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of my sinfulness and corruption, I cannot enter into the presence of my God. The holiness of His law and the purity of His person exclude me from that sacred spot, but the riches of His grace and the fulness of His love have blessed me with access, introduction, and standing in the person of my adorable Saviour, Surety, and Governor. It is our mercy and high privilege to approach the Father in Him who could say: "I do always those things that please Him" (John viii. 29); and of whom the Father hath declared: "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. iii. 17). "The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness' sake." Thus, in the person of our great High Priest we have access by one Spirit unto the Father, we lean on His mighty arm, and rest in His bosom of everlasting love.

IV. HALLOWED FAMILIARITY-"Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto Me? saith the LORD." The Lord draws the notice of all heaven to the transcendent excellencies of His Christ. "Who is this?" Have you not noticed this exclamation repeated again and again in God's most Holy Word? See Isaiah lxiii. 1: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ?" He is the One who fights and wins all the battles for His people. Turn to Solomon's Song viii. 5: "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" Who is this? Bridegroom and Bride eternally one. Hers the weakness, His the strength. Now look at that glorious ascension Psalm xxiv. At the gates of glory the God-Man Mediator appears. All heaven is filled with rapture. The command goes forth: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Listen! "Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle." You see it again in Matt. xxi. 10: "And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?" So it is in the experience of the child of God, when He is first revealed by the power of the Holy Ghost, the beauty of His person and the perfection of His salvation call forth the adoring cry, Who is this? while He graciously answers, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness" (Isaiah xli. 10). I am He who has redeemed thee from all sin, guilt, condemnation, deceit, and violence. I am He in whose person thou hast a right to stand in the presence of My Father, and thy Father, to hold sweet communion with Him, and know that thou art without fault before His throne. The enjoyment of this causes the heart to sigh for that blessed period when

-we shall see His face,
And never, never sin;
And from the rivers of His grace
Drink endless pleasures in."

V.-COVENANT RELATIONSHIP-" And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God." Were they not ever His people? Yes, in covenant from the days of eternity. But, according to their appearance, nature, feelings, thoughts, and imaginations, they were anything and everything but His children. Children of disobedience, wrathful children, far off from Him. When the Governor and rightful Sovereign is revealed through the abounding mercy of God, there is a change in the heart and in the appearance. They," which in time past were not a people, are now the people of God;" they, "which had not obtained mercy, now have obtained mercy" (1 Peter ii. 10). "Your God." What a blessed announcement to the ears of all those who are brought nigh unto Him. Does He whisper to thee and to me, "I have redeemed thee, thou art Mine?" Then our ravished hearts respond: "This God is our God for ever and for ever; He will be our Guide even unto death" (Psalm xlviii. 14); and we can confidently sing with true humility

"Oh! I am my Beloved's,

And my Beloved is mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His house of wine;
I stand upon His merit,
I know no other stand,
Not e'en where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land."

May the Lord add His blessing for His name's sake. Amen.

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"ANOTHER COMFORTER."

A Sermon

PREACHED IN GROVE CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 9TH, 1878, BY

THOMAS BRADBURY.

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever;

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."-John xiv. 16, 17.

ANY were the exceeding great and precious promises given by the Lord Jesus Christ to His Church and people immediately preceding His decease. The heart of His disciples was filled with sorrow and pain caused by His declaration that it was expedient for Him to go away from them; but He gave to them promise after promise that the Holy Ghost, the third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity, should come and take up His abode in the midst of them, teaching, guiding, governing, and comforting them, and His whole Church, until the end of this dispensation of grace, which commenced with His descent at Pentecost, ceasing when the last elect vessel of mercy resident upon this earth is caught up to glory.

It will be ours this morning, in humble dependence upon the guidance of God the ever-blessed Spirit, to notice the text in five or six particulars.

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES under which these words were breathed in the ears of His sorrowing disciples.

