SERMON XX.

SUFFERING WITHOUT THE CAMP.

"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."-HEBREWS, xiii. 12.

In one sense sanctification is wholly the work of Jesus Christ, but there is another meaning which is more usually affixed to the term, in which sanctification is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Many disputes have arisen concerning this doctrine, because all men do not distinguish between the two meanings of the same word. There is one kind of sanctification which signifies setting apart, and in that sense God's people were sanctified from all eternity. They were sanctified in election, before they had a being, for they were even then set apart from the impure mass, to be vessels of honor fit for the Master's use. Again, as redemption hath in it much of particularity and specialty, God's people were sanctified or set apart by the blood of Christ, when on Mount Calvary he offered up himself, an offering without spot or blemish, for the sins of his people. So that it is true that Jesus is not only made unto us wisdom and righteousness, but also sanctification. You will remember, in one of my sermons, the text of which was 66 Jesus only," I made that remark—that it was "Jesus only" for sanctification. And I have not had any reason to retract the expression; for there is a sense in which sanctification, as far as it means setting apart, is an eternal work, and is a work wholly completed for us by the blood of Jesus Christ and the election of the Father; but still sanctification sometimes, and most generally too amongst certain people, signifies another thing. It means the work of the Spirit in us. There

is a work which God the Holy Spirit carries on from the first moment of our Spiritual birth to the last moment, when we are complete and taken to Heaven-a work by which corruptions are overcome, lusts restrained, faith increased, love inflamed, hope brightened, and the spirit made fit to dwell with the glorified above. That work is the work of God's Holy Spirit; and we must remember, that even though it be the work of the Holy Spirit, still Jesus Christ even in this sanctifies his people. For what does the Holy Spirit sanctify them with? Beloved, he sanctifies them with blood. We know that when our Saviour died, his sacrifice had a double object: one object was pardon, the other object was cleansing; and the blood and the water flowed from the same source, to show us that justification and sanctification both spring from the same Divine fountain; and, though sanctification is the work of the Spirit in us, yet the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses is the Holy blood of Jesus, and the sacred water of his atonement applied to our heart, sprinkling us from dead works, and purging us from an evil conscience, that we may serve God without let or hindrance. So, then, Christian, in thy sanctification look to Jesus. Remember that the Spirit sanctifies thee; but he sanctifies thee through Jesus. He doth not sanctify thee through the works of the law, but through the atonement of Christ. And wilt thou remember, that the nearer thou livest to the cross of Jesus, thou wilt under his Heavenly Spirit have more of sanctification, and growth, and increase therein? So, then, we see that the text, whatever sanctification may mean, is still true-" Jesus, also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."

Let us pause here a minute, and let each of us ask this question-How far has Christ's purpose of sanctifying me been answered in me? I know that in one sense I am sanctified completely; in another sense I feel my imperfections and.infirmities. How far have I progressed in sanctification during this year? How much has my faith increased during this year? How many of my corruptions have I overcome? How much nearer am I living to Christ now, than on the first Sabbath of the last year? How much more do I know of the Saviour? How much closer do I approach to him? Have I more power in prayer? Am I

more careful in my life? Is my spirit more loving than it used to be? Am I more decisive for right? At the same time, am I more meek in standing up for it? Am I more like my Master? -Or, am I going backward? Stand still I cannot; I must either go forward in grace or go back. Which have I been doing this year? And I charge thee, O my heart, whatever answer thou hast to give to that, still to remember, that if thou art never so much sanctified thou hast not yet attained. I beseech thee forget that which is behind, and press forward toward that which is before, looking still unto this Jesus, who is the Author and the Finisher of faith. The Lord give you grace that you may be sanctified wholly-the body, soul, and spirit; I pray God to preserve you all unto his coming and glory.

But now the principal subject upon which I wish to discourse is the fact, that Jesus Christ suffered without the gate. You know that when the High Priest offered the sin-offering, because it typified sin, it was so obnoxious to God that it might not be burned upon the great altar, but it was always burned without the camp, to show God's detestation of sin, and his determination not only to put it away from himself, but also to put it away from his church. Now, when Jesus Christ came into this world to be our sin-offering, it behoved that he should be put outside the camp too, and it is remarkable that Providence provided for the fulfilment of the type. Had our Lord been killed in a tumult he would most likely have been slain in the city; unless he had been put to death judicially, he would not have been taken to the usual Mount of Doom. And it is remarkable yet again, that the Romans should have chosen a hill on the outside of the city to be the common Mount for Crucifixion and for death punishments. We might imagine that they would have selected some Mount in the centre of the city, and that they would have placed their gibbet in as conspicuous a place as our Newgate, that so it might strike the multitude with the greater awe. But through the providence of God it was otherwise; and Christ must not die in a tumult, so that he might not die in the city; and when he gets into the Romans' hands they are not to have a place of execution within the city, but one outside the camp, that he might be proven to be the sin-offering by dying without the gate.

