May the Lord command His blessing for Christ's sake. Amen.

ROMANS VIII. 28.

ALL things shall work for good
To those the Lord shall call,
Who stand redeem'd by Jesus' blood,
Selected from the fall.

Thousands this truth deny,

And thousands will object;
"Can mortal evil e'er," say they,
"Prove good to God's elect?"

Yes, glory to the name

Of our sin-pard'ning God;
E'en sin, that kindled Tophet's flame.
Has often work'd for good.

What Thou design'st to be,
Shall to Thy glory move:

A Peter's fall shall honour Thee,
And teach that saint to love.

Let no unhallow'd feet

Within those limits tread;
To filthy dogs 'twas never meet
To cast the children's bread.

Though by the tempter foil'd,
A sinner saved he stood;
Own'd as the Lord's adopted child,
Bought with a Saviour's blood.

His wisdom hath ordain'd

Their trials, great and small;
He counts in His eternal mind,
The tears of woe that fall.

That Thou dost nothing wrong
Give me the same to see,
That I may raise a sweeter song

To Thee, my God, to Thee.

JOHN KENT.

THINGS THAT ARE SHAKEN, AND THINGS

WHICH CANNOT BE SHAKEN.

Sermon

PREACHED IN GROVE CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 16TH, 1877, BY

THOMAS BRADBURY.

"Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

"And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." -Heb. xii. 26-28.

I

HAVE told you before that the design of the Holy Ghost in causing this epistle to be written by His gracious inspiration, is to show up the fleeting, transitory, and perishing state of all things apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, and from the covenant which the Father made with Him before all worlds. You will see this in noticing that grand and illustrious title given to our Lord Jesus Christ in the first chapter, 10th, 11th, and 12th verses, which is really a quotation from Psalm cii. : " And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands; they shall perish; but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but Thou art THE SAME." That is not simply a word of qualification, but a grand and illustrious title given to the Lord Jesus Christ. "Thou art THE SAME, and Thy years shall not fail." Turn to the last chapter, 8th verse. We read, "Jesus Christ THE SAME yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." THE SAME in His determination to save. THE SAME in His love to the bride of His heart. But we experience change and death in

No. 57.-PRICE ONE PENNY.

everything apart from Him, ay, and change in our experience down here of every blessing in experimental union with Him. The very promises of God, which are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, and can never be broken, have often, in our soul's experience, death written upon them. Yes, and the spiritual blessings He graciously bestows upon us through the Son of His love, to our poor weak stretch of mind, appear to be the very opposite to what they really are. It is our mercy to know, and that in strict accordance with the doctrine and experience enunciated from this pulpit, that no change whatever can take place in JEHOVAH'S mind and will concerning His people; and whatever change may take place in them can never for one moment affect His covenant interest in them, or their interest in Him.

As we turn over the various chapters of this wonderful, and as it has been styled, "this grand anti-Ritualistic epistle," we see something changing at every step, yet something that remains. Chapter i. Angels here and there. Jesus THE SAME. Men forgetful and fleeting. Jesus THE SAME. Moses imperfect. Jesus THE SAME. Joshua led the Israelites into the land where the Canaanite dwelt; but Jesus leads us to the land of eternal rest and peace.

Chapter ii.
Chapter iii.
Chapter iv.

Chapter v. Aaron sinful. Jesus sinless.
Chapter vi. Abraham faithless. Jesus faithful.

Chapter vii.

Melchisedec passes away when Jesus appears. Chapter viii. The old covenant disappears at the approach of Him who was given as a Covenant for the people. All the conditions of the everlasting covenant of JEHOVAH are performed by Himself.

Chapter ix. Inferior sacrifices are put away when the One Great Sacrifice appears.

Chapter x. Offerings disappear from view when the One Offering is brought to light.

Chapter xi. Martyrs, sufferers; but what are they to Him who suffered for them?

Chapter xii. Looking away from all men and things to "Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith." In this twelfth chapter we have the winding-up of the apostle's argument and the declaration of the mind and will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost in the experience of Paul: "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a clond of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; or, as we may read it, "Looking off." From what? From angels, prophets, leaders, priests, ordinances, sacrifices, ay, from everything to Jesus, and to Jesus alone for salvation, succour, and sympathy.

