The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-07-07
For THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN,
THE LIVING SACRIFICE.

81 beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mer-
cieS of God, that ye present your bodies hvlng
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service. Rom. xii: l.
Note, 1. That the great truths of the
gospel have been revealed to us not to graf
ify our curiosity, nor even to furnish elevated
themes for the illumination of the mind and
the satisfaction of the heart. They have
this effect, unquestionably; and it is right,
at times, to resign ourselves to the ENJOY
ment, to the rapturous delight which springs
from the bare contemplation of the "mer-
cies of God" as revealed in the plan of re-
demptiOn. The contemplation of His works
and of the glory of His perfectiOns as there
in expressed constitutes the rest of God;
and God, in revealing these things to us,
offers to make US partakers of His rest.
Paul entered into that rest when, under the
guidance of the Holy Ghost, he dictated the
first eleven chapters of this Epistle; and
myriads of the saints, from his day until
now, have been made partakers of the same
rest in the study of his burning words. Far
be it from US to say that such an effect Of
divine truth is not practical, and that in the
noblest sense of the world. What can be
more truly practical than the praising and
magnifying of God, the swelling heart find
inc vent for it's emotions in such strains as
these, 90 the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God how un-
searchable His judgments, and His ways
past finding out?"
But while it is a pleasant thing for the
eye to behold the sun, it must be borne in
mind that this is not the only purpose for
which the faculty Of vision was given. The
eye is the light of the body, and was given to
the body to serve it in working and walking.
This glorious vision of the mercies of God
has been vouchsafed to us, in order that we
may ''present our bodies living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is our rea-
sonable service" Compare Titus ii: 11-12.
This is the season of labor and conflict, not
of the perfect rest. This is the season in
which we are to work in the works of God,
with the sweat of the brow, the brains, the
heart; and while it is true, in the beautiful
words of Lord Bacon, that the sweat of him
who so works is an Continent of odors,"
and ''his rest the Sabbath of God" yet it is
at the same time true, that the time has not
vet arrived when the only work of the be-
lever is praise.
2. Note that the whole duty of the be-
lever, thus constrained by the mercies of
God, is here set forth under the notion of
soersAip He is one who presents his body
living sacriGce;" and this is called his
reasonable worship" The whole cast of
the passage in the Greek is taken from the
sacriGcial worship of the Old Testament
The figure is that of a worshipper present
ing" victim to be offered in sacrifice at the
door of the sanctuary, in the midst of a
people whose very calling is to be "a king
dom of priests" Now the bleeding sacri-
fees, the sacrifices in which death was ne
cessary feature with which the living sacri-
fee is here contrasted,) had two-fold char
acter. a. First, and chiefly, an erpiatory
character The blood which was common
to them all signifed the offering of life in
the room and stead of the forfeited life of
the worshipper himself; and having been
offered and accepted, it became an atone
ment or covering for the life of the worship
per. o. Second, and subordinately, an er-
emplary character. The offering of the
blood and of other parts of the animal, and,
as in the case of the burnt, t,ofering, some
times of the whole animal, signifed the sur
render of the life of the wOrshipper himself,
the whole man and all that he had or was,
to God. This was an offering 'holy," set
apart, consecrated exclusively to the service
of God, and, as such, acceptable to Him.
The life which had been restored to the sin
ner in consequence of the expiation and
atouement, was by the sinner, as it were,
given back again to God, placed upon His
altar to ascend to Him in the fame of love
and gratitude.
Now, all these figures were fulfilled, pri-
marily and completely in our Lord Jesus
Christ. His death was an erpiatOry death
chiefly; but it was also an exemplary death.
See 1 Peter Ii: 21-25. But He died, as
this passage in Peter, and many other pas
Sages teach, in rdef-that these figures, so
far as their exemplary character is con-
cerned, might be fulfilled also in us and in
all the members of His body. We are not
only not bound to expiate our sins by sacri-
flee, but any attempt to do so is an impious
reproach upon the perfection of the one and
only expiatory sacrifice of Jesus; but we
are bound by the most solemn considera-
tiOns, BY the very law of our life as Chris
tians, to fulfil that which was symbolcal in the
burnt-offering and in the offering of the best
and richest portions of the other sacrifices,
to surrender ourselves, our property, every
thing which is in any sense ours, wholly to
III