though in their unceasing hallelujahs thy tender
mercies and loving kindnesses shall claim the high
est notes, yet, midst the rapturous hosannahs, shall
be heard the psalm " of remembrance " sounding
forth our praise for the rod of the covenant and the
hand of affliction. While here on earth we hymn
thy praise in humbler strains, and thus adore thy
love
" Long unafflicted, undismay d,
In pleasure s path secure I stray d.
Thou mad st me feel thy chastening rod,
And straight I turned unto my God.
"What though it pierced my fainting heart,
I bless the hand that caused the smart :
FAITHFUL WOUNDS. 95
It taught my tears awhile to flow,
But saved me from eternal woe.
" Oh! hadst thou left me unchastised,
Thy precepts I had still despised,
And still the snare, in secret laid,
Had my unwary feet betrayed
" I love thee, therefore, my God,
And breathe towards thy dear abode j
Where, in thy presence fully blest,
Thy chosen saints for ever rest."
96 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
TO THE UNCONYEKTED KEADEK.
FKDEND, In this chapter thou hast parted com
pany with the Christian. Thou couldst join with
him while he esteemed not Jesus, but now that
Christ has begun to wound the conscience of his
child, thou biddest him adieu, and proudly boas-
teth that thou art not one of so miserable a charac
ter. Notwithstanding this, I am loath to part with
thee until I have again expostulated with thee.
Thou thinkest it a blessing to be free from the
sad feelings we have been describing, but let me
tell, thee it is thy curse thy greatest, deadliest
curse that thou art a stranger to such inward
mourning for thy guilt. In the day when the
Judge of heaven and earth shall divide tares from
wheat, thou wilt see how terrible it is to be an un-
regenerate sinner. When the flames of hell get
hold upon thee, thou wilt wish in vain for that very
experience which now thou dost set at nought. It
will not be all May-day with thee ; thine hour of
death is as sure as another man s, and then a bet-
FAITHFUL WOUNDS. 97
ter than I shall convince thee of thine error. Laugh
not at weeping souls, account them not to be in a
pitiable plight ; for sad as their condition appears,
it is not half so sad as thine, and there is not one
of all those moaning penitents who would change
places with thee for an hour. Their grief is greater
joy than thy bliss ; thy laughter is not so sweet as
their groans ; and thy pleasant estate is despicable
compared with their sorest distress. Besides, re
member those who are now in such darkness will
soon see the light, but thou shalt soon walk in
increasing and unceasing darkness. Their sorrows
shall be ended ; thine are not yet commenced, and
when commenced shall never know a conclusion.
Theirs is hopeful distress ; thine will be hopeless
agony. Their chastisement comes from a loving
Jesus ; thine will proceed from an angry God.
Theirs has for its certain end ETEKNAL SALVATION ;
thine EVERLASTING DAMNATION. Oh ! bethink thee
for a moment, wouldst thou rather choose to have
painless mortification and so perish, than to feel
soreness in thy wounds and then receive a cure ?
Wouldst thou rather lie and rot in a dungeon than
bruise thyself by climbing the wall to escape ?
Surely thou wouldst endure anything rather than
be damned ; and I bid thee take this for truth, that
thou shalt either repent or burn ; thou shalt either
shed tears of penitence here, or else shriek in vain
for a drop of water in that pit which burneth with
5
98 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
fire unquenchable. What sayest thou to this ?
Canst thou dwell with devouring flames ? Canst
thou abide the eternal burnings ? Ah ! be not
mad, I entreat thee. Why shouldst thou destroy
thyself? What good will come of it when thy
blood shall be laid at thine own door ? Hast, thou
not sinned ? Why then think it foolish to repent?
Has not God threatened his fierce wrath to him
that goeth on in his iniquity ? Why then despise
those whom grace has turned, and who therefore are
constrained to bid thee turn from the error of thy
sinful ways ? May the Lord stay thy madness in
time, and give thee repentance, otherwise "Tophet
is ordained of old : the pile thereof is fire and much
wood ; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of
brimstone, doth kindle it." *
* Isa. xxx. 83.
III.
JESUS DESIRED.
Oh that I knew where I might find him ! " JOB xxiii. 3.
