SERMON XV.

THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION.

2 COR. v. 18.

"The ministry of reconciliation."

SUCH is the definition given by St. Paul of the preaching of the gospel; and how strongly is that ordinance of the church recommended to us by the very terms here selected to describe it. In looking at the appointment of a christian ministry, we contemplate a system not invented, as folly and infidelity would tell us, for the benefit of the few, and the subjugation of the many; not intended, as others would intimate, to lay down a few rules for the conduct of life, with a view merely to the peace of society and the welfare of the state; not established exclusively with the design of carrying terror to the evil doers, by the denunciation of a judgment to come; but ordained to announce to sinners the glad tidings of reconciliation with God; to tell them of His readiness to receive

them to favour; to lay before them the prospect of peace, and in His name and by His sanction to entreat them to comply with the message of mercy. The ministry of reconciliation! There is sweetness in the sound of it! There is something in the very expression, which seems to invite attention and to kindle hope! Who would be indifferent to a message from Heaven, which speaks of reconciliation with God! Among all the benefits which divine goodness has bestowed, what blessing can be more welcome to the heart, or more suited to the wants of fallen and afflicted man!

I. It is manifestly implied in these words, that the persons to whom the gospel is to be preached, are in the first instance at enmity with God it speaks to them not of the continuance of that intercourse which once existed between man and his Maker, but of reconciliation and as the gospel was by the command of its divine Author to be preached to every creature, this is the language which must be held to the whole human race ;-till brought by the power of divine grace into a new relation with Him, they are all to be admonished of their hostility, and to be told of the necessity of being reconciled to God. How strange that

he who exists upon the bounty of the Creator, and is indebted to Him for life, and all the comforts of life, should still be, in any just sense of the words, the enemy of that gracious Benefactor, and have need to be reconciled!

Yet to this purport is the language of Scripture, and the testimony of universal experience. The apostle reminds the Colossians, that they had been enemies in their minds by wicked works.* In his epistle to the Romans, he speaks in similar terms of himself, and of the other converts to the faith of Christ; and declares universally that the carnal mind is enmity against God. We would not interpret this phraseology, as if there were felt in the world that same principle of direct hostility towards the Most High, which malevolence is apt to entertain against a fellow creature. We do not deem it necessary, in order to illustrate the declarations of St. Paul on this subject, to suppose that there exists in every unrenewed and unregenerate man, an active and malignant spirit of undisguised hatred against the Almighty: of such a spirit many are unconscious, whom reason and Scripture would nevertheless alike convict of practical though silent enmity against Him,

and whom accordingly the apostle would invite to be reconciled. Many, it is to be feared, both regard themselves, and are regarded by others, as entitled to the favour of Heaven, and in terms of amity with their Maker, whom, even if acquitted of direct and personal hostility against God, the judgment of the gospel would still comprehend among His enemies.

We learn from the whole volume of inspiration, that those alone are considered as the friends of God, who love Him and keep His commandments; who pay supreme deference to His will; who take pleasure in communion with Him; whose dispositions are spiritual; and who, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, live habitually in His fear, and habitually endeavour to serve and obey Him.

By this test must the character of every man be tried and where is the individual who, in his unrenewed state, can find in this picture any resemblance of himself? Where is the man who, after an impartial examination of his heart and conduct, can say, "Thus have I lived from my youth: I have delighted in the law of God, after the inner man: I have rejoiced to hold intercourse with my Maker. It has been the great object and pleasure of my life, to

keep His word, and to follow after holiness, in all its branches: my love to God has not been an outward acknowledgment of respect, but exhibited in the love which I bear to His precepts, His ordinances, His communications, and His people."

Are we not persuaded, my brethren, from the knowledge which we possess of our own characters, that this language would be utterly unsuitable to man while he remains under the dominion of an evil nature? Have we not satisfactory evidence in ourselves, that a description the very reverse of this would more correctly represent him? What avails it to us that we have lived in a christian country; that we have at our baptism taken upon us the christian profession; that we have ratified and confirmed it in maturer years; if, after all, we have proved ourselves enemies to God by wicked works; by those works which proceed from an unrenewed heart? Are we not by nature the children of wrath? * Is not the anger of the Almighty revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness; and is it not necessary that we should be delivered from this state, if we would be received into His favour? Let the under

*

Eph. ii. 3.

+ Rom. i. 18.