{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_11536/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_11536","id":"gutenberg_11536","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11536","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","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\nTOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS\n\n\n\n\nSERMON I.  HOW TO KEEP PASSION WEEK\n\n\n\n(Preached before the Queen.)\n\nPhilippians ii. 5-11.   Let this mind be in you, which was also in\nChrist Jesus:  who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery\nto be equal with God:  but made himself of no reputation, and took\nupon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:\nand being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became\nobedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God\nalso hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above\nevery name:  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of\nthings in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;\nand that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to\nthe glory of God the Father.\n\nThis the first day of Passion Week; and this text is the key-note of\nPassion Week.  It tells us of the obedience of Christ; of the\nunselfishness of Christ; and, therefore, of the true glory of\nChrist.\n\nIt tells us of One who was in the form of God; the Co-equal and Co-\neternal Son; the brightness of his Father's glory, the express image\nof his Father's person:  but who showed forth his Father's glory,\nand proved that he was the express likeness of his Father's\ncharacter, by the very opposite means to those which man takes, when\nhe wishes to show forth his own glory.\n\nHe was in the form of God.  But he did not (so the text seems to\nmean) think that the bliss of God was a thing to be seized on\ngreedily for himself.  He did not think fit merely to glorify\nhimself; to enjoy himself.  He was not like the false gods of whom\nthe heathen dreamed, who sat aloft in heaven and enjoyed themselves,\ncareless of mankind.\n\nNo.  He obeyed his Father utterly, and at all costs.  He emptied\nhimself (says St. Paul).  He took on him the form of a slave.  He\nhumbled himself.  He became obedient; obedient to death; and that\ndeath the shameful and dreadful death of the cross.\n\nTherefore God has highly exalted him; has declared him to be\nperfectly good, worthy of all praise, honour, glory, power, and\ndominion; and has given him a name above all names, the name of\nJesus--Saviour.  One who saved others, and cared not to save\nhimself.\n\nAnd therefore, too, God has given him that dominion of which he is\nworthy, and has proclaimed him Lord and Creator of all beings and\nall worlds, past, present, and to come.\n\nIt is of him; of his obedience; of his unselfishness, that Passion\nWeek speaks to us.  It tell us of the mind of Christ, and says, 'Let\nthis mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.'\n\nHow, then, shall we keep his Passion Week?  There are several ways\nof keeping it, and all more or less good.  Wisdom is justified of\nall her children.\n\nBut no way will be safe for us, unless we keep in mind the mind of\nChrist--obedience and self-sacrifice.\n\nSome, for instance, are careful this week to attend church as often\nas possible; and who will blame them?\n\nBut unless they keep in mind the mind of Christ, they are apt to\nfall into the mistake of using vain repetitions, as the heathen do;\nand of fancying, like them, that they shall be heard for their much\nspeaking, forgetting their Father in heaven knows what they have\nneed of, before they ask him.  And that is not like the mind of\nChrist.  It is not like the mind of Christ to fancy that God dwells\nin temples made with hands; or that he can be worshipped with men's\nhands, as though he needed anything; seeing he giveth to all life,\nand breath, and all things.  For in him we live, and move, and have\nour being; and (as even the heathen poet knew), are the offspring,\nthe children, of God.\n\nIt is _not_ according to the mind of Christ, to worship God as the\nheathen do, in order to win him to do our will.  It _is_ according\nto the mind of Christ to worship God, in order that we may do his\nwill; to believe that God's will is a good will, good in itself, and\ngood for us, and for all things and beings; and, therefore, to ask\nfor strength to do God's will, whatever it may cost us.  That is the\nmind of Christ, who came not to do his own will, but the will of him\nwho sent him; who taught us to pray, as the greatest blessing for\nwhich we can ask, 'Father, thy will be done on earth, as it is in\nheaven;' who himself, in his utter agony, cried, 'Father, not my\nwill, but thine, be done.'\n\nTherefore, it is good to go to church; and good, for some at least,\nto go as often as possible:  but only if we remember why we go, and\nwhom we go to worship--a Father, who asks of us to worship him in\nspirit and in truth.  A Father who has told us what that worship is\nlike.\n\n'Is this (God asked the Jews of old) the fast which I have chosen?\nIs it a day for a man to afflict his soul, and bow down his head\nlike a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him (playing\nat being sad, while God has not made him sad)?  Wilt thou call this\na fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?'\n\n'Is not this the fast which I have chosen? to loose the bands of\nwickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go\nfree, and that ye break every yoke?  Is it not to deal thy bread to\nthe hungry, and to bring the poor that are cast out to thine house;\nwhen thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide\nnot thyself from thine own flesh.'\n\nThis is that pure worship and undefined before God and the Father,\nof which St. James tells us; and says that it consists in this--'to\nvisit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; and to keep\nourselves unspotted from the world.'\n\nIn a word, this worship in the spirit, and in truth, is nought else\nbut the mind of Christ.  To believe in, to adore the Father's\nperfect goodness; to long and try to copy that goodness here on\nearth.  That is what Christ did utterly and perfectly, that is what\nwe have to do, each according to our powers; and without it, without\nthe spirit of obedience, all our church-going is of little worth in\nthe eyes of our heavenly Father.\n\nOthers, again, go into retirement for this week, and spend it in\nexamining themselves, and thinking over the sufferings of Christ.\nAnd who, again, will blame them, provided they do not neglect their\ndaily duty meanwhile?\n\nBut they, too, need to keep in mind the mind of Christ, if they mean\nto keep Passion Week aright.\n\nThey need it, indeed.  And such a man, before he shuts himself up,\nand begins to examine himself, would do well _to examine himself as\nto why he is going to examine himself_, and to ask, Why am I going\nto do this?  Because it is my interest?  Because I think I shall\ngain more safety for my soul?  Because I hope it will give me more\nchance of pleasure and glory in the next world?  But, if so; have I\nthe mind of Christ?  For he did _not_ think of his own interest, his\nown gain, his own pleasure, his own glory.  How is this, then?  I\nconfess that the root of all my faults is selfishness.  Shall I\nexamine into my own selfishness for a selfish end--to get safety and\npleasure by it hereafter?  I confess that the very glory of Christ\nis, that there is no selfishness in him.  Shall I think over the\nsufferings of the unselfish Christ for a selfish end--to get\nsomething by it after I die?  I am too apt already to make myself\nthe centre, round which all the world must turn:  to care for\neverything only as far as it does _me_ good or harm.  Shall I make\nmyself the centre round which heaven is to turn?  Shall I think of\nGod and of Christ only as far as it will profit _me_?  And this\nweek, too, of all weeks in the year?  God forgive me!  Into what a\ncontradiction I am running unawares!\n\nNo.  If I do shut myself up from my fellowmen, it shall be only to\nthink how I may do my duty better to my fellowmen.  If I do think\nover Christ's sufferings, it shall be only that I may learn from him\nhow to suffer, if need be, at the call of duty; at least, to stir up\nin me obedience, usefulness, generosity, that I may go back to my\nwork cheerfully, willingly, careless what reward I get, provided\nonly I can do good in my station.\n\nBut, after all, will not the text tell us best how to keep Passion\nWeek?  Will not our Lord's own example tell us?  Can we go wrong, if\nwe keep our Passion Week as Christ kept his?\n\nAnd how did he keep it?  Certainly not by shutting himself up apart.\nCertainly not by mere thinking over the glory of self-sacrifice.  He\ntaught daily, we read, in the temple.  Instead of giving up his work\nfor a while, he seems to have worked more earnestly than ever.  As\nthe terrible end drew near; and his soul was troubled; and he was\nstraitened as he looked forward to his baptism of fire; and the\nstruggle in him grew fiercer (for the Bible tells us that there was\na struggle) between the Man's natural desire to save his life, and\nthe God's heavenly desire to lay down his life, he threw himself\nmore and more into the work which he had to do.  We hear more,\nperhaps, of our Lord's saying and doings during this week, up to the\nvery moment before he was betrayed to death, than we do of the whole\nthree years of his public life.  His teaching was never, it seems,\nso continual; his appeals to the nation which he was trying to save\nwere never so pathetic as at the very last; his warnings to the\nbigots who were destroying his nation never so terrible; his\ncontempt for personal danger never so clear.  The Bible seems to\npicture him to us as gathering up all his strength for one last\neffort, if by any means he might save that doomed city of Jerusalem,\nand in his divine spirit, courting death the more, the more his\nhuman flesh shrank from it.\n\nThis--the pattern of perfect obedience, perfect unselfishness,\nperfect generosity, perfect self-sacrificing love--is what we are to\nlook at in Passion Week.  This, I believe, is what we are meant to\ncopy in Passion Week; that we may learn the habit of copying it all\nour lives long.\n\nWhy should not we, then, keep Passion Week somewhat as our Lord kept\nit before us?  Not by merely hiding in our closets to meditate, even\nabout _him_:  but by going about our work, each in his place,\ndutifully, bravely, as he went?  By doing the duty which lies\nnearest us, and trying to draw our lesson out of it.\n\nThus we may keep Passion Week in spirit and in truth; though some of\nus may hardly have time to enter a church, hardly have time for an\nhour's private thought about religion.\n\nAmid the bustle of daily duties; amid the buzz of petty cares; amid\nthe anxieties of great labours; amid the roar of the busy world,\nwhich cannot stop (and which ought not to stop), for our\nconvenience; we may keep Passion Week in spirit and in truth, if we\nwill do the duty which lies nearest us, and try to draw our lesson\nout of it.\n\nFor practice--and, I believe, practice alone--will teach us to\nrestrain ourselves, and conquer ourselves.  Experience--and, I\nbelieve, experience alone--will show us our own faults and\nweaknesses.\n\nEvery man--every human spirit on God's earth has spiritual enemies--\nhabits and principles within him--if not other spirits without him,\nwhich hinder him, more or less, from being all that God meant him to\nbe.  And we must find out those enemies, and measure their strength,\nnot merely by reading of them in books; not merely by fancying them\nin our own minds; but by the hard blows, and sudden falls, which\nthey too often give us in the actual battle of daily life.\n\nAnd how can we find them out?\n\nThis at least we can do.\n\nWe can ask ourselves at every turn,--For what end am I doing this,\nand this?  For what end am I living at all?  For myself, or for\nothers?\n\nAm I living for ambition? for fame? for show? for money? for\npleasure?  If so, I have not the mind of Christ.  I have not found\nout the golden secret.  I have not seen what true glory is; what the\nglory of Christ is--to live for the sake of doing my duty--for the\nsake of doing good.\n\nAnd am I--I surely shall be if I am living for myself--straggling,\nenvying, casting an evil eye on those more fortunate than I; perhaps\nletting loose against them a cruel tongue?  If I am doing thus, God\nforgive me.  What have I of the mind of Christ?  What likeness\nbetween me and him who emptied himself of self, who humbled himself,\ngave himself up utterly, even to death?  Is this the mind of Christ?\nIs this the spirit whose name is Love?\n\nAnd yet there should be a likeness.  A likeness between Christ and\nus.  A likeness between God and us.  For Christ is the likeness of\nhis Father; and not only of his Father, but of our Father, The\nFather in heaven.  And what should a child be, but like his father?\nWhat should man be, but like God?\n\nBut how shall we get that likeness?  How shall we get the mind of\nChrist which is the Spirit of God?\n\nThis at least we know.  That the father will surely hear the child,\nwhen the child cries to him.  Perhaps will hear him all the more\ntenderly, the more utterly the child has strayed away.\n\nOur highest reason, the instincts of our own hearts, tell us so.\nChrist himself has told us so; and said to the Jews of old:  'If ye,\nbeing evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much\nmore shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who\nask _him_?'\n\nShall give?  Yes; and has given already.  From that Spirit of God\nhave come, and will always come, all our purest, highest, best\nthoughts and feelings.\n\nFrom him comes all which raises us above the animals, and makes us\nreally and truly men and women.  All sense of duty, obedience,\norder, justice, law; all tenderness, pity, generosity, honour,\nmodesty; all this, if you will receive it, is that Christ in us of\nwhom St. Paul tells us, and tells us that he is our hope of glory.\n\nYes, these feelings in us, which, just as far as we obey them, make\nus respect ourselves, and make us blessings to our fellow-men; what\nare they but the Spirit of Christ, the likeness of Christ, the mind\nof Christ in us; the hope of our glory; because, if we obey them, we\nshall attain to something of the true glory, the glory with which\nChrist himself is glorious.\n\nThen let us pray to God, now in this Passion Week, to stir up in us\nthat generous spirit; to deepen in us that fair likeness; to fill us\nwith that noble mind.  Let us ask God to quench in us all which is\nselfish, idle, mean; to quicken to life in us all which is godlike,\nand from God; that so we may attain, at last, to the true glory, the\nglory which comes not from selfish ambition; not from selfish pride;\nnot from selfish ease; but from getting rid of selfishness, in all\nits shapes.  The glory which Christ alone has in perfection.  The\nglory before which every knee will one day bow, whether in earth or\nheaven.  Even the glory of doing our duty, regardless of what it\ncosts us in the station to which each of us has been called by his\nFather in heaven.  Amen.\n\n\n\nSERMON II.  THE DIVINE HUNGER AND THIRST\n\n\n\n(Preached before the Queen.)\n\nPsalm xxxvi. 7, 8, 9.  How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God!\ntherefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of\nthy wings.  They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of\nthy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy\npleasures.  For with thee is the fountain of life:  in thy light\nshall we see light.\n\nThis is a great saying.  So great that we shall never know,\ncertainly never in this life, how much it means.\n\nIt speaks of being satisfied; of what alone can satisfy a man.  It\nspeaks of man as a creature who is, or rather ought to be, always\nhungering and thirsting after something better than he has, as it is\nwritten:  'Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after\nrighteousness; for they shall be filled.'  So says David, also, in\nthis Psalm.\n\nI say man ought to be always hungering and thirsting for something\nbetter.  I do not mean by that that he ought to be discontented.\nNothing less.  For just in as far as a man hungers and thirsts after\nrighteousness and truth, he will hunger and thirst after nothing\nelse.  As long as a man does not care for righteousness, does not\ncare to be a better man himself, and to see the world better round\nhim, so long will he go longing after this fine thing and that,\ntormenting himself with lusts and passions, greediness and\ncovetousness of divers sorts; and little satisfaction will he get\nfrom them.  But, when he begins to hunger and thirst after\nrighteousness, that heavenly and spiritual hunger destroys the old\ncarnal hunger in him.  He cares less and less to ask, What shall I\neat and drink, wherewithal shall I be clothed?--Or how shall I win\nfor myself admiration, station, and all the fine things of this\nworld?--What he thinks of more and more is,--How can I become better\nand more righteous?  How can I make my neighbours better likewise?\nHow the world?  As for the good things of this life, if they will\nmake me a better man, let them come.  If not, why should I care so\nmuch about them?  What I want is, to be righteous like God,\nbeneficent and good-doing like God.\n\nThat is the man of whom it is written, that he shall be satisfied\nwith the plenteousness of God's house, God's kingdom; for with God\nis the fountain of life.\n\nAgain, as long as a man has no hunger and thirst after truth, he is\neasily enough interested, though he is not satisfied.  He reads,\nperhaps, and amuses his fancy, but he does no more.  He reads again,\nreally to instruct his mind, and learns about this and that:  but he\ndoes not learn the causes of things; the reasons of the chances and\nchanges of this world; and so he is not satisfied; he takes up\ndoctrines, true ones, perhaps, at secondhand out of books and out of\nsermons:, without having had any personal experience of them; and\nso, when sickness or sorrow, doubt or dread, come, they do not\nsatisfy him.  Then he longs--he ought at least to long--for truth.\nHe thirsts for truth.  O that I could know the truth about myself;\nabout my fellow-creatures; about this world.  What am I really?\nWhat are they?  Where am I?  What can I know?  What ought I to do?\nI do not want secondhand names and notions.  I want to be sure.\n\nThat is the divine thirst after truth, which will surely be\nsatisfied.  He will drink of the pleasure of true knowledge, as out\nof an overflowing river; and the more he knows, the more he will be\nglad to know, and the more he will find he can know, if only he\nloves truth for truth's own sake; for, as it is written, in God's\nlight shall that man see light.\n\nWith God is the well of life; and in his light we shall see light.\nThe first is the answer to man's hunger after righteousness, the\nsecond answers to his thirst after truth.\n\nWith God is the well of life.  There is the answer.  Thou wishest to\nbe a good man; to live a good life; to live as a good son, good\nhusband, good father, good in all the relations of humanity; as it\nis written, 'And Noah was a just man, and perfect in his\ngenerations; and Noah walked with God.'  Then do thou walk with God.\nFor in him is the life thou wishest for.  He alone can quicken thee,\nand give thee spirit and power to fulfil thy duty in thy generation.\nIs not his Spirit the Lord and Giver of life--the only fount and\neternal spring of life?  From him life flows out unto the smallest\nblade of grass beneath thy feet, the smallest gnat which dances in\nthe sun, that it may live the life which God intends for it.  How\nmuch more to thee, who hast an altogether boundless power of life;\nwhom God has made in his own likeness, that thou mayest be called\nhis son, and live his life, and do, as Christ did, what thou seest\nthy heavenly Father do.\n\nThou feelest, perhaps, how poor and paltry thine own life is,\ncompared with what it might have been.  Thou feelest that thou hast\nnever done thy best.  When the world is praising thee most, thou art\nmost ashamed of thyself.  Thou art ready to cry all day long, 'I\nhave left undone that which I ought to have done;' till, at times,\nthou longest that all was over, and thou wert beginning again in\nsome freer, fuller, nobler, holier life, to do and to be what thou\nhast never done nor been here; and criest with the poet--\n\n\n'Tis life, whereof my nerves are scant;\n'Tis life, not death, for which I pant;\nMore life, and fuller, that I want.\n\n\nThen have patience.  With God is the fount of life.  He will refresh\nand strengthen thee; and raise thee up day by day to that new life\nfor which thou longest.  Is not Holy communion his own pledge that\nhe will do so?  Is not that God's own sign to thee, that though thou\ncanst not feed and strengthen thine own soul, he can and will feed\nand strengthen it; and feed it--mystery of mysteries--with himself;\nthat God may dwell in thee, and thou in God.  And if God and Christ\nlive in thee, and work in thee to will and to do of their own good\npleasure, that shall be enough for thee, and thou shall be\nsatisfied.\n\nAnd just so, again, with that same thirst after truth.  That, too,\ncan only be satisfied by God, and in God.  Not by the reading of\nbooks, however true; not by listening to sermons, however clever;\ncan we see light:  but only in the light of God.  Know God.  Know\nthat he is justice itself, order itself, love itself, patience\nitself, pity itself.  In the light of that, all things will become\nlight and bright to thee.  Matters which seemed to have nothing to\ndo with God, the thought of God will explain to thee, if thou\nthinkest aright concerning God; and the true knowledge of him will\nbe the key to all other true knowledge in heaven and earth.  For the\nfear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good\nunderstanding have all they that do thereafter.  Must it not be so?\nHow can it be otherwise?  For in God all live and move and have\ntheir being; and all things which he has made are rays from off his\nglory, and patterns of his perfect mind.  As the Maker is, so is his\nwork; if, therefore, thou wouldest judge rightly of the work,\nacquaint thyself with the Maker of it, and know first, and know for\never, that his name is Love.\n\nThus, sooner or later, in God the Father's good time, will thy\nthirst for truth be satisfied, and thou shalt see the light of God.\nHe may keep thee long waiting for full truth.  He may send thee by\nstrange and crooked paths.  He may exercise and strain thy reason by\ndoubts, mistakes, and failures; but sooner or later, if thou dost\nnot faint and grow weary, he will show to thee the thing which thou\nknewest not; for he is thy Father, and wills that all his children,\neach according to their powers, should share not only in his\ngoodness, but in his wisdom also.\n\nDo any of you say, 'These are words too deep for us; they are for\nlearned people, clever, great saints?'  I think not.\n\nI have seen poor people, ignorant people, sick people, poor old\nsouls on parish pay, satisfied with the plenteousness of God's\nhouse, and drinking so freely of God's pleasure, that they knew no\nthirst, fretted not, never were discontented.  All vain longings\nafter this and that were gone from their hearts.  They had very\nlittle; but it seemed to be enough.  They had nothing indeed, which\nwe could call pleasure in this world; but somehow what they had\nsatisfied them, because it came from God.  They had a hidden\npleasure, joy, content, and peace.\n\nThey had found out that with God was the well of life; that in God\nthey lived and moved, and had their being.  And as long as their\nsouls lived in God, full of the eternal life and goodness, obeying\nhis laws, loving the thing which he commanded, and desiring what he\npromised, they could trust him for their poor worn-out dying bodies,\nthat he would not let them perish, but raise them up again at the\nlast day.  They knew very little; but what they did know was full of\nlight.  Cheerful and hopeful they were always; for they saw all\nthings in the light of God.  They knew that God was light, and God\nwas love; that his love was shining down on them and on all around\nthem, warming, cheering, quickening into life all things which he\nhad made; so that when the world should have looked most dark to\nthem, it looked most bright, because they saw it lightened up by the\nsmile of their Father in heaven.\n\nO may God bring us all to such an old age, that, as our mortal\nbodies decay, our souls may be renewed day by day; that as the life\nof our bodies grows cold and feeble, the life of our souls may grow\nricher, warmer, stronger, more useful to all around us, for ever and\never; that as the light of this life fades, the light of our souls\nmay grow brighter, fuller, deeper; till all is clear to us in the\neverlasting light of God, in that perfect day for which St. Paul\nthirsted through so many weary years; when he should no more see\nthrough a glass darkly, or prophesy in part, and talk as a child,\nbut see face to face, and know even as he was known.\n\n\n\nSERMON III.  THE TRANSFIGURATION\n\n\n\n(Preached before the Queen.)\n\nMatthew xvii. 2 and 9.  And he was transfigured before them. . . .\nAnd he charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the\nSon of Man be risen again from the dead.\n\nAny one who will consider the gospels, will see that there is a\npeculiar calm, a soberness and modesty about them, very different\nfrom what we should have expected to find in them.  Speaking, as\nthey do, of the grandest person who ever trod this earth, of the\ngrandest events which ever happened upon this earth--of the events,\nindeed, which settled the future of this earth for ever,--one would\nnot be surprised at their using grand words--the grandest they could\nfind.  If they had gone off into beautiful poetry; if they had\nfilled pages with words of astonishment, admiration, delight; if\nthey had told us their own thoughts and feelings at the sight of our\nLord; if they had given us long and full descriptions of our Lord's\nface and figure, even (as forged documents have pretended to do) to\nthe very colour of his hair, we should have thought it but natural.\n\nBut there is nothing of the kind in either of the four gospels, even\nwhen speaking of the most awful matters.  Their words are as quiet\nand simple and modest as if they were written of things which might\nbe seen every day.  When they tell of our Lord's crucifixion, for\ninstance, how easy, natural, harmless, right, as far as we can see,\nit would have been to have poured out their own feelings about the\nmost pitiable and shameful crime ever committed upon earth; to have\nspoken out all their own pity, terror, grief, indignation; and to\nhave stirred up ours thereby.  And yet all they say is,--'And they\ncrucified him.'  They feel that is enough.  The deed is too dark to\ntalk about.  Let it tell its own story to all human hearts.\n\nSo with this account of the Lord's transfiguration.  'And he took\nPeter, and James, and John, his brother, up into a high mountain,\napart, and was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as\nthe sun; and his raiment was white as the light; . . . and while he\nyet spake a bright cloud overshadowed them; and, behold, a voice out\nof the cloud, which said:  This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well\npleased.  Hear ye him.'\n\nHow soberly, simply, modestly, they tell this strange story.  How\ndifferently they might have told it.  A man might write whole poems,\nwhole books of philosophy, about that transfiguration, and yet never\nreach the full depth of its beauty and of its meaning.  But the\nevangelists do not even try to do that.  As with the crucifixion, as\nwith all the most wonderful passages of our Lord's life, they simply\nsay what happened, and let the story bring its own message home to\nour hearts.\n\nWhat may we suppose is the reason of this great stillness and\nsoberness of the gospels?  I believe that it may be explained thus.\nThe men who wrote them were too much _awed_ by our Lord, to make\nmore words about him than they absolutely needed.\n\nOur Lord was too utterly _beyond_ them.  They felt that they could\nnot understand him; could not give a worthy picture of him.  He was\ntoo noble, too awful, in spite of all his tenderness, for any words\nof theirs, however fine.  We all know that the holiest things, the\ndeepest feelings, the most beautiful sights, are those about which\nwe talk least, and least like to hear others talk.  Putting them\ninto words seems impertinent, profane.  No one needs to gild gold,\nor paint the lily.  When we see a glorious sunset; when we hear the\nrolling of the thunder-storm; we do not _talk_ about them; we do not\nbegin to cry, How awful, how magnificent; we admire them in silence,\nand let them tell their own story.  Who that ever truly loved his\nwife talked about his love to her?  Who that ever came to Holy\nCommunion in spirit and in truth, tried to put into words what he\nfelt as he knelt before Christ's altar?  When God speaks, man had\nbest keep silence.\n\nSo it was, I suppose, with the writers of the gospels.  They had\nbeen in too grand company for them to speak freely of what they felt\nthere.  They had seen such sights, and heard such words, that they\nwere inclined to be silent, and think over it all, and only wrote\nbecause they must write.  They felt that our Lord, as I say, was\nutterly beyond them, too unlike any one whom they had ever met\nbefore; too perfect, too noble, for them to talk about him.  So they\nsimply set down his words as he spoke them, and his works as he did\nthem, as far as they could recollect, and left them to tell their\nown story.  Even St. John, who was our Lord's beloved friend, who\nseems to have caught and copied exactly his way of speaking, seems\nto feel that there was infinitely more in our Lord than he could put\ninto words, and ends with confessing,--'And there are also many more\nthings which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every\none, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the\nbooks that should be written.'\n\nThe first reason then, I suppose, for the evangelists' modesty, was\ntheir awe and astonishment at our Lord.  The next, I think, may have\nbeen that they wished to copy him, and so to please him.  It surely\nmust have been so, if, as all good Christians believe, they were\ninspired to write our Lord's life.  The Lord would inspire them to\nwrite as he would like his life to be written, as he would have\nwritten it (if it be reverent to speak of such a thing) himself.\nThey were inspired by Christ's Spirit; and, therefore, they wrote\naccording to the Spirit of Christ, soberly, humbly, modestly,\ncopying the character of Christ.\n\nThink upon that word _modestly_.  I am not sure that it is the best;\nI only know that it is the best which I can find, to express one\nexcellence which we see in our Lord, which is like what we call\nmodesty in common human beings.\n\nWe all know how beautiful and noble modesty is; how we all admire\nit; how it raises a man in our eyes to see him afraid of boasting;\nnever showing off; never requiring people to admire him; never\npushing himself forward; or, if his business forces him to go into\npublic, not going for the sake of display, but simply because the\nthing has to be done; and then quietly withdrawing himself when the\nthing is done, content that none should be staring at him or\nthinking of him.  This is modesty; and we admire it not only in\nyoung people, or those who have little cause to be proud:  we admire\nit much more in the greatest, the wisest, and the best; in those who\nhave, humanly speaking, most cause to be proud.  Whenever, on the\nother hand, we see in wise and good men any vanity, boasting,\npompousness of any kind, we call it a weakness in them, and are\nsorry to see them lowering themselves by the least want of divine\nmodesty.\n\nNow, this great grace and noble virtue should surely be in our Lord,\nfrom whom all graces and virtues come; and I think we need not look\nfar through the gospels to find it.\n\nSee how he refused to cast himself down from the temple, and make\nhimself a sign and a wonder to the Jews.  How he refused to show the\nPharisees a sign.  How, in this very text, when it seemed good to\nhim to show his glory, he takes only three favourite apostles, and\ncommands them to tell no man till he be risen again.  See, again,\nhow when the Jews wanted to take him by force, and make him a king,\nhe escaped out of their hands.  How when He had been preaching to,\nor healing the multitude, so that they crowded on him, and became\nexcited about him, he more than once immediately left them, and\nretired into a desert place to pray.\n\nSee, again, how when he did tell the Jews who he was, in words most\nawfully unmistakeable, the confession was, as it were, drawn from\nhim, at the end of a long argument, when he was forced to speak out\nfor truth's sake.  And, even then, how simple, how modest (if I dare\nso speak), are his words.  'Before Abraham was, I am.'  The most\nawful words ever spoken on earth; and yet most divine in their very\nsimplicity.  The Maker of the world telling his creatures that he is\ntheir God!  What might he _not_ have said at such a moment?  What\nmight we not fancy his saying?  What words, grand enough, awful\nenough, might not the evangelists have put into his mouth, if they\nhad not been men full of the spirit of truth?  And yet what does the\nLord say?  'Before Abraham was, I am.'   Could he say more?  If you\nthink of the matter, No.  But could he say less?  If you think of\nthe manner, No, likewise.\n\nTruly, 'never man spake as he spake:' because never man was like\nhim.  Perfect strength, wisdom, determination, endurance; and yet\nperfect meekness, simplicity, sobriety.  Zeal and modesty.  They are\nthe last two virtues which go together most seldom.  In him they\nwent together utterly; and were one, as he was one in spirit.\n\nHim some of the evangelists saw, and by him all were inspired; and,\ntherefore, they toned their account of him to his likeness, and, as\nit were, took their key-note from him, and made the very manner and\nlanguage of their gospels a pattern of his manners and his life.\n\nAnd, if we wanted a fresh proof (as, thank God, needs not) that the\ngospels are true, I think we might find it in this.  For when a man\nis inventing a wonderful story out of his own head, he is certain to\ndress it up in fine words, fancies, shrewd reflections of his own,\nin order to make people see, as he goes on, how wonderful it all is.\nWhereas, no books on earth which describe wonderful events, true or\nfalse, are so sober and simple as the gospels, which describe the\nmost wonderful of all events.  And this is to me a plain proof (as I\nhope it will be to you) that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not\ninventing but telling a plain and true story, and dared not alter it\nin the least; and, again, a story so strange and beautiful, that\nthey dared not try to make it more strange, or more beautiful, by\nany words of their own.\n\nThey had seen a person, to describe whom passed all their powers of\nthought and memory, much more their power of words.  A person of\nwhom even St. Paul could only say, 'that he was the brightness of\nhis Father's glory, and the express image of his person.'\n\nWords in which to write of him failed them; for no words could\nsuffice.  But the temper of mind in which to write of him did not\nfail them; for, by gazing on the face of the Lord, they had been\nchanged, more or less, into the likeness of his glory; into that\ntemper, simplicity, sobriety, gentleness, modesty, which shone forth\nin him, and shines forth still in their immortal words about him.\nGod grant that it may shine forth in us.  God grant it truly.  May\nwe read their words till their spirit passes into us.  May we (as\nSt. Paul expresses it) looking on the face of the Lord, as into a\nglass, be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory.  May he\nwho inspired them to write, inspire us to think and work, like our\nLord, soberly, quietly, simply.  May God take out of us all pride\nand vanity, boasting and forwardness; and give us the true courage\nwhich shows itself by gentleness; the true wisdom which show itself\nby simplicity; and the true power which show itself by modesty.\nAmen.\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.  A SOLDIER'S TRAINING\n\n\n\nLuke vii. 2-9.  And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto\nhim, was sick, and ready to die.  And when he heard of Jesus, he\nsent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would\ncome and heal his servant.  And when they came to Jesus, they\nbesought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he\nshould do this:  For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a\nsynagogue.  Then Jesus went with them.  And when he was now not far\nfrom the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him,\nLord, trouble not thyself; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest\nenter under my roof:  Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to\ncome unto thee:  but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.\nFor I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers,\nand I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he\ncometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.  When Jesus\nheard these things he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and\nsaid unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not\nfound so great faith, no, not in Israel.\n\nThere is something puzzling in this speech of the centurion's.  One\nmust think twice, and more than twice, to understand clearly what he\nhad in his mind.  _I_, indeed, am not quite sure that I altogether\nunderstand it.  But I may, perhaps, help you to understand it, by\ntelling you what this centurion was.\n\nHe was not a Jew.  He was a Roman, and a heathen; a man of our race,\nvery likely.  And he was a centurion, a captain in the army; and\none, mind, who had risen from the ranks, by good conduct, and good\nservice.  Before he got his vine-stock, which was the mark of his\nauthority over a hundred men, he had, no doubt, marched many a weary\nmile under a heavy load, and fought, probably, many a bloody battle\nin foreign parts.  That had been his education, his training,\nnamely, discipline, and hard work.  And because he had learned to\nobey, he was fit to rule.  He was helping now to keep in order those\ntreacherous, unruly Jews, and their worthless puppet-kings, like\nHerod; much as our soldiers in India are keeping in order the\nHindoos, and their worthless puppet-kings.\n\nWhether the Romans had any _right_ to conquer and keep down the Jews\nas they did, is no concern of ours just now.  But we have proof that\nwhat this centurion did, he did wisely and kindly.  The elders of\nthe Jews said of him, that he loved the Jews, and had built them a\nsynagogue, a church.  I suppose that what he had heard from them\nabout a one living God, who had made all things in heaven and earth,\nand given them a law, which cannot be broken, so that all things\nobey him to this day--I suppose, I say, that this pleased him better\nthan the Roman stories of many gods, who were capricious, and\nfretful, and quarrelled with each other in a fashion which ought to\nhave been shocking to the conscience and reason of a disciplined\nsoldier.\n\nThere was a great deal, besides, in the Old Testament, which would,\nsurely, come home to a soldier's heart, when it told him of a God of\nlaw, and order, and justice, and might, who defended the right in\nbattle, and inspired the old Jews to conquer the heathen, and to\nfight for their own liberty.  For what was it, which had enabled the\nRomans to conquer so many great nations?  What was it which enabled\nthem to keep them in order, and, on the whole, make them happier,\nmore peaceable, more prosperous, than they had ever been?  What was\nit which had made him, the poor common soldier, an officer, and a\nwealthy man, governing, by his little garrison of a hundred\nsoldiers, this town of Capernaum, and the country round?\n\nIt was this.  Discipline; drill; obedience to authority.  That Roman\narmy was the most admirably disciplined which the world till then\nhad ever seen.  So, indeed, was the whole Roman Government.  Every\nman knew his place, and knew his work.  Every man had been trained\nto obey orders; if he was told to go, to go; if he was told to do,\nto do, or to die in trying to do, what he was bidden.\n\nThis was the great and true thought which had filled this good man's\nmind--duty, order, and obedience.  And by thinking of order, and\nseeing how strength, and safety, and success lie in order, and by\ngiving himself up to obey orders, body and soul, like a good\nsoldier, had that plain man (who had certainly no scholarship,\nperhaps could barely read or write) caught sight of a higher, wider,\ndeeper order than even that of a Roman army.  He had caught sight of\nthat divine and wonderful order, by which God has constituted the\nservices of men, and angels, and all created things; that divine and\nwonderful order by which sun and stars, fire and hail, wind and\nvapour, cattle and creeping things fulfil his word.\n\nFulfil God's word.  That was the thought, surely, which was in the\ngood soldier's mind, and which he was trying to speak out; clumsily,\nperhaps, but truly enough.  I suppose, then, that he thought in his\nown mind somewhat in this way.  'There is a word of command among us\nsoldiers.  Has God, then, no word of command likewise?  And that\nword of command is enough.  Is not God's word of command enough\nlikewise?  I merely speak, and I am obeyed.  I am merely spoken to,\nand I obey.  Shall not God merely speak, and be obeyed likewise?\nThere is discipline and order among men, because it is necessary.\nAn Army cannot be manoeuvred, a Government cannot be carried on,\nwithout it.  Is there not a discipline and order in all heaven and\nearth?  And that discipline is carried out by simple word of\ncommand.  A word from me will make a man rush upon certain death.  A\nword from certain other men will make me rush on certain death.  For\nI am a man under authority.  I have my tribune (colonel, as we\nshould say) over me; and he, again, the perfect (general of brigade)\nover him.  Their word is enough for me.  If they want me to do a\nthing, they do not need to come under my roof, to argue with me, to\npersuade me, much less to thrust me about, and make me obey them by\nforce.  They say to me, 'Go,' and I go; and I say to those under me,\n'Go,' and they go likewise.\n\nAnd if I can work by a word, cannot this Jesus work by a word\nlikewise?  He is a messenger of God, with commission and authority\nfrom God, to work his will on his creatures.  Are not God's\ncreatures as well ordered, disciplined, obedient, as we soldiers\nare?  Are they not a hundred times better ordered?  A messenger from\nGod?  Is he not a God himself; a God in goodness and mercy; a God in\nmiraculous power?  Cannot he do his work by a word, far more\ncertainly than I can do mine?  If my word can send a man to death,\ncannot his word bring a man back to life?  Surely it can.  'Lord,\nthou needest not to come under my roof; speak the word only, and my\nservant shall be healed.'\n\nBy some such thoughts as these, I suppose, had this good soldier\ngained his great faith; his faith that all God's creatures were in a\ndivine, and wonderful order, obedient to the will of God who made\nthem; and that Jesus Christ was God's viceroy and lieutenant (I\nspeak so, because I suppose that is what he, as a soldier, would\nhave thought), to carry out God's commands on earth.\n\nNow remember that he was the first heathen man of whom we read, that\nhe acknowledged Christ.  Remember, too, that the next heathen of\nwhom we read, that he acknowledged Christ, was also a Roman\ncenturion, he whom the old legends call Longinus, who, when he saw\nour Lord upon the cross, said, 'Truly this _was_ the Son of God.'\nRemember, again, that the next heathen of whom we read as having\nacknowledged Christ, he to whom St. Peter was sent, at Joppa, who is\noften called the first fruits of the heathen, was a Roman centurion\nlikewise.\n\nSurely, there must have been a reason for this.  There must be a\nlesson in this; and this, I think, is the lesson.  That the\nsoldierlike habit of mind is one which makes a man ready to receive\nthe truth of Christ.  And why?  Because the good soldier's first and\nlast thought is Duty.  To do his duty by those who are set over him,\nand to learn to do his duty to those who are set under him.  To turn\nhis whole mind and soul to doing, not just what he fancies, but to\nwhat must be done, because it is his duty.  This is the character\nwhich makes a good soldier, and a good Christian likewise.  If we be\nundisciplined and undutiful, and unruly; if we be fanciful, self-\nwilled, disobedient; then we shall not understand Christ, or\nChrist's rule on earth and in heaven.  If there be no order within\nus, we shall not see his divine and wonderful order all around us.\nIf there be no discipline and obedience within us, we shall never\nbelieve really that Christ disciplines all things, and that all\nthings obey him.  If there be no sense of duty in us, governing our\nwhole lives and actions, we shall never perceive the true beauty and\nglory of Christ's character, who sacrificed himself for his duty,\nwhich was to do his Father's will.\n\nI tell you, my friends, that nothing prevents a man from gaining\neither right doctrines or right practice, so much as the undutiful,\nunruly, self-conceited heart.  We may be full of religious\nknowledge, of devout sentiments, of heavenly aspirations:  but in\nspite of them all, we shall never get beyond false doctrine, and\nloose practice, unless we have learned to obey; to rule our own\nminds, and hearts, and tempers, soberly and patiently; to conform to\nthe laws, and to all reasonable rules of society, to believe that\nGod has called us to our station in life, whatever it may be; and to\ndo our duty therein, as faithful soldiers and servants of Christ.\nFor, if you will receive it, the beginning and the middle, and the\nend of all true religion is simply this.  To do the will of God on\nearth, as it is done in heaven.\n\n\n\nSERMON V.  CHRIST'S SHEEP\n\n\n\nMark vi. 34.  And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was\nmoved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not\nhaving a shepherd:  and he began to teach them many things.\n\nThis is a text full of comfort, if we will but remember one thing:\nthat Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and,\ntherefore, what he did when he was upon earth, he is doing now, and\nwill do till the end of the world.  If we will believe this, and\nlook at our Lord's doings upon earth as patterns and specimens, as\nit were, of his eternal life and character, then every verse in the\ngospels will teach us something, and be precious to us.\n\nThe people came to hear Jesus in a desert place; a wild forest\ncountry, among the hills on the east side of the Lake of Gennesaret.\n'And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with\ncompassion toward them, because they were as sheep having no\nshepherd:  and he taught them many things.'\n\nAnd, what kind of people were these, who so moved our Lord's pity?\nThe text tells us, that they were like sheep.  Now, in what way were\nthey like sheep?\n\nA sheep is simple, and harmless, and tractable, and so, I suppose,\nwere these people.  They may not have been very clever and shrewd;\nnot good scholars.  No doubt they were a poor, wild, ignorant, set\nof people; but they were tractable; they were willing to come and\nlearn; they felt their own ignorance, and wanted to be taught.  They\nwere not proud and self-sufficient, not fierce or bloodthirsty.  The\ntext does not say that they were like wild beasts having no keeper:\nbut like sheep having no shepherd.  And therefore Christ pitied\nthem, because they were teachable, willing to be taught, and worth\nteaching; and yet had no one to teach them.\n\nThe Scribes and Pharisees, it seems, taught them nothing.  They may\nhave taught the people in Jerusalem, and in the great towns,\nsomething:  but they seem, from all the gospels, to have cared\nlittle or nothing for the poor folk out in the wild mountain\ncountry.  They liked to live in pride and comfort in the towns, with\ntheir comfortable congregations round them, admiring them; but they\nhad no fancy to go out into the deserts, to seek and to save those\nwho were lost.  They were bad shepherds, greedy shepherds, who were\nglad enough to shear God's flock, and keep the wool themselves:  but\nthey did not care to feed the flock of God.  It was too much\ntrouble; and they could get no honour and no money by it.  And most\nlikely they did not understand these poor people; could not speak,\nhardly understand, their country language; for these Galileans spoke\na rough dialect, different from that of the upper classes.\n\nSo the Scribes and Pharisees looked down on them as a bad, wild, low\nset of people, with whom nothing could be done; and said, 'This\npeople who knoweth not the law, is accursed.'\n\nBut what they would not do, God himself would.  God in Christ had\ncome to feed his own flock, and to seek the lost sheep, and bring\nthem gently home to God's fold.  He could feel for these poor wild\nforesters and mountain shepherds; he could understand what was in\ntheir hearts; for he knew the heart of man; and, therefore, he could\nmake them understand him.  And it was for this very reason, one\nmight suppose, that our Lord was willing to be brought up at\nNazareth, that he might learn the country speech, and country ways,\nand that the people might grow to look on him as one of themselves.\nThose Scribes and Pharisees, one may suppose, were just the people\nwhom they could not understand; fine, rich scholars, proud people\ntalking very learnedly about deep doctrines.  The country folk must\nhave looked at them as if they belonged to some other world, and\nsaid,--Those Pharisees cannot understand us, any more than we can\nthem, with their hard rules about this and that.  Easy enough for\nrich men like them to make rules for poor ones.  Indeed our Lord\nsaid the very same of them--'Binding heavy burdens, and grievous to\nbe borne, and laying them on men's shoulders; while they themselves\nwould not touch them with one of their fingers.'\n\nThen the Lord himself came and preached to these poor wild folk, and\nthey heard him gladly.  And why?  Because his speech was too deep\nfor them?  Because he scolded and threatened them?  No.\n\nWe never find that our Lord spoke harshly to them.  They had plenty\nof sins, and he knew it:  but it is most remarkable that the\nEvangelists never tell us what he said about those sins.  What they\ndo tell us is, that he spoke to them of the common things around\nthem, of the flowers of the field, the birds of the air, of sowing\nand reaping, and feeding sheep; and taught them by parables, taken\nfrom the common country life which they lived, and the common\ncountry things which they saw; and shewed them how the kingdom of\nGod was like unto this and that which they had seen from their\nchildhood, and how earth was a pattern of heaven.  And they could\nunderstand that.  Not all of it perhaps:  but still they heard him\ngladly.  His preaching made them understand themselves, and their\nown souls, and what God felt for them, and what was right and wrong,\nand what would become of them, as they never felt before.  It is\nplain and certain that the country people could understand Christ's\nparables, when the Scribes and Pharisees could not.  The Scribes and\nPharisees, in spite of all their learning, were those who were\nwithout (as our Lord said); who had eyes and could not see, and ears\nand could not hear, for their hearts were grown fat and gross.  With\nall their learning, they were not wise enough to understand the\nmessage which God sends in every flower and every sunbeam; the\nmessage which Christ preached to the poor, and the poor heard him\ngladly; the message which he confirmed to them by his miracles.  For\nwhat were his miracles like?  Did he call down lightning to strike\nsinners dead, or call up earthquakes, to swallow them?  No; he went\nabout healing the sick, cleansing the leper, feeding the hungry in\nthe wilderness; that therefore they might see by his example, the\nglory of their Father in heaven, and understand that God is a God of\nLove, of mercy, a deliverer, a Saviour, and not, as the Scribes and\nPharisees made him out, a hard taskmaster, keeping his anger for\never, and extreme to mark what was done amiss.\n\nAh that, be sure, was what made the Scribes and Pharisees more mad\nthan anything else against Christ, that he spoke to the poor\nignorant people of their Father in heaven.  It made them envious\nenough to see the poor people listening to Christ, when they would\nnot listen to them; but when he told these poor folk, whom they\ncalled 'accursed and lost sinners,' that God in heaven was their\nFather, then no name was too bad for our Lord; and they called him\nthe worst name which they could think of--a friend of publicans and\nsinners.  That was the worst name, in their eyes:  and yet, in\nreality, it was the highest honour.  But they never forgave him.\nHow could they?  They felt that if he was doing God's work, they\nwere doing the devil's, that either he or they must be utterly\nwrong:  and they never rested till they crucified him, and stopped\nhim for ever, as they fancied, from telling poor ignorant people\nladen with sins to consider the flowers of the field how they grow,\nand learn from them that they have a Father in heaven who knoweth\nwhat they have need of before they ask him.\n\nBut they did not stop Christ:  and, what is more, they will never\nstop him.  He has said it, and it remains true for ever; for he is\nsaying it over and over again, in a thousand ways, to his sheep,\nwhen they are wandering without a shepherd.\n\nOnly let them be Christ's sheep, and he will have compassion on\nthem, and teach them many things.  Many may neglect them:  but\nChrist will not.  Whoever you may be, however simple you are,\nhowever ignorant, however lonely, still, if you are one of Christ's\nsheep, if you are harmless and teachable, willing and wishing to\nlearn what is right, then Christ will surely teach you in his good\ntime.  There never was a soul on earth, I believe, who really wished\nfor God's light, but what God's light came to it at last, as it will\nto you, if you be Christ's sheep.  If you are proud and conceited,\nyou will learn nothing.  If you are fierce and headstrong, you will\nlearn nothing.  If you are patient and gentle, you will learn all\nthat you need to know; for Christ will teach you.  He has many ways\nof teaching you.  By his ministers; by the Bible; by books; by good\nfriends; by sorrows and troubles; by blessings and comforts; by\nstirring up your mind to think over the common things which lie all\naround you in your daily work.  But what need for me to go on\ncounting by how many ways Christ will lead you, when he has more\nways than man ever dreamed of?  Who hath known the mind of the Lord;\nor who shall be his counsellor?  Only be sure that he will teach\nyou, if you wish to learn; and be sure that this is what he will\nteach you--to know the glory of his Father and your Father, whose\nname is Love.\n\n\n\nSERMON VI.  THE HEARING EAR AND THE SEEING EYE\n\n\n\nProverbs xx. 12.  The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath\nmade even both of them.\n\nThis saying may seem at first a very simple one; and some may ask,\nWhat need to tell us that?  We know it already.  God, who made all\nthings, made the ear and the eye likewise.\n\nTrue, my friends:  but the simplest texts are often the deepest; and\nthat, just because they speak to us of the most common things.  For\nthe most common things are often the most wonderful, and deep, and\ndifficult to understand.\n\nThe hearing of the ear, and the seeing of the eye.--Every one hears\nand sees all day long, so perpetually that we never think about our\nhearing or sight, unless we find them fail us.  And yet, how\nwonderful are hearing and sight.  How we hear, how we see, no man\nknows, and perhaps ever will know.\n\nWhen the ear is dissected and examined, it is found to be a piece of\nmachinery infinitely beyond the skill of mortal man to make.  The\ntiny drum of the ear, which quivers with every sound which strikes\nit, puts to shame with its divine workmanship all the clumsy\nworkmanship of man.  But recollect that _it_ is not all the wonder,\nbut only the beginning of it.  The ear is wonderful:  but still more\nwonderful is it how the ear _hears_.  It is wonderful, I mean, how\nthe ear should be so made, that each different sound sets it in\nmotion in a different way:  but still more wonderful, how that sound\nshould pass up from the ear to the nerves and brain, so that we\n_hear_.  Therein is a mystery which no mortal man can explain.\n\nSo of the eye.  All the telescopes and microscopes which man makes,\ncuriously and cunningly as they are made, are clumsy things compared\nwith the divine workmanship of the eye.  I cannot describe it to\nyou; nor, if I could, is this altogether a fit place to do so.  But\nif any one wishes to see the greatness and the glory of God, and be\noverwhelmed with the sense of his own ignorance, and of God's\nwisdom, let him read any book which describes to him the eye of man,\nor even of beast, and then say with the psalmist, 'I am fearfully\nand wonderfully made.  Marvellous are thy works, O Lord, and that my\nsoul knoweth right well.'\n\nAnd remember, that as with the ear, so with the eye, the mere\nworkmanship of it is only the beginning of the wonder.  It is very\nwonderful that the eye should be able to take a picture of each\nthing in front of it; that on the tiny black curtain at the back of\nthe eye, each thing outside should be printed, as it were,\ninstantly, exact in shape and colour.  But that is not sight.  Sight\nis a greater wonder, over and above that.  Seeing is this, that the\npicture which is printed on the back of the eye, is also printed on\nour brain, so that we _see_ it.  There is the wonder of wonders.\n\nDo some of you not understand me?  Then look at it thus.  If you\ntook out the eye of an animal, and held it up to anything, a man or\na tree, a perfect picture of that man or that tree would be printed\non the back of the dead eye:  but the eye would not _see_ it.  And\nwhy?  Because it is cut off from the live brain of the animal to\nwhich it belonged; and therefore, though the picture is still in the\neye, it sends no message about itself up to the brain, and is not\nseen.\n\nAnd how does the picture on the eye send its message about itself to\nthe brain, so that the brain sees it?  And how, again--for here is a\nthird wonder, greater still--do _we_ ourselves see what our brain\nsees?\n\nThat no man knows, and, perhaps, never will know in this world.  For\nscience, as it is called, that is, the understanding of this world,\nand what goes on therein, can only tell us as yet what happens, what\nGod does:  but of how God does it, it can tell us little or nothing;\nand of why God does it, nothing at all; and all we can say is, at\nevery turn, \"God is great.