The Down Grade
ike - — ee for joy with her, all ye that mourn
£ her.” Isa. 66:10.
“fHE HIGHEST STYLE OF MOURNER. — A CALL TO JOY — I. WHO THE ‘ MOURNERS WITH ZION ARE. — NUMEROUS CAUSES FOR PRES-DAY PANTHEISM. — THE BECLOUDED HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH. — CHURCH-FAIR GAMBLING. — -ABANDONED PRAYER- ‘THE UNSAVER. — II. SOME REASONS FOR REJOICING WITH
CHURCH WILL BE AROUSED. — MEN RAISED UP FOR THE WORK. — III. PERSONAL EXAMINATION.
A MOURNER is always an interesting person. We
‘pass by joyful people without a thought; but when we I see the ensigns of woe we pause, and sympathize.
even if we dare not inquire. The new-made widow,
the fatherless child, the bereaved husband, these have.
a history in which our common humanity is interested. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin;”
cand when the nature touched comes from the hand of
sorrow, kinship is quick to show itself. The highest style of mourner is one whose griefs
—are neither selfish nor grovelling. He who bears
spiritual sorrow on account of others is of a nobler order than the man who laments his personal woes. This man has not only bowed his shoulder to the inevitable load of personal trouble, but he is obeying
the command, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and
fi so fulfil es law ef Christ.” The most excellent
ENT DEPRESSION. — THE ABSENCE OF THE GOSPEL FROM THE PULPIT. — THE COMMON ERRORS OF THE DAY — THE LATTER.
MEETINGS. — SABBATH DESECRATION. — UNCONCERNED ABOUT.
-ZION. — GOD HAS NOT CHANGED. — HE WILL APPEAR. — THE.
Church of God, you will share her joys; but when she passes through the dark defiles of persecution, or the 28 rushing waters of discord, you will mourn with her. Tea: poicnover the ways of God languish, and we languish also, it is a mark that grace is in active exercise. — Those who have learned this heavenly mourning are called to rejoice: ‘Rejoice with her, all ye that mourn
a Zion, the mourner with Zion. i fee 7 vo
romHer
I. Who are those that mourn with Jerusalem?
Those that love the Church of God, and desire her-.a4 prosperity; and when they do not see that prosperity,
they are depressed in spirit. At this present time the-CAUSES FOR DEPRESSION
are exceedingly numerous. Nothing can make the heart of the people of God more heavy than to think —
that the Gospel glory of the Church is declining. There was a time when the Gospel of the free grace of God sounded forth from our pulpits as from a
trumpet; but that time is past.
In former times good men differed, as they alwagee will, as to the form their doctrinal system; but with regard to fundamental points, they were at one; it is. not so now. The Deity of our Lord and His great
atoning sacrifice, His resurrection, and His judgment:
of the wicked, never were moot points in the Church; but they are questioned at this time. The work of the
Holy Spirit may be honored in words; but what
faith can be placed in those to whom He is not a. person, but a mere influence? God Himself is by
= all Ae which is much the same as nothing. co he
Ss Z theism ts
ATHEISM IN A MASK.
“The pie inspiration of Holy Scripture, as we Y have understood it from our childhood, is assailed in a thousand insidious ways. The fall of Adam is treated as a fable; and original sin and imputed right- ~eousness are both denounced. Ass for the doctrines. oe of grace, they are ridiculed as altogether out of vogue. Me For many a year, by the grand old truths of the o Gospel, sinners were converted, and saints were ‘ edified, and the world was made to know that there is. a God in Israel; but these are too antiquated for the: present cultured race of ‘superior beings. They are going to regenerate the world by democratic socialism, and set up a kingdom for Christ without the new birth or the pardon of sin. In fact, men are not now. to be saved by faith, but by doubt. Those who love the Church of God feel heavy at heart, because the: teachers of the people cause them to err. Even from a national point of view, men of foresight see cause: for grave concern. Cowper sang, in his day, words.
worthy to be remembered now : — ; »“When nations are to perish in their sins, ei ’Tis in the church the leprosy begins;
The priest, whose office is, with zeal sincere, To watch the fountain, and preserve it clear, Carelessly nods and sleeps upon the brink, While others poison what the flock must drink. His unsuspecting sheep believe it pure, And, tainted by the very means of cure,
) Oatoh from each tier a stat oes spot, ‘The foul forerunner of a general rot, Then Truth is hushed, that Heresy may preach, And all i is trash that Reason cannot reach.”
