Sermon 8. - Value of Wisdom in Spiritual Things.

whom thou hast so deeply revolted; if this very day that thou hearest his warning voice, and hardenest not thy heart, though thou hast been hitherto most rebellious, he will yet show thee mercy. Rend, O rend your careless hearts, and not your garments, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Hath the Lord any pleasure in the death of him that dieth? Does not such a one die because he will die? because he will not turn to the Lord with weeping, fasting, and praying; be cause he will not be delivered from the world, the flesh, and the devil; because he will not be presented to God as a chaste virgin in Christ? “Ye will not come unto me,” said once that dear Saviour, “ye will not come unto me that ye may have life;” and shall we still give him room to complain in heaven as he did when on earth, or shall we know the time of our visitation, and hasten to him with all our aggravated guilt? If we choose this better part, as the Lord liveth we shall find him most willing and able to pardon our sins, and sanctify our nature, to create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us; which may God grant unto us all for his mercy’s sake.

SERMON 8. - VALUE OF WISDOM IN SPIRITUAL THINGS.

“O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end,” Deuteronomy 32:29.

IF the dying words of a good man ought to make the deepest impression upon us, (and precepts given by one just launching into eternity, should be valued so much the more, as we cannot suspect him to be influenced by any motives but those of love and concern for our welfare,) what regard ought we to pay to the words of the text, since they were some of the last which were spoken by one of the best and greatest of men that ever lived, namely, Moses!

The day approached in which he was to be gathered to his fathers. For notwithstanding the repeated prayers he had made to enter into the good land of Canaan, God, whose inflexible justice often punishes the least faults in his saints, (how much more the greatest sins in his enemies,) God, I say, having resolved to make him an example of his invincible hatred to sin, (and of the necessity he stands under to require satisfaction where it is committed,) had told him that he must submit to die before his time, for having spoken unadvisedly with his lips at the waters of Meribah. Moses worshipped and humbly submitted to the Lord; well persuaded that his Redeemer lived; and that though worms should soon prey on his body, the God whom he served would deliver his soul from the pangs of the second death.

To spend the short time he had to live wholly in the work of faith and labour of love, he called together the people of Israel, read to them all the words of God’s law, brought to their remembrance the many miracles which the Lord had done for them, to bring them out of Egypt with a stretched out arm, opening a way through the Red Sea; destroying all their enemies; causing the clouds to rain delicious food, and the rocks to yield water springs to preserve their lives in the wilderness. In short, he laid before them life and death in the most affecting manner, and besought them, sometimes by glorious promises, and sometimes by dreadful threatenings, not to provoke the Lord their God, but to cleave to him with full purpose of heart, telling them that the God of their fathers would bless them for ever, if they would but love him with all their souls; and adding, that if they departed from him, he would pursue them with his severest judgments, and scatter them over the face of the whole earth, as we see them in our days.

What an awful sight must this have been! A whole nation, - men, women, and children, standing before the Lord! And Moses, the greatest of prophets, and the friend of God, expostulating with them for the last time! Methinks I see the effect of his pathetic discourse spreading through that numerous congregation. Thousands lift up weeping eyes to heaven in an ecstasy of praise and thanksgiving for God’s mercies to them; while thousands more fix themselves on the ground with shame and confusion, ready to say, “We are not worthy of the least of the Lord’s mercies, for we are a rebellious people; it is because his compassions fail not that we are not consumed.” On every side the trembling hands of aged people, with the feeble ones of children, are lifted up to heaven to witness, that henceforth they will love the Lord, and serve him only; and with one consent they cry as in the days of Elijah, “The Lord he is the God; the Lord he is the God:” he is the God to whom we will cleave for ever.

