“It is finished!” Go, ye heralds of salvation, into all the world, and
proclaim the joyful tidings! Cry aloud, and spare not; lift up your
voice like a trumpet, and publish to all men, that the work of the cross
is finished—that the great Mediator, “made perfect through sufferings,”
has become “the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey
him”—“is of God made unto us, wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption!” Go, teach the degraded Pagan, the
deluded Mohammedan, and the superstitious Papist, that the finished work
of Jesus is the only way of acceptance with God! Go, tell the polished
scholar, the profound philosopher, and the vaunting moralist, that the
doctrine of Christ crucified is the only knowledge that can save the
soul! Go, say to the proud skeptic, the bold blasphemer, and the
polluted libertine, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of
the world!” Preach it to the gasping sinner upon his death-bed, and the
sullen murderer in his cell! Let it ring in every human ear, and thrill
in every human heart, till the gladness of earth shall be the counterpart
of heaven!
SERMON XIII.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS.
“_He is not here_; _for he is risen_, _as he said_. _Come_, _see the
place where the Lord lay_.”—Matt. xxviii. 6.
THE celebrated Jonathan Edwards of America begins his History of
Redemption with an account of the Lord’s visit to Adam and Eve at the
cool of the day in Eden. All the wonderful works of God toward the
children of men, since the seed of the woman was promised to bruise the
serpent’s head, are to be considered as so many parts of the same great
machinery of providence, whose wheels, like those of Ezekiel’s vision,
all move in majestic harmony, though their thousand revolutions may seem
to us discordant and confused. The chief design of all the Divine
manifestations recorded in the Old Testament was to prepare the way for
the Redeemer’s appearance upon earth. Jehovah often suffered his people
to be in great distress and perplexity; he lengthened the chain of Satan
and his angels, allowed a partial success of their infernal schemes, and
permitted them to prevail for a season against his people, and pride
themselves in their power and their skill, in order to make their defeat
the more signal, and gather more glory to himself from their final
overthrow. During the engagement, the victory often seemed to be on the
side of the enemy; but when the smoke of battle cleared away, the pillar
of God was seen upon the camp of Israel. If his people are besieged
between Pi-hahiroth and Baal-zephon, he raises the siege by dividing the
sea, and making a highway through the deep, while the waters rise up in a
solid wall on the right and the left, and roll back in ruin on the
pursuing foe. If an army comes to arrest Elisha on Carmel, the mountain
is covered with celestial warriors, and the surrounding heavens teem with
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