THE TRUE LOVER OF THE SAVIOR

A SERMON

Preached on Sunday Morning, March 10th, 1861

By Mister JAMES WELLS

At the Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road

Volume 3 Number 116

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Psalm 2:12

ALL the Old Testament saints were directed forward to the day of Christ, to the day when the Son of God should appear, when the angels at his first appearance should worship him. To this New Testament Day this Psalm, as the 13th of the Acts clearly shows, especially refers; and the words of our text are taken by the religious world, or which is the same thing, the world termed religious, and it is the world still; by such our text is generally taken as an exhortation to all men to kiss the Son. Did Jesus Christ wish Judas to kiss him? Did Jesus Christ wish his enemies to kiss him? I say not. Therefore, it is not a general exhortation; and the thing will speak for itself as we go along this morning. These words are addressed to none but professors, persons who profess to belong to Jesus Christ; and to kiss the Son fairly means these three things, to receive him, to reverence him, and sincerely and scripturally acknowledge him; though it is the last that I shall dwell chiefly upon; but none but his own people can do this, and with them he will not be angry. But when persons take up a profession, profess to receive him, and do not scripturally receive him, profess to love him, and do not sincerely or rightly acknowledge him, with these he is angry for making free with his name, for making a false profession of his name, for coming into his kingdom, and treading upon ground that they have no right to tread, and assuming a name which they have no right to assume, these are the persons with whom he will be angry, and they shall “perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” I shall therefore notice the text in the threefold form in which it is presented; first, the persons or people who do acceptably acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ; then, secondly, the solemn caution to the questionable professor, “Kiss the Son, least he be angry, and you perish from the way, when it’s wrath is kindled but a little;” and then thirdly, the blessedness of those who do scripturally acknowledge him, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

First. The persons who do scripturally and acceptably acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am going now, the Lord enabling me, to describe this matter as clear as I possibly can. In the preceding part of this Psalm the character is described very minutely. God the Father said to Christ, “ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s wheel.” Now here begins the description of character. First, “You shall break them with a rod of iron.” Here is Saul of Tarsus, strengthened by all the delusions of the lower world, and his neck like an iron sinew and his brow like brass against the saints of God, and the Christ of God, and the truth of God; but still the soul of Tarsus was given to Christ, and therefore Christ met him with a rod of iron, with irresistible power, and brought him to the ground, and he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what will you help me to do?” We must know what it is to be broken down: “You shall break them with a rod of iron.” And there is a great deal to break; there is our pride, the self-importance, and supposed wisdom and strength, and our native enmity against God, to break down; and he convinces us of our state, and breaks down, and makes us feel that we are children of wrath, that we are sinners, and not only sinners, but lost sinners; not only lost sinners, but helpless sinners; not only helpless sinners, but hell deserving sinners. This breaks a man down; his spirits are broken down; there is no spirit left in him to fight against God any longer; he cannot be prayerless any longer; hence the result of Saul’s being thus brought down was, “Behold, he prays.” Saul had said a great many prayers, no doubt, long before this; but he had never before really prayed. Now he felt he was a sinner, his soul sighed for mercy; he was broken down; he had no sovereignty, no holiness, no strength; there he lay and now he would say, It lies entirely with the everlasting God to damn me to eternity, or to save me with an everlasting salvation, just that which seems good in his sight; I cannot turn the tide; I cannot turn back his hand; I cannot alter his counsel, I cannot command his power, I cannot merit his favor; here I am poor, lost, helpless creature, entirely in the hands of Him “who will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.”

