Page:Excellency of the knowledge of Christ crucified.pdf/22

( 22 ) The knowledge of policy, the art of war, languages, laws, cuſtoms and hiſtories, will be juſt as uſeleſs the moment after death, as the knowledge of the meaneſt mechanic: but the knowledge of Chriſt will go along with us into the eternal world; and the more it is improves here, it will be ſo much the more dilated hereafter. Now theſe things being duly conſidered, we need not wonder that Paul "determined to know nothing but Jeſus Chriſt and him crucified;" and that "he counted all things but loſs, for the excellency of this knowledge."

I with a few practical inferences.

1. Here we may ſee the great worth and excellency of the Chriſtian religion. It clearly and fully aſcertains the terms on which God will treat with guilty ſinners, in order to pardon and reconciliation:—it gives a ſatiſfactory anſwer to that moſt important and intereſting enquiry, "What ſhall I do to be ſaved?" while it directs the anxious enquirers to believing on the ſlain Son of God, as the great ordinance of heaven for their reſtoration into the divine favour.—Chriſtianity tells us what Jeſus Chriſt has done for us and ſuffered for us;—and what account God the Father makes of all this;—and what God and Chriſt require and expect of us as an expreſſion of gratitude for all this love and kindneſs.

2. the knowledge of Chriſt be ſo valuable, then ſhould not we lament the ſtate of thoſe nations that fit in the darkneſs of ignorance? My brethren, this goſpel is not the privilege of mankind all the world over: nay, the proportion which the Chriſtian world bears to the world at large, is computed but as five to thirty, which is a very ſmall one. Should not we then lift up a prayer for our fellow men, that the light of the glorious goſpel may yet ſhine upon them? Surely, if we love the Lord Jeſus, we will deſire an acceſſion to his kingdom; and therefore will, with a deep concern upon our ſpirits, put up the ſecond petition in the Lord's prayer, "Thy kingdom come." Of ſix petitions that are in that prayer, the firſt three relate to the Redeemer's intereſt in the world "Hallowed be thy name;—thy kingdom come;—thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It is common with us to bring in theſe great affairs towards the end of our prayers, as it were to ſpin out the time, when the warmth and vigour of our ſpirits are well nigh ſpent. But the friends of Jeſus ſhould not