SERMON

PREACHED AT BRISTOL ON BEHALF OF THE

BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY,

MAY 9TH, 1864,

BY THE

REV. J. P. MURSELL,

OF LEICESTER.

"The glorious Gospel of the blessed God."-1 Timothy i. 11.

THE careful reader of the Pauline Epistles cannot fail to be struck with the boldness of their style, and especially with the cumulative feature by which it is distinguished. Whether the writer be conducting a great argument, or deducing the inferences which fairly follow from it ;--whether he be descanting on the sacred privileges of the Church of God, or enforcing the precepts of the Evangelical code; there is a copiousness alike of illustration and of diction, which invests his writings with inimitable charm. Nor does this peculiarity lie in a redundancy of words, but in the expansion of thought; it is elaboration without weakness, and luxuriance without wildness; the effort of an emotional intellect to pourtray themes too vast for human grasp-themes which elude by their greatness, and dazzle by their splendour. He piles his ideas one upon another, clothing them as he proceeds, in fascinating dress, until the summit of the column is lost in the brightness of the skies. Abundant proofs of this, enrich his productions and may be traced for example in Corinthians xv. 1, in the opening of the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, and in Hebrews xii., while so indigenous is this manner of thinking and of expression to the mind and the moods of the writer, that it breaks out in the less consecutive and more detached parts of his epistles, as when he says, "Now unto Him who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think." "These light afflictions which are but for a moment, work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." So in the instance before us, the Apostle writes, not simply and barrenly as he might have done, "according to the Gospel," but "according to the glorious Gospel," "according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God."

We are taught alike by reason and revelation to conceive of the Almighty God as the first cause of being, as "He who was before all things, and by whom all things consist." To whatever distance, aided by thought, by science, or by imagination, we carry back the date of the organic universe, we must admit that the

Creator existed independently of, and indefinitely beyond it; since, if we identify Him with His works, we in effect make Him material, constituted of parts, and like them liable to change and decay; but "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Yet it is one of the abstrusest themes in the whole range of human enquiry,-it is hard, well-nigh beyond all else, to get any idea as to the origination of matter,-to understand how God called into existence that which is so unlike Himself, so opposed to His essence. To dismiss this profound question by the curt remark, that all things are possible with Him, is to rebuke rather than to encourage thought, and to assign to reverential yet bold speculation, dogmatic limits. The obstacles which beset such an enquiry present no sufficient reason why attempts should not be made to scale its towering heights. It is true we are told by an inspired apostle that "by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear:" that is, the formal creation is matter of testimony, and we devoutly believe the report; but this does not place the subject beyond the reach of modest research.

We have among us and all around us, abundant proofs of the ascendancy of mind, of its moulding, controlling, and directing power. The monuments of geniusclassic, mechanical, artistic,-of its plastic power in fashioning the elements to its will, have been raised all along the path of time; while in our own day all nature seems to be placing her tribute at its feet. The breath of the waters, the electric fire, the solar light, are but playthings in its hands; so that no one can pretend to assign the boundaries of human discovery and skill. If man, with such limited powers, and dependent rather on tradition than on uninterrupted experience, can attain to such authority over nature, may we not conclude that "the angels, who excel in strength," could exert a still mightier influence, if need be, in marshalling the atoms at their will, that those, before whom the devoted cities became a plain, the army of Senacherib as dead men, and the prison doors, in later times, as unfolding leaves, could play with worlds well nigh as we do with ravines, with forests, and with seas? Were it allowed us to conceive of beings still higher and yet higher in the mental scale, might we not still apply the law of augmented power over material forms, and without positive absurdity imagine that this rule of ever-aggregating influence lives in the infinite mind in the form of creative energy; and that the one-the inferior-is but the faint, the distant shadow, of the other? But seeming discrepancy vanishes, at least in part, when we contemplate Jehovah as educing results congruous with His own nature; such as are spiritual, moral, benign; such as seem to stream forth from His divine essence. When He first constructed mind, gave wings to thought, placed an ethereal sceptre in the hands of conscience, and strung the heart to celestial melodies ;-when He enfranchised the universe, and gave to finite creatures unfettered freedom;—when He drew the line of demarcation, bright and broad, between good and evil, obedience and rebellion ;— when, as in rebuke of solitude, He flung abroad in the social law one vast and outstretched type of His own ineffable association;-when He rendered finite individuality the well-spring of mutual sympathy;-when He threw the promised light of His paternal countenance over His loyal dominion, He seemed more clearly to reveal to us the outgoings of the King eternal, immortal, and invisible. Inasmuch,

