{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_11381/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_11381","id":"gutenberg_11381","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11381","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of England -- Sermons","Sermons, English -- 19th century"],"text":"Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk\n\n\n\n\nSERMONS FOR THE TIMES\n\n\n\n\nContents:\n   Fathers and Children\n   Salvation\n   A Good Conscience\n   Names\n   Sponsorship\n   Justification by Faith\n   Duty and Superstition\n   Sonship\n   The Lord's Prayer\n   The Doxology\n   Ahab and Naboth\n   The Light of God\n   Providence\n   England's Strength\n   The Life of God\n   God's Offspring\n   Death in Life\n   Shame\n   Forgiveness\n   The True Gentleman\n   Toleration\n   Public Spirit\n\n\n\nSERMON I.  'FATHERS AND CHILDREN'\n\n\n\nMalachi iv. 5, 6.  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before\nthe coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:  And he shall\nturn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the\nchildren to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a\ncurse.\n\nThese words are especially solemn words.  They stand in an\nespecially solemn and important part of the Bible.  They are the\nlast words of the Old Testament.  I cannot but think that it was\nGod's will that they should stand where they are, and nowhere else.\nMalachi, the prophet who wrote them, did not know perhaps that he\nwas the last of the Old Testament prophets.  He did not know that no\nprophet would arise among the Jews for 400 years, till the time when\nJohn the Baptist came preaching repentance.  But God knew.  And by\nGod's ordinance these words stand at the end of the Old Testament,\nto make us understand the beginning of the New Testament.  For the\nOld Testament ends by saying that God would send to the Jews Elijah\nthe prophet.  And the New Testament begins by telling us of John the\nBaptist's coming as a prophet, in the spirit and power of Elias; and\nhow the Lord Jesus himself declared plainly that John the Baptist\nwas Elijah who was to come; that is, the Elijah of whom Malachi\nprophesies in my text.\n\nTherefore, we may be certain that this text tells us what John the\nBaptist's work was; that John the Baptist came to turn the hearts of\nthe fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the\nfathers; lest the Lord should come and smite the land with a curse.\n\nSome may be ready to answer to this, 'Of course John the Baptist\ncame to warn parents of behaving wrongly to their children, if they\nwere careless or cruel; and children to their parents, if they were\ndisobedient or ungrateful.  Of course he would tell bad parents and\nchildren to repent, just as he came to tell all other kinds of\nsinners to repent.  But that was only a part of John the Baptist's\nwork.  He came to be the forerunner of the Messiah, the Saviour, the\nRedeemer.'\n\nBe it so, my friends.  I only hope that you really do believe that\nJohn the Baptist did come to proclaim that a Saviour was born into\nthe world--provided only that you remember all the while who that\nSaviour was.  John the Baptist tells you who He was.  If you will\nonly remember that, and get the thought of it into your hearts, you\nwill not be inclined to put any words of your own in place of the\nprophet Malachi's, or to fancy that you can describe better than\nMalachi what John the Baptist's work was to be; and that turning the\nhearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the\nchildren to the fathers, was only a small part of John the Baptist's\nwork, instead of being, as Malachi says it was, his principal work,\nhis very work, the work which must be done, lest the Lord, instead\nof saving the land, should come and smite it with a curse.\n\nYes--you must remember who it was that John the Baptist came to bear\nrecord of, and to manifest or show to the Jews.  The Angels on the\nfirst Christmas Eve told us--they said it was _The Lord_, 'Unto\nyou,' they said, 'is born a Saviour, who is Christ, _The Lord_.'\n\nJohn the Baptist told you and all mankind who it was--that it was\nThe Lord.  'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye\nthe way of _the Lord_!'\n\n_The Lord_.  What Lord--Which Lord?  John the Baptist knew.  Simeon,\nAnna, Nathaniel, all righteous and faithful hearts who waited for\nthe salvation of the Lord, knew.  The Pharisees and Sadducees did\nnot know.  The men who wrote our Creeds, our Prayer Book, our Church\nCatechism, knew.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees in our day, who\nfancy themselves wiser than the Creeds, and the Prayer Book, and the\nChurch Catechism, do not know.  May God grant that we may all know,\nnot only with our lips, but with our hearts, our faith, our love,\nour lives, who The Lord is.\n\nJesus Christ, the babe of Bethlehem, is The Lord.  But who is He?\nThe Bible tells us; when we have heard what the Bible tells us we\nshall be able better to understand the text.  The Lord is He of whom\nit is written, 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after\nour likeness.'  And who is God's image and God's likeness?  The New\nTestament tells us--Jesus Christ.  In Him man was made.  He is the\nSon of Man, who is in heaven--the true perfect pattern of man:  but\nHe is also the image and likeness of God, the brightness of His\nFather's glory, and the express image of His person.  He is The\nLord.  He is the Lord who instituted marriage, and said, 'It is not\ngood that the man should be alone; I will make him an help-meet for\nhim.'  He is the Lord who said to man, 'Be fruitful and multiply:\nfill the earth and subdue it.'  He is the Lord who said to the first\nmurderer, 'Thy brother's blood crieth against thee from the ground.'\nHe is the Lord who talked with Abraham face to face as a man talks\nwith his friend; who blest him by giving him a son in his old age,\nthat he might be the father of many nations.  He is the Lord who, on\nMount Sinai, gave those Ten Commandments, the foundation of all law\nand right order between man and God, between man and man:--'Thou\nshalt honour thy father and thy mother.  Thou shalt do no murder.\nThou shalt not commit adultery.  Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt\nnot bear false witness in courts of law or elsewhere.  Thou shalt\nnot covet thy neighbour's property.'\n\nThis is The Lord.  Not a God far away from men; who does not feel\nfor them, nor feel with them; not a God who despises men, or has an\nill-will to men, and must be won over to change his mind, and have\nmercy on them, by many supplications and tears, and fear and\ntrembling, and superstitious ceremonies.  But this is The Lord, this\nis the babe of Bethlehem, this is He whose way John the Baptist came\nto prepare--even He of whom it is written, that He possessed wisdom,\nthe simple, practical human wisdom, useful for this everyday earthly\nlife of ours, which Solomon sets forth in his Proverbs, in the\nbeginning before His works of old; and that when He appointed the\nfoundations of the earth, that Wisdom was by Him, as one brought up\nwith Him, and she was daily His delight; rejoicing alway before Him;\nrejoicing in the _habitable_ parts of the earth; and her delights\nwere _with the sons of men_.\n\nIn one word, He is the Lord, in whose likeness man is made.  Man's\njustice is a pattern of His; man's love is a pattern of His; man's\nindustry a pattern of His; man's Sabbath-rest, in some unspeakable\nand eternal way, a pattern of His.  Man's family ties are patterns\nof His.  God the Father is He, said St. Paul, from whom every\nfathership in heaven and earth is named, that we may be such fathers\nto our children as God is to us.  God The Son is He who is not\nashamed to call us brethren, and to declare to us the glorious news,\nthat in Him we, too, are the sons of God, that we may be such sons\nto our heavenly Father--ay, and to our earthly fathers also, as the\nLord Jesus was to His Father.\n\nYes--and even more wonderful still, and more blessed still, the Lord\nis not ashamed to call himself a husband.  Our human wedlock and\nmarried love is a pattern of some divine mystery.  'Husbands love\nyour wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for\nit, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not\nhaving spot or wrinkle, but that it should be holy and without\nblemish.'  Blessed words, which we cannot pretend to explain or\nunderstand, but can only believe and adore, and find, as we shall\nfind, in proportion as we are loving and faithful in wedlock, that\nGod's Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that they are\nreasonable, blessed, true; true for ever.\n\nThis, then, was the Lord who was coming to judge these Jews; not\nmerely a god, but _The_ God.  The Lord, in whose likeness man was\nmade; who had appointed men to be fathers, sons, husbands, citizens\nof a nation, owners of property, subject to laws, and yet _makers_\nof laws; because all these things, in some wonderful way, are parts\nof His likeness.  He was coming to this nation of the Jews first,\nand then to all the nations of the earth, to judge them, Malachi\nsaid, with a great and terrible day.  To lay the axe to the root of\nthe tree; to cut down from the very root the evil principles which\nwere working in society.  His fan was in His hand; and He would\nthoroughly purge His floor; and gather His wheat into the garner,\nfor the use of future generations:  but the chaff, all that was\nempty, light, and useless, He would burn up and destroy utterly out\nof the way, with unquenchable fire.  He would inquire of every man,\nHow have you kept my image; my likeness, in which I made you?  What\nsort of husbands, fathers, sons, neighbours, subjects, and\ngovernors, have you been?  And above all, Malachi says, the root\nquestion of all would be, what sort of fathers have you been to your\nchildren?  What sort of children to your fathers?  Does that seem to\nyou a small question, my friends?  Would you have rather expected to\nhear John the Baptist ask, what sort of saints they had been?  What\nsort of doctrines they were professing?\n\nA small question?  Look at these two little words, Father and Son.\nFather and Son!  Are they not the most deep and awful, as well as\nthe most blessed and hopeful words on earth?  Do they not tell us\nthe very mystery of God's being?  Are they not the very name of God,\nGod The Father and God The Son, knit together by one Holy Spirit of\nLove to each other and to all, who proceeds alike from The Father\nand from The Son?  And then, will you think it a light matter to ask\nfallen creatures made in the likeness of that perfect Father and\nthat perfect Son, what sort of fathers and sons they have been?  God\nhelp us all, and give us grace to ask ourselves that question\nmorning and night, before the great and terrible day of the Lord\ncome, lest He come and smite this land with a curse.\n\nI have been led to think deeply and to speak openly upon this solemn\nmatter, my friends, by seeing, as who can help seeing, the great\ndivision and estrangement between the old and the young which is\ngrowing up in our days.  I do not, alas! I cannot, deny the\ncomplaints which old people commonly make.  Old people complain that\nyoung people are grown too independent, disobedient, saucy, and what\nnot.  It is too true, frightfully, miserably true, that there is not\nthe same reverence for parents as there was a generation back;--that\nthe children break loose from their parents, spend their parents'\nmoney, choose their own road in life, their own politics, their own\nreligion, alas! too often, for themselves;--that young people now\npresume to do and say a hundred things which they would not have\ndreamed in old times.  And they are ready enough to cry out that all\nthis is a sign of the last days, of which, they say, St. Paul speaks\nin 2 Tim. iii. 4--when men 'shall be disobedient to parents,\nunthankful, boasters, heady, high-minded, despisers of those who are\ngood, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.'  My friends, my\nfriends, it is far better for us who have children, instead of\nprying into the times and seasons which God has kept in His own\nhand, to read our Bibles faithfully, and when we quote a text, quote\nthe whole of it, and not just those bits of it which help us to\nthrow blame on other people.  What St. Paul really says, is that 'in\nthe last days evil times will come;' just as they had come, he\nshows, when he wrote; and what he means I will try and show you\npresently.  And, moreover, remember that Malachi says, that the\nhearts of the parents in Judea needed turning to their children, as\nwell as the hearts of the children to their parents.  Take care lest\nit be not so in England now.  Remember that St. Paul, in that same\nsolemn passage, gives other marks of 'last days,' which have to do\nwith parents as well as with children, and some which can only have\nto do with parents--for they are the sins of grown-up and elderly\npeople, and not of young ones.  He says, that in those days men\nshall also be 'covetous, proud, without natural affection, breakers\nof their word, blasphemers; having a form of godliness, but denying\nthe power thereof.'  Will none of these hard words hit some grown\npeople in our day?  Will not they fill some of us with dread, lest\nthe parents now-a-days should be as much in fault as the children of\nwhom they complain; lest the parents' sins should be but too often\nthe cause of the children's sins?  Read through St. Paul's sad list\nof sins, and see how every young man's sin in it has some old man's\nsin corresponding to it.  St. Paul does not part his list, and I\ndare not, and cannot.  St. Paul mixes the parents' and the\nchildren's sins together in his words, and I fear that we do the\nsame in our actions.\n\nOh! beware, beware, you who complain of the behaviour of children\nnow-a-days, lest your children have as much cause to complain of\nyou.  Are your children selfish, lovers of themselves?--See that you\nhave not set them the example by your own covetousness or laziness.\nAre they boastful?--See that your pride has not taught them.\nIncontinent and profligate?--See that your own fierceness has not\ntaught them.  If they see you unable to master your own temper, they\nwill not care to try to master their appetites.  Are they\ndisobedient and unthankful?--See, well, then that your want of\nnatural affection to them, your neglect, and harshness, and want of\nfeeling and tenderness, has not made the balance of unkindness\nfearfully even between you.  Are your children disobedient to you?--\nSee that you have not taught them to be so, by breaking your word to\nthem, by letting them see you deceitful to others, till they have\nlost all trust in you, all reverence for you.  Above all, are your\nchildren lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God?--Oh! beware,\nbeware, lest you have made them so,--lest you have been blasphemers\nagainst God, even when you have been fancying that you talked\nreligion.  Beware lest you have been teaching them dark, cruel,\nsuperstitious thoughts about God,--making them look up to Him not as\ntheir heavenly Father, but as a stern taskmaster whom they must\nobey, not from gratitude, but from fear of hell, and so have made\nGod look so unlovely in their eyes that 'there is no beauty in Him\nthat they should desire Him.'  Can you wonder at their loving\npleasure rather than loving God, when you show them nothing in God's\ncharacter to love, but everything to dread and shrink from?  And\nlast of all, are your children despisers of those who are good,\ninclined to laugh at religion, to suspect and sneer at pious people,\nand call them hypocrites?  Oh! beware, beware, lest your lip-\nreligion, your dead faith, your inconsistent practice, has not been\nthe cause of it.  If you, as St. Paul says, have a form of\ngodliness, and yet in your life and actions deny the power of it, by\nliving without God in the world, and following the lowest maxims of\nthe world in everything but what you call the salvation of your\nsouls, what wonder if your children grow up despisers of those who\nare good?  If they see you preaching one thing, and practising\nanother, they will learn to fancy that all godly people do the same.\nIf they see your religion a sham, they will learn to fancy all\nreligion false also.  Oh! woe, woe, most terrible, to those who thus\nharden their own children's hearts, and destroy in them, as too many\ndo, all faith in God and man, all hope, all charity!  Woe to them!\nfor the Lord Himself, who came to lay the axe to the root of the\ntree, said of such, 'If any man cause one of these little ones to\noffend, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about\nhis neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.'\n\nSo it is too often now-a-days, and so it will be, until people\ncondescend to learn over again that simple old Church Catechism\nwhich they were taught when they were little, and to teach it to\ntheir children, not only with their lips but in their lives.\n\n'The Church Catechism!' some here will say to themselves with a\nsmile, 'that is but a paltry medicine for so great a disease--a\npitiful ending, forsooth, to such a severe sermon as this, to\nrecommend just the Church Catechism!'  Let those laugh who will, my\nfriends.  If you think you can bring up your children to be\nblessings to you,--if you think you can live so as to be blessings\nto your children, without the Church Catechism, you can but try.  I\nthink that you will fail.  More and more, year by year, I find that\nthose who try do fail.  More and more, year by year, I find that\neven religious people's education of their children fails, and that\npious men's sons now-a-days are becoming more and more apt to be\nscandals to their parents and to religion.  If any choose to say\nthat the reason is, that the pious men's sons were not of the number\nof the elect, though their fathers were, I can only answer, that God\nis no respecter of persons, and that they say that He is; that God\nis not the author of the evil, and that they say that He is.  If a\nchild of mine turns out ill, I am bound to lay the fault first on\nmyself, and certainly never on God,--and so is every man, unless the\ninspired Scripture is wrong where it says, 'Train up a child in the\nway he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.'\nAnd the fault _is_ in ourselves.  Very few people really teach their\nchildren now-a-days the Church Catechism; very few really believe\nthe Church Catechism; very few really believe that God is such an\none as the Church Catechism declares to us; very few believe in the\nLord, in whose image and likeness man is made, whose way John the\nBaptist prepared by turning the hearts of the fathers to the\nchildren.  They put, perhaps, religious books into their children's\nhands, and talk to them a great deal about their souls:  but they do\nnot tell their children what the Church Catechism tells them,\nbecause they do not believe what the Church Catechism tells them.\n\nWhat that is; what the Church Catechism does tell us, which the\nfavourite religious books now-a-days do not tell us; and what that\nhas to do with turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, I\nmust tell you hereafter.  God grant that my words may sink into all\nhearts, as far as they are right and true; if sooner or later we are\nnot all brought to understand the meaning of those two simple words,\nFather and Son, neither Baptism, nor Confirmation, nor Schools, nor\nthis Church, nor the very body and blood of Him who died for us, to\nshare which you are all called this day, will be of avail for the\nwell-being of this parish, or of this country, or any other country\nupon earth.  For where the root is corrupt, the fruit will be also;\nand where family life and family ties, which are the root and\nfoundation of society, are out of joint, there the Nation and the\nChurch will decay also; as it is written, 'If the foundations be\ncast down, what can the righteous do?'\n\nAnd whensoever, in any family, or nation and church, the root of the\ntree (which is the conduct of parents to children, and of children\nto parents) grows corrupt and rotten, then 'last days,' as St. Paul\ncalls them, are indeed come to it, and evil times therewith; for the\nLord will surely lay the axe to the root of it, and cut it down and\ncast it into the fire:  neither will the days of that family, or\nthat people, or that Church, be long in the land which the Lord\ntheir God has given them.  So it has been as yet, in all ages and in\nall countries on the face of God's earth, and so it will be until\nthe end.  Wheresoever the hearts of the fathers are not turned to\nthe children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, there\nwill a great and terrible day of the Lord come; and that nation,\nlike Judaea of old, like many a fair country in Europe at this\nmoment, will be smitten with a curse.\n\n\n\nSERMON II.  SALVATION\n\n\n\nJohn xvii. 3.  This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the\nonly true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.\n\nBefore I can explain what this text has to do with the Church\nCatechism, I must say to you a little about what it means.\n\nNow if I asked any of you what 'salvation' was, you would probably\nanswer, 'Eternal life.'\n\nAnd you would answer rightly.  That is exactly what salvation is,\nand neither more nor less.  No more than that; for nothing greater\nthan that can belong to any created being.  No less than that; for\nGod's love and mercy are eternal and without bound.\n\nBut what is eternal life?\n\nSome will answer, 'Going to heaven when we die.'  But what before\nyou die?  You do not know? cannot tell?\n\nLet us listen to what God Himself says.  Let us listen to what the\nLord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, says.  Let us listen to what He\nwho spake as man never spake, says.  Surely His words must be the\nclearest, the simplest, the most exact, the deepest, the widest; the\nexactly fit and true words, the complete words, the perfect words,\nwhich cannot be improved on by adding to them or taking away one jot\nor tittle.  What did the Lord Jesus Christ say that eternal life\nwas?\n\n'This is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God,\nand Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.'\n\nTo know God and Jesus Christ; that is eternal life.  That is all the\neternal life which any of us will ever have, my friends.  Unless our\nLord's words are not complete and perfect, and do not tell us the\ntruth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about eternal\nlife, that is all the eternal life any one will ever have; and we\nmust make up our minds to be content therewith.\n\nTo which some will answer, almost angrily, 'Of course.  The way to\nobtain eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ; for if we do\nnot, we cannot obtain it.'\n\nWhat words are these, my friends? what rash words are these, which\nmen thrust into Scripture out of their own carnal conceits, as if\nthey could improve upon the speech of the Son of Man Himself?  He\nsays, not that to know God is the way to eternal life:  but rather\nthat eternal life is the way to know God.  He does not say, This is\nto know God and Jesus Christ, _in order that_ they may have eternal\nlife.  Whatever He says, He does not say that.  Nay, more, if we are\nto be very exact (and can we be too exact?) with the Lord's words,\nHe says, that 'This is eternal life, _in order that_ they may know\nGod and Jesus Christ.'  Not that we are to know God that we may\nobtain eternal life, but that we must have eternal life in order\nthat we may know God; that eternal life is the means, and the\nknowledge of God the end and purpose for which eternal life is given\nus.  However this may be, at least He says what the noble collect\nwhich we repeat every Sunday says, 'That our eternal life stands in\nthe knowledge of God,' depends on it, and will fall without it.\n\n'That we may know God.'  Not merely that we may know doctrines about\nsalvation, and the ways of winning God's favour, and turning away\nHis vengeance; not merely to know what God has done ages ago, or may\ndo ages hence, for us:  but to know God Himself; to know His person,\nHis likeness, His character; and what He is, and what He does, now\nand always; to know His righteousness, His goodness, His truth, His\nlove, His mercy, His strength, His willingness and mightiness to\nsave; in a word, what the Bible calls His glory; and therefore to\nadmire and delight in Him utterly.  That is what our eternal life\nstands in; that is why God has given to us eternal life in His Son,\nthat we may know that.  Oh, believe your Saviour simply, like little\nchildren, and enter into the joy of your Lord.  Acquaint yourselves\nwith God, and be at peace.\n\nTo know God; and also to know Jesus Christ whom He has sent.  For\nSt. John, when he tells us that God has already given to us eternal\nlife, says also, that this life is in His Son.  To know the Son of\nGod, in whom the Father is well pleased, because He is His perfect\nSon; His exact likeness, the likeness of that glory of His, and the\nexpress image of that person and character of His, which I described\nto you just now; One whose life was and is and ever will be\neternally all love, and mercy, and self-sacrifice, and labour, for\nlost and sinful men; all trust and obedience to His Father.  To know\nHim and His life, and to come to Him, and receive from Him an\neternal life, which this world did not give us, and cannot take away\nfrom us; which neither man, devil, nor angel, nor the death of our\nbodies, the ruin of empires, the destruction of the whole universe,\nand of time, and space, and all things whereof man can conceive or\ndream, can alter in the slightest, because it is a life of goodness,\nand righteousness, and love, which are eternal as the God from whom\nthey spring; eternal as Christ, who is the same yesterday, to-day,\nand for ever; and nothing but our own sinful wills can rob us of\nthem.\n\nThis is eternal life, and therefore this is salvation.  A very\ndifferent account of it (though it is the Bible account) from that\nnarrow and paltry one which too many have in their minds now-a-days;\na narrow and paltry notion that it means only being saved from the\npunishment of our sins after we die; and a very unbelieving, and\ngodless, and atheistical notion too; which, like all unbelief hurts\nand spoils men's lives.\n\nFor too many say to themselves, 'God must save me after I am dead,\nof course, for no one else can:  but as long as I am alive I must\nsave myself.  God must save me from hell; but I must save myself\nfrom poverty, from trouble, from what the world may say of me or do\nto me, if I offend it.'  And so salvation seems to have to do\naltogether with the next life, and not at all with this; and people\nlose entirely the belief that God is our deliverer, our protector,\nour guide, our friend, now, here, in this life; and do not really\nthink that they can get on better in this world by knowing God and\nJesus Christ; and so they set to work to help themselves by cunning,\nby covetousness, by cowardly truckling to the wicked ways of the\nvery world which they renounced at baptism, by following after a\nmultitude to do evil, and standing by, saying, 'I saw it not,' when\nthey see wrong and cruelty done upon the earth; afraid to fight\nGod's battles like men of God, because they say it is 'dangerous.'\nAnd so, in these evil days, thousands who call themselves Christians\nlive on, worldly and selfish, _without God in the world_; while they\ntalk busily enough of 'preparing to meet God,' in the world to come;\ndreaming, poor souls, of arriving at what they call 'salvation'\nafter they die, while they are too often, I fear, deep enough in\nwhat the Scripture calls 'damnation,' before they die.\n\n'But,' say some, 'is not salvation going to a place called heaven?'\nMy friends, let the Bible speak.  It tells us that salvation is not\nin a place at all, but in a person, a living, moving, acting person,\nwho is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let the Psalmists\nspeak, and shame us, who ought to know (being Christians) even\nbetter than they, that The Lord Himself is Salvation.  The whole\nBook of Psalms, what is it but the blessed discovery that salvation\nis not merely in a place, or a state, not even in some 'beatific\nvision' after men die; but in the Lord Himself all day long in this\nworld; that salvation is a life in God and with God?  'The Lord is\nmy light, and my salvation, of whom then shall I be afraid?  The\nLord is the strength of my life, and my portion for ever.'  This is\ntheir key-note.  Shame on us Christians, that we should have\nforgotten it for one so much lower.  'The name of the Lord,' says\nSolomon, 'is a strong tower:  the righteous runneth into it, and is\nsafe.'  Into it:  not merely into some pleasant place after he dies,\nbut all day long; and is safe:  not merely after he dies, but in\nevery chance and change of this mortal life.  My friends, I am\nashamed to have to put Christian men in mind of these things.\nTruly, 'Evil communications have corrupted good manners; awake to\nrighteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God.'\nI am ashamed, I say; for there are old hymns in the mouths of every\none to this day, which testify against their want of faith; which\nsay, 'Christ is my life,' 'Christ is my salvation;' and which were\nwritten, I doubt not, by men who meant literally what they said,\nwhatever those who sing them now-a-days may mean by them.  Now what\ndo those hymns mean by such words, if they mean anything at all?\nSurely what I have been preaching to you, and what seems to some of\nyou, I fear, strange and new doctrine.  And what else does the\nChurch Catechism mean, when it bids every child thank God for having\nbrought him into a state of salvation?  For mind, throughout the\nwhole Church Catechism there is not one word about what people\ncommonly call heaven and hell; not one word though 'heaven and hell'\nare now-a-days generally the first things about which children are\ntaught.  Not one word is the child taught about what will happen to\nhim after death, except that his body will rise again, and that\nChrist will be his Judge after he is dead as well as while he is\nalive:  but not one word about that salvation after he is dead,\nwhich is almost the only thing of which one hears in many pulpits.\nAnd why, but because the Catechism teaches the child to believe that\nJesus Christ is his salvation now, in this life, and believes that\nto be enough for him to know?  For if Christ be eternal, His\nsalvation must be eternal also.  If Christ's life be in the child,\neternal life must be in the child; for Christ's life must be\neternal, even as Christ Himself; and that is enough for the child,\nand for us also.\n\nAnd with this agrees that great text of Scripture, 'When the wicked\nman turneth away from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful\nand right, he shall save his soul alive.'  People now-a-days are apt\nto make two mistakes about that one text.  First they forget the\n'when,' and read it as if it stood, 'If the wicked man turn away\nfrom his wickedness in this life, he shall save his soul in the next\nlife:' but the Bible says much more than that.  It says, that when\nhe turns, then and there, that moment he shall save his soul alive.\nAnd next, they read the text as if it stood, 'he shall save his\nsoul.'  Here again, my friends, the Bible says a great deal more; it\nsays, that he shall save his soul alive.  Perhaps that does not seem\nto you any great difference?  Alas, alas, my friends, I fear that\nthere are too many now, as there have been in all times, who do not\ncare for the difference.  Provided 'their souls are saved,' by which\nthey mean, provided they escape torment after they die, it matters\nnothing to them whether their souls are saved alive, or saved dead;\nthey do not even know the difference between a dead soul and a live\nsoul; because they know nothing about eternal death and eternal\nlife, which are the death and the life of eternal persons such as\nsouls are; they say to themselves, if they be Protestants, 'I hope I\nshall have faith enough to be saved;' or if they be Papists, 'I hope\nI shall have good works enough to be saved;' valuing faith and works\nnot for themselves; yea, valuing--for I must say it--Almighty God\nHimself, not for Himself and His own glory, but valuing faith and\nworks, and the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, only\nbecause, as they dream, they are so many helps to a life of pleasure\nbeyond the grave; not knowing this, that living faith and good works\ndo not merely lead to heaven, but are heaven itself, that true, real\neternal heaven wherein alone men really live; that true, real\neternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested in Jesus\nChrist, whom St. John saw living upon earth that same Eternal Life,\nand bore witness of Him that His life was the light of men; that\neternal life whereof it is written, that God hath brought us to life\ntogether with Christ, and raised us up, and made us sit together in\nheavenly places in Christ Jesus:--not knowing this, that the only\nlife which any soul ought to live, is the life of God and of Christ,\nand of the Spirit of God and Christ; a life of righteousness, and\njustice, and truth, and obedience, and mercy, and love; a life which\nGod has given to us, that we may know and copy Him, and do His\nworks, and live His life, for ever:--not knowing this also that\neternal death is not merely some torture of fire and worms beyond\nthe grave:  but that this is eternal death, not to live the eternal\nlife which is the only possible life for souls, the life of\nrighteousness and love; a death which may come on respectable\npeople, and high religious professors, while they are fancying\nthemselves sure to be saved, as easily and surely as it may on\nthieves and harlots, wallowing in the mire of sins.\n\nFor what is this same eternal death?  The opposite surely to eternal\nlife.  Eternal life is to know God, and therefore to obey Him.\nEternal life is to know God, whose name is love; and therefore, to\nrejoice to fulfil His law, of which it is written, 'Love is the\nfulfilling of the law;' and therefore to be full of love ourselves,\nas it is written, 'We know that we have passed from death unto life,\nbecause we love the brethren;' and again, 'Every one that loveth,\nknoweth God, for God is love.'  And on the other hand, eternal death\nis not to know God, and therefore not to care for His law of love,\nand therefore to be without love; as it is written on the other\nhand, 'He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.'  'Whosoever\nhateth his brother is a murderer;' and ye know that no murderer hath\neternal life abiding in him; and again, 'He that loveth not, knoweth\nnot God, for God is love.'  Eternal death, then, is to love no one;\nto be shut up in the dark prison-house of our own wilful and wayward\nthoughts and passions, full of spite, suspicion, envy, fear; in\nfact, in one word, to be a devil.  Oh, my friends, is not that\ndamnation indeed, to be a devil here on earth, and for aught we\nknow, for ever and ever?\n\nDo you not know what frame of mind I mean?  Thank God, none of us, I\nsuppose, is ever utterly without some grain of love left for some\none; none of us, I suppose, is ever utterly shut up in himself; and\nas long as there is love there is life and as long as there is life\nthere is hope:  but yet there have been moments when one has felt\nwith horror how near, and how terrible, and how easy was this same\neternal death which some fancy only possible after they die.\n\nFor, my friends, were you ever, any one of you, for one half hour,\ncompletely angry, completely _sulky_? displeased and disgusted with\neverybody and everything round you, and yet displeased and disgusted\nwith yourself all the while; liking to think everyone wrong, liking\nto make out that they were unjust to you; feeling quite proud at the\nnotion that you were an injured person:  and yet feeling in your\nheart the very opposite of all these fancies:  feeling that you were\nwrong, that you were unjust to them, and feeling utterly ashamed at\nthe thought that they were the injured persons, and that you had\ninjured them.  And perhaps, to make all worse, the person about whom\nall this storm had arisen in your heart, was some dear friend or\nrelation whom you loved (strange contradiction, yet most true) at\nthe very moment that you were trying to hate.  Oh, my friends, if\none such dark hour has ever come home to you; if you have ever let\nthe sun go down upon your wrath, and so given place to the devil,\nthen you know something at least of what eternal death is.  You know\nhow, in such moments, there is a worm in the heart, and a fire in\nthe heart, compared with which all bodily torment would be light and\nbearable; a worm in the heart which does not die:  and a fire in the\nheart which you cannot quench:  but which if they remained there\nwould surely destroy you.  So intolerable are they, that you feel\nthat you will actually and really die, in some strange unspeakable\nway, if you continue in that temper long.  Do not there open at such\ntimes within our hearts black depths of evil, a power of becoming\nwicked, a chance of being swept off into sin if one gives way, which\none never suspected till then; and yet with all these, the most\ndreadful sense of helplessness, of slavery, of despair?--God grant\nthat may not remain, for then comes the mad hope to escape death by\ndeath, to try by one desperate stroke to rid oneself of that self\nwhich is for the time one's torment, worm, fire, death, and hell.\nAnd what is this dark fight within us?  What does the Bible call it?\nIt is death and life, eternal death and eternal life, salvation and\ndamnation, hell and heaven, fighting together within our hapless\nhearts, to see which shall be our masters.  It is the battle of the\nevil spirit, who is the Devil, fighting with the good spirit, who is\nGod.  Nothing less than that, my friends.  Yes, in those hateful and\nshameful moments of pride, or spite, or contempt, or self-will, or\nsuspicion, or sneering, on which when they are past we look back\nwith shame and horror, and wonder how we could have been such\nwretches even for a moment,--at such times, I say, our heart is a\nbattle-field, on which no less than the Devil himself, and God\nHimself are fighting for our souls.  On one side, Satan trying to\nbring us into that state of eternal death in which he lives himself;\nSatan, the loveless one, the self-willed one, the accuser, the\nslanderer, slandering God to us, slandering man to us, slandering to\nus the friends we love best and trust most utterly; yea, slandering\nour own selves to us, trying to make us believe that we are as bad,\nought to be as bad, and must always be as bad as we seem for the\ntime to be; that we cannot shake off our evil passions, that we\ncannot rise again out of the eternal death of sin into the eternal\nlife of righteousness.  And on the other side, the Spirit of God and\nof His Christ, the Spirit of eternal life, the Spirit of justice,\nand righteousness, love, joy, peace, duty, self-sacrifice, trying to\nmake us know Him and see His beauty, and obey Him, and be at peace;\ntrying to raise us again into that eternal life and state of\nsalvation which the Lord Jesus Christ has bought for us with His\nmost precious blood.\n\nOh, awful thought!  Life and death, the Devil himself, and the Lord\nJesus Christ Himself, fighting in your heart and in mine, and in the\nheart of every human being round us!  And yet most blessed thought,\nhopeful, glorious,--full of the promise of eternal victory!  For\ngreater is He that is with us, than he that is against us; and He\nwho conquered Satan for Himself, can and will conquer him for us\nalso.  No thing can separate us from the love of Christ; no thing,\nyea no angel, or devil, principality, or power; no thing, but only\nourselves, only our own proud and wayward will and determination to\nthe Devil's voice in our hearts, and not the voice of Christ, the\nWord of Life, who is nigh us, in our hearts, even in our darkest\nmoments, loving us still, pitying us, ready, able and willing to\nhelp all who cast themselves on Him, and raise us, there and then,\nthe very moment we cry to Him and renounce the Devil and our own\nfoolish will, out of self-will into God's will, out of darkness into\nlight, out of hatred into love, out of despair into hope, out of\ndoubt into faith, out of tempest into peace, out of the death of sin\ninto the life of righteousness, the life of love and charity, which\nabideth for ever.  Oh, listen not to the lying, slanderous Devil,\nwho tells you that by your own sin you have lost your share in\nChrist, lost baptismal grace, lost Christ's love--Lost His love?\nHis, who, were you in the very lowest depths of hell, would pity you\nstill?  His love, who Himself went down into hell, and preached to\nthe spirits in prison, to show that he did care even for them?  Not\nso:  into Him you have been baptized.  His cross is on your\nforeheads, His Father is your Father:--and can a father desert his\nchild, even though he sinned seventy and seven times, if seventy and\nseven times he turn and repent?  Can man weary God?  Can the\ncreature conquer and destroy the love of his Creator?  Can Christ\ndeny Himself?  Not so; whosoever thou art, however sorely tempted,\nhowever deeply fallen, however disgusted and terrified at thyself,\nturn only to that blessed face which wept over Jerusalem, to that\ngreat heart which bled for thee upon the cross, and thou shalt find\nhim unchanged, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the Lord of\nlife and love, able and willing to save to the uttermost all who\ncome to God through Him, and the accusing Devil shall turn and flee,\nand thou shalt know that thy Redeemer liveth still, and in thy flesh\nthou shalt see the salvation of God, and cry, 'Rejoice not against\nme, Satan, mine enemy; for when I fall I shall arise.'\n\n\n\nSERMON III.  A GOOD CONSCIENCE\n\n\n\n1 Peter iii. 21.  The like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us\n(not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a\ngood conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nThese words are very wide words; too wide to please most people.\nThey preach a very free grace; too free to please most people.  Such\nfree and full grace, indeed, that some who talk most about free\ngrace, and insist most on man's being saved only by free grace, are\nthe very men who shrink from these words most, and would be more\ncomfortable in their minds, I suspect, if they were not in the Bible\nat all, because the grace they preach is too free.  But so it always\nhas been, and so it is, and so, I suppose, it always will be.  Man\npreaches his notions of God's forgiveness, his notions of what he\nthinks God ought to do; but when God proclaims His own forgiveness,\nand tells men what He has actually done, and bids His apostle\ndeclare boldly that baptism doth now save us, then man is frightened\nat the vastness of God's generosity, and thinks God's grace too\nfree, His forgiveness too complete; and considers this text and many\nanother in the Bible as 'dangerous' forsooth, if it is 'preached\nunreservedly,' and not to be quoted without some words of man's\ninvention tacked to it, to water it down, and narrow it, and take\nall the strength and life out of it; and if he be asked whether he\nbelieves the words of Scripture,--for instance, whether St. Paul\nspoke truth when he told the heathen Athenians that they and all men\nwere the offspring of God;--or when he told the Romans that as by\nthe offence of one, judgment came on all men to condemnation, even\nso by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men to\njustification of life;--or when he told the Corinthians, that as in\nAdam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;--or whether\nSt. Peter spoke truth when he said, that 'baptism doth also now save\nus,'--then they answer, that the words are true 'in a sense;' that\nis, not in their plain sense; true, if they were only true; true,\nand yet somehow at the same time not true; and not to be preached\n'unreservedly:' as if man could be more cautious and correct in his\nlanguage than the Spirit of God, who inspired the Apostles; as if\nman could be more careful of God's honour than God is of His own; as\nif man could hate sin and guard against sin more carefully than God\nHimself.\n\nJust in the same way do people stumble at certain invaluable words\nin the Church Catechism, which teach children to thank God for\nhaving brought them into that state of salvation.  Even very good\npeople, and people who really wish to believe and honour the Church\nCatechism, and the Sacrament of Baptism, find these words too strong\nto please them, and say, that of course a child's being in a state\nof salvation cannot mean that he is saved, but that he may be saved\nafter he dies.\n\nMy friends, I never could find that we have a right to take\nliberties with the Bible and the Prayer Book which we dare not take\nwith any other book, and to put meanings into the words of them\nwhich, in the case of any other book, would be contrary to plain\ngrammar and the English tongue, if not to common sense and honesty.\n\nIf you say of a man, 'he is in a state of happiness,' you mean, do\nyou not, that he is happy now, not that he may perhaps be happy some\nday?  If you came to me and told me that you were in a state of\nhunger, you would think it a very strange answer to receive if I\nsay, 'Very well then, if you become hungry, come to me, and I will\nfeed you?'  You all know that a man's being in a state of poverty,\nor of misery, means that he is poor or miserable now, here, at this\nvery time; that if a man is in a state of sickness, he is sick; if\nhe is in a state of health, he is healthy.  Then what can a man's\nbeing in a state of salvation mean, by all rules of English, but\nthat he is saved?  If I were to say to any one of the good people\nwho do not think so, 'My friend, you are in a state of damnation,'\nhe would answer me quickly enough, 'I am not, for I am not damned.'\nHe would agree that a man's being in a state of damnation means that\nthe man is damned; why will he not agree that a man's being in a\nstate of salvation means that he is saved?  Because, my friends,\nGod's grace is too full for fallen man's notions; and therefore\nthere is an evil fashion abroad in the world, that where a text\nspeaks of wrath, and misery and punishment, you are to interpret it\nexactly, and to the very letter:  but where it speaks of love, and\nmercy, and forgiveness, you are to do no such thing, but narrow it,\nand fence it, and explain it away, for fear you should make sinners\ntoo comfortable,--a plan which seems wise enough, but which, like\nother plans of man's wisdom, has not succeeded too well, to judge by\nthe number of sinners who are already too comfortable though they\nhear the Bible misused, and God's grace narrowed in this way every\nSunday of their lives.\n\nBut, my friends, we call ourselves Englishmen and churchmen; let us\nbe honest Englishmen and plain churchmen, and take our Catechism as\nit stands.  For rightly or wrongly, truly or falsely, it does teach\nevery christened child to thank God, not merely that it has some\nchance of being saved, when it dies, but that it is saved already,\nnow, here on earth.\n\nWhether that is true or false is another question.  I believe it to\nbe true.  I believe the text to be true; I believe that why people\nshrink from it is, that they have got into their minds a wrong,\nunscriptural, superstitious notion of what being saved, and saving\none's soul alive, and salvation mean.  And I beg all of you who read\nyour Bibles to search the Scriptures from beginning to end, and try\nto find out what these words mean, and whether the Catechism has not\nkept close, after all, to the words of Scripture.  It will be better\nfor you, my friends; it will be worth your while, to know exactly\nwhat being saved means; for to judge by the signs of the times,\nthere are, very probably, days coming in which it will be as needful\nfor you and for your children to save your souls alive lest you die,\nas ever it was for the Jews in Isaiah's or Jeremiah's time, or for\nthe Romans in St. Paul's time; and that in that day you will find\nthe Catechism wider, and deeper, and sounder than you have ever\nsuspected it to be, and see, I trust, that in these very words it\npreaches to you, and me, and our children after us, the one true\nGospel and good news, which will stand, and grow, and shine brighter\nand brighter for ever, when all the paltry, narrow, counterfeit\ngospels which man invents in its place have been burnt up by the\nunquenchable fire with which the merciful Lord purges the chaff from\nHis floor.\n\nI told you this morning what I believe that salvation was,--to know\nGod, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent.  To know God's likeness,\nGod's character, what God has shown of His own character, what He\nhas done for us.  To know His boundless love, and mercy, and knowing\nthat, to trust in Him utterly, and submit to Him utterly, and obey\nHim utterly, sure that He loves us, that His will to us is goodwill,\nthat His commandments must be life.  To know God, and therefore to\nlove Him and to serve Him, that is salvation.\n\nNow what hinders a little child, from the very moment that it can\nthink or speak, from entering into that salvation?  Not the child's\nown heart.  There is evil in the child--true.  Is there none in you\nand me?  There is a corrupt nature in the child--true.  Is there not\nin you and me?  Woe to us if we have not found it out:  woe to us if\nwe dare to think that we are in ourselves--or out of ourselves\neither--one whit better than our own children.  What should hinder\nany child whom you or I ever saw from knowing God, and His Name, the\nFather, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?\n\nHas he not an earthly father, through whom he may know _The_ Father?\nIs he not an earthly son; and through that may he not know _The_\nSon?  Has he not a conscience, a spirit in him which knows good from\nevil? holiness from wickedness--far more clearly and tenderly than\nthe souls of most grown people do? and can he not, therefore,\nunderstand you when you speak of a Holy Spirit, a Spirit which puts\ngood desires into his heart, and can enable him to bring those good\ndesires into practice?\n\nI know one hindrance at least; and that is his parents' sins; when\nthe parents' harshness or neglect tempts the child to fancy that God\nThe Father is such a Father to him as his parents are, and that to\nbe a child of God is to look up to his heavenly Father with dread\nand suspicion as to a hard taskmaster whose anger has to be turned\naway, and not with that perfect love, and trust, and respect, and\nself-sacrifice, with which the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled His\nFather's will and proclaimed His Father's glory:  or when the\nparents' unholiness and lip-religion teach the child to fancy that\nthe Holy Spirit means only certain religious fancies and feelings,\nor the learning by heart of certain words and doctrines, or, worst\nof all, a spirit of bondage unto fear; instead of knowing Him to be,\nas He is, the Spirit of righteousness, and love, and joy, and peace,\nlong-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance:  or\nwhen, again, parents by their own teaching, do despite to the Spirit\nof Grace in their own child, and destroy their child's good\nconscience toward God, by telling the child that it does not really\nlove God, when it loves Him, perhaps, far better than they do; by\ntelling the child that its sins have parted it from God, when its\nsins are light, yea, are as nothing in the balance compared to the\nsins they themselves commit every day, while they claim for\nthemselves clearer light and knowledge than the child, and thereby\ncondemn themselves rather than the child; when they darken and\ndefile the pure and beautiful trust and admiration for its Heavenly\nFather, which God's Spirit puts into the child's heart, by telling\nit that it is doomed to I know-not-what horrible misery and torture\nwhen it dies; but that it can escape from that wretched end by\nthinking certain thoughts, and feeling certain feelings; and so\n(after stirring up in the child all manner of dreadful doubts of\nGod's love and justice, and perhaps driving it away from religion\naltogether by making it believe that it has committed sins which it\nhas not committed, and deserves horrible tortures which it has not\ndeserved), do perhaps at last awaken in it a new love for God, but\none which is not like that first love, that childlike love; one\nwhich, I fear, is hardly a love for God at all, but principally a\nselfish joy and delight at having escaped from coming torments.\nThis is the reason, my friends; and this hindrance, at least, I\nknow.  I will not copy those parents, my friends, and tell them, as\nthey tell their children, that they are bringing on themselves\nendless torture; but I must tell them, for the Lord Christ has told\nthem, that they are bringing on themselves something--I know not\nwhat--of which it is written, that it were better for them that a\nmillstone were hanged about their necks, and that they were drowned\nin the depth of the sea.  Oh, my friends, if I speak sternly, almost\nbitterly, when I speak of parents' sins, it is because I speak for\nthose who cannot speak for themselves.  I plead for Christ's little\nones:  I plead for the souls and consciences of those little\nchildren of whom Christ said, 'Suffer the little children to come\nunto me;' not that they might become His, but because they were His\nalready; not that they might win His love, but because He loved them\nfrom all eternity:  not that they might enter into the kingdom of\nheaven, but, because they were in the kingdom of heaven already;\nbecause the kingdom of heaven was made up of such as them, and the\nangels who ministered unto them always beheld the face of our Father\nwho is in heaven.  Yes; I plead for those children, of whom the Lord\nsaid, 'Except ye be converted,' that is, utterly turned and changed,\n'and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the\nkingdom of heaven.'  Deep and blessed words, which are the root-rule\nof all true righteousness; which so few really believe at heart, any\nmore than the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Herodians of old did.\nUp and down, all over England, I hear men of all denominations\nsaying, not, 'Except we grown people be converted and become as\nlittle children;' but, 'except the little children be converted, and\nbecome like us, grown people.'  God grant that the little children\nmay not become like too many grown people!  God grant it, I say.\nGod grant that our children may not become like us!  God grant that\nthey may keep through youth and manhood, and through the grave, and\nthrough all worlds to come, the tender and childlike heart, which we\ntoo often have hardened in ourselves by bigotry and superstition,\nand dead faith, and lip-worship!  And I can have good hope that God\nwill grant it.  I can have hope that God will teach our children and\nour children's children truly to know Him whose name is Love and\nRighteousness, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as long as\nI see His providence preserving for us this old Church Catechism, to\nteach our children what we forget to teach them, or what we have not\nfaith enough to teach them.\n\nYes, I can have hope for England; and hope for those mighty nations\nacross the seas, whose earthly mother God has ordained that she\nshould be, as long as the Catechism is taught to her children.\n\nFor see.  This Catechism does not begin with telling children that\nthey are sinners:  they will find that out soon enough for\nthemselves, poor little things, from their own wayward and self-\nwilled hearts.  Nor by telling them that man is fallen and corrupt:\nthey will find out that also soon enough, from the way in which they\nsee people go on around them.  It does not even begin by telling\nthem that they ought to be good, or what goodness and righteousness\nis; because it takes for granted that they know that already; it\ntakes for granted that The Light who lights every man who comes into\nthe world is in them; even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, stirring\nup in their hearts, as He does in the heart of every child, the\nknowledge of good and the love of good.  But it begins at once by\nteaching the child the name of God.  It goes at once to the root of\nthe matter; to the fountain of goodness itself; even to God, the\nFather of lights.  It is so careful of God's honour, so careful that\nthe child should learn from the first to look up to God with love\nand trust, that it dare not tell the child that God can destroy and\npunish, before it has told him that God is a Father and a Maker; the\nFather of spirits, who has made him and all the world.  It dare not\ntell him that mankind is fallen, before it has told him that all the\nworld is redeemed.  It dare not talk to him of unholiness, before it\nhas taught him that the Holy Spirit of God is with him, to make him\nholy.  It tells him of a world, a flesh, and a devil:  but he has\nrenounced them.  He has neither part nor lot in them; and he is not\nto think of them yet.  He is to think of that in which he has part\nand lot, of which he is an inheritor.  He is to know where he is and\nought to be, before he knows where he is not and ought not to be:\nhe is to think of the name of God, by which he can trample world,\nflesh, and devil under foot, if they dare hereafter meddle with his\nsoul.  In its God-inspired tenderness and prudence, it dare not\ndarken the heart of one little child, or tempt him to hard thoughts\nof God, or to cry, 'Why hast thou made me thus?' lest it put a\nstumbling-block in the way of Christ's little ones, and dishonour\nthe name and glory of God.  It tells him of the love, before it\ntells him of the wrath; of the order, before it tells him of the\ndisorder; of the right, before the wrong; of the health, before the\ndisease; of the freedom, before the bondage; of the truth, before\nthe lies; of the light, before the darkness; in one word, it tells\nhim first of the eternal and good God, who was, and is, and shall be\nto all eternity, before and above the evil devil.  It tells him of\nthe name of God; and tells him that God is with him, and he with\nGod, and bids him believe that, and be saved, from his birth-hour,\nto endless ages.  It does not tell him to pray that he may become\nGod's child; but to pray, because he is God's child already.  It\ndoes not tell him to love God, in order that he may make God love\nhim; but to love God because God loves him already, and has loved\nhim from all eternity.  It does not tell him to obey Jesus Christ,\nin order that Christ may save him; but to obey Christ because Christ\nhas saved him, and bought him with his own blood.  It does not tell\nhim to do good works, in order that God's Spirit may be pleased with\nhim, and come to him, and make him one of the elect; neither does it\ntell him, that some day or other, if he is converted, and feels\ncertain religious experiences, he will have a right to consider\nhimself one of God's elect:  but it tells him to look man and devil\nin the face, he, the poor little ignorant village child, and say\nboldly in the name of God, 'I am one of God's elect.  The Holy\nSpirit of God is sanctifying me, and making me holy.  God has saved\nme; and I heartily thank my Heavenly Father, who has called me to\nthis state of salvation.'  It tells him to believe that he is safe--\nsafe in the ark of Christ's Church, as Noah was safe in the ark at\nthe deluge; and that the one way to keep himself within that ark is\nto obey Him to whom it belongs, who judges it and will guide it for\never, Jesus Christ, the likeness of God; and that as long as he does\nthat, neither world, flesh, nor devil, can harm him; even as Noah\nwas safe in the ark, and nothing could drown him but his own wilful\ncasting himself out of the ark, and trying to free the flood of\nwaters by his own strength and cunning.\n\nIt tells him, I say, that he is safe, and saved, even as David, and\nIsaiah, and all holy men who ever lived have been, as long as he\ntrusts in God, and clings to God, and obeys God; and that only when\nhe forsakes God, and follows his own selfishness and pride, can\nanything or being in earth or hell harm him.\n\nAnd do not fancy, my friends, that this is a mere unimportant\nquestion of words and doctrines, because a baptized and educated\nchild may be lost after all, and fall from his state of salvation\ninto a state of damnation.  Still more, do not fancy that if a child\nis taught that he is already a child of God, regenerated in baptism,\nand elect by God's Spirit, that therefore he will neglect either\nvital faith or good works--heaven forbid!\n\nIs it likely to make a child careless, and inclined to neglect vital\ntruth, to tell him that God is his Father and loves him utterly, and\nhas given His only begotten Son to die for him?  Is it not the very\nway, the only way, to stir up in him faith, and real hearty trust\nand affection towards God?  How can you teach him to trust God, but\nby telling him that God has shown himself boundlessly and perfectly\nworthy to be trusted by every soul of man; or to love God, but by\nshowing him that God loves him already?  Is it likely to make a\nchild careless of good works, to tell him that God has elected and\nchosen him, and all his brothers and schoolfellows, to be conformed\ninto the likeness of Jesus Christ, and that every good, and\nhonourable, and gentle thought or feeling which ever crosses his\nlittle heart, does not come from himself, is not part of his own\nnature or character, but is nothing less than the inspiration of the\nHoly Spirit, nothing less than the voice of Almighty God Himself,\nspeaking to the child's heart, that he may answer with Samuel--\n'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth?'  Is it likely to make a\nchild careless about losing eternal life, to tell him that God has\nalready given to him eternal life, and that that life is in His Son\nJesus Christ, to whom the child belongs, body, soul, and spirit?\n\nJudge for yourselves, my friends.  Think what awe, what reverence,\npurity, dread of sin, would grow up in a child who was really taught\nall this, and yet what faith and love to God, what freedom, and\njoyfulness, and good courage about his own duty and calling in life.\n\nAnd then look at the fruits which in general follow a religious\neducation, as it is miscalled; and take warning.  For if you really\ntrain up your children in the way in which they should go, be sure\nthat when they are old they will not depart from it--a promise which\nis not fulfilled to most religious education which we see around us\nnow-a-days; from which sad fact, if Scripture be inspired and\ninfallible, we can only judge that such is not the way in which the\nchildren should go; and that because it is a wrong way, therefore\nGod will not, and man cannot, keep them in it.\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.  NAMES\n\n\n\nMatthew i. 21.  And thou shall call his name Jesus.\n\nDid it ever seem to you a curious thing that the Catechism begins by\nasking the child its name?  'What is your name?'  'Who gave you this\nname?'  I think that if you were not all of you accustomed to the\nChurch Catechism from your childhood, that would seem a strange way\nof beginning to teach a child about religion.\n\nBut the more I consider, the more sure I am that it is the right way\nto begin teaching a child what the Catechism wishes to teach.\n\nDo not fancy that it begins by asking the child's name just because\nit must begin somehow, and then go on to religion afterwards.  Do\nnot fancy that it merely supposes that the clergyman does not know\nthe child's name, and must ask it; for this Catechism is intended to\nbe taught by parents to their children, and masters to their\napprentices and servants; by people, therefore, who know the child's\nname perfectly well already, and yet they are to begin by asking the\nchild his name.\n\nNow, why is this?  What has a child's name to do with his Faith and\nduty as a Christian?\n\nYou may answer, Because his Christian name is given him when he is\nbaptized.\n\nBut _why_ is his Christian name given him when he is baptized?  Why\nthen rather than at any other time?\n\nBecause it is the old custom of the Church.  No doubt it is:  and a\nmost wise and blessed custom it is; and one which shows us how much\nmore about God and man the churchmen in old times knew, than most of\nour religious teachers now-a-days.  But how did that old custom\narise?  What put into the minds of church people, for the last\nsixteen hundred years at least, that being baptized and being named\nhad anything to do with each other?  Men had names of their own long\nbefore the Lord Jesus came, long before His Baptism was heard of on\nearth;--the heathens of old had their names--the heathens have names\nstill;--why, then, did church people feel it right to mix a new\nthing like baptism with a world-old thing like giving a name?\n\nMy friends, I feel and say honestly, that there is more in this\nmatter than I understand; and what little I do understand, I could\nnot explain fully in one sermon, or in many either.  But let this be\nenough for to-day.  God grant that I may be able to make you\nunderstand me.\n\nAny one's having a name--a name of his own, a Christian name, as we\nrightly call it--signifies that he is a person; that is, that he has\na character of his own, and a responsibility, and a calling and duty\nof his own, given him by God; in one word, that he has an immortal\nsoul in him, for which he, and he alone, must answer, and receive\nthe rewards of the deeds which it does in the body, whether they be\ngood or evil.  But names are not given at random, without cause or\nmeaning.  When Adam named all the beasts, we read that whatsoever he\ncalled any beast, that _was_ the name of it.  The names which he\ngave _described_ each beast, were taken from something in its\nappearance, or its ways and habits, and so each was its right name,\nthe name which expressed its nature.  And so now, when learned men\ndiscover animals or plants in foreign countries, they do not give\nthem names at random, but take care to invent names for them which\nmay describe their natures, and make people understand what they are\nlike, as Adam did for the beasts of old.  And much more, in old\ntimes, had the names of men each of them a meaning.  If it was\nreasonable to give names full of meaning to each kind of dumb\nanimal, which are mere things, and not persons at all, how much more\nto each man separately, for each man is a person of himself; each\nman has a character different from all others, a calling different\nfrom all others, and therefore he ought to have his own name\nseparate from all others:  and therefore in old times it was the\ncustom to give each child a separate name, which had a meaning in\nit, was, as it were, a description of the child, or of something\nparticular about the child.\n\nNow, we may see this, above all, in The adorable Name of Jesus.\nThat name, above all others, ought to show us what a name means; for\nit is the name of the Son of Man, the one perfect and sinless man,\nthe pattern of all men; and therefore it must be a perfect name, and\na pattern for all names; and it was given to the Lord not by man,\nbut by God; not after He was born, but before He was conceived in\nthe womb of the blessed Virgin.  And therefore, it must show and\nmean not merely some outward accident about Him, something which He\nseemed to be, or looked like, in men's eyes:  no, the Name of Jesus\nmust mean what the Lord was in the sight of His Father in Heaven;\nwhat He was in the eternal purpose of God the Father; what He was,\nreally and absolutely, in Himself; it must mean and declare the very\nsubstance of His being.  And so, indeed, it does; for The adorable\nName of Jesus means nothing else but God the Saviour--God who saves.\nThis is His name, and was, and ever will be.  This Name He fulfilled\non earth, and proved it to be His character, His exact description,\nHis very Name, in short, which made Him different from all other\nbeings in heaven or earth, create or uncreate; and therefore, He\nbears His name to all eternity, for a mark of what He has been, and\nis, and will be for ever--God the Saviour; and this is the perfect\nname, the pattern of all other names of men.\n\nNow though the Christian names which we give our children here in\nEngland, have no especial meaning to them, and have nothing to do\nwith what we expect or wish the children to be when they grow up,\nyet the names of people in most other countries in the world have.\nThe Jewish names which we find in the Bible have almost all of them\na meaning.  So Simeon, I believe, means 'Obedient'; Jehoshaphat\nmeans, 'The Lord will judge'; Daniel, 'God is my judge'; Isaiah\nmeans, 'The Salvation of the Lord'; Isaac means, 'She laughs,' as a\nmemorial of Sarah's laughing, when she heard that she was to have a\nchild; Ishmael means, 'The Lord hears,' in remembrance of God's\nhearing Hagar's cry in the wilderness, when Ishmael was dying of\nthirst.\n\nEspecially those names of which we read that God commanded them to\nbe given, have meanings, and to tell the persons who bore those\nnames what God expected of them, or would do for them.  So Abraham\nmeans, 'The father of many nations.'  So the children of both Isaiah\nand Hosea had names given them by God, each of them meaning\nsomething which God was going to do to the nation of the Jews.  And\nso John means, 'Given by the Lord,' which name was given to John the\nBaptist by the Angel, before his strange birth, in his mother's old\nage.\n\nBut we must remember that the heathens also gave names to their\nchildren, though they did not know that their children owed any duty\nto God, or belonged to God, and therefore we cannot call their names\nChristian names.  Yes, the heathens did give their children names;\nsome of them give their children names still.  And there is to me\nsomething most sad and painful in those heathen names, and yet most\nfull of meaning.  A solemn lesson to us, to show us what the fall\nmeans; what man becomes, when he gives way to his fallen nature, and\nis parted from Christ, the Head of man.\n\nFirst, these heathens had a dim remembrance that man was made in the\nlikeness of God, and lived by Faith in God, and therefore that men's\nnames were to express that, as indeed many of their old names do.\nBut, alas! the likeness of God in fallen man is like a tree without\nroots, or rather a tree without soil to grow in.  God's likeness in\nman can only flourish as long as he is joined to Christ, the perfect\nlikeness of God, the true life and the true light of men, the\nfoundation which is already laid, and the soil in which man was\nmeant to grow and flourish for ever, and as long as he is fed by the\nSpirit of God, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds--never\nforget that, or you will lose the understanding both of who God is\nand what man is--proceeds not only from God the Father, but also\nfrom God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And therefore, in the\nheathen, God's likeness withered and decayed, as a tree withers and\ndecays when torn up from the soil.  And first, they began to call\nthemselves after the names of false gods, which they had invented\nout of their own carnal fancies.  Then they called themselves after\nthe names of their dumb animal's.  So, Pharaoh means, 'The Sun-God';\nthe Ammonites mean, 'The people who worshipped the ram as a god';\nPotiphar means, 'A fat bull,' which the Egyptians used to worship;\nand I could tell you of hundreds of heathen names more, like these,\nwhich are ridiculous enough to make one smile, if we did not keep in\nmind what tokens they are of sin and ignorance, and the likeness not\nof God, but of the beasts which perish.\n\nThen comes another set of names, showing a lower fall still, when\nheathens have quite forgotten that man was originally made in God's\nlikeness, and are not only content to live after the likeness of the\nbeasts which perish, but pride themselves on being like beasts, and\ntherefore name their children after dumb animals,--the girls after\nthe gentler and fairer animals, and the boys after ravenous and\ncruel beasts of prey.  That has been the custom among many heathen\nnations; perhaps among almost all of them, at some time or other.\nIt is the custom now among the Red Indians in North America, where\nyou will find one man in a tribe called 'The Bull,' another 'The\nPanther,' and another 'The Serpent,' and so on; showing that they\nwould like to be, if they could, as strong as the bull, as cruel as\nthe panther, as venomous as the serpent.  What wonder that those Red\nIndians, who have so put on the likeness of the beasts, are now\ndying off the face of the earth like the beasts whom they admire and\nimitate?\n\nAnd this was the way with our own heathen forefathers before the\nblessed Gospel was preached to them.  It is frightful, in reading\nold histories, to find how many Englishmen, our own forefathers,\nwere named after fierce wild beasts, and tried, alas! to be like\ntheir names--children of wrath, whose feet were swift to shed blood,\nunder whose lips was the poison of adders, and destruction and\nbloodshed following in their paths, not knowing the way of peace.\nThe wolf was the common wild beast of England then; and there are, I\nshould say, twenty common old English names ending in wolf, besides\nas many more ending in bear, and eagle, and raven.  Fearful sign!\nthat men of our own flesh and blood should have gloried in being\nlike the wolf, the cruellest, the greediest, the most mean of savage\nbeasts!  How shall we thank God enough, who sent to them the\nknowledge of His Son Jesus Christ, and called them to be new men in\nChrist Jesus, and called them to holy baptism, to receive new names,\nand begin new lives in the righteous likeness of God Himself?--that\nas by nature they had been the children of wrath, so in baptism they\nmight become the children of grace; that as from their forefathers\nthey had inherited a corrupt nature, original sin, and the likeness\nof the foul and ravenous beasts which perish, they might have power\nfrom the Spirit of God to become the sons of God, conformed into the\nlikeness of Jesus Christ, in peace, and love, and righteousness, and\nall holiness.\n\nAnd yet, in names there is a lower depth still among fallen and\nheathen men; when they lose utterly the last dim notion that God\nintends men to be persons, even as God the Father is a person, and\nGod the Son a person, and God the Holy Spirit is a person, and so\nlose the custom of giving their children personal names at all;\neither giving them, after they grow up, mere nicknames, taken from\nsome peculiarity of their bodies, or something which they have done,\nor some place where they happen to live; or else, like many tribes\nof heathen negroes, just name them after the day of the week on\nwhich they were born, as some way of knowing them apart; or, last\nand most shocking of all, give them no names at all, and have no\nnames themselves, knowing each other apart as the dumb animals do,\nonly by sight.  I can conceive no deeper fall into utter brutishness\nthan that; and yet some few of the most savage tribes, both in\nAfrica and in the Indian islands, are said--God help them!--to live\nin that way, and to have no names;--blotted, indeed, out of the book\nof life!\n\nBut is this the right state for men?  No; it is the wrong state.  It\nis a disease into which men are fallen; a disease out of which\nChrist came to raise men; and out of which He does raise us in Holy\nBaptism.  Baptism puts the child into its right state--into the\nright state for a human being, a human soul, a human person.  And\nbaptism declares what that right state is--a member of Christ, a\nchild of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.  A member\nof Christ, and therefore a person, because Christ is a person.  A\nchild of God, and therefore a person, because a child's duty is to\nlove and trust and obey his father--and only a person can do that,\nnot an animal or a thing.  An inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,\nand therefore bound to cherish all heavenly thoughts and feelings,\nall righteousness, love, and obedience, which only spirits and\npersons, not animals or things, can feel.\n\nNow can you not see why baptism is the proper time for giving the\nchild a name?  Because then Christ claims the child for His own;--\nbecause having a name shows that the child is a person who has a\nsoul, a will, a conscience, a duty; a person who must answer himself\nfor himself alone for what he does in the body, whether it be good\nor evil.  And that will, and soul, and conscience were given the\nchild by Christ, by whom all things are made, who is the Light which\nlights every man who comes into the world.\n\nThus in holy baptism God adopts the child for His own in Jesus\nChrist.  He declares that the child is regenerate, and has a new\nlife, a life from above, a seed of eternal personal life which he\nhimself has not by nature.  And that seed of eternal life is none\nother but the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father and of\nthe Son, the Lord and Giver of Life, who does verily and indeed\nregenerate the child in holy baptism, and dwells with his soul, his\nperson, his very self, that He may educate the child's character,\nand raise his affections, and subdue his will, and raise him up\ndaily from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.\n\nTherefore, when in the Catechism you solemnly ask the child its\nname, you ask it no light question.  You speak as a spirit, a\nperson, to its spirit, to its very self, which God wills should\nnever perish, but live for ever.  You single the child out from all\nits schoolfellows, from all the millions of human beings who have\never lived, or ever will live; and you make the child, by answering\nto his name, confess that he is a person, an immortal soul, who must\nstand alone before the judgment seat of God; a person who has a duty\nand a calling upon God's earth, which he must fulfil or pay the\nforfeit.  And then you ask the child who gave him his name, and make\nhim declare that his name was given him in baptism, wherein he was\nmade a member of Christ and a child of God.  You make the child\nconfess that he is a person in Jesus Christ, that Christ has\nredeemed him, his very self, and taken him to Himself, and made him\nnot merely God's creature, or God's slave, but God's child.  You\nmake the child confess that his duty as a person is not towards\nhimself, to do what _he_ likes, and follow his own carnal lusts; but\ntoward God and toward his neighbours, who are in God's kingdom of\nheaven as well as he.  And then you go on in the rest of the\nCatechism to teach him how he himself, the person to whom you are\nspeaking, may live for ever and ever as a person, by faith in other\nPersons beside himself, even in God the Father, Son, and Holy\nSpirit, as you teach him in the Creed; by doing his duty to other\npersons beside himself, even to God and man, as you teach him in the\nTen Commandments; and by diligent prayer to another Person beside\nhimself, even to God his heavenly Father, to feed and strengthen him\nday by day with that eternal life which was given to him in baptism.\nThus the whole Catechism turns upon the very first question in it--\n'What is thy name?'  It explains to the child what is really meant,\nin the sight of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the whole\nChurch in earth and heaven, by the child's having a name of his own,\nand being a person, and having that name given to him in holy\nbaptism.\n\nAnd if this is true of our children, my friends, it is equally true\nof us.  You and I are persons, and persons in Christ; each stands\nalone day and night before the judgment-seat of Christ.  Each must\nanswer for himself.  None can deliver his brother, nor make\nagreement unto God for him.  Each of us has his calling from his\nheavenly Father; his duty to do which none can do instead of him.\nEach has his own sins, his own temptations, his own sorrows, which\nhe must bring single-handed and alone to God his Father, as it is\nwritten, 'The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger\nintermeddleth not with its joy.'  There is a world, a flesh, and a\ndevil, near to us, ready to drag us down, and destroy our personal\nand spiritual life, which God has given us in Christ; a flesh which\ntempts us to follow our own appetites and passions, blindly and\nlawlessly, like the beasts which perish; a world which tempts us to\nbecome mere things, without free-wills of our own, or consciences of\nour own, without personal faith and personal holiness; the puppets\nof the circumstances and the customs which happen to be round us;\nblown about like the dead leaf, and swept helplessly down the stream\nof time.  And there is a devil, too, near us, tempting us to the\ndeepest lie of all,--to set up ourselves apart from God, and to try,\nas the devil tries, to be persons in our own strength, each doing\nwhat he chooses, each being his own law, and his own master; that\nis, his own lawlessness, and his own tyrant:  and if we listen to\nthat devil, that spirit of lawlessness and self-will, we shall\nbecome his slaves, persons in him, doing his work, and finding\ntorment and misery and slavery in it.  Awful thought, that so many\nenemies should be against us; yea, that we ourselves should be our\nown enemies!  But here baptism gives us hope, baptism gives us\ncourage; we are in Christ; God is our Father, and He can and will\ngive us power to have victory, and to triumph against the world, the\nflesh, and the devil.  His Spirit is given to us in baptism--that\nSpirit of God who is not merely a force or an influence, but a\nperson, a living, loving, holy Person.  He is with us, to give our\npersons, our souls, eternal life from His life, eternal holiness\nfrom His holiness; that so, not merely some part of us, but we our\nvery selves and souls--we the very same persons who were christened,\nand had a name given us in holy baptism, and have been answering to\nthat name all our life, and were reminded, whenever we heard that\nname, that we had a duty of our own, a history of our own, hopes,\nfears, joys, sorrows of our own, which none could share with us,--\nthat we, I say, our own persons, our very selves, may be raised up\nagain at the last day, free, pure, strong, filled with the life of\nGod, which is eternal life.\n\nAnd then, what blessed words are these from the Lord Jesus, which we\nread in the book of Revelation?  'And I will give to him that\novercometh, a new name.'  A new name for him that overcometh world,\nflesh, and devil; that shall be our portion in the world to come.  A\nnew name, perfect like the name of the Lord Jesus, which shall\nexpress and mean all that we are to do hereafter, and all that we\nhave done well on earth.  A name which shall declare to us our\ncalling and work in God's Church triumphant, throughout all ages and\nworlds to come:  and yet a name which no man knoweth saving he who\nreceiveth it.  Yes, if we may dare to guess at the meaning of those\ndeep words, perhaps in that new name shall be recorded for each man\nall that went on, in the secret depths of the man's own heart,\nbetween himself and his God, unknown and unnoticed even by the wife\nof his bosom.  The cup of cold water given in Christ's name; the\nlittle private acts of love, and kindness, and self-sacrifice, of\nwhich none but God knew; the secret prayers, the secret acts of\ncontrition, the secret hungerings and thirstings after\nrighteousness, the secret struggles and agonies of heart, which he\ncould not, dare not, ought not to tell to any human being.  All\nthese, he shall find, will go to make up his character in the life\nto come, to determine what work he is to do for God in the world to\ncome; as it is written, 'Be thou faithful over a few things, and I\nwill make thee ruler over many things.'  All these, perhaps, shall\nbe expressed and declared in that new name, the full meaning of\nwhich none will know but the man himself, because none but he knows\nthe secret experiences and struggles which went toward the making of\nit; none but he and God; for God will know all, He who is the Lord\nand Saviour of our souls, our persons, our very selves, and can\npreserve them utterly to the fulness of eternal life, because He\nknows them thoroughly and utterly; because He judges not according\nto appearance, but judges righteous judgment; because He sees us not\nmerely as we seem to others to be, not even as we seem at times to\nourselves to be;--but searches the heart, and can be touched with\nthe feeling of its infirmities, seeing that He himself has been\ntempted even as we are, yet without sin; because, blessed thought!\nHe can pierce through the very marrow of our being, and discern the\nthoughts and intents of our hearts, and see what we long to be, and\nwhat we ought to be; so that we can safely and hopefully commend our\nspirits to His hand, day by day and hour by hour, and can trust Him\nto cleanse us from our secret faults, and to renew and strengthen\nour very selves day by day with that eternal life which He gives to\nall who cast themselves utterly upon Him.\n\n\n\nSERMON V.  SPONSORSHIP\n\n\n\n1 Cor. xii. 26, 27.  Whether one member suffer, all the members\nsuffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all the members\nrejoice with it.  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in\nparticular.\n\nI have to tell you that there will be a confirmation held at . . .\non the . . . All persons of fit age who have not yet been confirmed\nought to be ready, and I hope and trust that most of them will be\nready, on that day to profess publicly their faith and loyalty to\nthe Lord who died for them.  I hope and trust that they will, as\nsoon as possible, tell me that they intend to do so, and come to me\nto talk over the matter, and to learn what I can teach them about\nit.  They will find in me, I hope, nothing but kindness and fellow-\nfeeling.\n\nBut I have not only to tell young persons of the Confirmation:  I\nhave to tell all godfathers and godmothers of it also.  Have any of\nyou here ever stood godfather or godmother to any young person in\nthis parish who is not yet confirmed?  If you have, now is the time\nfor you to fulfil your parts as sponsors.  You must help me, and\nhelp the children's parents, in bringing your godchildren to\nconfirmation.  It really is your duty.  It will be better for you if\nyou fulfil it.  Better for you, not merely by preventing a\npunishment, but by bringing a blessing.  Let me try to show you what\nI mean.\n\nNow godparents must have some duty, some responsibility or other;--\nthat is plain.  If you or I promise and vow things in another\nperson's name, we must be bound more or less to see that that other\nperson fulfils the promise which we made for him:  and so the\nbaptism service warns the sponsors as soon as the child is\nchristened, 'Forasmuch as this child has promised,' &c.; and then we\nhave a plain explanation of what a godfather and godmother's duties\nare.  'And that your godchild may know these things the better,'\n&c.:  and finally, 'you shall take care that this child be brought\nto the bishop to be confirmed.'\n\nThat is the duty of godfathers and godmothers.  Those who stand for\nany child do it on that understanding, and take upon themselves\nknowingly that duty.\n\nNow, I will not threaten you, my friends; I will not pretend to tell\nyou how God will punish those godfathers and godmothers who do not\ndo their duty; because I do not know how he will punish them.  He\nhas not told us in the Bible; and who am I, to deal out God's\nthunders as if they belonged to me, and judge people of whose real\nmerits and dements in God's sight I have no fair means of judging?\nI always dread and dislike threatening any sinner out of this\npulpit, except those who plainly break the plain laws which are\nwritten in those Ten Commandments, and hypocrites:  because I stand\nin awe of our Lord's own words--'Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees,\nhypocrites, for ye bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and\nlay them on men's shoulders, while you yourselves touch them not\nwith one of your fingers.'  There is too much of that now-a-days, my\nfriends, and I have no mind to add my share to it.  And sure I am,\nthat any godfathers and godmothers who do their duty, only because\nthey are afraid that God will punish them if they do not, will not\ndo their duty at all.  But sure I am also, and thankful to God, that\nwe cannot neglect any duty whatsoever without being punished in some\nway or other for our neglect of it.  That is not a curse, but a\nblessing:  it is a blessing to us to be punished.  The only real\ncurse of God in this life is to be left unpunished for our sins.  It\nis a blessing for us that our sins find us out.  For if our sins did\nnot find _us_ out, we should very often, I fear, not find our sins\nout.  And, therefore, when I tell godfathers and godmothers, not\nthat God will perhaps punish them for their neglect, but that He\ndoes punish them for it already, I am telling them good news, if\nthey will only open their hearts to that good news.\n\nFor God does punish people for neglecting their godchildren.  Those\nwho have eyes to see may see it round us now, in this very parish,\nand in every parish in England, in the selfishness, distrust,\ndivisions, and quarrels which prevail.  I do not mean that this\nparish is worse than others, or England worse than other countries.\nThat is no concern of ours:  our own parish, and our own evils, are\nquite concern enough for us.\n\nAre people happy together?  Do they pull well together?  Look at the\nold-standing quarrels, misunderstandings, grudges, prejudices,\nsuspicions, which part one man from another, one family from\nanother; every man for his own house, and very few for the kingdom\nof God;--no, not even for the general welfare of the parish!  Do not\nmen try to better themselves at the expense of the parish--to the\ninjury of the parish?  Do not men, when they try to raise their own\nfamily, seem to think that the simplest way to do it is to pull down\ntheir neighbour's family; to draw away their custom; oust them from\ntheir places, or hurt their characters in order to rise upon their\nfall? so that though they are brothers, members of the same church,\nnation and parish, the greater part of them are, in practice, at war\nwith each other--trying to live at each other's expense.  Now, is\nthis profitable?  So far from it, that if you will watch the\nhistory, either of the whole world, or of this country, or of this\none parish, you will find that by far the greater part of the misery\nin it has sprung from this very selfishness and separateness--from\nthe perpetual struggle between man and man, and between family and\nfamily:  so that there have been men, and those learned, and\nthoughtful, and well-meaning men enough, who have said that the only\ncure for the world's quarrelling and selfishness was to take all\nchildren away from their parents, and bring them up in large public\nschools; ay, and even to try plans which are sinful, foul, and\nwicked, all in order to prevent parents knowing which were their own\nchildren, that they might care for all the children in the parish as\nmuch as if they were their own.\n\nA foolish plan, my friends, and for this one reason, that it is\ndriving out one evil by a still greater one.  It destroys the root\nto get the fruit; by destroying family life, and love, and\nobedience, to get at the communion of saints, or rather at some\nghost of it.  The real communion of saints is founded on the Fifth\nCommandment--'Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother;' and\ngrows out of it, not by destroying it, but by fulfilling it, as the\ntree grows out of the root, without taking away from the life of the\nroot, but rather by nourishing and increasing it.  Now, the ancient\ninstitution of godfathers and godmothers would, it seems to me, if\nit were carried out honestly and really, do for us what we certainly\nhave not done for ourselves as yet, and bind us all together as one\nfamily.  It would do all the good which those fanciful philosophers\nof whom I first spoke, have dreamt, without any of the evil; and it\nwould do it because it goes simply on the belief that the foundation\nis already laid, and that that foundation is Christ.  It says,\nbecause this child is not merely the child of his father and mother,\nbut the child of God, the universal Father, therefore other people\nbesides his parents have an interest in him:  all who are children\nof God as well as he have an interest in him; for they are all his\nbrothers, and have a brother's interest in his welfare.  Because\nthis child is not merely a member of the family whose surname he\nbears, but a member of Christ, a member of God's great adopted\nfamily, in the hearts of every one of whom His only begotten Son,\nJesus Christ, is working; therefore this child ought to be an object\nof awe, and of interest, and love, and care to every other member of\nChrist's Church.  Moreover, the child is an inheritor of a heavenly\nkingdom--a kingdom of grace--a kingdom of God,--which is love and\njustice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit--all personal,\nspiritual, heavenly, God-given graces;--and he cannot have them\nwithout being a blessing to all around him; and he cannot be without\nthem, without being a curse to all around him.  If, in after life,\nwhen he comes to be confirmed, he claims his inheritance in this\nheavenly kingdom, he will be full of love, justice, peace, joy in\nthe Holy Spirit.  If he refuses to claim his inheritance, and\ndespises his heavenly birthright, and lives as if he were a mere\nearthly creature, only to please himself, and help himself, he will\nnot be full of those graces.  And what then?  That he will be full\nof their opposites, of course.  If he has not love, he will be\nunloving, selfish, hard, cold--to _you_ and yours.  If he has not\njustice he will be unjust--to you and yours.  If he is not at peace\nhe will be at war, quarrelling, grudging, envying, backbiting--you\nand yours.  If he has not joy in the Holy Spirit, he will have joy\nin an unholy spirit, for he must have joy in some spirit; he must\ntake pleasure in some sort of way of thinking and feeling, and some\nsort of life--in short, in some sort of spirit; and whatsoever is\nnot holy is unholy, whatsoever is not good is bad, whatsoever is not\nof God's Holy Spirit is of the Devil;--and therefore, if the child\nas he grows up has not joy in the Holy Spirit, and does not enjoy\ndoing right and pleasing God, and being like the Lord Jesus Christ,\nthen he will enjoy doing wrong, and pleasing himself, and being\nunlike the Lord Jesus Christ; and so he will set a bad example, and\nbe a temptation to all young people of his own age, ready to lead\nthem into sin, and draw them away to those sinful and unholy\npleasures in which he takes delight,--whether it be to rioting and\ndrinking, or to uncleanness and unchastity, or to sneering and\nlaughing at godliness, and at good people.  And that, as you know by\nexperience, may be the worse for you and the worse for your\nchildren.  Is that the sort of young person with whom you would wish\nto see your children keeping company?  Is that the sort of young\nperson next door to whom you would wish to live?  Is not such a\nperson a curse, just because he is a person, a spiritual being with\nan evil spirit in him, which can harm you, and tempt you, and act on\nyou for evil; just as if he had been a righteous person, with the\nholy and good Spirit in him, he would have helped you, and taught\nyou, and worked on you for good?  But so it is:  we are members one\nof another, and if one member goes wrong, and gets diseased, and\nsuffers, all the other members are sure to suffer more or less with\nit, sooner or later:  you feel it so in your bodies--be sure it is\nso in God's church.  But if one member is sound and healthy, all the\nother members must and will be the better for its health, and\nrejoice with it, and be able to do their own work the more freely,\nand strongly, and heartily.\n\nJust think for yourselves; consider, you who are grown up, and have\nhad experience of life, the harm you have known one bad man do, the\nsorrow he will cause, even to people who never saw him; and the good\nwhich you have seen one good man, not merely do with his own hands,\nbut put into other people's hearts by his example.  Is not both the\ngood and the harm which is done on earth like the ripple of a stone\ndropt into water, which spreads and spreads for a vast distance\nround, however small the stone may be?  Indeed, bold as it may seem\nto say it, I believe that, if we could behold all hearts as the Lord\nJesus does, we should find that there never was a good man but that\nthe whole of Christendom, perhaps all mankind, was sooner or later,\nmore or less, the better for him; and that there never was a bad man\nbut that all Christendom, perhaps all mankind, was the worse for\nhim.  So fully and really true it is in everyday practice, that we\nare members one of another.\n\nNow this is the principle on which the Church acts.  For the little\nunconscious infant is treated as what it is, a most solemn and\nimportant person, who has other relations beside its father and\nmother, as a person who is the brother of all the people round it,\nand of all the Church of God, and who, too, may hereafter do to them\nboundless good or harm, and they to it.\n\nTherefore we must have some persons to bear witness of that, to\nremind the child himself, and the whole Church, that he is not\nmerely a soul by itself to be saved, but that he is a brother, a\nmember of a family; that he is bound to that family henceforth, for\ngood and for evil.  And this the godfathers and godmothers do:  they\nrepresent and stand in the place of the whole Church.  In one sense,\nevery Christian who meets that child through life, or hears of it,\nought to behave, as far as he can, as its godfather; ought to help\nand improve it if he can.  But what is everybody's business, says\nthe proverb, is nobody's business; and therefore these godfathers\nand godmothers are called out from the rest, as examples to the\nrest, to watch over the child, and to help and advise its father and\nmother in guiding and training it:  but not by interfering with a\nparent's rights, God forbid! or by drawing away the child's\naffections from its own flesh and blood; for if a child be not\ntaught first to honour its father and mother, there is little use in\nteaching it anything else whatsoever; and a godfather's first duty\nis to see that his godchild obeys its earthly parents for the Lord's\nsake, for that is right, and God's will, whatever else is not.\n\nNow just conceive--I am sure that you easily may--what a blessing to\nthis parish, or this part of the country, it would be, were the\nduties of godfathers really carried out and practised.  Every child,\nbeside his father and mother, would have some two or three elder\nfriends at least, whom he had known from his childhood, whom he\ncould trust, to whom he could go in trouble as to his own flesh and\nblood.  The orphan would have, if not relations, still godparents,\nto comfort and protect him.  No one could go abroad without meeting,\nif not a godparent, yet the godparent or godchild of a friend or a\nrelation; someone, in short, who had an interest in him, and he in\nthem.  All would be bound together in threefold cords of interest\nand affection.  How many spites, family quarrels, mistakes, and\nignorances about each other would be done away, if people would but\nthus simply enter into that communion of saints to which, by right,\nthey belong, and bear each other's burdens, and so fulfil the law of\nChrist.--Unless you think that men are such ill-conditioned\ncreatures that the less they mix with each other the better.  I do\nnot.  I believe that the more we mix with each other, and the better\nwe know each other, the more we shall feel for each other:  that the\nmore we help people, the more we shall find that they are worth\nhelping; that the more, in a word, we try to live, not after the\nlikeness of the beasts, selfish and apart, but after the order and\nconstitution of God's Church, to which we belong, and which is, that\nwe are all fellow-members of one body, then the more we shall find\nthat God's order is the right, good, blessed order, by obeying which\nwe enter into comfort of which we never dream as long as we lead\nselfish, separate, worldly lives; as it is written, 'Eye hath not\nseen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to\nconceive, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'\n\nThis may seem a fanciful dream, too fair to be possible; but what\nprevents it from being possible, save and except our own selfishness\nand laziness?\n\nAnd as for what fruit will spring from it, I have seen, by\nexperience, the blessing of godfathership and godmothership, where\nit is really carried out; how it will knit together, in sacred bonds\nof friendship, not merely the children, but the grown persons of\ndifferent families, and give them a fellow-feeling, a mutual\ninterest, which will prevent a hundred quarrels and coldnesses among\nfrail human creatures.  And to those who are childless themselves,\nwhat a blessing to have their love and self-sacrifice called out, by\nbeing bound in holy bonds, if not to children of their own, at least\nto children of God!--to have young people to care for, to teach, to\nguide, and so to win for themselves in the Church of God a name\nbetter than that of sons and daughters.  And have no fear that by\nbringing your kindness to bear especially upon your godchildren you\nwill narrow your love, and care less for children in general.  Not\nso, my friends; you will find that your love to your godchildren,\nlike love to your own children, will make all children lovable in\nyour eyes:  you will learn how worthy of your love children are,\nwhat capacities of good there are in them, how truly of such are the\nkingdom of heaven; and their simplicity will often teach you more\nthan you can teach them.  Their God-given instincts of right and\nwrong, truth and falsehood, which come from the indwelling Word of\nGod, Jesus the Lord, will often enough shame us, will teach us more\nand more the depth of that great saying, 'Out of the mouths of babes\nand sucklings, Thou, O God, hast perfected Thy praise.'\n\nNow try, I entreat you, all godfathers and godmothers, to carry out\nthese hints of mine, and so fulfil your duty to your godchildren,\nsure that you will find it a blessing to yourselves as well as to\nthem.\n\nAfter all it is your duty.  But do not let the slandering Devil\nslander to you that blessed word, Duty, and make you afraid of it,\nand shrink from it, as if it meant something burdensome, and\ntroublesome, and thankless, which you suppose you must do for fear\nof punishment, while you have a right to see how little of it you\ncan do, and try to be let off as cheaply as possible.  Beware of\nthat evil spirit, my friends, for he is very near you, and me, and\nevery man, whenever we think of our duty.  Very near us he is, that\nevil Jesuit spirit, that spirit of bondage unto fear, which is\ncontinually setting us on to find out with how _little_ service God\nwill be contented, how human slaves may make the cheapest bargain\nwith some stern taskmaster above, of whom they dream.  And from that\ntemptation there is no escape, save into the blessed name of God\nHimself--our Father.\n\nOur Father!--whenever you think of your duty to God or man, think\nbut of those two words.  Remember that all duty is duty to a Father;\nyour Father; and such a Father!  Who gave His only begotten Son to\ndie for you, who showed what He was in that Son--full of goodness,\nperfectly loving, perfectly merciful, perfectly just; and then you\nwill not be inclined to ask how _little_ obedience, how _little_\nlove, how _little_ service, He will allow you to pay to Him; but how\nmuch He will help you to pay to Him.  Then you will feel that His\nservice is perfect freedom, because it is service to a Father who\nloves you, and will help you to do His will.  Then you will feel\nthat His commandments are not grievous, because they are a Father's\ncommandments, because you are bound to do them, not by dread and\nsuperstition, but by gratitude, honour, affection, respect, trust.\nThen you will not be thinking of what punishment will come if you\ndisobey--no, nor of what reward will come if you obey--but you will\nbe thinking of the commandment itself, and how to carry it out most\nperfectly, and let the consequences take care of themselves, because\nyou know that your _Father_ takes care of them; that He loves you,\nand therefore what He commands must be good for you, utterly the\nbest thing for you; that He only gives you a commandment because it\nis good for you; that you are made in God's image, and therefore\nGod's will must be for you the path of life, the only rule by which\nyou can prosper now and for ever.\n\nDo try, now, all you who are godfathers and godmothers, and for once\nlook on your duty in this light.  Be sure that in trying to do your\nduty you will bring a blessing on yourselves, because your duty is\nto a Father in heaven.  Be sure that, in trying to better your\ngodchildren, you will better yourselves; in trying to teach them,\nyou will teach yourselves; in trying to bring them to confirmation,\nyou will indeed confirm, root, and strengthen yourselves the more\ndeeply in all that is good; because your godchildren are indeed\nGod's children, and whatsoever you do for them you do for His only\nbegotten Son Jesus Christ, as He Himself says, 'Inasmuch as ye did\nit unto one of the least of these little ones, ye did it unto Me.'\nDo not be afraid of trying; you will have a hundred reasons for not\ntrying rise in your mind, the Devil will find you a hundred lying\nexcuses:  'It will be so difficult; and you do not like to interfere\nwith other people's children; and you have never cared about your\ngodchildren yet, and it will seem so odd to begin now; and the\nchildren may not listen to you; and besides, you do not know enough\nto teach them; you are not good scholar enough, good liver enough,\nyou can't preach where you don't practice.'  Oh, how ready the Devil\nis to help a man to excuses for not doing his duty; how careful he\nis to keep out of a man's mind the one thought which would sweep all\nthose excuses to the wind--the thought that this same duty, which he\nis trying to make look so ugly, is duty to a loving Father.  Do not\nlisten to his lies; look up to your good Father in heaven; and try.\nIt is God's will that these children should be confirmed; it is His\nwill that you should help to bring them to confirmation; and if it\nis His will, He will help you to do that will of His.  It may seem\ndifficult:  but try, and the difficulty will vanish, for God will\nmake it easy for you.  You may be afraid of interfering:  believe\nthat God's Spirit is working in the hearts of your godchildren, and\nof their parents also; and trust to God's Spirit to make them kindly\nand thankful to you about the matter, and glad to see that you take\nan interest in their children.  You may seem not to know enough:  O,\nmy friends, you know enough, every one of you, if you have courage\nto confess how much you know.  Ask God for courage to speak out, and\nHe will give it you.  And even if you are no scholar, be sure that,\nas the old proverb says, 'Teaching is the best way of learning.'\nAny parent, or godfather, or godmother, who will try to teach their\nchildren God's truth and their duty, will find that in so doing they\nwill teach themselves even more than they teach the children.  I say\nit because I know it from my own experience.  And for the rest,\nagain I say, is not God your Father?  Therefore, if any man be in\nwant of wisdom, or courage, or any other heavenly gift, let him ask\nof God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not, and he shall\nreceive it.  For after all, when you ask God to teach you, and\nstrengthen you to do your duty, you do but ask Him for a part of\nthat very inheritance which He has already given you; a part of your\ninheritance in that kingdom of heaven which is a kingdom of\nspiritual gifts and graces, into which you were baptized as well as\nyour godchildren.\n\nTry then, each of you, what you can do to bring your own godchildren\nto confirmation, and what you can do to make them fit for\nconfirmation; for you are members one of another, and if you will\nact as such, you will find strength to do your duty, and a blessing\nin your day from that heavenly Father from whom every fatherhood in\nheaven and earth, and yours among the rest, is named.\n\n\n\nSERMON VI.  JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH\n\n\n\nEphesians ii. 5.  By grace ye are saved.\n\nWe all hold that we are justified by faith, that is, by believing;\nand that unless we are justified we cannot be saved.  And of all men\nwho ever believed this, perhaps those who gave us the Church\nCatechism believed it most strongly.  Nay, some of them suffered for\nit; endured persecution, banishment, and a cruel death, because they\nwould persist in holding, contrary to the Romanists, that men were\njustified by faith only, and not by the works of the law; and that\nthis was one of the root-doctrines of Christianity, which if a man\ndid not believe, he would believe nothing else rightly.  Does it not\nseem, then, something strange that they should never in this\nCatechism of theirs mention one word about justifying or\njustification?  They do not ask the child, 'How is a man justified?'\nthat he may answer, 'By faith alone;' they do not even teach him to\nsay, 'I am justified already.  I am in a state of justification;'\nbut not saying one word about that, they teach him to say much more--\nthey teach him to say that he is in a state of salvation, and to\nthank God boldly because he is so; and then go on at once to ask him\nthe articles of his belief.  And even more strange still, they teach\nhim to answer that question, not by repeating any doctrines, but by\nrepeating the simple old Apostles' Creed.  They do not teach him to\nsay, as some would now-a-days, 'I believe in original sin, I believe\nin redemption through Christ's death, I believe in justification by\nfaith, I believe in sanctification by the Holy Spirit,'--true as\nthese doctrines are; still less do they bid the child say, 'I\nbelieve in predestination, and election, and effectual calling, and\nirresistible grace, and vicarious satisfaction, and forensic\njustification, and vital faith, and the three assurances.'\n\nWhether these things be true or false, it seemed to the ancient\nworthies who gave us our Catechism that children had no business\nwith them.  They had their own opinions on these matters, and spoke\ntheir opinions moderately and wisely, and the sum of their opinions\nwe have in the Thirty-nine Articles, which are not meant for\nchildren, not even for grown persons, excepting scholars and\nclergymen.  Of course every grown person is at liberty to study\nthem; but no one in the Church of England is required to agree to\nthem, and to swear that they are true, except scholars at our old\nUniversities, and clergymen, who are bound to have studied such\nquestions.  But for the rest of Englishmen all the necessary\narticles of belief (so the old divines considered) were contained in\nthe simple old Apostles' Creed.\n\nAnd why?  Because, it seems to me, they were what Englishmen ought\nto be--what too many Englishmen are too apt to boast of being in\nthese days, while they are not so, or anything like it--and that is,\nhonest men and practical men.  They had taught the children to say\nthat they were members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of\nthe kingdom of heaven; and they had taught the children, when they\nsaid that, to mean what they said; for they had no notion that 'I\nam,' meant 'I may possibly be;' or that 'I was made,' meant 'There\nis a chance of my being made some time or other.'  They would not\nhave dared to teach children to say things which were most probably\nnot true.  So believing really what they taught, they believed also\nthat the children were justified.  For if a child is not justified\nin being a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the\nkingdom of heaven, what is he justified in being?  Is not that\nexactly the just, right, and proper state for him, and for every\nman?--the very state in which all men were meant originally to be,\nin which all men ought to have been?  So they looked on these\nchildren as being in the just, right, and proper way, on which God\nlooks with satisfaction and pleasure, and in which alone a man can\ndo just, right, and proper things, by the Spirit of Christ, which He\ngives daily and hourly to those who belong to Him and trust in Him\nand in His Father.\n\nBut they knew that the children could only keep in this just, and\nright, and proper state by trusting in God, and looking up to Him\ndaily in faith, and love, and obedience.  They knew that if the\nchildren, whether for one hour or for their whole lives, lost trust\nin God, and began trusting in themselves, they would that very\nmoment, then and there, become not justified at all, because they\nwould be doing a thing which no man is justified in doing, and fall\ninto a state into which no man is justified in remaining for one\nhour--that is, into an unjustifiable state of self-will, and\nlawlessness, and forgetfulness of who and of what they were, and of\nwhat God was to them; in one word, into a sinful state, which is not\na righteous, or just, or good, or proper state for any man, but an\nutterly unrighteous, unjust, wrong, improper, mistaken, diseased\nstate, which is certain to breed unrighteous, unjust, improper\nactions in a man, as a limb is certain to corrupt if it be cut off\nfrom the body, as a little child is certain to come to harm if it\nruns away from its parents, and does just what it likes, and eats\nwhatsoever pleases its fancy.  So these old divines, being practical\nmen, said to themselves, 'These children are justified and right in\nbeing what they are, therefore our business is to keep them what\nthey are, and we can only do that as long as they have faith in God\nand in His Christ.'\n\nNow, if they had been mere men of books, they would have said to\nthemselves, 'Then we must teach the children very exactly what faith\nis, that they may know how to tell true faith from false, and may be\nable to judge every day and hour whether they have the right sort of\nfaith which will justify them, or some wrong sort which will not.'\nAnd many wise and good men in those times did say so, and tormented\ntheir own minds, and the minds of weak brethren, with long arguments\nand dry doctrines about faith, till, in their eagerness to make out\nwhat sort of thing faith ought to be, they seemed quite to forget\nthat it must be faith in God, and so seemed to forget too who God\nwas, and what He was like.  Therefore, they ended by making people\nbelieve (as too many, I fear, do now-a-days) not that they were\njustified freely by the grace of God, shown forth in the life, and\ndeath, and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ; no:  but that they\nwere justified by believing in justification by faith, and that\ntheir salvation depended not on being faithful to God and trusting\nin Him, but in standing up fiercely for the doctrine of\njustification by faith.  And so they destroyed the doctrine of free\ngrace, while they thought they were fighting for it; for they taught\nmen not to look to God for salvation, so much as to their own faith,\ntheir own frames, and feelings, and experiences; and these, as\ncommon sense will show you, are just as much something in a man, as\nacts of his own, and part of him, as his good works would be; and so\nby making people fancy that it was having the right sort of feelings\nwhich justified them, they fell back into the very same mistake as\nthe Papists against whom they were so bitter, namely, that it is\nsomething in a man's self which justifies him, and not simply\nChrist's merits and God's free grace.\n\nBut our old Reformers were of a different mind; and everlasting\nthanks be to Almighty God that they were so.  For by being so they\nhave made the Church of England (as I always have said, and always\nwill say) almost the only Church in Europe, Protestant or other,\nwhich thoroughly and fully stands up for free grace, and\njustification by faith alone.  For these old Reformers were\npractical men, and took the practical way.  They knew, perhaps, the\nold proverb, 'A man need not be a builder to live in a house.'  At\nleast they acted on it, and instead of trying to make the children\nunderstand what faith was made up of, they tried to make them live\nin faith itself.  Instead of saying, 'How shall we make the children\nhave faith in God by telling them what faith is?' they said, 'How\nshall we make them have faith in God by telling them what God is?'\nAnd therefore, instead of puzzling and fretting the children's minds\nwith any of the controversies which were then going on between\nPapists and Protestants, or afterwards between Calvinists and\nArminians, they taught the children simply about God; who He was,\nand what He had done for them and all mankind; that so they might\nlearn to love Him, and look up to Him in faith, and trust utterly to\nHim, and so remain justified and right, saved and safe for ever.\n\nBy doing which, my friends, they showed that they knew more about\nfaith and about God than if they had written books on books of\ndoctrinal arguments (though they wrote those too, and wrote them\nnobly and well); they showed that they had true faith in God, such\ntrust in Him, and in the beauty and goodness, justice and love,\nwhich He had shown, that they only needed to tell the children of\nit, and they would trust Him too, and at once have faith in so good\na God.  They showed that they had such trust in the excellencies,\nand reasonableness, and fitness of His Gospel, that they were sure\nthat it would come home at once to the children's hearts.  They\nshowed that they had such trust in the power of His grace, in His\nlove for the children, in the working of His Spirit in the children,\nthat He would bring His Gospel home to their hearts, and stir them\nup by the spirit of adoption to feel that they were indeed the\nchildren of God, to whom they might freely cry, 'My Father!'\n\nAnd I say that they were not deceived.  I say that experience has\nshown that they were right; that the Church Catechism, where it is\nreally and honestly taught, gives the children an honest, frank,\nsober, English temper of mind which no other training which I have\nseen gives.  I have seen, alas!  Church schools fail, ere now, in\ntraining good children; but as far as I have seen, they have failed\neither because the Catechism was neglected for the sake of cramming\nthe children's brains with scholarship, or because the Catechism was\nnot honestly taught:  because the words were taught by rote, but the\nexplanations which were given of it were no explanations at all, but\nanother doctrine, which our forefathers knew not:  either Dissenting\nor Popish; either a religion of fancies, and feelings, and\nexperiences, or one of superstitious notions and superstitious\nceremonies which have been borrowed from the Church of Rome, and\nwhich, I trust in God, will be soon returned to their proper owner,\nif the free, truthful, God-trusting English spirit is to remain in\nour children.  I know that there are good men among Dissenters, my\nfriends; good men among Romanists.  I have met with them, and I\nthank God for them; and what may not be good for English children\nmay be good for foreign ones.  I judge not; to his own master each\nman stands or falls.  But I warn you frankly, from experience (not\nof my own merely--Heaven forbid!--but from the experience of\ncenturies past), that if you expect to make the average of English\nchildren good children on any other ground than the Church Catechism\ntakes, you will fail.  Of course there will be some chosen ones here\nand there, whose hearts God will touch; but you will find that the\ngreater part of the children will not be made better at all; you\nwill find that the cleverer, and more tender-hearted will be made\nconceited, Pharisaical, self-deceiving (for children are as ready to\ndeceive themselves, and play the hypocrite to their own consciences,\nas grown people are); they will catch up cant words and phrases, or\nlittle outward forms of reverence, and make a religion for\nthemselves out of them to drug their own consciences withal; while,\nwhen they go out into the world, and meet temptation, they will have\nno real safeguard against it, because whatsoever they have been\ntaught, they have not been taught that God is really and practically\ntheir Father, and they His children.\n\nI have seen many examples of this kind.  Perhaps those who have eyes\nto see may have seen one or two in this very parish.  Be that as it\nmay, I tell you, my friends, that your children shall be taught the\nChurch Catechism, with the plain, honest meaning of the words as\nthey stand.  No less:  but as God shall give me grace, no more.  If\nit be not enough for them to know that God, He who made heaven and\nearth, is their Father; that His Son Jesus Christ redeemed them and\nall mankind by being born of the Virgin Mary, suffering under\nPontius Pilate, being crucified, dead, and buried, descending into\nhell, rising again the third day from the dead, ascending into\nHeaven, and sitting on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, in\nthe intent of coming from thence to judge the living and the dead;\nto believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy universal Church in which\nHe keeps us, in the fellowship of all Saints in which He knits us\ntogether; in the forgiveness of our sins which He proclaims to us,\nin the resurrection of our body which He will quicken at the last\nday, in the life everlasting which is His life,--if, I say, this be\nnot enough for them to believe, and on the strength thereof to trust\nGod utterly, and so be justified and saved from this evil world, and\nfrom the doom and punishment thereof, then they must go elsewhere;\nfor I have nothing more to offer them, and trust in God that I never\nshall have.\n\n\n\nSERMON VII.  DUTY AND SUPERSTITION\n\n\n\nMicah vi. 6-8.  Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow\nmyself before the most High God?  Shall I come before him with burnt\nofferings? . . .  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? .\n. .  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression; the fruit of my\nbody for the sin of my soul?\n\nHe hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord\nrequire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk\nhumbly with thy God?\n\nThere are many now-a-days who complain of that part of the Church\nCatechism which speaks of our duty to God and to our neighbour; and\nmany more, I fear, who shrink from complaining of the Church\nCatechism, because it is part of the Prayer-book, yet wish in their\nsecret hearts that it had said something different about Duty.\n\nSome wonder why it does not say more about what are called\n'religious duties,' and 'acts of worship,' 'mortification,'\n'penitence,' and 'good works.'  Others wonder no less why it says\nnothing about what are called 'Christian frames and feelings,' and\n'inward experiences.'\n\nFor there is a notion abroad in the world, as there is in all evil\ntimes, that a man's chief duty is to save his own soul after he is\ndead; that his business in this world is merely to see how he can\nget out of it again, without suffering endless torture after his\nbody dies.  This is called superstition:  anxiety about what will\nhappen to us after we die.\n\nNow if you look at the greater number of religious books, whether\nPopish or Protestant, you will find that in practice the main thing,\nalmost the one thing, which they are meant to do, is to show the\nreader how he may escape Hell-torments, and reach Heaven's pleasures\nafter he dies:  not how he may do his Duty to God and his neighbour.\nThey speak of that latter, of course:  they could not be Christian\nbooks at all, thank God, without doing so; but they seem to me to\ntell men to do their Duty, not simply because it is right, and a\nblessing in itself, and worth doing for its own sake, but because a\nman may gain something by it after he dies.  Therefore, to help\ntheir readers to gain as much as possible after they die, they are\nnot content with the plain Duty laid down in the Bible and in the\nCatechism, but require of men new duties over and above; which may\nbe all very good if they help men to do their real Duty, but are\nsimply worth nothing if they do not.\n\nLet me explain myself.  I said just now that superstition means\nanxiety about what will happen to us after we die.  But people\ncommonly understand by superstition, religious ceremonies, like the\nPopish ones, which God has not commanded.  And that is not a wrong\nmeaning either; for people take to these ceremonies from over-\nanxiety about the next life.  The one springs out of the other; the\noutward conduct out of the inward fear; and both spring alike out of\na false notion of God, which the Devil (whose great aim is to hinder\nus from knowing our Father in Heaven) puts into men's minds.  Man\nfeels that he is sinful and unrighteous; the light of Christ in his\nheart shows him that, and it shows him at the same time that God is\nsinless and righteous.  'Then,' he says, 'God must hate sin;' and\nthere he says true.  Then steps in the slanderer, Satan, and\nwhispers, 'But you are sinful; therefore God hates you, and wills\nyou harm, and torture, and ruin.'  And the poor man believes that\nlying voice, and will believe it to the end, whether he be Christian\nor heathen, until he believes the Bible and the Sacraments, which\ntell him, 'God does not hate you:  He hates your sins, and loves\nyou; He wills not your misery but your happiness; and therefore\nGod's will, yea, God's earnest endeavour, is to raise you out of\nthose sins of yours, which make you miserable now, and which, if you\ngo on in them, must bring of themselves everlasting misery to you.'\nOf themselves; not by any arbitrary decree of God (whereof the Bible\nsays not one single word from beginning to end), that He will\ninflict on you so much pain for so much sin:  but by the very nature\nof sin; for to sin is to be parted from God, in whose presence alone\nis life, and therefore sin is, to be in death.  Sin is, to be at war\nwith God, who is love and peace; and therefore to be in\nlovelessness, hatred, war, and misery.  Sin is, to act contrary to\nthe constitution which God gave man, when He said, 'Let us make man\nin our image, after our likeness;' and therefore sin is a disease in\nhuman nature, and like all other diseases, must, unless it is\nchecked, go on everlastingly and perpetually breeding weakness, pain\nand torment.  And out of that God is so desirous to raise you, that\nHe spared not His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him for you, if\nby any means He might raise you out of that death of sin to the life\nof righteousness--to a righteous life; to a life of Duty--to a\ndutiful life, like His Son Jesus Christ's life; for that must go on,\nif you go on in it, producing in you everlastingly and perpetually\nall health and strength, usefulness and happiness in this world and\nall worlds to come.\n\nBut men will not hear that voice.  The fact is, that simply to do\nright is too difficult for them, and too humbling also.  They are\ntoo proud to like being righteous only with Christ's righteousness,\nand too slothful also; and so they go about like the old Pharisees,\nto establish a righteousness of their own; one which will pamper\ntheir self-conceit by seeming very strange, and farfetched, and\ndifficult, so as to enable them to thank God every day that they are\nnot as other men are; and yet one which shall really not be as\ndifficult as the plain homely work of being good sons, good fathers,\ngood husbands, good masters, good servants, good subjects, good\nrulers.  And so they go about to establish a righteousness of their\nown (which can be no righteousness at all, for God's righteousness\nis the only righteousness, and Christ's righteousness is the only\npattern of it), and teach men that God does not merely require of\nmen to do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God,\nbut requires of them something more.  But by this they deny the\nrighteousness of God; for they make out that he has not behaved\nrighteously and justly to men, nor showed them what is good, but has\nleft them to find it out or invent it for themselves.  For is it not\nestablishing a righteousness of one's own, to tell people that God\nonly requires these Ten Commandments of Christians in general, but\nthat if any one chooses to go further, and do certain things which\nare not contained in the Ten Commandments, 'counsels of perfection,'\nas they are called, and 'good works' (as if there were no other good\nworks in the world), and so do more than it is one's duty to do, and\nlead a sort of life which is called (I know not why) 'saintly' and\n'angelic,' then one will obtain a 'peculiar crown,' and a higher\nplace in Heaven than poor commonplace Christian people, who only do\njustly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God?\n\nAnd is it not, on the other hand, establishing a righteousness of\none's own, to say that God requires of us belief in certain\ndoctrines about election, and 'forensic justification,' and\n'sensible conversion,' and certain 'frames and feelings and\nexperiences;' and that without all these a man has no right to\nexpect anything but endless torture; and all the while to say little\nor nothing about God's requiring of men the Ten Commandments?  For\nmy part, I am equally shocked and astonished at the doctrine which I\nhave heard round us here--openly from some few, and in practice from\nmore than a few--that because the Ten Commandments are part of the\nLaw, they are done away with, because we are not now under the Law\nbut under Grace.  What do they mean?  Is it not written, that not\none jot or tittle of the Law shall fail; and that Christ came, not\nto destroy the Law, but to fulfil it?  What do they mean?  That it\nwas harm to break the Ten Commandments before Christ came, but no\nharm to break them now?  Do they mean that Jews were forbid to\nmurder, steal, and commit adultery, but that Christians are not\nforbidden?  One thing I am afraid they do mean, for I see them act\nup to it steadily enough.  That Jews were forbidden to covet, but\nthat Christians are not; that Jews might not commit fornication, but\nChristians may; that Jews might not lie, but Christians may; that\nJews might not use false weights and measures, or adulterate goods\nfor sale, but that Christians may.  My friends, if I am asked the\nreason of the hypocrisy which seems the besetting sin of England, in\nthis day;--if I am asked why rich men, even high religious\nprofessors, dare speak untruths at public meetings, bribe at\nelections, and go into parliament each man with a lie in his right\nhand, to serve neither God nor his country, but his political party\nand his religious sect, by conduct which he would be ashamed to\nemploy in private life;--if I am asked why the middle classes (and\nthe high religious professors among them, just as much as any) are\ngiven over to cheating, coveting, puffing their own goods by\nshameless and unmanly boasting, undermining each other by the\ndirtiest means, while the sons of religious professors, both among\nthe higher and the middle classes, seem just as liable as any other\nyoung men to fall into unmanly profligacy;--if I am asked why the\npoor profess God's gospel and practise the Devil's works; and why,\nin this very parish now, there are women who, while they are\ndrunkards, swearers, and adulteresses, will run anywhere to hear a\nsermon, and like nothing better, saving sin, than high-flown\nreligious books;--if I am asked, I say, why the old English honesty\nwhich used to be our glory and our strength, has decayed so much of\nlate years, and a hideous and shameful hypocrisy has taken the place\nof it, I can only answer by pointing to the good old Church\nCatechism, and what it says about our duty to God and to our\nneighbour, and declaring boldly, 'It is because you have forgotten\nthat.  Because you have despised that.  Because you have fancied\nthat it was beneath you to keep God's plain human commandments.  You\nhave been wanting to \"save your souls,\" while you did not care\nwhether your souls were saved alive, or whether they were dead, and\nrotten, and damned within you; you have dreamed that you could be\nwhat you called \"spiritual,\" while you were the slaves of sin; you\nhave dreamed that you could become what you call \"saints,\" while you\nwere not yet even decent men and women.'\n\nAnd so all this superstition has had the same effect as the false\npreaching in Ezekiel's time had.  It has strengthened the hands of\nthe wicked, that he should not turn from his wicked way, by\npromising him life; and it has made the heart of the righteous sad,\nwhom God has not made sad.  Plain, respectable, God-fearing men and\nwomen, who have wished simply to do their duty where God has put\nthem, have been told that they are still unconverted, still carnal--\nthat they have no share in Christ--that God's Spirit is not with\nthem--that they are in the way to endless torture:  till they have\nbeen ready one minute to say, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow\nwe die'--'Surely I have cleansed my hands in vain, and washed my\nheart in innocency;' and the next minute to say, with Job, angrily,\n'Though I die, thou shalt not take my righteousness from me!  You\npreachers may call me what names you will; but I know that I love\nwhat is right, and wish to do my duty;' and so they have been made\nperplexed and unhappy, one day fancying themselves worse than they\nreally were, and the next fancying themselves better than they\nreally were; and by both tempers of mind tempted to disbelieve God's\nGospel, and throw away the thought of vital religion in disgust.\n\nAnd now people are raising the cry that Popery is about to overrun\nEngland.  It may be so, my friends.  If it is so, I cannot wonder at\nit; if it is so, Englishmen have no one to blame but themselves.\nAnd whether Popery conquers us or not, some other base superstition\nsurely will conquer us if we go on upon our present course, and set\nup any new-fangled, self-invented righteousness of our own, instead\nof the plain Ten Commandments of God.  For I tell you plainly they\nare God's everlasting law, the very law of liberty, wherewith Christ\nhas made us free; and only by fulfilling them, as Christ did, can we\nbe free--free from sin, the world, the flesh, and the Devil.  For to\nbreak them is to sin:  and whosoever commits sin is the slave of\nsin; and whosoever despises these commandments will never enjoy that\nfreedom, but be entangled again in the yoke of bondage, and become a\nslave, if not to open and profligate sins, still surely to an evil\nand tormenting conscience, to superstitious anxieties as to whether\nhe shall be saved or damned, which make him at last ask,\n'Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord?  Will the Lord be pleased\nwith this, that and the other fantastical action, or great sacrifice\nof mine?' or at last, perhaps, the old question, 'Shall I give my\nfirstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of\nmy soul?  Shall I cheat my own family, leave my property away from\nmy children, desert them to shut myself up in a convent, or to\nattempt some great religious enterprise?'--Things which have\nhappened a thousand times already, and worse, far worse, than them;\nthings which will happen again, and worse, far worse than them, as\nsoon as a hypocritical generation is seized with that dread and\nterror of God which is sure to arise in the hearts of men who try to\ninvent a righteousness of their own, and who forget what God's\nrighteousness is like, and who therefore forget what God is like,\nand who therefore forget what God's name is, and who therefore\nforget that Jesus Christ is God's likeness, and that the name of God\nis 'Love.'\n\nNow, I say that the Church Catechism, from beginning to end, is the\ncure for this poison, and in no part more than where it tells us our\nduty to God and our neighbour; and that it does carry out the\nmeaning of the text as no other writing does, which I know of, save\nthe Bible only.\n\nFor what says the text?\n\n'He hath showed thee, O man, what is good.'\n\nWho has showed thee?  Who but this very God, from whom thou art\nshrinking; to whom thou art looking up in terror, as at a hard\ntaskmaster, reaping where He has not sown, who willeth the death of\na sinner, and his endless and unspeakable torment?  The very God\nwhom thou dreadest has stooped to save and teach thee.  He hath sent\nHis only begotten Son to thee, to show thee, in the person of a man,\nJesus Christ, what a perfect man is, and what He requires of thee to\nbe.  This Lord Jesus is with thee, to teach thee to live by faith in\nthy heavenly Father, even as He lived, and to be justified thereby,\neven as He was justified by being declared to be God's well-beloved\nSon, and by being raised from the dead.  He will show thee what is\ngood; He has shown thee what is good, when He showed thee His own\nblessed self, His story and character written in the four Gospels.\nThis is thy God, and this is thy Lord and Master; not a silent God,\nnot a careless God, but a revealer of secrets, a teacher, a guide, a\n'most merciful God, who showeth to man the thing which he knew not;'\nthat same Word of God who talked with Adam in the garden, and\nbrought his wife to him; who called Abraham, and gave him a child;\nwho sent Moses to make a nation of the Jews; who is the King of all\nthe nations upon earth, and has appointed them their times and the\nbounds of their habitation, if haply they may feel after Him and\nfind Him; who meanwhile is not far from any one of them, seeing that\nin Him they live, and move, and have their being, and are His\noffspring; who has not left Himself without witness, that they may\nknow that He is one who loves, not one who hates, one who gives, not\none who takes, one who has pity, not one who destroys, in that He\ngives them rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food\nand gladness.  This is thy God, O man! from whose face thou desirest\nto flee away.\n\nNext, 'He hath showed thee, O _man_.'  Not merely, 'He hath showed\nthee, O deep philosopher, or brilliant genius;'--not merely, 'He\nhath showed thee, O eminent saint, or believer who hast been through\nmany deep experiences:' but, 'He hath showed thee, O _man_.'\nWhosoever thou art, if thou be a man, subsisting like Jesus Christ\nthe Son of Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh; thou labourer\nat the plough, tradesman in thy shop, soldier in the battle-field,\npoor woman working in thy cottage, God hath showed thee, and thee,\nand thee, what is good, as surely and fully as He has shown it to\nscholars and divines, to kings and rulers, and the wise and prudent\nof the earth.\n\nAnd He hath showed _thee_; not you.  Not merely to the whole of you\ntogether; not merely to some of you so that one will have to tell\nthe other, and the greater part know only at second-hand and by\nhearsay:  but He hath showed to thee, to each of you; to each man,\nwoman, and child, in this Church, alone, privately, in the depths of\nthy own heart, He hath showed what is good.  He hath sent into thine\nheart a ray of The Light who lighteth every man who comes into the\nworld.  He has given to thy soul an eye by which to see that Light,\na conscience which can receive what is good, and shrink from what is\nevil; a spiritual sense, whereby thou canst discern good and evil.\nThat conscience, that soul's eye of thine, God has regenerated, as\nHe declares to thee in baptism, and He will day by day make it\nclearer and tenderer by the quickening power of His Holy Spirit; and\nthat Spirit will renew Himself in thee day by day, if thou askest\nHim, and will quicken and soften thy soul more and more to love what\nis good, and strengthen it more and more to hate and fly from what\nis evil.\n\nNext, 'He hath showed thee, O man, what is GOOD.'  Not merely what\nwill turn away God's punishments, and buy God's rewards; not merely\nwhat will be good for thee after thou diest:  but what is good, good\nin itself, good for thee now, and good for thee for ever; good for\nthee in health and sickness, joy and sorrow, life and death; good\nfor thee through all worlds, present and to come; yea, what would be\ngood for thee in hell, if thou couldst be in hell and yet be good.\nNot what is good enough for thy neighbours and not good enough for\nthee, good enough for sinners and not good enough for saints, good\nenough for stupid persons and not good enough for clever ones; but\nwhat is good in itself and of itself.  The one very eternal and\nabsolute Good which was with God, and in God, and from God, before\nall worlds, and will be for ever, without changing or growing less\nor greater, eternally The Same Good.  The Good which would be just\nas good, and just, and right, and lovely, and glorious, if there\nwere no world, no men, no angels, no heaven, no hell, and God were\nalone in his own abyss.  That very good which is the exact pattern\nof His Son Jesus Christ, in whose likeness man was made at the\nbeginning, God hath showed thee, O man; and hath told thee that it\nis neither more nor less than thy Duty, thy Duty as a man; that thy\nduty is thy good, the good out of which, if thou doest it, all good\nthings such as thou canst not now conceive to thyself, must\nnecessarily spring up for thee for ever; but which if thou\nneglectest, thou wilt be in danger of getting no good things\nwhatsoever, and of having all evil things, mishap, shame, and misery\nsuch as thou canst not now conceive of, spring up for thee\nnecessarily for ever.\n\nThis seems to me the plain meaning of the text, interpreted by the\nplain teaching of the rest of Scripture.  Now see how the Catechism\nagrees with this.\n\nIt takes for granted that God has showed the child what is good:\nthat God's Spirit is sanctifying and making good, not only all the\nelect people of God, but him, that one particular child; and it\nmakes the child say so.  Therefore, when it asks him, 'What is thy\nduty to God and to thy neighbour?' it asks him, 'My child, thou\nsayest that God's Spirit is with thee, sanctifying thee and showing\nthee what is good, tell me, therefore, what good the Holy Spirit has\nshowed thee?--tell me what He has showed thee to be good, and\ntherefore thy duty?'\n\nBut some may answer, 'How can you say that the Holy Spirit teaches\nthe children their Duty, when it is their schoolmaster, or their\nfather, who teaches them the Ten Commandments and the Catechism?'\n\nMy friends, we may teach our children the Ten Commandments, or\nanything else we like, but we cannot teach them that that is their\n_duty_.  They must first know what Duty means at all, before they\ncan learn that any particular things are parts of their Duty.  And,\nbelieve me, neither you nor I, nor all the men in the world put\ntogether, no, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any created being, nor\nthe whole universe, can teach one child, no, nor our own selves, the\nmeaning of that plain word DUTY, nor the meaning of those two plain\nwords, I OUGHT.  No; that simple thought, that thought which every\none of us, even the most stupid, even the most sinful has more or\nless, comes straight to him from God the Father of Lights, by the\ninspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Duty, Faith,\nand Obedience.\n\nFor mind--when you teach a child, 'If you do this wrong thing--\nstealing, for instance--God will punish you:  but if you are honest,\nGod will reward you,' you are not teaching the child that it is his\nDuty to be honest, and his Duty not to steal.  You are teaching him\nwhat is quite right and true; namely, that it is profitable for him\nto be honest, and hurtful to him to steal:  but you are not teaching\nhim as high a spiritual lesson as any soldier knows when he rushes\nupon certain death, knowing that he shall gain nothing, and may lose\neverything thereby, but simply because it is his Duty.  You are only\nenticing your child to do right, and frightening him from doing\nwrong; quite necessary and good to be done:  but if he is to be\nspiritually honest, honest at heart, honest from a sense of honour,\nand not of fear; in one word, if he is to be really honest at all,\nor even to try to be really honest, something must be done to that\nchild's heart which nothing but the Spirit of God can do; he must be\ntaught that it is his DUTY to be honest; that honesty is RIGHT, the\nperfectly right, and proper, and beautiful thing for him and for all\nbeings, yea, for God Himself; he must be taught to love honesty, and\nwhatsoever else is right, for its own sake, and therefore to feel it\nhis Duty.\n\nAnd I say that God does that by your children.  I say that we cannot\nwatch our children without seeing that, though there is in them, as\nin us, a corrupt and wilful flesh, which tempts them downward to\nselfish and self-willed pleasures:  yet there is in them generally,\nmore than in us their parents, a Spirit which makes them love and\nadmire what is right, and take pleasure in it, and feel that it is\ngood to be good, and right to do right; which makes them delight in\nreading and hearing of loving, and right, and noble actions; which\nmakes them shocked, they hardly know why, at bad words, and bad\nconduct, and bad people.  And woe to those who deaden that\ntenderness of conscience in their own children, by their bad\nexamples, or by false doctrines which tell the children that they\nare still unregenerate, children of the Devil, not yet Christians;\nand who so put a stumbling-block in the way of Christ's little ones,\nand do despite to the Spirit of Grace by which they are sealed to\nthe day of redemption.  I see parents thinking that their children\nare to learn the deceitfulness of the human heart from themselves,\nand the working of God's Spirit from their parents; but I often\nthink that the teachers ought to be converted indeed, that is,\nturned right round and become the learners instead of the teachers,\nand learn the workings of God's Spirit from their children, and the\ndeceitfulness of the human heart from themselves; if at least the\nLord Jesus's words have any real force or meaning at all, when He\nsaid, not, 'Except the little children be converted, and become as\nyou,' but, 'Except ye be converted, and become as one of these\nlittle children, ye' (and not they) 'shall in no wise enter into the\nkingdom of heaven.'\n\nBelieve me, my friends, that your children's angels do indeed behold\nthe face of their Father which is in heaven; that there is a direct\ncommunication between Him and them; and that the sign and proof of\nit is, the way in which they understand at once what you tell them\nof their duty, and take to it, as it were, only too readily and\nhopefully, and confidently, as if it were a thing natural and easy\nto them.  Alas! it is neither natural nor easy, and they will find\nout that too soon by sad experience:  but still, the Divine Light is\nthere, the sense of duty is in their minds, and the law of God is\nwritten in their hearts by the Holy Spirit of God, who is\nsanctifying them, not merely by teaching them to hope for heaven, or\nto dread hell, but by showing them what is good.\n\nAnd herein, I say, the simple and noble old Church Catechism, by\nfaith in God's Spirit, does indeed perfect praise out of the mouths\nof babes.  Without one word about rewards or punishments, heaven or\nhell, it begins to talk to the child, like a true English Catechism\nas it is, about that glorious old English key word, DUTY.  It calls\non the child to confess its own duty, and teaches it that its duty\nis something most human, simple, everyday, commonplace, if you will\ncall it so.  I rejoice that it is commonplace; I rejoice that in\nwhat it says about our duty to God, and to our neighbour, it says\nnot one word about those counsels of perfection, or those frames and\nfeelings, which depend, believe me, principally on the state of\npeople's bodily health, on the constitution of their nerves, and the\ntemper of their brain:  but that it requires nothing except what a\nlittle child can do as well as a grown person, a labouring man as\nwell as a divine, a plain farmer as well as the most refined,\ndevout, imaginative lady.  May God bless them all; may God help them\nall to do their Duty in that station of life to which it has pleased\nGod to call them; but may God grant to them never to forget that\nthere is but one Duty for all, and that all of them can do that Duty\nequally well, whatever their constitution, or scholarship, or\nstation of life may be, provided they will but remember that God has\ncalled them to that station, and not try to invent some new and\nfiner one for themselves; provided they remember that they are to do\nin that station neither more nor less than every one else is to do\nin theirs, namely, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly\nwith their God.\n\nIn a word, to be perfect, even as their Father in heaven is perfect.\nTo do justly, because God is just, faithful, and true, rewarding\nevery man according to his works, and no partial accepter of\npersons; so that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh\nrighteousness is accepted by Him.\n\nTo love mercy, because God loves mercy; to be merciful, because our\nFather in heaven is merciful; because He willeth not the death of a\nsinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live;\nbecause God came to seek and to save that which is lost, and is good\nto the unthankful and the evil; and because God so loved sinful man,\nthat when man hated God, God's answer to man's hate, God's vengeance\nupon man's rebellion, was, to send His only-begotten Son, that\nwhosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife.\n\nAnd to walk humbly with your God, because--and what shall I say now?\nDoes God walk humbly?  Can there be humility in God?  Can God obey?\nAnd yet it must be so.  If, as is most certain from Holy Scripture,\nman, as far as he is what man ought to be, is the image and glory of\nGod; if man's justice ought to be a copy of God's justice, and man's\nmercy a copy of God's mercy, and all which is good in man a copy of\nsomething good in God:  if, as is most certain, all good on earth is\nGod's likeness, and only good because it is God's likeness, and is\ngiven by God's Spirit,--then our walking humbly with God, if it be\ngood, must be a copy of something in God.  But of what?\n\nThat, my friends, is a question which can never be answered but by\nthose who believe in the mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity, The\nFather, The Son, and The Holy Ghost.  It is too solemn and great a\nmatter to be spoken of hastily at the end of a sermon.  I will tell\nyou what little I seem to see of it next Sunday, with awe and\ntrembling, as one who enters upon holy ground.  But this I will tell\nyou, to bear in mind meanwhile, that if you wish to know or to do\nwhat is right, you must firmly believe and bear in mind this,--that\nGod's justice is exactly like what would be just in you and me,\nwithout any difference whatsoever:  that God's mercy is exactly like\nwhat would be merciful in you and me; and that, as I hope to show\nyou next Sunday, God's humility, wonderful as it may seem, is\nexactly like what would be humble in you and me.  For I warn you,\nthat if you do not believe this, you will be tempted to forget God's\nrighteousness, and to invent a righteousness of your own, which is\nno righteousness at all, but unrighteousness.  For there can be but\none righteousness--mind what I say--only one righteousness, as there\ncan be only one truth, and only one reason.  Forget that, and you\nwill be tempted to invent for yourselves a false justice, which is\ndishonest and partial; a false mercy, which is cruel; a false\nhumility, which is vain and self-conceited; and you will be tempted\nalso, as men of all religions and denominations have been, to impute\nto God actions, and thoughts, and tempers, which are (as your own\nconsciences, if you would listen to God's Word in them, would tell\nyou) unjust, cruel, and proud; and then you will be tempted to say\nthat things are justifiable in God, which you would not excuse in\nany other being, by saying:  'Of course it must be right in Him,\nbecause He is God, and can do what He will.'  As if the Judge of all\nthe earth would not do Right; as if He could be anything, or could\ndo anything, but the Eternal _Good_ which is His very being and\nessence, and which He has shown forth in His Son Jesus Christ our\nLord, who went about doing good because God was with Him.  We all\nknow what the good which He did was like.  Let us believe that God\nthe Father's goodness is the same as Jesus Christ's goodness.  Let\nus believe really what we say when we confess that Jesus was the\nbrightness of His Father's Glory, and the express image of His\nPerson.\n\n\n\nSERMON VIII.  SONSHIP\n\n\n\nJohn v. 19, 20, 30.  Then answered Jesus, Verily, verily, I say unto\nyou, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father\ndo:  for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son\nlikewise.  For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things\nthat Himself doeth.\n\nI can of mine own self do nothing:  as I hear, I judge:  and my\njudgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of\nmy Father which is in Heaven.\n\nThis, my friends, is why man should walk humbly and obediently with\nhis God; because humility and obedience are the likeness of the Son\nof God, who, though He is equal to His Father, yet to do His\nFather's will humbled Himself, and took on Him the form of a slave,\nand though He is a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He\nsuffered; sacrificing Himself utterly and perfectly to do the\ncommands of His Father and our Father, of His God and our God; and\nsacrificing Himself to His Father not as a man merely, but as a son;\nnot because He was in the likeness of sinful flesh, but because He\nwas The Everlasting Son of His Father; not once only on the cross,\nbut from all eternity to all eternity, the Lamb slain before the\nfoundation of the world.  This is a great mystery; we may understand\nsomewhat more of it by thinking over the meaning of those great\nwords, Father and Son.\n\nNow, first, a son must be of the same nature as his father,--that is\ncertain.  Each kind of animal brings forth after its kind:  the lion\nbegets lions, the sheep, sheep; the son of a man must be a man, of\none substance with his earthly father; and by the same law, the Son\nof God must be God.  Take away that notion:  say that the only-\nbegotten Son of God is not very God of very God, of one substance\nwith His Father, and the word son means nothing.  If a son be not of\nthe same substance as his father, he is not a son at all.  And more,\na perfect son must be as great and as good as his father, exactly\nlike his father in everything.  That is the very meaning of father\nand son; that like should beget like.  Among fallen and imperfect\nmen, some sons are worse and weaker than their fathers:  but we all\nfeel that that is an evil, a thing to be sorry for, a sad\nconsequence of our fallen state.  Our reasons and hearts tell us\nthat a son ought to be equal to his father, and that it is in some\nway an affliction, almost a shame, to a father, if his children are\nweaker or worse than he is.  But we cannot fancy such a thing in\nGod; the only-begotten perfect Son of the Almighty and perfect\nFather must be at least equal to His Father, as great as His Father,\nas good as His Father; the brightness of His Father's glory, and the\nexpress image of His Father's person.\n\nBut there is another thing about father and son which we must look\nat, and that is this:  a good son loves and obeys his father, and\nthe better son he is, the more he loves and obeys his father; and\ntherefore a perfect son will perfectly love and perfectly obey his\nfather.\n\nNow, here is the great difference between animals and men.  Among\nthe higher animals, the mothers always, and the fathers sometimes,\nfeed, and help, and protect their young:  but we seldom or never\nfind that young animals help and protect their parents; certainly,\nthey never obey their fathers when they are full grown, but are as\nready to tear their fathers in pieces as their fathers are to tear\nthem:  so that the love and obedience of full-grown sons to their\nfathers is so utterly human a thing, so utterly different from\nanything we find in the brutes, that we must believe it to be part\nof man's immortal soul, part of God's likeness in man.\n\nAnd in the text our Lord declares that it is so; He declares that\nHis obedience to His Father, and His Father's love to Him, is the\nperfect likeness of what goes on between a good son and a good\nfather among men; only that it is _perfect_, because it is between a\nperfect Father and a perfect Son.\n\nFather and Son!  Let philosophers and divines discover what they may\nabout God, they will never discover anything so deep as the wonder\nwhich lies in those two words, Father and Son.  So deep, and yet so\nsimple!  So simple, that the wayfaring man, though poor, shall not\nerr therein.  'Who is God?  What is God like?  Where shall we find\nHim, or His likeness?'--so has mankind been crying in all ages, and\ngetting no answer, or making answers for themselves in all sorts of\nsuperstitions, idolatries, false philosophies.  And then the Gospel\ncomes, and answers to every man, to every poor and unlearned\nlabourer:  Will you know the name of God?  It is a Father, a Son,\nand a Holy Spirit of love, joy, peace; a Spirit of perfect\nsatisfaction of the Father in the Son, and perfect satisfaction of\nthe Son with the Father, which proceeds from both the Father and the\nSon.  It needs no scholarship to understand that Name; every one may\nunderstand it who is a good father; every one may understand it who\nis a good son, who looks up to and obeys his father with that filial\nspirit of love, and obedience, and satisfaction with his father's\nwill, which is the likeness of the Holy Spirit of God, and can only\nflourish in any man by the help of the Holy Spirit which proceeds\nfrom the Father and the Son.\n\nFather and Son! what more beautiful words are there in the world?\nWhat more beautiful sight is there in the world than a son who\nreally loves his father, really trusts his father, really does his\nduty to his father, really looks up to and obeys his father's will\nin all things? who is ready to sacrifice his own credit, his own\npleasure, his own success in life, for the sake of his father's\ncomfort and honour?  How much more fair and noble must be the love\nand trust which is between God the Father and God the Son!\n\nI wish that some of those who now write so many excellent books for\nyoung people, would write one made up entirely of stories of good\nsons who have obeyed, and worked for, and suffered for their\nparents.  Sure I am that such a book, wisely and well written, would\nteach young people much of the meaning of the blessed name of God,\nmuch of their duty to God.  And yet, after all, my friends, is not\nsuch a book written already?  Have we not the four Gospels, which\ntell us of Jesus Christ, the perfect Son, who came to do the will of\na perfect Father?  Read that; read your Bibles.  Read the history of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, keeping in mind always that it is the history\nof the Son of God, and of His obedience to His Father.  And when in\nSt. John's most wonderful Gospel you meet with deep texts, like the\none which I have chosen, read them too as carefully, if possible\nmore carefully, than the rest; for they are meant for all parents\nand for all children upon earth.  Read how The Father loves The Son,\nand gives all things into His hand, and commits all judgment to The\nSon, and gives Him power to have life in Himself, even as The Father\nhas life in Himself, and shows Him all things that Himself doeth,\nthat all men may honour The Son even as they honour The Father.\nRead how The Son came only to show forth His Father's glory; to be\nthe brightness of His glory and the express image of His person:  to\nestablish His Father's kingdom; to declare the goodness of His\nFather's Name, which is _The_ Father.  How He does nothing of\nHimself, but only what He sees His Father do; how He seeks not His\nown will, but the will of the Father who sent Him; how He sacrificed\nall, yea even His most precious body and soul upon the cross, to\nfinish the work which His Father gave Him to do.  How, being in the\nform of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, He\ncould boldly say, 'As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the\nFather.  I and my Father are one:' and still, in the fulness of His\nfilial love and obedience, declared that He had no will, no wish, no\nwork, no glory, but His Father's; and in the hour of His agony cried\nout, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:\nnevertheless, not my will but thine be done.'\n\nMy friends, you will be able to understand more and more of the\nmeaning of these words just in proportion as you are good sons and\ngood fathers; and therefore, just in proportion as you are led and\ntaught by the Holy Spirit of God, without whose help no man can be\neither a good father or a good son.  A bad son; a disobedient, self-\nwilled, self-conceited son, who is seeking his own credit and not\nhis father's, his own pleasure and not his parent's comfort; a son\nwho is impatient of being kept in order and advised, who despises\nhis parent's counsel, and will have none of his reproof,--to him\nthese words of our Lord, the deepest, noblest words which were ever\nspoken on earth, will have no more meaning than if they were written\nin a foreign language; he will not know what our Lord means; he will\nnot be able to see why our Lord came and suffered; he will not see\nany beauty in our Lord's character, any righteousness in His\nsacrificing Himself for His Father; and because he has forgotten his\nduty to his earthly father, he will never learn his duty to God.\n\nFor what is the duty of the Lord Jesus Christ is our duty, if we are\nthe sons of God in Him.  He is The Son of God by an eternal never-\nceasing generation; we are the sons of God by adoption.  The way in\nwhich we are to look up to God, The Holy Spirit must teach us; what\nis our duty to God The Holy Spirit must teach us.  And who is The\nHoly Spirit?  He is The Spirit who proceeds from The Son as well as\nfrom The Father.  He is The Spirit of Jesus Christ, The Spirit of\nthe Son of God, the Spirit who descended on the Lord Jesus when He\nwas baptized, the Spirit which God gave to Him without measure.  He\nis the Spirit of The Son of God; and we are sons of God by adoption,\nsays Saint Paul; and because we are sons, he says, God has sent\nforth into our hearts the Spirit of His Son, by whom we look up to\nGod as our Father; and this Spirit of God's Son, by whom we cry to\nGod, Abba, Father, St. Paul calls, in another place, the Spirit of\nadoption; and declares openly that He is the very Spirit of God.\n\nTherefore, in whatsoever way the Spirit of God is to teach you to\nlook up to God, He will teach you to look up to Him as a Father; the\nFather of Spirits, and therefore your Father; for you are a spirit.\nWhatsoever duty to God the Holy Spirit teaches you, He teaches you\nfirst, and before all things, that it is filial duty, the duty of a\nson to a father, because you are the son of God, and God is your\nFather.\n\nTherefore, whatsoever man or book tells you that your duty to God is\nanything but the duty of a son to his father does not speak by the\nSpirit of God.  Whatsoever thoughts or feelings in your own hearts\ntell you that your duty to God is anything but the duty of a son to\nhis father, and tempt you to distrust God's forgiveness, and shrink\nfrom Him, and look up to Him as a taskmaster, and an austere and\nrevengeful Lord, are not the Spirit of God; no, nor your own spirit,\n'the spirit of a man,' which is in you; for that was originally made\nin the likeness of God's Spirit, and by it rebellious sons arise and\ngo back to their earthly fathers, and trust in them when they have\nnothing else left to trust, and say to themselves, 'Though all the\nworld has cast me off, my parents will not.  Though all the world\ndespise and hate me, my parents love me still; though I have\nrebelled against them, deserted them, insulted them, I am still my\nfather's child.  I will go home to my own people, to the house where\nI was born, to the parents who nursed me on their knee, I will go to\nmy father.'\n\nFathers and mothers! if your son or daughter came home to you thus,\nthough they had insulted you, disgraced you, and spent their\nsubstance in riotous living, would you shut your doors upon them?\nWould not all be forgiven and forgotten at once?  Would not you call\nyour neighbours to rejoice with you, and say, 'It is good to be\nmerry and glad, for this our son was dead and is alive again, he was\nlost and is found?'  And would not that penitent child be more\nprecious to you, though you cannot tell why, than any other of your\nchildren?  Would you not feel a peculiar interest in him henceforth?\nAnd do you not know that so to forgive would be no weak indulgence,\nbut the part of a good father; a good, and noble, and human thing to\ndo?  Ay, a human thing, and therefore a divine thing, part of God's\nlikeness in man.  For is it not the likeness of God Himself?  Has\nnot God Himself, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, declared that\nHe does so forgive His penitent children, at once and utterly, and\nthat 'There is more joy among the angels of God over one sinner that\nrepenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no\nrepentance?'  So says the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son\nof God.  Let who dare dispute His words, or try to water them down,\nand explain them away.\n\nAnd why should it not be so?  Do you fancy God less of a father than\nyou are?  Is He not _The_ Father, the perfect Father, 'from whom\nevery fatherhood in heaven and earth is named?'  Oh, believe that He\nis indeed a Father; believe that all the love and care which you can\nshow to your children is as much poorer than the love and care God\nshows to you, as your obedience to your earthly parents is poorer\nand weaker than the love and obedience of Jesus Christ to His\nFather.  God is as much better a Father than you are, as Jesus\nChrist is a better Son than you are.  There is a sum of proportions;\na rule-of-three sum; work it out for yourselves, and then distrust\nGod's love if you dare.\n\nAnd believe, that whatsoever makes you distrust God's love is\nneither the Spirit of God who is the spirit of sonship, nor the\nspirit of man:  but the spirit of the Devil, who loves to slander\nGod to men, that they may shrink from Him, and be afraid to arise\nand go to their Father, to be received again as sons of God; that\nso, being kept from true penitence, they may be kept from true\nholiness, and from their duty to God, which is the duty of sons of\nGod to their Father in heaven.\n\nBelieve no such notions, my friends; howsoever humble and reverent\nthey may seem, they are but insults to God; for under pretence of\nhonouring Him, they dishonour Him; for He is love, and he who\nfeareth, that is, who looks up to God with terror and distrust, is\nnot made perfect in love.  So says St. John, in the very chapter\nwherein he tells us that God is love, and has manifested His love to\nus by sending His Son to be the Saviour of the world; and that the\nvery reason for our loving God is, that He loves us already; and\nthat therefore He who loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.\n\nYes, my friends, God is your Father; and God is love; and your duty\nto God is a duty of love and obedience to a Father who so loved you\nand all mankind that He spared not His only begotten Son, but freely\ngave Him for you.  'Our Father which art in heaven,' is to be the\nkey-note of all your duty, as it is to be the key-note of all your\nprayers:  and therefore the Catechism is right in teaching the child\nthat God is his Father, and Jesus Christ the perfect Son of God his\npattern, and the Holy Spirit of the Father and of the Son his\nteacher and inspirer, before it says one word to the child about\nduty to God, or sin against God.  How indeed can it tell him what\nsin is, until it has told him against whom sin is committed, and\nthat if he sins against God he sins against a Father, and breaks his\nduty to his Father?  And how can it tell him that till it has told\nhim that God is his Father?  How can it tell him what sin is till it\nhas told him what righteousness is?  How can it tell him what\nbreaking his duty is till it has told him what the duty itself is?\nBut the child knows already that God is his Father; and therefore,\nwhen the Catechism asks him, 'What is his duty to God?' it is as\nmuch as to say, 'My child, thou hast confessed already that thou\nhast a good Father in heaven, and thou knowest as well as I (perhaps\nbetter) what a father means.  Tell me, then, how dost thou think\nthou oughtest to behave to such a Father?'  And the whole answer\nwhich is put into the child's mouth, is the description of duty to a\nfather; of things which there would be no reason for his doing to\nanyone who was not his father; nay, which he could not do honestly\nto anyone else, but only hypocritically, for the sake of flattering,\nand which differs utterly from any notion of duty to God which the\nheathen have ever had just in this, that it is a description of how\na son should behave to a father.  Read it for yourselves, my\nfriends, and judge for yourselves; and may God give you all grace to\nact up to it--not in order that you, by 'acts of faith,' or 'acts of\nlove,' or 'acts of devotion,' may persuade God to love you; but\nbecause He loves you already, with a love boundless as Himself;\nbecause in Him you live, and move, and have your being, and are the\noffspring of God; because His mercy is over all His works, and\nbecause He loved the world, and sent His Son, not to condemn the\nworld, but that the world through Him might be saved; because He is\nThe Giver, The Father of lights, from whom comes every good and\nperfect gift; because all which makes this earth habitable--all\njustice, order, wisdom, goodness, mercy, humbleness, self-sacrifice--\nall which is fair, or honourable, or useful, in men or angels, in\nkings on their thrones or in labourers at the plough, in divines in\ntheir studies or soldiers in the field of battle--all in the whole\nuniverse, which is not useless, and hurtful, and base, and damnable,\nand doomed (blessed thought that it is so!) to be burned up in\nunquenchable fire--all, I say, comes forth from the Father of the\nspirits of all flesh, the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel\nand excellent in working; who spared not His only begotten Son, but\nfreely gave Him for us, and will with Him freely give us all things.\n\n\n\nSERMON IX.  THE LORD'S PRAYER\n\n\n\nMatt. vi. 9, 10.  After this manner pray ye:  Our Father which art\nin heaven.\n\nI have shown you what a simple account of our duty to God and to our\nneighbour the Catechism gives us.  I now beg you to remark, that\nsimple and everyday as this same duty is, the Catechism warns us\nthat we cannot do it without God's special grace, and I beg you to\nremark further, that the Catechism does not say that we cannot do\nthese things well without God's special grace, but that we cannot do\nthem at all.  It does not say that we cannot do all these things of\nourselves, but that we can do none of them.  But I want you to\nremark one thing more, which is very noteworthy:  that in this case,\nfor the first time throughout the Catechism, the teacher tells the\nchild something.  All along the teacher has, as I have often shown\nyou, been making the child tell him what is right, calling out in\nthe child's heart thoughts and knowledge which were there already.\nNow he in his turn tells the child something which he takes for\ngranted is not in the child's heart, of which, if it is, has been\nput into it by his teachers, and of which he must be continually\nreminded, lest he should forget it; namely, that he cannot do these\nof himself; that, as St. Paul says, 'in him,' that is, in his flesh,\n'dwells no good thing;' that he is not able to think or to do\nanything as of himself, but his sufficiency is of God, who works in\nhim to will and to do of His good pleasure, who has also given him\nHis Holy Spirit.\n\nThe Catechism, in short, takes for granted that the child knows his\nduty; but it takes for granted also that he does not know how to do\nthat duty.  It takes for granted, that in every child there is as\nSt. Paul says, 'a law in his members warring against the law of his\nmind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin' (literally,\nof short coming, or missing the mark) 'which is in his members.'\nNow man's natural inclination is to suppose that good thoughts are\npart of himself, and therefore that a good will to put them in\npractice is in his own power.  I blame no one for making that\nmistake:  but I warn them, in the name of the Bible and of the\nCatechism, that it is a mistake, and one which every man, woman, and\nchild will surely discover to be a mistake, if they try to act on\nit.  Good thoughts are not our own; they are Jesus Christ's; they\ncome from Him, The Life and The Light of men; they are His voice\nspeaking to our hearts, informing us of His laws, showing us what is\ngood.  And good desires are not our own:  they come from the Holy\nSpirit of God, who strives with men, and labours to lift their\nhearts up from selfishness to love; from what is low and foul, to\nwhat is noble and pure; from what is sinful and contrary to God's\nwill, to what is right and according to God's will.\n\nThis is the lesson which you and I and every man have to learn:\nthat in ourselves dwells no good thing; but that there is One near\nus mightier than we, from whom all good things do come; and that He\nloves us, and will not only teach us what is good, but give us the\npower to do the good we know.  But if we forget that, if we take any\ncredit whatsoever to ourselves for the good which comes into our\nminds, then we shall be surely taught our mistake by sore\nafflictions and by shameful falls; by God's leaving us to ourselves,\nto try our own strength, and to find it weakness; to try our own\nwisdom, and find it folly; to try our own fancied love of God, and\nfind that after all our conceit of ourselves, we love ourselves\nbetter, when it comes to a trial, than we love what is right; until,\nin short, we are driven with St. Paul to feel that, howsoever much\nour hearts may delight in the Law of God, there is a corrupt nature\nin us which fights against our delight in God's law, and will surely\nconquer it, and make us slaves to our own fancies, slaves to our\npassions, slaves to ourselves, ay, slaves to the very lowest and\nmeanest part of ourselves:  unless we can find a deliverer; unless\nwe can find some one stronger than us, who can put an end to this\nhateful, shameful war within us between good wishes and bad deeds.\n\nAnd then, if we will but cry with St. Paul, 'Oh, wretched man that I\nam, _who_ shall deliver me from the body of this death?' we shall\nsurely, sooner or later, hear a voice within our hearts, a voice\nfull of love, of comfort, of fellow-feeling for us,--'_I_ will\ndeliver thee, my child; _I_, even I thy Father in heaven; I will\nteach thee, and inform thee in the way wherein thou shouldest go;\nand I will guide thee with mine eye.'  And then with St. Paul we\nshall be able to answer our own question, and say, 'Who will deliver\nme?  I thank God, that God Himself will deliver me, through Jesus\nChrist our Lord.'\n\nThis, then, is the reason why we need to pray:  because we need to\nbe delivered from ourselves.  This is the reason why we may pray,\nbecause God is willing to deliver us from ourselves, if we be\nwilling.\n\nBut every human being round us needs to be delivered from\nthemselves, just as much as we do.  Without that deliverance we\ncannot do our duty, neither can they.  And just in proportion as men\nare delivered from themselves, will mankind do its duty, and the\nworld go right.\n\nNow their duty is the same as ours; and therefore the prayer which\nis right and good for us is equally right and good for them.  And\nwhat is more, we cannot pray rightly for ourselves unless we pray\nfor them in the very same breath; for the Catechism tells us that\nthere is one duty for all of us, to love and obey and serve our\nheavenly Father, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, because\nthey are our brothers, children of one common Father, members of the\nsame God's family as we are, and their interest and ours are bound\nup together.  Yes, to love all mankind as ourselves; for though too\nmany of them, alas! are not yet in God's family, and strangers to\nHis covenant, yet God's will is that they too should come to the\nknowledge of the truth; and therefore for them we can pray hopefully\nand trustfully, 'Lord have mercy on all men, on Jews, Turks,\nInfidels, and heretics; and bring them home, blessed Lord, to Thy\nflock, that they may be saved and made one fold under one Shepherd,\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom Thou hast declared Thy good\nwill to all the children of men.'\n\nThis is the right prayer.  That all men may do their duty where God\nhas put them.  That those who, like the heathen, do not know their\nduty, may be taught it; that we who do know it, may have strength to\ndo it.\n\nAnd therefore it is that the Catechism teaches us the need of\nprayer, immediately after making us confess our duty; and therefore\nit is that it begins by teaching the Lord's Prayer, because that\nprayer is the one, of all prayers which ever have been offered upon\nearth, which perfectly expresses the duty of man, and man's relation\nto Almighty God.\n\nIt is throughout a prayer for strength.  It confesses throughout\nwhat we want strength for, to what use we are to put God's grace if\nHe bestows it on us.  Our delight in the Lord's Prayer will depend\non what we consider our duty here on earth to be.\n\nIf we look upon this earth principally as a place where we are to\npray for all the good things which we can get, our first prayer will\nbe, of course, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'\n\nIf we look at this earth principally as a place where we have a\nchance of being saved from punishment and torment after we die, then\nour first prayer will be, 'Forgive us our sins.'  And, in fact, that\nis all that too many of our prayers now-a-days seem to consist of,--\n'Oh, my Maker, give me. my daily bread.  Oh, my Judge, forgive me my\nsins.'  Right prayers enough, but spoilt by being taken out of their\nplace; spoilt by being prayed before all other prayers; spoilt, too,\nby being prayed for ourselves alone, and not for other people also.\n\nBut if we believe, as the Bible and the Catechism tell us, that we\nand all Christian people are God's children, members of God's\nfamily, set on earth in God's kingdom to do His work by doing our\nduty, each in that station of life to which God has called us, in\nthe hope of a just reward hereafter according to our works, then our\ngreat desire will be for strength to do our duty, and the Lord's\nPrayer will seem to us the most perfect way of asking for that\nstrength; and if we believe that we are God's children and He our\nFather, we shall feel sure that we must get strength from Him, and\nsure that we must ask for that strength; and sure that He will give\nit us if we do ask.\n\nBut if His will is to give it us, why ask Him at all?  Why pray at\nall, if God already knows our necessities, and is able and willing\nto supply them?\n\nMy friends, the longer I live, the more certain I am that the only\nreason for praying at all is because God is our Father; the more\ncertain I am that we shall never have any heart to pray unless we\nbelieve that God is our Father.  If we forget that, we may utter to\nHim selfish cries for bread; or when we look at His great power, we\nmay become terrified, and utter selfish cries to Him not to harm us,\nwithout any real shame or sorrow for sin:  but few of us will have\nany heart to persevere in those cries.  People will say to\nthemselves, 'If God is evil, He will not care to have mercy on me:\nand if He is good, there is no use wearying Him by asking Him what\nHe has already intended to give me:  why should I pray at all?'\n\nThe only answer is, 'Pray, because God is your Father, and you His\nchild.'  The only answer; but the most complete answer.  I will\nengage to say, that if anyone here is ever troubled with doubts\nabout prayer, those two simple words, 'Our Father,' if he can once\nreally believe them in their full richness and depth, will make the\ndoubts vanish in a moment, and prayer seem the most natural and\nreasonable of all acts.  It is because we are God's children, not\nmerely His creatures, that He will have us pray.  Because He is\neducating us to know Him; to know Him not merely to be an Almighty\nPower, but a living, loving Person; not merely an irresistible Fate,\nbut a Father who delights in the love of His children, who wishes to\nshape them into His own likeness, and make them fellow-workers with\nHim; therefore it is that He will have us pray.  Doubtless he\n_could_ have given us everything without our asking; for He _does_\nalready give us almost everything without our asking.  But He wishes\nto educate us as His children; to make us trust in Him; to make us\nlove Him; to make us work for Him of our own free wills, in the\ngreat battle which He is carrying on against evil; and that He can\nonly do by teaching us to pray to Him.  I say it reverently, but\nfirmly.  As far as we can see, God cannot educate us to know Him,\nThe living, willing, loving Father, unless He teaches us to open our\nhearts to Him, and to ask Him freely for what we want, just\n_because_ He knows what we want already.\n\nIf I have not made this plain enough to any of you, my friends, let\nme go back to the simple, practical explanation of it which God\nHimself has given us in those two words--father and child.\n\nShould you like to have a child who never spoke to you, never asked\nyou for anything?  Of course not.  And why?  'Because,' you would\nsay, 'one might as well have a dumb animal in one's family instead\nof a child, if it is never to talk and ask questions and advice.'\nMost true and reasonable, my friends.  And as you would say\nconcerning your children, so says God of His.  You feel that unless\nyou teach your children to ask you for all they want, even though\nyou know their necessities before they ask, and their ignorance in\nasking, you will never call out their love and trust towards you.\nYou know that if you want really to have your child to please and\nobey you, not as a mere tame animal, but as a willing, reasonable,\nloving child, you must make him know that you are training him; and\nyou must teach him to come to you of his own accord to be trained,\nto be taught his duty, and set right where he is wrong:  and even so\ndoes God with you.  If you will only consider the way in which any\nchild must be educated by its human parents, then you will at once\nsee why prayer to our Heavenly Father is a necessary part of our\neducation in the kingdom of heaven.\n\nNow the Lord's Prayer, just this sort of prayer, is man's cry to his\nHeavenly Father to train him, to educate him, to take charge of him,\ndaily and hourly, body and soul and spirit.  It is a prayer for\ngrace, for special grace; that is, for help, daily and hourly, in\neach particular duty and circumstance; for help from God specially\nsuited to enable us to do our duty.  And the whole of the prayer is\nof this kind, and not, as some think, the latter part only.\n\nIt is too often said that the three first sentences are not prayers\nfor man, but rather praises to God.  My friends, they cannot be one\nwithout being the other.  You cannot, I believe, praise God aright\nwithout praying for men; you cannot pray for men aright without\npraising God; at least, you cannot use the Lord's Prayer without\ndoing both at once, without at once declaring the glory of God and\npraying for the welfare of all mankind.\n\n'Hallowed be Thy name.'  Is not that a prayer for men as well as\npraise to God?  Yes, my friends, when you say, 'Our Father, hallowed\nbe Thy name,' you pray that all men may come at last to look up to\nGod as their Father, to love, serve, and obey God as His children;\nand for what higher blessing can you pray?  Ay, and you pray, too,\nthat men may learn at last the deep meaning of that word--father;\nthat they may see how Godlike and noble a trust God lays on them\nwhen He gives them children to educate and make Christian men; you\npray that the hearts of all fathers may be turned to the children,\nand the hearts of all children to the fathers; you pray for the\nwelfare, and the holiness, and the peace of every home on earth; you\npray for the welfare of generations yet unborn, when you pray, 'Our\nFather, hallowed be Thy name.'\n\n'Thy kingdom come.'  Is not that too, if we will look at it\nsteadfastly, prayer for our neighbours, prayer for all mankind, and\nstill prayer for ourselves; prayer for grace, prayer for the life\nand health of our own souls?\n\n'Thy kingdom come.'--That kingdom of the Father which Jesus Christ\nproved by His works on earth to be a kingdom of justice and\nrighteousness, of love and fellow-feeling.  When we pray, 'Thy\nkingdom come,' it is as if we said, 'Son of God, root out of this\nsinful earth all self-will and lawlessness, all injustice and\ncruelty; root out all carelessness, ignorance, and hardness of\nheart; root out all hatred, envy, slander; root them out of all\nmen's hearts; out of my heart, for I have the seeds of them in me.\nMake me, and all men round me, day by day, more sure that Thou art\nindeed our King; that Thou hast indeed taught us the laws of Thy\nFather's kingdom; and that, only in keeping them and loving them is\nthere health, and righteousness, and safety for any soul of man, for\nany nation under the sun.'  'Thy will be done;'--no, not merely 'Thy\nwill be done;' but done 'on earth as it is in heaven;' done, not\nmerely as the trees and the animals, the wind and clouds, do Thy\nwill, by blindly following their natures, but done as angels and\nblessed spirits do it, of their own will.  They obey Thee as living,\nwilling, loving persons; as Thy sons:  teach us to obey Thee in like\nmanner; lovingly, because we love Thy will; willingly, because our\nwills are turned to Thy will; and therefore, oh Heavenly Father,\ntake charge of these wayward wills and minds of ours, of these\nselfish, self-willed, ignorant, hasty hearts of ours, and cleanse\nthem and renew them by Thy Spirit, and change them into Thy likeness\nday by day.  Make us all clean hearts, oh God, and renew within us a\nright spirit, the copy of Thine own Holy Spirit.  Cast us not away\nfrom Thy presence, for from Thee alone comes our soul's life; take\nnot from us Thy Holy Spirit, who is The Lord and Giver of Life;\nwhose will is Thy will; who alone can strengthen and change us to do\nThy will on earth, as saints and angels do in heaven, and to be\nfellow-workers with each other, fellow-workers with Thee, O God,\neven as those blessed spirits are who minister day and night to all\nThy creatures.\n\n'Give us this day our daily bread.'  People sometimes divide the\nLord's Prayer into two parts--the ascriptions and the petitions--and\nconsider that after we have sufficiently glorified and praised God\nin the first three sentences of the prayer, then we are at liberty\nto begin asking something for ourselves, and to say 'Give us day by\nday our daily bread.'  I cannot think so, my friends.  I have been\nshowing you that 'Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will\nbe done,' if we do but recollect that they are spoken to our Father,\nare just as much prayers for all mankind, as they are hymns of\nhonour to God; and so I say of these latter:  'Give us--Forgive us--\nLead us not--Deliver us'--that if we will but remember that they,\ntoo, are spoken to our Father, we shall find that they are just as\nmuch hymns of honour to God as prayers for mankind.\n\nYes, my friends, when we say, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' we\ndo indeed honour God and the name of God.  We declare that He is\nLove, that He is The Giver, The absolutely and boundlessly _generous\nand magnanimous_ Being.  And what higher glory and honour or praise\ncan we ascribe, even to God Himself, than to say that of Him?  Next,\nwe pray not for ourselves only, but for our neighbours; for England,\nfor Christendom, for the heathen who know not God, and for\ngenerations yet unborn.  We pray that God would so guide, and teach,\nand preserve the children of men, as to enable them to fulfil in\nevery country and every age the work which He gave them to do, when\nHe said, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue\nit.'  We know that our Father has commanded us to labour.  We know\nthat our Father has so well ordered this glorious earth, that\nwhosoever labours may reap the just fruit of his labour; therefore\nwe pray that God would prosper our righteous plans for earning our\nown living.  We pray to Him not only so to order the earth that it\nmay bring forth its fruits in due season, but that men may be in a\nfit state to enjoy those fruits, that God may not be forced for\ntheir good to withhold from them blessings which they might abuse to\ntheir ruin.  But we pray, also, 'Give _us_:' not me only, but _us_;\nand therefore we pray that He would prosper our neighbour's plans as\nwell as ours.  So we confess that we believe God to be no respecter\nof persons; we confess that we believe He will not take bread out of\nothers' mouths to give it to us; we declare that God's curse is on\nall selfishness and oppression of man by man; we renounce our own\nselfishness, the lust which our fallen nature has to rise upon\nothers' fall, and say, 'Father, we are all children at Thy common\ntable.  Thou alone canst prosper the richest and the wisest; Thou\nalone canst prosper the poorest and the weakest; Thou wilt do equal\njustice to all some day, and we confess that Thou art just in so\ndoing; we only ask Thee to do it now, and to give us and all mankind\nthat which is good for them.'\n\nThus we pray not for this generation only, but for generations yet\nunborn; not for this nation of England only, but for heathens and\nsavages beyond the seas.  When we say, 'Give us our daily bread,' we\npray for every child here and on earth, that he may receive such an\neducation as may enable him to get his daily bread.  We pray for\nlearned men in their studies, that they may discover arts and\nsciences which shall enrich and comfort nations yet unborn.  We pray\nfor merchants on the seas, that they may discover new markets for\ntrade, new lands to colonize and fill with Christian men, and extend\nthe blessings of industry and civilization to the savage who lives\nas the beasts which perish and dwindles down off the face of the\nearth by famine, disease, and war, the victim of his own idleness,\nignorance, and improvidence.\n\nAnd all the while we are praying for the widow and the orphan, that\nGod would send them friends in time of need; for the houseless\nwanderer, for the shipwrecked sailor, for sick persons, for feeble\ninfants, that God would send help to them who cannot help\nthemselves, and soften our hearts and the hearts of all around us,\nthat we may never turn our faces away from any poor man, lest the\nface of the Lord be turned away from us.\n\nSo far we have been praying to our Heavenly Father, first as a\nFather, then as a King, then as an Inspirer, then as a Giver; and\nnext we pray to Him as a _For_giver--'Forgive us our trespasses.'\nWe have been confessing in these four petitions what God's goodwill\nto man is; what God wishes man to be, how man ought to live and\nbelieve.  And then comes the recollection of sin.  We must confess\nwhat God's law is before we can confess that we have broken it; and\nnow we do confess that we have broken it.  We know that God is our\nFather.  How often have we forgotten that He is a father; how often\nhave we forgotten to be good fathers ourselves.\n\nWe are in God's kingdom.  How often have we behaved as if we were\nour own kings, and had no masters over us but our own fancies,\ntempers, appetites!  We are to do His will on earth as it is done in\nheaven.  How have we been doing our own will!--pleasing ourselves,\nbreaking loose from His laws, trying to do right of our own wills\nand in our own strength, instead of asking His Spirit to strengthen,\nand cleanse, and renew our wills, and so have ended by doing not the\nright which we knew to be right, but the wrong which we knew to be\nwrong.  God is a giver.  How often have we looked on ourselves as\ntakers, and fancied that we must as it were steal the good things of\nthis world from God, lest He should forget to give us what was\nfitting!  How often have we forgotten that God gives to all men, as\nwell as to us; and while we were praying, give _me_ my daily bread,\nkept others out of their daily bread!\n\nOh, my friends, we cannot blame ourselves too much for all these\nsins; we cannot think them too heinous.  We cannot confess them too\nopenly; we cannot cry too humbly and earnestly for forgiveness.  But\nwe never shall feel the full sinfulness of sin; we never shall\nthoroughly humble ourselves in confession and repentance, unless we\nremember that all our sins have been sins against a Father, and a\nforgiving Father, and that it is His especial glory, the very beauty\nand excellence in Him, which ought to have kept us from disobeying\nHim, that He does forgive those who disobey Him.\n\nAnd, lastly, in like manner, when you say, 'Lead us not into\ntemptation, but deliver,' &c., you are not only entreating God to\nlead you, but you are honouring and praising Him, you are setting\nforth His glory, and declaring that He is a God who does _lead_, and\na God who does not leave His poor creatures to wander their own\nfoolish way, but guides men, in spite of all their sins, full of\ncondescension and pity, care and tender love.  You do not only ask\nGod to deliver you from evil, but you declare that He is righteous,\nand hates evil; that He is love, and desires to deliver you from\nevil; One who spared not His only-begotten Son, but gave Him freely\nfor us, to deliver us from evil; and raised Him up, and delivered\nall power into His hand, that He might fight His Father's battle\nagainst all which is hurtful to man and hateful to God, till death\nitself shall be destroyed, and all enemies put under the feet of the\nSaviour God.\n\n\n\nSERMON X.  THE DOXOLOGY\n\n\n\nPsalm viii. 1 and sqq.  O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy\nname in all the earth, Thou that hast set Thy glory above the\nheavens!\n\nOut of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength,\nbecause of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the\navenger.\n\nThis is the text which I have chosen to-day, because I think it will\nhelp us to understand the end of the Lord's Prayer, which tells us\nto say to our Father in Heaven, 'Father, Thine is the kingdom;\nFather, Thine is the power; Father, Thine is the glory.'\n\nThe man who wrote this psalm had been looking up at the sky,\nspangled with countless stars, with the moon, as if she were the\nqueen of them all, walking in her brightness.  He had been looking\nround, too, on this wonderful earth, with its countless beasts, and\nbirds, and insects, trees, herbs, and flowers, each growing, and\nthriving, and breeding after their kind, according to the law which\nGod had given to each of them, without any help of man.  And then he\nhad thought of men, how small, weak, ignorant, foolish, sinful they\nwere, and said to himself, 'Why should God care for men more than\nfor these beasts, and birds, and insects round?  Not because he is\nthe largest and strongest thing in the world; for I will consider\nThy heavens, even the work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars,\nwhich Thou hast ordained, how much greater, more beautiful they are\nthan poor human beings.  May not glorious beings, angels, be\ndwelling in them, compared to whom man is no better than a beast?'\n\nAnd yet he says to himself, 'I know that God, though He has put man\nlower than the angels, has crowned him with glory and honour.  I\nknow that, whatever glorious creatures may live in the sun, and\nmoon, and stars, God has given man the dominion and power here, on\n_this_ world.  I know that even to babes and sucklings God has given\na strength, because of His enemies--that He may silence the enemy\nand the avenger; and I know that by so doing, God has set His glory\n_above_ the heavens, and has shown forth His glory more in these\nlittle children, to whom He gives strength and wisdom, than He has\nin sun, and moon, and stars.'\n\nNow how is that?  The Catechism, I think, will tell us.  The\nDoxology, at the end of the Lord's Prayer, will tell us, if we\nconsider it.\n\nIf you will listen to me, I will try and show you what I mean.\n\nSuppose I took one of your children, and showed him that large\nbright star, which you may see now every evening, shining in the\nsouth-west, and said to him, 'My child, that star, which looks to\nyou only a bright speck, is in reality a world--a world fourteen\nhundred times as big as our world.  We have but one moon to light\nour earth; that little speck has four moons, each of them larger\nthan ours, which light it by night.  That little speck of a star\nseems to you to be standing still; in reality, it is travelling\nthrough the sky at the rate of 25,000 miles an hour.'  What do you\nthink the child's feeling would be?  If he were a dull child, he\nmight only be astonished; but if he were a sensible and thoughtful\nchild, do you not think that a feeling of awe, almost of fear, would\ncome over him, when he thought how small and weak and helpless he\nwas, in comparison of those mighty and glorious stars above his\nhead?\n\nAnd next, if I turned the child round, and bade him look at that\ncomet or fiery star, which has appeared lately low down in the\nnorth-west, and said, 'My child, that comet, which seems to you to\nhang just above the next parish, is really eighty millions of miles\noff from us.  That bright spot at the lower part of it is a fiery\nworld as large as the moon,--that tail of fiery light which you see\nstreaming up from it, and which looks a few feet long, is a stream\nof fiery vapour, stretching, most likely, hundreds of thousands of\nmiles through the boundless space.  It seems to you to be sinking\nbehind the trees, so slowly that you cannot see it move.  It is\nreally rushing towards us now, with its vast train of light, at the\nrate of some eighty thousand miles an hour.'  And suppose then, if,\nto make the child more astonished than ever, I went on--'Yes, my\nchild, every single tiny star which is twinkling over your head is a\nsun, a sun as large, or larger than our own sun, perhaps with worlds\nmoving round it, as our world moves round our sun, but so many\nmillions of miles far off, that the strongest spy-glass cannot make\nthese stars look any larger, or show us the worlds which we believe\nare moving round them.'\n\nDo you not think that just in proportion to the child's quickness\nand understanding, he would be awed, almost terrified?\n\nAnd lastly, suppose that to puzzle and astonish him still more, I\ntook a chance drop of water out of any standing pool, and showed him\nthrough a magnifying-glass, in that single drop of water, dozens,\nperhaps hundreds, of living creatures so small that it is impossible\nto see them with the naked eye, each of them of some beautiful and\nwonderful shape, unlike anything which you ever saw or dreamed of,\nbut each of them alive, each of them moving, feeding, breeding,\nafter its kind, each fulfilling the nature which God has given to\nthem, and told him, 'All the whole world, the air which you breathe,\nthe leaves on the trees, the soil under your feet, ay, even often\nthe food which you eat, and your own flesh and blood, are as full of\nwonderful things as that drop of water is.  You fancy that all the\nlife in the world is made up of the men and women in it, and the few\nbeasts, and birds, and insects, which you see about you in the\nfields.  But these living things which you do see are not a\nmillionth part of the whole number of God's creatures; and not one\nsmallest plant or tiniest insect dies, but what it passes into a new\nlife, and becomes food for other creatures, even smaller than,\nthough just as wonderful as itself.  Every day fresh living\ncreatures are being discovered, filling earth, and sea, and air,\ntill men's brains are weary with counting them, and dizzy with\nwatching their unspeakable beauty, and strangeness, and fitness for\nthe work which God has given each of them to do.'\n\nAnd then suppose I said to the child, 'God cares for each of these\ntiny living creatures.  How do you know that He does not care for\nthem as much as He does for you?  God made them for His own\npleasure, that He might rejoice in the work of His own hands.  How\ndo you know that He does not rejoice in them as much as in you?\nThose mighty worlds and suns above your head, which you call stars,\nhow do you know that they are not as much more glorious and precious\nin God's sight than you are, as they are larger and more beautiful\nthan you are?  And mind! all these things, from the tiniest insects\nin the water-drop, to the most vast star or comet in the sky, all\nobey God.  They have not fallen, as you have; they have not sinned,\nas you have; they have not broken the law, by which God intended\nthem to live, as you have.  The Bible tells you so; and the\ndiscoveries of learned men prove that the Bible is right, when it\ndeclares that they all continue to this day according to His\nordinance; for all things serve Him; that sun, and moon, and stars,\nand light are praising Him; that fire and hail, snow and vapour,\nwind and storm, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all\ncedars, beasts and all cattle, worms and feathered fowl, are showing\nforth His glory day and night; because He has made them sure for\never and ever, each according to its kind, and given them a law\nwhich shall not be broken; for all His works praise Him, and show\nthe glory of His kingdom, and the mightiness of His power, that His\npower, His glory, and the mightiness of His kingdom might be known\nunto the children of men.\n\nAnd you!--They keep God's ordinance, and you have broken it; they\nfulfil God's word, you fulfil your own fancies.  They have a law\nwhich shall not be broken, you break God's law daily.  Are not they\nbetter than you?  Is not, not merely sun and stars, but even the\nmeanest gnat which hums in the air, better than man, more worthy of\nGod's love than man?  For man has sinned, and they have not.'\n\nDo you not think that I should sadden, and terrify the child, and\nmake him ready to cry out, 'Whither shall I flee from the wrath of\nthis great Almighty God; who has made this wondrous heaven and\nearth, and all of it obeys Him, except me--I a rebel against Him who\nmade and rules all this?'\n\nMy friends, I only say, suppose that I spoke thus to your children.\nFor God forbid that I should speak thus to any human being, without\nhaving first taught him the Lord's Prayer, without first having\ntaught him to say, 'I believe in Jesus Christ, Very God of Very God,\nwho was born of the Virgin Mary, and took man's nature on Him;'\nwithout having taught him to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven,\nThine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and\never, Amen.'  So it is, and so let it be:  for so it is well, and so\nI am safe, sinner and rebel though I be.\n\nI would not say it, unless I had taught him this; for then I should\nbe speaking the Devil's words, and doing the Devil's work:  for\nthese are the thoughts of which he always takes advantage, whenever\nhe finds them in men's hearts; because he is the enemy who hates\nmen, and the avenger who punishes them for their bad thoughts, by\nleading them on into dark and fearful deeds; because he is the\nDevil, the Slanderer, as his name means, and slanders God to men,\nand tries always to make them believe that God does not care for\nmen, and grudges them blessings; in order that he may make men dread\nGod, and shrink from Him into their own pride, or their own carnal\nlusts and fancies.\n\nThese are the thoughts of which the Devil took advantage in the\nheathen in old times, and tempted them to forget God--God, who had\nnot left Himself without a witness, in that He gave them rain and\nfruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness--God,\nwhose unseen glory, even His eternal power and Godhead, may be\nclearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood from\nthe things which are made--God, in whom, as St. Paul told the\nheathen, they lived and moved, and had their being, and were the\noffspring of God.  This--that man is the offspring of God, and has a\nFather in heaven--is the great truth which the Devil has been trying\nto hide from men in every age, and by a hundred different devices.\nBy making them forget this, he tempted them to worship the creature\ninstead of the Creator; to pray to sun and moon and stars, to send\nthem fair weather, good crops, prosperous fortune:  to look up to\nthe heaven above them, and down to the earth beneath their feet, in\nslavish dread and anxiety:  and pray to the sun, not to blast them\nto the seas, not to sweep them away; to the rivers and springs, not\nto let them perish from drought; to earthquakes, not to swallow them\nup; ay, even to try to appease those dark fierce powers, with whom\nthey thought the great awful world was filled, by cruel sacrifices\nof human beings; so that they offered their sons and their daughters\nto devils, and burned their own children in the fire to Moloch, the\ncruel angry Fire King, whom they fancied was lord of the earthquakes\nand the burning mountains.  So did the Canaanites of old, and so did\nthe Jews after them; whensoever they had forgotten that God was\ntheir Father, who had bought them, and that the kingdom, and the\npower, and the glory, throughout heaven and earth, were His, then at\nonce they began to be afraid of heaven and earth, and worshipped\nBaalim, and Astaroth, and the Host of Heaven, which were the sun and\nmoon and stars, and Moloch the Fire King, and Thammuz the Lord of\nthe Spring-time, and with forms of worship which showed plainly\nenough, either by their cruelty or their filthy profligacy, who was\nthe author of them, and that man, when he forgets that heaven and\nearth belong to his Father, is in danger of becoming a slave to his\nown lowest lusts and passions.\n\nAnd do not fancy, my friends, that because you and I are not likely\nto worship sun and moon and stars as the old heathen did, that\ntherefore we cannot commit the same sin as they did.\n\nMy friends, I believe that we are in more danger of committing it in\nEngland just now than ever we were; that learned men especially are\nin danger of so doing, because they know so far more of the wonders\nand the vastness of God's creation than the heathens of old knew.\n\nBut you are not learned, you will say:  you are plain people, who\nknow nothing about these wonderful discoveries which men make by\ntelescopes and magnifying-glasses, but use your own eyes in a plain\nway to get your daily bread, and you feel no such temptations.  You\nbelieve, of course, that the kingdom and power and glory of all we\nsee is God's.\n\nYes; but do you believe too that He whom people are too apt to call\nGod, just because they have no other name to call Him, is your\nFather?  That it is your Father's will which governs the weather,\nwhich makes the earth bear fruit and gladden the heart of man with\ngood and fruitful seasons?\n\nAlas, my friends, if we will open our eyes, see things in their true\nlight, and call things by their true name, we shall see many a man\nin England now honouring the creature more than the Creator;\ntrusting in the seasons and the soil more than he does in God, and\nso sinning in just the same way as the heathen of old.\n\nWhen people say to themselves, 'I must get land, I must get money,\nby any means; honestly if I can, if not, dishonestly; for have it I\nmust;' what are they doing then but denying that the kingdom, the\npower, and the glory of this earth belong to the Righteous God, and\nthat He, and not the lying Devil, gives them to whomsoever He will?\n\nWhen people say to themselves (as who does not at moments?) 'To be\nrich is to be safe; a man's life does consist in the abundance of\nwhat he possesses;' what are they doing but saying that man does\n_not_ live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, but\nby what he can get for himself and keep for himself?  When they are\nfretful and anxious about their crops, when they even repine and\ncomplain of Providence, as I have known men do because they do not\nprosper as they wish, what are they doing but saying in their\nhearts, 'The weather and the seasons are the lords and masters of my\ngood fortune, or bad fortune.  I depend on them, and not on God, for\ncomfort and for wealth, and my Heavenly Father does _not_ know what\nI have need of?'  When parents send their girls out to field-work,\nwithout any care about whom they talk with, to have their minds\ncorrupted by hearing filthiness and seeing immodest behaviour, what\nare they doing but offering their daughters in sacrifice, not even\nto Moloch, but to Mammon; saying to themselves, 'My daughter's\nmodesty, my daughter's virtue, is not of as much value as the paltry\nmoney which I can earn by leaving her alone to learn wickedness,\ninstead of keeping watch over her, if she does work, that she may be\nnone the worse for her day's labour.'\n\nI might go on and give you a thousand instances more, but they all\ncome alike to this; that whensoever you fancy that you cannot earn\nyour daily bread without doing wrong yourself, or leaving your\nchildren to learn wrong, then you do not believe that the kingdom,\nthe power, and the glory of this earth on which you work is your\nHeavenly Father's.  For if you did, you would be certain that gains,\nlarge or small, got by breaking the least of His commandments, could\nnever prosper you, but must bring a curse and a punishment with\nthem; and you would be sure also, that because God is your Father,\nand this earth and all herein is His, that He would feed you with\nfood sufficient for you, if you do but seek first His kingdom--that\nis, try to learn His laws; and seek first His righteousness--that\nis, strive and pray day by day to become righteous even as He is\nrighteous.\n\nYes, my friends, this is one meaning, though only one, of St. John's\nwords, 'This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our\nfaith.'  We all see the world full of pleasant things, for which we\nlong; of necessary things, too, without which we should starve and\ndie.  And then the temptation comes to us to snatch at these things\nfor ourselves by any means in our power, right or wrong; like the\ndumb animals who break out of their owners' field into the next, if\nthey do but see better pasturage there, or fight and quarrel between\nthemselves for food, each trying to get the most for himself and rob\nhis neighbour.  So live the beasts, and so you and I, and every\nhuman being shall be tempted to live, if we follow our natures, if\nwe forget that we are God's children, in God's kingdom, under the\nlaws of a Heavenly Father, who has shown forth His own love and\njustice, His own kingdom, and power, and glory, in the person of the\nLord Jesus Christ.  But if we remember that, if we remember daily\nthat the kingdom, and power, and glory is our Father's, then we\nshall neither fear storms and blights, bad crops, or anything else\nwhich is of the earth earthly.  We shall fear nothing of that kind,\nwhich can only kill the body, but only fear the evil Devil, lest, by\nmaking us distrust and disobey our Heavenly Father, he should, after\nhe has killed, destroy both body and soul in hell.  And as long as\nwe fear him, as long as we renounce him, as long as we trust utterly\nin our Heavenly Father's love and justice, and in the love and\njustice of His dear Son, the Man Christ Jesus, to whom all power is\ngiven in heaven and earth--then out of the youngest child among us\nwill God's praise be perfected; for the youngest child among us, by\nfaith in God his Father, may look upon all heaven and earth, and\nsay, 'Great, and wonderful, and awful as this earth and skies may\nbe, I am more precious in the sight of God than sun, and moon, and\nstars; for they are things:  but I am a person, a spirit, an\nimmortal soul, made in the likeness of God, redeemed into the\nlikeness of God, sanctified into the likeness of God.  This great\nearth was here thousands and thousands of years before I was born,\nand it will be here perhaps millions and millions of years after I\nam dead; but it cannot harm _me_; it cannot kill _me_.  When earth,\nand sun, and stars are past away, I shall live for ever; for I am\nthe immortal child of an Immortal Father, the child of the\neverlasting God.  These things He only made:  but me He begot unto\neverlasting life, in Jesus Christ my Lord.  I seem to depend on this\nearth for food, for clothing, for comfort, for life itself:  and yet\nI do not do so in reality; for man doth not live by bread alone, but\nby _every_ word which proceeds out of the mouth of God my Father.\nIn Him I have eternal life:  a life which this earth did not give,\nand cannot take away; a life which, by the mercy of my Father in\nheaven, I trust and hope to be living when sun and earth, stars and\ncomets, are returned again to their dust, and blotted from the face\nof heaven.  For the kingdom, the glory, and the power of this world,\nand all other worlds, past, present, and to come, belong to Him who\nspared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us, and\nwill with Him freely give us all things.'\n\nAnd thus, my friends, may God's praise be perfected out of the mouth\nof any Christian child, when He declares that God put man a little\nlower than the angels only to crown him with the glory and worship\nof having the only-begotten Son of God take man's nature upon Him,\nand walk this earth as a man, and live, and die, and rise again as a\nman, that so He might raise fallen man again to the glory and honour\nwhich God appointed for men from the beginning, when He said, Let us\nmake man in our image, after our likeness:  and let them have\ndominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air, and the\nbeast of the earth; and be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the\nearth and subdue it.\n\n\n\nSERMON XI.  AHAB AND NABOTH\n\n\n\n1 Kings xxi. 2, 3.  And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy\nvineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is\nnear unto my house:  and I will give thee for it a better vineyard\nthan it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of\nit in money.  And Naboth said unto Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that\nI should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.\n\nYou heard to-day read for the first lesson, the story of Naboth and\nKing Ahab.  Most of you know it well.  Naboth's vineyard has passed\ninto a proverb for something which we covet.\n\nIt is good that it should be so.  We cannot know our Bible too well;\nwe cannot have Bible words and Bible thoughts too much worked into\nour ways of talking and thinking about everyday matters.  As far as\nI can see, the best days of England, the best days of every\nChristian country of which I ever read, have been days when men were\nnot ashamed of their Bibles; when they were ready to live by their\nBibles; to ask advice of their Bibles about buying and selling,\nabout making war and peace, about all the business of life; and were\nnot ashamed to quote texts of Scripture in the parliament, and in\nthe market, and in the battle-field, as God's law, God's rule, God's\nword about the matter in hand, which was, therefore, sure to be the\nright word and the right rule.  People are grown ashamed of doing so\nnow-a-days; but that does not alter the matter one jot.  We may deny\nGod, but He cannot deny Himself.  His laws are everlasting, and He\nis ruling and judging us by them now, all day long, just as much as\nHe ruled and judged those Jews by them of old.  The God of Abraham\nis our God; the God of Moses is our God; the God of Ahab and Naboth\nis our God; neither He nor His government are altered in the least\nsince their time, and they never will alter for ever, and ever, and\never; and if we do not choose to believe that now in this life, we\nshall be made to believe it by some very ugly and painful schooling\nin the life to come.\n\nWhat laws of God, now, can we learn from this story?\n\nFirst, we may learn what a sacred thing _property_ is.  That a man's\npossessions (if they be justly come by) belong to him, in the sight\nof God as well as in the sight of man, and that God will uphold and\navenge the man's right.\n\nNaboth, you see, stands simply on his right to his own property.\n'The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my\nfathers unto thee.'  I do not think that he meant that God had\nactually forbidden him:  it seems to have been only some sort of\noath which he used.  He may certainly have had reasons for thinking\nit wrong to part with his lands; hurtful, perhaps, to his family\nafter him.  Yet, as Ahab had promised him a better vineyard for it,\nor its worth in money, I cannot help thinking that Naboth's reason\nwas the one which shows on the face of his words.  It was the\ninheritance of his fathers, this vineyard.  They had all worked in\nit, generation after generation; perhaps, according to the Jewish\ncustom, they were buried somewhere in it; at least, it had been\ntheirs and now was his; he had worked in it, and played in it--\nperhaps since he was a child--and he loved it; it was part and\nparcel of his father's house to him, a sacred spot.\n\nAnd so it should be.  It is a holy feeling which makes a man cling\nto the bit of land which he has inherited from his parents, even to\nthe cottage, though it be only a hired one, where he has lived for\nmany a year, and where he has planted and tilled, perhaps with some\nthat he loved, who are now dead and gone, or grown up and gone out\ninto the world, till the little old cottage-garden is full of\nremembrances to him of past joys and past sorrows.  The feeling\nwhich makes a man cling to his home and to his own land is a good\nfeeling, and breeds good in the man.  It makes him respect himself;\nit keeps him from being reckless and unsettled.  It is a feeling\nwhich should not be broken through.  It is seldom pleasant to see\nland change hands; it is seldom pleasant to see people turned out of\ntheir cottages.  It must often be so, but let it be as seldom as\npossible.  One likes to see a family take root in a place, and grow\nand thrive there, one generation after another; and you will find,\nmy friends, that families do take root and thrive in a place just in\nproportion as they fear God and do righteousness.  The Psalms tell\nyou, again and again, that the way to abide in the land, and prosper\nin it, is to trust in the Lord and be doing good; and that the\nwicked are soon rooted out, and their names perish out of the land.\nOne sees that come true daily.\n\nBut to return to Naboth.  He loved his own land, and therefore he\nhad a right to keep it.  We may say it was but a fancy of his, if he\ncould have a better vineyard, or the worth of it in money.\nRemember, at least, that God respected that fancy of his, and\njustified it, and avenged it.  When (after Naboth's death) Elijah\naccused Ahab, in God's name, he put two counts into the indictment;\nfor Ahab had committed two sins.  'Hast thou killed, and also taken\npossession?'  Killing was one sin; taking possession was another.\n\nAnd so Ahab learnt two weighty and bitter lessons.  He learnt that\nGod's Law stands for ever, though man's law be broken or be\nforgotten by disuse.  For you must understand, that these Jews were\na free people, even as we are.  They were not like the nations round\nabout them, or as the Russians are now--slaves to their king, and\nholding their property only at his will.  The law of Moses had made\nthem a free people, who held their property each man from God, by\nGod's Law, which had said, 'Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt not\ncovet.  Cursed is he who removes his neighbour's landmark.'  And\ntheir kings were bound to govern by Moses' law, just as our kings\nand rulers are bound to govern by the old constitutions of England,\nand to do equal justice by rich and poor.  But the wicked kings of\nIsrael were trying to break through that law, and make themselves\ntyrants and despots, such as the Czar of Russia is now.  First,\nJeroboam began by trying to wean his people from Moses' law, by\npreventing their going up to worship at Jerusalem, and making them\nworship instead the golden calves at Dan and at Bethel.  For he knew\nthat if he could make idolaters of them, he should soon make slaves\nof them; and he succeeded; and the kingdom of Israel grew more\nmiserable year by year; and now Ahab, his wicked successor, was\nbreaking down the laws of property and wrongfully taking away his\nsubjects' lands.  Perhaps he said in his heart, 'I am king; there is\nno law stronger than I.  I have a right to do what I like.'  If he\ndid so, he found that he was mistaken.  He found that though he\nforgot Moses' law, God had not; that the law stood there still,\nbecause it was founded on eternal justice, which proceeds for ever\nout of the mouth of God; and by the Law, which he had chosen to\nforget, he was judged; by the Law of God, which deals equal justice\nto rich and poor, which is, like God Himself, no acceptor of\npersons; but says, 'Thou shalt not covet,' to the king upon his\nthrone as sternly as to the beggar on the dunghill.\n\nAnd that Law stands still, my friends, doubt it not.  Thanks to the\nwisdom and justice of our forefathers who built the laws of England\non those old Ten Commandments, which hang for a sign thereof in\nevery church to this day.  Thanks to them, I say, and to God, the\nroot of the law of England is, equal justice between man and man, be\nhe high or low; and it is a thing to bless God for every day of our\nlives, that here the poor man's little is as safe as the rich man's\nwealth:  but there is many a sin of oppression, many a sin of\ncovetousness, my friends, which no law of man can touch.  Make laws\nas artfully as you will, bad men can always slip through them, and\nescape the spirit of them, while they obey the letter:  and I\nsuppose it will be so to the world's end; and that, let the laws be\nas perfect as they may, if any man wishes to cheat or oppress his\nneighbour, he will surely be able to work his wicked will in some\nway or other.  Well then, my friends, if man's law is weak, God's is\nnot;--if man's law has flaws and gaps in it, through which\ncovetousness can creep, God's has none;--even if (which God forbid)\nman's law died out, and sinners were left to sin without fear of\npunishment, still God's Law stands sure, and the eye of the living\nGod slumbers not, and the hand of the living God never grows weary,\nand out of the everlasting heaven His voice is saying, day and\nnight, for ever, 'I endure for ever.  I sit on the throne judging\nright; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of My kingdom.  I\njudge the world in justice, and minister true judgment unto the\npeople.  I also will be a refuge for the oppressed, even a refuge in\ndue time of trouble.'\n\nO hear those words, my friends! hear and obey, if you love life, and\nwish to see good days; and never, never say a thing is right, simply\nbecause the law cannot punish you for it.  Never say in your hearts\nwhen you are tempted to be hard, cruel, covetous, over-reaching,\n'What harm?  I break no law by it.'  There is a law, whether you see\nit or not; you break a law, whether you confess it or not; a law\nwhich is as a wall of iron clothed with thunder, though man's law be\nbut a flimsy net of thread; and that law, and not any Acts of\nParliament, shall judge you in the day when the secrets of all\nhearts shall be disclosed, and every man shall receive the due\nreward of the deeds done in the body, not according as they were\nallowed or not by the Statute Book, but according as they were good\nor evil.\n\nAnother lesson we may learn from this story:  that if we give way to\nour passions, we give way to the Devil also.  Ahab gave way to his\npassion; he knew that he was wrong; for when Naboth refused to sell\nhim the vineyard, he did not dare openly to rob him of it; he went\nto his house heavy of heart, and fretted, like a spoilt child,\nbecause he could not get what he wanted.  It was but a little thing,\nand he might have been content to go without it.  He was king of all\nIsrael, and what was one small vineyard more or less to him?  But\nprosperity had spoilt him; he must needs have every toy on which he\nset his heart, and he was weak enough to fret that he could not get\nmore, when he had too much already.  But he knew that he could not\nget it; that, king as he was, Naboth's property was his own, and\nthat God's everlasting Law stood between him and the thing he\ncoveted.  Well for him if he had been contented with fretting.  But,\nmy friends--and be you rich or poor, take heed to my words--whenever\nany man gives way to selfishness, and self-seeking, to a proud,\ncovetous, envious, peevish temper, the Devil is sure to glide up and\nwhisper in his ear thoughts which will make him worse--worse, ay,\nthan he ever dreamt of being.  First comes the flesh, and then the\nDevil; and if the flesh opens the door of the heart, the Devil steps\nin quickly enough.  First comes the flesh:  fleshly, carnal pride at\nbeing thwarted; fleshly, carnal longing for a thing, which longs all\nthe more for it because one cannot have it; fleshly, carnal\npeevishness and ill-temper, at not having just the pleasant thing\none happens to like.  That is a state of mind which is a bird-call\nfor all the devils; and when they see a man in that temper, they\nflock to him, I believe, as crows do to carrion.  It is astonishing,\nhumbling, awful, my friends, what horrible thoughts will cross one's\nmind if once one gives way to that selfish, proud, angry, longing\ntemper; thoughts of which we are ashamed the next moment;\ntemptations to sin at which we shudder, they seem so unlike\nourselves, not parts of ourselves at all.  When the dark fit is\npast, one can hardly believe that such wicked thoughts ever crossed\none's mind.  I don't think that they are part of ourselves; I\nbelieve them to be the whispers of the Devil himself; and when they\npass away, I believe that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who drives\nthem away.  But if any man gives way to them, determines to keep his\nsullenness, and so gives place to the Devil; then those thoughts do\nnot pass; they take hold of a man, possess him, as the Bible calls\nit, and make him in his madness do things which--alas! who has not\ndone things in his day, of which he has repented all his life\nafter?--things for which he would gladly cut off his right hand for\nthe sake of being able to say, 'I never did that?'  But the thing is\ndone--done to all eternity:  he has given place to the Devil, and\nthe Devil has made him do in five minutes work which he could not\nundo in five thousand years; and all that is left is, when he comes\nto himself, to cast himself on God's boundless mercy, and Christ's\nboundless atonement, and cry, 'My sins are like scarlet, Thou alone\ncanst make them whiter than snow:  my sin is ever before me; only\nlet it not be ever before Thee, O God!  Punish me, if thou seest\nfit; but oh forgive, for there is mercy with Thee, and infinite\nredemption!'  And, thanks be to God's great love, he will not cry in\nvain.  Yet, oh, my friends, do not give place to the Devil, unless\nyou wish, forgiven or not, to repent of it to the latest day you\nlive.\n\nAnd this was Ahab's fate.  He knew, I say, that he was wrong; he\nknew that Naboth's property was his own, and dare not openly rob him\nof it; and he went to his house, heavy of heart, and refused to eat;\nand while he was in such a temper as that, the Devil lost no time in\nsending an evil spirit to him.  It was a woman whom he sent,\nJezebel, Ahab's own wife:  but she was, as far as we can see, a\nwoman of a devilish spirit, cruel, proud, profligate, and unjust, as\nwell as a worshipper of the filthy idols of the Canaanites.  Ahab's\nfirst sin was in having married this wicked heathen woman:  now his\nsin punished itself; she tempted him through his pride and self-\nconceit; she taunted him into sin:  'Dost thou now govern the\nkingdom of Israel?  I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth.'  You\nall remember how she did so; by falsely accusing Naboth of\nblasphemy.  Ahab seems to have taken no part in Naboth's murder.\nPerhaps he was afraid; but he was a weak man, and Jezebel was a\nstrong and fierce spirit, and ruled him, and led him in this matter,\nas she did in making him worship idols with her; and he was content\nto be led.  He was content to let others do the wickedness he had\nnot courage to carry out himself.  He forgot that, as is well said,\n'He who does a thing by another, does it by himself;' that if you\nlet others sin for you, you sin for yourself.  Would to God, my\nfriends, that we would all remember this!  How often people wink at\nwrong-doing in those with whom they have dealings, in those whom\nthey employ, in their servants, in their children, because it is\nconvenient to them.  They shut their eyes, and their hearts too, and\nsay to themselves, 'At all events, it is his doing and not mine; and\nit is his concern; I am not answerable for other people's sins.  I\nwould not do such a thing myself, certainly; but as it is done, I\nmay as well make the best of it.  If I gain by it, I need not be so\nvery sharp in looking into the matter.'  And so you see men who\nreally wish to be honest and kindly themselves, making no scruple of\nprofiting by other people's dishonesty and cruelty.  Now the law\npunishes the receiver of stolen goods almost as severely as the\nthief himself:  but there are many receivers of stolen goods, my\nfriends, whom the law cannot touch.  The world, at times, seems to\nme to be full of them; for every one, my friends, who hushes up a\ncruel or a dishonest matter, because he himself is a gainer by it,\nhe is no better than the receiver of stolen goods, and he will find\nin the day of the Lord, that the sin will lie at his door, as\nJezebel's sin lay at Ahab's.  There was no need for Ahab to say,\n'Jezebel did it, and not I.'  The prophet did not even give him time\nto excuse himself:  'Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also\ntaken possession?'  By taking possession of Naboth's vineyard, and\nso profiting by his murder, he made himself partaker in that murder,\nand had to hear the terrible sentence, 'In the place where dogs\nlicked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick thy blood, even thine.'\n\nOh, my friends, whatsoever you do, keep clean hands and a pure\nheart.  If you touch pitch, it will surely stick to you.  Let no\ngain tempt you to be partaker of others men's sins; never fancy\nthat, because men cannot lay the blame on the right person, God\ncannot.  God will surely lay the burden on the man who helped to\nmake the burden; God will surely require part payment from the man\nwho profited by the bargain; so keep yourselves clear of other men's\nsins, that you may be clear also of their condemnation.\n\nSo Ahab had committed a horrible and great sin, and had received\nsentence for it, and now, as I said before, there was nothing to be\ndone but to repent; and he did so, after his fashion.\n\nAhab, it seems, was not an utterly bad man; he was a weak man, fond\nof his own pleasure, a slave to his own passions, and easily led,\nsometimes to good, but generally to evil.  And God did not execute\nfull vengeance on him:  his repentance was a poor one enough; but\nsuch as it was, the good and merciful God gave him credit for it as\nfar as it went, and promised him that the worst part of his\nsentence, the ruin of his family, should not come in his time.  But\nstill the sentence against him stood, and was fulfilled.  Not long\nafter, as we read in the second lesson, he was killed in battle, and\nthat not bravely and with honour (for if he had been, that would\nhave been but a slight punishment, my friends), but shamefully by a\nchance shot, after he had disguised himself, in the cowardice of his\nguilty conscience, and tried to throw all the danger on his ally,\ngood King Jehoshaphat of Judah; 'and they washed his chariot in the\npool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, according to the\nword of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah the prophet.'\n\nSo ends one of the most clear and terrible stories in the whole\nBible, of God's impartial justice.  May God give us all grace to lay\nit to heart!  We are all tempted, as Ahab was; rich or poor, our\ntemptation is alike to give place to the Devil, and let him lead us\ninto dark and deep sin, by giving way to our own fancies, longings,\npride, and temper.  We are all tempted, as Ahab was, to over-reach\nour neighbours in some way; I do not mean always in cheating them,\nbut in being unfair to them, in caring more for ourselves than for\nthem; thinking of ourselves first, and of them last; trying to make\nourselves comfortable, or to feed our own pride, at their expense.\nOh, my friends, whenever we are tempted to be selfish and grasping,\nbe sure that we are opening a door to the very Devil of hell\nhimself, though he may look so smooth, and gentle, and respectable,\nthat perhaps we shall not know him when he comes to us, and shall\ntake his counsels for the counsel of an angel of light.  But be sure\nthat if it is selfishness which has opened the door of our heart,\nnot God, but the Devil, will come in, let him disguise himself as\ncunningly as he will; and our only hope is to flee to Him in whom\nthere was no selfishness, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came not to do\nHis own will, but His Father's; not to glorify Himself, but His\nFather; not to save His own life, but to sacrifice it freely, for\nus, His selfish, weak, greedy, wandering sheep.  Pray to Him to give\nyou His Spirit, that glorious spirit of love, and duty, and self-\nsacrifice, by which all the good deeds on earth are done; which\nteaches a man not to care about himself, but about others; to help\nothers, to feel for others, to rejoice in their happiness, to grieve\nover their sorrows, to give to them, rather than take from them--in\none word, The Holy Spirit of God, which may He pour out on you, and\nme, and all mankind, that we may live justly and lovingly, as\nchildren of one just and loving Father in heaven.\n\n\n\nSERMON XII.  THE LIGHT OF GOD\n\n\n\n[Preached for the Chelsea National Schools.]\n\nEphesians v. 13.  All things which are reproved are made manifest by\nthe light:  for whatsoever is made manifest is light.\n\nThis is a noble text, a royal text; one of those texts which forbid\nus to clip and cramp Scripture to suit any narrow notions of our\nown; which open before us boundless vistas of God's love, of human\nknowledge, of the future of mankind.  There are many such texts,\nmany more than we fancy; but this is one which is especially\nvaluable at the present time; one especially fit for a sermon on\neducation; for it is, as it were, the scriptural charter of the\nadvocate of education.  It enables him boldly to say, 'There is\nnothing I will refuse to teach; there is nothing which man shall\nforbid me to teach; there is nothing which God has made in heaven or\nearth about which I will not tell the truth boldly to the young.'\n\nFor light comes from God.  God is light, and in Him is no darkness\nat all.  And therefore He wishes to give light to His children.  He\nwilleth not that the least of them should be kept in darkness about\nany matter.  Darkness is of the Devil; and he who keeps any human\nsoul in darkness, let his pretences be as reverent and as religious\nas they may, is doing the Devil's work.  Nothing, then, which God\nhas made will we conceal from the young.\n\nTrue, there are errors of which we will not speak to the young; but\nthey are not made by God:  they are the works of darkness.  Our duty\nis to teach the young what God has made, what He has done, what He\nhas ordained; to make them freely partakers of whatsoever light God\nhas given us.  Then, by means of that light, they will be able to\nreprove the works of darkness.\n\nFor whatsoever is made manifest is light.  Our version says;\n'Whatsoever makes manifest is light.'  That is true, a noble truth;\nbut I should not be honest, if I did not confess that that is not\nwhat St. Paul says here.  He says, 'That which _is_ made manifest is\nlight.'  On this the best commentators and scholars agree.  Our old\ntranslators have made a mistake, though in grammar only, and have\nsubstituted one great truth for another equally great.\n\n'Whatsoever is made manifest is light.'  We should have expected\nthis, if we are really Christians.  If we have faith in God; if we\nbelieve that God is worthy of our faith--a God whom we can trust; in\nwhom is neither caprice, deceit, nor darkness, but pure and perfect\nlight;--if we believe that we are His children, and that He wishes\nus to be, like Himself, full of light, knowing what we are and what\nthe world is, because we know who God is;--if we believe that He\nsent His Son into the world to reveal Him, to unveil Him, to draw\naside the veil which dark superstition and ignorance had spread\nbetween man and God, and to show us the glory of God;--if we believe\nthis, then we shall be ready to expect that whatsoever is made\nmanifest would be light; for if God be light, all that He has made\nmust be light also.  Like must beget like, and therefore light must\nbeget light, good beget good, love beget love; and therefore we\nought to expect that as true and sound knowledge increases, our\nviews of God will be more full of light.\n\nYes, my friends; under the influence of true science God will be no\nlonger looked upon, as He was in those superstitions which we well\ncall dark, as a proud, angry, capricious being, as a stern\ntaskmaster, as one far removed from the sympathy of men:  but as one\nof whom we may cheerfully say, Thy name be hallowed, for Thy name is\nFather; Thy kingdom come, for it is a Father's kingdom; Thy will be\ndone, for it is a Father's will; and in doing Thy will alone men\nclaim their true dignity of being the sons of God.\n\nOur views of our fellow-men will be more cheerful also; more full of\nsympathy, comprehension, charity, hope; in one word, more full of\nlight.  If it be true (and it is true) that God loves all, then we\nshould expect to find in all something worthy of our love.  If it be\ntrue that God willeth that none should perish, we should expect to\nfind in each man something which ought not to perish.  If it be true\nthat God stooped from heaven, yea stoops from heaven eternally, to\nseek and to save that which is lost, then we should have good hope\nthat our efforts to seek to save that which is lost will not be in\nvain.  We shall have hope in every good work we undertake, for we\nshall know that in it we are fellow-workers with God.\n\nOur notions of the world--of God's whole universe, will become full\nof light likewise.  Do we believe that this earth was made by Jesus\nChrist?--by Him who was full of grace and truth?  Do we believe our\nBibles, when they tell us, that He hath given all created things a\nlaw which cannot be broken; that they continue as at the beginning,\nfor all things serve Him?  Do we believe this?  Then we must look on\nthis earth, yea on the whole universe of God, as, like its Master,\nfull of grace and truth; not as old monks and hermits fancied it, a\ndark, deceiving, evil earth, filled with snares and temptations; a\nworld from which a man ought to hide himself in the wilderness, and\nfind his own safety in ignorance.  Not thus, but as the old Hebrews\nthought of it, as a glorious and a divine universe, in which the\nSpirit of God, the Lord and Giver of life, creates eternal melody,\nbringing for ever life out of death, light out of darkness, letting\nhis breath go forth that new generations may be made, and herein\nrenew the face of the earth.\n\nAnd experience teaches us that this has been the case; that for near\none thousand eight hundred years there has been a steady progress in\nthe mind of the Christian race, and that this progress has been in\nthe direction of light.\n\nHas it not been so in our notions of God?  What has the history of\ntheology been for near one thousand eight hundred years?  Has it not\nbeen a gradual justification of God, a gradual vindication of His\ncharacter from those dark and horrid notions of the Deity which were\nborrowed from the Pagans, and from the Jewish Rabbis? a gradual\nreturn to the perfect good news of a good God, which was preached by\nSt. John and by St. Paul?--In one word, a gradual manifestation of\nGod; and a gradual discovery that when God is manifested, behold,\nGod is light, and in Him is no darkness at all?\n\nThat progress, alas! is not yet perfect.  We still see through a\nglass darkly, and we are still too apt to impute to God Himself the\ndarkness of those very hearts of ours in which He is so dimly\nmirrored.  And there are men still, even in Protestant England, who\nlove darkness rather than light, and teach men that God is dark, and\nin Him are only scattered spots of light, and those visible only to\na favoured few; men who, whether from ignorance, or covetousness, or\nlust of power, preach such a deity as the old Pharisees worshipped,\nwhen they crucified the Lord of Glory, and offer to deliver men,\nforsooth, out of the hands of this dreadful phantom of their own\ndark imaginations.\n\nLet them be.  Let the dead bury their dead, and let us follow\nChrist.  Believe indeed that He is the likeness of God's glory, and\nthe express image of God's person, and you will be safe from the\ndark dreams with which they ensnare diseased and superstitious\nconsciences.  Let them be.  Light is stronger than darkness; Love\nstronger than cruelty.  Perfect God stronger than fallen man; and\nthe day shall come when all shall be light in the Lord; when all\nmankind shall know God, from the least unto the greatest, and\nlifting up free foreheads to Him who made them, and redeemed them by\nHis Son, shall in spirit and in truth, worship The Father.\n\nDoes not experience again show us that in the case of our fellow-\nmen, whatsoever is made manifest, is light?\n\nHow easy it was, a thousand years ago--a hundred years ago even, to\nhave dark thoughts about our fellow-men, simply because we did not\nknow them!  Easy it was, while the nations were kept apart by war,\neven by mere difficulty of travelling, for Christians to curse Jews,\nTurks, Infidels, and Heretics, and believe that God willed their\neternal perdition, even though the glorious collect for Good Friday\ngave their inhumanity the lie.  Easy to persecute those to whose\nopinions we could not, or would not, take the trouble to give a fair\nhearing.  Easy to condemn the negro to perpetual slavery, when we\nknew nothing of him but his black face; or to hang by hundreds the\nragged street-boys, while we disdained to inquire into the\ncircumstances which had degraded them; or to treat madmen as wild\nbeasts, instead of taming them by wise and gentle sympathy.\n\nBut with a closer knowledge of our fellow-creatures has come\ntoleration, pity, sympathy.  And as that sympathy has been freely\nobeyed, it has justified itself more and more.  The more we have\ntried to help our fellow-men, the more easy we have found it to help\nthem.  The more we have trusted them, the more trustworthy we have\nfound them.  The more we have treated them as human beings, the more\nhumanity we have found in them.  And thus man, in proportion as he\nbecomes manifest to man, is seen, in spite of all defects and sins,\nto be hallowed with a light from God who made him.\n\nAnd if it has been thus, in the case of God and of humanity, has it\nnot been equally so in the case of the physical world?  Where are\nnow all those unnatural superstitions--the monkish contempt for\nmarriage and social life, the ghosts and devils; the astrology, the\nmagic, and other dreams of which I will not speak here, which made\nthis world, in the eyes of our forefathers, a doleful and dreadful\npuzzle; and which made man the sport of arbitrary powers, of cruel\nbeings, who could torment and destroy us, but over whom we could\nhave no righteous power in return?  Where are all those dark dreams\ngone which maddened our forefathers into witch-hunting panics, and\nwhich on the Continent created a priestly science of witch-finding\nand witch-destroying, the literature whereof (and it is a large one)\npresents perhaps the most hideous instance known of human cruelty,\ncowardice, and cunning?  Where, I ask, are those dreams now?  So\nutterly vanished, that very few people in this church know what a\ngreat part they played in the thoughts of our forefathers; how\nghosts, devils, witches, magic, and astrology, filled the minds, not\nonly of the ignorant, but of the most learned, for centuries.\n\nAnd now, behold, nature being made manifest, is light.  Science has\ntaught men to admire where they used to dread; to rule where they\nused to obey; to employ for harmless uses what they were once afraid\nto touch; and, where they once saw only fiends, to see the orderly\nand beneficent laws of the all-good and almighty God.  Everywhere,\nas the work of nature is unfolded to our eyes, we see beauty, order,\nmutual use, the offspring of perfect Love as well as perfect Wisdom.\nEverywhere we are finding means to employ the secret forces of\nnature for our own benefit, or to ward off physical evils which\nseemed to our forefathers as inevitable, supernatural; and even the\npestilence, instead of being, as was once fancied, the capricious\nand miraculous infliction of some demon--the pestilence itself is\nfound to be an orderly result of the same laws by which the sun\nshines and the herb grows; a product of nature; and therefore\nsubject to man, to be prevented and extirpated by him, if he will.\n\nYes, my friends, let us teach these things to our children, to all\nchildren.  Let us tell them to go to the Light, and see their\nHeavenly Father's works manifested, and know that they are, as He\nis, _Light_.  I say, let us teach our children freely and boldly to\nknow these things, and grow up in the light of them.  Let us leave\nthose to sneer at the triumphs of modern science, who trade upon the\nignorance and the cowardice of mankind, and who say, 'Provided you\nmake a child religious, what matter if he does fancy the sun goes\nround the earth?  Why occupy his head, perhaps disturb his simple\nfaith, by giving him a smattering of secular science?'\n\nSpecious enough is that argument:  but shortsighted more than\nenough.  It is of a piece with the wisdom which shrinks from telling\nchildren that God is love, lest they should not be sufficiently\nafraid of Him; which forbids their young hearts to expand freely\ntowards their fellow-creatures:  which puts into their mouths the\nwatchwords of sects and parties, and thinks to keep them purer\nChristians by making them Pharisees from the cradle.\n\nMy friends, we may try to train up children as Pharisees:  but we\nshall discover, after twenty years of mistaken labour, that we have\nonly made them Sadducees.  The path to infidelity in manhood is\nsuperstition in youth.  You may tell the child never to mind whether\nthe sun moves round the earth or not:  but the day will come when he\nwill mind in spite of you; and if he then finds that you have\ndeceived him, that you have even left him in wilful ignorance, all\nyour moral influence over him is gone, and all your religious\nlessons probably gone also.  So true is it, that lies are by their\nvery nature self-destructive.  For all truth is of God; and no lie\nis of the truth, and therefore no lie can possibly help God or God's\nwork in any human soul.  For as the child ceases to respect his\nteachers he ceases to respect what they believe.  His innate\ninstinct of truth and honour, his innate longing to believe, to look\nup to some one better than himself, have been shocked and shaken\nonce and for all; and it may require long years, and sad years, to\nbring him back to the faith of his childhood.  Again I say it, we\nmust not fear to tell the children the whole truth; in these days\nabove all others which the world has yet seen.  You cannot prevent\ntheir finding out the truth:  then for our own sake, let us, their\nauthorized teachers, be the first to tell it them.  Let them in\nafter life connect the thought of their clergyman, their\nschoolmaster, their church, with their first lessons in the free and\nright use of their God-given faculties, with their first glimpses\ninto the boundless mysteries of art and science.  Let them learn\nfrom us to regard all their powers as their Heavenly Father's gift;\nall art, all science, all discoveries, as their Heavenly Father's\nrevelation to men.  Let them learn from us not to shrink from the\nlight, not to peep at it by stealth, but to claim it as their\nbirthright; to welcome it, to live and grow in it to the full\nstature of men--rational, free, Christian English men.  This, I\nbelieve, must be the method of a truly Protestant education.\n\nI said Protestant--I say it again.  What is the watchword of\nProtestantism?  It is this.  That no lie is of the truth.  There are\nthose who complain of us English that we attach too high a value to\nTRUTH.  They say that falsehood is an evil:  but not so great a one\nas we fancy.  We accept the imputation.  We answer boldly that there\ncan be no greater evil than falsehood, no greater blessing than\ntruth; and that by God's help we will teach the same to our\nchildren, and to our children's children.  Free inquiry, religious\nas well as civil liberty--this is the spirit of Protestantism.  This\nour fathers have bequeathed to us; this we will bequeath to our\nchildren;--to know that all truth is of God, that no lie is of the\ntruth.  Our enemies may call us heretics, unbelievers, rebellious,\npolitical squabblers.  They may say in scorn, You Protestants know\nnot whither you are going; you have broken yourselves off from the\nold Catholic tree, and now, in the wild exercise of your own private\njudgment, you are losing all that standard of doctrine, all unity of\nbelief.  Our answer will be--It is not so:  but even if it were so--\neven if we did not know whither we were going--we should go forward\nstill.  For though we know not, God knows.  We have committed\nourselves to God, the living God; and He has led us; and we believe\nthat He will lead us.  He has taught us; and we believe that He will\nteach us still.  He has prospered us, and we believe that He will\nprosper us still:  and therefore we will train up our children after\nus to go on the path which has brought us hither, freely to use\ntheir minds, boldly to prove all things, and hold fast that which is\ngood; manfully to go forward, following Truth whithersoever she may\nlead them; trusting in God, the Father of Lights, asking Him for\nwisdom, who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it\nshall be given them.\n\nI have been asked to preach this day for the National Schools of\nthis parish.  I do so willingly, because I believe that in them this\ncourse of education is pursued, that conjoined with a sound teaching\nin the principles of our Protestant church, and a wholesome and\nkindly moral training, there is free and full secular instruction as\nfar as the ages of the children will allow.  Were it not the case, I\ncould not plead for these schools; above all at this time, when the\nbattle between ancient superstition and modern enlightenment in this\nland seems fast coming to a crisis and a death struggle.  I could\nnot ask you to help any school on earth in which I had not fair\nproof that the teachers taught, on physical and human as well as on\nmoral subjects, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the\ntruth, so help them God.\n\n\n\nSERMON XIII.  PROVIDENCE\n\n\n\nMatthew vi. 31, 32, 33.  Be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat?\nor, what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for\nafter all these things do the heathen seek:) for your Heavenly\nFather knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye\nfirst the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things\nshall be added unto you.\n\nWe must first consider carefully what this text really means; what\n'taking no thought for the morrow' really is.  Now, it cannot mean\nthat we are to be altogether careless and imprudent; for all\nScripture, and especially Solomon's Proverbs, give us the very\nopposite advice, and one part of God's Word cannot contradict the\nother.  The whole of Solomon's Proverbs is made up of lessons in\nprudence and foresight; and surely our Lord did not come to do away\nwith Solomon's Proverbs, but to fulfil them.  And more, Solomon\ndeclares again and again, that prudence and foresight are the gifts\nof God; and God's gifts are surely meant to be used.  Isaiah, too,\ntells us that the common work of the farm, tilling the ground,\nsowing, and reaping, were taught to men by God; and says of the\nploughman, that 'His God doth instruct him to discretion and doth\nteach him.'  Neither can God mean us to sit idle with folded hands\nwaiting to be fed by miracles.  Would He have given to man reason,\nand skill, and the power of bettering his mortal condition by ten\nthousand instructions if He had not meant him to use those gifts?\nWe find that, at the beginning, Adam is put into the garden, not to\nsit idle in it, nor to feed merely on the fruits which fall from the\ntrees, as the dumb animals do, but to dress it, and to keep it; to\nuse his own reason to improve his own condition, and the land on\nwhich God had placed him.  Was not the very first command given to\nman to replenish the earth and subdue it?  And do we not find in the\nvery end of Scripture the Apostles working with their own hands for\ntheir daily bread?\n\nBut what use of many words?  It is absurd to believe anything else;\nabsurd to believe that man was meant to live like the butterfly,\nflitting without care from flower to flower, and, like the\nbutterfly, die helpless at the first shower or the first winter's\nfrost.  Whatever the text means, it cannot mean that.\n\nAnd it does not mean that.  I suppose, that three hundred years ago\n(when the Bible was translated out of the Greek tongue, in which the\nApostles wrote, into English), 'taking thought' meant something\ndifferent from what it does now:  but the plain meaning of the text,\nif it be put into such English as we talk now, is, 'Do not _fret_\nabout the morrow.  Be not anxious about the morrow.'  There is no\ndoubt at all, as any scholar can tell you, that that is the plain\nmeaning of the word in our modern English, and that our Lord is not\ntelling us to be imprudent or idle, but not to be anxious and\nfretful about the morrow.\n\nAnd more, I think if we look carefully at these words, we shall find\nthat they tell us the very reason why we are to work, and to look\nforward, and to believe that God will bless our labour.\n\nAnd what is this reason?  It is this, that we have a _Father_ in\nheaven; not a mere Maker, not a mere Master, but a _Father_.  All\nturns on that one Gospel of all Gospels, _your Father in heaven_.\nFor our Lord seems to me to say, 'Be not anxious for your life, what\nye shall eat, or drink, or wear.  Is not the life more than meat?\nHas not your Heavenly Father given you a higher life than the mere\nlife which must be kept up by food, which He has given to the\nanimals?  He has made you reasonable souls; He has given to you\nwisdom from His own wisdom, and a share of the Light which lights\nevery man who comes into the world, the Light of Christ His Son; He\nhas created you in His own likeness, that like Him you may make\nthings, be makers and inventors, each in his place and calling, each\naccording to his talents and powers, even as your Heavenly Father,\nthe Maker and Creator of all things.  And if He has given you all\nthese wonderful powers of mind and soul, surely He has given you the\nless blessing, the mere power to earn your own food?  If He has made\nyou so much wiser than the beasts, surely He has made you as wise as\nthe beasts.'  'And is not the body more than raiment?'  Has He not\ngiven you bodies which can speak, write, build, work, plant, in a\nthousand cunning and wonderful ways; bodies which can do a thousand\nnobler things than merely keep themselves warm, as the beasts do?\nThen be sure, if He has given you the greater power, He has given\nyou the less also.  And as for fine clothes and rich ornaments, 'Is\nnot the body more than raiment?'  Is not your body a far more\nbeautiful and nobler thing than all the gay clothes with which you\ncan bedizen it?  If your bodies be fair, strong, healthy, useful, it\nmatters little what clothes you put upon them.  Why will you not\nhave faith in your Heavenly Father?  Why will you not have faith in\nthe great honour which He put on you when He said at first, 'Let us\nmake man in our image, after our likeness, and let him have dominion\nover all things on the earth'?  Be sure, that God would not have\nmade man, and given him all these powers, and sent him upon this\nearth, unless this earth had been a right good and fit place for\nhim.  Be sure that if you obey the laws of this earth where God has\nput you, you will never need to be anxious or fret; but you will\nprosper right well, you and your children after you.  For 'Consider\nthe fowls of the air, they neither sow, nor reap, and gather into\nbarns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them; and are ye not much\nbetter than they?'  Surely you are, for you _can_ sow, and reap, and\ngather into barns.  And if God makes the earth work so well that it\nfeeds the fowls who cannot help themselves, how much more will the\nearth feed you who _can_ help yourselves, because God has given you\nunderstanding and prudence?  But as for anxiety, fretting, repining,\ncomplaining to God, 'Why hast Thou made me thus?' what use in that?\n'Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?'\nWill all the fretting and anxiety in the world make you one foot or\none inch taller than you are?  Will it make you stronger, wiser,\nmore able to help yourself?  You are what you are:  you can do what\nGod has given you power to do.  Trust Him that He has made you\nstrong enough and wise enough to earn your daily bread, and to\nprosper right well, if you will, upon this earth which He has made.\nAnd why be anxious about clothing?  'Consider the lilies of the\nfield, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet\nSolomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'  But\nman _can_ toil, man _can_ spin; your Heavenly Father has given to\nman the power of providing clothes for himself, and not for himself\nonly, but for others; so that while the man who tills the soil feeds\nthe man who spins and weaves, the man who spins and weaves shall\nclothe the man who tills the soil; and the town shall work for the\ncountry, while the country feeds the town; and every man, if he does\nbut labour where God has put him, shall produce comforts for human\nbeings whom he never saw, who live perhaps in foreign lands across\nthe sea.  For the Heavenly Father has knit together the great family\nof man in one blessed bond of mutual need and mutual usefulness all\nover the world; so that no member of it can do without the other,\nand each member of it--each individual man--let him work at what\nthing he will, can make many times more of that thing than he needs\nfor himself, and so help others while he earns his own living; and\nso wealth and comfort ought to increase year by year among the whole\nfamily of men, ay, and would increase, if it were not for sin.  Yes,\nmy friends, if it were not for that same _sin_--if it were not that\nmen do not seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,\nthere would be no end, no bound to the wealth, the comfort, the\nhappiness of the children of men.  Even as it is, in spite of all\nman's sin, the world does prosper marvellously, miraculously; in\nspite of all the waste, destruction, idleness, ignorance, injustice,\nand folly which goes on in the world, mankind increases and\nreplenishes the earth, and improves in comfort and in happiness; in\nspite of all, God is stronger than the Devil, life stronger than\ndeath, wisdom stronger than folly, order stronger than disorder,\nfruitfulness stronger than destruction; and they will be so, more\nand more, till the last great day, when Christ shall have put all\nenemies under His feet, and death is swallowed up in victory, and\nall mankind is one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the\nrighteous King of all.\n\nBut some may ask, What does our Lord mean when He says, 'That if we\nsought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these\nthings should be added to us?'\n\nI cannot tell you altogether, my friends; for eye hath not seen, nor\near heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive\nwhat God has prepared for those who love Him.  But this I can tell\nyou, that these things are taken _from_ men, instead of being added\nto them, by their not seeking first God's kingdom and His\nrighteousness.  I can tell you, as the Prophet does, that it is the\nsins of man which withhold good things from him; because though, as\nthe Prophet says in the same place, God sends the good things, and\nthe former and latter rain in their season, and reserves to men\nstill the appointed weeks of harvest, yet men will not fear that\nsame Lord their God; and therefore those good things are wasted, and\nmankind remains too often miserable in spite of God's goodness, and\nstarving in the midst of God's plenty.\n\nIf you wish to know what I mean, look but once at this present war.\nI do not complain of the war.  I honour the war.  I thank God from\nthe bottom of my heart for this great and glorious victory, and I\ncall on you to thank Him, too, for it.  I am none of those who think\nwar sinful.  I cannot do so, for I swore at my baptism to fight\nmanfully under Christ's banner against the world, the flesh, and the\nDevil; and if we cannot reach the Devil and his works by any other\nmeans, we must reach them as we are doing now, by sharp shot and\ncold steel, and we must hold it an honourable thing, and few things\nmore honourable on earth, for a man to die fighting against evil\nmen, and an evil world-devouring empire, like that of Babylon of\nold, or this of Russia now, that he may save not merely us who sit\nhere now, but our children's children, and generations yet unborn,\nfrom Russian tyranny, and Russian falsehood, and Russian profligacy,\nand Russian superstition.  I say, I do not complain of this war; but\nI ask you to look at the mere waste which it brings, the mere waste\nof God's blessings.  Consider all the skilful men now employed in\nmaking cannon, shot, and powder to kill mortal men, who might every\none of them, in time of peace, have been employed in making things\nwhich would feed, and clothe, and comfort mortal man.  Consider that\nvery powder and shot itself, the fruit of so much labour and money,\nmade simply to be shot away, once for all, as if a man should spend\nmonths in making some precious vessel, and then dash it to pieces\nthe moment it was made.  Consider that Sevastopol alone; the\nmillions of money which it must have cost--the stone, the timber,\nthe iron, all used there--in making a mere robber's den, which might\nall have been spent in giving employment and sustenance to whole\nprovinces of poor starving Russians.  Consider those tens of\nthousands of men, labouring day and night for months at those deadly\nearthworks, whose strong arms might have been all tilling God's\nearth, and growing food for the use of man.  And then see the waste,\nthe want, the misery which that one place, Sevastopol, has caused\nupon God's earth.\n\nAnd consider, too, the souls of mortal men, who have been wasted\nthere--no man knows how many, nor will know till the judgment day.\nTwo hundred thousand, at the least, they say, wasted about that\naccursed place, within the last twelve months.  Two hundred thousand\ncunning brains, two hundred thousand strong right hands, two hundred\nthousand willing hearts:  what good might not each of those men have\ndone if he had been labouring peacefully at home, in his right place\nin God's family!  What might he not have invented, made, carried\nover land and sea?  None dead there but might have been of use in\nhis generation; and doubtless many a one who would have done good\nwith all his might, who would have been a blessing to those around\nhim; and now what is left of him on earth but a few bones beneath\nthe sod?  Wasted--utterly wasted!  Oh, consider how precious is one\nman; consider how much good the weakest and stupidest of us all\nmight do, if he set himself with his whole soul to do good; consider\nthat the weakest and stupidest of us, even if he has no care for\ngood, cannot earn his day's wages without doing some good to the\nbodies of his fellow-men; and then judge of the loss to mankind by\nthis one single siege of one single town; and think how many\nstomachs must be the emptier, how many backs the barer, for this one\nwar; and then see how man wastes God's gifts, and wastes most of all\nthat most precious gift of all, men, living men, with minds, and\nreasons, and immortal souls.\n\nAnd whence has all this waste come?  Simply because these Russian\nrulers have chosen to seek first, not God's kingdom, but their own.\nInstead of behaving like God's ministers and God's stewards, and\nasking, 'How would God our King have us rule His kingdom?' they have\nlaboured for their own power, conquering all the nations round them,\nremoving their neighbour's landmark, and wasting the wealth of their\ncountry on armies, and fortresses, and fleets, with which they\nintended to conquer more and more of the earth which did not belong\nto them.  Because, instead of seeking God's righteousness, and\nsaying to themselves, 'How shall we be righteous, even as our\nHeavenly Father is righteous, and how shall we teach this great\npeople to be righteous likewise?' they have sought their own\npleasure, and lived in profligacy, covetous and cheating almost\nbeyond belief; and instead of behaving righteously to the people, or\nteaching them to be righteous, they have crushed down the people,\nstupefied and corrupted them by slavery, and maddened them by\nsuperstitions which are not the righteousness of God, till they have\nmade them easy tools in their unjust wars, and are able to drive\nthem, even by force, like sheep to the slaughter, to die miserably\nin a cause in which, even if those unhappy slaves conquered, they\nwould only rivet their own chains more tightly, and put more power\ninto the hands of the very rulers who are robbing them of their\nearnings, dishonouring their daughters, and driving off their sons\nto die in a foreign land.  Ah, my friends, if these men had but\nsought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; if the great\nwealth, and the wonderful industry and prudence of Russia had been\nbut spent in doing justly, and loving mercy, what a rich and\nhonourable country of brave and industrious Christian men might\nRussia be; a blessing, and not a curse, to half the earth of God!\n\nLet us pray that she will become so, some day; and we may have hope\nfor her, for she is but young, and has time yet for repentance.\n\nBut some may say--indeed, we are all ready enough to say--'Then the\nevil of this war is the Russians' fault, and not ours; and so in\nevery other case.  In every other evil and misery they are rather\nother people's fault than ours.  If we do our duty well enough, and\nif other people would but do theirs, all would be well.'\n\nWe are all apt to say this in our hearts.  But our Lord does not say\nso.  His promise is to all mankind:  but His promise is to each of\nus also.  When He says, Seek ye first God's kingdom and\nrighteousness, He speaks to you and to me, to every soul now here.\nBelieve it, my friends.  The more that I see of life, the more I see\nhow much of our sorrow is our own fault; how much of our happiness\nis in our own hands; and the more I see how little use there is in\nfinding fault with this government, or that, the more I see how much\nuse there is in every man's finding fault with himself, and taking\nhis share of the blame.\n\nI do not doubt that if the whole people of England, for the last\nforty years, had sought first God's kingdom and God's righteousness,\nand said to themselves in every matter, not merely 'What is\nprofitable for us to do?' but 'What is _right_ for us to do?' we\nshould have been spared the expenses and the sorrows of this war:\nbut as for blaming our government, my friends,--what they are we\nare; we choose them, Englishmen like ourselves, and they truly\n_represent us_.  Not one complaint can we make against them, which\nwe may not as justly make against ourselves; and if we had been in\ntheir places, we should have done what they did; for the seeds of\nthe same sins are in us; and we yield, each in his own household and\nhis own business, to the same temptations as they, to the sins which\nso easily beset Englishmen at this present time.  I say, frankly, I\nsee not one charge brought against them in the newspapers which\nmight not quite as justly be brought against me, and, for aught I\nknow, against every one of us here; and while we are not faithful\nover a few things, what right have we to complain of them for not\nhaving been faithful over many things?  Believe, rather (I believe\nit), that if we had been in their place, we should have done far\nworse than they; and ask yourselves, 'Do _I_ seek first God's\nkingdom and God's righteousness; for if I do not, what right have I\nto lay the blame of my bad success on other men's not seeking them?'\nTo each of us, as much as to our government, or to the Russian\nempire, is Christ's command; and each of us must take the\nconsequences, if we break it.  Let us look at ourselves, and mend\nourselves, and try whether God's promise will not hold true for us,\neach in his station, let the world round us go as it will.  Be sure\nthat God is just, and that every man bears his own burden:  that the\nrighteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee, O God!\nShall not the judge of all the earth do right?  Be sure that those\nwho trust in Him shall never be confounded, though the earth be\nmoved, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea, as it is\nwritten, 'Trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land,\nand work where God has placed thee, and verily thou shalt be fed.'\n\nBut have we done so, my friends? have we sought first God's kingdom\nand His righteousness? have we not rather forgotten the meaning of\nthe text, and what God's kingdom is, and what His righteousness is?\nDo not most people fancy that God's kingdom only means some pleasant\nplace to which people are to go after they die? and that seeking\nGod's righteousness only means having Christ's righteousness imputed\nto us (as they call it), without our being righteous and good\nourselves?  Do not most of us fancy that this very text means, 'Do\nyou take care of your souls, and God will take care of your bodies;\ndo you see after the salvation of your souls, and God will see after\nthe salvation of your bodies'? a meaning which, in the first place,\nis not true, for God will do no such thing; and all the religion in\nthe world will not prevent a man's having to work for his daily\nbread, or pay his debts for him without money; and a meaning which,\nin the second place, people themselves do not believe; for religious\nprofessors in general now are just as keen about money as\nirreligious ones, and even more so; so that covetousness and\ncunning, ambition and greediness to rise in life, seem now-a-days to\ngo hand in hand with a high religious profession; and those who\nfancy themselves the children of light have become just as wise in\ntheir generation as the children of this world whom they despise.\n\nNo, my friends, that is not the meaning of the text; and when I ask\nyou, Have you obeyed the text? I do not ask you that question; but\none which I believe is something far more spiritual and more deep,\nsomething at least which is far more heart-searching, and likely to\nprick a man's conscience, perhaps to make him angry with me who ask.\n\nDo you seek first God's kingdom, or your own profit, your own\npleasure, your own reputation?  Do you believe that you are in God's\nkingdom, that He is your King, and has called you to the station in\nwhich you are to do good and useful work for Him upon this earth of\nHis?  Whatever be your calling, whether you be servant, labourer,\nfarmer, tradesman, gentleman, maid, wife, or widow, father, son, or\nhusband, do you ask yourself every day, 'Now what are the laws of\nGod's kingdom about this station of mine? what is my duty here? how\ncan I obey God, and His laws here, and do what He requires of me,\nand so be a good servant, a good labourer, a good tradesman, a good\nmaster, a good parish officer, a good wife, a good parent, pleasing\nto God, useful to my neighbours and to my countrymen?'  Or do you\nsay to yourselves, 'How can I get the greatest quantity of money and\npleasure out of my station, with the least trouble to myself?'  My\ndearest friends, ask yourselves, each of you, in which of these two\nways do you look at your own station in life?\n\nAnd do you seek first God's righteousness?  There can be no mistake\nas to what God's righteousness is; for God's righteousness must be\nChrist's righteousness, seeing that He is the express image of His\nFather.  Now do you ask yourselves, 'How am I to be righteous in my\nstation, as Christ was in His? how can I do my Heavenly Father's\nwill, as Christ did? how can I behave like Christ in my station? how\nwould the Lord Jesus Christ have behaved, if He had been in my\nplace, when He was on earth?'  My friends, that is the question, the\nsearching question, the question which must convince us all of sin,\nand show us so many faults of our own to complain of, that we shall\nfind no time to throw stones at our neighbours.  How would the Lord\nJesus Christ have behaved, if He had been in my place when He was\nupon earth?\n\nMy dear friends, till we can all of us answer that question somewhat\nbetter than we can now, we have no need to look as far as Russia, or\nas our forefathers' mistakes, or our rulers' mistakes, to find out\nwhy this trouble and that trouble come upon us:  for we shall find\nthe reason in our own selfish, greedy, self-willed hearts.\n\nOh, my friends, let us each search our own lives, and repent, and\namend, and resolve to do our duty, as sons of God, in the station to\nwhich God has called us, by the help of the Spirit of God, which He\nhas promised freely to those who ask Him.  And now, this day, as we\nthank God for this great victory, let us thank Him, not with our\nlips merely, but with our lives, by living such lives as He loves to\nsee, such lives as He meant us to live, lives of loyalty to God, and\nof usefulness to our brethren, and of industry and prudence in our\ncalling, and so help forward, each of us, however humble our\nstation, the glory of God; because we shall each of us, in the\ncottage and in the field, in the shop and in the mansion, in this\nour little parish, and therefore in the great nation of which it is\na part, help forward the fulfilment of those blessed words, Our\nFather which art in heaven; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on\nearth as it is in heaven; and therefore, also, the fulfilment of the\nwords which come after them, and not before them; Give us this day\nour daily bread.\n\n\n\nSERMON XIV.  ENGLAND'S STRENGTH\n\n\n\n2 Kings xix. 34.  I will defend this city, to save it for mine own\nsake.\n\nThe first lesson for this morning's service is of the grandest in\nthe whole Old Testament; grander perhaps than all, except the story\nof the passage of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Law on Sinai.\nIt follows out the story which you heard in the first lesson for\nlast Sunday afternoon, of the invasion of Judea by the Assyrians.\nYou heard then how this great Assyrian conqueror, Sennacherib, after\ntaking all the fortified towns of Judah, and sweeping the whole\ncountry with fire and sword, sent three of his generals up to the\nvery walls of Jerusalem, commanding King Hezekiah to surrender at\ndiscretion, and throw himself and his people on Sennacherib's mercy;\nhow proudly and boastfully he taunted the Jews with their weakness;\nhow, like the Russian emperor now, he called in religion as the\nexcuse for his conquests and robberies, saying, as if God's\nblessings were on them, 'Am I now come up without the Lord against\nthis place to destroy it?  The Lord said to me, Go up against this\nplace to destroy it;' while all the time what he really trusted in\n(as his own words showed) was what the Russian emperors trust in,\ntheir own strength and the number of their armies.\n\nJerusalem was thus in utter need and danger; the vast army of the\nAssyrians was encamped at Lachish, not more than ten miles off; and\nhowever strong the walls of Jerusalem might be, and however\nadvantageously it might stand on its high hill, with lofty rocks and\ncliffs on three sides of it, yet Hezekiah knew well that no strength\nof his could stand more than a few days against Sennacherib's army.\nFor these Assyrians had brought the art of war to a greater\nperfection than any nation of the old world:  they lived for war,\nand studied, it seems, only how to conquer.  And they have left\nbehind them very remarkable proofs of what sort of men they were, of\nwhich I think it right to tell you all; for they are most\ninstructive, not merely because they prove the truth of Isaiah's\naccount, but because they explain it, and help us in many ways to\nunderstand his prophecies.  They are a number of sculptures and\npaintings, representing Sennacherib, his army, and his different\nconquests, which were painted by his command, in his palace; and\nhaving been lately discovered there, among the ruins of Nineveh,\nhave been brought to England, and are now in the British Museum,\nwhile copies of many of them are in the Crystal Palace.  There we\nsee these terrible Assyrian conquerors defeating their enemies,\ntorturing and slaughtering their prisoners, swimming rivers, beating\ndown castles, sweeping on from land to land like a devouring fire,\nwhile over their heads fly fierce spirits who protect and prosper\ntheir cruelties, and eagles who trail in their claws the entrails of\nthe slain.  The very expression of their faces is frightful for its\nfierceness; the countenances of a 'bitter and hasty nation,' as the\nProphet calls them, whose feet were swift to shed blood.  And as for\nthe art of war, and their power of taking walled towns like\nJerusalem, you may see them in these pictures battering down and\nundermining forts and castles, with instruments so well made and\npowerful, that all other nations who came after them, for more than\ntwo thousand years, seem to have been content to copy from them, and\nhardly to have improved on the old Assyrian engines.\n\nSuch, and so terrible, they came up against Jerusalem:  to attempt\nto fight them would have been useless madness; and Hezekiah had but\none means of escaping from them, and that was to cast himself and\nhis people upon the boundless mercy, and faithfulness, and power of\nGod.\n\nAnd Hezekiah had his answer by Isaiah the prophet:  and more than an\nanswer.  The Lord took the matter into His own hand, and showed\nSennacherib which was the stronger, his soldiers and horses and\nengines, or the Lord God; and so that terrible Assyrian army came\nutterly to nought, and vanished off the face of the earth.\n\nNow, my friends, has this noble history no lesson in it for us?  God\nforbid!  It has a lesson which ought to come nearer to our hearts\nthan to the hearts of any nation:  for though we or our forefathers\nhave never been, for nearly three hundred years, in such utter need\nand danger as Jerusalem was, yet be sure that we might have been so,\nagain and again, had it not been for the mercy of the same God who\ndelivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians.  It is now three hundred\nyears ago that the Lord delivered this country from as terrible an\ninvader as Sennacherib himself; when He three times scattered by\nstorms the fleets of the King of Spain, which were coming to lay\nwaste this land with fire and sword:  and since then no foreign foe\nhas set foot on English soil, and we almost alone, of all the\nnations of Europe, have been preserved from those horrors of war,\neven to speak of which is dreadful!  Oh, my friends! we know not\nhalf God's goodness to us!\n\nAnd if you ask me, why God has so blest and favoured this land, I\ncan only answer--and I am not ashamed or afraid to answer--I believe\nit is on account of the Church of England; it is because God has put\nHis name here in a peculiar way, as He did among the Jews of old,\nand that He is jealous for His Church, and for the special knowledge\nof His Gospel and His Law, which He has given us in our Prayer-book\nand in our Church Catechism, lighting therein a candle in England\nwhich I believe will never be put out.  It is not merely that we are\na Protestant country,--great blessing as that is,--it is, I believe,\nthat there is something in the Church of England which there is not\nin Protestant countries abroad, unless perhaps Sweden:  for every\none of them (except Sweden and ourselves) has suffered, from time to\ntime, invading armies, and the unspeakable horrors of war.  In some\nof them the light of the Gospel has been quenched utterly, and in\nothers it lingers like a candle flickering down into the socket.  By\nhorrible persecutions, and murder, and war, and pillage, have those\nnations been tormented from time to time; and who are we, that we\nshould escape?  Certainly from no righteousness of our own.  Some\nmay say, It is our great wealth which has made us strong.  My\nfriends, believe it not.  Look at Spain, which was once the richest\nof all nations; and did her riches preserve her?  Has she not\ndwindled down into the most miserable and helpless of all nations?\nHas not her very wealth vanished from her, because she sold herself\nto work all unrighteousness with greediness?\n\nSome may say, It is our freedom which makes us strong.  My friends,\nbelieve it not.  Freedom is a vast blessing from God, but freedom\nalone will preserve no nation.  How many free nations have fallen\ninto every sort of misery, ay, into bitter slavery, in spite of all\ntheir freedom.  How many free nations in Europe lie now in bondage,\ngnawing their tongues for pain, and weary with waiting for the\ndeliverance which does not come?  No, my friends, freedom is of\nlittle use without something else--and that is loyalty; reverence\nfor law and obedience to the powers that be, because men believe\nthose powers to be ordained of God; because men believe that Christ\nis their King, and they His ministers and stewards, and that He it\nis who appoints all orders and degrees of men in His Holy Church.\nTrue freedom can only live with true loyalty and obedience, such as\nour Prayer-book, our Catechism, our Church of England preaches to\nus.  It is a Church meant for free men, who stand each face to face\nwith their Heavenly Father:  but it is a Church meant also for loyal\nmen, who look on the law as the ordinance of God, and on their\nrulers as the ministers of God; and if our freedom has had anything\nto do (as no doubt it has) with our prosperity, I believe that we\nowe the greater part of our freedom to the teaching and the general\ntone of mind which our Prayer-book has given to us and to our\nforefathers for now three hundred years.\n\nNot that we have listened to that teaching, or acted up to it:  God\nknows, we have been but too like the Jews in Isaiah's time, who had\nthe Law of God, and yet did every man what was right in his own\neyes; we, like them, have been hypocritical; we, like them, have\nneglected the poor, and the widow, and the orphan; we, like them,\nhave been too apt to pay tithe of mint and anise, and neglect the\nweightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and judgment.  When we\nread that awful first chapter of Isaiah, we may well tremble; for\nall the charges which he brings against the Jews of his time would\njust as well apply to us; but yet we can trust in the Lord, as\nIsaiah did, and believe that He will be jealous for His land, and\nfor His name's sake, and not suffer the nations to say of us, 'Where\nis now their God?'  We can trust Him, that if He turn His hand on\nus, as He did on the Jews of old, and bring us into danger and\ntrouble, yet it will be in love and mercy, that He may purge away\nour dross, and take away all our alloy, and restore our rulers as at\nthe first, and our counsellors as at the beginning, that we may be\ncalled, 'The city of righteousness, the faithful city.'  True, we\nmust not fancy that we have any righteousness of our own, that we\nmerit God's favour above other people; our consciences ought to tell\nus that cannot be; our Bibles tell us that is an empty boast.  Did\nwe not hear this morning, 'Bring forth fruits meet for repentance:\nand think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our\nfather; for God is able of these stones to raise up children to\nAbraham.'  But we may comfort ourselves with the thought that there\nis One standing among us (though we see Him not) who will, ay, and\ndoes, 'baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in\nHis hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather the\nwheat into His garner,' for the use of our children after us, and\nthe generations yet unborn, while the chaff, all among us which is\nempty, and light, and rotten, and useless, He will burn up (thanks\nbe to His holy name) with fire unquenchable, which neither the\nfalsehood and folly of man, nor the malice of the Devil, can put\nout, but which will purge this land of all its sins.\n\nThis is our hope, and this is the cause of our thankfulness.  For\nwho but we should be thankful this day that we are Englishmen,\nmembers of Christ's Church of England, inhabitants of, perhaps, the\nonly country in Europe which is not now perplexed with fear of\nchange, while men's hearts fail them for dread, and looking for\nthose things which are coming on the earth? a country which has\nnever seen, as all the countries round have seen, a foreign army\ntrampling down their crops, burning their farms, cutting down their\ntrees, plundering their towns, destroying in a day the labour of\nyears, while women are dishonoured, men tortured to make them give\nup their money, the able-bodied driven from their homes, ruined and\nwanderers, and the sick and aged left to perish of famine and\nneglect.  My friends, all these things were going on but last year\nupon the Danube.  They are going on now in Asia:  even with all the\nmercy and moderation of our soldiers and sailors, we have not been\nable to avoid inflicting some of these very miseries upon our own\nenemies; and yet here we are, going about our business in peace and\nsafety in a land in which we and our forefathers have found, now for\nmany a year, that just laws make a quiet and prosperous people; that\nthe effect of righteousness is peace, and the fruit of\nrighteousness, quietness and assurance for ever;--a land in which\nthe good are not terrified, the industrious hampered, and the greedy\nand lawless made eager and restless by expectation of change in\ngovernment; but every man can boldly and hopefully work in his\ncalling, and 'whatsoever his hand finds to do, do it with all his\nmight,' in fair hope that the money which he earns in his manhood he\nwill be able to enjoy quietly in his old age, and hand it down\nsafely to his children, and his children's children;--a land which\nfor hundreds of years has not felt the unspeakable horrors of war; a\nland which even now is safely and peacefully gathering in its\nharvest, while so many countries lie wasted with fire and sword.\nOh, my friends, who made us to differ from others, or what have we\nthat we did not receive?  Not to ourselves do we owe our blessings;\nhardly even to our wise forefathers:  but to God Himself, and the\nSpirit of God which was with them, and is with us still, in spite of\nall our shortcomings.  We owe it to our wise Constitution, to our\nwise Church, the principle of which is that God is Judge and Christ\nis King, in peace as well as in war, in times of quiet as well as in\ntimes of change; I say, to our wise Constitution and to our wise\nChurch, which teach us that all power is of God; that all men who\nhave power, great or small, are His stewards; that all orders and\ndegrees of men in His Holy Church, from the queen on the throne to\nthe labourer in the harvest-field, are called by God to their\nministry and vocation, and are responsible to God for their conduct\ntherein.  How then shall we show forth our thankfulness, not only in\nour lips, but in our lives?  How, but by believing that very\nprinciple, that very truth which He has taught us, and by which\nEngland stands, that we are God's people, and God's servants?  He\nhas indeed showed us what is good, and our fathers before us; and\nwhat does the Lord require of us in return, but to do the good which\nHe has showed us, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly\nwith our God?\n\nOh, my friends, come frankly and joyfully to the Lord's Table this\nday.  Confess your sins and shortcomings to Him, and entreat Him to\nenable you to live more worthily of your many blessings.  Offer to\nHim the sacrifice of your praise and thankfulness, imperfect though\nit is, and join with angels and archangels in blessing Him for what\nHe is, and what He has been to you:  and then receive your share of\n_His_ most perfect sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, the bread\nand the wine which tell you that you are members of His Church; that\nHis body gives you whatsoever life and strength your souls have;\nthat His blood washes out all your sins and shortcomings; that His\nSpirit shall be renewed in you day by day, to teach you to do the\ngood work which He has prepared already for you, and to walk in the\nold paths which have led our forefathers, and will lead us too, I\ntrust, safe through the chances and changes of this mortal life, and\nthe fall of mighty kingdoms, towards that perfect City of God which\nis eternal in the heavens.\n\n\n\nSERMON XV.  THE LIFE OF GOD\n\n\n\nEphesians iv. 17, 18.  That ye walk not as other Gentiles walk, in\nthe vanity of their mind, being alienated from the life of God\nthrough the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of\ntheir heart.\n\nYou heard these words read in the Epistle for to-day.  I cannot\nexpect that you all understood them.  It is no shame to you that you\ndid not.  Some of them are long and hard Latin words.  Some of them,\nthough they are plain English enough, are hard to understand because\nthey have to do with deep matters, which can only be understood by\nthe help of God's Spirit.  And even with the help of God's Spirit we\ncannot any of us expect to understand _all_ which they mean:  we\ncannot expect to be as wise as St. Paul; for we must be as good as\nSt. Paul before we can be as wise about goodness as he was.  I do\nnot pretend to understand all the text myself:  no, not half, nor a\ntenth part of what it very likely means.  But I do seem to myself to\nunderstand a little about it, by the help and blessing of God; and\nwhat little of it I do understand, I will try to make you understand\nalso.\n\nFor the words in the text belong to you as much as to me, or to St.\nPaul himself.  What is true for one man, is true for every man.\nWhat is right for one man, is right for every man.  What God\npromises for one man, He promises to every man.  Man or woman, black\nor white, rich or poor, scholar or unlearned, there is no respect of\npersons with Him.  'In Christ Jesus,' says St. Paul, 'there is\nneither male nor female, slave nor freeman, Jew who fancies that\nGod's promises belong to him alone, or Gentile who knows nothing\nabout them, clever learned Greek, or stupid ignorant Barbarian.'\n\nIt is enough for God that we are all men and women bearing the\nflesh, and blood, and human nature which His Son Jesus Christ wore\non earth.  If we are baptized, we belong to Him:  if we are not\nbaptized, we ought to be; for we belong to Him just as much.  Every\nman may be baptized; every man may be regenerate; God calls all to\nHis grace and adoption and holy baptism, which is the sign and seal\nof His adoption; and therefore, what is right for the regenerate\nbaptized man, is right for the unregenerate unbaptized man; for the\nChristian and for the heathen there is but one way, one duty, one\nlife for both, and that is the life of God, of which St. Paul speaks\nin the text.\n\nNow of this life of God I will speak hereafter; but I mention it\nnow, because it is the thing to which I wish to bring your thoughts\nbefore the end of the sermon.\n\nBut first, let us see what St. Paul means, when he talks about the\nGentiles in his day.  For that also has to do with us.  I said that\nevery man, Christian or heathen, has the same duty, and is bound to\ndo the same right; every man, Christian or heathen, if he sins,\nbreaks his duty in the same way, and does the same wrong.  There is\nbut one righteousness, the life of God; there is but one sin, and\nthat is being alienated from the life of God.  One man may commit\ndifferent sorts of sins from another; one may lie, another may\nsteal:  one may be proud, another may be covetous:  but all these\ndifferent sins come from the same root of sin; they are all flowers\nof the same plant.  And St. Paul tells us what that one root of sin,\nwhat that same Devil's plant, is, which produces all sin in\nChristian or Heathen, in Churchman or Dissenter, in man or woman--\nthe one disease, from which has come all the sin which ever was done\nby man, woman, or child since the world was made.\n\nNow, what is this one disease, to which every man, you and I, are\nall liable?  Why it is that we are every one of us worse than we\nought to be, worse than we know how to be, and, strangest of all,\nworse than we wish and like to be.\n\nJust as far as we are like the heathen of old, we shall be worse\nthan we know how to be.  For we are all ready enough to turn\nheathens again, at any moment, my friends; and the best Christian in\nthis church knows best that what I say is true; that he is beset by\nthe very same temptations which ruined the old heathens, and that if\nhe gave way to them a moment they would ruin him likewise.  For what\ndoes St. Paul say was the matter with the old heathens?\n\nFirst he says, 'Their understanding was darkened.'  But what part of\nit?  What was it that they had got dark about and could not\nunderstand?  For in some matters they were as clever as we, and\ncleverer.  What part of their understanding was it which was\ndarkened?  St. Paul tells us in the first chapter of the Epistle to\nthe Romans.  It was their hearts--their reason, as we should say.\nIt was about God, and the life of God, that they were dark.  They\nhad not been always dark about God, but they were _darkened_; they\ngrew more and more dark about Him, generation after generation; they\ngave themselves up more and more to their corrupt and fallen nature,\nand so the children grew worse than their fathers, and their\nchildren again worse than them, till they had lost all notion of\nwhat God was like.  For from the very first all heathens have had\nsome notion of what God is like, and have had a notion also, which\nnone but God could have given them, that men ought to be like God.\nGod taught, or if I may so speak, tried to teach, the heathen, from\nthe very first.  If God had not taught them, they would not have\nbeen to blame for knowing nothing of God.  For as Job says, 'Can man\nby searching find out God?'  Surely not; God must teach us about\nHimself.  Never forget that man cannot find God; God must show\nHimself to man of His own free grace and will.  God must reveal and\nunveil Himself to us, or we shall never even fancy that there is a\nGod.  And God did so to the heathen.  Even before the Flood, God's\nSpirit strove with man; and after the Flood we read how the Lord,\nJesus Christ the Son of God, revealed Himself in many different ways\nto heathens.  To Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in Abraham's times; and\nagain to Abimelech, king of Gerar; and again to Pharaoh and his\nservants, in Joseph's time; and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,\nand to Cyrus, king of Persia; and no doubt to thousands more.\nIndeed, no man, heathen or Christian, ever thought a single true\nthought, or felt a single right feeling, about God or man, or man's\nduty to God and his neighbour, unless God revealed it to him\n(whether or not He also revealed _Himself_ to the man and showed him\n_who_ it was who was putting the right thought into his mind):  for\nevery right thought and feeling about God, and goodness, and duty,\nare the very voice of God Himself, the word of God whereof St. John\nspeaks, and Moses and the prophets speak, speaking to the heart of\nsinful man, to enlighten and to teach him.  And therefore, St. Paul\nsays, the sinful heathen were without excuse, because, he says,\n'that which may be known of God is manifest, that is plain, among\nthem, for God hath showed it to them.  For the invisible things of\nHim from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being\nunderstood by the things which are made, even His eternal power and\nGodhead; so that they are without excuse.'  'But these heathens,' he\nsays, 'did not like to retain God in their knowledge; and when they\nknew God, did not glorify Him as God, and changed the glory of the\nIncorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man, and beasts\nand creeping things.'  And so they were alienated from the life of\nGod; that is, they became strangers to God's life; they forgot what\nGod's life and character was like:  or if they even did awake a\nmoment, and recollect dimly what God was like, they hated that\nthought.  They hated to think that God was what He was, and shut\ntheir eyes, and stopped their ears as fast as possible.\n\nAnd what happened to them in the meantime?  What was the fruit of\ntheir wilfully forgetting what God's life was?  St. Paul tells us\nthat they fell into the most horrible sins--sins too dreadful and\nshameful to be spoken of; and that their common life, even when they\ndid not run into such fearful evils, was profligate, fierce, and\nmiserable.  And yet St. Paul tells us all the while they knew the\njudgment of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death.\n\nNow we know that St. Paul speaks truth, from the writings of\nheathens; for God raised up from time to time, even among the\nheathen Greeks and Romans, witnesses for Himself, to testify of Him\nand of His life, and to testify against the sins of the world, such\nmen as Socrates and Plato among the Greeks, whose writings St. Paul\nknew thoroughly, and whom, I have no doubt, he had in his mind when\nhe wrote his first chapter of Romans, and told the heathen that they\nwere without excuse.  And among the Romans, also, He raised up, in\nthe same way, witnesses for Himself, such as Juvenal and Persius,\nand others, whom scholars know well.  And to these men, heathens\nthough they were, God certainly did teach a great deal about\nHimself, and gave them courage to rebuke the sins of kings and rich\nmen, even at the danger of their lives; and to some of them he gave\ncourage even to suffer martyrdom for the message which God had given\nthem, and which their neighbours hated to hear.  And this was the\nmessage which God sent by them to the heathen:  that God was good\nand righteous, and that therefore His everlasting wrath must be\nawaiting sinners.  They rebuked their heathen neighbours for those\nvery same horrible crimes which St. Paul mentions; and then they\nsaid, as St. Paul does, 'How you make your own sins worse by\nblasphemies against God!  You sin yourselves, and then, to excuse\nyourselves, you invent fables and lies about God, and pretend that\nGod is as wicked as you are, in order to drug your own consciences,\nby making God the pattern of your own wickedness.'\n\nThese men saw that man ought to be like God; and they saw that God\nwas righteous and good; and they saw, therefore, that\nunrighteousness and sin must end in ruin and everlasting misery.  So\nmuch God had taught them, but not much more; but to St. Paul he had\ntaught more.  Those wise and righteous heathen could show their\nsinful neighbours that sin was death, and that God was righteous.\nBut they could not tell them how to rise out of the death of sin,\ninto God's life of righteousness.  They could preach the terrors of\nthe Law, but they did not know the good news of the Gospel, and\ntherefore they did not succeed; they did not convert their\nneighbours to God.  Then came St. Paul and preached to the very same\npeople, and he did convert them to God; for he had good news for\nthem, of things which prophets and kings had desired to see, and had\nnot seen them, and to hear, and had not heard them.\n\nFor God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke to the\nfathers by the prophets, at last spoke to all men by a Son, His\nonly-begotten Son, the exact likeness of His Father, the brightness\nof His glory, and the express image of His person.  He sent Him to\nbe a man:  very man of the substance of His mother, the Blessed\nVirgin Mary, at the same time that He was Very God, of the substance\nof His Father, begotten before all worlds.\n\nAnd so God, and the life of God, was manifested in the flesh and\nreasonable soul of a man; and from that time there is no doubt what\nthe life of God is; for the life of God is the life of Jesus Christ.\nThere is no doubt now what God is like, for God is like Jesus\nChrist.  No one can now say, 'I cannot see God, how then can you\nexpect me to be like God?' for He who has seen Jesus Christ, as His\ncharacter stands in the Gospels, has seen God the Father.  No one\ncan say now, 'How can a man be like God, and live a life like God's\nlife?' for if any one of you say that, I can answer him:  'A man can\nbe like God; you can be like God; for there was once a man on earth,\nJesus, the son of the Blessed Virgin, who was perfectly like God.'\nAnd if you answer, 'But He was like God, because He was God,' I can\nsay, 'And that is the very reason why you can be like God also.'  If\nJesus Christ had been only a man, you could no more become like Him\nthan you can become clever because another man is clever, or strong\nbecause another man is strong:  but because He was God The Son of\nGod, He can give you, to make you like God, the same Holy Spirit\nwhich made Him like God; for that Holy Spirit proceeds from Him, the\nSon, as well as from the Father, and the Father has committed all\npower to the Son; and therefore that same Man Christ Jesus has power\nto change your heart, and renew it, and shape it to be like Him, and\nlike His Father, by the power of His Spirit, that you may be like\nGod as He was like God, and live the life of God which He lived; so\nthat the Lord Jesus Christ, because He was a man like God, showed\nthat all men can become like God; and because He was God, Very God\nof Very God, He is able to make all who come to Him men like\nHimself, men like God, and raise them up body and soul to the\neverlasting life of God, that He may be the firstborn among many\nbrethren.\n\nNow what is this everlasting life of God, which the Lord Jesus\nChrist lived perfectly, and which He can and will make every one of\nus live, in proportion as we give up our hearts and wills to Him,\nand ask Him to take charge of us, and shape us, and teach us?  When\nwe read that blessed story of Him who was born in a stable, and laid\nin a manger, who went about doing good, because God was with Him,\nwho condescended of His own freewill to be mocked, and scourged, and\nspit upon, and crucified, that He might take away the sins of the\nwhole world, who prayed for His murderers, and blest those who\ncursed Him--what sort of life does this life of God, which He lived,\nseem to us?  Is it not a life of love, joy, peace, long-suffering,\ngentleness, goodness, patience, meekness?  Surely it is; then that\nis the likeness of God.  God is love.  And the Lord Jesus' life was\na life of love--utter, perfect, untiring love.  He did His Father's\nwill perfectly, because He loved men perfectly, and to the death.\nHe died for those who hated Him, and so He showed forth to man the\nname and glory of God; for God is love.  The name of the Father, and\nof the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is love; for love is justice and\nrighteousness, as it is written, 'Love worketh no ill to his\nneighbour:  therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.'  And God\nis perfect love, because He is perfect righteousness; and perfect\nrighteousness, because He is perfect love; for His love and His\njustice are not two different things, two different parts of God, as\nsome say, who fancy that God's justice had to be satisfied in one\nway, and His love in another, and talk of God as if His justice\nfought against His love, and desired the death of a sinner, and then\nHis love fought against His justice, and desired to save a sinner.\nNo wonder that those who hold such doctrines go further still, and\ntalk as if God the Father desired to destroy mankind, and would have\ndone it if God the Son had not interposed, and suffered Himself\ninstead; till they can fancy that they are Christians, and know God,\nwhile they use the hideous words of a certain hymn, which speaks of\n\n\n'The streaming drops of Jesu's blood\nWhich calmed the Father's frowning face.'\n\n\nMay God deliver and preserve us and our children from all such\nblasphemous fables, which, like the fables of the old heathen,\nchange the glory of the Incorruptible God into the likeness of a\ncorruptible man, which deny the true faith, that God has neither\nparts nor passions, by talking of His love and His justice as two\ndifferent things; which confound His persons by saying that the Son\nalone does what the Father and the Holy Spirit do also, while they\ndivide His substance by making the will of the Son different from\nthe will of the Father, and deny that such as the Father is, such is\nthe Son, and such is the Holy Ghost, all three one perfect Love, and\none perfect Justice, because they are all three one God, and God is\nlove, and love is righteousness.\n\nBelieve me, my friends, this is no mere question of words, which\nonly has to do with scholars in their libraries; it is a question,\nthe question of life and death for you, and me, and every living\nsoul in this church,--Do we know what the life of God is? are we\nliving it? or are we alienated from it, careless about it, disliking\nit?\n\nFor, as I said at the beginning of my sermon, we are all ready\nenough to turn heathens again; and if we grow to forget or dislike\nthe life of God, we shall be heathen at heart.  We may talk about\nHim with our lips, we may quarrel and curse each other about\nreligious differences; but let us make as great a profession as we\nmay, if we do not love the life of God we shall be heathen at heart,\nand we shall, sooner or later, fall into sin.  The heathens fell\ninto sin just in proportion as their hearts were turned away from\nthe life of God, and so shall we.  And how shall we know whether our\nhearts are turned away, or whether they are right with God?  Thus:\nWhat are the fruits of God's Spirit? what sort of life does the\nSpirit of God make man live?  For the Spirit of God is God, and\ntherefore the life of God is the life which God's Spirit makes men\nlive; and what is that? a life of love and righteousness.\n\nThe old heathens did not like such a life, therefore they did not\nlike to retain God in their knowledge.  They knew that man ought to\nbe like God:  and St. Paul says, they ought to have known what God\nwas like; that He was Love; for St. Paul told them He left not\nHimself without witness, in that He sent them rain and fruitful\nseasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.  That was, in\nSt. Paul's eyes, God's plainest witness of Himself--the sign that\nGod was Love, making His sun shine on the just and on the unjust,\nand good to the unthankful and the evil--in one word, perfect,\nbecause He is perfect Love.  But they preferred to be selfish,\ncovetous, envious, revengeful, delighting to indulge themselves in\nfilthy pleasures, to oppress and defraud each other.  Do you?\n\nFor you can, I can, every baptized man can take his choice between\nthe selfish life of the heathens and the loving life of God:  we may\neither keep to the old pattern of man, which is corrupt according to\nthe deceitful lusts; or we may put on the new pattern of man, which\nis after God's likeness, and founded upon righteousness and truthful\nholiness.\n\nEvery baptized man may choose.  For he is not only bound to live the\nlife of God:  every man, as the old heathen philosophers knew, is\nbound to live it:  but more.  The baptized man _can_ live it:  that\nis the good news of his baptism.  _You can_ live the life of God,\nfor you know what the life of God is--it is the life of Jesus\nChrist.  _You can_ live the life of God, for the Spirit of God is\nwith you, to cleanse your soul and life, day by day, till they are\nlike the soul and life of Christ.\n\nThen you will be, as the apostle says, 'a partaker of a divine\nnature.'  Then--and it is an awful thing to say--a thing past hope,\npast belief, but I must say it--for it is in the Bible, it is the\nword of the Blessed Lord Himself, and of His beloved apostle, St.\nJohn:  'If a man love Me, he will keep my commandments, and my\nFather will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode\nwith him.'  'And this is His commandment,' says St. John, 'That we\nshould love one another.'  'God is Love, and he who dwelleth in Love\ndwelleth in God, and God in him.'\n\nGod is Love.  As I told you just now, the heathens of old might have\nknown that, if they had chosen to open their eyes and see.  But they\nwould not see.  They were dark, cruel, and unloving, and therefore\nthey fancied that God was dark, cruel, and unloving also.  They did\nnot love Love, and therefore they did not love God, for God is Love.\nAnd therefore they did not love loving:  they did not enjoy loving;\nand so they lost the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Love.\nAnd therefore they did not love each other, but lived in hatred and\nsuspicion, and selfishness, and darkness.  They were but heathen.\nBut if even they ought to have known that God was Love, how much\nmore we?  For we know of a deed of God's love, such as those poor\nheathen never dreamed of.  God so loved the world, that He gave His\nonly-begotten Son to die for it.  Then God showed what His eternal\nlife was--a life of love:  then God showed what our eternal life is--\nto know Him who is Love, and Jesus Christ, whom He sent to show\nforth His love:  then God showed that it is the duty and in the\npower of every man to live the life of God, the life of Love; for He\nsent forth into the world His Spirit, the Spirit of Love, to fill\nwith love the heart of every man and woman who sees that Love is the\nimage of God, and longs to be loving, and therefore longs to be like\nGod; as it is written, 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst\nafter righteousness, for they shall be filled:' for righteousness is\nkeeping Christ's commandment, and Christ's commandment is, that we\nlove one another.  And to those who long to do that, God's Spirit\nwill come to fill them with love; and where the Spirit of God is,\nthere is also the Father, and there is also the Son; for God's\nsubstance cannot be divided, as the Athanasian creed tells us (and\nblessed and cheering words they are); and he who hath the Holy\nSpirit of Love with him hath both the Father and the Son; as it is\nwritten:  'If a man love Me, my Father will love him, and we will\ncome unto him, and make our abode with him.'\n\nAnd then, if we have God abiding with us, and filling us with His\nEternal Life, what more do we need for life, or death, or eternity,\nor eternities of eternities?  For we shall live in and with and by\nGod, who can never die or change, an everlasting life of love,\nwhereof St. Paul says, that though prophecies shall fail, and\ntongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away, because all\nthat we know now is but in part, and all that we see now is through\na glass darkly, yet Love shall never fail, but abide for ever and\never.\n\n\n\nSERMON XVI.  GOD'S OFFSPRING\n\n\n\nGalatians iv. 7.  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son;\nand if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.\n\nI say, writes St. Paul, in the epistle which you heard read just\nnow, 'that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from\na servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and\ngovernors, until the time appointed by his father.  Even so,' he\nsays, we, 'when we were children, were in bondage under the elements\nof the world:  but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth\nHis Son made of a woman, made under a law, to redeem them that were\nunder a law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.'\n\nWhen we were children.  He is not speaking of the Jews only; for\nthese Galatians to whom he was writing were not Jews at all, any\nmore than we are.  He was speaking to men simply as men.  He was\nspeaking to the Galatians as we have a right to speak to all men.\n\nNor does he mean merely when we were children in age.  The Greek\nword which he uses, means infants, people not come to years of\ndiscretion.  Indeed, the word which he uses means very often a\nsimpleton, an ignorant or foolish person; one who does not know who\nand what he is, what is his duty, or how to do it.\n\nNow this, he says, was the state of men before Christ came; this is\nthe state of all men by nature still; the state of all poor\nheathens, whether in England or in foreign countries.\n\nThey are children--that is, ignorant and unable to take care of\nthemselves; because they do not know what they are.  St. Paul tells\nus what they are.  That they are all God's offspring, though they\nknow it not.  He likens them to young children, who, though they are\ntheir father's heirs, have no more liberty than slaves have; but are\nkept under tutors and masters, till they have arrived at years of\ndiscretion, and are fit to take their places as their father's\n_sons_, and to go out into the world, and have the management of\ntheir own affairs, and a share in their father's property, which\nthey may use for themselves, instead of being merely fed and clothed\nby, and kept in subjection to him, whether they will or not.  This\nis what he means by receiving the adoption of sons.  He does not\nmean that we are not God's children till we find out that we are\nGod's children.  That is what some people say; but that is the very\nexact contrary to what St. Paul used to say.  He told the heathen\nAthenians that they were God's children.  He put them in mind that\none of their own heathen poets had told them so, and had said, 'We\nare also God's offspring.'  And so in this chapter he says, You were\nGod's children all along, though you did not know it.  You were\nGod's heirs all along, although you differed nothing from slaves;\nfor as long as you were in your heathen ignorance and foolishness,\nGod had to treat you as His slaves, not as His children; and so you\nwere in bondage under the elements of the world, till the fulness of\ntime was come.\n\nAnd, then, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under a law, to\nredeem those who were under a law--that is, all mankind.  The Jews\nwere keeping, or pretending to keep, Moses' law, and trying to\nplease God by that.  The heathens were keeping all manner of old\nsuperstitious laws and customs about religion which their\nforefathers had handed down to them.  But heathens, and indeed Jews\ntoo, at that time, all agreed in one thing.  These laws and customs\nof theirs about religion all went upon the notion of their being\nGod's slaves, and not his children.  They thought that God did not\nlove them; that they must buy His favours.  They thought religion\nmeant a plan for making God love them.\n\nThen appeared the love of God in Jesus Christ.  As at this very\nChristmas time, the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Lord, in whose\nlikeness man was made at the beginning, was born into the world, to\nredeem us and all mankind.  He told them of their Heavenly Father;\nHe preached to them the good news of the kingdom of God; that God\nhad not forgotten them, did not hate them, would freely forgive them\nall that was past; and why?  Because He was their Father, and loved\nthem, and loved them so that He spared not His only begotten Son,\nbut freely gave Him for them.  And now God looks at us human beings,\nnot as we are in ourselves, sinful and corrupt, but he looks at us\nin the light of Jesus Christ, who has taken our nature upon Him, and\nredeemed it, and raised it up again, so that God can look on it now\nwithout disgust, and henceforth no one need be ashamed of being a\nman; for to be a man is to be in the likeness of God.  Man was\ncreated in the image and likeness of God, and who is the image and\nlikeness of God but Jesus Christ?  Therefore man was created at\nfirst in Jesus Christ, and now, as St. Paul says, he is created anew\nin Jesus Christ; and now to be a man is to partake of the same flesh\nand blood which the Lord Jesus Christ wore for us, when He was made\nvery man of the substance of his mother, and that without spot of\nsin, to show that man need not be sinful, that man was meant by God\nto be holy and pure from sin, and that by the Holy Spirit of Jesus\nChrist we, every one of us, can become pure from sin.  This is the\nblessedness of Christmas-day.  That one man, at least, has been born\ninto the world spotless and free from sin, that He might be the\nfirstborn of many brethren.  This is the good news of Christmas-day.\nThat now, in Christ's light, and for Christ's sake, our Father looks\non us as His sons, and not His slaves.\n\nTherefore is every child who comes into the world baptized freely\ninto the name of God.  Baptism is a sign and warrant that God loves\nthat child; that God looks on it as His child, not for itself or its\nown sake, but because it belongs to Jesus Christ, who, by becoming a\nman, redeemed all mankind, and made them His property and His\nbrothers.  Therefore every child, when it is brought to be baptized,\npromises, by its godfathers and godmothers, repentance and faith,\nwhen it comes to years of understanding.  It is not God's slave, as\nthe beasts are.  It is God's child.  But God does not wish it to\nremain merely His child, under tutors and governors, forced to do\nwhat is right outwardly, and whether it likes or not.  God wishes\neach of us to become His son, His grown-up and reasonable son.  To\nknow who we are;--to work in His kingdom for Him;--to guide and\nmanage our own wills, and hearts, and lives in obedience to Him;--to\nclaim and take our share as men of God of the inheritance which He\nhas given us.  And that we can only do by faith in Jesus Christ.  We\nmust trust in Him, our Lord, our King, our Saviour, our Pattern.  We\nmust confess that we are nothing in ourselves, that we owe all to\nHim.  We must follow in his footsteps, giving up our wills to God's\nwill, doing not our own works, but the good works which God has\nprepared for us to walk in; and then we shall be truly confirmed;\nnot mere children of God, under tutors, governors, schoolmasters and\nlawgivers, but free, reasonable, willing, hearty Christians, perfect\nmen of God, the sons of God without rebuke.\n\nOh, my friends, will you claim your share in the Spirit of God, whom\nthe Lord bought for us with His precious blood, that Spirit who was\ngiven you at your baptism, which may be daily renewed in you, if you\npray for it; who will strengthen and lift you up to lead lives\nworthy of your high calling?  Or will you, like Esau of old, despise\nyour birthright, and neglect to pray that God's Spirit may be\nrenewed in you, and so lose more and more day by day the thought\nthat God is your Father, and the love of holy and godlike things?\nAlas! take care that, like Esau, you hereafter find no room for\nrepentance, though you seek it carefully with tears!  It is a\nfearful thing to despise the mercies of the living God; and when you\nare called to be His sons, to fall back under the terrors of His\nlaw, in slavish fears and a guilty conscience, and remorse which\ncannot repent.\n\nAnd do not give way to false humility, says St. Paul.  Do not say,\n'This is too high an honour for us to claim.'  Do not say, 'It seems\ntoo conceited and assuming for us miserable sinners to call\nourselves sons of God.  We shall please God better, and show\nourselves more reverent to Him, by calling ourselves His slaves, and\ncrouching and trembling before Him, as if we expected Him to strike\nus dead, and making all sorts of painful and tiresome religious\nobservances, and vain repetitions of prayers, to win His favour;' or\nby saying, 'We dare not call ourselves God's children yet; we are\nnot spiritual enough; but when we have gone through all the\nnecessary changes of heart, and frames, and feeling, and have been\nconvinced of sin, and converted, and received the earnest, God's\nSpirit, by which we cry, Abba, Father! _then_ we shall have a right\nto call ourselves God's children.'\n\nNot so, says St. Paul, all through this very Epistle to the\nGalatians.  That is not being reverent to God.  It is insulting Him.\nFor it is despising the honour which He has given you, and trying to\nget another honour of your own invention, by observances, and\nframes, and feelings of your own.  Do not say, 'When we have\nreceived the earnest of God's Spirit, by which we can cry, Abba,\nFather! _then_ we shall become God's children;' for it is just\nbecause you _are_ God's children already--just because you have been\nGod's children all along, that God has taught you to call Him\nFather.  The Lord Jesus Christ told men that God was their Father.\nNot merely to the Apostles, but to poor, ignorant, sinful wretches,\npublicans and harlots, He spoke of their Father in heaven, who,\nbecause He is a perfect Father, sends His sun to shine on the evil\nand the good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the unjust.\nThe Lord Jesus Christ taught men--all men, not merely saints and\nApostles, but all men, when they prayed--to begin, 'Our Father.'  He\ntold them that that was the manner in which they were to pray, and\ntherefore no other way of praying can we expect God to hear.  No\nslavish, terrified, superstitious coaxing and flattering will help\nyou with God.  He has told you to call Him your Father; and if you\nspeak to Him in any other way, you insult Him, and trample under\nfoot the riches of His grace.\n\nThis is the good news which the Bible preaches.  This is the witness\nof God's Spirit, proclaiming that we are the sons of God; and, says\nSt. Paul in another place, 'our spirit witnesses' to that glorious\nnews as well.  We feel, we know--why, we cannot tell, but we feel\nand know that we are the sons of God.  When we are most calm, most\nhumble, most free from ill-temper and self-conceit, most busy about\nour rightful work, then the feeling comes over us--I have a Father\nin heaven.  And that feeling gives us a strength, a peace, a sure\ntrust and hope, which no other thought can give.  Yes, we are ready\nto say, I may be miserable and unfortunate, but the Great God of\nheaven and earth is my Father; and what can happen to me?  I may be\nborne down with the remembrance of my great sins; I may find it\nalmost too hard to fight against all my bad habits; but the Great\nGod who made heaven and earth is my Father, and I am His son.  He\nwill forgive me for the past; He will help me to conquer for the\nfuture.  If I do but remember that I am God's son, and claim my\nFather's promises, neither the world, nor the devil, nor my own\nsinful flesh, can ever prevail against me.\n\nThis thought, and the peace which it brings, St. Paul tells us is\nnone of our own; we did not put it into our own hearts; from God it\ncomes, that blessed thought, that He is our Father.  We could never\nhave found it out for ourselves.  It is the Spirit of the Son of\nGod, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, which gives us courage to\nsay, 'Our Father which art in heaven,' which makes us feel that\nthose words are true, and must be true, and are worth all other\nwords in the world put together--that God is our Father, and we his\nsons.  Oh, my friends, believe earnestly this blessed news! the news\nof Christmas-day, that you are not God's slaves, but his sons, heirs\nof God, and joint-heirs with Christ;--joint-heirs with Christ!  In\nwhat?  Who can tell?  But what an inheritance of glory and bliss\nthat must be, which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is to inherit with\nus--an inheritance such as eye hath not seen, and incorruptible,\nundefiled, and that fadeth not away, preserved in heaven for us; an\ninheritance of all that is wise, loving, noble, holy, peaceful--all\nthat can make us happy, all that can make us like God Himself.  Oh,\nwhat can we expect, if we neglect so great salvation?  What can we\nexpect, if when the Great God of heaven and earth tells us that we\nare His children, we turn away and fall down, become like the\nbrutes, and the savages, or worse, like the evil spirits who rebel\nagainst God, instead of growing up to become the sons of God,\nperfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect?  May He keep us all\nfrom that great sin!  May He awaken each and every one of you to\nknow the glory and honour which Jesus Christ brought for you when He\nwas born at Bethlehem--the glory and honour which was proclaimed to\nbelong to you when you were christened at that font!  May He awaken\nyou to know that you are the sons of God, and to look up to Him with\nloving, trustful, obedient souls, saying from your hearts, morning\nand night 'Our Father which art in heaven,' and feeling that those\nwords give you daily strength to conquer your sins, and feel\nassurance of hope that your Heavenly Father will help and prosper\nyou, His family, every time you struggle to obey His commandments,\nand follow the example of His perfect and spotless Son, Jesus Christ\nthe Lord!\n\n\n\nSERMON XVII.  DEATH IN LIFE\n\n\n\nRomans viii. 12, 13.  Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to\nlive after the flesh.  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:\nbut if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye\nshall live.\n\nDoes it seem strange to you that St. Paul should warn you, that you\nare not debtors to your own flesh?  It is not strange, when you come\nto understand him; certainly not unnecessary:  for as in his time,\nso now, most people do live as if they were debtors to their own\nflesh, as if their great duty, their one duty in life, was to please\ntheir own bodies, and brains, and tempers, and fancies, and\nfeelings.  Poor people have not much time to indulge their brains;\nand no time at all, happily for them, to indulge their fancies and\nfeelings, as rich people do when they grow idle, and dainty, and\nluxurious.  But still, too many of them live as if they were debtors\nto their own flesh; as if their own bodies and their own tempers\nwere the masters of them, and ought to be their masters.  Young men,\nfor instance, how often they do things in secret of which it is a\nshame even to speak, just because it is pleasant.  Young women, how\noften do they sell themselves and their own modesty, just for the\npleasure of being flattered and courted, and of getting a few fine\nclothes.  How often do men, just for the pleasure of drink, besot\ntheir souls and bodies, madden their tempers, neglect their\nfamilies, make themselves every Saturday night, and often half the\nweek, too, lower than the beasts which perish.  And then, when a\nclergyman complains of them, they think him unreasonable; and by so\nthinking, show that he is right, and St. Paul right:  for if I say\nto you, My dear young people (and I do say it), if you give way to\nfilthy living and filthy talking, and to drunkenness, and to vanity\nabout fine clothes, you will surely die--do you not say in your\nhearts, 'How unreasonable:  how hard on us!  If we can enjoy\nourselves a little, why should we not?  It is our right, and do it\nwe will; and if it is wrong, it ought not to be wrong.'  Why, what\nis that but saying, that you ought to do just what your body likes:\nthat you are debtors to your flesh; and that your flesh, and not\nGod's law, is your master.  So again, when people grow older,\nperhaps they are more prudent about bad living, and more careful of\ntheir money:  but still they live after the flesh.  One man sets his\nheart on making money, and cares for nothing but that; breaks God's\nlaw for that, as if that was the thing to which he was a debtor,\nbound by some law which he could not avoid to scrape and scrape\nmoney together for ever.  Another (and how often we see that) is a\nslave to his own pride and temper, which are just as much bred in\nhis flesh:  if he has been injured by any one, if he has taken a\ndislike against any one, he cannot forget and forgive:  the man may\nbe upright and kindly on many other points; prudent, too, and sober,\nand thoroughly master of himself on most matters; and yet you will\nfind that when he gets on that one point, he is not master of\nhimself; for his flesh is master of him:  he may be a strong-minded,\nshrewd man upon most matters but just that one point:  some old\nquarrel, or grudge, or suspicion, is, as we say, his weak point:\nand if you touch on that, the man's eye will kindle, and his face\nredden, and his lip tremble, and he will show that he is not master\nof himself:  but that he is over-mastered by his fleshly passion, by\nthe suspiciousness, or revengefulness, or touchiness, which every\ndumb animal has as well as he, which is not part of his man's\nnature, not part of God's image in him, but which is like the beasts\nwhich perish.\n\nNow, my friends, suppose I said to you, 'If you give way to such\ntempers; if you give way to pride, suspicion, sullen spite, settled\ndislike of any human being, you will surely die;' should you not,\nsome of you, be inclined to think me very unreasonable, and to say\nin your hearts, 'Have I not a right to be angry?  Have I not a right\nto give a man as good as he brings?' so confessing that I am right,\nafter all, and that some of you think that you are debtors to your\nflesh, and its tempers, and do not see that you are meant to be\nmasters, and not slaves, of your tempers and feelings.\n\nAgain.  Among poor women, as well as among rich ones, as they grow\nolder, how much gossiping, tale-bearing, slandering, there is, and\nthat too among people who call themselves religious.  Yes, I say\nslandering; I put that in too; for I am certain that where the first\ntwo grow, the third is not far off.  If gossiping is the root, tale-\nbearing and harsh judgment is the stem, and plain lying and\nslandering, and bearing false witness against one's neighbour, is\nthe fruit.\n\nNow I say, because St. Paul says it, 'that those who do such things\nshall surely die.'  And do not some of you think me unreasonable in\nthat, and say in your heart, 'What! are we to be tongue-tied?  Shall\nwe not speak our minds?'  Be it so, my good women, only remember\nthis:  that as long as you say that, you confess that you are not\nmasters of your tongues, but your tongues are masters of you, and\nthat you freely confess you owe service to your tongue, and not to\nGod.  Do not therefore complain of me for saying the very same\nthing, namely, that you think you are debtors to your flesh--to the\ntongues in your mouths, and must needs do what those same little\nunruly members choose, of which St James has said, 'The tongue is a\nfire, a world of iniquity, and it sets on fire the whole course of\nnature, and is set on fire of hell.'  And again:  'If any person\namong you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but\ndeceives himself, that person's religion is vain.'\n\nAgain:--and, my good women, you must not think me hard on you, for\nyou know in your hearts that I am not hard on you; but I must speak\na word on a sin which I am afraid is growing in this parish, and in\ntoo many parishes in England; and that is deceiving kind and\ncharitable persons, in order to get more help from them.  God knows\nthe temptation must be sore to poor people at times.  And yet you\nwill surely find in the long run, that 'honesty is the best policy.'\nDeceit is always a losing game.  A lie is sure to be found out; as\nthe Lord Jesus Himself says, 'There is nothing hid which shall not\nbe made manifest;' and what we do in secret, is sure, unless we\nrepent and amend it, to be proclaimed on the housetop:  and many a\npoor soul, in her haste and greediness to get much, ends by getting\nnothing at all.  And if it were not so;--if you were able to deceive\nany human being out of the riches of the world:  yet know, that a\nman's life does _not_ consist in the abundance of the things which\nhe possesses.  And know that if you will not believe that,--if you\nwill fancy that your business is to get all you can for your mortal\nbodies, by fair means or foul,--if you will fancy that you are thus\ndebtors to your own flesh, you will surely die:  but if you, through\nthe Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.\n\nAnd by this time some of you are asking, 'Live?  Die?  What does all\nthis mean?  When we die we shall die, good or bad; and in the\nmeantime we shall live till we die.  And you do not mean to tell us\nthat we shall shorten our lives by our own tempers, or our tale-\nbearing, though we might, perhaps, by drunkenness?'\n\nMy friends, if such a question rises in your mind, be sure that it,\ntoo, is a hint that you think yourself a debtor to the flesh--to\nlive according to the flesh.  For tell me, tell yourselves fairly,\nis your flesh, your body, the part of yourself which you can see and\nhandle, _You_?--You know that it is not.  When a neighbour's body\ndies, you say, perhaps, '_He_ is dead,' but you say it carelessly;\nand when one whom you know well, and love, dies,--when a parent, a\nwife, a child, dies, you feel very differently about them, even if\nyou do not speak differently.  You feel and know that he, the person\nwhom you loved and understood, and felt with, and felt for, here on\nearth, is not dead at all; you feel (and in proportion as the friend\nyou have lost was loving, and good, and full of feeling for you, you\nfeel it all the more strongly) that your friend, or your child, or\nthe wife of your bosom, is alive still--where you know not, but you\nfeel they are alive; that they are very near you;--that they are\nthinking of you, watching you, caring for you,--perhaps grieving\nover you when you go wrong--perhaps rejoicing over you when you go\nright,--perhaps helping you, though you cannot see them, in some\nwonderful way.  You know that only their mortal flesh is dead.  That\ntheir mortal flesh was all you put into the grave; but that _they_\nthemselves, their souls and spirits, which were their very and real\nselves, are alive for evermore; and you trust and hope to meet them\nwhen you die;--ay, to meet them body and soul too, at the last day,\nthe very same persons whom you knew here on earth, though the flesh\nwhich they wore here in this life has crumbled into dust years and\nages before.\n\nIs not this true?  Is not this a blessed life-giving thought--I had\nalmost said the most blessed and life-giving thought man can have--\nthat those whom we have loved and lost are not dead, but only gone\nbefore; that they live still to God and with God; that only their\nflesh has perished, and they themselves are alive for evermore?\n\nNow believe me, my friends, as surely as a man's flesh can die and\nbe buried, while he himself, his soul, lives for ever, just so a\nman's self, his soul, can die, while his flesh lives on upon earth.\nYou do not think so, but the Bible thinks so.  The Bible talks of\nmen being _dead_ in trespasses and sins, while their flesh and body\nis alive and walking this earth.  It talks, too, of a worse state,\nof men twice dead; of men, who, after God has brought their souls to\nlife, let those souls of theirs die down again within them, and rot\naway, as far as we can see, hopelessly and for ever.  And what is it\nwhich kills a man's soul within him on this side the grave, and\nmakes him dead while he has a name to live?  _Sin_, evil-doing, the\ndisease of the soul, the death of the soul, yea, the death of the\nman himself.  And what is sin but living according to the flesh, and\nnot according to the spirit?  What is sin but living as the dumb\nanimals do, as if we were debtors to our own flesh, to fulfil its\nlusts, and to please our own appetites, fancies, and tempers,\ninstead of remembering that we are debtors to God, who made us, and\nblesses us all day long;--debtors to our Lord Jesus Christ, who\nbought us with His own blood, that we might please Him and obey\nHim;--debtors to God's Holy Spirit, who puts into our minds good\ndesires;--debtors to our baptism vows, in which we were consecrated\nto God, that He, and not this flesh of ours, might be our Master for\never?\n\nThis is sin; to give way to those selfish and evil tempers, against\nwhich I warned you in the beginning of my sermon, and which, if any\nman indulges in them, will surely and steadily, bit by bit, kill\nthat man's soul within him, and leave the man dead in trespasses and\nsins, while his body walks this earth.\n\nMy friends, do not fancy these are merely farfetched words out of a\nbook, made to sound difficult and terrible in order to frighten you.\nGod forbid!  When Scripture says this, it speaks a plain and simple\ntruth, and one which I know to be a truth from experience.  I speak\nthat which I know, and testify that which I have seen.  I have seen\n(and what sadder or more fearful sight?) dead men and dying walk\nthis earth in flesh and blood; men busy enough, shrewd enough upon\nsome points, priding themselves, perhaps, upon their cleverness and\nknowledge of the world, of whom all one could say was, The man is\ndead; the man is lost, unless God brings him to life again by His\nquickening Spirit:  for goodness is dead in him; the powers of his\nsoul are dead in him; the hope of being a better man is dead in him;\nall that God wishes to see him be and do, is dead; God's likeness\nand glory in him is dead:  he thinks himself wise, and he is a fool\nin God's sight; for he sees not God's law, which is the only wisdom:\nhe thinks himself strong, but he is utterly weak and helpless; for\nhe is the slave of his own tempers, the slave of his own foul lust,\nthe slave of his own pride and vanity, the slave of his own\ncovetousness.  Oh, my friends, people are apt to be afraid of what\nthey call seeing a ghost--that is, a spirit without a body:  they\nfancy that it would be a very shocking thing to meet one; but as for\nme, I know a far more dreadful sight; and that is, a careless and a\nhardened sinner--a body without a spirit.  Which is uglier and\nghastlier--a spirit without a body, or a body without a spirit?  And\nyet such one meets, I dare not think how often.\n\nWhat sadder sight, if you recollect that men need not be thus; that\nGod hates seeing them thus; that they become thus, and die down in\nsin, in spite of God, with all heaven above, and God the Lord\nthereof, crying to them, Why wilt thou die?  What sadder sight?  How\nmany have I seen, living, to all intents and purposes, as if they\nhad no souls; as if there were no God, no Law of God, no Right, no\nWrong; caring for nothing, perhaps, but drink and bad women; or\ncaring for nothing but scraping together a little more money than\ntheir neighbours; or caring for nothing but dress, and vanity, and\ngossiping, and tale-bearing; and yet, when one came to know them,\none saw that _that_ was not what God intended them to be; that He\nhad given them hearts which they had hardened, good feelings which\nthey had crushed, sound brains which they had left idle, till one\nwas ready to weep over them, as over something beautiful and noble\nruined and lost; and looked on them as one would on a grand tree\nstruck by lightning, decayed and dead, useless, and only fit to be\nburned, with just enough of its proper shape to show what a tree it\nought to have been.  And so it is with men and women:  hardly a day\npasses but one sees some one of whom one says, with a sigh, 'What a\nworthy, loveable, useful person, that might have been! what a\nblessing to himself and all around him! and now, by following his\nfallen nature, and indulging it, he is neither worthy, nor loveable,\nnor useful; neither a blessing to himself nor to any human being:\nhe might have been good for so much, and now he is good for nothing;\nfor the spirit, the immortal soul which God gave him, is dead within\nhim.'\n\nMy friends, I would not say this, unless I could say more.  I would\nnot say sad words, if I could not follow them up by joyful and\nhopeful ones.  It is written, 'If ye live after the flesh, ye shall\ndie;' but it is written also, 'If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify\nthe deeds of the body, ye shall live.'  It is promised--promised, my\nfriends, 'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and\nChrist shall give thee light.'\n\nThrough the Spirit, through God's Spirit, every soul here can live,\nnow and for ever.  Through God's Spirit, Christ not only can, but\nwill, give you light.  And that Spirit is near you, with you.  Your\nbaptism is the blessed sign, the everlasting pledge, that God's\nSpirit is with you.  Oh, believe that, and take heart.  I will not\nsay, you do not know how much good there is in you; for in us dwells\nno good thing, and every good thought and feeling comes only from\nthe Spirit of God:  but I will say boldly to every one of you, you\ndo not know how much good there may be in you, if you will listen to\nthose good thoughts of God's Spirit; you do not know how wise, how\nright, how strong, how happy, how useful, you may become; you do not\nknow what a blessing each of you may become to yourselves, and to\nall around you.  Only make up your mind to live by God's law; only\nmake up your mind, in all things, small and great, to go God's way,\nand not your own.  Only make up your mind to listen, not to your own\nflesh, temper, and brain, which say this and that is pleasant, but\nto listen to God's Spirit, which says this is right, and that is\nwrong:  this is your duty, do it.  Search out your own besetting\nsins; and if you cannot find them out for yourself, ask God to show\nyou them; ask Him to give you truth in the inward parts, and make\nyou to understand wisdom in the secret places of your heart.  Pray\nGod's Spirit to quicken your soul, and bring it to life, that it may\nsee and love what is good, and see and hate what is wrong; and\ninstead of being most hard on your neighbour's sin, to which you are\nnot tempted, be most hard on your own sin, on the sin to which you\nare most tempted, whatsoever that may be.  You have your besetting\nsin, doubt it not; every one has.  I know that I have.  I know that\nI have inclinations, tempers, longings, to which if I gave way, my\nsoul would rot and die within me, and make me a curse to myself, and\nyou, and every one I came near; and all I can do is to pray God's\nSpirit to help me to fight those besetting sins of mine, and crush\nthem, and stamp them down, whenever they rise and try to master me,\nand make me live after the flesh.  It is a hard fight; and may God\nforgive me, for I fight it ill enough:  but it is my only hope for\nmy soul's life, my only hope of remaining a man worth being called a\nman, or doing my duty at all by myself and you, and all mankind.\nAnd it is your only hope, too.  Pray for God's Spirit, God's\nstrength, God's life, to give your souls life, day by day, that you\nmay fight against your sins, whatsoever they are, lest they kill\nyour souls, long before disease and old age kill your bodies.  Make\nup your minds to it.  Make up your minds to mortify the deeds of the\nbody; to say to your own bodies, tempers, longings, fancies, 'I will\nnot go your way:  you shall go God's way.  I am not your debtor; I\nowe you nothing; I am God's debtor, and owe Him everything, and I\nwill pay Him honestly with the service of my body, soul, and spirit.\nI will do my duty, and you, my flesh, must and shall do it also,\nwhether it is pleasant at first, or not:' and be sure it will be\npleasant at last, if not at first.  Keep God always before your\neyes.  Ask yourself in every action, 'What is right, what is my\nduty, what would God have me do?'  And so far from finding it\nunpleasant, you will find that you are saving yourself a thousand\ntroubles, and sorrows, and petty anxieties which now torment you;\nyou will find that in God's presence is life, the only life worth\nhaving, and that at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.  Oh,\nbe sure, my friends, that in real happiness you will not lose, but\ngain without end.  If to have a clear conscience, and a quiet mind;\nif to be free from anxiety and discontent, free from fear and shame;\nif to be loved, respected, looked up to, by all whose good word is\nworth having, and to know that God approves of you, that all day\nlong God is with you, and you with God, that His loving and mighty\narms are under you, that He has promised to keep you in all your\nways, to prosper all you do, and reward you for ever,--if this be\nnot happiness, my friends, what is?\n\n\n\nSERMON XVIII.  SHAME\n\n\n\nRomans x. 11.  For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him\nshall not be ashamed.\n\nMy friends, what this text really means is one thing; what we may\nchoose to think it means is another thing--perhaps a very different\nthing.  I will try and show you what I believe it really means.\n\n'Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.'  It seems as if\nSt. Paul thought, that not being ashamed had to do with salvation,\nand being saved; ay, that they were almost the same thing:  for he\nsays just before, if thou doest so and so, thou shalt be saved; for\nwith the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth\nconfession is made unto salvation; _for_ the Scripture saith,\n'Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed;' as if being\nashamed was the very thing from which we were to be saved.  And\ncertainly that wise and great man, whoever he was (some say he was\nSt. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in Italy), who wrote the Te Deum,\nthought the same; for how does he end the Te Deum?  'O Lord, in Thee\nhave I trusted:  let me never be confounded,' that is, brought to\nshame.  You see, after he has spoken of God, and the everlasting\nglory of God, of Cherubim and Seraphim, that is, all the powers of\nthe earth and the powers of the heavens, of Apostles, Prophets,\nMartyrs, the Holy Church, all praising God, and crying 'Holy, holy,\nholy.  Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty\nof Thy glory;' after he has spoken of the mystery of the Trinity,\nFather and Son and Holy Ghost, of Christ's redemption and\nincarnation, and ascension and glory; of His judging the world; of\nHis government, and His lifting up His people for ever; after he has\nprayed God to keep them this day without sin, and to let His mercy\nlighten upon them; after all this, at the end of this glorious hymn,\nall that he has to say is, 'O Lord, in Thee have I trusted:  let me\nnever be confounded.'--All he has to say:  but that is a great deal:\nhe does not say that merely because he wants to say something more,\nand has nothing else to say.  Not so.  In all great hymns and\nwritings like this, the end is almost sure to be the strongest part\nof all, to have the very pith and marrow of the whole matter in it,\nas I believe this end of the Te Deum has; and I believe that whoever\nwrote it thought that being confounded, and brought to shame, was\njust the most horrible and wretched thing which could happen to him,\nor any man, and the thing above all others from which he was most\nbound to pray God to save him and every human being.\n\nNow, how is this?  First, let us look at what coming to shame is;\nand next, how believing in Christ will save us from it.\n\nNow, every man and woman of us here, who has one spark of good\nfeeling in them, will surely agree, that coming to shame is\ndreadful; and that there is no pain or torment on earth like the\npain of being ashamed of oneself:  nothing so painful.  And I will\nprove it to you.  You call a man a brave man, if he is afraid of\nnothing:  but there is one thing the very bravest man is afraid of,\nand that is of disgrace, of coming to shame.  Ay, my friends, so\nterrible is the torment of shame, that you may see brave men,--men\nwho would face death in battle, men who would have a limb cut off\nwithout a groan, you may see such, in spite of all their courage,\ngnash their teeth, and writhe in agony, and weep bitter tears,\nsimply because they are ashamed of themselves, so terrible and\nunbearable is the torment of shame.  It may drive a man to do good\nor evil:  it may drive him to do good; as when, rather than come to\nshame, and be disgraced, soldiers will face death in battle\nwillingly and cheerfully, and do deeds of daring beyond belief:  or\nit may drive him to do evil; rather than come to shame, men have\nkilled themselves, choosing, unhappy and mistaken men, rather to\nface the torment of hell than the torment of disgrace.  They are\nmistaken enough, God knows.  But shame, like all powerful things,\nwill work for harm as well as for good; and just as a wholesome and\ngodly shame may be the beginning of a man's repentance and\nrighteousness, so may an unwholesome and ungodly shame be the cause\nof his despair and ruin.  But judge for yourselves; think over your\npast lives.  Were you ever once--were it but for five minutes--\nutterly ashamed of yourself?  If you were, did you ever feel any\ntorment like _that_?  In all other misery and torment one feels\nhope; one says, 'Still life is worth having, and when the sorrow\nwears away I shall be cheerful and enjoy myself again:' but when one\nhas come to shame, when one is not only disgraced in the eyes of\nother people, but disgraced (which is a thousand times worse) in\none's own eyes; when one feels that people have real reason to\ndespise one, then one feels for the time as if life was _not_ worth\nhaving; as if one did not care whether one died or not, or what\nbecame of one:  and yet as if dying would do one no good, change of\nplace would do one no good, time's running on would do one no good;\nas if what was done could not be undone, and the shame would be with\none still, and torment one still, wherever one was, and if one was\nto live a million years:  ay, that it would be everlasting:  one\nfeels, in a word, that real shame and deserved disgrace is verily\nand indeed an everlasting torment.  And it is this, and the feeling\nof this, which explains why poor wretches will kill themselves, as\nJudas Iscariot did, and rush into hell itself, under the horror and\npain of shame and disgrace.  They feel a hell within them so hot,\nthat they actually fancy that they can be no worse off beyond the\ngrave than they are on this side of it.  They are mistaken:  but\nthat is the reason; the misery of disgrace is so intolerable, that\nthey are willing, like that wretched Judas, to try any mad and\ndesperate chance to escape it.\n\nSo much for shame's being a dreadful and horrible thing.  But again,\nit is a spiritual thing:  it grows and works not in our fleshly\nbodies, but in our spirits, our consciences, our immortal souls.\nYou may see this by thinking of people who are not afraid of shame.\nYou do not respect them, or think them the better for that.  Not at\nall.  If a man is not afraid of shame; if a man, when he is found\nout, and exposed, and comes to shame, does not care for it, but\n'brazens out his own shame,' as we say, we do not call him brave; we\ncall him what he is, a base impudent person, lost to all good\nfeeling.  Why, what harder name can we call any man or woman, than\nto say that they are 'shameless,' dead to shame?  We know that it is\nthe very sign of their being dead in sin, the very sign of God's\nSpirit having left them; that till they are made to feel shame there\nis no hope of their mending or repenting, or of any good being put\ninto them, or coming out of them.  So that this feeling of shame is\na spiritual feeling, which has to do with a man's immortal soul,\nwith his conscience, and the voice of God in his heart.\n\nNow, consider this:  that there will surely come to you and me, and\nevery living soul, a day of judgment; a day in which we shall be\njudged.  Think honestly of those two words.  First, a day, not a\nmere time, much less a night.  Now, in a day there is light, by\nwhich men can see, and a sun in heaven which shows all things\nclearly.  In that day, that brightest and clearest of all days, we\nshall see what we really have been, and what we really have done;\nand for aught we know, every one round us, every one with whom we\nhave ever had to do, will see it also.  The secrets of all our\nhearts will be disclosed; and we shall stand before heaven and earth\nsimply for what we are, and neither more nor less.  That is a\nfearful thought!  Shall we come to shame in that day?  And it will\nbe a day of judgment:  in it we shall be judged.  I do not mean\nmerely condemned, for we may be acquitted:  or punished, for we may\nbe rewarded; those things come after being judged.  First, let us\nthink of what being judged is.  A judge's business is to decide on\nwhat we have done, or whether we have broken the law or not; to hear\nwitnesses for us and against us, to sum up the evidence, and set\nforth the evidence for us and the evidence against us.  And our\njudge will be the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sharper\nthan a two-edged sword, piercing through the very joints and marrow,\nand discerning the secret intents of the heart; neither is anything\nhid from Him, for all things are naked and open in the sight of Him\nwith whom we have to do.  With whom we _have_ to do, mind:  not\nmerely with whom we _shall_ have to do; for He sees all _now_, He\nknows all now.  Ever since we were born, there has not been a\nthought in our heart but He has known it altogether.  And He is\nutterly just--no respecter of persons; like His own wisdom, without\npartiality and without hypocrisy.  O Lord! who shall stand in that\nday?  O Lord! if thou be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who\nshall abide it?  O Lord! in thee have I trusted:  let me never be\nconfounded!\n\nFor this is being confounded; this is shame itself.  This is the\nintolerable, horrible, hellish shame and torment, wherein is weeping\nand gnashing of teeth; this is the everlasting shame and contempt to\nwhich, as Daniel prophesied, too many should awake in that day--to\nbe found guilty in that day before God and Christ, before our\nneighbours and our relations, and worst of all, before ourselves.\nWorst of all, I say, before ourselves.  It would be dreadful enough\nto have all the bad things we ever did or thought told openly\nagainst us to all our neighbours and friends, and to see them turn\naway from us;--dreadful to find out at last (what we forget all day\nlong) that God knows them already; but more dreadful to know them\nall ourselves, and see our sins in all their shamefulness, in the\nlight of God, as God Himself sees them;--more dreadful still to see\nthe loving God and the loving Christ turn away from us;--but most\ndreadful of all to turn away from ourselves; to be utterly\ndiscontented with ourselves; ashamed of ourselves; to see that all\nour misery is our own fault, that we have been our own enemies; to\ndespise ourselves, and hate ourselves for ever; to try for ever to\nget rid of ourselves, and escape from ourselves as from some ugly\nand foul place in which we were ashamed to be seen for a moment:\nand yet not to be able to get rid of ourselves.  Yes, that will be\nthe true misery of a lost soul, to be ashamed of itself, and hate\nitself.  Who shall deliver a man from the body of that death?\n\nI thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  I thank God, that at\nleast now, here, in this life, we can be delivered.  There is but\none hope for us all; one way for us all, not to come to utter shame.\nAnd this is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has said, 'Though your\nsins be red as scarlet they shall be white as wool; and their sins\nand their iniquities will I remember no more.'  One hope, to cast\nourselves utterly on His boundless love and mercy, and cry to Him,\n'Blot these sins of mine out of Thy book, by Thy most precious\nblood, which is a full atonement for the sins of the whole world;\nand blot them out of my heart by Thy Holy Spirit, that I may hate\nthem and renounce them, and flee from them, and give them up, and be\nThy servant, and do Thy work, and have Thy righteousness, and do\nrighteous things like Thee.'  And then, my friends, how or why we\ncannot understand; but it is God's own promise, who cannot lie, that\nHe will really and actually forgive these sins of ours, and blot\nthem out as if we had never done them, and give us clean hearts and\nright spirits, to live new lives, right lives, lives like His own\nlife; so that our past sinful lives shall be behind us like a dream,\nand we shall find them forgotten and forgiven in the day of\njudgment;--wonderful mercy! but listen to it--it is God's own\npromise--'If the wicked man turneth away from all his sins that he\nhath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is\nlawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.  All his\ntransgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned\nto him:  in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.'\n\nThey shall not be mentioned to him.  My friends, if, as I have been\nshowing, the great misery, the great horror of all, is having our\nsins mentioned to us in That Day, and being made utterly ashamed by\nthem, what greater mercy can we want than this--not to have them\nmentioned to us, and not to come to shame; not to be plagued for\never with the hideous ghosts of our past bad thoughts, bad words,\nbad deeds, coming all day long to stare us in the face, and cry to\nus while the accusing Devil holds them up to us, as if in a looking-\nglass--'Look at your own picture.  This is what you are.  This fool,\nthis idler, this mean, covetous, hard-hearted man, who cared only\nfor himself;--this stupid man, who never cared to know his duty or\ndo his duty;--this proud, passionate, revengeful man, who returned\nevil for evil, took his brothers by the throat, and exacted from\nthem the uttermost farthing;--this ridiculous, foolish, useless,\ndisagreeable, unlovely, unlovable person, who went through the world\nneither knowing what he ought to do, nor whither he was going, but\nwas utterly blind and in a dream; this person is you yourself.  Look\nat your own likeness, and be confounded, and utterly ashamed for\never!'  What greater misery than that?  What greater blessing than\nto escape that?  What greater blessing than to be able to answer the\naccusing Devil, 'Not so, liar!  This is not my likeness.  This ugly,\nridiculous, hateful person is not I.  I was such a one once, but I\nam not now.  I am another man now; and God knows that I am, though\nyou may try to shame me by telling me that I am the same man.  I was\nwrong, but I am right now; I was as a sheep going astray, but now I\nam returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul, to whom I\nbelonged all the while; and now I am right, in the right road; for\nwith the heart I have believed God unto righteousness, and He has\ngiven me a clean heart, and a right spirit, and has purged me, and\nwill purge me, till I am clean, and washed me till I am whiter than\nsnow; I do not deny one of my old sins; I did them, I know that; I\nconfess them to thee now, oh accusing Devil; but I confessed them to\nGod, ay, and to man too, long ago, and by confessing them to Him I\nwas saved from them; for with the mouth confession is made unto\nsalvation.  And what is more; I have not only confessed my own sins,\nbut I have confessed Christ's righteousness; and I confess it now.\nI confess, I say, that Christ is perfectly righteous and good, the\nPerfect Pattern of what I ought to be; and because He is perfectly\ngood, He does not wish to see me remain bad and sinful, that He may\ntaunt me and torment me with my sins, as thou the accusing Devil\ndost:  but He wishes to make me and every man good like Himself,\nblest like Himself; and He can do it, and will do it, if we will but\ngive up our hearts to Him; and I have given up my heart to Him.  All\nI ask of Him is to be made good and kept good, set right and kept\nright; and I can trust in Him utterly to do that; for He is faithful\nand just to forgive me my sins, and cleanse me from all\nunrighteousness.  Therefore, accuse me not, Devil! for thou hast no\nshare in me:  I belong to Christ, and not to thee.  And set not my\nold sins before my face; for God has set them behind His back,\nbecause I have renounced them, and sworn an oath against them, and\nChrist has nailed them to His cross, and now they are none of mine\nand none of thine, but are cast long ago into the everlasting fire\nof God, and burnt up and done with for ever; and I am a new man, and\nGod's man; and He has justified me, and will justify me, and make me\njust and right; and neither thou, nor any man, has a right to impute\nto me my past sins, for God does not impute them to me; and neither\nthou, nor any man, has a right to condemn me, for God has justified\nme.  And if it please God to humble me more (for I know I want\nhumbling every day), and to show me more how much I owe to Him--if\nit please Him, I say, to bring to light any of my past sins, I shall\ntake it patiently as a wholesome chastening of my Heavenly Father's;\nand I trust to all God's people, and to angels, and the spirits of\njust men made perfect, that they will look on my past sins as God\nlooks on them, mercifully and lovingly, as things past and dead,\nforgiven and blotted out of God's book, by the precious blood of\nChrist, and look on me as I am in Christ, not having any\nrighteousness of my own, but Christ's righteousness, which comes by\nthe inspiration of His own Holy Spirit.'\n\nThus, my friends, we may answer the Devil, when he stands up to\naccuse us, and confound us in the Day of Judgment.  Thus we may\nanswer him now, when, in melancholy moments, he sets our sins before\nour face, and begins taunting us, and crying, 'See what a wretch you\nare, what a hypocrite, too.  What would all the world think of you,\nif they knew as much against you as I do?  What would the world\nthink of you, if they saw into that dirty heart of yours?'  For we\ncan answer him--'Whatever the world would think, I know what God\nHimself thinks:  He thinks of me as of a son who, after wasting his\nsubstance, and feeding on husks with the swine, has come home to his\nFather's house, and cried, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and\nbefore Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son; and I know\nthat that same good Heavenly Father, instead of shaming me,\nreproaching me, shutting His doors against me, has seen me afar off,\nand taken me home again without one harsh word, and called to all\nthe angels in heaven, saying, \"It is meet that we rejoice and be\nglad, for this My son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and\nis found.\"  And while Almighty God, who made heaven and earth, is\nsaying that of me, it matters little what the lying Devil may say.'\n\nOnly, only, if you be wandering from your Father's house, come home;\nif you be wrong, entreat to be made right.  If you are in your\nFather's house, stay there; if you are right, pray and struggle to\nkeep right; if the old account is blotted out, then, for your soul's\nsake, run up no fresh account to stand against you after all in the\nDay of Judgment; if you have the hope in you of not coming to shame,\nyou must purify yourselves, even as God is pure; if you believe\nreally with your heart, you must believe unto righteousness; that\nis, you must trust God to make you righteous and good:  there is no\nuse trusting Him to make you anything else, for He will make you\nnothing else; being good Himself, He will only make you good:  but\nas for trusting in Him to leave you bad, to leave you quiet in your\nsins, and then to save you after all, that is trusting that God will\ndo a most unjust, and what is more, a most cruel thing to you; that\nis trusting God to do the Devil's work; that is a blasphemous false\ntrust, which will be utterly confounded in the Day of Judgment, and\nwill cover you with double shame.  The whole question for each of us\nis, 'Do we believe unto righteousness?'  Is righteousness what we\nwant?  Is to be made good men what we want?  If not, no confessing\nwith the mouth will be unto salvation, for how can a man be saved in\nhis sins?  If an animal is diseased can it be saved from dying\nwithout curing the disease?  If a tree be decayed, can it be saved\nfrom dying without curing the decay?  If a man be bad and sinful,\ncan he be saved from eternal death without curing his badness and\nsinfulness?  How can a man be saved from his sins but by becoming\nsinless?  As well ask, Can a man be saved from his sins without\nbeing saved from his sins?  But if you wish really to be saved from\nyour sins, and taken out of them, and cured of them, that you may be\nmade good men, righteous men, useful men, just men, loving men,\nGodlike men;--then trust in God for that, and you will find that\nyour trust will be unto righteousness, for you will become righteous\nmen; and confess God with your mouth for that, saying, 'I believe in\nGod my Father; I believe in Jesus Christ His Son, who died, and\nrose, and ascended on high for me; I believe in God's Holy Spirit,\nwhich is with me, to make me right;' and your confession will be\nunto salvation, for you will be saved from your sins.\n\nAlways say to yourself this one thing, 'Good I will become, whatever\nit cost me; and in God's goodness I trust to make me good, for I am\nsure He wishes to see me good, more than I do myself; and you will\nfind that because you have confessed, in that best and most honest\nof ways, that God is good, and have so given Him real glory, and\nreal honour, and real praise, He will save you from the sins which\ntorment you:  and that because you have really trusted in Him, you\nshall never come, either in this world, or the world to come, to\nthat worst misery, the being ashamed of yourself.\n\n\n\nSERMON XIX.  FORGIVENESS\n\n\n\nPsalm li. 16, 17.  Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give\nit:  thou delightest not in burnt offering.\n\nThe sacrifice of God is a broken spirit:  a broken and a contrite\nheart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.\n\nYou all heard just now the story of Nathan and David, and you must\nhave all felt how beautiful, and noble, and just it was; how it\ndeclares that there is but one everlasting God's law of justice,\nwhich is above all men, even the greatest; and that what is right\nfor the poor man is right for the king upon his throne, for God is\nno respecter of persons.\n\nAnd you must have admired, too, the frankness, and fulness, and\nhumbleness of David's repentance, and liked and loved the man still,\nin spite of his sins, as much almost as you did when you heard of\nhim as a shepherd boy slaying the giant, or a wanderer and an outlaw\namong the hills and forests of Judaea.\n\nBut did it now seem strange to you that David's repentance, which\nwas so complete when it did come, should have come no sooner?  Did\nhe need Nathan to tell him that he had done wrong?  He seduced\nanother man's wife, and that man one of his most faithful servants,\none of the most brave and loyal generals of his army; and then, over\nand above his adultery, he had plotted the man's death, and had had\nhim killed and put out of the way in as base, and ungrateful, and\ntreacherous a fashion as I ever heard of.  His whole conduct in the\nmatter had been simply villanous.  There is no word too bad for it.\nAnd do you fancy that he had to wait the greater part of a year\nbefore the thought came into his head that that was not the fashion\nin which a man ought to behave, much more a king?--that God's\nblessing was not on such doings as those?--and after all not find\nout for himself that he was wrong, but have to be told of it by\nNathan?\n\nSurely, if he had any common sense, any feeling of right and wrong\nleft in him, he must have known that he had done a bad thing; and\nhis guilty conscience must have tormented him many a time and oft\nduring those months, long before Nathan came to him.  Now, that he\nhad the feeling of right and wrong left in him, we cannot doubt; for\nwhen Nathan told him the parable of the rich man who spared all his\nown flocks and herds, and took the poor man's one ewe lamb, his\nheart told him that _that_ was wrong and unjust, and he cried out,\n'The man who has done this thing shall surely die.'  And surely that\nfeeling of right and wrong could not have been quite asleep in him\nall those months, and have been awakened then for the first time.\n\nBut more; if we look at two psalms which he wrote about that time,\nwe shall find that his conscience had _not_ been dead in him, but\nhad been tormenting him bitterly; and that he had been trying to\nescape from it, and afterwards to repent--only in a wrong way.\n\nIf we look at the Thirty-second Psalm, we shall see there he had\nbegun, by trying to deceive himself, to excuse himself before God.\nBut that had only made him the more miserable.  'When I kept\nsilence, my bones waxed old through my daily complaining.  For Thy\nhand was heavy on me night and day:  my moisture was turned to the\ndrought of summer.'  Then he had tried sacrifices.  He had fancied,\nI suppose, that he could make God pleased with him again by showing\ngreat devoutness, by offering bullocks and goats without number, as\nsin-offerings and peace-offerings; but that made him no happier.  At\nlast he found out that God required no sacrifice but a broken heart.\nThat was what God wanted--a broken and a contrite heart; for David\nto be utterly ashamed of himself, utterly broken down and silenced,\nso that he had nothing left to plead--neither past good deeds, nor\npresent devoutness, nor sacrifices:  nothing but, 'O God, I deserve\nall Thou canst lay on me, and more.  Have mercy on me--mercy is all\nI ask.'\n\nThere was nothing for him, you see, but to make a clean breast of\nit; to face his sin, and all its shame and abomination, and confess\nit all, and throw himself on God's mercy.  And when he did that,\nthere, then, and at once, as Nathan told him, God put away his sin.\nAs David says himself, 'I said, I will confess my sins unto the\nLord, and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin.'\n\nAs it is written, 'If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just\nto forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'\n\nAnd now, my friends, what lesson may we learn from this?  It is easy\nto say, We have not sinned as deeply as David, and therefore his\nstory has nothing to do with us.  My friends, whether we have sinned\nas deeply as David or not, his story has to do with you, and me, and\nevery soul in this church, and every soul in the whole world, or it\nwould not be in the Bible.  For no prophecy of Scripture is of\nprivate interpretation; that is, it does not only point at one man\nhere and another there:  but those who wrote it were moved by the\nHoly Ghost, who lays down the eternal universal laws of holiness, of\nright and good, which are right and good for you, and me, and all\nmankind; and therefore David's story has to do with you and me every\ntime we do wrong, and know that we have done wrong.\n\nNow, my friends, when you have done a wrong thing, you know your\nconscience torments you with it; you are uneasy, and discontented\nwith yourselves, perhaps cross with those about you; you hardly know\nwhy:  or rather, though you do know why, you do not like to tell\nyourself why.\n\nThe bad thing which you have done, or the bad tempers which you have\ngiven way to, or the person whom you have quarrelled with, hang in\nyour mind, and darken all your thoughts:  and you try not to\nremember them:  but conscience _makes_ you remember them, and will\nnot let the dark thought fly away; till you can enjoy nothing,\nbecause your heart is not clean and clear; there is something in the\nbackground which makes you sad whenever you try to be happy.  Then a\nman tries first to deceive himself.  He says to himself, 'No, that\nsin is not what makes me unhappy--not that;' and he tries to find\nout any and every reason for his uncomfortable feelings, except the\nvery thing which he knows all the while in the bottom of his heart\n_is_ the real reason.  He says, 'Well, perhaps I am unhappy because\nI have done something wrong:  what wrong can I have done?'  And so\nhe sets to work to find out every sin except _the_ sin which is the\ncause of all, because that one he does not like to face:  it is too\nreal, and ugly, and humbling to his proud spirit; and perhaps he is\nafraid of having to give it up.  So I have known a man confess\nhimself a sinner, a miserable sinner, freely enough, and then break\nout into a rage with you, if you dare to speak a word of the one sin\nwhich you know that he has actually committed.  'No, sir,' he will\nsay, 'whatever I may be wrong in, I am right _there_.  I have\ncommitted sins too many, I know:  but you cannot charge me with\nthat, at least;'--and all the more because he knows that everybody\nround _is_ charging him with it, and that the thing is as notorious\nas the sun in heaven.  But that makes him, in his pride, all the\nmore determined not to confess himself in the wrong on that one\npoint; and he will go and confess to God, and perhaps to man, all\nmanner of secret sins, nay, even invent sins for himself out of\nthings which are no sins, and confess himself humbly in the wrong\nwhere perhaps he is all right, just to drug his conscience, and be\nable to say, 'I have repented,'--repented, that is, of everything\nbut what he and all the world know that he ought to repent of.\n\nBut still his conscience is not easy:  he has no peace of mind:  he\nis like David:  'While I held my peace, my bones waxed old through\nmy daily complaining.'  God's hand is heavy on him day and night,\nand his moisture is like the drought in summer:  his heart feels\nhard and dry; he cannot enjoy himself; he is moody; he lies awake\nand frets at night, and goes listlessly and heavily about his\nbusiness in the morning; his heart is not right with God, and he\nknows it; God and he are not at peace, and he knows it.\n\nThen he tries to repent:  but it is a false, useless sort of\nrepentance.  He says to Himself, as David did, 'Well, then, I will\nmake my peace with God:  I will please Him.  I have done one wrong\nthing.  I will do two right ones to make up for it.'  If he is a\nrich man, he perhaps tries David's plan of burnt-offerings and\nsacrifices.  He says, 'I will give away a great deal in charity; I\nwill build a church; I will take a great deal of trouble about\nsocieties, and speak at religious meetings, and show God how much I\nreally do care for Him after all, and what great sacrifices I can\nmake for Him.'\n\nOr, if he is a poor man, he will say, 'Well, then, I will try and be\nmore religious; I will think more about my soul, and come to church\nas often as I can, and say my prayers regularly, and read good\nbooks; and perhaps that will make my peace with God.  At all events,\nGod shall see that I am not as bad as I look; not altogether bad;\nthat I do care for Him, and for doing right.'\n\nBut, rich or poor, the man finds out by bitter experience how truly\nDavid said, 'Thou requirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee.\nThou delightest not in burnt-offerings.'\n\nNot that they are not good and excellent; but that they are not good\ncoming from him, because his heart is still unrepentant, because,\ninstead of confessing his sin and throwing himself on God's mercy,\nhe is trying to win God round to overlook his sin.  So almsgiving,\nand ordinances, and prayer give the poor man no peace.  He rises\nfrom his knees unrefreshed.  He goes out of church with as heavy a\nheart as he went in, and he finds that for all his praying he does\nnot become a better man, any more than a happier man.  There is\nstill that darkness over his soul, like a black cloud spread between\nhim and God.\n\nMy friends, if any of you find yourselves in this sad case, the only\nremedy which I can give you, the only remedy which I ever found do\n_me_ any good, or give me back my peace of mind, is David's remedy;\nthe one which he found out at last, and which he spoke of in these\nblessed Psalms.  Confess your sin to God.  Bring it all out.  Make a\nclean breast of it--whatever it may cost you, make a clean breast of\nit.  Only be but _honest_ with God, and all will come right at once.\nSay, not with your lips only, but from the very bottom of your\nheart, say, 'Oh, good God, Heavenly Father, I have _nothing_ to say;\nI am wrong, and yet I do not know how wrong I am; but Thou knowest.\nThou seest all my sin a thousand times more clearly than I do; and\nif I look black and foul to myself, oh God, how much more black and\nhow foul must I look to Thee! I know not.  All I know is, that I am\nutterly wrong, and Thou utterly right.  I am shapen in sin,\nconceived in iniquity.  My heart it is that is wrong.  Not merely\nthis or that wrong which I have done; but my heart, my temper, which\nwill have its own way, which cares for itself, and not for Thee.  I\nhave nothing to plead; nothing to throw into the other scale.  For\nif I have ever done right, it was Thou didst right in me, and not me\nmyself, and only my sins are my own doing; so the good in me is all\nThine, and the bad in me all my own, and in _me_ dwells no good\nthing.  And as for excusing myself by saying that I love Thee, I had\nbetter tell the truth, since Thou knowest it already--I do _not_\nlove Thee.  Oh God, I love myself, my pitiful, miserable self, well\nenough, and too well:  but as for loving Thee--how many of my good\ndeeds have been done for love of Thee?  I have done right from fear\nof hell, from hope of heaven; or to win Thy blessings:  but how\noften have I done right really and purely for Thy sake?  I am\nashamed to think!  My only comfort, my only hope, is, that whether I\nlove Thee or not, Thou lovest me, and hast sent Thy Son to seek and\nsave me.  Help me now.  Save me now out of my sin, and darkness, and\nself-conceit.  Show Thy love to me by setting this wrong heart of\nmine right.  Give me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit\nwithin me.  If I be wrong myself, how can I make myself right?  No;\nThou must do it.  Thou must purge me, or I shall never be clean;\nThou must make me to understand wisdom in the secret depth of my\nheart, or I shall never see my way.  Thou must, for I cannot; and\nbase and bad as I am, I can believe that Thou wilt condescend to\nhelp me and teach me, because I know Thy love in Jesus Christ my\nLord.  And _then_ Thou wilt be pleased with my sacrifices and\noblations, because they come from a right heart--a truly humble,\nhonest, penitent heart, which is not trying to deceive God, or\nplaster over its own baseness and weakness, but confesses all, and\nyet trusts in God's boundless love.  Then my alms will rise as a\nsweet savour before Thee, oh God; then sacraments will strengthen\nme, ordinances will teach me, good books will speak to my soul, and\nmy prayers will be answered by peace of mind, and a clear\nconscience, and the sweet and strengthening sense that I am in my\nHeavenly Father's house, about my Heavenly Father's business, and\nthat His smile is over me, and His blessing on me, as long as I\nremain loyal to Him and to His laws.'  Feel thus, my friends, and\nspeak to God thus, and see if the dark stupefying cloud does not\npass away from your heart--see if there and then does not come\nsunshine and strength, and the sweet assurance that you are indeed\nforgiven.\n\nBut how about this old sin, which caused the man all this trouble?\nHe began by trying to forget it.  I think, if he be a true penitent,\nhe will not wish to forget it any more.  He will not torment himself\nabout it, for he knows that God has forgiven him.  But the more he\nfeels God has forgiven him, the less likely he will be to forgive\nhimself.  The more sure he feels of God's love and mercy, the more\nutterly ashamed of himself he will be.  And what is more, it is not\nwise to forget our own sins, when God has not forgotten them.  For\nGod does not forget our sins, though He forgives them; and a very\nbad thing it would be for us if He did, my friends.  For the wages\nof sin is death:  and even if God does not slay us for our sins, He\nis certain to punish us for them in some way, lest we should forget\nthat sin is sin, and fancy that God's mercy is only careless\nindulgence.  So God did to David.  He then told him that though he\nwas forgiven he would still be punished, 'The Lord has put away thy\nsin; nevertheless, the child that shall be born unto thee shall\nsurely die.'  Punishment and forgiveness went together.  Ay, if we\nwill look at it rightly, David's being punished was the very sign\nthat God had forgiven him.  Oh, believe that, my friends; face it;\nthank God for it.  I at least do, when I look back upon my past\nlife, and see that for every wrong I have ever done, I have been\npunished:  not punished a tenth part as much as I deserve; but still\npunished, more or less, and made to smart for my own folly, and to\nlearn, by hard unmistakable experience, that it will not pay me, or\nany man, to break the least of God's laws; and I thank God for it.\nI tell you to thank God also, whensoever you are punished for your\nsins.  It is a sign that God cares for you, that God loves you, that\nGod is training and educating you, that God is your Father, and He\nis dealing with you as with His sons.  For what son is there whom\nHis Father does not chastise?  It is a bitter lesson, no doubt; but\nwe have deserved it:  then let us bear it like men.  No doubt it is\nbitter:  but there is a blessing in it.  No chastisement at first\nseems pleasant, says the Apostle, but rather grievous:  yet\nafterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those\nwho are exercised thereby.  Be exercised by it, then.  Let God teach\nyou in His own way, even if it seem a harsh and painful way.  We\nhave had earthly fathers, says the Apostle, who corrected us, and we\ngave them reverence.  Shall we not much rather be in subjection to\nGod, the Father of Spirits, and live?  For suffering and punishment\nis the way to Eternal Life--to that true Eternal Life which is\nknowing God and God's love, and becoming like God.  As the Apostle\nsays, God chastens us only for our profit, that we may be partakers\nof His holiness.  And as king Hezekiah says of affliction, 'Lord, by\n_these_ things,' by sorrow and chastisement, 'men live; and in all\nthese things is the life of the spirit.'\n\nMay God give to you, and me, and all mankind, as often as we do\nwrong, honest and good hearts to confess our sins thoroughly, and\ntake our punishment meekly, and trust in God's boundless mercy, in\norder that if we humble ourselves under His rod, and learn His\nlessons faithfully in this life, we may not need a worse punishment\nin the life to come, but be accepted in the last great Day for the\nsake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour.\n\n\n\nSERMON XX.  THE TRUE GENTLEMAN\n\n\n\n1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii. 1.  Covet earnestly the best gifts:  and yet\nshew I unto you a more excellent way.  Though I speak with the\ntongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as\nsounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.\n\nMy friends, let me say a few plain words this morning to young and\nold, rich and poor, upon this text.\n\nNow you all, I suppose, think it a good thing to be gentlemen and\nladies.  All of you, I say.  There is not a poor man in this church,\nperhaps, who has not before now said in his heart, 'Ah, if I were\nbut a gentleman!' or a poor woman who has not said in her heart,\n'Ah, if I were but a lady!'  You see round you in the world\nthousands plotting and labouring all their lives long to make money\nand grow rich, that they may become (as they think) gentlemen, or,\nat least, their sons after them.  And those here who are what the\nworld calls gentlemen and ladies, know very well that those names\nare names which are very precious to them; and would sooner give up\nhouse, land, money, all the comforts upon earth, than give up being\ncalled gentlemen and ladies; and these last know, I trust, what some\npoor people do not know, and what no man knows who fancies that he\ncan make a gentleman of himself merely by gaining money, and setting\nup a fine house, and a good table, and horses and carriages, and\nindulging the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the\npride of life; for these last ought to know that the right to be\ncalled gentlemen and ladies is something which this world did not\ngive, and cannot take away; so that if they were brought to utter\npoverty and rags, or forced to dig the ground for their own\nlivelihood, they would be gentlemen and ladies still, if they ever\nhad been really and truly such; and what is more, they would make\nevery one who met them feel that they were gentlemen and ladies, in\nspite of all their poverty.\n\nNow, people do not often understand clearly why this is.  They feel,\nmore or less, that so it is; but they cannot explain it.  I could\ntell you why they cannot; but I will not take up your time.  But if\nthey cannot explain it, there are those who can.  St. Paul explains\nit in the Epistle.  The Lord Jesus Himself explains it in the\nGospel.  They tell us why money will not make a gentleman.  They\ntell us why poverty will not unmake one:  but they tell us more.\nThey tell us the one only thing which makes a true gentleman.  And\nthey tell us more still.  They tell us how every one of us, down to\nthe poorest and most ignorant man and woman in this church, may\nbecome true gentlemen and ladies, in the sight of God and of all\nreasonable men; and that, not only in this life, but after death,\nfor ever, and ever, and ever.  And that is by charity, by love.\n\nNow, if you will look two or three chapters back, in the Epistle to\nthe Corinthians--at the 11th and 12th chapters--you will see that\nthese Corinthians were behaving to each other very much as people\nare apt to do in England now.  They all wanted to rise in life, and\nthey wanted to rise upon each other's shoulders.  Each man and woman\nwanted to set themselves up above their neighbours, and to look down\nupon them.  The rich looked down on the poor, and kept apart from\nthem at the Lord's Supper; and no doubt the poor envied the rich\nheartily enough in return.  And these Corinthians were very\nreligious, and some of them, too, very clever.  So those who, being\npoor, could not set themselves up above their neighbours on the\nscore of wealth, wanted to set themselves up on the score of their\nspiritual gifts.  One looked down on his neighbours because he was a\ndeeper scholar than they; another, because he had the gift of\ntongues, and understood more languages than they; another could\nprophesy better than any of them, and so, because he was a very\neloquent preacher, he tried to get power over his neighbours, and\nabuse the talents which God had given him, to pamper his own pride\nand vanity, and love of managing and ordering people, and of being\nrun after by silly women (as St. Paul calls them), ever learning and\nnever coming to the knowledge of the truth.  And of the rest, one\nparty sided with one preacher, or one teacher, and another with\nanother; and each party looked down on the other, and judged them\nharshly, and said bitter things of them, till, as St. Paul says,\nthey were all split up by heresies, that is, by divisions, party\nspirit, envying, and grudging in the very Church of God, and at the\nvery Table of The Lord.\n\nNow says St. Paul, 'Covet earnestly the best gifts:  and yet show I\nyou a more excellent way;' and that is charity; love.  As much as to\nsay, I do not complain of any of you for trying to be the best that\nyou can, for trying to be as wise as you can be, as eloquent as you\ncan be, as learned as you can be:  I do not complain of you for\ntrying to rise; but I _do_ complain of you for trying to rise upon\neach other's shoulders.  I do complain of you for each trying to set\nup himself, and trying to make use of his neighbours instead of\nhelping them; and, when God gives you gifts to do good to others\nwith, trying to do good only to yourselves with them.\n\nFor he says, you are all members of one body; and all the talents,\ngifts, understanding, power, money, which God has bestowed on you,\nHe has given you only that you may help your neighbours with them.\nOf course there is no harm in longing and praying for great gifts,\nlonging and praying to be very wise, or very eloquent; but only that\nyou may do all the more good.  And, after all, says St. Paul, there\nis something more worth longing for, not merely than money, but more\nworth longing for than the wisdom of a prophet, or the tongue of an\nangel; and that is charity.  If you have _that_, you will be able to\ndo as much good as God requires of you in your station; and if you\nhave not that, you will not do what God requires of you, even though\nyou spoke with the tongues of men and of angels.  Even though you\nhad the gift of prophecy, and understood all mysteries, and all\nknowledge; even though you had all faith, so that you could remove\nmountains; even though you had all good works, and gave all your\ngoods to feed the poor, and your body to be burned as a martyr for\nthe sake of religion, and had not charity, you would be nothing.\nNothing, says St. Paul, but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal--an\nempty vessel, which makes the more noise the less there is in it.\nIf you have charity, says St. Paul, you will be able to do your\nshare of good where God has put you, though you may be poor, and\nignorant, and stupid, and weak; but if you have not charity, all the\nwisdom and learning, righteousness and eloquence in the world, will\nonly give you greater power of doing harm.\n\nYes, he says, I show you a more excellent way to be really great; a\nway by which the poorest may be as great as the richest,--the simple\ncottager's wife as great as the most accomplished lady; and that is\ncharity, which comes from the Spirit of God.  Pray for that--try\nafter that; and if you want to know what sort of a spirit it is that\nyou are to pray for and try after, I will tell you.  Charity is the\nvery opposite of the selfish, covetous, ambitious, proud, grudging\nspirit of this world.  Charity suffers long, and is kind:  charity\ndoes not envy:  charity does not boast, is not puffed up:  does not\nbehave itself unseemly; that is, is never rude, or overbearing, or\ncareless about hurting people's feelings by hard words or looks:\nseeketh not its own; that is, is not always looking on its own\nrights, and thinking about itself, and trying to help itself; is not\neasily provoked:  thinketh no evil, that is, is not suspicious,\nready to make out the worst case against every one; rejoiceth not in\niniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; that is, is not glad, as too\nmany are, to see people do wrong, and to laugh and sneer over their\nfailings:  but rejoiceth in the truth, tries to find out the truth\nabout every one, and judge them honestly, and make fair allowances\nfor them:  covereth all things; that is, tries to hide a neighbour's\nsins as far as is right, instead of gossiping over them, and\nblazoning them up and down, as too many do:  believeth all things;\nthat is, gives every one credit for meaning well as long as it can:\nhopeth all things; that is, never gives any one up as past mending:\nendureth all things, keeps its temper, and keeps its tongue; not\nrendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but, on the\ncontrary, blessing; and so overcomes evil with good.\n\nIn one word, while the spirit of the world thinks of itself, and\nhelps itself, Charity, which is the Spirit of God, thinks of other\npeople, and helps other people.  And now:--to be always thinking of\nother people's feelings, and always caring for other people's\ncomfort, what is that but the mark, and the only mark, of a true\ngentleman, and a true lady?  There is none other, my friends, and\nthere never will be.  But the poorest man or woman can do that; the\npoorest man or woman can be courteous and tender, careful not to\npain people, ready and willing to help every one to the best of\ntheir power; and therefore, the poorest man or woman can be a true\ngentleman or a true lady in the sight of God, by the inspiration of\nthe Spirit of God, whose name is Charity.\n\nThey can be.  And thanks be to the grace of God, they often are.  I\ncan say that I have seen among plain sailors and labouring men as\nperfect gentlemen (of God's sort) as man need see; but then they\nwere _always_ pious and God-fearing men; and so the Spirit of God\nhad made up to them for any want of scholarship and rank.  They were\ngentlemen, because God's Spirit had made them gentle.  For recollect\nall, both rich and poor, what that word gentleman means.  It is\nsimply a man who is gentle; who, let him be as brave or as wise as\nhe will, yet, as St. Paul says, 'suffers long and is kind; does not\nboast, does not behave himself unseemly; is not easily provoked,\nthinketh no evil.'\n\nAnd recollect, too, what that word lady means.  Most of you perhaps\ndo not know.  I will tell you.  It means, in the ancient English\ntongue, a person who gives away bread; who deals out loaves to the\npoor.  I have often thought that most beautiful, and full of\nmeaning, a very message from God to all ladies, to tell them what\nthey ought to be; and not to them only, but to the poorest woman in\nthe parish; for who is too poor to help her neighbours?\n\nYou see there is a difference between a Christian man's duty in this\nand a Christian woman's duty, though they both spring from the same\nspirit.  The man, unless he be a clergyman, has not so much time as\na woman for actually helping his neighbours by acts of charity.  He\nmust till the ground, sail the seas, attend to his business, fight\nthe Queen's enemies; and the way in which the Holy Spirit of Charity\nwill show in him will be more in his temper and his language; by\nmaking him patient, cheerful, respectful, condescending, courteous,\nreasonable, with every one whom he has to do with:  but the woman\nhas time to show acts of charity which the man has not.  She can\nteach in the schools, sit by the sick bed, work with her hands for\nthe suffering and the helpless, even though she cannot with her\nhead.  Above all, she can give those kind looks and kind words which\ncomfort the broken heart better than money and bodily comforts can\ndo.  And she does do it, thank God!  I do not merely mean in such\nnoble instances of divine charity and self-sacrifice as those ladies\nwho have gone out to nurse the wounded soldiers in the East--true\nladies, indeed, of whom I fear more than one, ere they return, will\nbe added to the noble army of martyrs, to receive in return for the\ngreat love which they have shown on earth, the full enjoyment of\nGod's love in heaven:--not these only, but poor women--women who\ncould not write their own names--women who had hardly clothes\nwherewith to keep themselves warm--women who were toiling all day\nlong to feed and clothe their own children, till one wondered when\nin the twenty-four hours they could find five spare minutes for\nhelping their neighbours;--such poor women have I seen, who in the\nmidst of their own daily work and daily care, had still a heart open\nto hear every one's troubles; a head always planning little comforts\nand pleasures for others; and hands always busy in doing good.\nInstead of being made hard and selfish by their own troubles, they\nhad been taught by them, as the Lord Jesus was, to feel for the\ntroubles of all around them, and went about like ministering angels\nin the Spirit of God, which is peace on earth and goodwill towards\nmen.\n\nOh, my friends, such poor women seemed to me most glorious, most\nhonourable, most venerable!  What was all rank or fashion, beauty or\naccomplishments, when compared with the great honour which the Lord\nJesus Christ was putting upon those poor women, by transforming them\nthus into His own most blessed likeness, and giving them grace to go\nabout, as He the Lord Jesus did, doing good, because God was with\nthem!\n\nThen I felt that such women, poor, and worn, and hard-handed as they\nwere, were ladies in the sight of that Heavenly Father, who is no\nrespecter of persons; and felt how truly a wise ancient has said,--\n'It is virtue, yea, virtue, gentlemen, which maketh gentlemen; which\nmaketh the poor rich, the strong weak, the simple wise, the base-\nborn noble.  This rank neither the whirling wheel of Fortune can\ndestroy, nor the deceitful cavillings of worldlings separate;\nneither sickness abate, nor time abolish.'  No; for it is written,\nthat though prophecies shall fail, tongues cease, knowledge vanish\naway, and all that we now know is but in part, yet charity shall\nnever fail those who are full of the Spirit of Love, but abide with\nthem for ever and ever, bringing forth fruit through all eternity to\neverlasting life.\n\nBut what sort of virtue?  Do not mistake that.  Not what the world\ncalls virtue; not mere legal respectability, which says, I do unto\nothers as they do unto me; which is often merely the whitening\noutside the sepulchre, and leaves the heart within unrenewed,\nunrighteous, full of pride and ambition, conceit, cunning, and envy,\nand unbelief in God:  not that virtue, but the virtue which the\nApostle tells us to add to our faith, the virtue from above, which\nis the same as the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then\npeaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated; in one word, the Holy\nSpirit of God, the Spirit of Divine Love and Charity, which seeketh\nnot its own, which St. Paul has described to us in this epistle; the\nHoly Spirit of God, with which the Lord Jesus was filled without\nmeasure, and which He manifested to all the world in His most\nblessed life and death.\n\nAh, my friends, this is not an easy lesson to learn.  Christ's\ndisciples and apostles could not learn it all at once.  They tried\nto hinder little children from coming to Him.  They rebuked the\nblind man who called after Him.  How could the great Prophet of\nNazareth stoop to trouble Himself about such poor insignificant\npeople?  They could not conceive, either, why the Lord Jesus should\nchoose to die shamefully, when He might have lived in honour:  it\nseemed unworthy of Him.  They were shocked at His words. 'That be\nfar from Thee, Lord,' said Peter.  Afterwards, when they really\nunderstood what that word 'Lord,' meant, and what sort of a man a\ntrue and perfect Lord ought to be, then they saw how fit, and\nproper, and glorious, Christ's self-sacrifice was.  When, too, they\nlearnt to look on Him, not merely as a great prophet, but as the Son\nof the Living God, then they understood His conduct, and saw that it\nbehoved an only-begotten Son of God to suffer all these things\nbefore He entered into His glory.\n\nBut the Scribes and Pharisees never understood it.  To the last they\nwere puzzled and angered by that very self-sacrifice of His:  He\nmust be a bad man, they thought, or He would not care so much for\nbad men.  'A friend of publicans and sinners,' they called Him,\nthinking that a shameful blame to Him, while it was really the very\nhighest praise.  But if they could not see the beauty of His\nconduct, can we?  It is very difficult, I do not deny it, my\nfriends, for the selfishness and pride of fallen man:  it is\ndifficult to see that the Cross was the most glorious throne that\nwas even set up on earth, and that the crown of thorns was worth all\nthe crowns of czars and emperors:  difficult, indeed, not to stumble\nat the stumbling-block of the Cross, and to say, 'It cannot surely\nbe more blessed to give than to receive:' difficult, not to say in\nour hearts, 'The way to be great is surely to rise above other men,\nnot to stoop below them; to make use of them, and not to make\nourselves slaves to them.'  And yet the Lord Jesus Christ did so; He\ntook on Himself the form of a slave, and made Himself of no\nreputation:  and what was fit and good for Him, must surely be fit\nand good for us.  But it is a hard lesson to the pride of fallen\ncreatures:  very hard.  And nothing, I believe, but sorrow will\nteach it us:  sorrow is teaching it some of us now.  We surely are\nbeginning to see, that to suffer patiently for conscience sake, is\nthe most beautiful thing on earth or in heaven:  we begin to see\nthat those poor soldiers, dying by inches of cold and weariness,\nwithout a murmur, because it was their Duty, were doing a nobler\nwork even than they did when they fought at Alma and Inkermann; and\nthat those ladies who are drudging in the hospitals, far away from\nhome, amid filth and pestilence, are doing, if possible, a nobler\nwork still, a nobler work than if they were queens or empresses,\nbecause they have taken up the Cross and followed Christ; because\nthey are not seeking their own good, but the good of others.  And if\nwe will not learn it from those glorious examples, God will force us\nto learn it, I trust, every one of us, by sorrow and disappointment.\nAh, my friends, might one not learn it at once, if one would but\nopen one's eyes and look at things as they are?  Every one is\nlonging for something; each has his little plan for himself, of what\nhe would like to be, and like to do, and says to himself all day\nlong, 'If I could but get _that_ one thing, I should be happy:  If I\ncould but get that, then I should want no more!'  Foolish man, self-\ndeceived by his own lusts!  Perhaps he cannot get what he wants, and\ntherefore he cannot enjoy what he has, and is moody, discontented,\npeevish, a torment to himself, and perhaps a torment to his family.\nOr perhaps he does get what he wants:  and is he happy after all?\nNot he.  He is like the greedy Israelites of old, when they longed\nfor the quails; and God sent the quails:  but while the meat was yet\nin their mouths, they loathed it.  So it is with a man's fancy.  He\ngets what he fancies; and he plays with it for a day, as a child\nwith a new toy, and most probably _spoils_ it, and next day throws\nit away to run after some new pleasure, which will cheat him in just\nthe same way as the last did; and so happiness flits away ahead\nbefore him; and he is like the simple boy in the parable, who was to\nfind a crock of gold where the rainbow touched the ground:  but as\nhe moved on, the rainbow moved on too, and kept always a field off\nfrom him.  You may smile:  but just as foolish is every soul of us,\nwho fancies that he will become happy by making himself great;\nadmired, rich, comfortable, in short, by making himself anything\nwhatsoever, or getting anything whatsoever for himself.  Just as\nfoolish is every poor soul, and just as unhappy, as long as he will\ngo on thinking about himself, instead of copying the Lord Jesus\nChrist, and thinking about others; as long as he will keep to the\npattern of the old selfish Adam, which is corrupt according to the\ndeceitful lusts, the longings and fancies which deceive a man into\nexpecting to be happy when he will not be happy; instead of putting\non the new man, which after God's likeness is created in\nrighteousness and true holiness:  and what is true holiness but that\nvery charity of which St. Paul has been preaching to us, the spirit\nof love, and mercy, and gentleness, and condescension, and patience,\nand active benevolence?\n\nAh, my friends, do not forget what I said just now; that a man could\nnot become happy by making himself anything.  No.  Not by making\nhimself anything:  but he may by letting God make him something.  If\nhe will let God make him a new creature in Jesus Christ, then he\nwill be more than happy--he will be blessed:  then he will be a\nblessing to himself, and a blessing to every one whom he meets:\nthen all vain longing, and selfishness, and pride, and ambition, and\ncovetousness, and peevishness and disappointment, will vanish out of\nhis heart, and he will work manfully and contentedly where God has\nplaced him--cheerful and open-hearted, civil and patient, always\nthinking about others, and not about himself; trying to be about his\nMaster's business, which is doing good; and always finding too, that\nhis Master Christ sets him some good work to do day by day, and\ngives him strength to do it.  And how can a man get that blessed and\nnoble state of mind?  By prayer and practice.  You must ask for\nstrength from God:  but then you must believe that He answers your\nprayer, and gives you that strength; and therefore you must try and\nuse it.  There is no more use in praying without practising than\nthere is in practising without praying.  You cannot learn to walk\nwithout walking:  no more can you learn to do good without trying to\ndo good.\n\nAsk, then, of God, grace and help to do good:  Pray to Him this very\nday to take all selfishness and meanness out of your hearts, and to\ngive you instead His Holy Spirit of Love and Charity, which alone\ncan make you noble in His sight; and try this day, try every day of\nyour lives, to do some good to those around you.  Oh make a rule,\nand pray to God to help you to keep it, never, if possible, to lie\ndown at night without being able to say, 'I have made one human\nbeing at least a little wiser, or a little happier, or a little\nbetter this day.'  You will find it easier than you think, and\npleasanter:  easier, because if you wish to do God's work, God will\nsurely find you work to do; and pleasanter, because in return for\nthe little trouble it may cost you, or the little choking of foolish\nvulgar pride it may cost you, you will have a peace of mind, a quiet\nof temper, a cheerfulness and hopefulness about yourself and all\naround you, such as you never felt before; and over and above that,\nif you look for a reward in the life to come, recollect this--what\nwe have to hope for in the life to come is, to enter into the joy of\nour Lord.  And how did He fulfil that joy, but by humbling Himself,\nand taking the form of a slave, and coming not to be ministered to\nbut to minister, and to give His whole life, even to the death upon\nthe cross, a ransom for many?  Be sure, that unless you take up His\ncross, you will not share His crown.  Be sure, that unless you\nfollow in His footsteps, you will never reach the place where He is.\nIf you wish to enter into the joy of your Lord, be sure that His joy\nis now, as it was in Judaea of old, over every sinner that\nrepenteth, every mourner that is comforted, every hungry mouth that\nis fed, every poor soul, sick or in prison, who is visited.\n\nThat is the joy of your Lord--to show mercy; and that must be your\njoy too, if you wish to enter into His joy.  Surely that is plain.\nYou must rejoice in doing the same work that He rejoices in, and\nthen His joy and yours will be the same; then you will enter into\nHis joy, and He will enter into yours; then, as St. John says, you\nwill dwell in Christ, and Christ in you, because you love the\nbrethren; and you will hear through all eternity the blessed words,\n'Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these little ones,\nye did it unto Me.'\n\n\n\nSERMON XXI.  TOLERATION\n\n\n\n[Preached at Bideford, 1854]\n\nPhilippians iii. 15, 16.  And if in any thing ye shall be otherwise\nminded, God shall reveal even this to you.  Nevertheless, whereto we\nhave already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the\nsame thing.\n\nMy friends, allow me to speak a few plain and honest words, ere we\npart, on a matter which is near to, and probably important to, many\nof us here.  We all know how the Christian Church has in all ages\nbeen torn in pieces by religious quarrels; we all know too well how\npainfully these religious quarrels have been brought home to our\nvery doors and hearts of late.\n\nNow, we all deplore, or profess to deplore, these differences and\ncontroversies.  But we may do that in two ways:  we may say, 'I am\nvery sorry that all Christians do not think alike,' when all we mean\nis, 'I am very sorry that all Christians do not think just as I do,\nfor I am right and infallible, whosoever else is wrong.'  The fallen\nheart of man is too apt to say that, my friends, in its pride and\nnarrowness, and while it cries out against the Pope of Rome, sets\nitself up as Pope in his stead.\n\nBut there is surely another and a better way of deploring these\ndifferences:  and that is, to say to oneself, 'I am sorry, bitterly\nsorry, that Christians cannot differ without quarrelling and hating\none another over and above.'  And then comes the deeper home-\nthought, 'And how much more sorry I am that I myself cannot differ\nfrom my fellow-Christians without growing angry with them,\nsuspecting them, despising them, treating them as if they were not\nmy fellow-Christians at all.'  Yes, my friends, this is what we have\nto do first when we think of religious controversies, to examine our\nown hearts and deeds and words; to see whether we too have not been\nmaking bitterness more bitter, and, as the old proverb says,\n'stirring the fire with a sword;' and to repent humbly and utterly\nof every harsh word, hasty judgment, ungenerous suspicion, as sins,\nnot only against men, but against God the Father of Lights, who\nworketh in each of His children to will and to do of His good\npleasure.\n\nBut some will say, 'We cannot give up what we believe to be right\nand true.'  God forbid that you should try to do so, my friends; for\nif you really believe it, you cannot, even if you try; and by trying\nyou will only make yourselves dishonest.  But does not that hold as\ngood of the man who differs from you?  God will not surely lay down\none law for you, and another for him?  'But we are right, and he is\nwrong.'  Be it so.  You do not surely mean that you are quite right;\nperfect and infallible?  You mean that you are right on the whole,\nand as far as you see.  And how can you tell but that he is right on\nthe whole, and as far as he sees?  You will answer that both cannot\nbe right; that yes and no cannot be both true; that a thing cannot\nbe black and white also.\n\nMy friends, my friends--but where is the religious controversy, the\ntwo sides whereof are as clearly opposite to each other as yes and\nno, black and white?  I know none now; I have hardly found one in\nthe records of the Protestant Church since first Luther and our\nReformers protested against Romish idolatry.  On that last matter\nthere should be no doubt, as long as the first two commandments\nstand in the Decalogue; but, with that exception, it would be\ndifficult to find a dispute in which the truth lay altogether with\none party.  The truth rather lies, in general, not so much halfway\nbetween the two combatants, as in some third place, which neither of\nthem sees; which perhaps God does not intend them to see in this\nlife, while He leaves his servants each to work out some one side of\nChristian truth, dividing to every man severally as He will,\naccording to the powers of each mind, and the needs of each\nsituation.\n\nTrue we have the infallible rule of Scripture:  but are our own\ninterpretations of it so sure to be infallible?  Inspired, infinite,\ninexhaustible as it is, can we pretend to have fathomed all its\nabysses, to have comprehended all its boundless treasures?  The\npretence is folly.  True, again, it contains all things necessary to\nsalvation; and those so plainly set forth, that he who runs may\nread, and the wayfaring man, though poor, shall not err therein.\nAnd yet does it not contain things whereof even St. Paul himself\nsaid, that he only knew in part, and prophesied in part, and saw as\nthrough a glass darkly; and are we to suppose that they are among\nthe truths necessary to salvation?  Now are not the points about\nwhich there has been, and is still, most dispute, just of this very\nnumber?  Do they belong to the simple fundamental truths of the\nGospel?  No.  Are they such plain matters that the wayfaring man,\nthough poor, can make up his mind on them for himself?  No.  Are\nthey one of them laid down directly in Scripture, like the Ten\nCommandments, the Lord's Prayer, or the Creeds?  No.  They are every\none, as it seems to me, whether they be right or wrong, abstruse\ndeductions, delicate theories, built up on single and obscure texts.\nSurely, if they had been necessary for salvation, the Lord would\nhave spoken on them in a tone and in words about which there should\nbe no more mistake than about the thunders of Sinai, and the tables\nof stone fresh from the finger-mark of God.  And He has spoken to\nus, my friends, on other matters, if not on these.  His promises are\nclear enough, and short enough, though high as heaven and wide as\nthe universe.  There is one God, and one Mediator between God and\nman, the man Christ Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God; and\nwhosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; and if\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins.  And again, 'If\nany man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally, and\nupbraideth not, and he shall receive it.'   'For if ye, being evil,\nknow how to give good gifts to your children, much more shall your\nHeavenly Father give His Holy Spirit to them who ask Him.'\n\nThese are God's promises--simple and clear enough:  and what are\nGod's demands?  Are they numerous, intricate, burdensome, a yoke\nwhich neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?  God forbid\nagain!--'He hath showed thee, oh man, what is good.  And what doth\nthe Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to\nwalk humbly with thy God?'  And lest thou shouldest mistake in the\nleast the meaning of these words, He hath showed thee all this, and\nmore, by a living example fairer than all the sons of men, and\nthrough lips full of grace, in the blessed life and blessed death of\nHis Son Jesus Christ, the brightness of His glory, and the express\nimage of His person.  To this, at least, we have already attained.\nLet us walk by this rule, let us all mind this same thing, and if in\nanything else we are differently minded, God in His own good time\nwill reveal even that to us.\n\nIs not this enough, my friends?  Then why should we bite and tear\neach other about that which is over and above this?  If any man\nbelieves this, and acts on it, let us hail him as a brother.  After\nall, let our differences be what they will, have we not one Lord,\none faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all,\nand through all, and in us all?  If this is not bond enough between\nman and man, what bond would we have?  Oh, my friends, when we\nconsider this our little life, how full of ignorance it is and\ndarkness; within us, rebellion, inconstancy, confusion, daily sins\nand shortcomings; and without us, disappointment, fear of\nloneliness, loss of friends, loss of all which makes life worth\nhaving,--who are we that we should deny proudly one single tie which\nbinds us to any other human being?  Who are we that we should refuse\none hand stretched out to grasp our own?  Who are we that we should\nsay, 'Stand back, for I am holier than thou?'  Who are we that we\nshould judge another? to his own master let him stand or fall--'yea,\nand he shall stand,' says the Apostle, 'for God is able to make him\nstand.'\n\nThink of those last words, my friends, they are strong and\nstartling; but we must not shrink from them.  They tell us that God\nmay be as near those whom we heap with hard names, as He is near to\nus; that He may intend that they should triumph, not over us, but\nwith us over evil.  And if God be with them, who dare be against\nthem?  Shall we be more dainty than God?  And therefore I have never\nbeen able to hear, without a shudder, words which I have heard, and\nfrom really Christian men too:  'I can wish well to a pious man of a\ndifferent denomination from mine; I can honour and admire the fruits\nof God's Spirit in him; but I cannot co-operate with him.'  When I\nhear such language from really good men, I confess I am puzzled.  I\nhave no doubt that their reasons seem to them very sound; but what\nthey are I cannot conceive.  I cannot conceive why I should not hold\nout the right hand of fellowship and brotherhood to every man who\nfears God and works righteousness, of whatsoever denomination he may\nbe.  We believe the Apostles' Creed, surely?  Then think of the\nmeaning of that one word, The Holy Spirit.  To whom are we to\nattribute any man's good deeds, except to the Holy Spirit?  We dare\nnot say that he does them by an innate and natural virtue of his\nown, for that would be to fall at once into the Pelagian heresy;\nneither dare we attribute his good deeds to an evil spirit, and say,\n'However good they may look, they must be bad, for he belongs to a\ndenomination who cannot have God's Spirit.'  We dare not; for that\nwould be to approach fearfully near to the unpardonable sin itself,\nthe sin against the Holy Ghost, the bigotry which says, 'He casteth\nout devils by the Prince of the devils.'  Surely if we be\nChristians, and Churchmen, we confess (for the Bible and the Prayer-\nbook declare) that every good deed of man comes down from the One\nFountain of Good, from God, the Father of Lights, by the inspiration\nof His Holy Spirit.\n\nThen think, my friends, think what words we have said.  We confess\nthat the great, absolute, almighty, eternal God, in whose hand suns\nand stars, ages and generations, hell and heaven, and all which is\nand has been, and ever will be, are but as a grain of sand; who has\nbut to take away His breath, and the whole universe would become\nnothing and nowhere; the utterly holy and righteous God, who is of\npurer eyes than to behold iniquity, who charges His angels with\nfolly, and the heavens are not clean in His sight--we confess, I\nsay, that this great God has condescended to visit that man's soul,\nand cherish it, and teach it, and shape it (be it ever so little)\ninto His own likeness:  and shall we dare to stand aloof from him\nfrom whom God does not stand aloof?  Shall we refuse to walk with\none who walks with God?  Shall we refuse to work with one who is a\nfellow-worker with God, to love one whom God loves, to take by the\nhand one whose guest God has become?  Shall we be more dainty than\nGod? more fastidious than God? more righteous than God? more\nseparate from sinners than God?  Oh, my friends, let us pray that we\nmay love God better, and know His likeness more clearly; that we may\nbe more ready to recognise, and admire, and welcome every, even the\nsmallest trace of that likeness in any human being, remembering that\nit is the likeness of Christ, who was not merely The Teacher of all\nin every nation who fear God and work righteousness, but the Saviour\nwho ate and drank with publicans and sinners:  and then we shall be\nmore careful how we call unclean what God Himself has cleansed with\nHis own presence, His own grace, His own quickening and renewing and\nsanctifying Spirit.\n\nBe sure, be sure, my friends, that in proportion as we really love\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, we shall love those who love Him, be it in\nnever so clumsy or mistaken a fashion; and love those too whom He\nloved enough to die for them, and whom He loves now enough to teach\nand strengthen.  We shall say to them, not 'Wherein do we differ?'\nbut 'Wherein do we agree?'  Not, 'Because I cannot worship with you,\ntherefore I will not work with you;' but rather, 'I wish that I\ncould worship with you; I will whenever and wherever I can, as far\nas you allow me, as far as the law allows me, as far as your worship\nis not in my eyes an actually sinful thing:  but, be that as it may,\nwe can at least do together something better even than worshipping,\nand that is, working.  We can surely do good together.  Together,\nlet our denomination or party be what it may, we can feed the\nhungry, clothe the naked, reform the prisoner, humanize the\ndegraded, save yearly the lives of thousands by labouring for the\npublic health, and educate the minds and morals of the masses,\nthough our religious differences (shame on us that it should be so!)\nforce us to part when we begin to talk to them about the world to\ncome.'\n\nFor are we not brothers after all?  Has not God made us of one\nblood, English men, with English hearts?  Has not Christ redeemed us\nwith one and the same sacrifice?  Has not the Holy Spirit given us\none and the same desire of doing good?  And shall we not use that\nspirit hand in hand?  Look, look at the opportunities of doing good\nwhich are around you; look at God's field of good works, white\nalready to the harvest; and the labourers are few.  Shall these few,\ninstead of going manfully to work, stand idly quarrelling about the\nshape of their instruments, and their favourite modes of using them?\nGod forbid!  True, there are errors against which we are bound to\nprotest to the uttermost; but how few?  The one real enemy we have\nall to fight is sin--evil-doing.  If any man or doctrine makes men\nworse--makes men do worse deeds, protest then, if you will, and\nspare not, and shrink not:  for sin must be of the Devil, whatever\nelse is not.  And therefore we are bound to protest against any\ndoctrine which parts man from God, and, under whatsoever pretence of\nreverence or purity, draws again the veil between him and his\nHeavenly Father, and denies him free access to the Throne of Grace,\nand the feet of Jesus, that he may carry thither his own sins, his\nown doubts, his own sorrows, and speak (wondrous condescension of\nredeeming grace!) speak with God face to face, and yet live.  For\nthis we must protest; for this we must die, if needs be; for if we\nlose this, we lose all which our reforming forefathers won for us at\nthe stake, ay, we lose our own souls; for we lose righteousness and\nstrength, and the power to do the will of God.\n\nFor to shut a man out from free access to God and Christ is to make\nhim certainly false, dishonest, cowardly, degraded, slavish, and\nsinful; as modern Popery has made, and always will make, those over\nwhom it really gains power.  This is the root of our hereditary\nprotest against Popery; not merely because we do not agree with\ncertain of its doctrines, but because we know from experience, that\nas now taught by the Jesuits, with whom it has identified itself,\nits general tendency is to make men bad men, ignorant, dishonest,\nrebellious; unworthy citizens of a free and loyal state.\n\nAnd there are practices against which congregations have a right to\nprotest, not only as Christians, but as free Englishmen.\nCongregations have a right to protest against any minister who\nintroduces obsolete ceremonies which empty his church and drive away\nhis people.  Those ceremonies may be quite harmless in themselves,\nas I really believe most of them are; many of them may be beautiful,\nand, if properly understood, useful, as I think they are; but a\nthing may be good in itself, and yet become bad by being used at a\nwrong time, and in a way which produces harm.  And it is shocking,\nto say the least, to see churches emptied and parishes thrown into\nwar for the sake of such matters.  The lightest word which can be\nused for such conduct is, pedantry; but I fear at times lest the\nLord in heaven should be using a far more awful word, and when He\nsees weak brethren driven from the fold of the Church by the self-\nwill and obstinacy of the very men who profess to desire to bring\nall into the Church, as the only place where salvation is to be\nfound,--I fear, I say, when I see such deeds, lest the Lord should\nrepeat against them His own awful words:  'If any man scandalize one\nof these little ones who believeth on Me, it were better for him\nthat a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were\ndrowned in the depths of the sea.'  What sadder mistake?  Those who\nhave sworn to seek out Christ's lambs scattered up and down this\nwicked world, shall they be the very ones to frighten those lambs\nout of the fold, instead of alluring them back into it?  Shall the\nshepherd play the part, not even of the hireling who flees and\nleaves the sheep to themselves, but of the very wolf who scatters\nthe flock?  God forbid!  The Church, like the Sabbath, was made for\nman, my friends:  not man for the Church; and the Son of Man, as He\nis Lord of the Sabbath, is Lord of the Church, and will have mercy\nin its dealings rather than sacrifice.  The minister, my friends,\nwas made for the people:  and not the people for the minister.  What\nelse does the very name 'minister' mean?  Not a lord who has\ndominion, but a servant, a servant to all, who must give up again\nand again his private notions of what he thinks best in itself for\nthe sake of what will be best for his flock; who must be, like St.\nPaul, a Jew to the Jews; under the law to those who are still under\nthe law; and yet again without law to those who are without law\n(though not without law to God, but under the law to Christ); weak\nwith the weak; strong with the strong; that he may gain men of all\nsorts of opinions and characters by agreeing with them as far as he\nhonestly can, and showing his sympathy with each as much as he can;\nand so become all things to all men, that he may by all means save\nsome.  Oh, my friends, who can read honestly that glorious First\nEpistle to the Corinthians and not see how a man may have the most\nintense earnestness, the strongest doctrinal certainty, and yet at\nthe same time the greatest freedom, and charity, and liberality\nabout minor matters of ceremonies and Church arrangements, and\npractical methods of usefulness; glad even that Christ be preached\nby his enemies, and out of spite to him, because any way Christ is\npreached?\n\nBut, my friends, if it is the right of free Englishmen to protest\nagainst such doings, how shall it be done?  Surely in gentleness,\ncalmness, reverence, as by men who know that they are standing on\nholy ground, and dealing with sacred things, before the Throne of\nGod, and beneath the eye of Jesus Christ.  Not surely, as it has\nbeen too often done, in bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and\nevil-speaking, with really unjust suspicions, exaggerations,\nslanders, (and those, too, anonymous,) in the columns of the public\nprints.  My friends, these are not God's weapons.  Not such is\nIthuriel's magic spear, the very touch of which unmasks falsehood.\nThis is to try to cast out Satan by Satan, to make evil worse by\nfighting it with fresh evil.  Oh, my friends, if there is one\ncounsel which I would press on all here more earnestly than another,\nit is this--never, never, howsoever great may be the temptation, to\nindulge in anonymous attacks on any human being.  No man has a right\nto do it who prays daily to his Father in heaven, Lead us not into\ntemptation.  For it is to lead oneself into temptation, and that too\nsore to resist; into the temptation to say something which one dare\nnot say, and ought not to say, were one's name known; the temptation\nto forget not only the charity of Christians, but even the\ncourtesies of civilized life; and to shoot, from behind the safe\nhedge of anonymousness, coward and envenomed shafts, of which we\nshould be ashamed, did the world know that they were ours; of which\nwe shall surely be ashamed in that great day, when the secrets of\nall hearts shall be disclosed.  I speak strongly:  but only because\nI know by bitter experience the terrible truth of my own words.\n\nAnd consider, my friends, can any good result come from handling\nsacred matters with such harsh and fierce hands as they have been\nhandled of late?  For ourselves, such evil tempers only excite,\nirritate, blind us:  they prevent our doing justice to the opposite\nside--(I speak of all parties)--they put us into an unwholesome\nstate of suspicion, and tempt us to pass harsh judgments upon men as\nrighteous, and perhaps far more righteous, than ourselves:  they\nstir up our pride to special plead our case, to make the best of our\nown side, and the worst of our opponents':  they defile our very\nprayers; till, when we ought to be praying God to bless all mankind,\nwe catch ourselves unawares calling on Him to curse our enemies.\n\nFor those who are without--for the infidel, the profligate, the\ncareless--oh, what a scandal to them!  What an excuse for them to\nblaspheme the holy name whereby we are called, and ask, as of old,\n'Is this then the Gospel of Peace?  See how these Christians hate\none another!'\n\nWhile for the young, oh, my friends, what a scandal, again, to them!\nIf you had seen (as I have) pious parents destroying in their own\nchildrens' minds all faith, all reverence for holy things, by mixing\nthemselves up in religious controversies, and indulging by their own\nfiresides in fierce denunciations of men no worse than themselves;--\nif you will watch (as you may) young people taking refuge, some in\nutter frivolity, saying, 'What am I to believe?  When religionists\nhave settled what religion is, it will be time enough for me to\nthink of it:  meanwhile, let me eat and drink, for to-morrow I\ndie;'--and others, the children of strong Protestant parents, taking\nrefuge in the apostate Church of Rome, and saying, 'If Englishmen do\nnot know what to believe, Rome does; if I cannot find certainty in\nProtestantism, I can in Popery;'--if you will consider honestly and\nearnestly these sad tragedies, you will look on it as a sacred duty\nto the children whom God has given you, to keep aloof as much as\npossible from all those points on which Christians differ, and make\nyour children feel from their earliest years that there are points,\nand those the great, vital root points, on which all more or less\nagree, which many members of the Romish Church have held, and, I\ndoubt not, now hold, as firmly as Protestants,--adoption by one\ncommon Father, justification by the blood of one common Saviour,\nsanctification by one common Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd believe me, my friends, that just in proportion as you delight\nin, and live by, these great doctrines, all controversies will\nbecome less and less important in your eyes.  The more you value the\nliving body of Christianity, the less you will think of its\ntemporary garments; the more you feel the power of God's Spirit, the\nless scrupulous will you be about the peculiar form in which He may\nmanifest Himself.  Personal trust in Christ Jesus, personal love to\nChrist Jesus, personal belief that He and He only, is governing this\npoor diseased and confused world; that He is really fighting against\nall evil in it; that He really rules all nations, and fashions the\nhearts of all of them, and understands all their works, and has\nappointed them their times and the bounds of their habitation, if\nhaply they may feel after Him and find Him:  personal and living\nbelief that the just and loving Lord Christ reigneth, be the peoples\nnever so unquiet;--this, this will keep your minds clear, and sober,\nand charitable, and will make you turn with disgust from platform\nsquabbles and newspaper controversies, to do the duty which lies\nnearest you; to walk soberly and righteously with your God, and\ntrain up your children in His faith and fear, not merely to be\nscholars, not merely to be devotees, but to be Christian Englishmen;\ncourteous and gentle, and yet manful and self-restraining; fearing\nGod and regarding man; growing up healthy under that solemn sense of\nnational duty which is the only safeguard of national freedom.\n\nAnd, meanwhile, you will leave all who differ from you in the hands\nof a God who wills their salvation far more than you can do; who\naccepts, in every nation, those who fear Him and work righteousness;\nwho is merciful in this--that He rewards every man according to his\nwork; and who, if our brothers be otherwise minded from us, will\nreveal even that to them, if we be right:  or, again, to us, if they\nbe right.  For we may have to learn from them, as well as they from\nus; and both have to learn much from God, in the day when all\ncontroversies and doubts shall vanish like a cloud; when we shall\nsee no longer in part, and through a glass darkly, but face to face;\nwhile all things shall be bright in the sunshine of God's presence\nand of the countenance of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXII.  PUBLIC SPIRIT\n\n\n\n(Preached at Bideford, 1855.)\n\n1 Corinthians xii. 25, 26.  That there should be no division in the\nbody; but that the members should have the same care, one of\nanother.  And whether one member suffer, all suffer with it; or\nwhether one member be honoured, all rejoice with it.\n\nI have been asked to preach in behalf of the Provident Society of\nthis town.  I shall begin by asking you to think over with me a\nmatter which may seem at first sight to have very little to do with\nyou or with a provident society, but which, nevertheless, I believe\nhas very much to do with both, and is full of wholesome spiritual\ninstruction for us all.\n\nDid it ever happen to any of you, to see a mob of several thousands\nput to instant flight by a mere handful of soldiers?  And did you\never ask yourself how that apparent miracle could come to pass?  The\nfirst answer which occurred to you, perhaps, was, that the soldiers\nwere well armed, and the mob was not:  but soon, I am sure, you felt\nthat you were doing the soldiers an injustice; that they would have\nbehaved just as bravely if every man in that mob had been as well\narmed as they, and have resisted till they were overpowered by mere\nnumbers.  You felt, I am sure, that there was something in the\nhearts and spirits of those soldiers which there was not in the\nhearts of the mob; that though the mob might be boiling over with\nthe greediest passions, the fiercest fury, while the soldiers were\ncalm, cheerful, and caring for nothing but doing their duty, yet\nthat there was a thought within them which was stronger than all the\nrage and greediness of the thousands whom they faced; that, in\nshort, the seeming miracle was a moral and a spiritual miracle.\n\nWhat, then, is this wonder-working thought which makes the soldier\nstrong?\n\nCourage, you answer, and the sense of duty.  True; but what has\ncalled out the sense of duty?  What has inspired the courage?  There\nwas a time, perhaps, when each of those soldiers was no braver or\nmore steady than the mob in front of them.  Has it never happened to\nyou to know some young country lad, both before and after he has\nbecome a soldier?  Look at him in his native village (if you will\nlet me draw for you the sketch of a history, which, alas! is the\nhistory of thousands), perhaps one of the worst and idlest lads in\nit--unwilling to work steadily, haunting the public-house and the\nworst of company; wandering out at night to poach and caring for\nnothing but satisfying his gross animal appetites; afraid to look\nyou in the face, hardly able to give an intelligible, certainly not\na civil answer; his countenance expressing only vacancy, sensuality,\ncunning, suspicion, utter want of self-respect.\n\nIt is a sad sight, but how common a sight, even in this favoured\nland!\n\nAt last he vanishes; he has been engaged in some drunken affray, or\nin some low intrigue, and has fled for fear of the law, and enlisted\nas a soldier.\n\nA year or two passes, and you meet the same lad again--if indeed he\nis the same.  For a strange change has come over him:  he walks\nerect, he speaks clearly, he looks you boldly in the face, with eyes\nfull of intelligence and self-respect; he is become civil and\ncourteous now; he touches his cap to you 'like a soldier;' he can\nafford now to be respectful to others, because he respects himself,\nand expects you to respect him.  You talk to him, and find that the\nchange is not merely outward, but inward; not owing to mere\nmechanical drill but to something which has been going on in his\nheart; and ten to one, the first thing that he begins to talk to you\nabout, with honest pride, is his regiment.  His regiment.  Yes,\nthere is the secret which has worked these wonders; there is the\ntalisman which has humanized and civilized and raised from the mire\nthe once savage boor.  He belongs to a regiment; in one word, he has\nbecome the member of a body.\n\nThe member of a body, in which if one member suffers, all suffer\nwith it; if one member be honoured, all rejoice with it.  A body,\nwhich has a life of its own, and a government of its own, a duty of\nits own, a history of its own, an allegiance to a sovereign, all\nwhich are now his life, his duty, his history, his allegiance; he\ndoes not now merely serve himself and his own selfish lusts:  he\nserves the Queen.  His nature is not changed, but the thought that\nhe is the member of an honourable body has raised him above his\nnature.  If he forgets that, and thinks only of himself, he will\nbecome selfish sluttish, drunken, cowardly, a bad soldier; as long\nas he remembers it, he is a hero.  He can face mobs now, and worse\nthan mobs:  he can face hunger and thirst, fatigue, danger, death\nitself, because he is the member of a body.  For those know little,\nlittle of human nature and its weakness, who fancy that mere brute\ncourage, as of an angry lion, will ever avail, or availed a few\nshort weeks ago, to spur our thousands up the steeps of Alma, or\nacross the fatal plain of Balaklava, athwart the corpses of their\ncomrades, upon the deadly throats of Russian guns.  A nobler\nfeeling, a more heavenly thought was needed (and when needed, thanks\nto God, it came!) to keep each raw lad, nursed in the lap of peace,\ntrue to his country and his Queen through the valley of the shadow\nof death.  Not mere animal fierceness:  but that tattered rag which\nfloated above his head, inscribed with the glorious names of Egypt\nor Corunna, Toulouse or Waterloo, that it was which raised him into\na hero:  he had seen those victories; the men who conquered there\nwere dead long since:  but the regiment still lived, its history\nstill lived, its honour lived, and that history, that honour were\nhis, as well as those old dead warriors':  he had fought side by\nside with them in spirit, though not in the flesh; and now his turn\nwas come, and he must do as they did, and for their sakes, and count\nhis own life a worthless thing for the sake of the body which he\nbelonged to:  he, but two years ago the idle, selfish country lad,\nnow stumbling cheerful on in the teeth of the iron hail, across\nground slippery with his comrades' blood, not knowing whether the\nnext moment his own blood might not swell the ghastly stream.  What\nmatter?  They might kill him, but they could not kill the regiment:\nit would live on and conquer; ay, and should conquer, if his life\ncould help on its victory; and then its honour would be his, its\nreward be his, even when his corpse lay pierced with wounds,\nstiffening beneath a foreign sky.\n\nHere, my friends, is one example of the blessed power of fellow\nfeeling, public spirit, the sense of belonging to a body whose\nmembers have not merely a common interest, but a common duty, a\ncommon honour.\n\nThis Christian country, thank God! gives daily many another example\nof the same:  and every place, and every station affords to each one\nof us opportunities,--more, alas, I fear, than we shall ever take\nfull advantage of:  but I have chosen the case of the soldier, not\nmerely because it is perhaps the most striking and affecting, but\nbecause I wish to see, and trust in God that I shall see, those who\nremain at home in safety emulating the public spirit and self-\nsacrifice which our soldiers are showing abroad; and by sacrifices\nmore peaceful and easy, but still well-pleasing unto God, showing\nthat they too have been raised above selfishness, by the glorious\nthought that they are members of a body.\n\nFor, are we not members of a body, my friends?  Are we not members\nof the Body of bodies, members of Christ, children of God,\ninheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven?  Members of Christ--we, and the\npoor for whom I plead, as well as we; perhaps, considering their\nmany trials and our few trials, more faithfully and loyally by far\nthan we are.  There are some here, I doubt not, to whom that word,\nthat argument, is enough:  to whom it is enough to say, Remember\nthat the Lord whom you love loves that shivering, starving wretch as\nwell as He loves you, to open and exhaust at once their heart, their\npurse, their labour of love.  God's blessing be upon all such!  But\nit would be hypocrisy in me, my friends, to speak to this, or any\ncongregation, as if all were of that temper of mind.  It is not one\nin ten, alas! in the present divided state of religious parties, who\nfeels the mere name of Christ enough of a bond to make him sacrifice\nhimself for his fellow Christians, as a soldier does for his fellow\nsoldiers.  Not one in ten, alas! feels that he owes the same\nallegiance to Christ as the soldier does to his Queen; that the\nhonour of Christianity is his honour, the history of Christianity\nhis history, the life of Christianity his life.  Would that it were\nso:  but it is not so.  And I must appeal to feelings in you less\nwide, honourable and righteous though they are:  I must appeal to\nyour public spirit as townsmen of this place.\n\nI have a right as a clergyman to do so:  I have a duty as a\nclergyman to do so.  For your being townsmen of this place is not a\nmere material accident depending on your living in one house instead\nof another.  It is a spiritual matter; it is a question of eternity.\nYour souls and spirits influence each other; your tastes, opinions,\ntempers, habits, make those of your neighbours better or worse; you\nfeel it in yourselves daily.  Look at it as a proof that, whether\nyou will or not, you are one body, of which all the members must\nmore or less suffer and rejoice together; that you have a common\nweal, a common interest; that God has knit you together; that you\ncannot part yourselves even if you will; and that you can be happy\nand prosperous only by acknowledging each other as brothers, and by\ndoing to each other as you would they should do unto you.\n\nIt may be hard at times to bring this thought home to our minds:\nbut it is none the less true because we forget it; and if we do not\nchoose to bring it home to our own minds, it will be sooner or later\nbrought home to them whether we choose or not.\n\nFor bear in mind, that St. Paul does not say, if one member suffers,\nall the rest ought to suffer with it:  he says that they do suffer\nwith it.  He does not say merely, that we ought to feel for our\nfellow townsmen; he says, that God has so tempered the body together\nas to force one member to have the same care of the others as of\nitself; that if we do not care to feel for them, we shall be made to\nfeel with them.  One limb cannot choose whether or not it will feel\nthe disease of another limb.  If one limb be in pain, the whole body\n_must_ be uneasy, whether it will or not.  And if one class in a\ntown, or parish, or county, be degraded, or in want, the whole town,\nor parish, or county, must be the worse for it.  St. Paul is not\npreaching up sentimental sympathy:  he is telling you of a plain\nfact.  He is not saying, 'It is a very fine and saintly thing, and\nwill increase your chance of heaven, to help the poor.'  He is\nsaying, 'If you neglect the poor, you neglect yourself; if you\ndegrade the poor, you degrade yourself.  His poverty, his\ncarelessness, his immorality, his dirt, his ill-health, will punish\n_you_; for you and he are members of the same body, knit together\ninextricably for weal or woe, by the eternal laws according to which\nthe Lord Jesus Christ has constituted human society; and if you\nbreak those laws, they will avenge themselves.'--My friends, do we\nnot see them avenge themselves daily?  The slave-holder refuses to\nacknowledge that his slave is a member of the same body as himself;\nbut he does not go unpunished:  the degradation to which he has\nbrought his slave degrades him, by throwing open to him. the\ndownward path of lust, laziness, ungoverned and tyrannous tempers,\nand the other sins which have in all ages, slowly but surely, worked\nthe just ruin of slave-holding states.  The sinner is his own\ntempter, and the sinner is his own executioner:  he lies in wait for\nhis own life (says Solomon) when he lies in wait for his brother's.\nDo you see the same law working in our own free country?  If you\nleave the poor careless and filthy, you can obtain no good servants:\nif you leave them profligate, they make your sons profligate also:\nif you leave them tempted by want, your property is unsafe:  if you\nleave them uneducated, reckless, improvident, you cannot get your\nwork properly done, and have to waste time and money in watching\nyour workmen instead of trusting them.  Why, what are all poor-rates\nand county-rates, if you will consider, but God's plain proof to us,\nthat the poor are members of the same body as ourselves; and that if\nwe will not help them of our own free will, we shall find it\nnecessary to help them against our will:  that if we will not pay a\nlittle to prevent them becoming pauperized or criminal, we must pay\na great deal to keep them when they have become so?  We may draw a\nlesson--and a most instructive one it is--from the city of\nLiverpool, in which it was lately proved that crime--and especially\nthe crime of uneducated boys and girls--had cost, in the last few\nyears, the city many times more than it would cost to educate,\ncivilize, and depauperize the whole rising generation of that city,\nand had been a tax upon the capital and industry of Liverpool, so\nenormous that they would have submitted to it from no Government on\nearth; and yet they had been blindly inflicting it upon themselves\nfor years, simply because they chose to forget that they were their\nbrothers' keepers.\n\nLook again at preventible epidemics, like cholera.  All the great\ntowns of England have discovered, what you I fear are discovering\nalso, that the expense of a pestilence, and of the widows and\norphans which it creates, is far greater than the expense of putting\na town into such a state of cleanliness as would defy the entrance\nof the disease.  So it is throughout the world.  Nothing is more\nexpensive than penuriousness; nothing more anxious than\ncarelessness; and every duty which is bidden to wait, returns with\nseven fresh duties at its back.\n\nYes, my friends, we are members of a body; and we must realize that\nfact by painful experience, if we refuse to realize it in public\nspirit and brotherly kindness, and the approval of a good\nconscience, and the knowledge that we are living like our Lord and\nMaster Jesus Christ, who laboured for all but Himself, cared for all\nbut Himself; who counted not His own life dear to Himself that by\nlaying it down He might redeem into His own likeness the beings whom\nHe had made; and who has placed us on this earth, each in his own\nstation, each in his own parish, that we might follow in His\nfootsteps, and live by His Spirit, which is the spirit of love and\nfellow-feeling, that new and risen life of His, which is the life of\nduty, honour, and self-sacrifice.\n\nYes.  Let us look rather at this brighter side of the question, my\nfriends, than at the darker.  I will preach the Gospel to you rather\nthan the Law.  I will appeal to your higher feelings rather than to\nyour lower; to your love rather than your fear; to your honour\nrather than your self-interest.  It will be pleasanter for me:  it\nwill meet with a more cordial response, I doubt not, from you.\n\nSome dislike appeals to honour.  I cannot, as long as St. Paul\nhimself appeals to it so often, both in the individual and in\nbodies.  His whole Epistle to Philemon is an appeal, most delicate\nand graceful, to Philemon's sense of honour--to the thought of what\nhe owed Paul, of what Paul wished him to repay, not with money, but\nwith generosity.\n\nAnd his appeal to the Corinthians is a direct appeal to their\nhonour:  not to fears of any punishment, or wrath of God, but to the\nrespect which they owed to themselves as members of a body, the\nChurch of Corinth; and to the respect which they owed to that body\nas a whole, and which they had disgraced by allowing an open scandal\nin it.\n\nAnd his appeal was successful:  they took it just as it was meant;\nand he rejoices in the thought that they did so.  'For this, that ye\nsorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you,\nyea, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what\nvehement desire, what zeal, what revenge!  In all things you have\napproved yourselves to be clear in this matter,'\n\nNoble words, and nobly answered.  My friends, you, too, are members\nof a body:  go, and do likewise in the matter of this Society's\nfailing funds.\n\n* * * * *\n\nMay I boldly ask you to alter this to-day?  This, remember, is no\ncommon day.  It is a day of thankfulness.  The thankfulness which\nyou professed, and I doubt not many of you felt, on Thursday night,\nhas not evaporated, I trust, by Sunday morning.  You have not yet\nforgotten--I trust that there is many a one who will never forget--\nwhat you owe as townsmen of this place, to God who has preserved you\nsafe through the dangers and sorrows of the past autumn.  You owe\nmore than one debt to God.  You owe, all England owes, thanks to Him\nfor the late bounteous harvest, thanks to Him for the present\nprosperous seed-time:  think what our state might have been with\nscarcity, as well as war, upon us, and pay part of your debt this\nday.  You owe a thank-offering for the cessation of the cholera; a\nthank-offering for the sparing of your own lives;--pay it now.  You\nowe a thank-offering for the glorious victories of our armies:--pay\nit now.  You belong, too, to an honourable body, which has a noble\nhistory, and sets you many a noble example; show yourselves worthy\nof that body, that history, those examples, now.\n\nAnd what fitter place than this very church to awaken within you the\nthought of duty and of public spirit?--this church which stands as\nGod's own sign that you are the townsmen, the representatives, ay,\nsome of you the very descendants, of many a noble spirit of old\ntime?--this church, in which God's blessing has been invoked on\ndeeds of patriotism and enterprise, of which the whole world now\nbears the fruit?--these walls, in which Elizabeth's heroes, your\nancestors, have prayed before sailing against the Spanish Armada,--\nthese walls, which saw the baptism of the first red Indian convert,\nand the gathering in, as it were, of the firstfruits of the\nheathen,--these walls, in which the early settlers of Virginia have\ninvoked God's blessing on those tiny ventures which were destined to\nbecome the seeds of a mighty nation, and the starting-point of the\nUnited States,--these walls, which still bear the monument of your\nheroic townsman Strange, who expended for his plague-stricken\nbrethren, talents, time, wealth, and at last life itself.  For, to\nreturn, and to apply, I hope, to your consciences, the example of\nthe soldier with which I began this Sermon:--shall it be only on the\nbattle-field that the power of fellow-feeling is shown forth?  Shall\npublic spirit be only strong when it has to destroy, and not when it\nhas to save and comfort?  God forbid!  Surely you here have a common\ncorporate life, common history, common allegiance, common interest,\nwhich should inspire you to do your duty, whatsoever it may be, for\nthe good of your native place, and to show that you feel an\nhonourable self-respect in the thought that you belong to an ancient\nand once famous town, which though it may be outstripped awhile in\nthe race of commerce, need never be outstripped, if you will be\nworthy sons of your worthy ancestors, in that race to which St. Paul\nexhorts us; the race of justice and benevolence, the noble rivalry\nof noble deeds.\n\nOh, look, I beseech you, upon this church as its old worshippers,\nthe forefathers of many of you who sit here this day, were wont to\nlook on it.  Remember that this church is the sign that you are one\ntown, one parish, one body; that century after century, this church\nhas stood to witness to your fathers, and your fathers' fathers,\nthat all who kneel within these walls are brothers, rich or poor;\nthat all are children of one Father, redeemed by one Saviour, taught\nby one Spirit.  This, this is the blessed truth of which the parish\nchurch is token, as nought else can be--that you are one body,\nmembers one of another, and that God's blessing is on your union and\nfellow-feeling; that God smiles on your bearing each other's\nburdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ.  Look on this church,\nand do to others as this church witnesses that God has done for you.\n\nAnd now, some of you may perhaps have been disappointed, some a\nlittle scornful, at my having used so many words about so small a\nmatter, and talked of battles, legends, heroes of old time, all\nmerely to induct you to help this Society with a paltry extra thirty\npounds.  Be it so.  I shall be glad if you think so.  If the matter\nbe so small, it is the more easily done; if the sum be paltry, it is\nthe more easily found.  If my reasons are very huge and loud-\nsounding, and the result at which I aim very light, the result ought\nto follow all the more certainly; for believe me, my friends, the\nreasons are good ones, Scriptural ones, practical ones, and ought to\nproduce the result.  I give you the strongest arguments for showing\nyour Christian, English public spirit; and then I ask you to show it\nin a very small matter.  But be sure that to do what I ask of you to\ndo to-day is just as much your duty, small as it may seem, as it\nwould be, were you soldiers, to venture your lives in the cause of\nyour native land.  Duty, be it in a small matter or a great, is duty\nstill; the command of Heaven, the eldest voice of God.  And, believe\nme, my friends, that it is only they who are faithful in a few\nthings who will be faithful over many things; only they who do their\nduty in everyday and trivial matters who will fulfil them on great\noccasions.  We all honour and admire the heroes of Alma and\nBalaklava; we all trust in God that we should have done our duty\nalso in their place.  The best test of that, my friends, is, can we\ndo our duty in our own place?  Here the duty is undeniable, plain,\neasy.  Here is a Society instituted for one purpose, which has, in\norder to exist, to appropriate the funds destined for quite a\ndifferent purpose.  Both purposes are excellent; but they are\ndifferent.  The Offertory money is meant for the sick, the widow,\nand the orphan; for those who _cannot_ help themselves.  The\nProvident Society is meant to encourage those who _can_ help\nthemselves to do so.  Every farthing, therefore, taken from the\nOffertory money is taken from the widow and the orphan.  I ask you\nwhether this is right and just?  I appeal, not merely to your\nprudence and good sense, in asking you to promote prudence and good\nsense among the poor by the Provident Society; I appeal to your\nhonour and compassion, on behalf of the sick, the widow, and orphan,\nthat they may have the full enjoyment of the funds intended for\nthem.  Again, I say, this may seem a small matter to you, and I may\nseem to be using too many words about it.  Small?  Nothing is small\nwhich affects not merely the temporal happiness, but the eternal\nwelfare, of an immortal soul.  My friends, my friends, if any one of\nyou had to support yourself and your children on four, seven, or\neven (mighty sum!) ten shillings a week, it would not seem a small\nmatter to you then.  A few shillings more or less would be to you\n_then_ a treasure won or lost; a matter to you of whether you should\nkeep a house over your children's heads, whether you should keep\nshoes upon their feet, and clothes upon their backs; whether you\nshould see them, as they grew up, tempted by want into theft or\nprofligacy; whether you should rise in the morning free enough from\nthe sickening load of anxiety, and the care which eats out the core\nof life, and makes men deaf and blind (as it does many a one) to all\npleasant sights, and sounds, and thoughts, till the very sunlight\nseems blotted out of heaven by that black cloud of care--care--care--\nwhich rises with you in the morning, and dogs you at your work all\nday (even if you are happy enough to have work), and sits on your\npillow all night long, ready to whisper in your ear each time you\nwake; '_Be_ anxious and troubled about many things!  What wilt thou\neat, and what wilt thou drink, and wherewithal wilt thou be clothed?\nFor thou hast _no_ Heavenly Father, none above who knowest that thou\nneedest these things before thou askest Him.'  Oh, my friends, if\nyou had felt but for a single day, that terrible temptation, the\ntemptation of poverty, and debt, and care, which leads so many a one\nto sell their souls for a few paltry pence, to them of as much value\nas pounds would be to you;--if, I say, you had once felt that\ntemptation in all its weight, you would not merely sacrifice, as I\nask you now to do, some superfluity, which you will never miss; you\nwould, I do believe, if you had human hearts within you, be ready to\nsacrifice even the comforts of life to prevent him whose heart may\nbe breaking slowly, not a hundred yards from your own door, (and\nmore hearts break in this world than you fancy, my friends,) from\npassing through that same dark shadow of want, and care, and\ntemptation where the Devil stands calling to the poor man all day\nlong, 'Fall down, and worship me; and I will relieve those wants of\nthine which man neglects!'\n\nI have no more to say.  I leave the rest to your own good feeling,\nas townsmen of this ancient and honourable place,--remembering\nalways who it was who said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of\nthe least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.'","title":"Sermons for the Times","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":85843}