California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 8, 1875
The Sermon.
By Geo. I. Butler
BRIEF EXAMINATION
of Isaiah Chap. 65.
"THERE shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed." Isa. 65 : 20.
THE prophecy of Isaiah, Chap. 65, has occasioned much comment. Those who believe in the doctrine called "Age to Come," rely upon this scripture to prove that after Christ's personal return to this earth, and the commencement of his reign of one thousand years, death will prevail. We propose briefly to examine this chapter and see if anything in it contradicts our view. We believe that at the second coming of Christ all the living wicked will be slain and all the righteous made immortal. The righteous will ascend to the New Jerusalem, and there reign with Christ during one thousand years, and then the saints, with Christ and the holy city, shall descend to this earth which has lain desolate. The wicked dead shall be raised, and with Satan shall come up around the holy city, and shall be utterly destroyed by fire rained upon them from heaven; this earth shall then be one vast lake of fire, from which God shall bring a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
A few of the scriptures upon which we rely to prove these positions are as follows: Rev. 19:12-21; 20; 21:1-10; Jer. 25:15-33; 4:19-27; Isa. 24; 34; 1 Thess. 4:15-17; Matt. 5:12; John 13:36, with 14:1-3; 2 Pet. 3:7-13. Is there anything in Isa. 65:17-25, that disproves these positions? It reads as follows: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come upon the heart [margin]. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree [the tree of life, the Septuagint reads] are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord."
All will admit that this scripture is intimately connected throughout. It commences with a prophecy of the new heavens and new earth. It next speaks of Jerusalem. From the expression used, it is evident that it is the same Jerusalem brought to view in the last chapters of Revelation. The voice of weeping and crying is no more to be heard. So the beloved disciple says, "Sorrow and crying" shall be no more. Rev. 21:4. The holy mountain of God is in it; verse 25. So we learn in many other scriptures that Mount Zion is in New Jerusalem. It takes place when the people of God have their "rejoicing." This can but refer to the time when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the people of God, are safe in that "city which hath foundations," for which they looked, Heb. 11:10, when the "children" rejoice with their "mother." Gal. 4:26. The sudden change in the first verse of this prophecy, from the new heavens and earth to the New Jerusalem, is suggestive, and helps us to understand the point of time when it meets its fulfillment. Let us go, then, to another scripture, where the same events are recorded with additional particulars. Rev. 21:1, brings to view the new heavens and earth. But previous to this, in chap. 20:9, the apostle sees the holy city and the saints on the earth, when it is very evident the new heavens and earth had not yet come. They are on the earth in connection with the final punishment of the wicked, after the second resurrection has taken place, at the close of the one thousand years. Verses 5, 8, and 9.
The presence of the "beloved city," in which are the saints of God on the earth during the punishment of the wicked and before the new heavens and earth are ushered in, is made necessary, that many scriptures may be fulfilled. Thus, the Saviour says, "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and ye yourselves thrust out." Luke 13:28. Also in that remarkable prophecy in Isa. 33:10, speaking of the time when the Lord shall rise up, he speaks of the wicked being as the burnings of lime, and as thorns cut up which are burned in the fire. That class would utterly perish. But, in the 14th verse, he asks the question, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" and answers immediately, "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil." "His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty." "Thine heart shall meditate terror."
To my mind it seems very clear that this scripture meets its fulfillment at the same time of which the Saviour speaks, when the wicked see the reward of the righteous and the righteous see the reward of the wicked. The righteous are in a "place of defense." From what? From the terrible punishment rained upon the heads of the wicked. When they shall be as "thorns cut up," which shall be "burned in the fire." "When the sinners in Zion are afraid," "and fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites." The righteous at this time contemplate two things: "Their eyes see the King in his beauty," their heart "meditates terror." In the city, Jesus is in his glory; without, is a world on fire. Oh! my soul, what a contrast. Wicked men are consuming as the fat of lambs. Then are the words of the Psalmist fulfilled, "When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it." Ps. 37:34. How plain, then, that the righteous are on the earth within the holy city at a point of time before the destruction of the wicked, and in immediate connection with it, where they can fully behold it.
