The Reign of Law, and Other Sermons (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873. Excerpt: ... SERMON XVII. THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Hebrews xiii. 8. We live in a world of constant change. All living creatures run the round of birth, growth, development, maturity, decay, death; and then are succeeded by others which run round the same circle. "Man cometh up and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay." For a while one day may pass like another, and we see little mark of change; yet, from time to time, the most quiet lives are startled by events which break their monotony. We have, as it were, been gliding down the current of a quiet sluggish stream, and suddenly we find ourselves in troubled waters. We have to pass through a season of anxiety, distress, perplexity; and when it is over we may have some loss to mourn, and have to continue our journey under changed circumstances. We are most struck by change, when we are forced to compare the present state of things with that which existed at some interval of time. If we return to a place where we lived some years ago, we are struck by finding, not to speak of outward and visible changes in the aspect of the place, that of the friends we had known there, some are dead, some departed, the survivors greatly altered, and a new generation sprung up who know us not. And occasions like the present--the first day of a New Year, naturally lead us to carry our minds back, and compare the present with the past. Even if we go no further back in our comparison than the first day of last year, it cannot be but that many of you have changes to report. Changes there are certain to be in every one of us, visible to God's eye if not to ours. His eye can see in some, new graces developed by the w...