01 — The Pre-eminence of Christ

Chapter 1 THE PRE-EMINENCE OF CHRIST, AS THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT OF SUPERNATURAL REVELATION

Nature and reason say nothing of Christ. Truths there are which they demonstrate and enforce; they are great truths, truths which underlie the whole theory of revealed religion, and which none but atheists deny. But they are not appropriately Christian truths. They lack the distinctive coloring of Christianity, because they reveal no hope for the fallen, and speak not of the gospel of peace. They tell us of God and man, of law and government, of conscience, and responsibility, and retribution; but they have no consolations for the wounded spirit, when it is bowed down by the burden of sin, and trembles at the apprehension of the coming wrath. They encircle God’s throne with light; but they throw no bow of promise around it amid those portentous omens that fill the world with terror. Benighted and desolate world, did not the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, brighten these scenes of desolation, and show us " the path of life"? God out of Christ, is nature, is reason; God in Christ is Christianity. Throughout the Bible " Christ is all, and in all;" his character and work form the great and prominent subjects of this entire book of God. This, then, is the thought with which we introduce the present series of lectures: THE PRE-EMINENCE OF CHRIST AS THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT OF SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. To a great extent, the Bible is a narrative of facts. It is an historical chart, sketching the events of more than four thousand years, from the earliest times. It speaks of the creation of the world, and of the original apostasy of angels and men. It speaks of the corruption of the patriarchal age and the destruction of the race by the deluge. It speaks of the selection of a peculiar people to be witnesses for the truth, when the world was sunk in idolatry; of their intellectual, civil, and religious advancement; of their bondage and their deliverance; of their internal convulsions and their foreign wars; and of their exile and return. It speaks of the overturning of states and empires; of men who, by their rank, their talents, their virtues and their vices, have contributed to elevate or disgrace the age in which they lived, and who were designated to act a distinguished part in fulfilling the counsels of heavenly wisdom and mercy toward our lost race. It speaks of events, some miraculous, and some in the ordinary course of Divine Providence. We affirm of all these, that they are strongly marked by their alliance to Him who came to seek and save that which was lost. There are facts recorded in these sacred pages which have but an incidental and remote relation to this great personage; yet are they few, unillustrated and insignificant, compared with those which, for their moral influence, their chronological, or genealogical verity, sustain a more direct relation to the " Word made flesh."

Political history reveals the knowledge of man; scriptural history reveals the knowledge of Christ. In the political history of the world, we see so many events which perplex us by their intricacy, that our very knowledge of them confounds us; nor are we duly sensible of our embarrassment until we try to thread out the labyrinth. We are assured, indeed, that infinite wisdom and goodness have never been dethroned for a moment; yet, subduing as this conviction is, doubt and darkness envelop us. From the instructions of the Scriptures we learn, that not only facts that are inexplicable by us, but the entire series of events in the divine government, have a single aim; while the facts themselves there recorded, not only have a bearing on the method of mercy by Jesus Christ, but unravel that divine mystery, show how the system of providence moves onward in subserviency to this gracious design, and how the great events they speak of are the stepping-stones in the progress of his redemption. As we read them, we are convinced that this redemption is no new thought in the divine mind. We feel that amid all the conflicts and convulsions of earth, God’s work has been going on, and that all things work together toward this great end. They all have this great peculiarity, that they are facts which God himself has recorded; and the reason why he has recorded them, and left so many others unrecorded, is found in the special relation they sustain to this great purpose. Events and characters, men and nations there spoken of, though at first view they seem wholly disconnected, are ultimately seen to be bound together by this great centripetal agency.

