Sermon 1
Preached at Dun 13/2/1825
Jonah 1:6
IT may interest our readers, and enable them to note the
marked alteration between Dr. Guthrie's sermons in early and later years, if we
present successively two examples - the former, from his first discourse as a
licentiate; and the latter, from one in recent years, which we select on
account of its bearing on the subject of the fourth chapter of the Memoir.
1. FIRST SERMON AS A LICENTIATE. Marked by Mr. Guthrie "My first Sermon as
a Preacher."
Preached at Dun, 18th February, 1825.
J0NAH I. 6. -
What meanest thou, 0 sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.
IN the Old Testament writings, we apprehend, there are
frequently hid, under the mere detail of natural events, many of those grand
and important doctrines which are peculiar to the Christian religion; and we
believe also that it was on this account that many of them are detailed at such
length; while to appearance they seem only to affect the worldly prospects of
one individual, or the Jewish nation at large.
In the sojourn of the
Hebrews, for instance, in the wilderness of Arabia, we see in that mere fact a
most apt illustration of a Christian's life; and in their at last gaining the
promised land, after many a wandering, we see a figurative representation of
that rest which remaineth for the people of God. In the raising of the brazen
serpent amidst the expiring Israelites, and in the command to look upon it and
they should be delivered from the calamity which God had sent upon them for
their sins, we surely see something more than a mere historical event which
only affected them. In the elevation of that serpent we see the elevation of
Christ on the cross; and in the command given to the Israelites we see a
command given to a diseased world, to look unto him, and they shall be saved.
Deprive these events of that application, and you rob them of the very point
which renders them so interesting to us; for what would it be for us to know
that Abraham raised his hand against the life of his only son, unless we saw in
Isaac, bound, a trembling victim, to the altar, our Saviour nailed to the cross
of Calvary, and exclaiming, in the hiding of his Father's countenance, "My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
In like manner, it appears to us that
from the most interesting points in the history of Jonah we may draw many a
fact materially affecting us as spiritual beings, and discover in it no faint
representation of the deplorable condition in which we are found by the Gospel.
Did Jonah disobey the command of God ? So have we, not only in Adam, our
federal head, but also in the daily sins with which we stand chargeable. Did
Jonah flee from the presence of the Lord? So have we, in forsaking Him, the
fountain of living waters, and hewing out for ourselves cisterns, broken
cisterns, that can hold no water. Was Jonah, in consequence, exposed to
imminent danger? So are we in danger of the wrath that is to come, and is never
to end. Was he wakened to a sense of his danger in a ship, where he little
dreamed of the extremity of his peril? So the Gospel raises its warning voice,
and proclaims to each living one of us, "What meanest thou, 0 sleeper? arise,
call upon thy God."
We proceed to show,then
1. - That all men are by
nature in a state of danger.
11. - The necessity that springs from this,
that they should arise and call upon their God.
111. - What they should
call for from God. I. - That all men are by nature in a state of
danger.
* * * * *
Were we to judge of the truth or falsehood of
this statement by observations upon the conduct (not upon the professions) of
mankind, we would be very apt to believe it to be false. Men, indeed, in their
approaches to God, either in private or in public prayer, confess that their
souls are in danger of the coming wrath; but, as if the whole was a piece of
solemn mockery, this acknowledgment is made with far more indifference than a
man would show about the loss of the merest trifle in his worldly concerns. How
many sleepless nights and how many anxious days, how many hours of sorrow, and
how many seasons of unwearied exertions will that man pass who has discovered
that he is in danger of falling back in worldly matters; and with what earnest
expectation will he watch for, and with what joy will he hail every favourable
turn in the tide of business, until he has regained a sure and steady footing!
But if the soul of man is really in danger, do we meet it with any such marks
of intense feeling of alarm on that account? No. Or do we witness in the body
of mankind any such anxious earnestness to be delivered from the impending
danger? No. If such danger does exist, strange to tell, there is nothing in the
world occupies men less. They are more afraid of losing a pound or a penny than
their souls! One man is occupied in business, and so completely do its cares
take possession of his heart, that not a corner is left for the concerns of his
soul. From day to day, with undivided attention, he plys his busy task; tis his
first thought in the morning, tis his last thought at night; it will hardly
admit time for a hurried prayer, if prayer is said at all; and even while
apparently engaged in the solemn duties of the Sabbath, his heart is in pursuit
of many a worldly scheme - as if one day in the week was too much time to spend
on the eternal interests of his soul.