But also, “You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.” I have tried myself by this verse, as I trust I do by most of the Scriptures from which I preach to you; because I do not wish to preach to others that to which I myself am a stranger. I look back to the time when the Lord dashed me to pieces in all my resolutions: oh, how many resolutions did I make to be holy, how determined was I that everybody should see my piety, and conclude that I was a Christian, that everybody should think me a nice man, and I would think myself a nice man: how determined was I that I should be faultless and good, and that everybody should think so; how determined was I upon all this. But alas, alas, one besetment and another besetment brought me down, I do not mean outwardly, but as regards my feelings: and instead of my boasting myself of all the that holiness and wisdom, and strength, and quietness, and being all that the dead letter ministers I at that time told me I ought to be, I found myself just the reverse: I was broken all to pieces; I had not a thread of righteousness nor of goodness left, I was dashed to pieces, and there I was, a mere collection of ruins; and so said one, “I am like a broken vessel;” and so the Lord will: and when you are thus broken to pieces, then you will have nothing whatever to come before God. Now this is step the second in this character; first he is broken down as a sinner before God, and secondly, he is broken to pieces. I lay great stress upon the second idea, because when a sinner is broken down he is pretty sure to try to raise himself up again wrongly, pretty sure to put himself together again wrongly, and if the Lord did not follow us up with chastisement, conviction upon conviction, and trouble upon trouble, so as to dash us all to pieces; and you know when a vessel is dashed all to pieces what a worthless thing it is, it will hold nothing, it is a poor, worthless, useless thing: and so my hearer, if ever you go to heaven, you must be brought to feel that as a sinner, you are worthless, and in matters of eternal salvation utterly useless; and that so far from your helping in your own eternal salvation you will not find anything anywhere that stands so much in the way of salvation of your soul as yourself; so far from self, helping, self is the great hindrance, the great obstacle. Ah, what shall I do with this wretched, silly, sinful self? Ah, it is me, myself; it is not something merely that I have done, nor what I have been, but it is what I am; it is not upon a reflection of, Oh, wretch man that I was, but “Oh, wretch man that I am;” it is what I am, this poor, worthless self. Now my hearer, do you know what this is, do you know what it is to be broken as it were all to pieces before God? If so, you are an earnest inquirer after God’s mercy, and all your profession that comes short of this will leave you where it found you; you may go on and associate with the wise virgins, but if at the last it be found you are a graceless professor, you are destitute of grace, destitute of the golden oil of God’s grace, destitute of living faith in Christ Jesus the Lord, closely as you have been associated with real Christians, you will, notwithstanding that, be cast out into the outer darkness, the door will be shut, and into heaven you shall not enter, if you are a stranger to this breaking down work, the stashing to pieces work, that fits the soul for the reception of that fullness that is in Christ Jesus the Lord. These are the persons. But again, after they are thus broken down, then comes an exhortation. “Be wise now, therefore, O you kings.” I am aware there is a political way in which these words are generally taken, supposed to be an exhortation to the literal kings and judges of the earth; well, you may apply it if you please in that way, but we must take it spiritually; “Be wise now, therefore O you kings.” Ah, but now they are dethroned kings. A king is a man that girds himself, that is, an oriental king; I do not mean a constitutional king, but a despotic king, is a man that girds himself, and goes whether he will and does what he wishes. And so, said the Lord to Peter, when you were young you were a king: then you did gird yourself, and went wherever you wished; you did reign as king. Take the most abandoned character under heaven, you will find he has a little sovereignty of his own. But when he is broken down in this way, he is a dethroned king; he has now come down to beggary; he is a king in the dust, he is a king on the dunghill, his sovereignty is gone: ah, he says, I am dethroned, I was once a king, I girded myself, and went wherever I wished: or, to present you with another simile which will help you to understand this one, in the 53rd of Isaiah, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way;” and there is a close connection with this exercise of our sinful, creature, carnal sovereignty, there is the remedy presented: “And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Now, “be wise you kings.” Were in will their wisdom lie? Now they are dethroned, now they have lost their scepter, their crown, and are brought to beggary, where will their wisdom lie? In receiving Jesus Christ? “The Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all.” Am I speaking? I know I am, to some who know what it is thus to be dethroned, thus to be brought into the dust; you will say, suppose then I am favored to receive Jesus Christ, and suppose I am favored with grace to reverence him, even as I reverence the Father; And suppose I am favored with that grace that shall enable me to kiss him, in the sense I will presently carefully describe; what will be the result say you? Why, the result will be that you have been a king in the evil sense of the word, you will become a king in the good sense of the word; that as you have been a judge in the carnal sense of the word, you shall become a judge in the spiritual sense of the word. “Be wise now, therefore O you kings.” You will be wise now, you have been fools hitherto, until God broke you down, dashed you to pieces, and made you wretched and miserable, until he began his work; but now you are wise.

