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diff --git a/16856.txt b/16856.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08c0b67 --- /dev/null +++ b/16856.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3978 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sermons at Rugby, by John Percival + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Sermons at Rugby + + +Author: John Percival + + + +Release Date: October 11, 2005 [eBook #16856] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERMONS AT RUGBY*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1905 James Nisbet and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +SERMONS AT RUGBY + + +By the Rt. Rev. JOHN PERCIVAL, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF HEREFORD +SOMETIME HEADMASTER OF RUGBY + +JAMES NISBET AND CO. LTD. +21 BERNERS STREET, LONDON. 1905 + +[Title page: title.jpg] + +[Photograph of John Percival: john.jpg] + + + + + INTRODUCTORY NOTE + + +This little group of Rugby Sermons is to be taken and read as being +nothing more than a few stray chips from the workshop of a busy +schoolmaster, brought together by a kindly publisher, and arranged as he +thought best. + +They represent no body of continuous doctrine. In one case the subject +may have been suggested by the season of the Christian year; in another +it was the meeting or the parting at the beginning or the end of a term +that suggested it; or more frequently some incident in the school life of +the moment. + +Such, indeed, almost inevitably is the teaching of a schoolmaster, +engrossed in the training of the boys committed to his charge and growing +under his hand towards the destiny of their endless life. + +To those boys, and to the masters, my colleagues, and to other fellow- +labourers--some gone to their rest, some still doing their appointed +work--I dedicate this brief reminder of our common life in days of happy +fellowship. + +J. HEREFORD. +_July_ 1905. + + + + + I. RELIGIOUS PATRIOTISM. + + + "Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself. . . . O pray + for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace + be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces. For my + brethren and companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, + because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek to do thee + good."--PSALM cxxii. 3, 6-9. + +As we draw near to the end of our summer term, when so many are about to +take leave of their school life, there is sure to rise up in many minds +the thought of what this life has done for them or failed to do, and of +what the memory of it is likely to be in all their future years as they +pass from youth to age. + +And it should be our aim and desire, as need hardly be said, that from +the day when each one comes amongst us as a little boy to the day when he +offers his last prayer in this chapel before he goes out into the world, +his life here should be of such a sort that its after taste may have no +regrets, and no bitterness, and no shame in it, and the memories to be +cherished may be such as add to the happiness and strength of later +years. And if, as we trust, this is your case, your feeling for your +school is almost certain to be in some degree like that which is +expressed in this pilgrim psalm. Its language of intense patriotism, +steeped in religious feeling, which is the peculiar inspiration of the +Old Testament Jew, will seem somehow to express your own feelings for +that life in which you grew up from childhood to manhood. + +Indeed, the best evidence that your school life has not failed of its +higher objects is the growth of this same sort of earnest patriotic +enthusiasm. Do you feel at all for your school as that unknown Jewish +pilgrim who first sung this 122nd Psalm felt for the city of his fathers +and the house of God? "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall +prosper that love thee. For my brethren and companions' sakes I will +wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God I +will seek to do thee good." + +Experience shows us that those English schools have been the best in +which this feeling has been strongest and most widely diffused; and that +those are the best times in any school which train up and send forth the +largest proportion of men who continue to watch over its life, and to +pray for it in this spirit: "For my brethren and companions' sakes I will +wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God I +will seek to do thee good." On the other hand, if this feeling is weak +in any school, or among the former members of it, or if it assumes +debased forms, as sometimes happens, we see there a sure sign of +degeneration. He who, having grown up in any society like ours, is +possessed by no such love for it, and stirred by no enthusiasm for its +good name, and no desire to do it good, and to see good growing in every +part of it, such an one has somehow missed the chief blessing that his +membership of his school should have brought to him. He may have been +unfortunate, or he may have proved unworthy. The atmosphere of his +school life, and the associations amidst which he grew up, may have been +such that the best thing he can do is to shake himself clear of them and +forget them. To such an one his school time has been a grave and +lifelong misfortune; and it is the condemnation of any society if there +are many such cases in it. + +It is, however, exceptional in English life for men who have grown up in +a great school to be stirred by no glow of patriotic feeling for it. +Whatever their own experience of it may have been, they are not +altogether blind to the things that constitute its greatness, and they +love to hear it well spoken of. + +But the quality of their patriotism will depend very much on the quality +of their own life; so that the task we have always before us is to be +infusing into our community such a spirit and purpose, as shall infect +each soul amongst us with those higher aims, and tastes, and motives, +with that hatred of things mean or impure, and that love of things that +are manly, honest, and of good report, which distinguish all nobler +characters from the baser, and which are produced and fostered, and made +to work strongly in every society that has any claim to good influence. + +Seeing, then, that a man's patriotism is to a great extent the expression +of his personal life, how instructive is this picture of the patriot +which the 122nd Psalm sets before us. We see thus first of all how he +feels the unity of his people--their one pervading life, and himself a +part of it, though possibly far away--"Jerusalem is built as a city that +is at unity in itself: thither the tribes go up." Those were times when +Israel suffered from division of tribe against tribe, times when the +pulse of common life hardly beat at all, times of isolation or of +jealousy; but the true patriot in Israel, as everywhere, was always +possessed by the intense feeling of the oneness of his people under one +Lord; and whenever this feeling fails, we look in vain for the higher +forms of common life. + +But we note, too, this Psalmist's passionate personal devotion to the +object of his patriotic love--"They shall prosper that love thee"--"For +my brethren and companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity." Who can +read unmoved these noble and generous outpourings? + +We see, moreover, how his feeling expresses itself, as true love always +does express itself in the desire to do good to its object, and, above +all, how it breathes the spirit of moral and religious earnestness. "Yea, +because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek to do thee good." If +ever you desire to test the sincerity and the worth of any love you bear +to person, place, institution, or society, you have only to turn to this +Psalm, and see if these words fit your thoughts, desires, and +endeavours--"They shall prosper that love thee--For my brethren and +companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity--Yea, because of the house +of the Lord our God I will seek to do thee good." Here are the notes of +true patriotic feeling--personal love, public spirit, sanctified by moral +and religious purpose, desire to do good. These are the qualities which +are the salt of all societies, and it is by virtue of these that they win +their good name, if they do win it. + +In the history of our own school we can point to abundant illustrations +of this truth. I will mention one only, familiar to those who know our +history. "I verily believe," wrote a School-house boy to his friend +fifty-three years ago--"I verily believe my whole being is soaked through +with wishing and hoping and striving to do the school good, or, rather, +to hinder it from falling in this critical time, so that all my cares, +and affections, and conversation, thought, words, and deeds, look to that +involuntarily." + +Such was one of your predecessors as he sat here Sunday by Sunday, a boy +like any of you. + +He was eager to follow those friends who had preceded him to Oxford as +scholars of Balliol; he was keenly interested in all intellectual +pursuits; he turned for his daily pleasure to literature or history; but +alongside of it all, or rather through it all, underlying it all, giving +earnestness and fervour, the true unselfish quality, to it all, there was +burning in his heart a consuming zeal for the good of his house and +school. "For my brethren and companions' sakes I will wish thee +prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek to +do thee good." + +It was through the spirit and the lives of such as he, growing up here, +and leavening all the life around them, and then going forth in the same +spirit, to live the noble and earnest type of life elsewhere, that the +name of Rugby School became honoured among schools, and this chapel came +to be looked upon as a sacred home of inspiring influences; and it is +only through an unfailing succession of such Rugbeians--growing up here +in the same spirit, and going forth endowed with the same character and +the same purpose--that this honourable name, this tradition of good +influences, can be perpetuated. + +And, if we desire to see how close this is to the spirit and the work of +our Lord, how it is, in fact, one manifestation of that spirit which is +the saving influence in human life; we have only to turn from the text +with which I started to that with which I may conclude, from the Psalmist +meditating on the city and temple of his heart's affections, to the +Saviour, as He drew near to the Cross, praying for His disciples--"Father, +the hour is come. . . . I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have +finished the work Thou gavest Me to do. I have manifested Thy name unto +the men whom Thou gavest me out of the world." . . . "And for their sakes +I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified. Neither pray I for +these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their +word." + +The only change we see as we step from the Psalms to the Gospel, from the +Jewish pilgrim to the Saviour whom we worship, is that religious +patriotism has expanded into the love of souls, the love of Him who laid +down His life to save us from the power of sin and death. + +It was for you and me that Christ was praying; and His prayer for us will +be answered so soon as it inspires us to follow in His footsteps, so that +we too, as we kneel before God each morning, each night, and think of our +duty to those around us, may be able to say, in these words of His, which +are at once a prayer and a consecrating vow--"For their sakes I sanctify +myself, that they also may be sanctified.'" + + + + + II. THE CHILD IN THE MIDST. + + + "And He took a child and set Him in the midst of them: and when He had + taken him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one + of such children in My name, receiveth Me: and whosoever shall receive + Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me."--ST. MARK ix. 36, 37. + +It is one of the characteristics of our time, one of its most hopeful and +most encouraging signs, that men are awaking to higher and purer +conceptions of the Christian life and what it is that constitutes such a +life. We are beginning to feel, as it was not felt by former +generations, that the only true religion, the only Christianity worthy of +the name, is that which aims at embodying and reproducing the spirit, the +thought, the ideas of the Saviour. + +Through and underneath all ecclesiastical and mediaeval revivals, and all +vagaries of church tradition or of ritual, this feeling seems to be +growing with a steady growth, that the real test of a man's religion is +the evidence which his life affords of the Christ-like spirit. And this +growing feeling gives an ever-fresh interest to the words and the +judgment of the Lord on all matters of individual conduct and daily +intercourse; so that if we are possessed at all by it, the Saviour is +becoming more of a living person to us, and we ask ourselves more +frequently, more earnestly, with more of reality and more of practical +meaning in the question, how He would judge this or that side of our +life, whether our conduct is in harmony with His spirit, and whether the +standards of our life fit at all with His teaching and injunctions. + +And how full of new meaning every familiar chapter of the Gospel becomes +to you, if you are once roused to this kind of feeling; if you are +feeling all the time, here is the spirit which should be dominating my +own life and determining it, here are the thoughts, ideas, and views of +conduct which should be mine also. How does my common life fit with all +this? And it is with something like this feeling in your minds that I +would ask you to consider the text I have just read to you. "Jesus took +a child and set him in the midst of them. He took him up in His arms and +said, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth +Me." And while we are considering it, let us notice also that in St. +Matthew's narrative there are two other very emphatic expressions. +"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not +enter into the Kingdom of Heaven"; and "Whoso shall offend one of these +little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone +were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. +. . . Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say +unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My +Father which is in heaven." + +Here, then, is the child taken up by Jesus and set in the midst; we know +nothing more of him but this one thing, that he represents to us our +Lord's Divine love of little children, and His high estimate of +childhood, as the mysterious embodiment of that character and those +qualities which bring us close to the Divine life. + +But this is quite enough to make us listen to the lessons of thought and +warning and hope, which Jesus expounds to us as He stands with the child +in His arms. His words may very well set every one of us thinking about +our own life and conduct. We look at this scene--the disciples standing +round, their hearts occupied, as ours are apt to be, with their own +ambitions, rivalries, and jealousies, and Jesus in the midst with the +little child; and we cannot mistake or misinterpret the lessons He +teaches us, the lessons which welled up in His heart whenever He saw, or +met, or took up in His arms, and blessed a little child. + +"Let every child you meet," he clearly says to us, "remind you that if +you desire to be My disciple and to win a place in My kingdom, you must +fling off selfishness, and put in its place the spirit of service and +tenderness." "He that would be first must be servant of all." "You must +humble yourself as this little child." + +And then He adds the blessing and the warning:--"Whoso shall receive one +such child in My name receiveth Me; but whosoever shall offend one of +these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged +about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." + +We may pause for a moment to consider what it is in childhood, what are +the gifts, qualities, characteristics of the child, that drew from our +Lord this special love and care and these injunctions to His followers. +We do well to bear them in mind, because He has declared with such +emphasis that we have no part in His kingdom unless we retain or recover +these gifts. And we should bear them in mind, because of the blessing +promised to those who help to preserve these qualities in others. +Receive, help, cherish, or protect a child, make the way of goodness easy +to him, and shield him from evil, and Christ declares that inasmuch as +you have done it to the least of all His little ones, you have done it +unto Him. + +On the other hand, offend any such child, that is to say, hinder, or +mislead, spoil or degrade him in any way; do anything to rob a child of +any of these Divine gifts, rob him of his innocence, or trustfulness, or +his guileless heart, and sow the seeds of evil habits or tastes in their +place, and you know the denunciation or curse which the Divine voice has +laid upon you for your evil deed. + +A child, then, is, as it were, a living symbol of that which draws to us +the love of Christ, and we cannot doubt that he is so by virtue of his +innocence, his obedient spirit, his guilelessness, or simplicity of +character, his trustfulness, and by all the untarnished and unspoilt +possibilities of goodness in him. + +It is in the blessed endowment of such gifts as these that the little +child looks in the face of Christ, and is embraced in the arms of His +love. + + And these are, or they once were, your gifts. As you love the better +life, and hope for good days, hold them fast and cherish them, or if any +of them be unhappily lost, let it be your endeavour to recover it. + +As we contemplate such a scene as this in our Lord's life with the little +child in the midst, and listen to the Saviour's words, all the commands +and injunctions to keep innocency, to keep the spirit of obedience, to +keep a guileless and trusting and loving heart, gain a new force. They +seem to speak to us with new voices; for if the true life, the life that +has in it the hope of union with Christ, must be a life endowed with +these gifts, whether in youth or age, what a blessed thing it will be for +you if you have never lost or squandered them. We cannot too soon learn +this lesson; for if under the influence of any wrong motives, or +following any wrong ideals, or misled by any bad example, you go astray +and rob your young life of these divine gifts, no man knows how, or when, +or where you will recover them, and become again as a little child. + +And if we turn our thoughts from our own separate personal life, and look +for a moment at our duty as members of a society, how this picture of +Christ embracing the little child, and blessing those who receive or help +one such, should stir us to new and keener interest in social duty! Does +it not carry in it, this example and teaching of the Lord, does it not +carry in it the condemnation of a great many of our traditional notions +about our duty to the young? We see the Lord's tenderness and love and +care for the little child; we see how He values the childlike qualities; +and how He enjoins the nursing and the cherishing of these. If, then, we +have really learnt the lesson which He thus presses upon us, we shall +feel something like reverence for every young life, as it begins its +perilous and uncertain course on the sea of man's experiences; and with +this feeling we shall be eager to help and protect such lives whenever we +have the chance of doing it, and we shall be very careful to do them no +wrong. + +But when we turn from the Gospel and these thoughts which it stirs in us +to our common life of every day, does it not rather seem sometimes as if +this teaching of the Lord were all a dream and had no reality? And yet +there is hardly one of us but would confess that, having once seen this +revelation of the Lord, we are put to shame if, as happens sometimes, a +young soul comes amongst us endowed with these very gifts of innocence, +and high purpose, and trust, and promise of all goodness, which so won +the Saviour's heart, and is met, when he comes, in school or house, not +by care, or sympathy, or guidance, or protection, as of an elder +brother's love, but by experiences of a very different sort. You would +agree that it is a shame to us if such an one comes only to find the +misleading influence of some thoughtless or bad companion, or to have +held up before him some bad tradition as the law which should rule his +life here. + + I have known--which of us in the course of years has not known?--such +cases in our school experience. A child has come from a refined and +loving home, but only to meet with roughness or coarseness; and instead +of retaining those gifts and qualities of childhood, which are the +godlike qualities of life and meant to be permanent, he has been led to +grow up utterly unchildlike, depraved, debased, hardened; and there is no +sadder sight to see than a growth of this kind. And if you have ever +seen it; if you have ever noticed the falling away from childlike +innocence to sin, from purity to coarseness, from the open, ingenuous, +trusting spirit to sullen hardness, from happiness to gloom, you know how +terribly in earnest the Saviour must have been when He denounced that woe +on any one who causes such debasement of a young soul--"Whoso shall +offend one of these little ones, it had been better for him that a +millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of +the sea." + + + + + III. THE BREVITY OF LIFE. + + + "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night + cometh."