Sermons Bearing On Subjects Of The Day

Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ... SERMON XIV. THE CHEISTIAN CHUECH A CONTINUATION OP THE JEWISH. I8AIAH xxxvii. 31. " The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward." TX7HEN the power and splendour of the family of ' ' David were failing, and darkness was falling on. the Church, and religious men were fighting against dismay and distrust, then the Prophets foretold that the kingdom of the saints should one time be restored; and that, though its glories were then setting, a morrow would come in due course, and that a morrow without an evening. Has this promise yet been fulfilled or no ? and if fulfilled, in what sense fulfilled ? Many persons think it has not yet been fulfilled at all, and is to be fulfilled in some future dispensation or millennium; and many think that it has indeed been fulfilled, yet not literally, but spiritually and figuratively; or, in other words, that the promised reign of Christ upon earth has been nothing more than the influence of the Gospel over the souls of men, the triumphs of Divine Grace, the privileges enjoyed by faith, and the conversion of the elect. On the contrary, I would say that the prophecies in question have in their substance been fulfilled literally, and in the present Dispensation; and, if so, we need no figurative and no future fulfilment. Not that there may not be both a figurative and a future accomplishment besides; but these will be over and above, if they take place, and do not interfere with the direct meaning of the sacred text and its literal fulfilment. In the text, the prophet Isaiah, upon Sennacherib's invasion, makes to Hezekiah the encouraging promise, that, in spite of present misfortunes, "the house of Judah should again take root downward and bear fruit...

THOUGH God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and then rested, yet He rested only to begin a work of another kind; for our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto,” and He adds, “and I work.” And at another time He says, concerning Himself more expressly, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” And when that night came, He said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” “It is finished.” And in the text we are told generally of all men, “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” The Creator wrought till the Sabbath came; the Redeemer wrought till the sun was darkened, and it was night. “The sun ariseth,” and “man goeth forth,” and works “till the evening;” when “the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow themselves, and those that look out at the windows are darkened, and desire fails, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets;” when “the silver cord is loosed, and the golden bowl is broken, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it.” Aeterna Press