Having thus traced out the design of the epistle, let us, in humble dependence upon the goodness of God the ever-blessed Spirit, seek for the meaning of the words which I have read by way of text, and may our instruction and edification abound. We will notice

I. SHAKEN THINGS REMOVED " And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made."

II. UNSHAKEN THINGS REMAINING "That those things which cannot be shaken may remain."

I. SHAKEN THINGS REMOVED-" And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made."

According to the context and the line of spiritual argument the apostle was led into by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, we are led at once to Sinai's dark mount. Here we see the heaven and the earth shaken by the voice of God which filled all Israel with consternation and terror (Exod. xix. 16-18). Let us read the context: "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard. entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more (for they could not endure that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart; and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake)." Not only did the earth round about Sinai shake; but Moses, the mediator, through whom JEHOVAH made Himself known to His ancient people Israel, did fear and quake exceedingly. All this signifies that everything out of Christ shall be shaken, and removed away from the affections of a true-born child of God. We who are taught of God know and feel this-1, in nature; 2, in providence; 3, in spiritual experience.

1.` In nature—“Yet once more I shake not the earth only." In this country we know precious little of the shaking of the earth, having a merciful immunity from earthquakes and volcanic irruptions. I have witnessed none of the effects of the shaking of the earth since the Lord brought me to London; but beforetime it was often my lot to see the shaking of the earth and of the things that were on it. In Haydock, near St. Helens, Lancashire, where God sent me to labour in His name for seven years and nine months, with an amount of blessingthe remembrance of which brings tears of gratitude to my eyes and begets a spirit of gratitude in my heart-I have seen new houses rent completely asunder. Why was this? The foundations were shaken and destroyed by the coal being taken from underneath. If you should ever visit the salt districts in Cheshire, where the towns are undermined by the salt workings,

there you will see the same effects, the shaking of the earth and the buildings upon it. The first time it was my privilege to preach in Great Budworth, for the faithful vicar, Mr. Bennett, I was amazed to see the buildings in Northwich apparently falling down. Such was the effect produced by the undermining, that I have seen one end of a row of houses sunk right down to the earth. In this I saw a shaking of the things of the earth, and the necessity for the removal, sooner or later, of the things that are shaken. Shaking and shaky foundations. won't do for permanent and durable superstructures. Sin has undermined everything down here. See how the prophet describes this in Isaiah xxx. 13: "Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant." What does this teach you and me? That which we are so slow to learn, and so unwilling to retain-that the earth and all things therein must and shall be shaken in the very spots where we least expect, and least like it. Yes, the earth, the very place where we endeavour, with all our might, all our wisdom, and all our reasoning powers, to make a sweet spot of rest, and peace, and quietness, though God has positively declared in the first statement of His mind and will after the fall, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." This truth is clearly seen in the history of nations, the experience of God's people, and in the declaration of the whole Word of God. Look at that command given by God through Micah: "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest. And David, at a time when his heart was bounding with gratitude, could look up into the face, and speak to the heart of his God, and say: "For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding" (1 Chron. xxix. 15). How vastly different are the declarations of JEHOVAH to the fancies, anticipations, and hopes of those who would have us believe that there will be a thousand years of unmingled peace and prosperity, comfort and consolation, on this sin-accursed earth. My dear friends, I do not believe any such thing. I believe that God's good work of grace, by the power of His blessed Spirit, in the heart of any of His children is known by the clean lift it gives them out of the earth and from its corrupt and carnal surroundings into the enjoyment of that glory which He has prepared for them in the Son of His love. You see this all through that precious epistle of Paul to the Ephesian Church. Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ came down from the height of His glory to this earth of ours for the purpose of raising up with Himself in resurrection-life and power a people loved by the Father with an everlasting love, who should thus experience sweet foretastes of that uninterrupted happiness and felicity which He has in store for them up yonder. In connection with this sinful earth, God, because of sin, has shaken, and will remove everything.