he did not fidfil it. And such surely will ours be in our degree. We take the place of others who have gone before, as hlatthias did; we are " baptized for the dead," filling up tle ranks of soldiers, John xv. 16.
some of whom, indeed, have fought a good fight, but many of whom in every age have made void their calling. Many are called, few are chosen. The monuments of sin and unbelief are set up arouud us. The casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the Gentries. The fall of one nation is fle conversion of another. The Church loses old branches, and gains new. God works according to His own iscrutable pleasure; He has left the East, and manifested Hinself Westward. Thus the Christian of every age is but the successor of the lost and of the dead. lIow long we of this country shall be put in trust with the Gospel, we know not; but while we have the privilege, assuredly we do but stand in the place of Christians who have either utterly fallen away, or are so corrupted as scarcely to let their light shine before men. We are at present 'itnesses of the Truth; and our very glory is our warning. By the superstitions, the profanities, the indifference, the unbelief of the world called Christian, we are called upon to be lowly-minded while we preach aloud, and to tremble wlfile we rejoice. Let us then, as a Church and as individuals, one and all, look to Him who alone can keep us from falling. Let us with single heart look up to Christ our Saviour, and put ourselves into His hands, from whom all our strenh and wisdom is derived. Let us avoid the beginnings of temptation; let us watch and pray lest we enter into it. Avoiding all speculations which are above us, let us follow what tends to edifying. Let us receive into our hearts the gn'eat truth, that we who have been freely accepted and sanctified as members of Christ, shall hereafter be judged by our works, doue in and through I[im; that the Sacraments unite us to IIim, and that faith makes the Sacraments open their hidden virtue, and flov forth in pardon and Face. Beyond this we may not inquire. t low it is one naau perseveres and another falls, what are the exact limits and character of our natural corruption,these are over-subtle questions; while we know tbr certain, that though we can do nothing of ourselves, yet that salvation is in our own power, for however deep and far-spreading is the root of evil in us, God's grace vill be sufficient tbr our need.