OUR GOD By Octavius Winslow, 1870.

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An important and interesting part of out subject now invites our attention. We refer to THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AS THE OFFICIAL AND RESPONSIBLE HEAD IN THE COVENANT OF GRACE, OF ALL HIS GRACE TO SINNERS. Every reservoir has its conduits, every fountain its channels, every spring its rivulets. The infinite and eternal fullness of grace in God would have availed us nothing, had not a suitable channel been provided for its conveyance. The Father would, in the impressive language of the sacred song, have existed as "a Fountain sealed," secluded, eternally sealed, but for Jesus. There would have been no channel of grace from God to the sinner, no possible avenue of the sinner's approach to God, but for the "One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."

This channel through which His grace was to flow, this medium by which the sinner was to approach, was of the Father's own providing. It must, in all respects, be worthy of the Being with whom it originated, whose honor it was to vindicate, whose glory it was to secure; and it must be in all respects suitable to the sinner, whose grace and glory, whose salvation and heaven it was to accomplish. All this Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, was. Our Arbitrator, laying His right hand on the Father, and His left hand upon us- the right hand of His Godhead upon God, and the left hand of His manhood upon man- so making peace by the blood of His cross; so opening a medium through which God, consistent with His holiness, and man, despite our sinfulness, could meet in a state of at-one-ment. This matter of reconciliation on the part of God has been one of some perplexity to many pious minds, giving rise to much obscurity, if not unsoundness of idea on the subject.

The chief difficulty has been the harmony of the two ideas of everlasting love and reconciliation. If God's love to the Church were, as He affirms it to be, "from everlasting," the question arises, where exists the necessity of mediatorship and reconciliation? Perhaps the following remarks, not before published, of an eminent and deeply-taught saint of God (Mary Winslow), may in some degree elucidate this important and interesting point- "If the holiness of God were never incensed against the Church fallen in Adam, then there had been no need of the death of Christ. Christ died to reconcile God to us and us to God. From where sprung the wrath of God which Christ endured? The proper answer to this question will give us a loving view of God as a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. A mediator supposes the parties between whole he mediates at variance the one with the other, else there had been no necessity of mediatorship. The reconciliation which Christ effected was not to the love of God towards His people- for that was never lost- but to the justice of God offended by sin. Christ is the Peacemaker- 'He is our peace.' Justice, Holiness, and Truth are all reconciled and harmonized towards His people in Jesus, so that it is proper, as it is sweet, unspeakably sweet, to speak to and of Him as a reconciled God in Christ Jesus." 'All things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Christ Jesus.'

cont.

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We think the point is fully met in these few observations by the remark that, Christ died, not to reconcile the love, but the Justice of God towards His people. The love of God never was alienated or affected by Adam's fall, but His Justice and His Holiness were. Christ's atoning death met their every requirement, and now both are on the side of the sinner, so that we are as much saved on the footing of justice as of love, of holiness as of grace. How sure is the Foundation God has laid for the salvation of a poor sinner! How tried the Corner-stone upon which this hope reposes! To be saved on the basis of justice would seem to place the salvation of the soul upon a higher, and surer footing, than even of love, since God can now be just to Himself in saving us; and not to save the sinner believing in Christ were to be unjust to us. If saved thus, you stand on the broad foundation of justice, and you can justly claim, through Christ, a mansion in the house of your Father in heaven. God is therefore bound, on the principle of righteousness, to save your soul, cast in simple faith upon Jesus. Thus, "Grace reigns unto righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

But we return to the truth, that the Lord Jesus is the Covenant Head, the official and responsible Administrator of this grace. It was once entrusted to Adam, the federal head of the human race. But the responsibility was too great, the treasure too costly, for a mere creature to sustain and hold. We know how soon the vessel of clay which the Divine Potter had made, and in which the grace of our salvation was deposited, was marred and destroyed by the Fall. Foreknowing this catastrophe, and bent on the salvation of His Church, God amply provided for the case, by placing the grace that was to bring it to glory in the hands of His beloved Son. And so He, the divine Artist, seeing the destruction of the first vessel of grace, "made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the Potter to make it."

