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We are pleased to announce a new contributing writer for The Counsel of Chalcedon. He is Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer, (1818-1902), one of the three most important Presbyterian ministers of the Nineteenth Century, along with Dr. James H. Thornwell and Dr. Robert L. Dabney. He was one of the greatest preachers of the first twenty centuries of the Christian era. For a third of his life he was the devoted and dearly beloved pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. Studying his life and his sermons has been one of the two or three most important times in my life. As one has written: "His outstanding work was that of a preacher speaking with an eloquence that has been rarely equaled the glorious gospel of the blessed God" It will be an honor to meet him someday in heaven.
Rev. Palmer's sermons will appear frequently in the pages of our magazine, with only minor editing. Thousands, from all over the nation, flocked to hear this man preach. The common man, from all walks of life, loved him. The entire nation mourned at his death. Because we are not as literate as his generation, it will take time and effort to read his sermons; but it will be well worth it. I earnestly pray the Rev. Palmer's life and preaching will affect you as it has me. "He being dead yet speaketh." (JCM III)
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1992 Issue 3 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: Christ's Love for His People - Counsel of Chalcedon
We are pleased to announce a new contributing writer for The Counsel of Chalcedon. He is Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer, (1818-1902), one of the three most important Presbyterian ministers of the Nineteenth Century, along with Dr. James H. Thornwell and Dr. Robert L. Dabney. He was one of the greatest preachers of the first twenty centuries of the Christian era. For a third of his life he was the devoted and dearly beloved pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. Studying his life and his sermons has been one of the two or three most important times in my life. As one has written: "His outstanding work was that of a preacher speaking with an eloquence that has been rarely equaled the glorious gospel of the blessed God" It will be an honor to meet him someday in heaven.
Rev. Palmer's sermons will appear frequently in the pages of our magazine, with only minor editing. Thousands, from all over the nation, flocked to hear this man preach. The common man, from all walks of life, loved him. The entire nation mourned at his death. Because we are not as literate as his generation, it will take time and effort to read his sermons; but it will be well worth it. I earnestly pray the Rev. Palmer's life and preaching will affect you as it has me. "He being dead yet speaketh." (JCM III)
We are pleased to announce a new contributing writer for The Counsel of Chalcedon. He is Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer, (1818-1902), one of the three most important Presbyterian ministers of the Nineteenth Century, along with Dr. James H. Thornwell and Dr. Robert L. Dabney. He was one of the greatest preachers of the first twenty centuries of the Christian era. For a third of his life he was the devoted and dearly beloved pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. Studying his life and his sermons has been one of the two or three most important times in my life. As one has written: "His outstanding work was that of a preacher speaking with an eloquence that has been rarely equaled the glorious gospel of the blessed God" It will be an honor to meet him someday in heaven.
Rev. Palmer's sermons will appear frequently in the pages of our magazine, with only minor editing. Thousands, from all over the nation, flocked to hear this man preach. The common man, from all walks of life, loved him. The entire nation mourned at his death. Because we are not as literate as his generation, it will take time and effort to read his sermons; but it will be well worth it. I earnestly pray the Rev. Palmer's life and preaching will affect you as it has me. "He being dead yet speaketh." (JCM III)
