SERMON DCXLIII.

BY REV. WILLIAM WARREN.

UPTON, MASS.

RELIGIOUS PROGRESS: THE BLADE, THE EAR, THE FULL CORN. "First the blade, then the car, after that the full corn in the ear."-MARK IV. 28.

We have here a favorite and forcible method of Gospel teaching-the use of the parable. By a well known law of vegetation, the seed cast into the ground presents to the eye, first, the blade, or spire. A new form now appears, resulting from, and yet differing from, the natural soil and seed. It has broken the ground, and shows itself to the sun and the air. But this is not the fruit, nor the ear. A new development is looked for; nor is the husbandman disappointed. In due time there is the unfolding of another form of the grain-the ear. This looks towards the harvest. It is in accordance with the great law of vegetable development. There is natural progress here. The blade has come to serve a new purpose. It stands and grows, not for itself now, but for the ear, to nourish and ripen it. But this is not the end of the sowing. The ear itself has no essential value, till it comes to be clothed with the full corn in the ear, ready for the sickle and the garner. The soil is for the seed, the seed for the blade, the blade for the ear, the ear for the corn, and all for man, and for God. The one is developed into the other. There is a natural growth and progress here, which forcibly illustrate the things of religion and another life. The Saviour presents this beautiful simile to exhibit the necessity of progress in the spirituul world. There is an analogy between what we see in the field of grain, and what takes place in the spiritual life. In both, progress and maturity are looked for. Religion has its origin, not only, but its eras, its growth and perfection. The same great law underlies this subject, that pertains to natural things. There must be progress in order to perfection. Life cannot long remain stationary, whether it be natural or spiritual. When grace ceases to grow, it begins to languish. Should we not be surprised to find that the grain did not pass beyond the blade form? That it failed to bring forth the ear and the full corn in the ear? Should we not marvel to see that the babe in the mother's arms made no progress, did not grow, that year after year passed away without any development of size, or strength, or reason? We should suspect that there was some lurking disease, or natural cause in the system. And ought we not to marvel, yea tremble, to find that our religious life is making no progress, is coming to no new developments, that there is no growth, nor fruit, nor signs of maturity? The subject to which your prayerful attention is called to-day, is the duty of reconsecrating yourselves to Christ; of leaving the things that belong to the infancy and childhood of faith, and entering upon a vigorous christian manhood. We need as a christian people a new life, a new birth and baptism, a new and entire consecration to Christ. We need

for

not only to do our first works, and return to our first love, but to go ward to greater works and sacrifices than our first, and exercise stronger and purer affection for Christ than we ever felt. And as I proceed to enforce this subject, I would

I. Appeal to the Scriptures, to the law and the testimony. The oracles of God are not silent on this subject. I refer, first, to those passages in the Prophets and the Psalms that rebuke the backslidden, and appeal in startling tones to the disobedient and the halting. Return unto me, saith God, and I will return unto you. Wash you, make you clean. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Ezekiel and the minor prophets utter themselves in words of terror to the disobedient and the wavering. Again, all those texts that refer to the kingdom of heaven as progressive, under the parable of the mustard-seed, or the leaven, or the rising light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day, go to illustrate and confirm this duty. Those Scriptures, too, that speak of religion as a race, or a struggle or a warfare, are in point here. Those, too, that require growth in grace, and exertion in spiritual things, the addition of one excellence and attainment to another, and the abounding in spiritual traits and fruits, set forth this duty in a very clear light. And then all those Scriptures that require us to leave first principles, to cease to be babes in Christ, and go forward to perfection, set forth very plainly the great duty of Christian growth. The word of God is full of warning and startling appeals to the lukewarm and worldly professor; and full of exhortations and encouragements to progress in the spiritual life.

II. It is a most reasonable service to which I now exhort you. It is one that falls in with the nature of things; yea, with every law that regulates the natural and spiritual world. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." But how did the Corinthians, how did we receive Christ at first? By repentance, by consecration, by throwing ourselves upon him and trusting him in all his offices? It was by strong resolutions and vows and pledges, most sacredly made and held. To walk in him, therefore, is to continue in these and similar exercises to the end. It is to bear to the hill-top the cross we first took up. It is to carry out unto death the sacrifices we first pledged; and to let these first spiritual exercises be deepened and strengthened and developed to a full maturity. Conversion is but the first step of the Christian's progress. Religion is only the repetition of these first steps, by which we are to gain new fields and heights of glory. The faith we first felt is to be strengthened and heightened into vision. Our first repentance and humility are to be deepened, until we are lost to sin, and self, and earth. So of hope, and love, and joy; these are to become more and more serene, and pure, and celestial, as years pass on. There is no reason why these christian experiences should stop at the new birth, and not make new and higher developments to the end. Is not their fulness as desirable as their com mencement? Is not completeness of christian character as necessary, and as much enjoined in Scripture, as the possession of christian character at all? Is not heaven as really conditioned on the fulness and maturity of christian experience and character as on the existence of such experience and character in the first case? How readest thou? Are we not as really under a spirit of infatuation, to hope for eternal life, without a