Now, though we do not affirm - far be
it from us to affirm any such thing - that all men have equally lost sight of
the welfare of their souls in their keen pursuit after earthly enjoyment, let
that enjoyment be what it may, - still, we can appeal to every mind, without
fear of contradiction, if the great body of mankind do not appear to live just
as if their welfare through eternity was a matter too sure to be questioned ;
and just as if, therefore, their well-being in time was the only remaining
object of their care. But notwithstanding that our conduct in general gives
very little proof of our apprehension of danger, we find most unquestionable
authority that the curse of a broken law has gone forth against us, and that
the punishment of a broken law awaits the closing of the day of God's
forbearance...
He who stands charged by his conscience with the guilt of
one single sin, stands exposed to the curse of an offended law. He who hath
offended in one point, is guilty of all. Do not then entertain the delusion
which is too apt to gain an easy admission into our hearts, "Have I been such a
sinner as to expose me to danger? " but recollect that it rather is, "Have I
been a sinner at all? " So averse are we to believe that there is nothing
before us but a fearful looking for of judgment, so humbling is it to the human
pride, so contrary to all our notions of human dignity and human worth, and so
pregnant with every feeling that is calculated to disturb the false peace of
our slumbers - that, rather than submit to endure all the horrors of a sense of
danger, and all the degradation of such a humbling doctrine, we will institute
some favourable comparison between ourselves and others - forget our own sins
and increase the guilt of theirs, magnify their defiance and lessen our own;
and then, in the full belief that, though danger greatly hangs over them, it
cannot surely have the same threatening aspect to us, thank God, like the
Pharisee of old, that we are not as the publicans and sinners.
But we
appeal to yourselves if it would not be a most strange and a most unwarrantable
ground of confidence in a robber to believe, because he was not a murderer,
that therefore he had nothing to fear; to waste his days in idle amusement,
instead of applying through every channel for the exercise of mercy; and to
make his cell a scene of thoughtless and of wanton riot, instead of solemn and
serious reflection, just because he was not chargeable with the guilt of a
fellow criminal by staining his hands with human blood. If, then, such a mode
of reasoning would be false and absolutely ruinous in the case of a criminal
who has trampled upon human laws, how much more certainly fatal will it be in
the case of us who have despised the counsel and defied the power of God?
Until the words of the sentence are passed by an earthly judge, absurd as it
may be to entertain it, still a feeble gleam of hope may be seen in the
darkness of a criminal's prospects. It is possible that the evidence against
him, though apparently decisive, may still fail in some important particular;
it is possible that some means of escape may be tried with success before the
day of his doom arrives; and it is still further possible that though both of
these grounds of confidence prove false, still the compassion or the weakness
of his judge may plead or act so strangely in his favour that he may gain a
full and honourable acquittal. But to us, as offending criminals against a
Divine law, there are no such favourable possibilities. It is not possible that
the proof against us can be deficient, for if one sin - instead of ten thousand
which we. must all acknowledge - be brought home to your conviction, then the
curse falls upon us, as those who have not continued in "all things which are
written in the book of the law, to do them."
Neither is it possible that
any door of escape can be opened to us, though we were to wander in search of
it through boundless space; for where can we go from God's Spirit, or whither
flee from His presence? Does death require, think you, the slow hand of disease
to effect his purpose? Does he require slowly and gradually to undermine the
foundations of our life, or may not he rather get possession of it by an
unexpected assault? Might not the inhabitants before the flood have purposed
the same thing when the waters overwhelmed them in universal destruction? Might
not the dwellers in Sodom and Gomorrah have made an equally fine resolution
when the heavens rained fire and brimstone on their devoted heads? Might not
Korah and his ungodly company have been engaged in forming some such purpose
when the earth clave asunder, and closed over them for ever? Might not every
sinner having satisfied the demands of his conscience by a similar purpose, who
has, still, been hurried from the scenes of business or of pleasure, without
time even for a prayer for mercy, into the solemn presence of an unbending
Judge? But even though accident were not to sweep us to another world, ill-
prepared to give in our account, still any resolutions of death-bed reformation
cannot do away with the necessity that lies on us to awake at present, and call
upon our God.