oj Chalcedon. He is Rev. Benjamin , Morgan Pahner, (1818-1902), one of the threemostimportant Presbyterian ministers of the Nineteenth Century, along with Dr. JameS H. Thomwell and Dr. Robert L. Dabney. He was one of the greatest preachers of the first twenty centuries of the Christian era. For a third of his life he was the devoted and dearly beloved pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. Studying his lifeand his sermons has been one of the two or three most important times in my life. As one has written: "His out- standing work was that of a preacher- speaking with an eloquence that has been rarely qualed-. the glorious gospel of theblessedGoci" It will be an honor to rneethimsome-day in heaven. Rev. Paliner's sermons will appear frequently in the pages of our magazine, with oIlly minor editing. Thousands, from all over the nation, flocked to hear this man preach. The common man, from all walks of life, lovedhim. The entire nation mourned at his death. Because we are not as literate as his generation, it will take time and effort to read his sermons; but it will be well worth it. I earnestly pray the .Rev. Palmer's life and preaching will affect you as it has me. "He being dead yet speaketh: (JCM ill) Lave For His People "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." John 15:9 There is an amazing depth in the GospelofJohn, whichrendersitalmost hopeless of exposition. The other Evangelists, indeed, present a perfect portraiture of our Lord-throwing, with artistic skill, feature after feature upon the canvas. They record His miracleswithhistorica1 precision, and recite His parables and fragmentary discourses with touching simplicity and beauty. Yet their representation, as compared with that of John, is largely external. They present the figure of Christ before the eye with such singular attractiveness, that we instantly admire and adore. ButJohn nestles in the Lord's very bosom, and creeps into the Saviour's heart; whence his gentle voice breathes as from an oracle the words of love which are 8 t THE COUNSEL of OtaIcedon " March, 1992 ever found in that Saviour's heart. So that, reading the New Testament, we pass through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, very much as the priest of old passed through the holy place; until inJohnwe find the holy of holies of the Bible,itsinnermostshrine. The transparent clearness ofJohn's style, to a certain extent, also deceives us. A superficial reading takes in the import of the words so that we seem to understand, until we begin to reflect; and the longer we read, the more the deeps open before us-:-until, at length, thought and reason are swallowed up in the vastness of the revelation of this rpystic andseer. It is as though oneshould stand and look up into the clearbluesky above; which parts before the eye, and the sight is nowhere hindered, hutpierces onwardand upward, until visionandfancy are lost in the immensity of space. Just so, you and I kneel at the edge of one of those sublime utterances of Christ, which are reported by John; and as we look, we seem to gat e into the very depths of eternity. To take up, then, these thoughts, to pass them throughtheprismofouranalysis,and then to throw theminto logical forms, would seem almost profane in its coldness. Yet it is the hard condition
and to explore; and our only hope is afterwards to re-cornbine the elements which we have separated, and to glow with a warmer devotion than before. The text is a beautiful illusu'ation of this: ''As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." How simple the statement. and yet how deep the sentiment! One can never exhaust its fullness. Evidently. there are two senses in which the Father may mediator; opening the way for us to see how upon precisely the same grounds Christ loves His people. ':As the Father hath love me, so have I loved you." 1. The Father has infinite delight in the LordJeslIs Christ, as He is the representative and type of what hllman nature in its peifection is. Lord Christ intervenes, taking upon Him our nature; and, "beingfound in fas/lion as a man," He presents Himself beforetheeyeofHisFather. the perfect man. His understanding. how clear! His affections. how pure! His will. howconstantandfree! Hisconsdence. how clean! What exact symmetty in all His powers! How endUring in suffering! How patient in toil! How gentle. withoutweakness! be said to love the Son: either. as He is the only begotten in the mystery of the adorable T tinity; or else, as the incarnate Word, achieving here upon earth the work of our redemption. The first entirely surpasses our conception. Who can 'JlndouttheAlmighty unto peifection?" It is as highasheaven;whatcanst thoudo? Deeperthanhell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." Gob 11:7-9) Itisjustas ''Jifi, my brethren/ taK..? the thought home to your own comfort, that Jesus has a true sympathy with you in your struggfes How forgiving. without meanness! And so. as the typical man. as the true ideal of the race to which youandlbelong. Hestood before His Father and represented humanity in its original glory; and the Father renewed the joy which He felt at the creation. when He looked upon this representative of Himself and "behold it was very good." to be good. 