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diff --git a/7954-0.txt b/7954-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6af6ff7 --- /dev/null +++ b/7954-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6368 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Twenty-Five Village Sermons, 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: Twenty-Five Village Sermons + + +Author: Charles Kingsley + + + +Release Date: October 24, 2014 [eBook #7954] +[This file was first posted on June 4, 2003] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWENTY-FIVE VILLAGE SERMONS*** + + +Transcribed from the 1849 John W. Parker edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + TWENTY-FIVE + VILLAGE SERMONS. + + + * * * * * + + BY + CHARLES KINGSLEY, JUN., + + RECTOR OF EVERSLEY, HANTS, AND CANON OF MIDDLEHAM, YORKSHIRE. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. + + * * * * * + + MDCCCXLIX. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St Leicester Sq. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + Page + SERMON I. + + GOD’S WORLD. + + PSALM civ. 24. +O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou 1 +made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches + SERMON II. + + RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. + + PSALM civ. 13–15. +He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is 13 +satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the +grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of +man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and +wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his +face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart + SERMON III. + + LIFE AND DEATH. + + PSALM civ. 24, 28–30. +O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou 25 +made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou +givest them they gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are +filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: +Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to +their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are +created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth + SERMON IV. + + THE WORK OF GOD’S SPIRIT. + + JAMES, i. 16, 17. +Do not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every 35 +perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father +of lights + SERMON V. + + FAITH. + + HABAKKUK, ii. 4. +The just shall live by faith 47 + SERMON VI. + + THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. + + GALATIANS, v. 16. +I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the 60 +lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the +Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are +contrary the one to the other + SERMON VII. + + RETRIBUTION. + + NUMBERS, xxxii. 23. +Be sure your sin will find you out 72 + SERMON VIII. + + SELF-DESTRUCTION. + + 1 KINGS, xxii. 23. +The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these 82 +thy prophets + SERMON IX. + + HELL ON EARTH. + + MATTHEW, viii. 29. +And behold the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we 91 +to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come +hither to torment us before the time? + SERMON X. + + NOAH’S JUSTICE. + + GENESIS, vi. 9. +Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and 104 +Noah walked with God + SERMON XI. + + THE NOACHIC COVENANT. + + GEN. ix. 8, 9. +And God spake unto Noah, and his sons with him, saying, And 116 +I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your +seed after you + SERMON XII. + + ABRAHAM’S FAITH. + + HEBREWS, xi. 9, 10. +By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a 125 +strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and +Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he +looked for a city, which hath foundations, whose builder +and maker is God + SERMON XIII. + + ABRAHAM’S OBEDIENCE. + + HEBREWS, xi. 17–19. +By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and 141 +he that had received the promises offered up his +only-begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall +thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise +him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received +him in a figure + SERMON XIV. + + OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. + + 1 JOHN, ii. 13. +I write unto you, little children, because ye have known 149 +the Father + SERMON XV. + + THE TRANSFIGURATION. + + MARK, ix. 2. +Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them 160 +up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before +them + SERMON XVI. + + THE CRUCIFIXION. + + ISAIAH, liii. 7. +He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter 173 + SERMON XVII. + + THE RESURRECTION. + + LUKE, xxiv. 6. +He is not here—He is risen 179 + SERMON XVIII. + + IMPROVEMENT. + + PSALM xcii. 12. +The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall 191 +grow like the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in +the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our +God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they +shall be fat and flourishing + SERMON XIX. + + MAN’S WORKING DAY. + + JOHN, xi. 9, 10. +Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If 200 +any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth +the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night he +stumbleth, because there is no light in him + SERMON XX. + + ASSOCIATION. + + GALATIANS, vi. 2. +Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of 210 +Christ + SERMON XXI. + + HEAVEN ON EARTH. + + 1 COR. x. 31. +Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 219 +the glory of God + SERMON XXII. + + NATIONAL PRIVILEGES. + + LUKE, x. 23. +Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see: for 228 +I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to +see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and +to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them + SERMON XXIII. + + LENTEN THOUGHTS. + + HAGGAI, i. 5. +Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your 239 +ways + SERMON XXIV. + + ON BOOKS. + + JOHN, i. 1. +In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 248 +and the Word was God + SERMON XXV. + + THE COURAGE OF THE SAVIOUR. + + JOHN, xi. 7, 8. +Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into 259 +Judea again. His disciples say to Him, Master, the Jews of +late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again? + + + + +SERMON I. +GOD’S WORLD. + + + PSALM civ. 24. + + “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them + all: the earth is full of Thy riches.” + +WHEN we read such psalms as the one from which this verse is taken, we +cannot help, if we consider, feeling at once a great difference between +them and any hymns or religious poetry which is commonly written or read +in these days. The hymns which are most liked now, and the psalms which +people most willingly choose out of the Bible, are those which speak, or +seem to speak, about God’s dealings with people’s own souls, while such +psalms as this are overlooked. People do not care really about psalms of +this kind when they find them in the Bible, and they do not expect or +wish nowadays any one to write poetry like them. For these psalms of +which I speak praise and honour God, not for what He has done to our +souls, but for what He has done and is doing in the world around us. +This very 104th psalm, for instance, speaks entirely about things which +we hardly care or even think proper to mention in church now. It speaks +of this earth entirely, and the things on it. Of the light, the clouds, +and wind—of hills and valleys, and the springs on the hill-sides—of wild +beasts and birds—of grass and corn, and wine and oil—of the sun and moon, +night and day—the great sea, the ships, and the fishes, and all the +wonderful and nameless creatures which people the waters—the very birds’ +nests in the high trees, and the rabbits burrowing among the +rocks,—nothing on the earth but this psalm thinks it worth mentioning. +And all this, which one would expect to find only in a book of natural +history, is in the Bible, in one of the psalms, written to be sung in the +temple at Jerusalem, before the throne of the living God and His glory +which used to be seen in that temple,—inspired, as we all believe, by +God’s Spirit,—God’s own word, in short: that is worth thinking of. +Surely the man who wrote this must have thought very differently about +this world, with its fields and woods, and beasts and birds, from what we +think. Suppose, now, that we had been old Jews in the temple, standing +before the holy house, and that we believed, as the Jews believed, that +there was only one thin wall and one curtain of linen between us and the +glory of the living God, that unspeakable brightness and majesty which no +one could look at for fear of instant death, except the high-priest in +fear and trembling once a-year—that inside that small holy house, He, God +Almighty, appeared visibly—God who made heaven and earth. Suppose we had +been there in the temple, and known all this, should we have liked to be +singing about beasts and birds, with God Himself close to us? We should +not have liked it—we should have been terrified, thinking perhaps about +our own sinfulness, perhaps about that wonderful majesty which dwelt +inside. We should have wished to say or sing something spiritual, as we +call it; at all events, something very different from the 104th psalm +about woods, and rivers, and dumb beasts. We do not like the thought of +such a thing: it seems almost irreverent, almost impertinent to God to be +talking of such things in His presence. Now does this shew us that we +think about this earth, and the things in it, in a very different way +from those old Jews? They thought it a fit and proper thing to talk +about corn and wine and oil, and cattle and fishes, in the presence of +Almighty God, and we do not think it fit and proper. We read this psalm +when it comes in the Church-service as a matter of course, mainly because +we do not believe that God is here among us. We should not be so ready +to read it if we thought that Almighty God was so near us. + +That is a great difference between us and the old Jews. Whether it shews +that we are better or not than they were in the main, I cannot tell; +perhaps some of them had such thoughts too, and said, ‘It is not +respectful to God to talk about such commonplace earthly things in His +presence;’ perhaps some of them thought themselves spiritual and +pure-minded for looking down on this psalm, and on David for writing it. +Very likely, for men have had such thoughts in all ages, and will have +them. But the man who wrote this psalm had no such thoughts. He said +himself, in this same psalm, that his words would please God. Nay, he is +not speaking and preaching _about_ God in this psalm, as I am now in my +sermon, but he is doing more; he is speaking _to_ God—a much more solemn +thing if you will think of it. He says, “O Lord my God, _Thou_ art +become exceeding glorious. Thou deckest Thyself with light as with a +garment. All the beasts wait on Thee; when Thou givest them meat they +gather it. Thou renewest the face of the earth.” When he turns and +speaks of God as “He,” saying, “He appointed the moon,” and so on, he +cannot help going back to God, and pouring out his wonder, and delight, +and awe, to God Himself, as we would sooner speak _to_ any one we love +and honour than merely speak _about_ them. He cannot take his mind off +God. And just at the last, when he does turn and speak to himself, it is +to say, “Praise thou the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord,” as if +rebuking and stirring up himself for being too cold-hearted and slow, for +not admiring and honouring enough the infinite wisdom, and power, and +love, and glorious majesty of God, which to him shines out in every +hedge-side bird and every blade of grass. Truly I said that man had a +very different way of looking at God’s earth from what we have! + +Now, in what did that difference lie? What was it? We need not look far +to see. It was this,—David looked on the earth as God’s earth; we look +on it as man’s earth, or nobody’s earth. We know that we are here, with +trees and grass, and beasts and birds, round us. And we know that we did +not put them here; and that, after we are dead and gone, they will go on +just as they went on before we were born,—each tree, and flower, and +animal, after its kind, but we know nothing more. The earth is here, and +we on it; but who put it there, and why it is there, and why we are on +it, instead of being anywhere else, few ever think. But to David the +earth looked very different; it had quite another meaning; it spoke to +him of God who made it. By seeing what this earth is like, he saw what +God who made it is like: and we see no such thing. The earth?—we can eat +the corn and cattle on it, we can earn money by farming it, and ploughing +and digging it; and that is all most men know about it. But David knew +something more—something which made him feel himself very weak, and yet +very safe; very ignorant and stupid, and yet honoured with glorious +knowledge from God,—something which made him feel that he belonged to +this world, and must not forget it or neglect it, that this earth was his +lesson-book—this earth was his work-field; and yet those same thoughts +which shewed him how he was made for the land round him, and the land +round him was made for him, shewed him also that he belonged to another +world—a spirit-world; shewed him that when this world passed away, he +should live for ever; shewed him that while he had a mortal body, he had +an immortal soul too; shewed him that though his home and business were +here on earth, yet that, for that very reason, his home and business were +in heaven, with God who made the earth, with that blessed One of whom he +said, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the +earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but +Thou shalt endure; they all shall fade as a garment, and like a vesture +shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, +and _Thy_ years shall not fail. The children of Thy servants shall +continue, and their seed shall stand fast in Thy sight.” “As a garment +shalt Thou change them,”—ay, there was David’s secret! He saw that this +earth and skies are God’s garment—the garment by which we see God; and +that is what our forefathers saw too, and just what we have forgotten; +but David had not forgotten it. Look at this very 104th psalm again, how +he refers every thing to God. We say, ‘The light shines:’ David says +something more; he says, “Thou, O God, adornest Thyself with light as +with a curtain.” Light is a picture of God. “God,” says St. John, “is +light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” We say, ‘The clouds fly and +the wind blows,’ as if they went of themselves; David says, “God makes +the clouds His chariot, and walks upon the wings of the wind.” We talk +of the rich airs of spring, of the flashing lightning of summer, as dead +things; and men who call themselves wise say, that lightning is only +matter,—‘We can grind the like of it out of glass and silk, and make +lightning for ourselves in a small way;’ and so they can in a small way, +and in a very small one: David does not deny that, but he puts us in mind +of something in that lightning and those breezes which we cannot make. +He says, God makes the winds His angels, and flaming fire his ministers; +and St. Paul takes the same text, and turns it round to suit his purpose, +when he is talking of the blessed angels, saying, ‘That text in the 104th +Psalm means something more; it means that God makes His angels spirits, +(that is winds) and His ministers a flaming fire.’ So shewing us that in +those breezes there are living spirits, that God’s angels guide those +thunder-clouds; that the roaring thunderclap is a shock in the air truly, +but that it is something more—that it is the voice of God, which shakes +the cedar-trees of Lebanon, and tears down the thick bushes, and makes +the wild deer slip their young. So we read in the psalms in church; that +is David’s account of the thunder. I take it for a true account; you may +or not as you like. See again. Those springs in the hill-sides, how do +they come there? ‘Rain-water soaking and flowing out,’ we say. True, +but David says something more; he says, God sends the springs, and He +sends them into the rivers too. You may say, ‘Why, water must run +down-hill, what need of God?’ But suppose God had chosen that water +should run _up_-hill and not down, how would it have been then?—Very +different, I think. No; He sends them; He sends all things. Wherever +there is any thing useful, His Spirit has settled it. The help that is +done on earth He doeth it all Himself.—Loving and merciful,—caring for +the poor dumb beasts!—He sends the springs, and David says, “All the +beasts of the field drink thereof.” The wild animals in the night, He +cares for them too,—He, the Almighty God. We hear the foxes bark by +night, and we think the fox is hungry, and there it ends with us; but not +with David: he says, “The lions roaring after their prey do seek their +meat from God,”—God, who feedeth the young ravens who call upon Him. He +is a God! “He did not make the world,” says a wise man, “and then let it +spin round His finger,” as we wind up a watch, and then leave it to go of +itself. No; “His mercy is over all His works.” Loving and merciful, the +God of nature is the God of grace. The same love which chose us and our +forefathers for His people while we were yet dead in trespasses and sins; +the same only-begotten Son, who came down on earth to die for us poor +wretches on the cross,—that same love, that same power, that same Word of +God, who made heaven and earth, looks after the poor gnats in the winter +time, that they may have a chance of coming out of the ground when the +day stirs the little life in them, and dance in the sunbeam for a short +hour of gay life, before they return to the dust whence they were made, +to feed creatures nobler and more precious than themselves. That is all +God’s doing, all the doing of Christ, the King of the earth. “They wait +on Him,” says David. The beasts, and birds, and insects, the strange +fish, and shells, and the nameless corals too, in the deep, deep sea, who +build and build below the water for years and thousands of years, every +little, tiny creature bringing his atom of lime to add to the great heap, +till their heap stands out of the water and becomes dry land; and seeds +float thither over the wide waste sea, and trees grow up, and birds are +driven thither by storms; and men come by accident in stray ships, and +build, and sow, and multiply, and raise churches, and worship the God of +heaven, and Christ, the blessed One,—on that new land which the little +coral worms have built up from the deep. Consider that. Who sent them +there? Who contrived that those particular men should light on that new +island at that especial time? Who guided thither those seeds—those +birds? Who gave those insects that strange longing and power to build +and build on continually?—Christ, by whom all things are made, to whom +all power is given in heaven and earth; He and His Spirit, and none else. +It is when _He_ opens His hand, they are filled with good. It is when +_He_ takes away their breath, they die, and turn again to their dust. +_He_ lets His breath, His spirit, go forth, and out of that dead dust +grow plants and herbs afresh for man and beast, and He renews the face of +the earth. For, says the wise man, “all things are God’s +garment”—outward and visible signs of His unseen and unapproachable +glory; and when they are worn out, He changes them, says the Psalmist, as +a garment, and they shall be changed. + + The old order changes, giving place to the new, + And God fulfils Himself in many ways. + +But He is the same. He is there all the time. All things are His work. +In all things we may see Him, if our souls have eyes. All things, be +they what they may, which live and grow on this earth, or happen on land +or in the sky, will tell us a tale of God,—shew forth some one feature, +at least, of our blessed Saviour’s countenance and character,—either His +foresight, or His wisdom, or His order, or His power, or His love, or His +condescension, or His long-suffering, or His slow, sure vengeance on +those who break His laws. It is all written there outside in the great +green book, which God has given to labouring men, and which neither taxes +nor tyrants can take from them. The man who is no scholar in letters may +read of God as he follows the plough, for the earth he ploughs is his +Father’s: there is God’s mark and seal on it,—His name, which though it +is written on the dust, yet neither man nor fiend can wipe it out! + +The poor, solitary, untaught boy, who keeps the sheep, or minds the +birds, long lonely days, far from his mother and his playmates, may keep +alive in him all purifying thoughts, if he will but open his eyes and +look at the green earth around him. + +Think now, my boys, when you are at your work, how all things may put you +in mind of God, if you do but choose. The trees which shelter you from +the wind, God planted them there for your sakes, in His love.—There is a +lesson about God. The birds which you drive off the corn, who gave them +the sense to keep together and profit by each other’s wit and keen +eyesight? Who but God, who feeds the young birds when they call on +Him?—There is another lesson about God. The sheep whom you follow, who +ordered the warm wool to grow on them, from which your clothes are made? +Who but the Spirit of God above, who clothes the grass of the field, the +silly sheep, and who clothes you, too, and thinks of you when you don’t +think of yourselves?—There is another lesson about God. The feeble lambs +in spring, they ought to remind you surely of your blessed Saviour, the +Lamb of God, who died for you upon the cruel cross, who was led as a lamb +to the slaughter; and like a sheep that lies dumb and patient under the +shearer’s hand, so he opened not his mouth. Are not these lambs, then, a +lesson from God? And these are but one or two examples out of thousands +and thousands. Oh, that I could make you, young and old, all feel these +things! Oh, that I could make you see God in every thing, and every +thing in God! Oh, that I could make you look on this earth, not as a +mere dull, dreary prison, and workhouse for your mortal bodies, but as a +living book, to speak to you at every time of the living God, Father, +Son, and Holy Ghost! Sure I am that that would be a heavenly life for +you,—sure I am that it would keep you from many a sin, and stir you up to +many a holy thought and deed, if you could learn to find in every thing +around you, however small or mean, the work of God’s hand, the likeness +of God’s countenance, the shadow of God’s glory. + + + + +SERMON II. +RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. + + + PSALM civ. 13–15. + + “He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with + the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, + and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of + the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to + make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.” + +DID you ever remark, my friends, that the Bible says hardly any thing +about religion—that it never praises religious people? This is very +curious. Would to God we would all remember it! The Bible speaks of a +religious man only once, and of religion only twice, except where it +speaks of the Jews’ religion to condemn it, and shews what an empty, +blind, useless thing it was. + +What does this Bible talk of, then? It talks of God; not of religion, +but of God. It tells us not to be religious, but to be godly. You may +think there is no difference, or that it is but a difference of words. I +tell you that a difference in words is a very awful, important +difference. A difference in words is a difference in things. Words are +very awful and wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and +wonderful of all beings, Jesus Christ, the Word. He puts words into +men’s minds—He made all things, and He makes all words to express those +things with. And woe to those who use the wrong words about things!—For +if a man calls any thing by its wrong name, it is a sure sign that he +understands that thing wrongly, or feels about it wrongly; and therefore +a man’s words are oftener honester than he thinks; for as a man’s words +are, so is a man’s heart; out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths +speak; and, therefore, by right words, by the right names which we call +things, we shall be justified, and by our words, by the wrong names we +call things, we shall be condemned. + +Therefore a difference in words is a difference in the things which those +words mean, and there is a difference between religion and godliness; and +we shew it by our words. Now these are religious times, but they are +very ungodly times; and we shew that also by our words. Because we think +that people ought to be religious, we talk a great deal about religion; +because we hardly think at all that a man ought to be godly, we talk very +little about God, and that good old Bible word “godliness” does not pass +our lips once a-month. For a man may be very religious, my friends, and +yet very ungodly. The heathens were very religious at the very time +that, as St. Paul tells us, they would not keep God in their knowledge. +The Jews were the most religious people on the earth, they hardly talked +or thought about anything but religion, at the very time that they knew +so little of God that they crucified Him when He came down among them. +St. Paul says that he was living after the strictest sect of the Jews’ +religion, at the very time that he was fighting against God, persecuting +God’s people and God’s Son, and dead in trespasses and sins. These are +ugly facts, my friends, but they are true, and well worth our laying to +heart in these religious, ungodly days. I am afraid if Jesus Christ came +down into England this day as a carpenter’s son, He would get—a better +hearing, perhaps, than the Jews gave him, but still a very bad +hearing—one dare hardly think of it. + +And yet I believe we ought to think of it, and, by God’s help, I will one +day preach you a sermon, asking you all round this fair question:—If +Jesus Christ came to you in the shape of a poor man, whom nobody knew, +should _you_ know him? should you admire him, fall at his feet and give +yourself up to him body and soul? I am afraid that I, for one, should +not—I am afraid that too many of us here would not. That comes of +thinking more of religion than we do of godliness—in plain words, more of +our own souls than we do of Jesus Christ. But you will want to know what +is, after all, the difference between religion and godliness? Just the +difference, my friends, that there is between always thinking of self and +always forgetting self—between the terror of a slave and the affection of +a child—between the fear of hell and the love of God. For, tell me, what +you mean by being religious? Do you not mean thinking a great deal about +your own souls, and praying and reading about your own souls, and trying +by all possible means to get your own souls saved? Is not that the +meaning of religion? And yet I have never mentioned God’s name in +describing it! This sort of religion must have very little to do with +God. You may be surprised at my words, and say in your hearts almost +angrily, ‘Why who saves our souls but God? therefore religion must have +to do with God.’ But, my friends, for your souls’ sake, and for God’s +sake, ask yourselves this question on your knees this day:—If you could +get your souls saved without God’s help, would it make much difference to +you? Suppose an angel from heaven, as they say, was to come down and +prove to you clearly that there was no God, no blessed Jesus in heaven, +that the world made itself, and went on of itself, and that the Bible was +all a mistake, but that you need not mind, for your gardens and crops +would grow just as well, and your souls be saved just as well when you +died. + +To how many of you would it make any difference? To some of you, thank +God, I believe it would make a difference. Here are some here, I +believe, who would feel that news the worst news they ever heard,—worse +than if they were told that their souls were lost for ever; there are +some here, I do believe, who, at that news, would cry aloud in agony, +like little children who had lost their father, and say, ‘No Father in +heaven to love? No blessed Jesus in heaven to work for, and die for, and +glory and delight in? No God to rule and manage this poor, miserable, +quarrelsome world, bringing good out of evil, blessing and guiding all +things and people on earth? What do I care what becomes of my soul if +there is no God for my soul to glory in? What is heaven worth without +God? God is Heaven!’ + +Yes, indeed, what would heaven be worth without God? But how many people +feel that the curse of this day is, that most people have forgotten +_that_? They are selfishly anxious enough about their own souls, but +they have forgotten God. They are religious, for fear of hell; but they +are not godly, for they do not love God, or see God’s hand in every +thing. They forget that they have a Father in heaven; that He sends +rain, and sunshine, and fruitful seasons; that He gives them all things +richly to enjoy in spite of all their sins. His mercies are far above, +out of their sight, and therefore His judgments are far away out of their +sight too; and so they talk of the “Visitation of God,” as if it was +something that was very extraordinary, and happened very seldom; and when +it came, only brought evil, harm, and sorrow. If a man lives on in +health, they say he lives by the strength of his own constitution; if he +drops down dead, they say he died by “the visitation of God.” If the +corn-crops go on all right and safe, they think _that_ quite natural—the +effect of the soil, and the weather, and their own skill in farming and +gardening. But if there comes a hailstorm or a blight, and spoils it +all, and brings on a famine, they call it at once “a visitation of God.” +My friends! do you think God “visits” the earth or you only to harm you? +I tell you that every blade of grass grows by “the visitation of God.” I +tell you that every healthy breath you ever drew, every cheerful hour you +ever spent, every good crop you ever housed safely, came to you by “the +visitation of God.” I tell you that every sensible thought or plan that +ever came into your heads,—every loving, honest, manly, womanly feeling +that ever rose in your hearts, God “visited” you to put it there. If +God’s Spirit had not given it you, you would never have got it of +yourselves. + +But people forget this, and therefore they have so little real love to +God—so little real, loyal, childlike trust in God. They do not think +much about God, because they find no pleasure in thinking about Him; they +look on God as a task-master, gathering where He has not strewed, reaping +where He has not sown,—a task-master who has put them, very miserable, +sinful creatures, to struggle on in a very miserable, sinful world, and, +though He tells them in His Bible that they _cannot_ keep His +commandments, expects them to keep them just the same, and will at the +last send them all into everlasting fire, unless they take a great deal +of care, and give up a great many natural and pleasant things, and +beseech and entreat Him very hard to excuse them, after all. This is the +thought which most people have of God, even religious people; they look +on God as a stern tyrant, who, when man sinned and fell, could not +satisfy His own justice—His own vengeance in plain words, without killing +some one, and who would have certainly killed all mankind, if Jesus +Christ had not interfered, and said, “If Thou must slay some one, slay +me, though I am innocent!” + +Oh, my friends, does not this all sound horrible and irreverent? And yet +if you will but look into your own hearts, will you not find some such +thoughts there? I am sure you will. I believe every man finds such +thoughts in his heart now and then. I find them in my own heart: I know +that they must be in the hearts of others, because I see them producing +their natural fruits in people’s actions—a selfish, slavish view of +religion, with little or no real love to God, or real trust in Him; but a +great deal of uneasy dread of Him: for this is just the dark, false view +of God, and of the good news of salvation and the kingdom of heaven, +which the devil is always trying to make men take. The Evil One tries to +make us forget that God is love; he tries to make us forget that God +gives us all things richly to enjoy; he tries to make us forget that God +gives at all, and to make us think that we take, not that He gives; to +make us look at God as a task-master, not as a father; in one word, to +make us mistake the devil for God, and God for the devil. + +And, therefore, it is that we ought to bless God for such Scriptures as +this 104th Psalm, which He seems to have preserved in the Bible just to +contradict these dark, slavish notions,—just to testify that God is a +_giver_, and knows our necessities before we ask and gives us all things, +even as He gave us His Blessed Son—freely, long before we wanted +them,—from the foundation of all things, before ever the earth and the +world was made—from all eternity, perpetual love, perpetual bounty. + +What does this text teach us? To look at God as Him who gives to all +freely and upbraideth not. It says to us,—Do not suppose that your crops +grow of themselves. God waters the hills from above. He causes the +grass to grow for the cattle, and the green herb for the service of man. +Do not suppose that He cares nothing about seeing you comfortable and +happy. It is He, He only who sends all which strengthens man’s body, and +makes glad his heart, and makes him of a cheerful countenance. His will +is that you should be cheerful. Ah, my friends, if we would but believe +all this!—we are too apt to say to ourselves, ‘Our earthly comforts here +have nothing to do with godliness or God, God must save our souls, but +our bodies we must save ourselves. God gives us spiritual blessings, but +earthly blessings, the good things of this life, for them we must +scramble and drudge ourselves, and get as much of them as we can without +offending God;’—as if God grudged us our comforts! as if godliness had +not the promise of this life as well as the life to come! If we would +but believe that God knows our necessities before we ask—that He gives us +daily more than we can ever get by working for it!—if we would but seek +first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things would be +added to us; and we should find that he who loses his life should save +it. And this way of looking at God’s earth would not make us idle; it +would not tempt us to sit with folded hands for God’s blessings to drop +into our mouths. No! I believe it would make men far more industrious +than ever mere self-interest can make them; they would say, ‘God is our +Father, He gave us His own Son, He gives us all things freely, we owe Him +not slavish service, but a boundless debt of cheerful gratitude. +Therefore we must do His will, and we are sure His will must be our +happiness and comfort—therefore we must do His will, and His will is that +we should _work_, and therefore we _must_ work. He has bidden us labour +on this earth—He has bidden us dress it and keep it, conquer it and fill +it for Him. We are His stewards here on earth, and therefore it is a +glory and an honour to be allowed to work here in God’s own land—in our +loving Father’s own garden. We do not know why He wishes us to labour +and till the ground, for He could have fed us with manna from heaven if +He liked, as He fed the Jews of old, without our working at all. But His +will is that we should work; and work we will, not for our own sakes +merely, but for His sake, because we know He likes it, and for the sake +of our brothers, our countrymen, for whom Christ died.’ + +Oh, my friends, why is it that so many till the ground industriously, and +yet grow poorer and poorer for all their drudging and working? It is +their own fault. They till the ground for their own sakes, and not for +God’s sake and for their countrymen’s sake; and so, as the Prophet says, +they sow much and bring in little, and he who earns wages earns them to +put in a bag full of holes. Suppose you try the opposite plan. Suppose +you say to yourself, ‘I will work henceforward because God wishes me to +work. I will work henceforward for my country’s sake, because I feel +that God has given me a noble and a holy calling when He set me to grow +food for His children, the people of England. As for my wages and my +profit, God will take care of them if they are just; and if they are +unjust, He will take care of them too. He, at all events, makes the +garden and the field grow, and not I. My land is filled, not with the +fruit of my work, but with the fruit of His work. He will see that I +lose nothing by my labour. If I till the soil for God and for God’s +children, I may trust God to pay me my wages.’ Oh, my friends, He who +feeds the young birds when they call upon Him; and far, far more, He who +gave you His only-begotten Son, will He not with Him freely give you all +things? For, after all done, He must give to you, or you will not get. +You may fret and stint, and scrape and puzzle; one man may sow, and +another man may water; but, after all, who can give the increase but God? +Can you make a load of hay, unless He has first grown it for you, and +then dried it for you? If you would but think a little more about Him, +if you would believe that your crops were His gifts, and in your hearts +offer them up to Him as thank-offerings, see if He would not help you to +sell your crops as well as to house them. He would put you in the way of +an honest profit for your labour, just as surely as He only put you in +the way of labouring at all. “Trust in the Lord, and be doing good; +dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed;” for “without me,” says +our Lord, “you can do nothing.” No: these are His own words—nothing. To +Him all power is given in heaven and earth; He knows every root and every +leaf, and feeds it. Will He not much more feed you, oh ye of little +faith? Do you think that He has made His world so ill that a man cannot +get on in it unless he is a rogue? No. Cast all your care on Him, and +see if you do not find out ere long that He cares for you, and has cared +for you from all eternity. + + + + +SERMON III. +LIFE AND DEATH. + + + PSALM civ. 24, 28–30. + + “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them + all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they + gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou + hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, + they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, + they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth.” + +I HAD intended to go through this psalm with you in regular order; but +things have happened this parish, awful and sad, during the last week, +which I was bound not to let slip without trying to bring them home to +your hearts, if by any means I could persuade the thoughtless ones among +you to be wise and consider your latter end:—I mean the sad deaths of +various of our acquaintances. The death-bell has been tolled in this +parish three times, I believe, in one day—a thing which has seldom +happened before, and which God grant may never happen again. Within two +miles of this church there are now five lying dead. Five human beings, +young as well as old, to whom the awful words of the text have been +fulfilled: “Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their +dust.” And the very day on which three of these deaths happened was +Ascension-day—the day on which Jesus, the Lord of life, the Conqueror of +death, ascended upon high, having led captivity captive, and became the +first-fruits of the grave, to send down from the heaven of eternal life +the Spirit who is the Giver of life. That was a strange mixture, death +seemingly triumphant over Christ’s people on the very day on which life +triumphed in Jesus Christ Himself. Let us see, though, whether death has +not something to do with Ascension-day. Let us see whether a sermon +about death is not a fit sermon for the Sunday after Ascension-day. Let +us see whether the text has not a message about life and death too—a +message which may make us feel that in the midst of life we are in death, +and that yet in the midst of death we are in life; that however things +may _seem_, yet death has not conquered life, but life has conquered and +_will_ conquer death, and conquer it most completely at the very moment +that we die, and our bodies return to their dust. + +Do I speak riddles? I think the text will explain my riddles, for it +tells us how life comes, how death comes. Life comes from God: He sends +forth His spirit, and things are made, and He renews the face of the +earth. We read in the very two verses of the book of Genesis how the +Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters the creation, and woke +all things into life. Therefore the Creed well calls the Holy Ghost, the +Spirit of God, that is—the Lord and Giver of life. And the text tells us +that He gives life, not only to us who have immortal souls, but to every +thing on the face of the earth; for the psalm has been talking all +through, not only of men, but of beasts, fishes, trees, and rivers, and +rocks, sun and moon. Now, all these things have a life in them. Not a +life like ours; but still you speak rightly and wisely when you say, +‘That tree is alive, and, That tree is dead. That running water is live +water—it is sweet and fresh, but if it is kept standing it begins to +putrefy, its life is gone from it, and a sort of death comes over it, and +makes it foul, and unwholesome, and unfit to drink.’ This is a deep +matter, this, how there is a sort of life in every thing, even to the +stones under our feet. I do not mean, of course, that stones can think +as our life makes us do, or feel as the beasts’ life makes them do, or +even grow as the trees’ life makes them do; but I mean that their life +keeps them as they are, without changing or decaying. You hear miners +and quarrymen talk very truly of the live rock. That stone, they say, +was cut out of the live rock, meaning the rock as it is under ground, +sound and hard—as it would be, for aught we know, to the end of time, +unless it was taken out of the ground, out of the place where God’s +Spirit meant it to be, and brought up to the open air and the rain, in +which it is not its nature to be. And then you will see that the life of +the stone begins to pass from it bit by bit, that it crumbles and peels +away, and, in short, decays and is turned again to its dust. Its +organisation, as it is called, or life, ends, and then—what? does the +stone lie for ever useless? No! And there is the great blessed mystery +of how God’s Spirit is always bringing life out of death. When the stone +is decayed and crumbled down to dust and clay, it makes _soil_—this very +soil here, which you plough, is the decayed ruins of ancient hills; the +clay which you dig up in the fields was once part of some slate or +granite mountains, which were worn away by weather and water, that they +might become fruitful earth. Wonderful! but any one who has studied +these things can tell you they are true. Any one who has ever lived in +mountainous countries ought to have seen the thing happen, ought to know +that the land in the mountain valleys is made at first, and kept rich +year by year, by the washings from the hills above; and this is the +reason why land left dry by rivers and by the sea is generally so rich. +Then what becomes of the soil? It begins a new life. The roots of the +plants take it up; the salts which they find in it—the staple, as we call +them—go to make leaves and seed; the very sand has its use, it feeds the +stalks of corn and grass, and makes them stiff. The corn-stalks would +never stand upright if they could not get sand from the soil. So what a +thousand years ago made part of a mountain, now makes part of a +wheat-plant; and in a year more the wheat grain will have been eaten, and +the wheat straw perhaps eaten too, and they will have _died_—decayed in +the bodies of the animals who have eaten them, and then they will begin a +third new life—they will be turned into parts of the animal’s body—of a +man’s body. So that what is now your bone and flesh, may have been once +a rock on some hillside a hundred miles away. + +Strange, but true! all learned men know that it is true. You, if you +think over my words, may see that they are at least reasonable. But +still most wonderful! This world works right well, surely. It obeys +God’s Spirit. Oh, my friends, if we fulfilled our life and our duty as +well as the clay which we tread on does,—if we obeyed God’s Spirit as +surely as the flint does, we should have many a heartache spared us, and +many a headache too! To be what God wants us!