This moving scene had a due effect on Moses: he mixed, no doubt, his tears of joy with the tears of repentance, which he saw in the people’s eyes. But, alas! the knowledge he had of the human heart made him at the same time foresee that this goodness would not last longer than the early dew, and that prosperity, with fulness of bread, would soon cause them to forget the Lord, and trample under foot the promises and threatenings he had laid before them. He foresaw that their hearts would be drawn aside by the cares and pleasures of the world, so as to remember no more the heavenly Canaan, of which the earthly one was but a figure. He saw that the little concerns of this life would swallow up the important ones of that which is to come. Therefore, overwhelmed with holy grief, he looked up to heaven, and expressed, in the words of the text, the thoughts of his bleeding heart, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” Having breathed that solemn wish, he blessed them once more, and the same day went up to Mount Nebo, from which, having taken a view of the earthly Canaan, he committed his spirit into the hands of the Lord, to carry it to the heavenly one, while the dust of his body returned to dust.

Having thus related on what occasion the words of the text were spoken, I come, in the second place, to dwell upon their general meaning; and, lastly, I shall endeavour to apply them to your hearts. In the meantime, may the grace of God so assist me in speaking, and you in hearing, that “Moses and the prophets” may never rise up in judgment to accuse us of having despised their solemn exhortations.

1. Since no scripture is of private interpretation, the words of the text certainly imply, that, of those who are called the people of God, whether they go by the denomination of Israelites, as formerly, or that of Christians, as in our days, far the greatest part want true wisdom and understanding in the things that nearly concern them: so that every minister of the Gospel has as much reason as Moses to break out into this prayer, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”

It is to be wished it were harder to make good the melancholy assertion; but to the disgrace of our holy religion, nothing is easier. It has been granted, by the very heathens, that the sum of true wisdom is to know ourselves, and what is our business here. Now, suppose one was to ask most Christians what they do here? And what is their business upon earth? If they were to answer according to the maxims they follow in life, would they not show their folly rather than true wisdom? Would not the rich man say, “I am here to take care of and enjoy an estate; to spend my time in hunting, horse racing, cards, and company; to clothe myself with purple and fine linen, to fare sumptuously every day, and contrive various diversions to kill time and forget myself?” Would not the busy merchant, or anxious farmer answer, “I am in the world to toil early and late: my business is to get an estate, and God has blest me therein; for now my ware houses or barns are very nigh full, and I shall soon say to my soul, ‘Soul, take thine ease now, for thou hast much property laid up for many years?’” A third class of people would answer, “We do not desire so much, and the end of all our labours is to pay every man his own, and then to settle in some comfortable way of business, and provide for our children.” Now, all these answers would be reasonable in the mouths of heathens; for “after those things the Gentiles seek,” says our Lord: and I make no doubt but the beasts that perish, if they were endued with the faculty of speech, could give as good an account of themselves, and attain unto all the wisdom of worldlings. For though to provide for the body is part of our duty, yet it is but the least part of it. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Thus speak Christ and true Christians. Believe him! Accordingly their answer to the question, mentioned above, would be as different from that of worldly people as light from darkness.

“We are everlasting spirits, (would they say,) we came out of God’s hands pure, and holy, and happy. But now involved in flesh and blood, partakers of the guilt of fallen Adam, and born into the world children of wrath, we have, by nature, proud and hardened hearts, whereby we resemble the fallen angels; and earthly, sensual souls, by which we are not unlike the beasts that perish. “As for our real business in this life, it is not to get an estate; for our Lord forbids us expressly laying up treasures upon earth. lt is not to get preferment or a title; for if all is vanity under the sun, as Solomon says, such honours are the froth of vanity itself. Nor is it to call lands after our own names, and leave them to our posterity; for this could not redeem our souls from hell. But our business is to get in time the ‘one thing needful:’ to recover a participation of the Divine nature, and a fitness to enjoy God in heaven. Our short life is all the time we have to do that great work in. We pass through the world as an arrow through the air. For a few months or years we are in a state of flesh and blood, only to try whether we shall be for ever happy with God, or for ever miserable with the devil. “This world is but our way to our eternal abode; therefore, it is as great a piece of folly for us to set our hearts on any thing here, as for a traveller to fall in love with every object he meets in his way, which he has no sooner seen but he must leave behind. These bodies of ours, so far from having a right to engross all our cares, are but our prisons, wherein our immortal souls are chained down by fleshly thoughts, blinded with false notions of good and evil, and dead to all taste of their true happiness. In this low state we are called to rise far higher than an animal life; we are called to be ‘born again’ of the Holy Ghost) to become members of the kingdom, and to enjoy everlasting happiness with the Father of spirits in the realms of light. We are called to shake off those low desires, and that extravagant taste for worldly happiness which makes us wander unconcernedly in darkness and spiritual exile from God.