Higher value would be attached to the historical parts of the sacred volume, if the readers of it were more in the habit of searching for and inspecting the seal of that unsearchable wisdom and love which it is their great object to disclose. They furnish us not only very many of the evidences of Christianity, but an abridgment of its brightest evidences. They constitute the hinge on which Christianity turns. They are not isolated, but form part and parcel of a series which is inseparably conjoined. and of which Christianity itself is the consummation. Everywhere they speak the same language, and bear testimony to God the Redeemer. Christ himself lives and speaks on almost every page. We find nothing in them that diverts our thoughts from the main object of the Christian revelation; while the more severely they are scrutinized, the more are they seen to bear a relation to Christ, and to indicate him as their end and object. While we seem to be conversing with our first parents in the garden of Eden; or with Noah as he builds his altar on the desolated shores of the new world; or with Abraham as he pleads for Sodom; or with Moses as he takes the shoes from off his feet at the burning bush in Horeb; or with Elijah as he contends with the prophets of Baal; or with Daniel in the den of lions at Babylon; or with his youthful compeers as they walk unhurt in the burning, fiery furnace; we are at the same time taught that a greater than patriarchs or prophets is here. It is the liberated and risen Saviour who draws nigh to us, talking with us by the way, and opening to us the Scriptures. Even the more barren parts of this history are not barren of the unsearchable treasures of his grace; they are not unchristian records, but at every step reveal more and more of the great Redeemer. The Christian element is the main element in them all; they attain their object only as they authenticate Christianity, and honor the author and finisher of the Christian faith. The Bible is also distinguished for its teaching by prefiguration’s and symbols. We are not insensible that this is a method of instruction which is liable to abuse. Men there have been who have made themselves ludicrous by searching for types and shadows where they do not exist. Inventive minds and ungoverned imaginations have sometimes made fearful havoc of God’s word by this lawless process of tracing out analogies between persons, and events, and things, and their supposed spiritual counterpart. But it may not be forgotten that there is error in the opposite extreme. Every type has its ante-type, and every symbol its corresponding truth. The Bible, more than most books, perhaps more than any other book, is distinguished for its symbolical instruction. Nor does it diminish aught from the value of such teaching that it has given rise to interpretations that are purely fanciful, and to exegetical laws and systems of interpretation which have converted the substance into the shadow, instead of making the shadow represent the substance. In this method of teaching, Christ holds a prominent place. It is, indeed, distinctly recognized in the Scriptures themselves as having its counterpart and completion in him as the great Mediator. The prefiguration’s of the ceremonial law of the Jews are so abundant, that to one not acquainted with the Christian Scriptures, it is difficult to perceive their import, or even their relevancy, unless they are typical of Christ. In themselves they were but outward rites and ceremonies; they were even worthless and worse than worthless, a grievous yoke, and not easy to be borne. But they represented brighter and nobler realities, and were " a shadow of good things to come, but the body is Christ." The blood of beasts, the offering of incense, the lights of the sanctuary and its gold and pearls; the holy vessels and the holy garments; the High Priest and the anointing oil: the Passover and the day of annual atonement; the Holy of holies and the entering in of the High Priest alone within the veil, were but the prefiguration of things more spiritual, pure, and precious. The tabernacle and the temple service, the golden candlesticks, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim were not only typical of the Messiah, but so regarded by not a few even of the later and more learned Jews. It is difficult to conceive how the great doctrine of vicarious atonement could be more impressively taught than by the Jewish sacrifices, in so many of which the offerer laid his hand upon the head of the victim, there leaving the burden of his own offenses, and sacrificing the guiltless for the guilty. Still more impressive, if possible, was that affecting scene when, on the great day of atonement, the High Priest publicly imposed the sins of the people on the head of the " scape-goat," and sent him away into the wilderness. And what was the import of that solemn transaction, when " Moses took the blood of calves and of goats, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying. This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you;" if it does not prefigure the confirmation of the new covenant by blood of infinitely greater value and efficacy? Nor are these isolated prefiguration’s scattered here and there; they run throughout the whole of the ancient economy, and are imbedded in its institutions and laws. The very existence of the Jewish people, among whom were the sole vestiges of the pure faith for so many centuries, and with whom, even in their lowest estate, those were found who " waited for the consolation of Israel," was itself a foreshadowing of the Messiah. If we ask for the special import of particular prefiguration’s, the answer would require a volume. Suffice it to say, that sometimes their object is to identify the great Messiah himself; sometimes to set forth his offices as Prophet, Priest, and King; and sometimes to indicate his mysterious character as God and man. Sometimes they speak of his humiliation, and sometimes of his reign and victories; sometimes they personate his friends and their triumphs, and sometimes his enemies and their overthrow. In some of the books of the Old Testament, and more especially in the Psalms of David and the writings of Isaiah, and the minor prophets, the character and glory of "David’s Lord and Son," are presented in such truthfulness and beauty, as to have become in every age of the church the themes of Christian, devotional, social praise. We may safely affirm that the relation which the Old Testament bears to the New, is not more intimate than the relation which these emblematical representations bear to Christ. And it deserves remark, that as these varied prefiguration’s were, for the most part, coeval with the rise of the Jewish economy, so they terminated when it vanished away. The oracle of Urim and Thummim was silent: the splendid jewelry in the breastplate of the High Priest became dim; the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom — all ceased when Christ came. They had accomplished their object. God poured contempt upon them in order to honor their great ante-type