—to be _men_, to be +_women_, and therefore to live as children of God, members of Christ, +fulfilling our duty in that state to which God has called us, that would +be our bliss and glory. Nothing can live in a state in which God did not +intend it to live. Suppose a tree could move itself about like an +animal, and chose to do so, the tree would wither and die; it would be +trying to act contrary to the law which God has given it. Suppose the ox +chose to eat meat like the lion, it would fall sick and die; for it would +be acting contrary to the law which God’s Spirit had made for it—going +out of the calling to which God’s Word has called it, to eat grass and +not flesh, and live thereby. And so with us: if we will do wickedly, +when the will of God, as the Scripture tells us, is our sanctification, +our holiness; if we will speak lies, when God’s law for us is that we +should speak truth; if we will bear hatred and ill-will, when God’s law +for us is, Love as brothers,—you all sprang from one father, Adam,—you +were all redeemed by one brother, Jesus Christ; if we will try to live as +if there was no God, when God’s law for us is, that a man can live like a +man only by faith and trust in God;—then we shall _die_, if we break +God’s laws according to which he intended man to live. Thus it was with +Adam; God intended him to obey God, to learn every thing from God. He +chose to disobey God, to try and know something of himself, by getting +the knowledge of good and evil; and so death passed on him. He became an +unnatural man, a _bad_ man, more or less, and so he became a dead man; +and death came into the world, that time at least, by sin, by breaking +the law by which man was meant to be a man. As the beasts will die if +you give them unnatural food, or in any way prevent their following the +laws which God has made for them, so man dies, of necessity. All the +world cannot help his dying, because he breaks the laws which God has +made for him. + +And how does he die? The text tells us, God takes away his breath, and +turns His face from him. In His presence, it is written, is life. The +moment He withdraws his Spirit, the Spirit of life, from any thing, body +or soul, then it dies. It was by _sin_ came death—by man’s becoming +unfit for the Spirit of God. + +Therefore the body is dead because of sin, says St. Paul, doomed to die, +carrying about in it the seeds of death from the very moment it is born. +Death has truly passed upon all men! + +Most sad; and yet there is hope, and more than hope, there is certain +assurance, for us, that though we die, yet shall we live! I have shewn +you, in the beginning of my sermon, how nothing that dies perishes to +nothing, but begins a new and a higher life. How the stone becomes a +plant,—something better and more useful than it was before; the plant +passes into an animal—a step higher still. And, therefore, we may be +sure that the same rule will hold good about us men and women, that when +we die, we shall begin a new and a nobler life, that is, if we have been +true _men_; if we have lived fulfilling the law of our kind. St. Paul +tells us so positively. He says that nothing comes to life except it +first die, then God gives it a new body. He says that even so is the +resurrection of the dead,—that we gain a step by dying; that we are sown +in corruption, and are raised in incorruption; we are sown in dishonour, +and are raised in glory; we are sown in weakness, and are raised in +power; we are sown a natural body, and are raised a spiritual body; that +as we now are of the earth earthy, after death and the resurrection our +new and nobler body will be of the heavens heavenly; so that “when this +corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have +put on immortality, then death shall be swallowed up in victory.” +Therefore, I say, Sorrow not for those who sleep as if you had no hope +for the dead; for “Christ is risen from the dead, and become the +first-fruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all die, even so in +Christ shall all be made alive.” + +And I say that this has to do with the text—it has to do with +Ascension-day. For if we claim our share in Christ,—if we claim our +share of our heavenly Father’s promise, “to give the Holy Spirit to those +who ask Him;” then we may certainly hope for our share in Christ’s +resurrection, our share in Christ’s ascension. For, says St. Paul (Rom. +viii. 10, 11), “if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but +the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him +who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ +from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that +dwelleth in you!” There is a blessed promise! that in that, as in every +thing, we shall be made like Christ our Master, the new Adam, who is a +life-giving Spirit, that as He was brought to life again by the Spirit of +God, so we shall be. And so will be fulfilled in us the glorious rule +which the text lays down, “Thou, O God, sendest forth Thy Spirit, and +they are created, and Thou dost renew the face of the earth.” +Fulfilled?—yes, but far more gloriously than ever the old Psalmist +expected. Read the Revelations of St. John, chapters xxi. and xxii. for +the glory of the renewed earth read the first Epistle of Paul to the +Thessalonians, chap. iv. 16–18, for the glorious resurrection and +ascension of those who have died trusting in the blessed Lord, who died +for them; and then see what a glorious future lies before us—see how +death is but the gate of life—see how what holds true of every thing on +this earth, down to the flint beneath our feet, holds true ten thousand +times of men that to die and to decay is only to pass into a nobler state +of life. But remember, that just as we are better than the stone, we may +be also worse than the stone. It cannot disobey God’s laws, therefore it +can enjoy no reward, any more than suffer any punishment. We can +disobey—we can fall from our calling—we can cast God’s law behind us—we +can refuse to do His will, to work out our own salvation; and just +because our reward in the life to come will be so glorious, if we fulfil +our life and law, the life of faith and the law of love, therefore will +our punishment be so horrible, if we neglect the life of faith and +trample under foot the law of love. Oh, my friends, choose! Death is +before you all. Shall it be the gate of everlasting life and glory, or +the gate of everlasting death and misery? Will you claim your glorious +inheritance, and be for ever equal to the angels, doing God’s will on +earth as they in heaven; or will you fall lower than the stones, who, at +all events, must do their duty as stones, and not _do_ God’s will at all, +but only _suffer_ it in eternal woe? You must do one or the other. You +cannot be like the stones, without feeling—without joy or sorrow, just +because you are immortal spirits, every one of you. You must be either +happy or miserable, blessed or disgraced, for ever. I know of no middle +path;—do you? Choose before the night comes, in which no man can work. +Our life is but a vapour which appears for a little time, then vanishes +away. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them +all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they gather: +Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy +face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and +return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: +and Thou renewest the face of the earth.” + + + + +SERMON IV. +THE WORK OF GOD’S SPIRIT. + + + JAMES, i. 16, 17. + + “Do not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every perfect + gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” + +THIS text, I believe more and more every day, is one of the most +important ones in the whole Bible; and just at this time it is more +important for us than ever, because people have forgotten it more than +ever. + +And, according as you firmly believe this text, according as you firmly +believe that every good gift you have in body and soul comes down from +above, from God the Father of lights—according, I say, as you believe +this, and live upon that belief, just so far will you be able to do your +duty to God and man, worthily of your blessed Saviour’s calling and +redemption, and of the high honour which He has given you of being free +and christened men, redeemed by His most precious blood, and led by His +most noble Spirit. + +Now, just because this text is so important, the devil is particularly +busy in trying to make people forget it. For what is his plan? Is it +not to make us forget God, to put God _out_ of all our thoughts, to make +us acknowledge God in none of our ways, to make us look at ourselves and +not at God, that so we may become first earthly and sensual, and then +devilish, like Satan himself? Therefore he tries to make us disbelieve +this text. He puts into our hearts such thoughts as these:—‘Ay, all good +gifts may come from God; but that only means all spiritual gifts. All +those fine, deep doctrines and wonderful feelings that some very +religious people talk of, about conversion, and regeneration, and +sanctification, and assurance, and the witness of the indwelling +Spirit,—all those gifts come from God, no doubt, but they are quite above +us. We are straightforward, simple people, who cannot feel fine fancies; +if we can be honest, and industrious, and good-natured, and sober, and +strong, and healthy, that is enough for us,—and all that has nothing to +do with religion. Those are not gifts which come from God. A man is +strong and healthy by birth, and honest and good-natured by nature. +Those are very good things; but they are not gifts—they are not +_graces_—they are not _spiritual_ blessings—they have nothing to do with +the state of a man’s soul. Ungodly people are honest, and good-tempered, +and industrious, and healthy, as well as your saints and your methodists; +so what is the use of praying for spiritual gifts to God, when we can +have all we want by nature?’ + +Did such thoughts never come into your head, my friends? Are they not +often in your heads, more or less? Perhaps not in these very words, but +something like them. + +I do not say it to blame you, for I believe that every man, each +according to his station, is tempted to such thoughts; I believe that +such thoughts are not _yours_ or any man’s; I believe they are the +devil’s, who tempts all men, who tempted even the Son of God Himself with +thoughts like these at their root. Such thoughts are not _yours_ or +mine, though they may come into our heads. They are part of the evil +which besets us—which is _not_ us—which has no right or share in us—which +we pray God to drive away from us when we say, “Deliver us from evil.” +Have you not all had such thoughts? But have you not all had very +different thoughts? have you not, every one of you, at times, felt in the +bottom of your hearts, after all, ‘This strength and industry, this +courage, and honesty, and good-nature of mine, must come from God; I did +not get them myself? If I was born honest, and strong, and gentle, and +brave, some one must have made me so when I was born, or before? The +devil certainly did not make me so, therefore _God_ must? These, too, +are His gifts?’ + +Did you ever think such thoughts as these? If you did not, not much +matter, for you have all acted, more or less, in your better moments as +if you had them. There are more things in a man’s heart, thank God, than +ever come into his head. Many a man does a noble thing by instinct, as +we say, without ever _thinking_ whether it is a noble thing or +not—without _thinking_ about it at all. Many a man, thank God, is led at +times, by God’s Spirit, without ever knowing whose Spirit it is that +leads him. + +But he _ought_ to know it, for it is _willing_, _reasonable_ service +which God wants of us. He does not care to use us like tools and +puppets. And why? He is not merely our Maker, He is our Father, and He +wishes us to know and feel that we are His children—to know and feel that +we all have come from Him; to acknowledge Him in all our ways, to thank +Him for all, to look up lovingly and confidently to Him for more, as His +reasonable children, day by day, and hour by hour. Every good gift we +have comes from Him; but He will have us know where they all come from. + +Let us go through now a few of these good gifts, which we call natural, +and see what the Bible says of them, and from whom they come. + +First, now, that common gift of strength and courage. Who gives you +that?—who gave it David? For He that gives it to one is most likely to +be He that gives it to another. David says to God, “Thou teachest my +hands to war, and my fingers to fight; by the help of God I can leap over +a wall: He makes me strong, that my arms can break even a bow of +steel:”—that is plain-spoken enough, I think. Who gave Samson his +strength, again? What says the Bible? How Samson met a young lion which +roared against him, and he had nothing in his hand, and the Spirit of the +Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a +kid. And, again, how when traitors had bound him with two new cords, the +Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords which were on +his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and fell from off his +hands. And, for God’s sake, do not give in to that miserable fancy that +because these stories are what you call miraculous, therefore they have +nothing to do with you—that Samson’s strength came to him miraculously by +God’s Spirit, and yet yours comes to you a different way. The Bible is +written to tell you how all that happens really happens—what all things +really are; God is working among us always, but we do not see Him; and +the Bible just lifts up, once and for all, the veil which hides Him from +us, and lets us see, in one instance, who it is that does all the +wonderful things which go on round us to this day, that when we see any +thing like it happen we may know whom to thank for it. + +The Great Physician healed the blind and the lame in Judea; and why?—to +shew us who heals the blind and the lame now—to shew us that the good +gift of medicine and surgery, and the physician’s art, comes down from +Him who cured the paralytic and cleansed the lepers in Judea—to whom all +power is given in heaven and earth. + +So, again, with skill in farming and agriculture. From whom does that +come? The very heathens can tell us that, for it is curious, that among +the heathen, in all ages and countries, those men who have found out +great improvements in tilling the ground have been honoured and often +worshipped as divine men—as gods, thereby shewing that the heathen, among +all their idolatries, had a true and just notion about man’s practical +skill and knowledge—that it could only come from Heaven, that it was by +the inspiration and guidance of God above that skill in agriculture +arose. What says Isaiah of that to the very same purpose? “Doth the +ploughman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his +ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast +abroad the vetches, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed +barley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to +discretion, and doth teach him. This also,” says Isaiah, “cometh from +the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in +working.” Would to God you would all believe it! + +Again; wisdom and prudence, and a clear, powerful mind,—are not they +parts of God’s likeness? How is God’s Spirit described in Scripture? It +is called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of prudence +and might. Therefore, surely, all wisdom and understanding, all prudence +and strength of mind, are, like that Spirit, part of God’s image; and +where did we get God’s image? Can we make ourselves like God? If we are +like him, He must have formed that likeness; and He alone. The Spirit of +God, says the Scripture, giveth us understanding. + +Or, again; good-nature and affection, love, generosity, pity,—whose +likeness are they? What is God’s name but love? God is love. Has not +He revealed Himself as the God of mercy, full of long-suffering, +compassion, and free forgiveness; and must not, then, all love and +affection, all compassion and generosity, be His gift? Yes. As the rays +come from the sun, and yet are not the sun, even so our love and pity, +though they are not God, but merely a poor, weak image and reflection of +Him, yet from Him alone they come. If there is mercy in our hearts, it +comes from the fountain of mercy. If there is the light of love in us, +it is a ray from the full sun of His love. + +Or honesty, again, and justice,—whose image are they but God’s? Is He +not THE Just One—the righteous God? Is not what is just for man just for +God? Are not the laws of justice and honesty, by which man deals fairly +with man, _His_ laws—the laws by which God deals with us? Does not every +book—I had almost said every page—in the Bible shew us that all our +justice is but the pattern and copy of God’s justice,—the working out of +those six latter commandments of His, which are summed up in that one +command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself?” + +Now here, again, I ask: If justice and honesty be God’s likeness, who +made us like God in this—who put into us this sense of justice which all +have, though so few obey it? Can man make himself like God? Can a worm +ape his Maker? No. From God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Right, came this +inborn feeling of justice, this knowledge of right and wrong, to us—part +of the image of God in which He created man—part of the breath or spirit +of life which He breathed into Adam. Do not mistake me. I do not say +that the sense, and honesty, and love in us, _are_ God’s Spirit—they are +the spirit of _man_, but that they are _like_ God’s Spirit, and therefore +they must be given us _by_ God’s Spirit to be used as God’s Spirit +Himself uses them. How a man shall have his share of God’s Spirit, and +live in and by God’s Spirit, is another question, and a higher and more +blessed one; but we must master this question first—we must believe that +our spirits come _from_ God, then, perhaps, we shall begin to see that +our spirits never can work well unless they are joined to the Spirit of +God, from whom they came. From whom else, I ask again, can they come? +Can they come from our bodies? Our bodies? What are they?—Flesh and +bones, made up of air and water and earth,—out of the dead bodies of the +animals, the dead roots and fruits of plants which we eat. They are +earth—matter. Can _matter_ be courageous? Did you ever hear of a +good-natured plant, or an honest stone? Then this good-nature, and +honesty, and courage of ours, must belong to our souls—our spirits. Who +put them there? Did we? Does a child make its own character? Does its +body make its character first? Can its father and mother make its +character? No. Our characters must come from some spirit above +us—either from God or from the devil. And is the devil likely to make us +honest, or brave, or kindly? I leave you to answer that. God—God alone, +my friends, is the author of good—the help that is done on earth, He +doeth it all Himself: every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from +Him. + +Now some of you may think this a strange sort of sermon, because I have +said little or nothing about Jesus Christ and His redemption in it, but I +say—No. + +You must believe this much about yourselves before you can believe more. +You must fairly and really believe that _God_ made you one thing before +you can believe that you have made yourselves another thing. You must +really believe that you are not mere machines and animals, but immortal +souls, before you can really believe that you have sinned; for animals +cannot sin—only reasonable souls can sin. We must really believe that +God made us at bottom in His likeness, before we can begin to find out +that there is another likeness in us besides God’s—a selfish, brutish, +too often a devilish likeness, which must be repented of, and fought +against, and cast out, that God’s likeness in us may get the upper hand, +and we may be what God expects us to be. We must know our dignity before +we can feel our shame. We must see how high we have a right to stand, +that we may see how low, alas! we have fallen. + +Now you—I know many such here, thank God—to whom God has given clear, +powerful heads for business, and honest, kindly hearts, I do beseech +you—consider my words, Who has given you these but God? They are talents +which He has committed to your charge; and will He not require an account +of them? _He_ only, and His free mercy, has made you to differ from +others; if you are better than the fools and profligates round you, He, +and not yourselves, has made you better. What have you that you have not +received? By the grace of God alone you are what you are. If good comes +easier to you than to others, _He_ alone has made it easier to you; and +if you have done wrong,—if you have fallen short of your duty, as _all_ +fall short, is not your sin greater than others? for unto whom much is +given of them shall much be required. Consider that, for God’s sake, and +see if you, too, have not something to be ashamed of, between yourselves +and God. See if you, too, have not need of Jesus Christ and His precious +blood, and God’s free forgiveness, who have had so much light and power +given you, and still have fallen short of what you might have been, and +what, by God’s grace, you still may be, and, as I hope and earnestly +pray, still will be. + +And you, young men and women—consider;—if God has given you manly courage +and high spirits, and strength and beauty—think—_God_, your Father, has +given them to you, and of them He will surely require an account; +therefore, “Rejoice, young people,” says Solomon, “in your youth, and let +your hearts cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of +your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But remember,” continues the +wisest of men,—“remember, that for all these things God shall bring you +into judgment.” Now do not misunderstand that. It does not mean that +there is a sin in being happy. It does not mean, that if God has given +to a young man a bold spirit and powerful limbs, or to a young woman a +handsome face and a merry, loving heart, that He will punish them for +these—God forbid! what He gives He means to be used: but this it means, +that according as you use those blessings so will you be judged at the +last day; that for them, too, you will be brought to judgment, and tried +at the bar of God. As you have used them for industry, and innocent +happiness, and holy married love, or for riot and quarrelling, and +idleness, and vanity, and filthy lusts, so shall you be judged. And if +any of you have sinned in any of these ways,—God forbid that you should +have sinned in _all_ these ways; but surely, surely, some of you have +been idle—some of you have been riotous—some of you have been vain—some +of you have been quarrelsome—some of you, alas! have been that which I +shall not name here.—Think, if you have sinned in any one of these ways, +how can you answer it to God? Have you no need of forgiveness? Have you +no need of the blessed Saviour’s blood to wash you clean? Young people! +God has given you much. As a young man, I speak to you. Youth is an +inestimable blessing or an inestimable curse, according as you use it; +and if you have abused your spring-time of youth, as all, I am afraid, +have—as I have—as almost all do, alas! in this fallen world, where can +you get forgiveness but from Him that died on the cross to take away the +sins of the world? + + + + +SERMON V. +FAITH. + + + HABAKKUK, ii. 4. + + “The just shall live by faith.” + +THIS is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which, +though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant +for every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to +check him for his impatience under God’s hand; but they are just as true +for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They +are world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and +strength, and safety, stand either in men or angels, for it always was +true, and always must be true, that if reasonable beings are to live at +all, it is by faith. + +And why? Because every thing that is, heaven and earth, men and angels, +are all the work of God—of one God, infinite, almighty, all-wise, +all-loving, unutterably glorious. My friends, we do not think enough of +this,—not that all the thinking in the world can ever make us comprehend +the majesty of our Heavenly Father; but we do not remember enough what we +_do_ know of God. We think of God, watching the world and all things in +it, and keeping them in order as a shepherd does his sheep, and so far so +good; but we forget that God does more than this,—we forget that this +earth, sun, and moon, and all the thousand thousand stars which cover the +midnight sky,—many of them suns larger than the sun we see, and worlds +larger than the world on which we stand, that all these, stretching away +millions of millions of miles into boundless space,—all are lying, like +one little grain of dust, in the hollow of God’s hand, and that if He +were to shut His hand upon them, He could crush them into nothing, and +God would be alone in the universe again, as He was before heaven and +earth were made. Think of that!—that if God was but to will it, we, and +this earth on which we stand, and the heaven above us, and the sun that +shines on us, should vanish away, and be no-where and no-thing. Think of +the infinite power of God, and then think how is it possible to _live_, +except by faith in Him, by trusting to Him utterly. + +If you accustom yourselves to think in the same way of the infinite +wisdom of God, and the infinite love of God, they will both teach you the +same lesson; they will shew you that if you were the greatest, the +wisest, the holiest man that ever lived, you would still be such a speck +by the side of the Almighty and Everlasting God that it would be madness +to depend upon yourselves for any thing while you lived in God’s world. +For, after all, what _can_ we do without God? _In_ Him we live, and +move, and have our being. He made us, He gave us our bodies, gave us our +life; what we do _He_ lets us do, what we say He lets us say; we all live +on sufferance. What is it but God’s infinite mercy that ever brought us +here or keeps us here an instant? We may pretend to act without God’s +leave or help, but it is impossible for us to do so; the strength we put +forth, the wit we use, are all His gifts. We cannot draw a breath of air +without His leave. And yet men fancy they can do without God in the +world! My friends, these are but few words, and poor words, about the +glorious majesty of God and our littleness when compared with Him; but I +have said quite enough, at least, to shew you all how absurd it is to +depend upon ourselves for any thing. If we are mere creatures of God, if +God alone has every blessing both of this world and the next, and the +will to give them away, whom _are_ we to go to but to Him for all we +want? It is so in the life of our bodies, and it is so in the life of +our spirits. If we wish for God’s blessings, from God we must ask them. +That is our duty, even though God in His mercy and long-suffering does +pour down many a blessing upon men who never trust in Him for them. To +us all, indeed, God gives blessings before we are old enough to trust in +Him for them, and to many He continues those blessings in after-life in +spite of their blindness and want of faith. “He maketh His sun to shine +on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the +unjust.” He gives—gives—it is His glory to give. Yet strange! that men +will go on year after year, using the limbs, and eating the food, which +God gives them, without ever believing so much as that God _has_ given +them, without so much as looking up to heaven once and saying, “God, I +thank Thee!” But we must remember that those blessings will not last for +ever. Unless a man has lived by faith in God with regard to his earthly +comforts, death will come and put an end to them at once; and then it is +only those who have trusted in God for all good things, and thanked Him +accordingly in this life, who shall have their part in the new heavens +and the new earth, which will so immeasurably surpass all that this earth +can give. + +And it is the same with the life of our spirits; in it, too, we must live +by faith. The life of our spirits is a gift from God the Father of +spirits, and He has chosen to declare that unless we trust to Him for +life, and ask Him for life, He will not bestow it upon us. The life of +our bodies He in His mercy keeps up, although we forget Him; the life of +our souls He will not keep up: therefore, for the sake of our spirits, +even more than of our bodies, we must live by faith. If we wish to be +loving, pure, wise, manly, noble, we must ask those excellent gifts of +God, who is Himself infinite love, and purity, wisdom and nobleness. If +we wish for everlasting life, from whom can we obtain it but from God, +who is the boundless, eternal, life itself? If we wish for forgiveness +for our faults and failings, where are we to get it but from God, who is +boundless love and pity, and who has revealed to us His boundless love +and pity in the form of a man, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world? + +And to go a step further; it is by faith in Christ we must live—in +Christ, a man like ourselves, yet God blessed for ever. For it is a +certain truth, that men cannot believe in God or trust in Him unless they +can think of Him as a man. This was the reason why the poor heathen made +themselves idols in the form of men, that they might have something like +themselves to worship; and those among them who would not worship idols +almost always ended in fancying that God was either a mere notion, or +else a mere part of this world, or else that He sat up in heaven neither +knowing nor caring what happened upon earth. But we, to whom God has +given the glorious news of His Gospel, have the very Person to worship +whom all the heathen were searching after and could not find,—one who is +“very God,” infinite in love, wisdom, and strength, and yet “very man,” +made in all points like ourselves, but without sin; so that we have not a +High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, +but one who is able to help those who are tempted, because He was tempted +Himself like us, and overcame by the strength of His own perfect will, of +His own perfect faith. By trusting in Him, and acknowledging Him in +every thought and action of our lives, we shall be safe, for it is +written, “The just shall live by faith.” + +These things are true, and always were true. All that men ever did well, +or nobly, or lovingly, in this world, _was done by faith_—by faith in God +of some sort or other; even in the man who thinks least about religion, +it is so. Every time a man means to do, and really does, a just or +generous action, he does it because he believes, more or less clearly, +that there is a just and loving God above him, and that justice and love +are the right thing for a man—the law by which God intended him to walk: +so that this small, dim faith still shews itself in practice; and the +more faith a man has in God and in God’s laws, the more it will shew +itself in every action of his daily life; and the more this faith works +in his life and conduct, the better man he is;—the more he is like God’s +image, in which man was originally made;—and the more he is like Christ, +the new pattern of God’s image, whom all men must copy. + +So that the sum of the matter is this, without Christ we can do nothing, +by trusting in Christ we can do every thing. See, then, how true the +verse before my text must be, that he whose soul is lifted up in him is +not upright; for if a man fancies that his body and soul are his own, to +do what he pleases with them, when all the time they are God’s gift;—if a +man fancies that he can take perfect care of himself, while all the time +it is God that is keeping him out of a thousand sins and dangers;—if a +man fancies that he can do right of himself, when all the time the little +good that he does is the work of God’s Spirit, which has not yet left +him;—if a man fancies, in short, that he can do without God, when all the +time it is in God that he lives, and moves, and has his being, how can +such a man be called upright? Upright! he is utterly wrong;—he is +believing a lie, and walking accordingly; and, therefore, instead of +keeping upright, he is going where all lies lead; into all kinds of low +and crooked ways, mistakes, absurdities, and at last to ruin of body and +soul. Nothing but truth can keep a man upright and straight, can keep a +man where God has put him, and where he ought to be; and the man whose +heart is puffed up by pride and self-conceit, who is looking at himself +and not at God, that man has begun upon a falsehood, and will soon get +out of tune with heaven and earth. For consider, my friends: suppose +some rich and mighty prince went out and collected a number of children, +and of sick and infirm people, and said to them, “You cannot work now, +but I will give you food, medicine, every thing that you require, and +then you must help me to work; and I, though you have no right to expect +it of me, will pay you for the little work you can do on the strength of +my food and medicine.”—Is it not plain that all those persons could only +live by faith in their prince, by trusting in him for food and medicine, +and by acknowledging that that food and medicine came from him, and +thanking him accordingly? If they wished to be true men, if they wished +him to continue his bounty, they would confess that all the health and +strength they had belonged to him of right, because his generosity had +given it to them. Just in this position we stand with Christ the Lord. +When the whole world lay in wickedness, He came and chose us, of His free +grace and mercy, to be one of His peculiar nations, to work for Him and +with Him; and from the time He came, all that we and our forefathers have +done well has been done by the strength and wisdom which Christ has given +us. Now suppose, again, that one of the persons of whom I spoke was +seized with a fit of pride—suppose he said to himself, “My health and +strength does not come from the food and medicine which the prince gave +me, it comes from the goodness of my own constitution; the wages which I +am paid are my just due, I am a free man, and may choose what master I +like.” Suppose any one of _your_ servants treated you so, would you not +be inclined to answer, “You are a faithless, ungrateful fellow; go your +ways, then, and see how little you can do without my bounty?” But the +blessed King in heaven, though He is provoked every day, is more +long-suffering than man. All He does is to withdraw His bounty for a +moment, to take this world’s blessings from a man, and let him find out +how impossible it is for him to keep himself out of affliction—to take +away His Holy Spirit for a moment from a man, and let him see how +straight he rushes astray, and every way but the right; and then, if the +man is humbled by his fall or his affliction, and comes back to his Lord, +confessing how weak he is and promising to trust in Christ and thank +Christ only for the future, _then_ our Lord will restore His blessings to +him, and there will be joy among the angels of God over one sinner that +repents. This was the way in which God treated Job when, in spite of all +his excellence, _his_ heart was lifted up. And then, when he saw his own +folly, and abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes, God restored +to him sevenfold what He had taken from him—honour, wisdom, riches, home, +and children. This is the way, too, in which God treated David. “In my +prosperity,” he tells us, “I said, I shall never be moved; thou, Lord, of +Thy goodness hast made my hill so strong”—forgetting that he must be kept +safe every moment of his life, as well as made safe once for all. “Thou +didst turn Thy face from me, and I was troubled. Then cried I unto Thee, +O Lord, and gat me to my Lord right humbly. And THEN,” he adds, “God +turned my heaviness into joy, and girded me with gladness,” (Psalm xxx.) +And again, he says, “_Before_ I was troubled I went wrong, but _now_ I +have kept Thy word,” (Psalm cxix.) And this is the way in which Christ +the Lord treated St. Peter and St. Paul, and treats, in His great mercy, +every Christian man when He sees him puffed up, to bring him to his +senses, and make him live by faith in God. If he takes the warning, +well; if he does not, he remains in a lie, and must go where all lies +lead. So perfectly does it hold throughout a man’s whole life, that he +whose soul is lifted up within him is not upright; but that the just must +live by faith. + +Now there is one objection apt to rise in men’s minds when they hear such +words as these, which is, that they take such a “low view of human +nature;” it is so galling to our pride to be told that we can do nothing +for ourselves: but if we think of the matter more closely, and, above +all, if we try to put it into practice and live by faith, we shall find +that there is no real reason for thus objecting. This is not a doctrine +which ought to make us despise men; any doctrine that _does_, does not +come of _God_. Men are not contemptible creatures—they are glorious +creatures—they were created in the image of God; God has put such honour +upon them that He has given them dominion over the whole earth, and made +them partakers of His eternal reason; and His Spirit gives them +understanding to enable them to conquer this earth, and make the beasts, +ay, and the very winds and seas, and fire and steam, their obedient +servants; and human nature, too, when it is what God made it, and what it +ought to be, is not a contemptible thing: it was noble enough for the Son +of God to take it upon Himself—to become man, without sinning or defiling +Himself; and what was good enough for Him is surely good enough for us. +Wickedness consists in _unmanliness_, in being unlike a man, in becoming +like an evil spirit or a beast. Holiness consists in becoming a _true +man_, in becoming more and more like the likeness of Jesus Christ. And +when the Bible tells us that we can do nothing of ourselves, but can live +only by faith, the Bible puts the highest honour upon us which any +created thing can have. What are the things which cannot live by faith? +The trees and plants, the beasts and birds, which, though they live and +grow by God’s providence, yet do not know it, do not thank Him, cannot +ask Him for more strength and life as we can, are mere dead tools in +God’s hands, instead of living, reasonable beings as we are. It is only +reasonable beings, like men and angels, with immortal spirits in them, +who _can_ live by faith; and it is the greatest glory and honour to us, I +say again, that we _can_ do so—that the glorious, infinite God, Maker of +heaven and earth, should condescend to ask us to be loyal to Him, to love +Him, should encourage us to pray to Him boldly, and then should +condescend to hear our prayers—_we_, who in comparison of Him are smaller +than the gnats in the sunbeam in comparison of men! And then, when we +remember that He has sent His only Son into the world to take our nature +upon Him, and join us all together into one great and everlasting family, +the body of Christ the Lord, and that He has actually given us a share in +His own Almighty Holy Spirit that we may be able to love Him, and to +serve Him, and to be joined to Him, the Almighty Father, do we not see +that all this is infinitely more honourable to us than if we were each to +go on his own way here without God—without knowing anything of the +everlasting world of spirits to which we now belong? My friends, instead +of being ashamed of being able to do nothing for ourselves, we ought to +rejoice at having God for our Father and our Friend, to enable us to “do +all things through Him who strengthens us”—to do whatever is noble, and +loving, and worthy of true men. Instead, then, of dreaming conceitedly +that God will accept us for our own sakes, let us just be content to be +accepted for the sake of Jesus Christ our King. Instead of trying to +walk through this world without God’s help, let us ask God to help and +guide us in every action of our lives, and then go manfully forward, +doing with all our might whatsoever our hands or our hearts see right to +do, trusting to God to put us in the right path, and to fill our heads +with right thoughts and our hearts with right feeling; and so our faith +will shew itself in our works, and we shall be justified at the last day, +as all good men have ever been, by trusting to our Heavenly Father and to +the Lord Jesus Christ, and the guidance of His Holy Spirit. + + + + +SERMON VI. +THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. + + + GALATIANS, v. 16. + + “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of + the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit + against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.” + +THE more we think seriously, my friends, the more we shall see what +wonderful and awful things words are, how they mean much more than we +fancy,—how we do not make words, but words are given to us by one higher +than ourselves. Wise men say that you can tell the character of any +nation by its language, by watching the words they use, the names they +give to things, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, +and by our words, our Lord tells us, we shall be justified and condemned. + +It is God, and Christ, the Word of God, who gives words to men, who puts +it into the hearts of men to call certain things by certain names; and, +according to a nation’s godliness, and wisdom, and purity of heart, will +be its power of using words discreetly and reverently. That miracle of +the gift of tongues, of which we read in the New Testament, would have +been still most precious and full of meaning if it had had no other use +than this—to teach men from whom words come. When men found themselves +all of a sudden inspired to talk in foreign languages which they had +never learnt, to utter words of which they themselves did not know the +meaning, do you not see how it must have made them feel that all language +is God’s making and God’s giving? Do you not see how it must have made +them feel what awful, mysterious things words were, like those cloven +tongues of fire which fell on the apostles? The tongues of fire +signified the difficult foreign languages which they suddenly began to +speak as the Spirit gave them utterance. And where did the tongues of +fire come from? Not out of themselves, not out of the earth beneath, but +down from the heaven above, to signify that it is not from man, from +man’s flesh or brain, or the earthly part of him, that words are bred, +but that they come down from Christ the Word of God, and are breathed +into the minds of men by the Spirit of God. Why do I speak of all this? +To make you feel what awful, wonderful things words are; how, when you +want to understand the meaning of a word, you must set to work with +reverence and godly fear—not in self-conceit and prejudice, taking the +word to mean just what suits your own notions of things, but trying +humbly to find out what the word really does mean of itself, what God +meant it to mean when He put it into the hearts of wise men to use that +word and bring it into our English language. A man ought to read a +newspaper or a story-book in that spirit; how much more, when he takes up +the Bible! How reverently he ought to examine every word in the New +Testament—this very text, for instance. We ought to be sure that St. +Paul, just because he was an inspired apostle, used the very best +possible words to express what he meant on so important a matter; and +what _are_ the best words? The clearest and the simplest words are the +best words; else how is the Bible to be the poor man’s book? How, unless +the wayfaring man, though simple, shall not err therein? Therefore we +may be sure the words in Scripture are certain to be used in their +simplest, most natural, most everyday meaning, such as the simplest man +can understand. And, therefore, we may be sure, that these two words, +“flesh” and “spirit,” in my text, are used in their very simplest, +straightforward sense; and that St. Paul meant by them what working-men +mean by them in the affairs of daily life. No doubt St. Peter says that +there are many things in St. Paul’s writings difficult to be understood, +which those who are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own +destruction; and, most true it is, so they do daily. But what does +“wresting” a thing mean? It means twisting it, bending it, turning it +out of its original straightforward, natural meaning, into some new +crooked meaning of their own. This is the way we are all of us too apt, +I am afraid, to come to St. Paul’s Epistles. We find him difficult +because we won’t take him at his word, because we tear a text out of its +right place in the chapter—the place where St. Paul put it, and make it +stand by itself, instead of letting the rest of the chapter explain its +meaning. And then, again, people use the words in the text as unfairly +and unreasonably as they use the text itself, they won’t let the words +have their common-sense English meaning—they must stick a new meaning on +them of their own. ‘Oh,’ they say, ‘that text must not be taken +literally, that word has a spiritual signification here. Flesh does not +mean flesh, it means men’s corrupt nature;’ little thinking all the while +that perhaps they understand those words, spiritual, and corrupt, and +nature, just as ill as they do the rest of the text. + +How much better, my friends, to let the Bible tell its own story; not to +be so exceeding wise above what is written, just to believe that St. Paul +knew better how to use words than we are likely to do,—just to believe +that when he says flesh he means flesh. Everybody agrees that when he +says spirit he means spirit, why, in the name of common sense, when he +says flesh should he not mean flesh? For my own part I believe that when +St. Paul talks of man’s flesh, he means by it man’s body, man’s heart and +brain, and all his bodily appetites and powers—what we call a man’s +constitution; in a word, the _animal_ part of man, just what a man has in +common with the beasts who perish. + +To understand what I mean, consider any animal—a dog, for instance—how +much every animal has in it what men have,—a body, and brain, and heart; +it hungers and thirsts as we do, it can feel pleasure and pain, anger and +loneliness, and fear and madness; it likes freedom, company, and +exercise, praise and petting, play and ease; it uses a great deal of +cunning, and thought, and courage, to get itself food and shelter, just +as human beings do: in short, it has a fleshly nature, just as we have, +and yet, after all, it is but an animal, and so, in one sense, we are all +animals, only more delicately made than the other animals; but we are +something more, we have a spirit as well as a flesh, an immortal soul. +If any one asks, what is a man? the true answer is, an animal with an +immortal spirit in it; and this spirit can feel more than pleasure and +pain, which are mere carnal, that is, fleshly things; it can feel trust, +and hope, and peace, and love, and purity, and nobleness, and +independence, and, above all, it can feel right and wrong. There is the +infinite difference between an animal and a man, between our flesh and +our spirit; an animal has no sense of right and wrong; a dog who has done +wrong is often terrified, but not because he feels it wrong and wicked, +but because he knows from experience that he will be punished for doing +it: just so with a man’s fleshly nature;—a carnal, fleshly man, a man +whose spirit is dead within him, whose spiritual sense of right and +wrong, and honour and purity, is gone, when he has done a wrong thing is +often enough afraid; but why? Not for any spiritual reason, not because +he feels it a wicked and abominable thing, a sin, but because he is +afraid of being punished for it, because he is afraid that his body, his +flesh will be punished by the laws of the land, or by public opinion, or +because he has some dim belief that this same body and flesh of his will +be burnt in hell-fire; and fire, he knows by experience, is a painful +thing—and so he is _afraid_ of it; there is nothing spiritual in all +that,—that is all fleshly, carnal; the heathens in all ages have been +afraid of hell-fire; but a man’s spirit, on the other hand, if it be in +hell, is in a very different hell from mere fire,—a spiritual hell, such +as torments the evil spirits, at this very moment, although they are +going to and fro on this very earth. This earth is hell to them; they +carry about hell in them,—they are their own hell. Everlasting shame, +discontent, doubt, despair, rage, disgust at themselves, feeling that +they are out of favour with God, out of tune with heaven and earth, +loving nothing, believing nothing, ever hating, hating each other, hating +themselves most of all—_there_ is their hell! _There_ is the hell in +which the soul of every wicked man is,—ay, is now while he is in _this_ +life, though he will only awake to the perfect misery of it after death, +when his body and fleshly nature have mouldered away in the grave, and +can no longer pamper and stupify him and make him forget his own misery. +Ay, there has been many a man in this life who had every fleshly +enjoyment which this world can give, riches and pleasure, banquets and +palaces, every sense and every appetite pampered,—his pride and his +vanity flattered; who never knew what want, or trouble, or contradiction, +was on the smallest point; a man, I say, who had every carnal enjoyment +which this earth can give to a man’s selfish flesh, and yet whose spirit +was in hell all the while, and who knew it; hating and despising himself +for a mean selfish villain, while all the world round was bowing down to +him and envying him as the luckiest of men. I am trying to make you +understand the infinite difference between a man’s flesh and his spirit; +how a man’s flesh can take no pleasure in spiritual things, while man’s +spirit of itself can take no pleasure in fleshly things. Now, the spirit +and the flesh, body and soul, in every man, are at war with each +other,—they have quarrelled; that is the corruption of our nature, the +fruit of Adam’s fall. And as the Article says, and as every man who has +ever tried to live godly well knows, from experience, “that infection of +nature does remain to the last, even in those who are regenerate.” So +that as St. Paul says, the spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the +flesh against the spirit; and it continually happens that a man cannot do +the things which he would; he cannot do what he knows to be right; thus, +as St. Paul says again, a man may delight in the law of God in his inward +man, that is, in his spirit, and yet all the while he shall find another +law in his members, _i.e._ in his body, in his flesh, in his brain which +thinks, and his heart which feels, and his senses which are fond of +pleasure; and this law of the flesh, these appetites and passions which +he has, like other animals, fight against the law of his mind, and when +he wishes to do good, make him do evil. Now how is this? The flesh is +not evil; a man’s body can be no more wicked than a dumb beast can be +wicked. St. Paul calls man’s flesh sinful flesh; not because our flesh +can sin of itself, but because our sinful souls make our flesh do sinful +things; for, he says, Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and +yet in him was no sin. The pure and spotless Saviour could not have +taken man’s flesh upon him if there was any sinfulness in it. The body +knows nothing of right and wrong; it is not subject to the law of God, +neither, indeed, can be, says St. Paul. And why? Because God’s law is +spiritual; deals with right and wrong. Wickedness, like righteousness, +is a spiritual thing. If a man sins, his body is not in fault; it is his +spirit; his weak, perverse will, which will sooner listen to what his +flesh tells him is pleasant than to what God tells him is right; for +this, my friends, is the secret of the battle of life. We stand between +heaven and earth. Above is God’s Spirit striving with our spirits, +speaking to them in the depths of our soul, shewing us what is right, +putting into our hearts good desires, making us long to be honest and +just, pure and manful, loving and charitable; for who is there who has +not at times longed after these things, and felt that it would be a +blessed thing for him if he were such a man as Jesus Christ was and +is?