Let us go back again to the 53rd of Isaiah, “we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Your wisdom now will lie in receiving that Person who has borne sin away; and reverencing that Person who has thus put away sin; your wisdom will now lie in having a love to and sincerely acknowledging that Person who has put away sin. That is the wisdom you want; and if you are blessed with that wisdom, then you are wise unto salvation. “Be instructed, you judges of the earth.” You belong to the generation then that are wiser after their manner of things, then the children of light are after their manner of things; you were judge of the earth. Ah, say you, so I was, for I judged I could gain such a point, save so much money, get so many houses, get such an estate, oh, then I would retire; I could run over the country very easily, and go through the burying grounds, and read the tombstones, and put all the inscriptions in my pocketbook, and see which amidst all the burying grounds contained the longest lives, and where the longest lives on average were, that would be a sort of clue to go by. Some of you may smile at this; but some have done this, they have gone over the country; and they have sighed to think the average ages on the tombstones were not higher; and where they have thought them the highest, there they have gone to live, and some of them have died as soon as they got there. “Be instructed, you judges of the earth,” leave off your carnal plans and contrivances, give up your carnal hope; there is no certainty in it; it may be all dashed to atoms in the twinkling of an eye; even a Solomon may lose his glory; his glory, great as it is, may fail; all is uncertain. “Be instructed, you judges of the earth.” What are they to be instructed to do? “Serve the Lord;” serve Jehovah, you have been serving yourselves hitherto; is it right to serve the body more than the soul, judge you? Is it right to serve the creature more than the Creator, judge you? Is it right to be more concerned for time, then for eternity, judge you? “Be instructed, you judges of the earth.” And they do become instructed; and they begin to serve Jehovah. “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.” And what did they rejoice that? Why, that there is a Son of God, he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, and that sin was condemned in him, that the sinner may be justified in him that the sinner may be free; and that the sinner, the convinced sinner, may thus be led to receive Jesus Christ, and to have by him an eternal inheritance that shall surpass all your carnal, earthly calculations, as far as the Creator surpasses the creature; as far as eternity surpasses time. Ah, say you, I was judging, and acting, and providing a molehill for myself, when the great God in mercy had provided a Mount Zion for me; I was judging, and contriving, and laboring, and toiling to provide a passing vapor for myself, while the great God in mercy, unknown to me, for if he loved me now he loved me then, had provided for me an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away; and while I was busying myself about these card houses and mere passing toys, the everlasting God had provided for me glorious and untarnishable joy which is full, and pleasures for evermore; he remembered me in my low estate, broke me down, dashed me to pieces, made me wise, instructed me to serve him, to tremble at his word, these are the persons who kiss the son; he asks no other; he does not asked Joab to kiss him. Joab kissed Abner and smote him under the fifth rib; Judas betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss. No, the Savior wants the kisses of those, that is, the acknowledgments of those whose acknowledgments of him are real. Now then, what know you, my hearers, of this breaking down work, of this dashing to pieces work? What know you are being thus dethroned from your free will and duty faith? Duty faith is of the devil; and is the great deceiver of the day; some of you that have just escaped its snare are witnesses of the truth of what I say. “Be instructed you judges of the earth;” so you are now, in the contrast between the eternal and that which is only temporal, you in your better judgment, though your flesh is the same, in your better judgment you acknowledge that the one will not bear a moment’s comparison with the other. Now I will just tell you what your language is; and then I will tell you what you would like to be. You look at Jesus Christ, and you see that he has made peace, established peace, that he is the sinner’s peace, that his precious blood cleanses from all sin, and that by him mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Now I will tell you what your language is; and you can use it sacredly and properly, that is, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;” what is your reason? “For your love is better than wine,” there is no earthly good that will bear a moment’s comparison with his love. “Because of the savor of your good ointments your name is as ointment poured forth.” If you are a broken-down sinner, a dashed to pieces sinner, A dethroned king and are turned from a carnal to a spiritual judge, and are made to serve the Lord, I am sure that will be your language, that “his name is as ointment poured forth; therefore, do the virgins love you;” the soul that is born of God, that soul loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Now all this will be your language, I will tell you what you would like to be. You would like to be just where the woman was that you read of in the seventh of Luke. I will come to that presently. Now you know whether you are so broken down, so dashed to pieces, as to say these two things; “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;” that is, let him give me the tokens of his love, and whether you can say his name to you is as ointment poured forth. And there is something else you must say, that is, if you say so rightly. You find the church in the last chapter of Solomon Songs longing for what was realized. “That you were as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother.” I take the mother they are to be the covenant of grace, and that when Christ was on earth, the promises of the Old Testament were a delight to him: they were a delight also to the church, so that here the prayer is answered; Christ delighted in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament. “When I should find you without, I would kiss you, yes I would not be despised.” How shall I find language to set before you the blessedness of that one sentence, “when I should find you without?” What do you mean? I mean this, that sin has shut me out from God; that the wrath due to sin has shut me out from God; that God’s eternal and infallible law is an impassable barrier, and unaffordable gulf between me and God; I am helplessly and hopelessly shut out. “When I should find you without,” when he comes out to where I am, ah, will he come? Yes, he will, he will. Are we shut out through sin? He will come under that sin. Are we shut out by the wrath of God? He will come under that wrath and be made a curse for us. Are we shut out by the law? Christ will come under that law. Are we shut out by the powers of darkness? Christ will conquer those powers of darkness. Are we shut out by death? Christ will swallow up that in victory.