growth and ripening of Christian character, as we are to hope for heaven without any religious experience whatever? I challenge you to show me a promise in the Bible, for the faltering, stationary, worldly professor of religion. The encouragements of Scripture are to the earnest, the steadfast, and obedient,-who gird on the whole armor-who run the whole race-who fight the battles through-who, leaving the infancy of faith, go forward to manhood. How can we gain the goal, if we do not pant for the prize? It is the nature of true religion to perpetuate and propagate itself. A little desires more. If we possess true piety, we shall seek to increase and abound in the possession of it more and more to the end; nor shall we ever be satisfied till we come to possess the fulness of it.

It is so with earthly things. It is of the nature of knowledge to beget the desire for more knowledge, and the increase only produces intenser desires for higher and vaster attainments. So of happiness; a little enjoyment, instead of satisfying the soul, does but kindle the desire for more enjoyment; and the more we have, the more we want more requires more. So of wealth; the possession awakens the craving, and millions do not satisfy it. So of fame, and friendship. So of almost every thing God has made us to enjoy, and of some things he has not made us to enjoy. And is religion an exception to this general law? It certainly is not. If it exists at all, it will awaken the desire for more, for higher and fuller attainments. And where the old nature overlies and oppresses the new principle, there will be restlessness within, an agony, which can never be allayed nor abated, till the new life is relieved, and developed, and expanded into full maturity. I therefore say, that the duty of frequently dedicating ourselves to Christ anew, is a most reasonable one. It accords with the nature of the case, with the nature of all analogous things, and with our own deep conscious necessities. It falls in, too, with the teachings of revelation, that has no promise for the sluggard nor the backslider; none for the worldly and wavering professor; nor for the neutral, the stationary, and compromising, in the christian course. III. We can have no reasonable hope that we are indeed christians, except as we have evidence that we are making progress in a religious life. One that does not grow in grace can have no proof that he has begun the christian race. He that has experienced but one change, (if his hope dates back far,) has poor evidence that he has ever met with any change at all. One change will lead to another. How can a consistent hope be cherished that does not lead to frequent refreshings and renovations in the divine life? Where is the passage of Scripture that encourages the stationary christian, or flatters the neutral, halting, compromising disciple? I suppose it is generally admitted, that whoever draws back to the world, and apparently abandons the christian race, demonstrates the emptiness of his profession, and the guilt of his heart. With the Bible in his hand, but the world and the flesh in his heart, who can cherish and hold without presumption, the christian hope?

But if it is impossible for those who have fallen away from what was considered a state of grace, to have any proof of a saving change, it is equally clear that all who settle down into a formal, irresponsible state, who are contented with their first conversion, making no sacrifices for Christ, nor advances in the divine life, are infatuated if they yet cling to

the christian hope. Why should one have hope after his change, any more than before, if that change does not last, if it does not perpetuate itself and multiply itself in the life? Did that change reach perfection at once? If not, is there not need of its repetition and continuance, till it comes to maturity and completeness? Is there not the same need of this as there was that it should take place at all? It would seem that a consciousness of christian imperfection, of a hungering and thirsting for spiritual good, but of a failure to reach that good, and fulfil the high obligations of the Christian hope would force a true disciple to repentance, and a renewed consecration of himself to Christ. How can he have Christian confidence if he neglect to do this? How can such a consciousness and a christian hope long dwell together? Such convictions, such misgivings, and a holy confidence, an earnest expectation, can they abide in the same breast? They can not, they do not. The consciousness will destroy the confidence in the case; or it will lead to a new consecration. I appeal to the experience of my hearers. Are any of you in this state of Christian indifference and neutrality, bound and spell-bound by the world and its allurements? If so, let me ask you what is the state of your hope?-have you any? If so, is it in the ascendant, or declining? I am aware of the possibility of carrying a delusive hope to the grave; we read of such hopes in the Bible. But I say with boldness, that the person whose religious experience paused at conversion, and has declined rather than advanced since, has no Bible ground of hope that he has ever commenced the christian race. And if he still clings to a hope at all, it is without a foundation or warrant, either in Scripture or an enlightened conscious

ness.