\"\n\nMind, again, that these are not all the wonders which are in the ear\nand in the eye.  It is wonderful enough, that our brains should hear\nthrough our ears, and see through our eyes:  but it is more\nwonderful still, that they should be able to recollect what they\nhave heard and seen.  That you and I should be able to call up in\nour minds a sound which we heard yesterday, or even a minute ago, is\nto me one of the most utterly astonishing things I know of.  And so\nof ordinary recollection.  What is it that we call remembering a\nplace, remembering a person's face?  That place, or that face, was\nactually printed, as it were, through our eye upon our brain.  We\nhave a picture of it somewhere; we know not where, inside us.  But\nthat we should be able to call that picture up again, and look at it\nwith what we rightly call our mind's eye, whenever we choose; and\nnot merely that one picture only, but thousands of such;--that is a\nwonder, indeed, which passes understanding.  Consider the hundreds\nof human faces, the hundreds of different things and places, which\nyou can recollect; and then consider that all those different\npictures are lying, as it were, over each other in hundreds in that\nsmall place, your brain, for the most part without interfering with,\nor rubbing out each other, each ready to be called up, recollected,\nand used in its turn.\n\nIf this is not wonderful, what is?  So wonderful, that no man knows,\nor, I think, ever will know, how it comes to pass.  How the eye\ntells the brain of the picture which is drawn upon the back of the\neve--how the brain calls up that picture when it likes--these are\ntwo mysteries beyond all man's wisdom to explain.  These are two\nproofs of the wisdom and the power of God, which ought to sink\ndeeper into our hearts than all signs and wonders;--greater proofs\nof God's power and wisdom, than if yon fir-trees burst into flame of\nthemselves, or yon ground opened, and a fountain of water sprung\nout.  Most people think much of signs and wonders.  Just in\nproportion as they have no real faith in God, just in proportion as\nthey forget God, and will not see that he is about their path, and\nabout their bed, and spying out all their ways, they are like those\ngodless Scribes and Pharisees of old, who must have signs and\nwonders before they would believe.  So it is:  the commonest things\nare as wonderful, more wonderful, than the uncommon; and yet, people\nwill hanker after the uncommon, as if they belonged to God more\nimmediately than the commonest matters.\n\nIf yon trees burst out in flame; if yon hill opened, and a fountain\nsprang up, how many would cry, 'How awful!  How wonderful!  Here is\na sign that God is near us!  It is time to think about our souls\nnow!  Perhaps the end of the world is at hand!'  And all the while\nthey would be blind to that far more awful proof of God's presence,\nthat all around them, all day long, all over the world, millions of\nhuman ears are hearing, millions of human eyes are seeing, God alone\nknows how; millions of human brains are recollecting, God alone\nknows how.  That is not faith, my friends, to see God only in what\nis strange and rare:  but this is faith, to see God in what is most\ncommon and simple; to know God's greatness not so much from\ndisorder, as from order; not so much from those strange sights in\nwhich God seems (but only seems) to break his laws, as from those\ncommon ones in which he fulfils his laws.\n\nI know it is very difficult to believe that.  It has been always\ndifficult; and for this reason.  Our souls and minds are disorderly;\nand therefore order does not look to us what it is, the likeness and\nglory of God.  I will explain.  If God, at any moment, should create\na full-grown plant with stalk, leaves, and flowers, all perfect, all\nwould say, There is the hand of God!  How great is God!  There is,\nindeed, a miracle!--Just because it would seem not to be according\nto order.  But the tiny seed sown in the ground, springing up into\nroot-leaf, stalk, rough leaf, flower, seed, which will again be sown\nand spring up into leaf, flower, and seed;--in that perpetual\nmiracle, people see no miracle:  just because it is according to\norder:  because it comes to pass by regular and natural laws.  And\nwhy?  Because, such as we are, such we fancy God to be.  And we are\nall of us more or less disorderly:  fanciful; changeable; fond of\ndoing not what we ought, but what we like; fond of showing our\npower, not by keeping rules, but by breaking rules; and we fancy too\noften that God is like ourselves, and make him in our image, after\nour own likeness, which is disorder, and self-will, and\nchangeableness; instead of trying to be conformed to his image and\nhis likeness, which is order and law eternal:  and, therefore,\nwhenever God seems (for he only _seems_ to our ignorance) to be\nmaking things suddenly, as we make, or working arbitrarily as we\nwork, then we acknowledge his greatness and wisdom.  Whereas his\ngreatness, his wisdom, are rather shown in not making as we make,\nnot working as we work:  but in this is the greatness of God\nmanifest, in that he has ordained laws which must work of\nthemselves, and with which he need never interfere:  laws by which\nthe tiny seed, made up only (as far as we can see) of a little\nwater, and air, and earth, must grow up into plant, leaf, and\nflower, utterly unlike itself, and must produce seeds which have the\ntruly miraculous power of growing up in their turn, into plants\nexactly like that from which they sprung, and no other.  Ah, my\nfriends, herein is the glory of God:  and he who will consider the\nlilies of the field, how they grow, that man will see at last that\nthe highest, and therefore the truest, notion of God is, not that\nthe universe is continually going wrong, so that he has to interfere\nand right it:  but that the universe is continually going right,\nbecause he hath given it a law which cannot be broken.\n\nAnd when a man sees that, there will arise within his soul a clear\nlight, and an awful joy, and an abiding peace, and a sure hope; and\na faith as of a little child.\n\nThen will that man crave no more for signs and wonders, with the\nsuperstitious and the unbelieving, who have eyes, and see not; ears,\nand cannot hear; whose hearts are waxen gross, so that they cannot\nconsider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  but all his cry\nwill be to the Lord of Order, to make him orderly; to the Lord of\nLaw, to make him loyal; to the Lord in whom is nothing arbitrary, to\ntake out of him all that is unreasonable and self-willed; and make\nhim content, like his Master Christ before him, to do the will of\nhis Father in heaven, who has sent him into this noble world.  He\nwill no longer fancy that God is an absent God, who only comes down\nnow and then to visit the earth in signs and wonders:  but he will\nknow that God is everywhere, and over all things, from the greatest\nto the least; for in God, he, and all things created, live and move\nand have their being.  And therefore, knowing that he is always in\nthe presence of God, he will pray to be taught how to use all his\npowers aright, because all of them are the powers of God; pray to be\ntaught how to see, and how to hear; pray that when he is called to\naccount for the use of this wonderful body which God has bestowed on\nhim, he may not be brought to shame by the thought that he has used\nit merely for his own profit or his own pleasure, much less by the\nthought that he has weakened and diseased it by misuse and neglect:\nbut comforted by the thought that he has done with it what the Lord\nJesus did with his body--made it the useful servant, and not the\nbrutal master, of his immortal soul.\n\nAnd he will do that, I believe, just as far as he keeps in mind what\na wonderful and useful thing his body is; what a perpetual token and\nwitness to him of the unspeakable greatness and wisdom of God; just\nin proportion as he says day by day, with the Psalmist, 'Thou hast\nfashioned me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.  Such\nknowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; I cannot attain\nunto it.  Whither shall I go, then, from thy Spirit; or whither\nshall I go from thy presence?  If I climb up into heaven, thou art\nthere.  If I go down to hell, thou art there also.  If I take the\nwings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea,\neven there also shall thy hand lead me, thy right hand shall hold\nme.'\n\nJust in proportion as he recollects that, will he utter from his\nheart the prayer which follows, 'Try me, O God, and seek the ground\nof my heart; prove me, and examine my thoughts.  Look well if there\nbe any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'\n\n\n\nSERMON VII.  THE VICTORY OF FAITH\n\n\n\n(First Sunday after Easter.)\n\n1 John v. 4, 5.  Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:\nand this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.\nWho is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that\nJesus is the Son of God?\n\nWhat is the meaning of 'overcoming the world?'  What is there about\nthe world which we have to overcome? lest it should overcome us, and\nmake worse men of us than we ought to be.  Let us think awhile.\n\n1.  In the world all seems full of chance and change.  One man\nrises, and another falls, one hardly knows why:  they hardly know\nthemselves.  A very slight accident may turn the future of a man's\nwhole life, perhaps of a whole nation.  Chance and change--there\nseems to us, at times, to be little else than chance and change.  Is\nnot the world full of chance?  Are not people daily crushed in\nrailways, burnt to death, shot with their own guns, poisoned by\nmistake, without any reason that we can see, why one should be\ntaken, and another left?  Why should not an accident happen to us,\nas well as to others?  Why should not we have the thing we love best\nsnatched from us this day?  Why not, indeed?  What, then, will help\nus to overcome the fear of chances and accidents?  How shall we keep\nfrom being fearful, fretful, full of melancholy forebodings!  Where\nshall we find something abiding and eternal, a refuge sure and\nsteadfast, in which we may trust, amid all the chances and changes\nof this mortal life?  St. John tells us--In that within you which is\nborn of God.\n\n2.  In the world so much seems to go by fixed law and rule.  That is\neven more terrible to our minds and hearts--to find that all around\nus, in the pettiest matters of life, there are laws and rules ready\nmade for us, which we cannot break; laws of trade; laws of\nprosperity and adversity; laws of health and sickness; laws of\nweather and storms; laws by which not merely we, but whole nations,\ngrow, and decay, and die.--All around us, laws, iron laws, which we\ndo not make, and which we dare not try to break, lest they go on\ntheir way, and grind us to powder.\n\nThen comes the awful question, Are we at the mercy of these laws?\nIs the world a great machine, which goes grinding on its own way\nwithout any mercy to us or to anything; and are we each of us parts\nof the machine, and forced of necessity to do all we do?  Is it\ntrue, that our fate is fixed for us from the cradle to the grave,\nand perhaps beyond the grave?  How shall we prevent the world from\novercoming us in this?  How shall we escape the temptation to sit\ndown and fold our hands in sloth and despair, crying, What we are,\nwe must be; and what will come, must come; whether it be for our\nhappiness or misery, our life or death?  Where shall we find\nsomething to trust in, something to give us confidence and hope that\nwe can mend ourselves, that self-improvement is of use, that working\nis of use, that prudence is of use, for God will reward every man\naccording to his work?  St. John tells us--In that within you which\nis born of God.\n\n3.  Then, again, in the world how much seems to go by selfishness.\nLet every man take care of himself, help himself, fight for himself\nagainst all around him, seems to be the way of the world, and the\nonly way to get on in the world.  But is it really to be so?  Are we\nto thrive only by thinking of ourselves?  Something in our hearts\ntells us, No.  Something in our hearts tells us that this would be a\nvery miserable world if every man shifted for himself; and that even\nif we got this world's good things by selfishness, they would not be\nworth having after all, if we had no one but ourselves to enjoy them\nwith.  What is that?  St. John answers--That in you which is born of\nGod.  It will enable you to overcome the world's deceits, and to see\nthat selfishness is _not_ the way to prosper.\n\n4.  Once, again; in the world how much seems to go by mere custom\nand fashion.  Because one person does a thing right or wrong,\neverybody round fancies himself bound to do likewise.  Because one\nman thinks a thing, hundreds and thousands begin to think the same\nfrom mere hearsay, without examining and judging for themselves.\nThere is no silliness, no cruelty, no crime into which people have\nnot fallen, and may still fall, for mere fashion's sake, from\nblindly following the example of those round him.  'Everybody does\nso; and I must.  Why should I be singular?'  Or, 'Everybody does so;\nwhat harm can there be in my doing so?'\n\nBut there is something in each of us which tells us that that is not\nright; that each man should act according to his own conscience, and\nnot blindly follow his neighbour, not knowing whither, like sheep\nover a hedge; that a man is directly responsible at first for his\nown conduct to God, and that 'my neighbours did so' will be no\nexcuse in God's sight.  What is it which tells us this?  St. John\nanswers, That in you which is born of God; and it, if you will\nlisten to it, will enable you to overcome the world's deceit, and\nits vain fashions, and foolish hearsays, and blind party-cries; and\nnot to follow after a multitude to do evil.\n\nWhat, then, is this thing?  St. John tells us that it is born of\nGod; and that it is our faith.  _Faith_ will enable us to overcome\nthe world.  We shall overcome by believing and trusting in something\nwhich we do not see.  But in what?  Are we to believe and trust that\nwe are going to heaven?  St. John does not say so; he was far too\nwise, my friends, to say so:  for a man's trusting that he is going\nto heaven, if that is all the faith he has, is more likely to make\nthe world overcome him, than him overcome the world.  For it will\nmake him but too ready to say, 'If I am sure to be saved after I\ndie, it matters not so very much what I do before I die.  I may\nfollow the way of the world here, in money-making and meanness, and\nselfishness; and then die in peace, and go to heaven after all.'\n\nThis is no fancy.  There are hundreds, nay thousands, I fear, in\nEngland now, who let the world and its wicked ways utterly overcome\nthem, just because their faith is a faith in their own salvation,\nand not the faith of which St. John speaks--Believing that Jesus is\nthe Son of God.\n\nBut some may ask, 'How will believing that Jesus is the Son of God\nhelp us more than believing the other?  For, after all, we do\nbelieve it.  We all believe that Jesus is the Son of God:  but as\nfor overcoming the world, we dare not say too much of that.  We fear\nwe are letting the world overcome us; we are living too much in\ncontinual fear of the chances and changes of this mortal life.  We\nare letting things go too much their own way.  We are trying too\nmuch each to get what he can by his own selfish wits, without\nconsidering his neighbours.  We are following too much the ways and\nfashions of the day, and doing and saying and thinking anything that\ncomes uppermost, just because others do so round us.'\n\nIs it so, my friends?  But do you really believe that Jesus is the\nSon of God?  For sure I am, that if you did, and I did, really and\nfully believe that, we could all lead much better lives than we are\nleading, manful and godly, useful and honourable, truly independent\nand yet truly humble; fearing God and fearing nothing else.  But do\nyou believe it?  Have you ever thought of all that those great words\nmean, 'Jesus is the Son of God'?--That he who died on the cross, and\nrose again for us, now sits at God's right hand, having all power\ngiven to him in heaven and earth?  For, think, if we really believed\nthat, what power it would give us to overcome the world, and all its\nchances and changes; all its seemingly iron laws; all its selfish\nstruggling; all its hearsays and fashions.\n\n1.  Those chances and changes of mortal life of which I spoke first.\nWe should not be afraid of them, then, even if they came.  For we\nshould believe that they were not chances and changes at all, but\nthe loving providence of our Lord and Saviour, a man of the\nsubstance of his mother, born in the world, who therefore can be\ntouched with a feeling of our infirmities, and knows our necessities\nbefore we ask, and our ignorance in asking, and orders all things\nfor good to those who love him, and desire to copy his likeness.\n\n2.  Those stern laws and rules by which the world moves, and will\nmove as long as it lasts--we should not be afraid of them either, as\nif we were mere parts of a machine forced by fate to do this thing\nand that, without a will of our own.  For we should believe that\nthese laws were the laws of the Lord Jesus Christ; that he had\nordained them for the good of man, of man whom he so loved that he\npoured out his most precious blood upon the cross for us; and\ntherefore we should not fear them; we should only wish to learn\nthem, that we might obey them, sure that they are the laws of life;\nof health and wealth, peace and safety, honour and glory in this\nworld and in the world to come; and we should thank God whenever men\nof science, philosophers, clergymen, or any persons whatsoever,\nfound out more of the laws of that good God, in whom we and all\ncreated things live and move and have our being.\n\n3.  If we believe really that Jesus was the Son of God, we should\nnever believe that selfishness was to be the rule of our lives.  One\nsight of Christ upon his cross would tell us that not selfishness,\nbut love, was the likeness of God, that not selfishness, but love,\nwhich gives up all that it may do good, was the path to honour and\nglory, happiness and peace.\n\n4.  If we really believe this, we should never believe that custom\nand fashion ought to rule us.  For we should live by the example of\nsome one else:  but by the example of only one--of Jesus himself.\nWe should set him before us as the rule of all our actions, and try\nto keep our conscience pure, not merely in the sight of men who may\nmistake, and do mistake, but in the sight of Jesus, the Word of God,\nwho pierces the very thoughts and intents of the heart; and we\nshould say daily with St. Paul, 'It is a small thing for me to be\njudged by you, or any man's judgment, for he that judges me is the\nLord.'\n\nAnd so we should overcome the world.  Our hearts and spirits would\nrise above the false shows of things, to God who has made all\nthings; above fear and melancholy; above laziness and despair; above\nselfishness and covetousness, above custom and fashion; up to the\neverlasting truth and order, which is the mind of God; that so we\nmight live joyfully and freely in the faith and trust that Christ is\nour king, Christ is our Saviour, Christ is our example, Christ is\nour judge; and that as long as we are loyal to him, all will be well\nwith us in this world, and in all worlds to come.--Amen.\n\n\n\nSERMON VIII.  TURNING-POINTS\n\n\n\nLuke xix. 41, 42.  And when Jesus was come near, he beheld the city,\nand wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least\nin this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now\nthey are hid from thine eyes.\n\nMy dear friends, here is a solemn lesson to be learnt from this\ntext.  What is true of whole nations, and of whole churches, is very\noften true of single persons--of each of us.\n\nTo most men--to all baptized Christian men, perhaps--there comes a\nday of visitation, a crisis, or turning-point in our lives.  A day\nwhen Christ sets before us, as he did to those Jews, good and evil,\nlight and darkness, right and wrong, and says, Choose!  Choose at\nonce, and choose for ever; for by what you choose this day, by that\nyou must abide till death.  If you make a mistake now, you will rue\nit to the last.  If you take the downward road now, you will fall\nlower and lower upon it henceforth.  If you shut your eyes now to\nthe things which belong to your peace, they will be hid from your\neyes for ever; and nothing but darkness, ignorance, and confusion\nwill be before you henceforth.\n\nWhat will become of the man's soul after he dies, I cannot say.\nChrist is his judge, and not I.  He may be saved, yet so as by fire,\nas St. Paul says.  Repentance is open to all men, and forgiveness\nfor those who repent.  But from that day, if he chooses wrongly,\ntrue repentance will grow harder and harder to him--perhaps\nimpossible at last.  He has made his bed, and he must lie on it.  He\nhas chosen the evil, and refused the good; and now the evil must go\non getting more and more power over him.  He has sold his soul, and\nnow he must pay the price.  Again, I say, he may be saved at last.\nWho am I, to say that God's mercy is not boundless, when the Bible\nsays it is?  But one may well say of that man, 'God help him,' for\nhe will not be able to help himself henceforth.\n\nIt is an awful thing, my friends, to think that we may fix our own\nfate in this world, perhaps in the world to come, by one act of\nwilful folly or sin:  but so it is.  Just as a man may do one tricky\nthing about money, which will force him to do another to hide it,\nand another after that, till he becomes a confirmed rogue in spite\nof himself.  Just as a man may run into debt once, so that he never\ngets out of debt again; just as a man may take to drink once, and\nthe bad habit grow on him till he is a confirmed drunkard to his\ndying day.  Just as a man may mix in bad company once, and so become\nentangled as in a net, till he cannot escape his evil companions,\nand lowers himself to their level day by day, till he becomes as bad\nas they.  Just as a man may be unfaithful to his wife once, and so\nblunt his conscience till he becomes a thorough profligate, breaking\nher heart, and ruining his own soul.  Just as--but why should I go\non, mentioning ugly examples, which we all know too well, if we will\nopen our own eyes and see the world and mankind as they are?  I will\nsay no more, lest I should set you on judging other people, and\nsaying 'There is no hope for them.  They are lost.'  No; let us\nrather judge ourselves, as any man can, and will, who dares face\nfact, and look steadily at what he is, and what he might become.  Do\nwe not know that we could, any one of us, sell our own souls, once\nand for all, if we choose?  I know that I could.  I know that there\nare things which I might do, which if I did from that moment forth,\nI should have no hope, but only a fearful looking forward to\njudgment and fiery indignation.  And have you never felt, when you\nwere tempted to do wrong:  'I dare not do it for my own sake; for if\nI did this one wickedness, I feel sure that I never should be an\nhonest man again?'  If you have felt that, thank God, indeed; for\nthen you have seen the things which belong to your peace; you have\nknown the day of your visitation; and you will be a better man as\nlong as you live, for having fought against that one temptation, and\nchosen the good, and refused the evil, when God put them\nunmistakeably before you.\n\nNo; the real danger is, lest a man should be as those Jews, and not\nknow the day of his visitation.  Ah, that is ruinous indeed, when a\nman's eyes are blinded as those Jews' eyes were; when a great\ntemptation comes on him, and he thinks it no temptation at all; when\nhell is opening beneath him, with the devils trying to pluck him\ndown, and heaven opening above him, with God's saints and martyrs\nbeckoning him up, looking with eyes of unutterable pity and anxiety\nand love on a poor soul; and that poor soul sees neither heaven nor\nhell, nor anything but his own selfish interest, selfish pleasure,\nor selfish pride, and snaps at the devil's bait as easily as a silly\nfish; while the devil, instead of striking to frighten him, lets him\nplay with the bait, and gorge it in peace, fancying that he is well\noff, when really he is fast hooked for ever, led captive thenceforth\nfrom bad to worse by the snare of the devil.  Oh miserable\nblindness, which comes over men sometimes, and keeps them asleep at\nthe very moment that they ought to be most wide awake!\n\nAnd what throws men into that sleep?  What makes them do in one\nminute something which curses all their lives afterwards?  Love of\npleasure?  Yes:  that is a common curse enough, as we all know.  But\na worse snare than even that is pride and self-conceit.  That was\nwhat ruined those old Jews.  That was what blinded their eyes.  They\nhad made up their minds that they saw; therefore they were blind:\nthat they could not go wrong; therefore they went utterly and\nhorribly wrong thenceforth:  that they alone of all people knew and\nkept God's law; therefore they crucified the Son of God himself for\nfulfilling their law.  They were taken unawares, because they were\nasleep in vain security.\n\nAnd so with us.  By conceit and carelessness, we may ruin ourselves\nin a moment, once and for all.  When a man has made up his mind that\nhe is quite worldly-wise; that no one can take him in; that he\nthoroughly understands his own interest; then is that man ripe and\nready to commit some enormous folly, which may bring him to ruin.\n\nWhen a man has made up his mind that he knows all doctrines, and is\nfully instructed in religion, and can afford to look down on all who\ndiffer from him; then is that man ripe and ready for doing something\nplainly wrong and wicked, which will blunt his conscience from that\nday forth, and teach him to call evil good, and good evil more and\nmore; till, in the midst of all his fine religious professions, he\nknows not plain right from plain wrong--full of the form of\ngodliness, but denying the power of it in scandal of his every-day\nlife.\n\nYes, my friends, our only safeguard is humility.  Be not high-\nminded, but fear.  Avoid every appearance of evil.  Believe that in\nevery temptation heaven and hell may be at stake:  and that the only\nway to be safe is to do nothing wilfully wrong at all, for you never\nknow how far downward one wilful sin may lead you.  The devil is not\nsimple enough to let you see the bottom of his pitfall:  but it is\nso deep, nevertheless, that he who falls in, may never get out\nagain.\n\nAnd do not say in your hearts about this thing and that, 'Well, it\nis wrong:  but it is such a little matter.'  A little draught may\ngive a great cold; and a great cold grow to a deadly decline.  A\nlittle sin may grow to a great bad habit; and a great bad habit may\nkill both body and soul in hell.  A little bait may take a great\nfish; and the devil fishes with a very fine line, and is not going\nto let you see his hook.  The only way to be safe is to avoid all\nappearance of evil, lest when you fancy yourself most completely\nyour own master, you find yourself the slave of sin.\n\nOh, may God give us all the spirit of watchfulness and godly fear!\nOf watchfulness, lest sin overtake us unawares; and of godly fear,\nthat we may have strength to say with Joseph, 'How can I do this\ngreat wickedness, and sin against God?'  Of watchfulness, too, not\nonly against sin, but for God; of godly fear, not only fear of God's\nanger, but fear of God's love.\n\nDo you ask what I mean?  This, my friends; that as we cannot tell at\nany moment what danger may be coming on us, so we cannot tell at any\nmoment what blessing from God may be coming on us.  Those Jews, in\nthe day of their visitation, were blind, and they rejected Christ:\nbut recollect, that it was _Christ_ whom they rejected; that Christ\nwas there, not in anger, but in love; not to judge, but to save;\nthat the power of the Lord was present, not to destroy, but to heal\nthem.  They would have none of him.  True; but they might have had\nhim if they had chosen.  They denied him; but he could not deny\nhimself.  He was there to teach and to save, as he comes to teach\nand to save every man.\n\nTherefore, I say, be watchful.  Believe that Christ is looking for\nyou always, and expect to meet him at any moment.  I do not mean in\nvisible form, in vision or apparition.  No.  He comes, not by\nobservation, that a man may say, 'Lo, here; and lo, there;' but he\ncomes within you, to your hearts, with the still, small voice, which\nsoftens a man and sobers him for a moment, and makes him yearn after\ngood, and say in his heart, 'Ah, that I were as when I was a child\nupon my mother's knee.'  Oh! listen to that softening, sobering\nvoice.  Through very small things it may speak to you:  but it is\nChrist himself who speaks.  Whenever your heart is softened to\naffection toward parent, or child, or your fellowman, then Christ is\nspeaking to you, and showing you the things which belong to your\npeace.  Whenever the feeling of justice, and righteous horror of all\nmeanness rises strong in you, then Christ is speaking to you.\nWhenever your heart burns within you with admiration of some noble\naction, then Christ is speaking to you.  Whenever a chance word in\nsermons or in books touches your conscience, and reproves you, then\nChrist is speaking to you.  Oh turn not a deaf ear to those\ninstincts.  They may be the very turning-points of your lives.  One\nsuch godly motion, one such pure inspiration of the Spirit of God\nlistened to humbly, and obeyed heartily, may be the means of putting\nyou into the right path thenceforward, that you may go on and grow\nin strength and wisdom, and favour with God and man; till you become\nagain, in the world to come, what you were when you were carried\nhome from the baptismal font, a little child, pure from all spot of\nsin.\n\n\n\nSERMON IX.  OBADIAH\n\n\n\n1 Kings, xviii. 3, 4.  And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the\ngovernor of his house.  (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly:  for\nit was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that\nObadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave,\nand fed them with bread and water.)\n\nThis is the first and last time throughout the Bible, that we find\nthis Obadiah mentioned.  We find the same name elsewhere, but not\nthe same person.  It is a common Jewish name, Obadiah, and means, I\nbelieve, the servant of the Lord.\n\nAll we know of the man is contained in this chapter.  We do not read\nwhat became of him afterwards.  He vanishes out of the story as\nquickly as he came into it, and, as we go on through the chapter and\nread of that grand judgment at Carmel between Elijah and the priests\nof Baal, and the fire of God which came down from heaven, to shew\nthat the Lord was God, we forget Obadiah, and care to hear of him no\nmore.\n\nAnd yet Obadiah was a great man in his day.  He was, it seems, King\nAhab's vizier, or prime minister; the second man in the country\nafter the king; and a prime minister in those eastern kingdoms had,\nand has now, far greater power than he has in a free country like\nthis.  Yes, Obadiah was a great man in his day, I doubt not; and\npeople bowed before him when he went out, and looked up to him, in\nthat lawless country, for life or death, for ruin or prosperity.\nTheir money, and their land, their very lives might depend on his\ntaking a liking toward them, or a spite against them.  And he had\nwealth, no doubt, and his fair and great house there among the\nbeautiful hills of Samaria, ceiled with cedar and painted with\nvermilion, with its olive groves and vineyards, and rich gardens\nfull of gay flowers and sweet spices, figs and peaches, and\npomegranates, and all the lovely vegetation which makes those\nEastern gardens like Paradise itself.  And he had his great\nhousehold of slaves, men-servants and maidservants, guards and\nfootmen, singing men and singing women--perhaps a hundred souls and\nmore eating and drinking in his house day by day for many a year.  A\ngreat man; full of wealth, and pomp, and power.  We know that it\nmust have been so, because we know well in what luxury those great\nmen in the East lived.  But where is it now?\n\nWhere is it now?  Vanished and forgotten.  Be not thou afraid,\nthough one be made rich, or if the glory of his house be increased.\nFor he shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth; neither\nshall his pomp follow him.\n\nSee--of all Obadiah's wealth and glory, the Bible does not say one\nword.  It is actually not worth mentioning.  People admired Obadiah,\nI doubt not, while he was alive; envied him too, tried to thrust him\nout of his place, slander him to King Ahab, drive him out of favour,\nand step into his place, that they might enjoy his wealth and his\npower instead of him.  The fine outside of Obadiah was what they\nsaw, and coveted, and envied--as we are tempted now to say in our\nhearts, 'Ah, if I was rich like that man.  Ah, if I could buy what I\nliked, go where I liked, do what I liked, like that great Lord!'--\nand yet, that is but the outside, the shell, the gay clothing, not\nthe persons themselves.  The day must come, when they must put off\nall that; when nothing shall remain but themselves; and they\nthemselves, naked as they were born, shall appear before the\njudgment-seat of God.\n\nAnd did Obadiah, then, carry away nothing with him when he died?\nYes; and yet again, No.  His wealth and his power he left behind\nhim:  but one thing he took with him into the grave, better than all\nwealth and power; and he keeps it now, and will keep it for ever;\nand that is, a good, and just, and merciful action--concerning which\nit is written, 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; for they\nrest from their labours, and their works do follow them.'  Yes,\nthough a man's wealth will not follow him beyond the grave, his\nworks will; and so Obadiah's one good deed has followed him.  'He\nfeared the Lord greatly, and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of\nthe Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in\na cave, and fed them with bread and water.'\n\nThat has followed Obadiah; for by it we know him, now two thousand\nyears and more after his death, here in a distant land of the name\nof which he never heard.  By that good deed he lives.  He lives in\nthe pages of the Holy Bible; he lives in our minds and memories; and\nmore than all, by that good deed he lives for ever in God's sight;\nhe is rewarded for it, and the happier for it, doubt it not, at this\nvery moment, and will be the happier for it for ever.\n\nOh blessed thought! that there is something of which death cannot\nrob us!  That when we have to leave this pleasant world, wife and\nchild, home and business, and all that has grown up round us here on\nearth, till it has become like a part of ourselves, yet still we are\nnot destitute.  We can turn round on death and say--'Though I die,\nyet canst thou not take my righteousness from me!'  Blessed thought!\nthat we cannot do a good deed, not even give a cup of cold water in\nChrist's name, but what it shall rise again, like a guardian angel,\nto smooth our death-bed pillow, and make our bed for us in our\nsickness, and follow us into the next world, to bless us for ever\nand ever!\n\nAnd blessed thought, too, that what you do well and lovingly, for\nGod's sake, will bless you here in this world before you die!  Yes,\nmy friends, in the dark day of sorrow and loneliness, and fear and\nperplexity, you will find old good deeds, which you perhaps have\nforgotten, coming to look after you, as it were, and help you in the\nhour of need.  Those whom you have helped, will help you in return:\nand if they will not, God will; for he is not unrighteous, to forget\nany work and labour of love, which you have showed for his name's\nsake, in ministering to his saints.  So found Obadiah in that sad\nday, when he met Elijah.\n\nFor he was in evil case that day, as were all souls, rich and poor,\nthroughout that hapless land.  For three weary years, there had been\nno drop of rain:  the earth beneath their feet had been like iron,\nand the heavens above them brass; and Obadiah had found poverty,\nwant, and misery, come on him in the midst of all his riches:  he\nhad seen his fair gardens wither, and his olives and his vines burnt\nup with drought;--his cattle had perished on the hills, and his\nservants, too, perhaps, in his house.  Perhaps his children at home\nwere even then crying for food and water, and crying in vain, in\nspite of all their father's greatness.\n\nWhat was the use of wealth?  He could not eat gold, nor drink\njewels.  What was the use of his power?  He could not command the\nsmallest cloud to rise up off the sea, and pour down one drop of\nwater to quench their thirst.  Yes, Obadiah was in bitter misery\nthat day, no doubt; and all the more, because he felt that all was\nGod's judgment on the people's sins.  They had served Baalim and\nAshtaroth, the sun and moon and stars, and prayed to them for rain\nand fruitful seasons, as if they were the rulers of the weather and\nthe soil, instead of serving the true God who made heaven and earth,\nand all therein:  and now God had _judged_ them:  he had given his\nsentence and verdict about that matter, and told them, by a sign\nwhich could not be mistaken, that he, and not the sun and moon, was\nmaster of the sky and the sea, and the rain and the soil.  They had\nprayed to the sun and moon; and this was the fruit of their prayers--\nthat their prayers had not been heard:  but instead of rain and\nplenty, was drought and barrenness;--carcasses of cattle scattered\nover the pastures--every village full of living skeletons, too weak\nto work (though what use in working, when the ground would yield no\ncrop?)--crawling about, their tongues cleaving to the roof of their\nmouths, in vain searching after a drop of water.  Fearful and\nsickening sights must Obadiah have seen that day, as he rode wearily\non upon his pitiful errand.  And the thought of what a pitiful\nerrand he was going on, and what a pitiful king he served, must have\nmade him all the more miserable; for, instead of turning and\nrepenting, and going back to the true God, which was the plain and\nthe only way of escaping out of that misery, that wretched King Ahab\nseems to have cared for nothing but his horses.\n\nWe do not read that he tried to save one of his wretched people\nalive.  All his cry was, 'Go into the land, to all fountains of\nwater and all brooks; perhaps we shall find grass enough to save the\nhorses and mules alive:  that we lose not all the beasts.'  The\nhorses were what he cared for more than the human beings, as many of\nthose bad kings of Israel did.  Moses had expressly commanded them\nnot to multiply horses to themselves; but they persisted always in\ndoing so, nevertheless.  And why?  Because they wanted horses to\nmount their guards; to keep up a strong force of cavalry and\nchariots, in order to oppress the poor country people, whom they had\nbrought down to slavery, from having been free yeomen, as they were\nin the days of Moses and Joshua.  And what hope could he have for\nhis wretched country?  The people shewed no signs of coming to their\nsenses; the king still less.  His wicked Queen Jezebel was as\ndevoted as ever to her idols; the false prophets of Baal were four\nhundred and fifty men, and the prophets of the groves (where the\nstars were worshipped) four hundred; and these cheats contrived (as\nsuch false teachers generally do) to take good care of themselves,\nand to eat at Jezebel's table, while all the rest of the people were\nperishing.  What could be before the country, and him, too, but\nutter starvation, and hopeless ruin?  And all this while his life\nwas in the hands of a weak and capricious tyrant, who might murder\nhim any moment, and of a wicked and spiteful queen, who certainly\nwould murder him, if she found out that he had helped and saved the\nprophets of the Lord.  Who so miserable as he?  But on that day,\nObadiah found that his alms and prayers had gone up before God, and\nwere safe with God, and not to be forgotten for ever.  When he fell\non his face before Elijah, in fear for his life, he found that he\nwas safe in God's hands; that God would not betray him or forsake\nhim.  Elijah promised him, with a solemn oath, that he would keep\nhis word with him; he kept it, and before many days were past,\nObadiah had an answer to all his prayers, and a relief from all his\nfears; and the Lord sent a gracious rain on his inheritance, and\nrefreshed it when it was weary.  Yes, my friends, though well-doing\nseems for a while not to profit you, persevere:  in due time you\nshall reap, if you faint not.  Though the Lord sometimes waits to be\ngracious, he only waits, he does not forget; and it is to be\n_gracious_ that he waits, not ungracious.  Cast, therefore, thy\nbread upon the waters, and thou shall find it after many days.  Give\na portion to seven, and also to eight, for thou knowest not what\nevil shall be upon the earth.  Do thy diligence to give of what thou\nhast; for so gatherest thou thyself in the day of necessity, in\nwhich, with what measure you have measured to others, God will\nmeasure to you again.\n\nThis is true, for the Scripture says so; this _must_ be true, for\nreason and conscience--the voice of God within us--tell us that God\nis just; that God must be true, though every man be a liar.  'Hear,'\nsays our Lord, 'what the _unjust_ judge says:  And shall not God\n(the just judge), avenge his own elect, who cry day and night to\nhim, though he bear long with them?'  Yes, my friends, God's promise\nstands sure, now and for ever.  'Trust in the Lord, and do good; so\nshalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.'\n\nBut now comes in a doubt--and it ought to come in--What are our\nworks at best?  What have we which is fit to offer to God?  Full of\nselfishness, vanity, self-conceit, the best of them; and not half\ndone either.  What have we ever done right, but what we might have\ndone more rightly, and done more of it, also?  Bad in quality our\ngood works are, and bad in quantity, too.  How shall we have courage\nto carry them in our hand to that God who charges his very angels\nwith folly; and the very heavens are not clean in his sight?\n\nToo true, if we had to offer our own works to God.  But, thanks be\nto his holy name, we have not to offer them ourselves; for there is\none who offers them for us--Jesus Christ the Lord.  He it is who\ntakes these imperfect, clumsy works of ours, all soiled and stained\nwith our sin and selfishness, and washes them clean in his most\nprecious blood, which was shed to take away the sin of the world:\nhe it is who, in some wonderful and unspeakable way, cleanses our\nworks from sin, by the merit of his death and sufferings, so that\nnothing may be left in them but what is the fruit of God's own\nspirit; and that God may see in them only the good which he himself\nput into them, and not the stains and soils which they get from our\nfoolish and sinful hearts.\n\nOh, my friends, bear this in mind.  Whensoever you do a thing which\nyou know to be right and good, instead of priding yourself on it, as\nif the good in it came from you, offer it up to the Lord Jesus\nChrist, and to your Heavenly Father, from whom all good things come,\nand say, 'Oh Lord, the good in this is thine, and not mine; the bad\nin it is mine, and not thine.  I thank thee for having made me do\nright, for without thy help I should have done nothing but wrong;\nfor mine is the laziness, and the weakness, and the selfishness, and\nthe self-conceit; and thine is the kingdom, for thou rulest all\nthings; and the power, for thou doest all things; and the glory, for\nthou doest all things well, for ever and ever.  Amen.'\n\n\n\nSERMON X.  RELIGIOUS DANGERS\n\n\n\n(Preached at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1861, for the London\nDiocesan Board of Education.)\n\nSt. Mark viii. 4, 5, 8.  And the disciples answered him, From whence\ncan a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? . . .\nHow many loaves have ye?  And they said, Seven. . . . so they did\neat and were filled; and they took up of the broken meat that was\nleft seven baskets.\n\nI think that I can take no better text for the subject on which I am\nabout to preach, than that which the Gospel for this day gives me.\n\nFor is not such a great city as this London, at least in its present\namorphous, unorganised state, having grown up, and growing still,\nany how and any whither, by the accidental necessities of private\ncommerce, private speculation, private luxury--is it not, I say,\nliterally a wilderness?\n\nI do not mean a wilderness in the sense of a place of want and\nmisery; on the contrary, it is a place of plenty and of comfort.  I\nthink that we clergymen, and those good people who help our labours,\nare too apt exclusively to forget London labour, in our first and\nnecessary attention to the London poor; to fix our eyes and minds on\nLondon want and misery, till we almost ignore the fact of London\nwealth and comfort.  We must remember, if we are to be just to God,\nand just to our great nation, that there is not only more wealth in\nLondon, but that that wealth is more equitably and generally\ndiffused through all classes, from the highest to the lowest, than\never has been the case in any city in the world.  We must remember\nthat there is collected together here a greater number of free human\nbeings than were ever settled on the same space of earth, earning an\nhonest, independent, and sufficient livelihood, and enjoying the\nfruits of their labour in health and cheapness, freedom and\nsecurity, such as the world never saw before.  There is want and\nmisery.  I know it too well.  There are great confusions to be\norganised, great anomalies to be suppressed.  But remember, that if\nwant and misery, confusion and anomaly were _the rule_ of London,\nand not (as they are) the exception, then London, instead of\nincreasing at its present extraordinary pace, would decay; London\nwork, instead of being better and better done, would be worse and\nworse done, till it stopped short in some such fearful convulsion as\nthat of Paris in 1793.  No, my friends; compare London with any city\non the Continent; compare her with the old Greek and Roman cities;\nwith Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, with that Imperial Rome\nitself, which was like London in nothing but its size, and then\nthank God for England, for freedom, and for the Church of Christ.\n\nAnd yet I have called London a wilderness.  I have.  There is a\nwilderness of want; but there is a wilderness of wealth likewise.\nAnd the latter is far more dangerous to human nature than the former\none.  It is not in the waste and howling wilderness of rock, and\nsand and shingle, with its scanty acacia copses, and groups of date\ntrees round the lonely well, that nature shews herself too strong\nfor man, and crushes him down to the likeness of the ape.  There the\nwild Arab, struggling to exist, and yet not finding the struggle\naltogether too hard for him, can gain and keep, if not spiritual\nlife, virtue and godliness, yet still something of manhood;\nsomething of--\n\n\nThe reason firm, the temperate will,\nEndurance, foresight, thought, and skill.\n\n\nNo; if you would see how low man can fall, you must go to the tropic\njungle, where geniality of climate, plenty and variety of food, are\nin themselves a cause of degradation to the soul, as long as the\nSpirit of Christ is absent from it.  Not in the barren desert, but\nin the rich forest, wanders the true savage, eating and eating all\nday long, like the ape in the trees above his head; and (I had\nalmost said), like the ape, too, with no thoughts save what his\npampered senses can suggest.  I had almost said it.  Thank God, I\ndare not say it altogether; for, after all, the savage is a man, and\nnot an ape.  Yes, to the lowest savage in the forests of the Amazon,\ncomes a hunger of the soul, and whispers from the unseen world, to\nremind him of what he might have been, and still may be.  In the\ndreams of the night they come; in vague terrors of the unseen, vague\nfeelings of guilt and shame, vague dread of the powers of nature;\ndriving him to unmeaning ceremonies, to superstitious panics, to\nhorrible and bloody rites--as they might drive, to-morrow, my\nfriends, an outwardly civilized population, debauched by mere peace\nand plenty, entangled and imprisoned in the wilderness of a great\ncity.\n\nI can imagine--imagine?--Have we not seen again and again human\nsouls so entangled and opprest by this vast labyrinth of brick and\nmortar, as never to care to stir outside it and expand their souls\nwith the sight of God's works as long as their brute wants are\nsupplied, just as the savage never cares to leave his accustomed\nforest haunt, and hew himself a path into the open air through the\ntangled underwood.  I can imagine--nay, have we not seen that, too?--\nand can we not see it any day in the street?--human souls so\ndazzled and stupefied, instead of being quickened, by the numberless\nobjects of skill and beauty, which they see in their walks through\nthe streets, that they care no more for the wonders of man's making,\nthan the savage does for the wonders of God's making, which he sees\naround him in every insect, bird, and flower.  The man who walks the\nstreets every day, is the very man who will see least in the\nstreets.  The man who works in a factory, repeating a thousand times\na day some one dull mechanical operation, or even casting up day\nafter day the accounts of it, is the man who will think least of the\nreal wonderfulness of that factory; of the amount of prudence,\nskill, and science, which it expresses; of its real value to himself\nand to his class; of its usefulness to far nations beyond the seas.\nHe is like a savage who looks up at some glorious tree, capable, in\nthe hands of civilized man, of a hundred uses, and teeming to him\nwith a hundred scientific facts; and thinks all the while of nothing\nbut his chance of finding a few grubs beneath its bark.\n\nThink over, I beseech you, this fact of the stupefying effect of\nmere material civilization; and remember that plenty and comfort do\nnot diminish but increase that stupefaction; that Hebrew prophets\nknew it, and have told us, again and again, that, by fulness of\nbread the heart waxeth gross; that Greek sages knew it, and have\ntold us, again and again, that need, and not satiety, was the\nquickener of the human intellect.  Believe that man requires another\nbread than the bread of the body; that sometimes the want of the\nbodily bread will awaken the hunger for that bread of the soul.\nBear in mind that the period during which the middle and lower\nclasses of England were most brutalized, was that of their greatest\nmaterial prosperity, the latter half of the eighteenth century.\nRemember that with the distress which came upon them, at the end of\nthe French war, their spiritual hunger awakened--often in forms\ndiseased enough:  but growing healthier, as well as keener, year by\nyear; and that if they are not brutalized once more by their present\nunexampled prosperity, it will be mainly owing to the spiritual life\nwhich was awakened in those sad and terrible years.  Remember that\nthe present carelessness of the masses about either religious or\npolitical agitation, though it may be a very comfortable sign to\nthose who believe that a man's life consists in the abundance of the\nthings which he possesses, is a very ominous sign to some who study\nhistory, and to some also who study their Bibles:  and ask\nyourselves earnestly the question, 'From where shall a man find food\nfor these men in this wilderness, not of want, but of wealth?'  For,\nbelieve me, that spiritual hunger, though stopped awhile by physical\ncomfort, will surely reawaken.  Any severe and sudden depression in\ntrade--the stoppage of the cotton crop, for instance, will awaken in\nthe minds of hundreds of thousands deep questions--for which we, if\nwe are wise, shall have an explicit answer ready.\n\nFor it is a very serious moment, my friends, when large masses have\nhad enough to eat and drink, and have been saying, 'Let us eat and\ndrink, for to-morrow we die;' and then, suddenly, by _not_ having\nenough to eat and drink, and yet finding themselves still alive, are\nawakened to the sense that there is more in them than the mere\ncapacity for eating and drinking.  Then begin once more the world-\nold questions, Why are we thus?  Who put us here?  Who made us?\nGod?  Is there a God? and if there be, what is he like?  What is his\nwill toward us, good or evil?  Is it hate or love?\n\nMy friends, those are questions which have been asked often enough\nin the world's history, by vast masses at once.  And they may be\nanswered in more ways than one.\n\nThey may be answered as the weavers of a certain country (thank God,\nnot England) answered them in the potato famine with their mad song,\n'We looked to the earth, and the earth deceived us.  We looked to\nthe kings, and the kings deceived us.  We looked to God, and God\ndeceived us.  Let us lie down and die.'\n\nOr they may answer them--they will be more likely to answer them in\nEngland just now, because there are those who will teach them so to\nanswer--in another, but a scarcely less terrible tone.  'Yes, there\nis a God; and he is angry with us.  And why?  Because there is\nsomething, or some one, in the nation which he abhors--heretics,\npapists'--what not--any man, or class of men, on whom cowardly and\nterrified ignorance may happen to fix as a scapegoat, and cry,\n'These are the guilty!  We have allowed these men, indulged them;\nthe accursed thing is among us, therefore the face of the Lord is\nturned from us.  We will serve him truly henceforth--and hate those\nwhom he hates.  We will be orthodox henceforth--and prove our\northodoxy by persecuting the heretic.'\n\nDoes this seem to you extravagant, impossible?  Remember, my\nfriends, that within the last century Lord George Gordon's riots\nconvulsed London.  Can you give me any reason why Lord George\nGordon's riots cannot occur again?  Believe me, the more you study\nhistory, the more you study human nature, the more possible it will\nseem to you.  It is not, I believe, infidelity, but fanaticism,\nwhich England has to fear just now.  The infidelity of England is\none of mere doubt and denial, a scepticism; which is in itself weak\nand self-destructive.  The infidelity of France in 1793 was strong\nenough, but just because it was no scepticism, but a faith; a\npositive creed concerning human reason, and the rights of man, which\nmen could formulize, and believe in, and fight for, and persecute\nfor, and, if need was, die for.  But no such exists in England now.\nAnd what we have most to fear in England under the pressure of some\nsudden distress, is a superstitious panic, and the wickedness which\nis certain to accompany that panic; mean and unjust, cruel and\nabominable things, done in the name of orthodoxy:  though meanwhile,\nwhether what the masses and their spiritual demagogues will mean by\northodoxy, will be the same that we and the Church of England mean\nthereby, is a question which I leave for your most solemn\nconsideration.  That, however, rather than any proclamation of the\nabstract rights of man, or installations of a goddess of Reason, is\nthe form which spiritual hunger is most likely to take in England\nnow.  Alas! are there not tokens enough around us now, whereby we\nmay discern the signs of this time?\n\nI say, the spiritual hunger will reawaken; and woe to us who really\nunderstand and love the Church of England; woe to us who are really\ntrue to her principles, honestly subscribe her formulas, if we\ncannot appease it in that day.\n\nBut wherewith?  We may look, my friends, appalled at the danger and\nthe need.  We may cry to our Lord, 'From whence can a man satisfy\nthese men with bread in the wilderness?'  But his answer will be, as\nfar as I dare to predict it, the same as to his apostles of old on\nanother and a similar occasion, 'Give ye them to eat.  They need not\ndepart.'\n\nI am not going to draw any far-fetched analogy between the miracle\nrecorded in the gospel, and the subject on which I am speaking.  I\nam not going to put any mystical and mediaeval interpretation on the\nseven loaves, or the two small fishes.  I only ask you to accept the\nplain moral practical lesson which the words convey.--\n\nUse the means which you have already, however few and weak they\nseem.  If Christ be among you, as he is indeed, he will bless them,\nand multiply them you know not how.\n\nUse the means which you have; though they may seem to you\ninadequate, though they may seem to the world antiquated, and\ndecrepit, try them.  They need not depart from us, these masses, to\nseek spiritual food, they know not where, if we have but faith.  Let\nus give them what we have; the organization of the Church of\nEngland, and the teaching of the Church of England.\n\nThe organization of the Church.  Not merely its Parochial system,\nbut its Diocesan system.  In London, more than in any part of\nEngland, the Diocesan system is valuable.  A London parish is not\nlike a country one, a self-dependent, corporate body, made up of\nresidents of every rank, capable of providing for the physical and\nspiritual wants of its own stationary population.  In London,\npopulation fluctuates rapidly, sometimes rolling away from one\nquarter, always developing itself in fresh quarters; in London all\nranks do not dwell side by side within sight and sound of each\nother:  but the rich and the poor, the employed and the unemployed,\ndwell apart, work apart, and are but too often out of sight, out of\nmind.  These, and many other reasons, make it impossible for the\nmere parochial system to bring out the zeal and the liberality of\nLondon Churchmen.  If they are to realize their unity and their\nstrength, they must do so not as members of a Parish, but of a\nDiocese; their Bishop must be to them the sign that they are one\nbody; their good works must be organized more and more under him,\nand round him.  This is no new theory of mine; it is a historic law.\nThe Priest for the village, the Bishop for the city, has been the\nnatural and necessary organization of the Church in every age; and\nit was in strict accordance with this historic law, that the London\nDiocesan Board of Education was founded in 1846, not to override the\nparochial system, but to do for it what it cannot, in a great city,\ndo for itself; to establish elementary schools (and now I am happy\nto say, evening schools also) in parishes which were too poor to\nfurnish them for themselves.  I, as the son of a London Rector, can\nbear my testimony to the excellent working of that Board; and it is\nwith grief I hear that, in spite of the vast work which it has done\nsince 1846, and which it is still doing, on an income which is now\nnot 300 pounds a year--proving thereby how cheaply and easily your\nwork may be done when it is done in the right way--it is with grief,\nI say, that I hear that it is more and more neglected by the\nreligious public.\n\nWith grief:  but not with surprise.  