And it is at this point of time that Isa. 65:20, has its fulfillment. The prophet's mind is first directed to the glorious fact that there is to be a "new heaven and new earth" created. It is next called to the point of time just previous, when the sinner, even though he may be an "hundred years old, shall be accursed." When does the curse of God come upon the sinner? Just previous, as we have seen, to the creation of the new heavens and new earth. Peter, in his second epistle, third chapter, makes this very plain. "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition [destruction] of ungodly men." "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." "Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Where does Peter find his "promise"? In the very scripture we have under examination. Isa. 65:17. And it is remarkable how beautifully these two scriptures harmonize and explain each other. Peter gives us an inspired comment upon Isa. 65:17. He tells us plainly that the "perdition of ungodly men" comes just before the new heavens and new earth. That the great burning day results in the new creation; from the ashes of the old creation the new springs forth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The career of the wicked closes with the old creation. We have seen from other scriptures that the righteous are on the earth and see this result during its accomplishment.
When, then, does the "child die an hundred years old"? Both the righteous and wicked are on the earth when the curse of God falls on the sinner. "The wages of sin is death." Here are gathered the sinners of all ages and the saints of all ages. The antediluvians are here. Of those who died natural deaths, who lived the main portion of their lives before the flood, we have left on record in Genesis the ages of nine persons, including Noah. Their ages are respectively, Adam, nine hundred and thirty; Seth, nine hundred and twelve; Enos, nine hundred and five; Cainan, nine hundred and ten; Mahalaleel, eight hundred and ninety-five; Jared, nine hundred and sixty-two; Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty-nine; Lamech, seven hundred and seventy-seven; Noah, nine hundred and fifty. The average of these is almost nine hundred and twelve years. The case of Lamech seems a remarkable exception. He did not live so long as the average into one hundred and thirty-five years. It would seem to show that it was not God's design that he should live till the flood. We are not informed that this average of life was anything remarkable for that age of the world. In most of these instances there seems to be a remarkable uniformity. All but two of the instances given of the antediluvians, and in fact the only record existing in the world of the age of man before the flood, makes the average of life then, over nine hundred years. What a contrast with the present. Now, the average length of life is not far from thirty years. It is customary to call persons children at the age of five or six years, or even older. In Gen. 21:15, 16, Ishmael is called a child, while it is evident from the circumstances and chronology, he must have been eighteen or twenty years old. The average of human life, then, must have been as high as one hundred and fifty years. By the same rule it would be proper to call one a child at one hundred years of age when the average was upwards of nine hundred years, as it was before the flood. Persons at that age would be morally accountable of course. Therefore their cases would come into the Judgment, and if they died without repentance, they would come up in the second resurrection, and be among the immense throng outside the holy city, and would suffer the pains of the second death, with the sinners upon whom the curse of God then falls. All the circumstances of the case, and the Scriptures which speak of the punishment of the wicked at that point of time, clearly prove that antediluvian children of a hundred years old will then and there die.
To suppose, as some do, that these deaths occur in the city of God and after the new heavens and earth are created, plainly contradicts, not only other scriptures, but this very one which is supposed to teach it. Verse 19 says, "The voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her; nor the voice of crying." Will people in the city of God care so little for their children that they will not manifest as much affection at their death after being with them a hundred years, as people do now? It would seem they had lost natural affection. But the Revelator, when speaking of this same city, Rev. 21:4, says that there will be no death nor pain, and the Saviour says they shall be "as the angels," neither shall they "die any more." The prophet, in verse 20, plainly speaks of a particular point of time, after which there shall neither be births nor deaths, nor becoming old. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, or an old man that hath not filled his days." The word "thence," means from this point onward. From this point of time, then, there will never be an infant of days. Of course there never could be another birth then. God's plan of gathering out of all nations "a people for his name," that the earth may be "inhabited," is now accomplished, and from this point onward there never is to be "an old man that hath not filled his days," none who are prematurely old.