'Everywhere efSe man Jirufs himself rejecteri despiseri when he comes with confessions of unworthiness and of shame. tJ3ut when we !Q1ee[ at the mercy seat, this typica[ representative of our race yieUs a sympathy as rea{ with us In like manner Christians are dear to Christ. because they also represent human nature . .. " In our SInS, as In our sorrows. impossible for the finite to comprehend the holy commerce of the three, as it is to penettate the undivided essence of the one. It would seem rather to be the other, which our Lord intends in the text. For, in the verse immediately following. He refers to the obedience which He Himself rendered to the Father. in the discharge of His mediatorial functions: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love." Under this view, then, my hearers, let us attempt to consider upon what grounds the Father loves Christ, the At the Creation. God sawall His works that they were good; and He pronounced this benediction with a peculiar emphasis after the work of the sixth day. when He had made man "in His own image and after His own likeness." He had created the earth as an august temple. and placed man within itas the high priest to conduct its worship; that. looking all around upon nature, He might gather her beauties upon the mirror of his own soul. and then cast the reflection back upon God in solemn and holy chants of praise. Butsin reversed all this. and man was himself the gloomiest wreck of the whole. In this emergency the in its restoration. The life which has been implanted witllin them by the power of the Holy Ghost. is developed-ffi that.frombeingbabes in Christ. theybecomeatlength perfect men in Christ Jesus. In all the stages of theirgrowthingrace. they approach nearer to their type; continuing. through all the ages. that whichJesus Christ began upon the earth- representing to angels above what human nature shall be made to be when that Spirit has completed his work upon all its powers. Ah. my brethren; take the thought home to your own comfort, that Jesus has a true sympathy with you in your March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Cha1cedon 9 struggles to be good. Everywhere else rule. As soon however as you, enter man' finds himself rejected, despised, within the law itself, you discover that when he comes with confessions of in its interior aspect , it is ] ehovah's unworthinessandofshame. Butwhen solemn assertion of Himself, we kneel at the mercy seat, this typical construing His own perfections to representative of our race yields a human thought Hence, obedience sympathy as real with us in our sins, must be estimated-not only as the as in our sorrows. No other being in doing of a right external thing in all this vast universe is able to put a obedience to an express command- lovingandahelpfularrnaroundus,in but as being the hearty response of continually presented in Scripture as the object of the ' Father's delight. doth my Father love, mt becau.se llay down my life, that l might takeit again- --this commilndment have I received of my Father: , (John 10:17,18) Throughout His earthly ministry, he refers the glory of His rnirac1es,andthegloryofHisdoctrines, to the Father that sent Him; the moments when we sin; and still more, in the moments of our penitence when we confess the shame with which we are overwhelmed. The blessed Redeemer, because He is the true typical man, has a sympathywithyou and with me in our battle withsin,inourstruggles with temptation, in our resistance of the world and of Satan; and all the more, because He sees what He has Himself restored, and what is the continuation upon earth of thatwhich He, inHislleshcommenced. "AstheFalher hath loved me, so have lloved you." n. TheFatherdelightsintheLord Jesus Christ, becauseo}His obedience. I am persuaded that we look at thelawtoomuchinitsexternalaspect, as merely mapping out therelationsin which we stand to society and to God, and prescribing various classes of duties. All perfectly true, in so far as this law becomes the chart of human conduct: but then we are in this, standing outside of thelaw, viewingit only in its power of direction and of recognizirtg that subordination, of office which, in the economy of redemption, he sustains to Him. ]ustso, the Lord Jesus delight in the obedienceofHispeopl. True, it is short and imperfect; and God and we alone know how honest and how deep are theconfessionswhich.we pour into his ear at the mercy seat, . over the imperfe,ction of that obedience yrhich we render. Therefore it is, : , that weare not scorched and withered by the our own nature to the perfections of revilings of the world; for when, with God. Thereis an external aspect to the its serpent tongue, it hisses in our ear obedience,aswellasan externalaspect its rebuke and scorn, wI we have to the law which commands the gone down, far deeper than they have obedience. Theobediencewhichrises ever been able to object against us, into the majesty of worship, is the into the meanness of our sin. 