—Above us, I say, is God’s Spirit speaking to our spirits, below us is +this world speaking to our flesh, as it spoke to Eve’s, saying to us, +“This thing is pleasant to the eyes—this thing is good for food—that +thing is to be desired to make you wise, and to flatter your vanity and +self-conceit.” Below us, I say, is _this_ world, tempting us to ease, +and pleasure, and vanity; and in the middle, betwixt the two, stands up +the third part of man—his _soul_ and _will_, set to choose between the +voice of God’s Spirit and the temptations of this world—to choose between +what is right and what is pleasant—to choose whether he will obey the +desires of the spirit, or obey the desires of the flesh. He must choose. +If he lets his flesh conquer his spirit, he falls; if he lets his spirit +conquer his flesh, he rises; if he lets his flesh conquer his spirit, he +becomes what he was not meant to be—a slave to fleshly lust; and _then_ +he will find his flesh set up for itself, and work for itself. And where +man’s flesh gets the upper hand, and takes possession of him, it can do +nothing but evil—not that it is evil in itself, but that it has no rule, +no law to go by; it does not know right from wrong; and therefore it does +simply what it likes, as a dumb beast or an idiot might; and therefore +the works of the flesh are—adulteries, drunkenness, murders, +fornications, envyings, backbitings, strife. When a man’s body, which +God intended to be the servant of his spirit, has become the tyrant of +his spirit, it is like an idiot on a king’s throne, doing all manner of +harm and folly without knowing that it _is_ harm and folly. That is not +_its_ fault. Whose fault is it, then? _Our_ fault—the fault of our +wills and our souls. Our souls were intended to be the masters of our +flesh, to conquer all the weaknesses, defilements of our constitution—our +tempers, our cowardice, our laziness, our hastiness, our nervousness, our +vanity, our love of pleasure—to listen to our spirits, because our +spirits learn from God’s Spirit what is right and noble. But if we let +our flesh master us, and obey its own blind lusts, we sin against God; +and we sin against God doubly; for we not only sin against God’s +commandments, but we sin against ourselves, who are the image and glory +of God. + +Believe this, my friends; believe that, because you are all fallen human +creatures, there must go on in you this sore life-long battle between +your spirit and your flesh—your spirit trying to be master and guide, as +it ought to be, and your flesh rebelling, and trying to conquer your +spirit and make you a mere animal, like a fox in cunning, a peacock in +vanity, or a hog in greedy sloth. But believe, too, that it is your sin +and your shame if your spirit does not conquer your flesh—for God has +promised to help your spirits. Ask Him, and His Spirit will teach +them—fill them with pure, noble hopes, with calm, clear thoughts, and +with deep, unselfish love to God and man. He will strengthen your wills, +that they may be able to refuse the evil and choose the good. Ask Him, +and He will join them to His own Spirit—to the Spirit of Christ, your +Master; for he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him. Ask +him, and He will give you the mind of Christ—teach you to see and feel +all matters as Christ sees and feels them. Ask Him, and He will give you +wisdom to listen to His Spirit when it teaches your spirit, and then you +will be able to walk after the spirit, and not obey the lusts of the +flesh; and you will be able to crucify the flesh with its passions and +lusts, that is, to make it, what it ought to be, a dead thing—a dead tool +for your spirit to work with manfully and godly, and not a live tyrant to +lead you into brutishness and folly; and then you will find that the +fruit of the spirit, of your spirit led by God’s Spirit, is really, as +St. Paul says, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, +honesty”—“whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable +and of good report;” and instead of being the miserable slaves of your +own passions, and of the opinions of your neighbours, you will find that +where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, true freedom, not only +from your neighbours’ sins, but, what is far better, freedom from your +own. + +These are large words, my friends, and promise mighty things. But I dare +speak them to you, for God has spoken to you. These promises God made +you at your baptism; these promises I, on the warrant of your baptism, +dare make to you again. At your baptism, God gave you the right to call +Him your loving Father, to call His Son your Saviour, His Spirit your +Sanctifier. And He is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man, +that He should repent! Try Him, and see whether He will not fulfil His +word. Claim His promise, and though you have fallen lower than the +brutes, He will make men and women of you. He will be faithful and just +to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. + + + + +SERMON VII. +RETRIBUTION. + + + NUMBERS, xxxii. 23. + + “Be sure your sin will find you out.” + +THE full meaning of this text is, that every sin which a man commits is +certain, sooner or later, to come home to him with fearful interest. + +Moses gave this warning to two tribes of the Israelites,—to the +Reubenites and Gadites, who had promised to go over Jordan, and help +their countrymen in war against the heathen, on condition of being +allowed to return and settle on the east bank of Jordan, where they then +were; but if they broke their promise, and returned before the end of the +war, they were to be certain that their sin would find them out; that God +would avenge their falsehood on them in some way in their lifetime: in +their lifetime, I say, for there is no mention made in this chapter, or +in any part of the story, of heaven or hell, or any world to come. And +the text has been always taken as a fair warning to all generations of +men, that their sin also, even in their lifetimes, will be visited upon +them. + +Now, it is strange, at first sight, that these texts, which warn men that +their sins will be punished in this life, are just the most unpleasant +texts in the whole Bible; that men shrink from them more, and shut their +eyes to them more than they do to those texts which threaten them with +hell-fire and everlasting death. Strange!—that men should be more afraid +of being punished in this life for a few years than in the life to come +for ever and ever;—and yet not strange if we consider; for to worldly and +sinful souls, that life after death and the flames of hell seem quite +distant and dim—things of which they know little and believe less, while +this world they _do_ know, they are quite certain that its good things +are pleasant and its bad things unpleasant, and they are thoroughly +afraid of losing _them_. Their hearts are where their treasure is, in +this world; and a punishment which deprives them of this world’s good +things hits them home: but their treasure is _not_ in heaven, and, +therefore, about losing heaven they are by no means so much concerned. +And thus they can face the dreadful news that “the wicked shall be turned +into hell, and all the people that forget God;” while, as for the news +that the wicked shall be recompensed on the earth, that their sins will +surely find them out in this life, they cannot face that—they shut their +ears to it,—they try to persuade themselves that sin will _pay_ them +_here_, at all events; and as for hereafter, they shall get off +somehow,—they neither know nor care much how. + +Yet God’s truth remains, and God’s truth must be heard; and those who +love this world so well must be told, whether they like or not, that +every sin which they commit, every mean, every selfish, every foul deed, +loses them so much enjoyment in this very present world of which they are +so mighty fond. That is God’s truth; and I will prove it true from +common sense, from Holy Scripture, and _from the witness_ of men’s own +hearts. + +Take common sense. Does not common sense tell us that if God made this +world, and governs it by righteous and God-like laws, this must be a +world in which evil-doing cannot thrive? God made the world better than +that, surely! He would be a bad law-giver who made such laws, that it +was as well to break them as to keep them. You would call them bad laws, +surely! No, God made the world, and not the devil; and the world works +by God’s laws, and not the devil’s; and it inclines towards good, and not +towards evil; and he who sins, even in the least, breaks God’s laws, acts +contrary to the rule and constitution of the world, and will surely find +that God’s laws will go on in spite of him, and grind him to powder, if +he by sinning gets in the way of them. God has no need to go out of His +way to punish our evil deeds. Let them alone, and they will punish +themselves. Is it not so in every thing? If a tradesman trades badly, +or a farmer farms badly, there is no need of lawyers to punish him; he +will punish himself. Every mistake he makes will take money out of his +pocket; every time he offends against the established rules of trade or +agriculture, which are God’s laws, he injures himself; and so, be sure, +it is in the world at large,—in the world in which men and the souls of +men live, and move, and have their being. + +Next, to speak of Scripture. I might quote texts innumerable to prove +that what I say Scripture says also. Consider but this one thing,—that +there is a whole book in the Bible written to prove this one thing,—that +our good and bad deeds are repaid us with interest in this life—the +Proverbs of Solomon I mean—in which there is little or no mention of +heaven or hell, or any world to come. It is all one noble, and awful, +and yet cheering sermon on that one text, “The righteous shall be +recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner,”—put in a +thousand different lights; brought home to us a thousand different roads, +comes the same everlasting doom,—“Vain man, who thinkest that thou canst +live in God’s world and yet despise His will, know that, in every +smiling, comfortable sin, thou art hatching an adder to sting thee in the +days of old age, to poison thy cup of sinful joy, even when it is at thy +lips; to haunt thy restless thoughts, and dog thee day and night; to rise +up before thee, in the silent, sleepless hours of night, like an angry +ghost! An awful foretaste of the doom that is to come; and yet a +merciful foretaste, if thou wilt be but taught by the disappointment, the +unsatisfied craving, the gnawing shame of a guilty conscience, to see the +heinousness of sin, and would turn before it be too late.” + +What, my friends,—what will you make of such texts as this, “That he who +soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption?” Do you not see +that comes true far too often? Can it help _always_ coming true, seeing +that God’s apostle spoke it? What will you make of this, too, “That the +wicked is snared by the working of his own hands;”—“That _evil_”—the evil +which we do of its own self—“shall slay the wicked?” What says the whole +noble 37th Psalm of David, but that same awful truth of God, that sin is +its own punishment? + +Why should I go on quoting texts? Look for yourselves, you who fancy +that it is only on the other side of the grave that God will trouble +Himself about you and your meanness, your profligacy, your falsehood. +Look for yourselves in the book of God, and see if there be any writer +there,—lawgiver, prophet, psalmist, apostle, up to Christ the Lord +Himself,—who does not warn men again and again, that here, on earth, +their sins will find them out. Our Saviour, indeed, when on earth, said +less about this subject than any of the prophets before Him, or the +apostles after Him, and for the best of reasons. The Jews had got rooted +in their minds a superstitious notion, that all disease, all sorrow, was +the punishment in each case of some particular sin; and thus, instead of +looking with pity and loving awe upon the sick and the afflicted, they +were accustomed, too often, to turn from them as sinners, smitten of God, +bearing in their distress the token of His anger. The blessed One,—He +who came to heal the sick and save the lost,—reproved that error more +than once. When the disciples fancied a certain poor man’s blindness to +be a judgment from God, “Neither did he sin,” said the Lord, “nor his +parents, but that the glory of God might be made manifest in him.” And +yet, on the other hand, when He healed a certain man of an old infirmity +at the pool of Bethesda, what were His words to him? “Go thy way, sin no +more, lest a worse thing come unto thee;”—a clear and weighty warning +that all his long misery of eight-and-thirty years had been the +punishment of some sin of his, and that the sin repeated would bring on +him a still severer judgment. + +What, again, does the apostle mean, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when +he tells us how God scourges every son whom he receives, and talks of His +chastisements, whereof all are partakers. Why do we need chastising if +we have nothing which needs mending? And though the innocent _may_ +sometimes be afflicted to make them strong as well as innocent, and the +holy chastened to make them humble as well as holy, yet if the good +cannot escape their share of affliction, how will the bad get off? “If +the righteous scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner +appear?” But what use in arguing when you know that my words are true? +You _know_ that your sins will find you out. Look boldly and honestly +into your own hearts. Look through the history of your past lives, and +confess to God, at least, that the far greater number of your sorrows +have been your own fault; that there is hardly a day’s misery which you +ever endured in your life of which you might not say, ‘If I had listened +to the voice of God in my conscience—if I had earnestly considered what +my _duty_ was—if I had prayed to God to determine my judgment right, I +should have been spared this sorrow now?’ Am I not right? Those who +know most of God and their own souls will agree most with me; those who +know little about God and their own souls will agree but hardly with me, +for they provoke God’s chastisements, and writhe under them for the time, +and then go and do the same wrong again, as the wild beast will turn and +bite the stone thrown at him without having the sense to see why it was +thrown. + +Think, again, of your past lives, and answer in God’s sight, how many +wrong things have you ever done which have _succeeded_, that is, how many +sins which you would not be right glad were undone if you could but put +back the wheels of Time? They may have succeeded _outwardly_; meanness +will succeed +so—lies—oppression—theft—adultery—drunkenness—godlessness—they are all +pleasant enough while they last, I suppose; and a man may reap what he +calls substantial benefits from them in money, and suchlike, and keep +that safe enough; but has his sin succeeded? Has it not _found him +out_?—found him out never to lose him again? Is he the happier for it? +Does he feel freer for it? Does he respect himself the more for it?—No! +And even though he may prosper now, yet does there not run though all his +selfish pleasure a certain fearful looking forward to a fiery judgment to +which he would gladly shut his eyes, but cannot? + +Cunning, fair-spoken oppressor of the poor, has not thy sin found thee +out? Then be sure it will. In the shame of thine own heart it will find +thee out;—in the curses of the poor it will find thee out;—in a +friendless, restless, hopeless death-bed, thy covetousness and thy +cruelty will glare before thee in their true colours, and thy sin will +find thee out! + +Profligate woman, who art now casting away thy honest name, thy +self-respect, thy womanhood, thy baptism-vows, that thou mayest enjoy the +foul pleasures of sin for a season, has not thy sin found thee out? Then +be sure it will hereafter, when thou hast become disgusted at thyself and +thine own infamy,—and youth, and health, and friends, are gone, and a +shameful and despised old age creeps over thee, and death stalks nearer +and nearer, and God vanishes further and further off, then thy sin will +find thee out! + +Foolish, improvident young man, who art wasting the noble strength of +youth, and manly spirits which God has given thee on sin and folly, +throwing away thine honest earnings in cards and drunkenness, instead of +laying them by against a time of need—has not thy sin found thee out? +Then be sure it will some day, when thou hast to bring home thy bride to +a cheerless, unfurnished house, and there to live from hand to +mouth,—without money to provide for her sickness,—without money to give +her the means of keeping things neat and comfortable when she is +well,—without a farthing laid by against distress, and illness, and old +age:—_then_ your sin will find you out: then, perhaps, my text,—my +words—may come across you as you sigh in vain in your comfortless home, +in your impoverished old age, for the money which you wasted in your +youth! My friends, my friends, for your own sakes consider, and mend ere +that day come, as else it surely will! + +And, lastly, you who, without running into any especial sins, as those +which the world calls sins, still live careless about religion, without +loyalty to Christ the Lord, without any honest attempt, or even wish, to +serve the God above you, or to rejoice in remembering that you are His +children, working for Him and under Him,—be sure your sin will find you +out. When affliction, or sickness, or disappointment come, as come they +will, if God has not cast you off;—when the dark day dawns, and your +fool’s paradise of worldly prosperity is cut away from under your feet, +then you will find out your folly—you will find that you have insulted +the only Friend who can bring you out of affliction—cast off the only +comfort which can strengthen you to bear affliction—forgotten the only +knowledge which will enable you to be the wiser for affliction. Then, I +say, the sin of your godlessness will find you out; if you do not intend +to fall, soured and sickened merely by God’s chastisements, either into +stupid despair or peevish discontent, you will have to go back, to go +back to God and cry, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before +Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son.” + +Go back at once before it be too late. Find out your sins and mend +them—before they find you out, and break your hearts. + + + + +SERMON VIII. +SELF-DESTRUCTION. + + + 1 KINGS, xxii. 23. + + “The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy + prophets.” + +THE chapter from which my text is taken, which is the first lesson for +this evening’s service, is a very awful chapter, for it gives us an +insight into the meaning of that most awful and terrible word—temptation. +And yet it is a most comforting chapter, for it shews us how God is +long-suffering and merciful, even to the most hardened sinner; how to the +last He puts before him good and evil, to choose between them, and warns +him to the last of his path, and the ruin to which it leads. + +We read of Ahab in the first lesson this morning as a thoroughly wicked +man,—mean and weak, cruel and ungodly, governed by his wife Jezebel, a +heathen woman, in marrying whom he had broken God’s law,—a woman so +famous for cruelty and fierceness, vanity and wickedness, that her name +is a by-word even here in England now—“as bad as Jezebel,” we say to this +day. We heard of Ahab in this morning’s lesson letting Jezebel murder +the righteous Naboth, by perjury and slander, to get possession of his +vineyard; and then, instead of shrinking with abhorrence from his wife’s +iniquity, going down and taking possession of the land which he had +gained by her sin. We read of God’s curse on him, and yet of God’s +long-suffering and pardon to him on his repentance. Yet, neither God’s +curse nor God’s mercy seem to have moved him. But he had been always the +same. “He did evil,” the Bible tells us, “in the sight of the Lord above +all that were before him.” He deserted the true God for his wife’s idols +and false gods; and in spite of Elijah’s miracle at Carmel—of which you +heard last Sunday—by which he proved by fire which was the true God, and +in spite of the wonderful victory which God had given him, by means of +one of God’s prophets, over the Syrians, he still remained an idolater. +He would not be taught, nor understand; neither God’s threats nor mercies +could move him; he went on sinning against light and knowledge; and now +his cup was full—his days were numbered, and God’s vengeance was ready at +the door. + +He consulted all his false prophets as to whether or not he should go to +attack the Syrians at Ramoth-Gilead. They knew what to say—they knew +that their business was to prophesy what would pay them—what would be +pleasant to him. They did not care whether what they said was true or +not—they lied for the sake of gain, for the Lord had put a lying spirit +into their mouths. They were rogues and villains from the first. They +had turned prophets, not to speak God’s truth, but to make money, to +flatter King Ahab, to get themselves a reputation. We do not hear that +they were all heathens. Many of them may have believed in the true God. +But they were cheats and liars, and so they had given place to the devil, +the father of lies: and now he had taken possession of them in spite of +themselves, and they lied to Ahab, and told him that he would prosper in +the battle at Ramoth-Gilead. It was a dangerous thing for them to say; +for if he had been defeated, and returned disappointed, his rage would +have most probably fallen on them for deceiving them. And as in those +Eastern countries kings do whatever they like without laws or +parliaments, Ahab would have most likely put them all to a miserable +death on the spot. But however dangerous it might be for them to lie, +they could not help lying. A spirit of lies had seized them, and they +who began by lying, because it paid them, now could not help doing so +whether it paid them or not. + +But the good king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, had no faith in these flattering +villains. He asked whether there was not another prophet of the Lord to +inquire of? Ahab told him that there was one, Micaiah the son of Imlah, +but that he hated him, because he only prophesied evil of him. What a +thorough picture of a hardened sinner—a man who has become a slave to his +own lusts, till he cares nothing for a thing being true, provided only it +is pleasant! Thus the wilful sinner, like Ahab, becomes both fool and +coward, afraid to look at things as they are; and when God’s judgments +stare him in the face, the wretched man shuts his eyes tight, and swears +that the evil is not there, just because he does not choose to see it. + +But the evil was there, ready for Ahab, and it found him. When he forced +Micaiah to speak, Micaiah told him the whole truth. He told him a +vision, or dream, which he had seen. “Hear thou therefore the word of +the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of +heaven standing by Him. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that +he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And there came forth a spirit, +and said, I will go forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his +prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: +go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying +spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken +evil concerning thee.” + +What warning could be more awful, and yet more plain? Ahab was told that +he was listening to a lie. He had free choice to follow that lie or not, +and he did follow it. After having put Micaiah into prison for speaking +the truth to him, he went up to Ramoth-Gilead; and yet he felt he was not +safe. He had his doubts and his fears. He would not go openly into the +battle, but disguised himself, hoping that by this means he should keep +himself safe from evil. Fool! God’s vengeance could not be stopped by +his paltry cunning. In spite of all his disguises, a chance shot struck +him down between the joints of his armour. His chariot-driver carried +him out of the battle, and “he was stayed up in his chariot against the +Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of his wound into the +midst of the chariot. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; +and the dogs licked up his blood there,” according to the word of the +Lord, which He spoke by the mouth of His prophet Elijah, saying, “In the +place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, whom thou slewest, shall +dogs lick thy blood, even thine.” + +And do not fancy, my friends, that because this is a miraculous story of +ancient times, it has nothing to do with us. All these things were +written for our example. This chapter tells us not merely how Ahab was +tempted, but it tells us how _we_ are tempted, every one of us, here in +England, in these very days. As it was with Ahab, so it is with us. +Every wilful sin that we commit we give room to the devil. Every wrong +step that we take knowingly, we give a handle to some evil spirit to lead +us seven steps further wrong. And yet in every temptation God gives us a +fair chance. He is no cruel tyrant who will deliver us over to the +devil, to be led helpless and blindfold to our ruin. He did not give +Ahab over to him so. He sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab’s prophets, +that Ahab might go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead; but at the very same +time, see, he sends a holy and a true man, a man whom Ahab could trust, +and did trust at the bottom of his heart, to tell him that the lie was a +lie, to warn him of his ruin, so that he might have no excuse for +listening to those false prophets—no excuse for following his own pride, +his own ambition, to his destruction. So you see, “Let no man say, when +he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God tempteth no man, but every +one is tempted when he is led away by his own lust and enticed.” Ahab +was led away by his own lust; his cowardly love of hearing what was +pleasant and flattering to him, rather than what was true—rather than +what he knew he deserved; that was what enticed him to listen to Zedekiah +and the false prophets, rather than to Micaiah the son of Imlah. _That_ +is what entices us to sin—the lust of believing what is pleasant to us, +what suits our own self-will—what is pleasant to our bodies—pleasant to +our purses—pleasant to our pride and self-conceit. Then, when the lying +spirit comes and whispers to us, by bad thoughts, by bad books, by bad +men, that we shall prosper in our wickedness, does God leave us alone to +listen to those evil voices without warning? No! He sends His prophets +to us, as He sent Micaiah to Ahab, to tell us that the wages of sin is +death—to tell us that those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind—to +set before us at every turn good or evil, that we may choose between +them, and live or die according to our choice. For do not fancy that +there are no prophets in our days, unless the gift of the Holy Spirit, +which is promised to all who believe, be a dream and a lie. There are +prophets nowadays,—yea, I say unto you, and more than prophets. Is not +the Bible a prophet? Is not every page in it a prophecy to us, +foretelling God’s mercies and God’s punishments towards men. Is not +every holy and wise book, every holy and wise preacher and writer, a +prophet, expounding to us God’s laws, foretelling to us God’s opinions of +our deeds, both good and evil? Ay, is not every man a prophet to +himself? That “still small voice” in a man’s heart, which warns him of +what is evil—that feeling which makes him cheerful and free when he has +done right, sad and ashamed when he has done wrong—is not that a prophecy +in a man’s own heart? Truly it is. It is the voice of God within us—it +is the Spirit of God striving with our spirits, whether we will hear, or +whether we will forbear—setting before us what is righteous, and noble, +and pure, and what is manly and God-like—to see whether we will obey that +voice, or whether we will obey our own selfish lusts, which tempt us to +please ourselves—to pamper ourselves, our greediness, covetousness, +ambition, or self-conceit. And again, I say, we have our prophets. +Every preacher of righteousness is a prophet. Every good tract is a +prophet. That Prayer-book, those Psalms, those Creeds, those Collects, +which you take into your mouths every Sunday, what are they but written +prophecies, crying unto us with the words of holy men of old, greater +than Micaiah, or David, or Elijah, “Hear thou the word of the Lord?” The +spirits of those who wrote that Prayer-book—the spirits of just men made +perfect, filled with the Spirit of the Lord—they call to us to learn the +wisdom which they knew, to avoid the temptations which they conquered, +that we may share in the glory in which they shared round the throne of +Christ for evermore. + +And if you ask me how to try the spirits, how to know whether your own +thoughts, whether the sermons which you hear, the books which you read, +are speaking to you God’s truth, or some lying spirit’s falsehood, I can +only answer you, “To the law and to the testimony”—to the Bible; if they +speak not according to that word, there is no truth in them. But how to +understand the Bible? for the fleshly man understands not the things of +God. The fleshly man, he who cares only about pleasing himself, he who +goes to the Bible full of self-conceit and selfishness, wanting the Bible +to tell him only just what he likes to hear, will only find it a sealed +book to him, and will very likely wrest the Scriptures to his own +destruction. Take up your Bible humbly, praying to God to shew you its +meaning, whether it be pleasant to you or not, and then you will find +that God will shew you a blessed meaning in it; He will open your eyes, +that you may understand the wondrous things of His law; He will shew you +how to try the spirit of all you are taught, and to find out whether it +comes from God. + + + + +SERMON IX. +HELL ON EARTH. + + + MATTHEW, viii. 29. + + “And behold the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we to do + with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment + us before the time?” + +THIS account of the man possessed with devils, and of his language to our +Lord, of our Lord’s casting the devils out of the poor sufferer, and His +allowing them to enter into a herd of swine, is one that is well worth +serious thought; and I think a few words on it will follow fitly after my +last Sunday’s sermon on Ahab and his temptations by evil spirits. In +that sermon I shewed you what temper of mind it was which laid a man open +to the cunning of evil spirits; I wish now to shew you something of what +those evil spirits are. It is very little that we can know about them. +We were intended to know very little, just as much as would enable us to +guard against them, and no more. The accounts of them in the Scriptures +are for our use, not to satisfy our curiosity. But we may find out a +great deal about them from this very chapter, from this very story, which +is repeated almost word for word in three different Gospels, as if to +make us more certain of so curious and important a matter, by having +three distinct and independent writers to witness for its truth. I +advise all those who have Bibles to look for this story in the 8th +chapter of St. Matthew, and follow me as I explain it. {92} + +Now, first, we may learn from this account, that evil spirits are real +persons. There is a notion got abroad that it is only a figure of speech +to talk of evil spirits, that all the Bible means by them are certain bad +habits, or bad qualities, or diseases. There are many who will say when +they read this story, ‘This poor man was only a madman. It was the +fashion of the old Jews when a man was mad to say that he was possessed +by evil spirits. All they meant was that the man’s own spirit was in an +evil diseased state, or that his brain and mind were out of order.’ + +When I hear such language—and it is very common—I cannot help thinking +how pleased the devil must be to hear people talk in such a way. How can +people help him better than by saying that there is no devil? A thief +would be very glad to hear you say, ‘There are no such things as thieves; +it is all an old superstition, so I may leave my house open at night +without danger;’ and I believe, my friends, from the very bottom of my +heart, that this new-fangled disbelief in evil spirits is put into men’s +hearts by the evil spirits themselves. As it was once said, ‘The devil +has tried every plan to catch men’s souls, and now, as the last and most +cunning trick of all, he is shamming dead.’ These may seem homely words, +but the homeliest words are very often the deepest. I advise you all to +think seriously on them. + +But it is impossible surely to read this story without seeing that the +Bible considers evil spirits as distinct persons, just as much as each +one of us is a person, and that our Lord spoke to them and treated them +as persons. “What have _we_ to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? +Art Thou come hither to torment _us_ before the time?” And again, “If +Thou cast _us_ out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine.” What can +shew more plainly that there were some persons in that poor man, besides +himself, his own spirit, his own person? and that _he_ knew it, and Jesus +knew it too? and that He spoke to these spirits, these persons, who +possessed that man, and not to the man himself? No doubt there was a +terrible confusion in the poor madman’s mind about these evil spirits, +who were tormenting him, making him miserable, foul, and savage, in mind +and body—a terrible confusion! We find, when Jesus asked him his name, +he answers “_Legion_,” that is an army, a multitude, “for we are many,” +he says. Again, one gospel tells us that he says, “What have _I_ to do +with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?” While in another Gospel we are told +that he said, “What have _we_ to do with Thee?” He seems not to have +been able to distinguish between his own spirit, and these spirits who +possessed him. They put the furious and despairing thoughts into his +heart; they spoke through his mouth; they made a slave and a puppet of +him. But though he could not distinguish between his own soul and the +devils who were in it, Christ could and Christ did. + +The man says to Him, or rather the devils make the man say to Him, “If +Thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine, and drive us +not out into the deep.” What did Christ answer him? Christ did not +answer him as our so-called wise men in these days would, ‘My good man, +this is all a delusion and a fancy of your own, about your having evil +spirits in you—more persons than one in you—for you are wrong in saying +_we_ of yourself. You ought to say “I,” as every one else does; and as +for spirits going out of you, or going into a herd of swine, or anything +else, that is all a superstition and a fancy. There is nothing to come +out of you, there is nothing in you except yourself. All the evil in you +is your own, the disease of your own brain, and the violent passions of +your own heart. Your brain must be cured by medicine, and your violent +passions tamed down by care and kindness, and then you will get rid of +this foolish notion that you have evil spirits in you, and calling +yourself a multitude, as if you had other persons in you besides +yourself.’ + +Any one who spoke in this manner nowadays would be thought very +reasonable and very kind. Why did not our Lord speak so to this man, for +there was no outward difference between this man’s conduct and that of +many violent mad people whom we see continually in England? We read, +that this man possessed with devils would wear no clothes; that he had +extraordinary strength; that he would not keep company with other men, +but abode day and night in the tombs, exceeding fierce, crying and +cutting himself with stones, trying in blind rage, which he could not +explain to himself, to hurt himself and all who came near him. And, +above all, he had this notion, that evil spirits had got possession of +him. Now every one of these habits and fancies you may see in many +raging maniacs at this day. + +But did our Lord treat this man as we treat such maniacs in these days? +He took the man at his word, and more; the man could not distinguish +clearly between himself and the evil spirits, but our Lord did. When the +devils besought Him, saying, “If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into +the herd of swine,” our Lord answers “Go;” and “when they were cast out, +they went into the herd of swine; and, behold, the whole herd of swine +ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the +waters.” + +It was as if our Lord had meant to say to the bystanders,—ay and to us, +and to all people in all times and in all countries, ‘This poor possessed +maniac’s notion was a true one. There were other persons in him besides +himself, tormenting him, body and soul: and, behold, I can drive these +out of him and send them into something else, and leave the man +uninjured, _himself_, and only himself, again in an instant, without any +need of long education to cure him of his bad habits.’ It will be but +reasonable, then, for us to take this story of the man possessed by +devils, as written for our example, as an instance of what _might_, and +perhaps _would_, happen to any one of us, were it not for God’s mercy. + +St. Peter tells us to be sober and watchful, because “the devil goes +about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;” and when we look at +the world around, we may surely see that that stands as true now as it +did in St. Peter’s time. Why, again, did St. James tells us to resist +the devil if the devil be not near us to resist? Why did St. Paul take +for granted, as he did, that Christian men were, of course, not ignorant +of Satan’s devices, if it be quite a proof of enlightenment and superior +knowledge to be ignorant of his devices,—if any dread, any thought even, +about evil spirits, be beneath the attention of reasonable men? My +friends, I say fairly, once for all, that that common notion, that there +are no men now possessed by evil spirits, and that all those stories of +the devil’s power over men are only old, worn-out superstitions has come +from this, that men do not like to retain God in their knowledge, and +therefore, as a necessary consequence, do not like to retain the devil in +their knowledge; because they would be very glad to believe in nothing +but what they can see, and taste, and handle; and, therefore, the thought +of unseen evil spirits, or good spirits either, is a painful thing to +them. First, they do not really believe in angels—ministering spirits +sent out to minister to the heirs of salvation; then they begin not to +believe in evil spirits. The Bible plainly describes their vast numbers; +but these people are wiser than the Bible, and only talk of _one_—of +_the_ devil, as if there were not, as the text tells us, legions and +armies of devils. Then they get rid of that one devil in their real +desire to believe in as few spirits as possible. I am afraid many of +them have gone on to the next step, and got rid of the one God out of +their thoughts and their belief. I said I am afraid, I ought to have +said I _know_, that they have done so, and that thousands in this day who +began by saying evil spirits only mean certain diseases and bad habits in +men, have ended by saying, “God only means certain good habits in man. +God is no more a person than the evil spirits are persons.” + +I warn you of all this, my friends, because if you go to live in large +towns, as many of you will, you will hear talk enough of this sort before +your hairs are grey, put cleverly and eloquently enough; for, as a wise +man said, “The devil does not send fools on his errands.” I pray God, +that if you ever do hear doctrines of that kind, some of my words may +rise in your mind and help to shew to you the evil path down which they +lead. + +We may believe, then, from the plain words of Scriptures, that there are +vast numbers of evil spirits continually tempting men, each of them to +some particular sin; to worldliness, for instance, for we read of the +spirit of the evil world; to filthiness, for we read of unclean spirits; +to falsehood, for we read of lying spirits and a spirit of lies; to +pride, for we read of a spirit of pride;—in short, to all sins which a +man _can_ commit, to all evil passions to which a man can give way. We +have a right to believe, from the plain words of Scripture, that these +spirits are continually wandering up and down tempting men to sin. That +wonderful story of Job’s temptation, which you may all read for +yourselves in the first chapter of the book of Job, is, I think, proof +enough for any one. + +But next, and I wish you to pay special attention to this point: We have +no right to believe,—we have every right _not_ to believe, that these +evil spirits can make us sin in the smallest matter against our own +wills. The devil cannot put a single sin into us; he can only flatter +the sinfulness which is already in us. For, see; this pride, lust, +covetousness, falsehood, and so on, to which the Bible tells us they +tempt us, have roots already in our nature. Our fallen nature of itself +is inclined to pride, to worldliness, and so on. These devils tempt us +by putting in our way the occasion to sin, by suggesting to us tempting +thoughts and arguments which lead to sin; so the serpent tempted Eve, not +by making her ambitious and self-willed, but by using arguments to her +which stirred up the ambition and self-will in her: “Ye shall be as gods, +knowing good and evil,” the devil said to her. + +So Satan, the prince of the evil spirits, tempted our Lord. And as the +prince of the devils tempted Christ, so do _his_ servants tempt _us_, +Christ’s servants. Our tempers, our longings, our fancies, are not evil +spirits; they are, as old divines well describe them, like greedy and +foolish fish, who rise at the baits which evil spirits hold out to us. +If we resist those baits—if we put ourselves under God’s protection—if we +claim strength from Him who conquered the devil and all His temptations, +then we shall be able to turn our wills away from those tempting baits, +and to resign our wills into our Father’s hand, and He will take care of +them, and strengthen them with His will; and we shall find out that if we +resist the devil, he will flee from us. But if we yield to temptations +whenever they come in our way, we shall find ourselves less and less able +to resist them, for we shall learn to hate the evil spirits less and +less; I mean we shall shrink less from the evil thoughts they hold out to +us. We shall give place to the devil, as the Scripture tells us we +shall; for instance, by indulging in habitual passionate tempers, or +rooted spite and malice, letting the sun go down upon our wrath: and so a +man may become more and more the slave of his own nature, of his own +lusts and passions, and therefore of the devils, who are continually +pampering and maddening those lusts and passions, till a man may end in +_complete possession_; not in common madness, which may be mere disease, +but as a savage and a raging maniac, such as, thank God, are rare in +Christian countries, though they were common among our own forefathers +before they were converted to Christianity,—men like the demoniac of whom +the text speaks, tormented by devils, given up to blind rage and malice +against himself and all around, to lust and blasphemy, to confusion of +mind and misery of body, God’s image gone, and the image of the devil, +the destroyer and the corrupter, arisen in its place. Few men can arrive +at this pitch of wretchedness in a civilised country. It would not +answer the evil spirit’s purpose to let them do so. It suits _his_ +spirits best in such a land as this to walk about dressed up as angels of +light. Few men in England would be fools enough to indulge the gross and +fierce part of their nature till they became mere savages, like the +demoniac whom Christ cured; so it is to respectable vices that the devil +mostly tempts us,—to covetousness, to party spirit, to a hard heart and a +narrow mind; to cruelty, that shall clothe itself under the name of law; +to filthiness, which excuses itself by saying, “It is a man’s nature, he +cannot help it;” to idleness, which excuses itself on the score of +wealth; to meanness and unfairness in trade, and in political and +religious disputes—these are the devils which haunt us Englishmen—sleek, +prim, respectable fiends enough; and, truly, _their_ name is Legion! And +the man who gives himself up to them, though he may not become a raving +savage, is just as truly possessed by devils, to his own misery and ruin, +that he may sow the wind and reap the whirlwind; that though men may +speak well of him, and posterity praise his saying, and speak good of the +covetous whom God abhorreth, yet he may go for ever unto his own, to the +evil spirits to whom his own wicked will gave him up for a prey. I +beseech you, my friends, consider my words; they are not mine, but the +Bible’s. Think of them with fear;—and yet with confidence, for we are +baptised into the name of Him who conquered all devils; you may claim a +share in that Spirit which is opposite to all evil spirits,—whose +presence makes the agony and misery of evil spirits, and drives them out +as water drives out fire. If He is on your side, why should you be +afraid of any spirit? Greater is He that is in you than he that is +against you; and He, Christ Himself, is with every man, every child, who +struggles, however blindly and weakly, against temptation. When +temptation comes, when evil looks pleasant, and arguments rise up in your +mind, that seem to make it look right and reasonable, as well as +pleasant, _then_, out of the very depths of your hearts, cry after Him +who died for you. Say to yourselves, ‘How can I do this thing, and +offend against Him who bought me with His blood?’ Say to Him, ‘I am +weak, I am confused; I do not see right from wrong; I cannot find my way; +I cannot answer the devil; I cannot conquer these cunning thoughts; I +know in the bottom of my heart that they are wrong, mere temptations, and +yet they look so reasonable. Blessed Saviour, _Thou_ must shew me where +they are wrong. Thou didst answer the devil Thyself out of God’s Word, +put into _my_ mind some answer out of God’s Word to these temptations; +or, at least, give me spirit to toss them off—strength of will to thrust +the whole temptation out of my head, and say, I will parley no longer +with the devil; I will put the whole matter out of my head for a time. I +don’t know whether it is right or wrong for me to do this particular +thing, but there are twenty other things which I _do_ know are right. +I’ll go and do _them_, and let this wait awhile.’ + +Believe me, my friends, you _can_ do this—you can resist these evil +spirits which tempt us all; else why did our Lord bid us pray, “Lead us +not into temptation, but deliver us from evil?” Why? Because our Father +in heaven, if we ask Him, will _not_ lead us _into_ temptation, but +_through_ it safe. Tempted we _must_ be, else we should not be men; but +here is our comfort and our strength—that we have a King in heaven, who +has fought out and conquered all temptations, and a Father in heaven, who +has promised that He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are +able, but will, with the temptation, make a way to escape, that we may be +able to bear it. + +Again, I say, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Resist the +devil, and he will flee from you. + + + + +SERMON X. +NOAH’S JUSTICE. + + + GENESIS, vi. 9. + + “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked + with God.” + +I INTEND, my friends, according as God shall help me, to preach to you, +between this time and Christmas, a few sermons on some of the saints and +worthies of the Old Testament; and I will begin this day with Noah. + +Now you must bear in mind that the histories of these ancient men were, +as St. Paul says, written for our example. If these men in old times had +been different from us, they would not be examples to us; but they were +like us—men of like passions, says St. James, as ourselves; they had each +of them in them a corrupt _nature_, which was continually ready to drag +them down, and make beasts of them, and make them slaves to their own +lusts—slaves to eating and drinking, and covetousness, and cowardice, and +laziness, and love for the things which they could see and handle—just +such a nature, in short, as we have. And they had also a spirit in each +of them which was longing to be free, and strong, and holy, and wise—such +a spirit as we have. And to them, just as to us, God was revealing +himself; God was saying to their consciences, as He does to ours, ‘This +is right, that is wrong; do this, and be free and clear-hearted; do that, +and be dark and discontented, and afraid of thy own thoughts.’ And they +too, like us, had to live by faith, by continual belief that they owed a +_duty_ to the great God whom they could not see, by continual belief that +He loved them, and was guiding and leading them through every thing which +happened, good or ill. + +This is faith in God, by which alone we, or any man, can live +worthily,—by which these old heroes lived. We read, in the twelfth +chapter of Hebrews, that it was by faith these elders obtained a good +report; and the whole history of the Old-Testament saints is the history +of God speaking to the hearts of one man after another, teaching them +each more and more about Himself, and the history also of these men +listening to the voice of God in their hearts, and _believing_ that +voice, and acting faithfully upon it, into whatever strange circumstances +or deeds it might lead them. “By faith,” we read in this same +chapter,—“by faith Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark to the +saving of his house, and became heir of the righteousness which is by +faith.” + +Now, to understand this last sentence, you must remember that Noah was +not under the law of Moses. St. Paul has a whole chapter (the third +chapter of Galatians) to shew that these old saints had nothing to do +with Moses’ law any more than we have, that it was given to the Jews many +hundred years afterwards. So these histories of the Old-Testament saints +are, in fact, histories of men who conquered by faith—histories of the +power which faith in God has to conquer temptation, and doubt, and false +appearances, and fear, and danger, and all which besets us and keeps us +down from being free and holy, and children of the day, walking +cheerfully forward on our heavenward road in the light of our Father’s +loving smile. + +Noah, we read, “was a just man, and perfect in his generations;” and why? +Because he was a faithful man—faithful to God, as it is written, “The +just shall live by his faith;” not by trusting in what he does himself, +in his own works or deservings, but trusting in God who made him, +believing that God is perfectly righteous, perfectly wise, perfectly +loving; and that, because He is perfectly loving, He will accept and save +sinful man when He sees in sinful man the earnest wish to be His +faithful, obedient servant, and to give himself up to the rule and +guidance of God. This, then, was Noah’s justice in God’s sight, as it +was Abraham’s. They believed God, and so became heirs of the +righteousness which is by faith; not their own righteousness, not growing +out of their own character, but given them by God, who puts His righteous +Spirit into those who trust in Him. + +But, moreover, we read that Noah “was perfect in his generations;” that +is, he was perfect in all the relations and duties of life,—a good son, a +good husband, a good father: these were the fruits of his faith. He +believed that the unseen God had given him these ties, had given him his +parents, his children, and that to love them was to love God, to do his +duty to them was to do his duty to God. This was part of his walking +with God, continually under his great Taskmaster’s eye,—walking about his +daily business with the belief that a great loving Father was above him, +whatever he did; ready to strengthen, and guide, and bless him if he did +well, ready to avenge Himself on him if he did ill. These were the +fruits of Noah’s faith. + +But you may think this nothing very wonderful. Many a man in England +does this every day, and yet no one ever hears of him; he attends to all +his family ties, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, +like one who knows he is redeemed by Christ’s blood; he lives, he dies, +he is buried, and out of his own parish his name is never known; while +Noah has earned for himself a worldwide fame; for four thousand years his +name has been spreading over the whole earth as one of the greatest men +who ever lived. Mighty nations have worshipped Noah as a God; many +heathen nations worship him under strange and confused names and +traditions to this day; and the wisest and holiest men among Christians +now reverence Noah, write of him, preach on him, thank God for him, look +up to him as, next to Abraham, their greatest example in the Old +Testament. + +Well, my friends, to understand what made Noah so great, we must +understand in what times Noah lived. “The wickedness of men was great in +the earth in those days, and every imagination of the thoughts of their +heart was only evil continually, and the earth was filled with violence +through them.” And we must remember that the wickedness of men before +the flood was not outwardly like wickedness now; it was not petty, mean, +contemptible wickedness of silly and stupid men, such as could be +despised and laughed down; it was like the wickedness of fallen angels. +Men were then strong and beautiful, cunning and active, to a degree of +which we can form no conception. Their enormous length of life (six, +seven, and eight hundred years commonly) must have given them an +experience and daring far beyond any man in these days. Their bodily +size and strength were in many cases enormous. We read that “there were +giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of +God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, +the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Their +powers of invention seem to have been proportionably great. We read, in +the fourth chapter of Genesis, how, within a few years after Adam was +driven out of Paradise, they had learned to build cities, to tame the +wild beasts, and live upon their milk and flesh; that they had invented +all sorts of music and musical instruments; that they had discovered the +art of working in metals. We read among them of Tubal-Cain, an +instructor of every workman in brass and iron; and the old traditions in +the East, where these men dwelt, are full of strange and awful tales of +their power. + +Again, we must remember that there was no law in Noah’s days before the +flood, no Bible to guide them, no constitutions and acts of parliament to +bind men in the beaten track by the awful majesty of law, whether they +will or no, as we have. + +This is the picture which the Bible gives us of the old world before the +flood—a world of men mighty in body and mind, fierce and busy, conquering +the world round them, in continual war and turmoil; with all the wild +passions of youth, and yet all the cunning and experience of enormous old +age; with the strength and the courage of young men to carry out the +iniquity of old ones; every one guided only by self-will, having cast off +God and conscience, and doing every man that which was right in the sight +of his own eyes. And amidst all this, while men, as wise, as old, as +strong, as great as himself, whirled away round him in this raging sea of +sin, Noah was stedfast; he, at least, knew his way,—“he walked with God, +a just man, and perfect in his generations.” + +To Noah, living in such a world as this, among temptation, and violence, +and insult, no doubt, there came this command from God: “The end of all +flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through +them, and I will destroy them with the earth. And behold I, even I, do +bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is +the breath of life; but with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou +shalt make thee an ark of wood after the fashion which I tell thee; and +thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy family, and of every living +thing, two of every sort, male and female, shalt thou bring into the ark, +and keep them alive with thee; and take thou of all food that is eaten +into the ark, for thee and for them.” What a message, my friends! If we +wish to see a little of the greatness of Noah’s faith, conceive such a +message coming from God to one of us! Should we believe it—much less act +upon it? But _Noah_ believed God, says the Scripture; and “according as +God commanded him, so did he.” Now, in whatever way this command came +from God to Noah, it is equally wonderful. Some of you, perhaps, will +say in your hearts, ‘No! when God spoke to him, how could he help obeying +Him?’ But, my friends, ask yourselves seriously,—for, believe me, it is +a most important question for the soul and inner life of you and me, and +every man—how did Noah know that it was God who spoke to him? It is easy +to say God appeared to him; but no man hath seen God at any time. It is +easy, again, to say that an angel appeared to him, or that God appeared +to him in the form of a man; but still the same question is left to be +answered, how did he know that this appearance came from God, and that +its words were true? Why should not Noah have said, ‘This was an evil +spirit which appeared to me, trying to frighten and ruin me, and stir up +all my neighbours to mock me, perhaps to murder me?’ Or, again; suppose +that you or I saw some glorious apparition this day, which told us on +such and such a day such and such a town will be destroyed, what should +_we_ think of it? Should we not say, I must have been dreaming—I must +have been ill, and so my brain and eyes must have been disordered, and +treat the whole thing as a mere fancy of ill-health; now why did not Noah +do the same? + +Why do I say this? To shew you, my friends, that it is not apparitions +and visions which can make a man believe. As it is written, “If they +believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one +rose from the dead.” No; a man must have faith in his heart already. A +man must first be accustomed to discern right from wrong—to listen to and +to obey the voice of God within him; _that_ word of God of which it is +said, “the word is nigh thee, in thy heart, and in thy mind,” before he +can hear God’s word from without; else he will only explain away +miracles, and call visions and apparitions sick men’s dreams. + +But there was something yet more wonderful and divine in Noah’s faith,—I +mean his patience. He knew that a flood was to come—he set to work in +faith to build his ark—and that ark was in building for one hundred and +twenty years,—one hundred and twenty years! It seems at first past all +belief. For all that time he built; and all the while the world went on +just as usual; and, before he had finished, old men had died, and +children grown into years; and great cities had sprung up perhaps where +there was not a cottage before; and trees which were but a yard high when +that ark was begun had grown into mighty forest-timber; and men had +multiplied and spread, and yet Noah built and built on stedfastly, +believing that what God had said would surely one day or other come to +pass. For one hundred and twenty years he saw the world go on as usual, +and yet he never forgot that it was a doomed world. He endured the +laughter and mockery of all his neighbours, and every fresh child who was +born grew up to laugh at the foolish old man who had been toiling for a +hundred years past on his mad scheme, as they thought it; and yet Noah +never lost faith, and he never lost _love_ either—for all those years, we +read, he preached righteousness to the very men who mocked him, and +preached in vain—one hundred and twenty years he warned those sinners of +God’s wrath, of righteousness and judgment to come, and no man listened +to him! That, I believe, must have been, after all, the hardest of all +his trials. + +And, doubtless, Noah had his inward temptation many a time; no doubt he +was ready now and then to believe God’s message all a dream—to laugh at +himself for his fears of a flood which seemed never coming, but in his +heart was “the still small voice” of God, warning him that God was not a +man that he should lie, or repent, or deceive those who walked faithfully +with him; and around him he saw men growing and growing in iniquity, +filling up the cup of their own damnation; and he said to himself, +‘Verily there is a God who judgeth the earth—for all this a reckoning day +will surely come;’ and he worked stedfastly on, and the ark was finished. +And then at last there came a second call from God, “Come thou and all +thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this +generation. Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth, +and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the +earth.” And Noah entered into the ark, and seven days he waited; and +louder than ever laughed the scoffers round him, at the old man and his +family shut into his ark safe on dry land, while day and night went on as +quietly as ever, and the world ran its usual round; for seven days more +their mad game lasted—they ate, they drank, they married, they gave in +marriage, they planted, they builded; and on the seventh day it came—the +rain fell day after day, and week after week—and the windows of heaven +were opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the +flood arose, and swept them all away! + + + + +SERMON XI. +THE NOACHIC COVENANT. + + + GEN. ix. 8, 9. + + “And God spake unto Noah, and his sons with him, saying, And I, + behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after + you.” + +IN my last sermon on Noah I spoke of the flood and of Noah’s faith before +the flood; I now go on to speak of the covenant which God made with Noah +after the flood. Now, Noah stood on that newly-dried earth as the head +of mankind; he and his family, in all eight souls, saved by God’s mercy +from the general ruin, were the only human beings left alive, and had +laid on them the wonderful and glorious duty of renewing the race of man, +and replenishing the vast world around them. From that little knot of +human beings were to spring all the nations of the earth. + +And because this calling and destiny of theirs was a great and +all-important one—because so much of the happiness or misery of the new +race of mankind depended on the teaching which they would get from their +forefathers, the sons of Noah, therefore God thought fit to make with +Noah and his sons a solemn covenant, as soon as they came out of the ark. + +Let us solemnly consider this covenant, for it stands good now as much as +ever. God made it “with Noah, and his seed after him,” for perpetual +generations. And _we_ are the seed of Noah; every man, woman, and child +of us here were in the loins of Noah when the great absolute God gave him +that pledge and promise. We must earnestly consider that covenant, for +in it lies the very ground and meaning of man’s life and business on this +earth. + +“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and +multiply, and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of +you shall be upon every living creature. Into your hand they are +delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as +the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life +thereof, which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat. And surely your +blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I +require it, and at the hand of men; at the hand of every man’s brother +will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall +his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man.” + +Now, to understand this covenant, consider what thoughts would have been +likely to grow up in the mind of Noah’s children after the flood. Would +they not have been something of this kind: ‘God does not love men; He has +drowned all but us, and we are men of like passions with the world who +perished, may we not expect the like ruin at any moment? Then what use +to plough and sow, and build and plant, and work for those who shall come +after us?’ ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.’ + +And again, they would have been ready to say, ‘This God, whom our +forefather Noah said sent floods, we cannot see Him; but the floods +themselves we can see. All these clouds and tempests, lightning, sun, +and stars, are we _stronger_ than them? No! They may crush us, drown +us, strike us dead at any moment. They seem, too, to go by certain +wonderful rules and laws; perhaps they have a will and understanding in +them. Instead of praying to a God whom we never saw, why not pray to the +thunderclouds not to strike us dead, and to the seas and rivers not to +sweep us away? For this great, wonderful, awful world in which we are, +however beautiful may be its flowers, and its fruits, and its sunshine, +there is no trusting it; we are sitting upon a painted sepulchre, a +beautiful monster, a gulf of flood and fire, which may burst up any +moment, and sweep us away, as it did our forefathers.’ + +Again, Noah’s children would have begun to say, ‘These beasts here round +us, they are so many of them larger than us, stronger than us, able to +tear us to atoms, eat us up as they would eat a lamb. They are +self-sufficient, too; they want no clothes, nor houses, nor fire, like us +poor, weak, naked, soft human creatures. They can run faster than we, +see farther than we; their scent, too, what a wonderful, mysterious power +that is, like a miracle to us! And, besides all their cunning ways of +getting food and building nests, they never do _wrong_; they never do +horrible things contrary to their nature; they all abide as God has made +them, obeying the law of their kind. Are not these beasts, then, much +wiser and better than we? We will honour them, and pray to them not to +devour us—to make us cunning and powerful as they are themselves. And if +they are no better than us, surely they are no worse than us. After all, +what difference is there between a man and a beast? The flood which +drowned the beasts drowned the men too. A beast is flesh and blood, what +more is a man? If you kill him, he dies, just as a beast dies; and why +should not a man’s carcase be just as good to eat as a beast’s, and +better?’ And so there would have been a free opening at once into all +the horrors of cannibalism! + +Again, Noah’s descendants would have said, ‘Our forefathers offered +sacrifices to the unseen God, as a sign that all they had belonged to +Him, and that they had forfeited their own souls by sin, and were +therefore ready to give up the most precious things they had—their +cattle, as a sign that they owed all to that very God whom they had +offended. But are not human creatures much more precious than cattle? +Will it not be a much greater sign of repentance and willingness to give +up all to God if we offer Him the best things which we have—human +creatures? If we kill and sacrifice to Him our most beautiful and +innocent things—little children—noble young men—beautiful young girls?’ + +My friends, these are very strange and shocking thoughts, but they have +been in the hearts and minds of all nations. The heathens do such things +now. Our own forefathers used to do such things once; they were tempted +to worship the sun and the moon, and the rivers, and the thunder, and to +look with superstitious terror at the bears, and the wolves, and the +snakes, round them, and to kill their young children and maidens, and +offer them up as sacrifices to the dark powers of this world, which they +thought were ready to swallow them up. And God is my witness, my +friends, when one goes through some parts of England now, and sees the +mine-children and factory-children, and all the sin and misery, and the +people wearying themselves in the fire for very vanity, we seem not to be +so very far from the same dark superstition now, though we may call it by +a different name. England has been sacrificing her sons and her +daughters to the devil of covetousness of late years, just as much as our +forefathers offered theirs to the devil of selfish and cowardly +superstition. + +But see, now, how this covenant which God made with Noah was intended +just to remedy every one of those temptations which I just mentioned, +into which Noah’s children’s children would have been certain to fall, +and into which so many of them did fall. They might have become +reckless, I said, from fear of a flood at any moment. God promises +them—and confirms it with the sign of the rainbow—never again to destroy +the earth by water. They would have been likely to take to praying to +the rain and the thunder, the sun and the stars; God declares in this +covenant that it is _He_ alone who sends the rain and thunder, that He +brings the clouds over the earth, that He rules the great, awful world; +that men are to look up and believe in God as a loving and thinking +_person_, who has a will of His own, and that a faithful, and true, and +loving, and merciful will; that their lives and safety depend not on +blind chance, or the stern necessity of certain laws of nature, but on +the covenant of an almighty and all-loving person. + +Again, I said, that Noah’s sons would have been ready to fear, and, at +last, to worship the dumb beasts; God’s covenant says, “No; these beasts +are not your equals—they are your slaves—you may freely kill them for +your food; the fear of you shall be upon them. The huge elephant and the +swift horse shall become your obedient servants; the lion and the tiger +shall tremble and flee before you. Only claim your rights as men; +believe that the invisible God who made the earth is your strength and +your protector, and that He to whom the earth belongs has made you lords +of the earth and all that therein is. But,” said God’s covenant to +Noah’s sons, “you did not _make_ these beasts—you did not give them life, +therefore I forbid you to eat their blood wherein their life lies; that +you may never forget that all the power you have over these beasts was +given you by God, who made and preserves that wonderful, mysterious, holy +thing called life, which you can never imitate.” Again, I said, that +Noah’s children, having been accustomed to the violence and bloodshed on +the earth before the flood, might hold man’s life cheap; that, having +seen in the flood men perish just like the beasts around them, they might +have begun to think that man’s life was not more precious than the +beasts’. They might have all gone on at last, as some of them did, to +those horrors of cannibalism and human sacrifice of which I just now +spoke. Now, here, again comes in God’s covenant, “Surely the blood of +your lives will I require. At the hand of every beast will I require it, +and at the hand of every man’s brother will I require it. Whoso sheddeth +man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made +He man.” This, then, is the covenant which God made with Noah for +perpetual generations, and therefore with us, the children of Noah. In +this covenant you see certain truths come out into light; some, of which +you read nothing before in the Bible, and other truths which, though they +were given to Adam, yet had been utterly lost sight of before the flood. +This has been God’s method, we find from the Bible, ever since the +creation,—to lead man step by step up into more and more light, up to +this very day, and to make each sin and each madness of men an occasion +for revealing to Him more and more of truth and of the living God. And +so each and every chapter in the Bible is built upon all that has gone +before it; and he that neglects to understand what has gone before will +never come to the understanding of what follows after. Why do I say +this? Because men are continually picking out those scraps of the Bible +which suit their own fancy, and pinning their whole faith on them, and +trying to make them serve to explain every thing in heaven and earth; +whereas no man can understand the Epistles unless he first understand the +Gospels. No man will understand the New Testament unless he first +understands the pith and marrow of the Old. No man will understand the +Psalms and the Prophets unless he first understands the first ten +chapters of Genesis; and, lastly, no one will ever understand any thing +about the Bible at all, who, instead of taking it simply as it is +written, is always trying to twist it into proofs of his own favourite +doctrines, and make Abraham a high Calvinist, or Noah a member of the +Church of England. Why do I say this? To make you all think seriously +that this covenant on which I have been preaching is your covenant; that +as sure as the rainbow stands in heaven, as sure as you and I are sprung +out of the loins of Noah, so surely this covenant which binds us is part +of our Christian covenant, and woe to us if we break it! + +This covenant tells us that we are made in God’s likeness, and, +therefore, that all sin is unworthy of us and unnatural to us. It tells +us that God means us bravely and industriously to subdue the earth and +the living things upon it; that we are to be the masters of the pleasant +things about us, and not their slaves, as sots and idlers are; that we +are stewards and tenants of this world for the great God who made it, to +whom we are to look up in confidence for help and protection. It tells +us that our family relationships, the blessed duties of a husband and a +father, are sacred things; that God has created them, that the great God +of heaven Himself respects them, that the covenant which He makes with +the father He makes with the children; that He commands marriage, and +that He blesses it with fruitfulness; that it is He who has told us “Be +fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth;” that the tie of +brotherhood is His making also; that _He_ will require the blood of the +murdered man _at his brother’s hand_; that a man’s brothers, his nearest +relations, are bound to protect and right him if he is injured; so that +we all are to be, in the deepest sense of the word, what Cain refused to +be, our _brothers’ keepers_, and each member of a family is more or less +answerable for the welfare and safety of all his relations. Herein lies +the ground of all religion and of all society—in the covenant which God +made with Noah; and just as it is in vain for a man to pretend to be a +scholar when he does not even know his letters, so it is mockery for a +man to pretend to be a converted Christian man who knows not even so much +as was commanded to Noah and his sons. He who has not learnt to love, +honour, and succour his own family—he who has not learnt to work in +honest and manful industry—he who has not learnt to look beyond this +earth, and its chance, and its customs, and its glittering outside, and +see and trust in a great, wise, loving God, by whose will every tree +grows and every shower falls, what is Christianity to him? He has to +learn the first principles which were delivered to Noah, and which not +even the heathen and the savage have utterly forgotten. + + + + +SERMON XII. +ABRAHAM’S FAITH. + + + HEBREWS, xi. 9, 10. + + “By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange + country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with + him of the same promise. For he looked for a city, which hath + foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” + +IN the last sermon which I preached in this church, I said that the Bible +is the history of God’s ways with mankind, how He has schooled and +brought them up until the coming of Christ; that if we read the Bible +histories, one after another, in the same order in which God has put them +in the Bible, we shall see that they are all regular steps in a line, +that each fresh story depends on the story which went before it; and yet, +in each fresh history, we shall find God telling men something +new—something which they did not know before. And that so the whole +Bible, from beginning to end, is one glorious, methodic, and organic tree +of life, every part growing out of the others and depending on the +others, from the root—that foundation, other than which no man can lay, +which is Christ, revealing Himself, though not by name, in that wonderful +first chapter of Genesis,—up to the _fruit_, which is the kingdom of +Christ, and Gospel of Christ, and the salvation in which we here now +stand. I told you that the lesson which God has been teaching men in all +ages is faith in God—that the saints of old were just the men who learnt +this lesson of faith. Now this, as we all know, was the secret of +Abraham’s greatness, that he had faith in God to leave his own country at +God’s bidding, and become a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth, +wandering on in full trust that God would give him another country +instead of that which he had left—“a city which hath foundations, whose +builder and maker is God.” This was what Abraham looked for. Something +of what it means we shall see presently. + +You remember the story of the tower of Babel? How certain of Noah’s +family forgot the covenant which God had made with Noah, forgot that God +had commanded them to go forth in every direction and fill the earth with +human beings, solemnly promising to protect and bless them, and took on +themselves to do the very opposite—set up a kingdom of their own fashion, +and herded together for selfish safety, instead of going forth to all the +quarters of the world in a natural way, according to their families, in +their tribes, after their nations, as the eleventh chapter of Genesis +says they ought to have done. “Let us build us a city and a tower, and +make us a name, lest,” they said, “we be scattered abroad over the face +of the whole world.” Here was one act of disobedience to God’s order. +But besides this they had fallen into a slavish dread of the powers of +nature—they were afraid of another flood. They set to to build a tower, +on which they might worship the sun and stars, and the host of heaven, +and pray to them to send no more floods and tempests. They thus fell +into a slavish fear of the powers of nature, as well as into a selfish +and artificial civilisation. In short, they utterly broke the covenant +which God had made with Noah. But by miraculously confounding their +language, God drove them forth over the face of the whole earth, and so +forced them to do that which they ought to have done willingly at first. + +Now, we must remember that all this happened in the very country in which +Abraham lived. He must have heard of it all—for aught we know he had +seen the tower of Babel. So that, for good or for evil, the whole Babel +event must have produced a strong effect on the mind of a thoughtful man +like Abraham, and raised many strange questionings in his heart, which +God alone could answer for him, _or for us_. Now, what did God mean to +teach Abraham by calling him out of his country, and telling him, “I will +make of thee a great nation?” I think He meant to shew him, for one +thing, that that Babel plan of society was utterly absurd and accursed, +certain to come to naught, and so to lead him on to hope for a city which +had foundations, and to see that _its_ builder and maker must be, not the +selfishness or the ambition of men, but the will, and the wisdom, and +providence of God. + +Let us see how God led Abraham on to understand this—to look for a city +which had foundations; in short, to understand what a State and a nation +means and ought to be. First, God taught him that he was not to cling +coward-like to the place where he was born, but to go out boldly to +colonise and subdue the earth, for the great God of heaven would protect +and guide him. “Get thee out of thy country and from thy father’s house +unto a land which I will shew thee. And I will bless them that bless +thee, and curse them that curse thee.” Again; God taught him what a +nation was: “_I_ will make of thee a great nation.” As much as to say, +‘Never fancy, as those fools at Babel did, that a nation only means a +great crowd of people—never fancy that men can make themselves into a +nation just by feeding altogether, and breeding altogether, and fighting +altogether, as the herds of wild cattle and sheep do, while there is no +real union between them.’ For what brought those Babel men together? +Just what keeps a herd of cattle together—selfishness and fear. Each man +thought he would be _safer_, forsooth, in company. Each man thought that +if he was in company, he could use his neighbours’ wits as well as his +own, and have the benefit of his neighbours’ strength as well as his own. +And that is all true enough; but that does not make a nation. +Selfishness can join nothing; it may join a set of men for a time, each +for his own ends, just as a joint-stock company is made up; but it will +soon split them up again. Each man, in a merely selfish community, will +begin, after a time, to play on his own account as well as work on his +own account—to oppress and overreach for his own ends as well as to be +honest and benevolent for his own ends, for he will find ill-doing far +easier, and more natural, in one sense, and a plan that brings in quicker +profits, than well-doing; and so this godless, loveless, +every-man-for-himself nation, or sham nation rather, this joint-stock +company, in which fools expect that universal selfishness will do the +work of universal benevolence, will quarrel and break up, crumble to dust +again, as Babel did. “But,” says God to Abraham, “I will make of thee a +great nation. I make nations, and not they themselves.” So it is, my +friends: this is the lesson which God taught Abraham, the lesson which we +English must learn nowadays over again, or smart for it bitterly—that God +makes nations. He is King of kings; “by Him kings reign and princes +decree judgment.” He judges all nations: He nurtureth the nations. This +is throughout the teaching of the Psalms. “It is He that hath made us, +and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture;” +for this I take to be the true bearing of that glorious national hymn the +100th Psalm, and not merely the old truism that men did not create +themselves, when it exhorts _all_ nations to praise God because it is He +that hath made them nations, and not they themselves. The Psalms set +forth the Son of God as the King of all nations. In Him, my friends,—in +Him all the nations of the earth are truly blessed. + +He the Saviour of a few individual souls only? God forbid! To Him _all +power_ is given in heaven and earth; by Him were all things created, +whether in heaven or earth, visible and invisible, whether they be +thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers;—all national life, all +forms of government, whether hero-despotisms, republics, or monarchies, +aristocracies of birth, or of wealth, or of talent,—all were created by +Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things +_consist_ and hold together. Every thing or institution on earth which +has systematic and organic life in it—by _Him_ it consists—by Him, the +Life and the Light who lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. +From Him come law, and order, and spiritual energy, and loving +fellow-feeling, and patriotism, the spirit of wisdom, and understanding, +and prudence—all, in short, by which a nation consists and holds +together. It is not constitutions, and acts of parliament, and social +contracts, and rights of the people, and rights of kings, and so on, +which make us a nation. These are but the effects, and not the +consequences, of the national life. _That_ is the one spirit which is +shed abroad upon a country, whose builder and maker is God, and which +comes down from above—comes down from Christ the King of kings, who has +given each nation its peculiar work on this earth, its peculiar +circumstances and history to mould and educate it for its work, and its +peculiar spirit and national character, wherewith to fulfil the destiny +which Christ has appointed for it. + +Believe me, my friends, it takes long years, too, and much training from +God and from Christ, the King of kings, to make a nation. Everything +which is most precious and great is also most slow in growing, and so is +a nation. The Scripture compares it everywhere to a tree; and as the +tree grows, a people must grow, from small beginnings, perhaps from a +single family, increasing on, according to the fixed laws of God’s world, +for years and hundreds of years, till it becomes a mighty nation, with +one Lord, one faith, one work, one Spirit. + +But again; God said to Abraham, when He had led him into this far +country, “Unto thy seed will _I give this land_.” This was a great and a +new lesson for Abraham, that the earth belonged to that same great +invisible God who had promised to guide and protect him, and make him +into a nation—that this same God gave the earth to whomsoever He would, +and allotted to each people their proper portion of it. “He (said St. +Paul on the Areopagus) hath determined the times before appointed for all +nations, and the bounds of their habitation, that they may seek after the +Lord and find Him.” Ah! this must have been a strange and a new feeling +to Abraham; but, stranger still, though God had given him this land, he +was not to take possession of a single foot of it; the land was already +in the hands of a different nation, the people of Canaan; and Abraham was +to go wandering about a sojourner, as the text says, in this very land of +promise which God had given him, without ever taking possession of his +own, simply because it belonged to others already. How this must have +taught Abraham that the rights of property were sacred things—things +appointed by God; that it was an awful and a heinous sin to make wanton +war on other people, to drive them out and take possession of their land; +that it was not mere force or mere fancy which gave men a right to a +country, but the providence of Almighty God! Now Abraham needed this +warning, for the men of Babel seem from the first to have gone on the +plan of driving out and conquering the tribes round them. They seem to +have set up their city partly from ambition. “Let us make us a name,” +they said, meaning, ‘Let us make ourselves famous and terrible to all the +people around us, that we may subdue them.’ And we read of Nimrod, who +was their first king and the founder of Babel, that he was a mighty +hunter before the Lord, that is, as most learned men explain it, a mighty +conqueror and tyrant in defiance of God and His laws, as the poet says of +him, + + “A mighty hunter, and his game was man.” + +The Jews, indeed, have an old tradition that Nimrod cast Abraham into a +fiery furnace for refusing to worship the host of heaven with him. The +story is very likely untrue, but still it is of use in shewing what sort +of reputation Nimrod left behind him in his own part of the world. We +may thus see that Abraham would need warning against these habits of +violence, tyranny, and plunder, into which the men of Babel and other +tribes were falling. And this was what God meant to teach him by keeping +him a stranger and a pilgrim in the very land which God had promised to +him for his own. Thus Abraham learnt respect for the rights and +properties of his neighbours; thus he learnt to look up in faith to God, +not only as his patron and protector, but as the lord and absolute owner +of the soil on which he stood. + +Now in the 14th chapter of Genesis there is an account of Abraham’s being +called on to put in practice what he had learnt, and, by doing so, +learning a fresh lesson. We read of four kings making war against five +kings, against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam or Persia, who had been +following the ways of Nimrod and the men of Babel, and conquering these +foreign kings and making them serve him. We read of Chedorlaomer and +four other kings coming down and wantonly ravaging and destroying other +countries, besides the five kings who had rebelled against them, and at +last carrying off captive the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot, +Abraham’s nephew. We read then how Abraham armed his trained servants, +born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen men, and pursued after +these tyrants and plunderers, and with his small force completely +overthrew that great army. Now that was a sign and a lesson to Abraham, +as much as to say, ‘See the fruits of having the great God of heaven and +earth for your protector and your guide,—see the fruits of having men +round you, not hirelings, keeping in your company just to see what they +can get by it, but born in your own house, who love and trust you, whom +you can love and trust,—see how the favour of God, and reverence for +those family ties and duties which He has appointed, make you and your +little band of faithful men superior to these great mobs of selfish, +godless, unjust robbers,—see how hundreds of these slaves ran away before +one man, who feels that he is a member of a family, and has a just cause +for fighting, and that God and his brethren are with him.’ + +Here, you see, was another hint to Abraham of what it was and who it was +that made a great nation. + +And now some of you may say, ‘This is a strange sermon. You have as yet +said nothing of Christ, nothing of the Holy Spirit, nothing of grace, +redemption, sanctification. What kind of sermon is this?’ + +My friends, do not be too sure that I have not been preaching Christ to +you, and Christ’s Spirit to you, and Christ’s redemption too, most truly +in this sermon, although I have mentioned none of them by name. There +are times for ornamenting the house, there are times for repairing the +wall, there are times, too, for thoroughly examining the foundation, +because, if that be not sound, it is little matter what fine work is +built up upon it; and there are times when, as David says, the +foundations of the earth are out of course, when men have forgotten sadly +the very first principles of society and religion. + +And, surely, men are doing so in these days; men are forgetting that +other foundation can no man lay save that which _is_ laid, which is +Christ; they laugh at the thought of a city, that is, a state and form of +government, “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;” they have +forgotten that St. Paul tells them in the Hebrews that we _have_ “a city +which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” a kingdom which +cannot be moved. Yes, men who call themselves learned and worldly wise, +and good men too, alas! who fancy that they are preaching God’s gospel, +go about and tell men, ‘The men of Babel were right after all. What have +nations to do with God and religion? Nations are merely earthly, carnal +things, that were only invented by sinful men themselves, to preserve +their bodies and goods, and make trading easy. Religion has only to do +with a man’s private opinions, his single soul; the government has +nothing to do with the Church: a Christian has nothing to do with +politics.’ And so these men most unwittingly open a door to all sorts of +covetousness and meanness in the nation, and all sorts of trickery and +cowardice in the government. Tell a man that his business has nothing to +do with God, and you cannot wonder if he acts without thinking of God. +If you tell a nation that it is selfishness which makes it prosperous, of +course you must expect it to be selfish. If you tell us Englishmen that +the duties of a citizen are not duties to God, but only duties to the +constable and the tax-gatherer, what wonder if men believe you and become +undutiful to God in their citizenship? No, my friends, once for all, as +sure as God made Abraham a great nation, so if we English are a great +nation, God has made us so—as sure as God gave Abraham the land of Canaan +for his possession, so did _He_ give us this land of England, when He +brought our Saxon forefathers out of the wild barren north, and drove out +before them nations greater and mightier than they, and gave them great +and goodly cities which they builded not, and wells digged which they +digged not, farms and gardens which they planted not, that we too might +fear the Lord our God, and serve Him, and swear by His name;—as sure as +He commanded Abraham to respect the property of his neighbours, so has He +commanded us;—as sure as God taught Abraham that the nation which was to +grow from him owed a duty to God, and could be only strong by faith in +God, so it is with us: we, English people, owe a duty to God, and are to +deal among ourselves, and with foreign countries, by faith in God, and in +the fear of God, “seeking first the kingdom of God and His +righteousness,” sure that then all other things—victory, health, +commerce, art, and science—will be added to us, as the first Lesson says. +For this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations, +which shall say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding +people! For what nation is grown so great, that hath statutes and +judgments so righteous as these laws, this gospel, which God sets before +us day by day?—us, Englishmen! + +And I say that these are proper thoughts for this place. This is not a +mere preaching-house, where you may learn every man to save his own soul; +this is a far nobler place; this building belongs to the National Church +of England, and we worship here, not merely as men, but as men of +England, citizens of a Christian country, come here to learn not merely +how to save ourselves, but how to help towards the saving of our +families, our parish, and our nation; and therefore we must know what a +country and a nation mean, and what is the meaning of that glorious and +divine word, “a citizen;” that by learning what it is to be a citizen of +England, we may go on to learn fully what it is to be a citizen of the +kingdom of God. + +For this is part of the whole counsel of God, which He reveals in His +Holy Bible; and this also we must not, and dare not, shun declaring in +these days. + + + + +SERMON XIII. +ABRAHAM’S OBEDIENCE. + + + HEBREWS, xi. 17–19. + + “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that + had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom + it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that + God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he + received him in a figure.” + +IN this chapter we come to the crowning point of Abraham’s history, the +highest step and perfection of his faith; beyond which it seems as if +man’s trust in God could no further go. + +You know, most of you, doubtless, that Isaac, Abraham’s son, was come to +him out of the common course of nature—when he and his wife, Sarah, were +of an age which seemed to make all chance of a family utterly hopeless. +You remember how God promised Abraham that this boy should be born to him +at a certain time, when He appeared to him on the plains of Mamre, in +that most solemn and deep-meaning vision of which I spoke to you last +Sunday. You remember, too, no doubt, most of you, how God had promised +Abraham again and again, that in his seed, his children, all the nations +of the earth should be blessed; so that all Abraham’s hopes were wrapped +up in this boy Isaac; he was his only son, whom he loved; he was the +child of his old age, his glory and his joy; he was the child of God’s +promises. Every time Abraham looked at him he felt that Isaac was a +wonderful child: that God had a great work for him to do; that from that +single boy a great nation was to spring, as many in multitude as the +stars in the sky, or the sand on the sea-shore, for the great Almighty +God had said it. And he knew, too, that from that boy, who was growing +up by him in his tent, all the nations in the earth should be blessed: so +that Isaac, his son, was to Abraham a daily sacrament, as I may say, a +sign and a pledge that God was with him, and would be true to him; that +as surely as God had wonderfully and beyond all hope given him that son, +so wonderfully and beyond all hope He would fulfil all His other +promises. Conceive, then, if you can, what Abraham’s astonishment, and +doubt, and terror, and misery, must have been at such a message as this +from the very God who had given Isaac to him: “And it came to pass after +these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and +he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only +son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and +offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I +will tell thee of.” + +What a storm of doubt it must have raised in Abraham’s mind! How unable +he must have been to say whether that message came from a good or bad +spirit, or commanded him to do a good action or a bad one; that the same +God who had said, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be +shed;” who had forbidden murder as the very highest of crimes, should +command him to shed the blood of his own son; that the same God who had +promised him that in Isaac all the nations of the earth should be +blessed, should command him to put to death that very son upon whom all +his hopes depended! Fearful, indeed, must have been the struggle in +Abraham’s mind, but the good and the right thought conquered at last. +His feeling was, no doubt, ‘This God who has blessed me so long, who has +guided me so long, whom I have obeyed so long, shall I not trust Him a +little further yet? how can I believe that He will do wrong? how can I +believe that He will lead me wrong? If it is really wrong that I should +kill my son, He will not let me do it: if it really is His will that I +should kill my son, _I will do it_. Whatever He says must be right; it +is agony and misery to me, but what of that? Do I not owe Him a thousand +daily and hourly blessings? Has He not led me hither, preserved me, +guided me, taught me the knowledge of Himself,—chosen me to be the father +of a great nation? Do I not owe Him everything? and shall I not bear +this sharp sorrow for His sake? I know, too, that if Isaac dies, all my +hope, all my joy, will die with him; that I shall have nothing left to +look for, nothing left to work for in this world. Nothing! shall I not +have God left to me? When Isaac is dead will the Lord die? will the Lord +change? will He grow weak?—Never! Years ago did He declare to me that He +was the Almighty God; I will believe that He will be always Almighty; I +will believe that though I kill my son, my son will be still in God’s +hands, and I shall be still in God’s hands, and that God is able to raise +him again, even from the dead. God can give him back to me, and if He +will _not_ give him back to me, He can fulfil His promises in a thousand +other ways. Ay, and He will fulfil His promises, for in Him is neither +deceit, nor fickleness, nor weakness, nor unrighteousness of any kind; +and, come what will, I will believe His promise and I will obey His +will.’ + +Some such thoughts as these, I suppose, passed through Abraham’s mind. +He could not have had a man’s heart in him indeed, if not only those +thoughts, but ten thousand more, sadder, and stranger, and more pitiful +than my weak brain can imagine, did not sweep like a storm through his +soul at that last and terrible temptation, but the Bible tells us nothing +of them: why should the Bible tell us anything of them? the Bible sets +forth Abraham as the faithful man, and therefore it simply tells us of +his faith, without telling us of his doubts and struggles before he +settled down into faith. It tells us, as it were, not how often the wind +shifted and twisted about during the tempest, but in what quarter the +wind settled when the tempest was over, and it began to blow steadily, +and fixedly, and gently, and all was bright, and mild, and still in +Abraham’s bosom again, just as a man’s mind will be bright, and gentle, +and calm, even at the moment he is going to certain death or fearful +misery, if he does but know that his suffering is his duty, and that his +trial is his heavenly Father’s will: and so all we read in the +Old-Testament account is simply, “And Abraham rose up early in the +morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and +Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, +and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day +Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said +unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go +yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of +the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he took the fire +in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac +spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father, and he said, Here am +I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the +lamb for a burnt-offering? and Abraham said, My son, God will provide +Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. So they went both of them together. +And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built +an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and +laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his +hand, and took the knife to slay his son.” + +Really if one is to consider the whole circumstances of Abraham’s trials, +they seem to have been infinite, more than mortal man could bear; more +than he could have borne, no doubt, if the same God who tried had not +rewarded his strength of mind by strengthening him still more, and +rewarded his faith by increasing his faith; when we consider the struggle +he must have had to keep the dreadful secret from the young man’s mother, +the tremendous effort of controlling himself, the long and frightful +journey, the necessity, and yet the difficulty he seems to have felt of +keeping the truth from his son, and yet of telling him the truth, which +he did in those wonderful words, “God shall provide Himself a lamb for a +burnt-offering” (on which I shall have occasion to speak presently); and, +last and worst of all, the perfect obedience and submission of his son; +for Isaac was not a child then, he was a young man of nearly thirty years +of age; strong and able enough, no doubt, to have resisted his aged +father, if he had chosen. But the very excellence of Isaac seems to have +been, that he did not resist, that he shewed the same perfect trust and +obedience to Abraham that Abraham did towards God; for he was led “as a +lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he +opened not his mouth,” for we read, “Abraham bound Isaac his son and laid +him on the wood.” Surely that was the bitterest pang of all, to see the +excellence of his son shine forth just when it was too late for him to +enjoy him—to find out what a perfect child he had, in simple trust and +utter obedience, just at the very moment when he was going to lose him: +“And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his +son.” + +At that point Abraham’s trial finished. He had shewn the completeness of +his faith by the completeness of his works, that is, by the completeness +of his obedience. He had utterly given up all for God. He had submitted +his will completely to God’s will. He had said in heart, as our Blessed +Lord said, “Father, if it be possible, let this woe pass from me, +nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt;” and thus I say, he was +justified by his works, by his actions; that is, by this faithful action +he proved the faithfulness of his heart, as the Angel said to him, “Now I +know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine +only son from me:” for as St. James says, “Was not Abraham our father +justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? +Seest thou,” says he, “how his faith wrought with his works;” how his +works were the tool or instrument which his faith used; and by his works +his faith was brought to perfection, as a tree is brought to perfection +when it bears fruit. “And so,” St. James continues, “the scripture was +fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him +for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then,” he +says, “how that by works a man is justified,” or shewn to be righteous +and faithful, “and not by faith only;” that is, not by the mere feeling +of faith, for, as he says, “as the body without the spirit is dead, so +faith without works is dead also.” For what is the sign of a being dead? +It is its not being able to do anything, not being able to work; because +there is no living and moving spirit in it. And what is the sign of a +man’s faith being dead? his faith not being able to _work_, because there +is no living spirit in it, but it is a mere dead, empty shell and form of +words,—a mere notion and thought about believing in a man’s head, but not +a living trust and loyalty to God in his heart. Therefore, says St. +James, “shew me thy faith without thy works,” if thou canst, “and I will +shew thee my faith by my works,” as Abraham did by offering up Isaac his +son. + +Oh! my friends, when people are talking about faith and works, and trying +to reconcile St. Paul and St. James, as they call it, because St. Paul +says Abraham was justified by faith, and St. James says Abraham was +justified by works, if they would but pray for the simple, childlike +heart, and the head of common sense, and look at their own children, who, +every time they go on a message for them, settle, without knowing it, +this mighty difference of man’s making between faith and works. You tell +a little child daily to do many things the meaning and use of which it +cannot understand; and the child has faith in what you tell it; and, +therefore, it does what you tell it, and so it shews its faith in you by +obedience in working for you. + +But to go on with the verses: “And the angel of the Lord called unto +Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, +saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not +withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and +in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and +as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the +gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth +be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” + +Now, here remark two things; first, that it was Abraham’s obedience in +giving up all to God, which called forth from God this confirmation of +God’s promises to him; and next, that God here promised him nothing new; +God did not say to him, ‘Because thou hast obeyed me in this great +matter, I will give thee some great reward over and above what I promised +thee.’ No; God merely promises him over again, but more solemnly than +ever, what He had promised him many years before. + +And so it will be with us, my friends, we must not expect to _buy_ God’s +favour by obeying Him,—we must not expect that the more we do for God, +the more God will be bound to do for us, as the Papists do. No; God has +done for us all that He will do. He has promised us all that He will +promise. He has provided us, as He provided Abraham, a lamb for the +burnt-offering, the Lamb without blemish and without spot, which taketh +away the sins of the world. We are His redeemed people—we _have_ a share +in His promises—He bids us believe _that_, and shew that we believe it by +living as redeemed men, not our own, but bought with a price, and created +anew in Christ Jesus to do good works; not that we may buy forgiveness by +them, but that we may shew by them that we believe that God _has_ +forgiven us already, and that when we have done all that is commanded us, +we are still unprofitable servants; for though we should give up at God’s +bidding our children, our wives, and our own limbs and lives, and shew as +utter faith in God, and complete obedience to God, as Abraham did, we +should only have done just what it was already our duty to do. + + + + +SERMON XIV. +OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. + + + 1 JOHN, ii. 13. + + “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the + Father.” + +I PREACHED some time ago a sermon on the whole of these most deep and +blessed verses of St. John. + +I now wish to speak to those who are of age to be confirmed three +separate sermons on three separate parts of these verses. First to those +whom St. John calls little children; next, to those whom He calls grown +men. To the first I will speak to-day; to the latter, by God’s help, +next Sunday. And may the Blessed One bring home my weak words to all +your hearts! + +Now for the meaning of “little children.” There are those who will tell +you that those words mean merely “weak believers,” “babes in grace,” and +so on. They mean that, no doubt; but they mean much more. They mean, +first of all, be sure, what they say. St. John would not have said +“little children,” if he had not meant little children. Surely God’s +apostle did not throw about his words at random, so as to leave them open +to mistakes, and want some one to step in and tell us that they do not +mean their plain, common-sense meaning, but something else. Holy +Scripture is too wisely written, and too awful a matter, to be trifled +with in that way, and cut and squared to suit our own fancies, and +explained away, till its blessed promises are made to mean anything or +nothing. + +No! By little children, St. John means here children in age,—of course +_Christian_ children and young people, for he was writing only to +Christians. He speaks to those who have been christened, and brought up, +more or less, as christened children should be. But, no doubt, when he +says little children, he means also all Christian people, whether they be +young or old, whose souls are still young, and weak, and unlearned. All, +however old they may be, who have not been confirmed—I do not merely mean +confirmed by the bishop, but confirmed by God’s grace,—all those who have +not yet come to a full knowledge of their own sins,—all who have not yet +been converted, and turned to God with their whole hearts and wills, who +have not yet made their full choice between God and sin,—all who have not +yet fought for themselves the battle which no man or angel can fight for +them—I mean the battle between their selfishness and their duty—the +battle between their love of pleasure and their fear of sin—the battle, +in short, between the devil and his temptations to darkness and shame, +and God and His promises of light, and strength, and glory,—all who have +not been converted to God, to them St. John speaks as little +children—people who are not yet strong enough to stand alone, and do +their duty on God’s side against sin, the world, and the devil. And all +of you here who have not yet made up your minds, who have not yet been +confirmed in soul,—whether you were confirmed by the bishop or not,—to +you I speak this day. + +Now, first of all, consider this,—that though St. John calls you “little +children,” because you are still weak, and your souls have not grown to +manhood, yet he does not speak to you as if you were heathens and knew +nothing about God; he says, “I have written unto you, little children, +because ye have known the Father.” Consider that; that was his reason +for all that he had written to them before; that they had known the +Father, the God who made heaven and earth—the Father of our Lord Jesus +Christ—the Father of little children—my Father and your Father, my +friends, little as we may behave like what we are, sons of the Almighty +God. That was St. John’s reason for speaking to little children, because +they had already known the Father. So he does not speak to them as if +they were heathens; and I dare not speak to you, young people, as if you +were heathens, however foolish and sinful some of you may be; I dare not +do it, whatever many preachers may do nowadays; not because I should be +unfair and hard upon you merely, but because I should lie, and deny the +great grace and mercy which God has shewn you, and count the blood of the +covenant, with which you were sprinkled at baptism, an unholy thing; and +do despite to the spirit of grace which has been struggling in your +hearts, trying to lead you out of sin into good, out of light into +darkness, ever since you were born. Therefore, as St. John said, I say, +I preach this day to you, young people, because you have known your +Father in heaven! + +But some of you may say to me, ‘You put a great honour on us; but we do +not see that we have any right to it. You tell us that we have a very +noble and awful knowledge—that we know the Father. We are afraid that we +do not know Him; we do not even rightly understand of whom or what you +preach.’ + +Well, my young friends, these are very awful words of St. John; such +blessed and wonderful words, that if we did not find them in the Bible, +it would be madness and insolence to God of us to say such a thing, not +merely of little children, but even of the greatest, and wisest, and +holiest man who ever lived; but there they are in the Bible—the blessed +Lord Himself has told us all, “When ye pray, say, Our Father in +heaven;”—and I dare not keep them back because they sound strange. They +may _sound_ strange, but they _are not_ strange. Any one who has ever +watched a young child’s heart, and seen how naturally and at once the +little innocent takes in the thought of his Father which is in heaven, +knows that it is not a strange thought—that it comes to a little child +almost by instinct—that his Father in heaven seems often to be just the +thought which fills his heart most completely, has most power over +him,—the thought which has been lying ready in his heart all the time, +only waiting for some one to awaken it, and put it into words for him; +that he will do right when you put him in mind of his Father above the +skies sooner than he will for a hundred punishments. For truly says the +poet,— + + “Heaven lies about us in our infancy, + Not in complete forgetfulness, + Nor yet in utter nakedness, + But trailing clouds of glory do we come, + From God who is our home!” + +And yet more truly said the Blessed One Himself, “That children’s angels +always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven;” and that “of +such is the kingdom of heaven.” Yet you say, some of you, perhaps, +‘Whatever knowledge of our Father in heaven we had, or ought to have had, +when we were young, we have lost it now. We have forgotten what we +learnt at school. We have been what you would call sinful; at all +events, we have been thinking all our time about a great many things +beside religion, and they have quite put out of our head the thought that +God is our Father. So how have we known our Father in heaven?’ + +Well, then, to answer that,—consider the case of your earthly fathers, +the men who begot you and brought you up. Now there might be one of you +who had never seen his father since he was born, but all he knows of him +is, that his name is so and so, and that he is such and such a sort of +man, as the case might be; and that he lives in such and such a place, +far away, and that now and then he hears talk of his father, or receives +letters or presents from him. Suppose I asked that young man, Do you +know your father? would he not answer—would he not have a right to +answer, ‘Yes, I know him. I never saw him, or was acquainted with him, +but I know him well enough; I know who he is, and where to find him, and +what sort of a man he is.’ That young man might not know his father’s +face, or love him, or care for him at all. He might have been +disobedient to his father; he might have forgotten for years that he had +a father at all, and might have lived on his own way, just as if he had +no father. But when he was put in mind of it all, would he not say at +once, ‘Yes, I know my father well enough; his name is so and so, and he +lives at such and such a place. I know my father.’ + +Well, my young friends, and if this would be true of your fathers on +earth, it is just as true of your Father in heaven. You have never seen +Him—you may have forgotten Him—you may have disobeyed Him—you may have +lived on your own way, as if you had no Father in heaven; still you know +that you have a Father in heaven. You pray, surely, sometimes. What do +you say? “Our Father which art in heaven.” So you have a Father in +heaven, else what right have you to use those words,—what right have you +to say to God, “Our Father in heaven,” if you believe that you have no +Father there? That would be only blasphemy and mockery. I can well +understand that you have often said those words without thinking of +them—without thinking what a blessed, glorious, soul-saving meaning there +was in them; but I will not believe that you never once in your whole +lives said, “Our Father which art in heaven,” without believing them to +be true words. What I want is, for you _always_ to believe them to be +true. Oh young men and young women, boys and girls—believe those words, +believe that when you say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” you speak +God’s truth about yourselves; that the evil devil rages when he hears you +speak those words, because they are the words which prove that you do not +belong to him and to hell, but to God and the kingdom of heaven. Oh, +believe those words—behave as if you believed those words, and you shall +see what will come of them, through all eternity for ever. + +Well, but you will ask, What has all this to do with confirmation? It +has all to do with confirmation. Because you are God’s children, and +know that you are God’s children, you are to go and confirm before the +bishop your right to be called God’s children. You are to go and claim +your share in God’s kingdom. If you were heir to an estate, you would go +and claim your estate from those who held it. You are heirs to an +estate—you are heirs to the kingdom of heaven; go to confirmation, and +claim that kingdom, say, ‘I am a citizen of God’s kingdom. Before the +bishop and the congregation, here I proclaim the honour which God has put +upon me.’ If you have a father, you will surely not be ashamed to own +him! How much more when the Almighty God of heaven is your Father! You +will not be ashamed to own Him? Then go to confirmation; for by doing so +you own God for your Father. If you have an earthly father, you will not +be ashamed to say, ‘I know I ought to honour him and obey him;’ how much +more when your father is the Almighty God of heaven, who sent His own Son +into the world to die for you, who is daily heaping you with blessings +body and soul! You will not be ashamed to confess that you ought to +honour and obey Him? Then go to confirmation, and say, ‘I here take upon +myself the vow and promise made for me at my baptism. I am God’s child, +and therefore I will honour, love, and obey Him. It is my duty; and it +shall be my delight henceforward to work for God, to do all the good I +can to my life’s end, because my Father in heaven loves the good, and has +commanded me, poor, weak countryman though I be, to work for Him in +well-doing.’ So I say, If God is your Father, go and own Him at +confirmation. If God is your Father, go and promise to love and obey Him +at confirmation; and see if He does not, like a strong and loving Father +as He is, confirm you in return,—see if He does not give you strength of +heart, and peace of mind, and clear, quiet, pure thoughts, such as a man +or woman ought to have who considers that the great God, who made the sky +and stars above their heads, is their Father. But, perhaps, there are +some of you, young people, who do not wish to be confirmed. And why? +Now, look honestly into your own hearts and see the reason. Is it not, +after all, because you don’t like the _trouble_? Because you are afraid +that being confirmed will force you to think seriously and be religious; +and you had rather not take all that trouble yet? Is it not because you +do not like to look your ownselves in the face, and see how foolishly you +have been living, and how many bad habits you will have to give up, and +what a thorough conversion and change you must make, if you are to be +confirmed in earnest? Is not this why you do not wish to be confirmed? +And what does that all come to? That though you know you are God’s +children, you do not like to tell people publicly that you are God’s +children, lest they should expect you to behave like God’s children—that +is it. Now, young men and young women, think seriously once for all—if +you have any common _sense_—I do not say grace, left in you—think! Are +you not playing a fearful game? You would not dare to deny your fathers +on earth—to refuse to obey them, because you know well enough that they +would punish you—that if you were too old for punishment, your +neighbours, at least, would despise you for mean, ungrateful, and +rebellious children! But because you cannot _see_ God your Father, +because you have not some sign or wonder hanging in the sky to frighten +you into good behaviour, therefore you are not afraid to turn your backs +on him. My friends, it is ill mocking the living God. Mark my words! +If a man will not turn He will whet His sword, and make us feel it. You +who can be confirmed, and know in your hearts that you ought to be +confirmed, and ought to be _really_ converted and confirmed in soul, and +make no mockery of it,—mark my words! If you will not be converted and +confirmed of your own good will, God, if He has any love left for you, +will convert and confirm you against your will. He will let you go your +own ways till you find out your own folly. He will bring you low with +affliction perhaps, with sickness, with ill-luck, with shame. Some way +or other, He will chastise you, again and again, till you are forced to +come back to Him, and take His service on you. If He loves you, He will +drive you home to your Father’s house. You may laugh at my words now, +see if you laugh at them when your hairs are grey. Oh, young people, if +you wish in after-life to save yourselves shame and sorrow, and perhaps, +in the world to come eternal death, come to confirmation, acknowledge God +for your Father, promise to come and serve Him faithfully, make those +blessed words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven,” your glory +and your honour, your guide and guard through life, your title-deeds to +heaven. You who know that the Great God is your Father, will you be +ashamed to own yourselves His sons? + + + + +SERMON XV. +THE TRANSFIGURATION. + + + MARK, ix. 2. + + “Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a + high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.” + +THE second lesson for this morning service brings us to one of the most +wonderful passages in our blessed Saviour’s whole stay on earth, namely, +His transfiguration. The story, as told by the different Evangelists, is +this,—That our Lord took Peter, and John, and James his brother, and led +them up into a high mountain apart, which mountain may be seen to this +very day. It is a high peaked hill, standing apart from all the hills +around it, with a small smooth space of ground upon the top, very fit, +from its height and its loneliness, for a transaction like the +transfiguration, which our Lord wished no one but these three to behold. +There the apostles fell asleep; while our blessed Lord, who had deeper +thoughts in His heart than they had, knelt down and prayed to _His_ +Father and _our_ Father, which is in heaven. And as He prayed, the form +of His countenance was changed, and His raiment became shining, white as +the light; and there appeared Moses and Elijah talking with Him. They +talked of matters which the angels desire to look into, of the greatest +matters that ever happened in this earth since it was made; of the +redemption of the world, and of the death which Christ was to undergo at +Jerusalem. And as they were talking, the apostles awoke, and found into +what glorious company they had fallen while they slept. What they felt +no mortal man can tell—that moment was worth to them all the years they +had lived before. When they had gone up with Jesus into the mount, He +was but the poor carpenter’s son, wonderful enough to _them_, no doubt, +with His wise, searching words, and His gentle, loving looks, that drew +to Him all men who had hearts left in them, and wonderful enough, too, +from all the mighty miracles which they had seen Him do, but still He was +merely a man like themselves, poor, and young, and homeless, who felt the +heat, and the cold, and the rough roads, as much as they did. They could +feel that He spake as never man spake—they could see that God’s spirit +and power was on Him as it had never been on any man in their time. God +had even enlightened their reason by His Spirit, to know that He was the +Christ, the Son of the living God. But still it does seem they did not +fully understand who and what He was; they could not understand how the +Son of God should come in the form of a despised and humble man; they did +not understand that His glory was to be a spiritual glory. They expected +His kingdom to be a kingdom of this world—they expected His glory to +consist in palaces, and armies, and riches, and jewels, and all the +magnificence with which Solomon and the old Jewish kings were adorned; +they thought that He was to conquer back again from the Roman emperor all +the inestimable treasures of which the Romans had robbed the Jews, and +that He was to make the Jewish nation, like the Roman, the conquerors and +masters of all the nations of the earth. So that it was a puzzling thing +to their minds why He should be King of the Jews at the very time that He +was but a poor tradesman’s son, living on charity. It was to shew them +that His kingdom was the kingdom of heaven that He was transfigured +before them. + +They saw His glory—the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full +of grace and truth. The form of His countenance was changed; all the +majesty, and courage, and wisdom, and love, and resignation, and pity, +that lay in His noble heart, shone out through His face, while He spoke +of His death which He should accomplish at Jerusalem—the Holy Ghost that +was upon Him, the spirit of wisdom, and love, and beauty—the spirit which +produces every thing that is lovely in heaven and earth: in soul and +body, blazed out through His eyes, and all His glorious countenance, and +made Him look like what He was—a God. My friends, what a sight! Would +it not be worth while to journey thousands of miles—to go through all +difficulties, dangers, that man ever heard of, for one sight of that +glorious face, that we might fall down upon our knees before it, and, if +it were but for a moment, give way to the delight of finding something +that we could utterly love and utterly adore? I say, the delight of +finding something to worship; for if there is a noble, if there is a +holy, if there is a spiritual feeling in man, it is the feeling which +bows him down before those who are greater, and wiser, and holier than +himself. I say, that feeling of respect for what is noble is a heavenly +feeling. The man who has lost it—the man who feels no respect for those +who are above him in age, above him in knowledge, above him in wisdom, +above him in goodness,—_that_ man shall in no wise enter into the kingdom +of heaven. It is only the man who is like a little child, and feels the +delight of having some one to look up to, who will ever feel delight in +looking up to Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings. +It was the want of respect, it was the dislike of feeling any one +superior to himself, which made the devil rebel against God, and fall +from heaven. It will be the feeling of complete respect—the feeling of +kneeling at the feet of one who is immeasurably superior to ourselves in +every thing, that will make up the greatest happiness of heaven. This is +a hard saying, and no man can understand it, save he to whom it is given +by the Spirit of God. + +That the apostles _had_ this feeling of immeasurable respect for Christ +there is no doubt, else they would never have been apostles. But they +felt more than this. There were other wonders in that glorious vision +besides the countenance of our Lord. His raiment, too, was changed, and +became all brilliant, white as the light itself. Was not _that_ a lesson +to them? Was it not as if our Lord had said to them, ‘I am a king, and +have put on glorious apparel, but whence does the glory of my raiment +come? _I_ have no need of fine linen, and purple, and embroidery, the +work of men’s hands; _I_ have no need to send my subjects to mines and +caves to dig gold and jewels to adorn my crown: the earth is mine and the +fulness thereof. All this glorious earth, with its trees and its +flowers, its sunbeams and its storms, is _mine_. _I_ made it—_I_ can do +what I will with it. All the mysterious laws by which the light and the +heat flow out for ever from God’s throne, to lighten the sun, and the +moon, and the stars of heaven—they are mine. _I_ am the light of the +world—the light of men’s bodies as well of their souls; and here is my +proof of it. Look at Me. I am He that “decketh Himself with light as it +were with a garment, who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, +and walketh upon the wings of the wind.” This was the message which +Christ’s glory brought the apostles—a message which they could never +forget. The spiritual glory of His countenance had shewn them that He +was a spiritual king—that His strength lay in the spirit of power, and +wisdom, and beauty, and love, which God had given Him without measure; +and it shewed them, too, that there was such a thing as a spiritual body, +such a body as each of us some day shall have if we be found in Christ at +the resurrection of the just—a body which shall not hide a man’s spirit, +when it becomes subject to the wear and tear of life, and disease, and +decay; but a spiritual body—a body which shall be filled with our +spirits, which shall be perfectly obedient to our spirits—a body through +which the glory of our spirits shall shine out, as the glory of Christ’s +spirit shone out through His body at the transfiguration. “Brethren, we +know not yet what we shall be, but this we do know, that when He shall +appear, we shall be _like Him_, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John, +iii. 3.) + +Thus our Lord taught them by His appearance that there is such a thing as +a spiritual body, while, by the glory of His raiment, in addition to His +other miracles, He taught them that He had power over the laws of nature, +and could, in His own good time, “change the bodies of their humiliation, +that they might be made like unto His glorious body, according to the +mighty working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself.” + +But there was yet another lesson which the apostles learnt from the +transfiguration of our Lord. They beheld Moses and Elijah talking with +Him:—Moses the great lawgiver of their nation, Elijah the chief of all +the Jewish prophets. We must consider this a little to find out the +whole depth of its meaning. You remember how Christ had spoken of +Himself as having come, not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to +fulfil them. You remember, too, how He had always said that He was the +person of whom the Law and the Prophets had spoken. + +Here was an actual sign and witness that His words were true—here was +Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the chief of the Prophets, +talking with Him, bearing witness to Him in their own persons, and +shewing, too, that it was His death and His perfect sacrifice that they +had been shadowing forth in the sacrifices of the law and in the dark +speeches of prophecy. For they talked with Him of His death, which He +was to accomplish at Jerusalem. What more perfect testimony could the +apostles have had to shew them that Jesus of Nazareth, their Master, was +He of whom the Law and the Prophets spoke—that He was indeed the Christ +for whom Moses and Elijah, and all the saints of old, had looked; and +that He was come not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil +them? We can hardly understand the awe and the delight with which the +disciples must have beheld those blessed Three—Moses, and Elias, and +Jesus Christ, their Lord, talking together before their very eyes. For +of all men in the world, Moses and Elias were to them the greatest. All +true-hearted Israelites, who knew the history of their nation, and +understood the promises of God, must have felt that Moses and Elias were +the two greatest heroes and saviours of their nation, whom God had ever +yet raised up. And the joy and the honour of thus seeing them face to +face, the very men whom they had loved and reverenced in their thoughts, +whom they had heard and read of from their childhood, as the greatest +ornaments and glories of their nation—the joy and the honour, I say, of +that unexpected sight, added to the wonderful majesty which was suddenly +revealed to their transfigured Lord, seemed to have been too much for +them—they knew not what to say. Such company seemed to them for the +moment heaven enough; and St. Peter first finding words exclaimed, “Lord, +it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt let us build three +tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” Not, I +fancy, that they intended to worship Moses and Elias, but that they felt +that Moses and Elias, as well as Christ, had each a divine message, which +must be listened to; and therefore, they wished that each of them might +have his own tabernacle, and dwell among men, and each teach his own +particular doctrine and wisdom in his own school. It may seem strange +that they should put Moses and Elias so on an equality with Christ, but +the truth was, that as yet they understood Moses and Elias better than +they did Christ. They had heard and read of Moses and Elijah all their +lives—they were acquainted with all their actions and words—they knew +thoroughly what great and noble men the Spirit of God had made them, but +they did _not_ understand Christ in like manner. They did not yet _feel_ +that God had given Him the Spirit without measure—they did not understand +that He was not only to be a lawgiver and a prophet, but a sacrifice for +sin, the conqueror of death and hell, who was to lead captivity captive, +and receive inestimable gifts for men. Much less did they think that +Moses and Elijah were but His servants—that all _their_ spirit and +_their_ power had been given by Him. But this also they were taught a +moment afterwards; for a bright cloud overshadowed them, hiding from them +the glory of God the Father, whom no man hath seen or can see, who dwells +in the light which no man can approach unto; and out of that cloud, a +voice saying, “This is my beloved Son; hear ye Him;” and then, hiding +their faces in fear and wonder, they fell to the ground; and when they +looked up, the vision and the voice had alike passed away, and they saw +no man but Christ alone. Was not that enough for them? Must not the +meaning of the vision have been plain to them? They surely understood +from it that Moses and Elijah were, as they had ever believed them to be, +great and good, true messengers of the living God; but that their message +and their work was done—that Christ, whom they had looked for, was +come—that all the types of the law were realised, and all the prophecies +fulfilled, and that henceforward Christ, and Christ alone, was to be +their Prophet and their Lawgiver. Was not this plainly the meaning of +the Divine voice? For when they wished to build three tabernacles, and +to honour Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, as separate from +Christ—that moment the heavenly voice warned them: ‘_This—this_ is my +beloved Son—hear ye _Him_, and Him only, henceforward.’ And Moses and +Elijah, their work being done, forthwith vanished away, leaving Christ +alone to fulfil the Law and the prophets, and all other wisdom and +righteousness that ever was or shall be. This is another lesson which +Christ’s transfiguration was meant to teach and us, that Christ alone is +to be henceforward our guide; that no philosophies or doctrines of any +sort which are not founded on a true faith in Jesus Christ, and His life +and death, are worth listening to; that God has manifested forth His +beloved Son, and that Him, and Him only, we are to hear. I do not mean +to say that Christ came into the world to put down human learning. I do +not mean that we are to despise human learning, as so many are apt to do +nowadays; for Christ came into the world not to destroy human learning, +but to fulfil it—to sanctify it—to make human learning true, and strong, +and useful, by giving it a sure foundation to stand upon, which is the +belief and knowledge of His blessed self. Just as Christ came not to +destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them—to give them a +spirit and a depth in men’s eyes which they never had before—just so, He +came to fulfil all true philosophies, all the deep thoughts which men had +ever thought about this wonderful world and their own souls, by giving +_them_ a spirit and a depth which _they_ never had before. Therefore let +no man tempt you to despise learning, for it is holy to the Lord. + +There is one more lesson which we may learn from our Lord’s +transfiguration; when St. Peter said, “_Lord_! it is good for us to be +here,” he spoke a truth. It _was_ good for him to be there; +nevertheless, Christ did not listen to his prayer. He and his two +companions were not allowed to _stay_ in that glorious company. And why? +Because they had a work to do. They had glad tidings of great joy to +proclaim to every creature, and it was, after all, but a selfish prayer, +to wish to be allowed to stay in ease and glory on the mount while the +whole world was struggling in sin and wickedness below them: for there is +no meaning in a man’s calling himself a Christian, or saying that he +loves God, unless he is ready to hate what God hates, and to fight +against that which Christ fought against, that is, sin. No one has any +right to call himself a servant of God, who is not trying to do away with +some of the evil in the world around him. And, therefore, Christ was +merciful, when, instead of listening to St. Peter’s prayer, He led the +apostles down again from the mount, and sent them forth, as He did +afterwards, to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations. For +Christ put a higher honour on St. Peter by that than if He had let him +stay on the mount all his life, to behold His glory, and worship and +adore. And He made St. Peter more like Himself by doing so. For what +was Christ’s life? Not one of deep speculations, quiet thoughts, and +bright visions, such as St. Peter wished to lead; but a life of fighting +against evil; earnest, awful prayers and struggles within, continual +labour of body and mind without, insult and danger, and confusion, and +violent exertion, and bitter sorrow. This was Christ’s life—this is the +life of almost every good man I ever heard of;—this was St. Peter, and +St. James, and St. John’s life afterwards. This was Christ’s cup, which +they were to drink of as well as He;—this was the baptism of fire with +which they were to be baptised of as well as He;—this was to be their +fight of faith;—this was the tribulation through which they, like all +other great saints, were to enter into the kingdom of heaven; for it is +certain that the harder a man fights against evil, the harder evil will +fight against him in return: but it is certain, too, that the harder a +man fights against evil, the more he is like his Saviour Christ, and the +more glorious will be his reward in heaven. It is certain, too, that +what was good for St. Peter is good for us. It is good for a man to have +holy and quiet thoughts, and at moments to see into the very deepest +meaning of God’s word and God’s earth, and to have, as it were, heaven +opened before his eyes; and it is good for a man sometimes actually to +_feel_ his heart overpowered with the glorious majesty of God, and to +_feel_ it gushing out with love to his blessed Saviour: but it is not +good for him to stop there, any more than it was for the apostles; they +had to leave that glorious vision and come down from the mount, and do +Christ’s work; and _so have we_; for, believe me, one word of warning +spoken to keep a little child out of sin,—one crust of bread given to a +beggar-man, because he is your brother, for whom Christ died,—one angry +word checked, when it is on your lips, for the sake of Him who was meek +and lowly in heart; in short, any, the smallest endeavour of this kind to +lessen the quantity of evil, which is in yourselves, and in those around +you, is worth all the speculations, and raptures, and visions, and +frames, and feelings in the world; for those are the good _fruits_ of +faith, whereby alone the tree shall be known whether it be good or evil. + + + + +SERMON XVI. +THE CRUCIFIXION. + + + ISAIAH, liii. 7. + + “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” + +ON this day, my friends, was offered up upon the cross the Lamb of +God,—slain in eternity and heaven before the foundation of the world, but +slain in time and space upon this day. All the old sacrifices, the lambs +which were daily offered up to God in the Jewish Temple, the lambs which +Abel, and after him the patriarchs offered up, the Paschal Lamb slain at +the Passover, our Eastertide, all these were but figures of Christ—tokens +of the awful and yet loving law of God, that without shedding of blood +there is no remission of sin. But the blood of dumb animals could not +take away sin. All mankind had sinned, and it was, therefore, necessary +that all mankind should suffer. Therefore He suffered, the new Adam, the +Man of all men, in whom all mankind were, as it were, collected into one +and put on a new footing with God; that henceforward to be a man might +mean to be a holy being, a forgiven being, a being joined to God, wearing +the likeness of the Son of God—the human soul and body in which He +offered up all human souls and bodies on the cross. For man was +originally made in Christ’s likeness; He was the Word of God who walked +in the garden of Eden, who spoke to Adam with a human voice; He was the +Lord who appeared to the patriarchs in a man’s figure, and ate and drank +in Abraham’s tent, and spoke to him with a human voice; He was the God of +Israel, whom the Jewish elders saw with their bodily eyes upon Mount +Sinai, and under His feet a pavement as of a sapphire stone. From Him +all man’s powers came—man’s speech, man’s understanding. All that is +truly noble in man was a dim pattern of Him in whose likeness man was +originally made. And when man had fallen and sinned, and Christ’s image +was fading more and more out of him, and the likeness of the brutes +growing more and more in him year by year, then came Christ, the head and +the original pattern of all men, to claim them for His own again, to do +in their name what they could never do for themselves, to offer Himself +up a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world: so that He is the real +sacrifice, the real lamb; as St. John said when he pointed Him out to his +disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the +world!” + +Oh, think of that strong and patient Lamb, who on this day shewed Himself +perfect in fortitude and nobleness, perfect in meekness and resignation. +Think of Him who, in His utter love to us, endured the cross, despising +the shame. And what a cross! Truly said the prophet, “His visage was +marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men:” in +hunger and thirst, in tears and sighs, bruised and bleeding, His forehead +crowned with thorns, His sides torn with scourges, His hands and feet +gored with nails, His limbs stretched from their sockets, naked upon the +shameful cross, the Son of God hung, lingering slowly towards the last +gasp, in the death of the felon and the slave! The most shameful sight +that this earth ever saw, and yet the most glorious sight. The most +shameful sight, at which the sun in heaven veiled his face, as if +ashamed, and the skies grew black, as if to hide those bleeding limbs +from the foul eyes of men; and yet the noblest sight, for in that death +upon the cross shone out the utter fullness of all holiness, the utter +fullness of all fortitude, the utter fullness of that self-sacrificing +love, which had said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which +was lost;” the utter fullness of obedient patience, which could say, +“Father, not My will but Thine be done;” the utter fullness of generous +forgiveness, which could pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not +what they do;” the utter fullness of noble fortitude and endurance, which +could say at the very moment when a fearful death stared Him in the face, +“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to the Father, and He will send me +at once more than twelve armies of angels? But how then would the +Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?” + +Oh, my friends, look to Him, the author and perfecter of all faith, all +trust, all loyal daring for the sake of duty and of God! Look at His +patience. See how He endured the cross, despising the shame. See how He +endured—how patience had her perfect work in Him—how in all things He was +more than conqueror. What gentleness, what calmness, what silence, what +infinite depths of Divine love within Him! A heart which neither shame, +nor torture, nor insult, could stir from its Godlike resolution. When +looking down from that cross He beheld none almost but enemies, heard no +word but mockery; when those who passed by reviled Him, wagging their +heads and saying, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save;” His only +answer was a prayer for forgiveness for that besotted mob who were +yelling beneath Him like hounds about their game. Consider Him, and then +consider ourselves, ruffled and put out of temper by the slightest cross +accident, the slightest harsh word, too often by the slightest pain—not +to mention insults, for we pride ourselves in not bearing them. Try, my +friends, if you can, even in the dimmest way, fancy yourselves for one +instant in His place this day 1815 years. Fancy yourselves hanging on +that cross—fancy that mocking mob below—fancy—but I dare not go on with +the picture. Only think—think what would have been _your_ temper there, +and then you may get some slight notion of the boundless love and the +boundless endurance of the Saviour whom _we_ love so little, for whose +sake most of us will not endure the trouble of giving up a single sin. + +And then consider that it was all of His own free will; that at any +moment, even while He was hanging upon the cross, He might have called to +earth and sun, to heaven and to hell, “Stop! thus far, but no further,” +and they would have obeyed Him; and all that cross, and agony, and the +fierce faces of those furious Jews, would have vanished away like a +hideous dream when one awakes. For they lied in their mockery. Any +moment He might have been free, triumphant, again in His eternal bliss, +but He would not. He Himself kept Himself on that cross till His +Father’s will was fulfilled, and the sacrifice was finished, and we were +saved. And then at last, when there was no more human nobleness, no more +agony left for Him to fulfil, no gem in the crown of holiness which He +had not won as His own, no drop in the cup of misery which He had not +drained as His own; when at last He was made perfect through suffering, +and His strength had been made perfect in weakness, then He bowed that +bleeding, thorn-crowned head, and said, “It is finished. Father, into +Thy hands I commend my spirit.” And so He died. + +How can our poor words, our poor deeds, thank Him? How mean and paltry +our deepest gratitude, our highest loyalty, when compared with Him to +whom it is due—that adorable victim, that perfect sin-offering, who this +day offered up Himself upon the altar of the cross, in the fire of His +own boundless zeal for the kingdom of God, His Father, and of His +boundless love for us, His sinful brothers! “Oh, thou blessed Jesus! +Saviour, agonising for us! God Almighty, who did make Thyself weak for +the love of us! oh, write that love upon our hearts so deeply that +neither pleasure nor sorrow, life nor death, may wipe it away! Thou hast +sacrificed Thyself for us, oh, give us the hearts to sacrifice ourselves +for Thee! Thou art the Vine, we are the branches. Let Thy priceless +blood shed for us on this day flow like life-giving sap through all our +hearts and minds, and fill us with Thy righteousness, that we may be +sacrifices fit for Thee. Stir us up to offer to Thee, O Lord, our +bodies, our souls, our spirits, in all we love and all we learn, in all +we plan and all we do, to offer our labours, our pleasures, our sorrows, +to Thee; to work for Thy kingdom through them, to live as those who are +not their own, but bought with Thy blood, fed with Thy body; and enable +us now, in Thy most holy Sacrament, to offer to Thee our repentance, our +faith, our prayers, our praises, living, reasonable, and spiritual +sacrifices,—Thine from our birth-hour, Thine now, and Thine for ever!” + + + + +SERMON XVII. +THE RESURRECTION. + + + LUKE, xxiv. 6. + + “He is not here—He is risen.” + +WE are assembled here to-day, my friends, to celebrate the joyful memory +of our blessed Saviour’s Resurrection. All Friday night, Saturday, and +Saturday night, His body lay in the grave; His soul was—where we cannot +tell. St. Peter tells us that He went and preached to the spirits in +prison—the sinners of the old world, who are kept in the place of +departed souls—most likely in the depths of the earth, in the great +fire-kingdom, which boils and flames miles below our feet, and breaks out +here and there through the earth’s solid crust in burning mountains and +streams of fire. There some say—and the Bible seems to say—sinful souls +are kept in chains until the judgment-day; and thither they say Christ +went to preach—no doubt to save some of those sinful souls who had never +heard of Him. However this may be, for those two nights and day there +was no sign, no stir in the grave where Christ was laid. His body seemed +dead—the stone lay still over the mouth of the tomb where Joseph and +Nicodemus laid him; the seal which Pilate had put on it was unbroken; the +soldiers watched and watched, but no one stirred; the priests and +Pharisees were keeping their sham Passover, thinking, no doubt, that they +were well rid of Christ and of His rebukes for ever. + +But early on the Sunday morn—this day, as it might be—in the grey dawn of +morning there came a change—a wondrous change. There was a great +earthquake; the solid ground and rocks were stirred—the angel of the Lord +came down from heaven, and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat +upon it, waiting for the King of glory to arise from His slumber, and go +forth the conqueror of Death. + +His countenance was like lightning, and His raiment white as snow; and +for fear of Him those fierce, hard soldiers, who feared neither God nor +man, shook, and became as dead men. And Christ arose and went forth. +How he rose—how he looked when he arose, no man can tell, for no man saw. +Only before the sun was risen came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, +and found the stone rolled away, and saw the angels sitting, clothed in +white, who said, “Fear not, for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was +crucified. He is not here, for He is risen. Come, see the place where +the Lord lay.” + +What must they have thought, poor, faithful souls, who came, lonely and +broken-hearted, to see the place where _He_, their only hope, was, as +they thought, shut up and lost for ever, to hear that He was risen and +gone? Half terrified, half delighted, they went back with other women +who had come on the same errand, with spices to anoint the blessed body, +and told the apostles. Peter and John ran to the sepulchre, and saw the +linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his blessed head, +wrapped together by itself. They then believed. Then first broke on +them the meaning of His old saying, that He must rise from the dead; and +so, wondering and doubting what to do, they went back home. + +But Mary—faithful, humble Mary—stood without, by the sepulchre, weeping. +The angels called to her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” “They have taken +away my Lord,” said she; “and I know not where they have laid him.” + +Then, in a moment, out of the air, He appeared behind her. His body had +been changed; it was now a glorified, spiritual body, which could appear +and disappear when and how he liked. She turned back, and saw Him +standing, but she knew Him not. A wondrous change had come over Him +since last she saw Him hanging, bleeding, pale, and dying, on the cross +of shame. “Woman,” said He, “why weepest thou?” She, fancying it was +the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me +where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, +“Mary.” At the sound of that beloved voice—His own voice—calling by her +name, her recollection came back to her. She knew Him—knew Him for her +risen Lord; and, falling at His feet, cried out, “My Master!” + +So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rose from the dead! + +Now come the questions, _Why_ did Christ rise from the dead?—and _how_ +did he rise? And, first, I will say a few words about how he rose from +the dead. And this the Bible will answer for us, as it will every thing +else about the spirit-world. Christ, says the Bible, was put to death in +the flesh; but quickened, that is, brought to life, by the Spirit. Now +what is the Spirit but the Lord and Giver of Life,—life of all sorts—life +to the soul—life to the body—life to the trees and plants around us? +With that Spirit Christ is filled infinitely without measure; it is _His_ +Spirit. He is the Prince of Life; and the Spirit which gives life is His +Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son. _Therefore_ the gates of +hell could not prevail against Him—_therefore_ the heavy grave-stone +could not hold Him down—_therefore_ His flesh could not see corruption +and decay as other bodies do; not because His body was different from +other bodies in its substance, but because _He_ was filled, body and +soul, with the great Spirit of Life. For this is the great business of +the Spirit of God, in all nature, to bring life out of death—new +generations out of old. What says David? “When Thou, O God, turnest +away Thy face, things die and return again to the dust; when Thou lettest +Thy breath (which is the same as Thy spirit) go forth, they are made, and +Thou renewest the face of the earth.” This is the way that seeds, +instead of rotting and perishing, spring up and become new plants—God +breathes His spirit on them. The seeds must have heat, and damp, and +darkness, and electricity, before they can sprout; but the heat, and +damp, and darkness, do not make them sprout; they want something more to +do that. A philosopher can find out exactly what a seed is made of, and +he might make a seed of the proper materials, and put it in the ground, +and electrify it—but would it grow? Not it. To grow it must have +life—life from the fountain of life—from God’s Spirit. All the +philosophers in the world have never yet been able, among all the things +which they have made, to make a single living thing—and say they never +shall; because, put together all they will, still one thing is +wanting—_life_, which God alone can give. Why do I say this? To shew +you what God’s Spirit is; to put you in mind that it is near you, above +you, and beneath you, about your path in your daily walk. And also, to +explain to you how Christ rose by that Spirit,—how your bodies, if you +claim your share in Christ’s Spirit, may rise by it too. + +You can see now, how Christ, being filled with God’s Spirit, rose of +Himself. People had risen from the dead before Christ’s time, but they +had been either raised in answer to the prayers of holy men who had God’s +Spirit, or at some peculiar time when heaven was opened, and God chose to +alter His laws (as we call it) for a moment. + +But here was a Man who rose of Himself. He was raised by God, and +therefore He raised Himself, for He was God. + +You all know what life and power a man’s own spirit will often give him. +You may have heard of “spirited” men in great danger, or “spirited” +soldiers in battle; when faint, wounded, having suffered enough, +apparently, to kill them twice over, still struggling or fighting on, and +doing the most desperate deeds to the last, from the strength and courage +of their spirits conquering pain and weakness, and keeping off, for a +time, death itself. We all know how madmen, diseased in their spirits, +will, when the fit is on them, have, for a few minutes, ten men’s +strength. Well, just think, if a man’s own spirit, when it is powerful, +can give his body such life and force, what must it have been with +Christ, who was filled full of _the_ Spirit—God’s Spirit, the Lord and +Giver of life. The Lord could not _help_ rising. All the disease, and +poison, and rottenness in the world, could not have made His body decay; +mountains on mountains could not have kept it down. His body!—the Prince +of Life!—He that was the life itself! It was impossible that death could +hold Him. + +And does not this shew us _why_ He rose, that we might rise with Him? +What did He say about His own death? “Except a corn of wheat fall into +the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth +much fruit.” He was the grain which fell into the ground and died, and +from His dead body sprung up another body—His glorified body; and we His +Church, His people, fed with that body—His members, however strange it +may sound—St. Paul said it, and therefore I dare to say it, little as I +know what it means—members of His flesh and of His bones. + +But think! Remember what St. Paul tells you about this very matter in +that glorious chapter which is read in the burial-service, “how when thou +sowest seed, thou sowest not that body which it will have, but bare +grain; but God gives it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed +its own body.” For the wheat-plant is in reality the same thing as the +wheat-seed, and its life the same life, different as the outside of it +may look. Dig it up just at this time of year, and you will find the +seed-corn all gone, sucked dry; the life of the wheat-seed has formed it +into a wheat-plant—yet it is the same individual thing. The substance of +the seed has gone into the root and the young blade; but it is the same +individual substance. You know it is, and though you cannot tell why, +yet you say “What a fine plant that seed has grown into,” because you +feel it is so, that the seed is the very same thing as the plant which +springs up from it, though its shape is changed, and its size, and its +colour, and the very stuff of which it was made is changed, since it was +a mere seed. And yet it is at bottom the same individual thing as the +seed was, with a new body and shape. + +So with Christ’s body. It was changed after He rose. It had gone +through pain, and weakness, and death, gone down to the lowest depth of +them, and conquered them, and passed triumphant through them and far +beyond their power. His body was now a nobler, a more beautiful, a +glorified body, a spiritual body, one which could do whatever His Spirit +chose to make it do, one which could never die again, one which could +come through closed doors, appear and vanish as He liked, instead of +being bound to walk the earth, and stand cold and heat, sickness and +weariness. + +Yet it was the very same body, just as the wheat-plant is the same as the +wheat-seed—the very same body. Every one knew His face again after His +resurrection. There was the very print of the nails to be seen in His +hands and feet, the spear-wound in His blessed side. So shall it be with +us, my friends. We shall rise again, and we shall be the same as we are +now, and yet not the same; our bodies shall be the same bodies, and yet +nobler, purer, spiritual bodies, which can know neither death, nor pain, +nor weariness. Then, never care, my friends, if we drop like ripe grain +into the bosom of mother earth,—if we are to spring up again as seedling +plants, after death’s long winter, on the resurrection morn. Truly says +the poet, {187} how + + “Mother earth, she gathers all + Into her bosom, great and small: + Oh could we look into her face, + We should not shrink from her embrace.” + +No, indeed! for if we look steadily with the wise, searching eye of faith +into the face of mother earth, we shall see how death is but the gate of +life, and this narrow churchyard, with its corpses close-packed +underneath the sod, would not seem to us a frightful charnel-house of +corruption. No! it would seem like what it is—a blessed, quiet, +seed-filled God’s garden, in which our forefathers, after their long-life +labour, lay sown by God’s friendly hand, waiting peaceful, one and all, +to spring up into leaf, and flower, and everlasting paradise-fruit, +beneath the breath of God’s Spirit at the last great day, when the Sun of +Righteousness arises in glory, and the summer begins which shall never +end. + +One and all, did I say? Alas! would God it were so! We cannot hope as +for all, but they are dead and gone, and we are not here to judge the +dead. They have another Judge, and all shall be as He wills. + +But we—we in whose limbs the breath of life still boils—we who can still +work, let us never forget all grain ripens not. There is some falls out +of the ear unripe, and perishes; some is picked out by birds; some +withers and decays in the ear, and yet gets into the barn with it, and is +sown too with the wheat, of which I never heard that any sprang up +again—ploughed up again it may be—a withered, dead husk of chaff as it +died, ploughed up to the resurrection of damnation to burn as chaff in +unquenchable fire; but the good seed alone, ripe, and safe with the +wheat-plant till it is ripe, that only will _spring up_ to the +resurrection of eternal life. + +Now, consider again that parable of the wheat-plant. After it has sprung +up, what does it next, but _tiller_?—and every new shoot that tillers out +bears its own ear, ripens its own grain, twenty, thirty, or forty stems, +and yet they are all the same plant, living with the life of that one +original seed. So with Christ’s Church—His body the Church. As soon as +he rose, that new plant began to tiller. He did not keep His Spirit to +Himself, but poured it out on the apostles, and from them it spread and +spread—Each generation of Christians ripening, and bearing fruit, and +dying, a fresh generation of fruit springing up from them, and so on, as +we are now at this day. And yet all these plants, these millions and +millions of Christian men and women, who have lived since Christ’s +blessed resurrection, all are parts of that one original seed, the body +of Christ, whose members they are, and all owe their life to that one +spirit of Christ, which is in them all and through them all, as the life +of the original grain is in the whole crop which springs from it. + +And what can you learn from this? Learn this, that in Christ you are +safe, out of Christ you are lost. But _really_ in Christ, I mean—not +like the dead and dying grains, mildewed and worm-eaten, which you find +here and there on the finest wheat-plant. Their end is to be burned, and +so will ours be, for all our springing out of Christ’s root, if the angel +reapers find us not good wheat, but chaff and mildew. Every branch in +Christ which beareth not fruit, His heavenly Father taketh away. +Therefore, never pride yourself on having been baptised into Christ, +never pride yourself on shewing some signs of God’s Spirit, on being +really good, right in this and right in that,—the question is, not so +much, Are you _in Christ_ at all, are you part of His tree, a member of +His body? but, Are you ripening there? If you are not ripening, you are +decaying, and your end will be as God has said. And do you wish to know +whether you are in Christ, safe, ripening? see whether you are like Him. +If the young grain does not shew like the seed grain, you may be sure it +is making no progress; and as surely as a wheat-plant never brought forth +rye, or a grape-tree thistles, so surely, if you are not like Christ in +your character, in patience, in meekness, in courage, truth, purity, +piety, and love, you may be of His planting, but you are none of His +ripening, and you will not be raised with Him at the last day, to flower +anew in the gardens of Paradise, world without end. + + + + +SERMON XVIII. +IMPROVEMENT. + + + PSALM xcii. 12. + + “The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like + the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord + shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring + forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” + +THE Bible is always telling Christian people to _go forwards_—to grow—to +become wiser and stronger, better and better day by day; that they ought +to become better, and better, because they can, if they choose, improve. +This text tells us so; it says that we shall bring forth more fruit in +our old age. Another text tells us that “those who wait on the Lord +shall renew their strength;” another tells us that we “shall go from +strength to strength.” Not one of St. Paul’s Epistles but talks of +growing in grace and in the knowledge of God, of being _filled_ with +God’s Spirit, of having our eyes more and more open to understand God’s +truth. Not one of St. Paul’s Epistles but contains prayers of St. Paul +that the men to whom he writes may become holier and wiser. And St. Paul +says that he himself needed to go forward—that he wanted fresh +strength—that he had to forget what was past, and consider all he had +done and felt as nothing, and press forward to the prize of his high +calling; that he needed to be daily conquering himself more and more, +keeping down his bad feelings, hunting out one bad habit after another, +lest, by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should +become a castaway. Therefore, I said rightly, that the Bible is always +bidding us go forwards. You cannot read your Bibles without seeing this. +What else was the use of St. Paul’s Epistles? They were written to +Christian men, redeemed men, converted men, most of them better I fear +than ever we shall be; and for what? to tell them not be content to +remain as they were, to tell them to go forwards, to improve, to be sure +that they were only just inside the gate of God’s kingdom, and that if +they would go on to perfection, they would find strength, and holiness, +and blessing, and honour, and happiness, which they as yet did not dream +of. “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” +said our blessed Lord to all men. “Be ye perfect,” says St. Paul to the +Corinthians, and the Ephesians, and all to whom he wrote; and so say I to +you now in God’s name, for Christ’s sake, as citizens of God’s kingdom, +as heirs of everlasting glory, “Be you perfect, even as your Father in +heaven is perfect.” + +Now I ask you, my friends, is not this reasonable? It is reasonable, for +the Bible always speaks of our souls as living things. It compares them +to limbs of a body, to branches of a tree, often to separate plants—as in +our Lord’s parable of the tares and the wheat. Again, St. Paul tells us +that we have been planted in baptism in the likeness of Christ’s death; +and again, in the first Psalm, which says that the good man shall be like +a tree planted by the waterside; and again, in the text of my sermon, +which says “that those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall +flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in +old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” + +Now what does all this mean? It means that the life of our souls is in +some respects like the life of a plant; and, therefore, that as plants +grow, so our souls are to grow. Why do you plant anything, but in order +that it may _grow_ and become larger, stronger, bear flower and fruit? +Be sure God has planted us in His garden, Christ’s Church, for no other +reason. Consider, again—What is life but a continual growing, or a +continual decaying? If a tree does not get larger and stronger, year by +year, is not that a sure sign that it is unhealthy, and that decay has +begun in it, that it is unsound at heart? And what happens then? It +begins to become weaker and smaller, and cankered and choked with scurf +and moss till it dies. If a tree is not growing, it is sure in the long +run to be dying; and so are our souls. If they are not growing they are +dying; if they are not getting better they are getting worse. This is +why the Bible compares our souls to trees—not out of a mere pretty fancy +of poetry, but for a great, awful, deep, world-wide lesson, that every +tree in the fields may be a pattern, a warning, to us thoughtless men, +that as that tree is meant to grow, so our souls are meant to grow. As +that tree dies unless it grows, so our souls must die unless they grow. +Consider that! + +But how does a tree grow? How are our souls to grow? Now here, again, +we shall understand heavenly things best by taking and considering the +pattern from among earthly things which the Bible gives us—the tree, I +mean. A tree grows in two ways. Its roots take up food from the ground, +its leaves take up food from the air. Its roots are its mouth, we may +say, and its leaves are its lungs. Thus the tree draws nourishment from +the earth beneath and from the heaven above; and so must our souls, my +friends, if they are to live and grow, they must have food both from +earth and from heaven. And this is what I mean—Why has God given us +senses, eyes, and ears, and understanding? That by them we may feed our +souls with things which we see and hear, things which are going on in the +world round us. We must read, and we must listen, and we must watch +people and their sayings and doings, and what becomes of them, and we +must try and act, and practise what is right for ourselves; and so we +shall, by using our eyes and ears and our bodies, get practice, and +experience, and knowledge, from the world round us—such as Solomon gives +us in his Proverbs—and so our eyes, and ears, and understandings, are to +be to us like roots, by which we may feed our souls with earthly learning +and experience. But is this enough? No, surely. Consider, again, God’s +example which He has given us—a tree. If you keep stripping all the +leaves off a tree, as fast as they grow, what becomes of it? It dies, +because without leaves it cannot get nourishment from the air, and the +rain, and the sunlight. Again, if you shut up a tree where it can get +neither rain, air, nor light, what happens? the tree certainly dies, +though it may be planted in the very richest soil, and have the very +strongest roots; and why? because it can get no food from the sky above. +So with our souls, my friends. If we get no food from above, our souls +will die, though we have all the wit, and learning, and experience, in +the world. We must be fed, and strengthened, and satisfied, with the +grace of God from above—with the Spirit of God. Consider how the Bible +speaks of God’s Spirit as the breath of God; for the very word _spirit_ +means, originally, breath, or air, or gas, or a breeze of wind, shewing +us that as without the airs of heaven the tree would become stunted and +cankered, so our souls will without the fresh, purifying breath of God’s +Spirit. Again, God’s Spirit is often spoken of in Scripture as dew and +rain. His grace or favour, we read, is as dew on the grass; and again, +that God shall come unto us as the rain, as the first and latter rain +upon the earth; and again, speaking of the outpourings of God’s Spirit on +His Church, the Psalmist says that “He shall come down as the rain upon +the mown grass, as showers that water the earth;” and to shew us that as +the tree puts forth buds, and leaves, and tender wood, when it drinks in +the dew and rains, so our hearts will become tender, and bud out into +good thoughts and wise resolves, when God’s Spirit fills them with His +grace. + +But again; the Scripture tells us again and again that our souls want +light from above; and we all know by experience that the trees and plants +which grow on earth want the light of the sun to make them grow. So, +doubtless, here again the Scripture example of a tree will hold good. +Now what does the sunlight do for the tree? It does every thing, for +without light, the soil, and air, and rain, are all useless. It stirs up +the sap, it hardens the wood, it brings out the blossom, it colours the +leaves and the flowers, it ripens the fruit. The light is the life of +the tree;—and is there not one, my friends, of whom these words are +written—that He is the Life, and that He is the Light—that He is the Sun +of Righteousness and the bright and morning Star—that He is the light +which lighteth every man that cometh into the world—that in Him was life, +and the life was the light of men? Do you not know of whom I speak? +Even of Him that was born at Bethlehem and died on the cross, who now +sits at God’s right hand, praying for us, offering to us His body and His +blood;—Jesus the Son of God, He is the Light and the Life. From Him +alone our light must come, from Him alone our life must come, now and for +ever. Oh, think seriously of this—and think, too, how a short time +before He died on earth He spoke of Himself as the Bread of life—the +living Bread which comes down from heaven; how He declared to men, that +unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in them. +And, lastly, consider this, how the same night that He was betrayed, He +took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, “Take, +eat; this is my body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of +me.” And how, likewise, He took the cup, and when He had blessed it, He +gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of this, for this is the new +covenant in my blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the +forgiveness of sins; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of +me.” Oh, consider these words, my friends—to you all and every one they +were spoken. “Drink ye _all_ of this,” said the Blessed One; and will +you refuse to drink it? He offers you the bread of life, the sign and +the pledge of His body, which shall feed your souls with everlasting +strength and life; and will you refuse what the Son of God offers you, +what He bought for you with His death? God forbid, my friends! This is +your blessed right and privilege—the right and the privilege of every one +of you—to come freely and boldly to that holy table, and there to +remember your Saviour. At that table to confess your Saviour before +men—at that table to shew that you really believe that Jesus Christ died +for you—at that table to claim your share in the strength of His body, in +the pardon of His blood, which cleanses from all sin—and at that table to +receive what you claim, to receive at that table the wine, as a sign from +Christ Himself, that His blood has washed away your sins; and the bread, +as a sign that His body and His spirit are really feeding your spirits, +that your souls are strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of +Christ, as your bodies are with the bread and wine. I have shewn you +that your souls must be fed from heaven,—that the Lord’s Supper is a sign +to you that they _are_ fed from heaven. You pray to God, I hope, many of +you, that He would give you His Holy Spirit, that He would change, and +renew, and strengthen your souls—you pray God to do this, I hope—Well, +then, there is the answer to your prayers. There your souls _will_ be +renewed and strengthened—there you will claim your share in Christ, who +alone can renew and strengthen them. The bread which is there broken is +the communion, the sharing, of the body of Christ; the cup which is there +blessed is the communion of the blood of Christ: to that heavenly treat, +to that spiritual food of your souls, Jesus Himself invites you, He who +is the life of men. Do not let it be said at the last day of any one of +you, that when the Son of God Himself invites you, you would not come to +Him that you might have life. + + + + +SERMON XIX. +MAN’S WORKING DAY. + + + JOHN, xi. 9, 10. + + “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man + walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this + world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is + no light in him.” + +THIS was our blessed Lord’s answer to His disciples when they said to +Him, “Master, the Jews of late tried to stone Thee, and goest Thou among +them again?” And “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? +If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light +of this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because +there is no light in him.” + +Now, at first sight, one does not see what this has to do with the +disciples’ question—it seems no answer at all to it. But we must +remember who it was who gave that answer. The Son of God, from whom all +words come, who came to do good, and only good, every minute of His life. +And, therefore, we may be sure that He never threw away a single word. +And we must remember, too, to