“We are called to give up all thoughts of rest here; to put off worldly tempers; to be delivered from the folly of our passions, and the slavery of our natural appetites. In a word, we are called to reform our whole nature by a death unto sin; to renew our souls in the image of God, by a new birth unto righteousness; and to be fitted again for conversation with the holy angels, and communion with God himself.

“This implies that we must not only renounce presumptuous sins; such as injustice, oppression, lying, deceit, drunkenness, and gluttony, with all kinds of impurity; cursing, swearing, and all branches of profaneness: for wise heathens fled from those abominations as from the face of a serpent; and Jesus says they are works of the devil, and that those who are guilty of them are of their father the devil, whose works they do.

“But we must, beside, be changed and renewed in all our tempers. Instead of that pride which turned angels into devils, we must be clothed with humility, and take up the cross of a despised Saviour. Instead of indulging covetousness and self seeking, we must learn to delight in doing good, and in spending and being spent for others. Instead of lying down in indolence, we must arise with fervency of spirit, and do with all our might the good our hand findeth to do; remembering that the night comes when no man can work. Instead of envy, and strife, and wrath, we must put on the humble, loving, patient, gentle mind of the Lord Jesus. Instead of sensuality, and that turn of mind which relishes nothing but earthly things; by heavenly mindedness our souls must be so transformed that we may be able to say with David, ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.’ And, lastly, for those stony hearts of ours, we must get hearts of flesh, - hearts affected with a sense of the love of God made man, to die a shameful death for us; - hearts purified from vain desires by a living faith; exalted by a hope full of immortality; and transformed by Divine love into the very image of God.”

Brethren, this is our high calling. He that knows these things, he that daily and hourly meditates therein, does not run like a fool without knowing his errand: and the Divine wisdom which has opened his eyes to see the great work he has to do, opens them farther to choose the only way of doing it. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” He considers, then, that as all things were created by the Son of God, and “without him was not any thing made that was made;” so are all things redeemed and restored by the same Divine person. As nothing came into being without Jesus, so nothing can enter into a state of happiness but by him. He is, then, continually applying to his crucified Lord for an increase of spiritual wisdom and strength; he hangs upon him by the desires of his heart; he lives by faith; he spiritually eats his flesh and drinks his blood, whereby his soul is nourished as with marrow and fatness. In a word, by faith he becomes one spirit with the Lord, and can say with St. Paul, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” O that we were thus wise! O that we now understood and considered these things, and were prepared for our latter end. Then let the Bridegroom come never so unexpectedly, he would find us waiting for him, and we should enter into the joy of our Lord.

But to come to the application of the text: is this our case? Can we all say, we have the wisdom of the holy man that has been described? Nay, do we so much as seek after it in sincerity? Suppose we had attained unto it, should not we show it in our conversation?