--ST. JOHN ix. 4. + +There are few things more commonly disregarded by us in our early years +than the brevity of our life through all its successive stages, and the +fleeting nature of its opportunities. + +In childhood we are almost entirely unconscious of both these +characteristics of life. Indeed, it would hardly be natural if it were +otherwise. That reflective habit which dwells upon them is the result of +our experience, and comes later. It is enough for a child if he follows +pure and safe instincts, and lives without reflection a healthy, +unperverted life, under wise guidance and good teaching. Growing in this +way, free from corrupting influences or the contagion of bad example, and +poisoned by no bad atmosphere, he develops naturally towards a manhood +which is rooted in healthy tastes, affections unspoilt, and in good +habits. Thus you see what the very young have a right to claim at the +hands of all their elders--that they should be careful not to mislead +them, and should see that they live in pure air, and feed their growing +instincts and activities in wholesome pastures. + +During the stage of earliest growth it would be a sign of unhealthy +precocity if a child were much occupied with the continuity of things, or +the close union of to-day with to-morrow, or of all our thoughts, acts, +pleasures, and tastes, with the bent of character which is being silently +but surely formed in us; and it would be equally unnatural if his +thoughts were to dwell much on the essential shortness of our life, and +the flight of opportunity which does not come back to us. + +It is part of the happiness, or, I fear, it must be said sometimes, part +of the pain of early life, that the time before it seems so long. The +day is long with its crowded novelty or intense enjoyment, or possibly +with its dreary and intolerable task-work; to-morrow, with all its +anticipations of things desired or to be endured, seems long; and the +vista of years, as they stretch through boyhood and youth, manhood and +age, seems to lose itself in the far distance of its length. So, viewed +from its beginnings, life is long. + +But with the approach of manhood all this begins to change. As we grow +out of childhood our self-conscious and reflective life grows; and thus +there rises in us the feeling of moral responsibility never to be shaken +off again. Not, however, that we should leave all our childhood behind +us. It hardly needs to be said that there are some characteristics of +our earliest years which every man should pray that he may retain to the +end. Unless he retains them his life becomes a deteriorating life. + +And first among these is the reverential or filial habit. This deserves +our careful attention, because we sometimes see an affectation of silly +and spurious manliness, which thinks it a fine thing to cast it off. This +reverential or filial feeling, which is natural to the unspoilt and +truthful nature of the child, is preserved in every unspoilt manhood; +only with a difference. + +It is raised from the unreflective, instinctive trust in a father's +guidance or a mother's love to that higher feeling which tells us that, +as is the child in a well and wisely ordered home, so is each of us in +that great household of our heavenly Father. This spirit of true piety, +which uplifts, refines, strengthens, and gives courage to manhood, as +nothing else can do, is the natural outcome and successor of a child's +trustfulness, as we rise through it to the feeling that we are +encompassed by a Divine consciousness, and that our life moves in a holy +presence. Or again, we pray that we may not lose that simplicity and +freshness of nature which is at once a special charm of childhood, and, +wherever it is preserved, the chief blessing of a man's later years. + +These qualities and characteristics of our infancy--trust, filial +reverence, freshness, simplicity--are not qualities to be left behind, +but the natural forecast of that religious spirit which is the highest +growth of maturity, and our own safeguard against the hardening and +debasing influences of the world and the flesh. And this was the +Saviour's meaning when He said, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom +of God as a little child shall in nowise enter therein." And if there is +one thing more than another that constitutes the special curse of any +depraved influence acting on young lives, it is that it robs the later +life of these childlike qualities which are the gifts of God to bless us +in youth and age. + +But assuming that we bear all this in mind, and hold fast to these +fundamental gifts, and so escape those lower and baser forms of life +which we meet all about in the world, spoiling the manhood and +embittering the age of so many men, we cannot forget the essential +difference between mature years and the years of early growth. + +As we grow towards manhood our life necessarily loses its childlike and +unreflecting spontaneity in the ferment of thought, desire, and passion, +and in the light of experience; and therefore it becomes a matter of no +slight importance to estimate the value of that which we hold in our +hands to-day, the nature of the web which our conduct is weaving, and the +fateful character of any mistake in the purposes, notions, ambitions, or +tastes that are, as a matter of fact, fixing the drift and direction of +our life. But to do this amidst all the daily temptations of life is not +always an easy matter; and it is certain that we shall not do it if we do +not fully recognise, while our life is still young and unhampered, the +importance of these two very obvious reflections, which, in fact, resolve +themselves into one, that our time is essentially short, and that our +opportunities are very fugitive. + + In one sense, no doubt, there is a long stretch of time before most of +you. As yet hope has more to say to you than memory. Some of you will +look back on these early days from the distant years of another century. +Your life's journey may extend far away over the unexplored future, and +may in some cases be a very long one; but, although this is possible, we +are not allowed to forget that it is always precarious--unexpected graves +are constantly reminding us how short may be the time of any one of +us--how the night cometh. + +But it is not merely of the literal shortness of our time, or the +possible nearness of death, that our Lord's words should set us thinking, +when He warns us that the night cometh, and we must work while it is day. + +If we measure our life by the things we should accomplish in it, by the +character it should attain to, by the purposes that should be bearing +fruit in it, and not by mere lapse of time, we soon come to feel how very +short it is, and the sense of present duty grows imperative. It is thus +that the thoughtful man looks at his life; and he feels that there is no +such thing as length of days which he can without blame live carelessly, +because in these careless days critical opportunities will have slipped +away irrecoverably; he will have drifted in his carelessness past some +turning-point which he will not see again, and have missed the so-called +chances that come no more. + +But even this is only a part of the considerations that make our present +life so precious; for this is only the outer aspect of it. What makes +our time so critically short, whether we consider its intellectual or its +moral and spiritual uses, is that our nature is so very sensitive, so +easily marred by misuse, and spoilt irretrievably. The real brevity of +the time at your disposal, whether for the training of your mind, or for +your growth into the character of good men, consists in this, that +deterioration is standing always at the back of any neglect or waste. +Deterioration is the inseparable shadow of every form of ignoble life. + + "Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, + Our fatal shadows that walk with us still." + +Leave your faculties unused and they become blunted and dulled; leave +your higher tastes uncultivated and they die; let your affections feed on +anything unworthy and they become debased. + +To those who do this it may happen that whilst, so far as years go, they +are still in all the freshness of youth, they are already dying that +death to all higher capacity which is worse than any decay of our +physical organism. Such an early death of higher tastes and faculties, +and of hope for the future, is sometimes effected even before schooldays +are over. And the mere possibility of such a fate overhanging any of us +should stir us like a trumpet-call to take care that we do not surrender +our life to any mean influence, and that we are very zealous for all that +concerns the safety of the young. + +"I send out my child," I can imagine the parent of any one of you having +said, "to be trained for manhood; I send him to his school that his +intellect may be cultivated, his moral purpose made strong, and that all +good and pure tastes may be fostered in him; but it is dreadful to think +that instead of this he may, by his life and companionship there, be +hardened and debased, or even brutalised; he may become dead to the +higher life even before he becomes a man." Seeing, then, that there is +this possibility of death even in the midst of life--a possibility, we +would fain hope, seldom realised in this school, but still a +possibility--shall we not be very careful, men and boys alike, so to do +our part in this society, so to shelter the young and strengthen the +weak, and to keep the atmosphere of our life a pure atmosphere, that +every sensitive soul which comes amongst us may grow up here through a +healthy and wholesome boyhood, and go out to the duties and the calling +of his life, strong, unselfish, public-spirited, pure-hearted, and +courageous--a Christian gentleman. + + + + + IV. THE INFLUENCE OF TRADITION. + + + "Making the word of God of none effect through your traditions: and + many such like things ye do."--ST. MARK vii. 13. + +Such was our Lord's word to the Pharisees; and if we turn to our own life +it is difficult if not impossible for us fully to estimate the influence +which traditions exercise upon it. + +They are so woven into the web of thought and opinion, and daily habits +and practices, that none of us can claim to escape them. Moreover, as +any institution or society grows older, this influence of the part which +is handed on from one generation to another tends to accumulate; so that +the weight of it lies heavier on us in an old place than in a new one, +and it is obvious that there is both loss and gain in this. + +A good tradition is a great help and support, giving a strength, or +firmness, or dignity to our life which it would not otherwise have had. + +We often see or feel the value of such a tradition as it acts upon the +members of a family, or of a college, or of a regiment, or of a school. + +And this influence of a tradition, inasmuch as it has become impersonal, +and rooted in the general life, is apt to be very persistent, so that the +man who establishes a good tradition anywhere begins a good work, which +may go on producing its good results long after he himself is in his +grave. + +Many of you must have felt the power of such an influence, handed on to +you as if it were a part of your inheritance, when thinking of a brother, +or father, or other relative or ancestor, who by some distinction of +character, or by some inspiring words or some brave or generous act, has +left you a good example, which seems somehow to belong to you, and to +stir you as with an authoritative call to show yourself worthy of it. + +Similarly in a society like this school you can hardly grow up without +sometimes being stirred by the tradition of the noble lives that have +left their mark upon its history. + +So a man's good deeds live after him, and become woven as threads of gold +into the traditions of the world. + +And we are equally familiar with traditions that are bad, and with their +pestilent influence; for we are constantly made to feel how much of the +good that men endeavour to do is thwarted, counteracted, or destroyed by +influences of this sort, and how weak and imitative souls are entangled +in the network of traditional influence as in a spider's web. Tradition, +in fact, represents to us the accumulated power of past lives as it acts +upon us from the outside, just as what men call heredity represents this +same influence in our own blood. + +And we have seen that this power may be, and often is, a real advantage +and support to our life. We feel also that as the Divine light shines +stronger and steadier in human affairs the traditional influence of each +generation ought to become more and more helpful to those that follow. + +And yet, you observe, the Saviour gives us no encouragement to depend +upon those helps that tradition might bring us. On the contrary, His +language shows how dangerous He felt the influence of tradition to be. +How are we to account for this? His strongest denunciations are reserved +for the Pharisaic party; and yet a historian would describe them as in +many respects the best elements of Jewish life. They were earnest, +patriotic, religious, many of them wise and holy men; but their judgment +was held in bondage by the influence of tradition, and in this lies the +cardinal defect of their life. They had set up between their souls and +the spirit of God a sort of graven image of ritualistic observances, and +traditional usages and interpretations. They depended on externals, or +what came to them from the past or from the outer world, and their eyes +were blinded, and their hearts hardened against every new revelation. + +Thus they stand before Christ, blocking His path, the very embodiment of +that power which closes the soul against those inspiring and purifying +influences that come from direct communion with God. They block the +Saviour's path, because this personal communion is just what He +represents to us--the direct revelation of the Spirit of God in man. He +comes to reveal the Father to each of us, and to make us feel the +presence of the Divine creative Spirit in every separate human life; and +till we feel this personal illumination we have not realised the +manifestation of the Son of God. But the Pharisee with his continual +reference to tradition, his multiplication of external observances, and +elaborate ritual, his reliance upon usage and external authority, knows +little or nothing of the personal illumination by the direct influence of +the Spirit of God upon our spirit. Hence this absolute and fundamental +contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees. They represent two opposing +principles in life. And it is this that gives such intensity to the +words He addressed to them: "Ye have made the word of God of none effect +through your traditions"; and it is a universal warning--never out of +date. + +If the spirit of traditional usage and influence holds the citadel of a +man's life, the spirit of Christian progress cannot gain an entrance. + +That is the lesson which the Saviour presses upon our attention by His +denunciation of the Pharisaic usage, habit, and attitude, and it is +hardly possible to overestimate the importance of the lesson, because +this same spirit of Pharisaic tradition is constantly laying its hand +upon every human institution, and it has contributed to every abuse or +perversion that has taken possession of the Christian Church. + +Our life is, in fact, a continuous struggle between the two principles +here represented. Which is to prevail in it, and fix its character-- +traditional custom, or personal inspiration? Are we to follow the world +with its conventions and laws, or to live in personal communion with God? +The tendency of our life will be determined in one direction or the other +according as we surrender our will to the rule of traditional notions and +usages, the power of the external world, or as we seek for direct +illumination of mind, conscience, and spirit at the Divine sources of +truth and light. + +Here, then, we have a principle to guide us in our relation to the +traditions amidst which we live. + +We do not expect to get away from them; we never dream of escaping from +the influences of the external world, whether of the past or the present; +but to move safely among them, we must have learnt and adopted this +primal lesson, that no tradition, and no external practice or custom, has +any authoritative claim upon us, simply from being established as a +tradition or a custom. + +And as we stand amidst all the conventions and practices that have come +down to us, we should be able to say of every one of them-- + +"Every good tradition, and every wholesome and beneficent usage, I accept +thankfully as part of the inheritance which good, or wise, or brave men +have left as their legacy for my use and assistance; but it is my bounden +duty to measure them all by the standard of God's unchanging law: by it I +will prove them; I will use them or reject them according as they fit or +fail in this measurement, and I will not be brought under the power of +any of them." + +Whether, then, we think of our separate personal life or of our life in +its social relationships, we must think of it in this way if we are to be +in any real sense followers of Christ. Each of you, as he steps into the +world, is not merely an inheritor of certain accumulations of life and +tradition, which he should follow as a matter of course. He is not born +to tread a certain track of conduct or behaviour because others have +trodden it before him, following it without thought like the sheep on the +mountain, or like the ants as they travel from one ant-hill to another. + +Your estimate of your life should be fundamentally different from this. +You are primarily a child of God, illumined by direct communion with the +Spirit of God; and your first duty, therefore, whenever and in whatever +place or circumstances you may chance to be, is not to follow this or +that tradition or usage which may meet you; but to stand up and show that +you are God's child, and therefore a judge of all traditions or customs, +and not their slave. + +This is the revelation which Christ declares to us as the one first +requisite of the Christian life. So you see the Christian man's attitude +towards all traditions or customs is that of independence; his thought +and his judgment are as free in regard to them as if they were newly +born. He is, in fact, bound to judge them according to their deserts; +and no society can hope to prosper unless this is recognised, so that +evil customs may not corrupt the common life. It is the danger of such +corruption that makes the Saviour denounce the traditional habit, and +summon His followers to live by the rule of close personal communion with +God. Thus the life that goes forward and rises to higher and yet higher +levels is always a life of new revelations, a life which is being +illumined and illumined afresh by those flashes of Divine insight, and +strength, and courage, which come to men only as they came to the Lord +Himself in the secret communion of prayer and meditation, and through +that independence of spirit which arises from the sense of God's presence +to guide us and to uphold. + +Take your own case. If you are living here simply according to +traditional rules, doing this or that because, as you may be told, +everybody does it; accepting standards of conduct and rules of practice, +because, as you understand, or, as some one undertakes to persuade you, +they have always been so accepted, why, then, you are growing up to be +one of that never-ending succession of men who are the Pharisees, the +opponents of the Christ, in every generation, who live with tame +conscience in any sort of company, and perpetuate the bad traditions of +the world. + +But if you listen to the call of Christ, and have truly learned to feel +that the only real man's life is that which you live with the light of +God's law shining upon it, then, as a matter of course, you will rise +superior to the influence of any tradition or custom, no matter what its +authority may seem to be. + +And it will indeed be a happy thing for you if you grow up with that God- +given strength of character and purpose which can treat all traditions, +and all usages, or fashions, or customs as things that should be +subordinated, and should not rule us, as things to be used by us if they +help us to a better life, but to be flung aside and rejected, if they +contradict the voice of God in our hearts. + + + + + V. VAIN HOPES. + + + "And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the + dead, they will repent. But he said, If they hear not Moses and the + prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the + dead."--ST. LUKE xvi. 30, 31. + +It is by no means uncommon for any one who is living a life which does +not satisfy his own conscience to console himself with the fancy that if +only such and such things were different around him he would be a new +man, filled with a new spirit, and exhibiting a new character. But is it +so very certain that this would be the case? + +Such persons are apt to dream of some goodness or some virtue which under +other circumstances they would make their own; and there are, in fact, +few conditions more dangerous than that of this class of dreamers, +whether among boys or men. To all who may be tempted in this way, our +Lord's words in the parable come with a very significant warning: "Nay, +father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will +repent. But he said, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither +will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." + +When insidious and delusive hope would draw us on and beguile us in any +sinful way, whispering that God will some day send special gifts and +messengers of grace to inspire us with new life, this is his plain +answer: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be +persuaded, though one rose from the dead." + +And hardly any one can say that he is altogether free from this tendency +to lean upon the future with vain hopes, and is in no need of the warning +which this text conveys to us. + +In serious moments, when the mind is calm, and neither passion nor +appetite is stirring, we feel how good a thing it is to have crucified +the flesh and to be living close to Christ; but when we are within the +fiery circle of trial or temptation, when sinful desires arise, or +passions are strong, or solicitations to evil are subtle and enticing, +then we are only too ready to catch at any hopes about the vague future. +To the unstable and incontinent, to those whose nature is weak while +their conscience is not dead, this hope is a dangerous temptation, +beguiling them with the suggestion that some day there will open before +them an easy path to that virtue or self-denial to which the way is too +rough at present. "Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from +the dead, they will repent." By-and-by, they say, as they dream about +the future, God will lay His hand upon them; the Holy Spirit will touch +their souls with new life; they will receive in some inscrutable way new +power, and in the exercise of this power they will cast off the bondage +of sin or weakness; but how and by what means this great and necessary +change is to be brought about they do not stop to think, and meanwhile +they yield to worldly or fleshly appetite, trusting vaguely to an +uncertain future for some Divine gift. + +If you look into the thoughts and habits of your life, some of you may be +compelled to acknowledge that this case is not unfamiliar to you. So men +sometimes dally with a temptation, and linger beside it, courting its +company, instead of flinging it away from them, as the snare of the +devil, because of some secret hope that by-and-by God will place them out +of the way of it, or give them some new strength against it, which as yet +has not been given. How easy it is for us to entice ourselves in this +way out of the narrow path of present duty into the tangled wilderness of +a weak and sinful life, from which escape becomes every day more +difficult. + +And this enticement along the ways of sin being so easy, it may be +happening to some of you. You may feel that, judged even by your own +standard, which is more likely to be too low than too high, your life is +somehow unsatisfactory; your better instincts may be telling you that you +were born for something higher, purer, stronger than what you are or have +been; and you are cherishing the hope that it will be different with you +some day; your circumstances, you think, or your occupation, or your +companionship will have changed, and so you fondly imagine that you +yourself will be sure to change, as if your soul were just a weathercock +that answers to every changing breeze. So perhaps you hope that some +habit of self-indulgence or idleness will drop off, or some evil temper +be eradicated; and whilst all this vague and mischievous dreaming goes on +you yield very likely to some besetting sin, making no serious effort to +get away from it now, and you yield all the more because of this +misleading hope that some day you will be touched by a supernatural hand, +and will rise up to a regenerate life. And yet our reason tells us that +all this is the very essence of self-deceit, and that such dreams and +hopes are the devil's most subtle temptation. This kind of vain hope is +based on a complete misconception of the nature of our conflict with sin, +and the way to escape from it. To think thus of spiritual gifts and the +growth of the spiritual life, is to follow a very dangerous delusion. It +was just such a misunderstanding that is expressed in the hope of Dives +about his brethren: "If one went unto them from the dead, they will +repent." Their ordinary daily teachings, he seems to say, the voice of +Moses and of the prophets, the examples of good men around them, the +warnings, the exhortations, these, being so familiar, may not have +startled them out of their sin; but if only one were to go to them from +the dead, some messenger of strange voice and aspect, who had seen hell, +and could paint its horrors, then surely the course of their life would +be checked and changed, and their spirit would wake up in them, and they +would sin no more. But to all this comes back the stern warning of the +Divine answer: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will +they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." + +And we may profitably consider what this means in its application to our +own life. Such a warning is evidently meant to remind us that the +mystery of sin in human life is not to be got rid of by any such reliance +on vague hopes. This mystery of sin in the heart and life, misleading, +weakening, dragging us down, means in fact the subtle, poisonous, +creeping power which evil inclinations exercise over a weak and depraved +will. Are we, then, to trust to some sudden visitation from above, for +which we make no preparation, to break down or overthrow a power of this +kind? On the contrary, the words of this parable stand here to declare +to us that it is nothing less than perversity and folly in any man to go +on either defiling his nature, or degrading it, or even neglecting to +strengthen and support it, under this delusion that some day the breath +of Heaven will sweep it clean or give it new vigour. And your own +experience is in exact accordance with these parabolic warnings of the +Saviour. You know that your moral and spiritual nature is now at this +present time undergoing a process of continual and momentous change, that +every day, or week, or month leaves its mark upon it; and that your +soul's life means not waiting for some angel of God's providential grace +to visit you and carry you up into a new air; but it means that you are +weaving the web of your unchangeable destiny by your use or abuse of the +gifts of God that are in your hands to-day. + +Born into the world with the taint of inherited corruption in us, as also +with the germs of pure affection and high instinct and purpose, we have +to take care for ourselves and for each other that the taint does not eat +out the good, by growing into sins of boyhood or of youth, or by +hardening into depraved habits in our manhood. If we let our youth take +an unhappy downward course, whether in taste or habit, every day puts +salvation farther off from us, because every day any fault which is +indulged or nursed tends to grow deeper and more inveterate; and yet, +forgetting this, how many, while their early years are running to waste, +nurse the vain hope that some day they will receive the sudden baptism of +a new birth. + +So, then, instead of vaguely trusting, any of us, to the hope of what +some future call or help or happy visitation may do for us, let us obey +the Divine injunction, which, when rightly understood, is very pressing, +urging us, as we hope to see good days, to be very jealous of our present +life and its tendencies; let us do this, standing always firm and +immovable in the things that are pure and of good report. + + However it may be in some other matters, in this matter of our moral and +spiritual life, the greatest, the most important, the most serious thing +of all, it is almost invariably true that the child is father of the man, +and we feel that we have no right to expect it to be otherwise. In our +everyday consideration of life, we recognise all this: we speak of growth +in character and formation of habit as facts which no one would ignore, +and which cannot be overestimated. But to acknowledge these, and at the +same time to trust that God will hereafter arrest any stream of sinful +tendency in us which we ourselves do not attempt to stop now, is to add +presumption to sin. + +When we speak of Heaven and Hell, we have in our thoughts the vision of +those ultimate points towards which the diverging courses of men's lives +are slowly tending day by day. And the question rises: "On which of +these lines is my life travelling at the present time, and towards which +side of the impassable gulf?" + +At present we know that the way of Christ is still open before us, and +that He calls us with a voice which never grows weary; but we feel +equally that the future is dark, if we waste or misuse the present, and +we do not know how long the heavenward path may be as open, or as easy, +as it is to-day. For the question is not a question of God's untiring +patience or the never-failing love of Christ. It is not how long will +His Spirit continue to strive with us, as it has striven hitherto, +through the care and love of parent or friend, through the exhortations +or efforts of a teacher, or the example of a companion, or in a thousand +other ways. The question is rather whether it is not folly to expect +that God will send upon us some other more powerful regenerating and +strengthening influence, if we are now neglecting all this care and love +and patient striving on our behalf. "If they hear not Moses and the +prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." + +Consider these things while life is fresh, and good influences are +present with you. Whatever our faults may be, they all come under this +one rule, that to-day is given us to win our freedom from their power--to- +day and not to-morrow. The question which is pressed home through the +warning of this parable is thus a very plain one: "What is my future hope +or prospect, if I let this or that particular sin lurk and linger in my +heart, feeding upon me every day, and growing stronger in consequence? +What if I do not resist any fault that has a hold upon me? What if I do +not pray to be delivered from it? What if I do not flee from it?" + +If you hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will you be persuaded, +though one rose from the dead. + + + + + VI. WHAT DOEST THOU HERE? + + + "And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, and he said unto + him, What doest thou here, Elijah?"