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BEING IN THE SPIRIT
WE are told by our blessed Lord, “Not to fear those who can only kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” The truth is, that whilst men are wreaking their vengeance upon the body, they cannot obstruct God’s communications to the soul, or destroy the happiness of those whom they desire to torment. Paul and Silas have borne testimony to this: for, with their feet fastened in the stocks, and their backs torn with scourges, they “sang praises to God aloud at midnight.” St. John, too, when he was “banished to the Isle of Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ:” and was there “a companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,” participating, in his advanced age, the afflictions with which all the seven Churches of Asia had been visited; he, I say, received more abundant manifestations of God’s love to his soul, and was honoured there with revelations more full and complete, than were ever vouchsafed to any other child of man. And we also, if suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ, may expect that, “as our afflictions abound, so also shall our consolations abound by Christ [Note: 2Co_1:5.].”
In confirmation of this, I will shew,
I. How far this experience of St. John may be realized in us—
When it is said, that “He was in the Spirit” on the Lord’s day, I conceive that we are to understand, he was in a trance or ecstacy, somewhat similar to that of the Apostle Paul, who was “caught up into the third heavens, and knew not whether he was in the body, or out of the body [Note: 2Co_12:2-4. with Rev_4:2.].” Yet, as it was the Lord’s day, a day kept sacred by the Christian Church, in commemoration of the resurrection of our blessed Lord [Note: On the first day of the week our Lord appeared to his Disciples: on that day, in the following week, he appeared to them again, Joh_20:19; Joh_20:26. From that time the Church assembled on that day for holy exercises, Act_20:7; and it was ever afterwards kept holy, 1Co_16:2.], we may be sure that he was in a frame of mind becoming the Sabbath of the Lord. Now, I readily acknowledge, that, as far as relates to any thing miraculous, Christians of the present day have no warrant to expect any communications similar to those which were vouchsafed to John: but of spiritual blessings it is the privilege of every Christian to participate; and on the Sabbath-day he ought to experience a more abundant effusion of them on his soul.
1. The Lord’s day is set apart for that end—
[It is a day on which all worldly business should be suspended, and the soul be wholly given up to divine and spiritual employments. The ceremonial part of the Sabbath may be considered as abrogated, together with the rest of the Mosaic ritual: but the moral observance of it is as much in force as ever. Even in Paradise that was enjoined, and therefore we are assured it is of perpetual obligation: and the kind of observance which it demands, is well described by the prophet: “Thou shalt turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and shalt call the Sabbath a delight; the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words [Note: Isa_58:13.].” Here we see how the Sabbath should be sanctified: every thing that is earthly and carnal should be banished from our minds; and our whole conversation and employment should have a direct reference to God, and to the concerns either of our own souls, or of the Redeemer’s kingdom in the world.]
2. Our frame of mind should be suited to it—
[If we regard the Lord’s day as we ought, “then,” as the prophet says, “shall we delight ourselves in the Lord; and he will cause us to ride upon the high places of the earth, and will feed us with the heritage of Jacob our father [Note: Isa_58:14.].” Six days God has given us for earthly labour: the seventh should be wholly his; our thoughts and desires going out after him; our souls rising to him in sweet meditation, and in holy intercourse; our praises ascending from the altar of our hearts, and all our sacrifices doubled. In a word, we should then “dwell in God, and have God dwelling in us;” so near should be our access to him, so intimate our communion with him, so entirely our souls surrendered up to him. On every day we should be “a people near unto God;” but on the Sabbath more especially we should be able to say, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ [Note: 1Jn_1:3.].” In this sense we should “be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” To “be filled with the Spirit,” is as much our privilege, as it was of the Apostles [Note: Eph_5:18.]. To “pray in the Holy Ghost,” to “walk in the Spirit,” and “live in the Spirit,” are not peculiar to any order of men, or any age of the Church: they are duties enjoined on all [Note: Jude, ver. 20. Gal_5:25.]: and if we serve our God with the fidelity that becomes us, these things will characterize our whole lives, whilst they will preeminently appear on the Sabbath-day.]