If from the typical and emblematic, we pass to the figurative and metaphorical representations of the Bible, we find them full of Christ. Truth is often presented in the Scriptures in the language of emotion. When the heart is moved, it always expresses itself thus: and never more intensely than on religious themes. They are delineations, rather than lectures; rhetorical, rather than dogmatic views. They are the graphic pencilings of an enlightened and ardent mind, into which truth has sunk so deeply that it is not satisfied without representations that flow from the full fountain of devotional feeling. They have all the elements of poetry and painting, and address themselves not so much to the vigor of the intellect as to the delicacy of a sanctified taste and fancy. And it is a most fitting method of communicating God’s truth, and in keeping with the principles of man’s nature. It is the genuine language of a well-instructed and fervent piety thus to give utterance to its emotions in metaphors that are bold, and where a single word announces some great and pregnant truth. Devotional emotion finds its way to the soul only through the instrumentality of truth; yet are there other ways of presenting and uttering truth than the calm and unmoved lessons of a sanctified philosophy. There is a language which speaks with logical accuracy to the intellect; and there is a language which speaks to the imagination and the emotions. Both are equally true; but the latter is more free, unembarrassed, and impressive. The former is more definite, the latter is more striking; and while it illustrates, gives beauty to its illustrations. Nor are such representations to be regarded as mere matters of taste, or in more modern phraseology, as the aesthetical judgment of the sacred penmen; but as the manner and style of writing to which they were directed by the Holy Ghost. The inspired writers thus received instruction, thus they communicated it. It was stamped and burnt in upon their own minds; and in order to arrest the thoughts of men that were too sluggish, to be arrested by more didactic representations, they addressed it in " thoughts that breathe and words that burn." And what majesty, what force and adornment, and what alternately bold and delicate coloring do they impart to the unchanging, yet ever-various glory of Him who is their great and predominant theme! I had almost said, look where we will into the sacred writings, and we find these representations in a richness and variety scarcely equaled by the rhetorical drapery of any other book. If there be one that fills the whole circle of this vivid imagery, it is Christ. It centers in Christ; as though genius, and taste, and cultivated piety, and all the objects of nature and art, in all their sublimity and beauty, were laid under contribution by his all-comprehensive and exacting loveliness. It is the melody of the truth, as it is in Jesus, coming upon the soul, sometimes in airs sweet and enchanting as the harp of David; sometimes pensive as the prolonged notes of the weeping prophet of Anathoth; sometimes thrilling as Isaiah’s lyre.

