DISCOURSE II.

PROOF OF HUMAN GUILT AND WEAKNESS, SHEWING THE NEED OF REDEMPTION AND SANCTIFICATION.

ROMANS iii. 23, 24.

All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

WE believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the last and the best of all the dispensations of religion; that it sets life and immortality before us; that the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanseth from all sin; that by His merits alone the gates of heaven are opened to mankind; and that the privileges of the Christian, during the period of his probation upon earth, are immeasurably superior to those of every other human being.

Believing all these truths, however, and being at the same time intimately persuaded of the power and the exceeding goodness of Almighty God, we

cannot but be surprised that the coming of the Gospel should have been so long delayed, and that even yet its success should be so partial and incomplete. Four thousand years were permitted to roll away before the light of Christianity dawned upon the world; and even at this day, when nearly eighteen centuries have witnessed its appearance, scarcely one sixth perhaps of the inhabitants of the earth are gladdened by its presence. But the latter difficulty should be set against the former. The very obstacles which have impeded and still retard the progress of the Gospel are among the reasons for its late arrival. A lengthened preparation was required to secure a tolerable reception, and any thing like stability, for the Gospel of truth. The blessings of redemption and of sanctification would scarcely have been accepted, and would never have been appreciated, had not the need of them been first established.

It is the office of the Old Testament and of every part of it, the History, the Law, the Psalms, the Prophets, separately, and in combination, to contribute towards this necessary preparation for the Gospel. And, indeed, the proper use of any single portion of the sacred volume can scarcely be understood and valued justly, if it be only regarded by itself. To a certain extent, however, the separate portions have their separate uses. And

among the distinct and the leading uses of the Historical Scriptures of the Old Testament, one of the most remarkable is, the part which they perform in establishing the need both of redemption and of sanctification, by disclosing to our view a fearful

PROOF OF HUMAN GUILT AND HUMAN WEAKNESS.

I. Let us then, in the first place, examine into the nature of this proof; observing the terrible picture of man's misery which the Historical Scriptures disclose, and considering to what extent the whole race of man must admit the fidelity of the portrait. We may thus perceive, at one and the same time, how largely, in point of fact, these Scriptures contribute towards the proof of the necessity of redemption and sanctification, and how justly this great purpose may be numbered among their appointed uses.

1. Every attentive reader of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles has been struck by the peculiar candour with which they disclose the weaknesses and faults even of the most eminent among the disciples. But whatever important purposes this openness may serve, by displaying the integrity of the writers, for example, or illustrating by contrast the spotless purity and excellence of

our Lord himself, it appears at least perfectly natural and unforced. The writers do not travel out of their way to relate St. Peter's denial of his Master, or the dissension between St. Paul and Barnabas.

In the Historical Scriptures of the Old Testament, on the other hand, to describe the sins and failings of individuals, and even the most eminent individuals, would seem to be among the direct and leading purposes of the writers. We appear to be reading an account, for example, of a war between the people of Israel and the Ammonites; on a sudden the history is interrupted, and a painful and afflicting story is introduced, breaking the thread of the narrative, and not in the slightest degree affecting the fortunes of the war, but treated at much greater length and with much more minuteness than the war itself, its occasion, circumstances, and consequences. And what is the effect of this story thus strangely introduced, but to attach something like discredit to the birth of one of the Jewish monarchs, and to stain the character of another with the accumulated guilt of adultery and murder? And yet Solomon threw the brightest glory round the state and the religion of Israel in the sight of his own and all succeeding ages; and David, the im

a 2 Samuel x. xi. xii.