BY THE LATE REV. JOHN MACRAE, “MACRATH MOR,”
THEN OF GREENOCK.
Preached at Rothesay, on Friday and Saturday, before Communion,
25th and 26th January, 1850.
(Hitherto Unpublished.)
(I.)
“And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”—Psalm 1. 15.
THE best exercise for a believer in the time of trouble is to call upon the Lord. The promise is given that He will deliver.
It would be well that every believer would write this in his note book at the beginning of his spiritual career; that he must be conformed to the Man of Sorrows all the time that is allotted him on earth. The first thing that a day of trouble brings is coldness, as if there was a total absence of the Sun, and a freezing in every duty of religion. Every believer must lay his account with this. “In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” “Ye now therefore have sorrow, but I shall see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice.”
I think the command to call upon Him infers, that we are apt to call on other things, second causes and instruments. It also infers that we are apt to relax our spiritual diligence, and to get easy and without life. This, some of us should know by experience. Christ says: “Call upon me, for I have flesh and bones, which a mere spirit has not; I am set upon my mediatorial throne. Call upon me, however guilty you are; mercy and truth go before my face. These having met in me, justice and judgment are the pillars of my throne, so that it shall never be shaken; I am able to deliver you.” It is not an easy thing to pray with the soul. To engage in religious exercises is an easy matter, or to bend the knee once or twice a day! The formalist, the hypocrite, and even those who make no pretensions to religion at all, may do that. Christ says, “Call on me; I am in a condition to deliver you; I have satisfied justice.” The taking away the legal hindrance—the law in its penalty—was with a view to the removal of the moral hindrance—sin in the soul. It is an amazing fact that God can stretch the hand of mercy to sinners at all. But Christ hath obtained by His satisfaction to justice, the right and power to deliver His people from sin and all its consequences. He can and will do it, as His heart is set on doing it. He will do it in a sovereign way. Prayer in itself cannot do it. Yet I hope the earth is not destitute of a few who can remember the sweetest seasons in the depths of days of trouble. So, have patience,
brethren, “Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” “I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
I am certain that those, who were living nearer the Lord than many of our present professors, found Satan busy among them at a season like this, endeavouring to cause them to doubt of their interest in Christ. I care not for easy, unexercised professors, sitting at the table of the Lord, whom necessity never sent to a throne of grace. Oh, pray for your mother’s house, and your mother’s children. I fear too many of us are at ease in Zion. O seek Christ above all things. If we would pass by means and instruments to Him, then we would not despise these. It is by knowing God in Christ that we come to give everything else its own place.
(II.)
“Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar off.”—Psalm cxxxviii. 6.
The Most High is a name more for faith to admire than for reason to comprehend. What can be more odious and abominable than a proud man before the Most High? Man would be equal to Him; yet it is a most unseemly rivalry. We have the example of Pharaoh saying, “I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” And, again, there is Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel iv.) who, in the height of his pride, would discard God out of His own universe, walking on the battlements of his palace, and saying, “Behold, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” But witness the result; he was driven from among man, and did eat grass as oxen. If you wish to see another proud man, look at the Pharisee, standing and praying thus with himself; “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” Pride, when it does not attack us in a gross aspect, may attack us in a religious aspect.
The lowly man is one brought to his knees in repentance, like the prodigal son, when he came to himself. There are some, however, whose repentance is not of the right stamp. For example, in our towns in the south, men are in the habit of going out in the evening, and meeting with company, they get heated with strong drink; and so, when the man comes home to a cold room, and sees his weeping wife and ragged children, he may come to himself by the pangs of remorse; but no sooner does the temptation occur again, than he falls in with it. But the case of the prodigal son is different. No doubt, when he set out with his portion, he thought he could set up wherever he pleased and be the admiration of the whole country; but instead of this, he came to feed swine; he came to the pig-stye. He is brought very low,
to see his sin and misery. And this is the way the lowly man comes to himself; this is the beginning of that character. Truly, the publican is a lowly man, smiting on his breast, and saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” This is what we would all need to come to, to be exercised about our own individual case, as sinners. “Be clothed with humility.” This garment is the beauty and ornament of a believing soul. Another example is Saul of Tarsus, setting out proud from Jerusalem, but when the Lord met him, he was brought low. Mary Magdalen kissed Jesus’ feet. Oh, was it not strange to see a woman bending her lips and kissing a man’s feet? But oh, she saw reason to kiss this Man’s feet, which were to stand in the furnace of God’s wrath to deliver her from it. He came as it were, from heaven to hell, to deliver her from it. The Syrophenician woman cried, “Lord, help me.” This is the prayer of a lowly soul, and He Himself shut her mouth by answering all her desires. She said in effect, “I am so hungry, and so unworthy that I can sit under the table and take a crumb as a dog.” This is a lowly person. But, perhaps, the greatest distinction that can be made between a legal and a gospel spirit is to be seen in the case of Paul, who would accept salvation as of rich, free, and sovereign grace; he does not deny what grace did, yet he ascribes it all to grace.