If the first vessel- Adam, in his sinlessness reflecting the pure and perfect image of God, was beautiful, it yet had no beauty by reason of the beauty that excelled and eclipsed it in the mysteriously and wondrously constituted Person of the Son of God. The incarnation of God is the greatest wonder in the countless wonders which crowd the universe. It will be the study of angels, the theme of saints, the song of heaven, the marvel of eternity. It is the central truth of Christianity, the divine sun of the system, around which all other truths of our gospel circle. It gives to all their character, glory, and place. It gives to atoning blood its all-sovereign virtue; to imputed righteousness its all-justifying efficacy; to the cross of Calvary its power, attraction, and glory. In a word, "God manifest in the flesh," is the key that unlocks the pavilion of every other mystery of the gospel, while it remains itself, and will forever remain, the greatest and most sublime mystery of all.

cont.

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Such is the Head in which it pleased the Father that all fullness of grace should dwell. For what purpose could this delegated fullness of grace thus deposited in Jesus be, but to furnish Him, as the Head over all things to His Church, with supplies of "all grace" for His people. There are two fullnesses described as being in Christ- the "fullness of the Godhead," which is His Deity, or His essential fullness; and then the "fullness" which it pleased the Father should dwell in Him, which describes the fullness of grace treasured up in Him for all the needs of a most needy Church.

Let us, then, look at some of the particulars of this grace dwelling thus essentially in the Father, the administration of which was placed in the hands of the Lord Jesus. The title of our God under consideration is as comprehensive as it is precious. "The God of ALL grace." "ALL grace." Marvelous declaration this! Precious announcement! It chimes with every circumstance; it meets every trial; it confronts every temptation; it supplies every need; it is so worthy of God, so like Jesus, so suitable in all respects to the saints. "ALL grace."

In the first place, there dwells in the Lord Jesus, as the Father's Depository, all SIN-FORGIVING GRACE. Pardon is the highest prerogative of sovereignty, as it is the richest boon of the subject. So great is this exercise of divine favor, so rich and free a blessing of His grace, God not only has not, but could not, delegate the power to any created being. He reserves, and justly so, the right of forgiveness in His own hands. Imagine, then, what an insult to His divine Majesty, what an invasion of His sovereign prerogative, the daring and blasphemous assumption of the court of Rome- call it not Church, for Church it is not- in claiming and professing to exercise a right which God has never entrusted to any authority of man, still less to a sinful mortal! O sinner! bound to the judgment, there is forgiveness with God, and with God only, and to Him hesitate not to repair, in the spirit of a humble penitent, with the petition breathing from your heart, "God be merciful to me a sinner!"

But this sin-pardoning grace is lodged in the hands of Jesus. The grace that remits the greatest sin, that pardons the vilest sinner, is with Christ. How often did the wondrous words breathe from His lips, "Your sins are forgiven you!" The Scribes and Pharisees charged Him with blasphemy because He assumed a divine function, and exclaimed, "Who can forgive sins, but God only?"- thus, indirectly and undesignedly, blending with the indictment an acknowledgment of the fact that Christ was God.

cont.

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Oh, yes! child of God, there is in Christ the grace of forgiveness- grace that can remit every transgression, pardon every crime, blot out every sin; grace that, where sin has abounded, much more, yes, infinitely more, abounds. "Through Him," says the apostle, "is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace." What encouragement for you who feel yourself to be a sinner, your sins so great, even the greatest, that the "remembrance of them is an intolerable burden," to repair to Jesus for the grace that will entirely pardon and cancel all!

Bear in mind that the forgiveness of sin, for which God has provided at a cost so immense to Himself, is His free gift to sinners. It is entirely an act of grace. We read, "And when they had nothing to pay, He frankly forgave them both." The pardon of sin, while it is not too, great a blessing for God to give, is too great a blessing for man to purchase. And were it not free, entirely free, not the least worthiness on the part of the sinner claiming, and not his greatest unworthiness disclaiming it, it never could personally be ours. Approach, then, the sin-cleansing Fountain of Christ's own atoning blood- blood possessing all the sovereign efficacy of His Deity, wash, and be clean. And thus washing by faith in this precious, sin-atoning, guilt-effacing blood, God declares, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

All JUSTIFYING GRACE is in Christ Jesus. The two conditions of the saved soul- the forgiveness of sin and the justification of the sinner- though inseparable in its salvation, are yet to be kept distinct as defining the two essential parts of Christ's mediatorial work- His obedience and suffering- and as describing the two essential conditions of the believer. The sinner is pardoned through the blood of Christ, and he is justified by the righteousness of Christ. By the disobedience of the first Adam, we are plunged into condemnation; by the obedience of the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, we are delivered from condemnation; by the one we are made sinners, and by the other we are made righteous. (See Romans 5:17-19.)

cont.

