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I. THE INTENSIVE POWER OF DIVINE TRUTH. More power is needful

(1) to act on any living thing than on lifeless, inert matter;

(2) to act on a sentient creature than on life without sensation;

(3) to act on intelligence and will (on man) than on the irrational and irresponsible animal;

(4) on man sunk into the lowest moral condition (with seared conscience, mastering passions and habits fixed in vice) than on one who has not yet chosen his course, or who has been trained in the ways of virtue. The very highest instance of power with which we are familiar is that spiritual influence which transforms those who have gone furthest away from God, from truth, and from righteousness - those who are to the moral world what the tiger, the lion, or the asp is to the animal world. The gospel of Jesus Christ has this power. With such wonderful intensity does it work on those on whom its truth is brought to bear, that it redeems and renews the worst, so changing them in life and in spirit that it may be said of them that the wolf dwells with the lamb, etc.; so transformed do they become, under its benignant influence, that the most innocent and helpless have nothing to fear, though they be placed completely within their power (ver. 8).

1. Individual instances abound of the conversion of notorious drunkards, of savage prize-fighters, of shameless courtesans, of ribald atheists, of those who were abandoned by all, and who abandoned themselves to hopeless sin, of men who were the terror of their tribe or of their district, etc. Therefore we need not and we should not despair of those who are living amongst us, and who are at present a long way off from truth and righteousness. The gospel of Christ can change the very nature of these - can tame the most ferocious, can raise the most fallen, can liberate the most enslaved, can make beautiful the most deformed of the children of men; it can do so by the power of the truth and of the Spirit of God.

2. Families, societies, communities have undergone as complete a transformation.

II. THE EXTENSIVE RANGE OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. (Ver. 9.) What a vast void would there be if the waters were withdrawn! Into what profound depths should we look down! What mighty stretches of sand and clay and rock would be disclosed! What lengths and breadths are covered, what depths are now filled up by the abounding waters of the sea! As containing the element of life to millions of living creatures, as supplying a highway for the nations of the earth, and as providing scope for the ambition, courage, and enterprise of man, what a grand sufficiency do we see in the waters of the ocean! So shall it prove to be with Divine truth. There shall be seen to be a sufficiency, in the gospel of the Savior, to cover the entire earth, to meet the wants of the whole population of the globe. No land so remote, no clime so rigorously cold or scorchingly hot, no interior so impenetrable, no barbarism so rude, no prejudice so inveterate, but that the gospel of Christ shall cover it with its benignant power.

1. Let us rejoice in the earnest of its fulfillment; great things have been already done towards the realization of this glorious estate.

2. Let us resolve to have our share in its execution

(1) as a Church, and

(2) as individual souls, to each of whom God has committed some word to be spoken, some work to be done. - C.

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KJV: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

WEB: The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.