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diff --git a/5687-0.txt b/5687-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cab74c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/5687-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5859 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Water of Life, by Charles Kingsley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: The Water of Life + and Other Sermons + + +Author: Charles Kingsley + + + +Release Date: November 5, 2014 [eBook #5687] +[This file was first posted on August 7, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATER OF LIFE*** + + +Transcribed from the 1890 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + THE WATER OF LIFE + _AND OTHER SERMONS_ + + + * * * * * + + BY + CHARLES KINGSLEY. + + * * * * * + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND NEW YORK + 1890 + + _The right of translation is reserved_ + + * * * * * + + First Edition (Fcap. 8vo), 1867. + New Edition 1872, Reprinted 1873, 1875. + New Edition, Crown 8vo, 1879, Reprinted 1881, 1885. + New Edition 1890. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + SERMON I. + Page +THE WATER OF LIFE. (_Revelation_ xxii. 17.) 1 + SERMON II. +THE PHYSICIAN’S CALLING. (_St. Matthew_ ix. 35.) 14 + SERMON III. +THE VICTORY OF LIFE. (_Isaiah_ xxxviii. 18, 19.) 27 + SERMON IV. +THE WAGES OF SIN. (_Romans_ vi. 21–23.) 40 + SERMON V. +NIGHT AND DAY. (_Romans_ xiii. 12.) 56 + SERMON VI. +THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. (_Hebrews_ xii. 68 +26–29.) + SERMON VII. +THE BATTLE OF LIFE. (_Galatians_ v. 16, 17.) 83 + SERMON VIII. +FREE GRACE. (_Isaiah_ lv. 1.) 90 + SERMON IX. +EZEKIEL’S VISION. (_Ezekiel_ i. 1, 26.) 98 + SERMON X. +RUTH. (_Ruth_ ii. 4.) 111 + SERMON XI. +SOLOMON. (_Ecclesiastes_ i. 12–14.) 123 + SERMON XII. +PROGRESS. (_Ecclesiastes_ vii. 10.) 134 + SERMON XIII. +FAITH. (_Habakkuk_ ii. 4.) 143 + SERMON XIV. +THE GREAT COMMANDMENT. (_Matthew_ xxii. 37, 38.) 153 + SERMON XV. +THE EARTHQUAKE. (_Psalm_ xlvi. 1, 2.) 164 + SERMON XVI. +THE METEOR SHOWER. (_Matthew_ x. 29, 30.) 176 + SERMON XVII. +CHOLERA, 1866. (_Luke_ vii. 16.) 189 + SERMON XVIII. +THE WICKED SERVANT. (_Matthew_ xviii. 23.) 203 + SERMON XIX. +CIVILIZED BARBARISM. (_Mattthew_ ix. 12.) 213 + SERMON XX. +THE GOD OF NATURE. (_Psalm_ cxlvii. 7–9.) 233 + + + + +SERMON I. +THE WATER OF LIFE. + + + (_Preached at Westminster Abbey_) + + REVELATION xxii. 17. + + And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth + say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, + let him take the water of life freely. + +THIS text is its own witness. It needs no man to testify to its origin. +Its own words show it to be inspired and divine. + +But not from its mere poetic beauty, great as that is: greater than we, +in this wet and cold climate, can see at the first glance. We must go to +the far East and the far South to understand the images which were called +up in the mind of an old Jew at the very name of wells and water-springs; +and why the Scriptures speak of them as special gifts of God, life-giving +and divine. We must have seen the treeless waste, the blazing sun, the +sickening glare, the choking dust, the parched rocks, the distant +mountains quivering as in the vapour of a furnace; we must have felt the +lassitude of heat, the torment of thirst, ere we can welcome, as did +those old Easterns, the well dug long ago by pious hands, whither the +maidens come with their jars at eventide, when the stone is rolled away, +to water the thirsty flocks; or the living fountain, under the shadow of +a great rock in a weary land, with its grove of trees, where all the +birds for many a mile flock in, and shake the copses with their song; its +lawn of green, on which the long-dazzled eye rests with refreshment and +delight; its brook, wandering away—perhaps to be lost soon in burning +sand, but giving, as far as it flows, Life; a Water of Life to plant, to +animal, and to man. + +All these images, which we have to call up in our minds one by one, +presented themselves to the mind of an Eastern, whether Jew or heathen, +at once, as a well-known and daily scene; and made him feel, at the very +mention of a water-spring, that the speaker was telling him of the good +and beautiful gift of a beneficent Being. + +And yet—so do extremes meet—like thoughts, though not like images, may be +called up in our minds, here in the heart of London, in murky alleys and +foul courts, where there is too often, as in the poet’s rotting sea— + + ‘Water, water, everywhere, + Yet not a drop to drink.’ + +And we may bless God—as the Easterns bless Him for the ancestors who +digged their wells—for every pious soul who now erects a +drinking-fountain; for he fulfils the letter as well as the spirit of +Scripture, by offering to the bodies as well as the souls of men the +Water of Life freely. + +But the text speaks not of earthly water. No doubt the words ‘Water of +Life’ have a spiritual and mystic meaning. Yet that alone does not prove +the inspiration of the text. They had a spiritual and mystic meaning +already among the heathens of the East—Greeks and barbarians alike. + +The East—and indeed the West likewise—was haunted by dreams of a Water of +Life, a Fount of Perpetual Youth, a Cup of Immortality: dreams at which +only the shallow and the ignorant will smile; for what are they but +tokens of man’s right to Immortality,—of his instinct that he is not as +the beasts,—that there is somewhat in him which ought not to die, which +need not die, and yet which may die, and which perhaps deserves to die? +How could it be kept alive? how strengthened and refreshed into perpetual +youth? + +And water—with its life-giving and refreshing powers, often with +medicinal properties seemingly miraculous—what better symbol could be +found for that which would keep off death? Perhaps there was some +reality which answered the symbol, some actual Cup of Immortality, some +actual Fount of Youth. But who could attain to them? Surely the gods +hid their own special treasure from the grasp of man. Surely that Water +of Life was to be sought for far away, amid trackless mountain-peaks, +guarded by dragons and demons. That Fount of Youth must be hidden in the +rich glades of some tropic forest. That Cup of Immortality must be +earned by years, by ages, of superhuman penance and self torture. +Certain of the old Jews, it is true, had had deeper and truer thoughts. +Here and there a psalmist had said, ‘With God is the well of Life;’ or a +prophet had cried, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, +and buy without money and without price!’ But the Jews had utterly +forgotten (if the mass of them ever understood) the meaning of the old +revelations; and, above all, the Pharisees, the most religious among +them. To their minds, it was only by a proud asceticism,—by being not as +other men were; only by doing some good thing—by performing some +extraordinary religious feat,—that man could earn eternal life. And +bitter and deadly was their selfish wrath when they heard that the Water +of Life was within all men’s reach, then and for ever; that The Eternal +Life was in that Christ who spoke to them; that He gave it freely to +whomsoever He would;—bitter their wrath when they heard His disciples +declare that God had given to men Eternal Life; that the Spirit and the +Bride said. Come. + +They had, indeed, a graceful ceremony, handed down to them from better +times, as a sign that those words of the old psalmists and prophets had +once meant something. At the Feast of Tabernacles—the harvest feast—at +which God was especially to be thanked as the giver of fertility and +Life, their priests drew water with great pomp from the pool of Siloam; +connecting it with the words of the prophet: ‘With joy shall ye draw +water out of the wells of salvation.’ But the ceremony had lost its +meaning. It had become mechanical and empty. They had forgotten that +God was a giver. They would have confessed, of course, that He was the +Lord of Life: but they expected Him to prove that, not by giving Life, +but by taking it away: not by saving the many, but by destroying all +except a favoured few. But bitter and deadly was their wrath when they +were told that their ceremony had still a living meaning, and a meaning +not only for them, but for all men; for that mob of common people whom +they looked on as accursed, because they knew not the law. Bitter and +deadly was their selfish wrath, when they heard One who ate and drank +with publicans and sinners stand up in the very midst of that grand +ceremony, and cry; ‘If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He +that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, Out of him shall flow +rivers of living water.’ A God who said to all ‘Come,’ was not the God +they desired to rule over them. And thus the very words which prove the +text to be divine and inspired, were marked out as such by those bigots +of the old world, who in them saw and hated both Christ and His Father. + +The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Come, and drink freely. + +Those words prove the text, and other texts like it in Holy Scripture, to +be an utterly new Gospel and good news; an utterly new revelation and +unveiling of God, and of the relations of God to man. + +For the old legends and dreams, in whatsoever they differed, agreed at +least in this, that the Water of Life was far away; infinitely difficult +to reach; the prize only of some extraordinary favourite of fortune, or +of some being of superhuman energy and endurance. The gods grudged life +to mortals, as they grudged them joy and all good things. That God +should say Come; that the Water of Life could be a gift, a grace, a boon +of free generosity and perfect condescension, never entered into their +minds. That the gods should keep their immortality to themselves seemed +reasonable enough. That they should bestow it on a few heroes; and, far +away above the stars, give them to eat of their ambrosia, and drink of +their nectar, and so live for ever; that seemed reasonable enough +likewise. + +But that the God of gods, the Maker of the universe should say, ‘Come, +and drink freely;’ that He should stoop from heaven to bring life and +immortality to light,—to tell men what the Water of Life was, and where +it was, and how to attain it; much more, that that God should stoop to +become incarnate, and suffer and die on the cross, that He might purchase +the Water of Life, not for a favoured few, but for all mankind; that He +should offer it to all, without condition, stint, or drawback;—this, +this, never entered into their wildest dreams. + +And yet, when the strange news was told, it looked so probable, although +so strange, to thousands who had seemed mere profligates or outcasts; it +agreed so fully with the deepest voices of their own hearts,—with their +thirst for a nobler, purer, more enduring Life,—with their highest idea +of what a perfect God should be, if He meant to show His perfect +goodness; it seemed at once so human and humane, and yet so superhuman +and divine;—that they accepted it unhesitatingly, as a voice from God +Himself, a revelation of the Eternal Author of the universe; as, God +grant you may accept it this day. + +And what is Life? And what is the Water of Life? + +What are they indeed, my friends? You will find many answers to that +question, in this, as in all ages: but the one which Scripture gives is +this. Life is none other, according to the Scripture, than God Himself, +Jesus Christ our Lord, who bestows on man His own Spirit, to form in him +His own character, which is the character of God. + +He is The one Eternal Life; and it has been manifested in human form, +that human beings might copy it; and behold, it was full of grace and +truth. + +The Life of grace and truth; that is the Life of Christ, and, therefore, +the Life of God. + +The Life of grace—of graciousness, love, pity, generosity, usefulness, +self-sacrifice; the Life of truth—of faithfulness, fairness, justice, the +desire to impart knowledge and to guide men into all truth. The Life, in +one word, of charity, which is both grace and truth, both love and +justice, in one Eternal essence. That is the life which God lives for +ever in heaven. That is The one Eternal Life, which must be also the +Life of God. For, as there is but one Eternal, even God, so is there but +one Eternal Life, which is the life of God and of His Christ. And the +Spirit by which it is inspired into the hearts of men is the Spirit of +God, who proceedeth alike from the Father and from the Son. + +Have you not seen men and women in whom these words have been literally +and palpably fulfilled? Have you not seen those who, though old in +years, were so young in heart, that they seem to have drunk of the +Fountain of perpetual Youth,—in whom, though the outward body decayed, +the soul was renewed day by day; who kept fresh and pure the noblest and +holiest instincts of their childhood, and went on adding to them the +experience, the calm, the charity of age? Persons whose eye was still so +bright, whose smile was still so tender, that it seemed that they could +never die? And when they died, or seemed to die, you felt that THEY were +not dead, but only their husk and shell; that they themselves, the +character which you had loved and reverenced, must endure on, beyond the +grave, beyond the worlds, in a literally Everlasting Life, independent of +nature, and of all the changes of the material universe. + +Surely you have seen such. And surely what you loved in them was the +Spirit of God Himself,—that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, +goodness, which the natural savage man has not. Has not, I say, look at +him where you will, from the tropics to the pole, because it is a gift +above man; the gift of the Spirit of God; the Eternal Life of goodness, +which natural birth cannot give to man, nor natural death take away. + +You have surely seen such persons—if you have not, _I_ have, thank God, +full many a time;—but if you have seen them, did you not see this?—That +it was not riches which gave them this Life, if they were rich; or +intellect, if they were clever; or science, if they were learned; or +rank, if they were cultivated; or bodily organization, if they were +beautiful and strong: that this noble and gentle life of theirs was +independent of their body, of their mind, of their circumstances? Nay, +have you not seen this,—_I_ have, thank God, full many a time,—That not +many rich, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but that God’s +strength is rather made perfect in man’s weakness,—that in foul garrets, +in lonely sick-beds, in dark places of the earth, you find ignorant +people, sickly people, ugly people, stupid people, in spite of, in +defiance of, every opposing circumstance, leading heroic lives,—a +blessing, a comfort, an example, a very Fount of Life to all around them; +and dying heroic deaths, because they know they have Eternal Life? + +And what was that which had made them different from the mean, the +savage, the drunken, the profligate beings around them? This at least. +That they were of those of whom it is written, ‘Let him that is athirst +come.’ They had been athirst for Life. They had had instincts and +longings; very simple and humble, but very pure and noble. At times, it +may be, they had been unfaithful to those instincts. At times, it may +be, they had fallen. They had said ‘Why should I not do like the rest, +and be a savage? Let me eat and drink, for to-morrow I die;’ and they +had cast themselves down into sin, for very weariness and heaviness, and +were for a while as the beasts which have no law. + +But the thirst after The noble Life was too deep to be quenched in that +foul puddle. It endured, and it conquered; and they became more and more +true to it, till it was satisfied at last, though never quenched, that +thirst of theirs, in Him who alone can satisfy it—the God who gave it; +for in them were fulfilled the Lord’s own words: ‘Blessed are they that +hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.’ + +There are those, I fear, in this church—there are too many in all +churches—who have not felt, as yet, this divine thirst after a higher +Life; who wish not for an Eternal, but for a merely endless life, and who +would not care greatly what sort of life that endless life might be, if +only it was not too unlike the life which they live now; who would be +glad enough to continue as they are, in their selfish pleasure, selfish +gain, selfish content, for ever; who look on death as an unpleasant +necessity, the end of all which they really prize; and who have taken up +religion chiefly as a means for escaping still more unpleasant +necessities after death. To them, as to all, it is said, ‘Come, and +drink of the water of life freely.’ But The Life of goodness which +Christ offers, is not the life they want. Wherefore they will not come +to Him, that they may have life. Meanwhile, they have no right to sneer +at the Fountain of Youth, or the Cup of Immortality. Well were it for +them if those dreams were true; in their heart of hearts they know it. +Would they not go to the ends of the earth to bathe in the Fountain of +Youth? Would they not give all their gold for a draught of the Cup of +Immortality, and so save themselves, once and for all, the trouble of +becoming good? + +But there are those here, I doubt not, who have in them, by grace of God, +that same divine thirst for the Higher Life; who are discontented with +themselves, ashamed of themselves; who are tormented by longings which +they cannot satisfy, instincts which they cannot analyse, powers which +they cannot employ, duties which they cannot perform, doctrinal +confusions which they cannot unravel; who would welcome any change, even +the most tremendous, which would make them nobler, purer, juster, more +loving, more useful, more clear-headed and sound-minded; and when they +think of death say with the poet,— + + ‘’Tis life, not death for which I pant, + ’Tis life, whereof my nerves are scant, + More life, and fuller, that I want.’ + +To them I say—for God has said it long ago,—Be of good cheer. The +calling and gifts of God are without repentance. If you have the divine +thirst, it will be surely satisfied. If you long to be better men and +women, better men and women you will surely be. Only be true to those +higher instincts; only do not learn to despise and quench that divine +thirst; only struggle on, in spite of mistakes, of failures, even of +sins—for every one of which last your heavenly Father will chastise you, +even while He forgives; in spite of all falls, struggle on. Blessed are +you that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled. +To you—and not in vain—‘The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him +that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever +will, let him drink of the water of life freely.’ + + + + +SERMON II. +THE PHYSICIAN’S CALLING. + + + (_Preached at Whitehall for St. George’s Hospital_.) + + ST. MATTHEW ix. 35. + + And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their + synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing + every sickness and every disease among the people. + +THE Gospels speak of disease and death in a very simple and human tone. +They regard them in theory, as all are forced to regard them in fact, as +sore and sad evils. + +The Gospels never speak of disease or death as necessities; never as the +will of God. It is Satan, not God, who binds the woman with a spirit of +infirmity. It is not the will of our Father in heaven that one little +one should perish. Indeed, we do not sufficiently appreciate the +abhorrence with which the whole of Scripture speaks of disease and death: +because we are in the habit of interpreting many texts which speak of the +disease and death of the body in this life as if they referred to the +punishment and death of the soul in the world to come. We have a perfect +right to do that; for Scripture tells us that there is a mysterious +analogy and likeness between the life of the body and that of the soul, +and therefore between the death of the body and that of the soul: but we +must not forget, in the secondary and higher spiritual interpretation of +such texts, their primary and physical meaning, which is this—that +disease and death are uniformly throughout Scripture held up to the +abhorrence of man. + +Moreover—and this is noteworthy—the Gospels, and indeed all Scripture, +very seldom palliate the misery of disease, by drawing from it those +moral lessons which we ourselves do. I say very seldom. The Bible does +so here and there, to tell us that we may do so likewise. And we may +thank God heartily that the Bible does so. It would be a miserable +world, if all that the clergyman or the friend might say by the sick-bed +were, ‘This is an inevitable evil, like hail and thunder. You must bear +it if you can: and if not, then not.’ A miserable world, if he could not +say with full belief; ‘“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the +Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth +He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Thou knowest +not now why thou art afflicted; perhaps thou wilt never know in this +life. But a day will come when thou wilt know: when thou wilt find that +this sickness came to thee at the exact right time, in the exact right +way; when thou wilt find that God has been keeping thee in the secret +place of His presence from the provoking of men, and hiding thee +privately in His tabernacle from the spite of tongues; when thou wilt +discover that thou hast been learning precious lessons for thy immortal +spirit, while thou didst seem to thyself merely tossing with clouded +intellect on a bed of useless pain; when thou wilt find that God was +nearest to thee, at the very moment when He seemed to have left thee most +utterly.’ + +Thank God, we can say that, and more; and we will say it. But we must +bear in mind, that the Gospels, which are the very parts of Scripture +which speak most concerning disease, omit almost entirely that cheering +and comforting view of it. + +And why? Only to force upon our attention, I believe, a view even more +cheering and comforting: a view deeper and wider, because supplied not +merely to the pious sufferer, but to all sufferers; not merely to the +Christian, but to all mankind. And that is, I believe, none other than +this: that God does not only bring spiritual good out of physical evil, +but that He hates physical evil itself: that He desires not only the +salvation of our souls, but the health of our bodies; and that when He +sent His only begotten Son into the world to do His will, part of that +will was, that He should attack and conquer the physical evil of +disease—as it were instinctively, as his natural enemy, and directly, for +the sake of the body of the sufferer. + +Many excellent men, seeing how the healing of disease was an integral +part of our Lord’s mission, and of the mission of His apostles, have +wished that it should likewise form an integral part of the mission of +the Church: that the clergy should as much as possible be physicians; the +physician, as much as possible, a clergyman. The plan may be useful in +exceptional cases—in that, for instance, of the missionary among the +heathen. + +But experience has decided, that in a civilized and Christian country it +had better be otherwise: that the great principle of the division of +labour should be carried out: that there should be in the land a body of +men whose whole mind and time should be devoted to one part only of our +Lord’s work—the battle with disease and death. And the effect has been +not to lower but to raise the medical profession. It has saved the +doctor from one great danger—that of abusing, for the purposes of +religious proselytizing, the unlimited confidence reposed in him. It has +freed him from many a superstition which enfeebled and confused the +physicians of the Middle Ages. It has enabled him to devote his whole +intellect to physical science, till he has set his art on a sound and +truly scientific foundation. It has enabled him to attack physical evil +with a single-hearted energy and devotion which ought to command the +respect and admiration of his fellow-countrymen. If all classes did +their work half as simply, as bravely, as determinedly, as unselfishly, +as the medical men of Great Britain—and, I doubt not, of other countries +in Europe—this world would be a far fairer place than it is likely to be +for many a year to come. It is good to do one thing and to do it well. +It is good to follow Christ in one thing, and to follow Him utterly in +that. And the medical man has set his mind to do one thing,—to hate +calmly, but with an internecine hatred, disease and death, and to fight +against them to the end. + +The medical man is complained of at times as being too materialistic—as +caring more for the bodies of his patients than for their souls. Do not +blame him too hastily. In his exclusive care for the body, he may be +witnessing unconsciously, yet mightily, for the soul, for God, for the +Bible, for immortality. + +Is he not witnessing for God, when he shows by his acts that he believes +God to be a God of Life, not of death; of health, not of disease; of +order, not of disorder; of joy and strength, not of misery and weakness? + +Is he not witnessing for Christ when, like Christ, he heals all manner of +sickness and disease among the people, and attacks physical evil as the +natural foe of man and of the Creator of man? + +Is he not witnessing for the immortality of the soul when he fights +against death as an evil to be postponed at all hazards and by all means, +even when its advent is certain? Surely it is so. How often have we +seen the doctor by the dying bed, trying to preserve life, when he knew +well that life could not be preserved. We have been tempted to say to +him, ‘Let the sufferer alone. He is senseless. He is going. We can do +nothing more for his soul; you can do nothing more for his body. Why +torment him needlessly for the sake of a few more moments of respiration? +Let him alone to die in peace.’ How have we been tempted to say that? +We have not dared to say it; for we saw that the doctor, and not we, was +in the right; that in all those little efforts, so wise, so anxious, so +tender, so truly chivalrous, to keep the failing breath for a few moments +more in the body of one who had no earthly claim upon his care, that +doctor was bearing a testimony, unconscious yet most weighty, to that +human instinct of which the Bible approves throughout, that death in a +human being is an evil, an anomaly, a curse; against which, though he +could not rescue the man from the clutch of his foe, he was bound, in +duty and honour, to fight until the last, simply because it was death, +and death was the enemy of man. + +But if the medical man bears witness for God and spiritual things when he +seems exclusively occupied with the body, so does the hospital. Look at +those noble buildings which the generosity of our fellow-countrymen have +erected in all our great cities. You may find in them, truly, sermons in +stones; sermons for rich alike and poor. They preach to the rich, these +hospitals, that the sick-bed levels all alike; that they are the equals +and brothers of the poor in the terrible liability to suffer! They +preach to the poor that they are, through Christianity, the equals of the +rich in their means and opportunities of cure. I say through +Christianity. Whether the founders so intended or not (and those who +founded most of them, St. George’s among the rest, did so intend), these +hospitals bear direct witness for Christ. They do this, and would do it, +even if—which God forbid—the name of Christ were never mentioned within +their walls. That may seem a paradox; but it is none. For it is a +historic fact, that hospitals are a creation of Christian times, and of +Christian men. The heathen knew them not. In that great city of ancient +Rome, as far as I have ever been able to discover, there was not a single +hospital,—not even, I fear, a single charitable institution. Fearful +thought—a city of a million and a half inhabitants, the centre of human +civilization: and not a hospital there! The Roman Dives paid his +physician; the Roman Lazarus literally lay at his gate full of sores, +till he died the death of the street dogs which licked those sores, and +was carried forth to be thrust under ground awhile, till the same dogs +came to quarrel over his bones. The misery and helplessness of the lower +classes in the great cities of the Roman empire, till the Church of +Christ arose, literally with healing in its wings, cannot, I believe, be +exaggerated. + +Eastern piety, meanwhile, especially among the Hindoos, had founded +hospitals, in the old meaning of that word—namely, almshouses for the +infirm and aged: but I believe there is no record of hospitals, like our +modern ones, for the cure of disease, till Christianity spread over the +Western world. + +And why? Because then first men began to feel the mighty truth contained +in the text. If Christ were a healer, His servants must be healers +likewise. If Christ regarded physical evil as a direct evil, so must +they. If Christ fought against it with all His power, so must they, with +such power as He revealed to them. And so arose exclusively in the +Christian mind, a feeling not only of the nobleness of the healing art, +but of the religious duty of exercising that art on every human being who +needed it; and hospitals are to be counted, as a historic fact, among the +many triumphs of the Gospel. + +If there be any one—especially a working man—in this church this day who +is inclined to undervalue the Bible and Christianity, let him know that, +but for the Bible and Christianity, he has not the slightest reason to +believe that there would have been at this moment a hospital in London to +receive him and his in the hour of sickness or disabling accident, and to +lavish on him there, unpaid as the light and air of God outside, every +resource of science, care, generosity, and tenderness, simply because he +is a human being. Yes; truly catholic are these hospitals,—catholic as +the bounty of our heavenly Father,—without respect of persons, giving to +all liberally and upbraiding not, like Him in whom all live, and move, +and have their being; witnesses better than all our sermons for the +universal bounty and tolerance of that heavenly Father who causes the sun +to shine on the evil and the good, and his rain to fall upon the just and +on the unjust, and is perfect in this, that He is good to the unthankful +and the evil. + +And, therefore, the preacher can urge his countrymen, let their opinions, +creed, tastes, be what they may, to support hospitals with especial +freedom, earnestness, and confidence. Heaven forbid that I should +undervalue any charitable institution whatever. May God’s blessing be on +them all. But this I have a right to say,—that whatever objections, +suspicions, prejudices there may be concerning any other form of charity, +concerning hospitals there can be none. Every farthing bestowed on them +must go toward the direct doing of good. There is no fear in them of +waste, of misapplication of funds, of private jobbery, of ulterior and +unavowed objects. Palpable and unmistakeable good is all they do and all +they can do. And he who gives to a hospital has the comfort of knowing +that he is bestowing a direct blessing on the bodies of his fellow-men; +and it may be on their souls likewise. + +For I have said that these hospitals witness silently for God and for +Christ; and I must believe that that silent witness is not lost on the +minds of thousands who enter them. It sinks in,—all the more readily +because it is not thrust upon them,—and softens and breaks up their +hearts to receive the precious seed of the word of God. Many a man, too +ready from bitter experience to believe that his fellow-men cared not for +him, has entered the wards of a hospital to be happily undeceived. He +finds that he is cared for; that he is not forgotten either by God or +man; that there is a place for him, too, at God’s table, in his hour of +utmost need; and angels of God, in human form, ready to minister to his +necessities; and, softened by that discovery, he has listened humbly, +perhaps for the first time in his life, to the exhortations of a +clergyman; and has taken in, in the hour of dependence and weakness, the +lessons which he was too proud or too sullen to hear in the day of +independence and sturdy health. And so do these hospitals, it seems to +me, follow the example and practice of our Lord Himself; who, by +ministering to the animal wants and animal sufferings of the people, by +showing them that He sympathised with those lower sorrows of which they +were most immediately conscious, made them follow Him gladly, and listen +to Him with faith, when He proclaimed to them in words of wisdom, that +Father in heaven whom He had already proclaimed to them in acts of mercy. + +And now, I have to appeal to you for the excellent and honourable +foundation of St. George’s Hospital. I might speak to you, and speak, +too, with a personal reverence and affection of many years’ standing, of +the claims of that noble institution; of the illustrious men of science +who have taught within its walls; of the number of able and honourable +young men who go forth out of it, year by year, to carry their blessed +and truly divine art, not only over Great Britain, but to the islands of +the farthest seas. But to say that would be merely to say what is true, +thank God, of every hospital in London. + +One fact only, therefore, I shall urge, which gives St. George’s Hospital +special claims on the attention of the rich. + +Situated, as it is, in the very centre of the west end of London, it is +the special refuge of those who are most especially of service to the +dwellers in the Westend. Those who are used up—fairly or unfairly—in +ministering to the luxuries of the high-born and wealthy: the groom +thrown in the park; the housemaid crippled by lofty stairs; the workman +fallen from the scaffolding of the great man’s palace; the footman or +coachman who has contracted disease from long hours of nightly exposure, +while his master and mistress have been warm and gay at rout and ball; +and those, too, whose number, I fear, are very great, who contract +disease, themselves, their wives, and children, from actual want, when +they are thrown suddenly out of employ at the end of the season, and +London is said to be empty—of all but two million of living souls:—the +great majority of these crowd into St. George’s Hospital to find there +relief and comfort, which those to whom they minister are solemnly bound +to supply by their contributions. The rich and well-born of this land +are very generous. They are doing their duty, on the whole, nobly and +well. Let them do their duty—the duty which literally lies nearest +them—by St. George’s Hospital, and they will wipe off a stain, not on the +hospital, but on the rich people in its neighbourhood—the stain of that +hospital’s debts. + +The deficiency in the funds of the hospital for the year 1862–3—caused, +be it remembered, by no extravagance or sudden change, but simply by the +necessity for succouring those who would otherwise have been destitute of +succour—the deficiency, I say, on an expenditure of 15,000_l._ amounts to +more than 3,200_l._ which has had to be met by selling out funded +property, and so diminishing the capital of the institution. Ought this +to be? I ask. Ought this to be, while more wealth is collected within +half a mile of that hospital than in any spot of like extent in the +globe? + +My friends, this is the time of Lent; the time whereof it is written,—‘Is +not this the fast which I have chosen, to deal thy bread to the hungry, +and bring the poor that is cast out to thine house? when thou seest the +naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own +flesh? If thou let thy soul go forth to the hungry, and satisfy the +afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness +be as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and +satisfy thy soul, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a +watered garden, and as a spring that doth not fail.’ + +Let us obey that command literally, and see whether the promise is not +literally fulfilled to us in return. + + + + +SERMON III. +THE VICTORY OF LIFE. + + + (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_.) + + ISAIAH xxxviii. 18, 19. + + The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that + go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the + living, he shall praise thee. + +I MAY seem to have taken a strange text on which to speak,—a mournful, a +seemingly hopeless text. Why I have chosen it, I trust that you will see +presently; certainly not that I may make you hopeless about death. +Meanwhile, let us consider it; for it is in the Bible, and, like all +words in the Bible, was written for our instruction. + +Now it is plain, I think, that the man who said these words—good king +Hezekiah—knew nothing of what we call heaven; of a blessed life with God +after death. He looks on death as his end. If he dies, he says, he will +not see the Lord in the land of the living, any more than he will see man +with the inhabitants of the world. God’s mercies, he thinks, will end +with his death. God can only show His mercy and truth by saving him from +death. For the grave cannot praise God, death cannot celebrate Him; +those who go down into the pit cannot hope for His truth. The living, +the living, shall praise God; as Hezekiah praises Him that day, because +God has cured him of his sickness, and added fifteen years to his life. + +No language can be plainer than this. A man who had believed that he +would go to heaven when he died could not have used it. + +In many of the Psalms, likewise, you will find words of exactly the same +kind, which show that the men who wrote them had no clear conception, if +any conception at all, of a life after death. + +Solomon’s words about death are utterly awful from their sadness. With +him, ‘that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; as one +dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one breath, so that a man +hath no pre-eminence over a beast, and all is vanity. All go to one +place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the +spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth +downward to the earth?’ + +He knows nothing about it. All he knows is, that the spirit shall return +to God who gave it,—and that a man will surely find, in this life, a +recompence for all his deeds, whether good or evil. + +‘Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil +days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no +pleasure in them. Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the +whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with +every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.’ + +This is the doctrine of the Old Testament; that God judges and rewards +and punishes men in this life: but as for death, it is a great black +cloud into which all men must enter, and see and be seen no more. Only +twice or thrice, perhaps, a gleam of light from beyond breaks through the +dark. David, the noblest and wisest of all the Jews, can say once that +God will not leave his soul in hell, neither suffer His holy one to see +corruption; Job says that, though after his skin worms destroy his body, +yet in his flesh he shall see God; and Isaiah, again, when he sees his +countrymen slaughtered, and his nation all but destroyed, can say, ‘Thy +dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake +and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of the +morning, which brings the parched herbs to life and freshness +again.’—Great and glorious sayings, all of them: but we cannot tell how +far either David, or Job, or Isaiah, were thinking of a life after death. +We can think of a life after death when we use them; for we know how they +have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord; and we can see in them more +than the Jews of old could do; for, like all inspired words, they mean +more than the men who wrote them thought of; but we have no right to +impute our Christianity to them. + +The only undoubted picture, perhaps, of the next life to be found in the +Old Testament, is that grand one in Isaiah xiv., where he paints to us +the tyrant king of Babylon going down into hell:— + +‘Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it +stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it +hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they +shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou +become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the +noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover +thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! +how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the +nations!’—Awful and grand enough: but quite different, you will observe, +from the notions of hell which are common now-a-days; and much more like +those which we read in the old Greek poets, and especially, in the +Necyomanteia of the Odyssey. + +When it was that the Jews gained any fuller notions about the next life, +it is very difficult to say. Certainly not before they were carried away +captive to Babylon. After that they began to mix much with the great +nations of the East: with Greeks, Persians, and Indians; and from them, +most probably, they learned to believe in a heaven after death to which +good men would go, and a fiery hell to which bad men would go. At least, +the heathen nations round them, and our forefathers likewise, believed in +some sort of heaven and hell, hundreds of years before the coming of our +blessed Lord. + +The Jews had learned, also—at least the Pharisees—to believe in the +resurrection of the dead. Martha speaks of it; and St. Paul, when he +tells the Pharisees that, having been brought up a Pharisee, he was on +their side against the Sadducees.—‘I am a Pharisee,’ he says, ‘the son of +a Pharisee; for the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in +question.’ + +But if it be so,—if St. Paul and the Apostles believed in heaven and +hell, and the resurrection of the dead, before they became Christians, +what more did they learn about the next life, when they became +Christians? Something they did learn, most certainly—and that most +important. St. Paul speaks of what our Lord and our Lord’s resurrection +had taught him, as something quite infinitely grander, and more blessed, +than what he had known before. He talks of our Lord as having abolished +death, and brought life and immortality to light; of His having conquered +death, and of His destroying death at last. He speaks at moments as if +he did not expect to die at all; and when he does speak of the death of +the Christian, it is merely as a falling asleep. When he speaks of his +own death, it is merely as a change of place. He longs to depart, and to +be with Christ. Death had looked terrible to him once, when he was a +Jew. Death had had a sting, and the grave a victory, which seemed ready +to conquer him: but now he cries, ‘O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, +where is thy victory?’ and then he declares that the terrors of death and +the grave are taken away, not by anything which he knew when he was a +Pharisee, but through our Lord Jesus Christ. + +All his old Jewish notions of the resurrection, though they were true as +far as they went, seemed poor and paltry beside what Christ had taught +him. He was not going to wait till the end of the world—perhaps for +thousands of years—in darkness and the shadow of death, he knew not where +or how. His soul was to pass at once into life,—into joy, and peace, and +bliss, in the presence of his Saviour, till it should have a new body +given to it, in the resurrection of life at the last day. + +This, I think, is what St. Paul learned, and what the Jews had not +learned till our blessed Lord came. They were still afraid of death. It +looked to them a dark and ugly blank; and no wonder. For would it not be +dark and ugly enough to have to wait, we know not where, it may be a +thousand, it may be tens of thousands of years, till the resurrection in +the last day, before we entered into joy, peace, activity or anything +worthy of the name of life? Would not death have a sting indeed, the +grave a victory indeed, if we had to be as good as dead for ten thousands +of years? + +What then? Remember this, that death is an enemy, an evil thing, an +enemy to man, and therefore an enemy to Christ, the King and Head and +Saviour of man. Men ought not to die, and they feel it. It is no use to +tell them, ‘Everything that is born must die, and why not you? All other +animals died. They died, just as they die now, hundreds of thousands of +years before man came upon this earth; and why should man expect to have +a different lot? Why should you not take your death patiently, as you +take any other evil which you cannot escape?’ The heart of man, as soon +as he begins to be a man, and not a mere savage; as soon as he begins to +think reasonably, and feel deeply; the heart of man answers: ‘No, I am +not a mere animal. I have something in me which ought not to die, which +perhaps cannot die. I have a living soul in me, which ought to be able +to keep my body alive likewise, but cannot; and therefore death is my +enemy. I hate him, and I believe that I was meant to hate him. +Something must be wrong with me, or I should not die; something must be +wrong with all mankind, or I should not see those I love dying round me. + +Yes, my friends, death is an enemy,—a hideous, hateful thing. The longer +one looks at it, the more one hates it. The more often one sees it, the +less one grows accustomed to it. Its very commonness makes it all the +more shocking. We may not be so much shocked at seeing the old die. We +say, ‘They have done their work, why should they not go?’ That is not +true. They have not done their work. There is more work in plenty for +them to do, if they could but live; and it seems shocking and sad, at +least to him who loves his country and his kind, that, just as men have +grown old enough to be of use, when they have learnt to conquer their +passions, when their characters are formed, when they have gained sound +experience of this world, and what man ought and can do in it,—just as, +in fact, they have become most able to teach and help their +fellow-men,—that then they are to grow old, and decrepit, and helpless, +and fade away, and die just when they are most fit to live, and the world +needs them most. + +Sad, I say, and strange is that. But sadder, and more strange, and more +utterly shocking, to see the young die; to see parents leaving infant +children, children vanishing early out of the world where they might have +done good work for God and man. + +What arguments will make us believe that that ought to be? That that is +God’s will? That that is anything but an evil, an anomaly, a disease? + +Not the Bible, certainly. The Bible never tells us that such tragedies +as are too often seen are the will of God. The Bible says that it is not +the will of our Father that one of these little ones should perish. The +Bible tells us that Jesus, when on earth, went about fighting and +conquering disease and death, even raising from the dead those who had +died before their time. To fight against death, and to give life +wheresoever He went—that was His work; by that He proclaimed the will of +God, His Father, that none should perish, who sent His Son that men might +have life, and have it more abundantly. By that He declared that death +was an evil and a disorder among men, which He would some day crush and +destroy utterly, that mortality should be swallowed up of life. + +And yet we die, and shall die. Yes. The body is dead, because of sin. +Mankind is a diseased race; and it must pay the penalty of its sins for +many an age to come, and die, and suffer, and sorrow. But not for ever. +For what mean such words as these—for something they must mean?— + +‘If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.’ And again, ‘He that +believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that +liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.’ + +Do such words as these mean only that we shall rise again in the +resurrection at the last day? Surely not. Our Lord spoke them in answer +to that very notion. + +‘Martha said to Him, I know that my brother shall rise again, in the +resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I _am_ the +resurrection and the life;’ and then showed what He meant by bringing +back Lazarus to life, unchanged, and as he had been before he died. + +Surely, if that miracle meant anything, if these words meant anything, it +meant this: that those who die in the fear of God, and in the faith of +Christ, do not really taste death; that to them there is no death, but +only a change of place, a change of state; that they pass at once, and +instantly, into some new life, with all their powers, all their feelings, +unchanged,—purified doubtless from earthly stains, but still the same +living, thinking, active beings which they were here on earth. I say, +active. The Bible says nothing about their sleeping till the Day of +Judgment, as some have fancied. Rest they may; rest they will, if they +need rest. But what is the true rest? Not idleness, but peace of mind. +To rest from sin, from sorrow, from fear, from doubt, from care,—this is +the true rest. Above all, to rest from the worst weariness of +all—knowing one’s duty, and yet not being able to do it. That is true +rest; the rest of God, who works for ever, and yet is at rest for ever; +as the stars over our heads move for ever, thousands of miles each day, +and yet are at perfect rest, because they move orderly, harmoniously, +fulfilling the law which God has given them. Perfect rest, in perfect +work; that surely is the rest of blessed spirits, till the final +consummation of all things, when Christ shall have made up the number of +His elect. + +I hope that this is so. I trust that this is so. I think our Lord’s +great words can mean nothing less than this. And if it be so, what +comfort for us who must die? What comfort for us who have seen others +die, if death be but a new birth into some higher life; if all that it +changes in us is our body—the mere shell and husk of us—such a change as +comes over the snake, when he casts his old skin, and comes out fresh and +gay, or even the crawling caterpillar, which breaks its prison, and +spreads its wings to the sun as a fair butterfly. Where is the sting of +death, then, if death can sting, and poison, and corrupt nothing of us +for which our friends have loved us; nothing of us with which we could do +service to men or God? Where is the victory of the grave, if, so far +from the grave holding us down, it frees us from the very thing which +holds us down,—the mortal body? + +Death is not death, then, if it kills no part of us, save that which +hindered us from perfect life. Death is not death, if it raises us in a +moment from darkness into light, from weakness into strength, from +sinfulness into holiness. Death is not death, if it brings us nearer to +Christ, who is the fount of life. Death is not death, if it perfects our +faith by sight, and lets us behold Him in whom we have believed. Death +is not death, if it gives us to those whom we have loved and lost, for +whom we have lived, for whom we long to live again. Death is not death, +if it joins the child to the mother who is gone before. Death is not +death, if it takes away from that mother for ever all a mother’s +anxieties, a mother’s fears, and lets her see, in the gracious +countenance of her Saviour, a sure and certain pledge that those whom she +has left behind are safe, safe with Christ and in Christ, through all the +chances and dangers of his mortal life. Death is not death, if it rids +us of doubt and fear, of chance and change, of space and time, and all +which space and time bring forth, and then destroy. Death is not death; +for Christ has conquered death, for Himself, and for those who trust in +Him. And to those who say, ‘You were born in time, and in time you must +die, as all other creatures do; Time is your king and lord, as he has +been of all the old worlds before this, and of all the races of beasts, +whose bones and shells lie fossil in the rocks of a thousand +generations;’ then we can answer them, in the words of the wise man, and +in the name of Christ who conquered death:— + + ‘Fly, envious time, till thou run out thy race, + And glut thyself with what thy womb devours, + Which is no more than what is false and vain + And merely mortal dross. + So little is our loss, so little is thy gain. + For when as each bad thing thou hast entombed, + And, last of all, thy greedy self consumed, + Then long eternity shall greet our bliss + With an individual kiss, + And joy shall overtake us as a flood, + When everything that is sincerely good + And perfectly divine, + And truth, and peace, and love shall ever shine + About the supreme throne + Of Him, unto whose happy-making sight alone + When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb, + Then all this earthly grossness quit, + Attired with stars, we shall for ever sit + Triumphant over death, and chance, and thee, O Time!’ + + + + +SERMON IV. +THE WAGES OF SIN. + + + (_Chapel Royal June_, 1864) + + ROM. vi. 21–23. + + What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? + for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from + sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, + and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the + gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. + +THIS is a glorious text, if we will only believe it simply, and take it +as it stands. + +But if in place of St. Paul’s words we put quite different words of our +own, and say—By ‘the wages of sin is death,’ St. Paul means that the +punishment of sin is eternal life in torture, then we say something which +may be true, but which is not what St. Paul is speaking of here. For +wages are not punishment, and death is not eternal life in torture, any +more than in happiness. + +That, one would think, was clear. It is our duty to take St. Paul’s +words, if we really believe them to be inspired, simply as they stand; +and if we do not quite understand them, to explain them by St. Paul’s own +words about these matters in other parts of his writings. + +St. Paul was an inspired Apostle. Let him speak for himself. Surely he +knew best what he wished to say, and how to say it. + +Now St. Paul’s opinions about death and eternal life are very clear; for +he speaks of them often, and at great length. + +He considered that the great enemy of God and man, the last enemy Christ +would destroy, was death; and that, after death was destroyed, the end +would come, when God would be all in all. Then came the question, which +has puzzled men in all ages—How death came into the world. St. Paul +answers, By sin. He says, as the author of the third chapter of Genesis +says, that Adam became subject to death by his fall. By one man, he +says, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed +upon all men, for that all have sinned. And thus, he says, death reigned +even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s +transgression. + +That he is speaking of bodily death is clear, because he is always +putting it in contrast to the resurrection to life,—not merely to a +spiritual resurrection from the death of sin to the life of +righteousness; but to the resurrection of the body,—to our Lord’s being +raised from the dead, that He might die no more. + +Then he speaks of eternal life. He always speaks of it as an actual +life, in a spiritual body, into which our mortal bodies are to be +changed. Nothing can be clearer from what he says in 1 Cor. xv., that he +means an actual rising again of our bodies from bodily death; an actual +change in them; an actual life in them for ever. + +But he says, again and again,—As sin caused the death of the body, so +righteousness is to cause its life. + +‘When ye were the servants of sin,’ he says to the Romans, ‘what fruit +had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those +things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants +to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. +For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life +through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ + +This is St. Paul’s opinion. And we shall do well to believe it, and to +learn from it, this day, and all days. + +The wages of sin and the end of sin is death. Not the punishment of sin; +but something much worse. The wages of sin, and the end of sin. + +And how is that worse news? My friends, every sinner knows so well in +his heart that it is worse news, more terrible news, for him, that he +tries to persuade himself that death is only the arbitrary punishment of +his sin; or, quite as often, that the punishment of his sin is not even +death, but eternal torment in the next life. + +And why? Because, as long as he can believe that death, or hell, are +only punishments arbitrarily fixed by God against his sins, he can hope +that God will let him off the punishment. Die, he knows he must, because +all men die; and so he makes up his mind to that: but being sent to hell +after he dies, is so very terrible a punishment, that he cannot believe +that God will be so hard on him as that. No; he will get off, and be +forgiven at last somehow, for surely God will not condemn him to hell. +And so he finds it very convenient and comfortable to believe in hell, +just because he does not believe that he is going there, whoever else may +be. + +But, it is a very terrible, heartrending thought, for a man to find out +that what he will receive is not punishment, but wages; not punishment +but the end of the very road which he is travelling on. That the wages +of sin, and the end of sin, to which it must lead, are death; that every +time he sins he is earning those wages, deserving them, meriting them, +and therefore receiving them by the just laws of the world of God. That +does torment him, that does terrify him, if he will look steadfastly at +the broad plain fact—You need not dream of being let off, respited, +reprieved, pardoned in any way. The thing cannot be done. It is +contrary to the laws of God and of God’s universe. It is as impossible +as that fire should not burn, or water run up hill. It is not a question +of arbitrary punishment, which may be arbitrarily remitted; but of wages, +which you needs must take, weekly, daily, and hourly; and those wages are +death: a question of travelling on a certain road, whereon, if you travel +it long enough, you must come to the end of it; and the end is death. +Your sins are killing you by inches; all day long they are sowing in you +the seeds of disease and death. Every sin which you commit with your +body shortens your bodily life. Every sin you commit with your mind, +every act of stupidity, folly, wilful ignorance, helps to destroy your +mind, and leave you dull, silly, devoid of right reason. Every sin you +commit with your spirit, each sin of passion and temper, envy and malice, +pride and vanity, injustice and cruelty, extravagance and +self-indulgence, helps to destroy your spiritual life, and leave you bad, +more and more unable to do the right and avoid the wrong, more and more +unable to discern right from wrong; and that last is spiritual death, the +eternal death of your moral being. There are three parts in you—body, +mind, and spirit; and every sin you commit helps to kill one of these +three, and, in many cases, to kill all three together. + +So, sinner, dream not of escaping punishment at the last. You are being +punished now, for you are punishing yourself; and you will continue to be +punished for ever, for you will be punishing yourself for ever, as long +as you go on doing wrong, and breaking the laws which God has appointed +for body, mind and spirit. You can see that a drunkard is killing +himself, body and mind, by drink. You see that he knows that, poor +wretch, as well as you. He knows that every time he gets drunk he is +cutting so much off his life; and yet he cannot help it. He knows that +drink is poison, and yet he goes back to his poison. + +Then know, habitual sinner, that you are like that drunkard. That every +bad habit in which you indulge is shortening the life of some of your +faculties, and that God Himself cannot save you from the doom which you +are earning, deserving, and working out for yourself every day and every +hour. + +Oh how men hate that message!—the message that the true wrath of God, +necessary, inevitable, is revealed from heaven against all +unrighteousness of men. How they writhe under it! How they shut their +ears to it, and cry to their preachers, ‘No! Tell us of any wrath of God +but that! Tell us rather of the torments of the damned, of a frowning +God, of absolute decrees to destruction, of the reprobation of millions +before they are born; any doctrine, however fearful and horrible: because +we don’t quite believe it, but only think that we ought to believe it. +Yes, tell us anything rather than that news, which cuts at the root of +all our pride, of all our comfort, and all our superstition—the news that +we cannot escape the consequences of our own actions; that there are no +back stairs up which we may be smuggled into heaven; that as we sow, so +we shall reap; that we are filled with the fruits of our own devices; +every man his own poisoner, every man his own executioner, every man his +own suicide; that hell begins in this life, and death begins before we +die:—do not say that: because we cannot help believing it; for our own +consciousness and our own experience tell us it is true.’ No wonder that +the preacher who tells men that is hated, is called a Rationalist, a +Pantheist, a heretic, and what not, just because he does set forth such a +living God, such a justice of God, such a wrath of God as would make the +sinner tremble, if he believed in it, not merely once in a way, when he +hears a stirring sermon about the endless torments: but all day long, +going out and coming in, lying on his bed and walking by the way, always +haunted by the shadow of himself, knowing that he is bearing about in him +the perpetually growing death of sin. + +And still more painful would this message be to the sinner, if he had any +kindly feeling for others; and, thank God, there are few who have not +that. For St. Paul’s message to him is, that the wages of his sin is +death, not merely to himself, but to others—to his family and children +above all. So St. Paul declares in what he says of his doctrine of +original or birth sin, by which, as the Article says, every man is very +far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined +to evil, so that the flesh lusteth against the spirit. + +St. Paul’s doctrine is simple and explicit. Death, he says, reigned over +Adam’s children, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of +Adam’s transgression; agreeing with Moses, who declares God to be one who +visits the sins of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth +generation of those who hate Him. But how the sinner will shrink from +this message—and shrink the more, the more feeling he is, the less he is +wrapped up in selfishness. Yes, that message gives us such a view of the +sinfulness of sin as none other can. It tells us why God hates sin with +so unextinguishable a hatred, just because He is a God of Love. It is +not that man’s sin injures God, insults God, as the heathen fancy. Who +is God, that man can stir Him up to pride, or wound or disturb His +everlasting calm, His self-sufficient perfectness? ‘God is tempted of no +man,’ says St. James. No. God hates sin. He loves all, and sin harms +all; and the sinner may be a torment and a curse, not only to himself, +not only to those around him, but to children yet unborn. + +This is bad news; and yet sinners must hear it. They must hear it not +only put into words by Moses, or by St. Paul, or by any other inspired +writer; but they must hear it, likewise, in that perpetual voice of God +which we call facts. + +Let the sinner who wishes to know what original sin means, and how actual +sin in one man breeds original sin in his descendants, look at the world +around him, and see. Let him see how St. Paul’s doctrine and the +doctrine of the Ten Commandments are proved true by experience and by +fact: how the past, and how the present likewise, show us whole families, +whole tribes, whole aristocracies, whole nations, dwindling down to +imbecility, misery, and destruction, because the sins of the fathers are +visited on the children. + +Physicians, who see children born diseased; born stupid, or even idiotic; +born thwart-natured, or passionate, or false, or dishonest, or +brutal,—they know well what original sin means, though they call it by +their own name of hereditary tendencies. And they know, too, how the +sins of a parent, or of a grand parent, or even a great-grandparent, are +visited on the children to the third and fourth generation; and they say +‘It is a law of nature:’ and so it is. But the laws of nature are the +laws of God who made her: and His law is the same law by which death +reigns even over those who have not sinned after the likeness of Adam; +the law by which (even though if Christ be in us, the spirit is life, +because of righteousness) the body, nevertheless, is dead, because of +sin. + +Parents, parents, who hear my words, beware—if not for your own sakes, at +least for the sake of your children, and your children’s children—lest +the wages of your sin should be their death. + +And by this time, surely, some of you will be asking, ‘What has he said? +That there is no escape; that there is no forgiveness?’ + +None whatsoever, my friends, though you were to cry to heaven for ever +and ever, save the one old escape of which you hear in the church every +Sunday morning: ‘When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness +that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he +shall save his soul alive.’ + +What, does not the blood of Christ cleanse us from all sin? + +Yes, from all sin. But not, necessarily, from the wages of all sin. + +Judge for yourselves, my friends, again. Listen to the voice of God +revealed in facts. If you, being a drunkard, have injured your +constitution by drink, and then are converted, and repent, and turn to +God with your whole soul, and become, as you may, if you will, a truly +penitent, good, and therefore sober man,—will that cure the disease of +your body? It will certainly palliate and ease it: because, instead of +being drunken, you will have become sober: but still you will have +shortened your days by your past sins; and, in so far, even though the +Lord has put away your sin its wages still remain, as death. + +So it is, my friends, if you will only believe it, or rather see it with +your own eyes, with every sin, and every sort of sin. + +You will see, if you look, that the Article speaks exact truth when it +says, that the infection of nature doth remain, even in those that are +regenerate. It says that of original sin: but it is equally true of +actual sin. + +Would to God that all men would but believe this, and give up the too +common and too dangerous notion, that it is no matter if they go on wrong +for a while, provided they come right at last! + +No matter? I ask for facts again. Is there a man or woman in this +church twenty years old who does not know that it matters? Who does not +know that, if they have done wrong in youth, their own wrong deeds haunt +them and torment them?—That they are, perhaps the poorer, perhaps the +sicklier, perhaps the more ignorant, perhaps the sillier, perhaps the +more sorrowful this day, for things which they did twenty, thirty years +ago? Is there any one in this church who ever did a wrong thing without +smarting for it? If there is (which I question), let him be sure that it +is only because his time is not come. Do not fancy that because you are +forgiven, you may not be actually less good men all your lives by having +sinned when young. + +I know it is sometimes said, ‘The greater the sinner, the greater the +saint.’ I do not believe that: because I do not see it. I see, and I +thank God for it, that men who have been very wrong at one time, come +very right afterwards; that, having found out in earnest that the wages +of sin are death, they do repent in earnest, and receive the gift of +eternal life through Jesus Christ. But I see, too, that the bad habits, +bad passions, bad methods of thought, which they have indulged in youth, +remain more or less, and make them worse men, sillier men, less useful +men, less happy men, sometimes to their lives’ end: and they, if they be +true Christians, know it, and repent of their early sins, not once for +all only, but all their lives long; because they feel that they have +weakened and worsened themselves thereby. + +It stands to reason, my friends, that it should be so. If a man loses +his way, and finds it again, he is so much the less forward on his way, +surely, by all the time he has spent in getting back into the road. If a +child has a violent illness, it stops growing, because the life and +nourishment which ought to have gone towards its growth, are spent in +curing its disease. And so, if a man has indulged in bad habits in his +youth, he is but too likely (let him do what he will) to be a less good +man for it to his life’s end, because the Spirit of God, which ought to +have been making him grow in grace, freely and healthily, to the stature +of a perfect man, to the fulness of the measure of Christ, is striving to +conquer old bad habits, and cure old diseases of character; and the man, +even though he does enter into life, enters into it halt and maimed; and +the wages of his sin have been, as they always will be, death to some +powers, some faculties of his soul. + +Think over these things, my friends; and believe that the wages of sin +are death, and that there is no escaping from God’s just and everlasting +laws. But meanwhile, let us judge no man. This is a great and a solemn +reason for observing, with fear and trembling, our Lord’s command, for it +is nothing less, ‘Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not and +ye shall not be condemned.’ + +For we never can know how much of any man’s misconduct is to be set down +to original, and how much to actual, sin;—how much disease of mind and +heart he has inherited from his parents, how much he has brought upon +himself. + +Therefore judge no man, but yourselves. Search your own hearts, to see +what manner of men you really wish to be; judge yourselves, lest God +should judge you. + +Do you wish to go on as you like here on earth, right or wrong, in the +hope that, somehow or other, the punishment of your sins will be forgiven +you at the last day? + +Then know that that is impossible. As a man sows, so shall he reap; and +if you sow to the flesh, of the flesh you will reap—corruption. The +wages of sin are death. Those wages will be paid you, and you must take +them whether you like or not. + +But do you wish to be Good? Do you see (I trust in God that many of you +do) that goodness is the only wise, safe, prudent life for you because it +is the only path the end of which is not death? + +Do you see that goodness is the only right and honourable life for you, +because it is the only path by which you can do your duty to man or to +God; the only method by which you can show your gratitude to God for all +His goodness to you, and can please Him, in return for all that He has +done by His grace and free love to bless you? + +Do you, in a word, repent you truly of your former sins, and purpose to +lead a new life? Then know, that all beyond is the free grace, the free +gift of God. You have to earn nothing, to buy nothing. The will is all +God asks. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. + +Freely He forgives you all your past sins, for the sake of that precious +blood which was shed on the cross for the sins of the whole world. +Freely He takes you back, as His child, to your Father’s house. Freely, +He gives you His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Goodness, the Spirit of Life, +to put into your mind good desires, and enable you to bring those desires +to good effect, that you may live the eternal life of grace and goodness +for ever, whether in earth or heaven. + +Yes, it is the Gift of God, which raises you from the death of sin to the +life of righteousness; and if you have that gift, you will not murmur, +surely, though you have to bear, more or less, the just and natural +consequences of your former sins; though you be, through your own guilt, +a sadder man to your dying day. Be content. You are forgiven. You are +cleansed from your sin; is not that mercy enough? Why are you to demand +of God, that He should over and above cleanse you from the consequences +of your sin? He may leave them there to trouble and sadden you, just +because He loves you, and desires to chasten you, and keep you in mind of +what you were, and what you would be again, at any moment, if His Spirit +left you to yourself. You may have to enter into life halt and maimed: +yet, be content; you have a thousand times more than you deserve, for at +least you enter into Life. + + + + +SERMON V. +NIGHT AND DAY. + + + (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_.) + + ROMANS xiii. 12. + + The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off + the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. + +CERTAIN commentators would tell us, that St. Paul wrote these words in +the expectation that the end of the world, and the second coming of +Christ, were very near. The night was far spent, and the day of the Lord +at hand. Salvation—deliverance from the destruction impending on the +world, was nearer than when his converts first believed. Shortly the +Lord would appear in glory, and St. Paul and his converts would be caught +up to meet Him in the air. + +No doubt St. Paul’s words will bear this meaning. No doubt there are +many passages in his writings which seem to imply that he thought the end +of the world was near; and that Christ would reappear in glory, while he, +Paul, was yet alive on the earth. And there are passages; too, which +seem to imply that he afterwards altered that opinion, and, no longer +expecting to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, desired to depart +himself, and be with Christ, in the consciousness that ‘He was ready to +be offered up, and the time of his departure was at hand.’ + +I say that there are passages which seem to imply such a change in St. +Paul’s opinions. I do not say that they actually imply it. If I had a +positive opinion on the matter, I should not be hasty to give it. These +questions of ‘criticism,’ as they are now called, are far less important +than men fancy just now. A generation or two hence, it is to be hoped, +men will see how very unimportant they are, and will find that they have +detracted very little from the authority of Scripture as a whole; and +that they have not detracted in the least from the Gospel and good news +which Scripture proclaims to men—the news of a perfect God, who will have +men to become perfect even as He, their Father in heaven, is perfect; who +sent His only begotten Son into the world, that the world through Him +might be saved. + +In this case, I verily believe, it matters little to us whether St. Paul, +when he wrote these words, wrote them under the belief that Christ’s +second coming was at hand. We must apply to his words the great rule, +that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation—that is, +does not apply exclusively to any one fact or event: but fulfils itself +again and again, in a hundred unexpected ways, because he who wrote it +was moved by the Holy Spirit, who revealed to him the eternal and +ever-working laws of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, I say, the words are +true for us at this moment. To us, though we have, as far as I can see, +not the least reasonable cause for supposing the end of the world to be +more imminent than it was a thousand years ago—to us, nevertheless, and +to every generation of men, the night is always far spent, and the day is +always at hand. + +And this, surely, was in the mind of those who appointed this text to be +read as the Epistle for the first Sunday in Advent. + +Year after year, though Christ has not returned to judgment; though +scoffers have been saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? for all +things continue as they were at the beginning’—Year after year, I say, +are the clergy bidden to tell the people that the night is far spent, +that the day is at hand; and to tell them so, because it is true. +Whatsoever St. Paul meant, or did not mean, by the words, a few years +after our Lord’s ascension into heaven, they are there, for ever, written +by one who was moved by the Holy Ghost; and hence they have an eternal +moral and spiritual significance to mankind in every age. + +Whatever these words may, or may not have meant to St. Paul when he wrote +them first, in the prime of life, we may never know, and we need not +know. But we can guess surely enough what they must have meant to him in +after years, when he could say—as would to God we all might be able to +say—‘I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept +the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, +which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not +to me only, but unto all them that love His appearing.’ + +To him, then, the night would surely mean this mortal life on earth. The +day would mean the immortal life to come. + +For is not this mortal life, compared with that life to come, as night +compared with day? I do not mean to speak evil of it. God forbid that +we should do anything but thank God for this life. God forbid that we +should say impiously to Him, Why hast thou made me thus? No. God made +this mortal life, and therefore, like all things which He has made, it is +very good. But there are good nights, and there are bad nights; and +there are happy lives, and unhappy ones. But what are they at best? +What is the life of the happiest man without the Holy Spirit of God? A +night full of pleasant dreams. What is the life of the wisest man? A +night of darkness, through which he gropes his way by lanthorn-light, +slowly, and with many mistakes and stumbles. When we compare man’s vast +capabilities with his small deeds; when we think how much he might +know,—how little he does know in this mortal life,—can we wonder that the +highest spirits in every age have looked on death as a deliverance out of +darkness and a dungeon? And if this is life at the best, what is life at +the worst? To how many is life a night, not of peace and rest, but of +tossing and weariness, pain and sickness, anxiety and misery, till they +are ready to cry, When will it be over? When will kind Death come and +give me rest? When will the night of this life be spent, and the day of +God arise? ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, +hear my voice. My soul doth wait for the Lord, more than the sick man +who watches for the morning.’ + +Yes, think,—for it is good at times, however happy one may be oneself, to +think—of all the misery and sorrow that there is on earth, and how many +there are who would be glad to hear that it was nearly over; glad to hear +that the night was far spent, and the day was at hand. + +And even the happiest ought to ‘know the time.’ To know that the night +is far spent, and the day at hand. To know, too, that the night at best +was not given us, to sleep it all through, from sunset to sunrise. No +industrious man does that. Either he works after sunset, and often on +through the long hours, and into the short hours, before he goes to rest: +or else he rises before daybreak, and gets ready for the labours of the +coming day. The latter no man can do in this life. For we all sleep +away, more or less, the beginning of our life, in the time of childhood. +There is no sin in that—God seems to have ordained that so it should be. +But, to sleep away our manhood likewise,—is there no sin in that? As we +grow older, must we not awake out of sleep, and set to work, to be ready +for the day of God which will dawn on us when we pass out of this mortal +life into the world to come? + +As we grow older, and as we get our share of the cares, troubles, +experiences of life, it is high time to wake out of sleep, and ask Christ +to give us light—light enough to see our way through the night of this +life, till the everlasting day shall dawn. + +‘Knowing the time;’—the time of this our mortal life. How soon it will +be over, at the longest! How short the time seems since we were young! +How quickly it has gone! How every year, as we grow older seems to go +more and more quickly, and there is less time to do what we want, to +think seriously, to improve ourselves. So soon, and it will be over, and +we shall have no time at all, for we shall be in eternity. And what +then? What then? That depends on what now. On what we are doing now. +Are we letting our short span of life slip away in sleep; fancying +ourselves all the while wide awake, as we do in dreams—till we wake +really; and find that it is daylight, and that all our best dreams were +nothing but useless fancy? How many dream away their lives! Some upon +gain, some upon pleasure, some upon petty self-interest, petty quarrels, +petty ambitions, petty squabbles and jealousies about this person and +that, which are no more worthy to take up a reasonable human being’s time +and thoughts than so many dreams would be. Some, too, dream away their +lives in sin, in works of darkness which they are forced for shame and +safety to hide, lest they should come to the light and be exposed. So +people dream their lives away, and go about their daily business as men +who walk in their sleep, wandering about with their eyes open, and yet +seeing nothing of what is really around them. Seeing nothing: though +they think that they see, and know their own interest, and are shrewd +enough to find their way about this world. But they know nothing—nothing +of the very world with which they pride themselves they are so thoroughly +acquainted. None know less of the world than those who pride themselves +on being men of the world. For the true light, which shines all round +them, they do not see, and therefore they do not see the truth of things +by that light. If they did, then they would see that of which now they +do not even dream. + +They would see that God was around them, about their path and about their +bed, and spying out all their ways; and in the light of His presence, +they dare not be frivolous, dare not be ignorant, dare not be mean, dare +not be spiteful, dare not be unclean. + +They would see that Christ was around them, knocking at the door of their +hearts, that He may enter in, and dwell there, and give them peace; +crying to their restless, fretful, confused, unhappy souls, ‘Come unto +Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. +Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: +and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’ + +They would see that Duty was around them. Duty—the only thing really +worth living for. The only thing which will really pay a man, either for +this life or the next. The only thing which will give a man rest and +peace, manly and quiet thoughts, a good conscience and a stout heart, in +the midst of hard labour, anxiety, sorrow and disappointment: because he +feels at least that he is doing his duty; that he is obeying God and +Christ, that he is working with them, and for them, and that, therefore, +they are working with him, and for him. God, Christ, and Duty—these, and +more, will a man see if he will awake out of sleep, and consider where he +is, by the light of God’s Holy Spirit. + +Then will that man feel that he must cast away the works of darkness; +whether of the darkness of foul and base sins; or the darkness of envy, +spite, and revenge; or the mere darkness of ignorance and silliness, +thoughtlessness and frivolity. He must cast them away, he will see. +They will not succeed—they are not safe—in such a serious world as this. +The term of this mortal life is too short, and too awfully important, to +be spent in such dreams as these. The man is too awfully near to God, +and to Christ, to dare to play the fool in their Divine presence. This +earth looks to him, now that he sees it in the true light, one great +temple of God, in which he dare not, for very shame, misbehave himself. +He must cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light, +now in the time of this mortal life; lest, when Christ comes in His glory +to judge the quick and the dead, he be found asleep, dreaming, useless, +unfit for the eternal world to come. + +Then let him awake, and cry to Christ for light: and Christ will give him +light—enough, at least, to see his way through the darkness of this life, +to that eternal life of which it is written, ‘They need no candle there, +nor light of the sun: for the Lord God and the Lamb are the light +thereof.’ And he will find that the armour of light is an armour indeed. +A defence against all enemies, a helmet for his head, and breastplate for +his heart, against all that can really harm his mind our soul. + +If a man, in the struggle of life, sees God, and Christ, and Duty, all +around him, that thought will be a helmet for his head. It will keep his +brain and mind clear, quiet, prudent to perceive and know what things he +ought to do. It will give him that Divine wisdom, of which Solomon says, +in his Proverbs, that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. + +The light will give him, I say, judgment and wisdom to perceive what he +ought to do; and it will give him, too, grace and power faithfully to +fulfil the same. For it will be a breastplate to his heart. It will +keep his heart sound, as well as his head. It will save him from +breaking his good resolutions, and from deserting his duty out of +cowardice, or out of passion. The light of Christ will keep his heart +pure, unselfish, forgiving; ready to hope all things, believe all things, +endure all things, by that Divine charity which God will pour into his +soul. + +For when he looks at things in the light of Christ, what does he see? +Christ hanging on the cross, praying for His murderers, dying for the +sins of the whole world. And what does the light which streams from that +cross show him of Christ? That the likeness of Christ is summed up in +one word—self-sacrificing love. What does the light which streams from +that cross show him of the world and mankind, in spite of all their sins? +That they belong to Him who died for them, and bought them with His own +most precious blood. + +‘Beloved, herein is love indeed. Not that we loved God, but that He +loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins.’ + +‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.’ + +After that sight a man cannot hate; cannot revenge. He must forgive; he +must love. From hence he is in the light, and sees his duty and his path +through life. ‘For he that hateth his brother walketh in darkness, and +knoweth not whither he goeth: because darkness has blinded his eyes. But +he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion +of stumbling in him. For he who dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and +God in him.’ + +Therefore cast away the works of darkness, and put you on the armour of +light, and be good men and true. + +For of this the Holy Ghost prophesies by the mouth of St. Paul, and of +all apostles and prophets. Not of times and seasons, which God the +Father has kept in His own hand: not of that day and hour of which no man +knows; no, not the Angels in heaven, neither the Son; but the Father +only: not of these does the Holy Ghost testify to men. Not of +chronology, past or future: but of holiness; because he is a Holy Spirit. + +For this purpose God, the Holy Father, sent His Son into the world. For +this God, the Holy Son, died upon the cross. For this God, the Holy +Ghost—proceeding from both the Father and the Son—inspired prophets and +apostles; that they might teach men to cast away the works of darkness, +and put on the armour of light; and become holy, as God is holy; pure, as +God is pure; true, as God is true; and good, as God is good. + + + + +SERMON VI. +THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. + + + (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_, _Whitehall_.) + + HEBREWS xii. 26–29. + + But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth + only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the + removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, + that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we + receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby + we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our + God is a consuming fire. + +THIS is one of the Royal texts of the New Testament. It declares one of +those great laws of the kingdom of God, which may fulfil itself, once and +again, at many eras, and by many methods; which fulfilled itself +especially and most gloriously in the first century after Christ; which +fulfilled itself again in the fifth century; and again at the time of the +Crusades; and again at the great Reformation in the sixteenth century; +and is fulfilling itself again at this very day. + +Now, in our fathers’ time, and in our own unto this day, is the Lord +Christ shaking the heavens and the earth, that those things which are +made may be removed, and that those things which cannot be shaken may +remain. We all confess this fact, in different phrases. We say that we +live in an age of change, of transition, of scientific and social +revolution. Our notions of the physical universe are rapidly altering +with the new discoveries of science; and our notions of Ethics and +Theology are altering as rapidly. + +The era looks differently to different minds, just as the first century +after Christ looked differently, according as men looked with faith +towards the future, or with regret towards the past. Some rejoice in the +present era as one of progress. Others lament over it as one of decay. +Some say that we are on the eve of a Reformation, as great and splendid +as that of the sixteenth century. Others say that we are rushing +headlong into scepticism and atheism. Some say that a new era is dawning +on humanity; others that the world and the Church are coming to an end, +and the last day is at hand. Both parties may be right, and both may be +wrong. Men have always talked thus at great crises. They talked thus in +the first century, in the fifth, in the eleventh, in the sixteenth. And +then both parties were right, and yet both wrong. And why not now? What +they meant to say, and what they mean to say now, is what he who wrote +the Epistle to the Hebrews said for them long ago in far deeper, wider, +more accurate words—that the Lord Christ was shaking the heavens and the +earth, that those things which can be shaken may be removed, as things +which are made—cosmogonies, systems, theories, fashions, prejudices, of +man’s invention: while those things which cannot be shaken may remain, +because they are eternal, the creation not of man, but of God. + +‘Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.’ Not merely +the physical world, and man’s conceptions thereof; but the spiritual +world, and man’s conceptions of that likewise. + +How have our conceptions of the physical world been shaken of late, with +ever-increasing violence! How simple, and easy, and certain, it all +looked to our forefathers! How complex, how uncertain, it looks to us! +With increased knowledge has come—not increased doubt—that I deny; but +increased reverence; increased fear of rash assertions, increased awe of +facts, as the acted words and thoughts of God. Once for all, I deny that +this age is an irreverent one. I say that an irreverent age is an age +like the Middle Age, in which men dared to fancy that they could and did +know all about earth and heaven; and set up their petty cosmogonies, +their petty systems of doctrine, as measures of the ways of that God whom +the heaven and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain. + +It was simple enough, their theory of the universe. The earth was a flat +plain; for did not the earth look flat? Or if some believed the earth to +be a globe, yet the existence of antipodes was an unscriptural heresy. +Above were the heavens: first the lower heavens in which the stars were +fixed and moved; and above them heaven after heaven, each peopled of +higher orders, up to that heaven of heavens in which Deity—and by Him, +the Mother of Deity—were enthroned. + +And below—What could be more clear, more certain, than this—that as above +the earth was the kingdom of light, and joy, and holiness, so below the +earth was the kingdom of darkness, and torment, and sin? What could be +more certain? Had not even the heathens said so, by the mouth of the +poet Virgil? What could be more simple, rational, orthodox, than to +adopt (as they actually did) Virgil’s own words, and talk of Tartarus, +Styx, and Phlegethon, as indisputable Christian entities. They were not +aware that the Buddhists of the far East had held much the same theory of +endless retribution several centuries before; and that Dante, with his +various _bolge_, tenanted each by its various species of sinners, was +merely re-echoing the horrors which are to be seen painted on the walls +of any Buddhist temple, as they were on the walls of so many European +churches during the Middle Ages, when men really believed in that same +Tartarology, with the same intensity with which they now believe in the +conclusions of astronomy or of chemistry. + +To them, indeed, it was all an indisputable or physical fact, as any +astronomic or chemical fact would have been; for they saw it with their +own eyes. + +Virgil had said that the mouth of Tartarus was there in Italy, by the +volcanic lake of Avernus; and after the first eruption of Vesuvius in the +first century, nothing seemed more probable. Etna, Stromboli, Hecla, +must be, likewise, all mouths of hell; and there were not wanting holy +hermits who had heard within those craters, shrieks and clanking chains, +and the shouts of demons tormenting endlessly the souls of the lost. And +now, how has all this been shaken? How much of all this does any +educated man, though he be pious, though he desire with all his heart to +be orthodox—and is orthodox in fact—how much of all this does he believe, +as he believes that the earth is round, or, that if he steals his +neighbour’s goods he commits a crime? + +For, since these days, the earth has been shaken, and with it the heavens +likewise, in that very sense in which the expression is used in the text. +Our conceptions of them have been shaken. The Copernican system shook +them, when it told men that the earth was but a tiny globular planet +revolving round the sun. Geology shook them, when it told men that the +earth has endured for countless ages, during which whole continents have +been submerged, whole seas become dry land, again and again. Even now +the heavens and the earth are being shaken by researches into the +antiquity of the human race, and into the origin and the mutability of +species, which, issue in what results they may, will shake for us, +meanwhile, theories which are venerable with the authority of nearly +eighteen hundred years, and of almost every great Doctor since St. +Augustine. + +And as our conception of the physical universe has been shaken, the old +theory of a Tartarus beneath the earth has been shaken also, till good +men have been glad to place Tartarus in a comet, or in the sun, or to +welcome the possible, but unproved hypothesis, of a central fire in the +earth’s core, not on any scientific grounds, but if by any means a spot +may be found in space corresponding to that of which Virgil, Dante, and +Milton sang. + +And meanwhile—as was to be expected from a generation which abhors +torture, labours for the reformation of criminals, and even doubts +whether it should not abolish capital punishment—a shaking of the heavens +is abroad, of which we shall hear more and more, as the years roll on—a +general inclination to ask whether Holy Scripture really endorses the +Middle-age notions of future punishment in endless torment? Men are +writing and speaking on this matter, not merely with ability and +learning, but with a piety, and reverence for Scripture which (rightly or +wrongly employed) must, and will, command attention. They are saying +that it is not those who deny these notions who disregard the letter of +Scripture, but those who assert them; that they are distorting the plain +literal text, in order to make Scripture fit the writings of Dante and +Milton, when they translate into ‘endless torments after death,’ such +phrases as the outer darkness, the undying worm, the Gehenna of +fire—which manifestly (say these men), if judged by fair rules of +interpretation, refer to this life, and specially to the fate of the +Jewish nation: or when they tell us that eternal death means really +eternal life, only in torments. We demand, they say, not a looser, but a +stricter; not a more metaphoric, but a more literal; not a more careless, +but a more reverent interpretation of Scripture; and whether this demand +be right or wrong, it will not pass unheard. + +And even more severely shaken, meanwhile, is that mediæval conception of +heaven and hell, by the question which educated men are asking more and +more:—‘Heaven and hell—the spiritual world—Are they merely invisible +places in space, which may become visible hereafter? or are they not +rather the moral world—the world of right and wrong? Love and +righteousness—is not that the heaven itself wherein God dwells? Hatred +and sin—is not that hell itself, wherein dwells all that is opposed to +God?’ + +And out of that thought, right or wrong, other thoughts have sprung—of +ethics, of moral retribution—not new at all (say these men), but to be +found in Scripture, and in the writings of all great Christian divines, +when they have listened, not to systems, but to the voice of their own +hearts. + +‘We do not deny’ (they say) ‘that the wages of sin are death. We do not +deny the necessity of punishment—the certainty of punishment. We see it +working awfully enough around us in this life; we believe that it may +work in still more awful forms in the life to come. Only tell us not +that it must be endless, and thereby destroy its whole purpose, and (as +we think) its whole morality. We, too, believe in an eternal fire; but +we believe its existence to be, not a curse, but a Gospel and a blessing, +seeing that that fire is God Himself, who taketh away the sins of the +world, and of whom it is therefore written, Our God is a consuming fire.’ + +Questions, too, have arisen, of—‘What _is_ moral retribution? Should +punishment have any end but the good of the offender? Is God so +controlled that He must needs send into the world beings whom He knows to +be incorrigible, and doomed to endless misery? And if not so controlled, +then is not the other alternative as to His character more fearful still? +Does He not bid us copy Him, His justice, His love? Then is that His +justice, is that His love, which if we copied we should be unjust and +unloving utterly? Are there two moralities, one for God, and quite +another for man, made in the image of God? Can these dark dogmas be true +of a Father who bids us be perfect as He is, in that He sends His sun to +shine on the evil and the good, and His rain on the just and unjust? Or +of a Son who so loved the world that He died to save the world and surely +not in vain?’ + +These questions—be they right or wrong—educated men and women of all +classes and denominations—orthodox, be it remembered, as well as +unorthodox—are asking, and will ask more and more, till they receive an +answer. And if we of the clergy cannot give them an answer which accords +with their conscience and their reason; if we tell them that the words of +Scripture, and the integral doctrines of Christianity, demand the same +notions of moral retribution as were current in the days when men racked +criminals, burned heretics alive, and believed that every Mussulman whom +they slaughtered in a crusade went straight to endless torments,—then +evil times will come, both for the clergy and the Christian religion, for +many a yeas henceforth. + +What then are we to believe? What are we to do, amid this shaking of the +earth and heaven? Are we to degenerate into a lazy and heartless +scepticism, which, under pretence of liberality and charity, believes +that everything is a little true, everything is a little false—in one +word, believes nothing at all? Or are we to degenerate into unmanly and +faithless wailings, crying out that the flood of infidelity is +irresistible, that the last days are come, and that Christ has deserted +His Church? + +Not if we will believe the text. The text tells us of something which +cannot be moved, though all around it reel and crumble—of a firm +standing-ground, which would endure, though the heavens should pass away +as a scroll, and the earth should be removed, and cast into the midst of +the sea. + +We have a kingdom, the Scripture says, which cannot be moved, even the +kingdom of Him whom it calls shortly after ‘Jesus Christ, the same +yesterday, to-day and for ever.’ An eternal and unchangeable kingdom, +ruled by an eternal and unchangeable King. That is what cannot be moved. + +Scripture does not say that we have an unchangeable cosmogony, an +unchangeable theory of moral retribution, an unchangeable system of +dogmatic propositions. Whether we have, or have not, it is not of them +that Scripture reminds the Jews, when the heavens and the earth were +shaken; when their own nation and worship were in their death-agony, and +all the beliefs and practices of men were in a whirl of doubt and +confusion, of decay and birth side by side, such as the world had never +seen before. Not of them does it remind the Jews, but of the changeless +kingdom, and the changeless King. + +My friends, lay it seriously to heart, once and for all. Do you believe +that you are subjects of that kingdom, and that Christ is the living, +ruling, guiding King thereof? Whatsoever Scripture does not say, +Scripture speaks of that, again and again, in the plainest terms. But do +you believe it? These are days in which the preacher ought to ask every +man whether he believes it, and bid him, of whatever else he repents of, +to repent, at least, of not having believed this primary doctrine (I may +almost say) of Scripture and of Christianity. + +But if you do believe it, will it seem strange to you to believe this +also,—That, considering who Christ is, the co-eternal and co-equal Son of +God, He may be actually governing His kingdom; and if so, that He may +know better how to govern it than such poor worms as we? That if the +heavens and the earth be shaken, Christ Himself may be shaking them? if +opinions be changing, Christ Himself may be changing them? If new truths +and facts are being discovered, Christ Himself may be revealing them? +That if those truths seem to contradict the truths which He has already +taught us, they do not really contradict them, any more than those +reasserted in the sixteenth century? That if our God be a consuming +fire, He is now burning up (to use St. Paul’s parable) the chaff and +stubble which men have built on the one foundation of Christ, that, at +last, nought but the pure gold may remain? Is it not possible? Is it +not most probable, if we only believe that Christ is a real, living King, +an active, practical King,—who, with boundless wisdom and skill, love and +patience, is educating and guiding Christendom, and through Christendom +the whole human race? + +If men would but believe that, how different would be their attitude +toward new facts, toward new opinions! They would receive them with +grace; gracefully, courteously, fairly, charitably, and with that +reverence and godly fear which the text tells us is the way to serve God +acceptably. They would say: ‘Christ (so the Scripture tells us) has been +educating man through Abraham, through Moses, through David, through the +Jewish prophets, through the Greeks, through the Romans; then through +Himself, as man as well as God; and after His ascension, through His +Apostles, especially through St. Paul, to an ever-increasing +understanding of God, and the universe, and themselves. And even after +their time He did not cease His education. Why should He? How could He, +who said of Himself, “All power is given to me in heaven and earth;” “Lo, +I am with you alway to the end of the world;” and again, “My Father +worketh hitherto, and I work?” + +‘At the Reformation in the sixteenth century He called on our forefathers +to repent—that is, to change their minds—concerning opinions which had +been undoubted for more than a thousand years. Why should He not be +calling on us at this time likewise? And if any answer, that the +Reformation was only a return to the primitive faith of the Apostles—Why +should not this shaking of the hearts and minds of men issue in a still +further return, in a further correction of errors, a further sweeping +away of additions, which are not integral to the Christian creeds, but +which were left behind, through natural and necessary human frailty, by +our great Reformers? Wise they were,—good and great,—as giants on the +earth, while we are but as dwarfs; but, as the hackneyed proverb tells +us, the dwarf on the giant’s shoulders may see further than the giant +himself.’ + +Ah! that men would approach new truth in that spirit; in the spirit of +godly fear, which is inspired by the thought that we are in the kingdom +of God, and that the King thereof is Christ, both God and man, once +crucified for us, now living for us for ever! Ah! that they would thus +serve God, waiting, as servants before a lord, for the slightest sign +which might intimate his will! Then they would look at new truths with +caution; in that truly conservative spirit which is the duty of all +Christians, and the especial strength of the Englishman. With +caution,—lest in grasping eagerly after what is new, we throw away truth +which we have already: but with awe and reverence; for Christ may have +sent the new truth; and he who fights against it, may haply be found +fighting against God. And so would they indeed obey the Apostolic +injunction—Prove all things, hold fast that which is good,—that which is +pure, fair, noble, tending to the elevation of men; to the improvement of +knowledge, justice, mercy, well-being; to the extermination of ignorance, +cruelty, and vice. That, at least, must come from Christ, unless the +Pharisees were right when they said that evil spirits could be cast out +by Beelzebub, prince of the devils. + +How much more Christian, reverent, faithful, as well as more prudent, +rational, and philosophical, would such a temper be than that which +condemns all changes _à priori_, at the first hearing, or rather, too +often, without any hearing at all, in rage and terror, like that of the +animal who at the same moment barks at, and runs away from, every unknown +object. + +At least that temper of mind will give us calm; faith, patience, hope, +charity, though the heavens and the earth are shaken around us. For we +have received a kingdom which cannot be moved, and in the King thereof we +have the most perfect trust: for us He stooped to earth, was born, and +died on the cross; and can we not trust Him? Let Him do what He will; +let Him teach us what He will; let Him lead us whither He will. Wherever +He leads, we shall find pasture. Wherever He leads, must be the way of +truth, and we will follow, and say, as Socrates of old used to say, Let +us follow the Logos boldly, whithersoever it leadeth. If Socrates had +courage to say it, how much more should we, who know what he, good man, +knew not, that the Logos is not a mere argument, train of thought, +necessity of logic, but a Person—perfect God and perfect man, even Jesus +Christ, ‘the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,’ who promised of old, +and therefore promises to us, and our children after us, to lead those +who trust Him into all truth. + + + + +SERMON VII. +THE BATTLE OF LIFE. + + + GALATIANS v. 16, 17. + + I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of + the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit + against the flesh: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. + +A GREAT poet speaks of ‘Happiness, our being’s end and aim;’ and he has +been reproved for so doing. Men have said, and wisely, the end and aim +of our being is not happiness, but goodness. If goodness comes first, +then happiness may come after. But if not, something better than +happiness may come, even blessedness. + +This it is, I believe, which our Lord may have meant when He said, ‘He +that saveth his life, or soul’ (for the two words in Scripture mean +exactly the same thing), ‘shall lose it. And he that loseth his life, +shall save it. For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, +and lose his own life?’ + +How is this? It is a hard saying. Difficult to believe, on account of +the natural selfishness which lies deep in all of us. Difficult even to +understand in these days, when religion itself is selfish, and men learn +more and more to think that the end and aim of religion is not to make +them good while they live, but merely to save their souls after they die. + +But whether it be hard to understand or not, we must understand it, if we +would be good men. And how to understand it, the Epistle for this day +will teach us. + +‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.’ The +Spirit, which is the Spirit of God within our hearts and conscience, +says—Be good. The flesh, the animal, savage nature, which we all have in +common with the dumb animals, says—Be happy. Please yourself. Do what +you like. Eat and drink, for to-morrow you die. + +But, happily for us, the Spirit lusts against the flesh. It draws us the +opposite way. It lifts us up, instead of dragging us down. It has +nobler aims, higher longings. It, as St. Paul puts it, will not let us +do the things that we would. It will not let us do just what we like, +and please ourselves. It often makes us unhappy just when we try to be +happy. It shames us, and cries in our hearts—You were not meant merely +to please yourselves, and be as the beasts which perish. + +But how few listen to that voice of God’s Spirit within their hearts, +though it be just the noblest thing of which they will ever be aware on +earth! + +How few listen to it, till the lusts of the flesh are worn out, and have +worn them out likewise, and made them reap the fruit which they have +sowed—sowing to the selfish flesh, and of the selfish flesh reaping +corruption. + +The young man says—I will be happy and do what I like; and runs after +what he calls pleasure. The middle-aged man, grown more prudent, says—I +will be happy yet, and runs after money, comfort, fame and power. But +what do they gain? ‘The works of the flesh,’ the fruit of this selfish +lusting after mere earthly happiness, ‘are manifest, which are +these:’—not merely that open vice and immorality into which the young man +falls when he craves after mere animal pleasure, but ‘hatred, variance, +emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies’—_i.e._, factions in +Church or State—‘envyings, murders, and such like.’ + +Thus men put themselves under the law. Not under Moses’ law, of course, +but under some law or other. + +For why has law been invented? Why is it needed, with all its expense? +Law is meant to prevent, if possible, men harming each other by their own +selfishness, by those lusts of the flesh which tempt every man to seek +his own happiness, careless of his neighbour’s happiness, interest, +morals; by all the passions which make men their own tormentors, and +which make the history of every nation too often a history of crime, and +folly, and faction, and war, sad and shameful to read; all those passions +of which St. Paul says once and for ever, that those who do such things +‘shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ + +These are the sad consequences of giving way to the flesh, the selfish +animal nature within us: and most miserable would man be if that were all +he had to look to. Miserable, were there not a kingdom of God, into +which he could enter all day long, and be at peace; and a Spirit of God, +who would raise him up to the spiritual life of love, joy, peace, +long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; and a +Son of God, the King of that kingdom, the Giver of that Spirit, who cries +for ever to every one of us—‘Come unto Me, ye that are weary and heavy +laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you, and learn of Me, +for I am meek and lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your +souls.’ + +Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, +temperance; these are the fruits of the Spirit: the spirit of +unselfishness; the spirit of charity; the spirit of justice; the spirit +of purity; the Spirit of God. Against them there is no law. He who is +guided by this Spirit, and he only, may do what he would; for he will +wish to do nought but what is right. He is not under the law, but under +grace; and full of grace will he be in all his words and works. He has +entered into the kingdom of God, and is living therein as God’s subject, +obeying the royal law of liberty—‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself.’ + +‘The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, +so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,’ says St. Paul. + +My friends, this is the battle of life. + +In every one of us, more or less, this battle is going on; a battle +between the flesh and the Spirit, between the animal nature and the +divine grace. In every one of us, I say, who is not like the heathen, +dead in trespasses and sins; in every one of us who has a conscience, +excusing or else accusing us. There are those—a very few, I hope—who are +sunk below that state; who have lost their sense of right and wrong; who +only care to fulfil the lusts of the flesh in pleasure, ease, and vanity. +There are those in whom the voice of conscience is lead for a while, +silenced by self-conceit; who say in their prosperity, like the foolish +Laodiceans, ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of +nothing,’ and know not that in fact and reality, and in the sight of God, +they are ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.’ + +Happy, happy for any and all of us,—if ever we fall into that dream of +pride and false security,—to be awakened again, however painful the +awakening may be! Happy for every man that the battle between the Spirit +and the flesh should begin in him again and again, as long as his flesh +is not subdued to his spirit. If he be wrong, the greatest blessing +which can happen to him is, that he should find himself in the wrong. If +he have been deceiving himself, the greatest blessing is, that God should +anoint his eyes that he may see—see himself as he is; see his own inbred +corruption; see the sin which doth so easily beset him, whatever it may +be. Whatever anguish of mind it may cost him, it is a light price to pay +for the inestimable treasure which true repentance and amendment brings; +the fine gold of solid self-knowledge, tried in the fire of bitter +experience; the white raiment of a pure and simple heart; the eye-salve +of honest self-condemnation and noble shame. If he have but these—and +these God will give him, in answer to prayer, the prayer of a broken and +a contrite heart—then he will be able to carry on the battle against the +corrupt flesh, with its affections and lusts, in hope. In the assured +hope of final victory. ‘For greater is He that is with us, than he that +is against us? He that is against us is our self, our selfish self; our +animal nature; and He that is with us is God; God and none other: and who +can pluck us out of His hand? + +My friends, the bread and the wine on that table are God’s own sign to us +that He will not leave us to be, like the savage, the slaves of our own +animal natures; that He will feed not merely our bodies with animal, but +our souls with spiritual food; giving us strength to rise above our +selfish selves; and so subdue the flesh to the Spirit, that at last, +however long and weary the fight, however sore wounded and often worsted +we may be, we shall conquer in the battle of life. + + + + +SERMON VIII. +FREE GRACE. + + + (_Preached before the Queen at Windsor_, _March_ 12, 1865.) + + ISAIAH lv. 1. + + Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath + no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without + money and without price. + +EVERY one who knows his Bible as he should, knows well this noble +chapter. It seems to be one of the separate poems or hymns of which the +Book of Isaiah is composed. It is certainly one of the most beautiful of +them, and also one of the deepest. So beautiful is it, that the good men +of old who translated the Bible into English, could not help catching the +spirit of the words as they went on with their work, and making the +chapter almost a hymn in English, as it is a hymn in Hebrew. Even the +very sound of the words, as we listen to them, is a song in itself; and +there is perhaps no more perfect piece of writing in the English +language, than the greater part of this chapter. + +This may not seem a very important matter; and yet those good men of old +must have felt that there was something in this chapter which went home +especially to their hearts, and would go home to the hearts of us for +whose sake they translated it. + +And those good men judged rightly. The care which they bestowed on +Isaiah’s words has not been in vain. The noble sound of the text has +caught many a man’s ears, in order that the noble meaning of the text +might touch his heart, and bring him back again to God, to seek Him while +He may be found, and call on Him while He is near; that so the wicked +might forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return +to God, for He will have compassion, and to our God, for He will +abundantly pardon; and that he might find that God’s thoughts are not as +man’s thoughts, nor His ways as man’s ways, saith the Lord; for as the +heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways and thoughts higher +than ours. + +Yes—I believe that the beauty of this chapter has made many a man listen +to it, who had perhaps never cared to listen to any good before; and +learn a precious lesson from it, which he could learn nowhere save in the +Bible. + +For this text is one of those which have been called the Evangelical +Prophecies, in which the prophet rises far above Moses’ old law, and the +letter of it, which, as St. Paul says, is a letter which killeth; and the +spirit of it, which is a spirit which, as St. Paul says, gendereth to +bondage and slavish dread of God: an utterance in which the prophet sees +by faith the Lord Jesus Christ and His free grace revealed—dimly, of +course, and in a figure—but still revealed by the Spirit of God, who +spake by the prophets. As St. Paul says, Moses’ law made nothing +perfect, and therefore had to be disannulled for its unprofitableness and +weakness, and a better hope brought in, by which we draw near to God. +And here, in this text, we see the better hope coming in, and as it were +dawning upon men—the dawn of the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ our +Lord, who was to rise afterwards, to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, +and the glory of His people Israel. + +And what was this better hope? One, St. Paul says, by which we could +draw nigh to God; come near to Him; as to a Father, a Saviour, a +Comforter, a liege lord—not a tyrant who holds us against our will as his +slaves, but a liege lord who holds us with our will as His tenants, His +vassals, His liege men, as the good old English words were; one who will +take His vassals into His counsel, and inform them with His Spirit, and +teach them His mind, that they may do His will and copy His example, and +be treated by Him as His friends—in spite of the infinite difference of +rank between them and Him, which they must never forget. + +But though the difference of rank be infinite and boundless—for it is the +difference between sinful man and God perfect for ever—yet still man can +now draw near to God. He is not commanded to stand afar off in fear and +trembling, as the old Jews were at Sinai. We have not come, says St. +Paul, to a mount which burned with fire, and blackness, and darkness, and +storm, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which those +who heard entreated that they should not be spoken to them any more: for +they could not endure that which was commanded: but we are come to the +city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the Church of the +first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and +to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the +new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling. + +We are come to God, the Judge of all, and to Christ—not bidden to stand +afar off from them. That is the point to which I wish you to attend. +For this agrees with the words of the text, ‘Ho, every one that +thirsteth, come ye to the waters.’ + +This message it is, which made this chapter precious in the eyes of the +good men of old. This message it is, which has made it precious, in all +times, to thousands of troubled, hard-worked, weary, afflicted hearts. +This is what has made it precious to thousands who were wearied with the +burden of their sins, and longed to be made righteous and good; and knew +bitterly well that they could not make themselves good, but that God +alone could do that; and so longed to come to God, that they might be +made good: but did not know whether they might come or not; or whether, +if they came, God would receive them, and help them, and convert them. +This message it is, which has made the text an evangelical prophecy, to +be fulfilled only in Christ—a message which tells men of a God who says, +Come. Of a God whom Moses’ law, saying merely, ‘Thou shalt not,’ did not +reveal to us, divine and admirable as it was, and is, and ever will be. +Of a God whom natural religion, such as even the heathen, St. Paul says, +may gain from studying God’s works in this wonderful world around us—of a +God, I say, whom natural religion does not reveal to us, divine and +admirable as it is. But of a God who was revealed, step by step, to the +Psalmists and the Prophets, more and more clearly as the years went on; +of a God who was fully and utterly revealed, not merely by, but in Jesus +Christ our Lord, who was Himself that God, very God of very God begotten, +being the brightness of His Father’s glory, and the express image of His +person; whose message and call, from the first day of His ministry to His +glorious ascension, was, Come. + +Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you. + +Come unto Me, and take My yoke on you: for My yoke is easy, and My burden +is light. + +I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he +that believeth in Me shall never thirst. + +All that the Father hath given Me shall come unto Me. And he that cometh +to Me I will in no wise cast out. + +Nay, the very words of this prophecy Christ took to Himself again and +again, speaking of Himself as the fountain of life, health and light; +when He stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to Me, +and drink. + +Come unto Me, that ye may have life, is the message of Jesus Christ, both +God and man. Come, that you may have forgiveness of your sins; come, +that you may have the Holy Spirit, by which you may sin no more, but live +the life of the Spirit, the everlasting life of goodness, by which the +spirits of just men, and angels, and archangels, live for ever before +God. + +And what says St. Paul? See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For +if they escaped not, who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall +not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven. + +Yes. The goodness of God, the condescension of God, instead of making it +more easy for sinners to escape, makes it, if possible, more difficult. +There are those who fancy that because God is merciful—because it is +written in this very chapter, Let a man return to the Lord, and He will +have mercy; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon,—that, +therefore, God is indulgent, and will overlook their sins; forgetting +that in the verse before it is said, Let the wicked forsake his ways, and +the unrighteous man his thoughts, and then—but not till then—let him +return to God, to be received with compassion and forgiveness. + +Too many know not, as St. Paul says, that the goodness of God leads men, +not to sin freely and carelessly without fear of punishment, but leads +them to repentance. And yet do not our own hearts and consciences tell +us that it is so? That it is more base, and more presumptuous likewise, +to turn away from one who speaks with love, than one who speaks with +sternness; from one who calls us to come to him, with boundless +condescension, than from one who bids us stand afar off and tremble? + +Those Jews of old, when they refused to hear God speaking in the thunders +of Sinai, committed folly. We, if we refuse to hear God speaking in the +tender words of Jesus crucified for us, commit an equal folly: but we +commit baseness and ingratitude likewise. They rebelled against a +Master: we rebel against a Father. + +But, though we deny Him, He cannot deny Himself. We may be false to Him, +false to our better selves, false to our baptismal vows: but He cannot be +false. He cannot change. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for +ever. What He said on earth, that He says eternally in heaven: If any +man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. + +Eternally, and for ever, in heaven, says St. John, Christ says, and is, +and does, what Isaiah prophesied that He would say, and be, and do,—I am +the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And +the Spirit and the Bride (His Spirit and His Church) say, Come. And let +him that is athirst, Come: and whosoever will, let him take of the water +of life freely. For ever He calls to every anxious soul, every afflicted +soul, every weary soul, every discontented soul, to every man who is +ashamed of himself, and angry with himself, and longs to live a soberer, +gentler, nobler, purer, truer, more useful life—Come. Let him who +hungers and thirsts after righteousness, come to the waters; and he that +hath no silver—nothing to give to God in return for all His bounty—let +him buy without silver, and eat; and live for ever that eternal life of +righteousness, holiness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is +the one true and only salvation bought for us by the precious blood of +Christ, our Lord. + + + + +SERMON IX. +EZEKIEL’S VISION. + + + (_Preached before the Queen at Windsor_, _June_ 26, 1864.) + + EZEKIEL i. 1, 26. + + Now it came to pass, as I was among the captives by the river of + Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. And + upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of + a man. + +EZEKIEL’S Vision may seem to some a strange and unprofitable subject on +which to preach. It ought not to be so in fact. All Scripture is given +by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for correction, +for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. And so will this Vision +be to us, if we try to understand it aright. We shall find in it fresh +knowledge of God, a clearer and fuller revelation, made to Ezekiel, than +had been, up to his time, made to any man. + +I am well aware that there are some very difficult verses in the text. +It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand exactly what presented +itself to Ezekiel’s mind. + +Ezekiel saw a whirlwind come out of the north; a whirling globe of fire; +four living creatures coming out of the midst thereof. So far the +imagery is simple enough, and grand enough. But when he begins to speak +of the living creatures, the cherubim, his description is very obscure. +All that we discover is, a vision of huge creatures with the feet, and +(as some think) the body of an ox, with four wings, and four faces,—those +of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. Ezekiel seems to discover +afterwards that these are the cherubim, the same which overshadowed the +ark in Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple—only of a more complex +form; for Moses’ and Solomon’s cherubim are believed to have had but one +face each, while Ezekiel’s had four. + +Now, concerning the cherubim, and what they meant, we know very little. +The Jews, at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, had forgotten their +meaning. Josephus, indeed, says they had forgotten their very shape. + +Some light has been thrown, lately, on the figures of these creatures, by +the sculptures of those very Assyrian cities to which Ezekiel was a +captive,—those huge winged oxen and lions with human heads; and those +huge human figures with four wings each, let down and folded round them +just as Ezekiel describes, and with heads, sometimes of the lion, and +sometimes of the eagle. None, however, have been found as yet, I +believe, with four faces, like those of Ezekiel’s Vision; they are all of +the simpler form of Solomon’s cherubim. But there is little doubt that +these sculptures were standing there perfect in Ezekiel’s time, and that +he and the Jews who were captive with him may have seen them often. And +there is little doubt also what these figures meant: that they were +symbolic of royal spirits—those thrones, dominations, princedoms, powers, +of which Milton speaks,—the powers of the earth and heaven, the royal +archangels who, as the Chaldæans believed, governed the world, and gave +it and all things life; symbolized by them under the types of the four +royal creatures of the world, according to the Eastern nations; the ox +signifying labour, the lion power, the eagle foresight, and the man +reason. + +So with the wheels which Ezekiel sees. We find them in the Assyrian +sculptures—wheels with a living spirit sitting in each, a human figure +with outspread wings; and these seem to have been the genii, or guardian +angels, who watched over their kings, and gave them fortune and victory. + +For these Chaldæans were specially worshippers of angels and spirits; and +they taught the Jews many notions about angels and spirits, which they +brought home with them into Judæa after the captivity. + +Of them, of course, we read little or nothing in Holy Scripture; but +there is much, and too much, about them in the writings of the old +Rabbis, the Scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament. + +Now Ezekiel, inspired by the Spirit of God, rises far above the old +Chaldæans and their dreams. Perhaps the captive Jews were tempted to +worship these cherubim and genii, as the Chaldæans did; and it may be +that Ezekiel was commissioned by God to set them right, and by his vision +to give a type, pattern, or picture of God’s spiritual laws, by which He +rules the world. + +Be that as it may. In the first place, Ezekiel’s cherubim are far more +wonderful and complicated than those which he would see on the walls of +the Assyrian buildings. And rightly so; for this world is far more +wonderful, more complicated, more cunningly made and ruled, than any of +man’s fancies about it; as it is written in the Book of Job,—‘Where wast +thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast +understanding. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who +laid the corner-stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and +all the sons of God shouted for joy?’ + +Next (and this is most important), these different cherubim were not +independent of each other, each going his own way, and doing his own +will. Not so. Ezekiel had found in them a divine and wonderful order, +by which the services of angels as well as of men are constituted. +Orderly and harmoniously they worked together. Out of the same fiery +globe, from the same throne of God, they came forth all alike. They +turned not when they went; whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went, +and ran and returned like a flash of lightning. Nay, in one place he +speaks as if all the four creatures were but one creature: ‘This is the +living creature which I saw by the river of Chebar.’ + +And so it is, we may be sure, in the world of God, whether in the earthly +or in the heavenly world. All things work together, praising God and +doing His will. Angels and the heavenly host; sun and moon; stars and +light; fire and hail; snow and vapour; wind and storm: all fulfil His +word. ‘He hath made them fast for ever and ever: He hath given them a +law which shall not be broken.’ For before all things, under all things, +and through all things, is a divine unity and order; all things working +towards one end, because all things spring from one beginning, which is +the bosom of God the Father. + +And so with the wheels; the wheels of fortune and victory, and the fate +of nations and of kings. ‘They were so high,’ Ezekiel said, ‘that they +were dreadful.’ But he saw no human genius sitting, one in each wheel of +fortune, each protecting his favourite king and nation. These, too, did +not go their own way and of their own will. They were parts of God’s +divine and wonderful order, and obeyed the same laws as the cherubim. +‘And when the living creatures went, the wheels went with them; for the +spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.’ Everywhere was the +same divine unity and order; the same providence, the same laws of God, +presided over the natural world and over the fortunes of nations and of +kings. Victory and prosperity was not given arbitrarily by separate +genii, each genius protecting his favourite king, each genius striving +against the other on behalf of his favourite. Fortune came from the +providence of One Being; of Him of whom it is written, ‘God standeth in +the congregation of princes: He is the judge among gods.’ And again, +‘The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient: He sitteth between +the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.’ + +And is this all? God forbid. This is more than the Chaldæans saw, who +worshipped angels and not God—the creature instead of the Creator. But +where the Chaldæan vision ended, Ezekiel’s only began. His prophecy +rises far above the imaginations of the heathen. + +He hears the sound of the wings of the cherubim, like the tramp of an +army, like the noise of great waters, like the roll of thunder, the voice +of Almighty God: but above their wings he sees a firmament, which the +heathen cannot see, clear as the flashing crystal, and on that firmament +a sapphire throne, and round that throne a rainbow, the type of +forgiveness and faithfulness, and on that throne A Man. + +And the cherubim stand, and let down their wings in submission, waiting +for the voice of One mightier than they. And Ezekiel falls upon his +face, and hears from off the throne a human voice, which calls to him as +human likewise, ‘Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to +thee.’ + +This, this is Ezekiel’s vision: not the fiery globe merely, nor the +cherubim, nor the wheels, nor the powers of nature, nor the angelic +host—dominions and principalities, and powers—but The Man enthroned above +them all, the Lord and Guide and Ruler of the universe; He who makes the +winds His angels, and the flames of fire His ministers; and that Lord +speaking to him, not through cherubim, not through angels, not through +nature, not through mediators, angelic or human, but speaking direct to +him himself, as man speaks to man. + +As man speaks to man. This is the very pith and marrow of the Old +Testament and of the New; which gradually unfolds itself, from the very +first chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation,—that man is made in +the likeness of God; and that therefore God can speak to him, and he can +understand God’s words and inspirations. + +Man is like God; and therefore God, in some inconceivable way, is like +man. That is the great truth set forth in the first chapter of Genesis, +which goes on unfolding itself more clearly throughout the Old Testament, +till here, in Ezekiel’s vision, it comes to, perhaps, its clearest stage +save one. + +That human appearance speaks to Ezekiel, the hapless prisoner of war, far +away from his native land. And He speaks to him with human voice, and +claims kindred with him as a human being, saying, ‘Son of man.’ That is +very deep and wonderful. The Lord upon His throne does not wish Ezekiel +to think how different He is to him, but how like He is to him. He says +not to Ezekiel,—‘Creature infinitely below Me! Dust and ashes, unworthy +to appear in My presence! Worm of the earth, as far below Me and unlike +Me as the worm under thy feet is to thee!’ but, ‘Son of man; creature +made in My image and likeness, be not afraid! Stand on thy feet, and be +a man; and speak to others what I speak to thee.’ + +After that great revelation of God there seems but one step more to make +it perfect; and that step was made in God’s good time, in the Incarnation +of our Lord Jesus Christ. + +Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also—He +whom Ezekiel saw in human form enthroned on high—He took part of flesh +and blood likewise, and was not ashamed, yea, rather rejoiced, to call +Himself, what He called Ezekiel, the Son of Man. + +‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His +glory.’ And why? + +For many reasons; but certainly for this one. To make men feel more +utterly and fully what Ezekiel was made to feel. That God could +thoroughly feel for man; and that man could thoroughly trust God. + +That God could thoroughly feel for man. For we have a High Priest who +has been made perfect by sufferings, tempted in all points like as we +are; and we can + + ‘Look to Him who, not in vain, + Experienced every human pain; + He sees our wants, allays our fears, + And counts and treasures up our tears.’ + +Again,—That man could utterly trust God. For when St. John and his +companions (simple fishermen) beheld the glory of Jesus, the Incarnate +Word, what was it like? It was ‘full of grace and truth;’ the perfection +of human graciousness, of human truthfulness, which could win and melt +the hearts of simple folk, and make them see in Him, who was called the +carpenter’s son, the beauty of the glory of the Godhead. + +‘He is the Judge of all the earth.’ And why? Let Him Himself tell us. +He says that the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment. +And why, once more? Because He is the Son of God? Our Lord says +more,—‘Because,’ He says, ‘He is the Son of Man;’ who knows what is in +man; who can feel, understand, discriminate, pity, make allowances, judge +fair, and righteous, and merciful judgment, among creatures whose +weakness He has experienced, whose temptations He has felt, whose pains +and sorrows He has borne in mortal flesh and blood. + +Oh, Gospel and good news for the weak, the sorrowful, the oppressed; for +those who are wearied with the burden of their sins, or wearied also by +the burden of heavy responsibilities, and awful public duties! When all +mortal counsellors fail them, when all mortal help is too weak, let them +but throw themselves on the mercy of Him who sits upon the throne, and +remember that He, though immortal and eternal, is still the Son of Man, +who knows what is in man. + +There are times in which we are all tempted to worship other things than +God. Not, perhaps, to worship cherubim and genii, angels and spirits, +like the old Chaldees, but to worship the laws of political economy, the +laws of statesmanship, the powers of nature, the laws of physical +science, those lower messengers of God’s providence, of which St. Paul +says, ‘He maketh the winds His angels, and flames of fire His ministers.’ + +In such times we have need to remember Ezekiel’s lesson, that above them +all, ruling and guiding, sits He whose form is as the Son of Man. + +We are not to say that any powers of nature are evil, or the laws of any +science false. Heaven forbid! Ezekiel did not say that the cherubim +were evil, or meaningless; or that the belief in angels ministering to +man was false. He said the very opposite. But he said, All these obey +one whose form is that of a man. He rules them, and they do His will. +They are but ministering spirits before Him. + +Therefore we are not to disbelieve science, nor disregard the laws of +nature, or we shall lose by our folly. But we are to believe that nature +and science are not our gods. They do not rule us; our fortunes are not +in their hands. Above nature and above science sits the Lord of nature +and the Lord of science. Above all the counsels of princes, and the +struggles of nations, and the chances and changes of this world of man, +sits the Judge of princes and of peoples, the Lord of all the nations +upon earth, He by whom all things were made, and who upholdeth all things +by the word of His power; and He is man, of the substance of His mother; +most human and yet most divine; full of justice and truth, full of care +and watchfulness, full of love and pity, full of tenderness and +understanding; a Friend, a Guide, a Counsellor, a Comforter, a Saviour to +all who trust in Him. He is nearer to us than nature and science: and He +should be dearer to us; for they speak only to our understanding; but He +speaks to our human hearts, to our inmost spirits. Nature and science +cannot take away our sins, give peace to our hearts, right judgment to +our minds, strength to our wills, or everlasting life to our souls and +bodies. But there sits One upon the throne who can. And if nature were +to vanish away, and science were to be proved (however correct as far as +it went) a mere child’s guess about this wonderful world, which none can +understand save He who made it—if all the counsels of princes and of +peoples, however just and wise, were to be confounded and come to nought, +still, after all, and beyond all, and above all, Christ would abide for +ever, with human tenderness yearning over human hearts; with human wisdom +teaching human ignorance; with human sympathy sorrowing with human +mourners; for ever saying, ‘Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy +laden, and I will give you rest.’ + +Cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, dominions and powers, +whether of nature or of grace—these all serve Him and do His work. He +has constituted their services in a wonderful order: but He has not taken +their nature on Him. Our nature He has taken on Him, that we might be +bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; able to say to Him for ever, in +all the chances and changes of this mortal life— + + ‘Thou, O Christ, art all I want, + More than all in thee I find; + Raise me, fallen; cheer me, faint; + Heal me, sick; and lead me, blind. + Thou of life the fountain art, + Freely let me drink of Thee; + Spring Thou up within my heart, + Rise to all eternity.’ + + + + +SERMON X. +RUTH. + + + RUTH ii. 4. + + And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The + Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee. + +MOST of you know the story of Ruth, from which my text is taken, and you +have thought it, no doubt, a pretty story. But did you ever think why it +was in the Bible? + +Every book in the Bible is meant to teach us, as the Article of our +Church says, something necessary to salvation. But what is there +necessary to our salvation in the Book of Ruth? + +No doubt we learn from it that Ruth was the ancestress of King David; and +that she was, therefore, an ancestress of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ: +but curious and interesting as that is, we can hardly call that something +necessary to salvation. There must be something more in the book. Let +us take it simply as it stands, and see if we can find it out. + +It begins by telling us how a man of Bethlehem has been driven out of his +own country by a famine, he and his wife Naomi and his two sons, and has +gone over the border into Moab, among the heathen; how his two sons have +married heathen women, and the name of the one was Ruth, and the name of +the other Orpah. Then how he dies, and his two sons; and how Naomi, his +widow, hears that the Lord had visited His people, in giving them bread; +how the people of Judah were prosperous again, and she is there all alone +among the heathen; so she sets out to go back to her own people, and her +daughters-in-law go with her. + +But she persuades them not to go. Why do they not stay in their own +land? And they weep over each other; and Orpah kisses her mother-in-law, +and goes back; but Ruth cleaves unto her. + +Then follows that famous speech of Ruth’s, which, for its simple beauty +and poetry, has become a proverb, and even a song, among us to this day. + +And Ruth said, ‘Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following +after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I +will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: + +‘Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so +to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.’ + +So when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go to her, she left +speaking to her. + +And they come to Bethlehem, and all the town was moved about them; and +they said, Is this Naomi? + +‘And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the +Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord +hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the +Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?’ + +And they came to Bethlehem about the passover tide, at the beginning of +barley harvest, and Ruth went out into the fields to glean, and she +lighted on a part of the field which belonged to Boaz, who was of her +husband’s kindred. + +And Boaz was a mighty man of wealth, according to the simple fashions of +that old land and old time. Not like one of our great modern noblemen, +or merchants, but rather like one of our wealthy yeomen: a man who would +not disdain to work in his field with his own slaves, after the wholesome +fashion of those old times, when a royal prince and mighty warrior would +sow the corn with his own hands, while his man opened the furrow with the +plough before him. There Boaz dwelt, with other yeomen, up among the +limestone hills, in the little walled village of Bethlehem, which was +afterwards to become so famous and so holy; and had, we may suppose, his +vineyard and his olive-garden on the rocky slopes, and his corn-fields in +the vale below, and his flock of sheep and goats feeding on the downs; +while all his wealth besides lay, probably, after the Eastern fashion, in +one great chest—full of rich dresses, and gold and silver ornaments, and +coins, all foreign, got in exchange for his corn, and wine, and oil, from +Assyrian, or Egyptian, or Phœnician traders; for the Jews then had no +money, and very little manufacture, of their own. + +And he would have had hired servants, too, and slaves, in his house; +treated kindly enough, as members of the family, eating and drinking at +his table, and faring nearly as well as he fared himself. + +A stately, God-fearing man he plainly was; respectable, courteous, and +upright, and altogether worthy of his wealth; and he went out into the +field, looking after his reapers in the barley harvest—about our +Easter-tide. + +And he said to his reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered, The +Lord bless thee. + +Then he saw Ruth, who had happened to light upon his field, gleaning +after the reapers, and found out who she was, and bid her glean without +fear, and abide by his maidens, for he had charged the young men that +they shall not touch her. + +‘And Boaz said unto her, At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the +bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the +reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was +sufficed, and left. + +‘And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, +saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: and +let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, +that she may glean them, and rebuke her not. + +‘So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had +gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.’ + +Then follows the simple story, after the simple fashion of those days. +How Naomi bids Ruth wash and anoint herself, and put on her best +garments, and go down to Boaz’ floor (his barn as we should call it now) +where he is going to eat, and drink, and sleep, and there claim his +protection as a near kinsman. + +And how Ruth comes in softly and lies down at his feet, and how he treats +her honourably and courteously, and promises to protect her. But there +is a nearer kinsman than he, and he must be asked first if he will do the +kinsman’s part, and buy his cousin’s plot of land, and marry his cousin’s +widow with it. + +And how Boaz goes to the town-gate next day, and sits down in the gate +(for the porch of the gate was a sort of town-hall or vestry-room in the +East, wherein all sorts of business was done), and there he challenges +the kinsman,—Will he buy the ground and marry Ruth? And he will not: he +cannot afford it. Then Boaz calls all the town to witness that day, that +he has bought all that was Elimelech’s, and Ruth the Moabitess to be his +wife. + +‘And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are +witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like +Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do +thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem.’ + +And in due time Ruth had a son. ‘And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed +be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that +his name may be famous in Israel. + +‘And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of +thine old age: for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is +better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. + +‘And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse +unto it. + +‘And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born +to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the +father of David.’ + +And so ends the Book of Ruth. + +Now, my friends, can you not answer for yourselves the question which I +asked at first,—Why is the story of Ruth in the Bible, and what may we +learn from it which is necessary for our salvation? + +I think, at least, that you will be able to answer it—if not in words, +still in your hearts—if you will read the book for yourselves. + +For does it not consecrate to God that simple country life which we lead +here? Does it not tell us that it is blessed in the sight of Him who +makes the grass to grow, and the corn to ripen in its season? + +Does it not tell us, that not only on the city and the palace, on the +cathedral and the college, on the assemblies of statesmen, on the studies +of scholars, but upon the meadow and the corn-field, the farm-house and +the cottage, is written, by the everlasting finger of God—Holiness unto +the Lord? That it is all blessed in His sight; that the simple dwellers +in villages, the simple tillers of the ground, can be as godly and as +pious, as virtuous and as high-minded, as those who have nought to do but +to serve God in the offices of religion? Is it not an honour and a +comfort, to such as us, to find one whole book of the Holy Bible occupied +by the simplest story of the fortunes of a yeoman’s family, in a lonely +village among the hills of Judah? True, the yeoman’s widow became the +ancestress of David, and of his mighty line of kings—nay, the ancestress +of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But the Book of Ruth was not written +mainly to tell us that fact. It mentions it at the end, and as it were +by accident. The book itself is taken up with the most simple and +careful details of country life, country customs, country folk—as if that +was what we were to think of, as we read of Ruth. And that is what we do +think of—not of the ancestress of kings, but of the fair young heathen +gleaning among the corn, with the pious, courteous, high-minded yeoman +bidding her abide fast by his maidens, and when she was athirst drink of +the wine which the young men have drawn, for it has been fully showed him +all she has done for her mother-in-law; and the Lord will recompense her +work, and a full reward be given her of the Lord God of Israel, under the +shadow of whose wings she is to come to trust. That is the scene which +painters naturally draw; that is what we naturally think of; because God, +who gave us the Bible, meant us to think thereof; and to know, that +working in the quiet village, or in the distant field, women may be as +pure and modest, men as high-minded and well-bred, and both as full of +the fear of God, and the thought that God’s eye is upon them, as if they +were in a place, or a station, where they had nothing to do but to watch +over the salvation of their own souls; that the meadow and the +harvest-field need not be, as they too often are, places for temptation +and for defilement; where the old too often teach the young, not to fear +God and keep themselves pure, but to copy their coarse jests and foul +language, and listen to stories which had better be buried for ever in +the dirt out of which they spring. You know what I mean. You know what +field-work too often is. Read the Book of Ruth, and see what field-work +may be, and ought to be. + +Yes, my dear friends. Pure you may be, and gentle, upright, and godly, +about your daily work, if the Spirit of God be within you. + +Country life has its temptations: and so has town life, and every life. +But there has no temptation taken you save such as is common to man. +Boaz, the rich yeoman; Naomi, the broken-hearted and ruined; Ruth, the +fair young widow—all had the very same temptations as are common to you +now, here; but they conquered them, because they feared God and kept His +commandments; and to know that, is necessary for your salvation. + +And, looked at in this light, the Book of Ruth is indeed a prophecy; a +forecast and a shadow of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself, who +spake to country folk as never man spake before, and bade them look upon +the simple, every-day matters which were around them in field and wood, +and open their eyes to the Divine lessons of God’s providence, which also +were all around them; who, born Himself in that little village of +Bethlehem, and brought up in the little village of Nazareth, among the +lonely lanes and downs, spoke of country things to country folk, and bade +them read in the great green book which God has laid open before them all +day long. Who bade them to consider the lilies of the field, how they +grew, and the ravens, how God fed them; to look on the fields, white for +harvest, and pray God to send labourers into his spiritual harvest-field; +to look on the tares which grew among the wheat, and know we must not try +to part them ourselves, but leave that to God at the last day; to look on +the fishers, who were casting their net into the Lake of Galilee, and +sorting the fish upon the shore, and be sure that a day was coming, when +God would separate the good from the bad, and judge every man according +to his work and worth; and to learn from the common things of country +life the rule of the living God, and the laws of the kingdom of heaven. + +One word more, and I have done. + +The story of Ruth is also the consecration of woman’s love. I do not +mean of the love of wife to husband, divine and blessed as that is. I +mean that depth and strength of devotion, tenderness, and self-sacrifice, +which God has put in the heart of all true women; and which they spend so +strangely, and so nobly often, on persons who have no claim on them, from +whom they can receive no earthly reward;—the affection which made women +minister of their substance to our Lord Jesus Christ; which brought Mary +Magdalene to the foot of the Cross, and to the door of the tomb, that she +might at least see the last of Him whom she thought lost to her for ever; +the affection which has made a wise man say, that as long as women and +sorrow are left in the world, so long will the Gospel of our Lord Jesus +live and conquer therein; the affection which makes women round us every +day ministering angels, wherever help or comfort are needed; which makes +many a woman do deeds of unselfish goodness known only to God; not known +even to herself; for she does them by instinct, by the inspiration of +God’s Spirit, without self-consciousness or pride, without knowing what +noble things she is doing, without spoiling the beauty of her good work +by even admitting to herself, ‘What a good work it is! How right she is +in doing it! How much it will advance the salvation of her own +soul!’