The old motto of the city of Glasgow was, “Let i Bays Glasgow flourish dy the preaching of the Word.” Our — country has flourished by the preaching of the Word; pes under God, she has been raised to eminence, because of her Protestant Christianity; and when she departs from this, the reason for maintaining her greatness will have ceased. This makes us mourn. Another cause of mourning is when we see the holiness of the visible Church ‘beclouded. I trust I am not given to finding fault where fault there is not; “but I cannot open my eyes without seeing things done - 4n our churches which thirty years ago were not so much as dreamed of. In the matter of amusements, gi professors have gone far in pert.) THE WAY OF LAXITY. Ne” What is worse, the churches have now conceived the idea that it is their duty to amuse the people. Christians who used to protest against going to the theatre, e mow cause the theatre to come to them. Ought not. amany school-rooms to be licensed for stage-plays? -If some one were to see to the rigid carrying out of ) the law, would they not be required to take out a ate * license for theatricals? I dare not touch upon what has been done at bazaars and fancy fairs. Think of those ‘who enjoy communion with God playing the fool in costume! They talk of wrestling with the Lord in Re secret prayer, but they juggle with the world in ale bie Can this? the ae ght and: wrong shifted places? Ah, sirs! there may have been a time when Christians were too precise,» but is has not been in my day. There may have been such a dreadful thing as Puritanic rigidity, but — I have never seen it. We are quite free from that; evil now, if it ever existed. We have gone from liberty to libertinism. We have passed beyond the - dubious into the dangerous, and none can prophesy where we shall stop. /
Moreover, we see in the Church that her sacred
ardor is cooling. There is still fervor in certain. believers, and fervor of the best kind, for the
divine Spirit has not utterly departed from us.
We have around us Christian men and women who - will do and dare anything for Jesus, and bear witness for Him in the open street. Thank God
for such! They are a standing protest against A LUKEWARM AGE. And we have still our gracious young men who
will give heir lives to bear the name of Christ
among the heathen, amid the fevers of the Congo River. Still, things are not in Israel as we could desire. Very seldom are believers nowadays charged with being fanatical, nor even with being too enthusiastic; and this is a sign that we are below the right heat. There is cause to grieve over many churches and individuals, that they are neither cold nor hot. Let us be personal and practical and see whether we have not cause to grieve over ourselves in that
respect.
ers soon go from the pews. “I do not know where to send my converts with the hope that they will hear the Gospel,” said a soul-winner to me, the other day, concerning a certain London district. I cannot coneal from myself the gloomy fact that the habit of going to a place of worship is being altogether lost in
this city. There are streets upon streets where only one or two persons are in the habit of attending the house of God. Alas! time was when it was thought to be a duty to observe the Sabbath; but it is now a day for lying late in bed, loafing about in shirt-sleeves, or mending rabbit-hutches and pigeon-houses! Do not think that 1 am exaggerating. I am speaking in sober seriousness the sad truth, which has been reported to me by city missionaries, district visitors, and workingmen who live among it. This is lamentable. How has it come about? I fear that it is
very much the case, because if the people did go to many places of. worship they could not understand
what they would hear; and, what is worse, if they did understand it, it would not be of much use to them. The
CRITICISMS OF MODERN THOUGHT are of no value to the workingman. If the old Gospel is brought to the front in all its simplicity, and preached with fervor, we may hope to see the people
itera i is grave cause for mourning in Zion, because the services of God’s house are neglected. In certain darge places of worship which once were crowded to the door, I hear that there are more pews than people. Where the Gospel is gone from the pulpit, listenence of a questioning theology comes this religious indifference. Under the prevailing form of doctrine, our city is becoming more heathenish than Christian, — Between the childishness of superstitious sacramentases are sliding into an utter disregard of holy things. — Reverence is dying out; and as surely as it dies we Shall see a fierce attempt at anarchy.
