and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life." Remember the day appointed; the judgment in righteousness; the resurrection of the Son of God; the assurance given thereby all which you acknowledge; and, acknowledging, have no such alleviation of your unbelief to plead, as the uninstructed Heathen have. If you repent not, therefore, it will be "more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you." "Raised up to heaven," like Capernaum, in privileges, you will be "thrust down" only the more fearfully" to hell." Obey, then, the voice of mercy, Repent ye. Consider. Pray. Receive the atonement by humble, penitent faith. Exhibit in your own persons the benevolent tendencies of the gospel, even in its calls to the severest duty, by renouncing all the sources of your present and future misery, and by securing by means of it peace, pardon, adoption, grace, hope, holiness, heaven.

86

SERMON V.

JOHN vi. 37.

Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.

WE considered in our last discourse the universal call to repentance addressed by Almighty God to man, on the ground of the resurrection of Christ and the times of light introduced thereby.

We need scarcely pause here, to observe how beneficent must that religion be, which, instead of condemning the world as it merited, publishes terms of reconciliation with the offended Majesty of heaven, and commands men everywhere to repent and receive the blessings of salvation, that they may escape from all those sins and vices which are the sources of misery, and enter upon a new and happy course of meek and consistent piety. Nothing so beneficial to man, both as to his body and to his soul, both as to his individual and social happiness, was ever proposed.

This same benevolent tendency will be more immediately apparent, however, in considering our next topic, the invitation proposed to men to accept

the benefits of Christ's death. For, after the contemplation of repentance, we naturally ask, What encouragement has the contrite in heart to apply to the Saviour for pardon, grace, and eternal life.

The words of our Lord in the text furnish the appropriate answer. They are a part of his discourse to the Jews, after he had miraculously fed the five thousand. In allusion to the occasion, he describes himself and the blessings of his gospel, under the familiar image of bodily food; "The bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." He proceeds further to explain his meaning by saying, "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." And then, after touching on the secret transactions with the Father, by means of which he would not be without followers, though most of the Jews should reject his mission-" but I said unto you, that ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father hath given me, shall come unto me"-our Saviour utters the gracious promise of the text, as if on purpose to check any apprehensions which might in consequence arise in the breast of the humble inquirer ; "Him that cometh unto me," i. e. for this bread of life, that he may never hunger more, "I will in no wise cast out."

The allusion is to the provisions of a feast, such as our Lord's previous miracle, or the parable of the marriage supper describes; and to the natural fear of those who complied with the invitation, lest, from

some cause or other, they should not be admitted with the guests, but be cast into the outer darkness of unprotected night, there to spend the time of the banquet in unavailing weeping and regret.

In the assurance of the text, which is opposed to such apprehensions, we have naturally to consider, The application supposed to be made; and, The promise of a gracious reception.

I. The application is thus expressed, "Him that cometh to me." Faith in Christ, or coming to him, is the humble approach of a penitent sinner to the Saviour, as he is set forth in the gospel, under an urgent sense of need, that he may receive all the benefits of his death and mediation. It is not an act of the body, but of the mind; not a motion of the person, but of the affections. Just as the apostles speak of "him that cometh unto God," and of men "drawing nigh unto God;" where the spiritual approach of the mind is unquestionably meant. Accordingly, the expressions, believing in Christ, and coming to him, are continually interchanged; as in one of the passages already cited, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."

Such a faith is not the slight, notional belief which most men suppose to be all that is intended by the term. They take it for little more than what we possess by education and habit, a sort of historical belief that the facts recorded in the Scriptures, and summed up in the Apostles' Creed, took place; that Jesus Christ is a Saviour, and that his doctrines are

true. If this were faith, men might with great reason treat it as a matter of easy acquisition, and consider our insisting upon it in the manner we do, as tending to put mere notions and profession in the place of obedience to God's laws.

But faith in Christ is of another nature. It is that kind of coming to him- each one personally and individually for himself-under a pressing perception of guilt and danger, which resembles the applications of the sick and disconsolate to our Lord when he was upon earth. To approach him from any motive and in any kind of way, is not enough. It never constituted the act to which the text alludes. There was, of course, at that time a bodily movement involved in coming to him; but not that only. How many of his bitterest enemies came to tempt him, to watch his words, to carry information of them to the Pharisees. How many came, as our Lord in the chapter from which the text is taken declares, because they had "eaten of the loaves and were filled." How many came and shouted Hosannas from mere ignorance and temporary emotion, who in a few hours after as eagerly demanded his crucifixion.

No. Coming to Christ was even then the sincere, humble suit of an indigent creature, with faith in his divine mission, for the particular blessings which he needed. The Syrophoenician mother thus came for her dying daughter; the centurion for his servant; the friends of the paralytic for his cure; the woman, twelve years afflicted, for healing; the blind man