Now let us take the representative of the church, and I think a good representative in the seventh of Luke, when Jesus entered into a Pharisee’s house, and there came a woman and sat at his feet; and Simon the Pharisee could not understand the matter. This woman had been broken down, and dashed in pieces, and made wise unto salvation: she had been instructed to judge rightly of eternal things; she was brought to serve the Lord and rejoice with trembling. But Simon said, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touched him; for she is a sinner.” Poor man. So, the Lord soon put the matter square: “I have somewhat to say unto you, Simon.” “Say on, master;” nothing to say against me, I know, I am so good. “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence, and the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him the most?” Ah, if I had known he was going to say that I would not have said, master, say on, I thought I should get this woman turned out-of-doors, instead of which I shall get myself turned out if I do not mind what I am about. He did not like to acknowledge it. “I suppose that he,” ah, that’s it, you suppose; he saw the trap, saw the awkward position he was in; “I suppose that to whom he for gave most!” Oh dear, what a thing it is, because that in making out that this woman loves the Lord Jesus Christ more than such a good character as myself. “See you this woman?” Yes Lord, I do: if I had known she had been coming here, I would’ve shut the door. “I entered into your house, you gave me no water for my feet; but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head;” consecrated her ample tresses to that which is holy, concentrated those very tresses which, for she had been a harlot: she had before used to decoy the youth of the age, now consecrated them to God. “You gave me no kiss:” no, Lord, mine is a rational religion; I do not like these enthusiastic hypers, cutting everybody off, “but this woman since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you did not anoint;” would not have cost you much, “but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment;” the most costly ointment she could get. “I would kiss you, yes, I would not be despised.” Did Jesus despise her? He gave her a fourfold confirmation of her interest in eternal things, he said she had loved much, because much was forgiven, that is one; secondly he said to Simon, “I say unto you, her sins which are many are forgiven;” thirdly he turned to the woman, and said, “Your sins are forgiven you;” fourthly, when the people said, “who is this that forgives sins also?” He again turned to the woman, and said, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” There is the fourfold confirmation. “Kiss the son.” Who but a broken-down sinner, a dashed to pieces sinner, who but a dethroned king, who but he that is brought from a carnal, to a spiritual judgment of these things, can thus love the Lord and glorify the Lord? Yet some people tell us that our text is a universal exhortation; I say their doctrine is a universal delusion.

