designed to exceed all the torments of | purification in Christ, but it is for the hell. Christ is now at liberty; and we impure. are as completely at liberty as He.

As the understanding apprehends If you cannot live without thinking Christ, so the will chooses Christ. about Jesus Christ, why, Christ is in The greatest proficiency in Christian-you; you are a spiritual person. ity is to apprehend that in the person and salvation of Christ as most exactly suits us.

The Lord cannot remember His peo-in ple, but He must remember their cases; and He therefore remembers His promises to fulfil them in times of need.

Living Jesus Christ is the only way to live down sin. It makes the temper easy, and the mind happy.

Prize every outgoing of your soul after Christ.

Do not want to be without the feeling of misery; but make a proper use of it, by coming to Him in prayer and open

OUTLINE OF A SERMON PREACHED IN BETHESDA CHAPEL,

BATH.

BY THE REV. J. A. WALLINGER.

"But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.”—Heb, x. 32, 33, 34.

Now there are four things that we may notice in this passage of Scripture: I. The illumination. II. The endurance. III. The consolation. IV. The confidence. And may the Lord show us our interest in these precious truths.

PAUL is here addressing the Hebrews, gether; and if God have given you His concerning whom, in the 11th of Romans religion, it has cost you something, I and 5th verse, he thus writes-"God know: you never got it without sufferhath not cast away His people whom ing in some form. There is a threefold He foreknew." Now He does not mean choice for all the elect. 1st. They are this with respect unto the Jews nation- chosen in Christ before all worlds. 2nd. ally, but to the remnant according to They are chosen in the furnace of afflicthe election of grace. The Jews as a tion. And 3rd. They are chosen out of nation were rejected, "that the Gentiles the world, drawn from the ranks of might be graffed in;" but the remnant sinners, and made to cast in their lot of God's choice, the elect amongst the with the people of God. If you are still Jews, were not cast off; for he says, in the devil's ranks, you are to all ap"Even now also there is a remnant pearance amongst the devil's seed. according to the election of grace." A God's sheep are marked by Him with remnant foreknown, approved, loved, His name; they are not for the slaughter, chosen. A people out of a cast off peo- but for salvation: whereas the devil's ple; a gathering out of the Jewish seed, who live and die in the ranks of nation; the children of God; the seed the world, are to perish with the goats of the Holy One and the Just, who were who are reserved for perdition. to be called by grace to partake of gospel mercies, and receive the blessings of Christ. Now our text is but the illustration of what God does for all His people in all ages. It sets forth the work of faith with power-"Call to remembrance the former days, in which, I. Then of illumination. The apostle after ye were illuminated, ye endured a says, "Call to remembrance the former great fight of afflictions." The Lord days, after ye were illuminated." But does this for, and in, all His saints, His suppose we go beyond the days of illuelect, whether Jew or Gentile, who are mination; go back to the days of darksaved with an everlasting salvation. ness, of unregeneracy, of heart enmity I do not mean to say God has done these to God. When we were carried captive things for all here. Some of you are in by sin and Satan; when we trifled with your sins, in nature's darkness; and if our mercies, and turned our back upon you live and die so, will be lost. God. When the world, the flesh, and Others of you may have realized a little the devil, had it all their own way with of the things whereof our text speaks, us; when we did their work, and were and yet not in the degree and extent their willing subject. Can you call to spoken of as done in these Hebrews. mind those days, when you "served My friends, a profession in those days divers lusts and pleasures;" full of carcost a man something. It is easy work nal enmity to God? But all those for now to be religious, and to make a pro- whom a ransom is found, shall find a fession of godliness; but then it cost a ransom; all those who are loved of man his life, and if not that, his sub- God, must be made to love Him. stance. Grace and suffering still go to- | Thence, being redeemed by blood, they

are called to suffer, as well as to believe; they are called to fight, called to trial, called to take up the cross. They are given shoes of iron and brass; not to walk over a smooth surface, but for rough roads and rugged paths. Dreary days, sorrowful days, tearful days, are the allotment of the saints here below. "In me ye shall have peace, but in the world tribulation," said Jesus; and so the saints must find. And why? Because faith must be tried, grace must be proved; and its endurance shows its reality. The Lord's illuminated people shall endure. It must be proved whether you have grace, whether it is genuine; thence it must be tried. You are