'Long obedience which God recognizes as before they brought the indictment, the echo orHis own voice in the we have spread it'in tears before the exposition of Himself. As he stamps, eye of our Father in Heaven; untU he one by one, and aU together, the has sweedy said, "thy sins which are perfections ofHis nature upon statute many be forgiven thee, go in peace." and upon sanction, we, in our sphere Thus we stand erect,' even When the of obedience, respond in our thought world stones us with .. itsbitter and in our affection to all that we accusations and innuendoes. Short discover: Upon this ground, the and imperfect as we confe$ it to be, it obedience of the Lord Jesus is is nevertheless obedience; ' and 10 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon March, 1992 1 obedience generous and free, an obedience which springs from the principle of love implanted in the soul, an obedience which is the true response of our rectified nat].lre to all that the law reveals to us of God. Our divine Lord and Master loves us for our obedience, precisely on the same ground thauhe Father loved Him, for His obedience. And then, Ollr obedience is a continuation of that which ChriSt began, and bywhich He "magnified the law and made it honorable." Have you forgotten how the Lord identifies Himself with His people, making them the representatives of Himself in His person, in His work, and in His cause here upon the earth? The feeblest of believers inthe feebleness ofhis walk does yet-in so far as he renders an obediencewhich is theresponse of his own soul to the nat].lre of God as revealed in the law-continue in its manifestation before the world that glorious righteousness by which the law of God was perfectly honored through Christ Himself. m. TheFatherlovestheMediator, for His amazing sacrifice in the redemption of a lost world. There is a generosity in self- sacrifice, which always appeals to the sensibilities of the good; and in none ofits forms, however low, as you view them upon the earth, are you able to withhold your eulogy. It may be the self-sacrifice of the mother, who, through anxiety and toil, by day and by night, sacrifices her comfort and her ease for her child. It may be the self-sacrifice of the father, shown in the labors which are perpetually exactinguponhisfeebleframethrough a long life, just that he may leave an inheritance for his offspring and emancipate them from the toil by which his own body has been racked. Itmaybetheself-sacrificeofthepatriot, who willingly surrenders life and fortune for the redemption and independence of his country. Or it may be the self-sacrifice of the missionary, who, leaving home and its endearments, and even the sound of his native tongue, goes to the ends of the earth, ifhaply he may cause the desert to bloom as the garden of the Lord. But wherever you find the spirit of self-abnegation, you find that upon which human praise is continually poured. But, my brethren, where was there ever self-sacrifice like that of our Lord; so free, there being no compulsory necessity upon Him to offer Hirnselfasubstitute forthe guilty; so extreme in its condescension, for "He took not upon Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham," "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him thefonn ofaservant, andwasmade in the likeness of men; andbeingfound in fashion as a man, He hwnbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." (Phil. 2:7,8) How agonizing too, the sufferings he endured; sufferings which can never be measured by human thought, not expressed in human language, until you have penetrated the mystery of that word uttered upon the Cross, "My God, my God, whyhastthouforsaken me!" And a sacrifice rendered for sinners, who had completelyforfeited every claim upon His forbearance or Hismercy. Lookattheself-abnegation of our blessed Lord, when He laid aside the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and not only came into the world which His power had built and assumed the condition of a creature, but actually went under the law and endured the curse and shame of sin for us, that we might be made tile righteousness of God in Him. And now, shall not the generosity of this sacrifice of our Lord for a wretched and doomed world, appeal with all its force to the magnanimity of the etemal Father? How shall the great God fail to regard hisSon with anything less than infinite delight, when He contemplates tile nobleness of that sacrifice which he offered llP once for all, in the enq. of the world, to take away sin. Brethren, shall we not be allowed to say in the presence of the world that,just in so far as we are Christians atall, areweanimated by this principle of self-abnegation and sacrifice? Why, your Christian life began with the solemn consecration of yourself to Him who bought you with His precious blood. The language which burst from you heart in the moment when you embraced your Lord, was the language of Paul, "Lord, what wilt thouhaveme to do." It was tllelanguage of hitn of old declaring, "other Lords besides Thee have had dominion over us; but by Thee onlY will we