THE DAY OF REST. The Confidence of Job.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 273, 16 June 1888, Page 4

THE DAY OF REST. The Confidence of Job.

A Simmon isytjikKkv. W. 11. Aitken, M.A. " Oh thai my words wore now written ! oh, thai, fchoy were prinlodin a book ! That they wore gravon with an iron pen and lead in the rock for over ! For I know that my Kedeeinor livoth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon tho earth. And though aftor my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh .shall I see (Jod. Whom 1 shall .see for myself, and mino eyes shall behold, and not another ; though my reins bo consumed within me."— Job :<rx. 23-27. Glorious words these, my friends, full of confidence, coming from one who sat among the allies, clothed in sackcloth, hirf body j stricken with a loathsome diease, his frioeds gone, his home desolate. l>ub though bho clouds were dark aiound him, and there seemed no possibility of his being lifted up j from the position winch he now occupied, lof devolution and woe, yet at the very ' moment when the night was darkest, and i when heart and tle. u h might have been expected to fail, the man by one glorious and tiiumphanfc efibrt of faith rises above tho things seen, rises above the trials of tho pacing life, and lays hold of a grind eternal fciutti There is burning within hin hoait a hallowed secret which he desires to reveal to the whole world at large — a sect of which is the solace of his giief, tho strength of his hope, tlie ftouicc of calm in fho mid»fc of raging tumult and darkening calamity. "Oh that my words were now written ! oh limb they wore printed in a book ' That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in tho rock for over ! For L Ivvow Tiivr My Rkdkkmkk Liv];tji." And he lias had his wish. Recoids of ancient exploits havo in how many instances utterly pas»edaway from tho page of human history ? And while these records, these tales of human greatness, have faded liom the pages of history, the exclamation of this desolate, sorrow-stricken man is just as full of foice as it was hundreds of years ago, when fiiffc the words were uttered. And lu\ wi->h is fulfilled, for wherever human language is spoken, wherever this wondrous Book goes, revealing the tidings of gieat joy, \vhcve\ov the revelation of Cod's love to man is carried home to human hearts and human eats, there passe.-, along with it this wonderful utterance of human confidence in the midst of grief which no shock of time or circumstance can change. How many a mourner who staggered to the side of the grave has felt che tear of | sorrow turned to joy when .lob's utterance has fallen on his ear 9 How healing, how soothintr it has pro\cd to many an afllicted one ? (low many a penitent, stricken down with his sin. has risen up to ga/o into the i heaven of light and joy, and felt that | between himself and God there was nothing but love, as tho sacrod utterance thrilled fiom'tho heart to the trembling lip, "I know that my Redeemer liveth !" ; 1, Now beforo going further, 1 want \ou j to observe Till. CO-VITDKNCK OF TIITS UXThR VNC'IZ : " I know that, my Redeemer liveth." In (\irlk'i generation** the assurance of salvation through tho finished work of the Lord .lesus Chri?t wa.s not, of course, as possible ai it is now. That it would be accomplished in c ome way or other was apprehended by the prophetic souls oi those who lived under gt eat disadvantages-. But formerly comparatively few of the world, | a« far as we can judge, were piivileged to ! lay hold, in the same bold and definite way, of fche lo\e of the Father, and to icst in the i conviction of His pardoning grace. lam not spying there, were fewer forgiven, but I am saying there were fewer who had a consciousness of pardon. Vet even this was enjoyed. Dvvm Ev.ioYri) It; Ajuuimm \v\s j Ji sni [in: his faith was counted to him foi lighteousih's«. In fact, all the great characters of tho GUI Testament eettainly nui.st ha\o been posse;— -ors of this blessing, or they ne\tr would ha\e been the great- men they wcie. Afi the same time they had not the same aiound of confidence, for they did not know as much of what (iod has wrought for guilty man a- we do The point that I want to call your attention to is that we havo here an argument. H .lob in a daik age wa.° justified in using the words, " 1 know;' 1 it it was nob j (resumption in -lob to say -o ; if, on tho conti.ii y, lie was abundantl> justiiiccl in eaying so ; then, dear friends, w hat right have we to use mi) term le<^ stiong —we wholho under the Cospcl dispensation, and are surrounded by the glorious light which Hows forth from the Cio.ss of Calvary ? How comes lr, that, when we aie making statements with regaid to the work of Christ in our per.sona! experience, so man}' of us cast about to find Tur Most I\ni.riMrK Piiuvsl? I w ill tell you the reason why : it is because -Job's religion was a reality, and our icligion, in a large number of instances, i;- simply a sham ; that's tho explanation of it. -lob's icligion was such a reality that it lUto 1 him out of the depths and set him on a lock ; and he felt chat although everything might bo snatched from him, and hi* hou^o left desolate, in spite of all this he had a Redeemer, and, pooner or later, that Redeemer would relieve him. To how many, dear friends, is the Christ in the New Testament simply an historical ti<^me, mo\ing in a vomoto period of antiquity. Wo cannot Jiclp being enamoured of His moral boauty ; but at the same time, if you were to ask what effect does He produce on your personal experience, what must the answer be? Does He a licet your inner life ? How many there arc who would have to confess that Christ HTVXDS SIDK HV SIDK WITIT SOOUVT.ES and the great men of his time, only that we know a little more Christ than we know about Socrates. Isitnobso, dear friends, with too many ? And even if you object and demur to this statement, will you not admit that if lie influence? you at all, it is simply as a beautiful character will always influence you ? That Christ is our example I do not for a moment deny. Of course Ifo is ; bub if there is one thing more than another which we fool in the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, it is that He i» to become as our life, that He is to inspire our actions, that we are to draw all our rcsourcos for life's battle from Him. Havo you gob this? Jfnob, I do nob wonder at your not using such strong language as " I know." Arc you resting on His redeeming work? " Ah," you reply, " I hopo so." Well, bub it would be very poor consolation to Job to fall back on an indefinite idea like " I hope.' You would, if you wore forsaken by your friends— sitting on ashes— you would want, something moro than " I hopo" in such an hour as that j and you don'b know -none of us know How Soon That Hour will Comb. In fact, may we not say bhab life is one long trial? Through tho furnace we are called to pass ; and if there is not something liko "I know" to rest upon, an inward assuranco of a power stronger than that which man possossos, behind our weak-