"They shall not plant, and another eat." How plain, then, that there will be no death among those who are inside the city of God, for, of course, if there was death among them, those who succeed would eat of what their predecessors had planted. "For as the days of the tree of life [Septuagint] are the days of my people; this is the reason why one shall not plant and another eat. Those who are there will live forever. Oh, blessed thought! In the last verse of the prophecy, the reference to the beasts and their diet and habits, shows very plainly that it is the new creation. The nature of these animals has been changed. It would be a natural impossibility that the lion could be made to eat straw like the bullock before he had been created anew.
Thus our view of the events taking place in connection with the punishment of the wicked and the new creation, agrees with Isaiah and Peter, and makes a beautiful harmony; and this very scripture which is relied upon to prove the contrary, can only be harmonized by adopting it as it stands written in King James' version. But taking Pagnini's version, there is not even a seeming contradiction. This is as follows: "There shall not be any more carried out from thenes to burial an infant of days, or a youth, or an old man who hath not filled his time; for the man of a hundred years shall be a youth." How beautifully harmonious is truth.—GEO. I. BUTLER, in Review and Herald.
Little by Little
LITTLE BY LITTLE.—The enemy trying to get a real Christian to commit some great sin is like consuming a green log with a candle. Here the blaze is perfectly harmless, as would be the temptation to sell our hope of Heaven. But to light a mere shaving with the candle, and add to that a few small shivers, then a few a little larger—then add the sticks of wood and still larger ones, and when these get to burning well apply the green logs. Be sure and keep the small logs on, and in this way you may successfully destroy your green logs or anything else. In the same way Satan can draw away the children of God, but he is wise enough to know that there is no use of tempting them to steal, or murder, or even lie, the first thing; but like Esau, they may be tempted over a morsel of meat.
Afterward.
By Frances Ridley Havergal
Now, the sowing and the weeping,
Working hard and waiting long;
Afterward, the golden reaping,
Harvest home, and grateful song.
Now, the pruning, sharp, unsparing,
Scattered blossom, bleeding shoot;
Afterward, the plenteous bearing
Of the Master's pleasant fruit.
Now, the long and toilsome duty,
Stone by stone to carve and bring;
Afterward, the perfect beauty
Of the palace of the king.
Now, the tuning, and the tension,
Wailing minors, discord strong;
Afterward, the grand ascension
Of the hallelujah song.
Now, the spirit conflict-riven,
Wounded heart, unequal strife;
Afterward, the triumph given,
And the victor's crown of life.
Now, the training strange and lowly,
Unexplained and tedious now;
Afterward, the service holy,
And the Master's "Enter thou!"
—F. R. Havergal.
The First and Great Commandment.
THE following article is from Dr. Cumming's Scripture Readings on Matt. 22:34–40. It is a forcible exposition of the relation which exists between the law and the gospel, and adds another to the many existing proofs that no one ever thinks of taking the position that the moral law has been abolished till forced by the admission of its existence into conclusions which he wishes to avoid. Dr. C. says:—
"Well, 'when the Pharisees,' after having been once repelled, 'had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which'—poia—of what sort—what is your description of—'which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus then summed up the whole decalogue in two short, but comprehensive, epitomes—the first embraces the first four commandments, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'—the second embraces the last six commandments, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' In the moral law on Sinai, it was negative—'Thou shalt not.' In the summary of it by Jesus it is presented in its positive aspect—'Thou shalt love God, and thy neighbor as thyself.' It is explained elsewhere, that love is the fulfilling of the law. The great question, then, is, How shall man get the seed of love replanted, or resown in his heart? The answer is, we love God because he loved us. God's intense love to us produces responsive love in our hearts to him. Thus, Christianity is the only provision for replanting love in the human heart, and giving, not only pardon by atonement, but sanctification by the Spirit, or obedience to the moral law.