make mention of Thy name." (Is. 26:13) "As forme and my house, wewillserve the Lord. "(Joshua 24: 15) Step by step, as you track your experience from the beginning to the close, is it marked by this principle of self-renunciation in giving to God tile praise of your salvation. The spiritual life which is breathed into you, is the life of Christ which the Holy Spirit imparts. The strength by which you perform duty and resist temptation and secure triumph, is the strength which the Saviour gives through the power of the Holy Ghost. And the glory upon which we enter at the last, as we rise into the presence of our March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 11 Lord, is the glory which the Saviour has gone before and prepared for them that love Him. The language of all Christian experience in all the ages, whether onearth orin heavllIl, Will be, "not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory.' The Lord, with His eye of omniscietlce looking into the depths of the Christianheart, discovers there this principle of sacrifice. It imparts a glory even to this ragged, ravelled work of ours, over which we weep tears of penitence and shame; and causes the great Redeemer to hold it up before His eye, and give us His blessing. Imperfect as the work may be, it is a work of sacrifice like His own; perpetuating upon the earth the principle of self- abnegation which the Lord Himself so c onsp icu ously illustrated. Hence, Paul says in the first chapter ofhis epistle to the Colossians; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up thdtwhich is behindofthe afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church. (Colossians 1:24) Nevetdidyou give a cup of coldwater to a disciple in the name of a disciple, -never did you practice economy in your home, or upon your person, that you might have something to give to the cause of Jesus,-never did you sacrifice a feeling of resentment under the wrongs which you suffer in life, but the Lord upon His throne looks upon it as the manifestation of the sameSpiritwhichmovedhim, "though He was rich, for our sakes to become poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.' (nCor.8:9) Brethren, take your shame, if God appoints it as your lot, and bind it upon you for a crown. Take your sufferings, if God appoints these to you, and, like Paul of old, glory in your tribulation. If your home bemadea chamelhouse, where you are surrounded more by the memories of your dead than by living forms beautiful to the eye, r ~ o i e in that you are sharers of your Lord's work in sacrifice; holding it up in memorial before the eyes of men, and causingthemtorecognizetheprinciple for which the Saviour was most loved by the Father. N. The Father has inexpressible delight in the Lord Jesus, as the Head in who!,! is restored the unity of the Creation. Sin, just like a cruel blade, which cuts between bone and sinew, flesh 12 f mE COUNSEL of Chalcedon f March, 1992 andmarrow, how divisive it-is! What a fearful sch:i.Sm. has it wrought upon this earth of ours! It has not only separated man from God, but it has put barriers between man and all God's creatures. The open sch:i.Sm. between rilan arid the angels; some have thought to be symbolized in the Cherubimandflamingsword tUrning every way, which guarded the tree of life; lest 'man should put the climax to his apostaSy, and dare the powerofGodineating of the sacramental tree after .his fall. It was most ' certainly . intimated, when man vias driven from paradise; each footfall of the guilty pair, as they wandered from the beautiful Eden, waking up the echoes of a vacant world. It is this schism between man and the very ,beasts of the earth, which compels the fonner tb retain his jurisdiction over the latter,onlythroughan everlasting contest of mental power with physical force. But in that exigency, when sin had dislocated this earth and set all parts of it awry, the LordJesus came. Behold Him in HiSswift condescerision. as He passes through all the grades of intellectual being, until he finds man down there at the very bottom oftbescale; plainly shOwing that in his entire descent through these intervening gradeS, He took them all up and folded them within Himself, and thUs, byvittue of His very incarnation, becomes the head of the whole Creation of God. I cannot go largely into it as a doctrine, touching it only by a side reference here; but every intelligent reader of the Scriptures knows how constantly this headship of the wrd] esus, which He has acquired as the Redeemer, is emphasized. "He raised Himfrom the dead," says Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians, "and set Him at His own right hand in the heaYen/y places, far above all prindpalilJ and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath pul all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullnessofHimthatfilleth all in all." (Ephesians 1:20-23) Again