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THE RIGHT REVEREND

DANIEL SANDFORD, D. D.

BISHOP OF THE UNITED DIOCESE OF EDINBURGH,

FIFE, AND GLASGOW,

THIS DISCOURSE

IS INSCRIBED,

WITH FEELINGS OF THE SINCEREST RESPECT

AND ESTEEM,

BY HIS DUTIFUL AND FAITHFUL

SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

SERMON.

ST JOHN, Chap. xvi. v. 5, 6, 7.

"But now I go my way to Him that sent me, and none of you asketh me "whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, "sorrow hath filled your heart, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, "IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY; for if I go not away, "the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send ❝him unto you."

In his last address to his disciples, of which the words now read are a part, our blessed Lord informed them that, after he should have laid the foundations of his Church on the great events which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem, his personal presence would be no longer necessary either for their direction or support; but that, on the contrary, it would be found expedient for them that he should go away, and leave the great building of God to be perfected by their hands.

The reason assigned for this expediency respected, no doubt, the peculiar circumstances in which the Apostles were about to be placed as

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the first ministers of the Gospel, and destined as such to receive, at no distant period, those wonderful gifts of knowledge and power, which conveyed strength to the weak and wisdom to the foolish. As far as they were exclusively concerned, the assurance given by their Divine Master appears to have been intended to impress upon their minds, that, as long as he should remain amongst them as their visible head, the purposes for which he had called them into his service could not be fully realized; that, until he ascended into heaven, their proper duties could not begin upon earth; nor could they be raised, as instruments of the Divine benevolence, to that high station which he had shadowed forth to them, under the figure of the twelve thrones and of dominion over the tribes of Israel.

"It is expedient for you that I go away;" as long as I am in the world, you are nothing; but no sooner shall I have departed from it, than your authority and commission will appear in their true light. You will then perceive clearly the important object for which you were chosen from among your countrymen ; and you shall be invested, at the same time, with all the qualifications necessary to fit you for bringing that object to a successful issue.