THIRTY-THIRD SERMON.
ON THE JUDGE AS OUR MODEL.
Subject.
To be judged by Christ, a Man like ourselves, shall be a source of the most terrible pain to the sinner.—Preached on the first Sunday after Epiphany.
Text.
Et Jesus proficiebat sapientia, et ætate, et gratia apud Deum et homines.—Luke ii. 52.
“And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace, with God and men.”
Introduction.
The Gospel that has been read for you shows clearly that Jesus was true Man, and a Man like to us in all things except sin, for He grew up as we do. “When he was twelve years old” His Mother and foster-father lost him, just as a little child is lost in a large town or in a great crowd of people and cannot find its way home again. He increased in age, understanding, and wisdom, just as all men are wont to become wiser as they advance in years. “He advanced in wisdom and age.” Although in the very moment of His conception He was infinite wisdom and holiness, yet He increased in those; that is, He gave more outward evidences of wisdom and holiness in order to serve as a Pattern for all, that we by following His example may, as we easily can, advance daily in grace and virtue before God. My dear brethren, hitherto we have considered Jesus our future Judge as God and as Man, and in both cases we have had to confess that He will be an exceedingly terrible Judge for the sinner; for as Judge He will be a God without mercy, and as a Man He shall become quite changed and without pity. There is still another circumstance connected with the same Judge which is not less terrible, namely: that He is a Man like ourselves, as I now proceed to show.
