the church, there have been millions upon millions who were not hypocrites, and these have testified, a great multi- tude of them in the flames of martyr- dom, that this, book changed them from sinners to saints, that it brought them to God, that it filled them with sacred joy and hope, that it made less heavy the burdens of life, that it eased their toil, that it brightened their pathway with its promises, and sweetened their eup of affliction, and gave them the victory over death. Man never wrote a book that could do this for the sinful and suffering. 9. It contains numerous prophecies that have unquestionably been fulfilled before the eyes of all the world, as those concerning the mightiest empires and cities of antiquity. The Emperor Julian might deliberately plan to de- feat the prediction about the desolation of Jerusalem until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, but all have been, the "Word of the Lord abideth forever." Whatever else man can do AUTHORIZED PREACHING. The Lord said to Jonah Preach the preaching that I bid you (Jon. 3:2). This is an unchangeable statute for all who speak in the name of the Lord. In Titus 2:15 Paul says, These things teach, exhort and reprove with all au- thority. "These t h i ng s" are found expressly in verses 11 to 13. In them we have an epitomy of evangelical preaching: The grace of God hath appeared bringing salvation to all men, instruct- ing us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age (Harg.) looking for the blessed bop« and appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesua Christ. In these words we have Christianity condensed. They eover the ground of our discourse in three main heads, viz.: I. The grace of God that has appeared; v. 11, The grace of life that should appear; v. 12, the grace and glory that shall appear. It is all here. PAST, PRESENT, PRO- SPECTIVE. A historical fact— the fin- ished salvation completed in Christ; a practical effect—the work of salvation
he cannot prophesy, and therefore the Bible is not friiffl him, but from a higher source. ID. It summons its witnesses by thousands at the present day from the dark regions of heathendom. Within the memory of men now living entire communities of brutal, cruel, degraded, naked, cannibal savages ia New Zea- land, the Fiji Islands, New Hebrides and New Guinea have been clothed, and are found in their right mind sit- ting at the feet of Jesus, singing His praise at family worship, crowding His house on the Lord's day, advancing in civilization, knowledge and refinement, converted by nothing but the Bible. Dr. John G. Paton has seen more than 14,000 such converts in the New Heb- rides. No book of man can do a work like this. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent word I perfecting in us; a prophetical hope— the coming salvation consummated in glory. On one hand the first advent and the crown of shame; on the other the Second advent and the crown of glory; and between an unworldly peo- ple looking back to the foundations of their faith, and forward to the corona- tion of their hope. The power of the blood, the power of the Spirit, and the powers of the world to come. BLESSED GRACE! BLESSED LIFE! BLESSED HOPE! THE CHRIST THAT WAS, THE CHRIST THAT IS, THE CHRIST THAT COMES. n. CHRISTIANITY PERSONAL. It has a personal Saviour. It is not the teaching of Jesus, nor the preaehing which is salvation; it is Jesus Himself. The prevalent teaching, that we can do without Jesus, that all questions as to His supernatural birth, supernatural mission, supernatural works, and His supernatural delivery from the prison- house of death, are indifferent, super- fluous and inconsequent, is utterly at variance with Scripture, our necessities, and experience. So far from its being
Helpful Sketches. J. H. Sammis.
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