30 SERMON III. Sunday, February 23, 1835. AGAINST DESPONDENCY AND DESPAIR. PSALM IV. 6. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord! lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us! ALL the world may be divided into TWO CLASSES of persons, namely, I. The many, of whom David speaks in the words of our text, as continually saying in their hearts, "Who will show us any good?" And, II. Those who do not say so. Now, it is not every one that knows what GOOD is, any more than it is not every one who knows what TRUTH is; nevertheless, some do. There are, therefore, some who know what GOOD is, and who know that they possess it and enjoy it, * See Job, xxviii. 12-28; John, xviii. 37, 38. or who know that they shall, in due time, possess it and enjoy it; and there are also others who do not know what good is, but think they do, and think that they have it and enjoy it, or think that they shall when they have obtained some object which they have in view. And these two kinds of persons respectively form two distinct and extreme classes of characters in the scale of spiritual progress, or, in other words, in the school of human life; by means of which school God is striving to prepare all of us, my brethren, his immortal creatures, who cost him the great work of redemption, for "a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," and righteousness only.* I repeat, then, that there are some persons who know what GOOD is, (but who have attained to this knowledge only by means of a divine teaching, and through a series of trials and temptations in the world;) and there are also some, (but more particularly the young, the ignorant, the inexperienced, and the vicious,) who, though they know not what good is, yet still they think they do, because they know what they wish, they know what they like, they know what they passionately or pre-eminently affect and desire; and they suppose that the objects of those wishes, those likings, those passions and * Isaiah, lxv. 17; lxvi. 22; 2 Pet. iii. 13; Rev. xxi. 1, 5. imaginations must be good, must be THE GOOD, the chief good, the only good they have any idea of, and, in any case, the only good which they care for having, knowing, or hearing about. These two kinds of persons, then, I think, we have sufficiently distinguished, as those who know what good is by discovery, and those who think they know what good is, but do not, through inexperience or error. Neither of these two denominations of persons, however, are among those that say, "Who will show us any good?" The one of the two have got beyond, and the other have not yet attained to the condition of the persons in question-the "MANY that say, Who will show us any good?" Who these are, therefore, we will now proceed to inquire. that say, The many "Who will show us any good?" are evidently persons who are not happy; who, having, as it were, plunged into the sea of life, find that it is both more perilous and disagreeable than they expected. They are, perchance, like soldiers who, after surviving the surprise of a first and second action in the field, have ascertained that the business of war does not consist merely in the parade and gaud of a field-day, but that it is such a reality of its kind, as detects and confirms alike the hero and the timid, the brave and the faint hearted; that it inspires the one with a new energy of life, ardour for duty, and sense of manhood; whereas, the other it dejects and renders pusillanimous or reckless. And thus it is likewise in the warfare of the Christian life: "There be many that say, Who will show us any good? There is nothing but fatigue, privation, sufferings, and death for us to look to who will show us any good?" Thus, I say, many of those who have been educated in Christian principles, as a matter of course, and professedly admit the truths, rely upon the hopes, and claim the privileges of the Christian religion; trusting, moreover, that by some means or other, it will conduct them to heaven in the end; still, do not really think, feel, act, or live, as if they put any faith in it at all; do not practically believe that "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and that the violent take it by force;" do not consider, that if we desire to be conquerors, and more than conquerors, of sin and death, through him who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."+ We also must, every one of us, "resist likewise unto blood, striving against sin;" + we also 66 must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God;"§ we also must, individually, follow the example of him who came down from hea * Matt. xi. 12. + Rom. viii. 37; Rev. i. 5. Acts, xiv 22; Rev. vii. 14. ven expressly to set us an example, " that we should follow his steps."* "I was a Christian before I was a soldier," ought to be the ever-present thought in every soldier's mind. "If my duty to my king and country is a peremptory duty, how much more so is my duty to my God! I was proposed at my baptism as a candidate for a crown of an eternal weight of glory ;' + I was proposed to be a member of Christ, a child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven; and shall I forego, or risk my high destiny? I undertook, in order to secure it, to fight manfully against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue a faithful soldier and servant of Christ unto my life's end." This is the wording of our oath,+ my brethren, every part of which is of paramount and peremptory obligation, as we shall find in our course through life; or, a meaning to be awfully and everlastingly cancelled at our death! Then, when from every unreal Christian shall be taken away even that name of Christian which he wears now, and when every faithless deserter from the King of Glory shall have the fulness of his own choice, and be excluded for ever, both from his service and from his salvation! And yet, there are MANY in danger of this unimaginably terrible consummation; there are many that * 1 Pet. ii. 21. + 2 Cor. iv. 17. t See Baptismal Office. |