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beams may be fixed to buttress its sides, you may clasp with iron the disintegrating walls, you may bring plummet and measuring rod to try to adjust its equilibrium; but that structure will go down as sure as the dust returns to dust, or decay ends in death. See, on the other hand, how, when all is well within, all without can only become marvellous proofs of the internal strength. Look at what is going on within that ocean steamer, and giving her colossal power! See how she bears herself, and how like she is to a mind capable of overcoming "a sea of troubles." There is living power at the heart or centre. She is on the great waters, lifted up to heaven, plunging into depths that almost unveil the earth's foundations. Much has she to distant port is to see her safely anchored in its bay! a precious freight of human life and hopes she bears! But there she is now, shipping the heavy billows, which break their foaming fury on her bow and decks—struggling steadily on, and making head-way against screaming gale, and through starless night. What sustains her? If she were wounded within, how impotent she would be! But her power is inward power. The engines are all right, and going true at every turn; the furnaces are burning brightly and cheerily, there is no leak in the hold, the light is clear in the binnacle as a parlour lustre, the needle points the way, and strong, steady hands are at the wheel. Strength lies

within.

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(b) The wounded spirit is a spirit that has wounded itself. A guilty conscience arises from sin committed. It brings in its train the sting of remorse, of self-contempt, self-loathing, and condemnation. Thus, by our great epic poet, Satan is described as carrying with him an awful consciousness, more intolerable than all outward ruin. So that an immortal mind may carry about in it the " worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched."

Now, the great spiritual fact is, that man, fallen and sinful, has "wounded" himself. He has committed the two evils-"forsaken the Fountain of living water, and hewn out cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water." Whence his wars? Whence his self-inflicted miseries? Whence the crimes which he perpetrates, constantly sowing to the flesh, and of the flesh reaping corruption? Death is the wages of sin; and what a wound is the reign of death! for "death has passed upon all men, because that all have sinned." If the world is a sepulchre, the wounded lie entombed in it!

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Not only is there this broad, universal view of man inflicting the greatest of all wounds upon himself, but, if we take individual cases, we can easily see how the wounded spirit is "suicidal." It destroys itself. It cuts off its own sources of life; for life is "wisdom, holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost." Salvation is the life of Christ in the soul; but the wounded spirit prefers the evil rather than the good. It extinguishes its own hopes. memory with memories that make memory torment. the fool sitting in the scorner's chair. That is not only a wounded spirit, but the atheist is the author of his own wound. Look at the man who tries the experiments of "madness and folly." he not create the scourge that is to punish him to the very quick? Look at Cain-"My burden is greater than I can bear." See Saul, "wounded," if ever man was, guilty of self-destruction—"I will call on the dead Samuel." What will man not call upon in insupportable fear and despair! The dead Samuel fails, as do Urim and Thummim, and he falls on his sword, on the plain of Gilboa. There is a "wounded spirit" which appears in the temple, with thirty pieces of silver-"I have sinned in that I have the betrayed innocent blood." The "lost" are described as at last unable to support retribution. "Lord, Lord, open unto us. Rocks fall, mountains cover us!" Thus they must bear their own burden, "Depart from me!"

(c) A wounded spirit, even in this world, finds itself unable to bear its own self-induced burden. In saying this, we must keep in view the fact that all men under sin are weary and heavy laden." They are trying perpetually to throw off the burdens which oppress and agitate them. But they cannot, however much they may utter the hackneyed cry-" Peace, peace, while there is no peace."

And how marvellously varied are the grounds, how sophistical the delusions, and how subtile the excuses connected with spiritual self-destruction! The "foolish virgins" are asleep, with lamps untrimmed. Agrippa quieted his guilty soul by saying, "Paul, thou almost persuadest me to be a Christian." And imagine the Athenian philosophers turning Mars' Hill into a very arena of the world's wisdom-superciliously opposed to Christ and the Hebrew "babbler who spoke in His name. Hence, multitudes do not seem to feel a life of sin so very "unbearable." How amazing the all but universal acquiescence of men in sin, and all the "wounds" it can inflict! Sense reigns. They "eat and drink," and sooth their souls with every kind of opiate.

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Yet, amid all the transient glory of the present, are they not all carrying a burden? Are they not loaded with "infirmities," tottering under them, and sinking as they totter? If natural reason may hear, every moment, "the knell of departed hours," and may "start up alarmed," looking over "life's narrow verge, how may all the other questions arise? "What shall I do to be saved?" "How can a man be just with God?" Is there no one to take the load of guilt from the soul? Must this burden of conscious sin, and its perpetual death-involving consequences, be my doom, hopelessly or for ever?

A "wounded spirit" is, therefore, a spirit that has no internal support. It is a consciously guilty spirit. It is a spirit which is the author of its own wounds. "Do thyself no harm," is a scriptural maxim; but man is always, and everywhere, and in every form, destroying himself. Hence Heaven's expostulation, Why will ye die?" Man creates ruin in which he cannot sustain himself.

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III. THE UNBEARABLE WOUND IS CURABLE.

