I–THE KING OF THE EARTH<\/p>\n
FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
\n[Preached in 1849.]<\/p>\n
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.–MATTHEW xxi. 4.<\/p>\n
This Sunday is the first of the four Sundays in Advent. During those
\nfour Sundays, our forefathers have advised us to think seriously of
\nthe coming of our Lord Jesus Christ–not that we should neglect to
\nthink of it at all times. As some of you know, I have preached to
\nyou about it often lately. Perhaps before the end of Advent you will
\nall of you, more or less, understand what all that I have said about
\nthe cholera, and public distress, and the sins of this nation, and
\nthe sins of the labouring people has to do with the coming of our
\nLord Jesus Christ. But I intend, especially in my next four sermons,
\nto speak my whole mind to you about this matter as far as God has
\nshown it to me; taking the Collect, Epistle, and Gospels, for each
\nSunday in Advent, and explaining them. I am sure I cannot do better;
\nfor the more I see of those Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, and the
\nway in which they are arranged, the more I am astonished and
\ndelighted at the wisdom with which they are chosen, the wise order in
\nwhich they follow each other, and fit into each other. It is very
\nfit, too, that we should think of our Lord’s coming at this season of
\nthe year above all others; because it is the hardest season–the
\nseason of most want, and misery, and discontent, when wages are low,
\nand work is scarce, and fuel is dear, and frosts are bitter, and
\nfarmers and tradesmen, and gentlemen, too, are at their wits’ end to
\nsquare their accounts, and pay their way. Then is the time that the
\nevils of society come home to us–that our sins, and our sorrows,
\nwhich, after all, are the punishment of our sins, stare us in the
\nface. Then is the time, if ever, for men’s hearts to cry out for a
\nSaviour, who will deliver them out of their miseries and their sins;
\nfor a Heavenly King who will rule them in righteousness, and do
\njustice and judgment on the earth, and see that those who are in need
\nand necessity have right; for a Heavenly Counsellor who will guide
\nthem into all truth–who will teach them what they are, and whither
\nthey are going, and what the Lord requires of them. I say the hard
\ndays of winter are a fit time to turn men’s hearts to Christ their
\nKing–the fittest of all times for a clergyman to get up in his
\npulpit, as I do now, and tell his people, as I tell you, that Jesus
\nChrist your King has not forgotten you–that He is coming speedily to
\njudge the world, and execute justice and judgment for the meek of the
\nearth.<\/p>\n
Now do not be in a hurry, and fancy from what I have just said, that
\nI am one of those who think the end of the world is at hand. It may
\nbe, for aught I know. “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not
\neven the angels of God, nor the Son, but the Father only.” If you
\nwish for my own opinion, I believe that what people commonly call the
\nend of the world, that is, the end of the earth and of mankind on it,
\nis not at hand at all. As far as I can judge from Scripture, and
\nfrom the history of all nations, the earth is yet young, and mankind
\nin its infancy. Five thousand years hence, our descendants may be
\nlooking back on us as foolish barbarians, in comparison with what
\nthey know: just as we look back upon the ignorance of people a
\nthousand years ago. And yet I believe that the end of this world, in
\nthe real Scripture sense of the word “world,” is coming very quickly
\nand very truly–The end of this system of society, of these present
\nways in religion, and money-making, and conducting ourselves in all
\nthe affairs of life, which we English people have got into nowadays.
\nThe end of it is coming. It cannot last much longer; for it is
\ndestroying itself. It will not last much longer; for Christ and not
\nthe devil is the King of the earth. As St. Paul said to his people,
\nso say I to you, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.”<\/p>\n
These may seem strange words, but almost every one is saying them, in
\nhis own way. One large party among religious people in these days is
\ncomplaining that Christ has left His Church, and that the cause of
\nChristianity will be ruined and lost, unless some great change takes
\nplace. Another large party of religious people say, that the
\nprophecies are on the point of being all fulfilled that the 1260
\ndays, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, are just coining to an end;
\nand that Christ is coming with His saints, to reign openly upon earth
\nfor a thousand years. The wisest philosophers and historians of late
\nyears have been all foretelling a great and tremendous change in
\nEngland, and throughout all Europe; and in the meantime,
\nmanufacturers and landlords, tradesmen and farmers, artisans and
\nlabourers, all say, that there MUST be a change and will be a change.