must come to know the worth of the | fight of afflictions." The Lord's people blood; and so they must come to days of "illumination," which is twofold. Illuminated to a sight and sense of sin, to feel the plague of their heart and evil nature; and by grace to hate it, loathe it, and long to get rid of it. But the apostle goes further. He says, after ye were illuminated," not only to see sin, to feel the darkness, to be made sensible of their cursed condition as ruined, fallen sinners, but a time of illumination to something better they must realize. To see Jesus the sinner's Surety; Jesus the way to God. Illuminated to see the law fulfilled by Christ; light let into the soul, whereby Christ is revealed as the Ransom-price-the "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption "to be the cross-bearing followers of a of the soul; so that now the poor sinner can say, "Once I was blind, but now I see "-illuminated. Said the Psalmist, "The Lord is my light and my salvation;" but he knew something first of the darkness and damnation. This is the way God takes still; darkness precedes light, and a fear of damnation precedes salvation. "I wound, and I heal; I kill, and I make alive." Now can you call to mind the former days, when you were illuminated? How long have you been in the way? When did God come in with that illuminating ray that cut you down-made you feel your darkness, took away all your fancied religion, and made you lie and cry as a poor lost wretch-Lord, save, or am damned Lord, have mercy upon me, or I perish? Now this is just what God did in those Hebrews we have here under consideration. It was in this very way they were illuminated; and if you have realized anything of the same mercy, you can call to mind such days "after ye were illuminated." What God did in them is but the type or pattern of what He does for all His people. He shows them their darkness, and reveals His light; makes them see and hate their sin, and opens up to them Christ-the way of salvation, the Surety, the Atonement, the Ransom-price and gives the soul to see in Him the blessings of pardon, peace, justification, acceptance, and final glory. We come, in the second place, to speak of endurance.

II. "Call to remembrance the former days, after," &c., "ye endured a great

lowly Jesus. Not living for the world, but for God. Some of you are not living for God, but for self; your hearts wrapped up in the trifles of time, your affections fixed upon earth. Some of you are in gray hairs, and what proof have you given that you are the subjects of grace? You may soon drop into the grave; not but the young often go before the old, but "we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and give an account of the deeds done in the body." In God's people, though accompanied with sin and many failings, yet the deeds done in the body prove they love God, and are partakers of grace. Thus we have in Matt. xxv. the character of their doings: it exhibited their love, which the goats never felt; it displayed union with the saints, which the goats, whatever might be their profession, never knew; and it manifested love to Jesus as the great ruling principle in all their doings: and to their works the Lord points as the fruit of grace, manifesting what He had done in them; and therefore whatever they did for Him was a proof of His love planted in their heart by His grace. The Lord's people must endure, and therefore the furnace, though hot, shall not consume their faith, or love, or hope, or patience. They may run low, but they shall not run out. In Heb. xi. you have Moses given as an instance of enduring faith; he preferred the reproach of Christ to the treasures of Egypt, "for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." He chose suffering rather than sin. Grace in the heart produces the

and this makes the world hate them. As long as you do not testify against the world, it will love you, and let your creed alone; therefore if the world and you get on comfortably together, if it suit you, and you suit it, you can see why it is so, and where you stand. You are not testifying against it; you are more or less in union with it, and "the friendship of the world is enmity with God." But see what these Hebrews endured for Christ's sake. Observe how they fared by being companions of them that were so used; but this did not affright them, they were the subjects of divine grace, and this made them endure

