SERMON VIII.

TAKING THE KINGDOM BY VIOLENCE.

MAT. XI. 12.*

And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.

This refers to a remarkable revival of religion which commenced under the preaching of John and continued during the ministry of Jesus. In that day of God's power people flocked to hear the Gospel and with mighty efforts pressed into the kingdom of God. There was all the earnestness common to modern revivals; and this the Saviour, so far from rebuking under the character of irregular warmth, as modern formalists do, distinctly approved. He speaks of it as though it was an attack upon a fortified city which must be carried by storm: and that single figure shows what ideas he had of the exertions needful in this conflict. "Ago

* Preached in a revival of religion.

nize," said he, “to enter in at the straight gate." He would have men come up to the work with all that agony which is necessary in sacking a strong city and that agony diffused through a community presents all the earnestness of a revival of religion, -of that revival in particular to which the Saviour referred with so much approbation.

Make a law that men shall never break over that formal round in which they are accustomed to move when their heart is cold and engrossed by business or science, and you never will rouse the multitude from sleep,-you never will break the enchantment which binds them to the world,—you never will lift them above their pride, which stands like an armed giant to guard the door of their pri

son.

The necessity for these strong exertions arises from the immense difficulties in the way. These difficulties may be classed under the following heads.

1. The world, as comprehending both objects of attention and objects of attachment. As the first, it diverts the attention from God and eternity and holds it spell-bound to earth. Business and amusement and vain society throw an enchantment over the mind and allure and enchain it as by magic. As the second, it plunges men into the grossest and most incurable idolatry. Honor, wealth, and pleasure become their trinity. And what an obstacle this is to salvation the Scriptures plainly teach. "How can ye believe which receive honor one of another?" "It is easier for a camel to go through

the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." "That which fell among thorns are they which are choked with-pleasures of this life."

2. The devil and all his angels. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." These subtle spirits, knowing all our weaknesses and all the avenues to our hearts, do all they can to prevent sinners from being awakened, to prevent the awakened from submitting to Christ, and to embarrass and perplex believers. They seduce the awakened back or delude them with false hopes. They lead them into errors and sins, by which they grieve the Spirit to their destruction.

3. The flesh with all its passions and lusts. Supreme selfishness turns the man into a confirmed enemy of God. His pride is afraid to go over to his Prince or to make a motion towards him, lest his companions in revolt should deride. It clings to the worldly honors that are to be renounced. It cannot bear to lie down under the convictions of guilt or to come as a beggar to sue for pardon on account of another. Pride and selfishness engender unbelief, which stupifies the soul and excludes a sense of eternal things,-a sense of sin and ruin. The lusts and passions fasten upon the world and turn a thousand objects into idols. They keep the stupid from being awakened, the awakened from accepting a Saviour, and raise in the believer a war which nothing but death can terminate.

The whole soul gravitates towards the earth, and it is as unnatural for it to rise to God as it is for the body to ascend to heaven. These corruptions render the heart invincibly obdurate, so that all the commands and entreaties of God, all his promises and threatenings, all the light of this world and all the sufferings of the next, cannot subdue it. Though the sinner, arrested by the Spirit and overwhelmed with guilt, stands trembling over the eternal pit; though a bleeding Saviour shows him his hands and his side, and offers him pardon and a crown of glory, with entreaties that might move a rock; the invincible traitor still urges his way to hell: and when he arrives there, not all the tortures of the damned, nor the certainty that continued sin will eternally increase his torments, will ever bring him to one right feeling towards his Maker.

4. The difficulty of dissolving long connected associations, and of breaking up long established habits, and of issuing forth into new courses of action; the difficulty of transferring the affections to God which have long been given to the world, of bringing one to tread the valley of humility who has long stalked in pride, of inuring lips to prayer which have long been profane. "Can the Ethiopean change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.”

These immense difficulties are not to be overcome without great and continued efforts. It is by far the most difficult work that ever man attempted. Hence the life of christians is compared to running, wrestling, fighting, and they are exhorted to