"The question put by the lawyer, whose object was to ensnare Jesus by provoking a reply that might be turned against his popularity with the crowd, and in favor of the designs and desires of the scribes and Pharisees, might be literally translated, and, indeed, ought to be translated, not, 'which is the great commandment in the law?' but, 'Of what sort is the great commandment in the law? What is your description of it? What is its character? How do you describe it? In what language do you express the leading and prominent commandment in the law?' He played into the hands of the scribes and Pharisees so far, because they often made the rigid, mechanical observance of one law an171atonement or warrant for the breach of another law, the breach of which was agreeable to their taste, and convenient to their habits; and he, being accustomed to hear that one law was better than another, and that amid all the laws there was some chief and leading one, asked our Lord, 'Which of the ten is the chief one? and what sort of one is it? and how does it bear upon our responsibilities? Tell me what sort it is.' He did it tempting Jesus, not for information, but in order to ensnare him; but our Lord, just as we saw he did on their asking him, 'Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?' overlooked the motive that dictated the question, and replied to it with as much magnanimous forbearance as if they had asked from the purest motives, and desired from the very heart to have the best and choicest information. He answered at once, 'The great commandment is not, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image; nor is it, Remember the Sabbath day; nor is it, Thou shalt not steal; but it is, first and chiefest, the emotion that the heart should feel toward God; and, secondly, what is its shadow, and never absent companion, the feeling that the heart should cherish toward every other heart that beats in the world. The first and great commandment is not one of the first four singled out for supremacy over the remaining, but it is that feeling within which covers all the four commandments of the decalogue that relate to God; and, secondly, and subordinately, the feeling within that covers the remaining commandments of God, and relates to all your duties to your neighbors and brethren of mankind.'
"Now, the first four commandments are embosomed in the words, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' Now this law man first broke. It was the chief commandment that man first violated in Paradise. He was placed under this law; he broke through it; and in so doing, he lost that tendency to God, that dependence upon his touch, control, and paternal government that would be equivalent in material things to the earth breaking loose from its attractions to the sun, and wandering eccentric from its orbit into the wilds of infinite and endless space. By the disruption of this primal tie, this first and chiefest affection, love to God, man lost his anchorage ground, and was at sea without star above, or hope before. He broke loose from the great central government, and became, in the language of Scripture, a lost son, a stray sheep, without hope, and without God in the world.
"Now, after this, the Bible does not assert that no moral excellence survived in man, and experience does not warrant us in saying so. There are many beautiful traits that still survive man's first loss; but these beautiful traits are like ivy about a ruin, they only serve to conceal the gigantic deformity that is within and beneath them. Whatever excellence survives in man's heart is just the remainder of what he once was. There is enough to tell us how magnificent he was in his original relationship to God, and there is enough to prove to us what a terrible dislocation, what an awful wreck, sin has made of the once fair and beautiful vessel of humanity. The Scripture does not assert that man is without any trace of what he was, or that he has no moral excellence. 'If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children;' there is the affection of parents to children, and of children to parents. There are men constitutionally honest and generous—so just, that they would spurn to do an unfair thing—so honorable that they would shrink from the thought of a mean thing; and these graces, if I may call them so, are in their place beautiful. But what we say is, that man has lost the spring and source of all virtue that is beautiful before God, and that he has parted with that supreme and vital feeling, love to God, which gives beauty to every grace, vitality to every virtue, and makes the good tree bring forth, not only fair and fragrant, but good fruit in the sight of God and man.
"Now, it is repeatedly asserted in Scripture that in the absence of this love to God no outward act has any excellence in his sight. It may, I repeat, be excellent in the sight of man; weighed in human scales, and submitted to human appreciation, it may seem most valuable; but till the fruit be connected with love to God, or the parent stem—till what you do springs from what you feel toward God, there is not that which will make it acceptable in the sight of God. There is no real, lasting, moral vitality in the branch, plant it in any soil you like, however fertile it may be in this world, until it be grafted in the parent stem, partakes of its sap, and bears blossom from its union with it. The most splendid acts are but splendid sins, till they are quickened with this divine life. Whatever is done by an unconverted man is sin, when tested by a holy and heart-searching God. It is our relationship to him, and his relationship to us—it is our restoration of sonship in reference to him, and the revelation of his Fatherhood in reference to us, that communicates a new beauty, gives real life, and makes truly useful and good all the fruits, virtues, sacrifices, or good deeds, that man is able to do by grace and through the Spirit in this present life.