A WHILE the woun dings of Jesus are given in the
dark, and we do not recognise the hand which
smiteth us ; but it is not always to be so. Inces
sant disappointments put us out of all heart with
the former refuges of our souls, and renewed dis
coveries make us sadly aware of the superlative
evil dwelling in our flesh ; stripped thus of all
covering without, and trembling at our own shame
ful impotence, we hail with gladness the news of a
Saviour for sinners. As on the frail raft, the almost
skeleton mariners, having long ago devoured their
last morsel, raise themselves with all their remaining
strength to catch a glimpse of a passing sail, if
haply it may bring relief, so doth the dying sinner
receive with eagerness the message of coming
grace. He might have scorned the terms of mercy
once, but like a city long besieged, he is now too glad
100 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
to receive peace at any price. The grace which in
his high estate he counted as a worthless thing, is
now the great object of his combined desires. He
pants to see the Man who is " mighty to save,"
and would count it honor to kiss his feet or unloose
the latchet of his shoes. No cavilling at sovereignty,
no murmuring at self-humiliation, no scorning the
unpurchasable gifts of discriminating love ; the
man is too poor to be proud, too sick to struggle
with his physician, too much afraid of death to re
fuse the king s pardon because it puts him under
obligation. Happy is it for us if we understand
this position of utter helplessness into which we
must all be brought if we would know Christ !
It is one of the strange things in the dealings of
Jesus, that even when we arrive at this state of en
tire spiritual destitution, we do not always become
at once the objects of his justifying grace. Long
seasons frequently intervene between our know
ledge of our ruin, our hearing of a deliverer, and
the application of that deliverer s hand. The Lord s
own called ones frequently turn their eyes to the
hills, and find no help coming therefrom ; yea,
they wish to look unto him, but they are so blinded
that they cannot discern him as their hope and
consolation. This is not, as some would rashly
conclude, because he is not the Saviour for such as
they are. Far otherwise. Unbelief crieth out,
" Ah ! my vileness disqualifies me for Christ, and
JESUS DESIEED. 101
my exceeding sinfulness shuts out his love ?" How
foully doth unbelief lie when it thus slandereth the
tender heart of Jesus ! how inhumanly cruel it is
when it thus takes the cup of salvation from the
only lips which have a right to drink thereof ! We
have noticed in the preaching of the present day
too much of a saint s gospel, and too little of a sin
ner s gospel. Honesty, morality, and goodness,
are commended not so much as the marks of god
liness, as the life of it ; and men are told that as
they sow, so they shall reap, without the absolutely
necessary caveat that salvation is not of man, nei
ther by man, and that grace cometh not to him
that worketh, but to him that believeth on Him
that justifieth the ungodly. "Not thus spake our
ancient preachers when in all its fullness they de
clared
" Not the righteous, not the righteous
Sinners, Jesus came to save."
The words of a much calumniated preacher are
not less bold than true :
" There is nothing in men, though never so vile,
that can debar a person from a part in Christ.
Some will not have Christ, except they can pay for
him ; others dare not meddle with Christ, because
they are such vile and wretched creatures, that
they think it impossible that Christ should belong
to such wretched persons as they are. You know
102 THE SAINT AND HIS SAYIOUR.
not (saith one) what an abominable sinner I am ;
you look upon others, and their sins are but ordi
nary, but mine are of a deep dye, and I shall die
in them : the rebellion of my heart is another kind
of rebellion than is in others. Beloved, let me tell
you freely from the Lord, let men deem you as
they will, and esteem yourself as bad as you can,
I tell you from the Lord, and I will make it good,
there is not that sinfolness that can be imagined in
a creature that can be able to separate or debar
any of you from a part in Christ ; even though you
are thus sinful, Christ may be your Christ. Nay,
I go further ; suppose one person in this congrega
tion should not only be the vilest sinner in the
world, but should have all the sins of others, be
sides what he himself hath committed ; if all these
were laid upon the back of him, he should be a
greater sinner than now he is ; yet, if he should
bear all the sins of others, as I said, there is no bar
to this person, but Christ may be his portion. l He
bore the sins of many (saith the text), but he bare
them not as his own, he bare them for many. Sup
pose the many, that are sinners, should have all
their sins translated to one in particular, still there
is no more sin than Christ died for, though they be
all collected together. If other men s sins were
translated upon you, and they had none, then they
needed no Christ ; all the need they had of Christ
were translated to you, and then the whole of
JESUS DESIRED. 103
Christ s obedience should be yours. Do but ob
serve the strain of the Gospel, you shall find that
no sin in the world can be a bar to hinder a person
from having a part in Christ ; look upon the con
dition of persons (as they are revealed in the Gos
pel) to whom Christ is reached out ; and the con
sideration of their persons will plainly show to you
that there is no kind of sirifulness can bar a person
from having a part in Christ. Consider Christ s
own expression, I came to seek and to save that
which was lost ; I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance ; the whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick ; here still the
persons are considered in the worst condition (as
some might think) rather than in the best. Our
Saviour is pleased to express himself in a direct
contrary way to the opinion of men. * I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners ; the poor pub
lican that had nothing to plead for himself went
away more justified than the proud pharisee, who
pleaded with God, <I thank thee that I am not
such an one.
