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GOD'S DEALINGS WITH INSIGNIFICANT MAN.

A SERMON,

BY THE REV. J. H. EVANS, M.A.

PREACHED IN JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, BEDFORD ROW, ON TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1, 1846.

"What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him."-Job vii. 17.

PRIDE is the great besetting sin of our corrupt nature. It is the great master sin, the tyrant sin; it is that master key, which can open every ward of the complicated heart of man. This it is, which unfolds his self-righteousness, self-seeking, self-dependence, and self-complacency, in all their varied forms. It will show itself in family pride, in professional pride, in intellectual pride, yea, and in that low and contemptible exhibition of it, even the love of personal attraction.

A little observation of those around us shows us this; the Scriptures declare it, and our own experience, if we are taught of God to make wise conclusions respecting it, states the same thing. For what is the reason of all God's dealings with His children? To humble them, to prove them. And we know what the result is ; they just prove us to be nothing. The design of God's dealings is, to lay His children low, in consequence of it-to make Jesus more precious, siu more hateful, and holiness more lovely-to train them up, in the region of self-denial, for a world of blessedness.

The great besetting sin of man is pride, in one form or another. It is in us all, and mars us all, though not all in the same way. And yet, says Job, “what is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him?" Job had gone through the heights of prosperity, and the depths of adversity, and VOL. XIII.-No. 466.--December 3, 1846.

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had there been learning out lessons, many of them very painful; bnt in both these schools, Job had learned the meaning of that solemn question-"What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him ?"

This gives me an opportunity of placing before you two truths: first of all, man's exceeding littleness, and then God's most wondrous dealings with him.

I. A few points, bearing upon man's littleness.

He is little, in many respects contemptible, as a creature. A creature of yesterday, his "breath in his nostrils," a sort of bubble, floating on the stream of time, which one drop of rain can dissipate. There cannot be a more affecting picture than this—to say his "breath is in his nostrils." As if this truth were laid before us: 'It requires no force, no violent inroad on the usual course of things, to take away man's life; God has but to withdraw his breath, and he is gone.' Oh! did the men of this world, that are toiling breathlessly up the hill, after their fancied something, and their real nothing, but duly consider this, and reflect how many silent causes there are, working out, by an imperceptible process, our dissolution, so that, in the truest sense, there is not one here, but what is dying, at the present moment, it must stop them, in their mad career.

Man reasons, and his reason darkens him; he reasons from the past to the present, and from the present to the future. Ah! he but little considers, that many little things are launching thousands into eternity every day. It is but a neglected cold, a sudden fever, a blow, a fall; a silent messenger comes, knocks, will be admitted, and then we are gone, "What is man ?" Surely, as a creature, he is low and contemptible in many things. "What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him?”

But we come to graver subjects: look at man, as a fallen creature. Oh! how low, how debased, how degraded has he become! Observe, not made, but become so, by sin. His understanding darkenedbeing alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance, that is in him, because of the blindness," or, as it is in the margin, "the hardness of his heart."

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Is it too much to say, that he is lower than the beasts? It is a

strong expression. There is much, it is true, in which he is above them, and yet much, in which he is below them. It is a solemn thought, that the streets of our Christian London, as by misnomer it is called-unhappy misnomer!-every day exhibit the natural man, showing forth qualities, which the very beasts have not. And it is an awful thought, too, that there are many qualities possessed by the beasts, which the natural man does not possess. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise." knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider."

"The ox

Is it too much to say, that sin has sunk man as low as Satan? There can be no doubt, that the very sin, by which Satan tempted our first parents to leave God and their happy home, was the very sin which himself had committed; but there are sins which the natural man commits, which the devil does not commit.

The devil is no sensualist. I read, in this book, that "the devils believe and tremble;" but I know, and am persuaded, that there are thousands in London, who profess to believe in God, and yet never tremble. They believe in Him, to sneer, and scorn, and despise Him; and they say in their hearts-"Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?"

And there is another sin, which the devil does not commit―(oh! that we did but know more how to watch for it!)-it is the sin of rejecting the Gospel of the ever-blessed God: that Gospel which proclaims salvation to the uttermost, by the blood of Jesus, to the chiefest of sinners, in which salvation no one sinner is ever rejected, that comes to Him. And yet thousands neglect and despise this Gospel, every day. How many hundreds have heard it here, and have rejected it? The devil never did this; it was never preached to him, never set before him.

