ledge their part also in the victory to have been; for it is the first office of true thankfulness to act as well as to speak its gratitude; and the first and most natural action of such gratitude as ours to-day is to relieve those who for its very cause are plunged in suffering and sorrow. May God give us all the spirit of love and of fear and of a sound mind! May we so humble ourselves under his mighty hand, that he may exalt us in due time? May we so show our love one to another in deed and in truth, that all men may take knowledge of us, as having the mind of Christ, as united unto him in our lives, and reflecting his example! 134 Paris Exhibition Sermons. Delivered in the Church of the Oratoire, Rue St. Honoré, under the sanction of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London. No.1, Rev. J. Sinclair, M.A.—On the Beautiful in Creation. G. R. Gleig, M.A.-The True God, and Life Eternal. R. Bickersteth, M.A.-Redemption, the Ground for Anticipating every Blessing. Ditto The Difficulty of Salvation. The connection between sin and suffering. J. S. M. Anderson, M.A.--The Ministry of John the Baptist. Ditto 8, J. Murray, M.A.-The happiness apart from the hope of the resurrection. 9, Hon. & Rev. H. M. Villiers, M.A.-The benefits derived from drawing near to God. 10, Ditto 11, Rev. W. Whewell, D.D.-Heavenly Mansions. Ditto Watchfulness against sin. The Te Deum, and the Apostles' Creed. The object of Christ's Ministry. R. Burgess, B.D.-The groaning of Creation, and its future deliverance. Ditto. C. Mackenzie, M.A.-Opportunities for union, and the danger of neglecting them. R. W. Jelf, D.D.-The Common origin of Man. 19, J. D. Glennie, D.D.-Repentance. PARIS EXHIBITION SERMONS. NO. XXI. LEARNING OF CHRIST. A Sermon Delivered on SUNDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBer 7, 1855, BY THE REV. J. D. GLENNIE, M.A. Secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and Minister of St. Mary's, Park Street, London. IN THE CHURCH OF THE ORATOIRE, RUE ST. HONORE, PARIS. "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus."-Ephesians iv. 20, 21. THE end of all true religion is practice; and the peculiar doctrines of Christianity would be of little value, if they did not evidently tend to the production and maintenance of a holy and heavenly character. Hence, it is the usual habit of St. Paul, after his most elaborate expositions of the great, and in many places mysterious doctrines of the gospel of Christ, to show in the clearest manner the influence which, if sincerely embraced, those doctrines must necessarily produce on the life and conversation of Christians. Thus, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, after having dwelt at some length on the wonderful scheme of man's redemption and reconciliation with God through the atonement and mediation of Christ, and having shown how the Gentiles also were now called to be fellow heirs with the Jews, and partakers of God's promise in Christ by the gospel, he proceeds, in the beginning of the chapter from which our text is taken, to beseech his converts at Ephesus, that they would "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Then, reminding them of their privileges and spiritual gifts-of the means of grace and edification with which they were so richly provided in the church of Christ, he exhorts them, with all that earnestness and energy of language for which his writings are so remarkable, to persevere in a consistent walk. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." The picture which St. Paul draws, as well here as also in several other parts of his writings, of the state of the heathen world is indeed awful in the extreme. Some even there were among them, who endeavoured to regulate their lives by the dictates of conscience and the rules of morality; but even they appear to shine with more than their intrinsic lustre, by reason of the appalling darkness which surrounded them. The great mass of people were alienated from all good, and addicted to all evil. They stand convicted of all the abominations of which the apostle speaks, themselves being witnesses. Their own picture of themselves has come down to us; their philosophers, poets, and historians have left us the accusing records of their crimes. They teach us, too, that they not only were filled with all unrighteousness, but that they were, as the apostle here declares, past all feeling-that they "worked all uncleanness with greediness"-that they not only did these things, but had pleasure in them that did them-nay, that they rejoiced in iniquity, and even gloried in their shame. Their very philosophers could approve, and sometimes recommend, the most immoral practices; and some of their most gifted poets have pros. trated their talent to the celebration of enormities of which it is a shame even to speak. As to God, they knew him not, nor had any desire to know him; their minds were alienated from everything which God could approve; all their wishes, all their desires, all their pursuits, were selfish, worldly, and sensual. Sometimes, indeed, the voice of conscience would speak within them; it would whisper to the mind some dark forebodings of a reckoning hereafter beyond the grave; but that voice, those faint and unwelcome whispers, were hushed by the reasonings of their philosophy falsely so called, or were stifled by reckless debauchery, before they could lead the sinner to that compunction of heart which is ever the first step to repentance and amendment of life. But, my brethren, are there not yet, but too many among those who call themselves Christians, who sadly resemble the Gentiles, as pourtrayed by St. Paul? Are there not many, very many, amongst ourselves who, although admitted into Christ's church by baptism, and regarded therefore as members of a Christian community, are yet nevertheless really living the lives of heathens? There are, indeed, some respects in which they do not resemble the Gentiles of old. They are, at least, as professing Protestant Christians, free from all idolatry, and they are more limited perhaps in their sensual indulgences; but they do practice, and that too without scruple or compuuc tion, many things which