Men think righteousness brings them near to
Christ ; beloved, our righteousness is that which
puts a man away from Christ ; stumble not at the
expression, it is the clear truth of the Gospel ; not
simply a doing of service and duty doth put away
from Christ ; but upon the doing of duty and ser
vice to expect acceptance with Christ or participa-
104 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
tion in Christ this kind of righteousness is the
only separation between Christ and a people ; and
whereas no sinfulness in the world can debar a
people, their righteousness may debar them." *
Possibly some may object to such terms as these
as being too strong and unguarded, but a full con
sideration of them will show that they are such as
would naturally flow from the lips of a Luther
when inculcating faith alone as the means of our
salvation, and are fully borne out by the strong
expressions of Paul when writing to the Romans
and Galatians. The fact is, that very strong terms
are necessary to make men see the whole of this
truth, for it is one which of all things the mind can
least receive.
If it were possible to make men clearly under
stand that justification is not in the least degree by
their own works, how easy would it be to comfort
them ! but herein lies the greatest of all difficulties.
Man cannot be taught that his goodness is no in
crease to God s wealth, and his sin no diminution
of divine riches ; he will for ever be imagining that
some little presents must be offered, and that mercy
never can be the gratuitous bounty of Heaven.
Even the miserable creature who has learned his
own bankruptcy and beggary, while assured that
he cannot bring anything, yet trembles to come
* Crisp.
JESUS DESIKED. 105
naked and as he is. He knows he cannot do any
thing, but he can scarcely credit the promise which
seems too good to be true " I will heal their back
sliding, I will love them freely : for mine anger is
turned away from him." * Yea, when he cannot
deny the evidence of his own eyes, because the
kind word stares him in the face, he will turn away
from its glories under the sad supposition that they
are intended for all men save himself. The air,
the stream, the fruit, the joys and luxuries of life,
he takes freely, nor ever asks whether these were
not intended for a special people ; but at the upper
springs he stands fearing to dip his pitcher, lest the
flowing flood should refuse to enter it because the
vessel was too earthy to be fit to contain such
pure and precious water : conscious that in Christ
is all his help, it yet appears too great a presump
tion even to touch the hem of the Saviour s gar
ment. Nor is it easy to persuade the mourning
penitent that sin is no barrier to grace, but that
" where sin aboundeth, grace did much more
abound ;" and only the spirit of God can make the
man who knows himself as nothing at all, receive
Jesus as his all in all. When the Lord has set his
heart on a man, it is not a great difficulty that will
move him from his purpose of salvation, and there
fore " he devises means that His banished be not
expelled from him." f By the divine instruction
* Hos. xiv. 4. f 2 Sam. xiv. 14.
5*
106 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
of the Holy Ghost, the sinner is taught that Jesus
is the sinner s friend, adapted to his case, and
" able to save unto the uttermost." Even then, too
often, the work is not complete ; for the soul now
labours to find him whom it needs, and it often
happens that the search is prolonged through
mouths of weariness and days of languishing. If
the Church, in the canticles, confesses, " By night
on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth : I
sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now,
and go about the city in the streets, and in the
broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth ;
I sought him, but I found him not," surely, even
if our reader s history does not confirm the fact
that grace is sometimes hidden, he will at least
assent to the probability of it, and pray for the
many who are crying, " Oh that I knew where I
might find him !"
May Jesus smile on our humble endeavour to
trace the steps of our own soul, so that any w T ho
are in this miserable condition may escape by the
same means ! O ye prisoners of hope, who are
seeking a Redeemer who apparently eludes your
grasp, let your earnest prayer accompany your
reading, while you fervently cry
" Saviour, cast a pitying eye,
Bid my sins and sorrows end :
Whither should a sinner fly?