It deserves remark that they are the most beautiful objects in nature which the revealing Spirit selects to show forth the beauty of the adorable Redeemer. He is the pure light of heaven, its sun and centre, illumining the whole sphere of revealed truth. He is its bright Morning Star ushering in the day. He is the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys; the lily among thousand the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, everywhere diffusing their fragrance. He is the fairest of the children of men and his garments are white as snow. He is the bridegroom rejoicing over the bride, and his lips drop with sweet-smelling myrrh. He is the Shepherd of Israel, who gathereth the lambs with his arm, and carrieth them in his bosom. He is the fountain of purity and the fountain of life. He is an hiding-place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, and as rivers of water in a dry place. He is the rock and the stone of Israel, their high tower and the horn of their salvation. He is the bread of life, the tree of life, the vine, the head the purifying fire, the true way, the living temple. He is Judah’s lion and the Lamb of God. He is the brother and the friend. He is the angel of the covenant, the surety, and the advocate. He is the Prince of Peace, the wonderful Counsellor, the conqueror Captain. There are beauties in the Bible, but he is the crown of its beauty. There is rich verdure there, and flowers of hope; but the stem of Jesse is the branch from which they grow. That sacred soil is fringed with trees that yield their fruit every month, and there is a river there pure and perennial, because it flows from God and the Lamb. But he is the life of all this sweet and sublime imagery. The Bible is but the mirror "which reflects his face of comeliness." It is the ocean from whose broad surface the warm exhalations of Jesus love ascend, to fall in showers on the thirsty earth. Its imagery is beautiful; to a devout mind it is so, because it gleams in the light, and is reflected from the brightness of this never setting sun. What an enigma, what a blank were this book without Christ! It is he who imbues these sacred pages with this heavenly atmosphere. His name is as "ointment poured forth," diffusing its fragrance like a bed of spices; while from the green, luxuriant earth, the air rises up loaded with rich perfume, and faith and hope breathe its odors and revel among its flowers.

If, then, in the next place, we take a glance at the prophetical writings of the Bible, we find that Christ himself is the great subject with which the spirit of prophecy is conversant from the beginning of the world to the sealing up and formal close of the prophetic dispensation. His advent and redemption were the great and glorious events towards which the expectations of men were directed by the bards of the Old Testament. They were thrilling predictions which they uttered, because they were full of Christ; predictions which, when accomplished, would make the trees of the field and the little hills and the mountains clap their hands, and which would fill the world with joy.

Prophecy is God’s word; it is eminently the preaching of God himself, and in every respect like its author. We may well suppose that it falls in with the design and spirit of the Gospel, and tends to promote its spirituality and power. Hence we are instructed that " the Spirit of Christ" was in the prophets when " they testified beforehand his sufferings, and the glory that should follow." We are told also that " the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;" or, in other words, that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony concerning Jesus. When we take a view of the prophecies, from the first prediction in the garden of Eden relating to the " seed of the woman," to the prediction of Malachi concerning " the Messenger of the Covenant," and the prediction of John in Patmos concerning him who is to "come in the clouds of heaven;" we not only find they perfectly harmonize with the spirit of Christianity and the great end for which the Bible was given, but that the entire and uninterrupted series of prophecies is mostly made up of predictions concerning Jesus Christ. Even those predictions which relate to this world. and to earthly things, as well as those which relate to the kingdom of Satan, and the nations and races and rulers over which the Deceiver exercises his sway, stand abreast with predictions which immediately relate to the kingdom of Christ, and derive their only importance from their predicted subserviency to this kingdom. Holy angels and holy men of old were sent by God during the progress of four thousand years to announce him who was " the desire of all nations," and whom "God had set upon his holy hill of Zion." To him " all the prophets gave witness." Sometimes they speak of the time when he should be born; sometimes of the place; sometimes of the dignity of his person; sometimes of the excellence and meekness of his character, the miracles he wrought, the instructions he gave, the beneficence of his life, the time and circumstances of his death, and the triumphs of his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God. Take Christ from the system of prophecy, and it has no object; it is spiritless and dead, and the whole fabric crumbles and falls. The prophecies can be studied and understood only at the foot of the cross. There was no other object worthy of this long-continued intercourse between heaven and earth, unless it was to " prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight." They are sacrilegious hands that would fain rudely separate the root and the offspring of David from the ramifications of prophecy. Men there are who have done this: nor is it any marvel that their interpretations of prophecy should be bald and jejune, when they have thus abstracted from it its vital element. Piety weeps at this estrangement of prophecy from the testimony of Jesus, and exclaims with Mary at his empty sepulcher, "They have taken my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." A collection of all the prophecies in the Sacred Writings would leave but few that have no respect to Jesus Christ. The prophet that did not bear witness to him would have been counted as one of the oracles of the heathen. Even false prophets were constrained to speak of him; " they saw him, but not now; they beheld him, but not nigh." Heavenly seers were stationed all along the hill-tops of time for the great purpose of announcing Him who was to be "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel;" while, as their circle of vision becomes extended, and they penetrate the last days, they anticipate the scene, when " the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."