then, as we trace in mind, in truth, in principle, in goodness, and in their like, more that is congenial with our ideas of the Divine Nature than we do in atoms, in mountains, or in planets; and inasmuch as the New Covenant is especially charged with these, is the brightest effluence of them with which we are acquainted, it may well be pronounced on this ground, "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God."

It is usual with us, when talking of distinguished men-of those who make or who leave their impression on their age, or who have contributed, either as thinkers, as writers, or as orators, to the wealth and to the dignity of their species-to speak of them as having in one or more instances, surpassed themselves-as having taken a step or two in advance of the usual walk of their powers-though always strong, as sometimes excelling in strength. Dante, in his "Inferno," Bacon, in his " Novum Organum," Newton, in his "Principia," might be adduced in illustration of this: while, would correct taste allow, we might allude to those whose names are more familiar, and, in some senses, more precious to us-whose teaching and example still shed their light pensively around us: men who, by their distinction, were placed beyond the hope of emulation, and beyond the reach of envy. These-like all men, in whatever department of action they move, who have within them the elements of true greatness, though always of fine proportions, would now and then assume, without effort, their more gigantic stature. Indeed, this is not so much the result of law as of necessity-not so much the quiet carrying out of self-design, as of homage paid to occasion. Some seemingly trifling incident occurs-some vast all-absorbing event takes place-some unexpected appeal is made-or some great subject captivates the mind, and we have an illustration, in these higher walks, of what the merchant on the Exchange calls demand and supply. If Philip of Macedon had been a pacific, instead of an ambitious prince, succeeding peoples would never have been thrilled by the most animating orations of Demosthenes. Had Julius not been Pope of Rome, Michael Angelo would not have stamped his imperishable name on the vault of the Sistine chapel. Had Warren Hastings never been Governor of India, Burke would not have exhausted alike the patience and the wonder of the Peers of England by his celebrated, but unsuccessful, impeachment Echo itself slumbers, till called forth by accidental tones from its mystic cell. As, then, we are used to reason by comparison and from analogy, and as this method of thought abounds in the sacred writings, there can be no presumption in ascending from the less to the greater-from the earthly to the heavenly-from the human to the divine. Infinite intellect-any more than finite-cannot be quiescent: indeed, the activity of the created is but the healthful vibration it has caught from its relation to the uncreated mind, while the image of this activitya sort of mute testimony to it-may be found in chemical laws, in waving winds, in floating clouds, and in ebbing tides. The imprints of the Divine Power are all around us: they are so indelible and deep, that none but the wilfully blind can evade them: reason detects them in the silent as well as in the more imposing operations of nature-in the opening flower and in the thundering avalanche-in the revolving seasons and in the earth with its faithful and glad response-in the cavernous depths and in the vaulted heights; above all, in those mightier forces, which, while they give order, lend to innumerable worlds as they revolve, their