For the religious public, even\nthe Church portion of it, has of late been more and more inclined to\nundervalue the organization and the teaching of the Church of\nEngland, and to supply its place with nostrums, borrowed from those\ndenominations who disagree with the Church, alike in their doctrines\nof what man should be, and of what God is.  How have their energies,\ntheir zeal, their money (for zealous they are, and generous too)\nbeen frittered away!  But I will not particularize, lest I hurt the\nfeelings of better people than myself, by holding up their good\nworks to the ridicule of those who do us no good works at all.  But\nI entreat them to look at their own work; to look at the vastness of\nits expense, compared with the smallness of its results; and then to\nask themselves, whether the one cause of their failure--for failures\nI must call too many of the religious movements of this day, in\nspite of their own loud self-laudations--whether, I say, one cause\nof these failures may not be, that the religious world is throwing\nitself into anything and everything novel and exciting, rather than\ninto the simple and unobtrusive work of teaching little children\ntheir Catechism, that they may go home as angels of God and\nmissionaries of Christ, teaching their parents in turn as they have\nbeen taught themselves, and so awakening that sacred family life,\nwithout which there can be no sound Christianity.  I know well that\nthere has been much work done in the right direction; but when I\nlook at the ugly fact, that the population of London is increasing\nfar faster than its schools; that in 25 of the poorest parishes\nthereof there are now nearly 60,000 children who go to no school at\nall; and that the proportion of scholars to the population is lower\nin Middlesex than in almost any county in England, while the\nproportion of crime is highest; I cannot but sigh over the thousands\nwhich I see squandered yearly on rash novelties by really pious and\ngenerous souls, and cry, Ah, that one-fourth, one-tenth of it all\nhad been spent in the plain work of helping elementary schools; I\ncannot but call on all London churchmen of the plain old school, to\nstand by the organization and the doctrines of the Church to which\nthey belong; to rally in this matter round their bishop; and work\nfor him, and with him.\n\nAnd now, there may be some here who will ask, scornfully enough, And\ndo you talk of nostrums? and then, after confessing that the masses\nare hungering for the bread of life, offer them nothing but your own\nnostrum, the Catechism?\n\nYes, my friends, I do.  I know that the Church Catechism is not the\nbread of life.  Neither, I beg you to remember, is any other\nCatechism, or doctrine, or tract, or sermon, or book or anything\nelse whatsoever.  Christ is the Bread of Life.  But how shall they\nknow Christ, unless they be taught what Christ is; and how can they\nbe taught what Christ is, unless the conception of him which is\noffered them be true?\n\nAnd, I say, that the Catechism does give a true conception of\nChrist; and more, a far truer one--I had almost said, an infinitely\ntruer--than any which I have yet seen in these realms:  that from\nthe Catechism a child may learn who God is, who Christ is, who he\nhimself is, what are his relation and duty to God, what are his\nrelation and duty to his neighbours, to his country, and to the\nwhole human race, far better than from any document of the kind of\nwhich I am aware.\n\nI know well the substitutes for the Catechism which are becoming\nmore and more fashionable; the limitations, the explainings away,\nthe non-natural and dishonest interpretations, which are more and\nmore applied to it when it is used; and I warn you, that those\nsubstitutes for, and those defacements of, the Catechism, will be no\nbarrier against an outburst of fanaticism, did one arise; nay, that\nmany of them would directly excite it; and prove, when too late,\nthat instead of feeding the masses with the bread of life, which\nshould preserve them, soul and body, some persons had been feeding\nthem with poison, which had maddened them, soul and body.  But I see\nno such danger in the Catechism.  I see in the Catechism; in its\nfreedom alike from sentimental horror and sentimental raptures; its\nfreedom alike from slavish terror, and from Pharisaic assurance; a\nguarantee that those who learn it will learn something of that sound\nreligion, sober, trusty, cheerful, manful, which may be seen still,\nthank God, in country Church folk of the good old school; and which\nwill, in the day of trial, be proof against the phantoms of a\ndiseased conscience, and the ravings of spiritual demagogues.\n\nAnd therefore I preach gladly for this institution; therefore I urge\nstrongly its claims on you, whom I am bound to suppose honest\nChurchmen, because the fact of its being a Diocesan Board of\nEducation is, at least in this diocese, a guarantee that the schools\nwhich it supports will teach their children, honestly and literally,\nthe Catechism of the Church of England, which may God preserve!\n\nNot that I expect it to teach only that.  I take for granted, that\nthat will be its primary object, the guarantee that all the rest is\nwell done:  but I know that much more than that must be done; that\nmuch more will be done, even unintentionally.\n\nFor, shall I--I trust that I shall not--make a too fanciful\napplication of the last fact recorded of this great miracle, if I\nbid you find in it a fresh source of hope in your work?\n\n'And they took up of the fragments which were left seven baskets\nfull.'\n\nThe plain historic fact is, that not only do the seven loaves feed\n4,000, but that what they leave, and are about to throw away, far\nexceeds the original supply.\n\nI believe the fact:  I ask you to consider why it was recorded?\nSurely, like all facts in the gospels, to teach us more of the\ncharacter of Christ, which (a fact too often forgotten in these\ndays) is the character of God.  To teach us that he is an utterly\nbountiful God.  That as in him there is no weakness, nor difficulty,\nso in him is no grudging, no parsimony.  That he is not only able,\nbut willing, to give exceeding abundantly, beyond all that we can\nask or think.  That there is a magnificence in God and in God's\nworkings, which ought to fill us with boundless hope, if we are but\nfellow-workers with God.\n\nYou see that magnificence in the seeming prodigality of nature; in\nthe prodigality which creates a thousand beautiful species of\nbutterfly, where a single plain one would have sufficed; in the\nprodigality which creates a thousand acorns, only one of which is\ndestined to grow into an oak.  Everywhere in the kingdom of nature\nit shows itself; believe that it exists as richly in the higher\nkingdom of grace.  Yes.  Believe, that whenever you begin to work\naccording to God's law and God's will, let your means seem as\ninadequate as they may, not only will your work multiply, as by\nmiracle, under your hands; but the very fragments of it, which you\nare inclined to neglect and overlook, will form in time a heap of\nunexpected treasure.  Plans which you have thrown aside, because\nthey seemed to fail, details which seemed to encumber you, accessory\nwork which formed no part of your original plan, all will be of use\nto some one, somehow, somewhere.\n\nYou began, for instance, by wishing to educate the masses of London;\nyou are educating over and above, indirectly, thousands who never\nsaw London.  You began by wishing to teach them spiritual truth; you\nhave been drawn on to give them an excellent secular education\nbesides.  You intended to make them live as good Christians here at\nhome.  But since you began, the interpenetration of town and country\nby railroads, and the rush of emigrants to our colonies, have\nwidened infinitely the sphere of your influence; and you are now\nteaching them also to live as useful men in the farthest corners of\nthese isles, and in far lands beyond the seas, to become educated\nemigrants, loyal colonists; to raise, by their example, rude\nsettlers, and ruder savages; and so, the very fragments of your good\nwork, without your will or intent, will bless thousands of whom you\nnever heard, and help to sow the seeds of civilization and\nChristianity, wherever the English flag commands Justice, and the\nEnglish Church preaches Love.\n\n\n\nSERMON XI.  BLESSING AND CURSING\n\n\n\n(Preached at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, Ash Wednesday, 1860.)\n\nDeuteronomy xxviii. 15.  It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not\nhearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his\ncommandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that\nall these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.\n\nMany good people are pained by the Commination Service which we have\njust heard read.  They dislike to listen to it.  They cannot say\n'Amen' to its awful words.  It seems to them to curse men; and their\nconscience forbids them to join in curses.  To imprecate evil on any\nliving being seems to them unchristian, barbarous, a relic of dark\nages and dark superstitions.\n\nBut does the Commination Service curse men?  Are these good people\n(who are certainly right in their horror of cursing) right in the\naccusations which they bring against it?  Or have they fallen into a\nmistake as to the meaning of the service, owing, it may be supposed,\nto that carelessness about the exact use of words, that want of\naccurate and critical habits of mind, which is but too common among\nreligious people at the present day?\n\nI cannot but think that they mistake, when they say that the\nCommination Service curses men.  For to curse a man, is to pray and\nwish that God may become angry with him, and may vent his anger on\nthe man by punishing him.  But I find no such prayer and wish in any\nword of the Commination Service.  Its form is not, 'Cursed _be_ he\nthat doeth such and such things,' but 'Cursed _is_ he that doeth\nthem.'\n\nDoes this seem to you a small difference?  A fine-drawn question of\nwords?  Is it, then, a small difference whether I say to my fellow-\nman, I hope and pray that you may be stricken with disease, or\nwhether I say, You are stricken with disease, whether you know it or\nnot.  I warn you of it, and I warn you to go to the physician?  For\nso great, and no less, is the difference.\n\nAnd if any one shall say, that it is very probable that the authors\nof the Liturgy were not conscious of this distinction; but that they\nmeant by cursing what priests in most ages have meant by it; I must\nanswer, that it is dealing them most hard and unfair measure, to\ntake for granted that they were as careless about words as we are;\nthat they were (like some of us) so ignorant of grammar as not to\nknow the difference between the indicative and the imperative mood;\nand to assume this, in order to make them say exactly what they do\n_not_ say, and to impute to them a ferocity of which no hint is\ngiven in their Commination Service.\n\nBut some will say, Granted that the authors of the Commination\nService did not wish evil to sinners--granted that they did not long\nto pray, with bell, book, and candle, that they might be tormented\nfor ever in Gehenna--granted that they did not desire to burn their\nbodies on earth; those words are still dark and unchristian.  They\ncould only be written by men who believed that God hates sinners,\nthat his will is to destroy them on earth, and torture them for ever\nafter death.\n\nWe may impute, alas! what motives and thoughts we choose, in the\nface of our Lord's own words, Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.\nBut we shall not be fair and honest in imputing, unless we first\nsettle what these men meant, in the words which they have actually\nwritten.  What did they mean by 'cursed' is the question.  And that\nwe can only answer by the context of the Commination Service.  And\nthat again we can only answer by seeing what it means in the Bible,\nwhich the Reformers profess to follow in all their writings.\n\nNow, what does the Bible mean by a curse, and cursing?--For we are\nbound to believe, in all fairness, that the Reformers meant the\nsame, and neither more nor less.  The text, I think, tells us\nplainly enough.  We know that its words came true.  We know that the\nJews _did_ perish out of their native land, as the Author of this\nbook foretold, in consequence of doing that against which Moses\nwarned them.  We know also that they did not perish by any\nmiraculous intervention of Providence:  but simply as any other\nnation would have perished; by profligacy, internal weakness, civil\nwar, and, at last, by foreign conquest.\n\nWe know that their destruction was the natural consequence of their\nown folly.  Why are we to suppose that the prophet meant anything\nbut that?  He foretells the result.  Why are we to suppose that he\ndid not foresee the means by which that result would happen?  Why\nare we, in the name of all justice, to impute to him an expectation\nof miraculous interferences, about which he says no word?  The curse\nwhich he foretold was the natural consequence of the sins of the\nnation.  Why are we not to believe that he considered it as such?\nWhy are we not to believe that the Bible meaning of a curse, is\nsimply the natural ill-consequence of men's own ill-actions?  I\nbelieve that if you will apply the same rule to other places of\nScripture, you will have reason to reverence the letter and the\nSpirit of Scripture more and more, and will free your minds from\nmany a superstitious and magical fancy, which will prevent you alike\nfrom understanding the Bible and the Commination Service.\n\nThe Book of Deuteronomy, like the rest of Moses' laws, says nothing\nwhatever about the life to come.  It says, that sin is to be\npunished, and virtue rewarded, in this life; and the Commination\nService, when it quotes the Book of Deuteronomy, means so, so I\npresume, likewise.  Indeed, if we look at the very remarkable, and\nmost invaluable address which the Commination Service contains, we\nshall find its author saying the same thing, in the very passages\nwhich are to some minds most offensive.\n\nFor even in this life the door of mercy may be shut, and we may cry\nin vain for mercy, when it is the time for justice.  This is not\nmerely a doctrine:  it is a fact; a common, patent fact.  Men do\nwrong, and escape, again and again, the just punishment of their\ndeeds; but how often there are cases in which a man does not escape;\nwhen he is filled with the fruit of his own devices, and left to the\nmisery which he has earned; when the covetous and dishonest man\nruins himself past all recovery; when the profligate is left in a\nshameful old age, with worn-out body and defiled mind, to rot into\nan unhonoured grave; when the hypocrite who has tampered with his\nconscience is left without any conscience at all.\n\nThey have chosen the curse, and the curse is come upon them to the\nuttermost.  So it is.  Is the Commination service uncharitable, is\nthe preacher uncharitable, when they tell men so?  No more so, than\nthe physician is uncharitable, when he says,--'If you go on misusing\nthus your lungs, or your digestion, you will ruin them past all\ncure.'  Is God to be blamed because this is a fact?  Why then\nbecause the other is a fact likewise?\n\nNow if this be, as I believe, the doctrine of the commination\nservice; if this be, as I believe, the message of Ash-Wednesday, it\nis one which is quite free from superstition or cruelty:  but it is\na message more disagreeable, and more terrible too, than any magical\nimprecations of harm to the sinner could bring.  More disagreeable.\nFor which is more galling to human pride, to be told,--Sin is\ncertainly a clever, and politic, and successful trade, as far as\nthis world is concerned.  It is only in the next world, or in the\ncase of rare and peculiar visitations and judgments in this world,\nthat it will harm you?  Or to be told,--Sin is no more clever,\npolitic, or successful here, than hereafter.  The wrong-doing which\nlooks to you so prudent is folly.  You, man of the world as you may\nthink yourself, are simply, as often as you do wrong, blind,\nignorant, suicidal.  You are your own curse; your acts are their own\ncurse.  The injury to your own character and spirit, the injury to\nyour fellow-creatures, which will again re-act on you,--these are\nthe curses of God, which you will feel some day too heavy to be\nborne.  And which is more terrible?  To tell a man, that God will\njudge and curse him by unexpected afflictions, or at least by\ncasting him into Gehenna in the world to come:  or to tell him, 'You\nare judged already.  The curse is on you already?'\n\nThe first threat he may get rid of, by denying the fact; by saying\nthat God does not generally interfere to punish bad men in this\nlife; that he does not strike them dead, swallow them up; and he may\neven quote Scripture on his side, and call on Solomon to bear\nwitness how as dieth the fool, so dieth wise man; and that there is\none event to the righteous and the wicked.\n\nAs for the fear of Gehenna, again, after he dies:  that is too dim\nand distant; too unlike anything which he has seen in this life (now\nthat the tortures and Autos da fe of the middle age have\ndisappeared) to frighten him very severely, except in rare moments,\nwhen his imagination is highly excited.  And even then, he can--in\npractice he does--look forward to 'making his peace with God' as it\nis called, at last, and fulfilling Baalam's wish of dying the death\nof the righteous, after living the life of the wicked.  He knows\nwell, too, that when that day comes, he can find--alas! that it\nshould be so--priests and preachers in plenty, of some communion or\nother, who will give him his viaticum, and bid him depart in peace\nto that God, who has said that there is no peace to the wicked.\n\nBut terrible, truly terrible and heart searching for the wrongdoer\nis the message--God does not curse thee:  thou hast cursed thyself.\nGod will not go out of his way to punish thee:  thou hast gone out\nof his way, and thereby thou art punishing thyself, just as, by\nabusing thy body, thou bringest a curse upon it; so by abusing thy\nsoul.  God does not break his laws to punish drunkenness or\ngluttony.  The laws themselves, the laws of nature, the beneficent\nlaws of life, nutrition, growth, and health, they punish thee; and\nkill by the very same means by which they make alive.  And so with\nthy soul, thy character, thy humanity.  God does not break his laws\nto punish its sins.  The laws themselves punish; every fresh wrong\ndeed, and wrong thought, and wrong desire of thine sets thee more\nand more out of tune with those immutable and eternal laws of the\nMoral Universe, which have their root in the absolute and necessary\ncharacter of God himself.  All things that he has ordained; the laws\nof the human body, the laws of the human soul, the laws of society,\nthe laws of all heaven and earth are arrayed against thee; for thou\nhast arrayed thyself against them.  They have not excommunicated\nthee:  thou hast, single-handed, excommunicated thyself.  In thine\nown self-will, thou hast set thyself to try thy strength against God\nand his whole universe.  Dost thou fancy that he needs to interfere\nwith the working of that universe, to punish such a worm as thee?\nNo more than the great mill engine need stop, and the overseer of it\ninterfere with the machinery, if the drunken or careless workman\nshould entangle himself among the wheels.  The wheels move on, doing\ntheir duty, spinning cloth for the use of man:  but the workman who\nshould have worked with them, is entangled among them.  He is out of\nhis place; and slowly, but irresistibly, they are grinding him to\npowder, as the whole universe is grinding thee.  Heart-searching,\nindeed, is such a message; for it will come home, not merely to that\nvery rare character, the absolutely wicked man, the ideal sinner, at\nwhom the preacher too often aims ideal arrows, which vanish in the\nair:  not to him merely will it come home, but to ourselves, to us\naverage human beings, inconsistent, half-formed, struggling lamely\nand confusedly between good and evil.  Oh let us take home with us\nto-day this belief, the only belief in this matter possible in an\nage of science, which is daily revealing more and more that God is a\nGod, not of disorder, but of order.  Let us take home, I say, the\nawful belief, that every wrong act of ours does of itself sow the\nseeds of its own punishment; and that those seeds will assuredly\nbear fruit, now, here in this life.  Let us believe that God's\njudgments, though they will culminate, no doubt, hereafter in one\ngreat day, and \"one divine far-off event, to which the whole\ncreation moves,\" are yet about our path and about our bed, now,\nhere, in this life.  Let us believe, that if we are to prepare to\nmeet our God, we must do it now, here in this life, yea and all day\nlong; for he is not far off from any one of us, seeing that in him\nwe live, and move, and have our being; and can never go from his\npresence, never flee from his spirit.  Let us believe that God's\ngood laws, and God's good order, are in themselves and of\nthemselves, the curse and punishment of every sin of ours; and that\nAsh-Wednesday, returning year after year, whether we be glad or\nsorry, good or evil, bears witness to that most awful and yet most\nblessed fact.\n\nMy friends, this is the preacher's Ash-Wednesday's message:  but,\nthanks be to God, it is not all.  It is written--'If thou, Lord,\nwilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss:  Oh Lord, who may abide\nit?  For there is mercy with thee; therefore shalt thou be feared.'\n\nIt is written--'On whomsoever this stone shall fall, it shall grind\nhim to powder:' but it is written too--'Whosoever shall fall on this\nstone shall be broken;' and again, 'The broken and the contrite\nheart, O God, thou shall not despise.'  There is such a thing as\npardon; pardon full and free, for the sake of the precious blood of\nChrist.  Lent may be a time of awe and of shame:  but it is not a\ntime of despair.  Meanwhile remember this; that God has set before\nyou blessing and cursing, and that you may turn your life and God's\nwhole universe, as you will, either into that blessing or into that\ncurse.\n\n\n\nSERMON XII.  WORK\n\n\n\n(Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nProverbs xiv. 23.  In all labour there is profit.\n\nI fear there are more lessons in the Book of Proverbs than most of\nus care to learn.  There is a lesson in every verse of it, and a\nshrewd one.  Certain I am, that for a practical, business man, who\nhas to do his duty and to make his way in this world, there is no\nguide so safe as these same Proverbs of Solomon.  In _this_ world, I\nsay; for they say little about the world to come.  Their doctrine\nis, that what is good for the next world, is good for this; that he\nwho wishes to go out of this world happily, must first go through\nthis world wisely; and more, that he who wishes to go through this\nworld happily, must likewise go through it wisely.\n\nThe righteous, says Solomon, shall be recompensed in the earth, and\nnot merely at the end of judgment hereafter:  much more the wicked\nand the sinner.\n\nThat is the doctrine of the Proverbs; that men do, to a very great\nextent, earn for themselves their good or their evil fortunes, and\nare filled with the fruit of their own devices; and it is that\ndoctrine which makes them the best of text-books for the practical\nman.\n\nFor the Proverbs do not look on religion as a thing to be kept out\nof our daily dealings, and thought of only on Sundays:  they look on\ntrue religion, which is to obey God, as a thing which mixes itself\nup with all the cares and business of this mortal life, this work-\nday world; and, therefore, they are written in work-day language; in\nhomely words taken from the common doings of this mortal life, as\nour Lord's parables are.  And, like the most simple of those\nparables, the most simple of the proverbs have often the very\ndeepest meaning.\n\n'In all labour there is profit.'  Whatsoever is worth doing, is\nworth doing well.  It is always worth while to take pains.  In\nanother proverb, homely enough--but if it be in the Bible, it is not\ntoo homely for us--'Where no oxen are, the crib is clean,' Solomon\nsays the same thing as in the text.  He says, 'Where no oxen are,\nthe farmer is saved trouble; the clearing away of dirt and refuse;\nand all the labour required to keep his cattle in condition:  but\nall that trouble,' Solomon says, if a man will but undergo it, will\nrepay itself; 'for much increase is in the strength of the ox.'  For\nthe ox, in that country, as in most parts of the world now, is the\nbeast used for ploughing, and for all the work of the farm.\n\nNow, herein, I think, Solomon gives us a lesson which holds good\nthrough all matters of life.  That it is a short-sighted mistake to\navoid taking trouble; for God has so well ordered this world, that\nindustry will always repay itself.  No doubt it is much easier and\npleasanter for the savage to scratch the seed into the ground with\nsome rude wooden tool, and sit idle till the grain ripens:  much\neasier and pleasanter, than to breed and break in beasts, and to\nlabour all the year round at the different duties of a well-ordered\nfarm:  but here is the mighty difference; that the savage, growing\nonly enough for himself, is in continual danger of famine, he and\nall his tribe; while the civilized farmer, producing many times more\nthan he needs for himself, gains food, comfort, and safety, not only\nfor himself, but for many other human beings.  The savage has an\neasy life enough, if that be any gain:  but it is a life of poverty,\nuncertainty, danger of starvation.  The civilized man works hard and\nheavily, using body and mind more in one month than the savage does\nin the whole year:  but he gains in return a life of safety,\ncomfort, and continually increasing prosperity.\n\nThis is Solomon's lesson:  and be sure it holds good, not only of\ntilling the ground, but of all other labours, all other duties, to\nwhich God may call us.  'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,' says\nSolomon, 'do it with all thy might.'  God has set thee thy work;\nthen fulfil it.  Fill it full.  Throw thy whole heart and soul into\nit.  Do it carefully, accurately, completely.  It will be better for\nthee, and for thy children after thee.  All neglect, carelessness,\nslurring over work, is a sin; a sin against God, who has called us\nto our work; a sin against our country and our neighbours, who ought\nto profit by our work; and a sin against ourselves also, for we (as\nI shall shew you soon) ought to be made wiser and better men by our\nwork.\n\nOh, if there is one rule above another which I should like to bring\nhome to young men and women setting out in life, it is this--_Take\npains_.  Take trouble.  Whatever you do, do thoroughly.  Whatever\nyou begin, finish.  It may not seem to be worth your while at the\nmoment, to be so very painstaking, so very exact.  In after years,\nyou will find that it was worth your while; that it has _paid_ you,\nby training your character and soul; paid you, by giving you success\nin life; paid you, by giving you the respect and trust of your\nfellowmen; paid you, by helping you towards a good conscience, and\nenabling you in old age to look back, and say, I have been of use\nupon the earth; I leave this world, according to my small powers,\nsomewhat better than I found it:  instead of having to look back, as\ntoo many have, upon opportunities thrown away, plans never carried\nout, talents wasted, a whole life a failure, for want of taking\npains.\n\nWhy do I say these things to you?  To persuade you to work?  Thank\nGod, there is no need of that, for you are Englishmen; and it has\npleased God to put into the hearts of Englishmen a love of work, and\na power of work, which has helped to make this little island one of\nthe greatest nations upon earth.  No, thanks be to God, I say, there\nis no need to bid you work.  What I ask you to do, is to look upon\nyour work as an honourable calling, and as a blessing to yourselves,\nnot merely as a hard necessity, a burden which must be borne merely\nto keep you from starvation.  It is not that, my friends, but far\nmore than that.  For what is more honourable than to be of use?  And\nin all labour, as Solomon says, there is profit; it is all of use.\nAnd all trade, manufacture, tillage, even of the smallest, all\nmanagement and ordering, whether of an estate, a parish, or even of\nthe pettiest office in it, all is honourable, because all is of use;\nall helping forward, more or less, the well-being of God's human\ncreatures, and of the whole world.\n\nAnd therefore all is worth taking trouble over, worth doing as\ndiligently and honestly as possible, in sure trust that it will\nbring its reward with it.  Why not?  Almsgiving is blessed in God's\nsight, and charity to the poor; and God will repay it:  but is not\nuseful labour blessed in his sight also? and shall he not repay it?\nWill he not say of it, as well as of almsgiving, 'Inasmuch as ye\nhave done it unto one of the least of these little ones, ye have\ndone it unto me?'  We may trust so, my friends; indeed, I may say\nmore than, 'We may trust.'  We can see; see that industry has its\nreward.  By increasing the well-being of others, and the safety of\nothers, you increase your own.  So it is, and so it should be; for\nGod has knit us all together as brethren, members of one family of\nGod; and the well-being of each makes up the well-being of all, so\nthat sooner or later, if one member rejoice, all the others rejoice\nwith it.\n\nBut more.  And here I speak to young people; for their elders, I\ndoubt not, have found it out long since for themselves.  Work, hard\nwork, is a blessing to the soul and character of the man who works.\nYoung men may not think so.  They may say, What more pleasant than\nto have one's fortune made for one, and have nothing before one than\nto enjoy life?  What more pleasant than to be idle:  or, at least,\nto do only what one likes, and no more than one likes?  But they\nwould find themselves mistaken.  They would find that idleness makes\na man restless, discontented, greedy, the slave of his own lusts and\npassions, and see too late, that no man is more to be pitied than\nthe man who has nothing to do.  Yes; thank God every morning, when\nyou get up, that you have something to do that day which must be\ndone, whether you like or not.  Being forced to work, and forced to\ndo your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control,\ndiligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content and a\nhundred virtues which the idle man will never know.  The monks in\nold time found it so.  When they shut themselves up from the world\nto worship God in prayers and hymns, they found that, without\nworking, without hard work either of head or hands, they could not\neven be good men.  The devil came and tempted them, they said, as\noften as they were idle.  An idle monk's soul was lost, they used to\nsay; and they spoke truly.  Though they gave up a large portion of\nevery day, and of every night also, to prayer and worship, yet they\nfound they could not pray aright without work.  And 'working is\npraying,' said one of the holiest of them that ever lived; and he\nspoke truth, if a man will but do his work for the sake of duty,\nwhich is for the sake of God.  And so they worked, and worked hard,\nnot only at teaching the children of the poor, but at tilling the\nground, clearing the forests, building noble churches, which stand\nunto this day; none among them were idle at first; and as long as\nthey worked, they were good men, and blessings to all around them,\nand to this land of England, which they brought out of heathendom to\nthe knowledge of Christ and of God; and it was not till they became\nrich and idle, and made other people work for them and till their\ngreat estates, that they sank into sin and shame, and became\ndespised and hated, and at last swept off the face of the land.\nLastly, my friends, if you wish to see how noble a calling Work is,\nconsider God himself; who, although he is perfect, and does not\nneed, as we do, the training which comes by work, yet works for ever\nwith and through his Son, Jesus Christ, who said, 'My Father worketh\nhitherto, and I work.'  Yes; think of God, who, though he needs\nnothing, and therefore need not work to benefit himself, yet does\nwork, simply because, though he needs nothing, all things need him.\nThink of God as a king working for ever for the good of his\nsubjects, a Father working for ever for the good of his children,\nfor ever sending forth light and life and happiness to all created\nthings, and ordering all things in heaven and earth by a providence\nso perfect, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without his\nknowledge, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered.\n\nAnd then think of yourselves, called to copy God, each in his\nstation, and to be fellow-workers with God for the good of each\nother and of yourselves.  Called to work, because you are made in\nGod's image, and redeemed to be the children of God.  Not like the\nbrutes, who cannot work, and can therefore never improve themselves,\nor the earth around them; but like children of God, whom he has\ncalled to the high honour of subduing and replenishing this earth\nwhich he has given you, and of handing down by your labour blessings\nwithout number to generations yet unborn.  And when you go back, one\nto his farm, another to his shop, another to his daily labour, say\nto yourselves, This, too, as well as my prayers in church, is my\nheavenly Father's command; in doing this my daily duty honestly and\nwell, I can do Christ's will, copy Christ, approve myself to Christ;\nsingle-eyed and single-handed, doing my work as unto God, and not\nunto men; and so hear, I may hope at last, Christ's voice saying to\nme, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.  I set thee not to\ngovern kingdoms, to lead senates, to command armies, to preach the\ngospel, to build churches, to give large charities, to write learned\nbooks, to do any great work in the eyes of men.  I set thee simply\nto buy and sell, to plough and reap like a Christian man, and to\nbring up thy family thereby, in the fear of God and in the faith of\nChrist.  And thou hast done thy duty more or less; and, in doing thy\nduty, has taught thyself deeper and sounder lessons about thy life,\ncharacter, and immortal soul, than all books could teach thee.  And\nnow thou hast thy reward.  Thou hast been faithful over a few\nthings:  I will make thee ruler over many things.  Enter thou into\nthe joy of thy Lord.'\n\n\n\nSERMON XIII.  FALSE PROPHETS\n\n\n\n(Eighth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nMatthew vii. 16.  Ye shall know them by their fruits.\n\nPeople are apt to overlook, I think, the real meaning of these\nwords.  They do so, because they part them from the words which go\njust before them, about false prophets.\n\nThey consider that 'fruit' means only a man's conduct,--that a man\nis known by his conduct.  That professions are worth nothing, and\npractice worth everything.  That the good man, after all, is the man\nwho does right; and the bad man, the man who does wrong.  Excellent\ndoctrine; and always needed.  God grant that we may never forget it.\n\nBut the text surely does not quite mean that.  'Fruit' here does not\nmean a man's own conduct, but the conduct of those whom he teaches.\nFor see,--our Lord is talking of prophets; that is preachers, who\nset up to preach the Word of God, in the name of God.  'Beware,' he\nsays, 'of false prophets.  By their fruits ye shall know them.  By\nwhat you gather from them,' he says.  'For do men gather grapes off\nthorns, or figs off thistles?'\n\nNow what is a preacher's fruit?  Surely the fruit of his preaching;\nand that is, not what he does himself, but what he makes you do.\nHis fruit is what you gather from him; and what you gather from him\nis, not merely the notions and doctrines which he puts into your\nhead, but the way of life in which he makes you live.  What he makes\nyou do, is the fruit which you get from him.  Does he make you a\nbetter man, or does he not? that is the question.  That is the test\nwhether he is a false prophet, or a true one; whether he is\npreaching to you the eternal truth of God, or man's inventions and\ndevil's lies.\n\nDoes he make you a better man?  Not--Does he make you feel better?\nbut--Does he make you behave better?  There is too much preaching in\nthe world which makes men _feel_ better--so much better, indeed,\nthat they go about like the Pharisee, thanking God that they are not\nas other men, before they have any sound reason to believe that they\nare _not_ as other men; because they live just such lives as other\nmen do, as far as respectability, and the fear of hurting their\ncustom or their character, allow them to do.  They have their\nprophets, their preachers who teach them; and by their fruits in\nthese men, the preachers may be known, by those who have eyes to\nsee, and hearts to understand.\n\nTherefore beware of false prophets.  There are too many of them in\nthe world now, as there were in our Lord's time; men who go about\nwith the name of God on their lips, and the Bible in their hands, in\nsheep's clothing outwardly; but inwardly ravening wolves.  In\nsheep's clothing, truly, smooth and sanctimonious, meek, and sleek.\nBut wolves at heart; wolves in cunning and slyness, as you will\nfind, if you have to deal with them; wolves in fierceness and\ncruelty, as you will find if you have to differ from them; wolves in\ngreediness and covetousness, and care of their own interest and\ntheir own pockets.  And wolves, too, in hardness of heart; in the\nhard, dark, horrible, unjust doctrines, which they preach with a\nsmile upon their lips, not merely in sermons, but in books and\ntracts innumerable, making out the Heavenly Father, the God whose\nname is Love and Justice, to be even such a one as themselves.\nWolves, too, in their habit of hunting in packs, each keeping up his\ncourage by listening to the howl of his fellows.  They may come in\nthe name of God.  They may tell you that they preach the Gospel;\nthat no one but they preach the Gospel.  But by their fruits ye\nshall know them.\n\nWill they make you better men?  Is it not written, 'The disciple is\nnot above his master?'  What will you learn from them, but to be\nlike them?  And the more you take in their doctrines, the more like\nthem you will be; for is it not written, 'He that is perfect shall\nbe as his master.'  Can they lead you to eternal life?  Is it not\nwritten, 'If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the\nditch?'\n\nBut by their fruits ye shall know them.  By their fruits in the\nworld at large, if you have eyes to see it.  By their fruits in your\nown lives, if you give yourselves up to listen to their false\ndoctrines, for you will surely find, that, in the first place, they\nwill not make you honest men.  They will not teach you to be just\nand true in all your dealings.  They will not teach you common\nmorality.  No, my friends, it is most sad to see, how much preaching\nand tract-writing there is in England now, which talks loud about\nProtestant doctrine, and Gospel truths, while all the fruit of it\nseems to be, to teach men to abuse the Pope, and to fancy that every\none is going to hell, who does not agree with their opinions; while\ntheir own lives, their own conduct, their own morality, seems not\nimproved one whit by all this preaching.  And yet men like such\npreaching, and run to hear it.  Of course they do; for it leaves\nthem to behave all the week as if there was no Law of God, if only\nthey will go on Sundays, and listen to what is called, I fear most\nuntruly, the Gospel of God; leaves them, on condition of belonging\nto some particular party, and listening to some favourite preacher,\nfree to give way to their passions, their spite, their meanness; to\ngrind their servants, cheat their masters, trick their customers,\nadulterate their goods, and behave in money-matters as if all was\nfair in business, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ had nothing to do\nwith common honesty; and all the while,\n\n\nCompound for sins they are inclined to.\nBy damning those they have no mind to.\n\n\nMy friends, these things ought not so to be.  There is a Gospel of\nGod, which preaches full forgiveness for the sake of Jesus Christ,\nto all who turn from their sins.  But there is a Law of God,\nlikewise, which executes sure vengeance against all who do _not_\nturn from their sins; be their professions as high, or their\ndoctrines as correct as they may.  A law which is in the Gospel\nitself, and says, by the mouth of the Apostle St. John, 'Little\nchildren, let no man deceive you:  he that _doeth_ righteousness is\nrighteous, even as God is righteous'--he--and not he who expects to\nbe saved by listening to some false preacher who teaches his\ncongregation how to go to heaven without having thought one heavenly\nthought, or done one heavenly-deed.\n\nYes.  There is an eternal law of God, which people are forgetting, I\noften fear, more and more, in England just now.  I sometimes dread,\nlest we should be sinking into that hideous state of which the old\nHebrew prophet speaks--'The prophets prophesy falsely, and the\npriests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so:\nand what will ye do in the end thereof?'  What, indeed; if people\nare to be taught more and more, that religion is a matter merely of\ndoctrines and fancies and feelings, and has nothing to do with\ncommon morality, and common honesty, and common self-control and\nimprovement of character and conduct?\n\nMy friends, in these dangerous days, for dangerous they truly are--\nlike those of the Scribes and Pharisees of old; days in which\nbigotry and hardness of heart, hypocrisy and lip-profession stalk\ntriumphant; days, in which men, like the Scribes and Pharisees of\nold, boast of the Bible, worship the Bible, think they have eternal\nlife in the Bible, spend vast sums every year in spreading the\nBible; and yet will neither read the Bible honestly, nor obey its\nplain commands--In such days as these, what prophet shall we fall\nback upon?  What preacher shall we trust?\n\nWe can at least trust our Bible.  We can read it honestly, if only\nthere be in us the honest and good heart; we can obey its plain\ncommands, if only we hunger and thirst after righteousness, and\ndesire really to become good men.  Read your Bibles for yourselves\nwith a single eye, and with a pure heart which longs to know God's\nwill because it longs to _do_ God's will; and you will need no false\nprophets, under pretence of explaining it to you, to draw you away\nfrom the Holy Catholic faith into which you were baptized.\n\nBut if you must have a commentary on the Bible; if you must have\nsome book to give you a general notion of what the Bible teaches\nyou, and what it expects of you; go to the prayer-book.  Go to the\ngood old Catechism which you learnt at school.  There, though not\nfrom the popular preachers, you will learn that God is just and\ntrue, loving and merciful, and no respecter of persons.  There you\nwill learn, that Christ died not for a few elect, but for the sins\nof the whole world.  There you will learn that in baptism, by God's\nfree grace, and not by any experiences or feelings of your own, you\nwere made children of God, members of Christ, and inheritors of the\nkingdom of heaven.  There you will learn, that the elect whom the\nHoly Spirit sanctifies, are not merely a favoured few, but _you_--\nevery baptized man, woman, and child.  That the Holy Spirit is with\nyou, every one of you, to sanctify you, if you will open your hearts\nto his gracious inspirations.  And there you will learn what\nsanctification really means.  Not a few fancies and feelings about\nwhich any man can deceive himself, and any man, also, deceive his\nneighbours.  No, that sanctification means being made holy,\nrighteous, virtuous, good.  That sanctification means 'To love your\nneighbour as yourself, and to do to all men as they should do unto\nyou--to love, honour, and succour your father and mother'--Shall I\ngo on?  Or do you all know the plain old duty to your neighbours,\nwhich stands in the Church Catechism.  If you do, thank God that you\nwere taught it in your youth.  Read it over and over again.  Think\nover it.  Pray to God to give you grace to act upon it, and to shew\nthe fruit of it in your lives.  And then, 'By its fruits you shall\nknow it.'  By its fruits you shall know the virtue of the Catechism,\nand of the great and good men, true prophets of God, who wrote that\nCatechism.  Yes.  Cling to that Catechism, even if it convinces you\nof many sins, and makes you sadly ashamed of yourselves again and\nagain; for, believe me, it will prove your best safeguard in\ndoctrine, your best teacher in practice, in these dangerous days--\ndays in which every man who believes that right is right, and wrong\nis wrong, has need to pray with all his heart--'From all false\ndoctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt\nof thy word and commandments; good Lord, deliver us!'\n\n\n\nSERMON XIV.  THE ROCK OF AGES\n\n\n\n(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 Corinthians x. 4.  They drank of that Spiritual Rock which\nfollowed them; and that Rock was Christ.\n\nSt. Paul has been speaking to the Corinthians about the Holy\nCommunion.\n\nIn this text, St. Paul is warning the Corinthians about it.  He\nsays, 'You may be Christian men; you may have the means of grace;\nyou may come to the Communion and use the means of grace; and yet\nyou may become castaways.'  St. Paul himself says, in the very verse\nbefore, 'I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection:  lest .\n. . .  I myself should be a castaway.'  Look, he says then, 'at the\nold Jews in the wilderness.  They all partook of God's grace:  but\nthey were not all saved.  They were all baptized to Moses in the\ncloud and in the sea.  They all ate the same spiritual meat, the\nmanna from heaven.  They all drank the same spiritual drink, the\nwater out of the rock in Horeb.  And yet with many of them God was\nnot well pleased;' for they were overthrown--their corpses were\nscattered far and wide--in the wilderness.  The spiritual meat and\nthe spiritual drink could not keep them alive, if they sinned, and\ndeserved death.  'So,' says St. Paul, 'with you.  You are members of\nChrist's body.  The cup of blessing which we bless, is the communion\nof the blood of Christ; the bread which we break, is the communion\nof the body of Christ:' but beware, they will not save you, if you\nsin.  Nothing will save you, if you sin.  If you lust after evil\nthings, as those old Jews did; if you are idolaters, as they were;\nif you are profligates, as they were; if you tempt Christ, as they\ndid; if you murmur against God, as they murmured, you will be\ndestroyed like them.\n\nNote here two things.  First, that St. Paul says that we really\nreceive Christ in the Holy Communion.  He does _not_ say, as some\ndo, that the Communion is merely a remembrance of Christ's death.\nHe says that the faithful verily and indeed receive Christ's body\nand blood in the Sacrament.  He says so, distinctly, plainly,\nliterally; and if that be not true, his whole argument goes for\nnothing, and will not stand.  The Jews, he says, drank of the\nspiritual Rock which followed them, and that Rock was Christ; and so\nhe says to you.  But that did not save them from the punishment of\ntheir sins, when they went and sinned afresh:  neither will it save\nyou.\n\nBut now--What are these strange words which St. Paul uses?  These\nold Jews drank of the spiritual Rock which followed them, and that\nRock was Christ?  Where in the Old Testament do we read of the Rock\nfollowing them?  We read of Moses striking the rock in Horeb, at the\nbeginning of their wanderings in the wilderness; but not of its\nfollowing them afterwards.\n\nSt. Paul is here using a beautiful old tradition of the Rabbis, that\nthe rock which Moses struck in Horeb followed the Jews through all\ntheir forty years' wanderings, and that on every Sabbath day when\nthey stopped, it stopped also, and the elders called to it, 'Flow\nout, O fountain,' and the water flowed.  A beautiful old story,\nwhich St. Paul turns into an allegory, to teach, as by a picture,\nthe deepest and the highest truth.  Whether that rock followed them\nor not, he says, there was One who did follow them, from whom flowed\nliving water; and that Rock is Christ.  Christ followed them.\nChrist the creator, the preserver, the inspirer, the light, the\nlife, the guide of men, and of all the universe.  It was to Christ\nthey owed their deliverance from Egypt; to Christ they owed their\nknowledge of God, and of the law of God, to Christ they owed\nwhatever reason, justice, righteousness, good government, there was\namong them.  And to Christ we owe the same.\n\nThe rock was a type of him from whom flows living water.  As he\nhimself said on earth, 'Whosoever drinketh of the water which I\nshall give him, shall never thirst; but the water which I shall give\nhim shall be in him a well of water, springing up to everlasting\nlife.'  Just as the manna also was a type of him, as he himself\ndeclared, when the Jews talked to him of the manna; 'Our fathers did\neat manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from\nheaven to eat.'  Then Jesus said to them, 'Verily, verily, I say\nunto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven.'  No:  but only\na type and picture of it.  'My Father giveth you the true bread from\nheaven.  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven,\nand giveth life unto the world. . . . I am that bread of life.'\n\nMy friends, herein is a great mystery.  Something of what it means,\nhowever, we may learn from that wise and good Jew, Philo, who was\nSt. Paul's teacher according to the flesh, before he became a\nChristian; and who himself was so near to the kingdom of God, that\nSt. Paul often in his epistles uses Philo's very words, putting into\nthem a Christian meaning.  And what says he concerning the Rock of\nliving waters?\n\nThe soul, he says, falls in with a scorpion in the wilderness; and\nthen thirst, which is the thirst of the passions--of the lusts which\nwar in our members--seizes on it; till God sends forth on it the\nstream of his own perfect wisdom, and causes the changed soul to\ndrink of unchangeable health.  For the steep rock is the wisdom of\nGod (by whom he means the Word of God, whom Philo knew not in the\nflesh, but whom we know, as the Lord Jesus Christ), which, being\nboth sublime and the first of all things; he quarried out of his own\npowers; and of it he gives drink to the souls which love God; and\nthey, when they have drunk, are filled with the most universal\nmanna.\n\nSo says Philo, the good Jew, who knew not Christ; and therefore he\nsays only a part of the truth.  If you wish to learn the whole\ntruth, you must read St. John's Gospel, and St. Paul's Epistles,\nespecially this very text; and again, the opening of the Epistle to\nthe Ephesians; and again, that most royal passage in the opening of\nthe Colossians, where he speaks of the Everlasting Being of Christ,\nwho is before all things, and by whom all things consist--in whom\ndwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in whom are hid\nall the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.\n\nTherefore he is rightly called the Rock, the Rock of Ages, the\nEternal Rock; because on him all things rest, and have rested since\nthe foundation of the world, being made, and kept together, and\nruled, and inspired by him alone.  Therefore he is rightly called\nthe Rock of living waters; for in him are hid all the treasures of\nwisdom and knowledge, and from him they flow forth freely to all who\ncry to him in their thirst after truth and holiness.  Yes, my\nfriends, by Christ all things live; and therefore, most of all, by\nChrist our souls live.  To be parted from Christ is death.  To be\njoined to Christ and the body of Christ is life.\n\nBut what life?  The life of the soul.  And what is the life of the\nsoul?  Holiness, righteousness, sanctification, virtue,--call it\nwhat pleases you best.  I shall call it goodness.  That is the only\nlife of the soul.  And why?  Because it is the life of Christ.  That\nis the only wisdom of the soul.  And why?  Because it is the mind of\nChrist.  That is the living water.  And why?  Because it flows\neternally from Christ.\n\nFor who is Christ, but the likeness of God, and the glory of God?\nAnd what is the likeness of God, but goodness; and what is the glory\nof God, but goodness?  Therefore Christ is goodness itself, as it is\nwritten, 'Now the Lord is that Spirit.'  Yes, if you will believe\nit, Christ, the only-begotten Son, co-equal and co-eternal, is the\nvery and essential goodness of the Father, coming out everlastingly\nin action and in life, in himself, and in his people, who are his\nmystical body, filled with the Spirit of him and his Father; who is\nthe Holy Spirit, the spirit of goodness.  From Christ, and not from\nany created being, comes all goodness in man or angel.  Comes from\nChrist?  It were more right, and more according to St. Paul's own\nwords, to say, that all goodness _is_ Christ; Christ dwelling in a\nman, Christ forming himself in a man, little by little, step by\nstep, as he grows in grace, in purity, in self-control, in\nexperience, in knowledge, in wisdom, in strength, in patience, in\nlove, in charity; till he comes to the stature of a perfect man, to\nthe measure of the fulness of Christ.\n\nMeanwhile, let the good which a man does be much, or be it little,\nhe must say, 'The good which I do, _I_ do not, but Christ who\ndwelleth in me.'\n\nFor in every age of man, it is Christ who is awakening in him the\nhunger and thirst after righteousness, and then satisfying it with\nthe only thing which can satisfy them, namely, his most blessed\nself.\n\nYes, believe it.  It is Christ in the child which makes it speak the\ntruth; Christ in the child which makes it shrink from whatever it\nhas been told is wrong.  It is Christ in the young man, which fills\nhim with lofty aspirations, hopes of bettering the world around him,\nhopes of training his soul to be all that it can be, and of putting\nforth all his powers in the service of Christ.  It is Christ in the\nmiddle-aged man, which makes him strong in good works, labouring\npatiently, wisely, and sturdily; so that having drunk of the living\nwaters himself, they may flow out of him again to others in good\ndeeds; a fountain springing up in him to an eternal life of\ngoodness.  It is Christ in the old man, which makes him look on with\ncalm content while his own body and mind decay, knowing that the\nkingdom of God cannot decay; for Christ is ruling it in\nrighteousness; and all will be well with him, and with his children\nafter him, and with all mankind, and all heaven and earth, if they\nthemselves only will it, long after he has been gathered to his\nfathers.\n\nYes, such a man knows in whom he has believed.  He knows that the\nspiritual Rock has been following him through all his wanderings in\nthis weary world; and that that Rock is Christ.  He can recollect\nhow, again and again, at his Sabbath haltings in his life's journey,\nit was to him in the Holy Communion as to the Israelites of old in\ntheir haltings in the wilderness, when the priests of Jehovah cried\nto the mystic rock, 'Flow forth, O fountain,' and the waters flowed.\nSo can he recollect how, in Holy Communion, there flowed into his\nsoul streams of living water, the water of life, quenching that\nthirst of his soul, which no created thing could slake; the water of\nlife; of Christ's life, which is the light of men, shewing them what\nthey ought to be and do; the life which is the light; the life which\nis according to the eternal and divine reason; the life of wisdom;\nwhich is the life of love; which is the life of justice; which is\nthe life of Christ; which is the life of God.\n\nBut if these things are so--and so they are, for Christ has said it,\nSt. Paul has said it, St. John has said it--but if these things are\nso, will they not teach us much about Holy Communion, how we may\nreceive it worthily, and how unworthily?\n\nIf what we receive in the Communion be Christ himself, the good\nChrist who is to make us good; then how can we receive it worthily,\nif we do not hunger and thirst after goodness?  If we do not come\nthither, longing to be made good, and sanctified, then we come for\nthe wrong thing, to the wrong place.  We are like those Corinthians\nwho came to the Lord's supper not to be made good men, but to exalt\ntheir own spiritual self-conceit; and so only ate and drank their\nown damnation, not discerning the Lord's body, that it was a holy\nbody, a body of righteousness and goodness.\n\nBut if we come hungering and thirsting to be made good men, then we\ncome for the right thing, to the right place.  Then we need not stay\naway, because we feel ourselves intolerably burdened with many sins;\nthat will be our very reason for coming, that we may be cleansed\nfrom our sins--cleansed not only from their guilt, but from their\npower; and cry, in spirit and in truth, as we kneel at that holy\ntable--\n\n\nRock of ages, cleft for me,\nLet me hide myself in thee;\nBy the water and the blood,\nFrom thy riven side which flowed,\nBe of sin the double cure,\nCleanse me from its guilt and power.\n\n\nYes, from its guilt and from its power also.  Let us all pray, each\nin his own fashion:--\n\nOh Lamb eternal, beyond all place and time!  Oh Lamb slain\neternally, before the foundation of the world!  Oh Lamb, which liest\nslain eternally, in the midst of the throne of God!  Let the blood\nof life, which flows from thee, procure me pardon for the past; let\nthe water of life, which flows from thee, give me strength for the\nfuture.  I come to cast away my own life, my life of self and\nselfishness, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, that\nI may live it no more; and to receive thy life, which is created\nafter the likeness of God, in righteousness and true holiness, that\nI may live it for ever and ever, and find it a well of life\nspringing up in me to everlasting life.  Eternal Goodness, make me\ngood like thee.  Eternal Wisdom, make me wise like thee.  Eternal\nJustice, make me just like thee.  Eternal Love, make me loving like\nthee.  Then I shall hunger no more, and thirst no more; for\n\n\nThou, O Christ, art all I want;\nMore than all in thee I find;\nRaise me, fallen; cheer me, faint;\nHeal me, sick; and lead me, blind.\nThou of life the fountain art;\nFreely let me take of thee;\nSpring thou up within my heart;\nRise to all eternity.\n\n\nOh come to Holy Communion with the words of that glorious hymn not\nmerely on your lips, but in your hearts; and you will never come\namiss.\n\n\n\nSERMON XV.  ANTIPATHIES\n\n\n\n(Tenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 Cor. xii. 3, 4, 5, 6.  Wherefore, I give you to understand, that\nno man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed:  and\nthat no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.\nNow there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there\nare differences of administrations, but the same Lord.  And there\nare diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh\nall in all.\n\nWe are to come to the Communion this day in love and charity with\nall men.  But are we in love and charity with all men?