Sermons of John Newton - M - Booklet Nineteen 45. Divine Support and Protection, 46. Accusers Challenged and 47. The Intercession of Christ

Extract

Sermons of John Newton
Booklet Nineteen

45. Divine Support and Protection,
46. Accusers Challenged and
47. The Intercession of Christ

45. Divine Support and Protection
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31.

The passions of joy or grief, of admiration or gratitude, are moderate when we are able to find words which fully describe their emotions. When they rise very high, language is too faint to express them; and the person is either lost in silence, or feels something which, after his most laboured efforts, is too big for utterance. We may often observe the Apostle Paul under this difficulty, when attempting to excite in others such sensations as filled his own heart, while contemplating the glories and blessings of the Gospel. Little verbal critics, who are not animated by his fervour, are incapable of entering into the spirit of his writings. They coldly examine them by the strictness of grammatical rules, and think themselves warranted to charge him with solecisms [ungrammatical usages] and improprieties of speech. For it must be allowed that he sometimes departs from the usual forms of expression; invents new words, or at least compounds words for his own use, and heaps one hyperbole [figure of speech] upon another. But there is a beautiful energy in his manner far superior to the frigid exactness of grammarians, though the taste of a mere grammarian is unable to admire or relish it. When he is stating the advantage of being with Christ as beyond anything that can be enjoyed in the present life, he is not content with saying, as his expression is rendered in our version, “It is far better” (Philippians 1:23). In the Greek, another word of comparison is added, which, if our language would bear the literal translation, would be, “Far more better,” or, “Much more better.” And when he would …