he writesto the Colossians, "Ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all prindpali/J and power." (Colossians 2:10) Or, as Peter puts it: ''who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angelsandauthoritiesand powers being made subject unto Him. n (I Peter 3:22) And is not Christ a beauty in His Father's eye, when He recovers the universe from the divisive influences of sin, and binds aU in a holy unity again; presenting Himself before the Father as the representative of the whole creation, made one by redeeming grace, as before it was one by creative power? What does fue Church symbolize in her spiritual unity, but this great idea which the Lord ] esus has accomplishedandwhichHemeansto perpetuate through us? Even the visible Church with all her imperfections, with all tile discords which spring up in her bosom, strives to realize the same in her visible unity-mind clashing with mind and thought separating from thought, yet all fused together into spiritual and blessed oneness whenever you gather around the wrd's table and touch tllosesacramentalernblems--tlleonly spot upon the earth where all controversies are composed, and all varieties of opinion are reconciled. For this our Lord prays in the memorable words: "that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us:-al1d the glory which Thou gaYest Me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one." (John 17:21,22) Thus, mybrefuren, does fue wrd]esus delight in us, even as the Fafuer delights in Hin1; because we are exhibiting His glory as the head overall things to the Churm, wielding universal aufuority to fue praise of His Fafuer's name. V. The Father delights irifinitely in Christ, as working out the revelation of His merry, grace and law. Perhaps it is true iliat wherever there is thought, there is speech. The two seem in all history, as far as we can trace it, to be strangely coordinated. Thought is always tending to its expression. Thought leaps out and puts ona form,thatitmaygohere and there and everywhere through nature, and touch theobjectwhichhas excited it. Thought must have its eyes wifu whim it can look upon other minds, and a tongue with whicll it can break the silence and hold communion wifuofuersouls. There is an infinite fitness that the great God who thinks, who is the fountain and origin of all thought, should speak. But oh! wifu what a dialect does He utter the immortal thoughts passing through His mind! He creates worlds upon worlds, filling all space wifu these orbs which are the objects of our scientific investigation; and He creates the little violet which blooms and gives forfu its perfume beneafu your feet, as you are about to tread upon it unseen. These are the silent types, through which the great] ehovah speaks to tile universeHisimmortalthoughts. like fuose pages that are prepared for fue blind, stars, worlds, mountains, oceans, seas, animals, plants, minerals, are the raised type over which the blind pass the little finger with its March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 1;3 delicate touch, and putting letter to letter, read out the thought. Shall you, shall I, allow a skeptical science to separate the works of God from Him who is their author? Or are these sciences, which constitute the glory of our day, but the open paths by which we ascend beyond nature up to nature's God? We will re-write the line of England's pantheistic poet, when he says "the proper study of mankind is man;" and withourversionof the truth, say, rather with the first answer of our own catechism, "man's chief end is to glOrify God and to enjoy Him forever." We will wage war against the divorce, which men attempt, between the works of GodandtheGodwho made the works. These are God's thoughts, expressedin type which the eye shall trace and which the finger shall feel. Like the immortal Newton, who, when he had placed his scaling ladder against the skies in his astronomical investigations, rose above them in the heights of scientific induction, and closed his immortal demonstration with the scholium (comment), "there is a God: But, my brethren, GodmayexpressHispower in the works of creation; or His thoughts of goodness and purposes of will, in the acts of Providence; or He may utter His truth and His justice in the law; but that larger opening of the infinite heart, through which He shall pour out forever upon the universe the , treasures of His love, calls for a personal manifestation. TheSon, who alone understood the nature of the Father and could reveal it, Comes from the bosom of that Father to declare Him; and because of this revelation, the Father loves Him. I should like, if I had time, to dwell upon another shade of the thought: that Christ Jesus is far more than a prophet, simplyutteringwith thelips to us that God is. merciful and that God is gracious; but that Hewent into the working-house and forge of His own