"The constant assertion of Scripture also is, not only that nothing can be really good and lasting without this, but that man is by nature wholly destitute of this. He may not be destitute of many beautiful virtues, but he is wholly destitute of love to God. Nay, he is not only destitute of love to God, but he has the very opposite emotion, and cherishes the very opposite feeling; that is, hatred to God. He may love an idol he has cut from the marble, or a sentimental being he has called up in his imagination, and think that by loving such a being he really loves God. But this is only making an idol suitable to his taste, and loving that idol instead of the true and righteous God; and thus, love is not only withdrawn from God, to whom it is supremely due, but it is communicated and transferred to other objects, to which it was not due at all. The fact is, the feeling of love survived the fall; and man must have something to occupy the niche that God forsook when man fell. The original law was, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' God has forsaken us, because we have forsaken him; but the feeling of love, with which man was created, is as inseparable from his heart as the feeling of hunger or thirst is from his physical economy. Having lost God, the true object whom he no longer loves, because that God condemns him for what he is and for what he has done, he finds other objects upon whom he concentrates that love, and who occupy the place that God originally filled. He puts the creature in the place of the Creator, and loves the former vastly more than he loves the latter. If man had no love at all surviving, then he would seek nothing to take the place of God; but because he has still the affection of love, though the Object be gone, he gropes about for another object to lean upon and love, and give the sacrifice of his feelings and his religious worship to. Hence, there never has been a nation without a god. An atheist really and speculatively is, I believe, an impossibility. We never can get rid of the impression that there is a God. We may modify our apprehensions very much of that God, or we may give our worship to an idol, an image, or a sentiment; but something greater than himself, and more lasting than life, man instinctively worships, adores, and trusts in. But supreme love to the true and godly God by nature he has not; on the contrary, I have said he hates him.
"You say, 'How can we hate God?' We do not know him. We love our natural conceptions of God. Poets write the most beautiful, and orators make the most eloquent speeches, upon God's beneficence and power; but God, as a holy God, who will hate, punish, and extirpate sin, is a God whom man cannot love. The best evidence of this is, that the intrusion of God many a day, many an hour, and into many a thought, would be so grievous an infraction of your peace, that your heart would recoil from it, and give utterance to the wish, not, dogma, 'No God,' and show that there is latent in its depths an instinctive enmity, where you thought there was only approbation, complacence, and love.
"Whatever change has been wrought in man, the great requirement of God still remains, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' This law is not repealed by the gospel. It is obligatory upon you and me, upon angels and archangels, and all created intelligences. It is binding on us all, it is the essence of Heaven, it is the atmosphere of the blessed, it is the tie that knits a happy universe to God, the disruption of which would be ruin and misery to the creature, and dishonor to that God who still says, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.'
"And, therefore, this leads me to notice how this love can be restored in the heart of man. How, then, is the element of enmity to be swept out, and the heart to breathe henceforth love to God, and the tie broken in Paradise to be reknit in more than its pristine peace and strength? It meets its answer from the cross of Christ. The law is exacting love—'Thou shalt love;' the cross is pardoning love. We hear from the law the constant exaction, 'Thou love,' and we feel that it is as impossible to love as to rise from the earth, and seat ourselves amid the fixed stars; and the longer we listen to a God exacting what we feel from our nature to be an impossibility, the more hardened and exasperated we become; and thus the repetition of the law, instead of producing love, only increases the enmity that was within us, till we hate God only the more as he repeats the command, 'Thou shalt love.' But unless there be love there is no life, there is no salvation, there is no happiness. The way, therefore, that God has taken to produce it, is by the cross. There he proclaims at once that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish;' and we, hearing that God so loved us that, to express the intensity of that love, he spared not his own Son, listen to these glad tidings, and study the manifestation of this love; we learn that God, who loved us in our Eden glory, loves us as much in our ruins now, and our confidence is at once restored. We venture to approach a God pardoning, not exacting, proclaiming his love to us, and saying nothing about our love to him, and, in the language of John, 'We love him because he first loved us.' In other words, the plan of the law is to insist upon love; the plan of the gospel is to say nothing about what we owe to God, but to say much about what he has done for us. God's way to produce love in the human heart is silence about our duties to him, reiterated utterance of his love and sacrifice and the interposition for us; and we come to regard God no longer as exacting duties that we cannot discharge, but only as bestowing blessings that we never deserve; and by the very nature of our constitution, and by the very nature of this manifestation of disinterested love, there is produced responsive to it in our hearts the beginning of that love which casteth out fear, and is only perfected in the everlasting life of the world that is to come.