Nor, obvious as the fact is, may we overlook the thought, that of the great truths and doctrines of the Bible, Christ is the sum and substance. In the language of the Scriptures, believing Christ and believing the gospel, preaching Christ and preaching the gospel, are commutable phrases. By common consent Christianity is the very definition of revealed truth. There is no truth in the Bible with which Christ has not such a relation, that if there had been no Saviour, there had been no such truth revealed. God’s truth has this one great theme. The Bible is the most perplexing book, the greatest enigma in the world of thought, if the great subject of its instructions be not Christ and him crucified. Natural religion would have consulted all the exigencies of men, had it revealed a Saviour. This is the great and universal want of the race; and where there is no provision for this, there is no truth but that which rebukes, condemns, and destroys. Christ is the " wisdom of God and the power of God," because his unsearchable wisdom and power are in him and by him disclosed. If there is anything by which the glory of God is pre-eminently manifested, it is the system of truth which was taught by his Son, and of which the Son is the centre. Here alone men see " what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God." Angels see it here, and will see it in perpetually augmenting manifestations. Nor would there be any difference in the theological creed of men and angels, nor in the now conflicting views of men themselves, if they all had the same views of Christ. The fact that the leading controversies between Christians and infidels, and other heretics and errorists relate, and ever have related to the person and work of Christ, shows that Christ himself is the all and in all to Christianity. Dispute about doctrines as they will, there is no denying the fact, that the system of belief which most excludes Christ and obscures his glory is the farthest from the truth, and ruinous to the souls of men. It is " another foundation" of which Christ is not the corner-stone, and one which he himself has not laid in Zion. Christianity is the same thing everywhere, because Christ is the sum and substance of it, and he is everywhere the same. Incidental differences there are in the church of God, but there are no essential differences where Christ is made of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption to the soul. There is neither Greek, nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. All have this great mark of identity, that they are one in Christ. The Spirit of God everywhere inscribes the same truths on the hearts of good men, because he " takes of the things that are Christ’s, and shows them unto them." Divine truth receives its consistency and beauty from Christ; nor is it possible to have just perceptions of it, nor feel its practical influence without perceiving its relations to him. Does the Bible assure men of the certainty of a future state of rewards and punishments; where is that assurance made so sure as by the teaching, death, and resurrection of the Son of God? Does it teach the great doctrine of moral obligation: where is there such evidence of the binding force of obligation as in the obedience of Christ to the death of the cross, and in the motives and influences to obedience which his death secures? Do we look for any firm foundation on which to erect the structure of morals; Christ is that foundation, there is no such morality as Christian morality.

"Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding love, The grand morality is full of thee."