passion, and there amidst the fires of sacrifice, wrought out the principle of grace and forever incorporated it with law as an element of God's moral government forever andforever-potentiallyworkingout themercysothatitshallbeanhistorical 1-4 '" THE COUNSEL of OtaIcedon '" March, 1992 verity, and therefore mote easily comprehended by us and more perfectly wrought into our individual experience. Just as the Father lo.:res Christ for that, Christ, in His turn, looks upon His Church and loves her for the same. That Church stands before the Redeemer, not only as the fruit of His sacrifice, but the preciOUS . memorial of the mercy, grace and love which lay at the foundation of that sacrifice. Willyou allow me to hurry to a conclusion by ' dwelling ,for a moment upon the peculiar lmport of the word "As" in the text? It is the particle of comparison: ' . "As ' the Father hath love me, so have I loved you. Oh! how it teaches us the reality of Christ's love to His people! For, as the Father'skivetoHimwas a real love, of which He, ' the S()n; had an inWard, conscioUsness, so; it is our privilege to have an abiding persuasion of the Redeemer's love to us. Christ's love to His Church is as real, as the love which the Father has to Him. See again, howitdepicts theIiature ofthislove. The Father's love to Christ was a personal love; and Christ's love to His sheep is equally individual. This is the sweetness of it:' that when we were bleating in the cold, alone off yonder upon the distant mountain; the Good Shepherd knew His own, and He called us by name and we were made to follow. "I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine, and they shall hear my voice." (John 10:14,16) It is a free love, founded upon no foresight of goodness in us, for when we were in our blood He passed by and said unto us "live." See how the Apostle puts it: "For if, when we were enemies, we were recolldled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10) The Father's love to the Son is an infinite love, and unchangeable in its duration. So is the love which Christ has for His people, a love that is boundless and without change. It is sweetly said of Him, that "having loved His own, He loved them to the end. " Brethren, where is the end? Look! Let the clouds part before your eye beyond the horizon of time, and gaze down the vistas of what we call eternity, piercing with your view through the ages as they heap upon the ages-:..say, when will you come to the end? As longas eternity lasts, or the throne abides upon which He sits, shall this Redeemer, having begun to love, love to the end. And so love andheaven are alike secure to us- conquerors while her, and rejoicing in the triumph of conquerors there. . And then the love of the Father to Christ was the impulsive spring of all the obedience which He rendered to His Father's will: And so Christ's love to us is the fountain and source of all the obedience which we seek to offer. Oh! Thismechanicalmorality-taking the dry shell of a thing, and shutting up thought and feeling and desire and will and purpose in that external mould, and taking the brick after it has been bumtinthekiln, and holding it up before the great God and saying tl13.t this is obedience! Why,nothing is obedience that does not spring from the heart,-justas these waters, which theAlmighty has brewed in thewomb of the earth, spring [rom tlle fountains which He has placed on a thousand hillsides. Obedience is voluntary; obedience is the homage of the will spontaneously rendered to God; the free echo which man's nature gives to thevoice of God as interpreted to Him in the law. As the Father's love to the Son was the spring of all tllat Son's obedience, so does Christ's loveforus command our obedience in its tum. We love Him, because He has loved us; and all duty is sweet, and toil is pleasure, when it is sanctified by the love from which it splings. Myunconverted friend, it is a great pleasure, even though the thing be badly done, to preach God's precious Gospel to you. I take you to record tllat my llabit is rather to woo you, if I nlaY, with its attractive voices, rather tllan to hold up the glittering sword and hurl against you the anathelllaS of the judgment. Would to heaven, I had persuasion enough in my voice, today, to bring you to an acceptance with us of these immense privileges! Oh, tllat you with us could be made willing in this, the day of His power, to hold communion with tlle Father and witll the Son and with the eternal Spirit! and to know, as no other can teach it to you, except the Divine Spirit Himself, what is that love of Christ to the believer, which He compares the Father's love to Himself!.Q by Joe Morecraft. //I Husbands & Wives $20.00 includes all five messages, tape case & shipping. Specialty Media Services P.O. Box 28357 Atlanta, GA 30358 (404) 668-9511 March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 15