If the drunkard, for example, knew his calling, instead of quenching, in a monstrous abuse of God’s mercies, that spark of reason he has; instead of setting himself below the very brutes, to the disgrace of Christianity, and the shame of human kind; would not he prepare to drink of that river of pleasure which flows from the throne of God? Would not he beg to be enabled to say, by happy experience, with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd; he makes me rest in green pastures, and leads me along the waters of comfort:” he fills my cup with a foretaste of heavenly joys, so that it runs over even on earth. If the unclean persons were wise, and had used themselves to consider these things, would they sell themselves to work wickedness in the sight of the holy angels? Would they make their body, which was formed to be the temple of God, the body of a harlot? Would they not rather serve the God of purity with soul, and body, and spirit, which he created with so much power, redeemed with so much mercy, and which he still preserves with so much patience? If the swearer had wisdom enough to understand his madness; if he considered the accuser of the brethren, writing down every curse he utters, to bring them all upon his guilty head in a dying hour; do you think he would provoke God to hasten his damnation? Do you think he would be so impatient to secure a place where he may be sure that cursing, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth will be his portion to all eternity? No, they could not; and if any act in that manner, it is because they have not one spark of true wisdom.

Let us, then, join to pray over them in the words of the text: “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”

And you, poor worldlings, (if there be any such here,) who never yet made religion your chief business and concern; who, with the rich man in the Gospel, endeavour to take your pleasures in this world, not considering that this is the way to have your torments in the next; you who drown all the concerns of your immortal souls either in the transient joys, or the unnecessary cares of life; have you attained unto true wisdom? You may imagine so, and carry your delusion so far as to applaud yourselves on account of your fancied goodness: but, alas! ere long you must be undeceived; and death (if nothing else can) will teach you that true wisdom consisted in preparing to meet him with comfort. When he looks you in the face; when he shall summon you to the bar of God - where will you seek for peace and assurance of his love, if it is not in your soul? In the gold you endeavoured to hoard up? “Perish the hour (shall you say) in which I was mad enough to load myself with thick clay, instead of running to Jesus for my life!” In the money you have spent in vanity and self indulgence? You will have then what you now buy with it, fear and remorse. Will you seek relief in the remembrance of your past pleasures? Alas! it will only awaken your guilty conscience, and add new degrees to your horror. You expect, perhaps, some consolation from those with whom you endeavour to forget your latter end; with whom you squander away the best of your time in unprofitable talk or vain diversions. Alas! you are mistaken; they will be the first to turn their backs upon you: and while they go in quest of companions better able to run after vanity and excess than you, you shall be left to shift for yourself upon a dying bed.

Meantime God, that almighty God, whom you take so little care to make your friend now; nay, whom you daily offend by your impenitence and stubbornness: that almighty God, I say, will find you there. And what will you do when he says, “Away to judgment, unprofitable servant, who hast neglected the a one thing needful;” and cared for every thing more than for the salvation of thy immortal soul: fit or unfit, launch into eternity - hasten to thy latter abode!” Ah! surely, in that hour, if not sooner, you will own your want of true wisdom. And we have reason to pray also over you in the words of Moses, “O that they were wise, that they understood this; that they would consider their latter end!”

And who are those that do not need to consider it? Not you, young people, to whom health and youth seem to insure a long and happy life. Ah! know that sickness may overtake you to - day, and that youth is as little able as old age to resist the spear of death. Witness many of the tomb stones that are set up round these places of worship. Nothing, then, nothing can secure you but an interest in the blood of the dear Redeemer, of him who, having created you to make you happy, has again purchased you by all the sufferings of his most holy life and bitter death.

Now, then, consider that your highest wisdom and truest interest is to give him your hearts, to remember him in the days of your youth, and put yourselves under his almighty protection; which, if you do, O how happy shall you be in your life! how triumphant in your death! how transcendently blessed through all the ages of eternity! “O that you were wise - that you understood this - that you would consider your latter end!” As for you, brethren, who see one half of your days run out already, and yet are tempted by the corruption of the world, and your hearts, to mind nothing but the affairs of this life, you need, above all, to consider your latter end. Alas! you are too apt to forget that the better half of your days is gone, and gone for ever. Look back these thirty or forty years that you have lived. How short! it is a vapour which the wind has carried away. O, consider, that in thirty or forty years more, if you live so long, the whole of your days will look like the same dream; and learn, by what is past, to redeem what is to come.