Every thought, and word, and act of obedience springs from faith in Christ. Is it the design of the Bible to exalt God and humble the pride and self-sufficiency of man? By what is God so exalted and man so humbled as by the doctrine of Christ Jesus and him crucified? Does this book of God reveal the only test of character? Where is there such a test as the " child that was set for the fall and rising again of many, that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed?" We cannot specify any one truth, the faith of which is essential to the Christian character, and which is itself the means of piety and hope to good men, but is contained in that one word, Christ. Are they born again; it is in the image of Christ. Have they pardon and acceptance with God; it is through the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Have they grace, mercy, and peace; it is because Christ has died, and they love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. Or are there any among the sons of men who are anathema; it is because they do not love him. If there be one whom the Scriptures represent it as important to know, it is Christ; one whom all are bound to love, and in whom all are bound to believe; one in whom all who believe are bound to profess their faith; it is Christ. If there be one to whom, to be reconciled, is to be reconciled to God; one who is the Christian’s example, the minister’s and the church’s glory; one who is Lord of the conscience and King in Zion; one who is precious to the good of all names and nations, and before whom every knee must bow and every mouth be stopped; one who, as the accredited Prophet, Priest, and King, is destined to triumph over ignorance, unbelief, superstition, and wickedness, and whose influence is destined to extend to the masses, and by whom humanity is to be ennobled and exalted; it is Christ. If there be one to whom the Spirit is imparted without measure, and upon whom all spiritual gifts are bestowed for the benefit of his people; one who was ordained to this great work from the foundation of the world, and who is himself the inhabitation of the Deity, it is Christ. In all Christian doctrines Christ has the pre-eminence. It pleased the Father that " in him all fulness should dwell." It is he of whom the great Apostle said, " I have determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." Christ crucified not only gives its complexion to the whole system of divine truth; but apart from this crucified one, there is no truth which is the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation.

We add a single thought more: the Scriptures not only abound in the inculcation of Christian truth, but in the delineation of Christian experience. And does not every devout mind respond to the remark, that the religious experience, of which we have so full an account in the Bible, magnifies Jesus Christ? In all its forms and varieties, in the love of its espousals, in the vigor of its manhood, in the maturity of its old age, in the meltings of its penitence and the fervor of its zeal; in prosperity and adversity, toil and relaxation, life and death; its most devout and sacred sensibilities flow from enlightened views of Christ, from believing and sanctified contemplations of his glory, from the life-inspiring relationship which believers sustain to him. The Bible knows nothing that turns men from the power of Satan unto God but Christ.

If we inquire for the great principle of spiritual life, we hear one who was not behind the chief of the apostles, say "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me, and the life that I live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me." Do the Scriptures speak of adoption into God’s family; their language is, " But as many as received Christ to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on his name." Do they speak of fellowship with God in religious duties; their language is, "For through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father;" " in whom we have boldness and access;" boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way." When the early Christians advert to the grace that called them, and that made them differ from others, their grateful language is, " Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Do they speak of their final perseverance, they rest on such truths as these, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." Do they advert to their encouragement in duty, their impulse in love, and the great incitement to a life of devotedness: it is " the love of Christ that passeth knowledge."

When, amid their scenes of trial, they advert to the source of their consolation, they speak of one refuge, one comforter. All their support and all their hopes are centred in One. It were a severance from them all to be severed from Christ. However brilliant the lights which this world casts upon it, clouds and darkness would hang over every path and step of the Christian’s pilgrimage, did not he who caused the light to " shine out of darkness, shine in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ." Sweet is the solace which the Christian finds amid those days of depression which visit him, from the assurance that " there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother," and that in the dark night of his adversity, one star there is that turns the shadow of death into the morning. The preciousness of Christ, the attractions of his love, the adaptation of his grace, ever ready, ever faithful, ever full, are sufficient for his greatest need. The conscience may be alarmed, the heart agitated, and the fairest earthly hope may be disappointed and wither; but precious are the hopes which Christ inspires; precious the repose at his cross; precious the refuge at his mercy-seat; precious the joys which cannot be embittered, because he gives them. The life that now is, is but of few days and full of trouble. We feel the burden of sorrow, we shrink from conflict, and we shudder at the grasp of death; and though reason cannot tranquillize, nor sympathy relieve, nor any created helper support us, there is tranquility, relief, support, and perfect peace amid them all, derived from Christ. It is the believer’s privilege to say with Paul, "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" Sufferings await them; but if they suffer with Christ, they shall also be glorified together with him. Death awaits them, but they sleep in Jesus; the grave awaits them, but Christ is the resurrection and the life, and they come forth from it fashioned like unto his glorious body. The judgment awaits them, but it is the judgment-seat of Christ. Heaven awaits them, and he himself says it is "his Father’s house," and that " the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters." It is he who will there " make them kings and priests unto God, even his Father;" and there their song shall be " unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood!" From first to last, Christ is as pre-eminent in the Christian’s religious experience as in the theory of Christianity. The Christian needs no other, he has no other, he desires no other than Christ.