—but thinking herself, perhaps, a very useless and paltry person; +while the angels of God are claiming her as their sister and their peer. + +Yes, if there is a woman in this congregation—and there is one, I will +warrant, in every congregation in England—who is devoting herself for the +good of others; giving up the joys of life to take care of orphans who +have no legal claim on her; or to nurse a relation, who perhaps repays +her with little but exacting peevishness; or who has spent all her +savings, in bringing up her brothers, or in supporting her parents in +their old age,—then let her read the story of Ruth, and be sure that, +like Ruth, she will be repaid by the Lord. Her reward may not be the +same as Ruth’s: but it will be that which is best for her, and she shall +in no wise lose her reward. If she has given up all for Christ, it shall +be repaid her ten-fold in this life, and in the world to come life +everlasting. If, with Ruth, she is true to the inspirations of God’s +Spirit, then, with Ruth, God will be true to her. Let her endure, for in +due time she shall reap, if she faint not;—and to know that, is necessary +for her salvation. + + + + +SERMON XI. +SOLOMON. + + + ECCLESIASTES i. 12–14. + + I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my + heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are + done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of + man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are + done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of + spirit. + +ALL have heard of Solomon the Wise. His name has become a proverb among +men. It was still more a proverb among the old Rabbis, the lawyers and +scribes of the Gospels. + +Their hero, the man of whom they delighted to talk and dream, was not +David, the Psalmist, and the shepherd-boy, the man of many wanderings, +and many sorrows: but his son Solomon, with all his wealth, and pomp and +magic wisdom. Ever since our Lord’s time, if not before it, Solomon has +been the national hero of the Jews; while David, as the truer type and +pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been the hero of Christians. + +The Rabbis, with their Eastern fancy—childishly fond, to this day, of +gold, and jewels, and outward pomp and show—would talk and dream of the +lost glories of Solomon’s court; of his gilded and jewelled temple, with +its pillars of sandal-wood from Ophir, and its sea of molten brass; of +his ivory lion-throne, and his three hundred golden shields; of his +fleets which went away into the far Indian sea, and came back after three +years with foreign riches and curious beasts. And as if that had not +been enough, they delighted to add to the truth fable upon fable. The +Jews, after the time of the Babylonish captivity, seem to have more and +more identified Wisdom with mere Magic; and therefore Solomon was, in +their eyes, the master of all magicians. He knew the secrets of the +stars, and of the elements, the secrets of all charms and spells. By +virtue of his magic seal he had power over all those evil spirits, with +which the Jews believed the earth and sky to be filled. He could command +all spirits, force them to appear to him and bow before him, and send +them to the ends of the earth to do his bidding. Nothing so fantastic, +nothing so impossible, but those old Scribes and Pharisees imputed it to +their idol, Solomon the Wise. + +The Bible, of course, has no such fancies in it, and gives us a sober and +rational account of Solomon’s wisdom, and of Solomon’s greatness. + +It tells us how, when he was yet young, God appeared to him in a dream, +and said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon made answer— + +‘ . . . O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David +my father; and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come +in. + +‘Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, +that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this +Thy so great a people? + +‘And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. + +‘And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not +asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor +hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself +understanding to discern judgment; + +‘Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise +and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, +neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. + +‘And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches +and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee +all thy days.’ + +And the promise, says Solomon himself, was fulfilled. + +In his days Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the +sea-shore, for multitude, eating and drinking and making merry; and +Solomon reigned over all kings, from the river to the land of the +Philistines and the border of Egypt; and they brought presents, and +served Solomon all the days of his life. And he had peace on all sides +round about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his +own vine and his own fig-tree, all the days of Solomon. + +‘I was great,’ he says, ‘and increased more than all that were before me +in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes +desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for +my heart rejoiced in all my labour . . . + +‘Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the +labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and +vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. + +‘And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what +can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been +already done.’ + +Yes, my dear friends, we are too apt to think of exceeding riches, or +wisdom, or power, or glory, as unalloyed blessings from God. How many +are there who would say,—if it were not happily impossible for them,—Oh +that I were like Solomon! Happy man that he was, to be able to say of +himself, ‘I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in +Jerusalem. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them; I +withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my +labour.’ + +To have everything that he wanted, to be able to do anything that he +liked—was he not a happy man? Is not such a life a Paradise on earth? + +Yes, my friends, it is. But it is the Paradise of fools. + +Yet, Solomon was not a fool. He says expressly that his wisdom remained +with him through all his labour. Through all his pleasure he kept alive +the longing after knowledge. He even tried, as he says, wine, and mirth, +and folly, yet acquainting himself with wisdom. He would try that, as +well as statesmanship, and the rule of a great kingdom, and the building +of temples and palaces, and the planting of parks and gardens, and his +three thousand Proverbs, and his Songs a thousand and five; and his +speech of beasts and of birds and of all plants, from the cedar in +Lebanon to the hyssop which groweth on the wall. He would know +everything, and try everything. If he was luxurious and proud, he would +be no idler, no useless gay liver. He would work, and discern, and +know,—and at last he found it all out, and this was the sum +thereof—‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.’ + +He found no rest in pleasure, riches, power, glory, wisdom itself; he had +learnt nothing more after all than he might have known, and doubtless did +know, when he was a child of seven years old. And that was, simply to +fear God and keep His commandments; for that was the whole duty of man. + +But though he knew it, he had lost the power of doing it; and he ended +darkly and shamefully, a dotard worshipping idols of wood and stone, +among his heathen queens. And thus, as in David the height of chivalry +fell to the deepest baseness; so in Solomon the height of wisdom fell to +the deepest folly. + +My friends, the truth is, that exceeding gifts from God like Solomon’s +are not blessings, they are duties; and very solemn and heavy duties. +They do not increase a man’s happiness; they only increase his +responsibility—the awful account which he must give at last of the +talents committed to his charge. They increase, too, his danger. They +increase the chance of his having his head turned to pride and pleasure, +and falling shamefully, and coming to a miserable end. As with David, so +with Solomon. Man is nothing, and God is all in all. + +And as with David and Solomon, so with many a king and many a great man. +Consider those who have been great and glorious in their day. And in how +many cases they have ended sadly! The burden of glory has been too heavy +for them to bear; they have broken down under it. + +The great Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain and all +the Indies: our own great Queen Elizabeth, who found England all but +ruined, and left her strong and rich, glorious and terrible: Lord Bacon, +the wisest of all mortal men since the time of Solomon: and, in our own +fathers’ time, Napoleon Buonaparte, the poor young officer, who rose to +be the conqueror of half Europe, and literally the king of kings,—how +have they all ended? In sadness and darkness, vanity and vexation of +spirit. + +Oh, my friends! if ever proud and ambitious thoughts arise in any of our +hearts, let us crush them down till we can say with David: ‘Lord, my +heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself +in great matters, or in things too high for me. + +‘Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of +his mother; my soul is even as a weaned child.’ + +And if ever idle and luxurious thoughts arise in our hearts, and we are +tempted to say, ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take +thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry;’ let us hear the word of the Lord +crying against us: ‘Thou fool! This night shall thy soul be required of +thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?’ + +Let us pray, my friends, for that great—I had almost said, that crowning +grace and virtue of moderation, what St. Paul calls sobriety and a sound +mind. Let us pray for moderate appetites, moderate passions, moderate +honours, moderate gains, moderate joys; and, if sorrows be needed to +chasten us, moderate sorrows. Let us long violently after nothing, or +wish too eagerly to rise in life; and be sure that what the Apostle says +of those who long to be rich is equally true of those who long to be +famous, or powerful, or in any way to rise over the heads of their +fellow-men. They all fall, as the Apostle says, into foolish and hurtful +lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, and so pierce +themselves through with many sorrows. + +And let us thank God heartily if He has put us into circumstances which +do not tempt us to wild and vain hopes of becoming rich, or great or +admired by men. + +Especially let us thank Him for this quiet country life which we lead +here, free from ambition, and rash speculation, and the hope of great and +sudden gains. All know, who have watched the world, how unwholesome for +a man’s soul any trade or occupation is which offers the chance of making +a rapid fortune. It has hurt the souls of too many merchants and +manufacturers ere now. Good and sober-minded men there are among them, +thank God, who can resist the temptation, and are content to go along the +plain path of quiet and patient honesty; but to those who have not the +sober spirit, who have not the fear of God before their eyes, the +temptation is too terrible to withstand; and it is not withstood; and +therefore the columns of our newspapers are so often filled with sad +cases of bankruptcy, forgery, extravagant and desperate trading, bubble +fortunes spent in a few years of vain show and luxury, and ending in +poverty and shame. + +Happy, on the other hand, are those who till the ground; who never can +rise high enough, or suddenly enough, to turn their heads; whose gains +are never great and quick enough to tempt them to wild speculation: but +who can, if they will only do their duty patiently and well, go on year +after year in quiet prosperity, and be content to offer up, week by week, +Agur’s wise prayer: ‘Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with +food sufficient for me.’ + +They need never complain that they have no time to think of their own +souls; that the hurry and bustle of business must needs drive religion +out of their minds. Their life passes in a quiet round of labours. Day +after day, week after week, season after season, they know beforehand +what they have to do, and can arrange their affairs for this world, so as +to give them full time to think of the world to come. Every week brings +small gains, for which they can thank the God of all plenty; and every +week brings, too, small anxieties, for which they can trust the same God +who has given them His only-begotten Son, and will with Him freely give +them all things needful for them; who has, in mercy to their souls and +bodies, put them in the healthiest and usefullest of all pursuits, the +one which ought to lead their minds most to God, and the one in which (if +they be thoughtful men) they have the deep satisfaction of feeling that +they are not working for themselves only, but for their fellow-men; that +every sheaf of corn they grow is a blessing, not merely to themselves, +but to the whole nation. + +My friends, think of these things, especially at this rich and blessed +harvest-time; and while you thank your God and your Saviour for His +unexampled bounty in this year’s good harvest, do not forget to thank Him +for having given the sowing and the reaping of those crops to you; and +for having called you to that business in life in which, I verily +believe, you will find it most easy to serve and obey Him, and be least +tempted to ambition and speculation, and the lust of riches, and the +pride which goes before a fall. + +Think of these things; and think of the exceeding mercies which God heaps +on you as Englishmen,—peace and safety, freedom and just laws, the +knowledge of His Bible, the teaching of His Church, and all that man +needs for body and soul. Let those who have thanked God already, thank +Him still more earnestly, and show their thankfulness not only in their +lips, but in their lives; and let those who have not thanked Him, awake, +and learn, as St. Paul bids them, from God’s own witness of Himself, in +that He has sent them fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food +and gladness:—let them learn, I say, from that, that they have a Father +in heaven who has given them His only-begotten Son, and will with Him +freely give them all things needful: only asking in return that they +should obey His laws—to obey which is everlasting life. + + + + +SERMON XII. +PROGRESS. + + + (_Preached before the Queen at Clifden_, _June_ 3, 1866.) + + ECCLESIASTES vii. 10, + + Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than + these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. + +THIS text occurs in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which has been for many +centuries generally attributed to Solomon the son of David. I say +generally, because, not only among later critics, but even among the +ancient Jewish Rabbis, there have been those who doubted or denied that +Solomon was its author. + +I cannot presume to decide on such a question: but it seems to me most +probable, that the old tradition is right, even though the book may have +suffered alterations, both in form and in language: but any later author, +personating Solomon, would surely have put into his month very different +words from those of Ecclesiastes. Solomon was the ideal hero-king of the +later Jews. Stories of his superhuman wealth, of magical power, of a +fabulous extent of dominion, grew up about his name. He who was said to +control, by means of his wondrous seal, the genii of earth and air, would +scarcely have been represented as a disappointed and broken-hearted sage, +who pronounced all human labour to be vanity and vexation of spirit; who +saw but one event for the righteous and the wicked, and the wise man and +the fool; and questioned bitterly whether there was any future state, any +pre-eminence in man over the brute. + +These, and other startling utterances, made certain of the early Rabbis +doubt the authenticity and inspiration of the Book of Ecclesiastes, as +containing things contrary to the Law, and to desire its suppression, +till they discovered in it—as we may, if we be wise—a weighty and +world-wide meaning. + +Be that as it may, it would certainly be a loss to Scripture, and to our +knowledge of humanity, if it was proved that this book, in its original +shape, was not written by a great king, and most probably by Solomon +himself. The book gains by that fact, not only in its reality and +truthfulness, but in its value and importance as a lesson of human life. +Especially does this text gain; for it has a natural and deep connection +with Solomon and his times. + +The former days were better than his days: he could not help seeing that +they were. He must have feared lest the generation which was springing +up should inquire into the reason thereof, in a tone which would +breed—which actually did breed—discontent and revolution. + +But the fact seemed at first sight patent. The old heroic days of Samuel +and David were past. The Jewish race no longer produced such men as Saul +and Jonathan, as Joab and Abner. A generation of great men, whose names +are immortal, had died out, and a generation of inferior men, of whom +hardly one name has come down to us, had succeeded them. The nation had +lost its primæval freedom, and the courage and loyalty which freedom +gives. It had become rich, and enervated by luxury and ease. Solomon +had civilised the Jewish kingdom, till it had become one of the greatest +nations of the East; but it had become also, like the other nations of +the East, a vast and gaudy despotism, hollow and rotten to the core; +ready to fall to pieces at Solomon’s death, by selfishness, disloyalty, +and civil war. Therefore it was that Solomon hated all his labour that +he had wrought under the sun; for all was vanity and vexation of spirit. + +Such were the facts. And yet it was not wise to look at them too +closely; not wise to inquire why the former times were better than those. +So it was. Let it alone. Pry not too curiously into the past, or into +the future: but do the duty which lies nearest to thee. Fear God and +keep His commandments. For that is the whole duty of man. + +Thus does Solomon lament over the certain decay of the Jewish Empire. +And his words, however sad, are indeed eternal and inspired. For they +have proved true, and will prove true to the end, of every despotism of +the East, or empire formed on Eastern principles; of the old Persian +Empire, of the Roman, of the Byzantine, of those of Hairoun Alraschid and +of Aurungzebe, of those Turkish and Chinese-Tartar empires whose dominion +is decaying before our very eyes. Of all these the wise man’s words are +true. They are vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked +cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. +The thing which has been is that which shall be, and there is no new +thing under the sun. Incapacity of progress; the same outward +civilization repeating itself again and again; the same intrinsic +certainty of decay and death;—these are the marks of all empire, which is +not founded on that foundation which is laid, even Jesus Christ. + +But of Christian nations these words are not true. They pronounce the +doom of the old world: but the new world has no part in them, unless it +copies the sins and follies of the old. + +It is not true of Christian nations that the thing which has been is that +which shall be; and that there is no new thing under the sun. For over +them is the kingdom of Christ, the Saviour of all men, specially of them +which believe, the King of all the princes of the earth, who has always +asserted, and will for ever assert, His own overruling dominion. And in +them is the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of truth and +righteousness; of improvement, discovery, progress from darkness to +light, from folly to wisdom, from barbarism to justice, and mercy, and +the true civilization of the heart and spirit. + +And, therefore, for us it is not only an act of prudence, but a duty; a +duty of faith in God; a duty of loyalty to Jesus Christ our Lord, not to +ask, Why the former times were better than these? For they were not +better than these. Every age has had its own special nobleness, its own +special use: but every age has been better than the age which went before +it; for the Spirit of God is leading the ages on, toward that whereof it +is written, ‘Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into +the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for +those that love Him.’ + +Very unfaithful are we to the teaching of God’s Spirit; many and heavy +are our sins against light and knowledge, and means, and opportunities of +grace. But let us not add to those sins the sin (for such it is) of +inquiring why the former times were better than these. + +For, first, the inquiry shows disbelief in our Lord’s own words, that all +dominion is given to Him in heaven and earth, and that He is with us +always, even to the end of the world. And next, it is a vain inquiry, +based on a mistake. When we look back longingly to any past age, we look +not at the reality, but at a sentimental and untrue picture of our own +imagination. When we look back longingly to the so-called ages of faith, +to the personal loyalty of the old Cavaliers; when we regret that there +are no more among us such giants in statesmanship and power as those who +brought Europe through the French Revolution; when we long that our lot +was cast in any age beside our own, we know not what we ask. The ages +which seem so beautiful afar off, would look to us, were we in them, +uglier than our own. If we long to be back in those so-called devout +ages of faith, we long for an age in which witches and heretics were +burned alive; if we long after the chivalrous loyalty of the old +Cavaliers, we long for an age in which stage-plays were represented, even +before a virtuous monarch like Charles I., which the lowest of our +playgoers would not now tolerate. When we long for anything that is +past, we long, it may be, for a little good which we seem to have lost; +but we long also for real and fearful evil, which, thanks be to God, we +have lost likewise. We are not, indeed, to fancy this age perfect, and +boast, like some, of the glorious nineteenth century. We are to keep our +eyes open to all its sins and defects, that we may amend them. And we +are to remember, in fear and trembling, that to us much is given, and of +us much is required. But we are to thank God that our lot is cast in an +age which, on the whole, is better than any age whatsoever that has gone +before it, and to do our best that the age which is coming may be better +even than this. + +We are neither to regret the past, nor rest satisfied in the present; +but, like St. Paul, forgetting those things that are behind us, and +reaching onward to those things that are before us, press forward, each +and all, to the prize of our high calling in Jesus Christ. + +And as with nations and empires, so with our own private lives. It is +not wise to ask why the former times were better than these. It is +natural, pardonable: but not wise; because we are so apt to mistake the +subject about which we ask, and when we say, ‘Why were the old times +better?’ merely to mean, ‘Why were the old times happier?’ That is not +the question. There is something higher than happiness, says a wise man. +There is blessedness; the blessedness of being good and doing good, of +being right and doing right. That blessedness we may have at all times; +we may be blest even in anxiety and in sadness; we may be blest, even as +the martyrs of old were blest—in agony and death. The times are to us +whatsoever our character makes them. And if we are better men than we +were in former times, then is the present better than the past, even +though it be less happy. And why should it not be better? Surely the +Spirit of God, the spirit of progress and improvement, is working in us, +the children of God, as well as in the great world around. Surely the +years ought to have made us better, more useful, more worthy. We may +have been disappointed in our lofty ideas of what ought to be done. But +we may have gained more clear and practical notions of what can be done. +We may have lost in enthusiasm, and yet gained in earnestness. We may +have lost in sensibility, yet gained in charity, activity, and power. We +may be able to do far less, and yet what we do may be far better done. + +And our very griefs and disappointments—Have they been useless to us? +Surely not. We shall have gained, instead of lost, by them, if the +Spirit of God be working in us. Our sorrows will have wrought in us +patience, our patience experience of God’s sustaining grace, who promises +that as our day our strength shall be; and of God’s tender providence, +which tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and lays on none a burden +beyond what they are able to bear. And that experience will have worked +in us hope: hope that He who has led us thus far will lead us farther +still; that He who brought us through the trials of youth, will bring us +through the trials of age; that He who taught us in former days precious +lessons, not only by sore temptations, but most sacred joys, will teach +us in the days to come fresh lessons by temptations which we shall be +more able to endure; and by joys which, though unlike those of old times, +are no less sacred, no less sent as lessons to our souls, by Him from +whom all good gifts come. + +We will believe this. And instead of inquiring why the former days were +better than these, we will trust that the coming days shall be better +than these, and those which are coming after them better still again, +because God is our Father, Christ our Saviour, the Holy Ghost our +Comforter and Guide. We will toil onward: because we know we are toiling +upward. We will live in hope, not in regret; because hope is the only +state of mind fit for a race for whom God has condescended to stoop, and +suffer, and die, and rise again. We will believe that we, and all we +love, whether in earth or heaven, are destined—if we be only true to +God’s Spirit—to rise, improve, progress for ever: and so we will claim +our share, and keep our place, in that vast ascending and improving scale +of being, which, as some dream—and surely not in vain—goes onward and +upward for ever throughout the universe of Him who wills that none should +perish. + + + + +SERMON XIII. +FAITH. + + + (_Preached before the Queen at Windsor_, _December_ 5, 1865) + + HABAKKUK ii. 4. + + The just shall live by his faith. + +WE shall always find it most safe, as well as most reverent, to inquire +first the literal and exact meaning of a text; to see under what +circumstances it was written; what meaning it must have conveyed to those +who heard it; and so to judge what it must have meant in the mind of him +who spoke it. If we do so, we shall find that the simplest +interpretation of Scripture is generally the deepest; and the most +literal interpretation is also the most spiritual. + +Let us examine the circumstances under which the prophet spake these +words. + +It was on the eve of a Chaldean invasion. The heathen were coming into +Judea, as we see them still in the Assyrian sculptures—civilizing, after +their barbarous fashion, the nations round them—conquering, massacring, +transporting whole populations, building cities and temples by their +forced labour; and resistance or escape was impossible. + +The prophet’s faith fails him a moment. What is this but a triumph of +evil? Is there a Divine Providence? Is there a just Ruler of the world? +And he breaks out into pathetic expostulation with God Himself: +‘Wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest +Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than +he? And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, +which have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with the line, +they gather them with the net. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, +and burn incense to their line; for by it their portion is fat, and their +meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare to +slay continually the nations?’ + +Then the Lord answers his doubts: ‘Behold, his soul which is lifted up is +not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.’ + +By his faith, plainly, in a just Ruler of the world,—in a God who avenges +wrong, and makes inquisition for innocent blood. He who will keep his +faith in that just God, will remain just himself. The sense of Justice +will be kept alive in him; and the just will live by his Faith. + +The prophet believes that message; and a mighty change passes over his +spirit. In a burst of magnificent poetry, he proclaims woe to the unjust +Chaldean conqueror. All his greatness is a bubble which will burst; a +suicidal mistake, which will work out its own punishment, and make him a +taunt and a mockery to all nations round. ‘Woe to him who increaseth +that which is not his, and ladeth himself with thick clay! Woe to him +that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest +on high, and be delivered from the power of evil! Woe to him that +buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city with iniquity! +Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in +the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?’ +There is a true civilization for man; but not according to the unjust and +cruel method of those Chaldeans. The Law of the true Civilization, the +prophet says, is this: ‘The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the +Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’ + +But what is this to us? Are we like the Chaldeans? God forbid. But are +we not tried by the same temptations to which they blindly yielded? A +nation, strong, rich, luxurious, prosperous in industry at home, and +aggressive (if not in theory, certainly in practice) to less civilized +races abroad—are we not tempted daily to that habit of mind which the +prophet calls—with that tremendous irony in which the Hebrew prophets +surpass all writers—looking on men as the fishes of the sea, as the +creeping things which have no ruler over them, born to devour each other, +and be caught and devoured in their turn, by a race more cunning than +themselves? There are those among us in thousands, thank God, who nobly +resist that temptation; and they are the very salt of the land, who keep +it from decay. But for the many—for the public—do not too many of them +believe that the law of human society is, after all, only that +internecine conflict of interests, that brute struggle for existence, +which naturalists tell us (and truly) is the law of life for mere plants +and animals? Are they not tempted to forget that men are not mere +animals and things, but persons; that they have a Ruler over them, even +God, who desires to educate them, to sanctify them, to develop their +every faculty, that they may be His children, and not merely our tools; +and do God’s work in the world, and not merely their employer’s work? +Are they not—are we not all—tempted too often to forget this? + +And, then, are we not tempted, all of us, to fall down like the Chaldeans +and worship our own net, because by it our portion is fat, and our meat +plenteous? Are we not tempted to say within ourselves, ‘This present +system of things, with all its anomalies and its defects, still is the +right system, and the only system. It is the path pointed out by +Providence for man. It is of the Lord; for we are comfortable under it. +We grow rich under it; we keep rank and power under it: it suits us, pays +us. What better proof that it is the perfect system of things, which +cannot be amended?’ + +Meanwhile, we are sorry (for the English are a kind-hearted people) for +the victims of our luxury and our neglect. Sorry for the thousands whom +we let die every year by preventible diseases, because we are either too +busy or too comfortable to save their lives. Sorry for the savages whom +we exterminate, by no deliberate evil intent, but by the mere weight of +our heavy footstep. Sorry for the thousands who are used-up yearly in +certain trades, in ministering to our comfort, even to our very luxuries +and frivolities. Sorry for the Sheffield grinders, who go to work as to +certain death; who count how many years they have left, and say, ‘A short +life and a merry one. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.’ +Sorry for the people whose lower jaws decay away in lucifer-match +factories. Sorry for all the miseries and wrongs which this Children’s +Employment Commission has revealed. Sorry for the diseases of artificial +flower-makers. Sorry for the boys working in glass-houses whole days and +nights on end without rest, ‘labouring in the very fire, and wearying +themselves with very vanity.’—Vanity, indeed, if after an amount of +gallant toil which nothing but the indomitable courage of an Englishman +could endure, they grow up animals and heathens. We are sorry for them +all—as the giant is for the worm on which he treads. Alas! poor worm. +But the giant must walk on. He is necessary to the universe, and the +worm is not. So we are sorry—for half an hour; and glad too (for we are +a kind-hearted people) to hear that charitable persons or the government +are going to do something towards alleviating these miseries. And then +we return, too many of us, each to his own ambition, or to his own +luxury, comforting ourselves with the thought, that we did not make the +world, and we are not responsible for it. + +How shall we conquer this temptation to laziness, selfishness, +heartlessness? By faith in God, such as the prophet had. By faith in +God as the eternal enemy of evil, the eternal helper of those who try to +overcome evil with good; the eternal avenger of all the wrong which is +done on earth. By faith in God, as not only our Father, our Saviour, our +Redeemer, our Protector: but the Father, Saviour, Redeemer, Protector, +and if need be, Avenger, of every human being. By faith in God, which +believes that His infinite heart yearns over every human soul, even the +basest and the worst; that He wills that not one little one should +perish, but that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the +truth. + +We must believe that, if we wish that it should be true of us, that the +just shall live by his faith. If we wish our faith to keep us just men, +leading just lives, we must believe that God is just, and that He shows +His justice by the only possible method—by doing justice, sooner or +later, for all who are unjustly used. + +If we lose that faith, we shall be in danger—in more than danger—of +becoming unjust ourselves. As we fancy God to be, so shall we become +ourselves. If we believe that God cares little for mankind, we shall +care less and less for them ourselves. If we believe that God neglects +them, we shall neglect them likewise. + +And then the sense of justice—justice for its own sake, justice as the +likeness and will of God—will die out in us, and our souls will surely +not live, but die. + +For there will die out in our hearts, just the most noble and God-like +feelings which God has put into them. The instinct of chivalry; horror +of cruelty and injustice; pity for the weak and ill-used; the longing to +set right whatever is wrong; and, what is even more important, the Spirit +of godly fear, of wholesome terror of God’s wrath, which makes us say, +when we hear of any great and general sin among us, ‘If we do not do our +best to set this right, then God, who does not make men like creeping +things, will take the matter into His own hands, and punish us easy, +luxurious people, for allowing such things to be done.’ + +And when a man loses that spirit of chivalry, he loses his own soul. For +that spirit of chivalry, let worldlings say what they will, is the very +spirit of our spirit, the salt which keeps our characters from utter +decay—the very instinct which raises us above the selfishness of the +brute. Yea, it is the Spirit of God Himself. For what is the feeling of +horror at wrong, of pity for the wronged, of burning desire to set wrong +right, save the Spirit of the Father and the Son, the Spirit which +brought down the Lord Jesus out of the highest heaven, to stoop, to +serve, to suffer and to die, that He might seek and save that which was +lost? + +Some say that the age of chivalry is past: that the spirit of romance is +dead. The age of chivalry is never past, as long as there is a wrong +left unredressed on earth, and a man or woman left to say, ‘I will +redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt.’ + +The age of chivalry is never past, as long as men have faith enough in +God to say, ‘God will help me to redress that wrong; or if not me, surely +he will help those that come after me. For His eternal will is, to +overcome evil with good.’ + +The spirit of romance will never die, as long as there is a man left to +see that the world might and can be better, happier, wiser, fairer in all +things, than it is now. The spirit of romance will never die, as long as +a man has faith in God to believe that the world will actually be better +and fairer than it is now; as long as men have faith, however weak, to +believe in the romance of all romances; in the wonder of all wonders; in +that, of which all poets’ dreams have been but childish hints, and dumb +forefeelings—even + + ‘That one far-off divine event + Towards which the whole creation moves;’ + +that wonder of which prophets and apostles have told, each according to +his light; that wonder which Habakkuk saw afar off, and foretold how that +the earth should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters +cover the sea; that wonder which Isaiah saw afar off, and sang how the +Lord should judge among the nations, and rebuke among many people; and +they should beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into +pruning-hooks; nation should not rise against nation, neither should they +learn war any more; that wonder of which St Paul prophesied, and said +that Christ should reign till He had put all His enemies under His feet; +that wonder of which St. John prophesied; and said, ‘I saw the Holy City, +new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. And the nations of +them that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the +earth bring their glory and their honour unto it;’ that wonder, finally, +which our Lord Himself bade us pray for, as for our daily bread, and say, +‘Father, thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. + +‘Thy will be done on earth.’ He who bade us ask that boon for +generations yet unborn, was very God of very God. Do you think that He +would have bidden us ask a blessing, which He knew would never come? + + + + +SERMON XIV. +THE GREAT COMMANDMENT. + + + MATT. xxii. 37, 32. + + Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy + soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great + commandment. + +SOME say, when they hear this,—It is a hard saying. Who can bear it? +Who can expect us to do as much as that? If we are asked to be +respectable and sober, to live and let live, not to harm our neighbours +wilfully or spitefully, and to come to church tolerably regularly—we +understand being asked to do that—it is fair. But to love the Lord our +God with all our hearts. That must be meant only for very great saints; +for a few exceedingly devout people here and there. And devout people +have been too apt to say,—You are right. It is we who are to love God +with all our hearts and souls, and give up the world, and marriage, and +all the joys of life, and turn priests, monks, and nuns, while you need +only be tolerably respectable, and attend to your religious duties from +time to time, while we will pray for you. But, my friends, if we read +our Bibles, we cannot allow that. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,’ +was spoken not to monks and nuns (for there were none in those days), not +to great saints only (for we read of none just then), not even to priests +and clergymen only. It was said to all the Jews, high and low, free and +slave, soldier and labourer, alike—‘Thou, a man living in the world, and +doing work in the world, with wife and family, farm and cattle, horse to +ride, and weapon to wear—thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ + +And therefore these words are said to you and me. We English are neither +monks nor nuns, nor likely (thank God) to become so. We are in the +world, with our own family ties and duties, our own worldly business. +And to us, to you and me, as to those old Jews, the first and great +commandment is, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ + +What, then, does it mean? Does it mean that we are to have the same love +toward God as we have toward a wife or a husband? + +Certainly not. But it means at least this—the love which we should bear +toward a Father. All, my friends, turns on this. Do you look on God as +your Father, or do you not? God is your Father, remember, already. You +cannot (as some people seem to think) make Him your Father by believing +that He is one; and you need not, thanks to His mercy. Neither can you +make Him not your Father by forgetting Him. Be you wise or foolish, +right or wrong, God is your Father in heaven; and you ought to feel +towards Him as towards a father, not with any sentimental, fanciful, +fanatical affection; but with a reverent, solemn, and rational affection; +such as that which the good old Catechism bids us have, when it tells us +our duty toward God. + +‘My duty towards God is to believe in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him +with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my +strength; to worship Him, to give Him thanks, to put my whole trust in +Him, to call upon Him, to honour His holy Name and His Word, and to serve +Him truly all the days of my life.’ + +Now, I ask you—and what I ask you I ask myself,—Do we love the Lord our +God thus? And if not, why not? + +I do not ask you to tell me. I am not going to tell you what is in my +heart; and I do not ask you to tell me what is in yours. We are free +Englishmen, who keep ourselves to ourselves, and think for ourselves, +each man in the depths of his own heart; and who are the stronger and the +wiser for not talking about our feelings to any man, priest or layman. + +But ask yourselves, each of you,—Do I love God? And if not, why not? + +There are two reasons, I believe, which are, alas! very common. For one +of them there are great excuses; for the other, there is no excuse +whatsoever. + +In the first place, too many find it difficult to love God, because they +have not been taught that God is loveable, and worthy of their love. +They have been taught dark and hard doctrines, which have made them +afraid of God. + +They have been taught—too many are taught still—not merely that God will +punish the wicked, but that God will punish nine-tenths, or +ninety-nine-hundredths of the human race. That He will send to endless +torments not merely sinners who have rebelled against what they knew was +right, and His command; who have stained themselves with crimes; who +wilfully injured their fellow-creatures: but that He will do the same by +little children, by innocent young girls, by honourable, respectable, +moral men and women, because they are not what is called sensibly +converted, or else what is called orthodox. They have been taught to +look on God, not as a loving and merciful Father, but as a tyrant and a +task-master, who watches to set down against them the slightest mishap or +neglect; who is extreme to mark what is done amiss; who wills the death +of a sinner. Often—strangest notion of all—they have been told that, +though God intends to punish them, they must still love Him, or they will +be punished—as if such a notion, so far from drawing them to God, could +do anything but drive them from Him. And it is no wonder if persons who +have been taught in their youth such notions concerning God, find it +difficult to love Him. Who can be frightened or threatened into loving +any being? How can we love any being who does not seem to us kind, +merciful, amiable, loving? Our love must be called out by God’s love. +If we are to love God, it must be because He has first loved us. + +But He has first loved us, my friends. The dark and cruel notions about +God—which are too common, and have been too common in all ages—are not +what the world about us teaches, nor what Scripture teaches us either. + +Look out on the world around you. What witness does it bear concerning +the God who made it? Who made the sunshine, and the flowers, and singing +birds, and little children, and all that causes the joy of this life? +Let Christ Himself speak, and His apostles. No one can say that their +words are not true; that they were mistaken in their view of this earth, +or of God who gave it to us that it might bear witness of Him. What said +our Lord to the poor folk of Galilee, of whom the Scribes and the +Pharisees, in their pride, said, ‘This people, who knoweth not the law, +is accursed.’—What said our Lord, very God of very God? He told them to +look on the world around, and learn from it that they had in heaven not a +tyrant, not a destroyer, but a Father; a Father in heaven who is perfect +in this, that He causeth His sun to shine upon them, and is good to the +unthankful and the evil. + +What of Him did St. Paul say?—and that not to Christians, but to +heathens—That God had not left Himself without a witness even to the +heathen who knew Him not—and what sort of witness? The witness of His +bounty and goodness. The simple, but perpetual witness of the yearly +harvest—‘In that He sends men rain and fruitful seasons, filling their +hearts with food and gladness.’ + +This is St. Paul’s witness. And what is St. James’s? He tells men of a +Father of lights, from whom comes down every good and perfect gift; who +gives to all liberally, and upbraideth not, grudges not, stints not, but +gives, and delights in giving,—the same God, in a word, of whom the old +psalmists and prophets spoke, and said, ‘Thou openest Thine hand, and +fillest all things with good.’ + +And if natural religion tells us thus much, and bears witness of a Father +who delights in the happiness of His creatures, what does revealed +religion and the Gospel of Jesus Christ tell us? + +Oh, my friends, dull indeed must be our hearts if we can feel no love for +the God of whom the Gospel speaks! And perverse, indeed, must be our +minds if we can twist the good news of Christ’s salvation into the bad +news of condemnation! What says St. Paul,—That God is against us? No. +But—‘If God be for us, who can be against us? + +‘Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that +justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea +rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who +also maketh intercession for us. + +‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? + +‘As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are +accounted as sheep for the slaughter. + +‘Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that +loved us. + +‘For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor +height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us +from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ + +What says St. John? Does he say that God the Father desires to punish or +slay us; and that our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary, or the +saints, or any other being, loves us better than God, and will deliver us +out of the hands of God? God forbid! ‘We have known and believed,’ he +says, ‘the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth +in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ + +My friends, if we could believe those blessed words—I do not say in all +their fulness—we shall never do that, I believe, in this mortal life—but +if we could only believe them a little, and know and believe even a +little of the love that God has to us, then love to Him would spring up +in our hearts, and we should feel for Him all that child ever felt for +father. If we really believed that God who made heaven and earth was +even now calling to each and every one of us, and beseeching us, by the +sacrifice of His well-beloved Son, crucified for us, ‘My son, give Me thy +heart,’ we could not help giving up our hearts to Him. + +Provided—and there is that second reason why people do not love God, for +which I said there was no excuse—provided only that we wish to be good, +and to obey God. If we do not wish to do what God commands, we shall +never love God. It must be so. There can be no real love of God which +is not based upon a love of virtue and goodness, upon what our Lord calls +a hunger and thirst after righteousness. ‘If ye love Me, keep My +commandments,’ is our Lord’s own rule and test. And it is the only one +possible. If we habitually disobey any person, we shall cease to love +that person. If a child is in the habit of disobeying its parents, dark +and angry feelings towards those parents are sure to arise in its heart. +The child tries to forget its parents, to keep out of their way. It +tries to justify itself, to excuse itself by fancying that its parents +are hard upon it, unjust, grudge it pleasure, or what not. If its +parents’ commandments are grievous to a child, it will try to make out +that those commandments are unfair and unkind. And so shall we do by +God’s commandments. If God’s commandments seem too grievous for us to +obey, then we shall begin to fancy them unjust and unkind. And then, +farewell to any real love to God. If we do not openly rebel against God, +we shall still try to forget Him. The thought of God will seem dark, +unpleasant, and forbidding to us; and we shall try, in our short-sighted +folly, to live as far as we can without God in the world, and, like Adam +after his fall, hide ourselves from the loving God, just because we know +we have disobeyed Him. + +But if, in spite of many bad habits, we desire to get rid of our bad +habits; if, in spite of many faults, we still desire to be faultless and +perfect; if, in spite of many weaknesses, we still desire to be strong; +if, in one word, we still hunger and thirst after righteousness, and long +to be good men; then, in due time, the love of God will be shed abroad in +our hearts by the Holy Spirit. + +For that will happen to us which happens to all those who have the pure, +true, and heroical love. If we really love a person, we shall first +desire to please them, and therefore the thought of disobeying and +paining them will seem more and more grievous unto us. + +But more. We shall soon rise a step higher. The more we love them, and +the more we see in them, in their characters, things worthy to be loved, +the more we shall desire to be like them, to copy those parts of their +characters which most delight us; and we shall copy them: though +insensibly, perhaps, and unawares. + +For no one can look up for any length of time with love and respect +towards a person better, wiser, greater than themselves, without becoming +more or less like that person in character and in habit of thought and +feeling; and so it will be with us towards God. + +If we really long to be good, it will grow more and more easy to us to +love God. The more pure our hearts are, the more pleasant the thought of +God will be to us; even as it is said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, +for they shall see God,’—in this life as well as in the life to come. We +shall not shrink from God, because we shall know that we are not wilfully +offending Him. + +But more. The more we think of God, the more we shall long to be like +Him. How admirable in our eyes will seem His goodness, how admirable His +purity, His justice, and His bounty, His long-suffering, His magnanimity +and greatness of heart. For how great must be that heart of God, of +which it is written, that ‘He hateth nothing that He hath made, but His +mercy is over all His works;’ ‘that He willeth that none should perish, +but that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.’ +Although He be infinitely high and far off and we cannot attain to Him, +yet we shall feel it our duty and our joy to copy Him, however faintly, +and however humbly; and our highest hope will be that we may behold, as +in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and be changed into His image from +glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord; that so, whether in +this world or in the world to come, we may at last be perfect, even as +our Father in heaven is perfect, and, like Him, cause the sunlight of our +love to slime upon the evil and on the good; the kindly showers of our +good deeds to fall upon the just and on the unjust; and—like Him who sent +His only begotten Son to save the world—be good to the unthankful and to +the evil. + + + + +SERMON XV. +THE EARTHQUAKE. + + + (_Preached October_ 11, 1863.) + + PSALM xlvi. 1, 2. + + God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. + Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though + the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. + +NO one, my friends, wishes less than I, to frighten you, or to take a +dark and gloomy view of this world, or of God’s dealings with men. But +when God Himself speaks, men are bound to take heed, even though the +message be an awful one. And last week’s earthquake was an awful +message, reminding all reasonable souls how frail man is, how frail his +strongest works, how frail this seemingly solid earth on which we stand; +what a thin crust there is between us and the nether fires, how utterly +it depends on God’s mercy that we do not, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram +of old, go down alive into the pit. + +What do we know of earthquakes? We know that they are connected with +burning mountains; that the eruption of a burning mountain is generally +preceded by, and accompanied with, violent earthquakes. Indeed, the +burning mountains seem to be outlets, by which the earthquake force is +carried off. We know that these burning mountains give out immense +volumes of steam. We know that the expanding power of steam is by far +the strongest force in the world; and, therefore, it is supposed +reasonably, that earthquakes are caused by steam underground. + +We know concerning earthquakes two things: first, that they are quite +uncertain in their effects; secondly, quite uncertain in their +occurrence. + +No one can tell what harm an earthquake will, or will not, do. There are +three kinds. One which raises the ground up perpendicularly, and sets it +down again—which is the least hurtful; one which sets it rolling in +waves, like the waves of the sea—which is more hurtful; and one, the most +terrible of all, which gives the ground a spinning motion, so that things +thrown down by it fall twisted from right to left, or left to right. But +what kind of earthquake will take place, no one can tell. + +Moreover, a very slight earthquake may do fearful damage. People who +only read of them, fancy that an earthquake, to destroy man and his +works, must literally turn the earth upside down; that the ground must +open, swallowing up houses, vomiting fire and water; that rocks must be +cast into the sea, and hills rise where valleys were before. Such awful +things have happened, and will happen again: but it does not need them to +lay a land utterly waste. A very slight shock—a shock only a little +stronger than was felt last Wednesday morning, might have—one hardly dare +think of what it might have done in a country like this, where houses are +thinly built because we have no fear of earthquakes. Every manufactory +and mill throughout the iron districts (where the shock was felt most) +might have toppled to the earth in a moment. Whole rows of houses, +hastily and thinly built, might have crumbled down like packs of cards; +and hundreds of thousands of sleeping human beings might have been buried +in the ruins, without time for a prayer or a cry. + +A little more—a very little more—and all that or more might have +happened; millions’ worth of property might have been destroyed in a few +seconds, and the prosperity and civilization of England have been thrown +back for a whole generation. There is absolutely no reason whatever, I +tell you, save the mercy of God, why that, or worse, should not have +happened; and it is only of the Lord’s mercies that we were not consumed. + +Next, earthquakes are utterly uncertain as to time. No one knows when +they are coming. They give no warning. Even in those unhappy countries +in which they are most common there may not be a shock for months or +years; and then a sudden shock may hurl down whole towns. Or there may +be many, thirty or forty a-day for weeks, as there happened in a part of +South America a few years ago, when day after day, week after week, +terrible shocks went on with a perpetual underground roar, as if brass +and iron were crashing and clanging under the feet, till the people were +half mad with the continual noise and continual anxiety, expecting every +moment one shock, stronger than the rest, to swallow them up. It is +impossible, I say, to calculate when they will come. They are altogether +in the hand of God,—His messengers, whose time and place He alone knows, +and He alone directs. + +Our having had one last week is no reason for our not having another this +week, or any day this week; and no reason, happily, against our having no +more for one hundred years. It is in God’s hands, and in God’s hands we +must leave it. + +All we can say is, that when one comes, it is likely to be least severe +in this part of England, and most severe (like this last) in the coal and +iron districts of the west and north-west, where it is easy to see that +earthquakes were once common, by the cracks, twists and settlements in +the rocks, and the lava streams, poured out from fiery vents (probably +under water) which pierce the rocks in many places. Beyond that we know +nothing, and can only say,—It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not +consumed. + +Why do I say these things? To frighten you? No, but to warn you. When +you say to yourselves,—Earthquakes are so uncommon and so harmless in +England that there is no need to think of them, you say on the whole what +is true. It has been, as yet, God’s will that earthquakes should be +uncommon and slight in England; and therefore we have a reasonable ground +of belief that such will be His will for the future. Certainly He does +not wish us to fold our hands, and say, there is no use in building or +improving the country, if an earthquake may come and destroy it at any +moment. If there be an evil which man can neither prevent or foresee, +then, if he be a wise man, he will go on as if that evil would never +happen. We ever must work on in hope and in faith in God’s goodness, +without tormenting and weakening ourselves by fears about what may +happen. + +But when God gives to a whole country a distinct and solemn warning, +especially after giving that country an enormous bounty in an abundant +harvest, He surely means that country to take the warning. And, if I +dare so judge, He means us perhaps to think of the earthquake, and +somewhat in this way. + +There is hardly any country in the world in which man’s labour has been +so successful as in England. Owing to our having no earthquakes, no +really destructive storms,—and, thank God, no foreign invading +armies,—the wealth of England has gone on increasing steadily and surely +for centuries past, to a degree unexampled. We have never had to rebuild +whole towns after an earthquake. We have never seen (except in small +patches) whole districts of fertile land ruined by the sea or by floods. +We have never seen every mill and house in a country blown down by a +hurricane, and the crops mown off the ground by the mere force of the +wind, as has happened again and again in our West India Islands. Most +blessed of all, we have never seen a foreign army burning our villages, +sacking our towns, carrying off our corn and cattle, and driving us into +the woods to starve. From all these horrors, which have, one or other of +them, fallen on almost every nation upon earth, God has of His great +mercy preserved us. Ours is not the common lot of humanity. We English +do not know the sorrows which average men and women go through, and have +been going through, alas! ever since Adam fell. We have been an +exception, a favoured and peculiar people, allowed to thrive and fatten +quietly and safely for hundreds of years. + +But what if that very security tempts us to forget God? Is it not so? +Are we not—I am sure I am—too apt to take God’s blessings for granted, +without thanking Him for them, or remembering really that He gave them, +and that He can take them away? Do we not take good fortune for granted? +Do we not take for granted that if we build a house it will endure for +ever; that if we buy a piece of land it will be called by our name long +years hence; that if we amass wealth we shall hand it down safely to our +children? Of course we think we shall prosper. We say to ourselves, +To-morrow shall be as to-day, and yet more abundant. + +Nothing can happen to England, is, I fear, the feeling of Englishmen. +Carnal security is the national sin to which we are tempted, because we +have not now for forty years felt anything like national distress; and +Britain says, like Babylon of old, the lady of kingdoms to whom +foreigners so often compare her,—‘I shall be a lady for ever; I am, there +is none beside me. I shall never sit as a widow, nor know the loss of +children.’ + +What, too, if that same security and prosperity tempts us—as foreigners +justly complain of us—to set our hearts on material wealth; to believe +that our life, and the life of Britain, depends on the abundance of the +things which she possesses? To say—Corn and cattle, coal and iron, house +and land, shipping and rail-roads, these make up Great Britain. While +she has these she will endure for ever. + +Ah, my friends—to people in such a temptation, is it wonderful that a +good God should send a warning unmistakeable, though only a warning; most +terrible, though mercifully harmless; a warning which says, in a voice +which the dullest can hear—Endure for ever? The solid ground on which +you stand cannot do that. Safe? Nothing on earth is safe for a moment, +save in the long-suffering and tender mercy of Him of whom are all +things, and by whom are all things, without whom not a sparrow falls to +the ground. Is the wealth of Britain, then, what she can see and handle? +The towns she builds, the roads she makes, the manufactures and goods she +produces? One touch of the finger of God, and that might be all rolled +into a heap of ruins, and the labour of years scattered in the dust. You +trust in the sure solid earth? You shall feel it, if but for once, reel +and quiver under your feet, and learn that it is not solid at all, or +sure at all; that there is nothing solid, sure, or to be depended on, but +the mercy of the living God; and that your solid-seeming earth on which +you build is nothing less than a mine, which may bubble, and heave, and +burst beneath your feet, charged for ever with an explosive force, as +much more terrible than that gunpowder which you have invented to kill +each other withal, as the works of God are greater than the works of man. +Safe, truly! It is of God’s mercy from day to day and hour to hour that +we are not consumed. + +This, surely, or something like this, is what the earthquake says to us. +It speaks to us most gently, and yet most awfully, of a day in which the +heavens may pass away with a great noise, and the elements may melt with +fervent heat, and the earth and the works which are therein may be burnt +up. It tells us that this is no impossible fancy: that the fires +imprisoned below our feet can, and may, burst up and destroy mankind and +the works of man in one great catastrophe, to which the earthquake of +Lisbon in 1755—when 60,000 persons were killed, crushed, drowned, or +swallowed up in a few minutes—would be a merely paltry accident. + +And it bids us think, as St. Peter bids us: ‘When therefore all these +things are dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy +conversation and godliness?’ + +What manner of persons? + +Remember, that if an earthquake destroyed all England, or the whole +world; if this earth on which we live crumbled to dust, and were blotted +out of the number of the stars, there is one thing which earthquake, and +fire, and all the forces of nature cannot destroy, and that is—the human +race. + +We should still be. We should still endure. Not, indeed, in flesh and +blood: but in some state or other; each of us the same as now, our +characters, our feelings, our goodness or our badness; our immortal +spirits and very selves, unchanged, ready to receive, and certain to +receive, the reward of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good +or evil. Yes, we should still endure, and God and Christ would still +endure. But as our Saviour, or as our Judge? That is a very awful +thought. + +One day or other, sooner or later, each of us shall stand before the +judgment-seat of Christ, stripped of all we ever had, ever saw, ever +touched, ever even imagined to ourselves, alone with our own consciences, +alone with our own deserts. What shall we be saying to ourselves then? + +Shall we be saying—I have lost all: The world is gone—the world, in which +were set all my hopes, all my wishes; the world in which were all my +pleasures, all my treasures; the world, which was the only thing I cared +for, though it warned me not to trust in it, as it trembled beneath my +feet? But the world is gone, and now I have nothing left! + +Or, shall we be saying,—The world is gone? Then let it go. It was not a +home. I took its good things as thankfully as I could. I took its +sorrows and troubles as patiently as I could. But I have not set my +heart on the world. My treasure, my riches, were not of the world. My +peace was a peace which the world did not give, and could not take away. +And now the world is gone, I keep my peace, I keep my treasure still. My +peace is where it was, in my own heart. My peace is what it was: my +faith in God,—faith that my sins are forgiven me for Christ’s sake: my +faith that God my Father loves me, and cares for me; and that +nothing,—height or depth, or time or space, or life or death, can part me +from His love: my faith that I have not been quite useless in the world; +that I have tried to do my duty in my place; and that the good which I +have done, little as it has been, will not go forgotten by that merciful +God, by whose help it was done, who rewards all men according to the +works which He gives them heart to perform. And my treasure is where it +was—in my heart; and what it was,—the Holy Spirit of God, the spirit of +goodness, of faith and truth, of mercy and justice, of love to God and +love to man, which is everlasting life itself. That I have. That time +cannot abate, nor death abolish, nor the world, nor the destruction of +the world, nor of all worlds, can take away. + +Choose, my friends, which of these two frames of mind would you rather be +in when the great day of the Lord comes, foretold by that earthquake, and +by all earthquakes that ever were. + +Will you be then like those whom St. John saw calling on the mountains to +fall on them, and the hills to hide them from the wrath of Him that sat +on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb? + +Or will you be like him who saith—God is my hope and strength, my present +help in trouble. Therefore will I not fear, though the earth be shaken, +and though the mountains be carried into the depth of the sea? + + + + +SERMON XVI. +THE METEOR SHOWER. + + + (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_, _St. James’s_, _Nov._ 26, 1866.) + + ST. MATTHEW x. 29, 30. + + Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not + fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your + head are all numbered. + +IT will be well for us to recollect, once for all, who spoke these words; +even Jesus Christ, who declared that He was one with God the Father; +Jesus Christ, whom His apostles declared to be the Creator of the +universe. If we believe this, as Christian men, it will be well for us +to take our Lord’s account of a universe which He Himself created; and to +believe that in the most minute occurrence of nature, there is a special +providence, by which not a sparrow falls to the ground without our +Father. + +I confess that it is difficult to believe this heartily. It was never +anything but difficult. In the earliest ages, those who first thought +about the universe found it so difficult that they took refuge in the +fancy of special providence which was administered by the planets above +their heads, and believed that the affairs of men, and of the world on +which they lived, were ruled by the aspects of the sun and moon, and the +host of heaven. + +Men found it so difficult in the Middle Age, that they took refuge in the +fancy of a special providence administered by certain demi-gods whom they +called ‘The Saints;’ and believed that each special disease, or accident, +was warded off from mankind, from their cattle, or from their crops, by a +special saint who overlooked their welfare. + +Men find it so difficult now-a-days, that the great majority of civilized +people believe in no special providence at all, and take refuge in the +belief that the universe is ruled by something which they call law. + +Therein, doubtless, they have hold of a great truth; but one which will +be only half-true, and therefore injurious, unless it be combined with +other truths; unless questions are answered which too many do not care to +answer: as, for instance,—Can there be a law without a law-giver? Can a +law work without one who administers the law? Are not the popular +phrases of ‘laws impressed on matter,’ ‘laws inherent in matter,’ mere +metaphors, dangerous, because inaccurate; confirmed as little by +experience and reason, as by Scripture? + +Does not all law imply a will? Does not an Almighty Will imply a special +providence? + +But these are questions for which most persons have neither time nor +inclination. Indeed, the whole matter is unimportant to them. They have +no special need of a special providence. Their lives and properties are +very safe in this civilized country; and their secret belief is that, +whatever influence God may have on the next world, He has little or no +influence on this world; neither on the facts of nature, nor on the +events of history, nor on the course of their own lives; and that a +special providence seems to them—if they dare confess as much—an +unnecessary superstition. + +Only poor folk in cottages and garrets—and a few more who are, happily, +poor in spirit, though not in purse—grinding amid the iron facts of life, +and learning there by little sound science, it may be, but much sound +theology—still believe that they have a Father in heaven, before whom the +very hairs of their head are all numbered; and that if they had not, then +this would not only be a bad world, but a mad world likewise; and that it +were better for them that they had never been born. + +Nevertheless, it is difficult to believe in the special providence of our +Father in heaven. Difficult: though necessary. Just as it is difficult +to believe that the earth moves round the sun. Contrary, like that fact, +to a great deal of our seeming experience. + +It is easy enough, of course, to believe that our Father sends what is +plainly good. Not so easy to believe that He sends what at least seems +evil. + +Easy enough, when we see spring-time and harvest, sunshine and flowers, +to say—Here are ‘acts of God’s providence.’ Not so easy, when we see +blight and pestilence, storm and earthquake, to say,—Here are ‘acts of +God’s providence’ likewise. + +For this innumerable multitude of things, of which we now-a-days talk as +if it were one thing, and had an organic unity of its own, or even as if +it were one person, and had a will of its own, and call it Nature—a word +which will one day be forgotten by philosophers, with the ‘four +elements,’ and the ‘animal spirits;’—this multitude of things, I say, +which we miscall Nature, has its dark and ugly, as well as its bright and +fair side. Nature, says some one, is like the spotted panther—most +playful, and yet most treacherous; most beautiful, and yet most cruel. +It acts at times after a fashion most terrible, undistinguishing, +wholesale, seemingly pitiless. It seems to go on its own way, as in a +storm or an earthquake, careless of what it crushes. Terrible enough +Nature looks to the savage, who thinks it crushes him from mere caprice. +More terrible still does Science make Nature look, when she tells us that +it crushes, not by caprice, but by brute necessity; not by ill-will, but +by inevitable law. Science frees us in many ways (and all thanks to her) +from the bodily terror which the savage feels. But she replaces that, in +the minds of many, by a moral terror which is far more overwhelming. Am +I—a man is driven to ask—am I, and all I love, the victims of an +organised tyranny, from which there can be no escape—for there is not +even a tyrant from whom I may perhaps beg mercy? Are we only helpless +particles, at best separate parts of the wheels of a vast machine, which +will use us till it has worn us away, and ground us to powder? Are our +bodies—and if so, why not our souls?—the puppets, yea, the creatures of +necessary circumstances, and all our strivings and sorrows only vain +beatings against the wires of our cage, cries of ‘Why hast thou made me, +then?’ which are addressed to nothing? Tell us not that the world is +governed by universal law; the news is not comfortable, but simply +horrible, unless you can tell us, or allow others to tell us, that there +is a loving giver, and a just administrator of that law. + +Horrible, I say, and increasingly horrible, not merely to the +sentimentalist, but to the man of sound reason and of sound conscience, +must the scientific aspect of nature become, if a mere abstraction called +law is to be the sole ruler of the universe; if—to quote the famous words +of the German sage—‘If, instead of the Divine Eye, there must glare on us +an empty, black, bottomless eye-socket;’ and the stars and galaxies of +heaven, in spite of all their present seeming regularity, are but an +‘everlasting storm which no man guides.’ + +It was but a few days ago that we, and this little planet on which we +live, caught a strange and startling glimpse of that everlasting storm +which—shall I say it?—no one guides. + +We were swept helpless, astronomers tell us, through a cloud of fiery +stones, to which all the cunning bolts which man invents to slay his +fellow-man, are but slow and weak engines of destruction. + +We were free from the superstitious terror with which that meteor-shower +would have been regarded in old times. We could comfort ourselves, too, +with the fact that heaven’s artillery was not known as yet to have killed +any one; and with the scientific explanation of that fact, namely, that +most of the bolts were small enough to be melted and dissipated by their +rush through our atmosphere. + +But did the thought occur to none of us, how morally ghastly, in spite of +all its physical beauty, was that grand sight, unless we were sure that +behind it all, there was a living God? Unless we believed that not one +of those bolts fell, or did not fall to the ground without our Father? +That He had appointed the path, and the time, and the destiny, and the +use of every atom of that matter, of which science could only tell us +that it was rushing without a purpose, for ever through the homeless +void? + +We may believe that, mind, without denying scientific laws, or their +permanence in any way. It is not a question, this, of a living God, +whether He interferes with His own laws now and then, but whether +interference is not the law of all laws itself. It is not a question of +special providences here and there, in favour of this person or that; but +whether the whole universe and its history is not one perpetual and +innumerable series of special providences. Whether the God who ordained +the laws is not so administering them, so making them interfere with, +balance, and modify each other, as to cause them to work together +perpetually for good; so that every minutest event (excepting always the +sin and folly of rational beings) happens in the place, time, and manner, +where it is specially needed. In one word, the question is not whether +there be a God, but whether there be a living God, who is in any true and +practical sense Master of the universe over which He presides; a King who +is actually ruling His kingdom, or an Epicurean deity who lets his +kingdom rule itself. + +Is there a living God in the universe, or is there none? That is the +greatest of all questions. Has our Lord Jesus Christ answered it, or has +He not? Easy, well-to-do people, who find this world pleasant, and whose +chief concern is to live till they die, care little about that question. +This world suits them well enough, whether there be a living God or not; +and as for the next world, they will be sure to find some preacher or +confessor who will set their minds easy about it. + +Fanatics and bigots, of all denominations, care little about that +question. For they say in their hearts—‘God is our Father, whosesoever +Father He is not. We are His people, and God performs acts of providence +for us. But as for the people outside, who know not the law, nor the +Gospel, either, they are accursed. It is not our concern to discuss +whether God performs acts of providence for them.’ + +But here and there, among rich and poor, there are those whose heart and +flesh—whose conscience and whose intellect—cry out for the living God, +and will know no peace till they have found Him. + +A living God; a true God; a real God; a God worthy of the name; a God who +is working for ever, everywhere, and in all; who hates nothing that He +has made, forgets nothing, neglects nothing; a God who satisfies not only +their heads, but their hearts; not only their logical intellects, but +their higher reason—that pure reason, which is one with the conscience +and moral sense. For Him they cry out; Him they seek: and if they cannot +find Him they know no rest. For then they can find no explanation of the +three great human questions—Where am I? Whither am I going? What must I +do? + +Men come to them and say, ‘Of course there is a God.—He created the world +long ago, and set it spinning ever since by unchangeable laws.’ But they +answer, ‘That may be true; but I want more. I want the living God.’ + +Other men come to them and say, ‘Of course there is a God; and when the +universe is destroyed, He will save a certain number of the elect, or +orthodox. Do you take care that you are among that number, and leave the +rest to Him.’ But they answer, ‘That may be true; but I want more. I +want the living God.’ + +They will say so very confusedly. They will often not be able to make +men understand their meaning. Nay, they will say and do—driven by +despair—very unwise things. They will even fall down and worship the +Holy Bread in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and say, ‘The living +God is in that. You have forbidden us, with your theories, to find the +living God either in heaven or earth. But somewhere He must be. And in +despair, we will fall back upon the old belief that He is in the wafer on +the altar, and find there Him whom our souls must find, or be for ever +without a home.’ Strange and sad, that that should be the last outcome +of the century of mechanical philosophy. But before we blame the +doctrine as materialistic,—which, I fear, it too truly is,—we should +remember that, for the last fifty years, the young have been taught more +and more to be materialists; that they have been taught more and more to +believe in a God who rules over Sundays, but not over week-day business; +over the next world, but not over this; a God, in short, in whom men do +not live, and move, and have their being. They have been brought up, I +say, unconsciously, but surely, as practical materialists, who make their +senses the ground of all their knowledge; and therefore, when a revulsion +happens to them, they are awakened to look for the living God—they look +for him instinctively in visible matter. + +But for the living God thoughtful men will look more and more. Physical +science is forcing on them the question, Do we live, and move, and have +our being in God? Is there a real and perpetual communication between +the visible and the invisible world, or is there not? Are all the +beliefs of man, from the earliest ages, that such there was, dreams and +nothing more? Is any religion whatsoever to be impossible henceforth? +And to find an answer, men will go, either backward to superstition, or +forward into pantheism; for in atheism, whether practical or theoretical, +they cannot abide. + +The Bible says that those old beliefs, however partial or childish, were +no dreams, but instincts of an eternal truth; that there is such a +communication between the universe and the living God. Prophets, +Psalmists, Apostles, speak—like our Nicene Creed—of a Spirit of God, the +Lord and Giver of Life, in words which are not pantheism, but are the +very deliverance from pantheism, because they tell us that that Spirit +proceeds, not merely from a Deity, not merely from a Creator, but from a +Father in heaven, and from a Son who is His likeness and His Word. + +And from this ground Natural Theology must start, if it is ever to revive +again, instead of remaining, as now, an extinct science. It must begin +from the keyword of the text, ‘Your Father.’ As long as Natural Theology +begins from nature, and not from God Himself, it will inevitably drift +into pantheism, as Pope drifted, in spite of himself, when he tried to +look from nature up to nature’s God. As long as men speculate on the +dealings of a Deity or of a Creator, they will find out nothing, because +they are searching under the wrong name, and therefore, as logicians will +tell you, for the wrong thing. + +But when they begin to seek under the right name—the name which our Lord +revealed to the debased multitudes of Judæa, when He told them that not a +sparrow fell to the ground without—not the Deity, not the Creator, but +their Father; then, in God’s good time, all may come clear once more. + +This at least will come clear,—a doubt which often presents itself to the +mind of scientific men. + +This earth—we know now that it is not the centre, not the chief body, of +the universe, but a tiny planet, a speck, an atom among millions of +bodies far vaster than itself. + +It was credible enough in old times, when the earth was held to be all +but the whole universe, that God should descend on earth, and take on Him +human nature, to save human beings. Is it credible now? This little +corner of the systems and the galaxies? This paltry race which we call +man? Are they worthy of the interposition, of the death, of Incarnate +God—of the Maker of such a universe as Science has discovered? + +Yes. If we will keep in mind that one word ‘Father.’ Then we dare say +Yes, in full assurance of Faith. For then we have taken the question off +the mere material ground of size and of power; to put it once and for +ever on that spiritual ground of justice and love, which is implied in +the one word—‘Father.’ + +If God be a perfect Father, then there must be a perpetual intercourse of +some kind between Him and His children; between Him and that planet, +however small, on which He has set His children, that they may be +educated into His likeness. If God be perfect justice, the wrong, and +consequent misery of the universe, how ever small, must be intolerable to +Him. If God be perfect love, there is no sacrifice—remember that great +word—which He may not condescend to make, in order to right that wrong, +and alleviate that misery. If God be the Father of our spirits, the +spiritual welfare of His children may be more important to Him than the +fate of the whole brute matter of the universe. Think not to frighten us +with the idols of size and height. God is a Spirit, before whom all +material things are equally great, and equally small. Let us think of +Him as such, and not merely as a Being of physical power and inventive +craft. Let us believe in our Father in heaven. For then that higher +intellect,—that pure reason, which dwells not in the heads, but in the +hearts of men, will tell them that if they have a Father in heaven, He +must be exercising a special providence over the minutest affairs of +their lives, by which He is striving to educate them into His likeness; a +special providence over the fate of every atom in the universe, by which +His laws shall work together for the moral improvement of every creature +capable thereof; that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without his +knowledge; and that not a hair of their head can be touched, unless +suffering is needed for the education of their souls. + + + + +SERMON XVII. +CHOLERA, 1866. + + + LUKE vii. 16. + + There came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a + great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his + people. + +YOU recollect to what the text refers? How the Lord visited His people? +By raising to life a widow’s son at Nain. That was the result of our +Lord’s visit to the little town of Nain. It is worth our while to think +of that text, and of that word, ‘visit,’ just now. For we are praying to +God to remove the cholera from this land. We are calling it a visitation +of God; and saying that God is visiting our sins on us thereby. And we +are saying the exact truth. We are using the right and scriptural word. + +We know that this cholera comes by no miracle, but by natural causes. We +can more or less foretell where it will break out. We know how to +prevent its breaking out at all, save in a scattered case here and there. +Of this there is no doubt whatsoever in the mind of any well-informed +person. + +But that does not prevent its being a visitation of God; yea, in most +awful and literal earnest, a house-to-house visitation. God uses the +powers of nature to do His work: of Him it is written, ‘He maketh the +winds His angels, and flames of fire His ministers.’ And so this minute +and invisible cholera-seed is the minister of God, by which He is +visiting from house to house, searching out and punishing certain persons +who have been guilty, knowingly or not, of the offence of dirt; of filthy +and careless habits of living; and especially, as has long been known by +well-informed men, of drinking poisoned water. Their sickness, their +deaths, are God’s judgment on that act of theirs, whereby God says to +men,—You shall not drink water unfit for even dumb animals; and if you +do, you shall die. + +To this view there are two objections. First, the poor people themselves +are not in fault, but those who supply poisoned water, and foul +dwellings. + +True: but only half true. If people demanded good water and good houses, +there would soon be a supply of them. But there is not a sufficient +supply; because too many of the labouring classes in towns, though they +are earning very high wages, are contented to live in a condition unfit +for civilized men; and of course, if they are contented so to do, there +will be plenty of covetous or careless landlords who will supply the bad +article with which they are satisfied; and they will be punished by +disease for not having taken care of themselves. + +But as for the owners of filthy houses, and the suppliers of poisoned +water, be sure that, in His own way and His own time, God will visit +them; that when He maketh inquisition for blood, He will assuredly +requite upon the guilty persons, whoever they are, the blood of those +five or six thousand of her Majesty’s subjects who have been foully done +to death by cholera in the last two months, as He requited the blood of +Naboth, or of any other innocent victim of whom we read in Holy Writ. +This outbreak of cholera in London, considering what we now know about +it, and have known for twenty years past, is a national shame, scandal, +and sin, which, if man cannot and will not punish, God can and will. + +But there is another objection, which is far more important and difficult +to answer. This cholera has not slain merely fathers and mothers of +families, who were more or less responsible for the bad state of their +dwellings; but little children, aged widows, and many other persons who +cannot be blamed in the least. + +True. And we must therefore believe that to them—indeed to all—this has +been a visitation not of anger but of love. We must believe that they +are taken away from some evil to come; that God permits the destruction +of their bodies, to the saving of their souls. His laws are inexorable; +and yet He hateth nothing that He hath made. + +And we must believe that this cholera is an instance of the great law, +which fulfils itself again and again, and will to the end of the +world,—‘It is expedient that one die for the people, and that the whole +nation perish not.’ + +For the same dirt which produces cholera now and then, is producing +always, and all day long, stunted and diseased bodies, drunkenness, +recklessness, misery, and sin of all kinds; and the cholera will be a +blessing, a cheap price to have paid, for the abolition of the evil +spirit of dirt. + +And thus much for this very painful subject—of which some of you may +say—‘What is it to us? We cannot prevent cholera; and, blessed as we are +with abundance of the purest water, there is little or no fear of cholera +ever coming into our parish.’ + +That last is true, my friends, and you may thank God for it. Meanwhile, +take this lesson at least home with you, and teach it your children day +by day—that filthy, careless, and unwholesome habits of living are in the +sight of Almighty God so terrible an offence, that He sometimes finds it +necessary to visit them with a severity with which He visits hardly any +sin; namely, by inflicting capital punishment on thousands of His beloved +creatures. + +But though we have not had the cholera among us, has God therefore not +visited us? That would surely be evil news for us, according to Holy +Scripture. For if God do not visit us, then He must be far from us. But +the Psalmist cries, ‘Go not far from me, O Lord.’ His fear is, again and +again, not that God should visit him, but that God should desert him. +And more, the word which is translated ‘to visit,’ in Scripture has the +sense of seeing to a man, overseeing him, being his bishop. If God do +not see to, oversee us, and be our bishop, then He must turn His face +from us, which is what the Psalmist beseeches Him again and again not to +do; praying, ‘Hide not Thy face from me, O Lord,’ and crying out of the +depths of anxiety and trouble, ‘Put thy trust in God, for I shall yet +give Him thanks for the light of His countenance;’ and again, ‘In Thy +presence is’—not death, but—‘life; at Thy right hand is fulness of days +for evermore.’ And again, the Psalmist prays to God to visit him, and +visit his thoughts,—‘Search me, O Lord, and try the ground of my heart. +Search me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any wickedness +in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ Shall we pray that prayer, +my friends? Shall we, with the Psalmist, pray God to visit, and, if need +be, chasten and correct what He sees wrong in us? Or shall we, with the +superstitious, pray to God not to visit us? to keep away from us? to +leave its alone? to forget us? If He did answer that foolish prayer, +there would be an end of us and all created things; for in God they live +and move and have their being—as it is written, ‘When Thou hidest thy +face, they are troubled; when Thou takest away their breath, they die, +and are turned again to their dust.’ But, happily for us, God will not +answer that foolish prayer. For it is written, ‘If I go up to heaven, +Thou art there; if I go down to hell, Thou art there also.’ Nowhither +can we go from God’s presence: nowhither can we flee from His Spirit. + +This is the Scripture language. Is ours like it? Have we not got to +think of a visitation of God as a simple calamity? If a man die suddenly +and strangely, he has died by the visitation of God. But if he be saved +from death strangely and suddenly, it does not occur to us to call that a +visitation, and to say with Scripture, ‘The Lord has visited the man with +His salvation.’ If the cholera comes, or the crops fail, we say,—God is +visiting us. If we have an especially healthy year, or a glorious +harvest, we never say with Scripture, ‘The Lord has visited His people in +giving them bread.’ Yet Scripture, if it says, ‘I will visit their +transgressions,’ says also that the Lord visited the children of Israel +to deliver them out of Egypt. If it talks of death as the visitation of +all men, it speaks of God visiting Sarah and Hannah to give them +children. If it says, ‘I will visit the blood shed in Jezreel,’ it says +also, ‘Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.’ If it says, ‘At the +time they are visited they shall be cast down,’ it says also, ‘The Lord +shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.’ + +If we look through Scripture, we find that the words ‘visit’ and +‘visitation’ are used about ninety times: that in about fifty of them the +meaning of the words is chastisement of some kind or other: in about +forty it is mercy and blessing: and that in the New Testament the words +never mean anything but mercy and blessing, though we have begun of late +years to use them only in the sense of punishment and a curse. + +Now, how is this, my friends? How is it that we, who are not under the +terrors of the Law, but under the Gospel of grace, have quite lost the +Gospel meaning of this word ‘visitation,’ and take a darker view of it +than did even the old Jews under the Law? Have we, whom God hath +visited, indeed, in the person of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, any +right or reason to think worse of a visitation of God than had the Jews +of old? God forbid. And yet we do so, I fear; and show daily that we do +so by our use of the word: for out of the abundance of the heart man’s +mouth speaketh. By his words he is justified, and by his words he is +condemned; and there is no surer sign of what a man’s real belief is, +than the sense in which lie naturally, as it were by instinct, uses +certain words. + +And what is the cause? + +Shall I say it? If I do, I blame not you more than I blame myself, more +than I blame this generation. But it seems to me that there is a +little—or not a little—atheism among us now-a-days; that we are growing +to be ‘without God in the world.’ We are ready enough to believe that +God has to do with the next world: but we are not ready to believe that +He has to do with this world. We, in this generation, do not believe +that in God we live, and move, and have our being. Nay, some object to +capital punishment, because (so they say) ‘it hurries men into the +presence of their Maker;’ as if a human being could be in any better or +safer place than the presence of his Maker; and as if his being there +depended on us, or on any man, and not on God Almighty alone, who is +surely not so much less powerful than an earthly monarch, that He cannot +keep out of His presence or in it whomsoever He chooses. When we talk of +being ‘ushered into the presence of God,’ we mean dying; as if we were +not all in the presence of God at this moment, and all day long. When we +say, ‘Prepare to meet thy God,’ we mean ‘Prepare to die;’ as if we did +not meet our God every time we had the choice between doing a right thing +and doing a wrong one—between yielding to our own lusts and tempers, and +yielding to the Holy Spirit of God. For if the Holy Spirit of God be, as +the Christian faith tells us, God indeed, do we not meet God every time a +right, and true, and gracious thought arises in our hearts? But we have +all forgotten this, and much more connected with this; and our notion of +this world is not that of Holy Scripture—of that grand 104th Psalm, for +instance, which sets forth the Spirit of God as the Lord and Giver of +life to all creation: but our notion is this—that this world is a +machine, which would go on very well by itself, if God would but leave it +alone; that if the course of nature, as we atheistically call it, is not +interfered with, then suns shine, crops grow, trade flourishes, and all +is well, because God does not visit the earth. Ah! blind that we are; +blind to the power and glory of God which is around us, giving life and +breath to all things,—God, without whom not a sparrow falls to the +ground,—God, who visiteth the earth, and maketh it very plenteous,—God, +who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not,—God, whose ever-creating +and ever-sustaining Spirit is the source, not only of all goodness, +virtue, knowledge, but of all life, health, order, fertility. We see not +God’s witness in His sending rain and fruitful seasons, filling our +hearts with food and gladness. And then comes the punishment. Because +we will not keep up a wholesome and trustful belief in God in prosperity, +we are awakened out of our dream of unbelief, to an unwholesome and +mistrustful belief in Him in adversity. Because we will not believe in a +God of love and order, we grow to believe in a God of anger and disorder. +Because we will not fear a God who sends fruitful seasons, we are grown +to dread a God who sends famine and pestilence. Because we will not +believe in the Father in heaven, we grow to believe in a destroyer who +visits from heaven. But we believe in Him only as the destroyer. We +have forgotten that He is the Giver, the Creator, the Redeemer. We look +on His visitations as something dark and ugly, instead of rejoicing in +the thought of God’s presence, as we should, if we had remembered that He +was about our path and about our bed, and spying out all our ways, +whether for joy or for sorrow. We shrink at the thought of His presence. +We look on His visitations as things not to be understood; not to be +searched out in childlike humility—and yet in childlike confidence—that +we may understand why they are sent, and what useful lesson our Father +means us to learn from them: but we look on them as things to be merely +prayed against, if by any means God will, as soon as possible, cease to +visit us, and leave us to ourselves, for we can earn our own bread +comfortably enough, if it were not for His interference and visitations. +We are too like the Gadarenes of old, to whom it mattered little that the +Lord had restored the madman to health and reason, if He caused their +swine to perish in the lake. They were uneasy and terrified at such +visitations of God incarnate. He seemed to them a terrible and dangerous +Being, and they besought Him to depart out of their coasts. + +It would have been wiser, surely, in those Gadarenes, and better for +them, had they cried—‘Lord, what wilt Thou have us to do? We see that +Thou art a Being of infinite power, for mercy, and for punishment +likewise. And Thou art the very Being whom we want, to teach us our +duty, and to make us do it. Tell us what we ought to do, and help us, +and, if need be, compel us to do it, and so to prosper indeed.’ And so +should we pray in the case of this cholera. We may ask God to take it +away: but we are bound to ask God also, why He has sent it. Till then we +have no reason to suppose that He will take it away; we have no reason to +suppose that it will be merciful in Him to take it away, till He has +taught us why it was sent. This question of cholera has come now to a +crisis, in which we must either learn why cholera comes, or incur, I +hold, lasting disgrace and guilt. And—if I may dare to hint at the +counsels of God—it seems as if the Almighty Lord had no mind to relieve +us of that disgrace and guilt. + +For months past we have been praying that this cholera should not enter +England, and our prayers have not been heard. In spite of them the +cholera has come; and has slain thousands, and seems likely to slay +thousands more. What plainer proof can there be to those who believe in +the providence of God, and the rule of Jesus Christ our Lord, than that +we are meant to learn some wholesome lesson from it, which we have not +learnt yet? It cannot be that God means us to learn the physical cause +of cholera, for that we have known these twenty years. Foul lodging, +foul food, and, above all, natural and physical, foul water; there is no +doubt of the cause. But why cannot we save English people from the curse +and destruction which all this foulness brings? That is the question. +That is our national scandal, shame, and sin at this moment. Perhaps the +Lord wills that we should learn that; learn what is the moral and +spiritual cause of our own miserable weakness, negligence, hardness of +heart, which, sinning against light and knowledge, has caused the death +of thousands of innocent souls. God grant that we may learn that lesson. +God grant that He may put into the hearts and minds of some man or men, +the wisdom and courage to deliver us from such scandals for the future. + +But I have little hope that that will happen, till we get rid of our +secret atheism; till we give up the notion that God only visits now and +then, to disorder and destroy His own handiwork, and take back the old +scriptural notion, that God is visiting all day long for ever, to give +order and life to His own work, to set it right whenever it goes wrong, +and re-create it whenever it decays. Till then we can expect only +explanations of cholera and of God’s other visitations of affliction, +which are so superstitious, so irrational, so little connected with the +matter in hand, that they would be ridiculous, were they not somewhat +blasphemous. But when men arise in this land who believe truly in an +ever-present God of order, revealed in His Son Jesus Christ; when men +shall arise in this land, who will believe that faith with their whole +hearts, and will live and die for it and by it; acting as if they really +believed that in God we live, and move, and have our being; as if they +really believed that they were in the kingdom and rule of Christ,—a rule +of awful severity, and yet of perfect love,—a rule, meanwhile, which men +can understand, and are meant to understand, that they may not only obey +the laws of God, but know the mind of God, and copy the dealings of God, +and do the will of God; and when men arise in this land, who have that +holy faith in their hearts, and courage to act upon it, then cholera will +vanish away, and the physical and moral causes of a hundred other evils +which torment poor human beings through no anger of God, but simply +through their own folly, and greediness, and ignorance. + +All these shall vanish away, in the day when the knowledge of the Lord +shall cover the land, and men shall say, in spirit and in truth, as +Christ their Lord has said before,—‘Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou +wouldest not. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is +written of Me, that I should do the will of God.’ And in those days +shall be fulfilled once more, the text which says,—‘That the people +glorified God, saying, A great Prophet, even Christ the Lord Himself, +hath risen up among us, and God hath visited His people.’ + + + + +SERMON XVIII. +THE WICKED SERVANT. + + + ST. MATTHEW xviii. 23. + + The kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king, which would take + account of his servants. + +THIS parable, which you heard in the Gospel for this day, you all know. +And I doubt not that all you who know it, understand it well enough. It +is so human and so humane; it is told with such simplicity, and yet with +such force and brilliancy that—if one dare praise our Lord’s words as we +praise the words of men—all must see its meaning at once, though it +speaks of a state of society different from anything which we have ever +seen, or, thank God, ever shall see. + +The Eastern despotic king who has no law but his own will; who puts his +servant—literally his slave—into a post of such trust and honour, that +the slave can misappropriate and make away with the enormous sum of ten +thousand talents; who commands, not only him, but his wife and children +to be sold to pay the debt; who then forgives him all out of a sudden +burst of pity, and again, when the wretched man has shown himself base +and cruel, unworthy of that pity, revokes his pardon, and delivers him to +the tormentors till he shall pay all—all this is a state of things +impossible in a free country, though it is possible enough still in many +countries of the East, which are governed in this very despotic fashion; +and justice, and very often injustice likewise, is done in this rough, +uncertain way, by the will of the king alone. + +But, however different the circumstances, yet there is a lesson in this +story which is universal and eternal, true for all men, and true for +ever. The same human nature, for good and for evil, is in us, as was in +that Eastern king and his slave. The same kingdom of heaven is over us +as was over them, its laws punishing sinners by their own sins; the same +Spirit of God which strove with their hearts is striving with ours. If +it was not so, the parable would mean nothing to us. It would be a story +of men who belonged to another moral world, and were under another moral +law, not to be judged by our rules of right and wrong; and therefore a +story of men whom we need not copy. + +But it is not so. If the parable be—as I take for granted it is—a true +story; then it was Christ, the Light who lights every man who cometh into +the world, who put into that king’s heart the divine feeling of mercy, +and inspired him to forgive, freely and utterly, the wretched slave who +worshipped him, kneeling with his forehead to the ground, and promising, +in his terror, what he probably knew he could not perform—‘Lord, have +patience with me, and I will pay thee all.’ + +And it was Christ, the Light of men, who inspired that king with the +feeling, not of mere revenge, but of just retribution; who taught him +that, when the slave was unworthy of his mercy, he had a right, in a +noble and divine indignation, to withdraw his mercy; and not to waste his +favours on a bad man, who would only turn them to fresh bad account, but +to keep them for those who had justice and honour enough in their hearts +to forgive others, when their Lord had forgiven them. + +We must bear in mind, that the king must have been right, and acting +(whether he knew it or not) by the Spirit of God; else his conduct would +never have been likened to the kingdom of heaven: that is, to the laws by +which God governs both this world and the world to come. + +The kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God—Would that men would believe +in them a little more! It seems, at times, as if all belief in them was +dying out; as if men, throughout all civilized and Christian countries, +had made up their minds to say—There is no kingdom of God or of heaven. +There will be one hereafter, in the next world. This world is the +kingdom of men, and of what they can do for themselves without God’s +help, and without God’s laws. + +My friends, the Jewish rulers of old said so, and cried, ‘We have no king +but Cæsar.’ And they remain an example to all time, of what happens to +those who deny the kingdom of God. Christ came to tell them that the +kingdom of heaven was at hand, and the kingdom of God was among them. +But they would have none of it. And what said our Lord of them and their +notion? ‘The prince of this world,’ said He, ‘cometh, and hath nothing +in me. This is your hour and the power of darkness.’ Yes; the hour in +which men had determined to manage the world in their way, and not in +Christ’s, was also the hour of the power of darkness. That was what they +had gained by having their own way; by saying—The kingdom is ours, and +not God’s. They had fallen under the power of darkness, not of light. +The very light within them was darkness. They utterly mistook their road +on earth. At the very moment that they were trying to make peace with +the Roman governor, by denying that Christ was their King, and demanding +that He should be crucified,—at that very moment the things which +belonged to their peace were hid from their eyes. Never men made so +fatal a mistake, when they thought themselves most politic and prudent. +They said among themselves—‘Unless we put down this man, the Romans will +come and take away our place,’ _i.e._ our privileges, and power, and our +nation. And what followed? That the Romans did come and take away their +place and nation, with horrible massacre and ruin: and so they lost both +the kingdom of this world, and the kingdom of God likewise. Never, I +say, did men make a more fatal mistake in the things of this world than +those Jews to whom the kingdom of God came, and they rejected it. + +And so shall we, my friends, if we forget that, whether we like it or +not, the kingdom of God is within us, and we within it likewise. + +1. The kingdom of God is within us. Every gracious motive, every noble, +just, and merciful instinct within us, is a sign to us that the kingdom +of God is come to us; that we are not as the brutes which perish; not as +the heathen who are too often past feeling, being alienated from the life +of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them: but, that we are +God’s children, inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; and that God’s +Spirit is teaching us the laws of that kingdom; so that in every child +who is baptized, educated, and civilized, is fulfilled the promise, ‘I +will write my laws upon their hearts, and I will be to them a Father.’ + +God’s Spirit is teaching our hearts as He taught the heart of that old +Eastern king. It may be, it ought to be, that He is teaching us far +deeper lessons than He ever taught that king. + +2. We are in the kingdom of God. It is worth our while to remember that +steadfastly just now. Many people are ready to agree that the kingdom of +God is within them. They will readily confess that religion is a +spiritual matter, and a matter of the heart: but their fancy is that +therefore religion, and all just and noble and beautiful instincts and +aspirations, are very good things for those who have them: but that, if +any one has them not, it does not much matter. + +They do not see that there are not only such things as feelings about +God; but that there are also such things as laws of God; and that God can +enforce those laws, and does enforce them, sometimes in a very terrible +manner. They do not believe enough in a living God, an acting God, a God +who will not merely write His laws in our hearts, if we will let Him, but +may also destroy us off the face of the earth, if we would not let Him. +They fancy that God either cannot, or will not, enforce His own laws, but +leaves a man free to accept them, or reject as he will. There is no +greater mistake. Be not deceived; God is not mocked. As a man sows, so +shall he reap. God says to us, to all men,—Copy Me. Do as I do, and be +My children, and be blest. But if we will not; if, after all God’s care +and love, the tree brings forth no fruit, then, soon or late, the +sentence goes forth against it in God’s kingdom, ‘Cut it down; why +cumbereth it the ground?’ + +There is a saying now-a-days, that nations and tribes who will not live +reasonable lives, and behave as men should to their fellow-men, must be +civilized off the face of the earth. The words are false, if they mean +that we, or any other men, have a right to exterminate their +fellow-creatures. But they are true, and more true than the people who +use them fancy, if they are spoken not of man, but of God. For if men +will not obey the laws of God’s kingdom, God does actually civilize them +off the face of the earth. Great nations, learned churches, powerful +aristocracies, ancient institutions, has God civilized off the face of +the earth before now. Because they would not acknowledge God for their +King, and obey the laws of His kingdom, in which alone are life, and +wealth, and health, God has taken His kingdom away from them, and given +it to others who would bring forth the fruits thereof. The Jews are the +most awful and famous example of that terrible judgment of God, but they +are not the only ones. It has happened again and again. It may happen +to you or me, as well as to this whole nation of England, if we forget +that we are in God’s kingdom, and that only by living according to God’s +laws can we keep our place therein. + +And this is what the parable teaches us. The king tries to teach the +servant one of the laws of his kingdom—that he rules according to +boundless mercy and generosity. God wishes to teach us the same. The +king does so, not by word, but by deed, by actually forgiving the man his +debt. So does God forgive us freely in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +But more than this, he wishes the servant to understand that he is to +copy his king; that if his king has behaved to him like a father to his +child, he must behave as a brother to his fellow-servants. So does God +wish to teach us. + +But he does not tell the man so, in so many words. He does not say to +him, I command thee to forgive thy debtors as I have forgiven thee. He +leaves the man to his own sense of honour and good feeling. It is a +question not of the law, but of the heart. So does God with us. He +educates us, not as children or slaves, but as free men, as moral agents. +He leaves us to our own reason and conscience, to reap the fruit which we +ourselves have sown. Therefore, about a thousand matters in life He lays +on us no special command. He leaves us to act according to our good +feeling, to our own sense of honour. It is a matter, I say, of the +heart. If God’s law be written in our hearts, our hearts will lead us to +do the right thing. If God’s law be not in our hearts, then mere outward +commands will not make us do right, for what we do will not be really +right and good, because it will not be done heartily and of our own will. + +But the servant does not follow his lord’s example. + +Fresh from his lord’s presence, he takes his fellow-servant by the +throat, saying—Pay me that thou owest. His heart has not been touched. +His lord’s example has not softened him. He does not see how beautiful, +how noble, how divine, generosity and mercy are. He is a hard-hearted, +worldly man. The heavenly kingdom, which is justice and love, is not +within him. Then, if the kingdom of heaven is not in him, he shall find +out that he is in it; and that in a very terrible way:—‘Thou wicked +servant, unworthy of my pity, because there is no goodness in thine own +heart. Thou wilt not take into thy heart my law, which tells thee, Be +merciful as I am merciful. Then thou shalt feel another and an equally +universal law of mine. As thou doest so shalt thou be done by. If thou +art merciful, thou shalt find mercy. If thou wilt have nothing but +retribution, then nothing but retribution thou shalt have. If thou must +needs do justice thyself, I will do justice likewise. Because I am +merciful, dost thou think me careless? Because I sit still, that I am +patient? Dost thou think me such a one as thyself?’ And his lord +delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto +him. + +My dear friends, this is an awful story. Let us lay it to heart. And to +do that, let us pray God to lay it to our hearts; to write His laws in +our hearts, that we may not only fear them, but love them; not only see +their profitableness, but their fitness; that we may obey them, not +grudgingly or of necessity, but obey them because they look to us just, +and true, and beautiful, and as they are—Godlike. Let us pray, I say, +that God would make us love what He commands, lest we should neglect and +despise what He commands, and find it some day unexpectedly alive and +terrible after all. Let us pray to God to keep alive His kingdom of +grace within us, lest His kingdom of retribution outside us should fall +upon us, and grind us to powder. + + + + +SERMON XIX. +CIVILIZED BARBARISM. + + + (_Preached for the Bishop of London’s Fund_, _at St. John’s Church_, + _Notting Hill_, _June_ 1866.) + + ST. MATTHEW ix. 12. + + They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. + +I HAVE been honoured by an invitation to preach on behalf of the Bishop +of London’s Fund for providing for the spiritual wants of this +metropolis. By the bishop, and a large number of landowners, employers +of labour, and others who were aware of the increasing heathendom of the +richest and happiest city of the world, it was agreed that, if possible, +a million sterling should be raised during the next ten years, to do what +money could do in wiping out this national disgrace. It is a noble plan; +and it has been as yet—and I doubt not will be to the end—nobly responded +to by the rich laity of this metropolis. + +More than 100,000_l._ was contributed during the first six months; nearly +60,000_l._ in the ensuing year; beside subscriptions which are promised +for the whole, or part of the ten years. The money, therefore, does not +flow in as rapidly as was desired: but there is as yet no falling off. +And I believe that there will be, on the contrary, a gradual increase in +the subscriptions as the objects of this fund are better understood, and +as its benefits are practically felt. + +Now, it is unnecessary—it would be almost an impertinence—to enlarge on a +spiritual destitution of which you are already well aware. There are, we +shall all agree, many thousands in London who are palpably sick of +spiritual disease, and need the physician. But I have special reasons +for not pressing this point. If I attempted to draw subscriptions from +you by painting tragical and revolting pictures of the vice, heathendom, +and misery of this metropolis, I might make you fancy that it was an +altogether vicious, heathen, and miserable spot: than which there can be +no greater mistake. These evils are not the rule, but the exceptions. +Were they not the exceptions, then not merely the society of London, and +the industry of London, and the wealth of London, but the very buildings +of London, the brick and the mortar, would crumble to the ground by +natural and inevitable decay. The unprecedentedly rapid increase of +London is, I firmly believe, a sure sign that things in it are done on +the whole not ill, but well; that God’s blessing is on the place; that, +because it is on the whole obeying the eternal laws of God, therefore it +is increasing, and multiplying, and replenishing the earth, and subduing +it. And I do not hesitate to say, that I have read of no spot of like +size upon this earth, on which there have ever been congregated so many +human beings, who are getting their bread so peaceably, happily, loyally, +and virtuously; and doing their duty—ill enough, no doubt, as we all do +it—but still doing it more or less, by man and God. + +I am well aware that many will differ from me; that many men and many +women—holy, devoted, spending their lives in noble and unselfish +labours—persons whose shoes’ latchet I am not worthy to unloose—take a +far darker view of the state of this metropolis. But the fact is, that +they are naturally brought in contact chiefly with its darker side. +Their first duty is to seek out cases of misery: and even if they do not, +the miserable will, of their own accord, come to them. It is their first +duty too—if they be clergymen—to rebuke, and if possible, to cure, open +vice, open heathendom, as well as to relieve present want and +wretchedness: and may God’s blessing be on all who do that work. But in +doing it they are dealing daily—and ought to deal, and must deal—with the +exceptional, and not with the normal; with cases of palpable and shocking +disease, and not with cases of at least seeming health. They see that, +into London, as into a vast sewer, gravitates yearly all manner of vice, +ignorance, weakness, poverty: but they are apt to forget, at times—and +God knows I do not blame them for it in the least—that there gravitates +into London, not as into a sewer, but as into a wholesome and fruitful +garden, a far greater amount of health, strength, intellect, honesty, +industry, virtue, which makes London; which composes, I verily believe, +four-fifths of the population of London. For if it did not, as I have +said already, London would decay and die, and not grow and live. + +Am I denying the spiritual destitution of this metropolis? Am I arguing +against the necessity of the Bishop of London’s Fund? Am I trying to +cool your generosity towards it? Am I raising against it the text—‘They +that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick?’ Am I trying +to prove that the sick are fewer than was fancied, the healthy more +numerous; and, therefore, the physician less needed? Would to heaven +that I dare so do. Would to heaven that I could prove this fund +unnecessary and superfluous. But instead thereof, I fear that I must +say—that the average of that health, strength, intellect, honesty, +industry, virtue, which makes London—that the average of all that, I +verily believe, is to be counted (though it knows it not) among the sick, +and not among the sound. It is sick, over and above those personal sins +which are common to all classes; it is sick of a great social disease; of +a disease which is very dangerous for the nation to which we belong; +which will increase more and more, and become more and more dangerous, +unless it is stopped wholesale, by some such wholesale measure as this. +That disease is (paradoxical as it may seem) Want of Civilization; +Barbarism, which is the child of ungodliness. And that can, I verily +believe again, be cured only (as far as we in the nineteenth century have +discovered) by an extension of the parochial system. + +And yet—let us beware of that expression—Parochial System. It seems to +imply that the parish is a mere system; an artificial arrangement of +man’s invention. Now that is just what the parish is not. It is founded +on local ties; and they are not a system, but a fact. You do not +assemble men into parishes: you find them already assembled by fact, +which is the will of God. You take your stand upon the merest physical +ground of their living next door to each other; their being likely to +witness each other’s sayings and doings; to help each other and like each +other, or to debauch each other and hate each other; upon the fact that +their children play in the same street, and teach each other harm or +good, thereby influencing generations yet unborn; upon the fact that if +one takes cholera or fever, the man who lives next door is liable to take +it too—in short, on the broad fact that they are members of each other, +for good or evil. You take your stand on this physical ground of mere +neighbourhood; and say—This bond of neighbourhood is, after all, one of +the most human—yea, of the most Divine—of all bonds. Every man you meet +is your brother, and must be, for good or evil: you cannot live without +him; you must help, or you must injure, each other. And, therefore, you +must choose whether you will be a horde of isolated barbarians—your +living in brick and mortar, instead of huts and tents, being a mere +accident—barbarians, I say, at continual war with each other: or whether +you will go on to become civilized men; that is, fellow-citizens, members +of the same body, confessing and exercising duties to each other which +are not self-chosen, not self-invented, but real; which encompass you +whether you know them or not; laid on you by Almighty God, by the mere +fact of your being men and women living in contact with each other. + +Out of this great and true law arises the idea of a parish, a local +self-government for many civil purposes, as well as ecclesiastical ones, +under a priest who—if he is to be considered as a little constitutional +monarch—has his powers limited carefully both by the supreme law, by his +assessors the church-wardens, and by the democratic constitution of the +parish—influences which he is bound, both by law and by Christianity, to +obey. + +Arising, in the first place, from the fact that our forefathers colonized +England in small separate families, each with its own jurisdiction and +worship; our country parish churches being, to this day, often the sites +of old heathen tribe-temples, and this very place, Notting-hill, being +possibly a little colony of the Nottingas—the same tribe which gave their +name to the great city of Nottingham; arising from this fact, and from +the very ancient institution of frank-pledge between local neighbours, +this parochial system, above all other English institutions, has helped +to teach us how to govern, and therefore how to civilize, ourselves. It +was overlaid, all but extinguished, by the monastic system, during the +latter part of the Middle Ages. It re-asserted itself, in fuller vigour +than ever, at the Reformation. But with its benefits, its defects were +restored likewise. The tendency of the mediæval Church had been to +become merely a church for paupers. The tendency of the Church of +England during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, was +to become merely a church for burghers. It has been, of late, to become +merely a church for paupers again. The causes of this reaction are +simple enough. Population increased so rapidly that the old parish +bounds were broken up; the old parish staff became too small for working +purposes. The Church had (and, alas! has still) to be again a missionary +church, as she became in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when +feudal violence had destroyed the self-government of the parishes—often +the parishes themselves—and filled the land with pauperism and barbarism. +But that is but a transitional state. Her duty is now becoming more and +more (and those who wish her well must help her to fulfil her duty) to +reorganize the ancient parochial system on a deeper and sounder footing +than ever; on a footing which will ensure her being a church, not merely +for pauper, nor merely for burgher, but for pauper and for burgher +equally and alike. + +But some will say that parochial civilization is only a peculiar form of +civilization, because its centre is a church. Peculiar? That is the +last word which any one would apply to such a civilization, if he knows +history. Will any one mention any civilization, past or present, whose +centre has not been (as long as it has been living and progressive) a +church? All past civilizations—whether heathen or Mussulman, Jew or +Christian—have each and every one of them, as a fact, held that the +common and local worship of a God was a sign to them of their common and +local unity; a sign to them of their religion, that is, the duties which +bound them to each other, whether they liked or not. To all races and +nations, as yet, their sacred grove, church, temple, or other place of +worship, has been a sign to them that their unity and duties were not +invented by themselves, but were the will and command of an unseen Being, +who would reward or punish them according as they did those duties or +left them undone. So it has been in the civilizations of the past. So +it will be in the civilization of the future. If the Christian religion +were swept away—as it never will be, for it is eternal—and a civilization +founded on what is called Nature put in its place, then we should see a +worship of something called Nature, and a temple thereof, set up as the +symbol of that Natural civilization. So the Jacobins of France—when they +tried to civilize France on the mere ground of what they called +Reason—had, whether they liked it or not, to instal a worship of Reason, +and a goddess of Reason, for as long as they could contrive to last. + +To the world’s end, a church of some kind or other will be the centre and +symbol of every civilization which is worthy of the name; of every +civilization which signifies, not merely that men live in somewhat better +houses, travel rather faster by railway, and read a few more books (which +is the popular meaning of civilization), but which means—as it meant +among the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, the Christians, among those who +discovered the idea and the very words which express it—that each and +every truly civilized man is a civis, a citizen, the conscious and +obedient member of a corporate body which he did not make, but which (in +as far as he is not a savage) has made him. + +How far from this idea are the great masses of our really wealthy and +well-to-do Londoners? How much is it needed, that wise men should try to +re-awaken in them the sense of corporate life, and literally civilize +them once more! + +Consider the case, not of the average wretched, but of the average +comfortable man. The small shopkeeper, the workman, skilled or +unskilled—how small a consciousness has he of citizenship. What few +incentives to regard civism as a solemn duty. For consider, of what is +he a member? + +He is a member of a family; and, in general, he fulfils his family duties +well. + +Yes, thank God, the family life of Englishmen is sound. The hearts of +the children do not need to be turned to their fathers, or the hearts of +the fathers to the children, as they did in Judea of old. Family life, +which is the foundation of all national life—nay, of all Christian and +church life—is, on the whole, sound. And having that foundation we can +build on it safely and well, if we be wise. + +But of what else is the average Londoner a member? Of a benefit-club, of +a trades’ union, of a volunteer corps. Each will be a valuable element +of education, for it will teach him that self-government, which is the +school of all freedom, of all loyalty, of all true civilization. + +Or he may be a member of some Nonconformist sect. That, too, will be a +valuable element, for it will teach him the solemn fact of his own +personality; his direct responsibility to God for his own soul. + +And I cannot pass this point of my sermon without expressing my sense of +the great work which the Dissenting sects have done, and are doing, for +this land (with which the Bishop of London’s plan will in no wise +interfere), in teaching this one thing, which the Church of England, +while trying to carry out her far deeper and higher conception of +organization, has often forgotten; that, after all, and before all, and +throughout all, each man stands alone, face to face with Almighty God. +This idea has helped to give the middle classes of England an +independence, a strong, vigorous, sharp-cut personality, which is an +invaluable wealth to the nation. God forbid that we should try to weaken +it, even for reasons which may seem to some devout and orthodox. + +But all these memberships, after all, are only voluntary ones, not +involuntary. They are assumed by man himself—the worldly associations on +the ground of mutual interest; the spiritual associations on that of +identity of opinions. They are not instituted by God, and nature, and +fact, whether the man knows of them or not, likes them or not. They are +of the nature of clubs, not of citizenship. They are not founded on that +human ground which is, by virtue of the Incarnation, the most divine +ground of all. And for the many they do not exist. The majority of +small shopkeepers, and the majority of labourers too, are members, as far +as they are aware, of nothing, unless it be a club at some neighbouring +public-house. The old feudal and burgher bonds of the Middle Age, for +good or for evil, have perished by natural and necessary decay; and +nothing has taken their place. Each man is growing up more and more +isolated; tempted to selfishness, to brutal independence; tempted to +regard his fellow-men as rivals in the struggle for existence; tempted, +in short, to incivism, to a loss of the very soul and marrow of +civilization, while the outward results of it remain; and therefore +tempted to a loss of patriotism, of the belief that he possesses here +something far more precious than his private fortune, or even his family; +even a country for which he must sacrifice, if need be, himself. And if +that grow to be the general temper of England, or of London, in some +great day of the Lord, some crisis of perplexity, want, or danger,—then +may the Lord have mercy upon this land; for it will have no mercy on +itself: but divided, suspicious, heartless, cynical, unpatriotic, each +class, even each family, even each individual man, will run each his own +way, minding his own interest or safety; content, like the debased Jews, +if he can find the life of his hand; and— + + ‘Too happy if, in that dread day, + His life he given him for a prey.’ + +Our fathers saw that happen throughout half Europe, at a crisis when, +while the outward crust of civilization was still kept up, the life of +it, all patriotism, corporate feeling, duty to a common God, and faith in +a common Saviour, had rotted out unperceived. At one blow the gay idol +fell, and broke; and behold, inside was not a soul, but dust. God grant +that we may never see here the same catastrophe, the same disgrace. + +Now, one remedy—I do not say the only remedy—there are no such things as +panaceas; all spiritual and social diseases are complicated, and their +remedies must be complicated likewise—but one remedy, palpable, easy, and +useful, whenever and wherever it has been tried, is this—to go to these +great masses of brave, honest, industrious, but isolated and uncivilized +men, after the method of the Bishop of this diocese, and his fund; and to +say to them,—‘Of whatever body you are, or are not members, you are +members of that human family for which our Lord Jesus Christ was +contented to be betrayed, and to suffer death upon the Cross; over which +He now liveth and reigneth, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, +world without end. You are children of God the Father of spirits, who +wills that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. +You are inheritors—that is, members not by your own will, or the will of +any man, but by the will of God who has chosen you to be born in a +Christian land of Christian parents—inheritors, I say, of the kingdom of +heaven, from your cradles to your graves, and after that, if you will, +for ever and ever. Behave as such. Claim your rights; for they are +yours already: and not only claim your rights, but confess your duties. +Remember that every man, woman, and child in your street is, primâ facie, +just as much a member of Christ as you are. Treat them as such; +associate yourselves with them as such. Accept the simple physical fact +that they live next door to you, as God’s will toward you both, and as +God’s sign to you that you and they are members of the same human and +divine family. Enter with them, in that plain form, into the free +corporate self-government of a Christian parish. Fear no priestly +tyranny; from that danger you are guaranteed by the fact, that the great +majority of the promoters of this fund are laymen, of all shades of +opinion. You are guaranteed, still further, by the fact, that in the +parochial system there can be no tyranny. It is one of the very +institutions by which Englishmen have learnt those habits of +self-government, which are the admiration of Europe. + +‘Do, then, the duty which lies nearest you; your duty to the man who +lives next door, and to the man who lives in the next street. Do your +duty to your parish; that you may learn to do your duty by your country +and to all mankind, and prove yourselves thereby civilized men. + +‘And confess your sins in this matter, if not to us, at least to God. +Confess that while you, in your sturdy, comfortable independence, have +been fancying yourselves whole and sound, you have been very sick, and +need the physician to cure you of the deadly and growing disease of +selfish barbarism. Confess that, while you have been priding yourselves +on English self-help and independence, you have not deigned to use them +for those purposes of common organization, common worship, for which the +very savages and heathens have, for ages past, used such freedom as they +have had. Confess that, while you have been talking loudly about the +rights of humanity, you have neglected too often its duties, and lived as +if the people in the same street had no more to do with you than the +beasts which perish. + +‘Confess your sins. We monied men confess ours. We ought to have +foreseen the rapid growth of this city. We ought to have planned and +laboured more earnestly for its better organization. And we freely offer +our money, as a sign of our repentance, to build and establish for you +institutions which you cannot afford to establish for yourselves. We +excuse you, moreover, in very great part. You have been gathered +together so suddenly into these vast new districts, or rather chaos of +houses, and you have meanwhile shifted your dwellings so rapidly, and +under the pressure of such continual labour, that you have not had time +enough to organize yourselves. But we, too, have our excuse. We have +actually been trying, at vast expense and labour to ourselves, for the +last forty years, to meet your new needs. But you have outgrown all our +efforts. Your increase has taken us by surprise. Your prosperity has +outrun our goodwill. It shall do so no more. We are ready to do our +part in the good work of repentance. We ask you to do yours. You are +more able to do it than you ever were: richer, better educated, more +acquainted with the blessings of association. We do not come to you as +to paupers, merely to help you. We come to you as to free and +independent citizens, to teach you to help yourselves, and show +yourselves citizens indeed.’ + +I hope, ay, I believe, that such an appeal as this, made in an honest and +liberal spirit, which proves its honesty and liberality by great and +generous gifts out of such private wealth as no nation ever had before, +will be met by the masses of London, in the same spirit as that in which +it has been made. + +I am certain of it, if only the ecclesiastical staff employed by this +Fund will keep steadfastly in mind what they have to do. True it is, and +happily true, that they can do nothing but good. If they confine +themselves to the celebration of public worship, to teaching children, to +giving the consolations of religion to those with whom want and +wretchedness bring them in contact—all that will be gain, clear gain, +vast gain. But that, valuable, necessary as it is, will not be +sufficient to evoke a full response from the people of London. + +But if they will, not leaving the other undone, do yet more; if they will +attempt the more difficult, but the equally necessary and more permanent +labour—that of attacking the disease of barbarism, not merely in its +symptoms, but in its very roots and its causes; if they will recognise +the fact, that with the disease there coexists a great deal of sturdy and +useful health; if they will have courage and address to face, not merely +the non-working, non-earning, and generally non-thinking hundreds, but +the working, earning, thinking thousands of each parish; in fact, the men +and women who make London what it is; if they will approach them with +charity, confidence, and respect; if they will remember that they are +justly jealous of that personal independence, that civil and religious +liberty, which is theirs by law and right; if they will conduct +themselves, not as lords over God’s heritage, but as examples to the +flock; if they will treat that flock, not as their subjects, but as their +friends, their fellow-workers, their fellow-counsellors—often their +advisers; if they will remember that ‘Give and take, live and let live,’ +are no mere worldly maxims, but necessary, though difficult Christian +duties; then, I believe, they will after awhile receive an answer to +their call such as they dare not as yet expect; such an answer as our +forefathers gave to the clergy of the early Middle Age, when they showed +them that the kingdom of God was the messenger of civilization, of +humanity, of justice and peace, of strength and well-being in this world, +as well as in the next. The clergy would find in the men and women of +London not merely disciples, but helpers. They would meet, not with +fanatical excitement, not even with enthusiasm, not even with much +outward devotion; but with co-operation, hearty and practical though slow +and quiet—co-operation all the more valuable, in every possible sense, +because it will be free and voluntary; and the Bishop of London’s Fund +would receive more and more assistance, not merely of heads and hands, +but of money when money was needed, from the inhabitants of the very +poorest and most heathen districts, as they began to feel that they were +giving their money towards a common blessing, and became proud to pay +their share towards an organization which would belong to them, and to +their children after them. + +So runs my dream. This may be done: God grant that it may! For now, it +may be, is our best chance of doing it. Now is the accepted time; now is +the day of salvation. If these masses increase in numbers and in power +for another generation, in their present state of anarchy, they may be +lost for ever to Christianity, to order, to civilization. But if we can +civilize, in that sense which is both classical and Christian, the masses +of London, and of England, by that parochial method which has been +(according to history) the only method yet discovered, then we shall have +helped, not only to save innumerable souls from sin, and from that misery +which is the inevitable and everlasting consequence of sin, but we shall +have helped to save them from a specious and tawdry barbarism, such as +corrupted and enervated the seemingly civilized masses of the later Roman +empire; and to save our country, within the next century, from some such +catastrophe as overtook the Jewish monarchy in spite of all its outward +religiosity; the catastrophe which has overtaken every nation which has +fancied itself sound and whole, while it was really broken, sick, weak, +ripe for ruin. For such, every nation or empire becomes, though the +minority above be never so well organized, civilized, powerful, educated, +even virtuous, if the majority below are not a people of citizens, but +masses of incoherent atoms, ready to fall to pieces before every storm. + +From that, and from all adversities, may God deliver us, and our children +after us, by graciously beholding this His Family, for which our Lord +Jesus Christ was content to suffer death upon the Cross; and by pouring +out His Spirit upon all estates of men in His holy Church, that every +member of the same, in his calling and ministry, may freely and godly +serve Him; till we have no longer the shame and sorrow of praying for +English men and women, as we do for Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics, +that God would take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and +contempt of His Word, and fetch them home to that flock of His, to which +they all belong! + + + + +SERMON XX. +THE GOD OF NATURE. + + + (_Preached during a wet harvest_.) + + PSALM cxlvii. 7–9. + + Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto + our God: who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for + the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to + the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. + +THERE is no reason why those who wrote this Psalm, and the one which +follows it, should have looked more cheerfully on the world about them +than we have a right to do. The country and climate of Judea is not much +superior to ours. If we suffer at times from excess of rain and wind, +Judea suffers from excess of drought and sunshine. It suffers, too, at +times, from that most terrible of earthly calamities, from which we are +free—namely, from earthquakes. The sea, moreover, instead of being +loved, as it is by us, as the highway of our commerce, and the producer +of vast stores of food—the sea, I say, was almost feared by the old Jews, +who were no sailors. They looked on it as a dangerous waste; and were +thankful to God that, though the waves roared, He had set them a bound +which they could not pass. + +So that there is no reason why the old Jews should think and speak more +cheerfully about the world than we here in England ought. They had, too, +the same human afflictions, sicknesses, dangers, disappointments, losses +and chastisements as we have. They had their full share of all the ills +to which flesh is heir. Yet look, I beg you, at the cheerfulness of +these two Psalms, the 147th and 148th. In truth, it is more than +cheerfulness; it is joy, rejoicing which can only express itself in a +song. + +These Psalms are songs, to be sung to music, and even in our translation +they are songs still, sounding like poetry, and not like prose. + +And why is this? Because the men who wrote these Psalms had faith in +God. + +They trusted God. They saw that He was worthy of their trust. They saw +that He was to be honoured, not merely for His boundless wisdom and His +boundless power: for a being might have them, and yet make a bad use of +them. But He was to be trusted, because He was a good God. He was to be +honoured, not for anything which men might get out of Him (as the heathen +fancied) by flattering Him, and begging of Him: but He was to be honoured +for His own sake, for what He was in Himself—a just, merciful, kind, +generous, magnanimous, and utterly noble and perfect, moral Being, worthy +of all admiration, praise, honour, and glory. + +The Psalmist saw that God was good, and worthy to be praised. But he +saw, too, that he and his forefathers would never have found out that for +themselves. It was too great a discovery for man to make. God must have +showed it to them. God had showed His word to Jacob, His statutes and +ordinances to Israel. + +He had not done so to any other nation, neither had the heathen knowledge +of His laws. And, therefore, they did not trust God; they did not +consider Him a good God, and so they worshipped Baalim, the sun and moon +and stars, with silly and foul ceremonies, to procure from them good +harvests; and burnt their children in the fire to Moloch, the fire-king, +to keep off the earthquakes and the floods. God had not taught them what +He had taught Israel—to trust in Him, and in His word which ran very +swiftly, and in His laws, which could not be broken: a faith which, my +friends, we must do our best to keep up in ourselves, and in our children +after us. For it is very easy to lose it, this faith in God. We are +tempted to lose it, all our lives long. + +Our forefathers, in the days of Popery, lost it; and because they did not +trust in God as a good God, who took good care of the world which He had +made, they fell to believing that the devil, and witches, the servants of +the devil, could raise storms, blight crops, strike cattle and human +beings with disease. And they began, too, to pray, not to God, but to +certain saints in heaven, to protect them against bodily ills. + +One saint could cure one disease, and one another; one saint protected +the cattle, another kept off thunder, and so forth—I will not tell you +more, lest I should tempt you to smile in this holy place; and tempt you, +too, to look down on your forefathers, who (though they made these +mistakes) were just as honest and virtuous men as we. + +And even lately, up to this very time, there are those who have not full +faith in God; though they be good and pious persons, and good Protestants +too, who would shrink with horror from worshipping saints, or any being +save God alone. But they are apt to shut their eyes to the beauty and +order of God’s world, and to the glory of God set forth therein, and to +excuse themselves by quoting unfairly texts of Scripture. They say that +this world is all out of joint; corrupt, and cursed for Adam’s sin: yet, +where it is out of joint, and where it is corrupt, they cannot show. +And, as for its being cursed for Adam’s sin, that is a dream which is +contradicted by Holy Scripture itself. For see. We read in Genesis iii. +17, ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it +all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth +to thee.’ + +Now, that the ground does not now bring forth thorns and thistles to us, +we know. For it brings forth whatsoever fair flower, or useful herb, we +plant therein, according to the laws of nature, which are the laws of +God. Neither do men eat thereof in sorrow; but, as Solomon says, ‘eat +their bread in joyfulness of heart.’ And so did they in the Psalmist’s +days; who never speak of the tillage of the land without some expression +of faith and confidence, and thankfulness to that God who crowns the year +with His goodness, and His clouds drop fatness; while the hills rejoice +on every side, and the valleys stand so thick with corn, that they laugh +and sing—of faith, I say, and gratitude toward that God who brings forth +the grass for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men; who +brings food out of the earth, and wine to make glad the heart of man, and +oil to give him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man’s +heart. Those well-known words are in the 104th Psalm; and I ask any +reasonable person to read that Psalm through—the Psalm which contains the +Jewish natural theology, the Jew’s view of this world, and of God’s will +and dealings with it—and then say, could a man have written it who +thought that there was any curse upon this earth on account of man’s sin? + +But more. The Book of Genesis says that there is none; for, after it has +said in the third chapter, ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake,’ it says +again, in the eighth chapter, verse 21, ‘And the Lord said in His heart, +I will not again curse the ground for man’s sake. While the earth +remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, shall +not cease.’ + +Can any words be plainer? Whatever the curse in Adam’s days may have +been, does not the Book of Genesis represent it as being formally +abrogated and taken away in the days of Noah, that the regular course of +nature, fruitful and beneficent, might endure thenceforth? + +Accordingly, we hear no more in the Bible anywhere of this same curse. +We hear instead the very opposite; for one says, in the 119th Psalm, +speaking indeed of God, ‘O Lord, Thy word endureth for ever in heaven. +Thy truth also remaineth from one generation to another. Thou hast laid +the foundation of the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day +according to Thine ordinance: for all things serve Thee.’ And so in the +148th Psalm, another speaks by the Spirit of God; ‘Let all things praise +the name of the Lord: for He commanded, and they were created. He hath +also established them for ever and ever: He hath given them a law which +shall not be broken.’ + +Yes, my friends, God’s law shall not be broken, and it is not broken. +And that faith, that the laws which govern the whole material universe, +cannot be broken, will be to us faith full of hope, and joy, and +confidence, if we will remember, with the Psalmist, that they are the +laws of the living God, and of the good God. + +They are the laws of the living God: not the laws of nature, or fate, or +necessity—all three words which mean little or nothing—but of a living +God in whom we live, and move, and have our being; whose word—the +creating, organizing, inspiring word—runneth very swiftly, making all +things to obey God, and not themselves. + +And they are the laws of a good God; of a moral God; of a generous, +loving, just, and merciful God, who, as the Psalmist reminds us (and that +is the reason of his confidence and his joy), while He telleth the number +of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, condescends at the +same time to heal those who are broken in heart; of a God who, while He +giveth fodder to the cattle, and feedeth the young ravens who call on +Him, at the same time careth for those who fear Him, and put their trust +in His mercy; of a God who, while His power is great and His wisdom +infinite, at the same time sets up the meek, and brings the ungodly down +to the ground; of a Father in heaven who is perfect in this—that He sends +His sun and rain alike on the just and the unjust, and is good to the +unthankful and the evil; of a Father, lastly, who so loved the world, +that He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us, and +has committed to that Son all power in heaven and earth;—all power over +the material world, which we call nature, as well as over the moral +world, which is the hearts and spirits of men—to that Word of God who +runneth very swiftly, who is sharper than a two-edged sword, and yet more +tender than the love of woman; even Jesus Christ the Saviour, the Word of +God, who was in the beginning with God, and was God; by whom all things +were made; who is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh +into the world, if by any means he will receive the light of God, and see +thereby the true and wise laws of Nature and of Spirit. + +This is our God. This is He who sends food and wealth, rain and +sunshine. Shall we not trust Him? If we thank Him for plenty, and fine +weather, which we see to be blessings without doubt, shall we not trust +Him for scarcity and bad weather, which do not seem to us to be +blessings, and yet may be blessings nevertheless? Shall we not believe +that His very chastisements are mercies? Shall we not accept them in +faith, as the child takes from its parent’s hand bitter medicine, the use +of which it cannot see; but takes it in faith that its parent knows best, +and that its parent’s purpose is only love and benevolence? Shall we not +say with Job—Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him? He cannot mean +my harm; He must mean my good, and the good of all mankind. He must—even +by such seeming calamities as great rains, or failure of crops—even by +them He must be benefiting mankind. Recollect, as a single instance, +that the great rains of 1860, which terrified so many, are proved now to +have saved some thousands of lives in England from fever and similar +diseases. Take courage; and have, as the old Psalmist had, faith in God. +Believe that nothing goes wrong in this world, save through the sin, and +folly, and ignorance of man; that God is always right, always wise, +always benevolent: and be sure that you, each and all, are— + + ‘Safe in the hand of one disposing Power, + Or in the natal, or the mortal hour, + All nature is but art, unknown to thee; + All chance, discretion which thou can it not see. + All discord, harmony not understood; + All partial evil, universal good; + And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite, + One truth is clear—whatever is, is right.’ + +And pray to God that He may fill you with His Spirit, the spirit of +wisdom and understanding, of knowledge and grace of the Lord, and show to +you, as He showed to the Jews of old, His laws and judgments, and so +teach you how to see that the only thing on earth which is not right, +is—the sin of man. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATER OF LIFE*** + + +******* This file should be named 5687-0.txt or 5687-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/6/8/5687 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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