whom He spoke—to His disciples, whom He was +training to be apostles to the whole world, teaching them in every thing +some deep lesson, to fit them for their glorious calling, as preachers of +the good news of His coming. So we may be sure that He would never put +off any question of theirs; we may be certain, that whatever they asked +Him, He would give them the best possible answer; not, perhaps, just the +answer for which they wished, but the answer which would teach them most. +Therefore I say, we must believe that there is some deep, wonderful +lesson in this text—that it is the very best and fullest answer which our +Lord could have made to His disciples when they asked Him why He was +going again to Judea, where He stood in danger of His life. + +Let us think a little about this text in faith, that is, sure that there +is a deep, blessed meaning in it, if we can but find it out. Let us take +it piece by piece; we shall never get to the bottom of it, of course, but +we may get deep enough into it to set us thinking a little between now +and next Sunday. + +“Are there not twelve hours in the day?” said our Lord. We know there +are, and we know, too, that if any man walks in the day, and keeps his +eyes open, he does not stumble, because he has the light of this world to +guide him. Twelve hours for business, and twelve for food, and sleep, +and rest, is our rule for working men, or, indeed, not our rule, but +God’s. He has set the sun for the light of this world, to rule the day, +to settle for us how long we are to work. In this country days vary. In +summer they are more than twelve hours, and then men work early and late; +but that is made up to us by winter, when the days are less than twelve +hours, and men work short time. In the very cold countries again, far +away in the frozen north, the sun never sets all the summer, and never +rises all the winter, and there is six months day and six months night. +Wonderful! But even there God has fitted the land and men’s lives to +that strange climate, and they can gather in enough meat in the summer to +keep them all the winter, that they may be able to spend the long six +months’ night of winter warm in their houses, sleeping and resting, with +plenty of food. So that even to them there are twelve hours in the day, +though their hours are each a fortnight long,—I mean a certain fixed time +in which to walk, and do the business which they have to do before the +long frozen night comes, wherein no man can work, because the sun, the +light of this world, is hid from them below the ice for six whole months. +So that our Lord’s words hold true of all men, even of those people in +the icy north. But in by far the most parts of the world, and especially +in the hot countries, where our Lord lived, there are twelve common hours +in every day, wherein men may and ought to work. + +Now what did our Lord mean by reminding His disciples of this, which they +all knew already? He meant this,—that God His Father had appointed Him a +certain work to do, and a certain time to do it in; that though His day +was short, only thirty-three years in all, while we have, many of us, +seventy years given us, yet that there were twelve hours in His day in +which He must work—that God would take care that He lived out His +appointed time, provided He was ready and earnest in doing God’s work in +it—and that He _must_ work in that time which God had given Him, whatever +came of it, and do His appointed work before the night of death came in +which no man can work. + +There was a heathen king once, named Philip of Macedon, and a very wise +king he was, though he was a heathen, and one of the wisest of his plans +was this:—he had a slave, whom he ordered to come in to him every morning +of his life, whatever he was doing, and say to him in a loud voice, +“Philip, remember that thou must die!” + +He was a heathen, but a great many who call themselves Christians are not +half so wise as he, for they take all possible care, not to remember that +they must die, but to _forget_ that they must die; and yet every living +man has a servant who, like King Philip’s, puts him in mind, whether he +likes it or not, that his day will run out at last, and his twelve hours +of life be over, and then die he must. And who is that servant? A man’s +own body. Lucky if his body is his servant, though—not his _master_ and +his tyrant. But still, be that as it may, every finger-ache that one’s +body has, every cough and cold one’s body catches, ought to be to us a +warning like King Philip’s servant, “Remember that thou must die.” Every +little pain and illness is a warning, a kindly hint from our Father in +heaven, that we are doomed to death; that we have but twelve hours in +this short day of life, and that the twelve must end; and that we must +get our work done and our accounts settled, and be ready for our long +journey, to meet our Father and our King, before the night comes wherein +no man can work, but only takes his wages; for them who have done good +the wages of life eternal, and for them who have done evil—God help them! +we know what is written—“the wages of sin is death!” + +Now, observe next, that those who walk in the day do not stumble, because +they see the light of this world, and those who walk in the night +stumble—they have no light in them. If they are to see, it must be by +the help of some light outside themselves, which is not part of +themselves, or belonging to themselves at all. We only see by the light +which God has made; when that is gone, our eyes are useless. + +So it is with our souls. Our wits, however clever they may be, only +understand things by the light which God throws on those things. He must +explain and enlighten all things to us. Without His light—His Spirit, +all the wit in the world is as useless as a pair of eyes in a dark night. + +Now this earthly world which we do see is an exact picture and pattern of +the spiritual, heavenly world which we do not see, as Solomon says in the +Proverbs, “The things which are seen are the doubles of the things which +are not seen.” And as there is a light for us in this earth, which is +_not ourselves_, namely the sun, so there is a light for us in the +spirit-world, which is _not ourselves_. And who is that? The blessed +Lord shall answer for Himself. He says, “I am the light of the world;” +and St. John bears witness to Him, “In Him was life, and the life was the +light of men.” And does not St. Paul say the same thing, when he blessed +God so often for having called him and his congregations out of darkness +into that marvellous light? If you read his Epistles you will find what +he meant by the darkness, what he meant by the light. The darkness was +heathendom, knowing nothing of Christ. The light was Christianity, +knowing Christ the light; and, more, being _in_ the light, belonging to +Christ—being joined to Him, as the leaves are to the tree,—living by +trust in Christ, being taught and made true men and true women of, by the +Noble and Holy Spirit of Christ—seeing their way through this world by +trust in Christ and His promises,—That was light. + +And there is no other light. If a man does not work trusting in Christ, +whom God has set for the light of the world, he works in the night, where +God never set or meant him to work; and stumble he will, and make a fool +of himself, sooner or later, because he is walking in the night, and sees +nothing plainly or in a right view. For as our Lord says truly, “There +is no light in him.” No light in him? In one sense there is no light in +any one, be he the wisest or holiest man who ever lived. But this is +just what three people out of four will not believe. They will not +believe that the Spirit of God gives man understanding. They fancy that +they have light in themselves. They try, conceitedly and godlessly, to +walk by the light of their own eyes—to make their own way plain before +their face for themselves. They will not believe old David, a man who +worked, and fought, and thought, and saw, far more than any one of us +will ever do, when he tells them again and again in his Psalms, that the +Lord is his light, that the Lord must guide a man, and inform him with +His eye, and teach him in the way in which he should go. And, therefore, +they will not pray to God for light—therefore they will not look for +light in God’s Word, and in the writings of godly men; and they are like +a man in the broad sunshine, who should choose to shut his eyes close, +and say, ‘I have light enough in my own head to do without the sun;’ and +therefore they walk on still in darkness, and all the foundations of the +earth are out of course, because men forget the first universal ground +rules of common sense, and reason, and love, which God’s Spirit teaches. +I tell you, all the mistakes that you ever made—that ever were made since +Adam fell, came from this, that men will not ask God for light and +wisdom; they love darkness rather than light, and therefore, though God’s +light is ready for every man, shining in the darkness to shew every man +his way, yet the darkness will not comprehend it—will not take it in, and +let God change its blindness into day. + +Now, then, to gather all together, what better answer could our Lord have +given to His disciples’ question than this, “Are there not twelve hours +in the day? If a man walk in the day he does not stumble, because he +seeth the light of this world; but if a man walk in the night, he +stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” + +It was as if He had said, “However short my day of life may be, there are +twelve hours in it, of my Father’s numbering and measuring, not of mine. +My times are in His hand, as long as He pleases I shall live. He has +given me a work to do, and He will see that I live long enough to do it. +Into His hands I commend my spirit, for, living or dying, He is with me. +Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He will be with +me. He will keep me secretly in His tabernacle from the strife of +tongues, and will turn the furiousness of my enemies to His glory; and as +my day my strength will be. And I have no fear of running into danger +needlessly. I have prayed to Him daily and nightly for light, for His +Spirit—the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of prudence and courage; +and His word is pledged to keep me in all my ways, so that I dash not my +foot against a stone. Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s +business? While I am about that I am safe. It is only if I go about my +own business—my own pleasure; if I forget to ask Him for His light and +guidance, that I shall put myself into the night, and stumble and fall.” + +Well, my friends, what is there in all this, which we may not say as well +as our Lord? In this, as in all things, Christ set Himself up as our +pattern. Oh, believe it!—believe that your time—your measure of life, is +in God’s hand. Believe that He is your light, that He will teach and +guide you into all truth, and that all your mistakes come from not asking +counsel of Him in prayer, and thought, and reading of His Holy Bible. +Believe His blessed promise that He will give His Holy Spirit to those +who ask Him. Believe, too, that He has given you a work to do—prepared +good works all ready for you to walk in. Be you labourer or gentleman, +maid, wife, or widow, God has given you a work to do; there is good to be +done lying all round you, ready for you. And the blessed Jesus who +bought you, body and soul, with His own blood, commands you to work for +Him: “Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” + + “Work ye manful while ye may, + Work for God in this your day; + Night must stop you, rich or poor, + Godly deeds alone endure.” + +And then, whether you live or die, your Father’s smile will be on you, +and His everlasting arms beneath you, and at your last hour you shall +find that “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from +their labour, and their works do follow them.” + + + + +SERMON XX. +ASSOCIATION. + + + GALATIANS, vi. 2. + + “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” + +IF I were to ask you, my friends, why you were met together here to-day, +you would tell me, I suppose, that you were come to church as members of +a benefit club; and quite right you are in coming here as such, and God +grant that we may meet together here on this same errand many more +Whit-mondays. But this would be no answer to my question; I wish to know +why you come to church to-day sooner than to any other place? what has +the church to do with the benefit club? Now this is a question which I +do not think all of you could answer very readily, and therefore I wish +to make you, especially the younger members of the club, think a little +seriously about the meaning of your coming here to-day. You will be none +the less cheerful this evening for having had some deep and godly +thoughts in your heads this morning. + +Now these benefit clubs are also called provident societies, and a very +good name for them. You become members of them, because you are prudent, +or provident, that is, because you are careful, and look forward to a +rainy day. But why does not each of you lay up his savings for himself, +instead of putting them into a common purse, and so forming a club? +Because you have found out, what every one else in the world, but madmen, +ought to have found out, that two are better than one; that if a great +many men join together in any matter, they are a great deal stronger when +working together, than if they each worked just as hard, but each by +himself; that the way to be safe is not to stand each of you alone, but +to help each other; in short, that there is no getting on without bearing +one another’s burdens. + +Now this plan of bearing one another’s burdens is not only good in +benefit clubs—it is good in families, in parishes, in nations, in the +church of God, which is the elect of all mankind. Unless men hold +together, and help each other, there is no safety for them. + +Let us consider what there is bearing on this matter of prudence, that +makes one of the greatest differences between a man and a brute beast. +It is not that the man is prudent, and the beast is not. Many beasts +have forethought enough; the very sleepmouse hoards up acorns against the +winter; a fox will hide the game he cannot eat. No, the great difference +between man and beast is, that the beast has forethought only for +himself, but the man has forethought for others also; beasts have not +reason enough to bear each others’ burdens, as men have. And what is it +that makes us call the ant and the bee the wisest of animals, except that +they do, in some degree, behave like men, in helping one another, and +having some sort of family feeling, and society, and government among +them, by which they can help bear each other’s burdens? So that we all +confess, by calling them wise, how wise it is to help each other. +Consider a family, again. In order that a family may be happy and +prosperous, all the members of it must bear each other’s burdens. If the +father only thought of himself, and the mother of herself, and each of +the children did nothing but take care of themselves, would not that +family come to misery and ruin? But if they all helped each other—all +thought of each other more than of themselves—all were ready to give up +their own comfort to make each other comfortable, that family would be +peaceful and prosperous, and would be doing a great deal towards +fulfilling the law of Christ. + +It is just the same in a parish. If the rich help and defend the poor, +and the poor respect and love the rich, and are ready to serve them as +far as they can,—in short, if all ranks bear each other’s burdens, that +parish is a happy one, and if they do not, it is a miserable one. + +Just the same with a nation. If the king only cares about making himself +strong, and the noblemen and gentlemen about their rank and riches, and +the poor people, again, only care for themselves, and are trying to pull +down the rich, and so get what they can for themselves,—if a country is +in this state, what can be more wretched? Neither a house, nor a +country, divided against itself, can ever stand. But if the king and the +nobles give their whole minds to making good laws, and seeing justice +done to all, and workmen fairly paid, and if the poor, in their turns, +are loyal, and ready to fight and work for their king and their nobles, +then will not that country be a happy and a great country? Surely it +will, because its people, instead of caring every man for himself only, +help each other and bear one another’s burdens. + +And just in the same way with Christ’s Church, with the company of true +Christian men. If the clergymen thought only of themselves, and +neglected the people, and forgot to labour among them, and pray for them, +and preach to them; and if the people each cared for himself, and never +prayed to God to give them a spirit of love and charity, and never helped +their neighbours, or did unto others as they wished to be done by; and +above all, if Christ, our Head, left His Church, and cared no more about +us, what would become of Christ’s Church? What would happen to the whole +race of sinful man, but misery in this world, and ruin in the next? But +if the people love and help each other, and obey their ministers, and +pray for them; and if the ministers labour earnestly after the souls and +bodies of their people; and Christ in heaven helps both minister and +people with His Spirit, and His providence and protection; in short, if +all in the whole Church bear each other’s burdens, then Christ’s Church +will stand, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. + +Thus you see that this text of bearing one another’s burdens is no new or +strange commandment, but the very state in which every man is meant to +live, both in his family, his parish, his country, and his Church—all his +life helping others, and being helped by them in turn. And because +families and nations, and the Church of Christ above all, are good, and +holy, and beautiful, therefore any society which is formed upon the same +plan—I mean of helping each other—must be good also. And, therefore, +benefit societies are right and reasonable things, and among all the good +which they do they do this one great good, that they teach men to +remember that there is no use trying to stand alone, but that the way to +be safe and happy is to bear each other’s burdens. + +Thus benefit societies are patterns of Christ’s Church. But now, my +friends, there is another point for each of you to consider, which is +this—the benefit club is a good thing, but are you a good member of the +club? Do you do your duty, each of you, in the club as Christian men +should? + +I do not ask whether you pay your subscriptions regularly or not—that is +quite right and necessary, but there is something more than that wanted +to make a club go on rightly. Mere paying and receiving money will never +keep men together any more than any other outward business. A man may +pay his club-money regularly and yet not be a really good member. And +how is this? You remember that I tried to shew you that a family, and a +nation, and a church, all were kept together by the same principle of +bearing one another’s burdens, just as a benefit club is. Now, what +makes a man a good member of Christ’s Church,—a good Christian, in short? +A man may pay his tithes to the rector, and his church-rates to repair +God’s house, and his poor-rates to maintain God’s poor, all very +regularly, and yet be a very bad member of Christ’s Church. These +payments are all right and good; but they are but the outside, the letter +of what God requires of him. What is wanted is, to serve God in the +_spirit_, to have the spirit—_the will_, of a Christian in him; that is, +to do all these things for _God’s_ sake—not of constraint, but +willingly—“not grudgingly, for God loveth a cheerful giver.” No! If a +man is a really good member of Christ’s Church, he lives a life of faith +in Jesus Christ, and of thankfulness to Him for His infinite love and +mercy in coming down to die for us, and thus the love of God and man is +shed abroad in his heart by God’s Spirit, which is given to him. +Therefore, that man thinks it an honour to pay church-rates, and so help +towards keeping God’s house in repair and neatness. He pays his tithes +cheerfully, because he loves God’s ministers, and feels their use and +worth to him. He pays his poor-rates with a willing mind, for the sake +of that God who has said, “that he who gives to the poor lends to the +Lord.” And so he obeys not only the letter but the spirit of the law. + +But the man does more than this. Besides obeying not only the letter but +the spirit of the law, he helps his brethren in a thousand other ways. +He shews, in short, by every action that he believes in God and loves his +neighbour. + +And why should it not be just the same in a benefit club? There the good +member is _not_ the man who pays his money merely to have a claim for +relief when he himself is sick, and yet grudges every farthing that goes +to help other members. That man is not a good member. He has come into +the club merely to take care of himself, and not to bear others’ burdens. +He may obey the letter of the club-rules by paying in his subscriptions +and by granting relief to sick members, but he does not obey the spirit +of them. If he did, he would be glad to bear his sick neighbour’s burden +with so little trouble to himself. He would, therefore, grant club +relief willingly and cheerfully when it was wanted,—ay, he would thank +God that he had an opportunity of helping his neighbours. He would feel +that all the members of the society were his brothers in a double sense; +first, because they had joined with him to help and support each other in +the society; and, next, that they were his brothers in Christ, who had +been baptised into the same Church of God with himself. And he would, +therefore, delight in supporting them in their sickness, and honouring +them when they died, and in helping their widows and orphans in their +affliction; in short, in bearing his neighbour’s burdens, and so +fulfilling the law of Christ. And do you not see, that if any of you +subscribe to this benefit society in such a spirit as this, that they are +the men to give an answer to the question I asked at first, “Why are you +all here at church to-day?” They come here for the same reason that you +all ought to come, to thank God for having kept them well, and out of the +want of relief for the past year, and to thank Him, too, for having +enabled them to bear their sick neighbours’ burdens. And they come, +also, to pray to God to keep them well and strong for the year to come, +and to raise up those members who are in sickness and distress, that they +may all worship God here together another year, as a company of faithful +friends, helping each other on through this life, and all on the way to +the same heavenly home, where there will be no more poverty, nor sorrow, +nor sickness, nor death, and God shall wipe away tears from all widows +and orphans’ eyes. + +And now, my friends, I have tried to put some new and true thoughts into +your head about your club and your business in this church to-day. And I +pray, God grant that you may remember them, and think of this whole +matter as a much more solemn and holy one than you ever did before. + + + + +SERMON XXI. +HEAVEN ON EARTH. + + + 1 COR. x. 31. + + “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory + of God.” + +THIS is a command from God, my friends, which well worth a few minutes’ +consideration this day;—well worth considering, because, though it was +spoken eighteen hundred years ago, yet God has not changed since that +time;—He is just as glorious as ever; and Christian men’s relation to God +has not changed since that time; they still live, and move, and have +their being in God; they are still His children—His beloved; Christ, who +died for us, is still our King; God’s Spirit is still with us, God’s +mercy still saves us: we owe God as much as any people ever did. If it +was ever any one’s duty to shew forth God’s glory, surely it is our duty +too. + +Worth considering, indeed, is this command, for though it is in the +Bible, and has been there for eighteen hundred years, it is seldom read, +seldomer understood, and still more seldom put into practice. Men eat +and drink, and do all manner of things, with all their might and main; +but how many of them do they do to the glory of God? No; this is the +fault—the especial curse of our day, that religion does not mean any +longer, as it used, the service of God—the being like God, and shewing +forth God’s glory. No; religion means, nowadays, the art of getting to +heaven when we die, and saving our own miserable, worthless souls, and +getting God’s wages without doing God’s work—as if that was godliness,—as +if that was any thing but selfishness; as if selfishness was any the +better for being everlasting selfishness! If selfishness is evil, my +friends, the sooner we get rid of it the better, instead of mixing it up +as we do with all our thoughts of heaven, and making our own enjoyment +and our own safety the vile root of our hopes for all eternity. And +therefore it is that people have forgotten what God’s glory is. They +seem to think, that God’s highest glory is saving them from hell-fire. +And they talk not of God and of the wondrous majesty of God, but only of +the wonder of God’s having saved them—looking at themselves all the time, +and not at God. We must get rid of this sort of religion, my friends, at +all risks, in order to get rid of all sorts of irreligion, for one is the +father of the other. + +It is a wonder, indeed, that we are saved from hell, much more raised to +heaven, such peevish, cowardly, pitiful creatures as the best of us are: +and yet the more we think of it, the less wonder we shall find it. The +more we think of the wonder of all wonders,—God Himself, His majesty, His +power, His wisdom, His love, His pity, His infinite condescension, the +less reason we shall have to be surprised that He has stooped to save us. +Yes, do not be startled—for it is true, that He has done for sinful men +nothing contrary to Himself, but just what was to be expected from such +unutterable condescension, and pity, and generosity, as God’s is. And so +recollecting this, we shall begin to forget ourselves, and look at God; +and in thinking of Him we shall get beyond mere wondering at Him, and +rise to something higher—to worshipping Him. + +Yes, my friends, this is what we must try at if we would be really +godly—to find out what God is—to find out His likeness, His character, as +He is: and has He not shewn us what He is? He who has earnestly read +Christ’s story—he who has understood, and admired, and loved Christ’s +character, and its nobleness and beauty—he who can believe that Jesus +Christ is now, at this minute, raising up his heart to good, guiding his +thoughts to good, he has seen God; for he has seen the Son, who is the +exact likeness of the Father’s glory, in whom dwells all the fulness of +the Godhead in a bodily shape. Remember, he who knows Christ knows +God,—and that knowledge will help us up a noble step farther—it will help +us to shew forth God’s glory. For when we once know what God’s glory is, +we shall see how to make others know it too. We shall know how to _do +God justice_, to set men right as to their notions of God, to give them, +at all events, in our own lives and characters, a pattern of Christ, who +is the Pattern of God; and whatsoever we do we shall be able to do all to +God’s glory. + +For what is doing every thing to the glory of God? It is this;—we have +seen what God’s glory is: He is His own glory. As you say of any very +excellent man, you have but to know him to honour him; or of any very +beautiful woman, you have but to see her to love her; so I say of God, +men have but to see and know Him to love and honour Him. + +Well, then, my friends, if we call ourselves Christian men, if we believe +that God is our Father, and delight, as on the grounds of common feeling +we ought, to honour our Father, we should try to make every one honour +Him as He deserves. In short, whatever we do we should make it tend to +His glory—make it a lesson to our neighbours, our friends, and our +families. We should preach God’s glory to them day by day, not by +_words_ only, often not by words at all, but by our conduct. Ay, there +is the secret.—If you wish other men to believe a thing, just behave as +if you believed it yourself. Nothing is so infectious as example. If +you wish your neighbours to see what Jesus Christ is like, let them see +what He can make _you_ like. If you wish them to know how God’s love is +ready to save them from their sins, let them see His love save _you_ from +_your_ sins. If you wish them to see God’s tender care in every blessing +and every sorrow they have, why let them see you thanking God for every +sorrow and every blessing you have. I tell you, friends, example is +every thing. One good man,—one man who does not put his religion on once +a-week with his Sunday coat, but wears it for his working dress, and lets +the thought of God grow into him, and through and through him, till every +thing he says and does becomes religious, that man is worth a ton of +sermons—he is a living Gospel—he comes in the spirit and power of +Elias—he is the image of God. And men see his good works, and admire +them in spite of themselves, and see that they are Godlike, and that +God’s grace is no dream, but that the Holy Spirit is still among men, and +that all nobleness and manliness is His gift, His stamp, His picture; and +so they get a glimpse of God again in His saints and heroes, and glorify +their Father who is in heaven. + +Would not such a life be a heavenly life? Ay, it would be more, it would +be heaven—heaven on earth: not in versemongering cant, but really. We +should then be sitting, as St. Paul tells us, in heavenly places with +Jesus Christ, and having our conversation in heaven. All the while we +were doing our daily work, following our business, or serving our +country, or sitting at our own firesides with wife and child, we should +be all that time in heaven. Why not? we are in heaven now—if we had but +faith to see it. Oh, get rid of those carnal, heathen notions about +heaven, which tempt men to fancy that, after having misused this +place—God’s earth—for a whole life, they are to fly away when they die, +like swallows in autumn, to another place—they know not where—where they +are to be very happy—they know not why or how, nor do I know either. +Heaven is not a mere _place_, my friends. All places are heaven, if you +will be heavenly in them. Heaven is where God is and Christ is. And +hell is where God is not and Christ is not. The Bible says, no doubt, +there is a place now—somewhere beyond the skies—where Christ especially +shews forth His glory—a heaven of heavens: and for reasons which I cannot +explain, there must be such a place. But, at all events, here is heaven; +for Christ is here and God is here, if we will open our eyes and see +them. And how?—How? Did not Christ Himself say, ‘If a man will love Me, +My Father will love him; and we, My Father and I, will come to him, and +make our abode with him, and we will shew ourselves to him?’ Do those +words mean nothing or something? If they have any meaning, do they not +mean this, that in this life, we can see God—in this life we can have God +and Christ abiding with us? And is not that heaven? Yes, heaven is +where God is. You are in heaven if God is with you, you are in hell if +God is not with you; for where God is not, darkness and a devil are sure +to be. + +There was a great poet once—Dante by name—who described most truly and +wonderfully, in his own way, heaven and hell, for, indeed, he had been in +both. He had known sin and shame, and doubt and darkness and despair, +which is hell. And after long years of misery, he had got to know love +and hope, and holiness and nobleness, and the love of Christ and the +peace of God, which is heaven. And so well did he speak of them, that +the ignorant people used to point after him with awe in the streets, and +whisper, There is the man who has been in hell. Whereon some one made +these lines on him:— + + “Thou hast seen hell and heaven? Why not? since heaven and hell + Within the struggling soul of every mortal dwell.” + +Think of that!—thou—and thou—and thou!—for in thee, at this moment, is +either heaven or hell: and which of them? Ask thyself—ask thyself, +friend. If thou art not in heaven in this life, thou wilt never be in +heaven in the life to come. At death, says the wise man, each thing +returns into its own element, into the ground of its life; the light into +the light, and the darkness into the darkness. As the tree falls so it +lies. My friends, who call yourselves enlightened Christian folk, do you +suppose that you can lead a mean, worldly, covetous, spiteful life here, +and then the moment your soul leaves the body that you are to be changed +into the very opposite character, into angels and saints, as fairy tales +tell of beasts changed into men? If a beast can be changed into a man, +then death can change the sinner into a saint,—but not else. If a beast +would enjoy being a man, then a sinner would enjoy being in heaven, but +not else. A sinful, worldly man enjoy being in heaven? Does a fish +enjoy being on dry land? The sinner would long to be back in this world +again. Why, what is the employment of spirits in heaven, according to +the Bible (for that is the point to which I have been trying to lead you +round again)? What but glorifying God? Not _trying_ only to do every +thing to God’s glory, but actually succeeding in _doing_ it—basking in +the sunshine of His smile, delighting to feel themselves as nothing +before His glorious majesty, meditating on the beauty of His love, +filling themselves with the sight of His power, searching out the +treasures of His wisdom, and finding God in all and all in God—their +whole eternity one act of worship, one hymn of praise. Are there not +some among us who will have had but little practice at that work? Those +who have done nothing for God’s glory here, how do they expect to be able +to do every thing for God’s glory hereafter? (Those who will not take +the trouble of merely standing up at the psalms, like the rest of their +neighbours, even if they cannot sing with their voices God’s praises in +this church, how will they like singing God’s praises through eternity?) +No; be sure that the only people who will be fit for heaven, who will +like heaven even, are those who have been in heaven in this life,—the +only people who will be able to do every thing to God’s glory in the new +heavens and new earth, are those who have been trying honestly to do all +to His glory in this heaven and this earth. + +Think over, in the meantime, what I have said this day; consider it, and +you will have enough to think of, and pray over too, till we meet here +again. + + + + +SERMON XXII. +NATIONAL PRIVILEGES. + + + LUKE, x. 23. + + “Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see: for I tell + you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things + which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which + ye hear, and have not heard them.” + +THIS is a noble text, my friends—and yet an awful one, for if it does not +increase our religion, it will certainly increase our condemnation. It +tells us that we, even the meanest among us, are more favoured by God +than the kings, and judges, and conquerors of the old world, of whom we +read this afternoon in the first lesson; that we have more light and +knowledge of God than even the prophets David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and +Ezekiel, to whom God’s glory appeared in visible shape. It tells us that +we see things which they longed to see, and could not; that words are +spoken to us for which their ears longed in vain; that they, though they +died in hope, yet received not the promises, God having provided some +better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. + +Now, what was this which they longed for, and had not, and yet we have? +It was this,—a Saviour and a Saviour’s kingdom. All wise and holy hearts +for ages—as well heathens as Jews—had had this longing. They wanted a +Saviour,—one who should free them from sin and conquer evil,—one who +should explain to them all the doubt and contradiction and misery of the +world, and give them some means of being freed from it,—one who should +set them the perfect pattern of what a man should be, and join earth and +heaven, and make godliness part of man’s daily life. They longed for a +Saviour, and for a heavenly kingdom also. They saw that all the laws in +the world could never make men good; that one half of men broke them, and +the other half only obeyed them unwillingly through slavish fear, loving +the sin they dared not do. That men got worse and worse as time rolled +on. That kings, instead of being shepherds of their people, were only +wolves and tyrants to keep them in ignorance and misery. That priests +only taught the people lies, and fattened themselves at their expense. +That, in short, as David said, men would not learn, or understand, and +all the foundations of the earth, the grounds and principles of society, +politics and religion, were out of course, and the devil very truly the +king of this lower world; so they longed for a heavenly kingdom—a kingdom +of God, one in which men should obey God for love, and not for fear, and +man for God’s sake; a spiritual kingdom—a kingdom whose laws should be +written in men’s hearts and spirits, and be their delight and glory, not +their dread. They longed for a King of kings, who should teach all kings +and magistrates to rule in love and wisdom. They longed for a +High-priest, who should teach all priests to explain the wonder and the +glory that there is in every living man, and in heaven and earth, and all +that therein lies, and lead men’s hearts into love, and purity, and noble +thoughts and deeds. They longed, in short, for a kingdom of God, a +golden age, a regeneration of the world, as they called it, and rightly. +Of course, the Jewish prophets saw most clearly how this would be brought +about, and how utterly necessary a Saviour and His kingdom was to save +mankind from utter ruin. They, I say, saw this best. But still all the +wise and pious heathens, each according to his measure of light, saw the +same necessity, or else were restless and miserable, because they could +not see it. So that in all ages of the world, in a thousand different +shapes, there was rising up to heaven a mournful, earnest prayer,—“Thy +kingdom come!” + +And now this kingdom is come, and the King of it, the Saviour of men, is +Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Long men prayed, and long men waited, and +at last, in the fulness of God’s good time, just when the night seemed +darkest, and under the abominations of the Roman Empire, religion, +honesty, and common decency, seemed to have died out, the Sun of +Righteousness rose on the dead and rotten world, to bring life and +immortality to light. God sent forth His Son made of a woman, not to +condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved. He +sent Him to be our Saviour, to die on the cross for our sins and our +children’s, that all our guilt might be washed away, and we might come +boldly to the throne of grace, with our hearts sprinkled from an evil +conscience, and our bodies washed in the waters of baptism. He sent Him +to be our Teacher in the perfect law of love, our pattern in every thing +which a man should be, and is not. He sent Him to conquer death by +rising from the dead, that He might have power to raise us also to life +and immortality. He sent Him to fill men with His Spirit, the Spirit of +reason and truth, the Spirit of love and courage, that he might know the +will of God, and do it as our Saviour did before us. He sent Him to +found a Church, to join all men into one brotherhood, one kingdom of God, +whose rulers are kings and parliaments, whose ministers are the clergy, +whose prophets are all poets and philosophers, authors and preachers, who +are true to their own calling; whose signs and tokens are the sacraments; +a kingdom which should never be moved, but should go on for ever, drawing +into all honest and true hearts, and preserving them ever for Christ +their Lord. + +And that we might not doubt that we, too, belonged to this kingdom, He +has placed in this land His ministers and teachers, Christ’s sacraments, +Christ’s churches in every parish in the land, Christ’s Bible, or the +means of attaining the Bible, in every house and every cottage; that from +our cradle to our grave we might see that we belonged, as sworn servants +and faithful children, to the great Father in heaven and Jesus Christ, +the King of the earth. + +Thus, my friends, all that all men have longed for we possess; we want no +more, and we shall have no more. If, under the present state of things, +we cannot be holy, we shall never be holy. If we cannot use our right in +this kingdom of Christ, how can we become citizens of God’s everlasting +kingdom, when Christ shall have delivered up the dominion to His Father, +and God shall be all in all? God has done all for us that God will do. +He has given us His Son for a Saviour, and a Church in which and by which +to worship that Saviour; and what more would we have? Alas! my friends, +have we yet used fairly what God has given us? and if not, how terrible +will be our guilt! “How shall we escape if we neglect so great +salvation?” And yet how many do neglect—how few live as if they were +citizens of Christ’s kingdom! It seems as if God had been too good to +us, and heaped us so heavily with blessings, that we were tired of them, +and despised them as common things. Common things? They are the very +things, as I said, which the great and the wise in all ages have longed +for and prayed for, and yet never found! Surely, surely, God may well +say to us, “What could have been done unto my vineyard which has not been +done to it?” What, indeed? I wish I could take some of you into a +heathen country for a single week, that you might see what it is not to +know of a Saviour—not to be members of His Church, as we are. Why, we +here in England are in the very garden of the Lord. We have but to +stretch out our hand to the tree of life, and eat and live for ever. +From our cradle to our grave, Christ the King is ready to guide, to +teach, to comfort, to deliver us. When we are born, we are christened in +His name, made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors by hope +of the kingdom of heaven. Is that nothing? It is, alas! nothing in the +eyes of most parents! As we grow older, are we not taught who we +are—taught call God our Father—taught about Jesus Christ, who He is, and +what He is? Is that, too, nothing? Alas! that knowledge is generally a +mere meaningless school-lesson, cared for neither by child nor by man. +At confirmation, again, we solemnly declare that we belong to Christ’s +kingdom, and that we will live as His subjects, and His alone. And we +are brought to His bishops, to be received as free, reasonable, Christian +people, to claim our citizenship in the kingdom of God. Is that nothing? +Yet that, too, is nothing with three-fourths of us. Nothing? Hear me, +young people—as I have often told you—you are ready enough to excuse +yourselves from your confirmation vows, by saying you were not taught to +understand them—were not taught how to put them into practice. That may +be true, or it may not; your sin is just the same. No one with any +common honesty or common sense could answer as you have to the bishop’s +questions at confirmation, without knowing that you did make a promise, +and knowing well enough what you promised—and you who carried to +confirmation a careless heart and a lying tongue, have only yourselves to +blame for it!