A man cannot be selfish without being proud. You will not find a lowly man, in truth, but one who is willing to take on the yoke of Christ, and to try and obey His commandments. I need not say that the lowly man is a modest man.
I might show that God will not spare any pains with a lowly man to keep him lowly. The chastisements of the rod are quite in keeping with a lowly state. See David in 2 Samuel, vii. 18; “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? . . . Is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto thee?” A lowly man is a gracious man—a great man.
(1) There is none in such a fair way of giving display to the grace of God as a lowly man. A proud man ascribes all to himself, while the other will say, “How astonishing every act of grace toward me! This is the doing of the Lord and wondrous in our eyes.” He is in a condition to magnify the riches of divine grace. (2) Lowliness is the effect of the Spirit’s work, and a grace of the Spirit in the soul, and so the Lord has respect to it, and complacency in it. (3) It is astonishing to observe that lowliness is a part of the image of the Son of God. (4) Lastly, consider the difference between Cain and Abel. Though you do not think much of Cain, and are apt to speak ill of him, at the first stage of his history he came out on the Sabbath to offer sacrifice unto God. But God only accepts the humble services of His people, through the merits of His Son.
The lower a man is in his own sight, the higher he is in the sight of God. The Lord will raise the poor from the dust and set
them on high among princes. In short, they will be lowly in heaven. God loves lowliness; His people are lowly; and so humility shall be there. Pride is the seat of Satan, and lowliness is the seat of God. Oh pray for the multiplication of the humble ones.
(III.)
SATURDAY, 26th January, 1850.
“Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”—Heb. xiv. 12.
The slaying of animals under the Old Testament dispensation was a type of Christ’s suffering without the gate. The former mode of sacrifice was the gospel during that dispensation. I would be far from taking all the world as “the people” mentioned here; but I conceive it to be those whom Christ had in His heart from eternity, whom the Father gave Him to redeem. I shall shew:
I.—Where Christ suffered, “without the gate”;
II.—What He suffered; and
III.—The object He had in view in suffering “that he might sanctify the people with his own blood.”
I.—Where Christ suffered. The evangelist John tells us that He was led out to Golgotha to be crucified. It was not in the streets of Jerusalem, the holy city, that He was slain. When man fell, he was driven out of the garden of Eden, and there was a flaming sword placed at the gate of the garden, so that he could not approach the tree of life without going over the point of the sword. I think of Jesus being led through the streets of the holy city, bearing His cross, faint with present suffering—led out to the place of execution for the greatest malefactors. Think of this inflicted upon an innocent man, whose thoughts, words and actions were always agreeable to the unerring rule of God’s will and law; yet He suffered on account of the iniquities of His people, which were laid upon Him, though personally innocent. Behold Christ going forth without the gate, till He reaches the place of a skull—Golgotha.
II.—What He suffered. Here Christ endured reproach which he felt keenly, more so than any of us would, because he was perfectly holy. He was called a malefactor—even a devil. He endured the shame of the cross—the greatest amount of it that ever was endured by man. Can you think of Jesus’ flesh pierced with nails, fixed to the accursed tree? Here His Father’s wrath at its highest pitch is manifested. Think of Him putting the cup of His Father’s wrath to His mouth and swallowing the whole of it into His inmost soul! Oh, followers of Jesus, think of this. What else can prepare you for the feast of to-morrow as the contemplation of Jesus’ suffering without the gate? He said not a word about His body; it is, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.” Oh, it is not easy to conceive what it is to
have all the capacities of a soul filled with mercy or wrath. Woe to that soul that leaves the body ripe to receive its fill of God’s wrath! Think of the suffering of Christ’s soul that was of a greater capacity than any of ours, and which was in the habit of drinking in the love of His Father, and receiving communications of His favour, enduring the full extent of God’s wrath. O, God’s wrath! I tremble to think of it. Christ’s sufferings were beyond human or angelic comprehension.