\n\nI do not mean, are there any persons whom we hate; against whom we\nbear a spite; whom we should be glad to see in trouble or shame?\nGod forbid, my friends, God forbid.  There are, indeed, devil's\ntempers.  And yet more easy for us to keep in the bottom of our\nhearts, and more difficult to root them out, than we fancy.\n\nIt is easy enough for us to forgive (in words at least) a man who\nhas injured us.  Easy enough to make up our minds that we will not\nrevenge ourselves.  Easy enough to determine, even, that we will\nreturn good for evil to him, and do him a kindness when we have a\nchance.  Yes, we would not hurt him for the world:  but what if God\nhurt him?  What if he hurt himself?  What if he lost his money?\nWhat if his children turned out ill?  What if he made a fool of\nhimself, and came to shame?  What if he were found out and exposed,\nas we fancy that he deserves?  Should we be so very sorry?  We\nshould not punish him ourselves.  No.  But do we never catch\nourselves thinking whether God may not punish him; thinking of that\nwith a base secret satisfaction; almost hoping for it, at last?  Oh\nif we ever do, God forgive us!  If we ever find those devil's\nthoughts rising in us, let us flee from them as from an adder; flee\nto the foot of Christ's Cross, to the cross of him who prayed for\nhis murderers, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;\nand there cry aloud for the blood of life, which shall cleanse us\nfrom the guilt of those wicked thoughts, and for the water of life,\nwhich shall cleanse us from the power of them:  lest they get the\ndominion over us, and spring up in us, and spread over our whole\nhearts; not a well of life, but a well of poison, springing up in us\nto everlasting damnation.  Oh let us pray to him to give us truth in\nour inward parts; that we may forgive and love, not in word only,\nbut in deed and in truth.\n\nI could not help saying this in passing.  But it is not what the\ntext is speaking of; not what I want to speak of myself to-day.  I\nwant to speak of a matter which is smaller, and not by any means so\nsinful:  and which yet in practice is often more tormenting to a\ntruly tender conscience, because it is more common and more\ncontinual.\n\nHow often, when one examines oneself, whether one be in love and\ncharity with all men, one must recollect that there are many people\nwhom one does not like.  I do not mean that one hates them.  Not in\nthe least:  but they do not suit one.  There is something in them\nwhich we cannot get on with, as the saying is.  Something in their\nopinions, manners, ways of talking; even--God forgive us--merely in\ntheir voice, or their looks, or their dress, which frets us, and\ngives us what is called an antipathy to them.  And one dislikes\nthem; though they never have harmed us, or we them; and we know\nthem, perhaps, to be better people than ourselves.  Now, are we in\nlove and charity with these people?  I am afraid not.\n\nI know one is tempted to answer; but I am afraid the answer is worth\nvery little--Why not?  We cannot help it.  You cannot expect us to\nlike people who do not suit us:  any more than you can expect us to\nlike a beetle or a spider.  We know the beetle or the spider will\nnot harm us.  We know that they are good in their places, and do\ngood, as all God's creatures are and do; and there is room enough in\nthe world for them and us:  but we have a natural dislike to them,\nand cannot help it; and so with these people.  We mean no harm in\ndisliking them.  It is natural to us; and why blame us for it.\n\nNow what is the mistake here?  Saying that it is _natural_ to us.\nWe are not meant to live according to nature, but according to\ngrace; and grace must conquer nature, my friends, if we wish to save\nour souls alive.  It is nature, brute nature, which makes some dogs\nfly at every strange dog they meet.  It is nature, brute nature,\nwhich makes a savage consider every strange savage as his enemy, and\ntry to kill him.  But unless nature be conquered in that savage, it\nwill end, where following brute nature always ends, in death; and\nthe savages will (as all savages are apt to do) destroy each other\noff the face of the earth, by continual war and murder.  It is brute\nnature which makes low and ignorant persons hate foreign people,\nbecause their dress and language seem strange.  But unless that\nnatural feeling had been in most of us conquered by the grace of\nGod, which is the spirit of justice and of love, then England would\nhave remained alone in conceit and ignorance, hated by all the\nnations; instead of being what, thank God! she is--the Sanctuary of\nthe world; to which all the oppressed of the earth may flee; and\nfind a welcome, and safety, and freedom, and justice, and peace.\n\nAnd so with us, my friends.  It is natural, and according to the\nbrute nature of the old Adam, to dislike this person and that, just\nbecause they do not suit us.  But it is according to grace, and the\nnew Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, to honour all men; to love\nthe brotherhood; to throw away our own private fancies and personal\nantipathies; and, like the Lord Jesus Christ, copy the all-embracing\ncharity of God.  And no one has a right to answer, 'But I must draw\nthe line somewhere.'  Thou must not.  I am afraid that thou _wilt_,\nand that I shall, too, God forgive us both! because we are sinful\nhuman beings.  We may, but we _must_ not, draw a line as to whom we\nshall endure in charity.  For Christ draws no line.  Is it not\nwritten, 'No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy\nGhost.'  Is not the Spirit of Christ in a Christian man, unless he\nbe a reprobate? and who is reprobate, we know not, and dare not try\nto know; for it is written, 'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:\ncondemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.'\n\nBut what has the text to do with all this?\n\nMy friends, is not this just what the text is telling us?  I said\nthis moment, that the Spirit of Christ was in a Christian man,\nunless he be a reprobate.  And the text says further, that there are\ndiversities of gifts in Christian men:  but the same spirit in all\nof them.\n\nYes:  people _will_ be different one from another.  There are\ndiversities of gifts.  Differences in talents, in powers, in\ncharacter, in kinds of virtue and piety; so that you shall find no\ntwo good men, no two useful men, like each other.  But there is the\nsame Spirit.  The same Spirit of God is in each, though bearing\ndifferent fruit in each.  And there are differences of\nadministrations, of offices, in God's kingdom.  God sets one man to\ndo one work, and another to do another:  but it is the same Lord who\nputs each man in his place, and shows him his work, and gives him\npower to do it.  And there are diversities of operations, that is,\nof ways of working; so that if you put any two men to do the same\nthing, they will most probably do it each in a different way, and\nyet both do it well.  But it is the same God, who is working in them\nboth; the God who works all in all, and has his work done by a\nthousand different hands, by a thousand different ways.\n\nAnd it is right and good that people should be so different from\neach other.  'For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every\nman to profit withal.'  To profit, to be of use.  If all men were\nalike, no one could learn from his neighbour.  If all mankind were\nas like each other as a flock of sheep, there would be no more work,\nno more progress, no more improvement in mankind, than there is in a\nflock of sheep.  Now each man can bring his own little share of\nknowledge or usefulness into the common stock.  Each man has, or\nought to have, something to teach his neighbour.  Each man can learn\nsomething from his neighbour:  at least he can learn this--to have\npatience with his neighbour.  To live and let live.  To bear with\nwhat in him seems odd and disagreeable, trusting that God may have\nput it there; that God has need of it; that God will make use of it.\nGod makes use of many things which look to us ugly and disagreeable.\nHe makes use of the spider and of the beetle.  How much more of our\nbrethren, members of Christ, children of God, inheritors of the\nkingdom of heaven.  Shall they be to us, even if they be odd or\ndisagreeable in some things--shall they be to us as the beetle or\nthe spider, or any other merely natural things?  They are men and\nwomen, in whom is the Spirit of the living God.  And my friends, if\nthey are good enough for God, they are good enough for us.  Think\nbut one moment.  God the Father adopts a man as his child, God the\nSon dies for that man, God the Holy Ghost inspires that man; and\nshall we be more dainty than God?  If, in spite of the man's little\nweaknesses and oddities, God shall condescend to come down and dwell\nin that man, making him more or less a good man, doing good work;\nshall we pretend that we cannot endure what God endures?  Shall we\nbe more dainty, I ask again, than the holy and perfect God?  Oh my\nfriends, let us pray to him to take out of our hearts all\nselfishness, fancifulness, fastidiousness, and hasty respect of\npersons, of all which there is none in God.  Let us ask for his\nSpirit, the Spirit of Charity, which sees God in all, and all in\nGod, and therefore sees good in all, and sees all in love.\n\nThen we shall see how much more there is in our neighbours to like,\nthan to dislike.  Then all these little differences will seem to us\ntrifles not to be thought of, before the broad fact of a man's\nbeing, after all, a man, an Englishman, a Christian, and a good\nChristian, doing good work where God has put him.  Then we shall be\nashamed of our old narrowness of heart; ashamed of having looked so\nmuch at the little evil in our neighbours, and not at the great good\nin them.  Then we shall go about the world cheerfully; and our\nneighbour's faces will seem to us full of light:  instead of seeming\nfull of darkness, because our own eyes and minds are dark for want\nof charity.  Then we shall come to the Communion, not with hearts\nnarrowed and shut up, perhaps, from the very person who kneels next\nto us:  but truly open-hearted; with hearts as wide--ah God, that it\nwere possible!--as the sacred heart of Christ, in which is room for\nall mankind.  And so receiving his body, which is the blessed\ncompany of all faithful people, we shall receive Christ, who\ndwelleth in them, and they in him.\n\n\n\nSERMON XVI.  ST. PAUL\n\n\n\n(Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 Cor. xv. 8.  Last of all he was seen of me, also, as of one born\nout of due time.  For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not\nmeet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of\nGod.\n\nYou heard in this text (part of the epistle for this day) St. Paul's\nopinion of himself.  You heard, also, in the Second Lesson for this\nday, the ninth chapter of Acts, the extraordinary story of his\nconversion.\n\nAnd what may we learn from that story?  We may learn many lessons;\nlessons without number.\n\nWe may learn, first; not to be astonished, if we have to change our\nopinions as we grow older.  When we are young, we are very positive\nabout this thing and that, as St. Paul was; violent in favour of our\nown opinions; ready to quarrel with any one who differs from us, as\nSt. Paul was.  But let ten years, twenty years, roll over our heads,\nand we may find our opinions utterly changed, as St. Paul did, and\nlook back with astonishment on ourselves, for having been foolish\nenough to believe what we did, as St. Paul looked back; and with\nshame, as did St. Paul likewise, at having said so many violent and\nunjust things against people, who, we now see, were in the right\nafter all.\n\nNext; we may learn not to be ashamed of changing our minds:  but if\nwe find ourselves in the wrong, to confess it boldly and honestly,\nas St. Paul did.  What a fearful wrench to his mind and his heart;\nwhat a humiliation to his self-conceit, to have to change his mind\nonce for all on all matters in heaven and earth.  What must it not\nhave cost him to throw up at once all his friends and relations; to\npart himself from all whom he loved and respected on earth, to feel\nthat henceforth they must look upon him as a madman, an infidel, an\nenemy.  To an affectionate man, and St. Paul was an extremely\naffectionate man, what a bitter struggle that must have cost him.\nBut he faced that struggle, and conquered in it, like a brave and\nhonest man.  And the consequence was, that he had, in time, and\nafter many lonely years, many Christian friends for each Jewish\nfriend that he had lost; and to him was fulfilled (as it will be to\nall men) our Lord's great saying, 'There is no man that hath left\nhouse, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or\nchildren, or lands for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall\nreceive an hundredfold now in this time, . . . and in the world to\ncome eternal life.'\n\nNext; we may take comfort, in the hope that God will not impute to\nus these early follies and mistakes of ours; if only there be in us,\nas there was in St. Paul, the honest and good heart; that is, the\nheart which longs to know what is true and right, and bravely acts\nup to what it knows.  St. Paul did so.  God, when he set him apart,\nas he says, from his very birth, gave him a great grace, even the\nhonest and good heart; and he was true to it, and used it.  He tried\nto learn his best, and do his best.  He profited in the Jews'\nreligion, beyond all his fellows.  He was, touching the\nrighteousness which was in the law, blameless.  He was so zealous\nfor what he thought right, that he persecuted the Church of Christ,\nas the Pharisees, his teachers, had taught him to do.  In all\nthings, whether right or wrong in each particular case, he was an\nhonest, earnest seeker after truth and righteousness.  And therefore\nChrist, instead of punishing him, fulfilled to him his own great\nsaying,--'To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have\nabundance.'  He had not yet, as he himself says, again and again,\nthe grace of Christ, which is love to his fellow-men; and therefore\nhis works were not pleasing to God, and had, as the article says,\nthe nature of sin.  His empty forms and ceremonies could not please\nGod.  His persecuting the Church had plainly the nature of sin.  But\nthere was something which God had put in him, and which God would\nnot lose sight of, or suffer to be lost; and that was, the honest\nand good heart, of which our Lord speaks in the parable of the\nsower.  In that Christ sowed the word of God, even himself, and his\ngrace and Holy Spirit; and, behold, it sprang up and bore fruit a\nhundredfold, over all Christian nations to this day.\n\nKeep, therefore, if you have it, the honest and good heart.  If you\nhave it not, pray for it earnestly.  Determine to learn what is\ntrue, whatever be the trouble; and to do what is right, whatever be\nthe cost; and then, though you may make many mistakes, and have more\nthan once, perhaps, to change your mind in shame and confusion, yet\nall will come right at last, for the grace of Christ, sooner or\nlater, will lead you into all truth which you require for this world\nand all worlds to come.\n\nAgain, we may learn from St. Paul this lesson.  That though God has\nforgiven a man, that is no reason that he should forgive himself.\nThat may seem a startling saying just now.  For the common teaching\nnow is, that if a man finds, or fancies, that God has forgiven him,\nhe may forgive himself at once; that if he gets assurance that his\nsins are washed away in Christ's blood, he may go swaggering and\nboasting about the world (I can call it no less), as if he had never\nsinned at all; that he may be (as you see in these revivals, from\nwhich God defend us!) one moment in the deepest agonies of\nconscience, and dread of hell-fire, and the next moment in raptures\nof joy, declaring himself to be in heaven.  Alas, alas! such people\nforget that sin leaves behind it wounds, which even the grace of\nChrist takes a long time in healing, and which then remain as ugly,\nbut wholesome scars, to remind us of the fools which we have been.\nThey are like a man who is in great bodily agony, and gets sudden\nrelief from a dose of laudanum.  The pain stops; and he feels\nhimself, as he says, in heaven for the time:  but he is too apt to\nforget that the cause of the pain is still in his body, and that if\nhe commits the least imprudence, he will bring it back again; just\nas happens, I hear, in too many of these hasty and noisy conversions\nnow-a-days.\n\nThat is one extreme.  The opposite extreme is that of many old Roman\nCatholic saints and hermits who could not forgive themselves at all,\nbut passed their whole lives in fasting, poverty, and misery,\nbewailing their sins till their dying day.  That was a mistake.  It\nsprang out of mistaken doctrines, of which I shall not speak here:\nbut it did not spring entirely from them.  There was in them a seed\nof good, for which I shall always love and honour them, even though\nI differ from them; and that was, a noble hatred of sin.  They felt\nthe sinfulness of sin; and they hated themselves for having sinned.\nThe mercy of God made them only the more ashamed of themselves for\nhaving rebelled against him.  Their longing after holiness only made\nthem loathe the more their past unholiness.  They carried that\nfeeling too far:  but they were noble people, men and women of God;\nand we may say of them, that, 'Wisdom is justified of all her\nchildren.'\n\nBut I wish you to run into neither extreme.  I only ask you to look\nat your past lives, if you have ever been open sinners, as St. Paul\nlooked at his.  There is no sentimental melancholy in him; no\npretending to be miserable; no trying to make himself miserable.  He\nis saved, and he knows it.  He is an apostle, and he stands boldly\non his dignity.  He is cheerful, hopeful, joyful:  but whenever he\nspeaks of his past life (and he speaks of it often), it is with\nnoble shame and sorrow.  Then he looks to himself the chief of\nsinners, not worthy to be called an apostle, because he persecuted\nthe Church of Christ.  What he is, he will not deny.  What he was,\nhe will not forget, he dare not forget, lest he should forget that\nthe good which he does, _he_ does not--for in him (that is, in his\nflesh, his own natural character), dwelleth no good thing--but\nChrist, who dwells in him; lest he should grow puffed up, careless,\nself-indulgent; lest he should neglect to subdue his evil passions;\nand so, after having preached to others, himself become a castaway.\n\nSo let us do, my friends.  Let us not be too hasty in forgiving\nourselves.  Let us thank God cheerfully for the present.  Let us\nlook on hopefully to the future; let us not look back too much at\nthe past, or rake up old follies which have been pardoned and done\naway.  But let us thank God whenever he thinks fit to shew us the\npast, and bring our sin to our remembrance.  Let us thank him, when\nmeeting an old acquaintance, passing by an old haunt, looking over\nan old letter, reminds us what fools we were ten, twenty, thirty\nyears ago.  Let us thank him for those nightly dreams, in which old\ntempers, old meannesses, old sins, rise up again in us into ugly\nlife, and frighten us by making us in our sleep, what we were once,\nGod forgive us! when broad awake.  I am not superstitious.  I know\nthat those dreams are bred merely of our brain and of our blood.\nBut I know that they are none the less messages from God.  They tell\nus unmistakeably that we are the same persons that we were twenty\nyears ago.  They tell us that there is the same infection of nature,\nthe same capability of sin, in us, that there was of old.  That in\nour flesh dwells no good thing:  that by the grace of God alone we\nare what we are:  and that did his grace leave us, we might be once\nmore as utter fools as we were in the wild days of youth.  Yes:  let\nus thank God for everything which reminds us of what we once were.\nLet us humble ourselves before him whenever those memories return to\nus; and let us learn from them what St. Paul learnt.  To be\ncharitable to all who have not yet learnt the wisdom which God (as\nwe may trust) has taught to us; to feel for them, feel with them, be\nsure that they are our brothers, men of like passions with\nourselves, who will be tried by the same standard as we; whom\ntherefore we must not judge, lest we be judged in turn:  and let us\nhave, as St. Paul had, hope for them all; hope that God who has\nforgiven us, will forgive them; that God who has raised us from the\ndeath of sin, to something of the life of righteousness, will raise\nthem up likewise, in his own good time.\n\nAmen.\n\n\n\nSERMON XVII.  THE BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART\n\n\n\nIsaiah, lvii. 15-21.  For thus saith the high and lofty One that\ninhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and\nholy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,\nto revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the\ncontrite ones.  For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be\nalways wroth:  for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls\nwhich I have made.  For the iniquity of his covetousness was I\nwroth, and smote him:  I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on\nfrowardly in the way of his heart.  I have seen his ways, and will\nheal him:  I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and\nto his mourners.  I create the fruit of the lips:  Peace, peace to\nhim that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I\nwill heal him.  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it\ncannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.  There is no peace,\nsaith my God, to the wicked.\n\nThis is part of Isaiah's prophecy.  He is telling the Jews that they\nshould come back safe at last to their own land.  He tells them why\nGod had driven them out, and why God was going to bring them back.\n\nHe had driven them out for their sins.  But he was not going to\nbring them back for their righteousness.  He was going to bring them\nback out of his own free grace, his own pure love and mercy, which\nwas wider, deeper, and higher, than all their sins, or than the sins\nof the whole world.  He had sworn to Abraham to be the friend of\nthose foolish rebellious Jews, and he would keep his promise for\never.  Their wickedness could not conquer his goodness, or their\ndenying him make him deny himself.\n\nBut one thing he did require of them.  Not that they should turn and\ndo right all at once.  That must come afterwards.  But that they\nshould open their eyes, and see that they had done wrong.  He wanted\nto produce in them the humble and the contrite heart.\n\nNow, as I told you last Sunday, a contrite heart does not merely\nmean a broken heart; it means more.  It means literally a heart\ncrushed; a heart ground to powder.  You can have no stronger word.\n\nIt was this heart which God wished to breed in these rebellious\nJews.  A heart like Isaiah's heart, when he said, after having seen\nGod's glory, 'Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell\namong a people of unclean lips.'  A heart like Jeremiah's heart,\nwhen he said, 'Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a\nfountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of\nthe daughter of my people.'  A heart like Daniel's heart, when he\nconfessed before God that, to him and all his people belonged shame\nand confusion of face.\n\nWhy do I mention these three men?  They were not bad men, but good\nmen.  What need had they of a contrite heart?\n\nI mention them, because they were good men.  And why were they good\nmen?  For any good works of their own?  Not in the least.  What made\nthem good men was, just the having the humble and the contrite\nheart; just feeling that in themselves they were as bad as the\nsinners round them; that the only thing which kept them out of the\nidolatry and profligacy of their neighbours was confessing their own\nweakness, and clinging fast to God by faith; confessing that their\nown righteousness was as filthy rags, and that God must clothe them\nwith his righteousness.\n\nDo you suppose that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel would have been\ngood men, if they had said to themselves, 'We are prophets; we are\ninspired; we know God's law:  and therefore we are righteous; we are\nsafe:  but these people--these idolaters, these drunkards, these\ncovetous, tyrannous, profligate people round, to whom we preach, and\nwho know not the law--they are accursed.'  If they had, they would\nhave said just what the Pharisees said afterwards.  And what came of\ntheir saying so?  Instead of knowing the Lord Christ, when he came\nthey crucified him, showing that they were really worse at heart\nthan the ignorant common people, instead of better.\n\nNo, my friends, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, were, better men\nthan those round them, just because they had the humble and contrite\nheart; because they confessed that the root of sin was in them too,\nas much as in their fellow-country men; because they took their\nshare of the public blame, their share of the public burden.\n\nAnd their work and wish was, to breed in their fellow-countrymen the\nsame humble and contrite heart which they had; to make them confess\nthat their only hope lay in turning back to God, and doing right.\nBut they could not succeed.  Sin was too strong for them.  So as\nIsaiah had warned the Jews, God did the work himself.  God took the\nmatter into his own hands, and arose out of his place to punish\nthose Jews, and to make short work with them, by famine, and\npestilence, and earthquake, and foreign invasion, till they were all\ncarried away captive to Babylon:  to see if that would teach them to\nknow that God was the Lord; to see if that would breed in them the\nhumble and contrite heart.\n\nBut God says to these poor Jews, Do not fancy that I have taken a\nspite against you.  Not so.  I will not contend for ever.  I will\nnot be always angry; for then the spirit would fail before me, and\nthe souls which I have made.  I have made you, God says; and I love\nyou.  I wish to save you, and not to destroy you.  If God really\nhated any man, do you suppose that he would endure that man for a\nmoment in his universe?  Do you suppose that he would not sweep that\nman away, as easily and as quickly as we do a buzzing gnat when it\ntorments us?  Do you fancy that God lets you, or me, or any man, or\nany creature live one single instant, except in the hope of saving\nhim, and of making him better than he is; of making him of some use,\nsomewhere, some day or other?  Do you suppose, I say, that God\nendures sinners one moment, save because he loves sinners, and\nwilleth not the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted\nand live?  No.  'God our Saviour,' says St. Paul to Timothy,\n'willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of\nthe truth;' and therefore if they are not saved it must be their own\nfault, and not God's; it must be they who will not be saved, though\nGod wills that they should be, as Isaiah goes on to show.  For he\nsays--God cries to men, Peace!  I create the fruit of the lips; that\nis, I give men cause to thank me.  I create it.  I make it without\ntheir help.  I do not sell them my mercy.  I give it them freely.  I\nsay, Peace, peace, to them all, To him who is near, and him who is\nafar off; peace to all mankind; peace on earth, and goodwill to men.\nGod is everlastingly at peace with himself, and at peace with all\nhis creatures, and with all his works; and he wills, in his\nboundless love, to bring them all into his peace, the peace which\npasseth understanding; that they may be at peace with him; and,\ntherefore at peace with themselves, and at peace with each other.\n\nBut how can they be at peace, when there is no peace in them?  If\nthey will do wrong; if they will quarrel; if they will defraud each\nother; if they will give way to the lusts and passions which war\nwithin them:  how can they be at peace?  They are like a troubled\nsea, says Isaiah, when it cannot rest, which casts up mire and dirt;\nand there is no peace to them.  It is not God who casts up the mire\nand dirt.  It is they who cast it up.  God has not made them\nrestless:  but they themselves, with their pride, selfishness,\nviolent passions, longings after this and that.  God has not made\nthem foul and dirty, but they themselves, with their own foul words\nand foul deeds, which keep them from being at peace with themselves,\nbecause they are ashamed of them all the while; which keep them from\nbeing at peace with their neighbours; which make them hate and fear\ntheir neighbours, because they know that their neighbours do not\nrespect them, or are afraid of their neighbours finding them out.\n\nWhat says brave, plain-spoken St. James?--'Let no man say when he is\ntempted, I am tempted of God:  for God cannot be tempted with evil,\nneither tempteth he any man.'  'From whence come wars and fightings\namong you?  Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your\nmembers?  Ye lust, and have not:  ye kill, and desire to have, and\ncannot obtain:  ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask\nnot.'\n\nBut as for God, he says, from him comes nothing but good.  Do not\nfancy anything else.  'Do not err, my beloved brethren.  Every good\ngift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the\nFather of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of\nturning.  Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that\nwe should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.'\n\nMy friends, all these things were written for our examples.  God\ngrant that we may lay the lesson to heart.  A dark night may come to\nany one of us, a night of darkness upon darkness, and sorrow upon\nsorrow, and bad luck upon bad luck; till we know not what is going\nto happen next; and are ready to say with David--'All thy waves and\nthy billows are gone over me;' and with Hezekiah--'I reckoned till\nmorning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones:  from day\neven to night wilt thou make an end of me.'\n\nGod grant, that before that day comes, we may have so learnt to know\nGod, as to know that the billows are God's billows, and the storms\nhis storms; and, after a while, not to be afraid, though all earthly\nhope and help seem swept away.  God grant that when trouble comes\nafter trouble, we may be able to see that our Father in heaven is\nonly dealing with us as he dealt with those poor Jews; that he is\nall the while saying 'Peace!' to us, whether we be near him, or far\noff from him; and is ready to heal us, the moment that he has worked\nin us the broken and contrite heart.  And we may trust him that he\nwill do it.  With him one day is as a thousand years.  And in one\nday of bitter misery he can teach us lessons, which we could not\nteach ourselves in a thousand years of reading and studying, or even\nof praying.  But our prayers, we shall find, have not been in vain.\nHe has not forgotten one of them; and there is the answer, in that\nvery sorrow.  In sorrow, he is making short work with our spirits.\nIn one terrible and searching trial our souls may be, as the Poet\nsays--\n\n\nHeated hot with burning fears,\nAnd bathed in baths of hissing tears;\nAnd battered by the strokes of doom.\nTo shape and use.\n\n\nYes.  He will make short work at times with men's spirits.  He\ngrinds hearts to powder, that they may be broken and contrite before\nhim:  but only that he may heal them; that out of the broken\nfragments of the hard, proud, self-deceiving heart of stone, he may\ncreate a new and harder heart of flesh, human and gentle, humble and\nsimple.  And then he will return and have mercy.  He will show that\nhe will not contend for ever.  He will show that he does not wish\nour spirits to fail before him, but to grow and flourish before him\nto everlasting life.  He will create the fruit of the lips, and give\nus cause to thank him in spirit and in truth.  He will show us that\nhe was nearest when he seemed furthest off; and that just because he\nis the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is\nHoly, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, for that very reason\nhe dwells also with the humble and the contrite heart; because that\nheart alone can confess his height and its own lowliness, confess\nits own sin and his holiness; and so can cling to his majesty by\nfaith, and partake of his holiness by the inspiration of his Holy\nSpirit.\n\nGod grant that we may all so humble ourselves under his mighty hand,\nwhenever that hand lies heavy upon us, that he may raise us up in\ndue time, changed into his divine likeness, from glory to glory;\ntill we come to the measure of Christ, and to the stature of perfect\nmen, renewed into the image of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ our\nLord!  Amen.\n\n\n\nSERMON XVIII.  ST. PETER\n\n\n\nMatt. xvi. 18.  Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my\nChurch.\n\nThis is St. Peter's day.  It will be well worth our while to think a\nlittle over St. Peter, and what kind of man he was.  For St. Peter\nwas certainly one of the most important and most famous men who ever\nlived in the whole world.  You just heard what our Lord said to him\nin the text.  And certainly, from those words, and from many other\nthings which are told of St. Peter, he was the chief of the\napostles--at least till St. Paul arose.\n\nSt. Paul says himself, that he had as much authority as St. Peter,\nand that he was not a whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles:\nbut St. Peter, for some time after our Lord's death, seems to have\nbeen looked up to, by the rest of the apostles and the disciples, as\ntheir leader, the man of most weight and authority among them.  It\nwas to St. Peter especially that our Lord looked to strengthen the\nother apostles, after he had been converted himself.  It was to St.\nPeter that our Lord first revealed that great gospel, that the\nGentiles were fellow-heirs with the Jews in all God's promises.  The\nsame thing was afterwards revealed to St. Paul too, and far more\nfully:  but it was St. Peter who had the great honour of baptizing\nthe first heathen; and of using, as our Lord had bid him do, the\nkeys of the kingdom of heaven, to open its doors to all the nations\nupon earth.\n\nNow, what sort of a man was this on whom the Lord Jesus Christ put\nso great an honour?  If we say that St. Peter was nothing in\nhimself; that all the goodness and worth in him was given him by\nJesus Christ, then we must ask, what sort of goodness, what sort of\nworth, did the Lord give St. Peter to make him fit for so great an\noffice?  And how did he use Christ's gifts?  For, mind, he might\nhave used them wrongly, as well as rightly; and the greater gifts he\nhad, the more harm he would have done if he had used them ill.  We\nshall see, presently, how he did use them ill, more than once; and\nhow our Lord had to reprove him, and say very stern and terrible\nwords to him, to bring him to his senses.\n\nBut this we may see, that St. Peter was always a frank, brave,\nhonest, high-spirited man; who, if he thought that a thing ought to\nbe done, would do it at once.\n\nThe first thing we hear of him is, how Jesus, walking by the Lake of\nGalilee, saw Peter with his brother, casting a net into the sea, for\nthey were fishers.  And he said unto them, 'Follow me, and I will\nmake you fishers of men.  And they straightway left their nets, and\nfollowed him.'  This was most likely not the first time that St.\nPeter had seen our Lord, or heard him speak.  Living in the same\npart of the country, he must have known all his miracles:  but still\nit was a great struggle, no doubt, for him (and doubly so because he\nwas a married man), to throw up his employment, and go wandering\nafter one who had not where to lay his head:  yet he did it, and did\nit at once.  And you may see that he did it for a much higher and\nnobler reason than if he had only gone to wonder at our Lord's\nmiracles, as the multitude did, or even to be able to work miracles\nhimself.  Jesus did not say to him, Follow me, and I will give you\nthe power of working miracles, and being admired, and wondered at;\nall he says is, I will make you fishers of men; I will make you able\nto get a hold on men's hearts, and teach them, and make them happier\nand better.  And for that St. Peter followed him.  It seems as if\nfrom the first his wish was to do good to his fellow-creatures.\n\nAnd, gradually, he seems to have become the spokesman for the other\napostles.  When they wished to ask our Lord anything, we generally\nfind St. Peter asking; and when (as in the gospel for to-day), our\nLord asks them a question, St. Peter answers for them all.  Whom say\nye that I am?  And Peter answered and said, 'Thou art the Christ,\nthe Son of the Living God.'\n\nThis is what St. Peter had learnt; because he had kept his eyes and\nhis ears open, and his heart ready and teachable, that he might see\nGod's truth when it should please God to show it him; and God did\nshow it him:  and taught him something which his own eyes and ears\ncould not teach him; which all his thinking could not have taught\nhim; which no _man_ could have taught him; flesh and blood could not\nreveal to him that Jesus was the Son of God; flesh and blood could\nnot draw aside the veil of flesh and blood, and make him see in that\npoor man of Nazareth, who was called the carpenter's son, the only-\nbegotten of the Father, God made man.  No.  God the Father only\ncould teach him that, by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit:  but do\nyou think that God would have taught St. Peter that, or that St.\nPeter could have learnt it, if his mind had been merely full of\nthoughts about himself, and what honour he was to get for himself,\nor what profit he was to get for himself, out of the Lord Jesus\nChrist?\n\nNo:  St. Peter loved the Lord Jesus; loved him with his whole heart.\nWhen afterwards our Lord asked him, 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest\nthou me?'  He answered, 'Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.'  And\nbecause he loved him, he saw how beautiful and glorious the Lord's\ncharacter was; and his eyes were opened to see that the Lord was too\nbeautiful, too glorious, to be merely a mortal man; and, at last, to\nsee that he was the brightness of God's glory, and the express image\nof his Father's person.\n\nBut, as I said just now, St. Peter's great and excellent gifts might\nhave made him only the more dangerous man, if he used them ill.  And\nthis seems to have been his danger.  He was plainly a very bold and\ndetermined man, who knew his own power, and was ready to use it\nfearlessly:  and what would he be tempted to do!  To fancy that his\npower belonged to him, and not to Christ; that his wisdom belonged\nto himself; that his faith belonged to himself; his authority\nbelonged to himself; and that, therefore, he could use his excellent\ngifts as he liked, and not merely as Christ liked.  He was liable,\nas we say in homely English, to 'have his head turned' by his honour\nand his power.\n\nFor instance, immediately after our Lord had put this great honour\non him, 'I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,' we\nfind Peter mistaking his power, and, therefore, misusing it.  'From\nthat time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he\nmust go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and\nchief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the\nthird day.  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be\nit far from Thee, Lord:  this shall not be unto thee.  But he\nturned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan:  thou art an\noffence unto me:  for thou savourest not the things that be of God,\nbut those that be of men.'  St. Peter's words, in the Greek tongue,\nreally seem to mean that St. Peter fancied that _he_ could protect\nour Lord; that he had the power of delivering him, by binding his\nenemies the Jews, and loosing the Lord himself.  That seems to have\nbeen the way in which he took our Lord's words:  but what does our\nLord answer?  As stern words as man could hear.  'Get thee behind\nme, Satan; for thou art an offence unto me.'  Or, rather, thou art\nmy stumbling-block.  So that St. Peter, while he fancied himself\nnear to the angels, found out, to his shame, that he was behaving\nlike a devil, and had to be called Satan to his face; and that while\nhe thought he could save the Lord Jesus, he found that he was doing\nall he could to harm and ruin his master; trying to do the very work\nwhich the Devil tried to do, when he tempted the Lord Jesus in the\nwilderness.  So near beside each other do heaven and hell lie.  So\neasy is it to give place to the Devil, and fall into the worst of\nsin, just when we are puffed up with spiritual pride.\n\nAnd more than once afterwards, St. Peter had to learn that same\nlesson; when, for instance, he leaped boldly overboard from the\nboat, and came walking towards Jesus on the sea.  That was noble:\nworthy of St. Peter:  but he fancied himself a braver man than he\nwas.  He became afraid; and the moment that he became afraid, he\nbegan to sink.  Jesus saved him, and then told him why he had become\nafraid:  because his faith had failed him.  He had ceased trusting\nin Christ's power to keep him up; and became helpless at once.\n\nThat should have been a lesson to St. Peter, that he was not to be\nso very sure of his own faith and his own courage; that without his\nLord he might become cowardly and helpless any moment:  but he did\nnot take that gentle lesson; so he had to learn it once and for all\nby a very terrible trial.  We all know how he fell;--one day\nprotesting vehemently to his Lord, 'Though I die with thee, I will\nnot deny thee;' the next, declaring, with oaths and curses, 'I know\nnot the man.'  No wonder that when Jesus turned and looked on him,\nPeter went out and wept bitterly, as bitter tears of shame as ever\nwere shed on earth.  For he knew, he was sure, that he loved his\nLord all along:  and now he had denied him.  He who was so bold and\nconfident, to fall thus! and into the very sins most contrary to his\nnature! the very sins in which he would have expected least of all\nto fall!  He, so frank and honest and brave--He to turn coward.  He\nto tell a base lie!  I dare say, that for the moment he could hardly\nbelieve himself to be himself.\n\nBut so it is, my friends.  If we forget that all which is good and\nstrong in us comes from God, and not from ourselves; if we are\nconceited, and confident in ourselves; then we cut ourselves off\nfrom God's grace, and give place to Satan the Devil, that he may\nsift us like wheat, as he did St. Peter; and then in some shameful\nhour, we may find ourselves saying and doing things which we would\nnever have believed we could have done.  God grant, that if ever we\nfall into such unexpected sin, it may happen to us as it did to St.\nPeter.  For Satan gained little by sifting St. Peter.  He sifted out\nthe chaff:  but the wheat was left behind safe for God's garner.\nThe chaff was St. Peter's rashness and self-conceit, which came from\nhis own sinful nature; and that went, and St. Peter was rid of it\nfor ever.  The wheat was St. Peter's courage, and faith, and honour,\nwhich came from God; and that remained, and St. Peter kept them for\never.  That, we read, was St. Peter's conversion; that worked the\nthorough and complete change in his character, and made him a new\nman from that day forth.  And then, after that terrible and fiery\ntrial, St. Peter was ready to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,\nwhich gave him courage with fervent zeal to preach the gospel of his\nCrucified Lord, and at last to be crucified himself for that Lord's\nsake; and so fulfil the Lord's words to him.  'When thou wast young,\nthou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest:  but when\nthou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another\nshall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.'  By that\nour Lord seems to have meant, 'You were strong and proud and self-\nwilled enough in your youth.  The day will come when you will be\ntamed down, ready and willing to suffer patiently, even agony from\nwhich your flesh and blood may shrink;' and the Lord's words came\ntrue.  For, say the old stories, when St. Peter was led to be\ncrucified, he refused to be crucified upright, as the Lord Jesus had\nbeen, saying, 'That it was too great an honour for him, who had once\ndenied his Lord, to die the same death as his Lord died.'  So he was\ncrucified, they say, with his head downward; and ended a glorious\nlife in a humble martyrdom.\n\nAnd what may we learn from St. Peter's character?  I think we may\nlearn this.  Frankness, boldness, a high spirit, a stout will, and\nan affectionate heart; these are all God's gifts, and they are\npleasant in his eyes, and ought to be a blessing to the man who has\nthem.  Ought to be a blessing to him, because they are the stuff out\nof which a good, and noble, and useful Christian man may be made.\nBut they need not be a blessing to a man; they are _excellent_\ngifts:  but they will not of themselves make a man an _excellent_\nman, who _excels_; that is, surpasses others in goodness.  We may\nsee that ourselves, from experience.  We see too many brave men,\nfree-spoken men, affectionate men, who come to shame and ruin.\n\nHow then can we become excellent men, like St. Peter?  By being\nbaptised, as St. Peter was, with the Holy Ghost and with fire.\n\nBaptized with the Holy Ghost, to put into our hearts good desires;\nto make us see what is good, and love what is good, long to do good:\nbut baptized with fire also.  'He shall baptize you,' John the\nBaptist said, 'with the Holy Ghost and with fire.'\n\nDoes that seem a hard saying?  Do not some at least of you know what\nthat means?  Some know, I believe.  All will know one day; for it is\ntrue for all.  To all, sooner or later, Christ comes to baptise them\nwith fire; with the bitter searching affliction which opens the very\nsecrets of their hearts, and shows them what their souls are really\nlike, and parts the good from the evil in them, the gold from the\nrubbish, the wheat from the chaff.  'And he shall gather the wheat\ninto his garner, but the chaff he shall burn up with unquenchable\nfire.'  God grant to each of you, that when that day comes to you,\nthere may be something in you which will stand the fire; something\nworthy to be treasured up in God's garner, unto everlasting life.\n\nBut do not think that the baptism of fire comes only once for all to\na man, in some terrible affliction, some one awful conviction of his\nown sinfulness and nothingness.  No; with many--and those, perhaps,\nthe best people--it goes on month after month, year after year:  by\nsecret trials, chastenings which none but they and God can\nunderstand, the Lord is cleansing them from their secret faults, and\nmaking them to understand wisdom secretly; burning out of them the\nchaff of self-will and self-conceit and vanity, and leaving only the\npure gold of his righteousness.  How many sweet and holy souls look\ncheerful enough before the eyes of man, because they are too humble\nand too considerate to intrude their secret sorrows upon the world.\nAnd yet they have their secret sorrows.  They carry their cross\nunseen all day long, and lie down to sleep on it at night:  and they\nwill carry it for years and years, and to their graves, and to the\nThrone of Christ, before they lay it down:  and none but they and\nChrist will ever know what it was; what was the secret chastisement\nwhich he sent to make that soul better, which seemed to us to be\nalready too good for earth.  So does the Lord watch his people, and\ntries them with fire, as the refiner of silver sits by his furnace,\nwatching the melted metal, till he knows that it is purged from all\nits dross, by seeing the image of his own face reflected in it.  God\ngrant that our afflictions may so cleanse our hearts, that at the\nlast Christ may behold himself in us, and us in himself; that so we\nmay be fit to be with him where he is, and behold the glory which\nhis Father gave him before the foundation of the world.\n\n\n\nSERMON XIX.  ELIJAH\n\n\n\n(Tenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 Kings xxi. 19, 20.  And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus\nsaith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? and\nthou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place\nwhere dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood,\neven thine.  And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine\nenemy?  And he answered, I have found thee:  because thou hast sold\nthyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.\n\nOf all the grand personages in the Old Testament, there are few or\nnone, I think, grander than the prophet Elijah.  Consider his\nstrange and wild life, wandering about in forests and mountains,\nsuddenly appearing, and suddenly disappearing again, so that no man\nknew where to find him; and, as Obadiah said when he met him, 'If I\ntell my Lord, Behold, Elijah is here; then, as soon as I am gone\nfrom thee, the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know\nnot.'  Consider, again, his strange activity and strength, as when\nhe goes, forty days and forty nights, far away out of Judea, over\nthe waste wilderness, to Horeb the mount of God; or, as again, when\nhe girds up his loins, and runs before Ahab's chariot for many miles\nto the entrance of Jezreel.  One can fancy him from what the Bible\ntells us of him, clearly enough; as a man mysterious and terrible,\nnot merely in the eyes of women and children, but of soldiers and of\nkings.\n\nHe seems to have been especially a countryman; a mountaineer; born\nand bred in Gilead, among the lofty mountains and vast forests, full\nof wild beasts, lions and bears, wild bulls and deer, which stretch\nfor many miles along the further side of the river Jordan, with the\nwaste desert of rocks and sand beyond them.  A wild man, bred up in\na wild country, he had learnt to fear no man, and no thing, but God\nalone.  We do not know what his youth was like; we do not know\nwhether he had wife, or children, or any human being who loved him.\nMost likely not.  He seems to have lived a lonely life, in sad and\nbad times.  He seems to have had but one thought, that his country\nwas going to ruin, from idolatry, tyranny, false and covetous ways;\nand one determination; to say so; to speak the truth, whatever it\ncost him.  He had found out that the Lord was God, and not Baal, or\nany of the idols; and he would follow the Lord; and tell all Israel\nwhat his own heart had told him, 'The Lord, he is God,' was the one\nthing which he had to say; and he said it, till it became his name;\nwhether given him by his parents, or by the people, his name was\nElijah, 'The Lord is God.'  'How long halt ye between two opinions?'\nhe cries, upon the greatest day of his life.  'If the Lord be God,\nthen follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.'  How grand he is, on\nCarmel, throughout that noble chapter which we read last Sunday.\nThere is no fear in him, no doubt in him.  The poor wild peasant out\nof the savage mountains stands up before all Israel, before king,\npriests, nobles, and people, and speaks and acts as if he, too, were\na king; because the Spirit of God is in him:  and he is right, and\nhe knows that he is right.  And they obey him as if he were a king.\nEven before the fire comes down from heaven, and shows that God is\non his side, from the first they obey him.  King Ahab himself obeys\nhim, trembles before him--'And it came to pass, when Ahab saw\nElijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?\nAnd he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy\nfather's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the\nLord, and thou hast followed Baalim.  Now therefore send, and gather\nto me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four\nhundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred,\nwhich eat at Jezebel's table.  So Ahab sent unto all the children of\nIsrael, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.'  The\ntyrant's guilty conscience makes a coward of him:  and he quails\nbefore the wild man out of the mountains, who has not where to lay\nhis head, who stands alone against all the people, though Baal's\nprophets are four hundred and fifty men, and the prophets of the\ngroves four hundred, and they eat at the queen's table; and he only\nis left and they seek his life:--yet no man dare touch him, not even\nthe king himself.  Such power is there, such strength is there, in\nbeing an honest and a God-fearing man.\n\nYes, my friends, this was the secret of Elijah's power.  This is the\nlesson which Elijah has to teach us.  Not to halt between two\nopinions.  If a thing be true, to stand up for it; if a thing be\nright, to do it, whatsoever it may cost us.  Make up your minds\nthen, my friends, to be honest men like Elijah the prophet of old.\n\nFor your own sake, for your neighbour's sake, and for God's sake, be\nhonest men.\n\nFor your own sake.  If you want to be respected; if you want to be\npowerful--and it is good to be powerful sometimes--if God has set\nyou to govern people, whether it be your children and household,\nyour own farm, your own shop, your own estate, your own country or\nneighbourhood--Do you want to know the great secret of success?--Be\nhonest and brave.  Let your word be as good as your thought, and\nyour deed as good as your word.  Who is the man who is respected?\nWho is the man who has influence?  The complaisant man--the cringing\nman--the man who cannot say No, or dare not say No?  Not he.  The\npassionate man who loses his temper when anything goes wrong, who\nswears and scolds, and instead of making others do right, himself\ndoes wrong, and lowers himself just when he ought to command\nrespect?  My experience is--not he:  but the man who says honestly\nand quietly what he thinks, and does fearlessly and quietly what he\nknows.  People who differ from him will respect him, because he acts\nup to his principles.  When they are in difficulty or trouble, they\nwill go and ask his advice, just because they know they will get an\nhonest answer.  They will overlook a little roughness in him; they\nwill excuse his speaking unpleasant truths:  because they can trust\nhim, even though he is plain-spoken.\n\nFor your neighbour's sake, I say; and again, for your children's\nsake; for the sake of all with whom you have to do, be honest and\nbrave.  For our children--O my friends, we cannot do a crueller\nthing by them than to let them see that we are inconsistent.  If\nthey hear us say one thing and do another--if, while we preach to\nthem we do not practice ourselves, they will never respect us, and\nnever obey us from love and principle.  If they do obey us, it will\nbe only before our faces, and from fear.  If they see us doing only\nwhat we like, when our backs are turned they will do what they like.\n\nAnd worse will come than their not respecting us--they will learn\nnot to respect God.  If they see that we do not respect truth and\nhonesty, they will not respect truth and honesty; and he who does\nnot respect them, does not respect God.  They will learn to look on\nreligion as a sham.  If we are inconsistent, they will be profane.\n\nBut some may say--'I have no power; and I want none.  I have no\npeople under me for whom I am responsible.'\n\nThen, if you think that you need not be honest and brave for your\nown sake, or for other peoples' sake, be honest and brave for God's\nsake.\n\nDo you ask what I mean?  I mean this.  Recollect that truth belongs\nto God.  That if a thing is true, it is true because God made it so,\nand not otherwise; and therefore, if you deny truth, you fight\nagainst God.  If you are honest, and stand up for truth, you stand\nup for God, and what God has done.\n\nAnd recollect this, too.  If a thing be right for you to do, God has\nmade it right, and God wills you to do it; and, therefore, if you do\nnot do your duty, you are fighting against God; and if you do your\nduty, you are a fellow-worker with God, fulfilling God's will.\nTherefore, I say, Be honest and brave for God's sake.  And in this\nway, my friends, all may be brave, all may be noble.  Speak the\ntruth, and do your duty, because it is the will of God.  Poor, weak\nwomen, people without scholarship, cleverness, power, may live\nglorious lives, and die glorious deaths, and God's strength may be\nmade perfect in their weakness.  They may live, did I say?  I may\nsay they have lived, and have died, already, by thousands.  When we\nread the stories of the old martyrs who, in the heathen persecution,\ndied like heroes rather than deny Christ, and scorned to save\nthemselves by telling what they knew to be a lie, but preferred\ntruth to all that makes life worth having:--how many of them--I may\nsay the greater part of them--were poor creatures enough in the eyes\nof man, though they were rich enough, noble enough, in the eyes of\nGod who inspired them.  'Few rich and few noble,' as the apostle\nsays, 'were called.'  It was to poor people, old people, weak women,\nill-used and untaught slaves, that God gave grace to defy all the\ntorments which the heathen could heap on them, and to defy the\nscourge and the rack, the wild beasts and the fire, sooner than foul\ntheir lips and their souls by denying Christ, and worshipping the\nidols which they knew were nothing, and worth nothing.\n\nAnd so it may be with any of you here; whosoever you may be, however\npoor, however humble.  Though your opportunities may be small, your\nstation lowly, your knowledge little; though you may be stupid in\nmind, slow of speech, weakly of body, yet if you but make up your\nmind to say the thing which is true, and to do the thing which is\nright, you may be strong with the strength of God, and glorious with\nthe glory of Christ.\n\nIt is a grand thing, no doubt, to be like Elijah, a stern and bold\nprophet, standing up alone against a tyrant king and a sinful\npeople; but it is even a greater thing to be like that famous martyr\nin old time, St. Blandina, who, though she was but a slave, and so\nweakly, and mean, and fearful in body, that her mistress and all her\nfriends feared that she would deny Christ at the very sight of the\ntorments prepared for her, and save herself by sacrificing to the\nidols, yet endured, day after day, tortures too horrible to speak\nof, without cry or groan, or any word, save 'I am a Christian;' and,\nhaving outlived all her fellow-martyrs, died at last victorious over\npain and temptation, so that the very heathen who tortured her broke\nout in admiration of her courage, and confessed that no woman had\never endured so many and so grievous torments.  So may God's\nstrength be made perfect in woman's weakness.\n\nYou are not called to endure such things.  No:  but you, and I, and\nevery Christian soul are called on to do what we know to be right.\nNot to halt between two opinions:  but if God be God, to follow Him.\nIf we make up our minds to do that, we shall be sure to have our\ntrials:  but we shall be safe, because we are on God's side, and God\non ours.  And if God be with us, what matter if the whole world be\nagainst us?  For which is the stronger of the two, the whole world,\nor God who made it, and rules it, and will rule it for ever?