—But to proceed. Is not Christ present, or ready to be +present, with us? Sunday after Sunday, for years, have not the churches +been opened all around us, inviting us to enter and worship Christ, +knowing that where two or three are gathered together, there is Christ in +the midst of them. Is that nothing? This Creed—these Lessons—these +prayers, which Sunday after Sunday you have used;—are they nothing? Are +they not all proofs that the kingdom of God is come to you, and means +whereby you can behave like children of the kingdom? And not on Sundays +alone. Have we not been taught daily, in our own houses, in our own +hearts, in all danger, and trouble, and temptation, to pray to Jesus +Christ, our King, knowing that He will hear and save all them that put +their trust in Him? + +Is that nothing? On our happy marriage morn, too, was it not in God’s +house, before Christ’s minister, in Christ’s name, that we were married? +Surely the kingdom of God is come to us, when our wedlock, as well as our +souls and bodies, is holy to the Lord. Is that nothing? How few think +of their marriage-joys as holy things—an ordinance of Christ’s kingdom, +which He delights in and blesses with His presence and His special smile, +seeing that it is the noblest and the purest of all things on earth—the +picture of the great mystery which shall be the bridal of all bridals, +the marriage of Christ and His Church! People do not, nowadays, believe +in marriage as a part of their religion; and so, according to their want +of faith it happens to them; their marriage is not holy, and the love and +joy of their youth wither into a peevish, careless, lonely old age;—and +yet over their heads these words were said, “They are man and wife +together, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Ghost!” comes of not believing in Christ’s presence and Christ’s favour; +of not believing, in short, in what the Creed truly calls the Holy +Catholic Church. Neither after that does Christ leave us. Every time a +woman is churched, is not that meant to be a sign of thankfulness to +Christ, the great Physician, to whom she owes her life and health once +more? Then, season after season, is the sacrament of Christ’s body and +blood offered you. Is that no sign that Christ is here among us? Ah! +blessed are the eyes which see that—blessed are the ears which hear those +words, “Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you.” Truly, if +that honour—that blessing—is so vast, the love and the condescension of +Christ, the Lamb of God, so unutterable, that prophets and kings, +whatever they believed, never could have desired, never could have +imagined, that the Son of God should offer to the sons of men, year after +year, in their little parish churches, His most precious body, His most +precious blood. And another thing, too, those prophets and kings would +never have imagined,—that when Christ, in those churches, offers His body +and His blood, nine-tenths of the congregation, calling themselves +Christians, should quietly walk out, and go home, and leave the +sacraments of Christ’s body and Christ’s blood behind as a useless and +unnecessary matter! That, indeed, the old prophets and kings never saw, +and never expected to see—but so it is. Christ is among us, and our eyes +are holden, and we know Him not. + +And then at last, after all these blessed privileges, these tokens of +God’s kingdom have been neglected through a long life, does Christ +neglect us in the hour of death? Ah, no! He is at the grave, as He was +at the font, at the marriage-bed, at His own holy table in God’s house; +and the body is laid in the ground by Christ’s minister, in the certain +hope of a joyful resurrection. But what—a sure and certain hope for each +and all? The resurrection is a joyful hope—but is it so for all? Only, +too often, a faint, dim longing that clings to the last chance, and dares +not confess to itself how hopeless must be the death of that man or woman +whose life was spent in the kingdom of God, in the midst of blessings +which kings said prophets desired in vain to see, and yet who neglected +them all, never entered into the spirit of them—never loved them—never +lived according to them, but despised and trampled under foot the kingdom +of God from their childhood to their grave, as three-fourths of us do. +Christ came to judge no man, and therefore Christ’s ministers judge no +man, and read the Christian funeral service over all, and pray Christ to +be there, and to remember His blessed promise of raising up the body and +soul to everlasting life. But how can they help fearing that Christ will +not hear them—that after all His offers and gifts in this life have been +despised, He will give nothing after death but death; and that it were +better for the sinful, worldly sham Christian, when lying in his coffin, +if he had never been born? How can those escape who neglect such great +salvation? + +Ah, my friends—my friends, take this to heart! Blessed, indeed, are the +eyes which see what you see, and hear what you hear; prophets and kings +have desired to see and hear them, and have not seen or heard! But if +you, cradled among all these despised honours and means of grace, bring +forth no fruit in your lives—shut out from yourselves the thought of your +high calling in Jesus Christ; what shall be your end but ruin? He that +despises Christ, Christ will despise him; and say not to yourselves, as +many do, We are church-goers—we are all safe. I say to you, God is able, +from among the Negro and the wild Irishman—ay, God is able of these +stones to raise up children to the Church of England, while those of you, +the children of the kingdom, who lived in the Church of your fathers, and +never used or loved her, or Christ, her King, shall be cast into outer +darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. + + + + +SERMON XXIII. +LENTEN THOUGHTS. + + + HAGGAI, i. 5. + + “Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.” + +NEXT Wednesday is Ash-Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season which +our forefathers have appointed for us to consider and mend our ways, and +return, year by year, heart and soul to that Lord and Heavenly Father +from whom we are daily wandering. Now, we all know that we ought to have +repented long ago; we all know that, sinning in many things daily, as we +do, we ought all to repent daily. But that is not enough; we do want, +unless we are wonderfully better than the holy men of old,—we do want, I +say, a particular time in which we may sit down deliberately and look our +own souls steadily in the face, and cast up our accounts with God, and be +thoroughly ashamed and terrified at those accounts when we find, as we +shall, that we cannot answer God one thing in a thousand. It is all very +well to say, I confess and repent of my sins daily, why should I do it +especially in Lent? Very true—Let us see, then, by your altered life and +conduct that you have repented during this Lent, and then it will be time +to talk of repenting every day after Lent. But, in fact, a man might +just as well argue, I say my prayers every day, and God hears them, why +should I say them more on Sundays than any other day? Why? not only +because your forefathers, and the Church of your forefathers, have +advised you, which, though not an imperative reason, is still a strong +one, surely, but because the thing is good, and reasonable, and right in +itself. Because, as they found in their own case, and as you may find in +yours, if you will but think, the hurry and bustle of business is daily +putting repentance and self-examination out of our heads. A man may +think much, and pray much, thank God, in the very midst of his busiest +work, but he is apt to be hurried; he has not set his thoughts especially +on the matters of his soul, and so the soul’s work is not thoroughly +done. Much for which he ought to pray he forgets to pray for. Many sins +and feelings of which he ought to repent slip past him out of sight in +the hurry of life. Much good that might be done is put off and laid by, +often till it is too late. But now here is a regular season in which we +may look back and say to ourselves, ‘How have I been getting on for this +twelvemonth, not in pocket, but in character? not in the appearance of +character in my neighbour’s eyes, but in real character—in the eyes of +God? Am I more manly, or more womanly—more godly, more true, more +humble, above all, more loving, than I was this time last year? What bad +habits have I conquered? What good habits have grown upon me? What +chances of doing good have I let slip? What foolish, unkind things have +I done? My duty to God and my neighbours is so and so, how have I done +it? Above all, this Saviour and King in heaven, in whom I profess to +believe, to whom I have sworn to be loyal and true, and to help His good +cause, the cause of godliness, manliness, and happiness among my +neighbours, in my family, in my own heart,—how have I felt towards Him? +Have I thought about Him more this year than I did last? Do I feel any +more loyalty, respect, love, gratitude to Him than I did? Ay, more, do I +think about Him at all as a living man, much less as my King and Saviour; +or, is all really know about Him the sound of the words Jesus Christ, and +the story about Him in the Apostles’ Creed? Do I really _believe_ and +trust in “Jesus Christ,” or do I not? These are sharp, searching +questions, my friends,—good Lenten food for any man’s soul,—questions +which it is much more easy to ask soberly and answer fairly now when you +look quietly back on the past year, than it is, alas! to answer them day +by day amid all the bustle your business and your families. But you will +answer, ‘This bustle will go on just as much in Lent as ever. Our time +and thoughts will be just as much occupied. We have our livings to get. +We are not fine gentlemen and ladies who can lie by for forty days and do +nothing but read and pray, while their tradesmen and servants are working +for them from morning to night. How then can we give up more time to +religion now than at other times? + +This is all true enough; but there is a sound and true answer to it. It +is not so much more _time_ which you are asked to give up to your souls +in Lent, as it is more _heart_. What do I talk of? _Giving up_ more +time to your souls? And yet this is the way we all talk, as if our time +belonged to our bodies, and so we had to rob them of it, to give it up to +our souls,—as if our bodies were ourselves, and our souls were +troublesome burdens, or peevish children hanging at our backs, which +would keep prating and fretting about heaven and hell, and had to be +quieted, and their mouths stopped as quickly and easily as possible, that +we might be rid of them, and get about our true business, our real +duty,—this mighty work of eating and drinking, and amusing ourselves, and +making money. I am afraid—afraid there are too many, who, if they spoke +out their whole hearts, would be quite as content to have no souls, and +no necessity to waste their precious time (as they think) upon religion. +But, my friends, my friends, the day will come when you will see +yourselves in a true light; when your soul will not seem a mere hanger-on +to your body, but you will find out _that you are your soul_. Then there +will be no more forgetting that you have souls, and thrusting them into +the background, to be fed at odd minutes, or left to starve,—no more talk +of _giving up_ time to the care of your souls; your souls will take the +time for themselves then—and the eternity, too; they will be all in all +to you then, perhaps when it is too late! + +Well, I want you, just for forty days, to let your souls be all in all to +you now; to make them your first object—your first thought in the +morning, the last thing at night,—your thought at every odd moment in the +day. You need not neglect your business; only for one short forty days +do not make your business your God. We are all too apt to try the +heathen plan, of seeking first every thing else in the world, and letting +the kingdom of God and His righteousness be added to us over and above—or +_not_ as it may happen. Try for once the plan the Lord of heaven and +earth advises, and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, +and see whether every thing else will not be added to you. Again, you +need not be idle a moment more in Lent than at any other time. But I +dare say, that none of you are so full of business that you have not a +free ten minutes in the morning, and ten minutes at night, of which the +best of uses may be made. What do I say? Why, of all men in the world, +farmers and labourers have most time, I think, to themselves; working, as +they do, the greater part of their day in silence and alone; what +opportunities for them to have their souls busy in heaven, while they are +pacing over the fields, ploughing and hoeing! I have read of many, many +labouring men who had found out their opportunities in this way, and used +them so well as to become holy, great, and learned men. One of the most +learned scholars in England at this day was once a village carpenter, who +used, when young, to keep a book open before him on his bench while he +worked, and thus contrived to teach himself, one after the other, Latin, +Greek, and Hebrew. So much time may a man find who _looks_ for time! + +But after all, and above all, believe this—that if your business or your +work does actually give you no time to think about God and your own +souls,—if in the midst of it all you cannot find leisure enough night and +morning to pray earnestly, to read your Bible carefully,—if it so +swallows up your whole thoughts during the day, that you have no +opportunity to recollect yourself, to remember that you are an immortal +being, and that you have a Saviour in heaven, whom you are serving +faithfully, or unfaithfully,—if this work or business of yours will not +give you time enough for that, then it is not God’s business, and ought +not to be yours either. + +But you have time,—you have all time. When there is a will there is a +way. Make up your minds that there shall be a will, and pray earnestly +to God to give it you, if it is but for forty days: and in them think +seriously, slowly, solemnly, over your past lives. Examine yourselves +and your doings. Ask yourselves fairly,—‘Am I going forward or back? Am +I living like a child of God, or like a mere machine for making food and +wages? Is my conduct such as the Holy Scripture tells me that it should +be? You will not need to go far for a set of questions, my friends, or +rules by which to examine yourselves. You can hardly open a page of +God’s blessed Book without finding something which stares you in the face +with the question, ‘Do I do thus?’ or, ‘Do I not do thus?’ Take, for +example, the Epistle of this very day. What better test can we have for +trying and weighing our own souls? + +What says it? That though we were wise, charitable, eloquent—all that +the greatest of men can be, and yet had not charity—_love_, we are +nothing!—nothing! And how does it describe this necessary, +indispensable, heavenly love? Let us spend the last few minutes of this +sermon in seeing how. And if that description does not prick all our +hearts on more points than one, they are harder than I take them for—far +harder, certainly, than they should be. + +This charity, or love, we hear, which each of us ought to have and must +have—“suffers long, and is kind.” What shall we say to that? How many +hasty, revengeful thoughts and feelings have risen in the hearts of most +of us in the last year?—Here is one thought for Lent. “Charity envies +not.”—Have we envied any their riches, their happiness, their good name, +health, and youth?—Another thought for Lent. “Charity boasts not +herself.” Alas! alas! my friends, are not the best of us apt to make +much of the little good we do,—to pride ourselves on the petty kindnesses +we shew,—to be puffed up with easy self-satisfaction, just as charity is +_not_ puffed up?—Another Lenten thought. “Charity does not behave +herself unseemly;” is never proud, noisy, conceited; gives every man’s +opinion a fair, kindly hearing; making allowances for all mistakes. Have +we done so?—Then there is another thought for Lent. “Charity seeks not +her own;” does not stand fiercely and stiffly on her own rights, on the +gratitude due to her. While we—are we not too apt, when we have done a +kindness, to fret and fume, and think ourselves deeply injured, if we do +not get repaid at once with all the humble gratitude we expected? Of +this also we must think. “Charity thinks no evil,” sets down no bad +motives for any one’s conduct, but takes for granted that he means well, +whatever appearances may be; while we (I speak of myself just as much as +of any one), are we not continually apt to be suspicious, jealous, to +take for granted that people mean harm; and even when we find ourselves +mistaken, and that we have cried out before we are hurt, not to consider +it as any sin against our neighbour, whom in reality we have been +silently slandering to ourselves? “Charity rejoices not in iniquity,” +but in the truth, whatever it may be; is never glad to see a high +professor prove a hypocrite, and fall into sin, and shew himself in his +true foul colours; which we, alas! are too apt to think a very pleasant +sight.—Are not these wholesome meditations for Lent? “Charity hopes all +things” of every one, “believes all things,” all good that is told of +every one, “endures all things,” instead of flying off and giving up a +person at the first fault. Are not all these points, which our own +hearts, consciences, common sense, or whatever you like to call it (I +shall call it God’s spirit), tell us are right, true, necessary? And is +there one of us who can say that he has not offended in many, if not in +all these points; and is not that unrighteousness—going out of the right, +straightforward, childlike, loving way of looking at all people? And is +not all unrighteousness sin? And must not all sin be repented of, and +that _as soon as we find it out_? And can we not all find time this Lent +to throw over these sins of ours?—to confess them with shame and +sorrow?—to try like men to shake them off? Oh, my friends! you who are +too busy for forty short days to make your immortal souls your first +business, take care—take care, lest the day shall come when sickness, and +pain, and the terror of death, shall keep you too busy to prepare those +unrepenting, unforgiven, sin-besotted souls of yours for the kingdom of +God. + + + + +SERMON XXIV. +ON BOOKS. + + + JOHN, i. 1. + + “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the + Word was God.” + +I DO not pretend to be able to explain this text to you, for no man can +comprehend it but He of whom it speaks, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. +But I can, by God’s grace, put before you some of the awful and glorious +truths of which it gives us a sight, and may Christ direct you, who is +_the_ Word, and grant me words to bring the matter home to you, so as to +make some of you, at least, ask yourselves the golden question, ‘If this +is true, what must we _do_ to be saved?’ + +The text says that the Word was from the beginning with God,—ay, God +Himself: who the Word is, there is no doubt from the rest of the chapter, +which you heard read this morning. But why is Christ called the Word of +all words—the Word of God? Let us look at this. Is not Christ _the +man_, the head and pattern of all men who are what men ought to be? And +did He not tell men that He is _the_ Life? That all life is given by Him +and out of Him? And does not St. John tell us that Christ the Life is +the light of men,—the true light which lighteth every man who cometh into +the world? + +Remember this, and then think again,—what is it which makes men different +from all other living things we know of? Is it not speech—the power of +words? The beasts may make each other understand many things, but they +have no speech. These glorious things—words—are man’s right alone, part +of the image of the Son of God—the Word of God, in which man was created. +If men would but think what a noble thing it is merely to be able to +speak in words, to think in words, to write in words! Without words, we +should know no more of each other’s hearts and thoughts than the dog +knows of his fellow dog;—without words to think in; for if you will +consider, you always think to yourself in _words_, though you do not +speak them aloud; and without them all our thoughts would be mere blind +longings, feelings which we could not understand our own selves. Without +words to write in, we could not know what our forefathers did;—we could +not let our children after us know what to do. But, now, books—the +written word of man—are precious heirlooms from one generation to +another, training us, encouraging us, teaching us, by the words and +thoughts of men, whose bodies are crumbled into dust ages ago, but whose +words—the power of uttering themselves, which they got from the Son of +God—still live, and bear fruit in our hearts, and in the hearts of our +children after us, till the last day! + +But where did these words—this power of uttering our thoughts, come from? +Do you fancy that men first, began like brute beasts or babies, with +strange cries and mutterings, and so gradually found out words for +themselves? Not they; the beasts have been on the earth as long as man; +and yet they can no more speak than they could when God created Adam: but +Adam, we find, could speak at once. God spoke to Adam the moment he was +made, and Adam understood Him; so he knew the power and the meaning of +words. Who gave him that power? Who but Jehovah—Jesus—the Word of God, +who imparted to him the word of speech and the light of reason? Without +them what use would there have been in saying to him, “Thou shalt not eat +of the tree of knowledge?” Without them what would there have been in +God’s bringing to him all the animals to see what he would call them, +unless He had first given Adam the power of understanding words, and +thinking of words, and speaking words? This was the glorious gift of +Christ—the Voice or Word of the Lord God, as we read in the second +chapter of Genesis, whom Adam heard another time with fear and +terror,—“The voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the +day.”—A text and a story strange enough, till we find in the first +chapter of St. John the explanation of it, telling us that the Word was +in the beginning with God—very God, and that He was the light which +lighteth every man who cometh into the world. So Christ is the light +which lighteth every man who cometh into the world. How are we to +understand that, when there are so many who live and die heathens or +reprobates,—some who never hear of Christ,—some, alas! in Christian +lands, who are dead to every doctrine or motive of Christianity? yet the +Bible says that Christ lights _every man_ who comes into the world. +Difficult to understand at first sight, yet most true, and simple too, at +bottom. + +For how is every one, whether heathen or Christian, child or man, +enlightened or taught, to live and behave? Is it not by the words of +those round him, by the words he reads in books, by the thoughts which he +thinks out and puts into shape for himself? All this is the light which +every human being has his share of. And has not every man, too, the +light of reason and good feeling, more or less, to tell him whether each +thing is right or wrong, noble or mean, ugly or beautiful? This is +another way by which the light which lighteth every man works. And St. +John tells us in the text, that he who works in this way,—he who gives us +the power of understanding, and thinking, and judging, and speaking, is +the very same Word of God who was made flesh, and dwelt among men, and +died on the Cross for us; “the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of +the world!” + +He is the Word of God—by Him God has spoken to man in all ages. He +taught Adam,—He spoke to Abraham as a man speaketh with his friend. It +was He Jehovah, whom we call Jesus, whom Moses and the seventy elders +saw—saw with their bodily eyes on Mount Sinai, who spoke to them with +human voice from amid the lightning and the rainbow. It must have been +only He, the Word, by whom God the Father utters Himself to man, for no +man hath seen God at any time; only the Word, the only-begotten Son, who +is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And who put into +the mouth of David those glorious Psalms—the songs in which all true men +for three thousand years have found the very things they longed to speak +themselves and could not? Who but Christ the Word of God, the Lord, as +David calls Him, put a new song into the mouth of His holy poet,—the +sweet singer of Israel? Who spake by the prophets, again? What do they +say themselves?—“The Word of the Lord came to me, saying.” And then, +when the Spirit of God stirred them up, the Word of God gave them speech, +and they said the sayings which shall never pass away till all be +fulfilled. And who was it who, when He was upon earth, spake as never +man spake,—whose words were the simplest, and yet the deepest,—the +tenderest, and yet the most awful, which ever broke the blessed silence +upon this earth,—whose words, now to this day, come home to men’s hearts, +stirring them up to the very roots, piercing through the marrow of men’s +souls,—whose but Christ’s, the Word, who was made flesh and dwelt among +us, full of grace and truth? And who since then, do you think, has it +been who has given to all wise and holy poets, philosophers, and +preachers, the power to speak and write the wonderful truths which, by +God’s grace, they thought out for themselves and for all mankind,—who +gave them utterance?—who but Christ, the Lord of men’s spirits, the Word +of God, who promised to give to all His true disciples a mouth and +wisdom, which their enemies should not be able to gainsay or resist? + +Well, my friends, ought not the knowledge of this to make us better and +wiser? Ought it not to make us esteem, and reverence, and use many +things of which we are apt to think too lightly? How it should make us +reverence the Bible, the written word of God’s saints and prophets, of +God’s apostles, of Christ, the Word Himself? Oh, that men would use that +treasure of the Bible as it deserves;—oh, that they would believe from +their hearts, that whatever is said there is truly said, that whatever is +said there is said to them, that whatever names things are called there +are called by their right names. Then men would no longer call the vile +person beautiful, or call pride and vanity honour, or covetousness +respectability, or call sin worldly wisdom; but they would call things as +Christ calls them—they would try to copy Christ’s thoughts and Christ’s +teaching; and instead of looking for instruction and comfort to lying +opinions and false worldly cunning, they would find their only advice in +the blessed teaching, and their only comfort in the gracious promises, of +the word of the Book of Life. + +Again, how these thoughts ought to make us reverence all books. +Consider! except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a +book!—a message to us from the dead—from human souls whom we never saw, +who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away; and yet these, in those +little sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach us, +comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers. + +Why is it that neither angels, nor saints, nor evil spirits, appear to +men now to speak to them as they did of old? Why, but because we have +_books_, by which Christ’s messengers, and the devil’s messengers too, +can tell what they will to thousands of human beings at the same moment, +year after year, all the world over! I say, we ought to reverence books, +to look at them as awful and mighty things. If they are good and true, +whether they are about religion or politics, farming, trade, or medicine, +they are the message of Christ, the Maker of all things, the Teacher of +all truth, which He has put into the heart of some man to speak, that he +may tell us what is good for our spirits, for our bodies, and for our +country. + +And at the last day, be sure of it, we shall have to render an account—a +strict account, of the books which we have read, and of the way in which +we have obeyed what we read, just as if we had had so many prophets or +angels sent to us. + +If, on the other hand, books are false and wicked, we ought to fear them +as evil spirits loose among us, as messages from the father of lies, who +deceives the hearts of evil men, that they may spread abroad the poison +of his false and foul messages, putting good for evil, and evil for good, +sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet, saying to all men, ‘I, too, have +a tree of knowledge, and you may eat of the fruit thereof, and not die.’ +But believe him not. When you see a wicked book, when you find in a book +any thing which contradicts God’s book, cast it away, trample it under +foot, believe that it is the devil tempting you by his cunning, alluring +words, as he tempted Eve, your mother. Would to God all here would make +that rule,—never to look into an evil book, a filthy ballad, a +nonsensical, frivolous story! Can a man take a snake into his bosom and +not be bitten?—can we play with fire and not be burnt?—can we open our +ears and eyes to the devil’s message, whether of covetousness, or filth, +or folly, and not be haunted afterwards by its wicked words, rising up in +our thoughts like evil spirits, between us and our pure and noble +duty—our baptism-vows? + +I might say much more about these things, and, by God’s help, in another +sermon I will go on, and speak to you of the awful importance of spoken +words, of the sermons and the conversation to which you listen, the awful +importance of every word which comes out of your own mouth. But I have +spoken only of books this morning, for this is the age of books, the +time, one would think, of which Daniel prophesied that many should run to +and fro, and knowledge should be increased. A flood of books, +newspapers, writings of all sorts, good and bad, is spreading over the +whole land, and young and old will read them. We cannot stop that—we +ought not: it is God’s ordinance. It is more: it is God’s grace and +mercy, that we have a free press in England—liberty for every man, that +if he have any of God’s truth to tell he may tell it out boldly, in books +or otherwise. A blessing from God! one which we should reverence, for +God knows it was dearly bought. Before our forefathers could buy it for +us, many an honoured man left house and home to die in the battle-field +or on the scaffold, fighting and witnessing for the right of every man to +whom God’s Word comes, to speak God’s Word openly to his countrymen. A +blessing, and an awful one! for the same gate which lets in good lets in +evil. The law dare not silence bad books. It dare not root up the tares +lest it root up the wheat also. The men who died to buy us liberty knew +that it was better to let in a thousand bad books than shut out one good +one; for a grain of God’s truth will ever outweigh a ton of the devil’s +lies. We cannot then silence evil books, but we can turn away our eyes +from them—we can take care that what we read, and what we let others +read, shall be good and wholesome. Now, if ever, are we bound to +remember that books are words, and that words come either from Christ or +the devil,—now, if ever, we are bound to try all books by the Word of +God,—now, if ever, are we bound to put holy and wise books, both +religious and worldly, into the hands of all around us, that if, poor +souls! they must need eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they may +also eat of the tree of life,—and now, if ever, are we bound to pray to +Christ the Word of God, that He will raise up among us wise and holy +writers, and give them words and utterance, to speak to the hearts of all +Englishmen the message of God’s covenant, and that he may confound the +devil and his lies, and all that swarm of vile writers who are filling +England with trash, filth, blasphemy, and covetousness, with books which +teach men that our wise forefathers, who built our churches and founded +our constitution, and made England the queen of nations, were but +ignorant knaves and fanatics, and that selfish money-making and godless +licentiousness are the only true wisdom; and so turn the divine power of +words, and the inestimable blessing of a free press, into the devil’s +engine, and not Christ’s the Word of God. But their words shall be +brought to nought. + +May God preserve us and all our friends from that defilement, and may He +give you all grace, in these strange times, to take care what you read +and how you read, and to hold fast by the Book of all books, and Christ +the Word of God. Try by them all books and men; for if they speak not +according to God’s law and testimony, it is because there is no truth in +them. + + + + +SERMON XXV. +THE COURAGE OF THE SAVIOUR. + + + JOHN, xi. 7, 8. + + “Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea + again. His disciples say to Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to + stone thee, and goest thou thither again?” + +WE all admire a brave man. And we are right. To be brave is God’s gift. +To be brave is to be like Jesus Christ. Cowardice is only the devil’s +likeness. But we must take care what we mean by being brave. Now, there +are two sorts of bravery—courage and fortitude. And they are very +different: courage is of the flesh,—fortitude is of the spirit. Courage +is good, but dumb animals have it just as much as we. A dog, a tiger, +and a horse, have courage, but they have no fortitude,—because fortitude +is a spiritual thing, and beasts have no spirits like ours. + +What is fortitude? It is the courage which will make us not only fight +in a good cause, but suffer in a good cause. Courage will help us only +to give others pain; fortitude will help us to bear pain ourselves. And +more, fortitude will make a fearful person brave, and very often the more +brave the more fearful they are. And thus it is that women are so often +braver than men. We, men, are made of coarser stuff; we do not feel pain +as keenly as women; and if we do feel, we are rightly ashamed to shew it. +But a tender woman, who feels pain and sorrow infinitely more than we do, +who need not be ashamed of being frightened, who perhaps is terrified at +every mouse and spider,—to see her bearing patiently pain, and sorrow, +and shame, in spite of all her fearfulness, because she knows it is her +duty—that is Christ’s likeness—that is true fortitude—that is a sight +nobler than all the “bull-dog courage” in the world. For what is the +courage of the bull-dog after all, or of the strong quarrelsome man? He +is confident in his own strength, he is rough and hard, and does not care +for pain; and when he thrusts his head into a fight, like a surly dog, he +does it not because it is his duty, but because he likes it, because he +is angry, and then every blow and every wound makes him more angry, and +he fights on, forgetting his pain from blind rage. + +That is not altogether bad; men ought to be courageous. But, oh! my +friends, is there not a more excellent way to be brave? and which is +nobler, to suffer bravely for God’s sake, or to beat men made in God’s +image bravely for one’s own sake? Think of any fight you ever saw, and +then compare with that the stories of those old martyrs who died rather +than speak a word against their Saviour. If you want to see true +fortitude, think of what has happened thousands of times when the heathen +used to persecute the Christians.—How delicate women, who would not +venture to set the sole of their foot to the ground for tenderness, would +submit, rather than give up their religion and deny the Lord who died for +them, to be torn from husband and family, and endure nakedness, and +insult, and tortures which make one’s blood run cold to read of, till +they were torn slowly piecemeal, or roasted in burning flames, without a +murmur or an angry word,—knowing that Christ, who had borne all things +for them, would give them strength to bear all things for Him, trusting +that if they were faithful unto death, He would give them a crown of +life. There was true fortitude—there was true faith—there was God’s +strength made perfect in woman’s weakness! Do you not see, my friends, +that such a death was truly brave? How does bull-dog courage shew beside +that courage—the courage which conquers grief and pain for duty’s-sake, +instead of merely forgetting them in rage and obstinacy? + +And do you not see how this bears on my text? How it bears on our Lord’s +whole life? Was he not indeed the perfectly brave man—the man who +endured more than all living men put together, at the very time that he +had the most intense fear of what he was going to suffer? And stranger +still, endured it all of His own will, while He had it in His power to +shake it all off any instant, and free Himself utterly from pain and +suffering. + +Now, this speech of our Lord’s in the text is just a case of true +fortitude. He was beyond Jordan. He had been forced to escape thither +to save His life from the mad, blinded Jews. He had no foolhardiness; He +knew that He had no more right than we have to put His life in danger +when there was no good to be done by it. But now there _was_ good to be +done by it. Lazarus was dead, and He wanted to raise him to life. +Therefore He said to His disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” They +knew the danger; they said, “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone +Thee, and goest Thou thither again?” But He would go; He had a work to +do, and He dared bear anything to do His work. Ay, here is the secret, +this is the feeling which gives a man true courage—the feeling that he +has a work to do at all costs, the sense of duty. Oh! my friends, let +men, women, or children, once feel that they have a duty to perform, let +them once say to themselves, ‘I am bound to do this thing—it is right for +me to do this thing; I owe it as a duty to my family, I owe it as a duty +to my country, I owe it as a duty to God, who called me into this station +of life; I owe it as a duty to Jesus Christ, who bought me with His +blood, that I might do His will and not my own pleasure.’—When a man has +once said that _honestly_ to himself, when that glorious heavenly +thought, ‘_It is my duty_,’ has risen upon his soul, like the sun upon +the earth, warming his heart and enlightening it and making it bring +forth all good and noble fruits, then that man will feel a strength come +to him, and a courage from God above, which will conquer all his fears +and his selfish love of ease and pleasure, and enable him to bear +insults, and pain, and poverty, and death itself, provided he can but do +what is right, and be found by God, whatever happens to him, working +God’s will where God has put him. This is fortitude—this is true +courage—this is Christ’s likeness—this is the courage which weak women on +sick beds may have as well as strong men on the battle-field. Even when +they shrink most from suffering, God’s Spirit will whisper to them, ‘It +is _thy_ duty, it is thy Father’s will,’ and then they will find His +strength made perfect in their weakness, and when their human weakness +fails most God will give them heavenly fortitude, and they will be able, +like St. Paul, to say, “When I am weak, then I am strong, for I can do +all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me.” + +And now, remember that there was no pride, no want of feeling to keep up +our Lord’s courage. He has tasted sorrow for every man, woman, and +child, and therefore He has tasted fear also; tempted in all things, like +as we are, that in all things He might be touched with the feeling of our +infirmities,—that there might be no poor soul terrified at the thought of +pain or sorrow, but could comfort themselves with the thought, Well, the +Son of God knows what fear is. He who said that His soul was troubled—He +who at the thought of death was in such agony of terror, that His sweat +ran down to the ground like great drops of blood,—He who cried in His +agony, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,”—He +understands my pain,—He tells me not to be ashamed of crying in my pain +like Him, “Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me”—for He +will give me the strength to finish that prayer of His, and in the midst +of my trouble say, “Nevertheless, Father, not as I will, but as Thou +wilt.” Remember, again, that our Lord was not like the martyrs of old, +forced to undergo His sufferings whether He liked them or not. We are +too apt to forget that, and therefore we misunderstand our Lord’s +example; and therefore we misunderstand what true fortitude is. Jesus +Christ was the Son of God; He had made the very men who were tormenting +Him; He had made the very wood of the cross on which He hung, the iron +which pierced His blessed hands; and, for aught we know, one wish of His, +and they would all have crumbled into dust, and He have been safe in a +moment. But He would not; He _endured_ the cross. He was the only man +who ever really endured anything at all, because He alone of all men had +perfect power to save Himself, even when He was nailed to the tree, +fainting, bleeding, dying. It was never too late for Him to stop. As He +said to Peter when he wanted to fight for Christ, “Thinkest thou that I +cannot pray to my Father, and He will send me instantly more than twelve +legions of angels?” But _He would not_. He had to save the world, and +He was determined to do it, whatever agony or fear it cost Him. St. +Peter was a _brave_ man. He drew his sword in the garden, and attacked, +single-handed, that great body of armed soldiers; cutting down a servant +of the high-priest’s. But he was only brave, our Lord was more. The +blessed Jesus had true fortitude; He could _bear_ patiently, while Peter +could only rage and fight uselessly. And see how Christ’s fortitude +lasted Him, while Peter’s mere courage failed him. While our Lord was +witnessing that glorious confession of His before Pilate, bearing on +through, without shrinking, even to the cross itself, where was Peter? +He had denied his Master, and ran shamefully away. He had a long lesson +to learn before he was perfect, had Peter. He had to learn not how to +fight, but how to suffer—and he learnt it; and in his old age that +strong, fierce St. Peter had true fortitude to give himself up to be +crucified, like his Lord, without a murmur, and preach Christ’s gospel as +he hung for three whole days upon the torturing cross. There was +fortitude; that violence of his in the garden was only courage as of a +brute animal,—courage of the flesh, not the true courage of the spirit. +Oh, my friends, that we could all learn this lesson, that it is better to +suffer than to revenge, better to be killed than to kill. There are +times when a man must fight—for his country, for just laws, for his +family, but for himself it is very seldom that he must fight. He who +returns good for evil,—he who when he is cursed, blesses those who curse +him,—he, who takes joyfully the spoiling of his goods, who submits to be +cheated in little matters, and sometimes in great ones, sooner than ruin +the poor sinful wretch who has ill-used him; that man has really put on +Christ’s likeness, that man is really going on to perfection, and +fulfilling the law of love; and for everything he gives up for the sake +of peace and mercy, which is for God’s sake, God will reward him +sevenfold into his bosom. There are times when a man is bound to go to +law, bound to expose and punish evil-doers, lest they should, being +unpunished, become confident and go on from bad to worse, and hurt others +as well as him. A man sometimes is bound by his duty to his neighbours +and to society to defend himself, to go to law with those who injure +him,—sometimes; but never bound to revenge himself, never bound to say, +‘He has hurt me, and I will pay him off for it at law;’ that is abusing +law, which is God’s ordinance, for mere selfish revenge. You may say, it +is difficult to know which is which, when to defend oneself, and when +not. It is difficult; without the light of God’s Spirit, I think no man +will know. But let a man live by God’s Spirit, let him pray for +kindliness, mercifulness, manliness, and patience, for true fortitude to +bear and to forbear, and God will surely open his eyes to see when he is +called on to avenge an injury, and when he is called on to suffer +patiently. God will shew him—if a man wishes to be like Christ, and to +work like Christ, at doing good, God will teach him and guide him in all +puzzling matters like this. And do not be afraid of being called cowards +and milksops for bearing injuries patiently—those who call you so will be +likely to be the greatest cowards themselves. Patience is the truest +sign of courage. Ask old soldiers, who have seen real war, and they will +tell you that the bravest men, the men who endured best, not in mere +fighting, but in standing still for hours to be mowed down by +cannon-shot; who were most cheerful and patient in shipwreck, and +starvation and defeat,—all things ten times worse than fighting,—ask old +soldiers, I say, and they will tell you that the men who shewed best in +such miseries, were generally the stillest and meekest men in the whole +regiment: that is true fortitude; that is Christ’s image—the meekest of +men, and the bravest too. And so books say, and seem to prove it, by +many strange stories, that the lion, while he is the strongest and +bravest of beasts of prey, is also the most patient and merciful. He +knows his own strength and courage, and therefore he does not care to be +shewing it off. He can afford to endure an affront. It is only the +cowardly cur who flies out and barks at every passer-by. And so with our +blessed Lord. The Bible calls Him the Lion of Judah; but it also calls +Him the Lamb dumb before the shearers. Ah, my friends, we must come back +to Him, for all the little that is great and noble in man or woman, or +dumb beast even, is perfected in Him; He only is perfectly great, +perfectly noble, brave, meek. He who to save us sinful men, endured the +cross, despising the shame, till He sat down at the right hand of the +Majesty on high, perfectly brave He is, and perfectly gentle, and will be +so for ever; for even at His second coming, when He shall appear the +Conqueror of hell, with tens of thousands of angels, to take vengeance on +those who know not God, and destroy the wicked with the breath of His +mouth, even then in His fiercest anger, the Scripture tells us, His anger +shall be “the anger of the Lamb.” Almighty vengeance and just anger, and +yet perfect gentleness and love all the while.—Mystery of mysteries!—The +wrath of the Lamb! May God give us all to feel in that day, not the +wrath, but the love of the Lamb who was slain for us! + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{92} “And when He was come to the other side, into the country of the +Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the +tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, +behold, they cried out, saying, What have we do with Thee, Jesus, Thou +Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? And +there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the +devils besought him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away +into the herd of swine. And He said unto them, Go. And when they were +come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd +of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in +the waters.” + +{187} Von Stolberg. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWENTY-FIVE VILLAGE SERMONS*** + + +******* This file should be named 7954-0.txt or 7954-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/7/9/5/7954 + + +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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