Art not thou the sinner s friend ?
JESUS DESIKED. 107
Rest in thee I gasp to find,
Wretched I, and poor, and blind.
" Didst thou ever see a soul
More in need of help than mine ?
Then refuse to make me whole ;
Then withhold the balm divine ;
But if I do want thee most,
Come, and seek, and save the lost.
"Haste, oh haste to my relief;
From the iron furnace take :
Rid me of my sin and grief,
For thy love and mercy s sake ;
Set my heart at liberty,
Show forth all thy power in me.
" Me, the vilest of the race,
Most unholy, most unclean ;
Me, the farthest from thy face,
Full of misery and sin ;
Me with arms of love receive ;
Me, of sinners chief forgive /" *
We propose
I. To mark the hopeful signs connected with this
state of heart ;
II. To give certain excellent reasons why the soul
is permitted to tarry in it ; and
III. To hold forth sundry plain directions for
behaviour in it, and escape from it.
I. It is our pleasant duty to note the hopeful
signs which gladden us when reviewing this state.
* C. Wesley.
108 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUB.
1. We are cheered by observing that the longing
of the spirit is now entirely after Jesus " Oh that
I knew where I might find Him /" Once, like the
many whom David mentions, the inquiry was,
" Who will show us any good ?" A question indis
criminately addressed to any and all within hear
ing, demanding with eagerness any good in all the
world. But now the desires have found a chan
nel, they are no longer like the wide-spread sheet
of water covering with shallow depth a tract of
marsh teeming with malaria and pestilence, but
having found a channel, they rush forward in one
deep and rapid stream, seeking the broad ocean,
where sister streams have long since mingled their
floods.
Of most men the complaint is true, that they
will "bore and thread the spheres" with the
" quick, piercing eye " of the astronomer, or " cut
through the working wave " to win the pearl, or
wear themselves away in smoky toil, while as
" subtle chymics " they divest and strip the crea
ture naked, till they find the callow principles
within their nests ; in fine, will do anything and
everything of inferior importance, but here are so
negligent that it is truly asked,
" What hath not man sought out and found,
But his dear God ?" *
When the heart can express itself in the words
* Herbert.
JESUS DESIEED. 109
of our text, it is far otherwise, for to it every other
subject is trivial, and every other object vain.
Then, too, there was the continual prayer after
pardon, conversion, washing, instruction, justifica
tion, adoption, and all other spiritual blessings ; but
now the soul discerns all mercies bound up in one
bundle in Jesus, and it inquires no more for cassia,
aloes, and camphire, but asks for Him who hath
the savour of all good ointments. It is no small
mark of grace when we can esteem Jesus to be all
we want. He who believeth there is gold in the
mine, and desires to obtain it, will not be long be
fore he hath it ; and he who knoweth Jesus to be
full of hid treasures of mercy, and seeketh him
diligently, shall not be too ]ong detained from a
possession of him. We have never known a sinner
anxious for Jesus for Jesus only who did not
in due time discover Jesus as his friend, u waiting
to be gracious."
Our own experience recalls us to the period when
we panted for the Lord, even for Him, our only
want. Vain to us were the mere ordinances vain
as bottles scorched by the simoom, and drained of
their waters. Yain were ceremonies vain as
empty wells to the thirsty Arab. Yain were the
delights of the flesh bitter as the waters of Marah,
which even the parched lips of Israel refused to
drink. Yain were the directions of the legal
preacher useless as the howling of the wind to
110 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUK.
the benighted wanderer. Yain, worse than vain,
were our refuges of lies, which fell about our ears
like Dagon s temple on the heads of the worship
pers. One only hope we had, one sole refuge for
our misery. Save where that ark floated, north,
south, east, and west, were one broad expanse of
troubled waters ; save where that star burned, the
sky was one vast field of unmitigated darkness.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ! he alone, he without another,
had become the solitary hiding-place against the
storm. As the wounded, lying on the battle-field,
with wounds which, like fires, consume his mois
ture, utters only one monotonous cry of thrilling
importunity, " Water, water, water !" so did we
perpetually send our prayer to heaven, " Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me ! O Jesus,
come to me !"