I have just one or two thoughts to offer to you very briefly. Do you know who the people were that lived outside the gate? If you could have gone to the great Camp of Israel, you would have seen the tents all placed in order—the standard of Daniel there, of Judah there, of Ephraim there—surrounding the Ark of the Covenant; but you would have seen a few wretched huts far away in the rear, outside the camp; and if you had asked, “Who lives there? Who are the wretched people that are put away from kith and kin, who cannot go up to the Sanctuary of the Lord, who cannot join in the songs of holy praise?" The answer would have been, “The people out there are lepers and unclean people;" and if you had walked alone through some of the shady glens around the City of Jerusalem, you might have heard in the distance the cry, "Unclean! unclean! unclean!"—a bitter wail that sounded like the sighing of despair, as if it came from some poor ghost that had been commanded to walk this earth with restless step for ever. Had you come nearer to the unhappy being who had uttered so mournful a sound, you would have seen him cover his upper lip, and again cry, “Unclean! unclean! unclean!"—to warn you not to come too near him, lest even the wind should blow contagion from his leprous skin. If for a minute he had moved his hand from his mouth, you would have seen; instead of those rows of scarlet that God had put there, those ruddy lips of health, a hot white mark not to be distinguished from his teeth. His lips were unclean, for there the leprosy had discovered itself; and in a minute he would have covered up that lip again that had the white mark of disease upon it, and again he would have cried "Unclean! unclean! unclean! ” Who was that leper a type of? He was a picture of you and of me, my brethren, in our natural state; and if the Holy Spirit. has quickened us to know our ruined condition, we shall feel that the leper's cry doth well become our unholy lips. Mayhap I have a hearer within the walls of this house of prayer, who is today separate from all mankind. With worldlings he dares not go; the harlots and others with whom he spent his living riotously are not now his companions; he cannot bear their pleasures, for they are dashed with bitterness. With the children of God he dares not go; he feels that they would put him outside the camp,

for he hath no hope, no Christ, no faith; he cannot say that Christ hath died for him; he hath no trust in Jesus himself; not so much as one pale ray of hope hath stolen into his poor bedarkened heart; and to-night the inward wail of his now aroused spirit is, "Unclean, unclean, unclean, unclean, and full of sin, from first to last, O Lord, I've been ; deceitful is my heart."

Leper, leper! be of good cheer; Christ died without the camp, that thou mightest be sanctified through His blood. I see the leper now stealing through the desert places, not daring to sip of the pool that lies in his track, lest he should communicate contagion to the next that drinks, but seeking out some filthy puddle, that there he might satisfy his throat, where none others should drink, lest they should die. I see him covering up his lip. If his father saw him he must run away; if the wife of his own bosom saw him she must shun his presence, for a loathsome disease is in his skin, and in his garments, and in the very air that comes from him there is death. Well, suddenly, as he steals along, he sees a Cross, and on it lifted up one that dies. He standeth there astonished; he thinketh, surely he may come near to a dying man, leper though he be; to the living he must not come, but to the dying he cannot bring a new death. So he draweth nigh to him, and the lips of the dying man are opened, and he says, 66 Verily, I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Oh! what joy and rapture rush through his lepered spirit! How his heart, that had long been heavy, and baked like a black coal within him, begins again to burn with lambent light! He smiles: he feels that that man, that marvellous man, has forgiven him, and ere he has begun to feel it the blood falls on him, and the leprosy is cleansed, and he goes his way, for his flesh has come unto him even like unto the flesh of a little child, and he is clean. O leprous sinner! hear it to-night! Look to him that died without the camp, that poor unclean sinners might find a Saviour there. That is my first lesson: if the Lord the Spirit apply it, it will be a precious one to many a sindistracted heart.

But, believer, didst thou never feel as if thou, too, wast unclean and without the camp? Brethren, let me tell you a little of my own heart's feelings, and let me see whether you have ever