Hide Article Text (OCR)
NEW JERUSALEM SERMON.BY REV. ABIKL SILVF.JL Hv\. «j 0: I lint thou burl n»t lb* ail and Ilia wi**,How merciful ami kind I* our henvenvly fritter toward* uh f liilinltr indeed I* hi* compassionate rare. In how ninny thousand ways does lie caution u« against hurting ourselves! He watches over u* with ihetendrrcst I tile rent. He keeps around US tila protecting angels, and extends to us the Immediate Influence of his Spirit. He Spread* out helori? us the hook ot Nature, filling it with prominent to caution and can*. He come* to us in Ills Holy Word, and whisper* In lU'ccnt* of the tend ere* I mercy.— All hi* comiunndments nre In the voice of love: thev forbid only the things that will hurt us, ami mpiire only those that will hies* us. And particularly In our leit does he come with u most merciful admonition; aud, if we arc careful to regard it. the highest possible blessing* will he our*.lt;* Sec tliut thou hurt nottheoll and the wine.' All the evils that have ever fallen upon our race came by hurting the oil and the wine: for the oil denotes goodness; aud the wiue, truth. Hut the oil Is the primary essence. Without the nil there cun ho no wine. If we take all the essential oil from the grape, we hike all it* flavor; we tnke all that is good. The oil is as the lire of the wiue. So goodness is the life of truth.Ood, therefore, makes a very prominent use of oil throughout the Holy Word. On the mont important occasions, oil Is used to teach that the heart must he in Hie work; that goodness must he there: love of Hod, love of right, must he there, or all will fail. Kings and priests, on taking their oflice. were therefore anointed, not only upon their heads, hut ulso upon their clothing. And how appropriate and emphatic the instruction ! Oil it so soft and so smooth; It I* so gentle iu it* flow, and soioothiug in its effect*. It i». Indeed, a most striking symbol of love, kindness, goodness, gentleness, mercy.Oil upon the heads of kings and priest* teaches that their brad* and their hearts should be one, or that they should he both true and frond. If denotes that all their wisdom andpeace, then shall the Lord he my Hod, and this atom* which I have set up for a pillar ahull he God's house.—all this means, in It* simple expression, that if God would he with him in his regeneration, and give him •plritunl food clothing, or goodness to eat and righteousness to put on, nnd bring him to his heavenly Father'* house in peace or tothe kingdom of heaven, then the Lord would he his God; and the stono pillar, the divine truth In Id* *u|il» would be God's house: and the truth w ould thou he God * hon«r; because God Is love,and love dwells in the truth. Human minds, regenerated, nre called. iu the Word, temple* of the Lord. Thechurch 1* culled the ‘ body of Christ, and the home of God. The truth, then, In filling Jacob's regenerated mind, would he the habitation of love,—‘-God’s house.*'Let us, then, follow the example of Jacob.— Let ii* set up the truth of the Lord In our soul, a*a pillar of *uppurt, and the anchor of our hppc; and let us poor upon It the oil of love,— let us give it the heart's he«t affection*; ami let u* go with the Lord nil the way of our regeneration, receiving from him goodness local and righteousness to put on, till we come safely out of all our evils, and arrive in peace at our Father’s house of mnuy mansions. Then the Lord will indeed he our God, and the atone which we had set up in our soul for a pillar will be God's lious**; aud he will dwell in us, in his goodness and truth, forever.How clearly is the way of life here pointed out in a few uords, spoken in flic Bookoflteve-lation, through the symbolic Book of Nature ! But the oil and the itonr are the lrnding symbol*: and the bringing of the oil and the stone together I* the secret of nil the success. For oil in natural thing* is precisely like love in spiritual: it i* the first and highest essence — This it the reason why oil is that substance in nature which denote* goodness, love, or life.— Oil is therefore that principle in nature Into which life from the Lord first Hows; and the oil then adapts that life to the other natural substances. Where there Is no oil, there I* 110 life. Take the essential oil from Nature, oud von rob her of everything valuable. She has then no beauty, no odor, no life: the rone, the orange, tho wine, everything In nature, is left without a charm. So it in with a soul without goodness.
Newspaper Details
Wilmington Delaware Inquirer
Wilmington, Delaware, US
Sat, Apr 07, 1860
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Sue D.
USA 11 Sep 2021
Other Publications Near Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington Daily Gazette
Wilmington Advertiser
Wilmingtonian and Delaware Advertiser
Delaware Weekly Advertiser and Farmers Journal
Delaware Patriot and American Watchman