Now let us see further concerning these Hebrews. We find it is said of them, "ye endured a great fight of afflictions." "Manifold temptations," as Peter calls it-fold upon fold-a great fight, a warfare, a combat, a conflict. But there was more than that; they were made a gazingstock of, a mock of, a reproach; and came in for it all as "companions of them that were so used." They bore it all for Jesus' sake. In the present day" as seeing Him who is invisible." To we are too easy by half. The Church seems to slide on without persecution; but depend upon it, the secret lies in this, we are not bold enough for God and truth; our testimony is not sufficiently distinctive, so it gives no offence to the world. It is as true now as in apostolic days, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." And Jesus' words to His disciples are applicable to His people to the end of time; "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Persecution the faithful followers of Christ must expect in some shape or other; hated they must be, for His sake. Satan, the great originator of enmity and evil in the heart, will be sure to stir up His followers to persecute the children of God. If you do not suffer from his hatred, it is because you are not on the Lord's side; your spirit, your words, your ways, do not sufficiently testify for Christ. You do not stand up against evil, against error; against the powers of darkness: you are not companions of a despised Christ. The flock of slaughter are not your associates; you have not come out from an ungodly world, thence you escape the persecution which God's people in some form, secret or open, are made to undergo. Had you lived in the apostle's day, you would not have united yourself to the flock of slaughter, and cast in your lot as "companions of them that were so used." In every age, to be a follower of Jesus is to bear the cross and suffer reproach. And why? Because God's people are to be living wit nesses for Him in an ungodly world;

live the gospel is a very different thing to hearing the gospel. Better perhaps for some of you, if you had never heard it; for you have done what the heathen never did, heard and hated it: Notice what these saints endured "Ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods." These marks are left for us to measure our religion. Losses and crosses still follow the family of God; but many in our day take up with religion, with whom God never took up. Many are satisfied with the outward form that hate and deride the power, when they see its effects in the children of God. The religion of Christ is not old nature mended up and improved; but a new principle from above dropped into the soul. And this heavenborn religion must be proved and tried ; you must know whether it will endure. The most know only one religion; but God's elect know something experi mentally of a new religion: the old, in which they were educated, and lived, and hoped to be saved by, is taken from them, and a nature divine and new is dropped into them by the power of the Holy Ghost. And this is the religion that shall stand the fiery trials of life, and through grace believers endure as seeing Him who is invisible.

III. Let us notice the consolation. Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." They had that which the apostle to the Ephesians speaks of as "the earnest of the inheritance!" Earnest money being part payment, which is a pledge of the whole and faith is called

ease-to show the worst: and when God thus speaks through the Word to the wounding of a poor sinner, then he wants a Jehovah-Rophi-a God that healeth. Such of you as are in this case will feel your own attempts at a cure will go for nothing; Jesus must do it all, and thus get all the glory of the cure. Oh! how many are cradled in a false peace; a confidence, without foundation; an

"the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is the earnest, as it were, of the inheritance; for faith brings the future present faith sees the glory, and faith brings in divine consolation to the soul. But those who are partakers of faith are partakers of the suffering, and thence need the consolation; which principally consists in the knowledge faith gives that they have something better in re-assurance that the last solemn day will serve. Now, what know you of this inward testimony as to your interest in the glory to come? The Lord makes use of divers means whereby to comfort His saints in the wilderness; but the great source of consolation is derived from the apprehension by faith of the blessedness laid up for them above. God having more regard to the happiness of His people at the end than by the way; and therefore leads them off from the way to consider the end. Now, where do you stand in this particular? What do you know of the Spirit's witness to your interest in Christ, and to an heavenly inheritance? And this leads me to my last point.

IV. Confidence.

Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance." The work of the day in our pulpits, is to daub the people with untempered mortar, to heal the wound on the surface; but the work of God's sent servants is to probe deep, to cut to the bone, and get at the dis

prove unsound. They never had Christ revealed to them; never saw themselves lost; never had the witness of the Spirit that they were found; never had the consolations of the gospel applied to them; never had the confidence that a well grounded hope in the blood and righteousness of Christ gives; and dying so, perish-lost for ever! But such of you who are in possession of a wellgrounded confidence, are still among the poor and needy; for this is the nature of grace, the more you have of God, the more you will want. You want to live closer to Him, to feel His presence, and to have those evidences of His grace and love in your soul, that will prove your religion is not a dream, but a reality; not a cold creed, but a divine operative power; that blood and righteousness speak for you, and speak to you; and thus, by divine renewals, divine life is strengthened, and your confidence in God encouraged and increased. But I add no more. The Lord bless His word.