ness, sooner or lator the whole fabric of our hope must crumble into ruin, and we must find oursolves abandoned victims of ruin and despair. 2. Now I want you to notice another thing. Nob only does Job use the strongest word the language supplies him, bub also that most precious HLtlo Appropriating Pronoun "My." I once stood beside the tomb of a dear I lifctlo rolativo, not much more than two years old ; and as I journeyed to the funeral, its parent stold me a touching little incident. Every morning the child used to come in I to its mother for the mother to say a little prayer beside it. Ib clasped its h?i»ds and j listened with reverence. Then, as the next thing, a text was to bo repeated. My dear sister always repealed the same text. — "►Suffer little children to come unto Mu, and forbid them not, for of buch i.s the i kingdom of heaven." Ono day bhe servant reading over a number of texts from bhe text-book, and this little child was listening to the rexts one after another ; the servant came fit last to the text, "Suffer little children," and the poor little babe got to its feet nnc) cried, "My, my." To her it i was a reality. Dear friends-, do you know what it is to appropriate Christ ? I*. there a Saviour'! '•Oil, yes," you say, "He lived eighteen hundred years ago; He died and rope again ; he went, into the presence of Cod." All true ; but there is no " my" in all that : it brings No COMI'OKT, NoRhST, No.JoY, Nt) I\n\KßTs that all you know about Him ? Can't you go any further V Can you say, "I know lie is my Redeemer ; Ho is my Redeemer ; I have grasped Ifim ; I apply Him to my own nature ; 1 take Him to bo all that I want. lam poor, but I take Him for my wealth ; I am helpless, bub I take Him for my Omnipotence ; I am sinful, bub I take Him for my puiity ; I am condemned, but I take him for my justification ; I am lost, but I take Him for my eternal reward." Is He yours? Ah, if we have not gob as far as this, we don't know what leal religion means. To have a God and not be able to call Him my God and my Redeemer, leaves me ju.sb where I was before! 3. Now we pass on, my hearers, to considet Wnvr Tuts Assi-ktion w\s which this poor man made under thoie trying circumstances 1. The statement was his firm conviction that humanity, downtrodden, oppressed, sinned against, ruthlessly tyrannised over —that humanity in general, and he in paiticular, possessed a kinsman, ono who was ready to do a kinsman's part, to stand up for those who wore bone of Hi^ bone, and in the tender offices of His love to relieve them from the fearful diculflities in which they wore involved. It is this- view of the case that I want you to dwell upon, I .stand here to preach to you because I know that I. too, have a kinsman, and I know He is my kinsman, and I know as my kinsman Ho lias done a kinsman's offices. He has answered to all claims which in right of kinsmanship we are in a position to make upon Him. Under the Jewish economy the priest who entered into the Holy of Holies did so to oiler sacrifice for Thf Redumption of His Hnmi:\v Brothers who were &old into slavery. Dear friends, thank God our great Biother has undertaken this part of the kinsman's work. Contemplate now for a moment our fallen condition. How can we better describe it than one of actual slavery? TTow futile have been our efforts to deliver ourselves' By how many grievous chains have we been bound ! How ruthless is the taskmaster ! How continually we hear, as it were, bhe sound of his whip, as- he urges us on still in his service to rush from ono sin to another, and all just to please him and to fulfil his will. Arc there any ot you who have come to a tfense of your true position ? Are you, like Job, lying in aches'' Are you already s-aying, within yourself, how " weary, .stale, Hat, and unprofitable " are all the pleasures of this world ' Are you longing for something better, bub still you feel yourself a slave 9 Listen, here is good news for you. The Son of God ha« consented to become as one of us, to share our nature, in order that He might deliver us from those chains in which we have been so long held. Lo ! He draws near ; in the plenitude of His love ho draws near. The case of guilty man is considered in heaven, the scales are brought forth, and the awful transaction takes pl.-tce which is to decide the fate of the human soul. The Almighty asks, What shall we sob again&fc this trembling soul that hangs there in the scale, perdition yawning to receivo if Shall the gold which We created in the fulness of our own omnipotent power weigh anything ? No, friends ; I tell you Ti.v Tuorswn Times- This World'* 5 , Riciikp j were no ransom for only one human soul. I There is only one price—there is only ono J coin in which the redemption money can be paid. Do you know, my friends, that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, I such as silver and gold '! Do you know that j you arc redeomed, whether you accept bhe i ledomption or not, whether you rejoice j in it or not, you are redeemed with the piecious blood of Jesus, the Immaculate Lamb ? Oh, that this cry may go round this thoughtless, giddy world, from pole to pole, in evory household ' "Vc are redeemed !" " Ye arc redeemed !" "Ye are redeemed !" Whether you accopt the redemption message with joy, and go on your way in thohappyconfidoncc which Job experienced, or whether you turn your back on the redemption, the blessed fact remains fche same, ye are redeemed. I discover the ransom in overy drop of blood which brickies over Emanuel's agonised body. I discover a ransom in that darkness, as of death, which covers round His closing eye. I discover a ransom in bhab wondrous cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me r