--1 KINGS xix. 9. + +There is a sound of rebuke in these words. They seem to imply that the +lonely mountain of Horeb was not the place in which God expected to find +such a servant as Elijah, and that there should be no indefinite +tarrying, no lingering without an aim in such a solitude. + +As you read the familiar history you see how the record of the prophet's +retirement and his vision in Horeb is a record, first of all, of reaction +after fierce conflict; it exhibits the picture of a strong man in a +moment of weakness ready to give up the hopeless struggle, crying to God, +"It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life;" and then it shows us how +God dealt with him in that solitude; we hear the Divine voice pleading in +him again, bearing its Divine witness, putting its searching questions, +teaching him the universal lesson that despondency, weakness, solitude, +shrinking and retiring, if they have any place in our life, are only for +a time, and must not be allowed to rule in it. + +That Divine vision which came to Elijah in the recesses of the mountain +is, in fact, the voice of God summoning him back to the duties that were +waiting for him, and the renewal of his strength for the new work he had +to do. And the interest of such a vision never fails, because, like +Elijah, all men come to times when they too lie under the juniper tree in +the wilderness longing to be set free from the burden which is too heavy +for them, be it the burden of some call, or work, or duty, or of +resistance to some temptation, or the struggle against sin or vice. It +comes to all of us, and not once only, but many times over, this hour of +darkness; and it will continue to come so long as the flesh is weak. And +it is at such moments that a man is the better for going with the prophet +into this Horeb, the mount of God, making Elijah's vision his own vision, +and renewing his strength, at the same Divine source. How often it +happens to men, to boys, to all alike, that they flee into the desert, +away from the post of present duty, away from the face of difficulties +which they cannot or will not stand up against, away from the moments of +trial and discipline. And, seeing that our life is not and cannot be a +solitary thing, seeing that the pulsations of each individual's life are +creating other pulsations which answer them back in other lives, we know +not where or how many, whenever we thus shrink away from our duty, when +we turn our back upon it, or despond about it, when we become deaf to the +higher calls, we are, in fact, crying to God to be relieved of our +service to Him and to our fellows. And it is a happy thing for our life +if He does not answer us according to our cry, and let us go into the +wilderness, and leave us alone there. + +This voice, following us with the question, "What doest them here?" is +the evidence that God has not abandoned us. + +"What doest thou here, Elijah?" How often must this voice have followed +the monk into his solitude, refusing to be silenced, piercing through all +the false notions about a man's relationship to his fellow-men, warning +each soul that it cannot separate itself from the great tide of universal +life. + +And the voice comes to us, the same warning voice of God, whenever we +stand aloof and let the tide around us run on anyhow, as if we didn't +care how it ran, or whenever in obedience to any impulse, whether of +selfishness or of timidity, we try to persuade ourselves that some duty +may be left alone. + +"What doest thou here, Elijah?" The quality of our life depends on the +answer we give to such spiritual questioning day by day; for the Divine +voices are never silent. + +"What doest thou here?" The voice cries to us when we linger in the +neighbourhood of any sin, or when we waste our opportunities in some form +of idleness, or when we stand by in cold or timid indifference, refusing +help or consolation to any soul which seems to need it. + +"What doest thou here?" It is possible that some of us hardly like to +shape our answer in plain words lest we might have to say: "I am here +lingering in my present way of life, not because I feel it to be the +right way, but because it is the easy way, and I cannot bring myself to +face the harder and more manly course of duty. I hear the voice; I +cannot get away from it; it haunts me with its inquiries, when my heart +is hot within me, as it is sometimes, while yet I am burying the light +that is in my soul." If it should be so with any of you, consider, I +pray you, how by such hanging back you strengthen the force of evil in +the world and weaken the good. + +As the hour of reaction, weakness, flight, came to Elijah, so we must +expect it to come to any of us; but the aim and purpose of our life +should be that in such an hour we may be able to answer our Heavenly +Father when He questions us, as Elijah was able to answer: "I have been +very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts." If we live as those who are +jealous for God and His law, letting it be known and felt that we are +thus jealous for His honour, not one of us could fail to make the life +around us in some degree better, brighter, happier. + +It is in this way that he who is strong and true makes truth and honour +and uprightness stronger in those beside him; it is in this way that he +who is industrious, as a duty, makes industry more prevalent; it is in +this way that he who shows his hatred of impurity makes the atmosphere +pure in his society. + +And in so far as any of you are acting in this way you are doing a +prophet's work, and you, too, may claim to have been jealous for the Lord +God of Hosts. So the youngest boy and the oldest man may become fellow- +labourers--[Greek text]--fellow-labourers in the harvest-field of God, +and it is a great privilege to claim. + +But the blessing of it is greater still. Very often, if you are known to +be thus jealous, even your presence will banish sin, silencing the evil +tongue, strengthening the weaker brother, and making the sunshine of a +new life to shine all round you. + +But what if sometimes you feel that you are not equal to all this? if +when the voice cries, "What doest thou here?" you have no answer to give? +It is good for us in such a case to turn and see how God dealt with His +prophet, how He made him come forth and stand on the mount before him. +The Lord passed over him, revealing His presence in the wind, the +earthquake, and the fire, revealing it yet more intimately in the sound +of the still small voice. So He sent Him out again with a new +commission; and so we, too, may learn our lesson, if we care to learn it. +And the lesson is this, that God renews our wavering strength, that He +lifts up our drooping spirit, and opens our dull eyes and gives us afresh +the hearing ear, by communion with Himself. In the solitude of the mount +of God, through the symbols of His power, and in the sound of the inner +voices, in meditation, in prayer, we may find those refreshing influences +which give us new strength, new thoughts, new notions of God and duty, +and send us out afresh to do His work in new service to Him. + +We may follow His teaching to Elijah a little further. The new message +to him began, "Return on thy way"--do such and such things. The new +message is, in fact, just as always, a new call to old duties--"Return on +thy way." And so it is for you and me. After the vision of God comes +the plain and homely work to do, as we walk in old ways, and have to meet +all our old dangers and difficulties. Has any one of us ever shrunk from +any post of duty in life, or strayed from any straight course? Then if +God has in His mercy visited us with the warning call, "What doest thou +here?" or laid the call of a new message upon us, it is almost sure to +have been a call to return and take the straight path, or to take our +stand at the deserted post. And if it should ever happen to us that the +duty which looks too hard is, as indeed it happens very often, some duty +of our social life, should we feel as if the world were against us, and +we were standing alone, let us not forget God's word of final +encouragement to his prophet, "Yet have I left me seven thousand in +Israel who have not bowed to Baal." + +It is a word for all time. If ever you are fighting for the good, and +growing weary in the fight, the thought may rise in you that you seem to +be fighting alone, and that everything is against you, just because you +cannot see the seven thousand who are in the same ranks, and on your +side. + +In the darkest hour of Israel's history we are thus told of an indefinite +multitude who had stood firm in the faith of their fathers, untouched and +untainted by adverse influence, and the recollection of it should serve +to strengthen and encourage every individual who is really jealous for +that which is good. + +Let us, then, take the warning, and nurse it as a gift of God, and go +forward where duty calls us, sometimes faint, it may be, and sometimes +weary, but still pursuing. + + + + + VII. PRIVATE PRAYER, AND PUBLIC WORSHIP. + + + "And, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath + day."--ST. LUKE iv. 16. + + "He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there He + prayed."--ST. MARK i. 35. + +These two texts set before us our Saviour's habit in regard to public and +private spiritual exercise; and they suggest to us the question, What +have we, on our part, to say of these two elements in our own life? These +texts, we bear in mind, represent not something casual or intermittent in +the life of our Lord. They stand in the record of it as a typical, +essential, inseparable part of His habitual practice. What we have to +remember about them is that, whereas all men recognise in the life of +Jesus the one unique example in human history of a life which is morally +perfect and immaculate, if we were to take these out of it, the customary +share in all common worship, and the private, separate communing with +God, it would be an altogether different life--different in its attitude +towards the common life of ordinary men, and different in its own quality +and influence. + +We might still admire--nay, we could not but admire--all the beauty of +moral qualities, the purity, the sympathy, the love and self-devotion of +it; but it would have lost its spiritual atmosphere. It would no longer +be for us the life of the Divine Son, recognising and ready to share in +all our attempts at worshipping the Father, however poor they may be, and +living through the separate life in daily communion with Him. + +Here then is His practice, written for our guidance, given that we may be +stirred by it to aim upwards, inviting us to set our own practice side by +side with it, and see how it looks in such a juxtaposition. Let us +glance for a moment at each of these texts separately. + +As regards the one which I have taken from St. Mark--"He went out, and +departed into a solitary place, and there He prayed"--we have only to +turn over the pages of this Gospel and note, as we go, the similar +allusions, and we feel that we have here what is in fact an incidental +glimpse into the habitual practice of His secret and separate life. + +In this passage we read that He departed into a solitary place, and there +He prayed; in another by-and-by that He departed into a mountain to pray; +and then again that He spent the whole night in prayer; and we see all +this not in some crisis of His life, but as a part of that which +corresponds to the common daily round in your life or mine. + +And the inference to be drawn, the lesson to be learnt from it, is, I +think, sufficiently obvious. + +This secret separate devotional exercise of the soul was His habitual +spiritual food. + +It was thus that He recruited His moral and spiritual forces, those +forces of the spiritual life which constitute at once the beauty, the +attraction, the power of His character, and His divine and awe-inspiring +separateness. + + And as we read and consider, the thought must surely be pressed upon us +that if He needed these exercises, these secret and silent hours, what +shall we say of our own lives? + +And what do we expect to make of our moral and spiritual character unless +we too are careful to cherish under all circumstances some such recurring +moments in our round of life and occupation, at which we retire into the +sanctuary of separate communion with God the Father? + +You may take it as a moral certainty, proved by all experience, that +unless you hold to a fixed habit of thus bringing your life into the +secret and separate presence of God, in private prayer and thought, you +incur the risk of sinking to any levels that happen to be the ordinary +levels, and of drifting with any currents that happen to prevail. + +If we turn now from this to the other text--that which refers to His +customary attendance on public prayer and at the common meeting--"He +went, as His custom was, into the synagogue"--the questions suggested are +very pertinent and practical. + +Just consider the circumstances under which, as we are told here, "He +went, as His custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day." The +earlier part of the same chapter tells us of His fasting and temptation +in the wilderness, of the commencement of His public mission, and his +return to Nazareth. And, on His return, this is what we are told of +him--"He went, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day." + +Thus we see Him, fresh from the great crisis of His early manhood; the +long, protracted struggle of His soul in the lonely wilderness; the +subtle voices of manifold temptation; the hardly won victory and the +ministering angels; all this we must suppose to be still flashing across +His vision, as the scenes of any such crisis must always continue to +flash through the quivering and responsive organism of the soul. + +If ever any man might have claimed to need no longer the customary +worship of common men, it was surely Jesus, as we see Him here on this +occasion, with the breath of His own heart-searching worship still upon +Him, and the light of new revelation burning in His thoughts. + +Among all the significant and instructive parts of the Saviour's example +this is not the least instructive; that on this occasion, as on all +others, he went as a matter of regular custom into the synagogue on the +Sabbath day, thus putting the seal and stamp of His own practice for all +of us who believe in His name upon the duty of joining in habitual and +stated spiritual exercises. + +Had the Lord's example been different in this respect, how easy it would +have seemed to set up a string of what we should have called sufficient +reasons. + +The old-fashioned routine, it might have been said, of synagogue worship, +with its mechanical dulness and its mistaken interpretations of God's +word, its shallow and superficial and tedious traditional commentaries, +its formalism and vain repetitions; all this, whatever might have been +its value for the ordinary unenlightened Jew, how could it have been +necessary and what profit could there have been in it for the divinely +gifted Son of man? + +So it might have been argued; so indeed it would seem men who consider +themselves enlightened sometimes argue in support of their own neglect of +the religious life. + +But it may well make us more than doubtful as to the issue of any such +neglect, when we see the mind of Christ thus exemplified in His habitual +observance. + +We all recognise His moral and spiritual superiority. Whether His spirit +has taken possession of our spirit or not, He stands out as our +undisputed guide to the practice of a good life. + +In vision, in insight, in purity, in stainlessness, in all that we +reverence in human life and that good men strive to attain, we have no +model to set beside His example. All the more, then, this fact deserves +our notice, and calls us to follow Him, that we find Him, as His custom +was, in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He was there Sabbath after +Sabbath listening to the provincial teacher, worshipping with the village +labourer, praying with the ignorant and the foolish, there as a matter of +life custom and for His soul's benefit. + +I have said that it deserves our notice; but more than this--it should be +graven on the minds of the young, so that they may never lose the +impression of it, so that it go with them through all their years of +manhood, to preserve in them the devotional and reverent habit. + +It is indeed good for all of us to think of Him there in that primitive +and unattractive house of God, listening to the rude Galilean accents, +and bowing His head in the habitual worship of that obscure community. + +I do not think it is possible for us, unless we are quite indifferent +about our moral and spiritual condition--unless, that is, we have low +notions about our life, a low aim and a low standard--to be unaffected in +our practice by this example of the Lord. We can hardly believe that +those exercises of the spirit which were so fruitful in His life will +fail to bear their fruit in ours also. + +What have we to say as we picture Him with all the great thoughts of His +new work swelling up in His soul, the divinely appointed teacher of new +wisdom and new faith, the bringer of new light among men, the voice of a +new world, and yet, being all this, at the same time, and as a means for +working out His mission more completely, a regular and devout worshipper +in a village house of prayer? + +If it should ever happen to any of us that we come to fancy we do not +need such common prayer, or that because of defects in public worship we +do not profit by it, does not this example of the Saviour rise up and +rebuke us? Yes, you may rest assured, if that day ever comes to you, +that you are in danger of drifting away from the great saving tides of +the human spirit into some shallow or artificial stream of your own time +and generation. But, on the other hand, it is a happy thing for our life +if, growing up in the habitual use of time-honoured spiritual exercises, +we have truly learnt to know by our own experience, as by the example of +the Saviour set before us in the Gospel, that they are the support and +safeguard of all that is highest and purest and best in us, if only we +are careful to use them with sincerity and reverence. + + + + + VIII. AN UNANSWERABLE QUESTION. + + + "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one."