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Study these passages, my reader, in prayer for the illumination of the Spirit on a matter of such vital moment, especially important in the present day, when the doctrine of imputed righteousness, as taught by Paul, as held by the Reformers, as bled for by Ridley and Wycliffe and Huss, and others of the "noble army of martyrs," and so distinctly embodied in the doctrinal articles of the English Church, has come to be disputed and denied by many. But this grace of justification the "God of all grace," by whom the believing sinner is justified- for "it is God who justifies "- is deposited in Christ Jesus, who is emphatically the "Lord our Righteousness." Believing in Him, we are now freely and forever justified. His righteousness becomes, by the imputation of the Spirit, and through the receiving faith of the believing soul, our righteousness; so that, in the strong language of Scripture, "we are made the righteousness of God in Him."

Oh, what a glorious and precious truth is this! How it exalts and ennobles the soul! "In Your righteousness shall they be exalted." Equally free with the grace of pardon is the grace of justification. Both are the gratuitous blessings of God. Thus the apostle proves it. "Being justified by faith (and "faith is the gift of God"), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

What joyful news, what glad tidings are here for you who, after laboring and striving, have happily come to the end of all your own doings, and can do no more! You have traveled to the "end of the law," and find you have, if not in the letter, yet in the spirit, broken its every commandment, and so are conscious of being guilty of all. And now your cry is, "Wretched one that I am! who will deliver me from this condemnation?" Lo! Jesus appears! He has seen you 'toiling in rowing,' He has watched all your well-meant strivings and sincere attempts to keep the law, and has marked all your inability and failure. And now He presents Himself before you wearing that splendid and significant title, 'The Lord our Righteousness,' and He says to you, "I am the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes; I am your righteousness without a work of your own; I have kept the law, have obeyed every command, and have honored every precept; believe only in me and you shall be justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses, or by the most perfect obedience of your own."

cont

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And now methinks I see the poor toiling soul cast overboard its oars, and ceasing any longer to stem the tide of its sins, infirmities, and failures, spread its sails to the gale of God's free grace, wafting its long tempest-tossed barque into the calm waters of perfect peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"The God of all grace" has also deposited in Christ Jesus the fullness of ADOPTING GRACE. "You are all," says the apostle, "the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." And in another place he says, "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Into what a dignified position does this adoption of grace place the believing soul! A rebel made a son, a foe made a child, an alien made an heir, "an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ Jesus." What divine, what marvelous, what free grace is this! Believer in Jesus, know your adoption. Child of God, realize your sonship. Son of God, claim your heirship, and live in anticipation of your inheritance.

So divine, so loving, so free is the grace flowing from the "God of all grace," and welled in the humanity of Christ, as the Head of all grace to His Church, that "now are we the sons of God; and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." Go to this God of grace, then, through Jesus, in the filial spirit of a loved child, and disclose to Him your every need, unveil to Him your every grief; acknowledge to Him your every sin; make known to Him your every temptation, and assault, and difficulty, keeping back nothing which a loving, dutiful child, should pour into the heart of a fond, faithful, and all-powerful Father. Oh that the grace of adoption might so fill our souls as to dislodge all servile fear, dissolve all legal bonds, and enable us to walk in the holy, happy liberty of the children of God!

The God of all grace has equally deposited all fullness of SANCTIFYING GRACE in Christ Jesus. Here is another kindred yet distinct condition of the believing soul. It may be regarded, perhaps, as the effect and fruit of all the other related doctrines of grace. If, for example, I am a, pardoned sinner, I am justified; and if I am a justified sinner, I am an adopted child; and if I am all these, then I am holy, sanctified, separated, and set apart wholly for God. "Holiness to God" is inscribed on my brow.

cont.