IV. We cannot consistently exhort others to consecrate themselves to Christ unless we are willing to renew our own consecration to Him. We cannot urge others to do what we neglect to do ourselves. We shall see the inconsistency, and the effort will re-act upon our own feelings; and sinners will see the inconsistency of it, and unless modesty or courtesy restrain them, will cast it in our teeth, and take up the proverb, "Physician, heal thyself." Such inconsistent and heartless exhortations are more than neutralized by the felt inconsistency in the case. But let the broken hearted exhort the careless to repentance; let the humble and believing exhort a fellow mortal to flee from the wrath to come, and take refuge in Christ, and he will feel the force of the exhortation. But if that exhortation come from a wandering or halting professor, its force is lost. Whoever exhorts another to do what he is not doing himself, labors under the twofold disadvantage of conscious inconsistency in himself, and of failing to reach the confidence of the other. His words want power and effect. They do not go out from the heart, hence they do not go into the heart, but die on the tongue, or react upon the speaker, to destroy his peace and hope.

He cannot exhort another to consecrate himself who neglects to consocrate his own heart anew to Christ. He cannot urge another to repent, whose own repentance needs to be repented of. We cannot exhort others to do or become what we are becoming and doing ourselves. Look at the case. If you have sin in your heart, is there not as much need that you should repent of that sin, as there was that you should repent of your sins at first? What is there, I ask, in the nature of sin in the christian's

heart, that should exempt him from that deep and thorough repentance which must be felt for sin in the natural heart. How is indwelling sin ever to be removed, except by repentance and separating yourselves from it, and it from you? The blood of Christ washes away only the sins that are repented of and forsaken, but never the sins that are indulged and cherished. No; the duty of repentance can never cease till sin has ceased; and sin can cease in no other way than by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And can we-can we exhort others to that duty, when we ourselves, who are sinners still, do not do it? There is great inconsistency in the case.

Take another test-that of love to God. Now, who can tell why we should not love God with the whole heart, as really as that we should love him at all, or with a divided heart? And how can one who knows that his own love to God is fickle and feeble, faithfully exhort another to that duty? Is it not as really his duty to love God with a stronger affection, as it is to love him with the least affection? Is it not as really his duty to love him with all the heart, as it is the duty of his neighbor to love him at all? And can he consistently urge another to love God, while a part of his own affections are withheld from him? The whole heart is really due to God as the first faint affection; and whoever fails to render the higher degrees and exercises of love to God, is inconsistent in his exhortation to others. We are bound to go on, from strength to strength, from height to height, in holiness; and whoever fails to do this, is not at home in his efforts to make others holy, and to bring the world to God. Am I reasonable here? Can moral change consistently stop till there be no more ground nor room for change? Can repentance cease till there be no more sin? Can love languish in its progress till it has absorbed and filled the heart? Can faith pause in its flight till it has reached vision or hope, till it has grasped reality? or duty, till strength fail, or the whole will of God is done? And to fall short here ourselves, stops our mouth in argument and exhortation with others.

V. The necessity of a new consecration to Christ accords with the feelings and convictions of all. Where is the professed Christian that does not feel the importance of a deeper work of grace in his heart? It is your confession on all sides, christian friends. There is not an impenitent person in the world, that more frankly acknowledges the importance of a change of heart in his case, than you all do, my brethren, of a deeper work of grace in your hearts. I appeal to your convictions and confessions here. Did you in your sinful days ever feel more deeply the need of religion, than you now do of more religion? And do you not now feel that a re-consecration of yourselves to Christ is just what you need for enjoyment and usefulness? That it is just as much your duty, and is just as indispensable to your salvation as was your first consecration. Let me come to your hearts here! Do you expect to get to heaven with the small amount of piety that you now have? Does it answer a good conscience? Does it answer the purposes of the present life even; the great ends of duty, and example, and sacrifice? If not, then do you not feel the need of a new consecration, of being born again, of going through entirely new experiences and exercises, of forgetting the things that are behind, and of reaching forward to those that are before? You know that a change in your case is necessary.