his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able also to succour them that are tempted." We may be heavily temptedtempted to distrust Providence, to worship the devil, to commit suicide, yet Jesus can sympathise with us, and will succour us; for he was even thus tempted in the days of his flesh. While Jesus lives to intercede for us we shall live also. The most heavily tempted are certain of his most prevalent intercessions; and in answer to his all-prevailing prayers "God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Christ can defend the most exposed. Enemies, numerous, subtle, fierce, determined, may assail us; but what harm can they do us while Jesus protects? None can pluck us out of his hand. The very devils are afraid of Jesus. Their heads have been so often and so heavily bruised by "the Prince of Peace, the mighty God," that they instantly fly from us when Christ comes to our rescue. He is " a wall of fire round about" us. We are exposed to the evil influences of "the pomps and vanities of this wicked world ;" but Jesus prays, ever prays, that we may be kept from the evil; and if we "commit the keeping of our souls to him, as unto a faithful Creator," and ever follow that which is good," he will "preserve us unto his heavenly kingdom." Christ can make "all things work together for good to them that love God." He is the God of Nature as well as the God of Grace; the God of Providence as well as "the author and finisher of faith." Adversities, afflictions, bereavements and death are gain to the believer. In Christ's hand these curses are changed into blessings. These are so many ingredients which Christ puts into the cup that gives eternal life, eternal health, eternal purity and eternal joy to the souls of his people; therefore, we ought ever to sing Thankful, I take the cup from thee, Powerful the wounded soul to heal. 66 Christ can make all his people like himself. He can make them lowly, meek, patient, forgiving, pure, benevolent and kind. He can fill them with supreme love to God, and with pure, ardent, universal love to man. He can make them all glorious within-all beautiful and brilliant withHe can fill them with the fulness of God," and "make them fruitful in every good word and work." out. 66 Christ can do "mighty works" for any and for all of his Churches. He can revive the most languishing Church. However low a Church be he can raise it, by quickening the old members, by reclaiming the backsliders, by adding newly-converted members. Jesus can comfort Zion, even our Zion. He can "comfort all her waste places, and make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.' He has the residue of the Spirit," and he can pour upon us the Spirit from on high; then "the wilderness" will become" fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." Nothing is too hard for Christ. He can cleanse the most impure Church. He can cleanse the defiled by "the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning." a "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness." "He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years." He can make "the sinners in Zion afraid," and cause "fearfulness" to surprise "the hypocrites." He can lead the members of a corrupt Church to self-examination, to penitence, to reformation. He did so frequently in the Jewish Church; he has done so often in the Christian Church; and he can do so again. Christ can preserve the most tried Church. A Church may be tried by pressure from without, by calumnies and persecutions, by the misrepresentations of other Churches, by pecuniary embarrassments. It may be heavily tried by the improprieties of some of its members, by false friends, by desertions, and in a variety of other ways. But Christ can preserve it alive in defiance of "the gates of hell." "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. Christ can increase the most prosperous Church. The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered to him." Christ's command to every prosperous Church is, Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left." However prosperous a Church may be, Christ can still prosper it, unless all are converted within the sphere of its influences and operations. Christ is able to fill the world with the glory of God and bring all men into his Church. "He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." He has treasures of light, life, love, purity and joy sufficient to satisfy the wants of every human being. He has room enough in his heart, room enough in his Church, room enough in his heaven for the comfortable accommodation of all the children of men. The salvation of all men would afford Christ infinite pleasure. Such, then, are the "mighty works" which Christ is able to do. None, save Jesus, can perform such "mighty works" as these. He, however, has the power to convert men in every place-to bless his people everywhere; and to revive, cleanse, preserve and increase his Churches wherever they are found; for he is everywhere present, and he is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 66 Though Christ can do "mighty works" in all places, yet in many places he does not accomplish "many mighty works." Matthew informs us that at Nazareth "he did not many mighty works." Mark says, "And he could there do no mighty works, save that he laid hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.' In other places he did "many mighty works;" he cast out devils, opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, raised the dead to life, and forgave many their sins; but in his own country at Nazareth" he did not and he could not do "many mighty works." So it is in this day. In some places our hearts are gladdened by the manifestation of Christ's power and love, in the awakening of the careless, in the conversion of the ungodly, in the restoration of backsliders, in the growth of believers in knowledge and grace, and in the abundant prosperity of the Churches; but in other places, favoured with the same gospel privileges, year after year passes away without any "mighty works" being performed. What can be the reason of this difference? "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?" Is Christ able to save in some places of the earth and not in others? If Christ is able to save in one place he most certainly is able to save in all places. Is Christ capricious, that he does many mighty works" in some places and none in others? Verily not. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon his name." How is it, then, that he performs mighty works" in some places and not in others? The reason is plain to the diligent student of the Bible, and may be stated in one word-UNBELIEF, 66 66 66 We are not left to conjecture, not left to find out the reason why Christ did not exercise his mighty power at Nazareth. He went there disposed to bless and save the people. He went into the synagogue, read a portion of the word of God, and addressed the people, evidently determined to perform "mighty works" among them; but the people said, "Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence, then, hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour save in his own country and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matt. xiii. 54—58.) Luke informs us, in the fourth chapter of his gospel, that when the Nazarenes had heard in the synagogue what Christ had to say they were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst, went his way." Unbelief, accompanied with pride and prejudice, prepared the Nazarenes for the murder of Christ instead of preparing them for the grateful reception