April 23

The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. - John 4:21.

WE here observe that the Christian dispensation did not properly commence till the death of Christ. But, upon his resurrection from the dead, he gave his commission to his disciples, to “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;” “and they went forth preaching everywhere that men should repent.” There is nothing, therefore, in the Christian dispensation like that of Judaism, which, though of divine origin, was now to be abolished. That system was exclusive, and. necessarily confined to a particular nation. In the nature of the case it never could have become a universal religion. It was impossible that the males of all countries could have repaired three times a year to Jerusalem, to appear before the Lord, and to worship there.

“But we have no such lengths to go,

Nor wander far abroad;

Where’er the saints assemble now,

There is a house for God.”

Christianity has no localities. The gospel overlooks everything that is external and adventitious in men’s condition, and regards them as men only, whatever be their colour, condition, their country, or their character; it regards them in those exigencies which are common to every individual of the human race. It finds all guilty, and it brings forgiving mercy. It finds all depraved, and brings sanctifying grace. It finds all capacitated and destined to live for ever, and turns this, which would otherwise have been a curse, into a blessing, by converting it into life and immortality.