"Behold Our Kinsman's Ransom '' And as I gaze on yonder broken tomb, I know that tho ransom-money has nob only been paid, bub I know thab Infinite Justice has accepted ib as my ransom. And as I look up and see my kinsmau entering within the veil with the ransom-monoy in His hand, I see Him approach with a smile the presence of bhe Everlasting God. I be*hold Him as He spreads out the ransom before His Father's vision, and in a moment I seem to hear the promise of Infinite Love that I, too, am ransomed, and I drop at my Redeemer's feet, and exclaim, with tears of loving gratitude, "I know thab my Redeemer liveth, and His name is Jesus." As we think of this redemption we remember

The Lost Inheritance. We look back on the sunny scenes of Eden. We think of those brighb and joyful moments when man and God were in no way severed: when bhe voice of God was full of assurance and music for the human heart. Then we think of the change. This blighted world, bhis cursed soil, these burdened human hearbs, the gate of Edejti closed, the cherubim with the flaming sword guarding tho access to the Tree of Life. Oh, strange and tragic change ! We havo lost ib. The golden ciby fades from tho vision of our hope. The glories of a

bettor land delight our hearts and imaginations no more. Wo have lost it. The voice of the harper is never more to fall upon our ear. The light of the Divine presence is never to illumine our rejoicing hearts. We have lost it. It passes like a storm in the desert. It fades into thin air and becomes as nothing, and our human hearts appeal with a mute distress of conscious loss, appeal to the great and tender heart of the Universal Father, and Lo. Tin-; Kinsman Stands before us once again, as though He would say, "Great Judge of all, who, by Thy righteous sentence hast withdrawn the glories of the kingdom of heaven from this fallen family, 10, 1 am content to take the place which belongs to them. Thou shalb measure out to Me the bitter pains of death which are their meed. I will enter into tho solitude ; I will fathom the woe ; I will know the desolation which enshrouds the .soul cut off from iJod ; and, when I have borne all the loss, when I have died their death, when I have endured their severance from the Divine piesence, when I have been cut ofF from the sight of Thine eyes and severed from all happy connection with Thee, then, 0 Father, I will claim on behalf of My kinsmen that whereas I have died they shall live : svhereas 1 have tasted the bitter pains of death, they shall know the joys of eternal life ; and whereas I have, a-, it were, descended into the darkness of their hell, they may enter into the joys of My heaven I will Kvnsom Tn km ruoM Death. I Oh, death, • 1 will be thy sting ; oh, grave, 1 will be thy victory.'" And He does all ' this, glory be to Him ' 1 stand here now because He has done it. Our Redeemer has redeemed the inheritance. " When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death Thou j didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers." The pearly gates fly open, the glory of the invisible woilrl bursts upon the vision of our faith. Dying Stephen saw it in his natural eyes being illumined by Divine power. We have to claim our position even now as fellow-citizens with the saints in life. Already we belie\e that the power which barred our entrance to thoee blessed realms has passed from the hands of Satan. Jesus Christ has the keys of Ocr Glokious IvjiijtiTvxci: in* Light. Now, will you have Him ? Will you take Him to-night ? Will you take Him now ? Tt is no use merely talking about the redemption ; it is no use hearing only about it ; it is no u.sc simply coming to mission services. I a«k you, in my Masfcci's name, will you have the Loid Je»us Christ to-night as your Redeemer " Will you trust your guilty soul to Him? (Jod grant that you may. Amen.