The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell — John Shaqi
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell
Sermons
to live without hope is to live without God, and if the heart be
without God the world will then have all the ascendency. It is God
apprehended by the believer as God in Christ who alone can dispost
it from this ascendency. It is when He stands dismantled of the
terrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we
are enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in
the face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as it
protests good-will to men, and entreats the return of all who will
to a full pardon, and a gracious acceptance--it is then that a love
paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it,
first arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when released from
the spirit of bondage, with which love can not dwell, and when
admitted into the number of God's children, through the faith that
is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us--it
is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and
predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former
desires, and in the only way in which deliverance is possible. And
that faith which is revealed to us from heaven, as indispensable to
a sinner's justification in the sight of God, is also the instrument
of the greatest of all moral and spiritual achievements on a
nature dead to the influence, and beyond the reach of every other
application.
Let us not cease then to ply the only instrument of powerful and
positive operation, to do away from you the love of the world. Let
us try every legitimate method of finding access to your hearts for
the love of Him who is greater than the world. For this purpose
let us, if possible, clear away that shroud of unbelief which so
hides and darkens the face of Deity. Let us insist on His claims to
your affection; and whether in the shape of gratitude, or in the
shape of esteem, let us never cease to affirm that in the whole of
that wondrous economy, the purpose of which is to reclaim a sinful
world unto Himself, He, the God of love, so sets Himself forth in
characters of endearment that naught but faith, and naught but
understanding are wanting, on your part, to call forth the love of
your hearts back again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account