DISCOURSE XIV.

J. H. GRANDPIERRE, D.D.*

THIS celebrated representative of French Protestantism, was born at Neufchatel, in Switzerland, and is now probably about sixty years of age. He was educated partly at Neufchatel, and partly at Lausanne, where he made great proficiency in his literary and theological studies. He preached for several years in Basel, to the same church which enjoyed the services of Vinet, while Professor of the French language and literature in the University of Basel. He subsequently removed to Paris, where he has acted for years as President or Director of the Missionary Institute, for the preparation of young men for the work of foreign missions. He also preached for a time, in connection with the pious and eloquent Audebez, whose discourses are distinguished for sound sense, and evangelical unction, in the chapel of the Rue Taitbout, which is supported by voluntary contribution. Becoming somewhat dissatisfied with the management of this chapel, Grandpierre re-entered the "National Communion," and became the pastor of the church of the Batignolles. He now holds the pastorate vacated by the death of Adolphe Monod, in Paris. Grandpierre is a man of distinguished learning, great piety, and persuasive eloquence. He is the author of a volume of interesting and instructive Lectures on the Pentateuch, several volumes of discourses, and various tracts and disquisitions, chiefly religious. His style is clear and elevated, vivacious and elegant. All his discourses are pervaded by sound sense, elevated views, and ardent piety. Equally practical with those of Monod, they are more philosophical in their tone, and occasionally display a high range of thought. In this respect they are more akin to those of Vinet, though less powerful and striking. He reasons clearly and calmly; and is not unfrequently original in his thoughts and mode of expression. Three volumes of his sermons form a series, under the title of "Discours Evangeliques:" the first being on Christian Doctrine, the second on the Christian Life, and the third on the Harmonies of the Christian System, and entitled "Unity and Variety," in which he brings doctrine and practice together, and shows the wonderful adjustment and harmony of the whole Christian scheme.

Grandpierre is said to be tall and thin, stoops a little, and has a fine benignant expression. Dr. Stevens, speaking of Grandpierre, as seen among the "notables," at the recent meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Paris, says: "Take the fine classic contour of Wilbur Fisk, and wrinkle thoroughly its integuments with care or suffering, and you will have a good copy of this able Frenchman's features. Most of

*We have been able to obtain few materials for this sketch beyond those contained in Turnbull's "Pulpit Orators of France and Switzerland." To this source our obligations are cheerfully acknowledged.

these Protestant leaders look battle-worn, and there has been abundant reason for the fact. We American Christians, with heterodoxy always in an obscure minority, can hardly appreciate the position of earnest and talented men, who have had to bear up the cross for half a century and more, amid a sneering philosophy, the universal scoffs of men of letters, the machinations of a superstitious and cruel hierarchy which murdered or exiled their fathers, and-bitterest sorrow of all-the treachery of their own associates. But the times are changing and their reward will come! Grandpierre opened the Convention with a powerful speech. He has since occupied a back corner of the platform, almost hidden from observation. I consider him one of the soundest and strongest men of French Protestantism." His voice is powerful, and he speaks with much animation. His hearers cherish for him the highest reverence; indeed, all who know him regard him as a good man, as well as an able and eloquent preacher. He is an enthusiastic friend of missions, and acted for many years as secretary of the Missionary Society.

The following beautiful discourse will give a good idea of his style of preaching.

THE TEARS OF JESUS.

"Jesus wept."-JOHN, xi. 35.

THERE are some things in the gospel, my brethren, which open to faith and piety, classes of ideas peculiar to themselves; which give rise to the deepest reflections; and in dwelling upon which, the soul, absorbed and overwhelmed, finds itself led to feel rather than to speak-to adore rather than to explain. The words which compose our text are among these deep things. Jesus weeping, is the spectacle which is offered for our contemplation: the tears of Jesus form the vast and inexhaustible subject on which we are called to meditate.