So that when we look at man, as a fallen creature, he is indeed debased and degraded; a rebel, not only against the highest of all beings, but against the best of all beings-whose very being forms heaven's happiness, and all the happiness of the saints on earth. All the happiness, beloved, that you and I know, is not in churches, nor in doctrines, nor in ordinances-it is in God, God in Christ, and no where else. And yet this is the being whom the world sets at nought, and lives in daring rebellion against.

But besides this, man is a sinful, guilty, and condemned creature. The law condemns him-it cannot but condemn him-it would condemn itself, if it did not condemn him. All that is in God condemns the impenitent, unbelieving sinner. And there is something very solemn in this thought; it is a train of thought I am frequently forced to pursue a time will come, when the awful presence of God will so shine in upon the conscience of the sinner, that he shall condemn himself. When that moment comes, and he shall be speechless, he shall be found his own judge, his own condemner. Solemn thought!

And yet, in the midst of all this, man is a proud and self-righteous sinner. Some natural men are moral, some immoral-some decent, some indecent-some kind, some fierce—some affable, and forgiving, some irascible and unforgiving; but all are self-righteous, every one has a balance-sheet, though a false one, and he puts one thing over against another. There is no man, but what has some apparently good qualities-at least, he thinks he has them— and these blind him to all his bad qualities, and he thinks he can blind God with them. This makes him repose in ordinances and external ceremonies, and all the subterfuges of self-righteousness; but I will not go through the list, though my tongue is ever ready to speak of them. The wound which nature gives, nature can heal, but the wound which God gives, God alone can heal; and nothing can heal these wounds, but the blood of an incarnate God.

See, then, "what is man." Well might the question be asked— "What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that Thou shouldest set thine heart upon him."

II, And yet, out of these materials, does God choose a people, and erect a temple to His own glory; out of such a mass of ignorance and self-delusion, does God magnify His own name, and magnify them. Oh! wondrous power in God! "A multitude, which no man can number"-a people, countless as the sand upon the seashore, and innumerable as the stars of heaven! Oh! what a wonder-working God must He be, that can accomplish all this, and does accomplish it! Therefore one may ask the question—“ What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him?"

Let me direct your minds to some few points-touching points, if you are believers.

Oh! how wonderful is the exhibition of God's grace, in the conversion of a sinner! Some of you may remember well, and some of you may not trouble your minds about it, (it does not at all concern you)-by what means the Lord has led you, if He has brought you in the way to Jesus. Many are concerned as to the mode of His bringing; the only question for me to put upon my dying bed isHas He brought me?' If I am satisfied with this, I will leave others to their long experiences; this refuge can keep out every drop of the tempest, and I know it, and I feel it.

But some of you can remember, when the first gleam of light entered your minds-when God uttered these words to your soul"Let there be light," and the shades of darkness began to fade away, and ye began to see objects, which were before invisible to you, and ye caught a view of a holy God. It was astounding, and, in some cases, terrifying; it left you without a hope, and by little and little ye were brought to Christ, to receive Him and to welcome Him. And then what became of all your minister hopes, all your ordinance hopes, and all your self-righteous hopes? They were all swept away, like a cobweb, from your minds; nothing was left but Jesus, and ye could find no rest, but in His blood and righteousness; and there ye saw the face of God-that attractive, drawing, captivating spectacle.

Ah! beloved, it is in Jesus that we read the heart of God. Nothing more terrifies, nothing more offends and grieves me, than when I hear, (as I often do hear,) hard views of the Father, from those who have tender views of the Son. Why, the Son is the revealer of the Father's heart, and whatever I see of love in Jesus, is but a lifting up of the veil, and showing me the heart of the God that I love.

Then God stamps, and restamps His image, and that which was once the synagogue of Satan, becomes now the temple of the living God: God dwells in it, and inhabits it; and it is a glorious place, for Him to dwell in.

Ah! my dear hearers, when God "brought you out of darkness into His marvellous light,"-when He brought you out of death into life, and made you hate sin, and gave you faith in Jesus-when He gave you a heart to pray, a broken and a contrite heart," He did

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