We must now notice a very special work of God's Spirit in the early part of this century, and in our own country. It pleased God, in the riches of His grace, just about this time, to awaken in many minds and in different parts of the country a deep desire for the study of the sacred scriptures. By this means many of His children were led to a renewed examination of the "sure word of prophecy," and others were led to see the importance and blessedness of what He had revealed in His word respecting the church, the body of Christ. This was something entirely new in that day. To speak of the church as the body of Christ, of which He is the glorified Head in heaven, and of its being indwelt and governed by the Holy Ghost, were new truths in the ears of Christendom.
It would be difficult to find in the theology of the Fathers or the schoolmen, of the Reformers or the Puritans, the doctrine of the church as the Elect Bride of Christ, separated from the world to wait for His return from heaven as her only hope, and knowing the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as her only strength and joy.
From the end of the first, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, no theological writer seems to have brought these precious truths before the church. Even the simple gospel was so completely overlaid and mixed up with human feelings and doings, that hardly anyone ever expected to know in this world the certainty of salvation. Hence we find some of the most holy living and spiritual teachers which have been in the church, praying on their death-beds that they "might not take their sins and iniquities to the judgment-seat." And this state of mind is by no means rare even in the present day, though the light and truth which have been spread abroad during the last fifty years have given many such a surer hope and a brighter prospect. The full efficacy of redemption, according to Heb. 10, was, and is, comparatively little known. There we read, " Because the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." This does not mean-no more consciousness of sinning, but no more conscience of sins. The precious blood of Christ has cleared the conscience of the believer forever. " For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." There is no need of the Mass to perpetuate the sacrifice, nor of human feelings and doings to add to its value. When this truth is understood, the full forgiveness of sins, and acceptance in the beloved become the happy condition of the soul.
The difference between the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of God was also one of the important truths recovered at this time. The question is fully discussed by the apostle in Philippians 3. Its ramifications, especially in Puritan theology, are so wide, that we will not attempt to follow them here, but only give the apostle's conclusion: -" And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Every Christian ought to know that He who knew no sin was made sin for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The feeblest believer in Christ stands before God in a righteousness absolutely complete, divine, and everlasting. Christ is our righteousness. In place of taking " his sins and iniquities to the judgment-seat," the moment he is absent from the body, he is present with the Lord, and in all the completeness of Christ Himself.