But above all, forget not that eternity is at the end of your half - spent life. Eternity, that sea without either bottom or shore, in which a thousand years are swallowed up as a drop of rain in the ocean. Eternity, to which you hurry as fast as the wings of time can carry you. And what have you done for eternity? I do not ask, what have you done for time? The rivers of sweat that daily water your face in providing for flesh and blood, save you the trouble of an answer. (Nor are you to be blamed for caring for the body, if you do it always in subordination to the concerns of your soul.) But what have you done for eternity? Have you so much as shed one tear for the forgiveness of your manifold sins? Have you spent one hour in secret to entreat the Lord to prepare you for eternity? Or do you say by your lives, if not with your mouths, “There is time enough to think of that?” Ah! if this is your case, we pray in your behalf, “O that they were wise - that they understood this - that they would consider their latter end.” Here I would also address myself to those whose grey hairs are ready to descend with you into the grave, at the first touch of sickness. I would ask you if you have been wise, and if your souls are as ripe for heaven as your bodies for the ground? But if your broken constitution, and the infirmities of old age, have not yet been able to awake you into a constant preparation for your latter end - what reason is there to expect that words will do it? But I would hope better things of you; I would hope that you have long ago devoted your lives to the Lord; and stand now waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom, and ready for the marriage feast. Nevertheless, if among you there is a grey - headed sinner, let us with double fervour say over him, “O that he were wise! O that he would understand this! O that he would consider his latter end!”

To conclude. Whosoever thou art, O sinner, whether young or old, rich or poor, in the name of the Lord I call upon thee to awake unto wisdom. Let not the god of this world blind thine eyes any longer. Consider ere it be too late. See death behind thee, and eternity at thy feet. Renounce trifles. Set aside the anxious cares of the world. Give up unlawful pleasures. Leave nothing untried to make thy calling and election sure. For, in the scenes of futurity which shall soon be displayed in thy sight, there is no room for alteration; all is steadfast, unmovable, beyond the grave. Whether we are, then, seated on a throne, or stretched on a rack, a seal will be set to our condition by the hand of everlasting mercy or inflexible justice. Now, then, that the present hour is still in thy power, use it to the best advantage. Throw thyself into the arms of a merciful Redeemer, and beseech him to prepare thee a place in his everlasting habitations, and to fit thee for the company of God and his angels. Fear not, (if thou art sincere,) far from casting thee away, he waits to be gracious, and to seal to thy heart by his Spirit the remission of thy sins. For with the Lord there is forgiveness that he may be feared. Come, then, wash thyself by faith in the blood of the Lamb - “the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.” And when thou art made clean, “go and sin no more.”

I repeat it once more: tarry not; eternity is at stake. God, in the twinkling of an eye, may take away the breath that is in thy nostrils. The next hour sickness may impair thy reason, and deprive thee of all power to think or pray. The next day the Lord Jesus may come to judgment, and the trump of God may sound, to put an end to time and repentance. If not, the messenger of the Lord, which day and night advances toward thee, death, will most certainly do it, ere long; and what will become of thee, if thou art found in thy blood, in thy sins, unpardoned, unconverted? What horror! But I choose to draw a curtain over the deplorable spectacle, and hope none of us will harden his heart against the prayer of Moses, and might not I say against the tears of the Lord Jesus? O let us remember him, as he considered the sinners of Jerusalem a few days before his death; he wept over them, says the Gospel, and cried out, like Moses: “O that they would know, in this their day, the things that belong to their peace.” Let not those precious tears of the Son of God; let not the sacred streams that flowed from his hands, his feet, his heart, flow unregarded and despised by us. From this day, let us all be wise unto salvation. And when the wicked shall be destroyed with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power; when they shall call upon the hills to fall on them, and the mountains to cover them from the wrath of an offended God; in the inexpressible enjoyment of endless bliss we shall ascribe grace, mercy, and love to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb; which may God grant for Jesus Christ’s sake, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one eternal God, be ascribed all majesty and dominion, from this time forth for ever.