This, then, is the thought which we place at the head of our observations on the glory of Christ. God is not more omnipresent, than the presence of Christ fills the sacred volume. He himself is its author. Prophets were sent by him; apostles were his amanuenses. His light shines on every page; it envelops us whenever we take the Bible into our hands. We live in this illumined atmosphere. It is not as though Christ were in heaven and we on the earth; or as though we were looking at the sun at a distance; or as though we were on the side of the globe on which it does not shine. The mind is not less distant from the body than Christ from the Bible. He is the mind, the very soul of the book itself. He enriches it, he adorns it. He has great and glorious designs to accomplish by it; and not only are they here unfolded, but they comprise all the designs of the divine mind in relation to the restoration of fallen man. It is the instrument of good only as it speaks of him. He spoke in the prophets, uttered the law, and now speaks in the Gospel. He is the cause, and these ample and varied revelations are the effect. There are some striking instances of his glory on which we propose to dwell in the following pages; but his glory shines throughout these divine communications, even though its rays sometimes fall obliquely. His light fills it with truth; his grace and mercy give birth to all the hopes, and his promises form the clue to all the prospects it reveals. His fulness makes it so full of God. Men may not see that the Bible is so full of Christ, yet he is there; they may not believe that it is so full of Christ, yet he is there; they may deny that it is so full of Christ, yet he is there. All their efforts to exclude him are of no avail. It was to reveal Christ that this revelation was given. It is impossible to get at a distance from Christ, so long as we have any true intimacy with the Scriptures. If we go up to heaven he is there; or if we make our bed in hell he is there. And if these things are so, what shall he said of those who instead of giving Christ the prominent place in their preaching indulge themselves in the speculations of philosophy, the researches of science and the obligations of an unbaptized morality? This age of progress vainly flatters itself that it is in advance of the Bible. If we give credence, not merely to modern lecturers, but to the teachings of not a few modern pulpits; we must believe that this apostate world is to be regenerated by other means than the simple gospel of Christ. There is a marvellous falling off from primitive Christianity, in the days in which we live. It is not the object of the writer to rebuke this fault so much as to recall to his own thoughts and the thoughts of others the pre-eminence of his Divine Lord and Master, as the great subject of God’s revelation. O that those of us who are preachers of the gospel, instead of thirsting so much for the applause of men, would more steadily seek the honor that cometh from God only! Which of the apostles throws Christ into the shade, or keeps him in the background? Lost men need nothing so much as the knowledge of Christ. It must surely be of great practical importance for the teachers of religion, to seize hold of the sum and substance of this book of God. And what is the Bible to a lost world, without Christ? What concern have men in these rich and varied revelations more than in any volume of sage counsels, if they are denuded of those truths which constitute its excellence and glory? I cannot find that Christ is ever lost sight of in the Bible. The man who would understand the gospel and preach it intelligibly, must carry Christ along with him into the pulpit. He must habitually carry Christ in his mind and heart. Christ must be near him, or his preaching will have very little meaning. That system of theological opinions which has the most of Christ is the true system; that which has the least is the most erroneous; that which has none is heresy, infidelity, atheism. Do not call us bigots because we war with Antichrist Be its form however specious, and what it may, we would hold fellowship with our Divine Master; we seek no fellowship with those who have no communion with him. To be indifferent to all religious opinions, when Christ himself is the way, the truth, the life, is not the chantey that " rejoiceth in the truth." True piety has but one author, and that is Christ. It has but one instrumentality — the truth of Christ; one aim and end — the glory of Christ; one image and superscription — Christ himself. We see that Christ takes complete possession of the Bible: so must he take complete possession of the pulpit. Error must not exclude him. Sin must not make this his rightful abode unwelcome. It is his own: the palace in