The evil over which I now mourn is not only prevalent among the outlying masses, but it taints Chris- ‘tians themselves. Look at your half-Sunday profes-: sors, content with only one service and weary of that! How is it with many Christian people, as to meetings for prayer? Prayer-meetings are the very soul of Church work, and they bring down the blessing upon all our spiritual agencies; yet they are despised by our high-fliers. This is not only bad in itself, but it is a sign of something worse. Men who can pray to
edification are in some directions becoming rare. One pastor told me, the other day, that out of a considerable congregation he found it hard to make up a prayer-meeting at all, because he had so
y FEW PRAYING MEN.
It is a dreadful impeachment against the churches, ‘but faithfulness compels me to state it, before things grow still worse. You can get a crowd to a con- ‘cert, but hardly a dozen to prayer! If there had been a magic-lantern, or a penny reading, or a recitation with comic songs, the pious people would
im == vain to hear. it; hee me ce on line ent TRS is not an easy one. Coincident with he prevas 3
‘rianism and the wilful wickedness of doubt, the masmuch too dull for novel- vreading, theatreprofessors. tie Another very creat and grave cause for mourni to all true Christians, is the multitude of sinne that remain unsaved. We do not dispute the fa e neither do we feel its sadness. Look at the many
what must i their destruction. Look at the Small that are blind, though they have eyes; that hear not, though they have ears; that feel not, though they are: 7 1 rational beings! How can we bear it? Howcanwe bear it, that there should be any among us who know not God, who love not the Lord Jesus Christ, who are yet in their sins? An unsaved soul is a sight — Et that might well transform us into Niobes, and - sae cause us to weep perpetual showers of pitying grief, until the arm of mercy should interpose to ou salvation. a The darkest thought for a true heart is that, ae x: souls are lost even now, the evil does not end here; but they are passing away into that hopeless state im the next world which our Lord speaks of as the place of the worm which dieth not, and the fire which is not; quenched. They are going from this place, where Ba mercy is proclaimed, to that dread tribunal where the voice of judgment cries, “Depart, ye cursed.” They are hastening away to appear ‘before the great white 4 throne, unsaved, unrenewed, unforgiven! He who — can see a-soul lost, and yet is not distressed how
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REASONS FOR JOY. Il. I have, at least, shown you that we are not hout overflowing fountains of grief: but I say, in 1e second place, that we may yet rejoice with Jeru- 3 lem. Why may we do so amid such reasons for mourning?
- We may rejoice with the chosen of ee Lord when owe remember, first of all, that God has not changed, either in nature, or in love to His people, or in the purpose of His grace. When His Church was faithful, His divine decree was carried out; and if His Church be unfaithful, He is still omnipotent, and can, therefore, work out His great designs. He has not changed His system of working. He intends still to bless the world through the Church: He means to use His saved ones for the saving of others.
A further joy is this — we may expect the Lord to appear. In the Middle Ages the darkness deepened a into seven-fold night; but, as in a moment, God said, “Jet there be light,” and Luther, and Calvin, and -Zwingli, and other stars shone forth in the midnight sky, and made the gloom to disappear right speedily. Our glorious God can do so at this present crisis. Oh for a word from the throne! The battle is not ours, but the Lord’s. God knows no difficulty. Om-
mipotence has servants everywhere, and power to create as many more agents of its purpose as there
a f
. are sands on the sea-shore, Sitting in the chimneyoe 12
ee in ake ee to oat ee ‘bulls of the eee s,
hierarchy.
and blessed with hosts of converts.
turn to Jesus at the expected Pentecost.