sublime and awful harmony: "He hangeth the earth upon nothing, and stretcheth out the north over the empty place." But natural power, whether it be limited or boundless, is but the handmaid of that which is higher than itself. There is a serener and yet mightier presence which we may approach through this outward temple-an arcanum into which we pass through this array of stars and suns, and unutterable splendours, as into the "Holiest of all." Yes! there is an energy, dissociated from all that is material, that finds no exposition under the ordinary phrase of Omnipotence; it is senatorial, rather than mechanical-it is engaged in educing and in guarding great principles and in laying bare the foundations of law-in unravelling complications and in controlling the tumults of passion-in bringing order from confusion and enthroning renown on the ruins of disgrace. What crises have transpired in the vast and all-enduring administrations of the Deity it would be presumption in us to imagine: but we know, from sacred authority, that those, whether bright or dark, which have marked our history, are not the first that have spread gloom or gladness through His wider dominions. But it surely is not presumptuous to suppose-nay, even to assert, that no occurrence has so elicited the strength and illustrated the resources of Jehovah, as the fall of man. When the contagion of daring revolt could not be confined within its earlier limits-when the spirit of deadly opposition rose prospectively through the succeeding generations of men-when a germinant race must be virtually extin guished or permitted to appear with a plague-spot on their brow-when the prerogative of His throne must be upheld or the cause of evil triumph-when it became a question of "hail-stones and flames of fire," or a system of truth which should "drop as the rain and distil as the dew": then the blessed God, put on His strength, unfolded the deep intentions of His mind-divulged plans unknown, unheard of, till the terrible necessity arrived, when He showed, to the confusion of His adversaries, that He was indeed "wise in council and wonderful in working." No sooner had the arch-deceiver placed his stealthy foot within the consecrated precincts, and succeeded in his foul design, than the first promise-"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head "-divulged the ulterior purposes of the Father of mercies, and the God of all grace; "Have ye not known-have ye not heard, hath it not been told you from the beginning, that the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding." A scheme so profound, so bright, so beneficent-rising from amidst the thickening confusion, as light dawned upon chaos, must be regarded as the right arm of the Eternal, and deserves the designation of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God."

The reports we have of the intercourse between God and men in the earliest stages of time, though authentic and inspired, are summary and broken; while they are sufficient for our information, they cannot be supposed to have been adequate for their consolation and guidance,-the pious among them must have "had meat to eat that we know not of." It is the province of history, however abundant its materials, to give the mere outline of events; it is obvious that such an outline must be sketchy indeed when there were scarcely any materials at all. What a mystic field these unrecorded ages present to the chastened imagination, and for the graphic pencil;-what pictures, based on probability and robed in

fancy, might be given to society, possessing more than the fascination of the "Arabian Nights" without their wildness and their folly. Our first parents must have been favoured, even after the fall, with much communion with God; for the light of the promise had cheered them, and its import so tinged and filled their converse and their thoughts, that Eve exclaimed on the birth of Cain, "I have obtained a man, Jehovah." Enoch was surely not the only saint who walked with God, nor Noah the sole preacher of righteousness. "Holy men of God," it is reasonable to believe, lifted in those days the testimony of lofty rebuke and of exemplary lives. They communed with heaven, aided by celestial visitations; the voice of prayer, and the hymn of praise, accompanied with the odour of sacrifice, no doubt ascended from their too sparse assemblies, while a faithful God threw the arms of His protection around those who emerged from the mass that had corrupted its way. After the flood, the name of God, the aspect of the Divine perfections towards our race-began to be disclosed;-the early promise smiled through the awful intervening cloud;—a succession of men, more venerable than any that secular history records, were favoured with visions, and oracular directions, and condescending covenants; "the Lord himself appeared to Abraham, and said unto him, "I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect." After four hundred years had passed away, God said to Moses, "I am the Lord, and I appeared unto Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them." As the patriarchal day gradually declined till it set in the darkness of Egyptian night, and the legal dispensation dawned, the intimate relation between Jehovah and His chosen nation grew increasingly apparent, attested by mediation, by miracles and by tender mercies, until the people received the law amidst blackness and darkness and tempest, "the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, the holy place." On this august occasion part of the Divine name appeared. As the spirit of prophecy, the fainter breathings of which had from the earliest times, like zephyrs from the skies, fanned the souls of men, gained volume and strength, the revealed name of Jehovah acquired corresponding expansion; so that the faithful in Israel caught more vivid glimpses of the promises which were yet far off. Seer after seer arose, and in tones of growing distinctness rekindled the languishing hopes of an expectant Church. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." "I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh; there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth." "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken." "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself." Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal