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diff --git a/old/vsrm10h.htm b/old/vsrm10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a372672 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/vsrm10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6026 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Twenty-Five Village Sermons</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Twenty-Five Village Sermons, by Charles Kingsley</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Twenty-Five Village Sermons, by Charles Kingsley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Twenty-Five Village Sermons + +Author: Charles Kingsley + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7954] +[This file was first posted on June 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h1>TWENTY-FIVE VILLAGE SERMONS</h1> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON I. GOD’S WORLD</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>PSALM civ. 24.</p> +<p>“O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made +them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>about</i> God in this psalm, +as I am now in my sermon, but he is doing more; he is speaking <i>to</i> +God—a much more solemn thing if you will think of it. He +says, “O Lord my God, <i>Thou</i> 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 <i>to</i> +any one we love and honour than merely speak <i>about</i> 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!</p> +<p>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 <i>Thy</i> 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 <i>up</i>-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 <i>He</i> opens His +hand, they are filled with good. It is when <i>He</i> takes away +their breath, they die, and turn again to their dust. <i>He</i> +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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The old order changes, giving place to the new,<br />And God fulfils +Himself in many ways.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON II. RELIGION NOT GODLINESS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>PSALM civ. 13-15.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>you</i> 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.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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 <i>that</i>? 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 <i>that</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>cannot</i> 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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>giver</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>work</i>, and +therefore we <i>must</i> 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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON III. LIFE AND DEATH</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>PSALM civ. 24, 28-30.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>seem</i>, yet death has not conquered life, but life has conquered +and <i>will</i> conquer death, and conquer it most completely at the +very moment that we die, and our bodies return to their dust.</p> +<p>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 +<i>soil—</i>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 <i>died—</i>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>men</i>, to be <i>women</i>, 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 <i>die</i>, 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 <i>bad</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>sin</i> +came death—by man’s becoming unfit for the Spirit of God.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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 <i>men</i>; 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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>do</i> God’s will at all, but only <i>suffer</i> 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.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON IV. THE WORK OF GOD’S SPIRIT</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>JAMES, i. 16, 17.</p> +<p>“Do not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every +perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>out</i> 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 <i>graces</i>—they +are not <i>spiritual</i> 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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>yours</i> 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 <i>yours</i> or mine, though they may come into our heads. +They are part of the evil which besets us—which is <i>not</i> +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 <i>God</i> +must? These, too, are His gifts?’</p> +<p>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 <i>thinking</i> whether +it is a noble thing or not—without <i>thinking</i> 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.</p> +<p>But he <i>ought</i> to know it, for it is <i>willing</i>, <i>reasonable</i> +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <i>His</i> 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?”</p> +<p>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, <i>are</i> God’s Spirit—they +are the spirit of <i>man</i>, but that they are <i>like</i> God’s +Spirit, and therefore they must be given us <i>by</i> 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 <i>from</i> 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 <i>matter</i> +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>You must believe this much about yourselves before you can believe +more. You must fairly and really believe that <i>God</i> 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.</p> +<p>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? <i>He</i> 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, <i>He</i> alone has made it easier to you; and +if you have done wrong,—if you have fallen short of your duty, +as <i>all</i> 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.</p> +<p>And you, young men and women—consider;—if God has given +you manly courage and high spirits, and strength and beauty—think—<i>God</i>, +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 <i>all</i> 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?</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON V. FAITH</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>HABAKKUK, ii. 4.</p> +<p>“The just shall live by faith.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>do</i> 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 <i>live</i>, except by faith in +Him, by trusting to Him utterly.</p> +<p>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 <i>can</i> we do without God? +<i>In</i> Him we live, and move, and have our being. He made us, +He gave us our bodies, gave us our life; what we do <i>He</i> 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 <i>are</i> +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 <i>has</i> 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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>These things are true, and always were true. All that men ever +did well, or nobly, or lovingly, in this world, <i>was done by faith</i>—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.</p> +<p>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 <i>your</i> 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, <i>then</i> 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, <i>his</i> 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, +“<i>Before</i> I was troubled I went wrong, but <i>now</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>does</i>, does not come of <i>God</i>. 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 <i>unmanliness</i>, +in being unlike a man, in becoming like an evil spirit or a beast. +Holiness consists in becoming a <i>true man</i>, 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 <i>can</i> live by faith; and it is the greatest glory +and honour to us, I say again, that we <i>can</i> 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—<i>we</i>, +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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON VI. THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>GALATIANS, v. 16.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>are</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>animal</i> part of man, just what a man has in common +with the beasts who perish.</p> +<p>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 <i>afraid</i> 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—<i>there</i> is their hell! +<i>There</i> is the hell in which the soul of every wicked man is,—ay, +is now while he is in <i>this</i> 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>i.e</i>. 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 <i>this</i> world, tempting us to ease, and pleasure, +and vanity; and in the middle, betwixt the two, stands up the third +part of man—his <i>soul</i> and <i>will</i>, 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 <i>then</i> 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 <i>is</i> harm and +folly. That is not <i>its</i> fault. Whose fault is it, +then? <i>Our</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON VII. RETRIBUTION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>NUMBERS, xxxii. 23.</p> +<p>“Be sure your sin will find you out.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>do</i> know, +they are quite certain that its good things are pleasant and its bad +things unpleasant, and they are thoroughly afraid of losing <i>them</i>. +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 <i>not</i> 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 <i>pay</i> +them <i>here</i>, at all events; and as for hereafter, they shall get +off somehow,—they neither know nor care much how.</p> +<p>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 <i>from +the witness</i> of men’s own hearts.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>always</i> +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 <i>evil</i>”—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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>may</i> 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 <i>know</i> +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 <i>duty</i> 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.</p> +<p>Think, again, of your past lives, and answer in God’s sight, +how many wrong things have you ever done which have <i>succeeded</i>, +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 +<i>outwardly</i>; 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 +<i>found him out</i>?—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?</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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:<i>—then</i> 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!</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON VIII. SELF-DESTRUCTION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>1 KINGS, xxii. 23.</p> +<p>“The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these +thy prophets.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>we</i> 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. +<i>That</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON IX. HELL ON EARTH</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>MATTHEW, viii. 29.</p> +<p>“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?”</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a></p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>we</i> to do with Thee, Jesus, +Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment <i>us</i> before +the time?” And again, “If Thou cast <i>us</i> 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 <i>he</i> 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 “<i>Legion</i>,” +that is an army, a multitude, “for we are many,” he says. +Again, one gospel tells us that he says, “What have <i>I</i> to +do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?” While in another +Gospel we are told that he said, “What have <i>we</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>we</i> 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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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, <i>himself</i>, 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 <i>might</i>, and perhaps <i>would</i>, +happen to any one of us, were it not for God’s mercy.</p> +<p>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 <i>one</i>—of <i>the</i> 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 <i>know</i>, 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>can</i> 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.</p> +<p>But next, and I wish you to pay special attention to this point: +We have no right to believe,—we have every right <i>not</i> 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.</p> +<p>So Satan, the prince of the evil spirits, tempted our Lord. +And as the prince of the devils tempted Christ, so do <i>his</i> servants +tempt <i>us</i>, 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 <i>complete possession</i>; 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 <i>his</i> 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, +<i>their</i> 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, +<i>then</i>, 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, +<i>Thou</i> must shew me where they are wrong. Thou didst answer +the devil Thyself out of God’s Word, put into <i>my</i> 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 <i>do</i> know are +right. I’ll go and do <i>them</i>, and let this wait awhile.’</p> +<p>Believe me, my friends, you <i>can</i> 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 <i>not</i> +lead us <i>into</i> temptation, but <i>through</i> it safe. Tempted +we <i>must</i> 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.</p> +<p>Again, I say, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. +Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON X. NOAH’S JUSTICE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>GENESIS, vi. 9.</p> +<p>“Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah +walked with God.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>nature</i>, +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 <i>duty</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>believing</i> 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Noah</i> 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 <i>we</i> 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?</p> +<p>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; <i>that</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>love</i> 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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XI. THE NOACHIC COVENANT</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>GEN, ix. 8, 9.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>we</i> 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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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 <i>stronger</i> 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.’</p> +<p>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 +<i>wrong</i>; 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!</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>He</i> 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 <i>person</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>make</i> 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!</p> +<p>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 <i>He</i> will +require the blood of the murdered man <i>at his brother’s hand</i>; +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 <i>brothers’ keepers</i>, +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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XII. ABRAHAM’S FAITH</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>HEBREWS, xi. 9, 10.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>fruit</i>, +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <i>or +for us</i>. 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 <i>its</i> builder and maker must be, not +the selfishness or the ambition of men, but the will, and the wisdom, +and providence of God.</p> +<p>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>I</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 <i>safer</i>, 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 <i>all</i> 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.</p> +<p>He the Saviour of a few individual souls only? God forbid! +To Him <i>all power</i> 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 <i>consist</i> and hold together. Every thing or +institution on earth which has systematic and organic life in it—by +<i>Him</i> 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. +<i>That</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>But again; God said to Abraham, when He had led him into this far +country, “Unto thy seed will <i>I give this land</i>.” +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,</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“A mighty hunter, and his game was man.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>Here, you see, was another hint to Abraham of what it was and who +it was that made a great nation.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>And, surely, men are doing so in these days; men are forgetting that +other foundation can no man lay save that which <i>is</i> 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 +<i>have</i> “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 <i>He</i> +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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XIII. ABRAHAM’S OBEDIENCE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>HEBREWS, xi. 17-19.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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>I will do it</i>. 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 +<i>not</i> 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.’</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>work</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>And so it will be with us, my friends, we must not expect to <i>buy</i> +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 <i>have</i> a share in His promises—He +bids us believe <i>that</i>, 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 <i>has</i> +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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XIV. OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>1 JOHN, ii. 13.</p> +<p>“I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the +Father.”</p> +<p>I preached some time ago a sermon on the whole of these most deep +and blessed verses of St. John.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>No! By little children, St. John means here children in age,—of +course <i>Christian</i> 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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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;”<i>—</i>and I dare not keep them back +because they sound strange. They may <i>sound</i> strange, but +they <i>are not</i> 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,—</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Heaven lies about us in our infancy,<br />Not in complete +forgetfulness,<br />Nor yet in utter nakedness,<br />But trailing clouds +of glory do we come,<br />From God who is our home!”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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 +<i>always</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>trouble</i>? +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 <i>sense—</i>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 <i>see</i> 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 <i>really</i> 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?</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XV. THE TRANSFIGURATION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>MARK, ix. 2.</p> +<p>“Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them +up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.”</p> +<p>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 <i>His</i> Father and <i>our</i> 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 <i>them</i>, +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.</p> +<p>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,<i>—that</i> 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.</p> +<p>That the apostles <i>had</i> 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 <i>that</i> 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>I</i> have no +need of fine linen, and purple, and embroidery, the work of men’s +hands; <i>I</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 <i>mine. I</i> made it—<i>I</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>I</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 <i>like Him</i>, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John, +iii. 3.)</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>not</i> understand Christ in like manner. +They did not yet <i>feel</i> 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 <i>their</i> spirit and <i>their</i> 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: ‘<i>This—this</i> is my +beloved Son—hear ye <i>Him</i>, 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 <i>them</i> a spirit and a depth which <i>they</i> never had +before. Therefore let no man tempt you to despise learning, for +it is holy to the Lord.</p> +<p>There is one more lesson which we may learn from our Lord’s +transfiguration; when St. Peter said, “<i>Lord</i>! it is good +for us to be here,” he spoke a truth. It <i>was</i> good +for him to be there; nevertheless, Christ did not listen to his prayer. +He and his two companions were not allowed to <i>stay</i> 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 <i>feel</i> his heart overpowered with the glorious majesty +of God, and to <i>feel</i> 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 <i>so have we</i>; 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 <i>fruits</i> of faith, whereby alone the tree shall +be known whether it be good or evil.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XVI. THE CRUCIFIXION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>ISAIAH, liii. 7.</p> +<p>“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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?”</p> +<p>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 <i>your</i> temper there, and then you may get some slight +notion of the boundless love and the boundless endurance of the Saviour +whom <i>we</i> love so little, for whose sake most of us will not endure +the trouble of giving up a single sin.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XVII. THE RESURRECTION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>LUKE, xxiv. 6.</p> +<p>“He is not here—He is risen”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>What must they have thought, poor, faithful souls, who came, lonely +and broken-hearted, to see the place where <i>He</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rose from the dead!</p> +<p>Now come the questions, <i>Why</i> did Christ rise from the dead?—and +<i>how</i> 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 <i>His</i> +Spirit. He is the Prince of Life; and the Spirit which gives life +is His Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son. <i>Therefore</i> +the gates of hell could not prevail against Him—<i>therefore</i> +the heavy grave-stone could not hold Him down—<i>therefore</i> +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 <i>He</i> 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—<i>life</i>, +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>But here was a Man who rose of Himself. He was raised by God, +and therefore He raised Himself, for He was God.</p> +<p>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 <i>the</i> Spirit—God’s Spirit, the +Lord and Giver of life. The Lord could not <i>help</i> 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.</p> +<p>And does not this shew us <i>why</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation2"></a><a href="#footnote2">{2}</a> +how</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p> “Mother earth, she gathers all<br />Into +her bosom, great and small:<br />Oh could we look into her face,<br />We +should not shrink from her embrace.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>spring +up</i> to the resurrection of eternal life.</p> +<p>Now, consider again that parable of the wheat-plant. After +it has sprung up, what does it next, but <i>tiller</i>?—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.</p> +<p>And what can you learn from this? Learn this, that in Christ +you are safe, out of Christ you are lost. But <i>really</i> 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 +<i>in Christ</i> 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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XVIII. IMPROVEMENT</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>PSALM xcii. 12.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>The Bible is always telling Christian people to <i>go forwards—</i>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 <i>filled</i> 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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>grow</i> 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!</p> +<p>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 +<i>spirit</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>all</i> 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 <i>are</i> 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 <i>will</i> 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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XIX. MAN’S WORKING DAY</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>JOHN, xi. 9, 10.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>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 <i>must</i> 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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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 <i>forget</i> 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 <i>master</i> 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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>not ourselves</i>, namely the sun, +so there is a light for us in the spirit-world, which is <i>not ourselves</i>. +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 <i>in</i> +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Work ye manful while ye may,<br />Work for God in this your +day;<br />Night must stop you, rich or poor,<br />Godly deeds alone +endure.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>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.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XX. ASSOCIATION</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>GALATIANS, vi. 2.</p> +<p>“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law +of Christ.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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 +<i>spirit</i>, to have the spirit—<i>the will</i>, of a Christian +in him; that is, to do all these things for <i>God’s</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>And why should it not be just the same in a benefit club? There +the good member is <i>not</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XXI. HEAVEN ON EARTH</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>1 COR. x. 31.</p> +<p>“Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the +glory of God.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>do God justice</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>words</i> 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 <i>you</i> 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 +<i>you</i> from <i>your</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>place</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Thou hast seen hell and heaven? Why not? since heaven +and hell<br />Within the struggling soul of every mortal dwell.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>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 <i>trying</i> only to do every thing +to God’s glory, but actually succeeding in <i>doing</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XXII. NATIONAL PRIVILEGES</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>LUKE, x. 23.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XXIII. LENTEN THOUGHTS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>HAGGAI, i. 5.</p> +<p>“Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your +ways.”</p> +<p>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 <i>believe</i> 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?</p> +<p>This is all true enough; but there is a sound and true answer to +it. It is not so much more <i>time</i> which you are asked to +give up to your souls in Lent, as it is more <i>heart</i>. What +do I talk of? <i>Giving up</i> 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 <i>that you are your soul</i>. 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 <i>giving up</i> 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!</p> +<p>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 <i>not</i> 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 <i>looks</i> for time!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>What says it? That though we were wise, charitable, eloquent—all +that the greatest of men can be, and yet had not charity—<i>love</i>, +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.</p> +<p>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 <i>not</i> 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 <i>as soon as we find it out</i>? 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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XXIV. ON BOOKS</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>JOHN, i. 1.</p> +<p>“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, +and the Word was God.”</p> +<p>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 <i>the</i> 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 <i>do</i> +to be saved?’</p> +<p>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 <i>the man</i>, the head and pattern of +all men who are what men ought to be? And did He not tell men +that He is <i>the</i> 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?</p> +<p>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 <i>words</i>, +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!</p> +<p>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 <i>every man</i> who comes into the world. +Difficult to understand at first sight, yet most true, and simple too, +at bottom.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>books</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>SERMON XXV. THE COURAGE OF THE SAVIOUR</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>JOHN, xi. 7, 8.</p> +<p>“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?”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>was</i> 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 <i>honestly</i> to himself, when that glorious heavenly thought, +‘<i>It is my duty</i>,’ 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 <i>thy</i> 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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>endured</i> 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 <i>He would not</i>. +He had to save the world, and He was determined to do it, whatever agony +or fear it cost Him. St. Peter was a <i>brave</i> 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 <i>bear</i> 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!</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Footnotes:</p> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a> “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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2">{2}</a> Von Stolberg.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TWENTY-FIVE VILLAGE SERMONS ***</p> +<pre> + +******This file should be named vsrm10h.htm or vsrm10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, vsrm11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, vsrm10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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