and we bear the image of the earthy. Our character is so unlike the character of God that we shrink from Him, as darkness from light, as night from morning. III. SIN SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD AS TO WILL. Separation of will is the most complete of all kinds of separation. Continents and oceans may divide men, and yet they may be one in heart and aim. But let their desires differ, their purposes be opposed, their wills clash, and, though they dwell under one roof and eat at one table, there is between them an effectual separation. This is how it is with the sinner and God. We are rebelling against and resisting God's will, and that guilty separation is the fruit of sin. IV. SIN SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD AS TO INTEREST. It is to the interest of the sinner that there should be opportunity for indulgence in sin, that the punishment of sin should be removed, that the restraints of virtue should be broken down. We may well rejoice that God's interest is with all that is the opposite of this. It is God's aim that sin should be destroyed. Hence by fearful sufferings He brands it with disgrace. But God in His wonderful love has taken means to destroy this separation, and to draw us back to Him. Reconciliation, and not the perpetual separation that our sins deserve, is His message to us. St. Paul says, "Ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." This is the Gospel. Jesus Christ removing the separation our sins have caused between us and God. Do you feel that God is far from you? In the time of need does He seem so far away that you cannot pray to Him? Seek pardon through Christ. Do you shrink from God as being unlike you in character? In Christ, God's majesty, wisdom, and power, all flow to us through the focus of His mercy. Are you separated from God in will and in interest? Again I say, come to Christ. See in His life and in His death God's unutterable love, and ponder it till it conquers you, till your will becomes His, and "ye who sometime were far off are made nigh." EDITOR. SEEDS OF SERMONS ON THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. Significant Facts in God's Government. "IN THE SECOND YEAR OF JOASH," &c.-2 Kings xiv. In this chapter we have a sketch of a succession of kings both of Judah and Israel. Here are two kings of Judah, Amaziah and Azariah, and Joash, Jeroboam, and his son Zachariah, kings of Israel. The whole chapter suggests certain significant facts. in God's government of mankind. The first fact which strikes us is I. THE ENORMOUS FREEDOM OF ACTION WHICH HE ALLOWS WICKED MEN. Here we learn, First: That God allows wicked men to form wrong conceptions of Himself. All these kings, although descendants of Abraham, who was a monotheist, became idolaters. "The high places were not taken away, as yet the people did sacrifice, and burnt incense on the high places." Golden calves, symbols of Egyptian worship, were erected at Dan and Bethuel at the extremities of the dominions. Terribly strange it seems to us that the Almighty Author of the human mind should permit it to think of Him as some material object in nature, or as some production of the human hand. What human father, had he the power, would permit his children to form not only wrong but wicked impressions of himself? For what reason this is permitted I know not. Albeit it shows His practical respect for that freedom of action with which He has endowed us. Here we learn, Secondly: That God allows wicked men to obtain despotic dominion over others. All these kings were wicked, Amaziah, Joash, Jeroboam, and Zachariah, and yet they obtained an autocratic dominion over the rights, possessions, and lives of millions. Here we read of Amaziah slaying ten thousand men, capturing ten thousand prisoners, and taking Selah, the capital of the Edomites, and of Jehohaz, king of Israel, perpetrating great enormities. (Verses 13, 14.) He came to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate. It is said of Jeroboam, who reigned fortyone years, that he "did evil in the sight of the Lord and departed not from the sins of his father." Antecedently one might have concluded that if a wicked man was allowed to live amongst his fellows, he should be doomed to obscurity and to social and political impotence, but it is not so. Why? Who shall answer? Another fact is II.-GOD PUNISHES WICKED MEN BY THEIR OWN WICKED NESS. First: A wicked man is punished by his own wickedness. Amaziah's conduct is an example. Elated with his triumph over the Edomites, he sought occasion of war with the king of Israel. He sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face." &c. (Verses 8-14.) About fifteen years after his defeat he fled from Jerusalem to Lachish to escape assasination, but the assassin pursued him and struck him dead. It is ever SO. Wickedness is its own punishment. The wicked passions of a corrupt man are his tormenting devils. Sin is suicidal. Secondly: A wicked man is punished by the wickedness of others. The thousands of these despotic kings reduced to anguish, destitution, and death, were idolaters and rebels against Heaven, and by the hand of wicked men they were punished. Thus it ever is: devils are their own tormentors. Sin converts a community of men into tormenting fiends, man becomes the Satan of man. CONCLUSION.-Learn, First: Humanity in this world is obviously in a morally abnormal condition. It can never be that He whose power is immeasurable, whose wisdom and goodness are redolent and radiant everywhere above and below us, could create such a pandemonium as we have here. He originates the good, per THOUGH my means may be small, and name quite obscure, I'm resolved upon this, I'll follow it through, To love and to practise the "things that are true." Chorus-I'm resolv'd upon this, and I'll follow it through, The things most imposing are things for the proud; The "things that are true" are the things that will last, Chorus-I'm resolv'd, &c. EREWYN, UPPER TULSE HILL, S. W. * Music has been composed specially for these words. Seedlings. Homiletic Glances at Psalm cxix. BY Rev. DAVID THOMAS, D.D. The Bible as containing the Wonderful. "WONDROUS THINGS OUT OF THY LAW."-Psalm cxix. 18. THE Bible contains "Wondrous things." Wonderful in their nature, wonderful in their number, and wonderful in their influence. As containing the wonderful I.-IT AGREES WITH THE CONSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND. First Man has a craving for the wonderful. He will traverse continents in search of the wonderful. To see the wonderful he resorts to theatres, race-courses, scenes of legerdemain and mountebankery. No books are more attractive to him than those containing the wonderful in adventure, and in descriptions of the extraordinary in the appearance of nature and the feats of men. He craves for the marvellous. The Bible meets this instinct. It contains "wondrous things." Secondly Man has a need for the wonderful. The wonderful is necessary to excite his faculties, to stimulate his enquiries, to challenge his powers. Reduce the universe to plain and intelligent propositions, and it will lose its charms for the imagination, and its power to inspire investigation. The universal mind will go to sleep, and rot in dormancy. "The Bible containing 'wondrous things' provides for this deep need of the soul."-Darling. nature is II.-IT ACCORDS WITH THE CHARACTER OF NATURE. All crowded with the wonderful. We need not take the microscope to search the myriad worlds invisible to the naked eye, · or the telescope innumerable worlds and system rolling through infinite space to discover the wonderful. The wonderful comes under our eye, sounds in our ear, and beats in our pulse every Nature contains wonderful things-things that man cannot find out, cannot interpret, in which his thoughts are lost. If the Bible did not contain the wonderful it would not be in harmony with nature, not in moment. |