Page images
PDF
EPUB

inwardly recognize him as his Lord in truth.

Is he

Ah!

not a miserable mortal, a real slave of Satan? the man probably thinks, when thus living according to his lusts, that he is only doing what came into his mind; but know, O man! thou art Satan's slave; he has bound thee with a chain; he draws thee after him; he drives thee from one sin to another, and thou art no longer thine own lord and master. O if we could perceive who was Lord in our hearts, how terrified should we be ! But now there is one born, the true Prince is born, who has the government upon his shoulder; he will take the soul's part; he will no longer permit it to do the will of Satan any more. No man is now compelled to do the will of Satan any longer; not a single individual, except he who voluntarily lets himself be held in captivity, is obliged and constrained to serve sin any longer. We are not debtors to sin, says Paul: we may now be free. Christ, by his incarnation, and by the merit of his incarnation, has ransomed us from all other masters; we may and ought therefore to yield ourselves up to him.

Now, my dear friends! if you are weary of serving other lords, come hither; this Master is willing to engage you in his service. Come and give yourselves to your rightful Lord; receive him, swear beneath his banner, render your homage unto him. Honor and revere this rightful King, who has a right to possess you, and to rule over you.

We need not be afraid of the devil, nor of any temptations or terrors. No, my dear friends! do

M

not make the devil omnipotent.

When evil thoughts

occur to you, when trials and temptations arise, which often appear truly devilish; be not so fearful of them, if you do not voluntarily enter into them, when they become a cross and cause of suffering to you. Assuredly, the Devil only makes a pretence, he only seeks to terrify us, to make us afraid, like little children are terrified. He has now nothing more to say; the government is upon the shoulder of our divine child Immanuel. When we are devoted, with body and soul unto him; the devil can do nothing to us, even although he come upon us with the whole multitude of infernal spirits.

But beware also, my dear friends! of the vain fear of man! If Christ has the government on his shoulder, the world has therefore no longer any authority over us, and consequently we need not fear it any more. For many a one is apprehensive, and says to himself, if thou act so and so, thou wilt make such a one thy enemy; some other person would not endure thee any more, thou mightest be despised; thou mightest perhaps not make thy way in the world! Ah, my dear friend! Christ has the government upon his shoulder. He has the hearts of all men in his hand; he guides every thing as it ought to be guided. Trust him then for a morsel of bread; confide your life and health to him. What more is required, than to be a subject of him, who can so preserve us, as that not a hair can fall from our heads, without the gracious will of his love.

The law has also nothing more to say to us with

all our sins. When our evil transgressions occur to us, and God's tribunal is set before us: we must not have any thing to do with our sins. Christ has compensated for every thing. We have nothing to do, but to submit ourselves to our King, to pay homage to him, and to cleave unto him; we may then approach unto God, with filial faith and confidence, in the sweet and beloved name of Immanuel. We need fear nothing; for the government is upon the shoulder of Jesus; and his government is a very different one from the governments here on earth. It is true, that earthly governments, as far as they are of divine appointment, afford a very pleasing representation and delineation of the government of our dear Immanuel, Jesus. All the emperors, kings, monarchs, and great men of this world, however, receive something from their subjects; and when they have no subjects, their government signifies little. But our dearest Saviour Jesus needs no subjects, needs no excellence from others; he has all excellence and majesty in and upon himself; and besides this, he renders his subjects happy with himself; he makes them all kings and priests, heirs and joint heirs of his kingdom. All this is given to us: " Unto us a Son is given !"

To be brief; the dominion of Jesus consists in redeeming us from sin, and from the unhappy dominion of sin and Satan, by the power of his grace; in protecting us against all the enemies of our soulsSatan, Sin, Death, the World and all that assails us. The government of Jesus consists in really redeeming

us from indwelling sin, in imparting to us, by the Spirit of his grace, divine life, light, and virtues, and in making us, by this means, pious, holy, lovely, and acceptable people in the sight of God, if we only cleave unto him, and make room for him in our hearts. To this end, he enters into our hearts, as into his kingdom, there to dwell, reign, live, and govern. Thus a believer has nothing to do but to walk in filial reverence, before the face of his reigning king, and shew himself entirely obedient to him, in body and in soul.

Alas!

Come then, my dearest friends! Let us go to Bethlehem. Let us employ this day in solemnly paying renewed homage to our king; let us salute him in his cradle, and swear anew the oath of fealty to him, saying, Yea, O Lord Jesus! thou hast been given to me; I accept thee, and present thee, in return, my heart and my all, for an eternal possession. Let us not divide our hearts, any longer, my friends! for this is the reason why we experience so little of the dominion of Jesus in our souls. we divide our hearts. We are willing to possess Jesus; we are willing to have him for our King; yet we follow the Lord only a little, and nature and the world a little. But we cannot experience in this way the blessedness of indwelling grace. We must become entirely subject to him; our heart must be his property; our will must be humbled and subjected to his will and good pleasure; our body, our souls, our senses, our mental powers and faculties,-Jesus must live and reign in them all. We must no longer

use any thing according to our own good pleasure, and our own impulse. No, those that are true Christmas souls, who are become Jesus's propertyhave done homage to him, and sworn allegiance to him.

Now, my dearest friends! let us, on this day, as already said, renew, in a solemn manner, our covenant, and the offering we have made of ourselves; anew submit and resign ourselves to our royal king and crown prince, and swear fidelity to him, by the assistance of his grace to cleave to him, and to serve him all our lives long.

Come also, all ye who have hitherto been such miserable creatures as would not that this Man should reign over you. Ah, receive him! Christmas days are still granted you, of which you may now take advantage, because they are still afforded you. O humble yourselves now, and pay homage to this child, that will gladly receive you into favour, and, as his subjects, make you temporally and eternally happy. Subsequently, he will rule much more strictly; he will then no longer reign with the golden sceptre of his grace, but you will be dashed in pieces with the iron sceptre of his wrath, with which he will subdue all his enemies, and all those who will not be the subjects of this Jesus, the child born, this King of heaven and earth.

But as for us, who are become the subjects of this child Jesus, this king of heaven and earth, let us walk circumspectly, as in the presence of God. Let us walk, that many others may be induced, by our walk

« PreviousContinue »