BY THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER GUNN, SEN., WATTEN, CAITHNESS.
Preached in 1809, and hitherto unpublished.
(Concluded from page 253.)
BUT, alas! amidst the full means of recovery, the generality die in their sins, and the great reason is, they will not be convinced of their danger nor be persuaded to apply to the Physician. How affecting a case is this, and what may render it the more so to us is that it is the case of some of us. Yes, though I am unwilling to harbour one hard thought of any of you, I cannot avoid concluding that there are some—I am afraid, many—souls in this assembly who are not sensible of their dangerous disease and their need of Christ as a Physician, and therefore are in danger of perishing without Him. Sin, like a strong dose of opium, has laid you asleep, and you feel easy and whole-hearted, as if nothing ailed you, when the symptoms of death are strong upon you. We can weep and lament over the sick-bed of a dying friend, and we even drop our tears after him into the grave, but shall we drop no tears this day over dying souls that are so numerous among us? O, that our head were waters and our eyes a fountain of tears, that we might “weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people.” Ye secure and whole-hearted sinners, must it not terrify you to think that Jesus Christ, the only Physician, gives you up? You see in my text He looks upon you as persons that He has no business with. He had rather converse with publicans and sinners than with you, as having more hopes of success among them. Let publicans and sinners take the hint, and be encouraged to apply to Jesus. Come, ye profligate and libertines, drunkards, swearers, whoremongers; come, sinners of the most abandoned character, apply to this Physician. He is willing to heal you; He offers you healing. “Wilt thou be made whole?” is His question to you this day. He is also perfectly able—able to save to the uttermost, however inveterate your disease may be. If the children of the kingdom shut themselves out, if self-righteous Pharisees reject this Physician and die in their sin, do you come in, put yourselves under His care, submit to His prescriptions, and you shall yet live and be restored to perfect health and eternal life. Your being sick of sin is a necessary qualification to render you His patients; they are such He loves to converse with, and they are only such who are recovered by Him. Therefore, this day give yourselves up to Him as His willing patients. Cry to Him, “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.”
I shall conclude my subject by giving answers from it to some questions that may arise in your minds on this occasion.
What is the reason that so many lie in such a dead security around us? Whence is it there is so much sin, and so little fear of punishment? Whence is it that men will entertain such hopes of heaven upon such slight evidences, or rather, with the full evidence of the Word of God against them? The reason is, they are whole in their own imagination: they think themselves well, and therefore apprehend no danger, but lie in a dead, inactive sleep.
What is the reason that so many neglect the means of grace in public and private? Whence is it that there are so many prayerless families as a piece of useless lumber? Why is the house of God so thinly frequented in many places, and the table of the Lord almost deserted? Why is Christian conversation so unfashionable? And why do we hear so few inquiries from sinners, what they shall do to be saved? The reason is, they imagine themselves well: they are whole-hearted, and therefore it is no wonder they neglect the means of recovery. The only method to bring them to use those means in earnest is to make them sensible of their dangerous disease. And may the Lord enable us to use all proper means with them for this end, and may divine grace render them effectual!
Would you know what is the reason that the blessed Jesus—the most glorious and benevolent person that ever appeared in our world—is so generally neglected? Why is His love forgotten by those very persons for whom He shed His blood? Why are there not more longings and cries for Him? Why is not a Saviour, an almighty and complete Saviour, more sought after by perishing sinners? Why is His name of so little importance among them? How comes it to pass that He may continue for months, for years, for scores of years, offering salvation to them, entreating, commanding, and persuading them to accept, and warning them of the dreadful ruin they will bring on themselves by rejecting it? Whence is it that, after all, He is despised and rejected of men, and that but very few will give Him a suitable reception? Whence is this shocking conduct in reasonable creatures? It is the same reason still—they are whole-hearted, and do not feel themselves dangerously ill; and how then can they be solicitous about a physician?