When the Lord shall put on strength, diet =e
His Church be aroused. I hope to see
A REVIVED CHURCH
holding truthful doctrine, agonizing over lost sou Glory be to the - name of the Lord! where all is as a desert He can a make a garden. Once more He will shake, not only pA earth, but also heaven. Wherefore let us rest in the — Lord, and sing with joyful confidence, since no good thing will He withhold from His Church, and no evil — thing will He long permit to do her damage. ie:
Oh that the days of refreshing were come! Then shall the Church have many converts, proving her 9 power, and increasing her influence. Thousands shall. e Then shall tik she nourish them well, and feed them with knowledge
and understanding. I fear that if, in certain churches,
there were to be many converts, they would not know what to do with them; but when the Holy Spirit — comes into their midst, then the Church shall be a nursing mother. I pray that it may be so among us. We have added to us, during the last two months, first seventy, and then ninety, fresh members, for which I thank God. It is a little church in itself; but unless you all look after them, and try to help them on, 2
we shall be embarrassed by such large additions to our number. Oh that this church may carefully see — to all the children that the Lord gives her; and if so, — ok Read the twenty-first verse: “I will also e of them for priests, and for Levites, saith the rd.” When the Holy Spirit visits a church, He is — sure to bestow special gifts, and give special calls As the Holy Ghost said, ‘Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” so ill He say in our churches, to our great delight. Jhen God sent Be PASTOR HARMS to Hermansberg, it was a mere heath, and there were few on that heath that knew the Lord: but under his Be zealous preaching the whole village was turned into a missionary society. Oh that we could do anything dike it! Farmers and laborers, men and women, became missionaries for Christ to Africa; and a large proportion of the population went abroad, either to preach the Gospel, or to form little colonies to work a with the missionary and support him. The sold house a and land and everything, and thus made Hermansberg = the starting-place of a great evangelizing enterprise. fe” My beloved people, I hardly dare be so ambitious as a to hope that you will ever reach such consecration! cs, See how it was among the Moravians; every man ‘becoming a member of their church becomes himself a teacher of the Word: every man, woman, and child among them sought to bring souls to Christ. Would God that the power of the Lord would come in that way upon all our Churches! And we may expect it,
Kee Pisticl that we he.
anise finish by asking, Why should we personally
. Spirit to make you of that host at once. aK
robbed of her glory because, you refuse the Saviour. —
THE PERSONAL QUESTION,
III. But now my time has nearly gone, and:
of the number that mourn with the Church, and
rejoice with her? Perhaps some of you do a.
belong to that honorable company. I pray the Holy b
For, first, there is our own sin and ruin to mow over. I spoke, just now, of Low we ought to feel for a lost soul; but how ought that lost soul to feel for i itself? Poor soul, if we ought to mourn for you, how a much more should you mourn for yourself! If you e:
should be lost, if I have been faithful to you, I shallbe
no loser. What if you go down to hell, your mother’s — 5 pleadings being in vain? Your mother. will not be 3
It is your soul, your own soul, your only soul, that is in jeopardy. The Lord have mercy upon you! The ie Lord make you at once a mourner in the Church of God, that you may, ere long, rejoice in her Saviour! - Next, I may be speaking to some one who has bacon: a backslider, and is a backslider even now. By your Bn, wretched wandering you have disgraced the name of Christ, and you have dishonored the cause which you professed to love. You have made the enemy blaspheme, and you cannot wonder that your rest is” & broken. If anybody ought to be a mourner, you — should be. You should take front rank among those MIGHT ALL BECOME MOURNERS
are for the souls of others? The preacher would smite upon his breast; and he invites you to do the e. Who among us spends half the thought that
men? We all think of them a little; I hope the most you are doing something for Jesus and His cause.
matter of holiness? It is easy enough to drag the whole Church up, as I did just now, and scourge her as she well deserves; but it is not so easy for each guilty person to flagellate himself. Yet this is what is needed. “Ask — Have I been as holy as I should
be? Has my house been ordered aright? Is there
i famil rayer observed, not asa matter of form, but er y pray
in life and power? Am I towards my children, towpiatds my husband, towards my wife, towards my servants, as I ought to be? Are we as upright and generous as we should be in our business, and in our
- connection with common daily life? O sirs, we may
each of us become mourners with the Church of God
if we examine ourselves with care!
Let me add that we have all a great concern in this “matter, and we ought, therefore, to join with the
i; earch in all her griefs. If the ministry of our pastors
ibe not successful, we shall lose by its want of power.
n we think of our own want of zeal, and want of
e should spend upon the conversion of his fellow
May we not add to this our own faifures in the:
None of us will be able to escape scot-free from the terrible damage which evil is working all around. When false doctrine breaks forth like the water-floods, it will surge around all our houses. Let us, therefore, cry mightily unto God, not for ourselves only, but for the one great universal Church, and for this great city, and for this wicked world. O Lord our God, arise for Thy cause and crown! Take hold on sword and buckler, and plead Thine own case, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.,