\n\n\n\nSERMON XX.  THE LOFTINESS OF HUMILITY\n\n\n\n1 Peter v. 5.  Be clothed with humility:  for God resisteth the\nproud, and giveth grace to the humble.\n\nThis is St. Peter's command.  Are we really inclined to obey it?\nFor, if we are, there is nothing more easy.  There is no vice so\neasy to get rid of as pride:  if one wishes.  Nothing so easy as to\nbe humble:  if one wishes.\n\nThat may seem a strange saying, considering that self-conceit is the\nvice of all others to which man is most given; the first sin, and\nthe last sin, and that which is said to be the most difficult to\ncure.  But what I say is true nevertheless.\n\nWhosoever wishes to get rid of pride may do so.  Whosoever wishes to\nbe humble need not go far to humble himself.\n\nBut how?  Simply by being honest with himself, and looking at\nhimself as he is.\n\nLet a man recollect honestly and faithfully his past life; let him\nrecollect his sayings and doings for the past week; even for the\npast twenty-four hours:  and I will warrant that man that he will\nrecollect something, or, perhaps, many things which will not raise\nhim in his own eyes; something which he had sooner not have said or\ndone; something which, if he is a foolish man, he will try to\nforget, because it makes him ashamed of himself; something which, if\nhe is a wise man, he will not try to forget, just because it makes\nhim ashamed of himself; and a very good thing for him that he should\nbe so.  I know that it is so for me; and therefore I suppose it is\nso for every man and woman in this Church.\n\nI am not going to give any examples.  I am not going to say,--\n'Suppose you thought this and this about yourself, and were proud of\nit; and then suppose that you recollected that you had done that and\nthat:  would you not feel very much taken down in your own conceit?'\n\nI like that personal kind of preaching less and less.  Those random\nshots are dangerous and cruel; likely to hit the wrong person, and\nhurt their feelings unnecessarily.  It is very easy to say a hard\nthing:  but not so easy to say it to the right person and at the\nright time.\n\nNo.  The heart knoweth its own bitterness.  Almost every one has\nsomething to be ashamed of, more or less, which no one but himself\nand God knows of; and which, perhaps, it is better that no one but\nhe and God should know.\n\nI do not mean any great sin, or great shame--God forbid; but some\nweak point, as we call it.  Something which he had better not say or\ndo; and yet which he is in the habit of saying and doing.  I do not\nask what it is.  With some it may be a mere pardonable weakness;\nwith others it may be a very serious and dangerous fault.  All I ask\nnow is, that each and every one of us should try and find it out,\nand feel it, and keep it in mind; that we may be of a humble spirit\nwith the lowly, which is better than dividing the spoil with the\nproud.\n\nBut why better?\n\nThe world and human nature look up to the proud successful man.  One\nis apt to say, 'Happy is the man who has plenty to be proud of.\nHappy is the man who can divide the spoil of this world with the\nsuccessful of this world.  Happy is the man who can look down on his\nfellow-men, and stand over them, and manage them, and make use of\nthem, and get his profit out of them.'\n\nBut that is a mistake.  That is the high-mindedness which goes\nbefore a fall, which comes not from above, but is always earthly,\noften sensual, and sometimes devilish.  The true and safe high-\nmindedness, which comes from above, is none other than humility.\nFor, if you will look at it aright, the humble man is really more\nhigh-minded than the proud man.  Think.  Suppose two men equal in\nunderstanding, in rank, in wealth, in what else you like, one of\nthem proud, the other humble.  The proud man thinks--'How much\nbetter, wiser, richer, more highly born, more religious, more\northodox, am I than other people round me.'  Not, of course, than\nall round him, but than those whom he thinks beneath him.  Therefore\nhe is always comparing himself with those below himself; always\nwatching those things in them in which he thinks them worse, meaner\nthan himself; he is always looking down on his neighbours.\n\nNow, which is more high-minded; which is nobler; which is more fit\nfor a man; to look down, or to look up?  At all events the humble\nman _looks up_.  He thinks, 'How much worse, not how much better, am\nI than other people.'  He looks at their good points, and compares\nthem with his own bad ones.  He admires them for those things in\nwhich they surpass him.  He thinks of--perhaps he loves to read of--\nmen superior to himself in goodness, wisdom, courage.  He pleases\nhimself with the example of brave and righteous deeds, even though\nhe fears that he cannot copy them; and so he is always looking up.\nHis mind is filled with high thoughts, though they be about others,\nnot about himself.  If he be a truly Christian man, his thoughts\nrise higher still.  He thinks of Christ and of God, and compares his\nweakness, ignorance, and sinfulness with their perfect power,\nwisdom, goodness.  Do you not see that this man's mind is full of\nhigher, nobler thoughts than that of the proud man?  Is he not more\nhigh-minded who is looking up, up to God himself, for what is good,\nnoble, heavenly?  Even though it makes him feel small, poor, weak,\nand sinful in comparison, still his mind is full of grace, and\nwisdom, and glory.  The proud man, meanwhile, for the sake of\nfeeding his own self-conceit at other men's expense, is filling his\nmind with low, mean, earthly thoughts about the weaknesses, sins,\nand follies, of the world around him.  Is not he truly low-minded,\nthinking about low things?\n\nNow, I tell you, my friends, that both have their reward.  That the\nhumble man, as years roll on, becomes more and more noble, and the\nproud man becomes more and more low-minded; and finds that pride\ngoes before a fall in more senses than one.  Yes.  There is nothing\nmore hurtful to our own minds and hearts than a domineering,\ncontemptuous frame of mind.  It may be pleasant to our own self-\nconceit:  but it is only a sweet poison.  A man lowers his own\ncharacter by it.  He takes the shape of what he is always looking\nat; and, if he looks at base and low things, he becomes base and low\nhimself; just as slave-owners, all over the world, and in all time,\nsooner and later, by living among slaves, learn to copy their own\nslaves' vices; and, while they oppress and look down on their\nfellow-man, become passionate and brutal, false and greedy, like the\npoor wretches whom they oppress.\n\nBetter, better to be of a lowly spirit.  Better to think of those\nwho are nobler than ourselves, even though by so doing we are\nashamed of ourselves all day long.  What loftier thoughts can man\nhave?  What higher and purer air can a man's soul breathe?  Yes, my\nfriends; believe it, and be sure of it.  The truly high-minded man\nis not the proud man, who tries to get a little pitiful satisfaction\nfrom finding his brother men, as he chooses to fancy, a little\nweaker, a little more ignorant, a little more foolish, a little more\nridiculous, than his own weak, ignorant, foolish, and, perhaps,\nridiculous self.  Not he; but the man who is always looking upwards\nto goodness, to good men, and to the all-good God:  filling his soul\nwith the sight of an excellence to which he thinks he can never\nattain; and saying, with David, 'All my delight is in the saints\nthat dwell in the earth, and in those who excel in virtue.'\n\nBut I do not say that he cannot attain to that excellence.  To the\ngoodness of God, of course, no man can; but to the goodness of man\nhe may.  For what man has done, man may do; and the grace of God\nwhich gave power to one man to rise above sin, and weakness, and\nignorance, will give power to others also.  But only to those who\nlook upward, at better men than themselves:  not to those who look\ndown, like the Pharisee, but to those who look up like the Publican;\nfor, as the text says, 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to\nthe humble.'\n\nAnd why does God resist and set himself against the proud?  To turn\nhim out of his evil way, of course, if by any means he may be\nconverted (that is, turned round) and live.  For the proud man has\nput himself into a wrong position; where no immortal soul ought to\nbe.  He is looking away from God, and down upon men; and so he has\nturned his face and thoughts away from God, the fountain of light\nand life; and is trying to do without God, and to stand in his own\nstrength, and not in God's grace, and to be somebody in himself,\ninstead of being only in God, in whom we live and move and have our\nbeing.  So he has set himself against God; and God will, in mercy to\nthat foolish man's soul, set himself against him.  God will humble\nhim; God will overthrow him; God will bring his plans to nought; if\nby any means he may make that man ashamed of himself, and empty him\nof his self-conceit, that he may turn and repent in dust and ashes,\nwhen he finds out what those proud Laodicaean Christians of old had\nto find out--that all the while that they were saying, 'I am rich,\nand increased with goods, and have need of nothing,' they did not\nknow that they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,\nand naked.\n\nAnd how does God give grace to the humble?  My friends, even the\nwise heathen knew that.  Listen to a heathen; {328} a good and a\nwise man, though; and one who was not far from the kingdom of God,\nor he would not have written such words as these,--\n\n'It is our duty,' he says, 'to turn our minds to the best of\neverything; so as not merely to enjoy what we read, but to be\nimproved by it.  And we shall do that, by reading the histories of\ngood and great men, which will, in our minds, produce an emulation\nand eagerness, which may stir us up to imitation.  We may be pleased\nwith the work of a man's hands, and yet set little store by the\nworkman.  Perfumes and fine colours we may like well enough:  but\nthat will not make us wish to be perfumers, or painters:  but\ngoodness, which is the work, not of a man's hands, but of his soul,\nmakes us not only admire what is done, but long to do the like.  And\ntherefore,' he says, he thought it good to write the lives 'of\nfamous and good men, and to set their examples before his\ncountrymen.  And having begun to do this,' he says in another place,\n'for the sake of others, he found himself going on, and liking his\nlabour, for his own sake:  for the virtues of those great men served\nhim as a looking-glass, in which he might see how, more or less, to\norder and adorn his own life.  Indeed, it could be compared,' he\nsays, 'to nothing less than living with the great souls who were\ndead and gone, and choosing out of their actions all that was\nnoblest and worthiest to know.  What greater pleasure could there be\nthan that,' he asks, 'or what better means to improve his soul?  By\nfilling his mind with pictures of the best and worthiest characters,\nhe was able to free himself from any low, malicious, mean thoughts,\nwhich he might catch from bad company.  If he was forced to mix at\ntimes with base men, he could wash out the stains of their bad\nthoughts and words, by training himself in a calm and happy temper\nto view those noble examples.'  So says the wise heathen.  Was not\nhe happier, wiser, better, a thousand times, thus keeping himself\nhumble by looking upwards, than if he had been feeding his petty\npride by looking down, and saying, 'God, I thank thee that I am not\nas other men are?'\n\nIf you wish, then, to be truly high-minded, by being truly humble,\nread of, and think of, better men, wiser men, braver men, more\nuseful men than you are.  Above all, if you be Christians, think of\nChrist himself.  That good old heathen took the best patterns which\nhe could find:  but after all, they were but imperfect, sinful men:\nbut you have an example such as he never dreamed of; a perfect man,\nand perfect God in one.  Let the thought of Christ keep you always\nhumble:  and yet let it lift you up to the highest, noblest, purest\nthoughts which man can have, as it will.\n\nFor all that this old heathen says of the use of examples of good\nmen, all that, and far more, St. Paul says, almost in the same\nwords.  By looking at Christ, he says, we rise and sit with him in\nheavenly places, and enjoy the sight of His perfect goodness;\nashamed of ourselves, indeed, and bowed to the very dust by the\nfeeling of our own unworthiness; and yet filled with the thought of\nhis worthiness, till, by looking we begin to admire, and, by\nadmiring, we begin to love; and so are drawn and lifted up to him,\ntill, by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and the\nperfect beauty of his character, we become changed into the same\nimage, from glory to glory:  and thus, instead of receiving the just\npunishment of pride and contempt, which is lowering our characters\nto the level of those on whom we look down, we shall receive the\njust reward of true humility, which is having our characters raised\nto the level of him up to whom we look.\n\nOh young people, think of this; and remember why God has given you\nthe advantage of scholarship and education.  Not that you may be\nproud of the very little you know; not that you may look down on\nthose who are not as well instructed as you are; not that you may\nwaste your time over silly books, which teach you only to laugh at\nthe follies and ignorance of some of your fellow-men, to whom God\nhas not given as much as to you; but that you may learn what great\nand good men have lived, and still live, in the world; what wise,\nand good, and useful things have been, and are being, done all\naround you; and to copy them:  above all, that you may look up to\nChrist, and through Christ, to God, and learn to copy him; till you\ncome, as St. Paul says, to be perfect men; to the measure of the\nstature of the fulness of Christ.  To which may he bring you all of\nhis mercy.  Amen.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXI.  THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD\n\n\n\n(Trinity Sunday.)\n\nJohn v. 19.  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily,\nI say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth\nthe Father do:  for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth\nthe Son likewise.\n\nThis is Trinity Sunday; and on this day we are especially to think\nof the mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity, and on the Athanasian\nCreed, which was read this morning.  Now there is much in this\nAthanasian Creed, which simple country people, however good their\nnatural abilities may be, cannot be expected to understand.  The\nCreed was written by scholars, and for scholars; and for very deep\nscholars, too, far deeper than I pretend to be; and the reasonable\nway for most men to think of the Athanasian Creed, will be to take\nit very much upon trust, as a child takes on trust what his father\ntells him, even though he cannot understand it himself; or, as we\nall believe, that the earth moves round the sun, and not the sun\nround the earth, though we cannot prove it; but only believe it,\nbecause wiser men than we have proved it.  So we must think of the\nAthanasian Creed, and say to ourselves--'Wiser men than I can ever\nhope to be have settled that this is the true doctrine, and the true\nmeaning of Holy Scripture, and I will believe them.  They must know\nbest.'  Still, one is bound to understand as much as one can; one is\nbound to be able to give some reason for the faith which is in us;\nand, above all, one is bound not to hold false doctrines, which are\ncontrary to the Athanasian Creed and to the Bible.\n\nSome people are too apt to say now-a-days, 'But what matter if one\ndoes hold false doctrine?  That is a mistake of the head and not of\nthe heart.  Provided a man lives a good life, what matter what his\ndoctrines are?'  No doubt, my friends, if a man lives a good life,\nall is well:  but _do_ people live good lives?  I am not speaking of\ninfidels.  Thank God, there are none here; to God let us leave them,\ntrusting in the Good Friday collect, and the goodwill of God, which\nis, that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.\n\nBut, as for Christian people, this I will tell you, that unless you\nhold true doctrines, you will _not_ lead good lives.  My experience\nis, that people are often wrong, when they say false doctrine is a\nmistake of the head and not of the heart.  I believe false doctrine\nis very often not bred in the head at all, but in the heart, in the\nvery bottom of a man's soul; that it rises out of his heart into his\nhead; and that if his heart was right with God, he would begin at\nonce to have clearer and truer notions of the true Christian faith.\nI do not say that it is always so; God forbid!  But I do say that it\nis often so, because I see it so; because I see every day false\ndoctrines about God making men lead bad lives, and commit actual\nsins; take God's name in vain, dishonour their fathers and mothers,\nlie, cheat, bear false witness against their neighbours, and covet\nother men's goods.  I say, I see it, and I must believe my own eyes\nand ears; and when I do see it, I begin to understand the text which\nsays, 'This is eternal life, to know thee, the only God, and Jesus\nChrist, whom thou hast sent;' and I begin to understand the\nAthanasian Creed, which says, that if a 'man does not believe\nrightly the name of God, and the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, he will perish everlastingly; his soul will decay more and\nmore, become more and more weak, unhealthy and corrupt, till he\nperishes everlastingly.  And whatsoever that may mean, it must mean\nsomething most awful and terrible, worse than all the evil which\never happened to us since we were born.\n\nThere is a very serious example of this, to my mind, in what is\ncalled the Greek Church; the Greeks and Russians.  They split off\nfrom the rest of Christ's Catholic Church, many hundred years ago,\nbecause they would not hold with the rest of the Church that the\nHoly Spirit proceeded from the Son as well as from the Father.  They\nsaid that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone.  Now that\nmay seem a slight matter of words:  but I cannot help thinking that\nit has been a very solemn matter of practice with them.  It seems to\nme--God forgive me if I am judging them hardly!--that because they\ndenied that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son, they forgot that\nhe was the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, by whom he\nsays for ever, 'Father, not my will but thine be done!' and so they\nforgot that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Sonship, the Spirit of\nadoption, which must proceed and come from Christ to us, that we may\ncall God our Father, and say with Christ, 'Father, I come to do thy\nwill;' and so, in course of time, they seem to have forgotten that\nChristian men were in any real practical sense, God's children; and\nwhen people forget that they are God's children, they forget soon\nenough to behave like God's children, and to live righteous and\nGodlike lives.\n\nI give you this as an example of what I mean; how not believing\nrightly the Athanasian Creed may make a man lead a bad life.\n\nNow let me give an example nearer home; one which has to do with you\nand me.  God grant that we may all lay it to heart.  You read, in\nthe Athanasian Creed, that we are not to confound the persons of the\nTrinity, nor divide the substance; but to believe that such as the\nFather is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost, the Glory\nequal, the Majesty co-eternal.  Now there is little fear of our\nconfounding the persons, as some people used to do in old times; but\nthere is great fear of our dividing God's substance, parting God's\nsubstance, that is, fancying that God is made up of different parts,\nand not perfectly one God.\n\nFor people are very apt to talk as if God's love and God's justice\nwere two different things, different parts of God; as if his justice\nhad to be satisfied in one way, and his love in another; as if his\njustice wished to destroy sinners, and his love wished to save\nsinners; and so they talk as if there was a division in God; as if\ndifferent attributes of God were pulling two different ways, and\nthat God has parts of which one desires to do one thing, and one\npart another.  It sounds shocking, I am sure you will feel, when I\nput it into plain English.  I wish it to sound shocking.  I wish you\nto feel how wrong and heretical it is; that you may keep clear of\nsuch notions, and believe the orthodox faith, that God has neither\nparts nor passions, nor division in his substance at all, but is\nabsolutely and substantially one; and that, therefore, his love and\nhis justice are the very same things; his justice, however severe it\nmay seem, is perfect love and kindness; and his love is no\nindulgence, but perfect justice.\n\nBut you may say--Very likely that is true; but why need we take so\nmuch care to believe it?\n\nIt is always worth while to know what is true.  You are children of\nthe Light, and of the Truth, adopted by the God of truth, that you\nmay know the truth and do it, and no mistake or falsehood can, by\nany possibility, do anything for you, but harm you.  Always,\ntherefore, try to find out and believe what is true concerning\neverything; and, above all, concerning God, on whom all depend, in\nwhom you live, and move, and have your being.  For all things in\nheaven and earth depend on God; and, therefore, if you have wrong\nnotions about God, you will sooner or later have wrong notions about\neverything else.\n\nFor see, now, how this false notion of God's justice and love being\ndifferent things, leads people into a worse error still.  A man goes\non to fancy, that while God the Son is full of love towards sinners,\nGod the Father is (or at least was once) only full of justice and\nwrath against sinners; but if a man thinks that God the Son loves\nhim better than God the Father does, then, of course, he will love\nGod the Son better than he loves God the Father.  He will think of\nChrist the Son with pleasure and gratitude, because he says to\nhimself, Christ loves me, cares for me; I can have pity and\ntenderness from him, if I do wrong.  While of God the Father he\nthinks only with dread and secret dislike.  Thus, from dividing the\nsubstance, he has been led on to confound the persons, imputing to\nthe Son alone that which is equally true of the Father, till he\ncomes (as I have known men do) to make for himself, as it were, a\nHeavenly Father of Jesus Christ the Son.\n\nNow, my dear friends, it does seem to me, that if anything can\ngrieve the Spirit of Christ, and the sacred heart of Jesus, this is\nthe way to grieve him.  Oh read your Bibles, and you will see this,\nthat whatever Jesus came down on earth for, it certainly was not to\nmake men love him better than they love the Father, and honour him\nmore than they honour the Father, and rob the Father of his glory,\nto give it to Jesus.  What did the Lord Jesus say himself?  That he\ndid not come to seek his own honour, or shew forth his own glory, or\ndo his own will:  but his Father's honour, his Father's glory, his\nFather's will.  Though he was equal with the Father, as touching his\nGodhead, yet he disguised himself, if I may so say, and took on him\nthe form of a servant, and was despised and rejected of men.  Why!\nThat men might honour his Father rather than him.  That men might\nnot be so dazzled by his glory, as to forget his Father's glory.\nTherefore he bade his apostles, while he was on earth, tell no man\nthat he was the Christ.  Therefore, when he worked his work of love\nand mercy, he took care to tell the Jews that they were not his\nworks, but the works of his Father who sent him; that he was not\ndoing his own will, but his Father's.  Therefore he was always\npreaching of the Father in heaven, and holding him up to men as the\nperfection of all love and goodness and glory:  and only once or\ntwice, it seems, when he was compelled, as it were, for very truth's\nsake, did he say openly who he was, and claim his co-equal and co-\neternal glory, saying, 'Before Abraham was, I am.'\n\nAnd, after all this, if anything can grieve him now, must it not\ngrieve him to see men fancying that he is better than his Father is,\nmore loving and merciful than his Father is, more worthy of our\ntrust, and faith, and adoration, and gratitude than his Father is?--\nHis Father, for whose honour he was jealous with a divine jealousy--\nHis Father, who, he knows well, loved the world which shrinks from\nhim so well that he spared not his only begotten Son, but freely\ngave him up for it.\n\nOh, my friends, believe me, if any sin of man can add a fresh thorn\nto Christ's crown, it is to see men, under pretence of honouring\nhim, dishonouring his Father.  For just think for once of this--What\nnobler feeling on earth than the love of a son to his father?  What\ngreater pain to a good son than to see his father dishonoured, and\nput down below him?  But what is the love of an earthly son to an\nearthly father, compared to the love of The Son to the Father?  What\nis the jealousy of an earthly son for his father's honour, compared\nwith the jealousy of God the Son for God the Father's honour?\n\nAll men, the Father has appointed, are to honour the Son, even as\nthey honour the Father.  Because, as the Athanasian Creed says,\n'such as the Father is, such is the Son.'  But, if that be true, we\nare to honour the Father even as we honour the Son; because such as\nthe Son is, such is the Father.  Both are true, and we must believe\nboth; and therefore we must not give to Christ the honour which we\nshould to a loving friend, and give to the Father the honour which\nwe should to an awful judge.  We must give them both the same\nhonour.  If we have a godly fear of the Father, we ought to have a\ngodly fear of Christ; and if we trust Christ, we ought to trust the\nFather also.  We must believe that Jesus Christ, the Son, is the\nbrightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his\nperson; and therefore we must believe that because Jesus is love,\ntherefore the Father is love; because Jesus is long-suffering,\ntherefore the Father is long-suffering; because Jesus came to save\nthe world, therefore the Father must have sent him to save the\nworld, or he would never have come; for he does nothing, he says, of\nhimself.  Because we can trust Jesus utterly, therefore we can trust\nthe Father utterly.  Because we believe that the Son has life in\nhimself, to give to whomsoever he will, we must believe that the\nFather has life in himself likewise, and not, as some seem to fancy,\nonly the power of death and destruction.  Because nothing can\nseparate us from the love of Jesus, nothing can separate us from the\nlove of his Father and our Father, whose name is Light and Love.\n\nIf we believe this, we shall indeed honour the Father, and indeed\nhonour the Son likewise.  But if we do not, we shall dishonour the\nSon, while we fancy we are honouring him:  we shall rob Christ of\nhis true glory, to give him a false glory, which he abhors.  If we\nfancy that he does anything for us without his Father's commands; if\nwe fancy that he feels anything for us which his Father does not\nfeel, and has not always felt likewise:  then we dishonour him.  For\nhis glory is to be a perfectly good and obedient Son, and we fancy\nhim--may he forgive us for it!--a self-willed Son.  This is Christ's\nglory, that though he is equal with his Father, he obeys his Father.\nIf he were not equal to his Father, there would be less glory in his\nobeying him.  Take away the mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity, and\nyou rob Christ of his highest glory, and destroy the most beautiful\nthing in heaven, except one.  The most beautiful and noble thing of\nall in heaven--that (if you will receive it) out of which all other\nbeautiful and noble things in heaven and earth come, is the Father\nfor ever saying to the Son, 'Thou art my Son; this day have I\nbegotten thee.  And in thee I am well pleased.'  The other most\nbeautiful thing is the co-equal and co-eternal Son for ever saying\nto the Father, 'Father, not my will, but thine be done.  I come to\ndo thy will, O God.  Thy law is written in my heart.'\n\nDo you not see it?  Oh, my dear friends, I see but a very little of\nit.  Who am I, that I should comprehend God?  And who am I, that I\nshould be able to make you understand the glory of God, by any dull\nwords of mine?  But God can make you understand it.   The Spirit of\nGod can and will shew you the glory of God.  Because he proceedeth\nfrom the Father, he will shew you what the glory of the Father is\nlike.  Because he proceedeth from the Son, he will shew you what the\nglory of the Son is like.  Because he is consubstantial, co-equal,\nand co-eternal with the Father and the Son, he will shew you that\nthe glory of the Father and the Son is not the glory of mere power;\nbut a moral and spiritual glory, the glory of having a perfectly\nglorious, noble, and beautiful character.  And unless he shews you\nthat, you will never be thoroughly good men.  For it is a strange\nthing that men are always trying, more or less, to be like God.  And\nyet, not a strange thing; for it is a sign that we all came from\nGod, and can get no rest till we are come back to God, because God\ncalls us all to be his children and be like him.  A blessed thing it\nis, if we try to be like the true God:  but a sad and fearful thing,\nif we try to be like some false god of our own invention.  But so it\nis.  It was so even among the old heathen.  Whatsoever a man fancies\nGod to be like, that he will try himself to be like.  So if you\nfancy than God the Father's glory is stern and awful power, that he\nis extreme to mark what is done amiss, or stands severely on his own\nrights, then you will do the same; you will be extreme to mark what\nis done amiss; you will stand severely on your rights; you will grow\nstern and harsh, unfeeling to your children and workmen, and fond of\nshewing your power, just for the sake of shewing it.  But if you\nbelieve that the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is all\none; and that it is a loving glory if you believe that such as Jesus\nChrist is, such is his Father, gracious and merciful, slow to anger,\nand of great kindness, and repenting him of the evil; if you believe\nthat your Father in heaven is perfect, just because he sendeth his\nsun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the\njust and on the unjust, and is good to the unthankful and the evil--\nif you believe this, I say, then you will be good to the unthankful\nand the evil; you will be long-suffering and tender; good fathers,\ngood masters, good neighbours; and your characters will become\npatient, generous, forgiving, truly noble, truly godlike.  And all\nbecause you believe the Athanasian Creed in spirit and in truth.\n\nIn like manner, if you believe that Jesus Christ is not a perfect\nSon; if you fancy that he has any will but his Father's will; that\nhe has any work but what his Father gives him to do, who has\ncommitted all things into his hands; that he knows anything but what\nhis Father sheweth him, who sheweth him all things, because he\nloveth him; then you will be tempted to wish for power and honour of\nyour own; to become ambitious, self-willed, vain, and disobedient to\nyour parents.\n\nBut if you believe that Jesus is a perfect Son, all that you would\nwish your son to be to you, and millions of times more; and if you\nbelieve that that very thing is Christ's glory; that his glory\nconsists in being a perfect Son, perfectly obedient, having no will\nor wish but his Father's; then will you, by thus seeing Christ in\nspirit and in truth, see how beautiful and noble it is to be good\nsons; and you will long to try to be good sons:  and what you long\nfor, and try for, you will surely be, in God's good time; for he has\npromised,--'Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after\nrighteousness:  for they shall be filled.'  And all through\nbelieving the Athanasian Creed?  All?  Yes, all.\n\nBut will not the Holy Spirit teach us, without the Athanasian Creed?\n\nThe Holy Spirit will teach us.  Must teach us, if we are really to\nlearn one word of all this in spirit and in truth.  But whether the\nHoly Spirit does teach us, will depend, I fear, very much upon\nwhether we pray for him; and whether we pray for him aright will\ndepend on whether we know who he is, and what he is like; and that,\nagain, the Athanasian Creed will tell us.\n\nNow, go home with God's blessing.  Remember that such as the Son is,\nsuch is the Father, and such is the Holy Ghost.  Pray to be made\ngood fathers, after the likeness of The Father, from whom every\nfatherhood in heaven and earth is named; good sons, after the\nlikeness of God The Son; and good and holy spirits, after the\nlikeness of The Holy Spirit; and you will be such at last, in God's\ngood time, as far as man can become like God; for you will be\npraying for the Holy Spirit himself, and he will hear you, and come\nto you, and abide with you, and all will be well.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXII.  THE TORMENT OF FEAR\n\n\n\n(First Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 John iv. 16, 18.  And we have known and believed the love that God\nhath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in\nGod, and God in him.  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may\nhave boldness in the day of judgment:  because as he is, so are we\nin this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth\nout fear:  because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made\nperfect in love.\n\nThe text tells us how to get one of the greatest blessings; a\nblessing which all long for, but all do not find; and that is a\nhappy death.  All wish to die happily; even bad men.  Like Balaam\nwhen he was committing a great sin, they can say, 'Let me die the\ndeath of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.'  But\nmeanwhile, like Balaam, they find it too hard to live the life of\nthe righteous, which is the only way to die the death of the\nrighteous.  But something within them (if false preachers will but\nleave them alone) tells them that they will not succeed.  Reason and\ncommon sense tell them so:  for how can a man expect to get to a\nplace without travelling the road which leads to it?  And the Spirit\nof God, the Spirit of truth and right, tells them that they will not\nsucceed:  for how can a man win happiness, save by doing right?\nEvery one shall 'receive the things done in his body, according to\nthat he hath done, whether it be good or bad.'  So says Scripture;\nand so say men's own hearts, by the inspiration of God's Holy\nSpirit.  And therefore such men's fear of death continues.  And why?\nThe text tells us the secret.  As long as we do not love God, we\nshall be tormented with fear of death.  And as long as we do not\nlove our neighbour, we shall not love God.  We may try, as thousands\nhave tried, and as thousands try still, to love God without loving\ntheir neighbour; to be very religious, and worship God, and sing His\npraises, and think over all His mercy to them, and all that he has\ndone for them, by the death of His blessed Son Jesus Christ; and so\nto persuade themselves and God that they love Him, while they keep\nin their hearts selfishness, pride, spite, uncharitableness:  but\nthey do not succeed.  If they think they succeed, they are only\ndeceiving themselves.  So says St. John.  'He who loveth not his\nbrother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not\nseen?'  But they cannot deceive themselves long.  You will see, if\nyou watch such people, and still more if you watch yourselves, that\nif you do not love your neighbours in spirit and in truth, then\nthose tormenting fears soon come back again, worse than ever.  Ay,\nwhenever we indulge ourselves in hard words and cruel judgments, the\nthought of God seems darkened to us there and then; the face of God\nseems turned from us; and peace of mind and brightness of spirit,\nand lightness of soul, do not come back to us, till we have\nconfessed our sins, and have let the kindly, the charitable, the\nmerciful thoughts rise up in us once more, as, by the grace of\nChrist, they will rise up.\n\nYes, my friends, as far as I can see, people are filled with the\npeace of God just in as far as they are at peace with their fellow-\nmen.  They are bright, calm, and content, looking forward with\ncheerfulness to death, and with a humble and holy boldness to\njudgment, just in as far as their hearts are filled with love,\ngentleness, kindness, to all that God has made.  They dwell in God,\nand God in them, and perfect love has cast out fear.\n\nBut if a man does not live in love, then sooner or later he will\nhear a voice within him, which whispers, Thou art going wrong; and,\nif thou art going wrong, how canst thou end at the right place?\nNone but the right road can end there.  The wrong road must lead to\nthe wrong place.\n\nThen the man gets disturbed and terrified in his mind, and tormented\nwith fears, as the text says.  He knows that the day of judgment is\ncoming, and he has no boldness to meet it.  He shrinks from the\nthought of death, of judgment, of God.  He thinks--How shall I meet\nmy God?  I do not love my neighbour.  I do not love God; and God\ndoes not love me.  The truth is, that the man cannot love God even\nif he will.  He looks on God as his enemy, whom he has offended, who\nis coming to take vengeance on him.  And, as long as we are afraid\nof any one, and fancy that they hate us, and are going to hurt us,\nwe cannot love them.  So the man is tormented with fear; fear of\ndeath, fear of judgment, fear of meeting God.\n\nThen he takes to superstition; he runs from preacher to preacher;\nand what not?--There is no folly men have not committed, and do not\ncommit still, to rid themselves of that tormenting fear.  But they\ndo not rid themselves of it.  Sermons, church-goings, almsgivings;\nleaving the Church and turning Dissenters or Roman Catholics;\njoining this sect and that sect; nothing will rid a man of his\nsuperstitious fear:  nothing but believing the blessed message of\nthe text.\n\nAnd what does the text say?  It says this,--'God is love.'  God does\nnot hate thee, He loves thee.  He willeth not thy death, O sinner,\nbut rather that thou shouldest turn from thy wickedness and live.\nThy sins have not made Him hate thee:  but only pity thee; pity thy\nfolly, which will lead on the road to death, when He wishes to put\nthee on the road to life, that thou mayest have boldness in the day\nof judgment, instead of shrinking from God like a guilty coward.\nAnd what is the way of life?  Surely the way of Christ, who _is_ the\nlife.  Live like Him, and thou wilt not need to fear to die.  So\nsays the text.  We are to have boldness in the day of judgment,\nbecause as Christ is, so are we in this world.  And how was, and is,\nand ever will be, Christ in this world?  Full of love; of brotherly-\nkindness, charity, forgiveness, peace, and good will to men.  That,\nsays St. John, is the life which brings a joyful death; for God is\nlove; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.\n\nOh consider this, my good friends.  Consider this; lest when you\ncome to die the ghosts of all your sins should rise up at your\nbedside, and torment you with fear--the ghosts of every cruel word\nwhich you ever spoke against your fellow men; of every kind action\nwhich you neglected; as well as of every unjust one which you ever\ncommitted.  And, if they do rise up in judgment against you, what\nmust you do?\n\nCast yourself upon the love of God, and remember that God is love,\nand so loved us that He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our\nsins.  Ask Him to forgive you your sins, for the sake of that\nprecious blood which was shed on the cross:  but not that you may\nkeep your sins, and may escape the punishment of them.  God forbid.\nWhat use in having your past sins forgiven, if the sinful heart\nstill remains to run up fresh sins for the future?  No.  Ask Him not\nmerely to forgive the past, but to mend the future; to create in you\na new heart, which wishes no ill to any human being, and a right\nspirit, which desires first and utterly to do right, and is filled\nwith the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of love, by which God made\nand redeemed the world, and all that therein is.\n\nSo will all tormenting fears cease.  You will feel yourself in the\nright way, the way of charity, the way in which Christ walked in\nthis world, and have boldness in the day of judgment, facing death\nwithout conceit, indeed, but also without superstitious fear.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIII.  THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT\n\n\n\n(Eighth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nRomans viii. 12.  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the\nflesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye\nshall die.\n\nWhat does walking after the flesh mean?  St. Paul tells us himself,\nin Gal. v., where he uses exactly the same form of words which he\ndoes here.  'The works of the flesh,' he says, 'are manifest.'  When\na man gives way to his passions and appetites--when he cares only\nabout enjoying his own flesh, and the pleasures which he has in\ncommon with the brutes, then there is no mistake about the sort of\nlife which he will lead--'Now the works of the flesh are manifest,\nwhich are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,\nidolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,\nseditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and\nsuch like.'  An ugly list, my friends; and God have mercy on the man\nwho gives way to them.  For disgraceful as they are to him, and\ntormenting also to him in this life, the worst is, that if he gives\nway to them, he will die.\n\nI do not mean that he will bring his mortal body to an untimely end;\nthat he will ruin his own health; or that he will get himself\nhanged, though that is likely enough--common enough.  I think St.\nPaul means something even worse than that.  The man himself will\ndie.  Not his body merely:  but his soul, his character, will die.\nAll in him that God made, all that God intended him to be, will die.\nAll that his father and mother loved in him, all that they watched\nover, and hoped and prayed that it might grow up into life, in order\nthat he might become the man God meant him to be, all that will die.\nHis soul and character will become one mass of disease.  He will\nthink wrong, feel wrong, about everything of which he does think and\nfeel:  while, about the higher matters, of which every man ought to\nknow something, he will not think or feel at all.  Love to his\ncountry, love to his own kinsfolk even; above all, love to God, will\ndie in him, and he will care for nothing but himself, and how to get\na little more foul pleasure before he goes out of this world, he\ndare not think whither.  All power of being useful will die in him.\nHonour and justice will die in him.  He will be shut up in himself,\nin the ugly prison-house of his own lusts and passions, parted from\nhis fellow-men, caring nothing for them, knowing that they care\nnothing for him.  He will have no faith in man or God.  He will\nbelieve no good, he will have no hope, either for himself or for the\nworld.\n\nThis, this is death, indeed; the death of sin; the death in which\nhuman beings may go on for years, walking, eating, and drinking;\nworse than those who walk in their sleep, and see nothing, though\ntheir eyes are staring wide.\n\nOh pitiable sight!  The most pitiable sight in the whole world, a\nhuman soul dead and rotten in sin!  It is a pitiable sight enough,\nto see a human body decayed by disease, to see a poor creature\ndying, even quietly and without pain.  Pitiable, but not half so\npitiable as the death of a human soul by sin.  For the death of the\nbody is not a man's own fault.  But that death in life of sin, is a\nman's own fault.  In a Christian country, at least, it is a man's\nown fault, if he goes about the world, as I have seen many a one go,\nhaving a name to live, and yet dead in trespasses and sins, while\nhis soul only serves to keep his body alive and moving.  How shall\nwe escape this death in life?  St. Paul tells us, 'If ye through the\nSpirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.'\n\nThrough the Spirit.  The Spirit of God and of Christ.  Keep that in\nmind, for that is the only way, the right way, to mortify and kill\nin us these vices and passions, which, unless we kill them, will\nkill us.  The only way.  For men have tried other ways in old times,\ndo try other ways now:  but they fail.  I could mention many plans\nwhich they have tried.  But I will only mention the one which you\nand I are likely to try.\n\nA young man runs wild for a few years, as young men are too apt to\ndo:  but at last he finds that ill-living does not _pay_.  It hurts\nhis health, his pocket, his character.  He makes himself ill; he\ncannot get employed; he has ruin staring him in the face, from his\nwild living.  He must mend.  If he intends to keep out of the\nworkhouse, the gaol, the grave, he must mortify the deeds of the\nbody.  He must bridle his passions, give up lying about, drinking,\nswearing, cheating, running after bad women:  and if he has a strong\nwill, he does it from mere selfish prudence.  But is he safe?  I\nthink not, as long as he loves still the bad ways he has given up.\nHe has given them up, not because he hates them, because he is\nashamed of them, because he knows them to be hateful to God, and\nruinous to his own soul:  but because they do not pay.  The man\nhimself is not changed.  His heart within is not converted.  The\noutside of his life is whitewashed; but his heart may be as foul as\never; as full as ever of selfishness, greediness, meanness.  And\nwhat happens to him?  Too often, what happened to the man in the\nparable, when the unclean spirit went out of him, and came back\nagain.  The unclean spirit found his home swept and garnished:  but\nempty.  All very neat and respectable:  but empty.  There was no\nother spirit dwelling there.  No good spirit, who could fight the\nunclean spirit and keep him out.  So he took to himself seven other\nspirits worse than himself--hypocrisy, cant, cunning, covetousness,\nand all the smooth-shaven sins which beset middle-aged and elderly\nmen; and they dwell there, and so does the unclean spirit of youth\ntoo.\n\nAlas!  How often have I seen men whom that description would fit but\ntoo well--men who have kept themselves respectable till they have\ngot back their character in the world's eyes:  and when they get\ninto years, and have risen perhaps in life, and made money, are\nlooked up to by their fellows:  but what are they at heart?  As\ngreat scoundrels as they were thirty years before--cunning, false,\ncovetous, and hypocritical--and indulging, perhaps, the unclean\nspirit of youth, as much as they dare without being found out.  God\nhelp them! for their last state is worse than their first.  But that\nis the fruit of trying to mortify and kill their own vices by mere\nworldly prudence, and not by the Spirit of God, which alone can\ncleanse the heart of any man, or make him strong enough really to\nconquer and kill his sins.\n\nAnd what is this spirit of God?  We may know in this way.  What says\nour Lord in the Gospel?  'The tree is known by its fruits.'  Then if\nwe know the fruits of the Spirit, we shall surely know something at\nleast of what the Spirit is like.  What then says St. Paul, 'The\nfruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,\ngoodness, faith, meekness, temperance.'  Therefore the Spirit is a\nloving spirit--a peaceable, a gentle, a good, a faithful, a sober\nand temperate spirit.  And if you follow it, you will live.  If you\ngive yourselves up honestly, frankly, and fully, to be led by that\ngood spirit, and obey it when it prompts you with right feelings,\nyou, your very self, will live.  You will be what God intended you\nto be; you will grow as God intended you to grow; grow as Christ\ndid, in grace; in all which is graceful, amiable, worthy of respect\nand love; and therefore in favour with God and man.  Your character\nwill improve and strengthen day by day; and rise day by day to\nfuller, stronger, healthier spiritual life.  You will be able more\nand more to keep down low passions, evil tempers, and all the works\nof the flesh, when they tempt you; you will despise and hate them\nmore and more; for having seen the beauty of goodness, you will see\nthe ugliness of sin.  So the bad passions and tempers, instead of\nbeing merely put to sleep for a while to wake up all the stronger\nfor their rest, will be really mortified and killed in you.  They\nwill die out of you; and you, the real _you_ whom God made, will\nlive and grow continually.  And, instead of having your character\ndragged down, diseased, and at last ruined, it will rise and\nprogress, as you grow older, in the sure and safe road of eternal\nlife.  To which God bring us all in his mercy!  Amen.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIV.  THE UNRIGHTEOUS MAMMON\n\n\n\n(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nLuke xvi. 1-8.  And he said also unto his disciples, There was a\ncertain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto\nhim that he had wasted his goods.  And he called him, and said unto\nhim, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy\nstewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.  Then the steward\nsaid within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from\nme the stewardship:  I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.  I am\nresolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship,\nthey may receive me into their houses.  So he called every one of\nhis lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest\nthou unto my lord?  And he said, An hundred measures of oil.  And he\nsaid unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.\nThen said he to another, And how much owest thou?  And he said, An\nhundred measures of wheat.  And he said unto him, Take thy bill and\nwrite fourscore.  And the lord commended the unjust steward, because\nhe had done wisely:  for the children of this world are in their\ngeneration wiser than the children of light.\n\nThis parable has always been considered a difficult one to\nunderstand.  Fathers and Divines, in all ages, have tried to explain\nit in different ways; and have never, it seems to me, been satisfied\nwith their own explanations.  They have always felt it strange, that\nour Lord should seem to hold up, as an example to us, this steward\nwho, having been found out in one villainy, escapes, (so it seems,\nfrom the common explanation) by committing a second.  They have not\nbeen able to see either, how we are really to copy the steward.  Our\nLord says, that we are to copy him by making ourselves friends of\nthe Mammon of unrighteousness:  but how?  By giving away a few alms,\nor a great many?  Does any rational man seriously believe, that if\nhis Mammon was unrighteous, that is, if his wealth were ill-gotten,\nhe would save his soul, and be received into eternal life, for\ngiving away part of it, or even the whole of it?\n\nNo doubt, there always have been men who will try.  Men who, having\ncheated their neighbours all their lives, have tried to cheat the\nDevil at last, by some such plan as the unjust steward's, but that\nplan has never been looked on as either a very honourable or a very\nhopeful one.  I think, that if I had been an usurer or a grinder of\nthe poor all my life, I should not save my soul by founding\nalmshouses with my money when I died, or even ten years before I\ndied.  It might be all that I was able to do:  but would it justify\nme in the sight of God?  That which saves a soul alive is\nrepentance; and of repentance there are three parts, contrition,\nconfession, and satisfaction--in plain English, making the wrong\nright, and giving each man back, as far as one can, what one has\ntaken from him.  To each man, I say; for I have no right to rob one\nman and then give to another.  I ought to give back again to the man\nwhom I have robbed.  I have no right to cheat the rich for the sake\nof the poor; and after I have cheated the rich, I do not make\nsatisfaction, either to god or man, by giving that money to the\npoor.  Good old Zaccheus, the publican, knew better what true\nsatisfaction was like.  He had been gaining money not altogether in\nan unjust way, but in a way which did him no credit; he had been\nfarming the taxes, and he was dissatisfied with his way of life.\nTherefore, Behold, Lord, he says, the half of my goods, of what I\nhave a right to in the world's eyes--what is my own, and I could\nkeep if I liked--I give to the poor.  But if I have done wrong to\nany man, I restore to him fourfold.  Then said the Lord, 'This day\nis salvation come to this man's house; forsomuch as he also is a son\nof Abraham;' a just and faithful man, who knows what true repentance\nis.\n\nBut now, my friends, suppose that this was just what our Lord tells\nus to do in this parable.  Suppose that this was just what the\nunjust steward did.  I only say, suppose; for I know that more\nlearned men than I explain the difficulty otherwise.  Only I ask you\nto hear my explanation.\n\nThe steward is accused of wasting his lord's goods.\n\nHe will be put out of his stewardship.\n\nHe goes to his lord's debtors, and bids them write themselves down\nin debt to him at far less sums than they had thought that they\nowed.\n\nNow, suppose that these debtors were the very men whom he had been\ncheating.  Suppose that he had been overcharging these debtors; and\nnow, in his need, had found out that honesty was the best policy,\nand charged them what they really owed him.  They were, probably,\ntenants under his lord, paying their rents in kind, as was often the\ncustom in the East.  One rented an olive garden, and paid for it so\nmany measures of oil; another rented corn-land, and paid so many\nmeasures of meal.  Now suppose that the steward, as he easily might,\nhad been setting these poor men's rents too high, and taking the\nsurplus himself.  That while he had been charging one tenant a\nhundred, he had been paying to his lord only fifty, and so forth.\n\nWhat does he do, then, in his need?  He does justice to his lord's\ndebtors.  He tells them what their debts really are.  He sets their\naccounts right.  Instead of charging the first man a hundred, he\ncharges him fifty; instead of charging the second a hundred, he\ncharges him eighty; and he does not, as far as we are told, conceal\nthis conduct from his lord.  He rights them as far as he can now.\nSo he shews that he honestly repents.  He has found out that honesty\nis the best policy; that the way to make true friends is to deal\njustly by them; and, if he cannot restore what he has taken from\nthem already (for I suppose he had spent it), at least to confess\nhis sin to them, and to set the matter right for the time to come.\n\nThis, I think, is what our Lord bids us do, if we have wronged any\nman, and fouled our hands with the unrighteous mammon, that is, with\nill-gotten wealth.  And I think so all the more from the verses\nwhich come after.  For, when he has said, 'Make yourselves friends\nof the mammon of unrighteousness,' he goes on in the very next verse\nto say, 'He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful\nalso in that which is much.  If, therefore, ye have not been\nfaithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust\nthe true riches?'  Now, surely, this must have something to do with\nwhat goes before.  And, if it has, what can it mean but this--that\nthe way to make friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, is to\nbe faithful in it, just in it, honest in it?\n\nBut some one may say, If mammon be unrighteous, how can a man be\nrighteous and upright in dealing with it?  If money be a bad thing\nin itself, how can a man meddle with it with clean hands?\n\nSo some people will say, and so some will be glad to say.  But why?\nBecause they do not want to be righteous, upright, just, and honest\nin their money dealings; and, therefore, they are glad to make out\nthat they could not be upright if they tried; because money being a\nbad thing altogether, a man must needs, if he has to do with money,\ndo things which he knows are wrong.  I say some people are glad to\nbelieve that.  I do not mean any one in this congregation.  God\nforbid!  I mean in the world in general.  We do see people,\nreligious people too, do things about money which they know are\nmean, covetous, cruel, and then excuse themselves by saying,--'Well,\nof course I would not do so to my own brother; but, in the way of\nbusiness, one can't help doing these things.'  Now, I do not quite\nbelieve them.  I have seldom seen the man who cheated his neighbour,\nwho would not cheat his own brother if he had a chance:  but so they\nsay.  And, if they be religious people, they will quote Scripture,\nand say,--Ah! it is the fault of the unrighteous mammon; and, in\ndealing with the unrighteous mammon, we cannot help these little\nfailings, and so forth:  till they seem to have two quite different\nrules of right and wrong; one for the saving of their own souls,\nwhich they keep to when they are hearing sermons, and reading good\nbooks; and the other for money, which they keep to when they have to\npay their debts or transact business.\n\nNow, my dear friends, be not deceived:  God is not mocked.  God\ntempts no man.  Man tempts himself by his own lusts and passions.\nGod does not tempt us when he gives us money, puts us in the way of\nearning money, or spending money.  Money is not bad in itself;\nwealth is not bad in itself.  If mammon be unrighteous, we make\nmoney into mammon, when we make an idol of it, and worship it more\nthan God's law of right and justice.  We make it unrighteous, by\nbeing unrighteous, and unjust ourselves.\n\nMoney is good; for money stands for capital; for money's worth; for\nhouses, land, food, clothes, all that man can make; and they stand\nfor labour, employment, wages; and they stand for human beings, for\nthe bodily life of man.  Without wealth, where should we be now?  If\nGod had not given to man the power of producing wealth, where should\nwe be now?  Not here.  Four-fifths of us would not have been alive\nat all.  Instead of eight hundred people in this parish, all more or\nless well off, there would be, perhaps, one hundred--perhaps far\nless, living miserably on game and roots.  Instead of thirty\nmillions of civilized people in Great Britain, there would be\nperhaps some two or three millions of savages.  Money, I say, stands\nfor the lives of human beings.  Therefore money is good; an\nordinance and a gift of God; as it is written, 'It is God that\ngiveth the power to get wealth.'  But, like every other good gift of\nGod, we may use it as a blessing; or we may misuse it, and make it a\nsnare and a curse to our own souls.  If we let into our hearts\nselfishness and falsehood; if we lose faith in God, and fancy that\nGod's laws are not well-made enough to prosper us, but that we must\nbreak them if we want to prosper; then we turn God's good gift into\nan idol and a snare; into the unrighteous Mammon.\n\nIt is not the quantity of money we have to deal with which is the\nsnare, it is our own lusts and covetousness which are the snares.\nIt is just as easy to sell our souls for five pounds as for five\nthousand.  It is just as easy to be mean and tricky about paying\nlittle debts of a shilling or two, as it is about whole estates.  I\ndo not see that rich people are at all more unjust about money than\npoor ones; and if any say:  Yes, but the poor are tempted more than\nthe rich; I answer, then look at those who are neither poor nor\nrich; who have enough to live on decently, and are not tempted as\nthe poor are, to steal, or tempted as the rich are, to luxury and\nextravagance.  Are they more honest than either rich or poor?  Not a\nwhit.  All depends on the man's heart.  If his heart be selfish and\nmean, he will be dishonest as a poor man, as a middle-class man, as\na great lord.  If his heart be faithful and true, he will be honest,\nwhether he lives in a cottage or in a palace.  Any man can do\njustly, and love mercy, if his heart be right with God.  I have seen\nday-labourers who had a hard struggle to live at all, keep out of\ndebt, and out of shame, and live in a noble poverty, rich in the\nsight of God, because their hearts were rich in goodness.  I have\nseen tradesmen and farmers, among all the temptations of business,\nkeep their honour as bright as any gentleman's--brighter than too\nmany gentlemen's, because they had learnt to fear God and work\nrighteousness.  I have seen great merchants and manufacturers,\nbecause that they were their brothers' keepers, spread not only\nemployment, but comfort, education, and religion, among the hundreds\nof workmen whom God had put into their charge.  I have seen great\nlandowners live truly royal lives, doing with all their might the\ngood which their hand found to do; and, after the likeness of their\nheavenly Father, causing their sun to shine on the evil and on the\ngood, and their rain to fall on the just and on the unjust.  Yes; in\nevery station of life, thy dealings will be right with men, if thy\nheart be right with God.\n\nYes.  Let us bear in mind this--that whatever we cannot be, we can\nat least be honest men.  Let us go to our graves, if possible, with\nthe feeling that there is not a man on earth, a penny the worse for\nus.  And if we have ever fouled our hands with the unrighteous\nMammon, let us cleanse them by the only possible plan, by making\nrestitution to those whom we have wronged; and so make friends of\nthe Mammon of unrighteousness, who shall forgive us, and receive us\nas friends in heaven, instead of making enemies, and going out of\nthe world with the fearful thought, that we shall meet at God's\njudgment-seat people whom we have made miserable, who will rise up\nto accuse us, and demand payment of us when it is too late for ever.\n\nLet us bear in mind, even though we cannot copy, the dying words of\nMuhammed the Arab, who, when he found his end draw near, went forth\ninto the market-place, and asked before all the people, 'Was there\nany man whom he had wronged?  If so, his own back should bear the\nstripes.  Was there any man to whom he owed money? and he should be\npaid.'  'Yes,' cried some one, 'those coins which you borrowed from\nme on such a day.'  'Pay him,' said Muhammed:  'better to be shamed\nnow on earth, than shamed in the day of judgment.'  He was a\nheathen.  And shall we Christians be worse than he?  Then let us\npray for the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, which will\nmake us faithful and true; so that no man may be the worse for us in\nthis life; no man may have to say of us, when he hears that we lie\ndying, 'He wronged me, he cheated me, he lied to me; God forgive\nhim:' but that our friends, as they carry us to the grave, may feel\nthat they have lost one whom they could respect and trust; and say,\nas the earth rattles in upon the coffin lid, 'There lies an honest\nman.'\n\n\n\nSERMON XXV.  THE SIGHS OF CHRIST\n\n\n\n(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nMark vii. 34, 35.  And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith\nunto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.  And straightway his ears\nwere opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake\nplain.\n\nWhy did the Lord Jesus look up to heaven?  And why, too, did he\nsigh?\n\nHe looked up to heaven, we may believe, because he looked to God the\nFather; to God, of whom the glorious collect tells us, that he is\nmore ready to hear than we to pray, and is wont to give more than\neither we desire or deserve.  He looked up to the Father, who is the\nfountain of life, of order, of health, of usefulness; who hates all\ndeath, disease, infirmity; who wills that none should perish, body\nor soul.\n\nMy friends, think of these cheering words; and try to look up to God\nthe Father, as Christ looked up.  Look up to him I say, if but once,\nas a Father.  Not merely as your Father, but as the Father of the\nspirits of all flesh; the good God who creates, and delights to\ncreate; who orders all worlds and heavens with perfect wisdom,\nperfect power, perfect justice, perfect love; and peoples them with\nimmortal souls and spirits, that they may be useful, happy, blessed,\nin keeping his laws, and doing the work which he has ordained for\nthem.  Oh think, if but once, of God the perfect and all-loving\nFather; and then you will know why Jesus looked up to him.\n\nAnd you will see, too, why Jesus sighed.  He sighed because he was\none with the Father.  He sighed because he had the mind of God.\nBecause God, the Lord of health and order, hates disease and\ndisorder.  Because God, the Lord of bliss and happiness, hates\nmisery and sorrow.  Because God made the world at first very good;\nand, behold, by man's sin, it has become bad.\n\nWhy did he sigh?  Surely, also, from pity for the poor man.  His\ninfirmity was no such great one; he had an impediment in his speech,\nand with it, as many are apt to have, deafness also:  but it was an\ninfirmity.  It was a disease.  It was something out of order,\nsomething gone wrong in God's world; and as such, Christ could not\nabide it; he grieved over it.  He sighed because there was sickness\nin a world where there ought to be nothing but health, and sorrow\nwhere there ought to be nothing but happiness.  He sighed, because\nman had brought this sickness and sorrow on himself by sin; for,\nremember, man alone is subject to disease.  The wild animal in the\nwood, the bird upon the tree, seldom or never know what sickness is;\nseldom or never are stunted or deformed.  They live according to\ntheir nature, healthy and happy, and die in a good old age.  While\nman--Why should I talk of what man is, of how far man is fallen from\nwhat God the Father meant him to be, while one hundred thousand\ncorpses of brave men are now fattening the plains of Italy for next\nyear's crop; while even in our favoured land, we find at every turn\nprisons and reformatories, lunatic asylums, hospitals for numberless\nkinds of horrible diseases; sickness, weakness, and death all round\nus?  Only look up yonder to Windsor Forest, and see the vast\nbuilding now in progress there before your eyes, for lunatic\nconvicts--the most miserable, perhaps, and pitiable of human\nbeings,--and let that building be a sign to you, how far man is\nfallen, and what cause Jesus had to sigh, and has to sigh still,\nover the miseries of fallen man.\n\nYes, my friends, not without reason did the old heathen poet, who\nhad no sure and certain hope of everlasting life, say, that man was\nthe most wretched of all the beasts of the field; not without reason\ndid St. Paul say, that if in this life only we have hope in Christ,\nthen the Christian man, who dare not indulge his passions and\nappetites, dare not say, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die:\nbut must curb himself, and give up his own pleasure and his own\nfancy at every turn, is of all men most miserable.\n\nIf Christ's work is done; if his mercy and help ended when he died\nupon the cross; if all he did was to heal the sick for three short\nyears in Judea a long while ago:  then what have we to which we can\nlook forward?  What hope have we, not merely for ourselves, who are\nhere now, but for all the millions who have died and suffered\nalready?  Yes:  what reasonable hope for mankind can they have, who\ndo not believe that Christ is Very God of Very God, the perfect\nlikeness of the heavenly Father?\n\nBut what if that which was true of him then, is true of him now?\nWhat if he be the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever?  What if he\nbe ascended on high, that he might fill all things with his almighty\npower, and declare that almighty power most chiefly by shewing mercy\nand pity?  What if he be for ever looking up to his Father and our\nFather, to his God and our God, interceding for ever for mankind;\nfor ever offering up to the Father that sacrifice of himself which\nhe perfected upon the Cross, for the sins of the whole world?  What\nif he be for ever sighing over every sin, every sorrow, every\ncruelty, every injustice, over all things, great and small, which go\nwrong throughout the whole world; and saying for ever, 'Father, this\nis not according to thy will.  Let thy will be done on earth, as in\nheaven.'  And what, if he does not look up in vain, nor sigh in\nvain?  What if the will of God the Father be, that sin and sorrow,\ndisease and death, being contrary to his will and law, should be at\nlast rooted out of this world, and all worlds for ever?  What if\nChrist have authority and commission from God to fight against all\nevil, sin, disease, and death, and all the ills which flesh is heir\nto; and to teach men to fight them likewise, till they conquer them\nby his might, and by his light?  What if he reigns, and will reign,\ntill he has put all enemies under his feet, and he has delivered up\nthe kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all?\nWhat if the day shall come, when all the nations of the earth shall\nthus see Christ's good works, and glorify his Father and their\nFather who is in heaven? and by obeying the Law of their being, and\nthe commandment of God, which is life eternal, shall live for ever\nin that glory, of which it is written, that a river of water of life\nshall proceed out of the throne of God and of the Lamb; and the\nleaves of the trees which grow thereby shall be for the healing of\nthe nations; and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God\nand of the Lamb shall be in the city of God, and his servants shall\nserve him; and the Lord God shall give them light; and they shall\nreign for ever and ever.\n\nWhat those words mean I know not, and hardly dare to think:  but as\nlong as those words stand in the Bible, we will have hope.  For God\nthe Father, who willeth that none should perish, and Jesus the only-\nbegotten Son, who sighed over the poor man's infirmity in Judea, are\nthe same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXVI.  THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA\n\n\n\n(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 1856.)\n\n2 Kings xviii. 9-12.  And it came to pass in the fourth year of King\nHezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of\nIsrael, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria,\nand besieged it.  And at the end of three years they took it:  even\nin the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king\nof Israel, Samaria was taken.  And the king of Assyria did carry\naway Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the\nriver of Gozon, and in the cities of the Medes:  because they obeyed\nnot the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant,\nand all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not\nhear them, nor do them.\n\nThese are very simple words:  but they are awful words enough.\nAwful enough to the poor creatures of whom they speak.  You here,\nmost of you, can hardly guess all that these words mean.  You may\nthank God that you do not.  That you do not know the horrors of war,\nand the misery of a conquered country, in old times.\n\nTo lose all they had ever earned; all that makes life worth having.\nTo have their homes burnt over their heads, their crops carried off\ntheir fields.  To see their women dishonoured, their old men and\nchildren murdered--to be insulted, beaten, and tortured to make them\ntell where their money was hidden; and after they and theirs had\nsuffered every unspeakable shame and misery from the hands of brutal\nenemies, to be stripped, bound, and marched away, for hundreds of\nmiles across the deserts, into the cold and dreary mountains of the\nnorth of Assyria, there to live and die as slaves, and never again\nto see their native land.  And such a land as it was, and is still:\nor rather might be still, if there were men in it worthy the name of\nmen.  For of all countries in the world, that land of Israel is one\nof the most rich and beautiful.  The climate and the soil there is\nsuch, that two crops can often be grown in the year, of almost any\nkind which man may need; there are rich valleys well watered, where\nnot only wheat and every grain-crop, but the olive, and the fig, and\nthe vine, flourish in perfection; rich park-like uplands, where\nsheep and cattle without number may find pasture; great forests of\ntimber, fit for every use; and all kept cool and fruitful, even\nbeneath that burning eastern sun, by the clear streams which flow\nfor ever down from Hermon. the great snow-mountain ten thousand feet\nhigh, which overlooks that pleasant land.  There is hardly,\ntravellers say, a lovelier or richer country upon earth, than the\nland of Israel, from Hebron on the south to Hermon on the north; nor\na country which might have been stronger, and safer, and more\nprosperous, if these Jews had been but wise.\n\nIt is, so to speak, one great castle, rising most of it two thousand\nfeet high, and walled in by God in a way as is seen hardly in any\nother land.  On the west lies the sea; on the south and on the east\nvast wildernesses of sandy desert; and on the north, the mighty\nmountains of Hermon and Lebanon, which no invading army could have\ncrossed, if the Jews had had courage to keep them out.  And that,\nthe noble and divine Law of Moses would have given them.  It would\nhave made them one free, brave, God-fearing people, at unity with\nitself; and the promise of Moses would have been fulfilled--that one\nof them should chase a thousand, and no man or nation be able to\nstand against them.  In David's time, and in Solomon's time also,\nthat promise came true; and that small people of the Jews became a\nvery powerful nation, respected and feared by all the kingdoms\nround.\n\nBut when they fell into idolatry, and forsook the true God, and his\nlaw:  all was changed.  Idolatry brought sin, and sin brought bad\npassions, hatred, division, weakness, ruin.\n\nThe first beginning was, the breaking up of the nation into two;--\nthe kingdom of Judah to the south, the kingdom of Israel to the\nnorth.  And with that division came envy, spite, quarrels; wars\nbetween Israel and Judah, which were but madness.  For what could\ncome of those two brother-nations fighting against each other, but\nthat both should grow weaker and weaker, and so fall a prey to some\nthird nation stronger than them both?  The ruin of the kingdom of\nIsrael, of which the text tells us, arose out of some unnatural\nquarrel of this kind.  Pekah, the king of Israel, had made friends\nwith the heathen king of Syria, and got him to join in making war on\nJudah:  and a fearful war it was; for the Israelites, according to\none account, killed in that war a hundred and twenty thousand of the\nJews, men of their own blood and language, all Abraham's descendants\nas well as they.  On which, Ahaz, king of Judah, not to be behind-\nhand in folly, sent to the heathen king of Assyria to help him, just\nas the king of Israel had sent to the king of Damascus.  He had\nbetter have been dead than to have done that.  For those terrible\nAssyrians, who had set their hearts on conquering the whole east,\nwere standing by, watching all the little kingdoms round tearing\nthemselves to pieces by foolish wars, till they were utterly weak,\nand the time was ripe for the Assyrians to pounce upon them.  The\nking of Assyria came.  He swept away all the heathen people of\nDamascus, and killed their king.  But he did not stop there.  In a\nvery few years, he came on into the land of Israel, besieged Samaria\nfor three years, and took it, and carried off the whole of the\ninhabitants of the country; and there was an end of that miserable\nkingdom of Israel, which had been sinking lower and lower ever since\nthe days of Jeroboam.  This was the natural outcome of all their sin\nand folly, of which we have been reading for the last few Sundays.\n\nElijah's warnings had been in vain, and Elisha's warnings also.\nThey liked, at heart, Ahab's and Jezebel's idolatries better than\nthey did the worship of the true God.  And why?  Because, if they\nworshipped God, and kept his laws, they must needs have been more or\nless good men, upright, just, merciful, cleanly and chaste livers:\nwhile, on the other hand, they might worship their idols, and\nnevertheless be as bad as they chose.  Indeed, the very idol-feasts\nand sacrifices were mixed up with all sorts of filthy sin,\ndrunkenness and profligacy; so that it is a shame even to speak of\nthe things which went on, especially at those sacrifices to\nAshtaroth, the queen of heaven, of which they were so fond.  They\nchoose the worse part, and refused the better; and they were filled\nwith the fruit of their own devices, as every unrepenting sinner\nsurely will be.\n\nBut did the Jews of Judea and their king escape, who had thus\nbrought the king of Assyria down to murder their own countrymen, and\nlay that fair land waste?  Not they.  A very few years more, the\nAssyrians were back again, and overran Judea itself, laying the\ncountry waste with fire and sword, till nothing was left to them,\nbut the mere city of Jerusalem.  And so they, too, were filled with\nthe fruit of their own devices.  In their madness they had destroyed\ntheir brethren, the people of Israel, who ought to have been a\nsafeguard for them to the north; now there was nothing and no man to\nprevent the Assyrians, or any other invaders, from pouring right\ndown into their land.  Truly says Solomon, 'He that diggeth a pit,\nshall fall into it, and he who breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall\nbite him.'  From that day, Judah became weaker and weaker, standing\nall alone.  Good king Hezekiah, good king Josiah, could only stave\noff her ruin for a few years; a little while longer, and her cup was\nfull too, and the Babylonians came and swept the Jews away into\ncaptivity, as the Assyrians had swept away Israel, and that fair\nland lay desolate for many a year.\n\nThe king of Assyria, we read, after he had carried away the people\nof Israel, brought heathens from Assyria, and settled them in the\nHoly Land, instead of the Israelites.  But the Lord sent lions among\nthem, we read; the land, I suppose, lying waste, the wild beasts\nincreased, and became very dangerous:  so these poor ignorant\nsettlers sent to the king of Assyria, to beg for a Jewish priest, to\nteach them, as they said, the manner of the god of that land, that\nthey might worship him, and not be terrified by the lions any more.\nIt was a simple, confused notion of theirs:  but it brought a\nblessing with it; for the king of Assyria sent them one of the\nJewish priests who had been carried away from Samaria; and he came\nand lived at Beth-el, and taught them to fear the Lord.  So these\npoor people got some confused notion of the one true God:  but they\nmixed it up sadly with their old heathen idolatry, and made gods of\ntheir own, and some of them even burnt their children in the fire,\nto Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim, from which\ntown they had come.  And so they went on for several hundred years,\nmarrying with the remnant of the Israelites who were left behind,\nand worshipping idols and the true God at the same time.  Now these\npeople are the Samaritans, of whom you read so often in the New\nTestament.  The Jews, when they came back, hated and despised the\nSamaritans, and would not speak to them, eat with them, trade with\nthem, because they were only half-blooded Jews, and did not observe\nMoses' law rightly; and so they were left to themselves:  but as\ntime went on, they seemed to have got rid of their old idolatry, and\nbuilt themselves a temple on Mount Gerizim, by Samaria, in Jacob's\nold haunts, by Jacob's well, and there worshipped they knew not\nwhat.  But still they did their best.  And their reward came at\nlast.\n\nMany a hundred years had passed away.  The proud Pharisees of\nJerusalem were still calling them dogs and infidels; when there came\nto that half-heathen city of Samaria such a one as never came there\nbefore or since; and yet had been very near that place, and those\npoor Samaritans, for a thousand years.\n\nAnd being wearied with his journey, he sat down upon the edge of\nJacob's well, by Joseph's tomb.  The well is still there, choked\nwith rubbish to this very day; and Joseph's tomb by it, all in\nruins, among broad fields of corn.  And on the edge of that well he\nsat.  Along the very road which was before him, Jeroboam, and Ahab,\nand many a wicked king of Israel, had gone in old times, travelling\nbetween Shechem and Samaria:  along that road the terrible Assyrians\nhad marched back to their own land, leading strings of weeping\nprisoners out of their pleasant native land, to slavery and misery\nin the far North.  He knew it all; and doubt not that he thought\nover it all, as never man thought on earth.  Doubt not that his\nheart yearned over these poor ignorant Samaritans, and over the\nsinful woman who came to draw water at the well.  After all, half-\nheathens as they were, Jacob's blood was in their veins; and if not,\nwere they not still human beings?  They were worshipping they knew\nnot what:  but still they were worshipping the best which they knew.\n\n'Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye\nshall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the\nFather.  Ye worship ye know not what:  we know what we worship:  for\nsalvation is of the Jews.  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the\ntrue worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:\nfor the Father seeketh such to worship him.  God is a spirit:  and\nthey that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.  The\nwoman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called\nChrist:  when he is come, he will tell us all things.  Jesus saith\nunto her, I that speak unto thee am he. . . . So when the Samaritans\nwere come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them:\nand he abode there two days.  And many more believed because of his\nown word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of\nthy saying:  for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is\nindeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.'\n\nOh, my friends, despise no man; for Christ despises none.  He is no\nrespecter of persons:  but in every nation, he that feareth God and\nworketh righteousness is accepted with him.  Despise no man; for by\nso doing you deny the Father, who has made of one blood all nations\nof men to dwell on the earth, and has appointed them their times,\nand the bounds of their habitation; if haply they may feel after\nhim, and find him:  though he be not far from any of us; for in him\nwe live and move and have our being, and are the offspring of God.\nFor hundreds of years those poor ignorant Samaritans had felt after\nhim; in that foreign land to which the cruel Assyrian conqueror had\nbanished them:  but it was God who had appointed them their\nhabitation there, and their time also; and, in due time, they found\nGod:  for he came to them, and found them, and spoke with them face\nto face.\n\nBetter to have been one of those ignorant Samaritans, than to have\nbeen King Ahab, or King Hoshea, in all their glory, with all their\nproud Jewish blood.  Better to have been one of those ignorant\nSamaritans than one of those conceited Pharisees at Jerusalem, who,\nwhile they were priding themselves on being Abraham's children, and\nkeeping Moses' law, ended by crucifying him who made Abraham, and\nMoses, and his law, and them themselves.  Better to be the poorest\nnegro slave, if, in the midst of his ignorance and misery and shame,\nhe believes in Christ, and works righteousness, than the cleverest\nand proudest and freest Englishman, if, in the midst of his great\nlight, he works the works of darkness, and, while he calls himself a\nchild of God, lives the sinful life, on which God's curse lies for\never.\n\nSo you who have many advantages, take warning by the fate of those\nfoolish Jews, who knew a great deal, and yet did not do it, and so\ncame to shame and ruin.  And you who have few advantages, take\ncomfort by those poor Samaritans, who knew a very little, and yet\nmade the best of it, and so at last saw a great light, after sitting\nin darkness for so long.  Schools, books, church-going, ordinances\nof all kinds, they are good.  If you can get them, use them, and\nthank God for them:  but remember, God does not ask for learning,\nbut for goodness and holiness:  he does not ask for knowledge, but\nfor a right life.  And do not fancy, that because your children have\na good education now, and you had none, that God does not love you\nas well as he loves them.  His mercy is over all his works; and the\npromises are to you as well as to your children.  There is many a\npoor soul who never read a book in her life, who is nearer God than\nmany a great scholar, and fine preacher, and learned divine.  All\nChrist asks of you is, to receive him when he comes to you; and to\nlove, and thank, and admire him, and try to be like him, because he\nwill make you like him:  while for the rest to whom little is given,\nof him shall little be required; and to him who uses what he has, be\nit little or much, more shall be given, and he shall have abundance.\nFor God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that\nfeareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted by him.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXVII.  THE INVASION OF THE ASSYRIANS\n\n\n\n(Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, Morning.)\n\n2 Kings xix. 15-19.  And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said,\nO Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art\nthe Lord, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou\nhast made heaven and earth.  Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear:\nopen, Lord, thine eyes, and see:  and hear the words of Sennacherib,\nwhich hath sent him to reproach the living God.  Of a truth, Lord,\nthe kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and\nhave cast their gods into the fire:  for they were no gods, but the\nwork of men's hands, wood and stone:  therefore they have destroyed\nthem.  Now, therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us\nout of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that\nthou art the Lord God, even thou only.\n\nThis noble story, which we read in Church every year, seems to have\nhad a great hold on the minds of the Jews.  They plainly thought it\na very important story.  For it is told three times over in the\nBible:  first in the Book of Kings, then in the Book of Chronicles,\nand again in that of the Prophet Isaiah.  Indeed, many chapters of\nIsaiah's prophecies speak altogether of this invasion of the\nAssyrians and their destruction.  But what has this story to do with\nus, you may ask?  There are no miracles in our day.  We can expect\nno angels to fight for our armies.  We must fight for ourselves.\n\nTrue, my friends:  but the lesson of these old stories, the moral of\nthem stands good for ever.  And I am thankful that this very story\nis appointed to be read publicly in church once a year, to put us in\nmind of many things, which all men are too apt to forget.\n\nFor instance:  to learn one lesson out of many which this chapter\nmay teach us.  We are too apt to think that peace and prosperity are\nthe only signs of God's favour.  That if a nation be religious, it\nis certain to thrive and be happy.  But it is not so.  We find from\nhistory that the times in which nations have shewn most nobleness,\nmost courage, most righteousness, most faith in God, have been times\nof trouble, and danger, and terror.  When nations have been invaded,\npersecuted, trampled under foot by tyrants, then all the good which\nwas in them has again and again shewed itself.  Then to the\nastonishment of the world they have become greater than themselves,\nand done deeds which win them glory for ever.  Then they are truly\npurged in the fire of affliction, that whatever dross and trash is\nin their hearts may be burnt out, and the pure gold left.\n\nSo it was with the Jews in Hezekiah's time.  So again in the time of\nthe Maccabees.  So with the old Greeks, when the great Kings of\nPersia tried to enslave them.  So with the old Romans, when the\nCarthaginians set upon them.  So it was with us English, three\nhundred years ago, when for a time the whole world seemed against\nus, because we alone were standing up for the Gospel and the Bible\nagainst the Pope of Rome.  Then the king of Spain, who was then as\nterrible a conqueror and devourer of nations, as the Assyrians of\nold, sent against us the Great Armada.  Then was England in greater\ndanger than she had ever been before, or has been since.\n\nAnd what came of it?  That that dreadful danger brought out more\nfaith, more courage, than perhaps has ever been among us since.\nThat when we seemed weakest we were strongest.  That while all the\nnations of Europe were looking on to see us devoured up by those\nSpaniards, our laws and liberties taken from us, the Popish\nInquisition set up in England, and England made a Spanish province,\nwhat they did see was, the people of this little island rising as\none man, to fight for themselves on earth, while the tempests of God\nfought for them from heaven; and all that mighty fleet of the King\nof Spain routed and scattered, till not one man in a hundred ever\nsaw their native country again.\n\nAnd in England, after that terrible trial had passed over us, there\nrose up the best and noblest time which she had ever yet beheld.\n\nYes, my friends, three hundred years ago we went through just such a\nfiery trial as the Jews went through in Hezekiah's time; and God\ngrant that we may never forget that lesson.\n\nBut what is true of whole nations, is often true also of each single\nperson; of you and me.\n\nTo almost every man, at least once in his life, comes a time of\ntrial--what we call a crisis.  A time when God purges the man, and\ntries him in the fire, and burns up the dross in him, that the pure\nsterling gold only may be left.\n\nTo some people it comes in the shape of some terrible loss, or\naffliction.  To others it comes in the shape of some great\ntemptation.  Nay, if we will consider, it comes to us all, perhaps\noften, in that shape.  A man is brought to a point where he must\nchoose between right and wrong.  God puts him where the two roads\npart.  One way turns off to the broad road, which leads to\ndestruction:  the other way turns off to the narrow road which leads\nto life.  The man would be glad to go both ways at once, and do\nright and wrong too:  but it so happens that he cannot.  Then he\nwould be glad to go neither way, and stay where he is:  but he\ncannot.  He must move on.  He must do something.  Perhaps he is\nasked a question which he does not wish to answer:  but he must.  It\nwould be well worth his while to tell a lie.  It would be very safe\nfor him, profitable for him; while it would be very dangerous for\nhim to tell the truth.  He might ruin himself once and for all, by\nbeing an honest man.  Now which shall he do?  He would be glad to do\nboth, glad to do neither:  but choose he must; speak he must.  He\nmust either lie or tell the truth.  Then comes the trial, whether he\nbelieves in God and in Christ, or whether he does not.  If he only\nbelieves, as too many do without knowing it, in a dead God, a God\nfar away, he will lie.  If he only believes, as too many do without\nknowing it, in a dead Christ, a Christ who bore his sins on the\ncross eighteen hundred years ago, but since then has had nothing to\ndo with him to speak of, as far as he knows--then he will lie.  And\nthat is the God and the Christ which most people believe in:  and\ntherefore when the time of trial comes, they fall away, and do and\nsay things of which they ought to be ashamed, because their trust is\nnot in God, but in man.\n\nBut if that man believes in the living God, and believes that he\nlives, and moves, and has his being in God, he cannot lie.  As it is\nwritten, 'he that is born of God, sinneth not, for his seed\nremaineth in him, and that wicked one toucheth him not.'  He will\nsay, Whatever happens, I must obey God, and not man.  The Lord is on\nmy side, therefore I will not fear what man can do to me.\n\nAnd what is the seed which remains in that man, and keeps him from\nplaying the coward?  Christ himself, the seed and Son of God.  If he\nbelieves in the living Christ; if he believes that Christ is really\nhis master, his teacher, who is watching over him, training him,\nfrom his cradle to his grave;--if he believes that Christ is\ndwelling in him, that whatever wish to do right he has comes from\nChrist, whatever sense of honour and honesty he has comes from\nChrist; then it will seem to him a dreadful thing to lie, to play\nthe hypocrite, or the coward; to sin against his own better\nfeelings.  It will be sinning against Christ himself.\n\nRemember the great Martin Luther, when he stood on one side, a poor\nmonk standing up for the Bible and the Gospel, and against him were\narrayed the Pope and the Emperor, cardinals, bishops, and almost all\nthe princes in Europe; and his friends wanted him to hold his\ntongue, or to say Yes and No at once; in short, to smooth over the\nmatter in some way.--What conceit, said many, of one poor monk\nstanding up against all the world; and what folly, too!  He would\ncertainly be burnt alive.  But Luther could not hold his tongue.  He\nwas afraid enough, no doubt.  He disliked being burnt as much as\nother men.  But he felt he must speak God's truth then or never.  He\nmust bear witness for Christ's free gospel, against Pope, Emperor,\nall the devils in hell, if need be, or else hereafter for ever hold\nhis peace.  He must play the honest man that day, or be a hypocrite\nand a rogue for ever.  His friends said to him, 'If you go to the\nCouncil, Duke George will have you burnt.'  He answered, 'If it\nsnowed Duke Georges nine days together, I must go.'  They said, 'If\nyou go into that town, you will never leave it alive.'  He said, 'If\nthere were as many devils in the town as there are tiles on the\nhouses, I must go.'  And he went, Bible in hand, and said, 'Here I\nstand; I can do no otherwise.  God help me!'  He went, and he\nconquered.\n\nAnd so it will be with you, my friends, if you will believe in the\nliving God, and in the living Christ; then, when temptation comes,\nyou will be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to\nstand.  And you will feel yourselves better men from that day\nforward.  You will feel that you have made one great step upward;\nyou will look back upon that time of temptation and perplexity as\nthe beginning of a new life; as a sign to you that Christ is with\nyou, and in you, training you and shaping your character, till he\nmakes you, at last, somewhat like himself; somewhat of the stature\nof a true man; somewhat like what he has bidden you to be, 'perfect\nas your Father in heaven is perfect.'\n\n\n\nSERMON XXVIII.  THE TEN LEPERS\n\n\n\n(Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nLuke xvii. 17, 18.  Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the\nnine?  There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save\nthis stranger.\n\nNo men, one would have thought, had more reason to thank God than\nthose nine lepers.  Afflicted with a filthy and tormenting disease,\nhopelessly incurable, at least in those days, they were cut off from\nfamily and friends, cut off from all mankind; forced to leave their\nhomes, and wander away; forbidden to enter the houses of men, or the\nchurches of God; forbidden, for fear of infection, to go near any\nhuman being; keeping no company but that of wretched lepers like\nthemselves, and forced to get their living by begging; by standing\n(as the Gospel says) afar off, and praying the passers-by to throw\nthem a coin.\n\nIn this wretched state, in which they had been certain of living and\ndying miserably, they met the Lord:  and suddenly, instantly, beyond\nall hope or expectation, they found themselves cured, restored to\ntheir families, their homes, their power of working, their rights as\ncitizens; restored to all that makes life worth having, and that\nfreely, and in a moment.  If such a blessing had come to us, should\nwe have thought any thanks too great!  Would not our whole lives\nhave been too short to bless God for his great mercy?  Should we\nhave gone away, like those nine, without a word of thanks to God, or\neven to the man who had healed us?  What stupidity, hardhearted-\nness, ingratitude of those nine, never to have even thanked the Lord\nfor their restoration to health and happiness.\n\nAy, so we think.  Yet those nine lepers were men of like passions\nwith ourselves; and what they did, we perhaps might do in their\nplace.  It is very humbling to think so:  but the Bible is a\nhumbling book:  and, therefore, a wholesome book, profitable for\nreproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.  And I am\nvery much afraid that when the Bible tells us that nine out of ten\nof those lepers were ungrateful to God, it tells us that nine out of\nten of us are ungrateful likewise.\n\nUngrateful to God?  I fear so; and more ungrateful, I fear, than\nthose ten lepers.  For which of the two is better off, the man who\nloses a good thing, and then gets it back again; or the man who\nnever loses it at all, but enjoys it all his life?  Surely the man\nwho never loses it at all.  And which of the two has more cause to\nthank God?  Those lepers had been through a very miserable time;\nthey had had great affliction; and that, they might feel, was a set-\noff against their good fortune in recovering their health.  They had\nbad years to balance their good ones.  But we--how many of us have\nhad nothing but good years?  Oh consider, consider the history of\nthe average of us.  How we grow up tolerably healthy, tolerably\ncomfortable, in a free country, under just laws, with the power of\nearning our livelihood, and the certainty of keeping what we earn.\nFamine we know nothing of in this happy land; war, and the horrors\nof war, we knew nothing of--God grant we never may.  In health,\nsafety and prosperity most of us grow up; forced, it is true, to\nwork hard:  but that, too, is a blessing; for what better thing for\na man, soul and body, than to be forced to work hard?  In health,\nsafety and prosperity; leaving children behind us, to prosper as we\nhave done.  And how many of us give God the glory, or Christ the\nthanks?\n\nBut if these be our bodily blessings, what are our spiritual\nblessings?  Has not God given us his only-begotten son Jesus Christ?\nHas he not baptised us into his Church?  Has he not forgiven our\nsins?  Has he not revealed to us that he is our Father, and we his\nchildren?  Has he not given us the absolutely inestimable blessing\nof his commandments?  Of knowing what the right thing to be done is,\nthat we may do it and live for ever; that treasure of which not only\nSolomon, but the wise men of old held, that to know what was right\nwas a more precious possession than rubies and fine gold, and all\nthe wealth of Ind?  Has he not given us the hope of a joyful\nimmortality, of everlasting life after death, not only with those\nwhom we have loved and lost, but with God himself?\n\nAnd how many of us give God the glory, and Christ the thanks?  Do we\nnot copy those nine lepers, and just shew ourselves to the priest?--\nCome to church on the Sunday, because it is the custom; people\nexpect it of us; and God, we understand, expects it too:  but where\nis the gratitude?  Where is the giving of glory to God for all his\ngoodness?  Which are we most like?  Children of God, looking up to\nour Father in heaven, and saying, at every fresh blessing, Father, I\nthank thee.  Truly thou knowest my necessities before I ask, and my\nignorance in asking?--Or, like the stalled ox, which eats, and eats,\nand eats, and never thanks the hand which feeds him?\n\nWe are too comfortable, I think, at times.  We are so much\naccustomed to be blest by God, that we take his blessings as matters\nof course, and feel them no more than we do the air we breathe.\n\nThe wise man says--\n\n\nOur torments may by length of time become\nOur elements;\n\n\nand I am sure our blessings may.  They say that people who endure\ncontinual pain and misery, get at length hardly to feel it.  And so,\non the other hand, people who have continual prosperity get at\nlength hardly to feel that.  God forgive us!  My friends, when I say\nthis to you, I say it to myself.  If I blame you, I blame myself.\nIf I warn you, I warn myself.  We most of us need warning in these\ncomfortable times; for I believe that it is this very\nunrighteousness of ours which brings many of our losses and troubles\non us.  If we are so dull that we will not know the value of a thing\nwhen we have got it, then God teaches us the value of it by taking\nit from us.  He teaches us the value of health by making us feel\nsickness; he teaches us the value of wealth by making us feel\npoverty.  I do not say it is always so.  God forbid.  There are\nthose who suffer bitter afflictions, not because they have sinned,\nbut that, like the poor blind man, the glory of God may be made\nmanifest in them.  There are those too who suffer no sorrow at all,\neven though they feel, in their thoughtful moments, that they\ndeserve it.  And miserable enough should we all be, if God punished\nus every time we were ungrateful to him.  If he dealt with us after\nour sins, and rewarded us according to our iniquities, where should\nwe be this day?\n\nBut still, I cannot but believe that if we do go on in prosperity,\ncareless and unthankful, we are running into danger; we are likely\nto bring down on ourselves some sorrow or anxiety which will teach\nus, which at least is meant to teach us--from whom all good things\ncome; and to know that the Lord has given, when the Lord has taken\naway.\n\nGod grant that when that lesson is sent to us we may learn it.\nLearn it, perhaps, at once, and in a moment, we cannot.  Weak flesh\nand blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God, and see that he is\nruling us, and all things, in love and justice; and our eyes are, as\nit were, dimmed with our tears, so that we cannot see God's\nhandwriting upon the wall against us.  But at length, when the first\nburst of sorrow is past, we may learn it; and, like righteous Job,\njustify God; saying,--The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,\nblessed be the name of the Lord.  If we do that, and give God the\nglory, it may be with us, after all, as it was with Job, when God\ngave him back sevenfold for all that he had taken away, wealth and\nprosperity, sons and daughters.  For God doth not afflict willingly,\nnor grieve the children of men out of spite.  His punishments are\nnot revenge, but correction; and, as a father, he chastises his\nchildren, not to harm, but to bless them.\n\nAnd God grant that if that day, too, comes--if after sorrow comes\njoy, if after storm comes sunshine--we may not forget God afresh in\nour prosperity, nor go our ways like those dull-hearted Jews, after\nthey were cleansed from their leprosy:  but, like the Samaritan,\nreturn, and give glory to God, who gives, and delights in giving;\nand only takes away, that he may lift up our souls to him, in whom\nwe live, and move, and have our being:  and so, knowing who we are,\nand where we are, may live in God, and by God, and for God, in this\nlife, and for ever.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIX.  PARDON AND PEACE\n\n\n\n(Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nPsalm xxxii. 1-7.  Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,\nwhose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord\nimputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.  When\nI kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day\nlong.  For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me:  my moisture is\nturned into the drought of summer.  I acknowledge my sin unto thee,\nand mine iniquity have I not hid.  I said, I will confess my\ntransgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my\nsin.  For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a\ntime when thou mayest be found:  surely in the floods of great\nwaters they shall not come nigh unto him.  Thou art my hiding place;\nthou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shall compass me about\nwith songs of deliverance.\n\nThe collect for to-day is a very beautiful one.  There is something\nmusical in the sound of the very words; so musical, that it is sung\nas an anthem in many churches.  Let us think a little over it.\n'Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people\npardon and peace; that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and\nserve thee with a quiet mind, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.'\nThat is a noble prayer; and a prayer for each and every one of us,\nevery day.  I say for every day.  It is not like the fifty-first\npsalm, the prayer of a man who has committed some black and dreadful\ncrime; who fears lest God should take his Holy Spirit from him, and\nleave him to remorse and horror; who feels that he needs to be\nutterly changed, and have a new heart created within him.  It is not\na prayer of that kind.  It is rather the prayer of a man who is\nweary with the burden of sinful mortality; who finds it very hard\nwork to do his duty, even tolerably well; who is dissatisfied with\nhimself, and ashamed of himself, not about one great fault, but\nabout many little faults; and who wants to be cleansed from them;\nwho is tempted to be fretful, anxious, out of heart, because things\ngo wrong; and because he feels it partly his own fault that things\ngo wrong; and who, therefore, wants peace, that he may serve God\nwith a quiet mind.  Now then, dear friends, did I not speak truth,\nwhen I said, this is a prayer for every one of us, and for every\nday?  For which of us does his duty as he ought?  I take for\ngranted, we are all trying to do our duty, better or worse:  but I\ntake for granted, too, that the more we try to do our duty, the more\ndissatisfied with ourselves we are; and the more we find we have\nsins without number to be cleansed from.  For the more we try to do\nour duty, the higher notion we get of what our duty is; the more we\ndo, the more we feel we ought to do; and the more we feel that we\nleave undone a great many things which we ought to do, and do a\ngreat many things which we ought not to do, and that there is no\nhealth in us:  but a great deal of disease and weakness;--disease of\nsoul, in the way of conceit, pride, selfishness, temper, obstinacy;\nweakness, in the way of laziness, fearfulness, and very often of\nsheer stupidity; we do not see, or rather will not take the trouble\nto see, what we ought to do, and how to do it.  And therefore, we\nmust be, or rather ought to be, dissatisfied with ourselves; and our\nconsciences accuse us when we lie down at night, of a hundred petty\nmiserable mistakes, which we ought to have avoided.  We are\ncontinually knowing what is right, and doing what is wrong, till we\nget deservedly angry with ourselves; and think at times, that God\nmust be deservedly angry with us; that we are such poor paltry\ncreatures that he can only look on us with dislike and contempt:\nand even worse; that, perhaps, he does not care to see us mend; that\nour struggles to do right are of no value in his eyes:  but that he\nhas sternly left us to ourselves, to struggle through life, right or\nwrong, as best we may; and to be punished at last, for all that we\nhave done amiss.\n\nSuch thoughts will cross our minds.  They have crossed the minds of\nall mankind since the first man's conscience awoke, and he\ndiscovered that he was not a brute animal, by finding in himself\nthat awful thought, which no brute animal can have--'I have done\nwrong.'  And therefore the consciences of men will cry for pardon,\njust in proportion as they are worthy of the name of men, and not\nmerely a superior sort of animals; and therefore just in proportion\nas our souls are alive in us, alive with the feeling of duty, of\njustice, of purity, of love, of a just and orderly God above--just\nin that proportion shall we be tormented by the difference between\nwhat we are, and what we ought to be; and the sense of sin, and the\nlonging for pardon, will be more keen in us; and we shall have no\nrest till the sins are got rid of, and the pardon sure.  That is the\nprice we pay for having immortal souls.  It is a heavy price truly:\nbut it is well worth the paying, if it be only paid aright.  If that\ntormenting feeling of being continually wrong in this life, ends by\nmaking us continually right for ever in the world to come; if Christ\nbe formed in us at last; if out of our sinful and mortal manhood a\nsinless and immortal manhood is born;--then shall we, like the\nmother over her new-born babe, forget our anguish, for joy that a\nman is born into the world.\n\nBut, again, besides pardon, we want peace.  Who does not know that\nstate of mind in which, perhaps, without any great reason in\nreality, one has no peace?  When everything seems to go wrong with a\nman.  When he suspects everybody to be against him.  When little\ntroubles, which he could bear easily enough at other times, seem\nquite intolerable to him.  When he is troubled with vain regrets\nabout the past--'Ah, if I had done this and that!' and vain fears\nfor the future, conjuring up in his mind all sorts of bad luck which\nmay, but most probably never will, happen; and yet from off which he\ncannot turn his mind.  Who does not know this frame of mind?\n\nTrue, a great deal of this may depend on ill-health; and will pass\naway as the man's bodily condition gets better.  We know, in the\nsame way, that the strange anxiety which comes over us in sleepless\nnights, comes from bodily causes.  That is merely because, the\ncirculation of our blood being quickened, our brain becomes more\nactive; and because we are lying alone in the silent darkness, with\nnothing to listen to or look at, we cannot turn our attention away\nfrom the thoughts which get possession of us and torment us.  That\nis only bodily; and yet it may be very useful to our souls.  As we\nlie awake, our own past lives, our own past mistakes and sins, and\nGod's past blessings and mercies, too, may rise up before us with\nclearness, and teach us more than a hundred sermons; and we may\nfind, with David, that our reins chasten us in the night-season.\n'When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God; when my heart is\nvexed, I will complain.  Thou holdest mine eyes waking. . . . I have\nconsidered the days of old, and the years that are past.  I call to\nremembrance my song, and in the night I commune with my own heart,\nand search out my spirits.  Will the Lord absent himself for ever,\nand will he be no more intreated?  Is his mercy clean gone for ever:\nand is his promise come utterly to an end for evermore?  Hath God\nforgotten to be gracious:  and will he shut up his loving-kindness\nin displeasure?  And I said it is mine own infirmity.  But I will\nremember the years of the right hand of the Most Highest.'  These\nsleepless hours taught the Psalmist somewhat; and they may teach us\nlikewise.  And so, again, with these sad and fretful frames of mind.\nEven if they do partly come from our bodies, they have a real\neffect, which cannot be mistaken, on our souls; and they may have a\ngood effect on us, if we choose.  I believe that we shall find, that\neven if they do come from ill health and weak nerves, what starts\nthem is--that we are dissatisfied with ourselves.  We feel something\nwrong, not merely in our bodies, but in our souls, our characters;\nand then we try to lay the blame on the world around us, and shift\nit off ourselves; saying in our hearts, 'I should do very well, if\nother people, and things about me, would only let me:' but the more\nwe try to shift off the blame, the less peace we have.  Nothing\nmends matters less than throwing the blame on others.  That is\nplain.  Other people we cannot mend; they must mend themselves.\nCircumstances about us we cannot mend; God must mend them.  So, as\nlong as we throw the blame on them, we cannot return to a cheerful\nand hopeful frame of mind.  But the moment we throw the blame on\nourselves, that moment we can have hope, that moment we can become\ncheerful again; for whatsoever else we cannot mend, we can at least\nmend ourselves.  Now a man may forget this in health.  He may be put\nout and unhappy for a while:  but when his good spirits return, he\ndoes not know why.  Things have not improved; but, somehow, they do\nnot affect him as they did before.  Now this is not wrong.  God\nforbid!  In such a world as this, one is glad to see a man rid of\nsadness by any means which is not wrong.  Better anything than that\na poor soul should fret himself to death.\n\nBut it may be very good for a man now and then not to forget; to be\nkept low, whether by ill health or by any other cause, till he faces\nfairly his own state, and finds out honestly what does fret him and\ntorment him.\n\nAnd then, I believe, his experience will generally be like David's.--\n'As long as I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my groaning\nall the day long.'\n\nThink over these words, I beg you.  I chose them for my text, just\nbecause they seem to me to contain all that I wish you to\nunderstand.  As long as the Psalmist held his peace--as long as he\ndid not confess his sin to God--all seemed to go wrong with him.  He\nfretted his very heart away.  The moment that he made a clean breast\nto God, peace and cheerfulness came back to him.\n\nThis psalm may speak of some really great sin which he had\ncommitted.  But that makes all the more strongly for us.  For if he\ngot forgiveness for a great sin, by merely confessing it, how much\nmore may we hope to be forgiven, for the comparatively little sins\nof which I am now speaking?  Surely there is forgiveness for them.\nSurely we, Christians, are not worse off than the old Jews.  God\nforbid!  What does the Bible tell us?  If we confess our sins, he is\nfaithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all\nunrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a\nliar, and his word is not in us.  And again, if we walk in the\nlight; that is, if we look honestly at our own hearts, and confess\nhonestly to God what we see wrong there; then we have fellowship one\nwith another; all our frettings and grudgings against our fellow-men\npass away; and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.\nGod forbid again!  For what is the message of the Absolution,\nwhether general in the church, or private by the sick-bed, but this--\nthat there is continual forgiveness for those who really confess\nand repent?  God forbid again!  For what is the message of the Holy\nCommunion, but that we really are forgiven, really helped by God not\nto do the like again; that the stains and scars of our daily\nmisdoings are truly healed by God's grace; and power given us to\nlead a healthier life, the longer we persevere in the struggle after\nGod.\n\nTherefore, instead of proudly laying the blame of our unhappiness on\nour fellow-men, much less on God and his providence, let us cast\nourselves, in every hour of shame or of sadness, on the boundless\nlove of him who hateth nothing that he hath made; who so loved the\nworld that he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us\nall.  How shall he not with him freely give us all things?  Let us\nopen our weary hearts to him who watches with tender interest, as of\na father watching the growth of his child, over every struggle of\nours from worse to better; and so we shall have our reward.  The\nmore we trust to the love of God, the more shall we feel his love--\nfeel that we are pardoned--feel that we are at peace.  We may not\ngrow more cheerful as we grow older; but we shall grow more\npeaceful.  Sadder men, it may be; but wiser men also; caring less\nand less for pleasure; caring even less and less for mere happiness:\nbut finding a lasting comfort in the knowledge that we are doing our\nlife's work not altogether ill, under the smile of Almighty God;\naware more and more of our own weakness, and of our own failings:\nbut trusting that God will take the will for the deed, and forgive\nus what we have left undone, and accept what we have done, for the\nsake of Christ, in whom, and not in our own poor paltry selves, he\nlooks upon us as his adopted children.\n\nOnly let us remember to ask for pardon and to ask for peace, that we\nmay use them as the collect bids us;--To ask for pardon, not merely\nthat we may escape punishment; not even to escape punishment at all,\nif punishment be wholesome for us, as it often is:  but that we may\nbe cleansed from our sins; that we may not be left to our own\nweakness and our own bad habits, to grow more and more useless, more\nand more unhappy, day by day, but that we may be cleansed from them;\nand grow purer, nobler, juster, stronger, more worthy of our place\nin God's kingdom, as our years roll by.  Let us remember to ask for\npeace, not merely to get rid of unpleasant thoughts, or unpleasant\npeople, or unpleasant circumstances; and then sit down and say,\nSoul, take thine ease, eat and drink, for thou hast much goods laid\nup for many years:  but let us ask for peace, that we may serve God\nwith a quiet mind; that we may get rid of the impatient, cowardly,\ndiscontented, hopeless heart, which will not let a man go about his\nbusiness like a man; and get, instead of it, by the inspiration of\nGod's Holy Spirit, the calm, contented, brave, hopeful heart, in the\nstrength of which a man can work with a will wherever God may put\nhim, even amidst vexation, confusion, disappointment, slander, and\npersecution; and, in his place and calling, serve the Lord, who\nserved him when he died for him, and who serves him, and all his\npeople, now and for ever in heaven.\n\nSo shall we have real pardon, and real peace.  A pardon which will\nmake us really better; and a peace which will make us really more\nuseful.  And to be good and to be useful were the two ends for which\nGod sent us into the world at all.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXX.  THE CENTRAL SUN\n\n\n\n(Sunday after Ascension, Evening.)\n\nEphesians iv. 9. 10.  Now that he ascended, what is it but that he\nalso descended first into the lower parts of the earth?  He that\ndescended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens,\nthat he might fill all things.