Would you know why so many fools make a mock of sin, why they can go on impenitent in it, apprehending little or no danger from it; why they are every day sinning, and every day merry, thoughtless, and gay; why they can live and delight in sin, which God hates and which He has threatened with such heavy vengeance? Whence is it that, for the recovery of their mortal bodies, men will submit to the most self-denying regimen, take the most nauseous draughts, and be at great pains and expenses, whilst for their souls they will take no pains, use no means, deny themselves in no gratification? What is the reason of this? It is the same reason still—they do not feel the least sickness of their souls, but imagine themselves well, and to have no need of the divine Physician or His prescriptions.
Would you know why so many hate faithful preaching, and resent it if any means are used for their recovery? It is because they imagine themselves well, and such do not like to be treated with the importunities of a physician, nor to have disagreeable medicines forced upon them. O, were they but sensible of their condition, they would willingly submit to have their wounds probed and their sores ripped up in order to an effectual cure.
Some of you, perhaps, have wondered why you see poor, mourning creatures here and there that cannot live as you do—thoughtless, careless, unaffected. You ascribe it perhaps to melancholy, to preciseness, to hypocrisy, or an affectation of singularity. But I will tell you the true reason. They are sick; they feel themselves sick; whereas you imagine yourselves well; and you cannot wonder that the sick and the healthy should behave in a different manner.
Why do they not neglect Jesus Christ as you do? It is because they are sick—heart sick—and therefore must long and cry for the Physician of their souls. Why do they not indulge themselves in sin as you do? It is because they are sick of it; they see it to be a mortal poison, and they cannot be easy while they feel it working through their frame. Why do they use the means with so much earnestness? Why do they pray, and hear and attend upon every religious ordinance with so much zeal and solicitude? Why can they not, like you, attend upon them in a careless, formal manner, or entirely neglect them? The reason is, they are sick—heart sick—and they are using these means for their recovery. And did you view yourselves in the same just light, you would use them too. Yes, you would be as strict, as earnest, as laborious as any of them. Why do they not, like you, abandon themselves, and devote all their time to some worldly pursuit? It is because they are sick, and must take time for the use of means for their recovery, whatever be omitted. Why are they so much afraid of temptation, and keep out of its way? It is because they are afraid of a relapse, and that sin, their old disease, will renew its strength. Whence are they so often filled with doubts and fears and anxious perplexities? It is because the symptoms of the disorder are doubtful, and they know not whether they are in a way of recovery or not. When they are satisfied on this point then they can rejoice, and that with a joy more noble than you are capable of.
And, poor sick souls, be of good cheer, you shall yet be healed. Yes, there is balm in Gilead; there is a Physician there. Jesus can heal you, and blessed be His name, He is as willing as He is able. Continue steadfast in the use of the means appointed for your recovery, and He will make them efficacious. Yes, these sick souls of yours shall yet be as healthy and vigorous as an angel, and you shall ere long be advanced to the region of immortal health, where the inhabitants no more say, “I am sick.” Do not think much of it that a disease so inveterate and mortal should be painful and difficult in the cure. The operation will not last long, and if it does but succeed, self-denial will be infinitely more than compensated.
The deep sense of your disorder is often discouraging to you; you are afraid it will at last prove mortal. But this very thing ought to encourage you. The persons that I cannot speak one comfortable word to are not of your character: they are the secure, whole-hearted sinners. But for you there is strong consolation—so strong that it may bear down all your fears before it. The sense of your disorder qualifies you for the Physician, and renders you proper objects of His care. The poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind, the broken-hearted, are the characters of the persons that He has to do with, and who are recovering under His hands. And are not these your characters? They are indeed humbling and mortifying, but they are encouraging, as they prepare you for Christ’s healing care.
But as for you, whole-hearted sinners, I must pronounce you lost and dead souls. Jesus Himself has declared that He has no business with such as you. And if He casts you off, what other physician can you employ? Alas! you will die in your sins—dreadful death! Better you had never been born, than die in your sins! O, therefore now labour to be sensible of your disorder while it is curable, for all that are not healed in this life are given up as incurable for ever. Now, apply to Christ as a Physician, for He is willing to undertake your case.