If we believe that the last hours we spend on earth are the
best fitted to prepare for heaven, surely gross darkness has come upon us. That
soldier, we apprehend, would have very little prospect of success, who deferred
to buckle on his armour till the blows were falling upon him. That sailor, we
apprehend, would have very little prospect of escape who, though the storm was
seen from afar, still refused to seek some place of refuge until it came
roaring and raging on in all the horrors of its destruction. And certainly we
do apprehend that he who defers his escape from the dangers of the coming wrath
until the hand of death shall be laid upon him, stakes his immortal spirit upon
a less probable circumstance than any but a madman would stake the merest
trifle of his worldly goals. Death is a scene, not of preparation, but of
conflict - a solemn and a fearful conflict in the hour and with the powers of
darkness, And oh! if the Christian who has long struggled with his spiritual
adversaries, who has long wielded the sword of the spirit, who has long known
how to use the shield of faith - if this well-tried and veteran soldier be
hardly able to withstand in that evil day, how can success attend upon him who
has newly enlisted under the Christian banner, and been all his lifetime a
slave of sin?
We do appeal to yourselves if that is a fit time to escape
from the wrath to come, when the poor, expiring sinner is hardly able to lift
his head under the load of his sickness, or when he is tossing in agony, or
when he is buried in a lethargy so profound that no answer is given to the
questions of affection and friendship, or when, in the ravings of a wandering
mind, his loud and unearthly laugh startles the silence of the chamber of
death? If, then, you feel any interest for the welfare of your soul through
eternity; if you feel any desire to meet God, not clothed in the terrors of an
offended lawgiver, but welcoming you with the love of a reconciled Father; if
you fool any anxiety to escape the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is
never quenched, and to possess the glory that fadeth not, and the inheritance
that is never corrupted, repose no longer in your fatal slumbers - awake and
call upon your God with all the earnestness of those who know not but this very
night their souls may be required of them.
* * * * *
11. - What
should be sought or called for from God.
The nature of the danger
under which we lie decidedly shows that the main object we have to seek must be
to escape from eternal wrath; and he who has reflected at all upon the
character of God, or the means by which we have brought ouraelves into this
dangerous condition, ought to know that there is no way of escape but by the
pardon of our sins.
The only difficulty, then, we apprehend, is concerning
the means by which this pardon is to be obtained; or the only question is, are
we to arise and call upon God for the pardon of our sins, solely and
exclusively upon the merits of Christ's righteousness, or also upon some
fancied virtue in our own obedience? Now, far be it from us to take upon
ourselves to judge of any man's obedience, that being a matter which rests
between him and his God; but still, upon the authority of Scripture, we are
warranted to assert that a man's own obedience or his own righteousness in
nothing better than filthy rags, that by it he cannot be justified before God,
and that, therefore, he who trusts to it leans upon a broken reed. Were the
robe of Christ's righteousness too narrow to cover us, then we might be excused
for putting on filthy rags; were His merits too inconsiderable to justify us
before God, then we might not be so much to blame for adding our own works,
poor, and wretched, and unprofitable as they have been; and were His rod and
His staff not able to support us, even in the valley of the shadow of death, it
would be something like a pleasing delusion to believe that we would be the
better of a broken reed. But, persuaded as we are that the righteousness of
Christ is the only robe of salvation which will ensure our acceptance with God,
persuaded as we are that His merits are so vast that no demerit can be too
great which they will not atone for, and persuaded as we are that His rod and
His staff are able to console a more disconsolate sinner than ever yet man has
been, we hold that he who goes about to seek any other means of escape than
this sows the wind and shall reap the whirlwind.
