The Passion for Souls

Mark how the apostle describes the evangel — “the tcnsearchable riches of Christ 1” It suggests the figure of a man standing, with uplifted hands, in a posture of great amazement, before continuous revelations of immeasurable and unspeakable glory. In whatever way he turns, the splendour confronts him! It is not a single highway of enrichment. There are side-ways, byways, turnings here and there, labyrinthine paths and recesses, and all of them abounding in unsuspected jewels of grace. It is as if a miner, working away at the primary vein of ore, should continually discover equally precious veins stretching out on every side, and overwhelming him in rich embarrassment. It is as if a little child, gathering the wild sweet heather at the fringe of the road, lo THE PASSION FOR SOULS

should lift his eyes and catch sight of the purple glory of a boundless moor. “The unsearchable riches of Christ 1” It is as if a man were tracking out the confines of a lake, walking its boundaries, and when the circuit were almost complete should discover that it was no lake at all, but an arm of the ocean, and that he was confronted by the immeasurable sea! “The unsearchable riches of Christ!” This sense of amazement is never absent from the apostle’s life and writings. His wonder grows by what it feeds on. To-day’s surprise almost makes yesterday’s wonder a commonplace. Again and again he checks himself, and stops the march of his argument, as the glory breathes upon him the new freshness of the morning. You know how the familiar psean runs. According to the riches of His grace.” ‘’ That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory.” “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” ‘’ The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.” “The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.” “In everything ye are enriched in Him.” “The exceeding riches of His grace.” His thought is overwhelmed. He is dazzled by the splendour. Speech is useless. Description is impossible. He just breaks out in awed and exultant exclamation. O, the depth of the Tiches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! “The riches are” unsearchable,” untrackable, beyond all knowledge and all thought.”

But now, to the Apostle Paul, these “unsearchable riches” are not merely the subjects of contemplation, they are objects of appropriation. This ideal wealth is usable glory, usable for the enrichment of the race. The ‘’ unsearchable riches “fit themselves into every possible condition of human poverty and need. The ocean of grace flows about the shore of common life, into all its distresses and gaping wants, and it fills every crack and crevice to the full. That is the sublime confidence of the Apostle Paul. He stands before all the desert places in human life, the mere cinder-heaps, the men and the women with burnt-out enthusiasms and affections, and he boldly proclaims their possible enrichment. He stands before sin, and proclaims that sin can be destroyed. He stands before sorrow, and proclaims that sorrow can be transfigured. He stands before the broken and perverted relationships of men, and proclaims that they can all be rectified. And all this in the strength of ‘’the unsearchable riches of Christ!” To this man the wealth is realizable, and can be applied to the removal of all the deepest needs of men. Let us fasten our attention here for a little while, in the contemplation of this man’s amazing confidence in the triumphant powers of grace.

He stands before sin and proclaims its possible destruction. It is not only that he proclaims the general ministry of pardon and the general removal of sin. He finds his special delight in specializing the ministry, and in proclaiming the all-sufficiency of redeeming grace in its relationship to the worst. There is about him the fearlessness of a man who knows that his evangel is that of a redemption which cannot possibly fail. Turn to those gloomy catalogues which are found here and there in his epistles, long appalling lists of human depravity and human need, and from these estimate his glowing confidence in the powers of redeeming grace. Here is such a list: — “Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with men, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners.” Such were some of the foul issues upon which the saving energies of grace were to be brought. And then he adds — **And such were some of you. But ye were washed I “And when the Apostle uses the word “washed” he suggests more than the washing out of an old sin, he means the removal of an old affection; more than the removal of a pimple, he means the purifying of the blood; more than the cancelling of guilt, he means the transformation of desire. Such was this man’s belief in the saving ministry of divine grace. Do we share his confidence? Do we speak with the same unshaken assurance, or do we stagger through unbelief? Does our speech tremble with hesitancy and indecision? If we had here a company of men and women whose condition might well place them in one of the catalogues of the Apostle Paul, could we address to them an evangel of untroubled assurance, and would our tones have that savour of persuasion which would make our message believed? What could we tell them with firm and illumined convictions? Could we tell them that the cinder-heaps can be made into gardens, and that the desert can be made to rejoice and blossom as the rose? I say, should we stagger in the presence of the worst, or should we triumphantly exult in the power of Christ’s salvation?

It has always been characteristic of great soul-winners that, in the strength of the unsearchable riches of Christ, they have proclaimed the possible enrichment and ennoblement of the most debased. John Wesley appeared to take almost a pride in recounting and describing the appalling ruin and defilement of mankind, that he might then glory in all-sufficient power of redeeming grace.” I preached at Bath. Some of the rich and great were present, to whom, as to the rest,

I declared with all plainness of speech, (i) That by nature they were all children of wrath. (2) That all their natural tempers were corrupted and abominable....

One of my hearers, my Lord, stayed

very impatiently until I came to the middle of my fourth head. Then, starting up, he said, * Tis hot! ’tis very hot,’ and got downstairs as fast as he could.” My Lord

should have stayed a little longer, for John Wesley’s analysis of depravity and of human need was only and always the preface to the introduction of the glories of the unsearchable riches of Christ. My Lord should

have waited until Wesley got to the marrow of his text, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

There was a similar sublime confidence in the preaching of Spurgeon. What a magnificent assurance breathes through these words, “The blood of Christ can wash out blasphemy, adultery, fornication, lying, slander, perjury, theft, murder. Though thou hast raked in the very kennels of hell, yet if thou wilt come to Christ and ask mercy He will absolve thee from all sin.” That too, I think, is quite Pauline. Henry Drummond has told us that he has sometimes listened to confessions of sin and to stories of ill-living so filthy and so loathsome that he felt when he returned home that he must change his very clothes. And yet to these plaguesmitten children Drummond offered with joyful confidence the robe of righteousness and the garment of salvation. We need this confident hope to-day. Men and women are round about us, will-less, heartless, hopeless, and there is something stimulating and magnetic about a strong man’s confident speech. If we proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, let us proclaim them with a confidence born of experimental fellowship with the Lord, and with the untrembling assurance that the crown of life can be brought to the most besotted, and the pure white robe to the most defiled.

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