THE SERMON. 135 



been composed during the ministrations of the law. So 

 that the vii^ihle Church before Christ was iigured by tlie 

 fish ah'eady on the coals, the visible Church after Christ by 

 the fish just enclosed in the net; and when the newly 

 caught fish were placed on the same fire with those which 

 had previously been secured, was it not shown that the 

 visible Church before and after the coming of Christ, was 

 virtually but one and the same? that its members, at 

 whatever time they lived, had to be brought to the same 

 altar, and to be purified by the same flame ? I know not 

 why we should not think that that strange fire, mysteriously 

 kindled, on the lonely shore, was typical of the propitiatory 

 work of the Eedeemer, through whom alone the men of 

 any age can be presented as a sacrifice acceptable unto 

 God. We have all to be laid upon an altar ; we have all, 

 as it were, to be subject to the action of fire ; but there is 

 no altar but the one Mediator, and no fire but that of His 

 one great oblation, which will answer for those who seek 

 to consecrate themselves, a whole burnt-offering, to their 

 Creator in heaven. 



" And what could be a more lively jjaraljle of this fact, 

 than that, just before His departure from earth, when 

 standing on the margin of the sea, — the separating line, so 

 to speak, between time and eternity, — Christ caused an 

 altar to rise, mysterious as Himself — for no human hands 

 reared it — and crowned it with burning coals, which had 

 not been kindled by any earthly flame ; and then brought 



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