--JOB xiv. + 4. + +This is one of those simple questions which, by their very simplicity and +directness, set us thinking about the importance of our personal life. + +"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" But all our common life +is somehow the outcome of our separate individual lives--of your life and +mine. Therefore how important it is in the common interest that each of +us should look above all things to his own life and its character, for +this will determine his contribution to the life of his society. + +Nearly all men are keen about the reputation of their society, about the +name it bears, about the way in which men think and speak of it. + +Thus you are no doubt sensitive, almost every one of you, about the good +reputation of your school or your house, or any society with which you +may happen to be closely connected or identified. + +And this is a healthy and praiseworthy feeling. It would indeed be a bad +sign if such a feeling were wanting or weak in any society. + +But I am not sure that we keep it before us--all of us--as clearly as we +ought to do, that this reputation of the society is simply the outcome of +our separate lives and habits. + +The reputation is the reflex of the life; hardly ever, perhaps, an exact +reflex, very often a distorted reflex with this or that feature +exaggerated; but yet always a reflex. + +The reputation you bear is the impression made by your common life on the +minds of those who see it from the outside, or who hear men's talk about +it. + + And we do well to be sensitive on such a subject; but we do still better +if we bear in mind that this common life is what comes out of our own +life, and is the result of its contact with that of our neighbour. + +And with this thought in our minds we feel how searching and how directly +personal is this primitive and childlike question, Who can bring a clean +thing out of an unclean? + +Societies, especially young societies, are very impressible, and their +character--the quality, that is, of their life--is fixed by prevailing +influences, which show themselves in fashions, habits, and tendencies, in +the common types of thought, or taste, or behaviour, or conduct. + +This is obvious enough to every one; but what we do not seem always to +consider is the extent to which these influences or fashions have their +origin, so far as our own society is concerned, in our own lives. They +are, in fact, in the main the general outcome of our separate lives. + + Do you, then, think of yourselves--this is the practical question to +which these considerations lead up--as sources or centres of such +influence, contributing your personal share to this common life? + +It may make an immense difference to all your thoughts about your common +habits, and your standards of daily conduct and duty, if you remember +this ancient saying, that no man can bring a clean thing out of an +unclean. And so I have to ask you to consider a little how the common +life of this society is dependent upon your life. + +Every individual acts upon the life of the community around him as a +power or influence in it. This seems so obvious when mentioned as hardly +to deserve the mentioning, and yet in practice we are very apt to +overlook it. + +You and I, all of us, without any exception, are endowed with some share +of this power. + +In this respect, as in other ways, there is, of course, every possible +difference in degree between one and another, between the strong and the +weak, between those who are conspicuous and those who are obscure; but +there is no other difference. + +Every one of you possesses some share of this mysterious, and undefined, +and immeasurable gift of influencing his neighbour's life. Every sin +that may have a root in your heart is acting, though you may not think of +it or intend it, as a pestilent influence outside your own life; every +virtue you exercise may be causing similar virtues to take root and grow +in some one near to you. + +The tone of the society or life around you is, in fact, just the sum and +expression of such individual influences as these. + +We may not be able to trace all the various and multitudinous germs or +seeds of such influence as they flow out from us in our daily round of +common life; but we are conscious that each and every single soul, all +through its earthly course, in the family and in the outer world, from +youth to age, is, in fact, a sower scattering these germs of good or evil +unceasingly. We know, also, that when they are once scattered they +cannot be gathered up again. They are yours to scatter--these seeds that +you are adding to the common life--and you are responsible for the fruit +they bear; but having sown them, you are powerless afterwards to prevent +them from bearing fruit after their kind in other lives. Once launched +in the air around you, they spread their contagion of evil or their +stimulus to good, their savour of life or death. + +The mere suspicion of this undefined power over other lives which is +inherent in our own life should surely make us very careful about it. + +It gives a new sense of personal responsibility; it lays its hand upon us +to check us in any vice, or folly, or sin; and it is a stimulus to every +virtue and to all good purposes. + +But the thing which of all others it is perhaps of most importance for us +to remember about it is that this stream of our personal influence which +flows out of our life is a double stream. It is of two kinds. One part +of it flows unconsciously, whether we think of it or not; it streams out +from our personality as sunlight from the sun. + +The other is that which we exercise by some conscious effort of the will, +and with some deliberate purpose or intention. + +Now, in the case of most of us, this tide of unconscious influence +flowing from us without any deliberate or set purpose on our part, our +involuntary contribution to the common life, is far more powerful for +good or for evil than anything which we ever do by way of active purpose +to influence another's life, and this because our unconscious influence +is the reflex on the outer world of what we are in ourselves; it is the +projection, or shall we say the radiation, of our own life, its tastes, +tempers, habits, and character, upon the lives around us. + +What we do or intend to do, what influence we endeavour to exercise, is +very likely to be at the best intermittent, but this door of involuntary +communication between every man's life and his neighbour's life is always +standing open; and so it comes about that your life, whether public or +private, is of more importance to others than anything else about you. + +At a time when so many things contribute to fix men's thoughts on +externals, and we are all tempted to think more about our work than about +our life, more about what we are doing or intending to do, than of what +we are in ourselves, these considerations assume an unusual importance. + +Moreover, in a society like this, where you live so close to one another, +and so much in public, there is a special reason for giving to such +considerations some special attention; and the thought suggested by this +world-old inquiry--Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?--becomes +a very direct warning to look well to our separate life, and take care +what sort of unconscious influences it is spreading around it. + +A moment's reflection will remind you how quick and strong such +influences may easily prove, independent of all intention or desire on +our part, or even in spite of our deliberate wishes or hopes. One man is +careless or irreligious, and his weaker neighbours catch the infection of +his example; another indulges in some bad habits of language or conduct, +or he is addicted to some low taste, or he lives by some low standard, +and this or that companion is drawn down to his level; and so the evil of +his life takes fresh root in another life, and it gets into the air, and +it is impossible to predict the limit of its influence. + +Or, on the other hand, one man is intellectual or refined in his tastes, +and by merely living in a society he creates an atmosphere of intellect +or of refinement around him; or, it may be, he is earnest and courageous, +and others are drawn to admire and imitate, and so he proves a centre of +courage and earnestness. Such is the solidarity of your life, as men +call it, and there is no escape from it, or from the responsibilities +which it lays upon you. + + As the tree is known by its fruits, as men do not gather grapes of +thorns, as the same fountain does not send forth sweet water and bitter, +so we have to remember, when we think of the tides of unconscious +influence that are continually streaming out from us, that they are +wholesome, or the reverse, according to the character of our secret and +separate life. + +Through them any one of us may become to his neighbour or his friend a +savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. + +There are sure to be many in such a congregation as this who have visions +of the good they hope to do; and there is a spirit of native generosity +in almost all which makes them shrink from the thought of doing harm to +another soul. + +Well, then, in this thought of your influence, conscious and unconscious, +your first and constant prayer will surely be: "Create in me a clean +heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." + +The effective servant of God is always the man who has been prepared and +purified by the vision of God in his own soul. + +If, then, we desire to contribute some good to our society and no evil, +we must take care to keep our hearts open to the cleansing influences of +the spirit of holiness, so that no habit of sin shall cast its dark +shadow around us, or vitiate that atmosphere which is inseparable from +our personal life. + + + + + IX. SOWING BESIDE ALL WATERS. + + + "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters."--ISAIAH xxxii. 20. + +These words form part of a great prophetic vision. The prophet is +standing among his countrymen like a watchman on the walls of Jerusalem. +And far away, as he looks, the distant horizon of his stormy sky is +bright with Messianic hopes, but around him the shadows lie dark and +heavy. + +It was his destiny to speak to a people whose ears were dull of hearing +and their hearts without understanding; but he never lost the conviction +that the holy seed of God's spirit was alive in them. Amidst all present +discouragement he lived in the hope of a brighter and better day, when +the eyes of those around him would be opened, and their hearts changed, +and a new spirit would take hold of them, and righteousness, peace, +prosperity, and gladness would prevail. And no man's life is worth much +which is not inspired by some such hope. + +What Isaiah saw immediately around him was sin and moral blindness. What +he saw immediately in front of him was the consequence of these in woe +and desolation. "Year upon year," he cries, "shall ye be troubled, ye +careless ones: thorns and briers shall come upon the land of my people: +until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall +become a planted field." But in the day of that outpouring, the heart of +the people would turn and be uplifted, renewed, and purified, the +wilderness would become a planted field. And this thought brings him to +the final outburst of the text I have just read to you, which is a +blessing on those true Israelites who realised the high calling of God's +people, and were inspired to fulfil it, sowing everywhere and always the +seeds of Divine influence. The whole vision is highly instructive, for +it is the vision of what occurs again and again in all human history; but +it is of this blessing with which it closes that I desire to say a word +or two to-day. + +Amidst all the threatening and discouraging symptoms of the national +life, Isaiah turned to the bright vision of those servants of God whose +faith should never fail, and in whom there should be no variableness, and +no wavering. "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." Sow your seed +of good influence, he seems to say to them, in good times, in bad times; +sow it in this place, and in every place, sow it in the wastes of the +moral wilderness, sow it in the face of every enemy, sow it in faith and +hope and without fear. It is on them he depends to prepare for that +happier season when the wilderness of the spiritual life around him +should become as a planted field; and with prophetic insight he perceives +that it is on such as these that the Divine blessing always rests. +"Blessed are they that sow beside all waters." It is a text to be taken +with us whenever any change comes over the circumstances of our life. If +we are changing from a life of rule or discipline to a life of free +choice, from school to home, from boyhood to manhood, this blessing +declares that there should be no change in the attitude and purpose and +aim of life. + +It is another way of saying that the laws which should guide our conduct, +and the principles which should inspire and direct us, are of universal +application; that they know no difference of time or place, and that if +they bind you here they should bind you everywhere. And simple and +obvious as this may seem, it is not altogether an easy truth to carry +into practice. "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." Your seed +field is not here or there only; it lies on every side of you, and in all +places; it spreads into the future farther than your eye can travel, and +it will extend itself before you as you go; and the reality and vigour of +good purpose in you will be determined by your recognition of this truth. + + Let us consider it with reference to our own case at such a time as +this. + +There are always growing up here in every generation those who feel a +pride in their school, and in the spirit of it, who strive honestly and +earnestly to sow in their society the seeds of manliness, and +truthfulness, and good tone, and purity. It would soon go very ill with +this or any other society if it were not so. And those who grow up in +this way are continually leaving us in their turn, and they will remember +with affection the place of their high purposes and earnest and manly +efforts. They go out into a new world, and travel along other streams; +and blessed are they, if they continue faithful, sowing still beside all +waters. + +But every change brings with it some element of risk. There is nearly +always something of surprise to us in the new forces that confront us in +any society which we enter as strangers; and the first feeling that rises +is sometimes a feeling of our own weakness or insignificance. + + In such a case it is well if we have realised beforehand that our laws +of conduct should not vary, and that the call of God, which we have +recognised once, is a call which never ceases, and which no circumstances +should make inaudible. + +When we approach any change we all need this kind of warning; because +there are so many things in our life which we are apt to allow our +circumstances to regulate for us. Experience tells us only too plainly +how much we depend upon the influences that are around us, and how often +we fail to carry with us the strength we have gained in one field when we +pass over to the next. With the holy we learn in some degree to be +ourselves holy; with a perfect man we too are able to walk perfectly; but +on the other hand, in our imitative way, as the scene changes, we +sometimes find ourselves learning frowardness with the froward, +practising indifference with the indifferent, if not actually slipping +with the vicious into some vicious way. There is always some risk of +such changes; and it is always well for us to be taking care that our +better life has its root in our own heart and spirit, and that we do not +wear it as a garment suited to the society in which we happen to be, and +change it for the worse, if there comes any corresponding change in +outward influences. + +Hence it is that at these times, when we are about to separate, these +words of Isaiah come to us with a very appropriate reminder: "Blessed are +ye that sow beside all waters." + +To those who are leaving our society to begin a new life elsewhere, as to +those of us who go in the hope of returning by-and-by, they are charged +with the same lesson. They bid us all alike take care and see that what +is good in our present life has become our own personal and permanent +possession, independent of surroundings; that it has sunk in some degree +into the fibre of our character; that it is settled in us by conviction +and principle, to guide and direct us everywhere, and is not merely a +circumstantial garment, a sort of livery of this or that particular +place, which will slip off us as we leave it. + +Many of you have learnt, I feel sure of it, to feel during these your +school days, the satisfaction of living here a true and worthy life; you +have tasted of that pleasure which the careless, the indifferent, and the +sinful hardly taste at all, the pleasure that dwells with the +consciousness of earnest effort and sincere striving after the best +things within us. The love of Christ may have taken hold upon you; the +associations of your school and its inheritance of great and good +examples, or the sense of honour may have stirred you; the feeling of +your closeness in life to those around you, and of the strong currents of +mutual influence, may have opened your eyes to what you owe to your +neighbour and to the claims of social duty. Some one of these causes, or +it may be some other cause, may have given you strength and power to walk +amongst us in the narrow way of good habit and good influence. And +wherever this is so, we thank God. But the question to-day is, What +assurance do you feel that this will continue? When we go elsewhere, +what habits, what tendencies, what fixed bent of spirit and character +shall we exhibit? Knowing as we do how strongly the forces of the outer +world will act upon us, it is never a useless warning which bids us take +care that in new spheres we do not forget our old principles, or lay +aside any good habits. "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." + +We have learnt to look upon certain laws of conduct and feeling, certain +duties, certain standards of life, as beyond dispute, and fundamental. If +so, they are also of universal application; and we should hold them as +things which are altogether independent of the customs, traditions, or +tone of any society into which we may go. + +It is probable that some of you may find this doctrine not altogether +free from difficulties before many weeks are over. You may find +yourselves young and apparently uninfluential members of some society in +which the standards of life are low, and you may be tempted to think, +under the pressure of surrounding opinion, that you are not called upon +to set up or display any standard of your own; and there is always a +chorus of voices ready enough to echo any such tempting suggestions. + +But if ever you are tempted thus to let slip the things you have learnt +and accepted, the voice of Isaiah should prove a help and a safeguard. +And its exhortation is supported by the respect and admiration you feel +for any one who has the courage to stand alone in such a case, true to +his rooted convictions. + +Another word may be added. We met, a great many of us, this morning at +that table to which men do not come unless they entertain the purpose of +treading in the footsteps of Christ, and of nursing His Holy Spirit in +their hearts. As we lifted up our hearts there, as we ate of that bread +and drank of that cup, as we prayed to be kept safe from the sins that +most easily beset us, as we sealed in each other's presence the +resolutions which are to direct our steps in safe paths, it was not of +circumstances or places that we were thinking--it was the vision of +Christ our Saviour that was before our eyes, and we pray that this vision +may remain with us. When we think of all our diverging paths as we +separate just now, and of the uncertainty how many of us may meet again +in that far horizon, and how many may have wandered out of the way in the +wilderness, we do not doubt that we shall often need the strengthening +influence of this vision of Christ, if we, too, hope to inherit the +blessing which is reserved for those who are faithful under all +circumstances, and who sow beside all waters. + + + + + X. THE PRESENCE OF GOD. + + + "And Jacob awakened out of his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in + this place; and I knew it not."--GENESIS xxviii. 16. + +These words indicate the beginning of a new life in the patriarch Jacob. +They tell us of the moment when, as it would appear, his soul awoke in +him. And they surprise us in some degree, as such awakenings of +spiritual capacity often do; for Jacob's recorded antecedents were not +exactly such as to lead us to expect the dream and the vision, and the +awakening which are described in this passage. + +He had cheated his brother out of his father's blessing; he was leaving +his father's house in consequence, to avoid this brother's threatened +vengeance; and as he slept at Bethel he dreamed his dream of the ladder +set up on earth and reaching to heaven; and he saw the angels ascending +and descending, and the Lord standing above it, and he heard the Divine +voice charged with promise and with blessing: "I am with thee, and will +keep thee in all places whither thou goest." This, taking it in all its +parts, is a very surprising narrative; and the point in it on which I +desire to fix your attention for a moment is this, that this vision +startled him into a new consciousness--"Surely the Lord is in this place; +and I knew it not." It was the beginning of a new life. + +That vision, we may be sure, never entirely faded. He was never +afterwards the same man he had been before it. It had awakened the +divine capacity in him; and it remained with him as a constant reminder +of the presence of God in his life, to protect and to inspire him--"I am +with thee, and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest." Such +a voice as this in a man's heart gives his life a new quality; it puts +him in a new relation to all common things. + + We may well believe that it was this more than anything else which drew +Jacob apart from the common heathen life around him, from that day +onwards. It was this which, in spite of all his weaknesses, defects, and +failures in life and character, gradually raised him to a different +level. + +It was this which finally culminated in transforming him from Jacob the +supplanter to Israel the prince of God. + +So far as appears, he had gone out from his home, as so many go forth in +all ages, a dull soul, though with latent capacities, his thoughts bent +on securing his personal safety and his worldly success. But he woke in +the desert after that vision, with the seeds of the new life rooted and +growing in him. + +It is this moment of awakening on which I desire to fix your +thoughts--this moment of his transfiguration; when he saw and felt a +heaven above him, and yet very close, with its ladder of angelic +communication, which he had not _so_ seen or felt before; the moment when +a new consciousness flashed through his soul, and illumined unsuspected +chambers in it, stirring new thoughts and new aspirations. He woke up to +be a new man henceforth, moving in a new presence, and having always in +his ears the voice of a Divine call. + +Do you ask why I dwell on this familiar history, or desire that you +should contemplate and realise this change in the young man Jacob? It is +because there is just the same soul, the same capacity of higher life in +every one of us: in some it is awake already and transfiguring their +life; in others still latent, sleeping, undiscovered. + +I dwell on it because it makes and will make all the difference in the +world to your life whether in your case this capacity is awakened or not. +This, then, is what I have to postulate as giving a value beyond the +power of words to describe to every soul amongst us. + +It bids us recognise and keep always before us that in every common life, +of child or man, even in the most worldly or the hardest, the most +frivolous, the most cynical, the most sensual, or the most degraded, +there is latent, it may be altogether unfelt and disregarded through long +years, giving no sign of its presence, it may be, it often is, overlaid, +trodden down, even at the point of death, but still there, this living +soul with all its possibilities. It is within every one of us, stamped +with the image of God, and charged with unimagined possibilities. + +And it must be obvious that the whole difference between any two lives, +between your life and your neighbour's life, may depend on this awakening +of the soul in one of you and its not awakening in the other. + +Of the two brothers, Esau and Jacob, I suppose we are all drawn at the +outset to Esau; our heart goes out to him, as we read, the impulsive, the +impetuous, the affectionate, and we feel a corresponding dislike of +Jacob's craft and cunning, and selfish calculations. There can be no +doubt, we say, which was the meaner character to begin with. + + But neither is there any doubt why it was that it came to be written, +"Jacob I have loved, but Esau have I hated." The one was just the child +of the world around him, yielding to its temptations, living by its +standards. The soul in him never awoke, so as to transfigure his +thoughts and purposes. The other is a man of Divine visions, inspired +with the sense of a Divine presence and a Divine purpose directing him. + +Nowhere do we see more clearly than in this narrative how great a change +may come to any of us, if the unawakened capacities of our soul are +touched by the breath of some uplifting inspiration. + +As we read of this contrast between Esau and Jacob, and their destinies, +we feel--and we feel it all the more because Jacob to begin with seems to +be made of such common clay--we feel what a transforming power in a man's +life this awaking of the soul may be. + +A life which is without the inspiration that takes possession of us in +the moments of this awakening, and is consequently without these visions +that flash before the soul as it awakens, a life that is not deeply +stirred by spiritual hopes or Divine thought, or the call to new duty, +remains in one man a selfish and worldly life, in another a frivolous, in +a third a sensual life. But the very same life--and here is the +practical value to us, here is the hopefulness of such considerations--the +very same life, when the breath of God's spirit or His penetrating voice +has stirred and roused the soul in it, is felt to be transformed. The +man is born anew. + +"There is nothing finer," some one has said, "than to see a soul rise up +in men, which amazes the very men in whom it rises." They are surprised +to find that these new capacities were in them, unnoticed through their +careless days, yet in them all the time. This birth of the new life, +with all its promise of new tastes, new ambitions, new thoughts, new +purposes, may indeed come to you without your feeling all at once how +great a thing it is. At first it may be nothing more than some vision of +the possibilities of your life, or some electric flash of new +consciousness that runs through you, or the sharp pang of remorse for +some sin or some neglect, or the flush of shame or repulsion as you think +of something or other in your life, or the glow of some good resolution +to begin some new life or new duty, or take some new turn, or pursue some +new aim. You hardly think perhaps of this as the awakening of your soul. +It may never have occurred to you to think of it as being just as sacred +a thing as was Jacob's vision at Bethel, as being indeed the work of the +same Divine spirit. + +But let us consider it a little further. Whatever it is that is thus +stirring in your heart, it comes and it comes again; it lingers in your +thoughts and feelings; it haunts, it impresses and awes you; it rises +before you suddenly and stops you from some sin, or, if it fails to stop +you, it turns the pleasure for which you craved into wretchedness; or it +encourages and consoles you in some hour of weakness or sorrow. I +suppose there is hardly one of you who has not had some such experience +as this. And if you ask. What is it? It is, I repeat, the awakening of +the soul in you--nothing less than this--and happy is it for you, if you +recognise that it is the soul striving to win its proper place in the +regulation of your life. + +When Moses saw the vision of the burning bush, and suddenly felt himself +on holy ground; when Elijah heard the still, small voice calling, "What +doest thou here, Elijah?" when Saul, on his way to Damascus, fell to the +ground conscience-smitten, crushed, blinded, rebuked; when the child +Samuel heard the Divine voice calling to him in the darkness of the +night;--in each case it was the awakening or the reawakening of the +soul--the uprising of the spiritual capacities, the vision of the higher +life--and so exactly with all of _you_. Are you not sometimes conscious +of the uprisings in you of a spirit calling upon you to recognise the +angels' ladder that connects _your_ life also with the heaven above us? + + If so, there is this further thing to note about such moments of +experience. + +This feeling of some spiritual capacity in you, this call to some higher +view of life and duty, this uprising of the moral sense and the repulsion +towards the lower forms of life which comes with it--this is God's +personal gift to us, and we pray that you may possess it early; for it is +not only a new consciousness, it is itself a new power in your life. + +You cannot have it, feeling its presence and hearing its suggestions, and +debase your life in any way, as you might have done, but for its +presence. It is so very true that, in the life of the Spirit, looking up +means lifting up. As the plant turns to the sun, it grows towards the +sun; as it looks up to the light, it grows towards the light; so it is +with us. We feel that we are sons of God, and we tend to become so. +Through some influence or other, we awake to a vivid consciousness that +God has created us in His image, endowed us with Divine capacities, and +this consciousness becomes a purifying and inspiring force in our life, +and it is a new life in consequence. + +Pray that such influences may prevail around you here, and that you may +hold them fast until they have blessed your life. + + + + + XI. "MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER." + + + "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one + of another."