\nI believe they are all right, every one of them. They put it in
\ntheir words; I think it better to put it in the Scripture words, and
\nsay boldly, “Jesus Christ, the King of the earth, is coming.”<\/p>\n
But you will ask, “What right have you to stand up and say anything
\nso surprising?” My friends, the world is full of surprising things,
\nand this age above all ages. It was not sixty years ago, that a
\nnobleman was laughed at in the House of Lords for saying that he
\nbelieved that we should one day see ships go by steam; and now there
\nare steamers on every sea and ocean in the world. Who expected
\ntwenty years ago to see the whole face of England covered with these
\nwonderful railroads? Who expected on the 22nd of February last year,
\nthat, within a single month, half the nations of Europe, which looked
\nso quiet and secure, would be shaken from top to bottom with
\nrevolution and bloodshed–kings and princes vanishing one after the
\nother like a dream–poor men sitting for a day as rulers of kingdoms,
\nand then hurled down again to make room for other rulers as
\nunexpected as themselves? Can anyone consider the last fifty years?–
\ncan anyone consider that one last year, 1848, and then not feel that
\nwe do live in a most strange and awful time? a time for which nothing
\nis too surprising–a time in which we all ought to be prepared, from
\nthe least to the greatest, to see the greatest horrors and the
\ngreatest blessings come suddenly upon us, like a thief in the night?
\nSo much for Christ’s coming being too wonderful a thing to happen
\njust now. Still you are right to ask: “What do you mean by Christ’s
\nbeing our King? what do you mean by His coming to us? What reason
\nhave you for supposing that He is coming NOW, rather than at any
\nother time? And if He be coming, what are we to do? What is there
\nwe ought to repent of? what is there we ought to amend?”<\/p>\n
Well, my friends–it is just these very questions which I hope and
\ntrust God will help me to answer to you, in my next few sermons–I am
\nperfectly convinced that we must get them answered and act upon them
\nspeedily. I am perfectly convinced that if we go on as most of us
\nare going in England now, the Lord of us all will come in an hour
\nwhen we are not aware, and cut us asunder in the deepest and most
\nreal sense, as He came and cut asunder France, Germany, and Austria
\nonly last year, and appoint us our portion with the unbelievers. And
\nI believe that our punishment will be seven times as severe as that
\nof either France, Germany, or Austria, because we have had seven
\ntimes their privileges and blessings, seven times their Gospel light
\nand Christian knowledge, seven times their freedom and justice in
\nlaws and constitution; seven times their wealth, and prosperity, and
\nmeans of employing our population. Much has been given to England,
\nand of her much will be required. And if you could only see the
\nstate of mankind over the greatest part of the globe, how infinitely
\nfewer opportunities they have of knowing God’s will than you have,
\nyou would feel that to you, poor and struggling as some of you are–
\nto you much has been given, and of you much will be required.<\/p>\n
Now first, what do I mean by Christ being our king? I daresay there
\nare some among you who are inclined to think that, when we talk of
\nChrist being a king, that the word king means something very
\ndifferent from its common meaning–and, God knows, that that is true
\nenough. Our blessed Lord took care to make people understand that–
\nhow He was not like one of the kings of the nations, how His kingdom
\nwas not of this world. But yet the Bible tells us again and again
\nthat all good kings, all real kings, are patterns of Christ; and,
\ntherefore, that when we talk of Christ being a king, we mean that He
\nis a king in everything that a king ought to be; that He fulfils
\nperfectly all the duties of a king; that He is the pattern which all
\nkings ought to copy. Kings have been in all ages too apt to forget
\nthat, and, indeed, so have the people too. We English have forgotten
\nmost thoroughly in these days, that Christ is our king, or even a
\nking at all. We talk of Christ being a “spiritual” king, and then we
\nsay that that merely means that He is king of Christians’ hearts.