are enumerated by this apostle as peculiarly heathen vices-nay, like the heathen too, they are not unfrequently found even to glory in them, and to have pleasure in them that do them, and so to rejoice in iniquity, while in alienation from a life of godliness and in addictedness to earthly vanities, they differ hardly, if at all, from the heathen world. I would not willingly exaggerate the case of such persons; but let them be their own judges. Only let them try themselves by a very simple and intelligible test. Let them for a moment suppose it to be true, that Jesus Christ the Son of God never came into this our lower world, that he never offered upon the cross an atonement for the sins of fallen man, and that the gospel is indeed, after all, nothing but "a cunningly devised fable;" let them, I say, make this supposition, and then deliberately determine, if they can, what one practice, or habit, or principle, or thought, or feeling, they will have to change in consequence of such a discovery. They will stand convicted then, immediately of living just as if no such person as Jesus Christ ever existed; and they must confess, and let them do it with shame and confusion of face, that they are living heathen lives, under the falsely assumed name of Christians. But, beloved, we would fain be persuaded better things of you, and things that really accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Your consciences at least bear witness, that as members of the Church of England "ye have not so learned Christ." The articles, and creeds, and formularies of the church to which you belong, the services of the church in which you habitually take a part, all clearly set before you, and the ministers of that church are solemnly pledged to deliver to you, and to inculcate, the truth and the whole truth as it is in Jesus. You have been taught to acknowledge and receive the Messiah in all his offices; you have been taught to depend upon him as your Great High Priest, through whose atoning sacrifice, through whose meritorious cross and passion alone, you obtain remission of your sins, and are made partakers of the kingdom of heaven; you have been taught to look to him as your prophet, to instruct you in the will and ways of God-as that teacher sent from God whose words you must hear at the peril of your souls; you have been taught to be subject to him as your King, under whose banner you are to fight against his foes and yours, "the world, the flesh, and the devil," and whose laws you must obey, if you would not be treated as traitors and enemies, fit only to be brought out and slain before him. Thus, my brethren, if your hearts have been opened to attend unto the things which have been spoken unto you-thus have ye "learned Christ"-learned to trust in his merits for pardon and salvation, as entirely as if you could do no one thing to help and to save yourselves-yet learned at the same time to adorn your calling in Christ Jesus, by being as diligent in living a godly, righteous, and sober life, as if all your hopes depended upon your own exertions and attainments. This, then, my brethren, is the grand lesson in divinity, which the stewards of God's mysteries labour, in their ministrations among you, to inculcate for your edification and their own. This lesson has been either directly set before you, or been made the ground upon which have been based all the instructions delivered by those who have addressed you from this pulpit during the time that, through the kind and generous permission of the consistory of this noble church, we have been allowed the privilege of assembling here to worship God after the manner of our fathers, in a foreign, though blessed be God, in a friendly land. Yes, brethren, your ministers, wherever or whenever they address you, in God's house, and as in God's presence, would earnestly and affectionately invite you to follow on with them to know the Lord, in order that we may together "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." In humble dependence on the Divine blessing, they desire, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, to tread in the steps of St. Paul himself, and to come unto you, "not with excellency of speech, or of worldly wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God," but "determining not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." But is this indeed to know nothing? Is it nothing to know, that man, by his own wickedness and folly was totally ruined, and that no being in the universe could redeem and save him but the eternal Son of God himself, “Very God of very God"? Is it nothing to know, that Almighty God himself, in mercy to his rebellious creatures, took upon him their nature, in order that in that nature which had sinned he might pay the penalty of sin? Is it nothing to know, that although, when he was in the world that himself had made, that world "knew him not"—that although, when he "came to his own," on his gracious errand, "his own received him not"-" yet as many as" did acknowledge and receive him, "to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name”? Is it nothing for us to know, that if he was "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," it was because he "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows"-because he was "wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities”—because "the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed"-because "the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all," and "made him to be sin for us who knew no sin," in order "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him"? Is it nothing to know, that on his cross he triumphed over the principalities and powers of hell, that sought to subdue and enslave us for ever, and that through his death he "destroyed him that had the power of death," even "the devil?" Is it nothing to know, that when he had "overcome the sharpness of death," that sting of death which a broken bow had pointed against us, he "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers;" that if he "died for our sins," he "rose again for our justification"-rose to justify us in believing and rejoicing that our sins |