"But even this manifestation of God's love to us would not produce this love in us to him, did he not give also the Holy Spirit to take of the things of Christ, what he said, did, suffered, and purchased, to apply them to us, so that, taught by the Holy Spirit, and having God's love to us, revealed, expounded, unfolded, and impressed upon our hearts by him, we come by that divine influence to love him who first loved us; and the moment this is done man is restored to the orbit in which he was first placed; he is restored to his original relationship to God; he no longer sees God on Sinai exacting duties that he cannot pay, but hears him in the still small voice of Calvary, bestowing mercies that he did not deserve; and he cannot help breaking forth into feelings of gratitude and responsive love to him who thus, in spite of our sins, loved us, and in order to remove our sins gave his Son to die for us; and we come to love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, who so loved us that he spared not even his own Son, but gave him up unto death for us all.
"This love, then, when once implanted in the human heart, will grow day by day in vigor, in influence, and in power. It is not a dead thing, but a living germ planted in the living heart; and, nourished by the Holy Spirit of God, it grows up into increasing love, till it has no fear, and never can experience any failing. The more we contemplate the object that we love, the more we shall be struck with the greatness of his love. The more we study the cross, the more impressed we shall be with the magnificence of the love that raised it; and thus looking unto God loving us, we shall be changed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord, growing in love to him, not by hearing his exacting law, but by ever studying, ever meditating upon the sin-pardoning sacrifice upon the cross; and we shall feel more an allegiance grow within us that has no comparison, and an affection nourished within us that can have no equal till at last we, too, shall understand what that meaneth, 'If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' Luke 14:26.
"We have now, in this love planted in the human heart, the spirit of all obedience to God's law. Plant the love in the human heart which the cross necessarily generates, and you put in every heart the root that spreads out in all the branches of the moral law. The law is fulfilled in one word—love. Love in the decalogue in a monosyllable; and the precepts of the decalogue are but the branches that spring from this root—love in the human heart. Hence, evangelical preaching, which shows alone how this love can be generated, alone guarantees that there will be obedience in the life. Justification by faith is the preface to sanctification of life, or obedience to all the requirements of the law. The believer obeys the law, not in order to be justified, but because he has been justified. Love to the Justifier necessarily delights in obeying the law that he has laid down. Outward obedience to holy law is just the outer life that springs and is developed from the inner life of love to God.
"And wherever there is this love to God, there will be assimilation to him. The very nature of love is to produce likeness. The painter who selects a great master for his study, instinctively catches his style and imitates his painting. The poet or the musician, whatever be the profession, who prefers a certain master, naturally and instinctively falls into his modes, forms, traits, and distinguishing characteristics. And the Christian, whose heart is supremely set upon the great Master, and Teacher, and Legislature of all, instinctively but progressively will be assimilated to his character, and become like Him whom he so truly and deeply loves. 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect,' is an absurdity as addressed to the unconverted man; it is the most beautiful, possible, and welcome address to him who loves God with all his heart, soul, and mind. And the longer you live in the light of the countenance of Him who is love, the more sharply and distinctly the lines of the long effaced and faded image of God will be restored and thrown up, till at last you are found bearing the likeness of him who loved you, the sons and children of our Father who is in Heaven.
"And if you are the subjects of this love, you will love all that bear the superscription of God. You will love the Sabbath as an angel from the realms of the blessed, as an emissary from the brighter and better land, as a fragment of Heaven, a foretaste and an earnest of the Sabbath that remaineth for the people of God. You will love it, not because it is a respite from the labors of the week, but because it bears upon its bright brow the signature of your Father in Heaven. You will love the house of prayer. It is a tent that is pitched on the Sabbath, in which God meets you, and holds communion with you as he did with Adam in the cool of the day, and amid the bowers and walks of Paradise. You will prefer, a day in God's courts to a thousand in the Crystal Palace. You will regard every service that you join in, every sermon that you hear, as a spring in the valley of Baca, drinking from which you are strengthened for 'the journey that is before you."