\nAnd when anyone asks what that means, it comes out, that all we mean
\nis, that Christ has a very great influence over the hearts of
\nbelieving Christians–when He can obtain it; or else that it means
\nthat He is king of a very small number of people called the elect,
\nwhom He has chosen out, but that He has absolutely nothing to do with
\nthe whole rest of the world. And then, when anyone stands up with
\nthe Bible in his hand, and says, in the plain words of Scripture:
\n“Christ is not only the king of believers, He is the king of the
\nwhole earth; the king of the clouds and the thunder, the king of the
\nland and the cattle, and the trees, and the corn, and to whomsoever
\nHe will He giveth them. Christ is not only the king of believers–He
\nis the king of all–the king of the wicked, of the heathen, of those
\nwho do not believe Him, who never heard of Him. Christ is not only
\nthe king of a few individual persons, one here and one there in every
\nparish, but He is the king of every nation. He is the king of
\nEngland, by the grace of God, just as much as Queen Victoria is, and
\nten thousand times more.” If any man talks in this way, people
\nstare–think him an enthusiast–ask him what new doctrine this is,
\nand call his words unscriptural, just because they come out of
\nScripture and not out of men’s perversions and twistings of
\nScripture. Nevertheless Christ is King; really and truly King of
\nKings and Lord of Lords; and He will make men know it. What He was,
\nthat He is and ever will be; there is no change in Him; His kingdom
\nis an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth throughout all
\nages, and woe unto those, small or great, who rebel against Him!<\/p>\n
But what sort of a king is He? He is a king of law, and order, and
\njustice. He is not selfish, fanciful, self-willed. He said himself
\nthat He came not to do His own will, but His Father’s. He is a king
\nof gentleness and meekness too: but do not mistake that. There is
\nno weak indulgence in Him. A man may be very meek, and yet stern
\nenough and strong enough. Moses was the meekest of men, we read, and
\nyet He made those who rebelled against him feel that he was not to be
\ntrifled with. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram found that to their cost.
\nHe would not even spare his own brother Aaron, his own sister Miriam,
\nwhen they rebelled. And he was right. He showed his love by it;
\nindulgence is not love. It is no sign of meekness, but only of
\ncowardice and carelessness, to be afraid to rebuke sin. Moses knew
\nthat he was doing God’s work, that he was appointed to make a great
\nnation of those slavish besotted Jews, his countrymen; that he was
\nsent by God with boundless blessings to them; and woe to whoever
\nhindered him from that. Because he loved the Jews, therefore he
\ndared punish those who tempted them to forget the promised land of
\nCanaan, or break God’s covenant, in which lay all their hope.<\/p>\n
And such a one is our King, my friends; Jesus Christ the Son of God.
\nLike Moses, says St. Paul, He is faithful in all His office.
\nTherefore He is severe as well as gentle. He was so when on earth.
\nWith the poor, the outcast, the neglected, those on whom men
\ntrampled, who was gentler than the Lord Jesus? To the proud
\nPharisee, the canting Scribe, the cunning Herodian, who was sterner
\nthan the Lord Jesus? Read that awful 23rd chapter of St. Matthew,
\nand then see how the Saviour, the lamb dumb before His shearers, He
\nof whom it was said “He shall not strive nor cry, nor shall His voice
\nbe heard in the streets”–how He could speak when He had occasion. .
\n. . “Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” “Ye serpents,
\nye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”<\/p>\n
My friends, those were the words of our King; of Him in whom was
\nneither passion nor selfishness; who loved us even to the death, and
\nendured for us the scourge, the cross, the grave. And believe me,
\nsuch are His words now; though we do not hear Him, the heaven and the
\nearth hear Him and obey Him. His message is pardon, mercy,
\ndeliverance to the sorrowful, and the oppressed, and the neglected;
\nand to the proud, the tyrannical, the self-righteous, the
\nhypocritical, tribulation and anguish, shame and woe.<\/p>\n
Because He is the Saviour, therefore He is a consuming fire to all
\nthose who try to hinder Him from saving men. Because He is the Son
\nof God, He will sweep out of His Father’s kingdom all who offend, and
\nwhosoever maketh and loveth a lie. Because He is boundless mercy and
\nlove, therefore He will show no mercy to those who try to stop His
\npurposes of love. Because He is the King of men, the enemies of
\nmankind are His enemies; and He will reign till He has put them all
\nunder His feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I–THE KING OF THE EARTH FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. [Preached in 1849.] Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.–MATTHEW xxi. 4. This Sunday is the first of the four Sundays in Advent. During those four Sundays, our forefathers have advised us to think seriously of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ–not that we should neglect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}