Now we come to the persons then with him he is angry. The words belong to professors. Is he not angry with the profane? Not as a Savior. Is he not angry with all unbelievers? Not as a Mediator. Is he not angry with all that will not come to him? Not as a Intercessor: oh, no. People tell us that Christ is angry with man as a Savior, because they will not let him save them, and that he is angry with them as a Mediator, because they will not let him mediate for them; and that he is angry with them as an Intercessor, because they will not let him speak for them; and that he is angry with them as a King, because they will not let him reign over them. These are the lies that the world delights in, and that empty professors can swallow. Your kissing Jesus Christ, your acknowledgment of him, if you thus adopt that that tarnishes his name, degrades his character, your kiss is a Judas’s kiss. It must, to be acceptable, be the kiss of a free grace faith, it must be the kiss of pure love in the heart to him. Perhaps you will say, you have nothing to say to the ungodly, then, yes, I have, nothing to say to the man that makes no profession, yes, I have.

If I have a profane man before me, a man that makes no profession, I have this to say to you, sir, that Jesus Christ is angry with you as a Judge; Jesus Christ is God as well as man, and one with the Father and with the Holy Ghost; and the Eternal God is angry with you as a sinner in Adam, as a sinner in your heart, as a sinner in your life: you are under sin, you are under the law, you are under wrath, you are on your way to hell, and if you die not born of God you will be damned to all eternity. That is what I have to say to you, sir. Ah, but does not Jesus Christ invite me to come to him? Jesus Christ invites no one to come to him, when he wants you, he will take care to bring you. Don’t you go piquing yourself you can come to him when you like; you can’t come to him at all; no; come to him in profession you may; but any man that does not come to Christ by the Father, and by the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, will be sent away again. My text is not to you, sir; my text doesn’t ask you to receive Jesus Christ. You receive Jesus Christ? Why, you are a carnal man; “the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit; neither can he know them.” Ask you to kiss Jesus Christ, to acknowledge him! No, sir; the persons who are exhorted to do it are persons of a different cast altogether. Nonetheless we will give full scope to our text; don’t let us cripple the text; let it have its free course, and then the meaning will be just the same, as cautionary admonition to the church were in there is a mixture of mere professors and real professors. Let me explain it in this way: the apostle when writing to the Hebrews, there were some among them that didn’t altogether like the eternity of Christ’s priesthood, which the apostle so beautifully argues from the circumstances of Melchizedek: there were some that did not altogether like the immutability of God’s counsel, the immutability of God’s kingdom, the distinction between Sinai and Zion: they wanted the whole wrapped up together, law and gospel, flesh and spirit, creature and Creator; that is the way the devil does his work: these certainties are the only foundation upon which the sensible sinner can rest. Now some of these professors cared not to hear these things; “if you will hear his voice;” what, the voice of a perfect priesthood, Paul? Yes, what the voice of the new covenant? Yes, what, the voice of an immovable kingdom? Yes, what the voice of clear distinction between Sinai in Zion? Yes: “If you will hear his voice harden not your hearts; take heed least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief;” that is, you professors; there is no such thing in a real child of God. What, not as an evil heart of unbelief? No, not in the sense there intended; or else God is not true. “I will put my fear in their hearts; and they shall not depart from me.” An evil heart of unbelief the Christian has, but not in the sense there intended. I solemnly declare in the presence of this assembly this morning, while I have known the Lord now for 34 years, that I have not been able during all that time in my darkest seasons, my most cast down seasons, my most rebellious seasons, I have not been able to disbelieve, turn my back upon, give up, or despise God’s truth from that day to this. And why have I not been able to do so? Because he that began the good work has carried it on and will carry it on, in spite of sin, death, and hell; let whatever may stand in the way, his truth is infallibly certain, and I can no more depart from it than God can fall from his throne; the things stands upon an eternal and firm foundation. Now then, is your acknowledgment of the Sun sincere? If not; if you do not kiss him in the same sense as the woman did, not indeed literally, but spiritually as she did literally, or from the same motive, then Jesus Christ is angry with you for your false profession, your pretense to love him when you do not, your pretense to reverence him when you do not, and your pretense to stand out for him when you do not really do so. Jesus Christ will be angry with you, and you will perish from the way, when his anger is kindled but a little; by-and-by, when you come to that swelling of the Jordan, then will be manifest your utter destitution of the grace of God; then you will have to contend with horses, then you will have to contend with the chariots of Sinai, and you will have you will be carried away in all the terrible majesty of his eternal wrath. Our text, therefore, is an address to professors, and to professors only; it is a word of direction to the real children of God it is a word of solemn admonition to professors. Jesus Christ might have said to Simon, Simon, I am angry with you. What for, Master? Because you did not kiss me as this woman did. Why, he would not have accepted his clay cold kiss; no life in it; no fire in it; a regular formal concern altogether. But there is life in the woman’s heart and soul; a power of vitality, a fire about it that made her kiss worth having. So, there is my hearer, in the Lord’s love for us; there is a life, a vitality, a fire about it, a reality: and so, there is in the prayers, and praises, and affections of the people of God; they love Jesus sincerely, they love God the Father sincerely, they love the Holy Spirit sincerely. Now mind, if you are making a profession, if you are not thus broken down, not thus dashed in pieces, not thus dethroned, and not thus made wise to receive Christ as the Substitute and reverence and love him: if this not be your experience, mind this, you belong to the mystery of iniquity, you are a worker of religious iniquity, and Christ will say to you at the last; “Depart from me you workers of iniquity;” whereas the declaration is of the remanent of Israel, God’s elect remain-meant, they shall do no iniquity; they shall be brought to renounce all error, and shall receive the truth, and shall stand fast in Christ Jesus; and he that abides in him sins not: the only sinless life a man can live is a life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: you may as well talk of the devil leading a sinless life as our flesh being sinless.