His manner of endurance was with meekness and calmness. His sensibilities were moved to the highest pitch; and yet the calm of holiness sat upon His soul, when men and devils united to torment Him. He could command a season for prayer in the midst of this awful season. He cried, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”—while He might have consumed them by His power. He left an example that we should follow in His steps. Pray for friends—for foes—for all. Oh, bring to the Lord’s table a forgiving spirit. Christ cherished the great principle in His heart of love to God and man.
O, think of the Father, raising the sword of justice, burning with holy fire, and drawing the stroke with all the power of Deity to smite the Son, and the Son, in return, saying, “Oh, Father, how I love thee in the righteous execution of thy justice against the sins of my people, for whom I stand!” and loving and kissing the holy law, while it was smiting him. May I not say that He suffered meritoriously? God never saw the like, and He shall never see the like again; it attracted His attention and His heart. In suffering, Christ shed His blood. See Psalm xxii. 15—”My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth fast to my jaws; and thou hast brought me to the dust of death.” The blood is the life, and as it was separating from His holy flesh, His strength as a man was wearing away, and when the last drop of it ran, the work was finished.
III.—The object He had in view was to sanctify His people “with his own blood.” It was consistent with the rectitude of the divine government that Jesus should go out to the place where He suffered as the substitute of sinners, and where His people were driven, in a spiritual sense, that He might bring them in and sanctify them by the shedding of His blood. Had it not been that He died, there would have been indiscriminate slaughter of mankind.
It is only that which satisfied the justice of God that will satisfy the conscience of an awakened sinner. Christ gave satisfaction to all the law’s dire sentences, as well as obeyed all its direct commands. Oh! ye dear people of the Lord, how hard are you become, if this will not move you—the life of your Redeemer in the lap of divine justice! O, what a glorious contemplation for you, believer, that, while Christ is exalted as a Prince and a Saviour at the right hand of God, His Spirit is taking the branch of hyssop, and sprinkling a soul here and there in every generation, as they
come forth into being, according to the eternal purpose of God, sprinkling them with His own blood. I might speak of the work of the Spirit in showing them that it was a wonder that God did not cast them to hell long ago, and they cast their own righteousnesses to the four winds of heaven. If any of these remain, they are regarded only with shame.
They are sanctified that they may behold the glory of Christ. O, Christ’s people here are weary, fatigued, heavy laden, bearing many burdens, but He cleanses and sanctifies them, and prepares them for glory. O, think of the love of God in Christ, and realise the warmth of its beams as they shine forth through the suffering humanity of Jesus. Oh, open your leaves and receive the softening, warming, cheering beams of the Sun of righteousness, as philosophers say some flowers do to the natural sun. The communications of God’s love stir up to zeal and the putting forth of every effort in the life of grace, through the faith that worketh by love. Oh, let the poor and needy come, past all means and instruments, and you will find Him whom your soul loveth, and whose absence you lament. “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” I would not give the groan of a true believer for all the prayers of all the Pharisees that ever lived.
Christ crucified is the rock whence living water flows. Remain not in the court of the Gentiles. Come and see the beauty and heart of the Saviour. Golgotha was not a place for concealing anything that was in His heart; it was a trial made as by fire; it was an offering made as by fire unto the Lord. O, sinner, either you shall drink of the cup of salvation, or of the cup of God’s wrath, with its dire effects. Unbelief is the stabbing Christ under the fifth rib. O, if you believed the truth about your own character and state, there would be a rush to the closet or some secret place, saying, “O thou, Son of David, have mercy on me.” This evening go to Golgotha, where Jesus suffered without the gate; go to the Bible records of His sufferings and death, and get a warrant and spirit of prayer there.
Russia’s Woful Plight.—One scene of carnage after another follows in such quick succession in this distracted and revolution-torn country that events which at other times would have filled the minds of the civilized world with horror are now regarded as the inevitable. The revolutionary forces have resorted to means and methods which spread destruction on every hand. The ruling powers seem to play with the people’s demand for freedom. To all appearance Russia looks as if she were hastening to her doom—awful and inevitable. The Ruler of Nations has His own purpose in it all.