II. THE FATHER'S GRACE "The Father shall give." III. THE SAVIOUR'S INTERCESSION-"I will pray the Father."

IV. THE SPIRIT'S PERSONALITY-"Another Comforter, the Spirit of truth.”

V. THE WORLD'S IGNORANCE AND ENMITY- "Whom the

No, 82,-PRICE ONE PENNY.

world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him."

VI. THE CHURCH'S KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE-"But ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES-The Lord Jesus Christ, according to the preceding chapter, had given to His disciples and to His Church throughout all time, a lesson of true humility. He took them aside from the world, girded Himself with a towel, took a basin, washed their feet, and gave them the gracious injunction, "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet: ye also ought to wash one another's feet" (John xiii. 13, 14). We who have been led by the grace and indwelling of God the ever-blessed Spirit into a spiritual apprehension of the mind and will of God as revealed in the Son of His love, take not this portion in its literal or carnal meaning. We are not mere imitators or copyists like that arch-impostor at Rome and the heretics of the Greek Church, who wash the already washed feet of certain poor persons. We look at this as we do at other parts of this Gospel of John, after a spiritual and heavenly manner, according to the teaching and guidance of the Holy Ghost, who alone can lead into a true and spiritual apprehension of the words and mind of Christ. Look for instance at those two statements in John iii. 5, and vi. 53: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Papists and ceremonialists dabble in water the very moment this portion sounds in their ears, while the trulytaught child of God delights in that spiritual water springing up into everlasting life (John iv. 14). Look at John vi. 63: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." So, in the word water, we see the spirit and we behold life; not water a natural or beggarly element; not water in a baptistery or in a font; but the water of eternal life, flowing from the place of our sanctuary, JEHOVAH'S glorious high throne. It is this by which souls are born again, or, as it is rendered in the margin of John iii. 3, "born from above." God's rain, God's dew, God's water descends from above, communicating life and fruitfulness wherever it comes. In John vi. 53 we read: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." Is that carnally piercing with the teeth the real body and bones of our Lord Jesus Christ? Papists and others, in their delusions, may think so, but those who are led into a spiritual apprehension of God's precious truth know full well that this eating and drinking is simply receiving in a spiritual and heavenly manner the glorious truths concerning Christ's blood-shedding and death for His eternally-loved people. It is by this receiving that the family of God "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord

Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. iii. 18). "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they (the given ones) might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John xvii. 2, 3). In this 13th chapter of John, our blessed Lord sets before His people an example of true humility. It is the blessed privilege of the followers of the lowly Jesus to bend and bow to the most menial service to do a good turn or perform a kindly act for any of those in whom the teaching and work of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen. After Jesus had washed His disciples' feet, He was troubled in spirit, and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." These words produced doubt and fear in the minds of the disciples, when John, at the suggestion of Simon Peter, asked Him, saying, "Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. He then having received the sop went immediately out; and it was night." Ay, you may depend upon it, it was night in more than one respect. Then commenced the hour and power of darkness, when all the fury of hell was let loose upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, in view of all His impending sorrows, sufferings, agonies, and distresses, He experienced a gracious deliverance from the presence of oppression, according to the 31st verse: "Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." Why did the Lord Jesus Christ thus express Himself? I will tell you. Up to that moment the company had not been all of a piece. It was not of one heart and of one mind. Judas was there-he of whom the Saviour spoke in John vi. 70: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Mark this! He does not say, one of you has a devil, or one of you is possessed of seven devils, or one of you has a legion of devils like the poor wretch among the tombs. It is a marvellous mercy when a poor child of God finds himself in blessed association with the Lord Jesus Christ, though he be possessed with devils for Him to cast out; but for the Master to declare "One of you is a devil," is a declaration of a state most awful to contemplate. You may be ready to ask, “Why the necessity for one of the disciples to be a devil?" The answer is ready. The reason is plain and palpable. The Lord Jesus chose a devil to do a devil's work. Turn to 1 John iii. 9: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." Such cannot. sin as Judas sinned, or those sin who are under the direction and control of the devil. Judas the devil having gone out, the Saviour looked around and saw upon every one of the eleven the mark of His Father's election, the fruit of His own

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