That we may not think lightly of this privilege, let me proceed to state,
II. The special call we have to seek it—
To illustrate this, I would observe,
1. Our necessities require it—
[By our intercourse with the world, we are, to a certain degree, clogged and fettered, so that we cannot run our race with the steadiness that we could wish. But, on the Sabbathday, all “these weights are laid aside,” and our garments being girt about us, we make our way with augmented rapidity [Note: Heb_12:1.]. If I may be permitted to use so familiar an expression, we are going down, like a clock, throughout the week; and need to be wound up on the Sabbath-day, for further exertions in the service of our God. And who has ever truly sanctified his Sabbaths, without being able to attest, that they have been made effectual for this blessed end? Like Elijah, we have a long journey before us; and we eat richly of the provision which God has made for us. But God sets a second feast before us: and we rise and eat again; and are thus strengthened for exertions, which would have far surpassed our natural strength [Note: 1Ki_19:5-8.]. Yes, a second ordinance has been the means of completing that, which the first had only begun. Indeed, God often so peculiarly adapts the provisions of his house to our peculiar necessities, that it seems as if the minister had been informed of our particular case, and had been addressing himself to us alone. And here I may put it to the conscience of every individual amongst us, and ask him, Whether he has not actually found that he has suffered loss in his soul, when he has neglected to improve a Sabbath, and spent it in vain pursuits? Nay, I may further ask, Whether a very great portion of the enormities committed, amongst those who call themselves Christians, may not, in a great measure, be traced to a neglect of the Sabbath-day? I may justly say then, that “the Sabbath was made for man [Note: Mar_2:27.],” even for the supplying of our spiritual necessities; and that those necessities loudly call upon us to sanctify that day unto the Lord.]
2. The ordinances are unprofitable to us without it—
[Whence is it that so many attend upon divine ordinances from year to year, and never derive any saving benefit from them? It is because they do not ever seek to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s-day. When they wake in the morning, they have no distinct consciousness, that it is a day to be consecrated wholly to the Lord. When they rise, they do not earnestly implore help from God, to enable them to improve their time aright, and to sanctify to them the ordinances of his grace. When they come up to the house of God, they do not endeavour to get their minds duly impressed with a sense of the importance of the work in which they are engaged. When hearing the blessed word of God, they do not receive it as the word of God himself to their souls: nor, when his seed has been sown in their hearts, do they go and harrow it in by prayer. They attend on the duties of the Sabbath as a form; and never call themselves to an account at the close of the day, how they have improved it, or what blessing they have obtained, or whether they are one jot nearer to heaven. Is it to be wondered at that these persons never make any advance in religion? What kind of a crop would the husbandman have, if he were equally careless about his agricultural pursuits? Here, then, is the true reason why the most faithful ministers labour, as it respects the greater part of their hearers, in vain. A person who has attained to the age of forty-two has had no less than six entire years of Sabbaths. What might not such an one have attained, if he had improved them for the end for which they were given? what knowledge of divine truth, what enjoyment of the Divine presence, and what meetness for the heavenly inheritance? Yet are there many who have made no more advance in any of these things, than if no such opportunities had ever been afforded them. I charge you, brethren, that, whatever guilt you may have contracted by your abuse of past Sabbaths, you begin this day to improve them for your eternal good, that they may not rise up in judgment against you, to your everlasting confusion.]
3. The Sabbath thus improved, will be a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath to our souls—
[There is a rest remaining for the people of God. And, O! what a rest will that be!—an entire rest of the soul in God! a total absence of every disquieting thought! a complete enjoyment of the Divine presence, and a perfect exercise of all our faculties in His service! In proportion as we spend the Lord’s day aright, this is our frame in this life: and our Sabbaths on earth are a preparation for, and a prelude to, our eternal rest. Say, brethren, is it not desirable to enjoy, thus, what I may call a heaven upon earth? Do not grudge the labour or the self-denial that are necessary for the attainment of this state. Richly will the fruit repay the culture, and the recompence reward the toil experienced in the pursuit of it. See on a dying bed those who have employed their Sabbaths according to the will of God: will you find no difference between them and the careless votaries of pleasure? And, follow the two to the bar of judgment; and will you find no great distinction between them there? I say then, to every one amongst you, Fulfil your duties to the world, with zeal and diligence, on the six days that are allotted you, though not without a careful waiting upon God; for you may be “not slothful in business, and yet fervent in spirit, serving the Lord:” but, on the Sabbath, live exclusively for God, and seek to be wholly “in the Spirit on the Lord’s-day.”]
And now suffer, I pray you, a word of exhortation—
[Consider, brethren, how many Sabbaths you have lost; and not one of them can ever be recalled. Consider, too, how few may yet remain to you. It is possible that, to some one here present, this very Sabbath may be the last. O! what bitter regret will arise in your minds, if you are called into eternity before the interests of your immortal souls have been secured! Do not delay this necessary work: do not arm death with terrors so appalling, as those must be which you will have to encounter in a dying hour, on a retrospect of your past advantages, and in the prospect of your future doom. Reflect, rather, how glorious your prospects will be on the borders of eternity, if now you give yourselves up wholly to your God; and how “abundant an entrance will then be ministered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” I would that you would all set that day before you; and then I should have but little occasion to press upon you a due improvement of the Lord’s day. But, I readily acknowledge, you cannot do this of yourselves. Yet you are not thereby justified: for the Spirit of God. should assuredly be poured out upon you, if you would seek his influences; and through his mighty agency you should be raised to holy contemplations and to heavenly delights. May a Pentecostal effusion of that blessed Spirit be now experienced amongst you, and your present delight in God be a pledge and foretaste of your eternal blessedness!]