SERMON CXCV.

THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT 1.

2 COR. ix. 15.

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift."

THE Gift, the free Gift, the Gift of GOD, are all of them expressions occurring in the New Testament with a higher and more mysterious meaning, than we are generally apt to take notice of. We are accustomed, as we read, to think only of this or that mercy, which in the particular part of the Scriptures happens to come into our mind: especially, I suppose, when "the free gift" is mentioned, we are apt to think most of this one great thing, namely, the pardon and forgiveness of our sins, by the death and passion of our LORD and SAVIOUR. And truly that is an unspeakable gift, and by it alone are we made capable of any other mercy or gift at all: yet it seems very plain, that pardon and forgiveness by the Blood of our crucified LORD is not the very gift, of which so much is said in St. Paul's epistles and elsewhere. That gift rather means, the HOLY SPIRIT of the FATHER and the Son, poured into the hearts of Christian men to make them partakers of CHRIST. It is the LORD GOD, the BLESSED COMFORTER, dwelling in our hearts to unite us to the FATHER and the SoN: according to His own promise: "If a man love ME, he will keep My words, and My

1 Preached at a collection for Church-building.

FATHER will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make OUR abode with him."

To make this plain to you, I will bring forward all the places, where the gift of God is mentioned, and you will see how well they suit with this meaning, some of them not at all admitting of any other.

The first, and the key to all the rest, is our LORD's own saying to the woman of Samaria: "If thou knewest the gift of GOD, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give ME to drink, thou wouldest have asked of HIM, and HE would have given thee living water." The gift of GOD then is the same as the living water which our LORD here and elsewhere speaks of: and this, we know by St. John's own words, " He spake of the SPIRIT, which they that believe on HIM should receive"." The SPIRIT of GOD, received in Holy Baptism, is the Living Water which purifies the whole man: and "as every good gift, and every perfect gift cometh down from the FATHER of Lights," so this in a more especial way, in a way which no words can express, is, as our LORD HIMSELF teaches, "The gift of God."

So it is called repeatedly in the Acts of the Apostles. St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, inviting his hearers into the Church, says, "Repent and be baptized every one of you, and ye shall receive the gift of the HOLY GHOST." Afterwards, when he had preached to Cornelius, they who came with him were astonished, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the HOLY GHOST." And giving an account of it afterwards to the Christians of Jerusalem, he uses the word "gift" in the same sense: GOD gave those Gentiles the like gift as HE did unto us."

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4 "

So to Simon the Sorcerer, who wanted to buy for money such spiritual powers as the Apostles had, a curse was spoken by the same St. Peter, because he thought "the gift of God might be purchased for money Here again the HOLY SPIRIT is described as being the gift of GOD. St. Paul too, many times speaks the word in the same sense. As to the Ephesians : of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of CHRIST: wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, HE

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Unto every one

2 John vii. 39.

3 Acts ii. 28; x. 45; xi. 17.

4 Acts viii. 20.

led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.' This gift of CHRIST, bestowed after the Ascension, in sundry ways to sundry persons, what is it but the holy and promised COMFORTER? No doubt then, the same Divine Person is intended, where the same Apostle speaks a little before of his having been made a minister of the Gospel, "according to the gift of the grace of God given unto him."

the

It is the same again, where to the Romans he speaks of " grace of God, and the gift by grace:" first, that is, of His free pardon and favour obtained for us by the Blood of CHRIST, and then of the actual gift of His SPIRIT, whereby that favour is sealed and brought home to every one; and where just after he mentions certain persons, as receiving "abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness;" the gift of righteousness plainly is, true holiness poured into the hearts of men by the HOLY SPIRIT.

Lastly, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, setting forth the great danger of wilful sin after baptism, his word is, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the HOLY GHOST, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance:" thus again intimating, that to taste of the heavenly gift is to be made partaker of the HOLY GHOST.