--ROMANS xii. 5. + +There are some moral and spiritual truths which it seems to be almost +impossible to impress upon the practical life of the world, although they +meet with a sort of universal acceptance. + +Men agree with them, they re-echo them, they applaud them; they do +everything, in fact, but exhibit them as the moving, inspiring, and +guiding truths of their daily practice. + +And among these I fear we must still class that one which is expressed in +the text I have just read, a text which sets forth the fundamental fact +that whatever else Christianity may teach, it teaches as one of its first +and principal lessons that a Christian man has to live in Christ for his +neighbours. + + If such a text means anything, it means that Christianity is essentially +a religion of society, that it sets before us social claims as standing +before all other claims; that, starting from the Divine Sacrifice as the +central fact of human life, it was intended to root out of our hearts the +noxious weed of selfishness by the power of the Divine love, and to build +up the organisation of men in their common relationships upon this new +basis. + +It may sound somewhat strange to speak at this time of day of what +Christianity is intended to do, rather than what it has done already. + +But it is even more strange to read the teaching of the Sermon on the +Mount, and all the other words of the Lord; all the lessons of His life +and His sacrifice; the history of the first generation of Christians; the +descent of the Spirit upon them; and the teaching of the apostolic +brotherhood--to remember that all this is our accepted faith; that it has +been the faith of one generation after another for eighteen hundred +years; that we grow up in this faith, live in it, and die in it; and at +the same time to contemplate side by side with it all the elements of the +common life, all the rules and customs of society, all the standards of +conduct which ordinary men take as their measure of daily duty and +purpose. + +Thus, whilst on the one hand Christian influences, and all the changes in +the world's life which are due to them, fill us with wonder and +gratitude, the failures of Christianity are scarcely less impressive. + +When we consider the ordinary run of men's lives, so different for the +most part in spirit, and in aim and guiding rules, from that type which +the New Testament sets before us, it would almost seem as if to the +majority their religion was not a ruling and dominating principle, +pervading this present life, but only an _ideal_, shedding around us a +glow of indefinite hopes and possibilities, an ideal hardly to be +realised, laid up somewhere in the heavens--[Greek text]. These +contrasts between the revelation of the Gospel and the standards of the +Christian world have always troubled the most earnest spirits in every +generation. Some of you remember, no doubt, how this contrast between +Christian profession and the life of selfish sin and waste flashed into +fierce poetry in one such spirit of the last generation, who grew up in +this school. + + "Through the great, sinful streets of Naples, as I passed, + With fiercer heat than flamed above my head + My heart was hot within me, till at last + My brain was lightened when my tongue had said + Christ is not risen." + +And men who are truly in earnest about faith and life, and who are +perplexed and distressed by the contradictions and insincerities that +meet them, must often be moved as he was. + +And yet, when we look closer, and consider that the battle of spiritual +progress has this peculiarity attached to it, that it has to be fought +over again, in every generation, and in every separate individual soul, +the result is less surprising. Remembering this, we do not expect the +victory of the last generation to save us from defeat or failure. + + And this has to be borne in mind equally in regard to the continuous +life of societies and to our own separate lives. Thus in such a society +as this, if our predecessors uplifted the standards of conduct, +inculcated high principles, and inspired their generation with a strong +pervading spirit, this should make it easier for us to do likewise; but +it does not insure our doing it. All this higher life will die in our +hands if the same regenerating spirit is not alive and working in our +hearts also. So, again, your individual victory over sin in the power of +the Spirit in you, does not save my life from having to fight the battle +for itself and win its own victories. + +So that, however perplexing the phenomena of life may seem whilst we look +at them in the mass or from the outside, if we read the Gospel of Christ +as a message to our own souls a great deal of the perplexity disappears. +And it was with this personal message that Christ came, and there is no +hope of our understanding His mission, or of living in the light of His +transforming spirit, if we think of it in any other way than this. + +The purpose of His revelation is to crucify the selfish instinct in us, +and to rouse us to the life of self-devotion, to the idea of consecrated +energies; and this being so, all Christian life is of the nature of a +warfare; and a warfare which begins afresh with each generation of men; +because selfishness, with all its tribe of attendant appetites and +passions, springs afresh in every single soul, and is nurtured, +strengthened, cultivated, by so many of the conditions of life. + +If, then, the Spirit of Christ is really to prevail in our life, it must +be by effecting our emancipation from selfish instincts, and rousing in +us the spirit of devotion to the good of other lives. + +In proportion as you diminish selfishness in your own life or in any +other, by fostering generous affections and cultivating the spirit of +social duty and religious aspiration, by walking in the footsteps of +Christ and living in the light of His presence, you are laying the only +possible foundation of any lasting progress, you are following the one +true method by which the mystery of sin is to be overcome. + +We may wonder that this should be so difficult; for of selfishness we +should say that we all dislike it. In its grosser forms we repudiate it. +The very word is one which we articulate with a certain accent of +contempt. + +But when we come to its refined and subtle workings in our nature, when +we think of its Proteus-like changeableness, its power of assuming the +various guises even of duty or religion; when we reflect how it can +clothe itself in the choicest garb of art, or science, or divine +philosophy, we find very likely that we are always in danger of being +enslaved by it. + +And we do well to pray in all sincerity that grace may expel our +selfishness; for indeed the influence of true religion is to be gauged by +the extent to which this prayer is being fulfilled in us. The fulfilment +of it is what we mean by the regenerate life. + + I need not ask you how you feel in the presence of any character which +you recognise as cleansed from all taint of selfishness, a character, +softened, refined, purified, inspired, consecrated. I would rather ask +whether you know of any personal influence to be compared with that of +such a character. + +And if, as I anticipate, you would answer that there is none like it, I +would ask you to bear in mind that this influence may be yours. You are +invited by all the highest calls within and around you to make it yours. +"What is the aim and purpose of his life?" is a question which men are +justified in asking about us; and they are justified in passing their +verdict upon us by the answer which our life gives. + +Does he live for himself, they will ask, for his own pleasures, his own +delights, be they coarse or refined, his own indulgence, his own +particular interest? Is there anything of the spirit or enthusiasm of +sacrifice visible in the ordinary tenor of his actions? + + The world, this Christian world, is full of those concerning whom the +answer to such questions can only be a distinct negative; and yet we know +that in all such characters, whether in youth or age, Christianity is a +failure. + +Therefore we shall accept it as our primary duty, the purpose of our +existence as a Christian school, to train up men who shall be penetrated +by the spirit of unselfishness, possessed by the feeling that their lives +are to be consecrated to the common good. + +Societies differ very widely in the type of character they impress. + +Here and there we see a society, here and there a school, which has +somehow acquired the power to stamp on those who go out from it a certain +impress of nobility. + +They go forth like the knights of our famous English legend--imperfect no +doubt and erring, but each one of them inspired with the consciousness +that his life is a holy quest. + +There are other societies and schools among them which seem to possess +everything but this one power. + +What, then, are we to say of our hopes? What is to be the mission of our +generation here? Shall we contribute anything to raise the common type? +Or shall we drift on as the world drifts, a little better, or a little +worse? + +Shall we not rather pray and hope as we begin once more to weave the web +of mutual influence, that you may grow up here not altogether like the +herd of common men, but emancipated early from the life of selfish +desire, feeling the spirit of Christ within you, remembering your +baptismal vows, with eyes open to heavenly visions, and not disobedient +unto them? + + + + + XII. THE SOWER AND THE SEED. + + + "A sower went out to sow his seed."--ST. LUKE viii. 5. + +It is significant that the first of the Saviour's parables is the parable +of the sower, that the first thing to which He likens His own work is +that of the sower of seed, the first lesson He has to impress upon us by +any kind of comparison is that the word of God is a seed sown in our +hearts, a something which contains in it the germ of a new life. + +It is no less significant that He returns so often to this same kind of +comparison for the purpose of impressing us always with the primary fact, +that our relationship to God, the Father of Spirits, in other words our +spiritual condition at the present moment, our hope for the time to come, +does not depend upon some body of doctrine, but on our having received +into the secret places of the heart the seeds of a new life. + +This is suggestive of a great many considerations which touch our life +very closely; but I will not turn aside to them at this moment, as my +desire is to fix your thoughts for the present on this one fundamental +thing, that the principle of moral and spiritual life in you is a seed, +and as such it is endowed with a power of independent separate growth; it +was intended to grow in you. + +The sower casts his seed upon the earth and goes his way, and, once sown, +it springs up and grows, as Jesus said in another parable, "he knoweth +not how." This, then, is the truth which He is impressing on our +attention, when He speaks of His revelation as a seed, a seed to be sown +by hands which have no control over it except to sow it. The soul of +each and every one of us is a seed-field, and the seeds of new life and +purpose should be growing in it. + +As we recall the other parable of the seed growing secretly, recorded in +St. Mark's Gospel, we feel even more strongly how the essence of all our +life is in seeds of influence. "So is the Kingdom of Heaven as if a man +should cast seed upon the earth, and the seed should spring up and grow, +he knoweth not how." It grows in us mysteriously we know not how. + +And I am not sure that we all, indeed I think it likely that we do not +all, take it home to our thoughts with sufficient seriousness that this +mysterious growth in the thing sown implies a mysterious vital power or +force which is inherent in it. + +I call it a mysterious vital power, because all life is a mystery to us. +The very thought of life lands us in mystery, in mystery which defies +analysis. We know that all the life in us and around us follows certain +laws, as we call them, the life of plants, the life of animals, the life +of man, each following its own laws after its kind, and that is all we +know about it. We can observe its action, its uniformities, its +sequences, and variations, but beyond this we cannot penetrate its +secret. It grows mysteriously, we know not how. + +But this much we know, that no life is spontaneously generated. The +science of our day has demonstrated it, as we believe, beyond dispute, +that you cannot create life out of dead matter. All life comes from some +antecedent life. Wherever you see life of any kind, you know that there +must have been before it some form of life which was its parent. + +Yet again, the scientific investigator points out another suggestive +fact, that the lower creature does not of its own lower nature expand +into the higher, but that life is lifted up and grows by the infusion of +something higher than itself. So, too, we believe that the Spirit of God +touches with its mysterious power the dead souls of men; it transforms +them, it uplifts them, they are born again. They are roused and stirred +to new capacity by the touch and inspiration of this Divine life. This +is what is meant when it is said that if any man be in Christ he is a new +creature. He has received into his nature this mysterious gift, or +rather this seed of the new life. + +Such is the Christian doctrine of the new birth, or of the life-giving +breath of the Spirit, or of the sowing the seed of Divine life in us. You +may describe it how you please, if only you take due note of this, that +in proportion as you realise or accept this truth as in any way +intimately connected with your own personal life and conduct, all the +common things around you acquire a new importance, and I might even say +some touch of sacredness, because they are felt to be strewn with these +seeds of influence which God is sowing around us, with a hand that never +rests, through all our years, in uncounted ways. + +This seed of new life which is to save you from the power of sin and the +flesh and give you new aspirations, purer tastes, stronger purposes, need +I remind you how it is sown, in what manifold and various ways? It must +be within the personal experience of some of you to testify how your +meetings in this chapel every morning may sow it. One day it falls on +your heart in some word of some hymn or prayer, or in some thought or +feeling which flashes through you, or some pricking of conscience for no +other knows what sin or fault, or in some new resolve. + + Sometimes it is found that a passing word of a preacher sows it (it is +in this hope I preach to you), or again it is sown in the common ways of +daily life, by the reading of some book, or by the word or example of a +friend, or by some casual sight or experience. We remember how the seed +of an unresting and beneficent life, a life devoted to the good of the +poor and the suffering, was sown in Lord Shaftesbury by the shocking +sight of a pauper funeral when he was a boy at Harrow. So it may be sown +in your hearts you know not beforehand when or where, to grow up and bear +fruit an hundred fold. + +The wind bloweth where it listeth--so is every one that is born of the +Spirit. You never know what Divine seed it may deposit in your heart at +any moment; but this you do know, that if the word of Christ be true, +whenever this gift of life comes to you it is a new birth. + +And there is all the more mystery and sacredness about our common life +just because we never know how or when these seeds may fall upon our life +to bless it, and because men are often altogether unconscious of the +beginnings of their growth in them. Some seed of good influence falls +into the soil of their heart, and seems to lie there buried in the winter +of neglect or waste. + +Thus some men may carry the seeds long and far, not knowing the power or +the potency of the life that is in them; but some day they strike root +and grow and bear fruit in new convictions, or in new desires and +purposes; and this may be the case with any one amongst us, and hence it +is natural that we should press the question on ourselves and on each +other--What are you making of those seeds of higher life which have been +sown in you by your mother's love, by your father's words, by all the +lessons and influences of such a place as this, seeds which are falling +around you continually, and may possibly be trodden down or overlaid? + +As we look at these parables of the Lord telling of this sowing and this +growth of seeds, they bring it home to us very forcibly that the only +true test of life in Christ is growth in Christian graces. And this +brings us to a consideration of grave practical importance. It bids us +be very careful to distinguish between seeds of life taking root in the +heart and springing up into new activities, and mere waves of impression. +The seed springs up and grows in you, the wave merely flows over you, +lifting and moving you for a moment, and then leaving you as before. +Thus, and it is a warning which is not unneeded in our day, a day of much +emotional religion, there is all the difference in the world between a +religion of moods and a religion of growth. The one is the plaything of +the winds, the other is rooted in Christ. + +Thus I am brought to two reflections, one on the function and aim of the +preacher, the other the duty of the hearer of God's word. The +preacher--and the same might be said of every master in such a society as +this--the preacher has to think of himself primarily and chiefly as a +servant of Christ charged with the duty of sowing the seeds of spiritual +life in your hearts. And the thought that the Saviour has revealed to us +seeds of life which have this regenerating power in them, and that in Him +we see what possibilities of growth there are in these seeds--this is our +constant encouragement. + +The sower's hand may be feeble, and his sowing may be awkward, or +halting, or uncertain, but there is a Divine force or possibility in all +seeds of truth, or purity, or right feeling which he scatters among you, +independent of his sowing, and he never knows in what soul some seed may +lodge and germinate and grow up and bear fruit here and hereafter, even +to the endless life. + +So we believe that every work of good influence, whether of man or boy, +will prosper, because we remember it as a part of God's providential law, +that His seed if sown grows of itself, mysteriously. And we need not +wonder at the mystery, for it is the Spirit of God which is in the seed; +and it is ready to swell and grow and bear new fruits as it lodges in +your heart. + + Through and in that seed of good influence it is God Himself who is +working in you. + +Such, as we learn from the word of Christ, such, as we see it exemplified +in His person, is the mystery of the Divine life in the hearts of men--not +in some other lives, but in your life and mine. + +But this only leads us to another vital question--a question which I +leave with you for the present, and to which we may return another +day--What is your share of active duty in regard to these seeds of good +influence and good purpose that are sown in you; what are you doing, and +what are you intending to do, to secure that they shall be bearing some +fruit in your own daily life? + + + + + XIII. THE LENTEN FAST. + + + "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer."--ST. MARK ix. + 29. + +You remember the narrative from which I have taken this verse. Jesus, as +we read, had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and when +He was come to the multitude, a certain man besought him saying, "Have +mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed, and I brought him to +Thy disciples, but they could not cure him." Then Jesus rebuked the +devil, and the child was cured from that hour. Thereupon His disciples +came to Him with this inquiry--"Why could not we cast him out? And He +said to them, Because of your little faith. This kind can come forth by +nothing, but by prayer;" or, as our Authorised Version has it, "by prayer +and fasting." + + Here, then, we have set before us a very striking and significant +contrast: the contrast between the spiritual power of Jesus fresh from +the Mount of Transfiguration, and the want of such power in His +disciples, who represent to us the common life of the multitude and the +plain. His reply to their question was clearly intended to suggest to +them the cause of their spiritual feebleness. Do you wonder at your lack +of power over the diseases of the soul? "This kind can come forth by +nothing, but by prayer." Now, this suggestive answer is very appropriate +for our consideration at the present time when we are approaching the +season of Lent, which has been observed century after century as a +special season of fasting, prayer, and penitence for sin, through all the +Christian Church. + +When we think of these weeks, it is reasonable to believe that such +observance, so universal, so long continued, must have satisfied some +deep need of the heart, especially as it is not based on any particular +dogma. And this incident in the Saviour's life, and these emphatic words +of His, may help us to a clearer understanding of the value of such +times. They declare to us the principle of the spiritual harvest, that, +in the spiritual life as in all else, we reap as we sow. They are +intended to convey to us this plain lesson, that if any of us give little +thought, attention, or effort to that side of our life which we speak of +as the spiritual, if there is in our daily habit and practice little real +prayer or self-denial, or devotion, little communing with God, little +endeavour to live in the spirit of Christ, and if, this being so, we find +ourselves weak or vacillating in our struggle against sin or evil, +whether in our own life or in society, there is nothing surprising in +such a result. + +It is in our religious life just as in everything else--spiritual +carelessness or neglect must mean spiritual weakness. In all other +matters we look for results in some proportion to our efforts. As we sow +we expect to reap. + +Here, for instance, in your daily life, if you wish to excel in any +particular game or pursuit, you practise it with diligence. You know +that, without such practice or concentration of effort upon it, any +expectation of excellence is simply foolish. + +In your school work you recognise the same conditions. Intellectual +growth may seem sometimes to come slowly, in spite of all your efforts; +but it comes with certainty if you persevere, and it is equally certain +that it hardly ever comes at all to those who use no effort. + +If, then, you look for progress or distinction, you know that you must +fix your thoughts upon your work, and practise industry, and, above all, +that you must cultivate a love of learning, so that your mind lingers +over it with some sense of enjoyment. + +You do not expect a harvest where you have not sown. And it is just this +same law which you recognise and accept in other matters that our Lord is +here declaring to us as the law of spiritual power. + +Do we desire to cast any evil influence or any weakness out of our life? +Do we ask despairingly how it is that we have not been able to cast it +out? Our Lord's answer comes to us in these emphatic words--"This kind +can come forth by nothing, but by prayer." + +In other words, if we really desire that our soul shall be cleansed and +strengthened, we must surrender it to Him in prayer and self-denial, in +spiritual exercises and communion, that He may cure it of its sin or its +weakness, and inspire us with new life. + +Prayer and fasting are in this word of His the symbol of all special +exercises of the spirit, as it strives to get free from the burden of the +flesh and to come nearer to God; and without such exercises, He presses +it on us if we stand in need of such reminders, we cannot hope for any +harvest of spiritual strength. + +And we can hardly have failed to notice how His own practice corresponds +with His warnings and injunctions. + +Before He began His ministry we read of His forty days' fast in the +wilderness; and at every turn, in the course of it, we read again and +again incidentally of His constant withdrawals into privacy with God. + + His short life on earth was a life of spiritual ministry. All the +common things of life were to Him so many illustrations of some spiritual +lesson of the Father's love and care, or of man's dependence on Him. In +every voice of the world there was the undertone of some spiritual +suggestion. So that we might say--Surely His days were one unbroken +course of spiritual work and communion, and He could need no special +seasons or exercises; but His example teaches us a different lesson. + +As if to bring it home to us beyond all possibility of doubt or question, +that the most devoted, the most active, and most powerful spiritual +characters, will always be those whose communion with God in private +prayer and exercise is most constant and intense, He Himself was +continually withdrawing for such communion; and there are no more +suggestive passages in the Gospels for our guidance than those incidental +references which tell us, as if by chance, giving us passing glimpses +into the unrecorded portions of His life, how on one occasion He retired +into a mountain apart to pray, or how on another he spent the whole night +apart in prayer, or how he was in a desert place apart in prayer. + +These withdrawals of Jesus into the solitude of the desert or the +mountain, these hours in which He was alone with the Father, are but +another name for those exercises of prayer, fasting, meditation, +communion with God, without which, as He tells His followers in the text +I have read to you, it is not possible to eradicate from the soul those +influences of sin which destroy its harmony and undermine its strength. + +These withdrawals were His times of spiritual refreshment; and by His +practice He declares to us His need of them. And if in His case they +were necessary, much more are they necessary for you and me, entangled as +we are amidst all the varied influences of our common life, and with +natures prone to sin. + +Hence it is that the Church has set apart this season of Lent to come +round to us year by year as a season of special thought and prayer and +self-denial. Many other times and seasons come to us laden with the same +spiritual influences, and to be used by us as times of reflection, +inspiration, purification, and strengthening. This is the purpose which +the quiet of these recurring Sundays should be fulfilling in our lives, +or our gatherings for Holy Communion. + +And once and again there comes to us in the course of life some time or +season which is sure to make its impression upon our soul as having +brought us in a special sense into the presence of God, and within the +overshadowing influences of His Spirit. + +So it may happen to us that some family bereavement, the death of father +or mother, of brother or sister, or child of our affections, draws us +away from the world into a closer communion with our Father in Heaven, a +communion which is never entirely lost again or forgotten. So, too, +comes the season of confirmation, as to many of you just now, with all +its thoughts, feelings, prayers, and resolutions. + +And it is a happy thing for our life when any of these seasons leave an +indelible mark upon our memory and our spirit. + +But as we think of these words of Jesus, "This kind goeth not out but by +prayer and fasting"--the question for each of us here to-day is, what +practical daily meaning we hope to give to this season of Lent which is +to begin on Wednesday. + +Let us not fancy that we can allow such seasons to come and go, year by +year, giving them no thought or attention, without some corresponding +loss. + +The voice of humanity, and the experience of centuries, the practice of +holy men, and the example and the words of Christ Himself, have all +testified to the need there is for the spiritual observance of such +times, if men are to keep their soul alive in them--and who are we that +we should venture to set ourselves against such overpowering testimony? + +Let us rather address ourselves seriously to making these weeks a time of +some special exercise or discipline such as our life may need. + + There is hardly one of us but will confess, if he thinks of the matter +at all, that the world is too much with us; that its influence is too +strong upon us; that we are too ready to conform to its ways and follow +its indulgences. And such a confession is equivalent to an +acknowledgment that we need these Lenten seasons. And if with this +feeling in our hearts we use the coming weeks with any definite purpose, +praying to be rid of some temptation or weakness, or to be endowed with +some strength, or to be supported in some good purpose, we are sure to +recognise with thankfulness, when the time is over, that it has indeed +proved a time of some dislodgment, that some temptation or habit has +fallen away from us and left us free, so that some new spirit or purpose +has begun to grow in us. + +We shall, in fact, be conscious, as the weeks go on, that a new life of +new tastes and new satisfactions has sprung up, as the first fruits of +our prayer. If we doubt the need of such exhortations as these, let us +reflect for a moment--Does it not sometimes happen to us that our souls +are only too like the soul of that sick child in the Gospel? + +Good instincts, and intentions, and tendencies, are clearly felt and +recognised, but they are fitful, weak, and intermittent. Another spirit +seems to lay hold of us and carry us whither it will. + +If in any sense this can be said to be your case, then remember, that +just what the Saviour's healing word was to that child, sick and +possessed, as He met it on His way from the Hill of Transfiguration, and +breathed over it the spirit of the higher life, reducing the chaos of the +soul to harmony, and bringing reason out of madness, and freedom out of +demoniac possession, these holy seasons of time-honoured observance may +be to your soul, if you use them reverently, and as God's appointed means +for your growth in the Spirit. + + + + + XIV. GOD'S CURSE ON SIN. + + + "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to + his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all + your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin."--EZEKIEL + xviii. 30. + +These words of Ezekiel may be understood as expressing in the prophet's +language what the Book of Deuteronomy expresses in such denunciations as +those which were read to us the other day in the Commination Service. + +They correspond also to the warning of St. Paul when he says--"Be not +deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also +reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall reap corruption; and he that +soweth to the spirit shall reap everlasting life." Or again they +correspond to that question which is put to us in the Epistle to the +Hebrews--"If every transgression and disobedience received a just +recompense and reward, how shall we escape?" + +Thus we find in the Pentateuch, in Ezekiel, and in the apostolic writings +the representatives of three very different stages of religious +enlightenment, all teaching us in effect the same lesson, to remember the +recompense that sin never fails to bring upon him who commits it. As we +listen to the curses of Deuteronomy on one sin and on another, and then +read the language of Ezekiel or St. Paul, we are conscious of a +difference in the modes of thought and expression. The thought of the +apostle is separated from that of the lawgiver or the prophet of the Old +Testament by the new revelation and the sacrifice of Jesus; but yet +underneath all differences their judgment on every sinful act or habit +remains spiritually the same. They all alike bid us, when we think of +our sins, to think also of the inevitable punishment which rises behind +them like their shadow; and to bear in mind that the root of the whole +matter is the one incontrovertible and never-changing fact of human life +that as you sow you must expect to reap--he that soweth to the flesh +shall of the flesh reap corruption. + +Now, inasmuch as your early years are the seed-time of your life, these +stern reminders that if you sow any sin in your soul you will some day +reap its curse, that God will judge you every one according to his ways, +all this is very appropriate for your consideration. And you are likely +to be all the more serious about your present life and its habits, +tastes, and purposes if this thought really takes possession of you, that +there is in fact a very close analogy between the life of the soul and +life around us in the outer world, and that every seed we sow in it grows +after its own kind. + +In the region of animal or vegetable life you see and recognise this law +on every side. You trace it sometimes as the law of improvement by +culture, sometimes as the law of degeneration. + +You cultivate and tend a garden or a field, sowing, planting, +eradicating, and the growths of flower or fruit improve in proportion to +your care; but leave it to itself and the weeds choke it, and the very +fruit degenerates; your rose becomes a dog-rose--it reverts, as men say, +to a lower type. + +So exactly is it with your own life; so long as it is grafted into a life +higher than your own, so long as good purposes are being sown in it and +good habits cultivated, and the bad weeded out and the Spirit of God +breathes through it, it is growing nearer to the Divine type; but neglect +it, or follow sinful impulse or low taste, and it becomes like the garden +of weeds; degeneracy begins at once, it is changing to something worse, +it is reverting to a lower type. + +This is a way of expressing it which is sufficiently familiar to you. But +this is only our modern way of looking at those facts of life which were +eloquent to men of earlier times as the curse of God. + +As, then, it is undoubtedly true that-- + + "Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, + Our fatal shadows that walk with us still," + +these stern warnings which our Lenten services hold up before us are of +the greatest value. + +Keeping before us this law that in every region of life it is the +tendency of everything to bear fruit after its kind, we shall feel that +we can hardly impress it too deeply upon our minds that there is no sin +which we commit but will assuredly return upon our own heads. The +Israelites in the Old Testament saw the hand of God thus visiting their +sins upon them in many ways. They thought of Him as smiting them for +their sins with consumption or with fever, with plague or mildew, or the +sword of the oppressor. These are not our expectations. We have learnt +that it is not with such visitations that God punishes us for our sinful +indulgence or neglect, but that He does it with a punishment which may be +less obvious but is often more ruinous than these. + +Neglect the opportunities of good with which He strews your path in early +life, let some sin strike its roots in your heart and take possession of +it, and the curse of God for that neglect or that sin will overtake you, +no doubt of it; coming not perhaps as the Israelite on Mount Ebal +expected it to come for any sin of his, but coming, you hardly know how, +as the change for the worse, the sinking to lower levels of thought, and +taste, and aim, and practice, the reversion to lower types, which is the +end of neglect, coming as the creeping and insidious growth of the power +of sin working ever stronger in us as the natural fruit of indulgence. So +the curse of that ancient Jewish law turns out to be a terrible and +unchanging truth, written in a law which is never obsolete and grows not +old, a law which calls on us for our Amen! as it cries to us equally in +the language of Divine revelation and of the latest scientific discovery: +"Sow neglect," it says, "and you will reap deterioration; sow sin, and +you will reap corruption." + +This vision of the ultimate results of evil is a very ugly one, put it in +whatever shape you will, and we are naturally somewhat loth to look it in +the face. We would rather not think of any sin of ours as entailing such +consequences. This conception of Divine justice or retribution embodied +in the action of unbending laws and declaring that death is the fruit of +sin, and that death must come of it, this is no doubt a conception which +inspires awe. We shrink from it; we hardly dare to say Amen! to its +dread utterances. We should like, it may be, to shut our eyes to the +fact and dwell rather on the thought that our God is long-suffering and +of great kindness and of tender mercy. It is more soothing to think of +love than of retribution, or of the arm that shelters or upholds us than +of the hand that smites; but the real question should be--"Is it true, +this declaration that as we sow we reap, that the wages of sin is death, +death of faculty, death of hope?" It is foolish to blink the sterner +aspects of life. The fruit of such blinking and turning aside is very +often the very thing we do not like to think of--indulgence and its +retribution. Divine love and goodness and long-suffering cannot occupy +too much of our thoughts and prayers; for it is through these that the +heart is touched, and the spirit is fostered in us, and we awake to the +new life in Christ. + +But if we shrink from contemplating that law of Divine retribution, which +works in men's lives side by side with the law of mercy and love, it is +time for us to ask ourselves--"How is it that I thus shrink from the +thought of these penalties?" + +There is indeed one sense in which we naturally shrink from the thought +that the wages of sin is death, even while we acknowledge that it is so. +It is inexpressibly sad to dwell on the infinite mass of sin which is +daily bearing its bitter and deadly fruit in the world, and propagating +itself after its kind; to think of the untold number of darkened or +misguided souls that have sown to the flesh, and are going in consequence +down to failure and death, blighted, corrupted, ruined. From this +thought we naturally turn to the thought of God's mercy, and pray that He +may yet sow the seeds of new hope in the dismal waste of such lives. + + But it happens to us, I fear sometimes, that this thought of God's curse +on sin sends a chill through the heart, and we shrink away from it, +because of our own unregenerate life, because of the fascination which +sinful impulse or habit exercises over us. + +If the warning voice of our Lenten Commination Service has convicted any +one of us of this motive for shrinking from its stern sentence, it has +come to us as a true messenger of the God who has no pleasure in the +death of him that dieth. We need the voice of these threatenings, +because the heart has such a great power of self-deception in it. Men +find it so easy to thrust away into the dim background of their thoughts +all the dark but sure consequences of present sins, treating them as a +debt which will come up no doubt for payment some day, but may be put +aside just now. + +And one virtue of our stern plain-speaking Lenten services is this, that +they will not allow us to forget that fated reckoning day--they put us, +whether we like it or not, face to face with the sure consequences of +sin; and they compel us to listen to the question--"What is the choice of +thy life?" + +For you will bear in mind that we read all these decrees of Divine law +with our eye fixed on our own life and not on our neighbour. They are +meant to help us to judge ourselves, and not some other person; they lead +us to penitence and not to criticism, so that our readiness or our +unwillingness to meet and to weigh them, and to respond to them with +definite prayer and penitence, may be taken as an index of our religious +sincerity, and of our readiness to consecrate our lives to the service of +our Saviour Christ. + +And it is well for us that we should ask ourselves these questions; for +if indeed it is true that every transgression and disobedience shall +receive its just recompense and reward, how else shall we escape? + + + + + XV. THE CONFLICT WITH EVIL. + + + "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."--ST. + MATTHEW vi. 13. + +It is good for us sometimes to stand still for a moment and consider our +use of very familiar words. And this petition may appropriately +illustrate our need of such an exercise. + +It is on your lips every day. Every Sunday you offer it you hardly know +how many times, in private and in public prayer: "Lead us not into +temptation, but deliver us from evil." And the moment you stop to think +about it you feel--who does not?--that it is a very solemn and moving +petition if you offer it before God in sincerity, and with an honest +desire to be kept out of the way of sin; but it becomes a fearful mockery +if it is offered with unclean lips, or by one who is living in any sort +of sinful practice, either secret or open. + +And yet, as we all know, it is possible to do this, making the prayer +mere lip service, under the influence of daily custom. This, then, is +the question it suggests to us whenever we stop to think about it: How +far are we endeavouring to keep our lives in accordance with the spirit +of such a petition? "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from +evil." Most of you, I can well believe, would not voluntarily or +deliberately step out of your way to meet a temptation, or to seek any +evil course of life. You would not do it of your own free choice, or in +cold blood, as we say. This, at any rate, is your own feeling about sin, +whether the feeling is consistent with your life or not. As you +contemplate any low form of life in another, you recognise its ugliness +and its degrading character, and you call it very likely by the name it +deserves. If, then, you find yourself involved in any sin, in spite of +these feelings, and although you take this daily prayer upon your lips, +how comes it to be so? How comes it that you remain in this pitiable +condition? + +Your answer is, perhaps, that temptation comes upon you unawares, and +that it takes you by surprise; or it seems to watch for some moment of +forgetfulness or weakness; or you fight against a temptation, but still +it clings to you as if it had a life of its own and were independent of +you; or you are drawn into sin you scarcely know how; or you are driven +into it by some one whom you fear although you despise him; or it seems +to you to be in the very air you breathe. And although such answers +explanatory of a life of sin or waste are no real excuse for it, they are +very often quite true. If it were not so, the devil would not be the +dangerous enemy that he assuredly is to our spiritual life; our risk of +failure in our battle with sin would not be so great as experience shows +it to be. We must therefore expect that temptations to sin will +sometimes come upon us quite by surprise and at unlocked for moments, and +that some temptations will linger and cling to us with a hateful +persistence; you must be prepared also to find that some companion may +draw you towards a sin, or a bully may endeavour to drive you into it. +Your life is a happy one if it is free from all such risks, but you +cannot count upon such freedom. So that, if any one begins his life +thinking that his conflict with evil and its manifold temptations is +going to be an easy one, he begins under a dangerous delusion, and he is +likely to end in some disastrous failure. + +You desire, let us hope, to keep your soul unstained by evil ways. If, +then, you remember that to secure such a stainless and unpolluted life +you have not only to fight with some external enemy now and then, but +against dark and insidious powers of evil which seem to start up around +you and in the very citadel of your heart unawares, and that except +through a constant sense of God's presence in your life you cannot hope +to keep free from their influence, this feeling should give reality and +earnestness to our daily prayer to be delivered from the evil. + +And, indeed, this feeling that our life is set in the midst of many and +great dangers is one of the first requisites for its moral safety. It +stands beside us with its warning, whenever a temptation to some sin +besets us, reminding us that, no matter how pleasant or attractive the +temptation may seem to be, or how trifling the sin that it suggests, it +is in fact an outpost of a great army, whose name is legion, and that we +should hold no parleyings and have no dealings with it, for it breathes +corruption, and it brings degradation and death behind it. + +"_Obsta principiis_" may indeed be said to be a warning specially needed +by us in regard to every kind of temptation. But we may go further than +this. Our safety from particular sins depends very often and very +largely, at a critical moment, upon our general attitude and feeling +towards sin in every shape. + +It must be acknowledged, I think, that most sins which lay their hold +upon us and master us, or struggle long and hard for the mastery, make +their first entrance into the soul so easily, because they find it swept +and garnished for their reception, and its doors wide open. With +reference to this you have only to reflect on some chapter of your own +experience. Has it never happened that, when some wrong or sinful act or +thought or speech was first presented to you, it stirred a feeling of +shrinking, or strong dislike, or fear, or uneasiness, or, it may be, +disgust; but instead of listening to that warning voice, and spurning the +temptation utterly, as your feeling bade you do, you were attracted +somehow to turn and gaze upon it. You knew it to be sin, but you felt no +repulsion. Your soul was not garrisoned and defended by any strong sense +of the hatefulness and deadly influence of all sin as such; so if you +fled from it it was with a backward look; and then you allowed yourself +to think of it in others, or you lived on friendly and familiar terms +with those who were stained by it; possibly you even jested about it; you +let your thoughts feed upon it; you expressed no stern disapproval of it; +you allowed the atmosphere of your life to be tainted by it; and at last +your adversary the devil, having rejoiced to see his wiles thus gathering +round you, saw you slip or plunge into the sin, and go one great step +nearer to becoming his bondslave--just as some foolish bird, fluttering +this way and that instead of spreading its wings for a heavenward flight +into the pure and safe upper air, might plunge into the snares of the +fowler. And yet all the while, although you were living this weak and +vacillating life, which is the seed-field of sin, you were praying to God +every day--"Lead us not into temptation." + +If we remember any such experience we may at least gather from it some +lessons of safety and strength for the time to come. It reminds us first +of all how vitally important is our general attitude towards every form +of sin and its allurements. On this attitude it very often depends +whether your life is to be comparatively free from pitfalls, or whether +it is to be beset with dangers at every turning. If by your attitude and +behaviour you cause it to be felt that sin is hateful to you, and that +you are sincere when you pray that God may keep you from all evil, a +great many of the temptations that would otherwise make your life +difficult and dangerous will shrink away abashed; or if the tempter +ventures to assail you, he will do it half-heartedly when he sees that +you repel him with a whole-hearted repugnance. It is this attitude even +more than individual acts which fixes the tone of a society. + + When there is no prevalent sense that there are those present who +maintain this attitude of hatred and contempt for sin and everything that +breeds or fosters it, the tone, as men say, becomes low, or lax, the air +becomes corrupt, and life in such surroundings becomes full of peril. If +the good are timid, shrinking, showing no positive fervour, no zeal for +virtue, and no moral indignation against evil influence, then the bad in +their society will lift up their heads and walk boldly. But when, on the +other hand, they who are in their hearts convinced of the sinfulness of +sin, and of the infinite mischief that may arise out of any form of it, +are not ashamed to show it by their attitude, they cause the base to hide +itself in its proper darkness, and they create an atmosphere around them +in which temptations lose a great deal of their force and strength. + +Let this, then, be your feeling about your life--that when it is assailed +by any sin, that sin is not something isolated or insignificant; it is +not something which may be indulged or accepted, as if it had no relation +with other sins; it is a part of an infinite brood of evil; and that if +you admit it within the circle of your life, or tolerate it in the air +you breathe, you never know where its pestilent germs may fall, and +breed, and multiply, and what mischief may come of it. + +It is this feeling of the mysterious vitality of sin, and the subtle +kinship of one form of sin with other forms, and its destructiveness when +it seizes on a life or poisons an atmosphere, that helps us more than +anything else to feel the force and the intensity of the Saviour's prayer +for us: "Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast +given Me. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but +that Thou shouldest keep them from evil." It is this same feeling of the +spreading, insidious, infectious and destructive nature of sin that makes +us echo this as our first and most earnest prayer for all we love, that +God may keep them from evil; and it is this that makes us value so highly +and recognise with thankful hearts every example of a pure and strong +life, which gives inspiration and strength to those around it. + + + + + XVI. SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. + + + "As it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes + that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear."--ROMANS + xi. 8. + + "Blindness in part is happened to Israel."--ROMANS xi. 25. + +It is a sad and painful reflection, and one which is continually forced +upon us as we read the New Testament, that the long training and +preparation of the Jews brought them at the last not to the acceptance +but to the rejection of Jesus. + +They had been taught, generation after generation, that they were the +called and chosen people of God. Psalmists and prophets had enriched +their life with the outpouring of their moral and spiritual revelations, +and fired their hopes with promises. They lived in the expectation of +the Messiah who was to complete these revelations of the God who had led +them and taught them ever since the days of their Egyptian bondage. + +Yet, when this crowning revelation came to them, they could not even +recognise it. The Son of God "came unto His own and His own received Him +not." As St. Paul expresses it in my text, while grieving for them with +all the intensity of his fervid affection, their life was overgrown with +a sort of spiritual dulness. They were suffering from a sort of +ossification of the spirit, so that the last and greatest revelation of +God could make no impression upon them. + +But this picture of the Jews rejecting and crucifying their Saviour, and +unable to appreciate or to receive the gift of new life which was offered +to them, blind to its beauty, unattracted by its charm, is not only one +of the saddest sights in history, it is very instructive for every one of +us, because it is charged with warnings that are never out of date. For +there is no individual life, and no society, that is not liable to drift +into a similar dulness of vision, and so to reject or disregard what God +gives for its enlightenment. The great critical events in the world's +history, the events that make epochs in the consciousness of men, are not +different in kind from those of our own obscure lives. They are, as it +were, our own familiar experience, written prophetically and written +large. + +So the blindness that happened to Israel, and arrested their spiritual +growth, may be happening no less to any of us. As God gave them the +spirit of slumber, so it may be with our lives. + +And the very thought of our possible risks in this respect is valuable to +us. + +To be conscious that in regard to any of the higher and better things of +life our eyes may possibly be growing dim, and our ears dull of hearing, +and that God may be pressing upon us gifts of great price which we are +too dull to see or to accept--if our soul is sufficiently awake to feel +this, then the very feeling may of itself be the germ of new life in us. + + And it is very certain, on the other hand, that if we are altogether +without any such feelings there is a risk, which even amounts to a +probability, that the hardening or deadening influences of custom and +tradition will sooner or later degrade our life. And if it should be +asked,--How comes it that we are so liable to be affected by this dulness +of spirit and of general habit?--we have to reply that it is because of +the sensitiveness of the human soul to surrounding influences. + +It is because our souls are so receptive, so imitative, and in +consequence so easily perverted, darkened, blinded, or misled. I suppose +we are all of us conscious of this sensitiveness of the moral and +spiritual nature; we should all say, if questioned, that we are quite +aware of it, and that no one would dispute it. The soul of every child +or man, we should say, is a fine and delicate and sensitive instrument, +with the possibilities in it of we know not what Divine harmonies, but +easily spoilt. + + And yet, when we look at all the common and traditional ordering of +daily life, whether in our educating of the young or in the influences +that we allow to prevail among young and old, it would seem sometimes as +if this thought of the soul's sensitiveness had never dawned upon us. +When we once really grasp this thought, or, let us rather say, when this +thought has once really fastened upon our mind, and fixed itself there, +so that it remains with us, and goes about with us; and when, in +consequence, we come to feel how easily any soul may be perverted, or +rendered hard or dull; in one word, how easily it may be degraded; then +it follows that we look with new eyes on many things, many customs, many +influences which the unthinking hardly notice, or notice only to +misjudge. + +In the light of this feeling of the soul's sensitiveness, the thoughtful +man is very often intolerant of things which to others seem of little +moment, because he sees how they are tending to dull or deaden the eye of +the soul, or to pervert or to kill its finer instincts; and how, in +consequence, though tradition may have given them a sort of spurious +consecration, or the world in its blindness may have come to honour them, +they are in fact laden with mischief to the general life. + +It was the thought of this sensitiveness of the soul to external +influences, and of the ease with which any bad influence, or bad custom +or practice or fashion, perverts common lives, and of the untold mischief +which is consequently latent in it, that winged the words of a well-known +writer when she protested, some years ago, against what she designated as +debasing the moral currency. + +That writer was thinking primarily of vulgar jesting on great subjects, +which should stir us to admiration and reverence, and so debasing men's +tastes. She had in her mind the class of persons who have the art of +spoiling things that are noble or beautiful by their vulgar handling of +them; and of the mischief which is done by such persons to public taste +and tone and character. + + But we may widen the reference. Whosoever, in anything that concerns +the conduct of life, spreads low notions, or drags down men's opinion or +taste, thus helping to pervert ordinary minds from those higher aims and +motives and those reverent views of character and life which should be +cherished for our common use and service, is debasing the moral currency. + +Here, then, we have a very practical question for our consideration and +answering. "Is there anything in my life"--so the question comes to us +in our self-examination--"which could be so described? any influence, +spreading from my conduct, of which men might truly say that it also is +helping to debase the moral currency? Is there to be seen in it anything +that tends towards the lowering of common standards? any misuse of things +sacred or holy? any foolish or vulgar estimate of the higher things of +life?" And if we are in any doubt how to put these questions in a +concrete and practical shape, we have only to remember how any one who +helps to lower any standard of taste or conduct is debasing the moral +currency of life; how, for instance, all those are debasing it who +substitute any wrong notion of honour for right notions of honour, or who +put roughness and coarseness in place of manliness, or who set the +fashion of cynical judgments on good and bad characters. + +Or we might take an illustration from what is, unhappily, a very common +element in English life: the habit of gambling sport. Wherever this +habit spreads, in any class of society, from the highest to the lowest, +its effect is invariable; it undermines integrity, it hardens the heart +and debases taste, and is the willing handmaid of other vices. Moral +degradation is its inseparable companion. Therefore, if you mix in it, +or share in it, or give any adhesion or countenance to it, which helps, +as men say, to make it respectable, and so to spread its influence, you +are debasing the moral currency. + +Or take another common case. You are familiar with the poet's +description, "And thus he bore without abuse the grand old name of +gentleman." That is a noble thing for any man or boy to have said of +him; and there is not one among you who does not desire always to be able +to claim that name as his own. + +But, wherever we go in the world, how many men there are who claim it and +yet debase it by ignoble use! They help to spread the notion that a man +may be a man of low morality and still a gentleman; that his +gentlemanliness may be a mere varnish of culture and manners, a thin +veneering having underneath it only meanness, or coarseness, or +corruption; and that, notwithstanding this, he may still claim to be +called a gentleman. Those who spread such doctrines are debasing the +moral currency of English life. And it should be the mission of schools +like this, and of those who grow up in them, to pour upon all such +persons the contempt which they deserve, and to restore the currency of +common life to something of Christian purity. + + Remembering, then, how sensitive the soul is, and how easily by example, +or conduct, or fashion it may be so perverted as to lose its clear vision +and higher aims, its pure tastes and ennobling emotions, we have to make +it our ambition and endeavour that our life may be kept free from such +debasement. + +But, if we are to succeed in this, we must make it our daily prayer that +the God of our Lord Jesus Christ will enlighten the eyes of our +understanding, and give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in +the knowledge and love of Him. + + + + + XVII. A NEW HEART. + + + "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within + you."--EZEKIEL xxxvi. 26. + +In the beautiful and suggestive dream of Solomon, which is recorded in +the third chapter of the First Book of Kings, God appears to him, saying, +"Ask what I shall give thee"; and Solomon's answer is, "O Lord, I am but +a child set over this great people, give me, I pray Thee, a hearing +heart." And God said to him, "Because thou hast asked this thing, and +hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches; behold, I have done +according to thy words. I have given thee a wise and understanding +heart, and I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both +riches and honour." And the record of this vision was clearly meant to +indicate that the supreme gift of the wisest of men was the hearing or +understanding heart. On the other hand, there is nothing against which +our Lord in the Gospels utters stronger warnings than that dulness or +deadness of spirit which is described as having eyes that see not, and +ears that are dull of hearing, and hearts that do not understand. And in +illustration of this we read how, while the crowds throng or press upon +Jesus, it is the stricken woman who, with soul sensitive to His +influence, feels the virtue come out of Him though she only touches the +hem of His garment. + +Thus we are warned to beware lest that should come upon us which was the +ruin of the Jews, dulness or deadness of spiritual faculty; and we are +exhorted to pray for and to cherish the hearing heart, the soul that sees +and feels spiritual influences, and is sensitive to every high call. And +if your soul is thus open and receptive, it is marvellous how full the +world becomes to you of Divine voices. They come upon you unexpected, +unsought, sending through your heart some illuminating flash of surprise, +so that you wonder at your previous dulness; they strike you with the +sudden shock of some new knowledge or insight, and make you feel, as +never before, the true nature of your daily conduct or your duty and your +relation to other men; or they come as the unresting presence of some new +thought, which, once roused, haunts and troubles you with questions which +you cannot answer, or feelings which you cannot get rid of. + +When the soul is roused in this way we see and feel the hatefulness of +any sin that may have tempted or beset us; or we contrast our own life +with that of those whose lot is so much harder than ours, and we are +struck with shame at our selfishness, or waste, or our indifference to +the privation, and sin, and suffering that are all around us in the +world. + +Or sometimes these Divine voices in our ears bring it home to us how much +we are losing out of our life's higher possibilities, if from sinful or +selfish habit, from dulness of spirit or lack of sympathy, we cut +ourselves off in thought and feeling and interest from the great needs, +the great sorrows, the great pulsations of the larger world. + +But why, you may ask, do I dwell on all this? It is because these are +the true Advent voices for us, coming as they do to rouse us out of +narrow preoccupation, to open our eyes to the sinfulness of sin, to make +us feel that the self-centred, isolated, self-seeking life is a life of a +low type, and to stir us with social and religious interests and +enthusiasms. + +These calls that come to you, whether invited or not, and that stir your +heart, speaking to you out of the multitudinous life of the time you live +in, are like the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, which never hold +their peace day nor night. + +This ferment of higher life within us and around us, these voices of the +Spirit in us, as it struggles to lift us out of the region of fleshly +influences, is renewed in every generation and in every single life. If +you hear no such voices, if the phenomena of life make no such impression +upon you, if you are deaf to all these calls, and care for none of these +things, then it is clear that your soul is not yet awake in you; you are +living with a dull or darkened heart. It is a sort of cave life, or +subterranean life, you lead in such a case, a life of lower rank and +lesser hopes. + +Yet these voices from above, that come as the witness of the Divine +Spirit with our spirit that we are the children of God, never fail us. +They do not belong only to times far off. We are not to think of them +merely as enshrined in the Bible and peculiar to it; but as living voices +that are speaking to us to-day out of the depths of the Divine life, in +which our life is sustained. + +But we have always to bear this in mind, that the Divine voices speak to +men with most stirring effect in every generation when they speak to them +through the pressing needs of their own day. To the Jews the voice of +God came in the inspired language of their deliverers and prophets--in +their unceasing warnings, and their impassioned appeals, and their +revelations of new truth. To the first generation of Christians these +same voices came in the shape of strong Advent hopes. Many things +contributed to lift the Apostles and their followers nearer to God than +men of ordinary times. They had seen the Lord; they had lived in His +presence; they had gone through much tribulation; the tongue of fire had +rested on them; the Spirit had taken full possession of them; but we +cannot read the New Testament without feeling that the most stirring, the +most regenerative influence in their society was the vividness and +intensity of their Advent hope. Their expectation of the Lord's return +lifted them out of the temptations of the world and above the trials of +it. It took hold of their active powers, and made them new men. + +Their Advent expectation was not the vague, half mystic, half sentimental +movement of the heart, which just touches the lives of so many Christians +during our Advent seasons, while it does not really alter any of their +earthly concerns. + +Christ was very near to the Apostolic Christians. As the eastern sky +brightened every morning they felt that it might be the light of His +coming; they thought of Him as only hidden from them by the neighbouring +cloud. They looked for Him to return at midnight, or at the +cock-crowing, or in the noonday, and none could say how soon. And so it +came to pass that this expectation made those first believers, those +humble followers of Christ, those Galilean fishermen, those obscure +provincials, instinct with that great life which lifts men above the +world, and constitutes them a new power in it. + +Our lives are largely influenced by the thought of slow development; but +we miss a great deal of the secret of all higher life if we forget this +wonderful exaltation of the poor and ignorant and obscure by this gift of +the Spirit and the inspiration of Divine hope. It was not by any method +which we could have forecast that those men found out this charm which +takes the heart captive and regenerates the life. In their presence we +feel the force of the prophet's words, "Not by might nor by power, but by +My spirit, saith the Lord." + + But then there rises the question, How are these Divine influences to +become powerful in us also? + +On the one hand, we are conscious that as we live involved or entangled +in the worldly life, or in any form of external life around us, the +spiritual part of us slumbers or is overlaid. It loses its practical +power over our thought, our feeling, and our conduct--our lamp goes out. +Whilst on the other hand we are conscious that the special form of Advent +expectation which inspired and possessed the first generation of +Christians is gone from us past recovery. We see clearly enough as we +read the New Testament what that first generation expected, and how the +expectation transformed their lives; but we see also that they were +mistaken in their hope, and that God's providential plan proved to be far +greater than their human conception of it. What, then, are our Advent +hopes? + +There are two things which we should keep clear in our minds concerning +them. One, that they must be based upon our feeling of the living +influence of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit; and the other is +that the voices of the Spirit must come to us out of the needs of our own +life and of the time we live in if they are to lead us to practical +issues. When we look out upon the world and its life we feel that Advent +hopes must take some new form if they are to preserve reality and to be +fulfilled. + +We see decaying faith in some quarters, and selfishness growing where +faith decays; we see ignorance and want and all their crop of sin and +misery deep-rooted in the life of every city; and the prospect which +these things suggest, the problems that meet us as we think of them, +might well fill us with misgiving. And they would indeed do so were it +not for the fact that the revelation of such things brings with it +another revelation also; it seizes on men's souls and stirs them as with +a Divine summons. And thus we have these hopeful signs for the future +rising around us, even where things look darkest, that the great problems +of humanity are felt in our day to be above all things its social and +religious problems. And seeing that the aspirations of the time--the +feelings, the purposes, the aims, and hopes that lift men--grow out of +the needs of the time and the problems of its life, we look forward--we +have good ground for looking forward--to a generation of men who shall be +distinguished by religious earnestness and by social enthusiasm. + +But if this be so, what will your share be in this coming life? The +Spirit of God, as we now understand it, comes to us with calls of this +kind. + +If you would hasten the Advent of Christ in your own soul and in the +souls of others, you must discard selfishness, you must rise above self- +indulgence, you must prepare to merge yourself in the social life, for +the social good; seeing that the growth of this good is the only sure and +certain sign of the coming of the Lord. So, then, the Angel of the +Advent is thus calling us. The future before you is big with social and +religious issues, and the Spirit of Christ is brooding over it, and you +and such as you are to be His chosen instruments in helping forward these +issues. + + + + + XVIII. SPIRITUAL POWER. + + + "And behold I send _the promise of My Father upon you_; but tarry ye + in the city of Jerusalem until ye be _endued with power from on + high_."--ST. LUKE xxiv. 49. + + "Ye shall receive _power_, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon + you."