SERMON XI.

THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK.

DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 31.-For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

THIS assertion is a part of the song which Moses taught to the Israelites, on the borders of the land of Canaan. He was at the close of a long life of trial and labour. He had finished the work which had been given him to do; and being prohibited from entering the land of promise, he records, by divine direction, for his people, in this song, a testimonial of the goodness of God, and their own ingratitude, that it might remain with them in all their future generations.

After having spoken much of the power and kindness of the God of Israel, as they had been displayed in his past dispensations with his people, he compares him in our text, as the rock of Israel, with all the gods of the surrounding heathen nations, whom he styles their rock; and asserts in this comparison, his entire superiority over them. To sustain this comparison, he appeals, not to the experience of the

Israelites, but to that of their enemies. He demands the judgment of those who have opposed the Lord of hosts. He calls for their acknowledgment of his power. He summons them, to bear their present testimony. Where are the Egyptians who perished in the sea; or the Amorites who fell in the wilderness? Where is Pharaoh, who refused his submission to God; or Sihon and Og, who came out to destroy his people? What is their judgment? What is the estimate of the power of the God of Israel, which their knowledge and experience has led them to form? He thus appeals to an evidence which was incontestable; to a history of facts which had been so plainly exhibited, that there was no room for hesitation or doubt. And while he makes this appeal, he proclaims that there is none like unto the Lord, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.

In selecting this assertion as a subject for discourse, I have before my mind, a similar comparison to that which Moses makes, and evidence of a similar character to sustain and enforce it. I wish to transfer the assertion of the text to our own circumstances. And as the God whom we worship, is the God who revealed himself to Israel, by Moses, the present application of the text, is in no degree, a perversion of it, from its proper meaning. In the Gospel of Jesus, we make the Lord of hosts our rock. In choosing him, and resting upon him thus, we are encompassed by enemies, both to him and to ourselves. And in the view of all these enemies, we make our choice. We adopt, therefore, as entirely appropriate to our own condition, the strong testimony before us

"Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being the judges."

The subject upon which I design to speak, as suggested by this text, is

THE CONCESSIONS WHICH THE WORLD MAKES TO THE WORTH OF THE RELIGION OF

THE GOSPEL. In considering our text under this view, we have,

I. THE COMPARISON WHICH IS TO BE MADE, and II. THE TESTIMONY WHICH IS TO BE ADDUCED

TO SUPPORT IT.

I. We will consider the comparison which is to be made. "Their rock is not as our rock." What is "their rock?" and what is "our rock?"

1. What is the rock of the world? It is the special foundation which it lays for present peace and future hope. When the Christian's rock is rejected, and the foundation which is laid in the Gospel is refused, the wisdom of man must find some other foundation for confidence. There are but three possible systems, upon which dependence may be placed, by men who have not embraced the hope of the Gospel. Upon one of these every unconverted man, every lover of this present world more than God, is fixing all his expectations of comfort and rest.

He may make a bold system of Atheism his rock. He must say in his judgment, and in his profession, as he actually does in his heart, "There is no God;" and, of course, no future responsibility for his soul. In theory, there are few, perhaps, who suppose themselves to be Atheists; who can look abroad upon all the wonderful works of God, behold their contrivance and variety, and deliberately deny that there is a Being who made them all. But in a practical de

velopment of principles, there are vast multitudes who are without God in the world; whose whole life and character is precisely as if there were no God. And it would be but an honest avowal of the actual dependence, if they should openly announce the theory by which they are manifestly guided, to be the theory which they intentionally and systematically adopt.

If however, the worldly man shudder at this assumption, and is not willing to avow absolute Atheism to be his rock; he must, with the acknowledgment of the existence of a God who judgeth in the earth, rest his confidence of acceptance with him, upon his own integrity and obedience, and make his own righteousness his rock. This dependence is far more common than its evident worthlessness might lead us to suppose. While men are ignorant of the deep corruption and guiltiness of their souls, they form a false estimate of their own character. They vainly imagine that what meets their own partial and blinded approbation, will also meet the approbation of God. They thus pretend to claim as a right, as the reward of their own works, the future blessedness which God has promised to his people. They imagine it would be unjust in God, to condemn and destroy them, and suppose therefore, that he will not do it.

If a partial knowledge of his own sinfulness destroy the confidence, which a worldly man would be disposed to feel in himself, the only remaining ground of hope for him, is, that though there is a God, and though he, as a sinner, can claim nothing from such a being, yet the mercy of God will not suffer any man to be destroyed. This is the only remaining rock.

It is the hope, that God will still receive and save men, though they are sinners, and none shall be cast into the sorrows of hell forever.

Here is a choice among three distinct systems of confidence. One of these is always the rock of the world. Upon one of these, as a selected foundation, every unconverted man rests his confidence, and in its possession, comforts himself in a present course of sin. To give them their technical names, they are Atheism, and Deism, and Universalism. No other position can be imagined as held by the man who rejects the Gospel of Christ, and the foundation which the Lord Jesus has laid for human hope. these three must be the rock of the world. examination of his own state of mind, will show to every unconverted man who hears me, that he has adopted, and is carrying out, one of these three systems, as the balm of comfort to his soul.

One of And the

2. Now what is "our rock?" the rock of the Christian? Certainly, neither of these three. We know that there is a God. We know that in our own righteousness, we cannot stand before him. If he shall enter into judgment with us, our iniquity will certainly be found out. We know that though he is plenteous in mercy, he will by no means clear the guilty. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God." All these vain grounds of hope, we utterly renounce. Our rock is Christ. God reconciled unto us, through the one offering of Jesus once for all, is our whole dependence, our only ground of hope. On this rock, we feel secure. It allows us no room for fear from past transgressions, because it exhibits a full and all-suffi