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Similar to this was the apocalyptic vision which John beheld, and thus graphically describes: "Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads." Do we thus personally possess the seal, and are we thus visibly wearing the sign, of our adoption? Do the saints, (for "the world knows us not'') see our Father's image, and read the Father's name, in our holy walk, in our filial devotion, in our loving spirit? That this may be so, do not forget that all grace is treasured up in Christ to promote our personal holiness. We are as much to live upon Christ for sanctification as for pardon and justification. The grace that delivers us from hell fits us for heaven; that grace which cancels our guilt, subdues also our corruption; that grace which emancipates us from our servitude, equally dethrones the tyrant. O wondrous, precious grace that, by its divine sanctity and power, brings first one, and then another indwelling corrupt principle, passion, and desire of our hearts into subjection to itself, and all in obedience to Christ; that moulds and fashions us into the image of Jesus!

Nor must we overlook the part the Holy Spirit takes in the conveyance of this grace from the Father, the God of all grace, "through Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth," to the happy recipients of this grace– poor, needy, graceless souls. While the Father decrees this grace and provides it; and while the Son holds the key of all this treasure and metes it out "grace for grace" - or, as it is in the original, "wave upon wave"- the Holy Spirit makes us to know and feel our deep need, and then conveys the blessing into the soul. Is not this the meaning of the words of Jesus- "He shall glorify me, for He shall take of mine and show it unto you." And how appropriate is thus the office of the Spirit. Having implanted His own graces in the soul, does He leave them to their self growth, does He abandon them to the unkind, uncongenial soil in which they were implanted? Oh, no! Having begun a good work, He carries it on to completion. He watches over, waters, and nourishes by fresh supplies the graces He has implanted. He it is who waters the roots, He it is who strengthens the stem, He it is who forms the blossom, He it is who expands the bud, He it is who ripens the fruit and conducts it to perfection.

Honor the Spirit in this work, glorify Him in His person, guard against wounding and grieving Him, and daily acknowledge your indebtedness to Him for conveying down from God the Father, through Christ the Son, the streams of grace which keep in bloom, fragrance, and beauty His own graces of faith, and love, and joy, and peace, and hope in your soul.

cont.

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Is He the God of all grace? Then in Christ He has made provision for all COMFORTING GRACE. What a blank would exist in this provision- a need which nothing ever could meet- were there no consolation, no comfort, no sympathy, in Christ Jesus for poor, sorrowing, suffering saints! Alas! how large the number! How many a tried, afflicted believer, will bend over this chapter, and perhaps find nothing that meets his case until he reaches the close, and is reminded of what he has often been told before, but which, now that he is passing through the deep, dark waters of grief, seems like a newborn truth to his soul, that Jesus is the "Consolation of Israel."

Yes, afflicted and sorrowing one, the God of all grace is the God of all comfort, and has deposited in Christ all comfort for you. He knows the nature of your sorrow- for He sent it. He marks the pressure of your cross- for He imposed it. He is acquainted with the bitterness of your cup- for He mixed it. All His promises of succour and support are Yes, and Amen in Christ Jesus. All the tenderness, the compassion, the sympathy, the grace that it pleased the Father should dwell in Christ, is designed for your personal and present sorrow. Listen to the words of Jesus; "Let not your heart be troubled." Oh, who knows your heart's deeply veiled anguish, its doubts and sorrows- who can reach, fathom, and control it; who can soothe, chasten, and sanctify it, but Jesus? His grace will support, strengthen, and calm you now, enabling you to glorify God in the fires. Oh, it were worth all the sorrow that ever brimmed our cup, to know what the Lord Jesus Christ is a Brother born for adversity!

Live, then, upon this God of all grace. Remember, there is no limit to its extent– it is "ALL grace." Take your heart to God through Christ, and He will fill it with every blessing you ask, with every grace you need. Your sins, your needs, your trials, your temptations, your sorrows, can never exceed the "ALL grace" that dwells in God, and which Jesus waits to communicate. Go with an empty hand- go with the exhausted vessel- go with the often-told tale of grief- go with the old, old story of backsliding, and unworthiness, and need; only go to Jesus, and sink your vessel, be it large or small, in His fathomless ocean of grace, and you shall "find grace to help you in every time of need."

cont.