--ACTS i. 8. + +To-day we are celebrating the last of the series of historical festivals +which mark the springtime of our Christian year. And without this one +the rest would leave us with a sense of incompleteness; for we should be +without its gift of the abiding and indwelling Spirit, and the fulfilment +of the last promise. + +What, then, are we learning of its practical lessons, and gathering into +our life? We have read the Pentecostal narrative, and others that +illustrate it. We have sung Pentecostal hymns. We have joined in +special prayer for the light of the Holy Spirit to shine in our hearts, +giving us a right judgment; and if we are led to ask, "To what purpose is +all this?" the answer is to be seen in the texts I have just read to you, +the burden of which is the gift of power from on high. Do we not +recognise this as the end of the New Testament revelation? And do we not +acknowledge that this revelation fails, so far as we are concerned, if it +gives us no such _power_? It is, indeed, in considering this power of +the Spirit that we touch to the quick the real influence of religion in +the practical life of men; for experience shows that it is possible for a +man to be endowed with almost every other gift and yet to lack this +one--this indwelling gift of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. + +Our life is filled with almost everything we could ask or require to +enlighten us or to guide and direct, and yet it fails sometimes. + +It may be failing in some of us here to-day, just from want of this +Divine spark, this influence of a Spirit from above taking up His abode +in us, burning and shining in our hearts so as to purge our affections +from sinful taint and purify our tastes, lifting up and enlarging our +capacities, and rousing our energies--in one word, fusing all our life +into a new form with its refining power. + +And the question of all questions for each of us to consider is, "How am +I to make my life the home and embodiment of this power from above?" If +we turn to our Lord's own example, or to the life of Paul or any other of +His followers, or to any life we have known and felt to breathe around it +this same power of the Spirit, some things become at once very obvious +and clear to us. + +That supreme example and those lives declare that whoever desires to have +his soul purified and invigorated, to be charged with this Divine +electric influence, must have something of separateness and independence +in his life; he must feel himself as not merely one of a crowd moved by +the desires, aims, hopes, tastes, and ambitions which may chance to +prevail around him, but as a separate soul in direct communion with the +Spirit of God. + +But if we are to realise this in our own life, it means that our times of +daily prayer, whether in private or in public, are times at which we lay +open our secret life to the Divine presence and influence; it means that +we give some real thought and meditation to this presence of God in our +life, and that we thus feed our souls continually on wholesome spiritual +food. It is in this way that men's lives become in a real sense the +temples of the Holy Spirit, and the influences of sin fall away from +them. + +But the hindrances that are always acting to undermine or destroy any +such spiritual power in us are manifold, and seldom far away from our +life. + +The world outside is always with us and acting in this way, distracting +thought, setting up its own standards, drawing us into its channels, and +deadening the Spirit in us. This is one of the inevitable conditions of +life as you will have to live it, and the man who is in earnest +recognises it as a paramount reason why he should never drop out of his +personal practice the habit of separate prayer and communion with God. Or +again, we may, and often do, let these hindrances grow up within us +through our own fault, and quite apart from any active influences of the +outer world. + +We contract a dulness of spirit, so that spiritual things have no +interest and faith has no living power in the heart; and all this very +often not because any person, or anything outside of us, can be said to +have led us away and entangled us, but simply because we have taken no +pains to keep our life within the range of spiritual influences; we have +let prayer slip out of it; we have lived in no spiritual companionship; +we have done nothing to keep our soul alive in us. This is how men +choose the lower life, and surrender their birthright out of pure +inertia, so that they lose their spiritual capacity. + +But worst of all hindrances to the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit in any +life is the harbouring of sensual appetite or craving, passion, or +indulgence. No man can expect the Holy Spirit of God to make its home in +such unclean company. It is on this account that there is nothing which +so soon grows to depraved habit, to God-abandoned state, as sensual +appetite; nothing which so rapidly dulls the higher affections in the +heart and saps all the finer elements of life. + +Therefore, when we are thinking of God's gift of the Holy Ghost, and of +spiritual power as the saving and uplifting influence in our soul, we do +well to reflect a little on those hindrances which will be fatal to all +such power in us, if they are allowed to take possession of our life and +to prevail in it. + + We do well to reflect in this way, because such reflection will make us +very careful against harbouring or encouraging any of these fatal +hindrances, and careful also against any other form of spiritual waste. + +There is no surer guide to a right use of all liberty than this +reflection upon the power of the indwelling spirit in us, and the things +that add to it or destroy it. + +Recognising that this Spirit, which, in the language of your confirmation +prayer, is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel +and ghostly strength, the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness and of +holy fear; recognising that this Spirit, with its sevenfold gifts, is the +saving element in all free life, you begin to look with fresh feelings on +all your leisure hours, on all your hours of liberty, when you are +released from task work or supervision, when your life is what you +yourselves are making it, and you begin to consider whether these times, +as you spend them, are indeed times of growth or, it may be, of waste, +times of genuine freedom or of slavery to some form of lower life. When +you think of this Holy Spirit of God as a power in every good life, it +becomes a very real question what and of what sort is the _power_ that is +holding sway over you in your leisure hours. + +This is indeed a question which never sleeps, and to-day we ask, What is +your Whitsuntide answer to it? + +If there be any one to whom such a question is not yet a matter of living +concern, it is the purpose of this Pentecostal festival to rouse him to +new thoughts about it. + +If there be any older person in this congregation who lets his years slip +from him, not caring or forgetting the importance of it, and not striving +to leaven all his hours of work or leisure with the thought of this +indwelling Spirit from above; or if there should be any young boy who, in +utter thoughtlessness, or from perversity or coarseness, or any induced +depravity of taste, allows any evil spirit to bear rule in his life, our +prayer for such an one to-day is that the baptism of fire may descend +upon his soul, and the power of a new spirit be felt in it. + +And indeed there is not one of us but needs to come at such a time with +this same prayer for his own life; for our own experience is too often +very like the vision of Ezekiel. Under the influences that come between +us and the Spirit of the living God, our soul is in continual danger of +being like the prophet's valley of dry bones, which lay lifeless, +unmoved, till the breath of the Lord breathed over them, and the breath +came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an +exceeding great army. + +So we pray that our life may prove responsive to these influences of the +Pentecostal season. And the first response it gives is when it rises up +in the consciousness of the Spirit of God as a living power in the heart, +a power to drive out evil, and to inspire and strengthen us for what is +good. + +And if, under the inspiring associations of this historic and holy day, +you feel your soul touched with a new spirit or consciousness rising up +in you from the grave of its own dead self to new desires and new +thoughts, and a new sense of the living nearness of the Holy Ghost the +Comforter, then you know--and you need no prophet to tell you--that the +Pentecostal gift has not failed, and there is good hope that you will not +spoil either your youth or your manhood with any form of ignoble life. + + + + + XIX. SANCTIFIED FOR SERVICE. + + + "We are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry; ye are + God's building."--1 COR. iii. 9. + +In this passage St. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for that spirit of +party which was dividing them into followers of this or that teacher and +so destroying their unity in Christ. You do not belong, he says, to Paul +or to Apollos; _we_ have no claim upon you; ye are not to be called by +_our_ name: you are _God's_ husbandry, and _God's_ building, not ours; we +are but labourers in His service and ministers for your good. Therefore, +see to it that you live as one society in Christ Jesus, discarding all +divisions, factions, and party passions and watchwords, imbued with one +spirit. It is a noble exhortation to unity of life and purpose; but we +may notice in it more than this. + + As Paul himself disclaims all personal merit--as he presses it on their +attention that neither is he that planteth anything nor he that watereth, +but God that giveth the increase, he is unconsciously exhibiting to us an +example of that rare humility which is characteristic of all the greatest +and most effective workers; whilst in the vivid and expressive metaphors +of my text--ye are God's husbandry, God's building--he makes us to feel +the value and the dignity of each human soul. + +It would be interesting to dwell on these calls to unity of life in +Christ, and the close connection between such unity and the spirit of +humility; in fact, we might say, the absolute necessity of the spirit of +humility and self-forgetfulness in individuals if there is to be unity in +the society. And we might apply the thoughts with much profit to our own +social relations, for they are never out of date; but I desire to turn to- +day to that which is suggested by these descriptive metaphors, the value +and dignity of each human life. + + St. Paul pressed it on these Corinthians that their souls were nothing +less than the seed-field of which God Himself was the Husbandman, or the +temple built by His hand; and they could hardly have listened to such +language without being stirred to take care how they sowed in that field, +or without feeling the consequent value of their life in the sight of +God. + +If they were thus the objects of the Divine care they could not be +thought of as insignificant units in a crowded city; or as living an +obscure life which was of no particular importance, as they might +otherwise have been tempted to fancy, as we are still sometimes tempted +to think about an individual life. This picture of each life amongst us +in its relation to God, as His seed-field or His temple, is a continual +reminder that where a human soul is concerned there is no such thing as +insignificance or obscurity. + +As St. Paul thought of that little company--a company small and obscure +to the outward eye--what he saw in them was the temple of the Holy Ghost, +and the spiritual life that was breathing there was a Divine life; and +this intense conviction of the value of each soul and each society and +its consequent sanctity was a never-failing inspiration to him. + +Through it he saw in every one who listened to his words, as he went from +city to city, a man created and endowed with a Divine mission and Divine +capacity, if they could only be roused. + +It transformed every soul that crossed his path, so that he looked on +life with new eyes. The common crowd had a new interest for him, the +suffering poor, the downtrodden slave, the heathen in his blindness, the +degraded sinner. + +And it has been so with all the great servants of God; out of this +feeling the love of souls has grown in men. + +But this feeling of the value of each individual life, because of the +Divine element and presence in it, is a peculiar gift of the Christian +revelation. + +In the ancient pagan world a man's life was of little account; it is out +of the Bible that this new thought has come that every soul has in it an +indefinite element of Divine possibilities, and is therefore of value in +the sight of God. It is by virtue of this contribution to our thought +that the Bible is truly described as the Great Charter of human rights, +and as the source of the great stream of charity and self-sacrifice, of +that enthusiasm of humanity which more than all else separates and +distinguishes our life from that of heathen antiquity. + +It would indeed be difficult to point to any one single thing which makes +so great a difference between the quality of one man's life and another's +as the presence or absence of this feeling about the value, the +possibilities, the sanctity of each individual soul. + +"Let man estimate himself," said Pascal, "let him estimate himself at his +true value, honour himself in his capacities, and despise himself in his +neglect of those capacities." Yes, if a man is once brought to this +condition that he feels the greatness of the ends for which God has made +him, and that he estimates his life by the possibilities of growth that +are in it, and by the thought of the Divine influences that work in it; +and if he despises himself for neglect of these capacities or +possibilities and of these influences, he has awoke to a sense of the +first word of Christ and His Apostles. + +Your soul is God's seed-field, God's building; we are labourers together +with God. Such a description of each individual life is very significant +everywhere, and not least in such a society as ours. + +To us who are here in this society as masters they are just a parable of +our own life; setting forth to each of us what should be his estimate of +his own work and aim and purpose, exhibiting to him his field of work +with the Divine light on it, and interpreting to him his own endeavours +as a fellow-labourer with God, hoping to contribute in some degree +towards the filling in and completing that Divine plan, that ideal +picture of the life of every one of you which is in the heavens, and +which in imagination he sees as a thing some day to be realised, and the +realisation of which, or its failure, may largely depend on his own share +in our life and work. It is this feeling that every heart contains the +germ of some perfection that makes our life so profoundly interesting, +and, it may be added, our responsibilities for the cultivation or neglect +of any such germ or capacity so serious and engrossing. + +But to you, too, these apostolic suggestions about the Divine influences +at work in each heart, and the value of each life in God's sight, and the +Divine voices claiming to be heard in it, should be quite as stimulative +as they are to us. + +They have in them the germ of all striving after purity and goodness, and +of all hatred of sin, and enthusiasm for the uplifting of social life. + +The words of Paul to his Corinthian converts may furnish you with new +interpretations of your own daily life and duty. + + If they were God's husbandry, or God's building, are not you? If the +Spirit of God dwelt in them, how does He not dwell likewise in you? +striving for your growth in holiness and good purpose, and for your +salvation from sin and its defilements, as he strove for theirs? + +And if it was good for every man in that Corinthian community to be +warned how he built upon the foundation of life that had been laid in +Christ; if it was good for them to be reminded that every man's work +would be made manifest, and that the fire would try it, of what sort it +was; it is good also for us, masters and boys alike, to remember that we +are living under the same law, and that we should take care lest haply we +be found to be working against God. + +That Epistle of St. Paul's was written in pain and anguish of heart. The +seeds of Christian life which he had sown among them, the purifying +influences of the Holy Spirit which were working among them through him +and his fellow-labourers, all these ought to have produced fruits easily +described, such as peace and love, and purity, and good works; but +instead of these, and threatening their destruction, there had sprung up +dissension and strife, party spirit, self-conceit, and gross sins which I +need not name. + +In all this there was grief, disappointment, bitterness; for did they not +prove that his work was threatened with failure? + +Yet in all that storm of feeling his chief exhortation is this reminder +of the dignity of their calling. In the midst of all their sin and +failure, though he does not spare rebuke and warning, he always aims at +inspiring them by uplifting. And we know that this is the true method, +because there is nothing which exercises an influence so strong to uplift +and purify as the feeling of our kinship with the life above us, and that +we are degrading our life when we forget this or ignore it. And herein +is the value of this word of his that God is dwelling and working in us. +"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, that the Holy Ghost dwelleth +in you, and that God's temple is holy? and if any man destroy the temple +of God, him shall God destroy." + +Let us then begin again our common life with a determination to bear in +mind the possibilities and the sanctity of each separate soul that comes +amongst us. + +Living in crowds, we are apt to forget this; and, forgetting it, some +treat their own souls as if they were of no value, and some the souls of +others, and so the work of sin and waste goes on from generation to +generation. + +But in our best moments, in our times of serious thought, if we have been +once enlightened, we can never again cease to feel the dignity and the +value of each human life. + +When we think of God's care for us we feel it; when we think of the +possibilities He has ordained for us we feel it; when we think of the +endless life that lies before us we feel it; above all, we never fail to +feel it when our thoughts revert to any life that has been snatched away +from us. Some of you are thinking to-day of the master whose home is +darkened by the presence of the angel of death. You think of her whom +God has taken, who was moving among you not so long ago, as your tender, +considerate, and helpful friend. It may be that you were not +uninfluenced by her self-devotion and holiness. + +When you think of such an one you feel no doubt about the value and the +sanctity of each human life. + +Well, then, transfer this feeling to your own life, or to the life of the +boy who sits beside you, or who lives as your companion. In the purpose +of our common Father, your lives also are destined for holy uses. + +To remember this may be a safeguard against temptation or sinful habit; +it may inspire you with a new feeling of the value of _all_ the lives +around you, and a new sense of the duty you owe to the good life of this +society in which God has placed you, that you may prove a vessel of +honour sanctified for His service. + + + + + XX. HE THAT OVERCOMETH. + + + "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, + and he shall be My son."--REVELATION xxi. 7. + +Year by year as at this time, when the week of our Saviour's Passion and +Death is just in front of us, and the shadow of His Cross is falling over +us, one generation after another of the boys of this school gather here, +and in the face of the congregation, young and old, they take upon them +the vows of a Christian life. So we met last Thursday, and your vow is +still fresh upon a great many of you, as indeed it can hardly fail to be +fresh in the memory of every one in this congregation who has ever taken +it. Let us pause for a moment and repeat its plain words. You have +declared your faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy +Ghost, the Father, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier of your life. You have +vowed that you renounce the devil and his works, that you renounce +covetous desires, that you renounce the carnal desires of the flesh, so +that you will not follow nor be led by them. And you have vowed that you +will keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in them all the days +of your life. And you take this upon you, let us hope, in sincerity and +honesty of purpose. + +And, if so, the text I have read to you declares God's promise, if you +persevere, just as another text in the same chapter declares that into +the City of God there shall not enter anything that defileth or worketh +abomination or maketh a lie. This, then, is the promise--"He that +overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall +be My son." But as we think of this and look forward, we have to +remember that this life to which you are dedicated is not an easy matter. +If you are to succeed in it, you have to think of it always as a life +under a vow, as in fact a consecrated life, consecrated by your own +promise and profession. And this is a great safeguard if you bear it +always in mind. + +It is indeed the first condition of safety from the attacks and the +impulses of sin, this consciousness which you will carry about with you, +that you are self-dedicated--that there was a day on which you said "I +will"--so that if you are to be true to your profession and declared +purpose, you will strive to keep near to God in the spirit, and you will +have no dealings with the devil and his works, and you will resist all +the degrading solicitations of the flesh, and will live in the atmosphere +of things that are pure and of good report. + +To have conceived such a purpose as this, to have opened your heart to +its influence, to have lived in it even for a little while, to have felt +its purifying and strengthening breath upon your soul even for a few +weeks, may be enough, as some of you know very well, to lift your life up +to a new level, so that it becomes and is felt by you to be a quite +different life from what you lived before--a life of new thoughts, of new +notions about what is good or what is evil, about the degrading character +of sin and the misery and hatefulness of it, as also about the happiness +of a life that is inspired by good aims and purposes, and is free from a +sense of God's wrath upon you for some low standard of conduct, or some +sinful appetite or passion. If you have once felt the influence of this +change in your heart, you know the difference henceforth between the +higher life and the lower, the life that is clinging to God, however +feebly, and is in the way of salvation, and the life of sin which will +inevitably end in degradation and in death. + +But this life in Christ to which you are dedicated is not an easy one; +let us not suppose it. It is a noble life, and every one who strives to +live it is doing something to ennoble his society; but it is not an easy +life. It is never so represented to us in the Bible. There is a sense +no doubt in which our Lord invites us to see how easy is His yoke +compared with the yoke of sin--but He Himself calls upon every believer +to take up his cross and follow Him. That call may bring to any of us +not peace but a sword. St. Paul sets the Christian life before us as a +race to be run with patience; as a conflict which will sometimes be very +hard. In St. James we see it as the discipline of sore temptation, and +in St. Peter it is the fiery trial that is to try us. + +And again, in the Revelation of St. John, we have this picture of +blessing only to those that endure, and to those who have not defiled +their garments, and those who have come through great tribulation. + +And all our personal experience confirms this language of Holy Scripture, +reminding us, as it does, how hard it is for an individual to keep in the +narrow way of the spotless Christian life, and how it is still harder to +stamp the mark of Christian purpose upon a society. + +Yet these are the two things to which God is calling us. These you have +in fact vowed that you will strive after; and if you are unfaithful in +either respect, if you give up your effort for an easy, drifting life, +you are letting go your confirmation vows; and whereas you were intended +to be the salt of your society, your salt will lose its savour. To +consider this just now may save some of you from discouragement and some +from waste and failure. + +Men are stronger to meet their difficulties if they know that they have +to meet them or else to fail and sink. And so it will be with you. You +will be more likely to go forward strong in earnest purpose, strong in +the strength which God supplies, if you bear it in mind that, as St. Paul +would have expressed it, we are appointed unto these trials; and that a +soldier of Christ must expect to have to endure hardness; and in fact +that it is a law of our spiritual life that one of the chief roots of all +growth in strength and goodness is suffering. We grow through trial and +suffering to true manhood in Christ. + +So, if you look at your own life and experience, you will find that some +suffer through a sore struggle with their own temptations, or their own +weaknesses--their desires, their appetites, their fears, or the habits +they have contracted, and their struggle may be so hard that it needs all +the grace of God to keep them firm in their purpose. Some again suffer +not from internal but from external hindrances. Companions may be +against them, or a low public opinion may be against them, and they may +feel as if they could hardly stand firm in isolation, or under suspicion, +or mockery, or enmity; and some may suffer because the conscience around +them is depraved, and they feel too weak to fight against it, though they +know and acknowledge its depravity. But however hard may be the fight +there should be no discouragement, if only you are able still to say in +all honesty that you are holding fast to the good purpose which you +uttered in your confirmation vows. Two quite simple warnings may +sometimes do us great service--one, is that we are very apt to exaggerate +the forces against us. They seem very strong when we are feeling weak; +but they sometimes break up and disappear if they are met with a little +courage. And the other warning is this, that we sometimes let ourselves +sink and drift into sinful ways or moral cowardice, by neglecting the +helps which God gives us for the strengthening of a good life in us. + +Thus if we neglect real prayer, or do not seek the support of good +companionship, if we take no pains to live in a good atmosphere and +amidst good surroundings, if there is little of devout thought or +habitual worship in our life and still less of Holy Communion, if we thus +allow ourselves to drift out of the range of the higher moral and +spiritual influences, our vows are forgotten and our good purposes fade +away, our will becomes weak, and the world with all its temptations is +very likely to overcome us. + +Feeling the infinite issues that hang on such considerations as these, +let us carry about with us the inspiring and invigorating call and the +promise contained in the text with which I began this sermon--"He that +overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall +be My son." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERMONS AT RUGBY*** + + +******* This file should be named 16856.txt or 16856.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/8/5/16856 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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