Sermon Extract 1
The discovery that pardon and full reconciliation
with God are offered gratuitously to all men in Christ, had been the turning
point in Mr. Chalnier's own spiritual history ; and the most marked
characteristic of his pulpit ministrations after his conversion was the
frequency and fervour with which he held out to sinners Christ and His
salvation as God's free gift, which it was their privilege and their duty at
once most gratefully to accept. Most earnest entreaties that every sinner he
spoke to should come to Christ just as he was, and "bury all his fears in the
sufficiency of the great atonement," were reiterated on each succeeding
Sabbath, presented in all possible forms, and delivered in all different kinds
of tones and of attitudes. He would desert for a minute or two his manuscript,
that with greater directness and familiarity of phrase, greater pointedness and
personality of application, he might urge upon their acceptance the gospel
invitation. "He would bend over the pulpit," said one of his old hearers, "and
press us to take the gift, as if he held it that moment in his hand, and would
not be satisfied till every one of us had got possession of it. And often when
the sermon was over, and the psalm was sung, and he rose to pronounce the
blessing, he would break out afresh with some new entreaty, unwilling to let us
go until he had made one more effort to persuade us to accept of
it.
"It is not," such were the words in which, upon one of these
memorable Sabbaths, he addressed his parishioners, "because you are not so
great a sinner that I would have you to be comforted ; but it is because Jesus
Christ is so great a Saviour: it is not the smallness of sin, but the greatness
of Him who died for it. I would have you to be satisfied, but not with
yourself; for this would be to lull you asleep by the administration of a
poisoned opiate. I would have you to listen to that loud and widely- sounding
call - Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved. I would have you
to look unto Jesus; and if truth and friendship have a power to charm you into
tranquillity, you have them here.
I would never cease to press the
salvation of the gospel upon you as a gift; and as faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God, I would call into action these appointed
instruments for producing in the heart of the despairing sinner the faith which
accepts the offer, and which holds it fast. I cannot ascend into heaven to
bring down Jesus again upon the world, that you may hear the kindness which
fell from His lips, and see the countenance most frankly expressive of it; but
I can bring nigh unto you the word which He left behind Him. I can assure you
upon the faith of that word which never lies, that what He was on earth He is
still in heaven; and if in the history of the New Testament He was never found
to send a diseased petitioner disappointed away, be assured that when He took
up His body to the right hand of the everlasting throne, He took up all His
kind and warm and generous sympathies along with Him.
I cannot shew you
Him in person, but I can reveal Him to the eye of your mind as sitting there;
and if you array Him in any other characters than in those of love and mildness
and long-suffering, you do Him an injustice. He no longer speaks in His own
person, but He speaks in the person of those to whom He has committed the word
of reconciliation; and in the confidence that He will not falsify His own
commission, or fall back by a single inch from the terms of it, we stand here
as the ambassadors for Christ: as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God. I would have you to know the gift of
God. I would have you to look upon it in the simplicity of an offer, on the one
hand, and of a joyful and confiding acceptance on the other.
When He was
on earth great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them. Come to Him with
your disease - the disease of a guilty and despairing mind. Do not think that
either the will or the power of healing you is wanting. You approach Him in the
most peculiar and in the greatest of His capacities, when you approach Him as
the physician of souls; and be assured that the voice which He uttered in the
hearing of His countrymen is of standing authority and signification to the
very latest ages of the world - Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Yes if rest is to be found at
all it must be given. It is upon the footing of a gift that I offer it to you.
Not that you are worthy to receive the present, but that it is a present worthy
of His generosity to bestow. Take it ;- there is not a single passage in the
Bible to exclude you from this act of confidence. Be not afraid - only believe
- and according to your faith so will it be done unto you. You know not how
ready - you know not how able - you know not how free - you know not how
perfectly willing - nay, how eager and how delighted the Saviour is to receive
all who come unto Him - to listen to their complaints - to heal their diseases
- to supply their every want, and administer to every necessity. This is the
true and the faithful representation of Christ. Could I give you a real and a
living impression of Him - could I fix in your hearts the image of Him such as
He is - could I bring Him before you, offering and inviting, nay, beseeching
you to be reconciled - could all this be done, (and I pray that this work of
faith may be wrought in you with power,) then the melancholy which oppresses
your heart and keeps it dark would be dissolved in an instant - the gospel
would come to you not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance - and the object for which Paul laboured with the Galatians
would be accomplished in you: Christ would be formed in you, and He would be
made unto you of God, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption."
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