(a) If the wounded spirit is curable, the patient must fully realise the nature and fatal possibilities of his malady. He must know that he is in sin, must see his guilt, and must be careful not to tamper with his conscience. Natural conscience, when truly heard, is always on the side of God, but men can deal with conscience as they can and do with the clay they mould, or the rock they chisel, or with the “idle wind" which passes them unheeded. The still, small voice within may be silenced. Yet, though pleasure may drug it, and unbelief may despise and scorn it, no man can declare when and how conscience can be extinguished, or whether its extinction is possible! One thing is certain about it now-it is a very great and unsuspected "spy." We have all heard of the prisoner in the cell, seeing the sentinel's eye intently fixed upon him. How solemn to realise that there is an eye in our own hearts, to which the darkness and the light are both alike! And do not be cheated by the apparent slumber or treachery of conscience!

"While she seems to sleep

On rose and myrtle, lulled with siren song,
Or nodding o'er her charge, see, from behind
Her secret stand, the sly informer minutes
Every fault, and her dread diary fills."

(b) If this is the wounded spirit, then is there one man among

us who has no interest in the question-Can a wounded spirit be cured? Suppose it guilty to the uttermost. There are degrees of sin, and the man branded in Scripture as without excuse has the following characteristics. He judges others and condemns men, while he himself is a sinner. He is an ingrate. All the benefits of heaven have no effect on him. His soul is as insensible as the nether mill-stone. He is audaciously hard and impenitent, treasuring up unto himself retributive consequences as the miser hugs money.-Can this wounded spirit be saved?

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(c) All revelation speaks of cure-proclaims it—commends it. Everything about Christ and salvation is remedial. And the method of cure is commensurate with the spiritual ruin from which redemption is recovery. Hence "there is balm in Gilead," "there is a physician there," to save from going down to the pit. Why will ye die? It would almost seem a fiction, having no counterpart in nature or reason or any principle of sense, that men should prefer rather to die than live, or that heaven should stoop to importune wounded souls to accept of an offered cure, even by an appeal to poor human faculties. Come let us reason together, saith the Lord!" It was to the "wounded" that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And what is the "cross of Christ," exhibited as a cure for "wounded" souls, compared with the brazen serpent? Is death preferable to life? Is life beyond your reach, that you can accept the other and actual alternative? Is there any immense and formidable condition prescribed? Try your powers. Can you subdue kingdoms, work out righteousness of your own, and seek restoration to spiritual life and health by paying down a certain price? Accept the Gospel if you choose, or reject it! but you cannot deny the freeness or explicitness of its offers, and the boundless grace it reveals. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come to the waters, and he that hath no money, let him come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price."

As, therefore, in the days of His flesh, the sick, the leprous, the lame, the deaf, the blind, and dying grouped around the Saviour, or were brought to Him, receiving life and healing at His hands, so now man, in all the vast variety of his spiritual maladies, may come and find every "wound" bound up. How distinctively is Jesus-a Healer! What miracles of spiritual healing are ascribed to His truth, to His life, especially to His cross? The Sun of Righteousness hath "healing" in His wings. The fruit of that "tree" of life, which is the emblem of His Church, is "for the healing of the nations."

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(d) While salvation is provided, and cure is possible to the "chief of sinners," this Physician stands distinguished from all others who offer "healing" to the world in three respects. He alone can minister to minds diseased. He alone can heal the breach which sin has made between man and the Divine law; for He maketh reconciliation. His propitiation for sin is such that now there "is no condemnation" to them who are in Him. And all the claims of law and justice being met and satisfied by Him, the moral universe is summoned to study the wonder embodied in the "one offering" for sin-"God just while justifying the ungodly." He alone heals by His own stripes. He is a physician who heals the wounds of others by His own wounds. Thus, says Cowper

"I was a stricken deer;

With many an arrow, deep infixed,

My panting side was charged; while I withdrew,
To seek a tranquil death in distant shades,

There was I found by ONE who had Himself

Been hurt by the archers. In His side He bore,

And in His hands and feet, the cruel scars.

With gentle force, soliciting the darts,

He drew them forth, and heal'd, and bade me live."

(e) Look to the past. Consider the present. Lift up your eyes to the "General Assembly and Church of the First-born, written in heaven." Were not the elders, who have "gained a good report by faith," once wounded spirits? Are not all who are now rejoicing in the "hope of the glory of God," such as the Word and grace of God have healed, "washed, sanctified, justified?" And "who are they arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?" "Men of like passions with ourselves!" Think of representative cases, and we may see how there is guilt in despair, and how it adds to the "unbearable wound!" Mary weeps at the feet of Jesus; blind Bartimeus calls on Him; Saul of Tarsus, a dying thief, and awakened multitudes, covered over with all the wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores of sin, are trophies of his healing power! Thus, the cure is effective. "The unbearable wound," henceforth, is even as nothing. The imperial mind of man is once more restored to the divine image, and is upheld by the sustaining happiness of conscious oneness with heaven. Pardon secures this. There is re-established sonship. All ends in a new nature, and an eternal crown! Thus, ransomed heaven attests the truth that the Gospel is curative

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