Before entering on such a subject, I feel myself constrained to invoke thy aid, Lord Jesus-Saviour; once humbled, but now glorified!-God, once manifest in the flesh, to bear our sorrows and our griefs, to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and to deliver us from all our woes,—but now raised to the right hand of the Majesty on high, where thou reignest over the empire of sin and death! Ah! who but thyself can reveal to us wherefore thou didst weep?-who but thyself can impress the important lessons to be learned from thy tears? Impart, then, Saviour, thy divine illumination, to guide us into those depths where we should be lost without it! Descend with thy servant into that mine into which thou hast commanded all to search, and let him draw from thence spiritual riches for himself and for his brethren! Amen.

The Saviour's grief at the tomb of Lazarus has been attributed to various causes. Some ascribe it to the unbelief of the Jews, who, after having witnessed so many miracles which he had already wrought, yet

reproached his supineness in having permitted the death of Lazarus, and appeared to doubt his power to restore him to life. This might possibly combine with other causes in producing it; but as the Jews did not express their doubts in words, until after he was arrived at the grave, and had wept, we can not suppose that it formed the only, or even principal cause of his tears. Others think that the deep affection of Martha and Mary, under the recent loss of a brother who had been to them as another self-the tears that they shed, and the bitterness of their grief, drew from the Saviour this most expressive testimony of his sympathy for the mourning family. But Jesus did not weep until he had reached the grave, and it was before this time that Martha and Mary had thrown themselves at his feet, and had expressed to him all the bitterness which filled their souls; it is, therefore, difficult to suppose that this was the only cause moving him.

It has again been supposed that the remembrance of a family whom he had often visited, and where harmony and love reigned unbroken, now wounded in its tenderest part, cut in its dearest affections, and plunged into the deepest mourning, by the loss of one of its dear members, of its main support-this deeply affected Jesus; but when it is considered that he was just about to work a miracle which should at once dispell all his grief, can we thus account for it? And, once more, it has been thought that though to glorify God, and to accomplish his eternal decrees, our Lord was about to work this great miracle, yet that a view of the renewed sorrows and trials which Lazarus would infallibly be called to undergo in re-entering upon life, caused his heart to bleed and his tears to flow.

But if we consider the difficulty which attends each of these ways of accounting for the emotion which he manifested, perhaps the most easy and natural way of explaining it may be, the immediate effect of the spectacle then before his eyes. He was before a tomb, the tomb of a beloved friend, whose soul had been in unison with his own, and who had been living on earth the life of heaven. But the angel of death had not spared him, notwithstanding his regeneration. He had been stricken down, as are the most impious and vile:-a new attestation of the reality of the curse attached to transgression of the law, and of the truth of that sentence which declares that "death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The corruption exhaling from a corpse, which but now had clothed and adorned the soul of one of God's elect, but which the breath of death had sufficed to stiffen and turn to decay, moved and overcame him. He groaned and wept. The compassion of Jesus, like his love, is infinite. Added to this the principal cause of his affliction, were all those which we have noticed already, giving greater bitterness and depth to it. Nothing that concerns us is hidden from him, or foreign to him. He embraces, so to speak, all our griefs in all their varied aspects and degrees. He feels for us at once, in one instant of time, more

than the most tender and compassionate human souls could feel during a long course of ages. Without thus longer dwelling on the cause of his tears, let us, regarding the fact that Jesus wept as the general expression of his deep love for us, proceed to consider the lessons which we may deduce.