\n\nThis is one of those very deep texts which we are not meant to think\nabout every day; only at such seasons as this, when we have to think\nof Christ ascending into heaven, that he might send down his Spirit\nat Whitsuntide.  Of this the text speaks; and therefore, we may, I\nhope, think a little of it to-day, but reverently, and cautiously,\nlike men who know a very little, and are afraid of saying more than\nthey know.  These deep mysteries about heaven we must always meddle\nwith very humbly, lest we get out of our depth in haste and self-\nconceit.  As it is said,\n\n\nFools rush in where angels fear to tread.\n\n\nFor, if we are not very careful, we shall be apt to mistake the\nmeaning of Scripture, and make it say what we like, and twist it to\nsuit our own fancies, and our own ignorance.  Therefore we must\nnever, with texts like this, say positively, 'It must mean this.  It\ncan mean only this.'  How can we tell that?\n\nThis world, which we do see, is far too wonderful for us to\nunderstand.  How much more wonderful must be the world which we do\nnot see?  How much more wonderful must heaven be?  How can we tell\nwhat is there, or what is not there?  We can tell of some things\nthat are not there, and those are sin, evil, disorder, harm of any\nkind.  Heaven is utterly good.  Beyond that, we know nothing.\nTherefore I dare not be positive about this text, for fear I should\ntry to explain it according to my own fancies.  Wise fathers and\ndivines have differed very much as to what it means; how far any one\nof them is right, I cannot tell you.\n\nThe ancient way of explaining this text was this.  People believed\nin old times that the earth was flat.  Then, they held, hell was\nbelow the earth, or inside it in some way:  and the burning\nmountains, out of which came fire and smoke, were the mouths of\nhell.  And when they believed that, it was easy for them to suppose\nthat St. Paul spoke of Christ's descending into hell.  He went down,\nsays St. Paul, into the lower parts of the earth.  What could those\nlower parts be, they asked, but the hell which lay under the earth?\n\nNow about that we know nothing.  St. Paul himself never says that\nhell is below the earth.  Indeed (and this is a very noteworthy\nthing) St. Paul never, in his epistles, mentions in plain words hell\nat all; so what St. Paul thought about the matter, we can never\nknow.  Whether by Christ's descending into the lower parts of the\nearth, he meant descending into hell, or merely that our Lord came\ndown on this earth of ours, poor, humble, and despised, laying his\nglory by for a while, this we cannot tell.  Some wise men think one\nthing, some another.  Two of the wisest and best of the great old\nfathers of the Church think that he meant only Christ's death and\nburial.  So how dare I give a positive opinion, where wiser men than\nI differ?\n\nBut about the other half of the text, which says, that he ascended\nhigh above all heavens, there is no such difficulty.\n\nAll agree as to what that means:  though, perhaps, in old times they\nwould have put it in different words.\n\nThe old belief was, that as hell was below the flat earth, so heaven\nwas above it; and that there were many heavens, seven heavens, in\nlayers, as it were, one above the other; and that the seventh\nheaven, which was the highest of all, was where God dwelt.  Now,\nwhether St. Paul believed this, we cannot tell.  He speaks of being\nhimself caught up into the third heaven, and here Christ is spoken\nof as ascending above all heavens.\n\nMy own belief, though I say it very humbly, is, that St. Paul spoke\nof these things only as a figure of speech, for the sake of the\nignorance of the people to whom he was writing.  They talked in that\nway; and he was forced now and then to talk in that way, too, to\nmake them understand him.  I think that, when he spoke of being\ncaught up into the third heaven, he did not mean that he was lifted\nbodily off the earth into the skies:  but that his soul was raised\nup and enlightened to understand high and wonderful heavenly\nmatters, though not the highest or most wonderful.  If he had meant\nthat, he would have said, that he was caught up into the seventh\nheaven.  We know that our Lord, in the same way, continually used\nparables; because, as he said, the ignorant people could not\nunderstand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; and he had,\ntherefore, to put them into parables, taken from the common country\nmatters, and country forms of speech, if by any means he might make\nthem understand.  And so, I suppose, it was with St. Paul.  He had\nto speak in such a way that he could be understood; and no more.\n\nBut when he says that Christ ascended far above all heavens, we are\nto believe this--that he ascended to God himself.  So high that he\ncould go no higher; so far that he could go no farther.\n\nWe, now, do not believe that there are seven heavens above the\nearth; and we need not.  It is no doctrine of the Church, or of the\nCreeds.  We know that the earth is round, and not flat; and that the\nheavens, if by that we mean the sky, is neither above it, nor below\nit, but round it on every side.  But some may say, whither, then,\ndid our Lord ascend?  To what place did his body go up?  And that is\na right question; for we must always bear in mind that not merely\nChrist's godhead but his manhood, not merely Christ's soul but his\nbody also, ascended into heaven.  If we do not believe that, we do\nnot hold the Catholic faith.  Whither, then, did Christ ascend?\n\nMy friends, we know this.  That this earth and the planets move\nround the sun, which is in the centre of them.  We know this, too;\nthat all the countless stars which spangle the sky are really suns\nlikewise, perhaps, with worlds which we cannot see, moving round\nthem, as we move round the sun.  We know, too, that these fixed\nstars, as they seem to be, are not really fixed, but have some\nregular movements among themselves, which seem very slow and small\nto us, from their immense distance, but which really are very great\nand fast.\n\nNow all these suns and stars, it is reasonable to believe, most\nprobably have a centre.  There must be order among them; and they\nmost probably move round one thing, one place, one central sun, as\nit were, which is the very heart of all the worlds, and the whole\nuniverse.  Where that place is, or what it is like, we know not, and\ncannot know.  Only this we may believe, that it is glorious beyond\nall that eye hath seen, and ear heard, or hath entered into the\nheart of man to conceive.  If this world be beautiful, how beautiful\nmust that world of all worlds be.  If the sun be glorious, how\nglorious must the sun of all suns be.  If the heaven over us be\ngrand, how grand must that heaven of heavens be.  We will not talk\nof it; for we cannot imagine it:  and if we tried to, we should only\nlower it to our own low fancies.  But is it not reasonable to\nsuppose, that there God the Father does, perhaps, in some\nunspeakable way, shew forth his glory?  That there, in the heart of\nall the worlds, Cherubim and Seraphim continually adore him, crying\nday and night, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth:  Heaven and\nearth are full of the majesty of thy glory!' before his throne from\nwhich goes forth light, and power, and life, to all worlds and all\ncreated things.\n\nAnd is it not reasonable to believe, that there Christ is, in the\nbosom of the Father, and at the right hand of God?  We know that\nthose, too, are only figures.  That God is a Spirit, everywhere and\nnowhere; and has not hands as we have.  But it is only by such\nfigures that the Bible can make us understand the truth, that Christ\nis the highest being in all heavens and worlds; equal with God the\nFather, and sharer of his kingdom, and power, and glory, God blessed\nfor ever.  Amen.\n\nWhat then does St. Paul mean, when he says, 'That he may fill all\nthings?'  I do not know.  And I will take care not to lessen and\nspoil St. Paul's words, by any ignorant words of my own.  But one\nthing I know it will mean one day, for St. Paul says so.  That\nChrist reigns, and will reign, triumphant over sin, and death, and\nhell, till he have put all enemies under his feet, and the last\nenemy that shall be destroyed is death.  Then shall he deliver up\nthe kingdom to God, even the Father; that God may be all in all.\nWhat that means I do not know.  But this I can say, and you can say.\nWe can pray that God will finish the number of his elect and hasten\nhis kingdom, that we, with all that are departed in the true faith,\nmay have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul,\nin his eternal kingdom.  And this I can say, that it means now, for\nyou and me; for Whitsuntide tells me:--that whatever else Christ can\nor cannot fill, he can at least fill our hearts, because he is in\nthe bosom of the Father himself; and therefore from him, as from the\nFather, proceeds the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.  That\nSpirit will proceed even to us, if we will have him.  He will fill\nour hearts with himself; with the Spirit of goodness, which proceeds\nout of the heaven of heavens, and out of the bosom of God himself;\nwith love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness; with truth,\nhonour, duty, earnestness, and all that is the likeness of Christ\nand of God.  Oh let us pray for that Spirit; the Spirit of truth,\nwhich Christ promised us when he ascended up into the heaven of\nheavens, to keep us sound in our most holy faith; and the Spirit of\ngoodness, to give us strength to live the good lives of good\nChristian men.\n\nAnd then it will matter little what opinions we hold about deep\nthings, which the wisest man can never put into words.  And it will\nmatter little, whether what I have been telling you to-day about the\nheaven of heavens be exactly true or not; for what says St. Paul of\nsuch deep matters?  That we know in part, and prophesy in part; and\nthat prophecies shall fail, and knowledge vanish away:  but charity,\nlove, and right feeling, and right doing, which is the very Holy\nSpirit of God, shall abide for ever.  And if that Spirit be with us,\nhe will guide us in due time into all truth; teach us all we need to\nknow, and enable us to practise all we ought to do.  Amen.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXI.  CHRISTMAS PEACE\n\n\n\n(Sunday before Christmas.)\n\nPhil. iv. 4.  Rejoice in the Lord alway:  and again I say, Rejoice.\n\nThis is a glorious text, and one fit to be the key-note of\nChristmas-day.  If we will take it to heart, it will tell us how to\nkeep Christmas-day.  St. Paul has been speaking of two good women,\nwho seem to have had some difference; and he beseeches them to make\nup their difference, and be of the same mind in the Lord.  And then\nhe goes on to tell them, and all Christian people, why they should\nmake up their differences.\n\nAnd for that reason, I suppose, the Church has chosen it for the\nepistle before Christmas-day, on which all men are to make friends\nwith each other, and rejoice in the Lord.  Let your moderation, he\nsays, be known to all men.  The Greek word signifies forbearance,\nreasonable dealing, consideration for one another, readiness to give\nway, not standing too severely on one's own rights.  Now this is\njust the temper in which we ought to meet our friends at Christmas--\nforbearance.  They may not have always behaved well to us.  Be it\nso.  No more have we to them.  Let us, once in the year at least,\nforget old grudges.  Let us do as we would be done by; give and\nforgive; live and let live; bury our past quarrels, and shake hands\nover their graves.\n\nFor the Lord is at hand.  Close to all of us:  watching all we do,\nand setting the right value on it.  He cannot mistake.  He sees both\nsides of a matter, and all sides--a thousand sides which we cannot\nsee.  He can judge better than we.  Let him judge.  Why do I say,\nLet him judge?  He has judged already, weeks, months ago, as soon as\neach quarrel happened:  and, perhaps, he found us in the wrong as\nwell as our neighbours; and, if so, the least said the soonest\nmended.  Let us forgive and forget, lest we be neither forgotten nor\nforgiven.\n\nAnd, because the Lord is at hand, be anxious about nothing.  The\nword here is the same as in the Sermon on the Mount.  It means do\nnot fret; do not terrify yourselves; for the Lord is at hand; he\nknows what you want:  and will he not give it?  Is not Christmas-day\na sign that he will give it--a pledge of his love?  What did he do\non the first Christmas-day?  What did he shew himself to be on the\nfirst Christmas-day?  Now, here is the root of the whole matter, and\na deep root it is; as deep as the beginning of all things which are,\nor ever were, or ever will be.  And yet if we will believe our\nBibles, it is a root which we all may find.  What did the angels say\nthe first Christmas night?  Peace on earth, and goodwill to men.\nThat is what God proclaimed.  That is what he said that he had, and\nwould give.\n\nNow, says the apostle, if you will believe the latter half of this\nsame Christmas message, then the first half of it will come true to\nyou.  If you will believe that God's will is a good will to you,\nthen you will have peace on earth.  For believe in Christmas-day;\nbelieve that the Lord is at hand; that he has been made man for ever\nand ever; and that to the Man Christ Jesus all power is given in\nheaven and earth:  and then, if you want aught, instead of grudging\nor grinding your neighbours, ask him.  In everything let your\nrequests be made known unto God:  and then the peace of God will\nkeep your hearts through Christ Jesus.\n\nYou will feel at peace with God through Christ Jesus, because you\nhave found out that God is at peace with you; that God is not\nagainst you, but for you; that God does not hate you, but love you;\nand if God is at peace with you, what cause have you to be at war\nwith him?  And so the message of Christmas-day will bring you peace.\n\nYou will be at peace with your neighbours, through Christ Jesus.\nWhen you see God stooping to make peace with sinful men, you will be\nashamed to be quarrelling with them.  When you see God full of love,\nyou will be ashamed to keep up peevishness, grudging, and spite.\nWhen you see God's heaven full of light, you will be ashamed to be\ndark yourselves; your hearts will go out freely to your fellow-\ncreatures; you will long to be friends with every one you meet; and\nyou will find in that the highest pleasure which you ever felt in\nlife.  But mind one thing--what sort of a peace this peace of God\nis.  It passes all understanding; the very loftiest understanding.\nThe cleverest and most learned men that ever lived could not have\nfound it--we know they did not find it--by their own cleverness and\nlearning.  No more will you find God's peace, if you seek for it\nwith your understanding.  Thinking will not bring you peace, think\nas shrewdly as you may.  Reading will not bring it, read as deeply\nas you may.  Some people think otherwise; that they can get the\npeace of God by understanding.  If they could but understand more,\ntheir minds would be at rest.  So they weary themselves with\nreading, and thinking, and arguing, perhaps trying to understand\npredestination, election, assurance; perhaps trying to understand\nwhich is the true Church.  What do they get thereby?  Certainly not\nthe peace of God.  They certainly do not set their minds at rest.\nThey cannot.  Books cannot give a live soul rest.  Understanding\ncannot.  Nothing can give you or me rest, save God himself.  The\npeace is God's; and he must give it himself, with his own hand, or\nwe shall never get it.  Go then to God himself.  Thou art his child,\nas Christmas-day declares:  be not afraid to go unto thy Father.\nPray to him; tell him what thou wantest:  say, Father, I am not\nmoderate, reasonable, forbearing.  I fear I cannot keep Christmas-\nday aright, for I have not a peaceful Christmas spirit in me; and I\nknow that I shall never get it by thinking, and reading, and\nunderstanding; for it passes all that, and lies far away beyond it,\ndoes peace, in the very essence of thine undivided, unmoved,\nabsolute, eternal Godhead, which no change nor decay of this created\nworld, nor sin or folly of men or devils, can ever alter; but which\nabideth for ever what it is, in perfect rest, and perfect power, and\nperfect love.  O Father, give me thy peace.  Soothe this restless,\ngreedy, fretful soul of mine, as a mother soothes a sick and\nfeverish child.  How thou wilt do it I do not know.  It passes all\nunderstanding.  But though the sick child cannot reach the mother,\nthe mother is at hand, and can reach it.  Though the eagle, by\nflying, cannot reach the sun, yet the sun is at hand, and can reach\nall the earth, and pour its light and warmth over all things.  And\nthou art more than a mother:  thou art the everlasting Father.  Pour\nthy love over me, that I may love as thou lovest.  Thou art more\nthan the sun:  thou art the light and the life of all things.  Pour\nthy light and thy life over me, that I may see as thou seest, and\nlive as thou livest, and be at peace with myself and all the world,\nas thou art at peace with thyself and all the world.  Again, I say,\nI know not how; for it passes all understanding:  but I hope that\nthou wilt do it for me.  I trust that thou wilt do it for me, for I\nbelieve the good news of Christmas-day.  I believe that thou art\nlove, and that thy mercy is over all thy works.  I believe the\nmessage of Christmas-day:  that thou so lovest the world, that thou\nhast sent thy Son to save the world, and me.  I know not how; for\nthat, too, passes understanding:  but I believe that thou wilt do\nit; for I believe that thou art love; and that thy mercy is over all\nthy works, even over me.  I believe the message of Christmas-day,\nthat thy will is peace on earth, even peace to me, restless and\nunquiet as I am; and goodwill to men, even to me, the chief of\nsinners.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXII.  THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT\n\n\n\n(First Sunday after Christmas.)\n\nIsaiah xxxviii. 16.  O Lord, by these things men live, and in all\nthese things is the life of my spirit.\n\nThese words are the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah; and they are\ntrue words, words from God.  But, if they are true words, they are\ntrue words for every one--for you and me, for every one here in this\nchurch this day:  for they do not say, By these things certain men\nlive, one man here and another man there; but all men.  Whosoever is\nreally alive, that is, has life in his spirit, his soul, his heart,\nthe life of a man and not a beast, the only life which is worthy to\nbe called life, then that life is kept up in him in the same way\nthat it was kept up in Hezekiah, and by the same means.\n\nLet us see, then, what things they were which gave Hezekiah's spirit\nlife.  Great joy, great honour, great success, wealth, health,\nprosperity and pleasure?  Was it by these things that Hezekiah found\nmen lived?  Not so, but by great sorrow.  'In those days was\nHezekiah sick unto death.  And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos\ncame unto him and said, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in\norder; for thou shall die and not live.  Then Hezekiah turned his\nface towards the wall and prayed unto the Lord; and Hezekiah wept\nsore.'\n\nTrouble upon trouble came on Hezekiah; and that just when he might\nhave expected a little rest.  The Lord had just delivered Hezekiah\nand the Jews from a fearful danger, of which we read in the chapter\nbefore.  Hezekiah had believed God's promise by the mouth of Isaiah.\nHe held fast his faith in God when Sennacherib and his Assyrian army\nwere camping round Jerusalem; for God had said, 'I will defend this\ncity to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.'\nHe defended his city bravely and nobly, and showed himself a true,\nand valiant, and godly king.  And perhaps Hezekiah expected to be\nrewarded for his faith, and rewarded for having done his duty:  but\nit was not so.  He had to wait, and to endure more.  And now this\nfresh trouble was come upon him.  Isaiah told him he should die and\nnot live:  and he must prepare himself to meet death.\n\nHezekiah, you see, was horribly afraid of death.  I do not mean that\nhe was afraid of going to hell, for he does not say so:  but he\nfelt, to use his own words, 'The grave cannot praise thee, death\ncannot celebrate thee:  they that go down into the pit cannot hope\nfor thy truth.'  And, therefore, death looked to him an ugly and an\nevil thing--as it is; the Lord's enemy, and his last enemy, the one\nwith which he will have the longest and sorest fight.  He conquered\ndeath by rising from the dead:  but nevertheless we die; and death\nis an ugly, fearful, hateful thing in itself, and rightly called the\nKing of Terrors:  for terrible it is to those who do not know that\nChrist has conquered it.  Hezekiah lived before the Lord Jesus came\ninto the flesh to bring life and immortality to light, by rising\nfrom the dead; and, therefore, the life after death was not brought\nto light to him, any more than it was to David, or any other Old\nTestament Jew.  He dreaded it, because he knew not what would come\nafter death.  And, therefore, he prayed hard not to die.  He did not\npray altogether in a right way:  but still he prayed.  'Remember\nnow, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth\nand with a perfect heart, and have done that which was good in thy\nsight.'  And the Lord heard his prayer.  'Then came the word of the\nLord to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the\nLord, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, behold I will\nadd unto thy days fifteen years.'\n\nThen what was the use of God's warning to him?  What was the use of\nhis sickness and his terror, if, after all, his prayer was heard,\nand after the Lord had told him, Thou shall die and not live--that\ndid not come to pass:  but the very contrary happened, that he\nlived, and did not die?\n\nOf what use to him was it?  Of this use at least, that it taught him\nthat the Lord God would hear the prayers of mortal men.  Oh my\nfriends, is not that worth knowing?  Is not that worth going through\nany misery to learn--that the Lord will hear us?  That he is not a\ncold, arbitrary tyrant, who goes his own way, never caring for our\ncries and tears, too proud to turn out of his way to hear us:  but\nthat he is very pitiful and of tender mercy, and repenting him of\nthe evil?  Hezekiah did not pray rightly.  He thought himself a\nbetter man than he was.  He said, 'Remember now, O Lord, I beseech\nthee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect\nheart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.'  And Hezekiah\nwept sore.  But he did pray.  He went to God, and told his story to\nhim, and wept sore; and the Lord God heard him, and taught him that\nhe was not as good as he fancied; taught him that, after all, he had\nnothing to say for himself--no reason to shew why he should not die.\n'What shall I say?  He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath\ndone it:  I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my\nsoul.'  And so he felt that, instead of justifying himself, he must\nthrow himself utterly on God's love and mercy; that God must\nundertake for him.  'O Lord, I am oppressed, crushed--the heart is\nbeaten out of me.  I have nothing to say for myself.  Undertake for\nme.  I have nothing to say for myself, but I have plenty to say of\nthee.  Thou art good and just.  Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.\nI can say no more.'\n\nAnd then he found that the Lord was ready to save him.  That what\nthe Lord wished was, not to kill him, but to recover him, and make\nhim live--live more really, and fully, and wisely, and manfully--by\nmaking him trust more utterly in God's goodness, and love, and\nmercy; making him more certain that, good as he thought himself, and\nperfect in heart, he was full of sins:  and yet that the Lord had\ncast all these sins of his behind his back, forgotten and forgiven\nthem, as soon as he had made him see that all that was good and\nstrong in him came from God, and all that was evil and weak from\nhimself.  And then he says, 'O Lord, by these things men live, and\nin all these things is the life of my spirit.'  God meant all along\nto receive me, and make me live.  He chastened me, and brought me\nlow, to shew me that my own faith, my own righteousness, was no\nreason for his saving me:  but that his own love and mercy was a\ngood reason for saving me.  'Behold,' he goes on to say, 'for peace\nI had great bitterness:  but thou hast in love to my soul delivered\nit from the pit of corruption:  for thou hast cast all my sins\nbehind thy back.'\n\nAnd, my dear friends, what Hezekiah saw but dimly, we ought to see\nclearly.  The blessed news of the Gospel ought to tell us it\nclearly.  For the blessed Gospel tells us that the same Lord who\nchastened and taught, and then saved, Hezekiah, was made flesh, and\nborn a man of the substance of a mortal woman; that he might in his\nown person bear all our sicknesses and carry our infirmities; that\nhe might understand all our temptations, and be touched with the\nfeeling of our infirmities, seeing that he himself was tempted in\nall points likewise, yet without sin.\n\nOh hear this, you who have had sorrows in past times.  Hear this,\nyou who expect sorrows in the times to come.\n\nHe who made, he who lightens, every man who comes into the world; he\nwho gave you every right thought and wholesome feeling that you ever\nhad in your lives:  he counts your tears; he knows your sorrows; he\nis able and willing to save you to the uttermost.  Therefore do not\nbe afraid of your own afflictions.  Face them like men.  Think over\nthem.  Ask him to help you out of them:  or if that is not to be, at\nleast to tell you what he means by them.  Be sure that what he must\nmean by them is good to you:  a lesson to you, that in some way or\nother they are meant to make you wiser, stronger, hardier, more sure\nof God's love, more ready to do God's work, whithersoever it may\nlead you.  Do not be afraid of the dark day of affliction, I say.\nIt may teach you more than the bright prosperous one.  Many a man\ncan see clearly in the cloudy day, who would be dazzled in the\nsunlight.  The dull weather, they say, is the best weather for\nbattle; and sorrow is the best time for seeing through and\nconquering one's own self.  Therefore do not be afraid, I say, of\nsorrow.  All the clouds in the sky cannot move the sun a foot\nfurther off; and all the sorrow in the world cannot move God any\nfurther off.  God is there still, where he always was; near you, and\nbelow you, and above you, and around you; for in him you live and\nmove and have your being, and are the offspring and children of God.\nNay, he is nearer you, if possible, in sorrow, than in joy.  He is\ninforming you, and guiding you with his eye, and, like a father,\nteaching you the right way which you should go.  He is searching and\npurging your hearts, and cleansing you from your secret faults, and\nteaching you to know who you are and to know who he is--your Father,\nthe knowledge of whom is life eternal.  By these things, my friends--\nby being brought low and made helpless, till ashamed of ourselves,\nand weary of ourselves, we lift up eyes and heart to God who made\nus, like lost children crying after a Father--by these things, I\nsay, we live, and in all these things is the life of our spirit.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXIII.  THE UNCHANGEABLE ONE\n\n\n\nPsalm cxix. 89-96.  For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.\nThy faithfulness is unto all generations:  thou hast established the\nearth, and it abideth.  They continue this day according to thine\nordinances:  for all are thy servants.  Unless thy law had been my\ndelight, I should then have perished in mine affliction.  I will\nnever forget thy precepts:  for with them thou hast quickened me.  I\nam thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.  The wicked have\nwaited for me to destroy me:  but I will consider thy testimonies.\nI have seen an end of all perfection; but thy commandment is\nexceeding broad.\n\nThe Psalmist is in great trouble.  He does not know whom to trust,\nwhat to expect next, whom to look to.  Everything seems failing and\nchanging round him.  His psalm was most probably written during the\nBabylonish captivity, at a time when all the countries and kingdoms\nof the east were being destroyed by the Chaldean armies.\n\nThen, he says, Be it so.  If everything else changes, God cannot.\nIf everything else fails, God's plans cannot.  He can rest on the\nthought of God; of his goodness, his faithfulness, order,\nprovidence.  God is governing the world righteously and orderly.\nWhatever disorder there is on earth, there is none in heaven.  God's\nword endures for ever there.\n\nThen he looks on the world round him; all is well ordered--seasons,\nanimals, sun, and stars abide.  They continue this day according to\nGod's ordinances.  The unchangeableness of nature is a comfort to\nhim; for it is a token of the unchangeablenes of God who made it.\n\nNow, I do beg you to think carefully over this verse; because it is\nquite against the very common notion that, because the earth was\ncursed for Adam's sake, therefore it is cursed now; that because it\nwas said to him, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,\ntherefore that holds good now.  It is not so, my friends; neither is\nthere, as far as I know, in any part whatsoever of Scripture, any\nmention of Adam's curse continuing to our day.  St. John, in the\nRevelations, certainly says, 'And there shall be no more curse.'\nBut if you will read the Revelation, you will find that what he\nplainly refers to is to the fearful curses, the plagues, the vials\nof wrath, as he calls them, which were to be poured out on the\nearth; and then to cease when the New Jerusalem came down from\nheaven.\n\nSt. Paul, again, knows nothing about any such curse upon the earth.\nHe says that death came into the world by Adam's sin:  but that must\nbe understood only of man, and the world of man; and for this simple\nreason, that we know, without the possibility of doubt, that animals\ndied in this world just as they do now, not only thousands, but\nhundreds of thousands of years before man appeared on earth.\n\nWhat St. Paul says of the creation, in one of his most glorious\npassages, is this--not that it is cursed, but that it groans and\ntravails continually in the pangs of labour, trying to bring forth;\ntrying to bring forth something better than itself; to develop, and\nrise from good to better, and from that to better still; till all\nthings become perfect in a way which we cannot conceive, but which\nGod has ordained before the foundation of the world.\n\nBesides, as a fact, the earth does not bring forth thorns and\nthistles to us, but good grain, and fruitful crops, and an abundant\nreturn for our labour, if we choose to till the ground.\n\nAnd wise men, who study God's works, can find no curse at all upon\nthe earth, nor sign of a curse, neither in plants nor beasts, no,\nnor in the smallest gnat in the air.  The more they look into the\nwonders of God's world, the more they find it true that there is\norder everywhere, beauty everywhere, fruitfulness everywhere,\nusefulness everywhere--that all things continue as at the beginning;\nthat, as the psalmist says in another place, God has made them fast\nfor ever and ever, and given them a law which cannot be broken.  And\nif you will look at Genesis viii. 21, 22, you will find from the\nplain words of Scripture itself, that Adam's curse, whatever it was,\nwas taken off after the flood, 'And the Lord smelled a sweet savour:\nand the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground\nany more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil\nfrom his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything\nliving, as I have done.  While the earth remaineth, seed-time and\nharvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night\nshall not cease.'\n\nTherefore, my friends, open your eyes and your hearts freely to the\nmessage which God is sending you, in summer and winter, in seed-time\nand in harvest, in sunshine and in storm; that God is not a hard\nGod, a revengeful God, a God of curses, who is extreme to mark what\nis done amiss, and keepeth his anger for ever.  No:  but that he is\nyour Father in heaven, who hateth nothing that he has made, and\nwhose mercy is over all his works; who made heaven and earth, the\nsea, and all that therein is; who keepeth truth for ever; who\nhelpeth them to right that suffer wrong; who feedeth the hungry; a\nGod who feeds the birds of the air, though they sow not, neither do\nthey reap, nor gather into barns; and who clothes the grass of the\nfield, which toils not, neither doth it spin; and who will much much\nmore clothe and feed you, to whom he has given reason,\nunderstanding, and the power of learning his laws, the rules by\nwhich this world of his is made and works, and of turning them to\nyour own profit in rational and honest labour.\n\nAnd think, my friends, if the old Psalmist, before Christ came,\ncould believe all this, and find comfort in it, much more ought we.\nShame to us if we do not.  I had almost said, we deny Christ, if we\ndo not.  For who said those last words concerning the birds of the\nair, and the grass of the field?  Who told us that we have not\nmerely a Master or a Judge in heaven, but a Father in heaven?  Who\nbut that very Word of God, whom the Psalmist saw dimly and afar off?\nHe knew that the Word of God abode for ever in heaven:  but he knew\nnot, as far as we can tell, that that same Word would condescend to\nbe made flesh, and dwell among men that we might see his glory, full\nof grace and truth.  The old Psalmist knew that God's word was full\nof truth, and that gave him comfort in the wild and sad times in\nwhich he lived; but he did not know--none of the Old Testament\nprophets knew,--how full God's word was of grace also.  That he was\nso full of love, condescension, pity, generosity, so full of longing\nto seek and save all that was lost, to set right all that was wrong,\nin one word again, so full of grace, that he would condescend to be\nborn of the Virgin Mary, suffer under Pontius Pilate, to be\ncrucified, dead and buried, that he might become a faithful High\nPriest for us, full of understanding, fellow-feeling, pity, love,\nbecause he has been tempted in all things like as we are, yet\nwithout sin.\n\nMy friends, was not the old Psalmist a Jew, and are not we Christian\nmen?  Then, if the old Psalmist could trust God, how much more\nshould we?  If he could find comfort in the thought of God's order,\nhow much more should we?  If he could find comfort in the thought of\nhis justice, how much more should we?  If he could find comfort in\nthe thought of his love, how much more should we?  Yes; let us be\nfull of troubles, doubts, sorrows; let times be uncertain, dark, and\ndangerous; let strange new truths be discovered, which we cannot, at\nfirst sight, fit into what we know to be true already:  we can still\nsay, 'I will not fear, though the earth be moved, and the hills be\ncarried into the midst of the sea.'  For the word of God abideth for\never in heaven, even Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world and\nthe Life of men.  To him all power is given in heaven and earth.  He\nis set on the throne, judging right, and ministering true judgment\namong the people.  All things, as the Psalmist says, come to an end.\nAll men's plans, men's notions, men's systems, men's doctrines, grow\nold, wear out, and perish.\n\n\nThe old order changes, giving place to the new:\nBut God fulfils himself in many ways.\n\n\nFor men are not ruling the world.  Christ is ruling the world, and\nhis commandment is exceeding broad.  His laws are broad enough for\nall people, all countries, all ages; and strangely as they may seem\nto work, in the eyes of us short-sighted timorous human beings,\nstill all is going well, and all will go well; for Christ reigns,\nand will reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet, and God\nbe all in all.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXIV.  [GREEK: EN TOYTO NIKA]\n\n\n\n(Good Friday, 1860.)\n\n1 Corinthians i. 23-25.  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the\nJews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto\nthem which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of\nGod, and the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser\nthan men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.\n\nThe foolishness of God?  The weakness of God?  These are strange\nwords.  But they are St. Paul's words, not mine.  If he had not said\nthem first, I should not dare to say them now.\n\nBut what do they mean?  Can God be weak?  Can God be foolish?  No,\nsays St. Paul.  Nothing less.  For so strong is God, that his very\nweakness, if he seems weak, is stronger than all mankind.  So wise\nis God, that his very foolishness, if he seems foolish, is wiser\nthan all mankind.\n\nWhy then talk of the weakness of God, of the foolishness of God, if\nhe be neither weak nor foolish?  Why use words which seem\nblasphemous, if they are not true?\n\nI do not say these ugly words for myself.  St. Paul did not say\nthese ugly words for himself.  But men have said them; too many men,\nand too often.  The Jews, who sought after a sign, said them in St.\nPaul's time.  The Corinthian Greeks, who sought after wisdom, said\nthem also.  There are men who say them now.  We all are tempted at\ntimes to say them in our hearts.  As often as we forget Good Friday,\nand what Good Friday means, and what Good Friday brought to all\nmankind, we do say them in our hearts; and charge God--though we\nshould not like to confess it even to ourselves--with weakness and\nwith folly.\n\nNow, how is this?  Let us consider, first, how it was with these\nJews and Greeks.\n\nWhy did the cross of Christ, and the message of Good Friday, seem to\nthem weakness and folly?  Why did they answer St. Paul, 'Your Christ\ncannot be God, or he would never have allowed himself to be\ncrucified?'\n\nThe Jews required a sign; a sign from heaven; a sign of God's power.\nThunder and earthquakes, armies of angels, taking vengeance on the\nheathen; these were the signs of Christ which they expected.  A\nChrist who came in such awful glory as that, they would accept, and\nfollow, and look to him to lead them against the Romans, that they\nmight conquer them, and all the nations upon earth.  And all that\nSt. Paul gave them, was a sign of Christ's weakness.  'He was\ndespised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with\ngrief. . . . He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet\nwe did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  He was\noppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth:  he is\nbrought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her\nshearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.'  Then said the Jews--\nThis is no Christ for us, this weak, despised, crucified Christ.\nThen answered St. Paul--Weak?  I tell you that what seems to you\nweakness, is the very power of God.  You Jews wish to conquer all\nmankind:  and behold, instead, you yourselves are rushing to ruin\nand destruction:  but what you cannot do, Christ on his cross can\ndo.  Weak, shamed, despised, dying man as he seemed, he is still\nconqueror; and he will conquer all mankind at last, and draw all men\nto himself.  Know that what seems to you weakness, is the very power\nof God; the power of doing good, and of suffering all things, that\nhe may do good:  and that _that_ will conquer the world, when riches\nand glory, and armies, aye, the very thunder and the earthquake,\nhave failed utterly.\n\nThe Greeks, again, sought after wisdom.  If St. Paul was (as he\nsaid) the apostle of God, then they expected him to argue with them\non cunning points of philosophy; about the being of God, the nature\nof the world and of the soul; about finite and infinite, cause and\neffect, being and not being, and all those dark questions with which\nthey astonished simple people, and gained power over them, and set\nup for wise men and teachers to their own profit and glory,\npampering their own luxury and self-conceit.  And all St. Paul gave\nthem, seemed to them mere foolishness.  He could have argued with\nthese Greeks on those deep matters; for he was a great scholar, and\na true philosopher, and could speak wisdom among those who were\nperfect:  but he would not.  He determined to know nothing among\nthem but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; and he told them, You\ndisputers of this world, while you are deceiving simple souls with\nenticing words of man's wisdom and philosophy, falsely so called,\nyou are trifling away your own souls and your hearers' into hell.\nWhat you need, and what they need, is not philosophy, but a new\nheart and a right spirit.  Sin is your disease; and you know that it\nis so, in the depth of your hearts.  Then know this, that God so\nloved you, sinners as you are, that he condescended to become mortal\nman, and to give himself up to death, even the shameful and horrible\ndeath of the cross, that he might save you from your sins; and he\nthat would be saved now, let him deny himself, and take up his cross\nand follow him.  And to that, those proud Greeks answered,--That is\na tale unworthy of philosophers.  The Cross?  It is a death of\nshame--the death of slaves and wretches.  Tell your tale to slaves,\nnot to us.  To give himself up to the death of the cross is\nfoolishness, and not the wisdom which we want.  Then answered St.\nPaul and said,--True.  The cross is a slave's and a wretch's death;\nand therefore slaves and wretches will hear me, though you will not.\n'For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men\nafter the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:  but\nGod hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the\nwise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound\nthe things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and\nthings which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which\nare not, to bring to nought things that are:  that no flesh should\nglory in his presence.'  For the foolishness of God is wiser than\nall the wisdom of men.  You Greeks, with all your philosophy and\nyour wisdom, have been trying, for hundreds of years, to find out\nthe laws of heaven and earth, and to set the world right by them;\nand you have not done it.  You have not found out the secrets of the\nworld.  You have not set the world right.  You have not even set\nyour own hearts and lives right.  But what your seeming wisdom\ncannot do, the seeming foolishness of Christ on his cross will do.\nDoes it seem to you foolish of him, to believe that he could save\nthe world, by giving himself up to a horrible and shameful death?\nDoes it seem to you foolishness in me, to preach nothing but him\ncrucified, and to say, Behold God dying for men?  Then know, that\nwhat seems to you foolishness, is the very wisdom of God.  That God\nknows the secret of touching, convincing, and converting the hearts\nof men, though you do not.  That God knows how the world is made,\nand how to set it right, though you do not.  That God knows the law\nwhich keeps all heaven and earth in order, though you do not; and\nthat that law is charity,--self-sacrificing love, which shines out\nfrom the cross of Christ.  Know, that when all your arguments and\nphilosophies have failed to teach men what they ought to do, one\nearnest penitent look at Christ upon his cross will teach them.\nThat their hearts will leap up in answer, and cry, If this be God, I\ncan believe in him.  If this be God, I can trust him.  If this be\nGod, I can obey him.  That one look at Christ upon his cross will\nmake them--what you could never make them--new men, filled with a\nnew thought; the thought that God is love, and that he who dwelleth\nin love, dwelleth in God, and God in him; and that the poor slaves\nand wretches, whom you despise, will look unto the cross and be\nsaved, and become new men, and lead new lives, and rise to be saints\nand martyrs to God and to his Christ, giving themselves up to\ntorments and death, as Christ did before them; and that out of them\nshall spring that church of Christ, which shall reign over all the\nworld, when you and your philosophies have crumbled into dust.\n\nMy friends, let us look, earnestly, humbly, and solemnly this day,\nat Christ upon his cross.  Let us learn that love, the utter self-\nsacrificing love which Christ shewed on his cross, is stronger than\nall pomp and might, all armies, riches, governments; aye, that it is\nthe very power of God, by which all things consist, which holds\ntogether heaven and earth and all that is therein.\n\nLet us learn that love, the utter self-sacrificing love which Christ\nshewed on his cross, is wiser than all arguments, doctrines,\nphilosophies, whether they be true or false; aye, that it is the\nvery wisdom of God, by which he convinces and converts all hearts\nand souls; and let us look to the cross, and see there the wisdom of\nGod, and the power of God, mighty to save to the uttermost all who\ncome through Christ to him.\n\nAnd let us remember this, that whenever we fancy ourselves to be\nstrong and powerful, and think to aggrandize ourselves at our\nneighbour's expense, and to crush those who are weaker than\nourselves, then we are forgetting the lesson of Good Friday; that\nwhenever we fancy that the way to be wise is, to use our wit and our\nknowledge for our own glory, and by them to manage our fellow-men,\nand make them admire us and bow down to us, then we forget the\nlesson of Good Friday.  For whosoever gives himself up to selfish\nambition, or to selfish cunning, charges Christ upon his cross with\nweakness and with foolishness, and denies the Lord who bought him\nwith his blood.\n\nMy friends, I have no more to say.  Much more I might say.  For Good\nFriday has many other meanings, and all the sermons of a lifetime\nwould not exhaust them all.\n\nBut one thing seemed to me fit to be said, and I say it again, and\nentreat you to carry it home with you, and live by the light of it\nall the year round.\n\nDo you wish to be powerful?  Then look at Christ upon his cross; at\nwhat seems to men his weakness; and learn from him how to be strong.\nDo you wish to be wise?  Then look at Christ upon the cross; and at\nwhat seemed to men his folly; and learn from him how to be wise.\nFor sooner or later, I hope and trust, you will find that true,\nwhich St. Buonaventura (wise and strong himself) used to say,--That\nall the learning in the world had never taught him so much as the\nsight of Christ upon the cross.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXV. THE ETERNAL MANHOOD\n\n\n\n(First Sunday after Easter.)\n\nJohn xx. 29.  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen\nme, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet\nhave believed.\n\nThe eighth day after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared\na second time to his disciples.  On this day he strengthened St.\nThomas's weak faith, by giving him proof, sensible proof, that he\nwas indeed and really the very same person who had been crucified,\nwearing the very same human nature, the very same man's body.\n\n'Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.'  You\nhave not seen.  You have never beheld with your bodily eyes, or\ntouched with your bodily hand, as St. Thomas did, the Lord Jesus\nChrist.  And yet you may be more blessed now, this day, than St.\nThomas was then.  We are too apt to fancy, that, to have seen the\nLord with our eyes, to have walked with him, and talked with him, as\nthe apostles did, was the greatest honour and blessing which could\nhappen to man.  We fancy, perhaps, at times, that if the Lord Jesus\nwere to come visibly among us now, we should want nothing more to\nmake us good:  that we could not help listening to him, obeying him,\nloving him.\n\nBut the Scriptures prove to us that it was not so.  The Scribes and\nPharisees saw him and talked with him; yet they hated him.  Judas\nIscariot, yet he betrayed him.  Pilate, yet he condemned him.  The\nword preached profited them nothing, not being mixed with faith in\nthose who heard him.  Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, came and\npreached himself to them; declared to them who he was, proved who he\nwas by his mighty works of love and mercy, and by fulfilling all the\nprophecies of Scripture which spoke of him; and yet they did not\nbelieve him, they hated him, they crucified him; because they had no\nfaith.\n\nYou see, therefore, that something more than seeing him with our\nbodily eyes is wanted to make us believe in the Lord Jesus Christ;\nsomething more than seeing him with our bodily eyes is wanted to\nmake us blessed.  St. Thomas saw him; St. Thomas was allowed, by the\nboundless condescension and mercy of the Lord Jesus, to put his hand\ninto his side.  And yet the Lord does not say to him,--See how\nblessed thou art; see how honoured thou art, by being allowed to\ntouch me.  No; our Lord rather rebukes him for requiring such a\nproof.\n\nThere are those who will not believe without seeing; who say, I must\nhave proof.  What I hear in church is too much for me to believe\nwithout many more reasons than are given for it all.  Many people,\nfor instance, stumble at the stumbling-block of the cross, and\ncannot bring themselves to believe that God would condescend to\nsuffer and to die for men.  Others cannot make up their minds about\nthe resurrection.  It seems to them a strange and impossible thing\nthat Jesus' body should have risen from the grave and ascended to\nheaven, and that our bodies should rise also.  That was the great\npuzzle to the Greeks, who thought themselves very learned and\ncunning, and were great arguers and disputers about all deep matters\nin heaven and earth.  When St. Paul preached to them on Mars' Hill,\nthey heard him patiently enough, till he spoke of Jesus rising from\nthe dead; and then they mocked; laughed at the notion as absurd.\nAnd we find that the Corinthians, even after they were converted and\nbaptised Christians, were puzzled about this same matter.  They\ncould not understand how the dead were raised, and with what body\nthey would come.\n\nWith such the Lord is not angry.  If they really wish to know what\nis true, and to do what is right; if they really are, as St. Paul\nsays, 'feeling after the Lord, if haply they may find him;' then the\nLord will give them light in due time, and shew them what they ought\nto believe, and give them the sort of proof which they want.  All\nsuch he treats as he did Thomas, when he said, in his great\ncondescension, 'Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and\nreach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not\nfaithless but believing.'\n\nSo the Lord sent to those Corinthians the very sort of proof which\nthey wanted, by the hand of the learned apostle, St. Paul.  They\nwere great observers of the works of nature, of the strange movement\nand change, birth and death, which goes on in beasts, and in plants,\nand in the clouds, and the rivers, and the very stones under our\nfeet.  And they said, We cannot believe in the resurrection of the\ndead, because we see nothing like it in the world around us.  And\nSt. Paul was sent to tell them.  No:  you do see something like it.\nIf you will look deeper into the working of the world around you,\nyou will see that the rising again of the dead, instead of being an\nunnatural or an absurd thing, is the most reasonable and natural\nthing, the perfect fulfilment, and crowning wonder of wonderful laws\nwhich are working round you in every seed which you sow; in the\nflesh of beasts and fishes; in bodies celestial and bodies\nterrestrial:  and so in that glorious chapter which we read in the\nBurial Service, St. Paul tells the Corinthians, who went altogether\nby sense, and reasoning about the things which they could see and\nhandle, that sense and reasoning were on his side, on God's side;\nand that the mysteries of faith, like the resurrection of the body,\nwere not contrary to reason, but agreed with it.\n\nSo does the Lord clear up the doubts of his people, in the way which\nis best for them.  But he does not call them as blessed as others.\nThere is a higher faith than that.  There is a better part.  The\nsame part which Mary chose.  The same faith of which our Lord says,--\n'Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.'  The\nfaith of the heart; the childlike, undoubting, ready, willing faith,\nwhich welcomes the news of the Lord; which runs to meet it, and is\nnot astonished at it; and, if it ever doubts for a moment, only\ndoubts for very joy and delight; and feeling that the news of the\ngospel is good news, cannot help feeling now and then that it is too\ngood news to be true; shewing its love and its faith in its very\nhesitation.  This is the childlike heart, whereof it is written,\n'Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in\nno wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.'\n\nThe hearts of little children; the hearts which begin by faith and\nlove toward God himself; the hearts which know God; the hearts to\nwhom God has revealed himself, and taught them, they know not how,\nthat he is love.  They are so sure of God's goodness, so sure of his\npower, so sure of his love, his willingness to have mercy, and to\ndeliver poor creatures, that they find nothing strange, nothing\ndifficult, in the mysteries of faith.  To them it is not a thing\nincredible, that God should have come down and died upon the cross.\nWhen they hear the good news of him who gave his own life for them,\nit seems a natural thing to them, a reasonable thing:  not of course\na thing which they could have expected; but yet not a thing to doubt\nof or to be astonished at.  For they know that God is love.\n\nAnd now some of you may say, 'Then are we more blessed than Thomas?\nWe have not seen, and yet we have believed.  We never doubted.  We\nnever wanted any arguments, or learned books, or special inward\nassurances.  From the moment that we began to learn our catechisms\nat school we believed it, of course, every word of it.  Do we not\nsay the Creed every Sunday; I believe in--and so forth?'  O my\nfriends, do you believe indeed?  If you do, blessed are you.  But\nare you sure that you speak truth?\n\nYou may believe it.  But do you believe in it?  Have you faith in\nit?  Do you put your trust in it?  Is your heart in it?  Is it in\nyour heart?  Do you love it, rejoice in it, delight to think over\nit; to look forward to it, to make yourselves ready and fit for it.\nDo you believe in it, in short, or do you only believe it, as you\nbelieve that there is an Emperor of China, or that there is a\ncountry called America, or any other matter with which you have\nnothing to do, for which you care nothing, and which would make no\ndifference at all to you, if you found out to-morrow that it was not\nso.  That is mere dead belief; faith without works, which is dead,\nthe belief of the brains, not the faith of the heart and spirit.\n\nOh, do you really believe the good news of this text, in which the\nSon of God himself said to mortal men like ourselves, 'Handle me and\nsee that it is I, indeed; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as\nye see me have.'  Do you believe that there is a Man evermore on the\nright hand of God?  That now as we speak a man is offering up before\nthe Father his perfect and all-cleansing sacrifice?  That, in the\nmidst of the throne of God, is he himself who was born of the Virgin\nMary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate?  Do you wish to find out\nwhether you believe that or not?  Then look at your own hearts.\nLook at your own prayers.  Do you think of the Lord Jesus Christ, do\nyou pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, very man, born of\nwoman?  Do you pray to him as to one who can be touched with the\nfeeling of your infirmities, because he has been tempted in all\nthings like as you are, yet without sin?  When you are sad,\nperplexed, do you take all your sorrows and doubts and troubles to\nthe Lord Jesus, and speak them all out to him honestly and frankly,\nhowever reverently, as a man speaketh to his friend?  Do you really\ncast all your care on him, because you believe that he careth for\nyou?  If you do, then indeed you believe in the resurrection of the\nLord Jesus Christ; and you will surely have your reward in a peace\nof mind, amid all the chances and changes of this mortal life, which\npasses man's understanding.  That blessed knowledge that the Lord\nknows all, cares for all, condescends to all--That thought of a\nloving human face smiling upon your joys, sorrowing over your\nsorrows, watching you, educating you from youth to manhood, from\nmanhood to the grave, from the grave to eternities of eternities--\nWhosoever has felt that, has indeed found the pearl of great price,\nfor which, if need be, he would give up all else in earth or heaven.\n\nOr do you say to yourselves at times, I must not think too much\nabout the Lord Jesus's being man, lest I should forget that he is\nGod?  Do you shrink from opening your heart to him?  Do you say\nwithin yourself, He is too great, too awful, to condescend to listen\nto my little mean troubles and anxieties?  Besides, how can I expect\nhim to feel for them; I, a mean, sinful man, and he the Almighty\nGod?  How do I know that he will not despise my meanness and\npaltriness?  How do I know that he will not be angry with me?  I\nmust be more reverent to him, than to trouble him with very petty\nmatters.  He was a man once when he was upon earth:  but now that he\nis ascended up on high, Very God of Very God, in the glory which he\nhad with the Father before the worlds were made, I must have more\nawful and solemn thoughts about him, and keep at a more humble\ndistance from him.\n\nDo you ever have such thoughts as those come over you, my friends,\nwhen you are thinking of the Lord Jesus, and praying to him?  If you\ndo, shall I tell you what to say to them when they arise in your\nminds, 'Get thee behind me, Satan.'  Get thee away, thou accusing\ndevil, who art accusing my Lord to me, and trying to make me fancy\nhim less loving, less condescending, less tender, less\nunderstanding, than he was when he wept over the grave of Lazarus.\nGet thee away, thou lying hypocritical devil, who pretendest to be\nso very humble and reverent to the godhead of the Lord Jesus, in\norder that thou mayest make me forget what his godhead is like,\nforget what God's likeness is, forget that it was in his manhood, in\nhis man's words, his man's thoughts, his man's actions, that he\nshewed forth the glory of God, the express image of his person, and\nfulfilled the blessed words, 'And God said, Let us make man in our\nimage, after our likeness.'  Get thee behind me, Satan.  I believe\nin the good news of Easter Day, and thou shall not rob me of it.  I\nbelieve that he who died upon the Cross, rose again the third day,\nas very and perfect man then and now, as he was when he bled and\ngroaned on Calvary, and shuddered at the fear of death, in the\ngarden of Gethsemane.  Thou shalt not make my Lord's incarnation,\nhis birth, his passion, his resurrection, all that he did and\nsuffered in those thirty-three years, of none effect to me.  