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Listen to His cheering words; "My grace is sufficient for you." You are, perhaps, anticipating with fear the hour of death. It is, indeed, a solemn thing, even for a Christian, to die. But do not forget that our God is the God of all dying, as of all living grace. And that, when the hour is come for your departure out of this world to go unto the Father, the grace that was all-sufficient for the trials, and sorrows, and sins of life, will be all-sufficient for the demands and solemnities of death. Do not forget that Christ does not give us grace in hand for future difficulties, but reserves it for the time of its requirement, and that, when death comes to you, Jesus will come with it, and you shall not see death, but Jesus only. And then will be experienced the last and most solemn and precious fulfillment of His promise, "my grace is sufficient for you."

"Humble sinner, mourning soul,
Over whose bosom sorrows roll,
Tis for you the Savior says,
Mine is all-sufficient grace.
"Do you mourn an evil heart?
Or some cursed fiery dart?
Do not yield to slavish fear-
All-sufficient grace is near.
"Are you full of needs and woes?
Or does unbelief oppose?
Does Your Jesus hide His face?
Trust His all- sufficient grace.
"Can no care with your compare?
Do not yield to black despair
For the worst of Adam's race
Christ has all-sufficient grace."

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THE GOD OF HOLINESS

"You only are holy." Rev.15:4

No perfection of "our God," thus far considered, presents Him to our view so like Himself as the perfection of holiness. We can form no proper idea of God apart from this. Even the unrenewed mind is conscious that it has to deal with God who cannot connive at sin. It is true, its conceptions must be obscure, its views defective; for, what proper notion of Divine holiness can a sinful being form? His views must necessarily be just what those of an untutored peasant would be of the sun beheld through a misted and distorted medium. There would be in that peasant's mind the conviction that there was a sun, and that it was light; but the mental conception of the nature and splendor of the orb would, from the necessity of the case, be obscure and defective.

There is in the human conscience the conviction that God is a God of holiness- for conscience, left to its natural bias, is ever in the interests of truth and righteousness, and, as the vice-regent of the soul, faithfully whispers in the ear what is right and what is wrong. But the highest and clearest views of the Divine holiness cherished by the unrenewed mind, in consequence of the sinfulness and darkness of the mind, fall infinitely short of what God is as the God of holiness.

Such is the Divine perfection to which we now bend our devout contemplation. We are profoundly sensible of the awesomeness and solemnity of our theme. The ground upon which we stand is, indeed, most holy, and we have need to put off the shoes from our feet, for "Who can stand before this holy Lord God?" Only as we keep our eye upon atoning blood, can we for a moment gaze upon the unsufferable brightness of the God of holiness. Only can we deal with the Divine purity as we deal with the Divine Savior. The Great Atonement must come between us and the Divine Sun of infinite purity, or the effulgence of its beams would overpower and the holiness of its glory would consume us. Let us, standing beneath the shadow of the cross of Jesus, meditate upon this lofty theme; and thus, with our believing eye reposing upon the blood, which cleanses from all sin, we may pass within the veil, and sinful though we are, hold sweet fellowship with Him who "only is holy."

cont

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The passage upon which the present subject is based suggests the first thought we offer– that is, the ESSENTIAL HOLINESS of God. God is essentially holy. This must he the meaning of the remarkable words addressed to Him in the anthem of the glorified saints, "You only are holy," not holy merely as others are holy, but as positively and essentially holy, in comparison of whom none are holy. "You ONLY are holy." "You only are divinely holy, You only are holy, from the necessity of Your nature; You only are infinitely, absolutely holy." Such is the key-note, and such the substance of the triumphant song of Moses and the Lamb.

As there is none good but God, so there is none holy but God. His creatures are derivatively holy; He is holy from Himself– absolutely, independently holy. "No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God." 1 Samuel 2:2. In comparison of God, none are holy, so essentially pure and spotless is He. The heavens are not clean in His sight, and He charges His angels with folly. These are remarkable words! Just as the stars pale before the sun, creature holiness grows dim and is eclipsed by the divine and essential holiness of God. In comparison of His holiness, the holiest creatures and things are not clean in His sight.

