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SERMON XI.

THE HAPPY HOPE.

TITUS ii, 13.

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

HERE are two appearances spoken of in this context

THE

-the appearance of "the grace of God that bringeth salvation;" and parallel with that, though at the same time contrasted with it, as being in very important senses one in nature and principle, though diverse in purpose and diverse in manner, is what the Apostle here calls "the glorious appearing of the great God."

The antithesis of contrast and of parallel is still more striking in the original than in our version, where our translators have adopted a method of rendering of which they are very fond, and which very often obscures the full meaning of the text. Paul wrote, "Looking for that blessed (or 'happy') hope, even the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour," where you see he contrasts, even more sharply than our Bible makes him do, the past appearance of the grace, and the future appearance of the glory.

Then, further, "this appearance of the glory," however bright with the terrible beauty and flashing lustre of Divine majesty it may be, seems to the Apostle to be infinitely desirable, and becomes to him a happy hope. The reality, when it comes, will be pure joy. The irradiation of its approach shines from afar on his brightening face, and lightens his heart with a hope which is a prophetic joy. And the attitude of the Christian soul towards it is to be that of glad expectation, watching the dawning east and ready to salute the sun.

And yet further, this attitude of happy expectation of the glory is one chief object to be attained by the grace that has appeared. It came "teaching," or rather (as the word more accurately means) "disciplining, that we should live looking for that happy hope."

So then, we have here for our consideration three points embodied in these words-The grace of God has appeared, the glory of God is to appear; the appearance of the glory is a blessed hope; the disciplining of the grace prepares us for the expectation of the glory.

I. First, then, take that thought-The appearance of the grace leads to the appearance of the glory.

The identity of the form of expression in the two clauses is intended to suggest the likeness of and the connection between the two appearances. In both there is a visible manifestation of God, and the latter rests upon the former, and completes and crowns it.

But the difference between the two is as strongly marked as the analogy; and it is not difficult to grasp distinctly the difference which the Apostle intends. While both

are manifestations of the Divine character in exercise, the specific phase (so to speak) of that character which appears is in one case "grace," and in the other "glory." If one might venture on any illustration in regard to such a subject, it is as when the pure white light is sent through glass of different colours, and at one moment beams mild through refreshing green, and at the next flames in fiery red that warns of danger.

The two words which are pitted against each other here have each a very wide range of meaning. But, as employed in this place, their antithetical force is clear enough. "Grace" is active love exercised towards inferiors, and towards those that deserve something else. So the grace of God is the active energy of His love, which stoops from the throne to move among men, and departing from the strict ground of justice and retribution, deals with us not according to our sins, nor rewards us according to our iniquities!

And then the contrasted word "glory" has not only a very wide meaning, but also a definite and specific force, which the very antithesis suggests. The "glory of God," I believe, in one very important sense, is His "grace." The highest glory of God is the exhibition of forgiving and long-suffering love. Nothing can be grander! Nothing can be more majestic! Nothing, in the very profoundest sense of the word, can be more truly Divine-more lustrous with all the beams of manifest Deity, than the gentle raying forth of His mercy and His goodness!

But then, while that is the profoundest thought of the

glory of God, there is another truth to be taken in conjunction with it. The phrase has, in Scripture, a well marked and distinct sense, which may be illustrated from the Old Testament, where it generally means not so much the total impression of majesty and power made upon men by the whole revealed Divine character, but rather the visible light which shone between the Cherubim and proclaimed the present God. Connected with this more limited sense is the wider one of that which the material light above the mercy seat symbolized—and which we have no better words to describe than to call it the Ineffable and Inaccessible Brightness of that awful Name.

The contrast between the two will be suggested by a passage to which I may refer. The ancient lawgiver said, "I beseech thee show me thy glory." The answer was, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." The eye of man is incapable of apprehending the uncreated divine lustrousness and splendour of light, but capable of receiving some dim and partial apprehensions of the goodness, not indeed in its fulness, but in its consequences. And that goodness, though it be the brightest of "the glories that compose his name," is not the only possible, nor the only actual manifestation of the glory of God. The prayer was unfulfilled when offered; for to answer it, as is possible for earth, would have been to antedate the slow evolution of the counsels of God. But answered it will be, and that on this globe. eye shall see him."

"Every

The grace has appeared, when Divine Love is incarnate

among us. The long-suffering gentleness we have seen. And in it we have seen, in a very real sense, the glory, for "we beheld his glory-full of grace." But beyond that lies ready to be revealed in the last time the glory, the lustrous light, the majestic splendour, the flaming fire of manifest Divinity.

Again, the two verses thus bracketed together, and brought into sharp contrast, also suggest how like, as well as how unlike, these manifestations are to be.

In both cases there is an appearance, in the strictest sense of the word, that is to say, a thing visible to men's senses. Can we see the grace of God? We can see the love in exercise, cannot we? How? "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" The appearance of Christ was the making visible, in human form, of the love of God.

My brother, the appearance of the glory will be the same,--the making visible in human form of the light of throned and sovereign Deity. The one was incarnation; the other will be incarnation. The one was patent to men's senses,-so will the other be. The grace has appeared. The glory is to appear. "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go." An historical fact, a bodily visibility, a manifestation of the Divine nature and character in human form upon earth, and living and moving amongst men! As "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," so "unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The two are strictly parallel. As the grace was