But lastly, “blessed are all they that trust in him.” Jesus Christ is God’s great ordinance, God’s great institution, answering to all the types of the Old Testament. Supposing Noah, after he was in the ark, had begun to say, well, I do not know, now, do you think we had better stop in the ark? Would not that beautiful church be a better place; would not the Vatican be a better place; would not the Tower of Babel be a better place? No: he trusted in the ark because it was God’s institution, and he knew that the ark would carry him safely through the flood. Just so, my hearer, we are brought into Christ to believe in him, to stand in him, and we are to trust in him; and as the ark carried Noah with an infallible certainty through the flood, so Christ will carry us through the judgment of God, so that no plague shall come near our dwelling. As the Israelites had to trust in the Divine institution of the paschal lamb, and the sprinkled blood, and this blood was sure to exempt them from the angel of death; just so now, trust in the Savior’s blood, believe in his atonement, and just say nothing, do nothing; after they had killed the Lamb, and sprinkled the blood, they were to sit still and see the salvation of God and they had no uncertainty about it. And just so sure as the Lord made a way through the sea, a way which none but himself could make; just so sure by Jesus Christ shall he make a way for you. Just so sure shall the cloud defend them from the Egyptians, and they were safe under the cloud; just so sure, if you are enabled to make your abode by faith in Christ, he will stand between you and all your enemies, and you will be safe. Just as that cloud knew its way across the wilderness better than the people did, nothing to do but follow the cloud, so the truth of God knows the way better than you do, follow the truth, that it go where it may, abide by the cloud of truth. As the cloud of truth rested on the tabernacle, so the cloud of truth, the priesthood, the mercy seat, the ark of the covenant, the presence of God, the blessing of God, all went together; so my hearer, hold fast the truth, that will keep you close to the priesthood of Christ, close to the mercy seat, close to God’s presence, and you will find it good to trust in him; “Blessed are all they that trust in him.” Just as the ark took them safely through Jordan into the promised land, so Christ will take us safely through, and just as the ark brought down the walls of Jericho, just so now we rams horn preachers that have nothing to do but sound out the truth of the gospel, keeping close to the ark; by-and-by down will come the walls, we shall gain the victory, God shall be glorified, and we shall realize the fulfillment of the promise, “Blessed are all they that trust in him.” Look at the suitability of it, here is a sinner trusting in a Savior; here is a poor helpless worm of the earth trusting in that Mediator and trusting in God by him. May the Lord bring us more and more to understand these great things; and if we have not yet been broken down sufficiently, may the Lord make us willing to undergo anything rather than be deceived that we may receive Christ rightly, that we may reverence him rightly, that we may acknowledge him spiritually and acceptably; that we may escape a mere formal profession, that our religion may be vital and real, so that we come at last into all the blessedness implied in the last clause of our text; and the blessedness there implied, of course, will mean the fulfillment of every promise of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.