These which I have now gone through, are all the places in the New Testament, in which the gift of God, or the heavenly gift, is spoken of, besides that one in the Text: "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." It seems almost certain, therefore, that here also the sanctifying SPIRIT is meant the LORD and Giver of life, the gift which includes in itself all other gifts. Well, indeed, is it called unspeakable: for what tongue of man or angel can speak worthily of so great a thing as this? GOD the HOLY GHOST, the Good Spirit, in whose unity the Son liveth and reigneth with the FATHER :-that HE should come and make His Tabernacle in the souls and bodies of the children of Adam, of man His enemy: that He should vouchsafe to abide there for years, striving against sin and corruption, and changing the heart more and more into the holiness of our LORD and SAVIOUR HIMSELF! Such a thing could never be thought or imagined, much less can it be uttered by the tongue 6 Heb. vi. 4.

5 Eph. iv. 7; iii. 7. Rom. v. 15. 17.

of man: but the more unspeakable it is, the more it should fill our hearts; and the text seems to teach us, that we do well to remember it, and mix it up with all our thanksgivings to the MOST HIGH, for any of the lesser mercies, which make part of it or flow from it; just as we make mention of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, His merits and sufferings, in all our petitions to GOD.

For how is it that the Unspeakable Gift comes to be mentioned in this part of St. Paul's letter? He had just been speaking of a collection which he had sent to have made in several Churches at a distance, for the benefit of the poorer Christians at Jerusalem. He had been rejoicing in the bountiful and loving temper which the Christians had shown, among whom that collection was made. And he says concerning that kind of charity, that is, alms offered in the Church for CHRIST's sake, that it carries with it a great blessing, over and above the immediate benefit of the persons for whom it is raised. "The administration of this service," he says, "not only supplieth the necessities of the Saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God." It lifts up the hearts of those who receive it, with all thankfulness to CHRIST our SAVIOUR, for many great and signal blessings at once.

"They glorify God," he says, "for your professed subjection to the Gospel of CHRIST:" that is, "the Christians of the Mother Church of Jerusalem, where the Gospel was first preached, rejoice in the alms which you send to them, not only for the relief they themselves get by it, but also because of the proof it gives them of the wide growth of the Gospel; that you Gentiles, so far away, should nevertheless be Christians, feeling yourselves brethren with them, and ready to give abundantly for their wants, as members of the same body. And as they thank God for making you Christians, so they pray earnestly in your behalf; they have a longing desire to know you and do you good, which can only be satisfied in this world by earnestly praying for you."

It is a beautiful and glorious picture, which the holy Apostle here sets before us, of one part of the Communion of Saints. Christians as far removed from one another as Jerusalem was from Corinth, not speaking the same language, not knowing one another's names, not in the least likely to meet ever at all in this world, yet with all their hearts trying to do one another good, and obtain a blessing each for his distant brethren by his prayers.

No wonder that the thought coming strongly before him, of members of CHRIST SO distant in the flesh, yet so closely bound together in the spirit, their prayers wafted up by their several Angels, and meeting and mingling together, like clouds of incense before the mercy-seat in heaven: no wonder that the sound of their many voices, all praising GoD and blessing one another, full of all love and thankfulness: no wonder, I say, that the thought and hearing of these things filled the affectionate Apostle with that eager joy, that he could not, if one may say so, contain himself, but cried out with all his heart, "Thanks be unto GOD for His unspeakable gift."

Because this holy agreement and fellow-feeling, of so many Christians in so many different quarters, was a kind of token, to the very eye, of their all being inhabited by the same HOLY SPIRIT, all made living stones in the same true Temple of the LORD, all made partakers of the same great unspeakable gift. It was like the rushing wind, filling all the house; or like the fiery tongues, settling on every one: it brought home to the believing soul, with irresistible force, the gracious presence of the Com

FORTER.

Now the same holy and adoring joy which then filled the heart of St. Paul, is even now offered, by the grace and providence of ALMIGHTY GOD, to the members of His holy universal Church, as often as they are invited to give alms in the old way, offering them in the Church, for some good and charitable purpose, far away perhaps from themselves. For though so many years have passed, we trust that we are still, by God's especial grace, in the same body, the same household of GOD, as St. Paul and his Corinthians were; and if we are of the same body, then we are sure the same SPIRIT is among us; nay (most awful is the thought), HE is within us, to move men's hearts one towards another; to cause us to be of one mind in an house; to make us take interest in the wants of our brethren at a distance, not simply out of human pity, but because they are brethren, "faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit."

We are not in general used, I should fear, to think of Church collections of alms in this sort of way. Too many account it just a convenient method of gathering what little can be spared, and go away and think no more of it.