SERMON XII. SELF-DENIAL. GEN. XXII. 2. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Abraham was now dwelling at Beersheba, a town near the southern extremity of Canaan. The land of Moriah was the country in which Jerusalem afterwards stood, about fifty or sixty miles to the north. The place where the altar was to be erected for the sacrifice of Isaac, was on Mount Moriah, -the mount on which the temple afterwards stood, where all the sacrifices were offered from the days of Solomon to the advent of Christ; and to which Mount Calvary was appended, where, in the fullness of time, the Seed of promise, the antitype of Isaac, was to be offered for the sins of the world. An interpolation in the 14th verse, which seems to have been inserted after the temple was built, and probably by Ezra, informs us particularly where the place was. “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." And we are told that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah; the mount retaining the name after the surrounding country had lost it; the name being indelibly stamped upon it probably by this transaction of Abraham. Abraham had been called out of Mesopotamia, and had left all his native scenes, led by the promise that in his seed all nations should be blessed. Notwithstanding this, he had lived until he was a hundred years old before his wife bore him a son. In this time his faith and patience were put to a severe test. At length his heart is gratified by the birth of the long expected seed. The little son in whom all the blessings are wrapped up, grows up by the side and grows fast to the heart of the doting parents. With what pleasure,-with what pious delight, do they watch his opening virtues. How often do their fond eyes, as they follow him about, glisten with the tender tear. At length the dreadful summons comes, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." What shall the father do? With what words shall he support the sinking mother? How can he lose his only son? But this is not half. How can he shed the blood of his Isaac with his own hand? What then will become of the proImise that in Isaac his seed shall be called? But none of these things stagger the faith or retard the obedience of the pious patriarch. Confident that God is "able to raise him up even from the dead," he makes no delay. He vents none of his cares either to the mother or the son. He arises early in the morning, takes his son and some servants, and puts the wood for the burnt offering on an ass, and sets off on foot for the place. "On the third day" he lifted "up his eyes and saw the place afar off;" and leaving there the ass with the servants, he laid the wood on the unsuspecting Isaac, and proceeded toward the place. "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" This affecting question did not shake the father's purpose. "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood; [the pious youth making no resistance, although of sufficient age to carry the wood for the burnt offering.] And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son." The deed was intentionally done. The knife was on the point of entering the palpitating heart; when he who in future days was to die on the same mount to save ten thousand Isaacs from death, called suddenly out of heaven and stopped the father's hand. The trial was complete, and the proof was obtained that Abraham loved his God better than his son. This done, the God whom he served forbade the human sacrifice. And although the fame of this affair, and the great credit of Abraham for piety, introduced the practice of human sacrifices among the neighboring nations, yet God declares that such a practice never "came— into" his heart." His only design was to try his scrvant, to see whether he would deny himself for him. And he was found willing to a degree that appears to us selfish creatures truly astonishing. A greater instance of self-denial was never witnessed, save when a greater Father laid his hand on a dearer son in the tragic scene of Calvary. Abraham is called the father of the faithful, and the religion of all his sons must resemble his.But in this specimen we discover what his religion was. It was a principle of supreme love and unreserved obedience to God, which was ready to make any sacrifice which God required. He loved his God better than his Isaac; and would rather his son should die, nay die by his own hand, than break a command of God. This is the same religion that was taught by the Founder of the Christian Church: "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Self-denial lies at the foundation of all practical religion, as supreme love to God lies at the foundation of all the religion of the heart. If we are to judge from the practice and avowed sentiments of men, the easy, liberal world do not make self-denial a constituent part of their religion. To indulge the tastes which nature has implanted, to live as they list and enjoy life in the way that best suits them, seems the fashionable religion of the many. There is with them no struggle, no warfare, no running, wrestling, or fighting, no agonizing "to enter in at the strait gate." All easy. The gate is wide enough for the whole world to go in abreast, budgeted with all the trumpery of Sodom. They are to sail down the easy current of unresisted nature to the paradise above. Thus they dream. But what saith the Scripture ? is Mortify-your members which are on the earth.” "For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” My object will be, I. To explain the great duty of self-denial. This duty seems to be very imperfectly understood? While some have rejected it altogether as an injurious restraint upon the nature which God has given us, others have rode on the ridge of the other extreme into all the superstitious austerities of popery. What self-denial is, may be easily explained; but to know when we practise it, or when we only deny one desire to gratify another equally selfish, is a more difficult task. As a general definition, to deny ourselves is to perform what is crossing to our natural feelings, and what we should not do did not duty and benevolence require it. But the definition needs to be more exact. |