of those "mighty works" of mercy which Jesus was both able and willing to perform on their behalf. To have done" mighty works" for men of such unbelieving and murderous dispositions would only have increased their guilt, and augmented their punishment; for their hatred to Christ would have increased by his attempts to do them good. Mark informs us that Christ himself "marvelled because of their unbelief." The same cause-unbelief-now operates in many places to prevent Christ from doing "mighty works." This alone prevents him from saving the ungodly. Sinners have the revelation of Christ's mind in the Bible; they have "the everlasting gospel" preached to them; but "the word preached" does not "profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that" hear. They are told plainly that they are "going down to 66 the pit;" that they will shortly be in hell if they do not "repent and believe the gospel ;" that there is no redemption from eternal damnation; that Christ is their Saviour: "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." But sinners do not believe the word of God. They will not believe they are in the road to death, therefore they will not come unto Christ that they might have life. Those who cherish this unbelief Christ cannot save; for he can only save those who believe in him as their personal Saviour from spiritual and eternal death. The plan of salvation which God has devised and brought into operation for the benefit of men excludes every unbeliever from a participation in the blessings of redemption. It is the fixed decree of God, the fixed law of the gospel that unbelievers shall have no part, "no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God," either in time or in eternity. "He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth upon him." "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Such being the irrevocable law of the Gospel, Christ, as the mediator between God and man, is bound to refuse salvation to all who will not comply with this requisition. Besides, the justice and reasonableness of this law are apparent to all who consider the fact, that unbelief is not a natural but a moral evil; is not a misfortune that cannot be avoided, but a crime of the blackest hue. The heart that cherishes unbelief is an evil heart that chooses to depart from the living God; an evil heart that loves sin, and is determined to practise sin let the consequences be what they may. The Bible gives all the evidence that any rational man can expect or require, that we are eternally undone unless we apply to Christ for salvation. The man that will not believe the statements of God's word would not "be persuaded though one rose from the dead." The fact is, sinners will not believe; they love sin too well to give up sinning; they love sin too well to desire salvation from sin; therefore they will not believe God's word nor put their trust in Christ for salvation. Christ, therefore, cannot save them; for he is bound to save men from sin when they come unto God by him, and he is equally bound to reject all others. Let sinners know that God has not decreed their destruction, but that he willeth their salvation; that Christ has made an atonement for all by the shedding of his most precious blood on the cross; that the Holy Spirit has often striven with them to bring them to Christ that they might be saved; but, alas! they resist the will of God, they reject the atonement of Christ, they do despite to the Spirit of grace. Christ cannot save such "because of their unbelief." He would willingly save them, but they will not let him. Their damnation, therefore, will be their own fault. Unbelief, then, is the mighty barrier which keeps Christ from saving the ungodly-the heavy millstone which will sink them deep in the bottomless pit." 66 Unbelief is also the bane of many professors, keeping them in a state of spiritual childhood all their days. The exercise of strong, unwavering, increasing confidence in Christ's ability and willingness to save is as essential to growth in knowledge and holiness, usefulness and joy, as proper food and sufficient exercise are essential to the healthful growth of a human body. Unbelief prevents Christ from bestowing all the blessings of his grace upon the majority of his followers. When we speak of unbelief in the followers of Christ we do not mean the entire absence of faith in Christ, but a faith so weak that its possessors cannot believe all that Christ has spoken. Though they believe many things respecting Christ, and rely upon him for the pardon of sin, yet they "limit the Holy One of Israel" by doubting whether he can, or will, bestow upon them "the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of peace." Many, for example, doubt the possibility of being entirely delivered from all inclination to sin; of being saved to that extent that they can live continually without sinning in thought, word, or deed. According to their unbelief so it is with them. They do not receive the full, entire sanctification of their nature. Their remaining corruptions and their frequent defections are "snares and traps unto them, and scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes;" for ever causing them annoyance and trouble, and for ever hindering their usefulness. Many think they cannot do much for God and the souls of men; they doubt the possibility of Christ giving to them the requisite qualifications for extensive usefulness, therefore they never "covet earnestly the best gifts," and for ever they remain useless drones in the Church of God. In short, the blessings of grace are promised to the believer upon the conditions of his asking for them aright. "Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." When, therefore, we do not desire the greater blessings which Christ has to bestow, do not pray for them, do not believe that we receive them, is it any wonder that they are not imparted? To all those who by unbelief prevent Christ from doing "mighty works" for them, and from rendering them a great blessing to others, we feel compelled to address the solemn caution of the Apostle to the Hebrews: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be found in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." "Have faith in God." "Believe in God, so shall ye prosper; believe his prophets, so shall ye be established." But while you discredit God's word, and refuse to believe the promises of Christ, you cannot prosper in your souls, your hearts cannot be "established with grace.” Unbelief is the crying evil of many of the Churches. The Church generally is wanting in mighty faith, so that Christ cannot do "many mighty works." A spirit of doubt, and fear and hesitancy characterizes most of her plans and of her operations. Lofty views, ardent affections, gigantic operations, are exceedingly rare in many of the Churches of Christ. We want in our Churches that supreme confidence in Christ, and in the power of his Gospel, which prompted the first disciples to believe for and aim at the world's conversion to God. When a Church is in a low state, the members are generally prolific in reasons for its want of prosperity. The place of worship is in a bad locality-or it is not respectable enough to attract attention-or they would do better if they had more talented and respectable men among them-or if they had more popular ministers, &c. There may be something in these things, but not half so much as many suppose. Unbelief, unbelief is the great reason of the want of prosperity. Christ can prosper a Church in any locality; however mean the edifice, however humble and poor its |