which he loves to dwell. Self-righteousness must not divide the throne with him. The world must not crowd him out; its wealth, its honors, its learning, its science, must not jostle him out of his place, nor rudely repulse him from his own domains. Though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and know not Christ, I am nothing. The world by wisdom knows not God. We glory in the progressive career of human thought. Man was formed for it. We fear no researches that terminate in Christ. Penetrate the labyrinth ever so far, only let it be with the torch of truth, and for holy ends! Let the speculations of philosophers be imbued with the love of Christ! Let the learning of the wise be redolent with his spirit, their most enduring memorials be baptized in the name of Jesus, and their triumphs be his! And then, whether they lead, or whether they follow in the race, the echo of their footsteps falls upon the ear with a sacredness that nothing can inspire but holy ground. When poetry sings, only let it be of Christian themes, and in the spirit of Christ. When fancy plays, let it be around the cross; and when she weaves her garlands let them be to be suspended there. O that the tendencies of human thought, in this our age, were more toward the "simplicity that is in Christ." Beautiful simplicity, and still more beautiful Saviour! Give us, adorable Redeemer, more of thy image, and we shall possess a treasure, which does not become dim like the gold of earth; a beauty that will sparkle with radiance when all that is earthly shall have passed away. Nor may we close this first chapter without asking our readers, "What think ye of Christ?" What is Christ to you? What is he to you, as a child of apostate Adam, as a sinner against God, and condemned by his holy law? What is he to you as one born for immortality, and hasting to his judgment-seat? Do you love him? Do you believe in him? Have you found pardon and peace in his precious blood, and has this blessed hope shed its purifying, gladdening, comforting light and influence over your soul? Do you live to him, and are you among those who wait for his appearing? If the Lord Jesus be not the object of your love and confidence, and if you rest not your eternal hopes on him alone, then are you weighed in the balance and found wanting. Christianity differs from everything else. To be a Christian, Christ must be seen, loved, confided in, and obeyed. There must be abiding convictions of his excellence. Nothing fills the soul with such delightful emotions, as those with which the true Christian contemplates his Saviour. Men are sadly mistaken who expect to find religion out of Christ. An exemplary deism is not Christianity; neither are moral virtues Christian graces. Men may be humane, generous, kind, without being Christians. Truth, justice, honesty, honor in our intercourse with the world, are not love and confidence toward Christ. If he holds this conspicuous place in the Bible, true piety must consist in right affections toward Him. Men have more to do with Christ, and he has more to do with them, than they have to do with one another. It is as irrational and absurd, therefore, as it is unchristian, to place religion in virtues which have no regard to Christ. It is proof of great moral blindness, and great ignorance of the Scriptures, when men satisfy themselves with a religion that has little or nothing to do with Christ. Our obligations to Christ stand first; there is no other obligation that can come in competition with his prior and everlasting claims. Should these thoughts disturb you, we can only say, repair to that Saviour without delay. Bring this great question to an issue by " receiving Christ Jesus the Lord." Rest not satisfied to be numbered with his enemies, and to sink forever under his appalling frown. And be entreated not to wait for a more convenient season. Ask the dying sinner what makes him tremble and weep; and he will tell you that he once resolved to repent and believe the gospel, but he waited to a more convenient season. Ask tens of thousands of the lost in hell why they weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth; and they will tell you they were once startled by a view of their sin and danger, but they delayed to escape the coming wrath to a more convenient season. Away with this madness! The heart of Jesus is as full of mercy as the Bible is full of Jesus. Stretch your thoughts as far as you will, and you cannot conceive the fulness of his love. You have never yet learned what a Saviour he is who died on the cross, and now lives and reigns. O dismiss these doubts, and abjure the spirit of delay. Break this spell of the fowler. Let the breath of prayer sweep these refuges of his away, and come now to that Saviour who filleth all in all.