Of all divine institutions none is so peculiarly adapted to promote improvement in spiritual graces and comforts as the commemoration of the death of Christ at His table.
What, then, is the great desire of every real servant of God in this house? Is it not to have your hearts more inflamed with the love of God, and more devoted to His fear? Is not sin your greatest burden, and its remaining influence your greatest grief? Now, where can you have a more reasonable hope of getting your gracious dispositions strengthened, or your sins mortified, than at a Communion Table? Is it not expressly designed for your spiritual nourishment and growth in grace? What can more strengthen your faith in a dying Saviour than being allowed to look upon the signs of His broken body and His blood poured out? What can speak greater peace to the conscience than your being allowed and invited to receive Him explicitly: “This is my body broken for you”? What can more happily serve to kindle and inflame your love to God than the immediate contemplation of His infinite love? Where can you take such a hateful view of sin as at the Lord’s Table, where you see it in the Saviour’s sufferings? How can you give such a deadly wound to your strongest lusts as by nailing and fixing them to the Redeemer’s Cross? What motive of future obedience equal to bearing about in your bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus? See what the apostle says (2 Cor. v. 14)—“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead”; (Gal. ii. 20)—“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What remedy can you find for your own weakness like the all-sufficiency of Christ? “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Is it not well known, and do not believers at His Table—sensible of their own weakness and confident of their Saviour’s power—get their feet upon the neck of their enemies and say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” They have here a complete remedy for their cases as well as their sins. As at the Lord’s Table you lay hold of the covenant of grace, so there, if anywhere, you may see that it is “ordered in all things and sure.” Your food and raiment, and all necessary provision, are contained in it, and Christ’s body is the pledge. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” How gracious the promise, “Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things.” “O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” “He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure.” Deliverance from suffering is contained in it. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, “but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” Strength and grace to suffer with patience are contained in it. “When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” The sanctified use and improvement of suffering is contained in it. “And we know all things work together for good to them that love God, to whom are the called according to his purpose.” “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” The path of a Christian is sometimes thorny and difficult, and many of the weak and feeble of Christ’s flock are ready to sink and become heartless under a frowning Providence. But is not the Lord’s Table a place of refuge? And is it not matter of experience that they have found consolation there? Whatever their complaints have been—whether of sickness, or poverty, or loss of relations, or the slanders of their enemies—they have adored the sovereign will of God in them all. Nay, they have happily seen and confessed His wise and merciful purpose in them all. It was not without a view to his trials that the Psalmist, in the forty-third Psalm, desires to go unto the altar of God—unto God, his exceeding joy. And in the following verse he expresses himself, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
I shall now conclude by desiring you to use the language of the Psalmist in going unto God, who says in the third verse of this Psalm, “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.” In order to raise and elevate your minds, to fix and engage your unsettled hearts, apply to God, who hath the hearts of all men in His hand, that He would dispose you for His service, that He would shed abroad His love in your hearts, and make you joyful in His house of prayer. And my earnest prayer to God for you is that He would at this time convert every whole-hearted and self-righteous sinner in this assembly, pull off the mask of hypocrites, and show them their own likeness; that He would make it a joyful Communion to many of you, and a profitable Communion to all. Amen.
I shall now leave the matter with you after making this remark, that in vain do His enemies oppose Him, in vain do sinners despise Him. He is getting Him a name by the preaching of the gospel. It is still serving its purpose for the calling and confirmation of the vessels of mercy, for aggravating the guilt and increasing the condemnation of the obstinate and disobedient. “And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”—(Luke xx. 17, 18.)
The new Archbishop of York.—The appointment of Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang, Bishop of Stepney, to the Archbishopric of York, has conveyed no pleasure to the hearts of the Protestants of England. Though the son of a minister of the Established Church of Scotland (Principal Lang, Aberdeen University), he is a pronounced Ritualist, and was a defender of advanced Ritualism—another name for Romanism—before the recent Royal Commission. It is to be feared that the Church of Scotland is becoming a nursery for Episcopacy and worse, and it is regarded as lamentable that the present Prime Minister should select for such a high office a leader of the Romanising party in the English Church.