" Gracious Lord ! incline thine ear,
My requests vouchsafe to hear ;
Hear my never-ceasing cry
Give me Christ, or else I die.
" Wealth and honour I disdain,
Earthly comforts, Lord, are vain ;
These can never satisfy,
Give me Christ, or else I die.
" Lord, deny me what thou wilt,
Only ease me of my guilt ;
Suppliant at thy feet I lie,
Give me Christ, or else I die.
JESUS DESIRED. Ill
" All unholy and unclean,
I am nothing else but sin ;
On thy mercy I rely,
Give me Christ, or else I die.
" Thou dost freely save the lost,
In thy grace alone I trust ;
"With my earnest suit comply,
Give me Christ, or else I die.
" Thou dost promise to forgive
All who in thy Son believe ;
Lord, I know thou canst not lie,
Give me Christ, or else I die.
" Father, does thy justice frown ?
Let me shelter in thy Son !
Jesus, to thy arms I fly,
Come and save me, or I die."
As he that tantaliseth thirst with painted rivers,
as he that embitter eth hunger s pangs by the offer
ing of pictured fruits, so were they who spoke of
ought else save Christ and him crucified. Our
heart ached with a void the whole earth could not
fill ; it heaved with a desire as irresistible as the
mountain torrent, and as little able to be restrained
as the volcano when swelling with its fiery lava.
Every power, every passion, every wish, moved
onward in one direction. Like to an army press
ing upwards through a breach, did our united
powers rush forward to enter the city of salvation
by one door that door Jesus the Lord. Our soul
112 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
could spare no portion of itself for others ; it
pressed the whole of its strength into the service
to win Christ, and to be found in him. And oh !
how glorious did Jesus then seem 1 what would we
not have given, to have had the scantiest morsel
of his grace? "A kingdom for a horse!" cried
the routed monarch. " A kingdom for a look a
world for a smile our whole selves for one kind
word !" was then our far wiser prayer. Oh what
crushing we would have endured, if in the crowd
we could have approached his person ? what tramp
ing would we have borne, if our finger might have
touched the lowest hem of his garments ! Bear us
witness, ye hours of ardent desire, what horrors
we would have braved, what dangers we would
have encountered, what tortures we would have
Buffered, for one brief glimpse of Him whom our
souls desired to know ! We could have trodden
the burning marl of hell at his bidding, if his face
had but been in prospect ; and as for Peter s march
upon the deep, we would have waded to our very
necks without a fear, if it were but with half a
hope of a welcome from the Lord on the other side.
He had no robbers then to share his throne, no
golden calf to provoke him to jealousy. He was
the monarch reigning without a rival. "No part of
our heart was then shut up from him; he was
welcomed in every chamber of our being. There
was not a tablet of the heart which was not en-
JESTJS DESIEED. 113
graven with his name, nor a string of our harp
which did not vibrate with his praise, nor an atom
of our frame which would not have leaped for very
joy at the distant sound of his footsteps. Such a
condition of longing alone for Jesus is so healthy,
that many advanced believers would be well-nigh
content to retrace their steps, if they might once
more be fully occupied with that desire to the
exclusion of every other.
If my reader be fully resolved to satisfy his hun
ger only with the manna which cometh down from
heaven if he be determined to slake his thirst at
no stream save that which gusheth ^rom the Bock
if he will accept no cordial of comfort save that
which is compounded of the herbs of Gethsemane
it is, it must be, well with him. If none but
Jesus is thy delight, take heart. Augustine cast
away Tully s works because there was no Christ in
them ; if thou, like him, dost renounce all but
Christ, Christ will never renounce thee.
2. Another pleasing feature of this case is, the
intense sincerity and ardent earnestness of the soul.
Here is an " Oh !" a deep, impassioned, burning
ejaculation of desire. It is no fanciful wish, which
a little difficulty will presently overcome it is no
effervescence of excitement, which time will re
move ; but it is a real w r ant, fixed in the core of
the heart so firmly, that nothing but a supply of
the need can silence the importunate petition It
114: THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
is not the passing sierla, which the half-awakened
L O O "
heave as a compliment to an eloquent discourse or
a stirring tract, it is not the transient wish of the
awe-struck spectator who has seen a sudden death
or a notable judgment, it is not even the longing
of a soul in love for a time with the moral excel
lences of Christ ; but it is the prayer of one who
needs must pray, who cannot, who dare not, rest