Thou\nshalt not take from me the blessed message of my Bible, that there\nis a man in heaven in the midst of the throne of God.  Thou shalt\nnot take from me the blessed message of the Athanasian Creed, that\nin Christ the manhood is taken into God.  Thou shalt not take from\nme the blessed message of Holy Communion, which declares that the\nvery human flesh and blood of him who died on the Cross is now\neternal in the heavens, and nourishes my body and soul to\neverlasting life.  Thou shalt not, under pretence of voluntary\nhumility and will-worship, tempt me to go and pray to angels or to\nsaints, or to the Blessed Virgin, because I choose to fancy them\nmore tender, more loving and condescending, more loving, more human,\nthan the Lord himself, who gave himself to death for me.  If the\nLord God, the Son of the Father, is not ashamed to be man for ever\nand ever, I will not be ashamed to think of him as man; to pray to\nhim as man; to believe and be sure that he can be touched with the\nfeeling of my infirmities; to entreat him, by all that he did and\nsuffered as a man, to deliver me from those temptations which he\nhimself has conquered for himself; and to cry to him in the\nsmallest, as well as in the most important matters--'By the mystery\nof thy holy incarnation; by thine agony and bloody sweat; by thy\ncross and passion; by thy precious death and burial; by thy glorious\nresurrection and ascension;' by all which thou hast done, and\nsuffered, and conquered, as a man upon this earth of ours, good\nLord, deliver us!\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXVI.  THE BATTLE WITHIN\n\n\n\n(Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1858.)\n\nGalatians, v. 16, 17.  This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye\nshall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth\nagainst the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh:  and these are\ncontrary the one to the other:  so that ye cannot do the things that\nye would.\n\nDoes this text seem to any of you difficult to understand?  It need\nnot be difficult to you; for it does not speak of anything which you\ndo not know.  It speaks of something which you have all felt, which\ngoes on in you every day of your lives.  It speaks of something,\ncertainly, which is very curious, mysterious, difficult to put into\nwords:  but what is not curious and mysterious?  The commonest\nthings are usually the most curious?  What is more wonderful than\nthe beating of your heart; your pulse which beats all day long,\nwithout your thinking of it?\n\nJust so this battle, this struggle, which St. Paul speaks of in this\ntext, is going on in us all day long, and yet we hardly think of it.\nNow what is this battle?  What are these things which are fighting\ncontinually in your mind and in mine?  St. Paul calls them the flesh\nand the spirit.  'The flesh,' he says, 'lusts against the spirit,\nand the spirit against the flesh.'  They pull opposite ways.  One\nwants to do one thing, and the other the other.  But if so, one of\nthem must be in the right, and the other in the wrong.  Now, St.\nPaul says, when these two fall out with each other, the spirit is in\nthe right, and the flesh in the wrong.  And therefore, the secret of\nlife is, to walk in the spirit, and so not to fulfil the lusts of\nthe flesh.\n\nBut if so, it must be worth our while to find out which is flesh,\nand which is spirit in us, that we may know the foolish part of us\nfrom the wise.  What the flesh is, we may see by looking at a dumb\nbeast, which is all flesh, and has no immortal soul.  It may be very\ncunning, brave, curiously formed, beautiful, but one thing you will\nalways see, that a beast does what it likes, and only what it likes.\nAnd this is the mark of the flesh, that it does what it likes.  It\nis selfish, and self-indulgent, cares for nothing but itself, and\nwhat it can get for itself.\n\nTrue, you may raise a dumb beast above that, by taming and training\nit.  You may teach a horse or dog to do what it does _not_ like, and\ngive it a sense of duty, and as it were awaken a soul in it.  That\nis very wonderful, that we should be able to do so.  It is a sign\nthat man is made in God's likeness.  But I cannot stay to speak of\nthat now.  I say our flesh, our animal nature, is selfish and self-\nindulgent.  I do not say, therefore, that it is bad:  God forbid.\nGod made our bodies and brains, as well as our souls; and God makes\nnothing bad.  It is blasphemous to say that he does.  No, our bodies\nas bodies are good; the flesh as flesh is good, when it is in its\nright place; and its right place is to be servant, not master.  We\nare not to walk after the flesh, says St. Paul:  but the flesh is to\nwalk after the spirit--in English, our bodies are to obey our\nspirits, our souls.  For man has something higher than body in him.\nHe has a spirit in him; and it is just having this spirit which\nmakes him a man.  For this spirit cares about higher things than\nmere gain and comfort.  It can feel pity and mercy, love and\ngenerosity, justice and honour; and when a man not only feels them,\nbut obeys them, then he is a true man--a Christian man:  but, on the\nother hand, if a man does not; if he be a man in whom there is no\nmercy or pity, no generosity, no benevolence, no justice or honour;\nwho cares for nothing and no one but himself, and filling his own\nstomach and his own pulse, and pleasing his own brute appetites in\nsome way, what should you say of that man?  You would say, he is\nlike a brute beast--and you would say right--you would say just what\nSt. Paul says.  St. Paul would say, that man is fulfilling the lusts\nof the flesh; and you and St. Paul would mean just the same thing.\nNow, St. Paul says, 'The flesh in us lusts against the spirit, and\nthe spirit against the flesh.'  And what do we gain by the spirit in\nus lusting against the flesh, and pulling us the opposite way?  We\ngain this, St. Paul says, 'that we cannot do the things that we\nwould.'\n\nDoes that seem no great gain to you?  Let me put it a little\nplainer.  St. Paul means this, and just this, that you may not do\nwhatever you like.  St. Paul thought it the very best thing for a\nman not to be able to do whatever he liked.  As long, St. Paul says,\nas a man does whatever he likes, he lives according to the flesh,\nand is no better than a dumb beast:  but as soon as he begins to\nlive according to the spirit, and does not do whatever he likes, but\nrestrains himself, and keeps himself in order, then, and then only,\nhe becomes a true man.\n\nBut why not do whatever we like?  Because if we did do so, we should\nbe certain to do wrong.  I do not mean that you and I here like\nnothing but what is wrong.  God forbid.  I trust the Spirit of God\nis with our spirits.  But I mean this:--That if you could let a\nchild grow up totally without any control whatsoever, I believe that\nbefore that lad was twenty-one he would have qualified himself for\nthe gallows seven times over.  Thank God, that cannot happen in\nEngland, because people are better taught, most of them at least;\nand more, we dare not do what we like, for fear of the law and the\npoliceman.\n\nBut, if you knew the lives which savages lead, who have neither law\noutside them to keep them straight by fear, nor the Spirit of God\nwithin them to keep them straight by duty and honour, then you would\nunderstand what I mean only too well.\n\nNow St. Paul says,--It is a good thing for a man not to be able to\ndo what he likes.  But there are two ways of keeping him from it.\nOne is by the law, the other is by the Spirit of God.  The law works\non a man from the outside by fear; but the Spirit of God works in a\nman by honour, by the sense of duty, by making him like and love\nwhat is right, and making him see what a beautiful and noble thing\nright is.\n\nNow St. Paul wants us to restrain ourselves, not from fear of being\npunished, but because we like to do right.  That is what he means\nwhen he says that we are to be led by the Spirit, instead of being\nunder the law.  It is better to be afraid of the law than to do\nwrong:  but it is best of all to do right from the Spirit, and of\nour own free will.\n\nAm I puzzling you?  I hope not:  but, lest I should be, 1 will give\nyou one simple example which ought to make all clear as to the\nstruggle between a man's flesh and his spirit, and also as to doing\nright from the Spirit or from law.\n\nSuppose you were a soldier going into battle.  You see your comrades\nfalling around you, disfigured and cut up; you hear their groans and\ncries; and you are dreadfully afraid:  and no shame to you.  It is\nthe common human instinct of self-preservation.  The bravest men\nhave told me that they are afraid at first going into action, and\nthat they cannot get over the feeling.  But what part of you is\nafraid?  Your flesh, which is afraid of pain, just as a beast is of\nthe whip.  Then your flesh perhaps says, Run away--or at least skulk\nand hide--take care of yourself.  But next, if you were a coward,\nthe law would come into your mind, and you would say, But I dare not\nrun away; for, if I do, I shall be shot as a deserter, or broke, and\ndrummed out of the army.  So you may go on, even though you are a\ncoward:  but that is not courage.  You have not conquered your own\nfear--you have not conquered yourself--but the law has conquered\nyou.\n\nBut, if you are a brave man, as I trust you all are, a higher spirit\nthan your own speaks to your spirit, and makes you say to yourself,\nI dare not run away; but, more, I cannot run away.  I should like\nto--but I cannot do the things that I would.  It is my duty to go\non; it is right; it is a point of honour with me to my country, my\nregiment, my Queen, my God, and I must go on.\n\nThen you are walking in the Spirit.  You have conquered yourself,\nand so are a really brave man.  You have obeyed the Spirit, and you\nhave your reward by feeling inspirited, as we say; you can face\ndeath with spirit, and fight with spirit.\n\nBut the struggle between the Spirit and the flesh is not ended\nthere.  When you got excited, there would probably come over you the\nlust of fighting; you would get angry, get mad and lose your self-\npossession.\n\nThere is the flesh waking up again, and saying, Be cruel; kill every\none you meet.  And to that the Spirit answers, No; be reasonable and\nmerciful.  Do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, and turn yourself\ninto a raging wild beast.  Your business is not to butcher human\nbeings, but to win a battle.\n\nWell; and even if you have conquered the enemy, you may not have\nconquered your worst enemy, which is yourself.  For, after having\nfought bravely, and done your duty, what would the flesh say to you?\nI am sure it would say it to me.  What but--Boast:  talk of your own\nvaliant deeds and successes; get all the praise and honour you can;\nand shew how much finer a person you are than any of your comrades.\nBut what would the Spirit say?--and I trust you would all listen to\nthe Spirit.  The Spirit would say, No; do not boast; do not lower\nyourself into the likeness of a vain peacock:  but be just, and be\nmodest.  Give every man his due; try to praise and recommend every\none whom you can; and trust to God to make your doing your duty as\nclear as the light, and your brave actions as the noonday.\n\nSo, you see, all through, a man's flesh might be lusting, and would\nbe lusting, against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;\nand see, too, how in each case, the flesh is tempting the man to be\ncowardly, brutal, vain, selfish, and wrong in some way, and the\nSpirit is striving to make him forget himself, and think of his\ncomrades and his duty.\n\nNow when a man is led by the Spirit, if he is tempted to do wrong,\nhe does not say, I will not do this wrong thing, but I cannot.  I\ncannot do what you want me.  I like to hear a man say that.  It is a\nsign that he feels God's voice in him, which he must obey, whether\nhe likes or not; as Joseph said when he was tempted.  Not, I had\nrather not, or I dare not:  but, How _can_ I do this great\nwickedness against my master, who has trusted me, and put everything\ninto my hand, and so, by being a treacherous traitor, sin against\nGod?\n\nNow, is this Spirit part of our spirits, or not?  I think we confess\nourselves that it is not.  St. Paul says that it is not.  For he\nsays, there is one Spirit--that is, one good Spirit--of whom he\nspeaks as the Spirit; and this, he says, is the Spirit of God, and\nthe Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit which inspires the spirits of\nall noble, Christ-like, God-like men.\n\nIn this Spirit there is nothing proud, spiteful, cruel, nothing\nselfish, false, and mean; nothing violent, loose, debauched.  But he\nis an altogether good and noble spirit, whose fruit is love, joy,\npeace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,\ntemperance.  This, he says, is the Spirit of God; and this Spirit he\ngives to those spirits,--souls, as we call them now,--who desire it,\nthat they may become righteous with the righteousness of Christ, and\ngood with the goodness of God.\n\nAnd is not this good news?  I say, my friends, if we will look at it\naright, there is no better news, no more inspiriting news for men\nlike us, mixed up in the battle of life, and often pulled downward\nby our own bad passions, and ashamed of ourselves more or less,\nevery day of our lives;--no better news, I say, than this, that what\nis good and right in us is not our own, but God's; that our longings\nafter good, our sense of duty and honour, kindliness and charity,\nare not merely our own likings or fancies:  but the voice of God's\nalmighty and everlasting Spirit.  Good news, indeed!  For if God be\nfor us who can be against us?  If God's Spirit be with our spirits,\nthey must surely be stronger than our selfish pleasure-loving flesh.\nIf God himself be labouring to make us good; if he be putting into\nour hearts good desires; surely he can enable us to bring those\ndesires to good effect:  and all that is wanted of us, is to listen\nto God's voice within, and do the right like men, whatever pain it\nmay cost us, sure that we, by God's help, shall win at last in the\nhardest battle of all battles, the victory over our own selves.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXVII.  HYPOCRISY\n\n\n\nMatthew xvi. 3.  Oh ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the\nsky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?\n\nIt will need, I think, some careful thought thoroughly to understand\nthis text.  Our Lord in it calls the Pharisees and Sadducees\nhypocrites; because, though they could use their common sense and\nexperience to judge of the weather they would not use them to judge\nof the signs of the times; of what was going to happen to the Jewish\nnation.\n\nBut how was their conduct hypocritical?  Stupid we might call it, or\nunreasonable:  but how hypocritical?  That, I think, we may see\nbetter, by considering what the word hypocrite means.\n\nWe mean now, generally, by a hypocrite, a man who pretends to be one\nthing, while he is another; who pretends to be pious and good, while\nhe is leading a profligate life in secret; who pretends to believe\ncertain doctrines, while at heart he disbelieves them; a man, in\nshort, who is a scoundrel, _and knows it_; but who does not intend\nothers to know it:  who deceives others, but does not deceive\nhimself.\n\nMy friends, such a man is a hypocrite:  but there is another kind of\nhypocrite, and a more common one by far; and that is, the hypocrite\nwho not only deceives others, but deceives himself likewise; the\nhypocrite who (as one of the wisest living men puts it) is\nastonished that you should think him hypocritical.\n\nI do not say which of these two kinds is the worse.  My duty is to\njudge no man.  I only say that there are such people, and too many\nof them; that we ourselves are often in danger of becoming such\nhypocrites; and that this was the sort of people which the Pharisees\nfor the most part were.  Hypocrites who had not only deceived\nothers, but themselves also; who thought themselves perfectly right,\nhonest, and pious; who were therefore astonished and indignant at\nChrist's calling them hypocrites.\n\nHow did they get into this strange state of mind?  How may we get\ninto it?\n\nConsider first what a hypocrite means.  It means strictly neither\nmore nor less than a play-actor; one who personates different\ncharacters on the stage.  That is the one original meaning of the\nword hypocrite.\n\nNow recollect that a man may personate characters, like a play-\nactor, and pretend to be what he is not, for two different objects.\nHe may do it for other people's sake, or for his own.\n\n1.  For other people's sake.  As the Pharisees did, when they did\nall their works to be seen of men; and therefore, naturally, gave\ntheir attention as much as possible to outward forms and ceremonies,\nwhich could be seen by men.\n\nNow, understand me, before I go a step further, I am not going to\nspeak against forms and ceremonies.  No man less:  and, above all,\nnot against the Church forms and ceremonies, which have grown up,\ngradually and naturally, out of the piety, and experience, and\npractical common sense of many generations of God's saints.  Men\nmust have forms and ceremonies to put them in mind of the spiritual\ntruths which they cannot see or handle.  Men cannot get on without\nthem; and those who throw away the Church forms have to invent fresh\nones, and less good ones, for themselves.\n\nAll, I say, have their forms and ceremonies; and all are in danger,\nas we churchmen are, of making those forms stand instead of true\nreligion.  In the Church or out of the Church, men are all tempted\nto have, like the Pharisees, their traditions of the elders, their\nlittle rules as to conduct, over and above what the Bible and the\nPrayer-book have commanded; and all are tempted to be more shocked\nif those rules are broken, than if really wrong and wicked things\nare done; and like the Pharisees of old, to be careful in paying\ntithe of mint, anise, and cummin, the commonest garden herbs, and\nyet forget the weighty matters of the law, justice, mercy, and\njudgment.  I have known those who would be really more shocked at\nseeing a religious man dance or sing, than at hearing him tell a\nlie.  But I will give no examples, lest I should set you on judging\nothers.  Or rather, the only example which I will give is that of\nthese Pharisees, who have become, by our Lord's words about them,\nfamous to all time, as hypocrites.\n\nNow you must bear in mind that these Pharisees were not villains and\nprofligates.  Many people, feeling, perhaps, how much of what the\nLord had said against the Pharisees would apply to them, have tried\nto escape from that ugly thought, by making out the Pharisees worse\nmen than our Lord does.  But the fact is, that they cannot be proved\nto be worse than too many religious people now-a-days.  There were\nadulterers, secret loose-livers among them.  Are there none now-a-\ndays?  They were covetous.  Are no religious professors covetous\nnow-a-days?  They crept into widows' houses, and, for a pretence\nmade long prayers.  Does no one do so now?  There would, of course,\nbe among them, as there is among all large religious parties, as\nthere is now, a great deal of inconsistent and bad conduct.  But, on\nthe whole, there is no reason to suppose that the greater number of\nthem were what we should call ill-livers.  In that terrible twenty-\nthird chapter of St. Matthew, in which our Lord denounces the sins\nof the Scribes and Pharisees, he nowhere accuses them of profligate\nliving; and the Pharisee of whom he tells us in his parable, who\nwent into the Temple to pray, no doubt spoke truth when he boasted\nof not being as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers.  He\ntrusted in himself that he was righteous.  True.  But whatever that\nmeans, it means that he thought that he was righteous, after a\nfashion, though it proved to be a wrong one.  What our Lord\ncomplains of in them is, first, their hardness of heart; their pride\nin themselves, and their contempt for their fellowmen.  Their very\nname Pharisee meant that.  It meant separate--they were separate\nfrom mankind; a peculiar people; who alone knew the law, with whom\nalone God was pleased:  while the rest of mankind, even of their own\ncountrymen, knew not the law, and were accursed, and doomed to hell.\nAh God, who are we to cast stones at the Pharisees of old, when this\nis the very thing which you may hear said in England from hundreds\nof pulpits every Sunday, with the mere difference, that instead of\nthe word law, men put the word gospel.\n\nFor this our Lord denounced them; and next, for their hypocrisy,\ntheir play-acting, the outward show of religion in which they\ndelighted; trying to dress, and look, and behave differently from\nother men; doing all their good works to be seen of men; sounding a\ntrumpet before them when they gave away alms; praying standing at\nthe corners of the streets; going in long clothing, making broad\ntheir phylacteries, the written texts of Scripture which they sewed\nto their garments; washing perpetually when they came from the\nmarket, or any public place, lest they should have been defiled by\nthe touch of an unclean thing, or person; loving the chief seats in\ntheir religious meetings, and the highest places at feasts; and so\nforth,--full of affectation, vanity, and pride.\n\nI could tell you other stories of their ridiculous affectations:\nbut I shall not.  They would only make you smile:  and we could not\njudge them fairly, not being able to make full allowance for the\ndifference of customs between the Jews and ourselves.  Many of the\nthings which our Lord blames them for, were not nearly so absurd in\nJudea of old, as they seem to us in England now.  Indeed, no one but\nour Lord seems to have thought them absurd, or seen through the\nhollowness and emptiness of them:--as he perhaps sees through, my\nfriends, a great deal which is thought very right in England now.\nMaking allowance for the difference of the country, and of the\ntimes, the Pharisees were perhaps no more affected, for Jews, than\nmany people are now, for Englishmen.  And if it be answered, that\nthough our religious fashions now-a-days are not commanded expressly\nby the Bible or the Prayer Book, yet they carry out their spirit:--\nremember, in God's name, that that was exactly what the Pharisees\nsaid, and their excuse for being righteous above what was written;\nand that they could, and did, quote texts of Scripture for their\nphylacteries, their washings, and all their other affectations.\n\nAnother reason I have for not dwelling too much on these\naffectations; and it is this.  Because a man may be a play-actor and\na self-deceiver in religion, without any of these tricks at all, and\nwithout much of the vanity and pride which cause them.  For\nrecollect that a man may act for his own amusement, as well as for\nother people's.  Children do so perpetually, and especially when no\none is by to listen to them.  They delight in playing at being this\nperson and that, and in living for a while in a day-dream.  Oh let\nus take care that we do not do the same in our religion!  It is but\ntoo easy to do so.  Too easy; and too common.  For is it not play-\nacting, like any child, to come to this church, and here to feel\nrepentance, feel forgiveness, feel gratitude, feel reverence; and\nthen to go out of church and awake as from a dream, and become our\nnatural selves for the rest of the week, till Sunday comes round\nagain; comforting ourselves meanwhile with the fancy that we had\nbeen very religious last Sunday, and intended to be very religious\nnext Sunday likewise?\n\nWould there not be hypocrisy and play-acting in that, my friends?\n\nNow, my dear friends, if we give way to this sort of hypocrisy, we\nshall get, as too many do, into the habit of living two lives at\nonce, without knowing it.  Outside us will be our religious life of\npraying, and reading, and talking of good things, and doing good\nwork (as, thank God, many do whose hearts are not altogether right\nwith God, or their eyes single in his sight) good work, which I\ntrust God will not forget in the last day, in spite of all our\ninconsistencies.  Outside us, I say, will be our religious life:\nand inside us our own actual life, our own natural character, too\noften very little changed or improved at all.  So by continually\nplaying at religion, we shall deceive ourselves.  We shall make an\nentirely wrong estimate of the state of our souls.  We shall fancy\nthat this outward religion of ours is the state of our soul.  And\nthen, if any one tells us that we are play-acting, and hypocrites,\nwe shall be as astonished and indignant as the Pharisees were of\nold.  We shall make the same mistake as a man would, who because he\nalways wore clothes, should fancy at last that his clothes were\nhimself, part of his own body.  So, I say, many deceive themselves,\nand are more or less hypocrites to themselves.  They do not, in\ngeneral, deceive others; they are not, on the whole, hypocrites to\ntheir neighbours.  For their neighbours, after a time, see what they\ncannot see themselves, that they are play-acting; that they are two\ndifferent people without knowing it:  that their religion is a thing\napart from their real character.  A hundred signs shew that.  How\nmany there are, for instance, who are, or seem tolerably earnest\nabout religion, and doing good, as long as they are actually in\nchurch, or actually talking about religion.  But all the rest of\ntheir time, what are they doing?  What are they thinking of?  Mere\nfrivolity and empty amusement.  Idle butterflies, pretending to be\nindustrious bees once in the week.\n\nOthers again, will be gentle and generous enough about everything\nbut religion; and as soon as they get upon that, will become fierce,\nand hard, and narrow at once.  Others again (and this is most\ncommon) commit the very same fault as the Pharisees in the text, who\ncould use their common sense to discern the signs of the weather,\nand yet could not use it to discern the signs of the time, because\nthey were afraid of looking honestly at the true state of public\nfeeling and conscience, and at the danger and ruin into which their\nreligion and their party were sinking.  For about all worldly\nmatters, these men will be as sound-headed and reasonable as they\nneed be:  but as soon as they get on religious matters, they become\nutterly silly and unreasonable; and will talk nonsense, listen to\nnonsense, and be satisfied with nonsense, such as they would not\nendure a moment if their own worldly interest, or worldly character,\nwere in question.\n\nBut most of all do these poor souls not deceive their neighbours\nwhen a time of temptation comes upon them.  For then, alas! it comes\nout too often that they are of those whom our Lord spoke of, who\nheard the word gladly, but had no root in themselves, and in time of\ntemptation fell away.  For then, before the storm of some trying\ntemptation, away goes all the play-acting religion; and the man's\ntrue self rises up from underneath into ugly life.  Up rise,\nperhaps, pride, and self-will, and passion; up rise, perhaps,\nmeanness and love of money; up rise, perhaps, cowardice and\nfalsehood; or up rises foul and gross sin, causing some horrible\nscandal to religion, and to the name of Christ; while fools look on,\nand, laughing an evil laugh, cry,--'These are your high professors.\nThese are your Pharisees, who were so much better than everybody\nelse.  When they are really tried, it seems they behave no better\nthan we sinners.'\n\nOh, these are the things which make a clergyman's heart truly sad.\nThese are the things which make him long that all were over; that\nChrist would shortly accomplish the number of his elect, and hasten\nhis kingdom, that we, with all those who are departed in the true\nfaith of his holy name, may rest in peace for ever from sin and\nsinners.\n\nNot that I mean that some of these very people, in spite of all\ntheir inconsistency, will not be among that number.  God forbid!\nHow do we know that?  How do we know that they are one whit worse\nthan we should be in their place?  How do we know, above all, that\nto have been found out may not be the very best thing that has\nhappened to them since the day that they were born?  How do we know\nthat it may not be God's gracious medicine to enable them to find\nthemselves out; to make them see themselves in their true colours;\nto purge them of all their play-acting; and begin all over again,\ncrying to God, not with the lips only, but out of the depth of an\nhonest and a noble shame, as David did of old--Behold I was shapen\nin wickedness, conceived in sin, and I have found it out at last.\nBut thou requirest truth in the inward parts, in the very root and\nground of the heart, and not merely truth in the head, in the lips,\nand in the outward behaviour.  Make me a clean heart, O God, and\nrenew a right spirit within me.  Thou desirest no sacrifice, else\nwould I give it thee:  but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.\nThe sacrifice of God is a broken spirit, as mine is now.  A broken\nand a contrite heart, ground down by the shame of its own sin, that,\nO God, thou wilt not despise.\n\nAnd then--when that prayer has gone up in earnest, and has been\nanswered by the gift of a clean heart, and of a right spirit, which\ndesires nothing but to be made clean and made right, to learn its\nduty and to do it--then, I say, that man may go back safely and\nfreely, to such forms and ceremonies, as he has been accustomed to,\nand have been consecrated by the piety and wisdom of his\nforefathers.  For, says David, though forms and ceremonies,\nsacrifice and burnt-offering cannot make any peace with God, yet I\nam not going to give up forms and ceremonies, sacrifice and burnt-\nofferings.  No.  When my peace is made, when the broken and the\ncontrite heart has put me in my true place again, and my heart is\nclean, and my spirit right once more; then, he says, will God be\npleased with my sacrifices, with my burnt-offerings and oblations;\nbecause they will be the sacrifice of righteousness, of a righteous\nman desiring to shew honour to that God from whom his righteousness\ncomes, and gratitude to that God to whom he owes his pardon.\n\nAnd so with us, my friends, if ever we have fallen, and been\npardoned, and risen again to a new, a truer, a more honest, a more\nrighteous life.  Our forms of devotion ought then to become not a\nsnare and a hypocrisy, but honest outward signs of the spiritual\ngrace which is within us; as honest and as rational as the shake of\nthe hand to the friend whom we truly love, as the bowing of the knee\nbefore the Queen for whom we would gladly die.\n\nO may God give us all grace to seek first the kingdom of God and his\nrighteousness.  To seek first the kingdom of God; to work earnestly,\neach in his place, to do God's will, and to teach and help others to\ndo it likewise.  To seek his righteousness, which is the\nrighteousness of the heart and spirit:  and then all other things\nwill be added to us.  All outward forms and ceremonies, ways of\nspeaking, ways of behaving, which are good and right for us, will\ncome to us as a matter of course; growing up in us naturally and\nhonestly, without any affectation or hypocrisy, and the purity and\nsoberness, the reverence and earnestness of our outward\nconversation, will be a pattern of the purity and soberness, the\nreverence and earnestness, which dwells in our hearts by the\ninspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXVIII.  A PEOPLE PREPARED FOR THE LORD\n\n\n\nEphesians iii. 3-6.  How that by revelation he made known unto me\nthe mystery (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read,\nye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in\nother ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now\nrevealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the\nGentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers\nof his promise in Christ by the Gospel.\n\nThis day is the feast of the Epiphany.  Epiphany, as many of you\nknow, means 'shewing,' because on this day the Lord Jesus Christ was\nfirst shewn to the Gentiles; to the Gentile wise men who, as you\nheard in the Gospel, saw his star in the east, and came to worship\nhim.  And the part of Scripture from which I have taken my text, is\nused for the Epistle this day, because in it St. Paul explains to us\nthe meaning of the Epiphany.  The meaning of those wise men being\nshewn our Lord, and worshipping him, though they were not Jews as he\nwas, but Gentiles.  He says that it means this, that the Gentiles\nwere fellow-heirs with the Jews, and of the same body as them, and\npartakers of God's promise in Christ by the Gospel.\n\nThis does not seem so very wonderful to us; and why?  Because we,\nthough we are Gentiles like those wise men, have lived so long, we\nand our forefathers before us, in the light of the Gospel, that we\nare inclined to take it as a matter of course; forgetting what a\nwonderful, unspeakable, condescension it was of God, not to spare\nhis only begotten Son, but freely to give him for us.  God forgive\nus!  We are so heaped with blessings that we neglect them, forget\nthem, take them as our right, instead of remembering our sins and\nungratefulness, and saying, Thy mercies are new every morning; it is\nonly of thy mercies that we are not consumed.\n\nBut to St. Paul it was very wonderful news.  A mystery, as he said;\nquite a new and astonishing thought, that heathens had any share in\nGod's love and Christ's salvation.\n\nAnd so it was to St. Peter.  God had to teach it him by that\nwonderful vision, in which he saw coming down from heaven all sorts\nof animals, and God bade him kill and eat; and when he refused,\nbecause they were common and unclean, God forbade him to call\nanything common or unclean, now that God had cleansed all things by\nthe precious blood of his dear Son.  Then Peter was bidden to go to\nthe Gentile Roman soldier Cornelius.  And he went, though, he said,\nhe had been used to think it unlawful for a Jew even to eat with a\nGentile.  And when he went, he found, to his astonishment, that\nGod's love was over that Gentile soldier and his family, because\nthey were good men, as far as they had light and knowledge, just as\nmuch as if they had been good Jews.  And God gave St. Peter a sign\nwhich there was no mistaking, that he really did care for those\nGentile Romans, just as much as if they had been Jews; for, as he\nwas preaching Christ to them, the Holy Ghost fell on them, not\nafter, but before they were baptised.  So that St. Peter, astonished\nas he was, was forced by his own conscience and reason to say, 'Can\nany man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, who have\nreceived the Holy Ghost as well as we' (Jews)?  Then he commanded\nthem to be baptised in the name of the Lord.\n\nAnd what was the lesson which God taught St. Peter by this?  St.\nPeter himself tells us; for he opened his mouth and said, 'Of a\ntruth I see that God is no respecter of persons; but in every\nnation, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted\nby him.'\n\nNow, my dear friends, this is (as the Lord Jesus Christ tells us)\nGod's everlasting law, 'That he that hath, to him shall be given,\nand he shall have more abundantly; but from him that hath not, shall\nbe taken away even that which he seems to have.'\n\nSo it was, as I have just shewn you, with Cornelius; and so it was\nwith those wise men.  They were worshippers (as is supposed) of the\none true God, though in a dim confused way:  but they had learnt\nenough of what true faith was, and of what true greatness was, too,\nnot to be staggered and fall into unbelief, when they saw the King\nof the Jews, whom they had come so many hundred miles to see, laid,\nnot in a palace, but in a manger; and attended not by princesses and\nnoblewomen, but by a poor maiden, espoused to a carpenter.\nTherefore God bestowed on them that great honour, that they, first\nof all the Gentiles, should see the glory and the love of God in the\nface of Jesus Christ, his Son.\n\nAnd so it was with our forefathers, my friends.  And I think that on\nthis Epiphany, we ought to thank God, among all his other blessings,\nfor having given us such forefathers, and letting us be born of that\nnoble stock, to whom he gave the kingdom of God, after he took it\naway from the faithless and rebellious Jews, and afterwards from the\nfalse and profligate Greeks and Romans, to whom the epistles of the\napostles were written.  I will tell you what I mean.\n\nWhen the Lord Jesus came on earth; our forefathers did not live here\nin England, but in countries across the sea, in Germany, Denmark,\nand Sweden, which did not belong to the Roman Empire; for the\nRomans, who had conquered all the world beside, could never conquer\nour forefathers.  It was God's will, that whenever they tried they\nwere beaten back with shame and slaughter; and our forefathers,\nalmost alone of all, remained free men, even as we are at this day.\nBut for that very reason, the apostles could never come among us to\npreach the Gospel to us; for they could not pass the bounds of the\nRoman empire; and that was so large, that they had enough to do to\npreach the Gospel in it; so that it was not till at least 400 years\nafter the apostles' death, that their successors, zealous\nmissionaries, priests and bishops, came and preached to our\nforefathers; and when they came, they found us a people prepared for\nthe Lord, who heard the word gladly, and turned, thousands sometimes\nin one day, from vain idols to serve the living God, and were\nbaptised into that holy church in which we now stand.  And it has\nbeen among us, and the nations who are our kinsmen, that the light\nof the gospel has shone ever since, while all through the East,\nwhere the apostles preached most and earliest, it has died out.  So\nthat our Lord's words have been fulfilled, that many that are last\nshall be first, and those that are first shall be last.  God grant\nthat it may not always be so.  God grant that his kingdom may return\nto its ancient seat at Jerusalem, and that all nations may go up to\nthe mountain of the Lord's house, in the day of which St. Paul\nprophesies, when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, and all\nIsrael shall be saved, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge\nof the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.  But it is not so now; and\ncannot be so, as far as we can see, for many a year to come.\n\nBut in the meanwhile, why were our forefathers--heathens though they\nwere, and sinners in many things, being truly children of wrath,\nfierce, bloodthirsty, revengeful, without the grace of Christ, which\nis Love and Charity--nevertheless a people prepared for the Lord?\nHow was it true of them that to him that hath shall be given?\n\nI will tell you.  There is an old book, written in Latin by a\nheathen gentleman of Rome, who lived in St. Paul's time, and wrote\nthis book about twenty years after St. Paul's death.  It is a little\nbook; but it is a very precious one:  and I think it is a great\nmercy of God that, while so many famous old books have been lost,\nthis little book should have been preserved:  for this Roman\ngentleman had travelled among our forefathers; and when he returned\nhe wrote this book to shame his countrymen at Rome.  In it he calls\nus 'Germans;' but that was the Roman fashion.  By Germans they meant\nnot only the people who now live in Germany, but the English and the\nDanes, and the Swedes, and the Franks, who afterwards conquered\nFrance.  In fact he meant our own forefathers.  And he said to the\nRomans,--\n\n'Look at these wild Germans.  You despise them because they go half-\nnaked, and cannot read or write, and live in mud cottages; while you\ngo in silk and gold, and have all sorts of learning, and live in\ngreat cities, palaces, and temples, in worldly pomp and glory.  But\nI tell you,' he said, 'that these wild Germans are better men than\nyou; for, while you are living in sin, in cheating and falsehood, in\ncovetousness, adultery, murder, and every horrible iniquity, they\nare honest, chaste, truthful; they honour their fathers and mothers;\nthey are obedient and loyal to their kings and their laws; they shew\nhospitality to strangers; they do not commit adultery, steal, bear\nfalse witness, covet their neighbours' goods.  And therefore,' this\nRoman felt (and really it seems as if a spirit of prophecy from God\nhad come on him), 'something great and glorious will come out of\nthese wild Germans, while the Romans will rot away and perish in\ntheir sins.'  That was true enough.  We see it true at this day.\n\nFor what happened?  That great Roman empire, Babylon the great, as\nSt. John calls it in the Revelations, perished miserably and\nhorribly by its own sins; while our forefathers rose and conquered\nit all, and live and thrive till this day.  But it is curious that\nthey never throve really, though they made great conquests, and did\nmany wonderful deeds, till they became Christians:  but as soon as\nthey became Christians, they began to thrive at once, and settled\ndown, and became that great family of nations, and kingdom of God,\nwhich we call Christendom; England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany,\nSweden, and the other countries of Christian Europe; which God has\nso prospered for his Son Jesus Christ's sake, in spite of many sins\nand shortcomings, with wealth and numbers, skill, and learning, and\nstrength, that now the empire of the whole world depends upon these\nfew small Christian nations, which in our Lord's time were only\ntribes of heathen savages:  so that here again our Lord's great\nparable was fulfilled.\n\nThe gospel seed which the apostle sowed in those rich, luxurious,\nclever, learned, Romans, was like the seed which fell on thorny\nground; and the cares and pleasures of this life, and the\ndeceitfulness or riches, sprang up, and choked the word, and it\nremained unfruitful.  But the gospel seed which was sown among our\npoor, wild, simple, ignorant forefathers, was the seed which fell on\nan honest and good heart, and took root, and brought forth fruit,\nsome thirty, some fifty, and some one hundred fold.  Epiphany came\nlate to us--not for three hundred years after our Lord's birth:\nbut, when it came, the light which it brought remained with us, and\nlights us even now from our cradle to our grave:  and so again was\nfulfilled the Scripture, which says, that God chooses the weak\nthings of this world to confound the strong; the foolish to confound\nthe wise; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought the\nthings which are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.\n\nThat no flesh should glory in his presence.  For mind, my friends,\nour business is not to be high-minded but to fear.  And we English\nare too apt to be high-minded now.  We pride ourselves on our\nEnglish character, English cleverness, English courage, English\nwealth.  My friends, be not high-minded but fear.  We have no right\nto pride ourselves on being Englishmen, if we do the very things\nwhich our forefathers were ashamed to do even when they were\nheathens.  They honoured their fathers and mothers.  Do we?  They\nwere loyal and obedient to law.  Are we?  They were chaste and clean\nlivers:  adultery was seldom heard of among them; and, when it was,\nthey punished it in the most fearful way:  while what astonished\nthat old Roman gentleman, of whom I spoke, most of all, was the pure\nand respectable lives of the young men and women.  Is it so now-a-\ndays among us, my friends?  They were honest, too, and just in all\ntheir dealings.  Are we?  They were true to their word; no men on\nearth more true.  Are we?  They hated covetousness and overreaching.\nDo we?  They were generous, open-handed, hospitable.  Are we?  My\nfriends, this was the old English spirit, which God accepted in our\nforefathers.  Is it in us now?  We must not pride ourselves on it,\nunless we have it.  Nay, more, what is it but a shame to us, if,\nwhile our forefathers were good heathens, we are bad Christians?\nThey had but a small spark, a dim ray, as it were, of the light\nwhich lighteth every man who comes into the world:  but they were\nmore faithful to that little than many are now, who live in the full\nsunshine of God's gospel, in the free dispensation of God's spirit,\nwith Christ's sacraments, Christ's Churches, means of grace and\nhopes of glory, of which they never dreamed.  May they not rise up\nagainst some of us in the day of judgment, and condemn us, and say,--\n'Are you our children?  Do you boast of knowing God better than we\ndid, while you did things which we dared not do?  We knew that God\nhated such sins, and therefore we kept from them.  You should know\nthat better than we; for you had seen God's horror of sin in the\ndeath of his own Son Jesus Christ; and yet you went on committing\nthe very sins which crucified the Lord of Glory.'\n\nMy friends, I speak sober earnest.  God grant that our old heathen\nforefathers may not rise up against us in the day of judgment, and\ncondemn us.  Let us turn to the Lord this day with all our hearts,\nand come to this holy table, confessing all our sins and\nunfaithfulness, and backslidings, that we may get there cleansing\nfrom his most precious blood, strength from his most precious body,\nlife from his life, and spirit from his spirit; that so we may go\naway to lead new lives, following the commandments of God, and\nliving up to our great light and knowledge, at least as well as our\nforefathers lived up to their little light.  And so we shall really\nkeep the feast of Epiphany in spirit and in truth:  for Epiphany\nmeans the shewing of Jesus Christ to us Gentiles; and the way to\nprove that Jesus Christ has been shewn to us, and that we have seen\nhis glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of\ngrace and truth, is to keep his commandments, and live lives like\nhis.\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXIX.  THE WRATH OF LOVE\n\n\n\nPsalm cvii. 6.  Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and\nhe delivered them out of their distresses.\n\nIf I were asked to give a reason why I believed the Old Testament to\nbe an inspired and divine book, as well as the New, I could not do\nbetter, I think, than to lay my hand on this 107th psalm, and say,--\nThis is my reason for believing the Old Testament to be inspired.  I\nhave hundreds of others:  but this one is enough--this one psalm.\nIt contains an account of God's dealings with men, such as the world\nnever heard before, and very seldom since, save from a very few men,\nwho really saw what the Bible meant, and honestly followed its\nteaching.  It gives a notion of the justice of God, and an\nexplanation of the chances and changes of this mortal life, such as\nyou will find nowhere else save in the Bible, and in the books of\nChristian men who have been taught by the Bible.  The man who wrote\nthat psalm knew so much more than other men, that he must have been\nindeed inspired by the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Ghost of God.\n\nAnd, I should say, I have come to this opinion mainly by comparing\nthis psalm with the writings of heathens, even the wisest and the\nbest of them.  For the heathens, like all men, used to have their\ntroubles, and to ask themselves, Who has sent this trouble?  And why\nhas he sent it?  And their answers remain to us in their writings,\nsome worse, some better, some very foolish, some tolerably wise.\nBut when one compares the heathen writings with this psalm, or with\nany psalms or passages of the Old Testament which talk of God's\ndealings with man, then we shall be altogether astonished at the\nsuperiority of the Bible.  The Bible will seem to us quite\ninfinitely wiser than heathen books, on this matter, as on others--\nso much more simple, and yet so much more deep; so much more\nrational also, and so much more true:  agreeing so much more with\nthe facts which we see happen round us:  agreeing so much more with\nour own reason, experience, inward conscience, about what is just\nand unjust:--that we shall begin to see as much difference between\nheathen books and the Old Testament, as there is between the dim\ndawn of morning, and the full blaze of noonday light.\n\nOne of the earliest heathen notions why troubles came was, it seems,\nthat the gods were offended with men, because they had not shown\nthem due honour, flattered them enough, or offered sacrifices enough\nto them:  or else they fancied that the gods envied men:  grudged\ntheir prosperity, did not like to see them too happy.\n\nThat dark and base notion gradually faded away, as men got higher\nnotions of right and wrong, and of the gods, as the judges and\navengers of wrong.  Then they began to think these troubles were\npunishments for doing wrong.  The Gods, or God, punished sin;\ninflicting so much pain for so much sin, very much as the heathens\nare apt to punish their criminals still, and as Christian nations\nused to punish theirs, namely, with shameful and horrible tortures;\nbefore they began to find out that the end of punishment is not to\ntorment, but to reform, the criminal, wherever it is possible.\n\nBut then the thought would come--Why, after all, should God, if he\nbe just and merciful, punish my sin by pain and misery?  How can it\nprofit God, how can it please God, to give me pain?  Because it\nsatisfies his justice?  How can it do that?  It would not satisfy\nmine.  Suppose my child, or even my dog, disobeyed me, would it\nsatisfy my sense of justice to beat him?  It might satisfy my\npassion:  but God has no passions.  It would be base, blasphemous to\nfancy that he takes pleasure in hurting me, as I take pleasure in\nbeating my dog when I lose my temper with it.  God forbid!  The old\nprophets saw that, and cried--'Have I any pleasure in the death of\nhim, saith the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his\nwickedness, and live?'\n\nThen, naturally, the thought would come into the mind of a wise and\nserious man--I punish my child, or my dog, and God punishes me.  May\nhe not punish me for the same reason that I punish them?  I punish\nthem to correct them and make them better.  Surely God punishes me,\nto correct me, and make me better.  I punish my child, because I\nlove him, and wish him good.  God punishes me because he loves me\nand desires that I may be a partaker of his holiness.\n\nAnd as soon as that blessed thought had risen up in any man's mind,\nby the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, all the world would begin\nto look bright and clear and full of hope.  This earth, with all its\nsorrows and sufferings, would look no longer to him as God's prison\nhouse, where poor sinners sat tortured and wailing, fast bound in\nmisery and iron, till they should pay the uttermost farthing, which\nthey never could pay.  No.  It would look to him as God's school-\nhouse, God's reformatory, in which he is training and chastening and\ncorrecting the souls of men, that he may deliver them from the ruin\nand misery which sin brings on them, both the original sin which is\nborn in them and the actual sin which they commit.  Then God appears\nto him a gracious and merciful father.  He can see a blessed meaning\nand a wholesome use in all human suffering; and he can break out, as\nthe Psalmist does in this glorious psalm, into praise and\nthanksgiving, and call on mankind to give thanks to the Lord; for he\nis gracious, and his mercy endureth for ever.\n\nIn every kind of human suffering, I say, he sees now a meaning and a\nuse.\n\nFirst, he takes, it seems, his own countrymen, the Jews, coming back\nfrom Babylon into their own country after the seventy years'\ncaptivity.  They had been punished for their sins.  But for what\npurpose?  That they might know (as Ezekiel said), that God was the\nLord.  And when they cried unto him in their trouble, he delivered\nthem out of their distress.\n\nThen he goes on to those who have brought themselves into poverty\nand shame, and sit fast bound in misery and iron.  It is their own\nfault.  They have brought it on themselves by rebelling against the\nword of the Lord, and lightly regarding the counsel of the Most\nHighest.  But God does not hate them.  God is not going to leave\nthem to the net which they have spread for their own feet.  When\nthey cry unto the Lord in their troubles, he delivers them out of\ntheir distress.  God himself, by strange and unexpected ways, will\ndeliver them from their darkness of ignorance and sin, and from the\ndanger and misery which they have brought upon themselves.\n\nThen he goes on to those who have injured their health by their own\nfolly, till their soul abhors all manner of food, and they are even\nhard at death's door.  Neither does God hate them.  They, too, are\nin God's school-house.  And when they cry to the Lord in their\ntrouble, he will deliver them, too, out of their distress, and send\nhis word, and heal them, and save them from destruction.\n\nThen he goes on to men who are exposed to danger, and terror, and\ndeath in their lawful calling; and his instance is the seamen--those\nwho go on to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great\nwaters.\n\nThe storms come up, they know not when or how:  but they are not the\nsport of a blind chance; they are not the victims of the wrath of\nGod.  The wild sea, too, is his school-house, where they are to see\nthe works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep; and so, by\nstrange dangers and strange deliverances, learn, as I have seen many\na seaman learn, a courage and endurance, a faith, a resignation,\nwhich puts us comfortable landsmen to shame.\n\nThen he goes on to even a deeper matter--to those terrible changes\nin nature, so common in the East, in which whole districts, by\nearthquake or drought, are rendered worthless and barren.  They too,\nhe says, are God's lessons, though sharp ones enough.  'He turneth\nthe rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground;\na fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that\ndwell therein.  Again, he turneth the wilderness into a standing\nwater, and dry ground into water-springs.  And there he maketh the\nhungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; and\nsow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of\nincrease.'\n\nLastly, he goes on to political changes, which bring a whole nation\nlow, into oppression and misery.  'They are minished and brought low\nthrough oppression, affliction and sorrow.  He poureth contempt upon\nprinces, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there\nis no way.  Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and\nmaketh him families like a flock.  The righteous shall see it, and\nrejoice:  and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.  Whoso is wise, and\nwill observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-\nkindness of the Lord.'\n\nAnd so, in all the changes of this mortal life, he sees no real\nchance, no real change, but the orderly education of a just and\nloving Father, whose mercy endureth for ever; who chastens men as a\nfather chastens his children, for their profit, that they may be\npartakers of his holiness, in which alone is life and joy, health\nand wealth.\n\nSurely, here is a Gospel, and good news;--news so good, that it\nturns what seems to the superstitious the worst of news, into the\nvery best.  For it seems at first sight the worst of news that which\nthe ninth Article tells us, that our original sin, in every person\nborn into this world, deserves God's wrath and damnation.  And so it\nwould be the worst of news, if God were merely a judge, inflicting\nso much pain and misery for so much sin, without any wish to mend us\nand save us.  But if we remember only the blessed message of this\npsalm; if we will remember that God is our Father; that God is\neducating us; that God hath neither parts nor passions; and that,\ntherefore, God's wrath is not different or contrary to his love, but\nthat God's wrath is his love in another shape, punishing men just\nbecause he loves men;--then the ninth Article will bring us the very\nbest of news.  We shall see that it is the best thing that can\npossibly befall us, that our sin deserves God's wrath and damnation,\nand that it would have been the worst thing which could possibly\nhave befallen us, if our sin had not deserved God's wrath and\ndamnation.  For if our sin had not deserved God's anger, then he\nwould not have been angry with it; and then he would have left it\nalone, instead of condemning it, and dooming it to everlasting\ndestruction as he has done; and then, if our sin had been left\nalone, we should have been left alone to sin and sin on, growing\ncontinually more wicked, till our sin became our ruin.  But now God\nhates our sin, and loves us; and therefore he desires above all\nthings to deliver us from sin, and burn our sin up in his\nunquenchable fire, that we ourselves may not be burned up therein.\nFor if our sins live, we shall surely die:  but if our sins die,\nthen, and then only, shall we live.\n\nDo these words seem strange to some of you?  I doubt not that they\nwill:  but if they do, that will be only a fresh proof to me, that\nthe Bible is inspired by the Holy Ghost.  Yes, nothing shews me how\nwide, how deep, how wise, how heavenly the Bible is, as to see how\nfar average Christians are behind the Bible in their way of\nthinking; how the salvation which it offers is too free for them,\nthe love which it proclaims too wide for them, the God whom it\nreveals too good for them:  so that they shrink from taking the\nBible and trusting the Bible, in its fulness; and are perpetually\nfalling back on heathen notions--the very old heathen notions from\nwhich this psalm delivers us--concerning what God's anger means, and\nwhat God's punishment means; because they are afraid of taking the\nwords of Scripture literally and fully, and believing honestly the\nblessed news, that God is Love.\n\nThey try to make God's ways as their ways, and God's thoughts as\ntheir thoughts.  But do not you do so.  Receive the Bible in its\nfulness.  Believe that it tells you infinitely more of God's\ncharacter and dealings, than you can ever tell yourselves; that\nGod's ways are not as your ways, nor God's thoughts as your\nthoughts, even at their best:  but that God's ways are always wider\nand deeper than yours, were you the most learned of men; God's\nthoughts are always more loving and just than yours, were you the\nmost holy of men, and that when you have learned all that you can\nlearn, or that any man can learn, out of the Bible, there will be\nstill left behind treasures beside, which you have not yet found\nout.  For the riches of Christ are unsearchable; like the depth of\nthe riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, whose only-begotten\nson, and perfect likeness, he is; and the man who reads the\nScripture with a single eye, and an humble heart, will see that the\nmore he finds in the Bible, the more he has yet to find; and that if\nhe studied it to all eternity, he would have fresh and fresh cause\nfor ever to cry with the Psalmist, 'Oh give thanks to the Lord; for\nhe is gracious, and his mercy endureth for ever!'\n\nFootnotes:\n\n{328}  Plutarch.","title":"Town and Country Sermons","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":88276}