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side, bring purity, strength, nourishment to the soul. When on our side-for self, that is-they exhaust and starve us. They are husks in which is the semblance of food, but in which is no sustenance.

"Be ye angry, and sin not." Solemn words, and well befitting our remembrance in a season set apart for dwelling upon the universal liability to sin and its power over us. The tempter never eaves us, but waits to pervert the noblest of God's gifts, to corrupt the best and make it the worst. Not only to the feeling of anger, but to all strong feelings, must this warning be added, "Sin not." Be joyful, and sin not. Be mournful, and sin not. Beware lest the best and holiest passions become a luxury, and thence a weakness. From these, and all forms of self-pleasing, let us seek at this time to keep our fast. Nay, we may even add another warning, as befitting the holy time of Lent. There is a luxury of religion in which we are tempted to dwell-to think much of our self-denial; to pride and plume ourselves upon not doing things in Lent which we will do at other times. Self clings to us even in the Holy of Holies. "Walk in the spirit, and so thou shalt not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Aim to rise into that higher region where God is, and

where self is annulled. Aim to be so filled with the Spirit of God that obedience is freedom, and not slavery. And this we shall attain by the study of the character and the words of Christ, for they are spirit, and they are life.

SERMON XV.

THE INTERVIEW OF CHRIST WITH NICODEMUS.

(TRINITY SUNDAY, 1869.)

"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”—JOHN iii. 12.

THE gospel for Trinity Sunday is that portion of this chapter of St. John's Gospel which relates the interview of our Lord with the Jewish ruler, Nicodemus. It may be convenient if I begin by recalling to you the facts of this interview, dwelling upon each feature of the occasion which seems to deserve special remark. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and a member high in authority of the Jewish Sanhedrim, or religious assembly. The interview of which we are to speak occurs in the narrative of St. John, soon after the "beginning of miracles" which our Lord had made in Cana of Galilee. In all probability it was this miracle, and others immediately

following, which had come to the knowledge of the Pharisee, and made him anxious to become acquainted with the person of the new Teacher, and hear a declaration of His mission from His own lips. Accordingly he sought Jesus by night, and we are hardly wrong in adopting the general inference that the time chosen was not accidental, but that Nicodemus sought to escape observation. In a subsequent passage of St. John, where this member of the Jewish council is again referred to, the historian remarks, in a parenthesis, that it was the same who had come to Jesus "by night," where the special repetition of the season leaves little doubt that St. John meant to emphasize the secrecy of the act. We can well understand why he might desire to be unobserved. He went to meet Jesus, as the recorded circumstances lead us to believe, if not as a friend, at least as one who desired to learn, and was open to conviction. I do not, indeed, think that there is sufficient evidence to support the theory of a recent writer, that he came with the intention of seeking to be admitted among Christ's disciples, with permission at the same time to conceal the fact from his brother Pharisees. But the tone of his appeal to the Saviour, and the form of his questions, justify the inference that he did

not share his party's hostility to the claims of Christ; and he may well have desired, pending his decision as to those claims, to avoid the obloquy and suspicion to which this act would have subjected him on the part of the Sanhedrim. His opening address is full of reverence and dignity. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." The reports of Christ's miraculous acts, of the "marvels" which he had wrought, had impressed the mind of Nicodemus, as well as others, that here was a power at work, of which only God could be the author. This happened, let us remember, early in the public ministry of Christ. Nicodemus knew of Him mainly, or solely, through popular report, and therefore we are not to judge him harshly if his estimate of Christ was imperfect, and if he was attracted to Him by the report of His power rather than the winning influence of His love for men. To the unconverted nature, it is "the marvellous" that proves deity; and in this lies one radical distinction between superstition and religion. The faith of the savage, who "sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind," is born of fear, and, save through other and better influences, finds its end

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