We are indeed sensible
that there is something very pleasing in the idea that, as it was by our own
deeds that we fell, so by them we shall also rise; that there is something very
flattering to our own vanity in the notion that we have obtained an occasion
for boasting; and that, therefore, in calling upon you to seek salvation from
the hand of another, we have to contend with the natural pride of a depraved
heart. But why give heed to the very suggestions which first brought ruin upon
our race? Why stand upon such idle fancies when the salvation of your immortal
spirit is at stake ?
If your eyes are then opened to the storm of divine
wrath which, like a black lowering cloud, is about to pour its thunders on your
devoted head; if you feel yourself naked, defenceless, and unprepared to brave
its fury - seek, we beseech you, the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a covert
from the storm and a shelter from the tempest. If you feel yourself to be a
traveller in a barren and cheerless desert, where no cloud of mercy interposes
to shade you from the sun of God's anger, where your vigour is dried up, and
your strength is withered away before it, where your hopes begin to decay and
your spirit is sunken within you - seek, we beseech you, the righteousness of
Christ as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. If you feel yourself
tossed on the billows of despair, and, looking around for some signal of hope,
your eye meets nothing but a troubled heaven and a raging sea, and your ear
hears nothing but thunder's echoes and the rushing of mighty waters that
threaten your destruction, and now you begin to think that the next wave will
send your feeble bark to the bottom - then seek, we beseech you, the
righteousness of Christ as an anchor of hope within the vail.
There is no
aspect, in fact, in which your danger can be viewed in which the righteousness
of Christ does not appear fit for your deliverance. Are you under the bondage
of sin? The price of your redemption was paid on Calvary. Is there a
handwriting against you? It was nailed with your sins to a Saviour's cross.
From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet are you wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores? There is a balm in Giiead and a Physician there. Are you
defiled with sin and loathsome in your iniquity? There is a fountain opened in
Israel for sin and for all un~leannese.
Seek, then, the righteousness of
Christ as it consists of that perfect obedience by which He made honourable a
dishonoured law, and of that full suffering by which He satisfied the
unsatisfied demands of Divine justice; seek it (as ruined) by that faith which
is the gift of God; seek it as the groundwork of every blessing which will
perfect you in holiness, and prepare you for heaven. For, if you have sought
this best of all blessings with success, you are not only delivered from a
fearful looking for of judgment, but you are warranted to make incessant
application at the throne of God for grace to help you in every time of need;
not only are you delivered from the danger of eternal death, but you are
authorised to call upon God for means of escaping from those wiles of the devil
in which he would hold you for a season in spiritual death. We know, indeed,
that upon the imputation of Christ's righteousness our spiritual enemies are
driven from the citadel of our heart; but still we know that, like an enemy
unwilling to give up the conquests they had won, they look about and watch
every opportunity to make an inroad upon the Christian's peace. Assailed as he
is thus on the one hand by Satan and his emissaries, and on the other by the
still lingering depravity of a once deeply depraved heart, if left to himself
his life would be one continued scene of conflict and defeat; and hence,
therefore, if we would not dishonour the Christian cause, and bring disgrace
upon the Christian name - if we would not crucify our Lord afresh, and again
expose him to an open shame - if we would give no occasion for an unholy shout
of triumph from the dark and deadly host that is encamped against us - and if
we would stand triumphant against that terrible array, defying all the powel
and hatred of hell - we must do all this by seeking and obtaining aid of the
Holy Spirit.
Though we may feel, by the power of a full assurance of
faith, that the glories of the new Jerusalem cannot fail of being ours, still
the path that leads to them is of no common difficulty and no common danger.
The man of the world may pass the time of his sojourn here without once feeling
an internal struggle, without once smarting under the sting of an accusing
conscience, and without once being awakened from his dream of pleasure till he
awake to find that he bad dreamed of peace and now no peace is to be found: but
you who have chosen the Christian course have chosen a life of no ruinous and
inglorious ease; your path is beset with the wiles of the devil, your feet are
surrounded by his snares, and you are continually exposed to his open assaults.
Slumber not, therefore, for this is an enemy's country; repose not, therefore,
for this is not the place of your rest; watch for your souls, watch for the
cause, and for the honour of your God; and, as you mingle in the spiritual
conflict, cry mightily unto the Lord, that the power of His Spirit would rest
upon you, that His grace would be made sufficient for you, and His strength be
perfected in your weakness.