It is said of God that, "He only has immortality." All created beings are immortal, but God is absolutely so. He only has immortality as an essential perfection of His nature. All others derive their immortality from Him; He from Himself. What a great and glorious being, then, is God! He is "glorious in holiness." He could possess no glory were He destitute of perfect holiness. Divine in His nature, endowed with infinite perfections, and possessing resources vast and boundless as His infinity, imagine what a being He would be- how powerful for evil, how potent for destruction- were not every perfection of His nature imbued with, and under the control of, infinite and perfect holiness!

We measure the extent of a fallen creature's capacity for good or for evil by the amount of his intellectual and moral resources. In proportion to his ability to control the minds, shape the opinions and influence the actions of others, we regard the extent of evil or of good he is capable of accomplishing. Imagine, then, measured by this rule, what a being God would be were He destitute of perfect holiness while yet armed with infinite power! It is the fallen intellect of Satan that gives him the almost omnipotent power and unlimited range which He possesses. All the perfections of God would arm Him with tremendous forces for evil, bounded and restrained only by the universe He had formed and the creatures He had made, were He not a being infinite in holiness, spotless in purity. Compared with His, the intellect of Satan would be a dwarf's, his wisdom idiotic, his strength an infant's. But we need not attempt to imagine what God would be destitute of infinite purity; rather let us think what a being He is "glorious in holiness."

cont

[airIam2worship]

Who that has seen anything of the beauty, and has felt anything of the power, and has tasted anything of the happiness of holiness, would for a moment cherish the wish that God were less holy than He is? Rather, is it not the intense desire and fervent prayer and ardent struggle of the renewed soul to be holy as God is holy? Sinful though we are, conscious of innumerable infirmities, failures, and backslidings, is not our highest bliss to commune with, and to be in some degree assimilated to, the spotless purity of God? When are we so happy as when breathing after divine purity, overcoming sin, "yielding our members servants to righteousness," "perfecting holiness in the fear of God"? Not for thousands of worlds would we that He were less holy.

The deeper our views of His holiness grow, the deeper grows our love. We love the truth, because it is on the side of holiness; we love the saints, because they are the reflection of holiness; we love the discipline of our heavenly Father, because it makes us partakers of His holiness; how much more intense, then, our affection for God, as the holiness of His being, the purity of His character, unveils to our admiring eye!

A question, often asked, may possibly here arise in the mind of the reader. If God is essentially holy, and could have prevented sin, why, then, did He permit it? The entrance of sin into the world is one of those mysterious problems in its marvelous history, the solution of which awaits us in the world to come. The brief space at present at our command, will only allow us to meet this question by a single and simple reply. Sin entered into the world, not by God's approving, but by His permissive will. He was under no obligation either to prevent its origin or to hinder its advent. Where an obligation exists, ceasing to act when that action would prevent a crime were unquestionably to sin. An individual receiving from another the confession that he was about to commit a deadly crime, and yet, under the professed seal of secrecy, takes no steps to prevent its commission, is but one remove from the actual guilt of the crime itself; the concealer of the murder is well-near as criminal as the perpetrator of the deed. He is under a moral obligation to disclose the intended crime and denounce the criminal. He is bound by the tie of a common humanity, equally by the law of a common charity, to avert the deed and save the victim.


cont

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But God stands in a totally different relation to His creatures. He was under no such obligation to prevent the entrance of sin into the world. If He was, to whom? and what was the nature of the obligation? Let the speculatist reply. To him we must leave the solution of the problem of sin's introduction, satisfied with the only rational conclusion at which the Bible warrants our arrival, that God permitted it, and permitted it for His own glory. Let not your mind, my reader, be perplexed with what must be regarded- without insinuating anything of a skeptical character to those who raise these questions- but as speculative discussions. "There are secret things that belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we may obey these words of the law."

Let us be satisfied with, and be profoundly grateful for, the clearness with which God has revealed to us the way by which, as sinners, we may be saved. That Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, and by the love He has displayed, and the mission He has undertaken, and the work He has finished, and the invitation He has issued, is pledged to cast out none who believe in Him, saving to the uttermost, and without a work of their own, all who come unto God by Him.

