Part 213

But do not the words of our text lead me to address all in general, as well as tutors and their pupils in particular? Yes: to you, even to as many as hear me this day, whether high or low, rich or poor, young or old, one with another, may a word of exhortation naturally be directed. It was to the people, as well as to his disciples, that _John_, when he saw JESUS coming unto him, spoke those endearing words, “Behold the Lamb of GOD.” I therefore call upon you all in the same language, and for the same reason; for it is He, and He alone, that taketh away the sins of the world. It is this that you all stand in need of, whether you know it or not. You are all stung by that old and crooked serpent the devil. “Therefore, as _Moses_ lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so was the Son of Man lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” O then behold him, behold him! Look unto him, all ye ends of the earth, even ye upon whom the ends of the world are come, and be ye saved. Some of you, I trust, through grace, have already been enabled to do this. O come, come, I beseech you, and repeat the blessed look: for this is the christian’s grand catholicon, the sovereign remedy for all the remaining diseases of his soul. Are ye tempted? Behold the Lamb of GOD. “He was tempted in all things like as we are,” that he might be able experimentally to sympathize with, and succour those that are tempted. Are ye deserted, and bewailing an absent GOD? Behold the Lamb of GOD. He once complained, and that too to his own creatures, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;” He once cried out, and that to his heavenly Father, “My GOD, my GOD, why hast thou forsaken me.” Are ye poor? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He had not where to lay his head. Are ye betrayed and forsaken by friends? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He was betrayed by _Judas_, denied by _Peter_, and when apprehended, all forsook him and fled. Are you blackened and maligned by enemies? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He was accounted a mad-man, a deceiver, nay, a Beelzebub, the very chief of the devils. Are ye afraid of death, or dying? Behold the LAMB of GOD: He hath taken away the sting of that king of terrors, and came to deliver those, who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. Doubt ye whether ye shall hold out to the end? Behold the LAMB of GOD; “He is the Author and finisher of our faith;” and having loved his own, he loved them even unto the end. Do ye want more grace, either to mortify remaining corruption, or to enable you to bring forth more fruit unto GOD? Behold the LAMB of GOD: “Out of his fulness we may all receive, and that too, even grace for grace;” grace upon grace, grace to beget more grace, even till we are filled with all the fulness of GOD. O ye believers, my heart is enlarged towards you; look to, and live much on the blessed JESUS; and then you will live to, and act for him more and more. Be thankful for what you have received, but be looking out continually for fresh discoveries of his love, and fresh incomes of heavenly grace, till you are called to behold this LAMB of GOD in glory: that time, blessed be GOD, will shortly come. Though worms destroy our bodies, yet in our flesh we shall see our GOD; not as we do now, through a glass darkly, but face to face: see him as he is: and what is yet better, be growing up more and more into his divine likeness, through the endless ages of eternity.