I. The first, and perhaps the most striking, is, the proof which we draw from hence of the real manhood of Christ. We approach a subject of deep mystery, one which must ever be incomprehensible to human reason,—the union of very God and very man in the person of Christ. The Deity ever like itself, incapable of increase or diminution, of change or of suffering, immutable, eternal, infinite in all things, in being, in power, in wisdom, in greatness, in goodness, united with humanity, whose fundamental law is to progress, and develop its powers by degrees, which is susceptible of change, of emotion, of sadness, or grief, which is limited in every sense and on every side, by time and by space, and is fixed as to its duration, its extent, the stretch of its intellectual powers, and the portion of matter in which to reside! This union is indeed beyond the comprehension of man: but Scripture, though it does not solve the mystery, is not silent on the subject. There we read, that Christ "was in all points tempted like as we; yet without sin." And again, that "in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." There is he represented as growing and increasing in stature like ourselves, requiring support, suffering from hunger, from thirst, and from fatigue, as we do; and again issuing his commands as the governor of nature, subjecting to his power the very elements; causing devils to fly at his mandate, and hell to tremble before him; ravishing from death his victims, closing the mouth of the grave, and rising himself from the tomb.

And what more need we know for our salvation? In order to preserve physical life, has it ever been necessary to resolve the problem of the mysterious union of immaterial spirit with material bodies? In order to live spiritually, or to believe, is it necessary that we arrive at a demonstration of the mode of the incarnation of Christ ?—of the way in which the divine and human nature were found conjoined in him? Two things are made perfectly clear: first, that nothing less than the infinite mercy of Christ as God could pardon sin; nothing less than his eternal love could save the sinner; nothing less than his boundless power could deliver from the bondage of sin. And, secondly, that nothing but his assumption of humanity could have brought us near to God, rendered him accessible to us, and effected our reconciliation and communion with him. Here is, then, as full a revelation as we need. Jesus has stooped to suit our wants. Seizing then the offered salvation with thankful hearts-which will lead us further in one day, than all the efforts of reason could do in ages-let us cry with the apostle in grateful adoration, “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh."

II. Another inference which we may draw from the tears of Jesus, is, that grief itself is both natural and lawful. Could what Jesus did be wrong?-what the Son of God allowed himself, questionable, or culpable? Far from us be such a thought! The tears which he shed over the grave of Lazarus, have forever sanctioned and sanctified real grief. Wounded hearts, suffer, then, your tears to flow; fear not; Jesus does not condemn them. Weeping brings its own relief; weeping sometimes opens the soul to divine consolations; weeping is often the first step which the soul makes in the way of regeneration. "Blessed are ye that weep now," said he who had bathed the grave of Lazarus with his own tears;-"Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh."

Only let us examine well into the cause and nature of our grief; for the question is, not whether grief is in itself lawful-this was resolved long ago by the example and by the word of Jesus :-but the important point is, why and how do we weep? O you who are overwhelmed by floods of sorrow and who find no true consolation, be well assured that if your grief be displeasing to God, it is because it is not "after a godly manner," it is not the grief of a Christian. "Godly sorrow," says the Bible, "worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death."

Examine well, then, my dear hearers, from what cause flow your tears. Is it selfishness which seeks its own, and will yield nothing, though it be God himself who makes the demand? Is it covetousness, which would enjoy its object far from God, forgetting and banishing him? Is it the idolatry of a heart which clings tenaciously to its idols, and which prefers to consume itself in hopeless grief, rather than fly for consolation to him who would give it abundantly from the eternal fountain of his love? Is it unbelief which spreads a thick vail over the future, and clouds from view the joys of heaven? Is it distrust, causing you to doubt that the promises of God are yours-that his work was wrought in favor of you? If indeed such be the subject of your grief, it can not be pleasing to the Lord. But if you will weep at the foot of the cross, if you will spread your sorrows before your Saviour, if you will mourn with that calm submission that faith inspires, with that hope which is produced by a conviction that he has done all things well-then indeed it is permitted you to weep, and Jesus himself will weep with you.

III. From the view of our Saviour which the text presents, we may learn his sympathy with us in all our griefs. How touching, and how well calculated to impart consolation and hope, is the history which the inspired writers give of him! And, be it remembered, they do not draw for us a beautiful poetical picture, but they give a relation of facts. Jesus at a sick bed, in a house of mourning, among the tombs, traveling on foot every where, where the needs of man required him, where were burdens to be relieved, sorrows to be softened, deliverances to be wrought-are not beautiful fictions, but facts which really had place