Let this, too, be a matter of joy and thanksgiving to us, that the most appalling event which the history of this universe records- the fall of man- has, through infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, resulted in such a manifestation of God's glory, and in such a great and endless blessing to man, as could not possibly have been the case even had sin never entered into the world. Assured of this, let us refer all that is obscure and mysterious and speculative in the history of the world, and in the revelation and government of God, to that day when we shall know even as we are known, when the mystery of God shall be finished, and God be all in all.

God is also DECLARATIVELY HOLY- His word is a revelation of His holiness. He is styled– "the Holy One;" "The Holy One of Israel, whose name is Holy;" "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity;" "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;" "The four living creatures rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." God selects this perfection of His nature to swear by– "Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David;" "The Lord will swear by His holiness." The saints are called to praise His holiness– "Sing unto the Lord, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness."

cont

[airIam2worship]

Need we multiply these Scripture declarations of God's holiness? We might increase the proofs, but could scarcely strengthen the revealed fact that God is holy. And yet, in these days of low views of Inspiration, of lax principles Concerning the truth of the Bible, we should be jealous of every word of that sacred volume, especially as it bears upon what is the crown of Jehovah– His essential and perfect holiness.

Beware, my reader, of indulging in doubts concerning the divine veracity or the correct rendering of any part of God's word. The most profound human judgment is after all, but fallible, and human learning often contradictory. The safest path is to accept the Bible as it is, and not to allow your confidence in its Divine integrity to be disturbed by this rendering or by that, by one manuscript or by another; but to hold fast the memorable and precious declaration of the Savior- a declaration which may be fearlessly asserted in the face of every doubt cast upon the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures- "Your Word is Truth."

God is JUDICIALLY HOLY. His judgments are manifestations of His holiness- His holiness in dreadful exercise. "The Lord is known by the judgments which He executes. What was the flood which destroyed the Antediluvians- the fire which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah- the armies which besieged Jerusalem, and leveled her to the ground, but the dreadful exhibitions of the holiness of God, solemn demonstrations of His hatred and punishment of sin? In this light we must ever read and interpret the Divine judgments that befall an ungodly world, whether in its natural, social, or individual character. And yet, blinded by sin and ignorance, the men of this world see not this solemn fact.

Never rising above the second causes of the judiciary dealings of God- the pestilence and the famine, the earthquake, the whirlwind and the fire, the commercial panic, and the blighted harvest- they recognize not the fact that, far above the immediate and proximate causes leading to these natural and social convulsions, there is One of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity, whether it be in an individual, a family, or a nation, and who, when His patience has long waited, but in vain, and will wait no longer, unseals the vials of His wrath, and writes His name holy in letters of tremendous and impressive significance.

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[airIam2worship]

It is in this light we read the expressive declaration of the prophet, "When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness." Isaiah 26:9. That is, God's judgments are such unmistakable and tremendous demonstrations of His holiness, that the ungodly world shall recognize the fact, and from these terrible visitations of His providence learn to loathe themselves in His sight, to repent of their sins, and renounce their iniquities, and turn to the Lord.

My reader! is the Lord dealing with you individually in the way of judgment? Has He "Uncovered his bow, and called for many arrows?" Do His arrows fall thick and piercing? Is there the loss of health, or the destruction of property, or the visitation of bereavement? Is your song of judgment as well as of mercy? Oh! interpret these dispensations of God in the light of a holy and righteous, yet loving discipline, designed to correct an evil, to arrest a declension, and to bestow upon you the highest honor God could confer- the making you a partaker of His holiness. "This," says the prophet, "is all the fruit, to take away sin."

God is also MEDIATORIALLY HOLY. This illustration of our subject presents a more solemn and impressive view of the Divine holiness than any we have yet considered- the view exhibited in the cross of Jesus. Not hell itself, awful and eternal as is its suffering- the undying worm, the unquenchable fire, the smoke of the torment that goes up forever and ever- affords such a solemn and impressive spectacle of the holiness and justice of God in the punishment of sin, as is presented in the death of God's beloved Son.

An eminent Puritan writer thus strikingly puts it- "Not all the vials of judgment that have or shall be poured out upon this wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a sinner's conscience, nor the irrevocable sentence pronounced against the rebellious devils, nor the groans of the damned creatures, give such a demonstration of God's hatred of sin, as the wrath of God let loose upon His Son!"

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